The first of the
French and Indian Wars,
King William's War (1689–97) was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the
War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97). It was fought between England, France, and their respective
American Indian allies in the colonies of
Canada (New France),
Acadia, and
New England.
Cause of war
England's Catholic
King James II was deposed at the end of 1688 in the
Glorious Revolution, after which Protestant
William of Orange was made king. William joined the
League of Augsburg against France, where James had fled.
Tensions on the
frontier between the
Dominion of New England (which included present-day
New England) and the colonies of
New France to the north were already under some stress, as New England's governor
Edmund Andros had engaged in a raid against French settlements in
Penobscot Bay in 1688. Andros, a Catholic appointed by King James, was deposed in 1689 when news of the revolution reached
Boston.
War
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.
Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, a Frenchman whose home on
Penobscot Bay (near present-day
Castine, Maine, named for him) had been plundered by Governor Andros in 1688, led an
Abenaki war party to raid
Pemaquid in August 1689. In response
Benjamin Church, noted for his Indian fighting skill from
King Philip's War, led an expedition into the territory of present-day
Maine that was largely ineffectual except for dissuading an attack against Falmouth (present-day
Portland).
Also in August 1689, 1,500 Iroquois attacked the French settlement at
Lachine before New France had even learned of the start of the war. Frontenac later attacked the Iroquois village of Onondaga. New France and its Indian allies then attacked English frontier settlements, most notably the
Schenectady Massacre of 1690. The English captured
Port Royal, Nova Scotia, the capital of Acadia, and then launched an expedition to seize the capital of
New France, but were defeated in the
Battle of Quebec. The French attacked the British-held coast, recapturing Port Royal.
The Quebec expedition was the last major offensive of King William’s War; for the remainder of the war the English colonists were reduced to defensive operations and skirmishes. In early 1692, in the
Candlemas Massacre an estimated 150 Abenakis commanded by officers of New France entered the town of York, Maine, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings. The
Iroquois Five Nations suffered from the weakness of their English allies. 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.
Aftermath
The
Treaty of Ryswick in 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, and within five years the colonies were embroiled in the next of the French and Indian Wars,
Queen Anne's War. After their settlement with France in 1701, the Iroquois remained neutral in the early part of the war.
See also
