King William's War

King William's War
Part of the Nine Years' War
Count Frontenac, governor of New France, refused English demands to surrender prior to the Battle of Quebec.
Date April 1688 – 20 September 1697 Location North America Result Peace of Ryswick Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
France  New France Wabanaki Confederacy Algonquin Kahnawake	England New England New York Iroquois Mohicans
Commanders and leaders
Count Frontenac Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville Claude-Sébastien de Villieu Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière Father Louis-Pierre Thury^[1] Father Sébastien Rale Father Jean Baudoin Chief Madockawando	Sir William Phips Benjamin Church Pieter Schuyler

King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War,^[a] Father Baudoin's War,^[3] Castin's War,^[4] or the First Intercolonial War in French^[5]) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg. It was the first of six colonial wars (see the four French and Indian Wars, Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War) fought between New France and New England along with their respective Native allies before France ceded its remaining mainland territories in North America east of the Mississippi River in 1763.

For King William's War, neither England nor France thought of weakening their position in Europe to support the war effort in North America.^[6] New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy were able to thwart New England expansion into Acadia, whose border New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine.^{[7]: 27 [8][9]} According to the terms of the 1697 Peace of Ryswick that ended the Nine Years' War, the boundaries and outposts of New France, New England, and New York remained substantially unchanged.

The war was largely caused by the fact that the treaties and agreements that were reached at the end of King Philip's War (1675–1678) were not adhered to.^[10] In addition, the English were alarmed that the Indians were receiving French or maybe Dutch aid. The Indians preyed on the English and their fears, by making it look as though they were with the French. The French were fooled as well, as they thought the Indians were working with the English. These occurrences, in addition to the fact that the English perceived the Indians as their subjects, despite the Indians' unwillingness to submit, eventually led to two conflicts, one of which was King William's War.^[10]

North America at the end of the 17th century

 

At the end of the 17th century, English settlers outnumbered the French, although the English were divided into multiple colonies along the Atlantic.

The English settlers were more than 154,000 at the beginning of the war, outnumbering the French 12 to 1.^[11] However, they were divided in multiple colonies along the Atlantic coast, which were unable to cooperate efficiently, and they were engulfed in the Glorious Revolution, creating tension among the colonists.^[12] In addition, the English lacked military leadership and had a difficult relationship with their native Iroquois allies.^[12][13]

New France was divided into three entities: Acadia on the Atlantic coast; Canada along the Saint Lawrence River and up to the Great Lakes; and Louisiana from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, along the Mississippi River.^[14] The French population amounted to 14,000 in 1689.^[14] Although the French were vastly outnumbered, they were more politically unified and contained a disproportionate number of adult males with military backgrounds.^[12] Realizing their numerical inferiority, they developed good relationships with the indigenous peoples in order to multiply their forces and made effective use of hit-and-run tactics.^[12]

Causes of the war

For further details on the war's European causes, see Nine Years' War and Glorious Revolution.

England's Catholic King James II was deposed at the end of 1688 in the Glorious Revolution, after which Protestants William III and Mary II took the throne. William joined the League of Augsburg in its war against France (begun earlier in 1688), where James had fled.

In North America, there was significant tension between New France and the northern English colonies, which had in 1686 been united in the Dominion of New England. New England and the Iroquois Confederacy fought New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Iroquois dominated the economically important Great Lakes fur trade and had been in conflict with New France since 1680.^[15]: 43 At the urging of New England, the Iroquois interrupted the trade between New France and the western tribes. In retaliation, New France raided Seneca lands of western New York. In turn, New England supported the Iroquois in attacking New France, which they did by raiding Lachine.^[15]: 44

There were similar tensions on the border between New England and Acadia, whose boundary New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine.^[7]: 27 English settlers from Massachusetts (whose charter included the Maine area) had expanded their settlements into Acadia. To secure New France's claim to present-day Maine, New France established Catholic missions among the three largest Indigenous villages in the region: one on the Kennebec River (Norridgewock); one further north on the Penobscot River (Penobscot) and one on the Saint John River (Medoctec).^[16][17] For their part, in response to King Philip's War, the five Indigenous tribes in the region of Acadia created the Wabanaki Confederacy to form a political and military alliance with New France to stop the New England expansion.^[18]

