Siege of Morlaix (1594)

Since 1562 France had been in the grip of the French Wars of Religion, in which Spain had regularly intervened in favour of the Catholic League of France. King Henry IV of France (French: Henri de Bourbon) had been fighting for the Protestant cause, but had converted to Catholicism in Paris on March 22, 1593. Marshal Jean d'Aumont was sent into Brittany to join the English army under John Norreys which had already been fighting there. ==Siege==

A combined force of Leaguers and Spaniards under the Duke of Mercoeur and Juan d'Aguila respectively decided to come to Morlaix's relief. His approach unnerved Mercour who immediately withdrew from the area to fortified positions not far from Morlaix. Norreys sent 700 English troops to demonstrate before Mercour and hastened him to abandon his advantageous positions. Aguila marched his troops and were close to linking up with Mercour's force but their relief column ran into segments of the detached English. Aguila thought he was up against a much larger force - the Spaniards believed that they totalled 6,000 men but didn't realise that the English was a mere detachment. Aguila fearing being overwhelmed then decided to withdraw his men to Blavet on September 17, which meant that Mercour could not relieve the castle of Morlaix. Tensions reached boiling point soon after with Aguila and Mercour both blaming each other for the failure. Soon matters of the garrison turned for the worse when they spotted an English fleet under Sir Martin Frobisher carrying the siege train of heavy guns for Norreys. On seeing the English ships with their guns run out and on hearing the news of that relief force was not forthcoming from either Mercour or Aguila, the garrison surrendered. ==Aftermath==

The garrison marched out and the English and French force entered in triumph. == References ==