Anglo-French War (1627–1629)
Anglo-French War | |||||||
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Cardinal de Richelieu at the siege of La Rochelle | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
England | France | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Duke of Buckingham David Kirke |
Cardinal Richelieu Samuel de Champlain |
Wars of Caroline England |
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The Anglo-French War (
Background
The conflict followed the failure of the Anglo-French alliance of 1624, in which England had tried to find an ally in France against the power of the House of Habsburg. French politics evolved otherwise however as Cardinal Richelieu came to power in 1624. In 1625, Richelieu used English warships to vanquish the Huguenots at the Recovery of Ré island (1625), triggering outrage in England.[5]
In 1626, France concluded a secret peace with Spain, and disputes arose around
In June 1626, Walter Montagu was sent to France to contact dissident noblemen, and from March 1627 started to organize a French rebellion in La Rochelle. The plan was to send an English fleet to encourage rebellion, as a new Huguenot revolt by Henri, Duke of Rohan and his brother Soubise was being triggered.[5]
War
Ile de Ré expedition
Charles I sent his favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham with a fleet of 80 ships. In June 1627 Buckingham organised a landing on the nearby island of Île de Ré with 6,000 men in order to help the Huguenots. Although a Protestant stronghold, Île de Ré had not directly joined the rebellion against the king. On Île de Ré, the English under Buckingham tried to take the fortified city of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, but were repulsed after three months. Small French royal boats managed to supply Saint-Martin in spite of the English blockade. Buckingham ultimately ran out of money and support, and his army was weakened by diseases. After a last attack on Saint-Martin they were repulsed with heavy casualties, and left with their ships.
La Rochelle expedition
England attempted to send two more fleets to relieve La Rochelle. The first one, led by William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh, left in April 1628, but returned without a fight to Portsmouth, as Denbigh "said that he had no commission to hazard the king's ship in a fight and returned shamefully to Portsmouth".[6] A second fleet, organized by Buckingham just before his assassination, was dispatched under the Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl of Lindsey in August 1628,[6] consisting of 29 warships and 31 merchantmen.[7] In September 1628, the English fleet tried to relieve the city. After bombarding French positions and trying to force the sea wall in vain, the English fleet had to withdraw. Following this last disappointment, the city surrendered on October 28, 1628.
New France expedition
An English force led by
Peace
With the
With regards to New France, much of this side of the conflict had spilled over after the Susa treaty had been signed. In 1632 Charles I agreed to return the lands in exchange for Louis XIII agreeing to paying Charles' wife's dowry.[9] These terms were signed into law with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The lands in Quebec and Acadia were returned to the French Company of One Hundred Associates.[4]
A peace treaty was also signed with Spain in 1630 – England's disengagement from European affairs dismayed Protestant forces on the continent.[10] In England, internal conflict continued between the monarchy and Parliament, which would lead to the English Civil Wars of the 1640s. France on the contrary continued to grow more powerful, its navy becoming even larger than that of England by 1630.[3]
References
- ^ ISBN 9780333183021.
- ^ a b Grimm, Harold John (1965). The Reformation Era, 1500-1650: With a Revised and Expanded Bibliography. Macmillan. p. 517.
- ^ ISBN 0-203-02456-7 p.178 [1]
- ^ a b c "KIRKE, SIR DAVID, adventurer, trader, colonizer, leader of the expedition that captured Quebec in 1629, and later governor of Newfoundland", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- ^ a b c Historical dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689 by Ronald H. Fritze p.203 [2]
- ^ a b An apprenticeship in arms by Roger Burrow Manning p.119
- ^ Ships, money, and politics by Kenneth R. Andrews, p. 150
- ^ Parker p. 139
- ^ Brown, George William (1966). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto Press. p. 405.
- ^ Peltonen: Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570-1640, p. 271
- Bibliography
- Parker, Geoffrey (2006). The Thirty Years' War. Routledge. ISBN 9781134734054.