Charlesbourg-Royal

Fort Charlesbourg-Royal is the name of France’s first colonial settlement in North America. The site was established at the confluence of the Cap-Rouge River and the Saint Lawrence River in what is now known as Quebec City, Quebec. Founded by Jacques Cartier along with four hundred people, the settlement only survived from the summer of 1541 to the fall of 1543 before it was abandoned due to harsh conditions and attacks by the local Indigenous community. In 1608, France successfully established a colony in the same area called Habitation de Québec that was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

Background

At the time of Jacques Cartier’s travels, the king of France was Francis I, who was especially eager to expand French influence and territory overseas. He was also a patron of the arts and sciences and considered exploration and colonization as a way to enhance France’s global prestige and wealth. His support for Cartier’s voyages was part of a larger effort by the French to establish a foothold in the New World and challenge Spain’s dominance in the region.

In addition to Cartier’s voyages, Francis I also sponsored other explorers and adventurers, including Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored North America’s East Coast in the early 1520s. These efforts ultimately led to the establishment of French colonies in Canada and Louisiana in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and played a significant role in shaping North America’s history and culture.

Cartier made two visits to Canada prior to establishing Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541. His first voyage was in 1534, when he sailed up the St. Lawrence River and claimed the area for France, naming it “New France.” On his second voyage in 1535, he further explored the St. Lawrence River and made contact with the Indigenous peoples of the region, including the Iroquois and Huron tribes.

The Iroquois were part of the larger Iroquois Confederacy, a powerful political and military alliance of Indigenous peoples in the northeastern region of North America. They were skilled warriors and traders who had established trading relationships with other Native peoples as well as European explorers. When they first encountered Cartier, the Iroquois lived in the villages of Hochelaga and Stadacona. While the people of Hochelaga maintained vast maize fields and remained in one location throughout the year in longhouses, the residents of Stadacona were migratory, following saltwater resources such as seals and whales in the lower Saint Lawrence River and its gulf. The people of Stadacona probably did this because it was difficult to depend on agriculture in the North during what is now recognized as the Little Ice Age. The name of the country of Canada is probably derived from the Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement.

Overview

Upon arriving at the convergence of the Cap-Rouge River and the Saint Lawrence River in 1541, Cartier and his ships anchored at Stadacona once again. Cartier ultimately decided that the Iroquoians’ presence would be too much competition for his new French settlement and directed his ships to travel a few kilometers farther upriver to where Quebec City is now. The group unloaded their cargo, including a herd of cattle that had survived three months on a ship, and cabbage, turnip, and lettuce seeds. Eventually, the site consisted of an upper and lower fort with three towers in all. The upper fort was elevated 130 feet and provided a strategic defensive position, while the lower fort offered docking and anchorage for ship traffic. The settlement was christened Charlesbourg-Royal after Charles II, the third son of King Francis I.

After establishing order and a routine for the population, Cartier left the fort with a crew in longboats on a reconnaissance mission for the mythical “Kingdom of Saguenay,” a land believed by King Francis I to be rich in jewels. The colonists collected what they thought were diamonds and gold from the area as they explored. However, when they brought them back to France, they were identified as quartz crystals and iron pyrites (and as a result the French expression “as false as Canadian diamonds” was coined). Bad weather and rapids in the Ottawa River prevented the crew from traveling farther than Hochelaga, and they returned to Charlesbourg-Royal.

No contemporary records exist for the winter of 1541 to 1542, but when Cartier returned from his excursion, he noted that the Iroquois were no longer making friendly visits or selling the colonists fish and game. The only information available is hearsay from the few colonists who eventually abandoned Charlesbourg-Royal and returned to France. They claimed that thirty-five settlers were killed by the Iroquois before the community could hide in the fortified upper tower. They also reported a severe outbreak of scurvy. Cartier decided to leave the area and return to France in early June 1542. A fellow French explorer, Roberval, took over command of the fort, but he, along with the other remaining settlers, abandoned the site in September 1543 because of harsh winter weather, scurvy, internal uprisings, and continued attacks from local Iroquois.

After searching in vain for more than fifty years, Charlesbourg-Royal was rediscovered in 2006 by a team of Canadian archaeologists led by Yves Chretien. During excavations in the area, they uncovered the remains of a wooden palisade that surrounded the settlement, as well as the foundations of several buildings. Furthermore, the excavation revealed artifacts such as pottery, tools, and the remains of food, which provided insight into the material culture of the settlement.

Bibliography

Axelrod, Alan. A Savage Empire. St. Martin’s Press, 2011. www.google.com/books/edition/A‗Savage‗Empire/Cdu0uWIe9rMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcover. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Boswell, Randy. “Pottery Shard Unearths North America’s First French Settlement.” CanWest News Service, 22 Aug. 2006, web.archive.org/web/20090130061926/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=edd7eac6-f566-4011-87d7-82becfc883a2&k=48975#. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

“Fort Charlesbourg Royal National Historical Site of Canada.” Government of Canada Official Website, www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page‗nhs‗eng.aspx?id=597. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Heidenreich, Conrad and K. Janet Ritch, eds. Samuel de Champlain Before 1604. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010. www.google.com/books/edition/‗/G2D1py50xZ4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA43. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Moss, William, ed. The Recent Archaeology of the Early Modern Period in Quebec City. Richard Fiset and Gilles Samson chapter “Charlesbourg-Royal and France-Roy (1541-43): France’s First Colonization Attempt in the Americas,” Routledge, 2009. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351193351-4/charlesbourg-royal-france-roy-1541-43-france-first-colonization-attempt-americas-richard-fiset-gilles-samson?context=ubx. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

“The St. Lawrence Iroquoians: Who Are They?” Parks Canada Official Website. Last modified 19 Nov. 2022. parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/cartierbrebeuf/culture/autochtone-indigenous/natcul4/a. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.