What if, the French reached Eastern present-day United States before the English? This is just the beginning of my alternate history story, I am checking before I continue my building that the foundation is stable. The alternate part starts at the 3rd paragraph with the Bourbon Enterprise. I plan to go on much bigger on a continental scale from this. My alternate history rule is events 9 months or before of a different course of history can be similar, but all else afterwards just saw a butterfly go by.
By the 1580s, French trading companies had been set up, and ships were contracted to bring back furs. Much of what transpired between the natives and their European visitors around that time is not known for lack of historical records.
Above: Henry IV of France, also titled "Henry of Navarre"
In January 1595, Henry IV of France declared war on Spain to show Catholics that Spain was using religion as a cover for an attack on the French state—and to show Protestants that his conversion had not made him a puppet of Spain. Also, he hoped to take the war to Spain and make territorial gain.
To further compete with Spain, Henry IV granted a chartered the Bourbon Enterprise in 1597. The Bourbon Enterprise was sent out to not only establish the first French settlement in the New World, but make a profit for its investors. Henry IV hoped this would not only expand French power, but help remove the Spanish as the leader of the “Catholic League.”
The Bourbon Enterprise of Paris sent an expedition from the Port of Nantes to establish a settlement in the Bourbon Colony in December 1607. The expedition consisted of four ships, the Merisier, Horizon, Perleportail and the Pontnoir. The Perleportail was the smallest ship; the largest ship, the Merisier, was captained by Jac Lefévre. The ships left Nantes with 81 men/boys, 34 women, and 47 crew-members. By April 6, 1598, the Merisier, Horizon, Perleportail and the Pontnoir reached the southern edge of the mouth of what is now known as the Minqua Bay. After a journey of more than three months, the 135 settlers arrived at their chosen settlement spot.
The same year, Henry IV promulgated the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion.
On May 5, 1598, the colonists chose the mouth of Valoi River (named after their queen) for their settlement largely because the Bourbon Enterprise advised them to select a location that could be easily used as a port and a passage for trade more inland, but also an area with irrigation for good farming. The Bourbon Company was advised by Gabriel Simões Ernesto, who assisted in constructing the Portuguese colony of Brazil, that the company would achieve much higher success if it grew their investment before mining for resources. The Bourbon Enterprise was also fascinated by Simões Ernesto’s stories of gold and silver the Native Americans revealed. Thus the French settlement focused on food production and storage.
The colonists named their settlement “Roiville”, their settlement fit the criteria as it had excellent visibility up the Valoi River and down Minqua Bay. The original center of their settlement was just enough inland to minimize the potential contact and conflict with enemy ships. The mouth of the Valoi River was well deep enough to permit the colonist to anchor their ships yet have an easy and quick departure when necessary. An additional benefit of the site was that the land was not occupied by the Lenape Native Americans. The settlers came ashore and quickly set about constructing their initial fort. Within a month, the Roi Fort covered an acre. The wooden palisaded walls formed a pentagon around a storehouse, church, and houses.
Within a few weeks after settling, the French settlers were contacted by Chief Maskeek of the Shackamaxon Tribe, from just 25 miles up the river. Through the settlement’s first years, the Shackamaxon and French would teach and trade with each other in great mutual benefit. Lothaire Cornett, the governor of Roiville, would marry the daughter of Maskeek, the Natives would teach the French how to live of their land, medicine uses, how to bathe properly and hunting tactics, the French gave muskets, pigs, cattle, and wheat to the Native Americans. Both sides made efforts to learn the other’s languages, four French-Algonquian translators existed within a year.
After two supply missions, the Bourbon Enterprise sent a second group of settlers. The enterprise convinced Henry IV to contribute colonization funds in that it would help “clean Paris of the poor”. Carpenters, tailors, chandlers, smiths, builders and few fishermen included, the 118 males & females sailed from Nantes. The settlers, not trusting to settle near Pokanoket Indian lands, settled on “L’Habite Ile”, and named their settlement Marmande in 1602.
