In 1666, the French built a fort, on

Isle La Motte Isle La Motte is an island in Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont, United States. At 7 mi (11 km) by 2 mi (3 km), it lies close to the place that the lake empties into the Richelieu River. It is incorporated as a New England town in Grand Isle ...

, to protect Canada from the Iroquois. The fort was dedicated to Saint Anne. Fort Sainte Anne was the most vulnerable to attacks by the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

, because it was the last of five forts stretching along the

Richelieu River The Richelieu River () is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champlain, from which it flows northward through Quebec and empties into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly kn ...

going south. The other four were

Fort Richelieu Fort Richelieu is a historic fort in La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. The fort is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. Fort Richelieu was part of a series of five forts built along the Richelieu R ...

Fort Chambly Fort Chambly is a historic fort in La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec. It is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. Fort Chambly was formerly known as Fort St. Louis. It was part of a series of five fortificat ...

Fort Sainte Thérèse Fort Sainte Thérèse is the name given to three different forts built successively on one site, among a series of fortifications constructed during the 17th century by France along the Richelieu River, in the province of Quebec, in Montérégie. ...

and Fort Saint-Jean.

Alexandre de Prouville Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (c. 1596 or 1603 – 1670) was a French aristocrat, statesman, and military leader. He was the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont ( Picardy). Life The Marquis de Tracy first made his name as a re ...

de Tracy had the forts built by four companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The first three forts were built in 1665, and the other two in 1666. By the end of 1665, three of the five Iroquois Nations made peace in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

. The Canadien Governor,

Daniel de Courcelle Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

, sent Tracy in the Fall of 1666 with 1,200 men, along with

Hurons The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confederacy of tribes around the north shore of Lake Ontario w ...

and

Algonquins The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi ...

to attack the two Iroquois Nations resisting, the Mohawks and the Oneidas. The Mohawks ran away into the forest, and the following year, peace was made with the two Nations. The peace continued for seventeen years.Canada- Québec, Synthèse Historique, Éditions du Renouveau Pédagogique Inc. p.90-91

References

Sainte Anne French-American culture in Vermont Buildings and structures in Isle La Motte, Vermont 1666 establishments in Canada {{fort-stub