In 1666, the French built a fort on Isle La Motte, to protect

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

from the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

. The fort was dedicated to

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

. Fort Sainte Anne was the most vulnerable to attacks by the

, 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 kno ...

going south. The other four were Fort Richelieu, Fort Chambly, Fort Sainte Thérèse and Fort Saint-Jean. Lieutenant Général Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, who had been sent to New France to end the threat of the Iroquois to the colony had the forts built by soldiers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The first three forts were built in 1665, and the other two in 1666. By the summer of 1666 four of the five Iroquois nations had negotiated peace settlements with the French, however, the Mohawk In the fall of 1666, Tracy led an expedition against the Mohawk. 600 soldiers, 600 volunteers, and 100 Wendat and

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

rendezvoused at Fort Ste. Anne, crossed Lake Champlain and Lake George in canoes and batteaux and marched overland into Mohawk territory. The Mohawk abandoned their villages and fled. The French burned the villages and the surrounding fields then returned to Fort Sainte Anne. The following year a peace settlement was reached. The peace lasted for 17 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 1660s establishments in Canada 1666 establishments in New France {{fort-stub