The history of Calais dates back centuries and is chiefly influenced by its being the closest major port to Great Britain.
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The origins of Calais are obscure though its site might be expected to be have been inhabited from early times. In Roman times the name was Caletum. In medieval times the town was part of a Dutch speaking area extending into present north France; in those times the Dutch name was Kales. It stands on the foreshore of the last piece of solid geology on the south and east coast of the North Sea between France and the UK. It is also at the western edge of the early medieval estuary of the River Aa. As the pebble and sand ridge extended eastwards from Calais, the haven behind it developed into fen so that the estuary progressively filled with silt and peat. Subsequently, canals were cut between Saint-Omer, the trading centre formerly at the head of the estuary and three places respectively to the west, centre and east on the newly formed coast. These are Calais, Gravelines and Dunkirk (the pre-siltation counterpart of Dunkirk was Bergues). In this way, what will at some time prior to the 10th century, have been a fishing village on a sandy beach backed by pebbles and a creek,[1] has developed into a moderately significant port. It was improved by the Count of Flanders in 997 and fortified by the Count of Boulogne in 1224.
The English needed a foothold on the continent to serve as a trading centre mainly for exports of English wool to further European destinations and to compete with the marts of the low-countries, through which much of this trade had formerly been conducted. It was largely due to French interference in this vital trade that the campaign was fought which culminated in the 1346 Battle of Crécy. The town was most conveniently situated as the closest landing point from England, and was adjacent to the low-country marts. Immediately after the English victory at Crécy the English army under King Edward III of England marched north and during 1347 besieged the town for eleven months after which it was captured. Edward's campaign had also a dynastic rationale, as following the death of his uncle, Charles IV of France in 1328, Edward saw himself as the Capetian heir to the Kingdom of France but the French chose to follow an all male line of descent from his great grandfather. This introduced the House of Valois to the French throne. Since England was Edward's power base, the English and Welsh were involved in his military sweep through northern France.
The angered Edward demanded reprisals against the town's citizens for holding out for so long, as was the custom of siege warfare, and ordered that the town's population be killed en masse. He agreed however to spare them on condition that six of the principal citizens would come to him, bareheaded and barefooted and with ropes around their necks, and give themselves up to death. On their arrival he ordered their execution, but pardoned them when his queen, Philippa of Hainault, begged him to spare their lives. This event is commemorated in The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais), one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin, erected in the city in 1888. A copy stands in Victoria Tower Gardens, outside the Palace of Westminster in London.
Though sparing the lives of the delegation members, King Edward drove out most of the French inhabitants, and settled the town with people from England, so that it might serve as a gateway to France. The municipal charter of Calais, previously granted by the Countess of Artois, was reconfirmed that year by Edward.
In 1360 the Treaty of Brétigny assigned Guînes, Marck and Calais – collectively the "Pale of Calais" – to English rule in perpetuity, but this assignment was informally and only partially implemented. In 1363 the town was made a staple port. It had by 1372 become a parliamentary borough sending burgesses to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England. It remained part of the Diocese of Thérouanne, keeping an ecclesiastical tie with France.
The town came to be called the "brightest jewel in the English crown" owing to its great importance as the gateway for the tin, lead, cloth and wool trades (or "staples"). Its customs revenues amounted at times to a third of the English government's revenue, with wool being the most important element by far. Of its population of about 12,000 people, as many as 5,400 were recorded as having been connected with the wool trade. The governorship or Captaincy of Calais was a lucrative and highly prized public office; the famous Dick Whittington was simultaneously Lord Mayor of the City of London and Mayor of the Staple in 1407.
Calais was regarded for many years as being an integral part of Kingdom of England, with its representatives sitting in the English Parliament. Over one of its gates carried the inscription:
| “ | When shall the Frenchmen Calais win
When iron and lead like cork shall swim |
” |
This was, however, at odds with reality. The continued English hold on Calais depended on expensively-maintained fortifications, as the town lacked any natural defences.
