Siege of Calais (1596): Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 18:03, 17 April 2012
The Siege of Calais (1596) was an action between April 8 and April 24 1596 as part of the Franco-Spanish War (1595-1598) in which the Spanish conquered the city from the French.
Background
Since 1562 France was in the grip of the French Wars of Religion in which Spain had regularly intervened in favour of the Catholic League, most notably in the Siege of Paris (1590) and the Battle of Craon in 1592. But only in 1595 war was officially declared between the two countries by the new King Henry IV of France, who had the year before converted to Catholicism and been received into Paris to be crowned. Spain controlled large parts of Northern France, which Henry now tried to reconquer. In the spring of 1596, he was besieging the city of La Fere.
Archduke Albert, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands gathered an army, but instead of sending it to relieve La Fere, it turned towards Calais, where it arrived on April 8.
The catpture of Calais
The French were completely surprised. King Henry IV of France was on the point of capturing La Fere after a long and costly siege, and couldn't free any troops.
The Allies of Francee also reacted too slow. Queen Elisabeth I of England had the ships and troops available to relieve Calais, because she was preparing an army to attack Cádiz. But Elisabeth demanded that Calais would remain English after her intervention, a demand Henry IV refused.
Only Maurits of Nassau acted. He hurried to Zeeland to prepare a fleet to relieve Calais, but the city fell the day the first Dutch ships took to the sea.
In fact, only after a siege of 10 days, the city fell, after which only the citadel remained in French hands. Any attemp to send help by sea had been stopped by the strong Spanish artillery. On Wednesday 24 april the citadel was stormed by the Spanish and taken. Sieur de Widissan, the French Governor of Calais was amongst the dead.
Consequences
Calais remained only for 2 years under Spanish rule, because it was returned to France after the Treaty of Vervins in 1598.