page_title: David Kirke
section_title: Quebec campaign
hierarchical_section_title: David Kirke / Quebec campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: This image by Charles William Jefferys shows Samuel de Champlain leaving for England on Kirke's (spelled incorrectly in the original) ship after the fall of Quebec City in 1629.
context_page_description: Sir David Kirke, also spelt David Ker, was an adventurer, colonizer and governor for the king of England. He is best known for his successful capture of New France in 1629 during the Thirty Years' War and his subsequent governorship of lands in Newfoundland. A favourite of Charles I of England, Kirke's downfall came with that of the Crown during the English Civil War and it is believed he died in prison.
context_section_description: A second English invasion fleet, of six ships and three pinnaces, left Gravesend in March 1629 with Jacques Michel, a deserter from Champlain, to act as pilot on the St. Lawrence River. Champlain sent a party from Quebec, whose residents were on the point of starvation, to meet an expected relief fleet under Émery de Caën. Unknown to Champlain, Caën was also bringing word that in April peace had been declared in Europe by the Treaty of Susa. Although Champlain's party met Caën in the Gulf, they were captured by the English on their way upriver to Quebec. Kirke, now aware of the desperate conditions at Quebec, sent his brothers Lewis and Thomas to demand a French surrender. Having no alternative, Champlain surrendered on 19 July 1629.
  However, Champlain argued that the English seizure of the lands was unlawful, as the war had already ended; and he worked to have the area returned to France. As part of the ongoing negotiations of their exit from the Anglo-French War, in 1632 Charles I of England agreed to return the lands in exchange for Louis XIII paying his wife's dowry. These terms were signed into law with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 1632. The lands in Quebec and Acadia were returned to the French Company of One Hundred Associates.
  As a consolation, Kirke was knighted in 1633.
caption: Champlain leaves Quebec as a prisoner aboard Kirke's ship, after a bloodless siege in 1629. Image by Charles William Jefferys, 1942
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