Siege of La Rochelle (1572–1573)

The Siege of La Rochelle was a military siege of the Huguenot-held city of La Rochelle by Catholic troops during the fourth phase of the French Wars of Religion (set off by the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in August 1572). The conflict started in November 1572 when inhabitants of the city refused to receive Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron as royal governor. From 11 February 1573, the siege was led by the Duke of Anjou (the future Henri III). The end of hostilities was brought on by the election (11 - 15 May 1573) of the Duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland. An end to the siege was negotiated on 24 June 1573 and the Catholic troops lifted the siege on 6 July 1573. [Jouanna, p.1391.] The Edict of Boulogne (signed in July 1573) brought an end to this phase of the civil war.

The siege of La Rochelle was contemporaneous with Catholic sieges of the cities of Sommières (by troops led by Henri I de Montmorency) and Sancerre.

Background

Since 1568, La Rochelle had become the main base of the Huguenots in France. A city of 20,000 inhabitants and a port of strategic imporance with historic links to England, La Rochelle had benefited from administrative autonomy (lack of seigneur, bishop or parlement) and had become overwhelmingly Huguenot (Calvinist). After the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and other massacres across the country in the fall of 1572, numerous Huguenots fled to the city. [Jouanna, p.207.] The city was well fortified, with access to the sea.

The Siege

The conflict started in November 1572 when inhabitants of the city refused to receive Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron as royal governor. Charles IX ordered the city to be sieged. In the middle of November, François de la Noue, sent by Charles IX to negotiate with the city, was invited by the inhabitants to take up their defense. With the king's acceptance, La Noue joined the assieged city, but was unable to effect a solution to the crisis, and on 12 March 1573 he left the city, to watch the subsequent events from the royal camp. [ Jouanna, p.209.]

On 11 February 1573, the Duke of Anjou arrived to take command of the siege with 28,000 men. His massive resources – munitions, cannons, gunpowder, cannonballs, food – were gathered from Paris, Picardy, Normandy, Poitou, Saintonge and Angoumois. [Jouanna, p.209.] The army included the Duke's brother François d'Alençon; the two former leaders of the Huguenots, Henry of Navarre and Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Condé (both recently converted to Catholicism); members of the Guise family, Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, Claude, Duke of Aumale (killed on 21 February), Henry I, Duke of Guise; and other nobles including: Louis IV de Nevers, Guillaume de Thoré, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Filippo di Piero Strozzi, Albert de Gondi, Blaise de Monluc, Artus de Cossé-Brissac, Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, Armand de Gontaut. Among these nobles were some who remain suspicious of the present political tact or of the violence of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and some who were sympathic to the Protestant cause; political intrigues traversed the royal camp. [Jouanna, pp.211-2.]

From February to June. eight assaults of the city were carried out. Between these attacks and the cold winter, the losses on the royal army's side were huge (Brantôme, who participated in the siege, exaggerated the death toll as 22,000 men; records show that of 155 commanders, 66 were killed and 47 were wounded). [Jouanna, p.211.] On 26 March 1573, 150 attackers were killed in an accidental explosion of a mine intended to destroy the ramparts. The Duke of Anjou was himself wounded several times during these conflicts. On 23 May 1573, 6,000 Swiss guard mercenaries arrived as reinforcements to the royal army, but the attack three days later was a disaster for the royal troops.

The inhabitants of the city sent an ambassader to Queen Elizabeth I of England seeking her assistance, but Elizabeth – still bound by her 1572 treaty with France (the Treaty of Blois (1572)) – was only able to send a limited number of ships led by Gabriel, comte de Montgomery. Six ships arrived in February 1573, but a larger group of ships were forced to turn back by the French navy in April 1573 (retreating to Belle Île and then Jersey). The majority of the city's dwindling resources were supplied through small naval raids on Catholic (principally Spanish) ships (which were also being attacked by the Dutch "gueux de mer" corsairs). To block La Rochelle's ships' access to the sea, the Duke of Nevers sank a large barge, with no effect. [Jouanna, p. 208.] (In the siege of 1627-28, Cardinal Richelieu would construct a massive sea barracade to block the city).

At the end of May 1573, Henry of Anjou learned that he had been elected King of Poland (a country with a large Protestant minority). Political considerations forced Henry to end the siege. An agreement was reached on 24 June 1573 and the Catholic troops lifted the siege on 6 July 1573.

Aftermath

The fourth phase of the Wars of Religion was brought to a close by the Edict of Boulogne (signed in July 1573). La Rochelle was designated as one of the three cities in France where the Protestant faith was permitted, but this only under very strict conditions.

The siege was, before the twentieth century, one of the most lethal sieges in European history.

References and Notes

* "Portions of this article are based on a translation of the article Siège de La Rochelle (1573) from the French Wikipedia, retrieved on 16 March 2007."

Books
*fr Arlette Jouanna and Jacqueline Boucher, Dominique Biloghi, Guy Thiec. "Histoire et dictionnaire des Guerres de religion". Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1998. ISBN 2-221-07425-4
*R. J. Knecht, "The French Wars of Religion 1559–1598 (Seminar Studies in History)" ISBN 0-582-28533-X

Notes