Siege of La Rochelle The Siege of La Rochelle ( French : " Le Siège de La Rochelle " , or sometimes " Le Grand Siège de La Rochelle " ) was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627 – 28 . The siege marked the apex of the tensions between the Catholics and the Protestants in France , and ended with a complete victory for King Louis XIII and the Catholics . Background . In the Edict of Nantes , Henry IV of France had given the Huguenots extensive rights . La Rochelle had become the stronghold of the French Huguenots , under its own governance . It was the centre of Huguenot seapower , and the strongest centre of resistance against the central government . La Rochelle was , at this time , the second or third largest city in France , with over 30 , 000 inhabitants . The assassination of Henry IV in 1610 , and the advent of Louis XIII under the regency of Marie de ' Medici , marked a return to pro - Catholic politics and a weakening of the position of the Protestants . The Duke Henri de Rohan and his brother Soubise started to organize Protestant resistance from that time , ultimately exploding into a Huguenot rebellion . In 1621 , Louis XIII besieged and captured Saint - Jean d ' Angély , and a Blockade of La Rochelle was attempted in 1621 - 1622 , ending with a stalemate and the Treaty of Montpellier . Again , Rohan and Soubise would take arms in 1625 , ending with the capture of the Île de Ré in 1625 by Louis XIII . After these events , Louis XIII wished to subdue the Huguenots , and Louis ' Chief Minister Cardinal Richelieu declared the suppression of the Huguenot revolt the first priority of the kingdom . English intervention . The Anglo - French conflict followed the failure of the Anglo - French alliance of 1624 , in which England had tried to find an ally in France against the power of the Habsburg . In 1626 , France under Richelieu actually concluded a secret peace with Spain , and disputes arose around Henrietta Maria ' s household . Furthermore , France was building the power of its Navy , leading the English to be convinced that France must be opposed " for reasons of state " . In June 1626 , Walter Montagu was sent to France to contact dissident noblemen , and from March 1627 attempted to organize a French rebellion . The plan was to send an English fleet to encourage rebellion , triggering a new Huguenot revolt by Duke Henri de Rohan and his brother Soubise . First La Rochelle expedition . On the first expedition , the English king Charles I sent a fleet of 80 ships , under his favourite George Villiers , 1st Duke of Buckingham , to encourage a major rebellion in La Rochelle . In June 1627 Buckingham organised a landing on the nearby island of Île de Ré with 6 , 000 men in order to help the Huguenots , thus starting an Anglo - French War ( 1627 - 1629 ) , with the objective of controlling the approaches to La Rochelle , and of encouraging the rebellion in the city . The city of La Rochelle initially refused to declare itself an ally of Buckingham , in a state of war against the crown of France , and effectively denied access to its harbour to Buckingham ' s fleet . An open alliance would only be declared in September at the time of the first fights between La Rochelle and Royal troops . Although a Protestant stronghold , Île de Ré had not directly joined the rebellion against the king . On Ile de Ré , the English under Buckingham tried to take the fortified city of Saint - Martin in the Siege of Saint - Martin - de - Ré ( 1627 ) , but were repulsed after three months . Small French Royal boats managed to supply St Martin in spite of the English blockade . Buckingham ultimately ran out of money and support , and his army was weakened by diseases . After a last attack on Saint - Martin they were repulsed with heavy casualties , and left with their ships . Siege . Meanwhile , in August 1627 Royal forces started to surround La Rochelle , with an army of 7 , 000 soldiers , 600 horses and 24 cannons , led by Charles of Angoulême . They started to reinforce fortifications at Bongraine ( modern Les Minimes ) , and at the Fort Louis . On September 10 , the first cannons shots were fired by La Rochelle against Royal troops at Fort Louis , starting the third Huguenot rebellion . La Rochelle was the greatest stronghold among the Huguenot cities of France , and the centre of Huguenot resistance . Cardinal Richelieu acted as the commander of the besieging troops ( during those times when the King was absent ) . Once hostilities started , French engineers isolated the city with entrenchments 12 kilometres long , fortified by 11 forts and 18 redoubts . The surrounding fortifications were totally completed in April 1628 , manned with an army of 30 , 000 . They also built with 4 , 000 workmen a 1 , 400 metre long seawall , to block the seaward access to the city . The initial idea for blocking the channel leading to the harbour of La Rochelle in order to stop all supplies to the city came from the Italian engineer Pompeo Targone , but his structure was broken by the winter weather , before the idea was taken up by the Royal architect Clément Metézeau ( also Metzeau ) , in November 1627 . The wall was built on top of a foundation made of sunken hulks , filled with rubble . French artillery was used against English ships that tried to supply the city . Meanwhile , in southern France , Henri de Rohan attempted to raise a rebellion in order to relieve La Rochelle , but in vain . Until February , some ships were able to go through the seawall under construction , but after March this became impossible . The city was completely blocked , with the only hope coming from a possible intervention of an English fleet . Foreign support for the French Crown . Dutch support . Altogether , the Roman Catholic government of France rented ships from the Protestant city of Amsterdam to conquer the Protestant city of La Rochelle . This resulted in a debate in the city council of Amsterdam as to whether the French soldiers should be allowed to have a Roman Catholic sermon on board of the Protestant Dutch ships . The result of the debate was that it was not allowed . The Dutch ships transported the French soldiers to La Rochelle . France was a Dutch ally in the war against the Habsburgs . Spanish alliance . In the occasion of the Siege of La Rochelle , Spain manoeuvered towards the formation of a Franco - Spanish alliance against the common enemies that were the English , the Huguenots and the Dutch . Richelieu accepted Spanish help , and a Spanish fleet of 30 to 40 warships was sent from Cadiz to the Gulf of Morbihan as an affirmation of strategic support . , arriving three weeks after the departure of Buckingham from Ile de Ré . At one point , the Spanish fleet anchored in front of La Rochelle , but did not engage in actual operations against the city . English relief efforts . England attempted to send two more fleets to relieve La Rochelle . Second La Rochelle expedition . The second one , led by William Feilding , Earl of Denbigh , left on April 1628 , but returned without a fight to Portsmouth , as Denbigh " said that he had no commission to hazard the king ' s ships in a fight and returned shamefully to Portsmouth " . Third La Rochelle expedition . A third fleet was dispatched under the Admiral of the Fleet , the Earl of Lindsey in August 1628 , consisting in 29 warships and 31 merchantmen . In September 1628 , the English fleet tried to relieve the city . After bombarding French positions and trying to force the sea wall in vain , the English fleet had to withdraw . Following this last disappointment , the city surrendered on October 28 , 1628 . Epilogue . Residents of La Rochelle had resisted for 14 months , under the leadership of the mayor Jean Guitton and with the gradually diminishing help from England . During the siege , the population of La Rochelle decreased from 27 , 000 to 5 , 000 due to casualties , famine , and disease . Surrender was unconditional . By the terms of the Peace of Alais , the Huguenots lost their territorial , political and military rights , but retained the religious freedom granted by the Edict of Nantes . However , they were left at the mercy of the monarchy , unable to resist later when Louis XIV abolished the Edict of Nantes altogether and embarked on active persecution . Aside from its religious aspect , the result of Siege of La Rochelle marks an important stage in the creation of a strong central government in France , in actual control of its entire territory and intolerant of any regional defiance of its rule . In the immediate aftermath this was manifested in growth of absolute monarchy , but had long - term effects upon all later French regimes up to the present . The French philosopher Descartes is known to have visited the scene of the siege in 1627 . The siege was depicted in detail by numerous artists , such as Jacques Callot . Numismatics . Around the time of the siege , a series of propaganda coins were cast to describe the stakes of the siege , and then commemorate the Royal victory . These coins depict the siege in symbolic ways , showing the city and the English effort in a poor light , while putting an advantageous light on Royal might . Siege in fiction and film . The siege forms the historical background for the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas , père and the book ' s numerous adaptations to stage , screen , comics and video game . The 11th book of Robert Merle ' s Fortune de France series , " La Gloire et les Perils " , deals entirely with the siege of La Rochelle . In Lawrence Norfolk ' s 1991 novel , " Lemprière ' s Dictionary " , the siege is the central cause of events — entirely fictional — 160 years later in London around the writing of John Lemprière ' s " Classical Dictionary containing a full Account of all the Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors " . Taylor Caldwell writes about the siege in great detail in her 1943 novel " The Arm and the Darkness " ; however she has as its commander the fictional Huguenot nobleman Arsene de Richepin , one of the central characters of the book .