Citadel St. Martin

Citadel St. Martin was the principal fortress on the Isle of Re, a strategically vital island off the coast of La Rochelle. Its defense against the English invasion of 1627 became the opening military crisis of the novel, forcing Cardinal Richelieu to accelerate the siege of La Rochelle and drawing d'Artagnan and his friends into the war that would define the campaign.

Location and Strategic Importance

The Citadel St. Martin stood on the Isle of Re, a key position controlling access to the port of La Rochelle. When the Duke of Buckingham arrived unexpectedly with ninety vessels and nearly twenty thousand men, he surprised the Comte de Toiras, who commanded the island for the king. After a bloody conflict, Buckingham effected his landing, and Toiras retired into the citadel with his garrison, also throwing a hundred men into a smaller fortification called the fort of La Pree. The citadel thus became the focal point of the English siege, its resistance buying time for the French royal army to organize.

Events at the Citadel

Throughout the autumn of 1627, Buckingham's forces besieged the Citadel St. Martin without success, while the French simultaneously besieged La Rochelle itself. The stalemate on the Isle of Re directly influenced the cardinal's strategic decisions: the event hastened his resolutions, and he sent Monsieur to direct the first operations while ordering all available troops toward the theater of war. D'Artagnan, serving in the Guards under M. Dessessart, formed part of this vanguard detachment, arriving before La Rochelle on September 10, 1627. The English, requiring good provisions to fight effectively and suffering from salt meat and bad biscuit, had many invalids in their camp. Rough seas destroyed small vessels daily, and the shore from the point of l'Aiguillon to the trenches was littered with wrecks. Despite these hardships, Buckingham continued the siege out of obstinacy, until the French king judged it best to end the affair and gave orders for a decisive action.

Consequences and Aftermath

The expedition succeeded, to the great astonishment of the king and the great glory of the cardinal. The English were repulsed foot by foot, beaten in all encounters, and defeated in the passage of the Isle of Loie, forced to re-embark and leaving on the field of battle two thousand men, including five colonels, three lieutenant colonels, two hundred and fifty captains, twenty gentlemen of rank, four pieces of cannon, and sixty flags. These flags were taken to Paris by Claude de St. Simon and suspended with great pomp in the arches of Notre Dame. Te Deums were chanted in camp and throughout France. The cardinal was left free to carry on the siege of La Rochelle without, at least for the present, any fear from the English. The citadel's successful resistance thus marked a turning point in the campaign, allowing Richelieu to focus entirely on reducing the Huguenot stronghold.