7. Wars with the English 1685-1763

From Canadian History Portal - HCO

C. New France →→ 1. French Exploration 1534-1602 → 2. The Acadian Saga → 3. First Settlements → 4. The Royal Colony → 5. Fur Traders and Missionaries → 6. Daily Life in New France → 7. Wars with the English 1685-1763 →→ D. British North America

British Troops Stream Ashore at Wolfe's Cove

The Seven Years War

The single most significant battle on Canadian soil occurred on September 13, 1759 on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. Lasting only slightly more than half an hour, it changed the course of one hundred and fifty years of history. Although the official peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris, would not be signed for another four years, this battle marked the end of New France. The British victory meant that the colony would be renamed Quebec and would be incorporated into the British Empire.

Both generals, Wolfe of the British and Montcalm of the French, died as a result of the engagement, the former on the battlefield itself, the latter, the day after. However, the biggest death was that of New France. The sixty thousand French-speaking Roman Catholic settlers were now a conquered people and would have to live with that stigma as well as try to protect their threatened culture and way of life.

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was but one in a long list of military encounters between the French and the English in what was known as the Seven Years' War. This war reversed the usual trend. Rather than beginning in Europe and then spreading to North America, this time, the war really began in the hotly disputed Ohio Valley at about mid-century and then was transferred to Europe. However, in order to comprehend the Battle of the Plains of Abraham as well as the Seven Years' War itself, it is essential to understand the several wars that came before. In less than a century, between 1689 and 1763, the French and the English went to war on four separate occasions.

The French and the English had been fierce military opponents in Europe for centuries. Largely fighting over dynastic and territorial differences, the nature and even the frequency of the clashes intensified even further when a religious dimension was added. Following in the wake of Martin Luther's beginning of the Protestant Reformation, Henry VIII of England decided to break away from the Holy Roman Catholic Church and established the Anglican Church.

Henri II

Henry VIII, by Holbein

Louis XIV

That was not an easy thing for Henry to do. He had been a lifelong devout Catholic. In 1521, he published a scathing attack of Luther and his doctrine, earning the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope Clement VII. However, after eighteen years of marriage to Catherine of Aragon that had produced no son to inherit the throne, he asked the Pope for an annulment. After the Pope refused, Henry set about taking the English church under Rome's control and placing it under his own authority.

While England was embracing Anglicanism, France remained a devoutly Catholic nation. No better proof for that could be found than with the Huguenots, a large group of French Calvinists (another Protestant denomination) who faced intense persecution and harassment.

After Henry II of France died suddenly in a jousting tournament, the division in the royal court between Catholic and Protestant grew. French wars of religion raged between 1562 and 1598 with atrocities and massacres being committed by both sides. Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, inherited the throne as Henry IV in 1589. He realized that peace could only come when matters of religion were resolved. He converted to Catholicism and in 1598 passed the Edict of Nantes that called for freedom of worship for Huguenots.

However, after decades of religious peace, Louis XIV cancelled the Edict of Nantes and the resulting persecution led many Huguenots to flee. Some went to England, some to the Netherlands, but many, taking their innovative felt hat-making expertise with them, immigrated to North America. So by the middle of the seventeenth century, these intense rivalries, stemming from dynastic rivalries, territorial ambitions, and religious fervour were transplanted to the New World.

The War Moves to North America

In North American, the French and the English were already embroiled in major conflicts over the fur trade and aboriginal alliances. Once the French established Royal Government in 1663 and once the British became seriously involved in the fur trade after the 1670 formation of the Hudson's Bay Company, heightened conflict was inevitable. In fact, for the next fifty years, until the signing of the 1713 [[Treaty of Utrecht]' that ended the War of the Spanish Succession (sometimes referred to as Queen Anne's War) in Europe, the clashes between the two in North America were virtually non-stop. The French held Acadia, New France, and Louisiana while the British possessed the Thirteen Colonies and Rupert's Land.

