Fort de La Pree

Fort de La Pree was a small fortification on the Isle of Re, a coastal island off western France. During the English invasion of 1627, the Duke of Buckingham landed nearly twenty thousand men and ninety vessels on the island, surprising the French commander, the Comte de Toiras. Toiras withdrew his garrison into the citadel of St. Martin and threw a hundred men into Fort de La Pree as a secondary defensive outpost. The fort thus became one of the two strongpoints that the English besieged after their landing, alongside the larger citadel St. Martin.

The English Siege and French Resistance

Buckingham's forces, having effected their landing after a bloody conflict, immediately laid siege to both the citadel St. Martin and Fort de La Pree. The fort's small garrison held out against the English army, and the siege of these two positions became the central military action on the Isle of Re. The French royal army, under the command of Monsieur (the king's brother) and later the cardinal, was ordered to march toward the theater of war. The siege of La Rochelle itself had not yet begun in earnest; the immediate objective was to relieve the besieged French positions on the Isle of Re. The English, however, were themselves suffering from poor supplies—salt meat and bad biscuit—and the rough sea destroyed their small vessels daily, littering the shore with wrecks.

The Outcome and Its Consequences

Despite Buckingham's persistence, the English were eventually repulsed foot by foot, beaten in all encounters, and defeated in the passage of the Isle of Loie. They were forced to re-embark, leaving behind two thousand men, five colonels, three lieutenant colonels, two hundred and fifty captains, twenty gentlemen of rank, four cannon, and sixty flags. The French victory at the Isle of Re, which included the successful defense of Fort de La Pree and the citadel St. Martin, freed the cardinal to carry on the siege of La Rochelle without immediate fear of English intervention. The Te Deums chanted in the camp and throughout France celebrated this triumph. The fort itself, though small, had played a crucial role in the campaign by forcing the English to divide their forces and by holding out long enough for the French to organize a decisive counterattack.