Maintaining Calais was a costly business that was frequently tested by the forces of France and the Duchy of Burgundy, with the Franco-Burgundian border running nearby. The duration of the English hold over Calais was to a large extent the result of the feud between Burgundy and France, under which both sides coveted the town but preferred to see it in the hands of the English rather than their domestic rivals. The stalemate was broken by the victory of the French crown over Burgundy, and the incorporation of the duchy into France.
In 1552 the English adventurer Thomas Stukley, who had been for some time in the French service, betrayed to the authorities in London some French plans for the capture of Calais, to be followed by a descent upon England. Stukley himself might have been the author of these plans. However, the reprieve for English rule in Calais was momentary.
Six years later, on January 1, 1558, the French under Francis, Duke of Guise took advantage of a weakened garrison and decayed fortifications to retake Calais. When the French attacked, they were able to surprise the English at the critical strongpoint of Fort Nieulay and the sluice gates, which could have flooded the attackers, remained unopened. The loss was regarded by Queen Mary I of England as a dreadful misfortune. When she heard the news, she reportedly said, "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Philip' [her husband] and 'Calais' lying in my heart."[3] The region around Calais, then-known as the Calaisis, was renamed the Pays Reconquis ("Reconquered Country") in commemoration of its recovery by the French. Use of the term is reminiscent of the Spanish Reconquista, with which the French were certainly familiar — and, since it occurred in the context of a war with Spain (Philip II of Spain was at the time Queen Mary's consort), might have been intended as a deliberate snub. After that time the Dutch speaking population was forced to speak French.
The town was captured by the Spanish in 1596 in an invasion mounted from the nearby Spanish Netherlands but it was returned to France under the Treaty of Vervins in 1598.
Calais was also on the front lines of France's conflict with the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1805, it hosted part of Napoleon's army and invasion fleet for his aborted invasion of Britain.
From October to December 1818, the British army used Calais as their departing port to return home after occupying post-Waterloo France. General Murray appointed Sir Manley Power oversee the evacuation of British troops from France. Cordial relations had been restored by that time and on December 3 the mayor of Calais wrote a letter to Power to express thanks for his "considerate treatment of the French and of the town of Calais during the embarkation."[4]
The British returned to Calais again during World War I; it was near the front lines in Flanders, and a key port for the supply of arms and reinforcements to the Western Front.
The town was virtually razed to the ground during World War II. In May 1940, it was a key objective of the invading German forces and became the scene of a last-ditch defence — the Siege of Calais — which diverted a sizable amount of German forces for several days immediately prior to the Battle of Dunkirk. 3,000 British and 800 French troops, assisted by Royal Navy warships, held out from 22 May to 27 May 1940 against the 10th Panzer Division. The town was flattened by artillery and precision dive bombing and only 30 of the 3800-strong defending force were evacuated before the town fell. Their sacrifice may have helped Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied forces at Dunkirk, as 10th Panzer would certainly have been involved on the Dunkirk perimeter had it not been busy at Calais.
During the ensuing German occupation, it became the command post for German forces in the Pas-de-Calais/Flanders region and was very heavily fortified, as it was generally believed by the Germans that the Allies would invade at that point. It was also used as a launch site for V1 flying bombs and for much of the war, the Germans used the region as the site for railway guns used to bombard the south-eastern corner of England. Despite heavy preparations for defence against an amphibious assault, the Allied invasion took place well to the west in Normandy on D-Day. Calais was very heavily bombed and shelled in a successful effort to disrupt German communications and persuade them that the Allies would target the Pas-de-Calais for invasion (rather than Normandy). The town, by then largely in ruins, was liberated by Canadian forces in October 1944. On February 27, 1945 Calais suffered a last bombing raid - this time by British bombers who mistook the town for Dunkerque, which was at that time still occupied by German forces. After the war there was no considerable rebuilding of the historic city.