After the defeat of the Hurons, French fur trade routes had to go through lands controlled by the Iroquois Confederacy, thereby increasing the likelihood of fighting breaking out.

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville

1690 Attack on Quebec

Cadillac at Detroit

Meanwhile in Europe, the intermittent French-English conflict climaxed in 1689 when William III of England formed the League of Augsburg and declared war on France. The War of the League of Augsburg (sometimes called King William's War), lasting from 1689 until 1701, was quickly transferred to North America. The Iroquois confirmed their alliance with the English when in 1690 they launched a raid on Lachine to which the French, under Frontenac, responded by burning the settlement at Schenectady, New York.

French Exploration down the Mississippi

The English knew that the heart of New France was located at Quebec so in 1690 they embarked on a two-prong offensive. A land force of two thousand, along with almost the same number of Iroquois allies, traveled northward through Lake Champlain where they planned to meet up with a naval force sailing up the St. Lawrence River. The land force was demolished by an outbreak of smallpox. As a result, the French were able to re-supply Quebec with additional troops from Montreal, making it unassailable to the attacking English.

After their failure to take Quebec, the British carried out much smaller and more sporadic raids. Each side attacked the other's fur forts in the interior. Perhaps most notable in that regard was Pierre Le Moine d'Iberville's capture of Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and Rupert's House.

D'Iberville also in 1699 established the colony of Louisiana following the exploration of Louis Jolliet and René Robert Cavelier de La Salle's south along the Mississippi River. Two years later, on July 19, 1701, Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, arrived at the site of Detroit with his lieutenant Alphonse de Tonty and 100 men at the head of a fleet of 75 canoes; they brought 50 settlers, 50 soldiers, and two priests, and started building Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit to control the passageway between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

War broke out again in Europe between 1701 and 1713. The War of the Spanish Succession, between France and Spain, was once again a dynastic struggle that was also fought indirectly in North America. Once again, the pattern that seemed to have been established was followed. The French, accompanied by their aboriginal allies raided English settlements in the northern Thirteen Colonies, most notably Deerfield, Massachusetts and the New Englanders retaliated by attacking Acadia and with the aid of the English fleet, capturing Port Royal. An attempted attack on Quebec again met with failure. By the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain re-acquired all of Newfoundland, parts of Nova Scotia, as well as the its Hudson Bay forts.

The Treaty allowed France to retain its cod fisheries, Île Royale (Cape Breton), Île St. Jean (present-day Prince Edward Island), and the area west of the Bay of Fundy (present-day New Brunswick).

Even with both sides drained, physically and financially, from the long wars, it took only another thirty years for them to return to the battlefield. The War of the Austrian Succession (King George's War), 1744 to 1748, again was fought on both European and North American soil. France appeared ready this time having just completed its mighty Fortress at Louisbourg to protect its fisheries as well as to prevent a potential British blockade of the entrance of the St. Lawrence. France sent out privateers out from Louisbourg to raid New England shipping. France's hope was that it might ultimately regain Nova Scotia whose Acadian and Mi'kmaq population resented living under British control.

Pepperell at Louisbourg

A force of New Englanders invaded, recruited by Massachusetts's governor William Shirley and led by William Pepperell, striking at Louisbourg. After a seven-week siege, aided by a British naval squadron, the French surrendered the supposedly impregnable fortress. An ill-fated French attempt to retake it met with failure because the commander died of apoplexy en route, many of his men took violently sick, and they also encountered terrible hurricanes.

North America in 1713

Fighting in the interior was sporadic and infrequent. An attempted British attack on Montreal fizzled out when certain tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy refused to participate. That didn't stop the French from once again attacking northern settlements, destroying Saratoga and laying waste to several Massachusetts communities. French chances for an outright victory suffered a serious setback in 1747 when the western aboriginal allies defected, upset over constant interruptions of the fur trade and a sharp decline in French fur trade presents. The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle was a rude shock for New Englanders. In order to retain possession of Madras in India and to get back lost territory in the Netherlands, the British returned Louisbourg to the French. Diplomacy for the French had achieved for them what fighting had been unable to do.

