Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay
Encyclopedia
Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay: When the English built trading posts on Hudson Bay the French tried to drive them out. This lasted from 1672 until 1713 when British sovereignty over the Bay was recognized by the Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty of Utrecht
The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

. In 1782 Fort Churchill was captured by the French.

Since the posts were held by at most a few dozen traders and laborers they could easily be captured by a small group of soldiers, but it was difficult to send soldiers to the Bay and impractical to keep them there over winter. The short ice-free season made it difficult to take all the posts in one year. Thus the posts changed hands more or less at random whenever one side or the other sent a force into the Bay. Only in 1697 did significant British and French forces meet on the bay. Before 1689 the two kingdoms were at peace and the use of force was questionable.
  • 1658-68: Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard Chouart des Groseilliers was a French explorer and fur trader in Canada. He is often paired with his brother-in-law Pierre-Esprit Radisson who was about 20 years his junior...

     learn that the best furs come from north of Lake Superior. When their plans are rejected at Quebec they turn to the English.
  • 1668/69: Proto-HBC trades for one winter at Rupert House. See Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard Chouart des Groseilliers was a French explorer and fur trader in Canada. He is often paired with his brother-in-law Pierre-Esprit Radisson who was about 20 years his junior...

    .
  • 1670: Hudson's Bay Company
    Hudson's Bay Company
    The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

     founded.
  • 1670-79: English trading posts built on James Bay. These were: Rupert House (1668, southeast), Moose Factory (1673, south) and Fort Albany
    Fort Albany, Ontario
    Fort Albany First Nation is a community in within the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada. Situated on the southern shore of the Albany River, Fort Albany First Nation is only accessible by air or by winter road....

     (west). See Canadian canoe routes (early)#Hudson Bay.
  • 1672: Father Charles Albanel
    Charles Albanel
    Charles Albanel was a Freech missionary explorer in Canada, and Jesuit priest. In 1649, he arrived in Canada, at Tadoussac. In 1672, at the time when the Hudson's Bay Company was beginning operations, he was a leader of a French party that went by the Saguenay River, Lake Mistassini, and the...

     travels from Quebec to Rupert House, but finds it deserted.
  • 1674: Albanel again reaches Rupert House. He and Groseillers are sent to England. Father Albanel and French money induce Groseillers to return to the French service.
  • 1679: Radisson in Paris. He and Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye
    Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye
    Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye was a French businessman active in Canada. The richest financier and businessman in New France, he played an important part in the colony's economic life , owned several seigneuries and was a member of the Sovereign Council of New France...

     soon form the Compaignie du Nord.
  • 1682: One French and two English groups reach the mouth of the Hayes River
    Hayes River
    The Hayes River is a river in Northern Region, Manitoba, Canada that flows from Molson Lake to Hudson Bay at York Factory. It was an historically important river in the development of Canada, and is today a Canadian Heritage River and the longest naturally flowing river in Manitoba.-Course:The...

    . The French capture the English. See Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard des Groseilliers
    Médard Chouart des Groseilliers was a French explorer and fur trader in Canada. He is often paired with his brother-in-law Pierre-Esprit Radisson who was about 20 years his junior...

  • 1686: A large French force from Montreal captures the three HBC posts on James Bay. The HBC now has only York Factory. See Hudson Bay expedition (1686)
    Hudson Bay expedition (1686)
    The Hudson Bay expedition of 1686 was one of the Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay. It was the first several expeditions sent from New France against the trading outposts of the Hudson's Bay Company in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay...

    .
  • 1688: Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
    Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
    Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] (16 July 1661 – 9 July 1702 (probable)was a soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonial administrator, knight of...

     in the Soleil d'Afrique returns to James Bay to pick up the remaining furs. He defeats two English ships
    Battle of Fort Albany
    The 1688 Battle of Fort Albany was one of the Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay. In the Hudson Bay expedition the French had, in time of peace, marched overland from Quebec and captured all three English posts on James Bay. The French had left a garrison at Fort Albany, Ontario and needed to...

     and returns to France.
  • 1688: England's Glorious Revolution
    Glorious Revolution
    The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

     leads to renewed war with France (King William's War
    King William's War
    The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...

     1689-1697).
    • 1690: D'Iberville tries to capture York Factory but finds it guarded by a warship. He goes south and captures Fort Severn
      Severn River (northern Ontario)
      The Severn River is a river in northern Ontario. The northern Ontario river has its headwaters near the western border of the province. From the head of the Black Birch River, the Severn River is long and its drainage basin is 102,800 km² , a small portion of which is in Manitoba...

      .
    • 1693: James Knight (explorer) captures Fort Albany
      Battle of Fort Albany (1693)
      The Battle of Fort Albany in 1693 was the successful recapture by English forces of the Hudson's Bay Company trading outpost at Fort Albany in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay...

       and 30,000 pelts.
    • 1694: D'Iberville captures York Factory (Capture of York Factory
      Capture of York Factory
      The Capture of York Factory was one of the Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay. In 1686 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville marched overland from Quebec and captured all the English posts on James Bay. This left York Factory which was too far away and could only be reached by sea. In 1688 King William's...

      ).
    • 1695: Three Royal Navy frigates recapture York Factory. The French now hold no forts on the bay.
    • 1697: Following the naval Battle of Hudson's Bay
      Battle of Hudson's Bay
      The Battle of Hudson's Bay, also known as the Battle of York Factory, was a naval battle fought during the War of the Grand Alliance . The battle took place on 5 September 1697, when a French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron commanded by Captain...

       d'Iberville retakes York Factory. The French retain it until 1713.
  • After the peace there seems to have been little action.
  • 1709: During Queen Anne's War
    Queen Anne's War
    Queen Anne's War , as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England, later Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. The War of the...

     100 French try to capture Fort Albany
    Battle of Fort Albany (1709)
    The Battle of Fort Albany was an attack by French colonial volunteers and their native allies against the Hudson's Bay Company outpost of Fort Albany in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay. About 70 Frenchmen and 30 Indians attacked the fort, which was under the command of John Fullartine. ...

     but are driven off. This seems to be the only case of a fort being successfully defended.
  • 1713: Treaty of Utrecht
    Treaty of Utrecht
    The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

    : British sovereignty over Hudson Bay recognized by France. France had won most of the battles but lost the peace. The fate of Hudson Bay was decided not on the Bay but on the battlefields of Europe.
  • After 1713 military competition was replaced by economic as the French, and later other British traders, tried to divert trade from the HBC to Montreal. This lasted until 1821 when the HBC absorbed the Montreal traders. In the interior there were scattered fights involving the traders and their Indian allies, but these have left few records.
  • 1763: Treaty of Paris
    Treaty of Paris (1763)
    The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...

    : France cedes all of Canada
    Canada, New France
    Canada was the name of the French colony that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of New France were Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government: Quebec,...

     to Britain.
  • 1782: La Perouse raids Prince of Wales Fort and York Factory (Hudson Bay expedition
    Hudson Bay Expedition
    The Hudson Bay expedition of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse was a series of military raids on the lucrative fur trading posts and fortifications of the Hudson's Bay Company on the shores of Hudson Bay by a squadron of the French Royal Navy...

    ).
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