Blockade of La Rochelle

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Wars of religion
Part of: Huguenot War
Blockade of La Rochelle
Blockade of La Rochelle
date 1621-1622
place La Rochelle
output Unsuccessful
Parties to the conflict

Royal Pavilion de la France.svg Catholics

Croix huguenote.png Huguenots

Commander

Duc d'Epernon
Louis de Bourbon-Soissons

Jean Guitton


The upstream Fort Louis

The blockade of La Rochelle (fr: Blocus de La Rochelle) took place between 1621 and 1622 during the attempt of King Louis XIII. to suppress what he himself called the Huguenot rebellion .

Description of the fixed place La Rochelle 1621

The fortress was at the end of a canal, oriented from southeast to northwest and had a width of about 1.5 kilometers with a circumference of more than a lieue (more than 10 kilometers). She could be supplied from the sea.

The core city was surrounded by a medieval wall , reinforced with semicircular towers and donjons and broken through by five heavily fortified gates. It was surrounded by a large ditch that had a tributary from the sea. In front of it there was a fortress wall, built by master builder Jean Errard from Bar-le-Duc with bastions in the style of the Orillons and curtains in between . The wall had a covered path and a wet ditch in front of it. The naval port was integrated into the fortress area and flanked at the entrance by two large towers. His entrance could be locked with an iron chain. The wall leading along the canal was about 700 meters long. Two bastion forts covered the Porte Saint-Nicolas in the east and the Porte des Deux-Moulins in the west. The Portes Saint-Nicolas and Porte de Congne were also covered by bastions. The new town was surrounded by another wall. Here there were parade grounds for up to 3,000 citizens, soldiers and sailors. The total length of the wall was about 10 kilometers. The town hall, the market hall, the Protestant temples and the churches had been converted into citadels step by step .

The fortified town hall

On the coast, the fortified rock of Chef-De-Baie dominated the fairway to the southwest. The position at the Pointe de Coureuil guarded the foothills of the river. However, the besiegers were able to block access to the canal.

Deployed regiments

(if known):

  • Regiment de Brassac (1621)
  • Regiment de Champagne (1622)
  • Regiment de Maillé (1622)
  • Regiment de Sainte-Gemme (1622)
  • Regiment de Saint-Luc (1622)
  • Regiment de Saint-Vivian (1621)
  • Regiment de Sennectère (1622)
  • Regiment de Soissons (1622)
  • Regiment de Thémines (1621)
  • Regiment de Mellinet (1622)

The blockade of 1621

In June 1621 was by Louis XIII , the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Angély place, an important strategic point for the control of the hinterland of the Huguenot fortress of La Rochelle. The royal navy was of little use, there weren't enough ships for an effective naval blockade and the Huguenots came in and out with numerous small ships as they wanted.

First, the royal troops attacked the port of Brouage and tried to block the entrance by sinking ships loaded with stones. It was of no concern as the king had no way of effectively threatening La Rochelle from land or sea. He therefore began his campaign against the Guyenne , besieged Clairac on the Lot from July 23rd to August 4th and then moved on to the siege of Montauban .

In August, the shipowner Jean Guitton took over the post of "Admiral of the La Rochelle fleet" on behalf of the city council, which consisted of 16 ships with a total of 90 cannons. This association operated four times unsuccessfully against the royal fleet, commanded by Louis de Bourbon-Soissons, Charles de Lorraine, duc de Guise , Timoléon d'Epinay de Saint-Luc and Isaac de Razilly. In October, Razilly lay with a royal fleet of 13 ships with a total of 124 cannons in front of Pertuis Breton . In two attacks, Jean Guitton managed to force them to withdraw so that they could not seize the Île d'Oléron . On November 6th, Guitton attacked Brouage , which contained 25 royal ships. He blocked the port exit and prevented it from leaving.

The blockade of 1622

The Huguenot rebellion suffered a defeat by the royalist troops on April 16, 1622 under their commander Benjamin de Rohan in the battle near Riez . The lower Poitou was now again in the hands of the Catholics, but the area between La Rochelle and Aigues-Mortes and the Midi continued to be ruled by the Huguenots.

Louis XIII. now began rigorously pacifying his kingdom. From April 19th, Royan was besieged , with his ships going up the Gironde . The king appeared on May 4th before the city, which was taken on May 11th.

Towers of the port entrance

After the march through the Saintonge and the Guyenne , the king wanted at least to prevent Rochelle from further disturbing the area around the city. He ordered the blockade of La Rochelle and transferred this task to his cousin, the Louis de Bourbon-Soissons whom he appointed Général de l'armée d ' Aunis (General of the "Army in Aunis"). At his side were the Maréchal de France Nicolas de L'Hospital, as Lieutenant General of the baron du Bourg-l'Espinasse, and the baron de Vignolles and Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre as Maréchal de camp . The blockade force consisted of 600 Chevaulegers and Carabiniers under the command of the Marquis de Nesle and 8,000 infantrymen, including the Régiment de Champagne, the latter commanded by the Mestre de camp , Pierre de La Mothe-Arnaud, called Arnaud du Fort.

The Comte de Soissons immediately began to lay out a redoubt (later Fort Louis ) within cannon range of the harbor entrance and to equip it with artillery. The redoubt was occupied by the Regiment de Champagne. The rest of the regiment was placed between the (then) village of Laleu and the suburb of Colombier. The Comte de Soissons wanted to protect himself against possible landing attacks from the water by the squadron of Jean Guitton and established a connection with the squadrons of Razilly and François II. D'Espinay, marquis de Saint-Luc, crossing between the estuaries of the Loire and Gironde.

During the work on the Redoute Fort Louis, a Huguenot ship ran aground, which was attacked and burned by the Régiment de Champagne with 400 men at low tide.

At the same time, the engineer director of France, Pompeo Targone, was commissioned to examine and initiate the possibilities of the formal siege. He decided to seal off the port entrance. To do this, he constructed a mobile palisade, an iron chain on four stakes, a floating battery and other equipment. It was all in vain, however, as the chain broke with the first strong swell, the floating battery and all other equipment was destroyed.

Another important event was the naval battle off Saint-Martin-de-Ré in October 1622. In the meantime, the conflict dragged on and there was no end in sight. For this reason, the king and the Huguenots felt compelled to conclude the Treaty of Montpellier, which by and large confirmed the privileges of the Huguenots. Although La Rochelle demanded the destruction of Fort Louis, Louis XIII hesitated. this until it was finally preserved.

The constant threat from the city and the fear of future conflicts then led to the massive and successful siege of La Rochelle (1627-1628) .

literature

  • William Shergold Browning A History of the Huguenots Éditeur = Whittaker and Co.Londres 1842 consulté
  • James Ronald Mulryne & Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly & Margaret Shewring Europa triumphans / Court and civic festivals in early modern Europe Editeur: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2004 [1]

Individual evidence

  1. Browning 1842 p. 20
  2. Mulryne Watanabe-O'Kelly Shewring 2004 p. 123
  3. Colonel Édouard Hardy de Périni: Batailles françaises p. 22 ff
  4. Browning 1842 p. 221
  5. Batailles françaises by Colonel Édouard Hardy de Périni Volume 3 (1621–1643)
  6. Browning 1842 p. 225
  7. Bertrand de Vignolles, known as La Hire, baron de Vignolles, seigneur de Casaubon et Preschat, Lieutenant general in Champagne, first Maréchal general des camps et armées du roi , Governor of Sainte-Ménéhould, Chevalier des Ordre du Saint-Esprit .

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