Siege of Calais (1558)
During the siege of Calais , England lost its last base in France with the surrender of Calais on January 8, 1558 . The city had been under English rule for over 200 years since the Hundred Years War from 1346.
prehistory
The French, under the connetable Anne de Montmorency, suffered a crushing defeat against the Spanish in the battle of St. Quentin in 1557 . The Konnetabel, Marshal de Saint-André and Admiral Coligny fell into captivity. King Henry II of France saw the road to Paris open and threatened by an invasion from Flanders . In order to be able to initiate a counter-offensive, the French troops, which were in Italy, were transferred to Picardy .
In order to avoid the threatened intervention of an English expeditionary force behind him, Henry II ordered an attack on the port city of Calais, which was supplied by the English at sea. In the winter of 1558 about 30,000 men were assembled for this campaign in the Abbeville , Montreuil , Boulogne and Compiegne area . The Duke of Guise , who had been appointed lieutenant general , received the supreme command, and a small fleet was assembled in the canal to support it. In the absence of adequate natural defense, the sustained English rule over Calais depended on the strong fortifications, which were maintained at some cost. On December 26, 1557, the Governor of Calais, Lord Wentworth, received new reports of French troops. A military council, chaired by Lord Gray, was met in Calais. It was decided to reinforce the garrisons of several forts and to ask the queen for further reinforcements. Mary Tudor ordered the Earl of Rutland to provide additional forces, but on December 29, Wentworth finally came to the conviction that the French would attack Hesdin and so it was decided to leave the reinforcements in Dover for the time being.
course
At the beginning of January 1558, the French avant-garde occupied Sangatte and Fréthun , and on January 2, Fort Risban also fell by a coup. On January 3rd the artillery was concentrated in front of Fort Nielles and Risban and the bombardment began. The English governor of the city, Lord Thomas Wentworth , had not been prepared for a long siege . Overwhelmed by the heavy French bombardment, Calais was taken on January 6th. On January 8th, Wentworth surrendered and handed over the keys to the citadel that was still held, and the forts of Guînes and Hames soon fell into French hands. The French captured provisions for three months and almost 300 guns. Henry II entered Calais on January 23, 1558. Lord Wentworth and the English garrison at Calais returned to England. After the defeat at Gravelines (July 13, 1558), the French army under the Duke of Guise was able to achieve success again. In the summer they attacked the fortresses of Thionville and Arlon and threatened to occupy all of Luxembourg . In April 1559, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis ended the war between France and Spain.
literature
- Tony Jaques: Dictionary of Battles and Sieges . Greenwood Publishing Group 2007. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-313-33537-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article172192663/Englaender-verlieren-letzen-Stuetzpunkt-in-Frankreich.html
- ↑ George Bruce: Lexikon der Schlachten, Styria Verlag, Graz 1984, p. 45