Course of war

 

Map of the campaigns during the war

New England, Acadia and Newfoundland Theatre

The New England, Acadia and Newfoundland Theatre of the war is also known as Castin's War^[4] and Father Jean Baudoin's War.^[3]

In April 1688, Governor Andros plundered Castine's home and village on Penobscot Bay (Castine, Maine).^[7]: 607 Later in August, the English raided the French village of Chedabouctou. In response, Castin and the Wabanaki Confederacy engaged in the Northeast Coast Campaign of 1688 along the New England/Acadia border. They began August 13, 1688, at New Dartmouth (Newcastle), killing a few settlers. A few days later they killed two people at Yarmouth in the first battle. At Kennebunk, in the autumn of 1688, members of the Confederacy killed two families.

The following spring, in June 1689, several hundred Abenaki and Pennacook Indians under the command of Kancamagus and Mesandowit raided Dover, New Hampshire, killing more than 20 and taking 29 captives, who were sold into captivity in New France. In June, they killed four men at Saco. In response to these raids, a company of 24 men was raised to search for the bodies and pursue the natives. They were forced to return after they lost a quarter of their men in conflicts with the natives.^[19]

 

Major Richard Waldron shortly before his death during the Abenaki raid on Dover

In August 1689, Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin and Father Louis-Pierre Thury^[1] led an Abenaki war party that captured and destroyed the fort at Pemaquid (in present-day Bristol, Maine). The fall of Pemaquid was a significant setback to the English. It pushed the frontier back to Casco (Falmouth), Maine.^[20]: 81

New England retaliated for these raids by sending Major Benjamin Church to raid Acadia. During King William's War, Church led four New England raiding parties into Acadia (which included most of Maine) against the Acadians and members of the Wabanaki Confederacy. On the first expedition into Acadia, on September 21, 1689, Church and 250 troops defended a group of English settlers trying to establish themselves at Falmouth (near present-day Portland, Maine). The tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy killed 21 of his men, but Church's defense was successful and the natives retreated.^[21]: 33 Church then returned to Boston, leaving the small group of English settlers unprotected. The following spring over 400 French and native troops, under the leadership of Castin, destroyed Salmon Falls (present-day Berwick, Maine), then returned to Falmouth and massacred all the English settlers in the Battle of Fort Loyal. When Church returned to the village later that summer he buried the dead.^{[22]: 175–76} The fall of Fort Loyal (Casco) led to the near depopulation of Maine. Native forces were then able to attack New Hampshire frontier without reprisal.^[20]: 82

Battle of Port Royal (1690)

 

William Phips, the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, led an assault on Port Royal.

The New Englanders, led by Sir William Phips, retaliated by attacking Port Royal, the capital of Acadia. The Battle of Port Royal began on May 9, 1690.^[23]: 82 Phips arrived with 736 New England men in seven English ships. Governor de Meneval fought for two days and then capitulated. The garrison was imprisoned in the church, and Governor de Meneval was confined to his house. The New Englanders levelled what was begun of the new fort.^[24]: 38 The residents of Port Royal were imprisoned in the church and administered an oath of allegiance to the King.^[24]: 39

Phips left, but warships from New York City arrived in June, which resulted in more destruction.^[23]: 82 The seamen burned and looted the settlement, including the parish church.^[24]: 40 The New Englanders left again, and Villebon, the governor of Acadia, moved the capital to safer territory inland at Fort Nashwaak (present-day Fredericton, New Brunswick). Fort Nashwaak remained the capital until after the war, when Port Royal was restored as the capital in 1699.^[24]: 45