By the mid-eighteenth century, Britain appeared to be gaining the upper hand in North America. While French had the largest standing army in Europe and enjoyed the support of most of the aboriginal nations in North America, the British had some distinct advantages as well. They were the predominant naval power of the day and while it might be an exaggeration to say "they controlled the high seas, they nevertheless had substantial maritime power. They could enforce blockades as well as furnishing supplies and reinforcements to their armies in the field. Their North American colonies were much more established and growing compared to the fairly stagnant situation of New France. By this point, the population of the Thirteen Colonies was approaching one million while New France's number hovered below 50 000. In addition, that much larger population was at the same time concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard while New France's meager number was scattered over half of the continent.

George Washington as a Young Major

There was a fairly long lead-up to the coming of the Seven Years' War. As French and British, along with their aboriginal middlemen, sought to expand the borders of the fur trade, it was virtually inevitable that they would come into contact, and conflict. New France's movement into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys dated back to the mid-seventeenth century under Talon. By 1755, the goal of extending the fur trade and cementing aboriginal alliances appeared to have been achieved. The French claimed all the land of the Mississippi Valley down to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But claiming it and controlling it were two very different things. Only a few scattered French trading posts and forts gave the claim a token legitimacy.

The English Colonists Attack

It was not too long before the colonists on the Atlantic seaboard, desirous of expanding, cast a covetous eye westward. They grew increasingly restless as they saw the French colonial governors build and reinforce a series of fortifications in the Ohio Valley. Into the fray stepped the Ohio Land Company, comprised of a wealthy Virginias and English investors. Wanting to promote settlement on the half million acres of land over which France claimed control, the Company began to build its own forts.

For the decade prior to the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the Ohio Valley became a killing field as the French and their aboriginal allies on one side faced off against the Americans and their native allies on the other.

In 1749, the Ohio Land Company gained title to a huge expanse of land in the Ohio Valley, despite the fact that France claimed the same area. It was merely a matter of time before open hostilities broke out. Unofficially, the Seven Years' War began in 1754 when the French built a substantial new post, Fort Duquesne, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers (the present-day site of Pittsburgh).

Braddock Ambushed outside Fort Duquesne

Fort Duquesne Abandoned

The Virginians were incensed. Governor Dinwiddie dispatched a young Lieutenant Colonel, George Washington, to reclaim the area from the French. Just south of the Fort, at Great Meadows, Washington attacked killing ten men and taking more than twenty prisoners. Now it was the French's turn to be incensed.

Their men had been killed on their own soil! They sent a force of more than a thousand, mostly comprised of aboriginals, to seek revenge. Washington responded by hastily building Fort Necessity to repel the attack. It was too little, too late as the French easily defeated Washington. The Seven Years' War had unofficially begun.

This war reversed the usual pattern. This time, the war began in North America and was then transferred to Europe, as opposed to what had happened in earlier conflicts. In 1755, both sides sent over sizable numbers of troops to make good their claim on the disputed land. The French claimed the first major victory when they defeated the British trying to recapture Fort Duquesne.

Marquis de Montcalm

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

Leading a force of 1 500 men, British General Edward Braddock, substantially outnumbering the French, was forced to accept defeat after losing more than one thousand of his men in an ambush. It didn't help the British cause that while the French and their aboriginal allies used guerrilla tactics, the British employed the antiquated two lines of soldiers, one of which would fire while the other would kneel and reload. They were picked off as in a shooting gallery.

On July 13, 1755, General Braddock died of his wounds. Washington assumed command of the army and retreated, leaving the French in control of the Ohio Valley.

The war was officially declared when hostilities began in Europe in 1756. France was continuing to do well in the early stages of the war until two significant changes took place. First, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm replaced Baron Dieskau as commander of the French forces in North America.

