Siege of Port Royal (1690)

Siege of Port Royal (1690) was a brief but significant military engagement early in King William's War, the North American theater of the wider Nine Years' War. In May 1690, a provincial force from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, commanded by Sir William Phips, successfully captured the capital of French Acadia, Port-Royal (Acadia). The easy fall of the undermanned settlement demonstrated the vulnerability of French holdings and marked the first major English conquest in the conflict, though control proved temporary.

Background

The siege occurred within the opening phase of King William's War, which pitted the Kingdom of England and its Iroquois Confederacy allies against the Kingdom of France and its Wabanaki Confederacy and Acadian settlers. French privateering from bases like Port-Royal (Acadia) against New England fishing and merchant vessels had provoked retaliation. The government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, seeking to secure its frontiers and maritime interests, organized an expedition against the Acadian capital. Command was given to Sir William Phips, a native of the Pemaquid region who had recently gained fame for salvaging treasure from a Spanish wreck in the Bahamas. The French garrison at Port-Royal, under Governor Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Meneval, was critically weak, with the fortifications, originally built by Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, in a state of disrepair and the Compagnies Franches de la Marine soldiers few in number.

The siege

The New England fleet, consisting of seven vessels including the flagship *Six Friends* and carrying about 700 militia, arrived at the entrance to the Annapolis Basin on May 9, 1690. Sir William Phips immediately demanded the surrender of Fort Anne. Governor Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Meneval, recognizing the hopelessness of his position with fewer than 90 troops and crumbling earthworks, entered into negotiations. After a short bombardment from the ships, which caused little damage, Meneval surrendered on May 11. The terms allowed the French soldiers to march out with honors of war and be transported to Quebec City, while the Acadian inhabitants were to be left unmolested and allowed to keep their property. However, Phips's militia largely ignored these terms, plundering the town, the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, and the governor's residence.

Aftermath

Following the capture, Sir William Phips installed a small garrison under the command of Captain John Alden before departing to lead a larger, ultimately unsuccessful expedition against Quebec City in the Battle of Quebec (1690). French authority in Acadia was temporarily extinguished, but the New England hold on Port-Royal (Acadia) was tenuous. In 1691, a French force from New France commanded by Joseph Robineau de Villebon, with support from the Wabanaki Confederacy, easily recaptured the settlement. The event highlighted the cycle of raid and counter-raid that characterized the northeastern frontier, with subsequent conflicts like the Raid on Salmon Falls and the Battle of Fort Loyal continuing the violence. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, which returned Acadia to French control, resetting the territorial status quo.

Legacy

The 1690 siege established a pattern of vulnerability for Port-Royal (Acadia), which would be captured again in 1710 during Queen Anne's War in the final Siege of Port Royal (1710), leading to the permanent British renaming of the town as Annapolis Royal. For Sir William Phips, the victory bolstered his reputation, aiding his subsequent appointment as the first royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The event is remembered as a notable, if ephemeral, success for New England colonial arms and an early example of the imperial struggles between Great Britain and France that would dominate the region through the French and Indian War. The plundering of the settlement also fueled ongoing Acadian resentment towards New England authorities.

Category:1690 in North America Category:Conflicts in Nova Scotia Category:King William's War Category:Sieges involving France Category:Sieges involving England