In Church's second expedition to Acadia, he arrived with 300 men at Casco Bay on 11 September 1690. His mission was to relieve the English Fort Pejpescot (present-day Brunswick, Maine), which had been taken by the Wabanaki Confederacy.^{[22]: 179–180} He went up the Androscoggin River to Fort Pejepscot.^[21]: 66 From there he went 40 miles (64 km) upriver to Livermore Falls and attacked a native village. Church's men shot three or four native men when they were retreating. Church discovered five English captives in the wigwams. Church butchered six or seven natives and took nine prisoners.^[21]: 67 A few days later, in retaliation, the members of the Wabanaki Confederacy attacked Church at Cape Elizabeth on Purpooduc Point, killing seven of his men and wounding 24 others.^[21]: 69 On September 26, Church returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

During King William's War, when the town of Wells contained about 80 houses and log cabins strung along the Post Road, it was attacked on June 9, 1691, by about 200 Native Americans commanded by the sachem Moxus. But Captain James Converse and his militia successfully defended Lieutenant Joseph Storer's garrison, which was surrounded by a gated palisade. Another sachem, Madockawando, threatened to return the next year "and have the dog Converse out of his den".^[25]

As the natives withdrew, they went to York off Cape Neddick and boarded a vessel, killing most of the crew. They also burned a hamlet.^[19]

In early 1692, an estimated 150 Abenakis commanded by officers of New France returned to York, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings in what would become known as the Candlemas Massacre.

Church's third expedition to Acadia during the war was in 1692 when he raided Penobscot (present-day Indian Island, Maine) with 450 men.^[22]: 212 Church and his men then went on to raid Taconock (Winslow, Maine).^[22]: 214

In 1693, New England frigates attacked Port Royal again, burning almost a dozen houses and three barns full of grain.^[24]: 43

On July 18, 1694, French soldier Claude-Sébastien de Villieu with about 250 Abenakis from Norridgewock under command of their sagamore (paramount chief) Bomazeen (or Bomoseen) raided the English settlement of Durham, New Hampshire, in the Oyster River Massacre. In all, the French and native force killed 104 inhabitants and took 27 captive, burning half the dwellings, including five garrisons. They also destroyed crops and killed livestock, causing famine and destitution for the survivors.

Siege of Pemaquid (1696)

 

In 1696, a military campaign saw the sacking of English settlements on the Avalon Peninsula.

In 1696, New France and the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, led by St. Castine and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, returned and fought a naval battle in the Bay of Fundy before moving on to raid Pemaquid. After the Siege of Pemaquid, d'Iberville led a force of 124 Canadians, Acadians, Mi'kmaq and Abenakis in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign. They destroyed almost every English settlement in Newfoundland, over 100 English were killed, many times that number captured, and almost 500 deported to England or France.^[23]: 84

In retaliation, Church went on his fourth expedition to Acadia and carried out a retaliatory raid against Acadian communities on the Isthmus of Chignecto and Fort Nashwack (present-day Fredericton, New Brunswick), which was then the capital of Acadia.^[22]: 215 He led his troops personally in killing inhabitants of Chignecto, looting their household goods, burning their houses and slaughtering the livestock.

Quebec and New York Theatre

Also in August 1689, 1,500 Iroquois, seeking revenge for Governor General Denonville's actions, attacked the French settlement at Lachine. Count Frontenac, who replaced Denonville as governor general, later attacked the Iroquois village of Onondaga. New France and its Indian allies then attacked English frontier settlements in early 1690, most notably at Schenectady in New York.

 

French batteries bombard the English fleet during the Battle of Quebec.

This was followed by two expeditions. One, on land under Connecticut provincial militia general Fitz-John Winthrop, targeted Montreal; the other, led by Sir William Phips, targeted Quebec. Winthrop's expedition failed due to disease and supply issues, and Phips was defeated in the Battle of Quebec. The Quebec and Port Royal expeditions were the only major New England offensives of King William's War; for the remainder of the war the English colonists were primarily engaged in defensive operations, skirmishes and retaliatory raids.

The Iroquois Five Nations suffered from the weakness of their English allies.^[26]: 290 In 1693 and 1696, the French and their Indian allies ravaged Iroquois towns and destroyed crops while New York colonists remained passive. After the English and French made peace in 1697, the Iroquois, now abandoned by the English colonists, remained at war with New France until 1701,^[26]: 291 when a peace was agreed at Montreal between New France and a large number of Iroquois and other tribes.

