On this day in Tudor history, 27th August 1557, St Quentin was stormed by English and Imperial forces. Admiral de Coligny and his French troops, numbering only a thousand, were overcome by around 60,000 soldiers, and St Quentin fell. Henry Dudley, the youngest son of the late John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was killed by a cannonball during the storming.
Find out about the siege and battle, and what happened next, in today's talk.
Also on this day in Tudor history, 27th August 1549, the Battle of Dussindale took place near Norwich, in East Anglia. It ended Kett’s Rebellion once and for all. Find out what happened on that day in 1549 and what happened to the rebels who survived the battle, in last year’s video:
Also on this day in history:
- 1590 – Death of Pope Sixtus V at Rome.
- 1610 – Funeral of Lady Anne Bacon (née Cooke), mother of Sir Francis Bacon, at St Michael's Church, near St Albans. Anne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, and was known for her translation of John Jewel's “Apologie of the Church of England”.
Transcript:
On this day in Tudor history, 27th August 1557, St Quentin was stormed by English and Imperial forces. Admiral de Coligny and his French troops, numbering only a thousand, were overcome by around 60,000 soldiers, and St Quentin fell. Henry Dudley, the youngest son of the late John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was killed by a cannonball during the storming.
News of the victory reached England on the 3rd September, with Henry Machyn, merchant tailor and diarist, recording: “the same day at night came commandment that every church in London, and other country and shire, to sing and make bonfires for the winning of Saint Quentin; and there was slain my lord Harry Dudley the younger son of the duke of Northumberland that was headed, with many more, at the winning of it.”
Chronicler Charles Wriothesley simply recorded: “This month the king laid siege to the town of St Quentins by the water of Somme, and on Friday the 27th of August the town was won by the king with the help of Englishmen.”
And Juan de Piñedo wrote to Francisco de Vargas saying: “The news are that between three and four this afternoon our troops fought their way into St. Quentin. Both sides fought most choicely, and the English best of all. I will give you further details by the earliest opportunity. For the moment there is no more to say, because blows are still being exchanged inside the town, although they say that the Admiral of France has already been taken prisoner. Our Lord will give Philip the victory, because he has behaved like a true Christian throughout.”
The Venetian ambassador went into a bit more detail in a dispatch written to the Doge and Senate on 27th August:
“The besiegers at St. Quentin, with their pioneers and batteries, made such a breach that they thought at length they might give the assault, having simultaneously digged some mines underneath the platform, with the intention of exploding them at the moment of the assault when the defenders would be on it. This scheme having been communicated to the Duke de Nevers by his spies in the enemy's army, and the Duke imparting it to the Admiral, the latter, when the assault was made, instead of allowing his troops to show themselves on the platform, made them remain on the trench, and to prevent the enemy from mounting the breach, he placed a good number of harquebusiers in the casemates, and other artillery on the flanks fronting the fosse, and when, on St. Bartholomew's day [24th August] the enemy gave the assault in several quarters, according to their project, and not seeing anyone appear for the defence, they commenced mounting the breach; but as the harquebusiers in the casemates and the artillerymen on the flanks did their duty, a constant fire being also kept up by the town, the defence was such that after six hours toil the besiegers were compelled to retire with the loss of about 1,000 men, and on their retreat the garrison sallied forth and killed a few others who were more slow to escape. This news was brought to the King yesterday, and has confirmed and increased the hopes of his Majesty and of everybody else, that the town will be kept; and although it is heard that they are again about to make another more formidable assault, it is nevertheless hoped that through the heart taken by the besieged owing to this feat they will maintain it manfully.”
Although St Quentin had been a victory for Spain, aided by English troops, Mary I’s husband, Philip of Spain, just didn’t have the finance or the troops to take things further and to march on Paris. France was able to plan her revenge and that she did when she took Calais from the English in January 1558.
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