Montcalm did win some important victories, capturing Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario that secured the French forts in the Ohio Valley and taking Fort William Henry on the Richelieu River that meant that the town of New York lay before the French forces. However, rather than pushing the attack, Montcalm, ever cautious and traditional, decided to wait. That would prove to be his strategy on many occasions. The second change was William Pitt becoming British Prime Minister. He adopted a much more direct and aggressive military policy, and turned around British fortunes in the war.

The tide began to turn in 1758. First, the British launched yet another attack on Fort Duquesne and this time won. The French, rather than seeing the Fort fall into the enemy's hands, burned it down.

The British responded by building Fort Pitt, in honour of their new Prime Minister. That defeat was crucial in that it became a signal for the aboriginal allies of the French to see that they were backing the wrong side and to desert their longtime ally. Some changed sides, some remained neutral, but virtually none stayed with the French. Shortly thereafter, the French, despite suffering appalling losses, were able to retain Fort Carillon. They were not so lucky at Fort Frontenac that the British took fairly easily. The momentum was definitely changing.

The Capture of Louisbourg

It would change even more with another important development in the war that took place in 1758. The British recognized the crucial importance of Louisbourg, the Gibraltar of North America. It guarded the entranceway to the St. Lawrence River, was a base for the French navy, and harboured French privateers. In May of 1758, the British pulled together a fleet of ships at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and moved to the attack. On June 1, Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen of the Royal Navy arrived at Gabarus Bay, 10 km west of Louisbourg, just after midnight in dense fog, leading thirty nine warships, supply ships and ten transports, crowded with 12,000 regular troops, Highlanders, light infantry, rangers, and colonial militia. Commanding the expedition was Major General Jeffery Amherst, with his field commander, Brigadier General James Wolfe.

Siege of Louisbourg

James Wolfe

The cautious Amherst opted for an unrelenting siege and bombardment strategy. It went on for seven weeks. As supplies and morale waned inside the Fortress, Wolfe led an invasion ashore on June 8. After a near disastrous landing, Wolfe leads the light infantry, rangers, Fraser's Highlanders, and the grenadiers of the first, fifteenth, seventeenth, and twenty-second regiments onto the shore west of the fortress and establishes a beachhead, driving 1,200 French defenders into the town; the British then proceed to land artillery to train on the French stronghold.

On July 26, 1758, Augustin de Drucour, the French commander, surrendered. The remaining settlers were deported to France and Pitt ordered the entire Fortress razed.

Now, with the St. Lawrence wide open to the British, possessors of the world's most powerful navy, the French had no hope of getting reinforcements through. Quebec lay as a waiting and inviting target. There would not be much time for waiting. James Wolfe, on the heels of his victory at Louisbourg, sailed up the St. Lawrence with 40 000 men. He camped on the south shore at Pointe Lévis and at Île d'Orléans on the north shore, ten kilometers east from the high walls of Quebec.

The Battle for Québec

Forces at Quebec

Battle Map

The siege of Quebec began on July 12, 1759 and lasted for nine weeks. To further destroy French resistance, Wolfe ordered a massive burning campaign along the south shore. His intent in sending out 1 600 troops on a 'scorched earth policy' was to prevent the inhabitants from crossing the river and joining the French militia.

However, Wolfe realized that time was pressing. The winter freeze-up was coming soon. So he had to act quickly. French spies noticed the spot where some French women had come down to wash clothes. On September 12, 1759 they came ashore with 4 500 troops on the north shore at Anse au Foulon.

Caught by surprise and having lost seventy of his hundred soldiers to harvest leave, the incompetent Louis Dupont du Vergor hastily surrendered. Quietly the British troops scaled the cliffs in the wee hours of the September 13th morning. By five o'clock they were just where Wolfe wanted them, on Quebec's more exposed western flank, in Abraham Martin's cornfield, just three kilometers from the center of Quebec. The morning mist and a hill between the town and the field hid them so that the French were not even aware of their presence.