Hudson Bay Theatre

 

Sinking of the Pélican after the Battle of Hudson's Bay. Although victorious in battle, Pélican sustained damage and subsequently sunk.

The war also served as a backdrop for an ongoing economic war between French and English interests in Arctic North America. The Hudson's Bay Company had established trading outposts on James Bay and the southern reaches of Hudson Bay by the early 1680s. In a series of raids, beginning with the so-called Hudson Bay expedition, organized by Governor Denonville and continuing through the time of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), most of these outposts, including Moose Factory, York Factory and Fort Albany, were taken by French raiders, primarily led by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.

But the French forces were small, and their hold on the captured posts quite weak—York Factory was recaptured by the English in 1695. In 1697, in the Battle of Hudson's Bay, one of the war's major naval battles, d'Iberville, with a single ship, defeated three English ships and went on to again capture York Factory.

Aftermath

The Treaty of Ryswick signed in September 1697 ended the war between the two colonial powers, reverting the colonial borders to the status quo ante bellum. The peace did not last long;^[27] and within five years, the colonies were embroiled in the next phase of the colonial wars, Queen Anne's War. After their settlement with France in 1701, the Iroquois remained neutral in that conflict, never taking part in active hostilities against either side. Tensions remained high between the English and the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, who again fought with the French in Queen Anne's War, with conflict characterized by frequent raids in Massachusetts, including one on Groton in 1694, in which children were kidnapped, and the Deerfield Massacre in 1704, in which more than 100 captives were taken north to Montreal for ransom or adoption by Mohawk and French. By the end of the war, natives were successful in killing more than 700 English and capturing over 250 along the Acadia/ New England border.^[28]

The Ryswick treaty was unsatisfactory to representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company. Since most of its trading posts in Hudson Bay had been lost to the French before the war began, the rule of status quo ante bellum meant that they remained under French control. The company recovered its territories at the negotiating table when the Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War.

Scholars debate whether the war was a contributing factor to the Salem witch trials. King William's War as well as King Philip's War (1675–78) led to the displacement of many refugees in Essex County. The refugees carried with them fears of the Indians, which is debated to have led to fears of witchcraft, especially since the devil was arguably closely associated with Indians and magic. Of course, Cotton Mather also wrote that it was going to lead to an age of sorrow and is arguably a proponent in leading Salem into the witchcraft crisis of 1692. Scholars debate this theory and one scholar, Jenny Hale Pulsipher, maintains that King William's War was more of a cause.^[10] Other scholars that have written on the theory of the wars being a leading cause of the Salem Witchcraft Trials include Mary Beth Norton, James Kences, and Emerson Baker.

See also

• Colonial American military history
• Military history of Canada
  • Military history of Nova Scotia
• Military history of England
• Military history of France

Notes

1. The first Indian War is better known as King Philip's War, the Third Indian War was Queen Anne's War, the Fourth Indian War was Father Rale's War, the fifth was King George's War, and the sixth was the French and Indian War.^[2]

