Loss of Calais (1558): England's Last French Possession Falls

The loss of Calais in January 1558 ended more than two centuries of English rule over the French port. A French army under Francis, Duke of Guise, took the town in a swift winter campaign, and Calais surrendered on 7 January. It was England’s last possession on the French mainland, and its fall was a humiliating blow for Mary I’s government.

Background

Edward III captured Calais in 1347 after the long siege of Calais, early in the Hundred Years’ War. After England lost Normandy and Gascony in the mid-15th century, Calais and its surrounding territory, the Pale of Calais, were all that remained of its French lands.

Calais mattered both economically and symbolically. It was the seat of the Staple, the company through which English wool exports were channelled, and it was England’s gateway to the continent. From 1536 it even sent members to the English Parliament. Its defences, however, were expensive and had been neglected.

The Pale was a small territory stretching roughly 20 miles (about 30 kilometres) along the coast, protected by marshes that could be flooded and by a ring of forts, including Guînes and Hammes. Its garrison had shrunk as the Crown tried to cut costs, and warnings from its commanders that the defences needed money and men were not acted on.

In June 1557 England declared war on France in support of Spain, whose king, Philip II, was Mary I’s husband. Spanish and English forces won a victory at St Quentin in August 1557, but England’s own position was weak.

The capture

Henry II of France recalled Francis, Duke of Guise, from Italy and planned a surprise winter attack. Winter campaigns were unusual, and the English did not expect one. The frozen marshes around Calais, normally a barrier, made the approaches easier.

On 1 January 1558 the French moved against the outlying forts. They took Fort Nieulay, which guarded the sluices and the landward approach, and then the Rysbank fort controlling the harbour entrance. With the harbour closed, help from England by sea became almost impossible.

French artillery then breached the walls of the town’s castle. Thomas Wentworth, 2nd Baron Wentworth, the Lord Deputy of Calais, had only a small garrison, and the defenders were heavily outnumbered. He surrendered on 7 January, and the French entered the town on 8 January.

The fortress of Guînes, commanded by Lord Grey de Wilton, resisted more stubbornly but surrendered later in January. The castle of Hammes was abandoned. Within weeks the whole Pale was in French hands.

An English relief force was raised, but storms in the Channel and the speed of the French campaign meant it achieved nothing. Most of the English inhabitants of Calais were expelled and returned to England, often having lost their homes and goods.

Mary I’s grief

The loss was felt as a national disgrace. Much of the blame fell on Wentworth. He was indicted for treason while still a prisoner in France, but after being ransomed he was tried by his peers and acquitted in 1559.

The chronicler Raphael Holinshed later recorded that Mary said that, when she was dead and opened, they would find Calais lying in her heart. The story is second-hand, but it captured the sense of failure that hung over the last months of her reign. She died in November 1558.

Consequences

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of April 1559 allowed France to keep Calais for eight years, after which it was to be returned or 500,000 crowns paid. In practice it was never handed back. After Elizabeth I’s failed intervention at Le Havre in 1562–1563, the Treaty of Troyes of 1564 effectively ended England’s claim.

Historians have often described the loss as the final end of the Hundred Years’ War, since it removed England’s last foothold in France. English monarchs continued to call themselves kings or queens of France until 1801, but the title no longer had any practical meaning.

The loss had some unexpected benefits. England was freed from the cost of a vulnerable outpost and turned increasingly towards the sea and the wider world. In France, Guise became a national hero, and the reconquered district was known as the Pays Reconquis, the “reconquered country”.

Timeline

• 1347, 3 August: Calais surrenders to Edward III.
• 1557, 7 June: England declares war on France.
• 1557, 10 August: Spanish and English forces defeat the French at St Quentin.
• 1558, 1 January: The Duke of Guise begins the attack on the Calais forts.
• 1558, 7 January: Lord Wentworth surrenders Calais.
• 1558, January: Guînes surrenders to the French.
• 1559, 2 April: The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis leaves Calais in French hands.
• 1564, 11 April: The Treaty of Troyes ends England’s claim in practice.

Why it matters

The fall of Calais closed the long chapter of English rule in France that stretched back to the Middle Ages and through the Hundred Years’ War. It was a bitter blow to Mary I, but it also helped turn England away from continental conquest towards its future as a maritime power.