[Le Siège de la Rochelle]

Octavo of (1) leaf, 324 pp., (2) leaves: Preface of the articles granted to La Rochelle having been omitted by oversight on page 259, Permission to print dated July 28, 1644, Errata. Flexible vellum, handwritten title on the spine, (one corner missing), some contemporary annotations.

183 x 110 mm.

Richelieu. [The Siege of La Rochelle]. Journal of the Most Memorable Events that Occurred during the Last Siege of La Rochelle. La Rochelle: s.n., [1644].

Very rare original edition printed in La Rochelle in 1644, the work of Pierre Mervault, a native of La Rochelle.

Born in 1608, the author was the son of Paul Mervault, master of artillery during the siege. The work is mentioned as follows by Arcère in his “History of La Rochelle” published in 1757: “A witness to everything that happened in the besieged city, [Mervault] kept an accurate account from which he composed a journal of his observations and of various peculiarities he learned from his father… It is from this kind of source that a historian draws the truth, much more than from the narrative of a writer.” The journal begins in July 1627 and ends in November 1628. In July 1628, “the famine began to be dreadful… , people flung themselves upon all sorts of leather and hides, soaking and boiling them and cutting them into small pieces as a substitute for beef fat… , they would fry them with a little suet and water in the pan.” The work was reprinted in 1648 and 1671. (Brunet III, 1663).

The siege of La Rochelle was part of the struggle waged by Louis XIII and Richelieu against the Protestants, in their determination to subject them to royal authority and prevent them from forming a “state within a state.” This policy led to a true war in 1627 and to the investment of La Rochelle. The port was one of the strongholds granted by the Edict of Nantes and allowed the Protestant party to communicate with the English.

Richelieu, bearing the title of lieutenant general of the armies, personally oversaw operations. A 12-kilometer-long trench encircled the city. To prevent the besieged from being resupplied by the British fleet, which had landed on the Île de Ré, the cardinal had a huge 1,500-meter-long and 8-meter-wide dam studded with artillery pieces built. The English, led by the Duke of Buckingham, tried in vain to set fire to the walls.

The resistance of La Rochelle lasted fourteen months. It was led by the mayor, Guiton, who had sworn to plunge a dagger into the heart of the first to speak of surrender. A horrific famine decimated the city's population. Soon, there were only 5,000 skeletal survivors, exhausted, out of 27,000 inhabitants. Cases of cannibalism multiplied. The assassination of Buckingham, in his Portsmouth quarters, contributed to the discouragement of the besieged. After the failure of British relief attempts, the people of La Rochelle eventually capitulated in the autumn of 1628. On October 27, six delegates from the city appeared before Richelieu, requesting “a peace treaty and not forgiveness or mercy,” but the cardinal remained unyielding and promised the people of La Rochelle only “their lives, the enjoyment of their property, and the free exercise of their religion.” The vanquished had to sign the text he dictated to them.

Copy preserved in its first contemporary vellum binding from the library of the great judge Régnier, Minister of Justice to Napoleon I^st from 1802 to 1813.