Citations

1. Baudry, René (1979) [1966]. "Thury, Louis-Pierre". In Brown, George Williams (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
2. Taylor, Alan (2005). Writing Early American History. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8122-1910-4 – via Google books.
3. Williams, Alan F. (1987). Father Baudoin's War: D'Iberville's Campaigns in Acadia and Newfoundland, 1696, 1697. Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland. ISBN 978-0-88901-144-1 – via Google books.
4. Sylvester, Herbert Milton (1910). Indian Wars of New England: The Land of the Abenake. The French Occupation. King Philip's War. St. Castin's War. Vol. I. Boston: W.B. Clarke Company. p. 54.
5. Lacoursière, Jacques; Provencher, Jean; Vaugeois, Denis (2001). Canada-Québec 1534–2000. Les éditions du Septentrion. p. 92. ISBN 978-2-89448-186-8.
6. Bromley, J. S., ed. (1971). The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 6, The Rise of Great Britain and Russia, 1688–1715/25. Cambridge University Press. p. 488. ISBN 978-0-521-07524-4.
7. Williamson, William D. (1832). The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive. Vol. II. Glazier, Masters & Smith.
8. Griffiths, N.E.S. (2005). From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604–1755. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-7735-2699-0.
9. Campbell, William Edgar (2005). The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec. Goose Lane Editions. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-86492-426-1.
10. Pulsipher, Jenny Hale (December 2007). "Dark Cloud Rising from the East". The New England Quarterly. 80 (4): 588–613. doi:10.1162/tneq.2007.80.4.588. JSTOR 20474581. S2CID 57560166.
11. McIlwraith, Thomas F.; Muller, Edward K. (2001). North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-7425-0019-8 – via Google books.
12. Tucker, Spencer (2013). Almanac of American Military History. Vol. I: 1000–1830. ABC-CLIO. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-59884-530-3 – via Google books.
13. Havard, Gilles (2001). The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-native Diplomacy in the Seventeenth Century. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-7735-2219-0 – via Google books.
14. Chartrand, René (2013). French Fortresses in North America 1535–1763: Québec, Montréal, Louisbourg and New Orleans. Bloomsbury. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4728-0317-7 – via Google books.
15. Aquila, Richard (1997) [1983]. The Iroquois Restoration: Iroquois Diplomacy on the Colonial Frontier, 1701–1754. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-5932-4 – via Gooble books.
16. Meductic Indian Village / Fort Meductic National Historic Site of Canada . Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
17. Grenier, John (2008). The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 51, 54. ISBN 978-0-8061-3876-3 – via Google books.
18. Prins, Harald E.L. (March 1999). . The Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs. Amherst, NS: Wabanaki. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2013-09-16.
19. Clayton, W. Woodford (1880). History of York County, Maine: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-83280037-5 – via Google books.
20. Chet, Guy (2003). Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-382-7.
21. Drake, Samuel Adams (1897). The Border Wars of New England: Commonly Called King William's and Queen Anne's Wars. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
22. Church, Benjamin; Church, Thomas; Drake, Samuel G. (1845). The History of the Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676: Commonly Called Philip's War : Also the Old French and Indian Wars, from 1689 to 1704. New York: H. Dayton. ISBN 978-0-65911482-2 – via Google books.
23. Reid, John G. (1994). "1686–1720: Imperial Intrusions". In Phillip Buckner; John G. Reid (eds.). The Atlantic Region to Confederation: A History. University of Toronto Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4875-1676-5. JSTOR j.ctt15jjfrm.
24. Dunn, Brenda (2004). A History of Port-Royal-Annapolis Royal, 1605–1800. Nimbus. ISBN 978-1-55109-740-4.
25. Roach, Marilynne K. (2002). The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege. Taylor Trade Publications. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-58979-132-9 – via Google books.
26. Taylor, Alan (2002). American Colonies. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-200210-0.
27. Trafzer, Clifford E. (2000). As Long as the Grass Shall Grow and Rivers Flow: A History of Native Americans. Harcourt College. ISBN 978-0-15-503857-8.
28. Exercises of the Eliot Historical Society on Monday the fifth of July, 1897: In commemoration of Major Charles Frost on the two hundredth anniversary of his massacre by the Indians, Sunday, July fourth, 1697. Eliot, ME: The Society. 1897. p. 16 – via The Internet Archive.

References

• Baker, Emerson W.; Reid, John G. (January 2004). "Amerindian Power in the Early Modern Northeast: A Reappraisal". William and Mary Quarterly. 3rd series. 61 (1): 77–106. doi:10.2307/3491676. JSTOR 3491676.
• Weidensaul, Scott (2012). "'Our Enimies are Exceedeingly Cruell'". The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 182–221. ISBN 978-0-15-101515-3.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to King William's War.

•   Texts on Wikisource:
  • "King William's War". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
  • "King William's War". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
• King William's War (1689–1697) at usahistory.info