In 1603, just five years after the Edict of Nantes and one year after Marmande, many poor Huguenots sought a French protestant colony of their own, one with Huguenot rules and morals. Even with the Edict of Nantes, Huguenots still suffered persecution in France. Nathaniel de Saucats spoke to Henry IV of a solution to the civil disputes between Catholics and Huguenots, Saucats claimed these French protestants could be sent to the New World, not only would Huguenots be separated from the Catholics, a return in profits from “fur and silver” would be made. Historically speaking, it would be a long time before a significant amount of Huguenots would emigrate from France and there was little to none silver where the French would colonize. 208 Huguenots, led by Nathaniel de Saucats, sailed from Bordeaux to their settlement “Port de Cauvin”, in honor of John Calvin. Saucats, using his power as the governor of the charter, established his territory as the Calvinist Colony of Synode. Port de Cauvin would hold this colony’s theocratic capital for centuries. Port de Cauvin was founded at the head of Wicomico River, which would become a major factor in growth. The river was the only navigable waterway leading out to the Chassepeké Bay for early settlers.
Native Americans introduced the Huguenots at Port de Cauvin to tobacco, causing controversy among the settlement. At first, the Huguenots indulged into use of tobacco. Clergyman Javier Dupont led a condemnation of the crop. For devout Calvinists like Dupont, smoking was a waste of God-given time, health, and money. It could not be seen as a necessary or useful recreation. Tobacco was a medicine, and no medicine should be taken as if it were daily food. Though a supply ship in 1605 would introduce a remarkable crop to the French aristocracy, Tobacco. Synode would lack economic value to the French.
In 1606, James I of England commissioned a colonial effort to compete with their Spanish and French rivals. James I strictly informed his charter he wanted the colony not too close to Florida to maintain peace with Spain and avoid the additional costs of a war. Yet the colony must be close enough to south to avoid northern French advancement, but located where patrolling Spanish ships wouldn’t discover their settlement, leave coastline for future colonies, and be far enough inland to assure more English territory. The English landed in what they called “Stuarthouse”, after the House of Stuart. Stuarthouse was at the top of Albemarle Sound, much of the water in the Albemarle Sound was brackish or fresh, as opposed to the saltwater of the ocean, as a result of river water pouring into the sound. The English were also surrounded by fertile farming land, and in 1608 they would discover was ideal for producing tobacco. This colony was the constant subject of Native American raids, who perceived the English as permanent settlers instead of the French as temporarily inhabitants. The English eventually came over their conflicts with the Croatan tribe by the assistance of their rival: the Tuscarora. The English wouldn’t settle another city until 1610.
In 1607, Gervais de Moisson received a tobacco monopoly on tobacco trade in North America from Henry IV. The Moisson Company (renamed the Chassepeké Bay Company after Moisson’s death in 1618) received a charter of land west of Synode after in November expedition of Chassepeké Bay by Jérôme Brodeur, who met with local Native American tribes, mapped, and scouted landed specifically for tobacco or either production. Brodeur identified a site in Northwestern Chassepeké Bay. Within a year, the Moisson Company settled 118 men & boys, no women, to Brodeur’s site which the company already named: “Chassepeké Ville”. The settlers, planning to simply grow enough profit and return to France, were initially frightened by the Piscataway Native Americans because of their body paint and war regalia, even though they were a peaceful tribe. The chief of the Piscataway tribe was quick to grant the French permission to settle within Piscataway territory and cordial relations were established between the French and the Piscataway. After three harsh winters, 41 of the settlers died from starvation and disease. With the arrival of 87 more colonists in 1611, which included women and professionals like smiths and tailrs, it came apparent to the French that the settlement was permanent. In the coming years, French men (gender ratio was lopsided) produced offspring with Native American women, the Piscataway tribe would be hit by a smallpox epidemic, and farming & fishing were greatly expanded.
1610, the English establish Annetown (after their Queen), just west of Stuarthouse. Though the English settled at a location extremely vulnerable to Native American attacks, the city was well fortified to defend against Spanish Naval Attacks. In 1612, Annetown barely escaped a Native American raid. If it wasn’t for a quick naval evacuation to Stuarthouse, which the colonists would return twice the size, the town would’ve been destroyed. The English took this as a lesson to keep their colonies close to each other, specifically by sea. The same year, the Dutch successfully established their first settlement, “New Rotterdam”, at the mouth of the Meyer River. The Dutch planned to use New Rotterdam as their prime trade market for a fur trade throughout the Meyer River.