Wolfe into Battle

The British Landing

Montcalm Responds

When Montcalm, at Beauport with most of his force, became aware, he made a fateful decision. Rather than waiting for reinforcements, he decided to quick-march his tired troops to Quebec. He thought that decisive action was needed to drive the British off the heights before they could amass even more troops. He had a force of about four thousand, only slightly less than the British. But there was a crucial difference. Not only were his few trained soldiers exhausted, but also the bulk of his contingent was comprised of colonial militia and aboriginal allies, no match for the battle-tested British soldiers. At about eight o'clock, the British fired a field cannon into the French lines.

The undisciplined French force tried to advance but could not hold formation. The seasoned British soldiers fired repeated volleys and easily halted the French advance. With that, the main body of French broke ranks and fled.

Wolfe was fatally killed on the battlefield while Montcalm, bleeding badly, was taken into Quebec where he died the following day.

Wolfe Wounded

A Dying Montcalm is Carried into Quebec

The Death of Wolfe

The remainder of the British conquest came about inevitably. With Britain now holding Quebec, with three separate British forces converging on Montreal, and with almost all of the aboriginal allies already having signed terms of peace, there was no hope for France. The French did mount a brief, but unsuccessful resistance on April 28, 1760, when François, General de Lévis, with 5,000 soldiers and Indians, defeated James Murray's 3,900 British troops at the Battle of Ste-Foy, a bigger battle than on the Plains of Abraham. Murray wisely retreated behind the walls of Québec to wait for reinforcements by ship, while withstanding Lévis' siege. The French fleet had been smashed at Quiberon Bay the previous autumn, and the French supply ships were lost in the Bay of Chaleur in the Battle of Restigouche. When HMS Lowestoft approached Quebec, Lévis raised his siege and retreated to Montreal.

On September 8, 1760, Governor Vaudreuil, recognizing that there was nothing further to be gained, signed the Articles of Capitulation, surrendering all of New France to General Amherst.

The Articles allowed the British to take Montreal but in addition, they stipulated that French Canadians could return to their residences unharmed. Further, they held that French Catholicism was to be freely practised without discrimination and that the aboriginal allies should retain all lands they currently held.

Lévis Encourages Troops Before Battle of Ste-Foy

Battle of Ste-Foy

Vaudreuil Surrenders at Montreal

The Treaty of Paris

Marquis de Vaudreuil

The 1763 Treaty of Paris simply made these articles official, but it also fine tuned some new colonial arrangements. British Prime Minister the Earl of Bute was keen to end the conflict, as were most MPs and the British elite. The war had been hugely expensive and disruptive of trade. The treaty passed overwhelmingly in Parliament.

The main negotiator of the peace, the Duke of Bedford, agreed to return Manila and Cuba to Spain. France decided to retain the sugar-rich Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, and Martinique, along with the slaving post of Gorée island in Senegal, rather than hang on to New France. Bedford also agreed to let the French retain Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland as a fishing port, even through there were concerns it could be used as a possible staging post for future action against Canada.

The consequences of the Conquest were immense. New France was no more. In its place was the new colony of Quebec, a French-speaking, Roman Catholic colony integrated into the British Empire. Sixty thousand French Canadians now fell under the control off new English masters.

One unforeseen result of the Treaty of Paris was that with the removal of the French threat in North America, the Thirteen Colonies to the south were emboldened in their resistance to colonial control and taxation from London. Britain's clumsy attempts to recover some of the costs of the French and Indian War from these colonies only made this resistance more intense.

In Quebec, Governor James Murray ushered in a three-year period of military rule. The French were a defeated people with everything that conjured up. Some historians, most notably Michel Brunet, argue that French Canadian society was "decapitated", in that the natural leaders of the colony left, leaving behind only the British conquerors and the Roman Catholic Church. British merchants and traders filled the financial void as the French Canadians fell into the tradition of 'la survivance' to protect their fragile and threatened culture and way of life. The triple pillars of the Church, the family, and the land provided hope and solace that their society would not be assimilated, but that it would survive.