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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 Nine Years' War (1688–97, also known as the War of the Grand Alliance, War of League of Augsburg). It was fought between England, France, and their respective American Indian allies in the colonies of Canada (New France), Acadia, and New England. It was also known as the Second Indian War (the first having been King Philip's War, the Third Indian War being Queen Anne's War and the Fourth Indian War being Dummer's War).[1]
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England's Catholic King James II was deposed at the end of 1688 in the Glorious Revolution, after which Protestants William and Mary took the throne. William joined the League of Augsburg in its war against France (begun earlier in 1688), where James had fled.
In North America, there was significant tension between New France and the northern English colonies, which had in 1686 been united in the Dominion of New England. Each side claimed the Iroquois, who dominated the economically important Great Lakes fur trade, as subjects, and French colonial authorities were concerned over the loss of this valuable business to English traders based in Albany, New York. New France's Governor General Denonville, in a bid to assert French authority over the Iroquois, had in 1687 taken prisoner a group of Iroquois leaders meeting with him under a flag of truce, raided Seneca lands in present-day upstate New York and established Fort Denonville at the site of present-day Fort Niagara on Iroquois territory, but without their permission.
Similar tensions existed further east, where the Abenaki of northern New England were encouraged by the French to raid English frontier settlements in what is now southern Maine and New Hampshire. In 1688, New England's governor Sir Edmund Andros had raided French settlements in Penobscot Bay, which Governor Denonville used as a pretext to expand attacks.
The situation became more complex when Andros, who had been appointed by King James and was widely unpopular in the dominion, was deposed in 1689 after news of the Glorious Revolution reached Boston. This set off a cascade of events in the English colonies, which included the recall by Massachusetts authorities of most of its provincial troops from the frontier. New York's government was also paralyzed when the outspoken Jacob Leisler seized control of New York City in June 1689 in an uprising against dominion control.
English settlers from Massachusetts (whose charter included the Maine area) had increased settlement of the Maine area in the decades preceding the war. Abenaki warriors would occasionally attack the invading settlers. Several treaties had been made between the English and the Abenaki, swaying between which community was favored. In 1684, a treaty had been made that used language of Abenaki subordination to the English King, but in effect would acknowledge Abenaki rights favorably. They were granted their own autonomy: not having to carry passes, pay tribute, or try criminals (against other Indians) in English courts. A territory line would prevent excess English settlements, and while the Abenaki ceded land ownership to some lands, they maintained hunting and fishing rights everywhere. They even were to be given a small amount of corn by the English settlers. However, English settlers, who never agreed to the terms, rejected the treaty. They refused to pay corn, or to refrain from territorial expansion, feeling that they were entitled by the Massachusetts charter.
Abenaki leaders had been pressuring English leaders to respect the treaty, and eventually warning that war would be used if needed. After time, in 1688, Abenaki warriors attacked English cattle herds (cattle out-competed wild mammals, whom the Indians hunted, for vegetation and brought disease to water sources), as a symbolic warning. Conflict then rose from both groups.
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 that captured and destroyed the fort at Pemaquid (in present-day Bristol, Maine) 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).[2]
Also in August 1689, 1,500 Iroquois, seeking revenge for Denonville's actions, attacked the French settlement at Lachine. Count Frontenac, who replaced Denonville as governor general, later attacked the Iroquois village of Onondaga. New France and its Indian allies then attacked English frontier settlements in early 1690, most notably at Schenectady, Salmon Falls (present-day Berwick, Maine), and Falmouth Neck (site of present-day Portland, Maine), destroying the latter two settlements. The English retaliated by capturing Port Royal, the capital of Acadia. This was followed up by two expeditions, one on land under Connecticut provincial militia general Fitz-John Winthrop targeted Montreal; the other, led by Sir William Phips, the victor at Port Royal, against Quebec. Winthrop's expedition failed due to disease and supply issues, and Phips was defeated in the Battle of Quebec. The English also did not hold Port Royal, which quickly returned to French control.
The Quebec and Port Royal expeditions were the only major New England offensives of King William's War; for the remainder of the war the English colonists were primarily engaged in defensive operations, skirmishes and retaliatory raids. In early 1692, in the Candlemas Massacre, an estimated 150 Abenakis commanded by officers of New France entered the Massachusetts town of York, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings. The Iroquois Five Nations suffered from the weakness of their English allies.[3] In 1693 and 1696, the French and their Indian allies ravaged Iroquois towns and destroyed crops while New York colonists remained passive.
On July 18, 1694, the English settlement of Durham, New Hampshire, was attacked in the "Oyster River Massacre" by French career soldier Claude-Sébastien de Villieu with about 250 Abenakis from Norridgewock under command of their sagamore (paramount chief), Bomazeen (or Bomoseen). In all, 45 inhabitants were killed and 49 taken captive, with half the dwellings, including five garrisons, burned to the ground. Crops were destroyed and livestock killed, causing famine and destitution for the survivors.
In 1696, the French and Abenaki besieged Pemaquid, after which Church led a retaliatory raid against Acadian communities on the Isthmus of Chignecto.
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,[4] when a peace was agreed at Montreal between New France and a large number of Iroquois and other tribes.
The war also served as a backdrop for an ongoing economic war between French and English interests in Arctic North America. The Hudson's Bay Company had established trading outposts on James Bay and the southern reaches of Hudson Bay by the early 1680s. In a series of raids beginning with an expedition in 1686 organized by Governor Denonville, most of these outposts were taken by French raiders, primarily led by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In one of the war's major naval battles, d'Iberville, with a single ship, defeated three English ships in Hudson Bay.
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,[5] and within five years, the colonies were embroiled in the next phase of the French and Indian Wars, Queen Anne's War. After their settlement with France in 1701, the Iroquois remained neutral in that conflict, never taking part in active hostilities against either side. Tensions remained high between the English and the Abenaki, who again fought with the French in Queen Anne's War.
The Ryswick treaty was unsatisfactory to representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company. Since most of its trading posts in Hudson Bay had been lost to the French before the war began, the rule of status quo ante bellum meant that they remained under French control. The company recovered its territories at the negotiating table when the Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War.