With Native Americans unintentionally killed off by influenza, Frenchmen from Marmande expand to the mainland at create Fort Henri, which the Bourbon Enterprise would send 67 settlers, more than a third of which being women, along with muskets and wheat, in 1611.
English North American Colonization
Granby is founded at the end of the Saint Lawrence River. French explorer Jacques Cartier built a fort at the site in 1535, where he stayed for the winter before going back to France in spring 1536. He came back in 1541 with the goal of building a permanent settlement. This first settlement was abandoned less than one year after its foundation, in the summer 1542, due in large part to the hostility of the natives combined with the harsh living conditions during winter. Granby was founded by Sean Clary, a French explorer and diplomat on 10 June 1612, and at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona.
Settlements in 1615
The same year, French settled at Saint Andrew and Auxerre. In the following years, the French would add the settlements of: Rochelle (1613), Saint-Andrew (1614), Emprunter (1615), and Auxerre (1615). The Bourbon Enterprise even established a fur trading post up river from Roiville called Norberge (1613).
In his later years King Henry IV suffered increasingly from arthritis, gout and kidney stones. In early 1625, Henry was plagued by severe attacks of arthritis, gout and fainting fits, and in March fell seriously ill with tertian ague and then suffered a stroke. Henry IV finally died at Theobalds House on 27 December during a violent attack of dysentery. An unpopular king during his reign, Henry's popularity greatly improved posthumously. The "Good King Henry" (le bon roi Henri) was remembered for his geniality and his great concern about the welfare of his subjects.
Marie de Medici
Henry IV’s oldest surviving son, Charles de Chesnay, was too young to take the throne immediately. Charles was born in 1605, it was agreed on Henry’s deathbed that Henry’s second wife: Marie de Medici, would rule from Paris until Charles was of age.
For the six years Marie de Medici would act as ruling monarch for her son, she would not commission or finance any missions to the new world. She felt sending Huguenots and the poor without the supervision of any lords or royal advisors was leading to the creation of a “Château sans un donjon”, or “Castle without a dungeon”.
One settlement was made by the Moisson Company during Marie’s reign in 1619, without her finance. L’Habite Henri was established closer to the English settlements than their Chassepeke towns. The named their tobacco-aimed settlement after their late king, which they greatly favored more than acting monarch Marie.
When Charles X claimed his throne at age 16 in 1621, his advisors elaborated and convinced the king that colonization could continue. Tobacco and fur trade had been exponential and the English had increased their colonization pace since the death of his father with the settlements: Bell Abbey, New London, and most boldly: Richland. Increased hostility was found against the English and French surrounding Chassepeke Bay as a result of the Indian Wars of 1619, where Native Americans revolted against the English’s forced removal of Native American tribes allowed for permanent settlement of the regions between Richland and Annetown.
In 1622, war broke out across Europe. Countless causes can be identified, but none main reasons are agreed. Spain was interested in the German states because it held the territories of the Spanish Netherlands in the western part of the Empire and states within Italy which were connected by land through the Spanish Road. The Dutch revolted against the Spanish domination during the 1560s, leading to a protracted war of independence that led to a truce only in 1608. France was nearly surrounded by territory controlled by the two Habsburg states (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire), and was eager to exert its power against the weaker German states; this dynastic concern overtook religious ones and led to Catholic France's participation on the otherwise Protestant side of the war. Sweden and Denmark were interested in gaining control over northern German states bordering the Baltic Sea. Initially, it was fought largely as a religious war between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over internal politics and the balance of power within the Empire played a significant part. Gradually, it developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of the time. In this general phase the war became less specifically religious and more a continuation of the Bourbon–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, leading in turn to further warfare between France and the Habsburg powers.
Charles X and France would not enter the war until 1632. During these 10 years of fighting, the French would continue expanding with the fur trading post of Maipariois, and other towns Ouestport, Brest, Abri, Point du Barrage, and Notre Cardinal. German immigrants escaping the bloodshed in their homeland are financed by Charles X as colonists under the French crown and settle at Winkelzburg. The colonists chose the location of an inhabited Native American tribe, likely to have died out from disease.
Above: North American East Coast European Settlements in 1632
Feedback is more than welcomed, but encourage. Things that I did were inaccurate, improbable, could’ve been better, or a good idea to add in addition. I have A LOT more information I plan to construct.