The siege of Boulogne took place during the autumn of 1492.

Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort ...

had led an expeditionary force of 12,000 troops across the

Channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

and began to besiege the French port of

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

on 18 October. After several weeks the siege was broken off when Henry and the French monarch Charles VIII agreed to the

Peace of Étaples The Peace of Étaples was signed on 3 November 1492 in Étaples between Charles VIII of France and Henry VII of England. Charles agreed to end his support for the Yorkist Pretender Perkin Warbeck, in return for being recognised as ruler of the D ...

. The siege had proved to be a successful show of force and Henry was offered very favourable terms by Charles, including the end of French support to the pretender to the English throne

Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( 1474 – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, ...

, Warbeck was also expelled from the country. The terms of the treaty also included the English accepting French control of Brittany, and the French paying Henry an

indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

of 742,000 crowns, payable at 50,000 crowns per annum, equivalent to 5% of the crown's annual income. Henry had been in negotiations even before the campaign, and the move against Boulogne may have been intended to put further pressure on Charles. The siege itself was largely unremarkable, save the fact that the knight Sir John Savage who had helped put Henry on the throne (commanding the left flank of his army at the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Augu ...

) was killed during its course. Savage was sent to conduct reconnoitring (reconnaissance of the defences in preparation for the military offensive). Savage left his tent and rode around the walls of the city with another knight and Bosworth veteran Sir John Riseley, in order to assess the strength of the walls and other fortifications. The two knights were intercepted by the enemy and captured. Despite being heavily outnumbered Sir John Savage refused to surrender to them and fought to his death. His actions created sufficient enough of a diversion to allow Sir John Riseley to escape and flee on 'a most speedy horse'.Vergil, Polydore. Anglica Historia. pg 59 English troops withdrew to Calais and Henry returned to England. Fifty years later further English attempts against Boulogne were led by Henry's son

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. Henry VIII's forces took the city in September 1544 and then defended the city against French attempts to reclaim it later that year.

References

Bibliography

* Roger Lockyer & Andrew Thrush. ''Henry VII''. Routledge, 19 Sep 2014. * Thomas Penn. ''Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England''. Simon and Schuster, 2013. 1492 in England 1490s in France

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