History Browser

In January of 1998, Parks Canada introduced a weekly Web Site named This Week in History, which presents a variety of events that have shaped Canada’s past, present and future. These short texts are summaries, not complete histories, meant to entice the reader to explore Canadian history. Search by keyword or by title.

A worthy representative of 17th-century women in New France, who were neither fragile nor passive, Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères (1678-1747) conducted an exemplary defence of Fort Verchères against an Iroquois attack in 1692, just as her mother had done two years earlier. Her sober account of 1699, often romanticized in late-19th century versions, made her a heroine of our history of everyday life. Like most women in the colony, she knew how to handle arms by the time she was 14 years old. Her contemporary, Bacqueville de la Potherie, said of her that no 'Canadian or officer [could] shoot more accurately'.

Hospitals in New France were founded and maintained by religious orders of the Roman Catholic church. The cost of the institutions was borne by the state, in return for which officers, soldiers and sailors received free care, food and medicine.

A new settlement was begun, westwards of Quebec in Iroquois territory at Ville-Marie (later Montreal) in 1642. Another big development for the colony was the arrival of 60 soldiers paid for by the Queen of France.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, marriage for the common British soldier was governed mostly by custom. Marriage involved 'leaping over the sword', where bride and groom did just that in the presence of the man's companions. Official permission was needed in theory, but seldom given.

As units moved from posting to posting within the British empire during the 18th and 19th centuries, some soldier's wives (up to 6 per company) were transported with their husbands at government expense. Before each move, a lottery was held. Losers were abandoned without support.

In the 1640s, the French settlements in Acadia were subject to a bitter feudal conflict between Charles Menou d’Aulnay and Charles de Saint-Etienne de La Tour, the two noblemen who claimed sole authority over the colony. While de La Tour was absent in April 1645, Menou d’Aulnay attacked his fort on the St. John River (now at St. John, NB) with 200 men and artillery. Mme. Françoise-Marie Jacquelin de La Tour (1602-1645) rose to the occasion and led the fort’s small garrison of about 45 men for three days. The fourth day, the fort finally fell by treason. Mme de La Tour was spared the massacre that followed, but died three weeks later of unknown but probably natural causes. This brave and determined woman was one of Canada’s first heroines as well as the first European woman to raise a family in present-day New Brunswick. There is no known portrait of her. This idealised illustration is from a Second World War recruiting poster by Adam Sherriff-Scott. (Library of the Canadian Department of National Defence)

To compensate for their lack of numbers, a new style of war developed from Amerindian tactics was created by French officers in Canada. Two Canadian-born men with much Iroquois experience were especially influential: Charles Le Moyne and Joseph-François Hertel de La Fresnière.

Religion was very important in the society of New France, and this was true amongst the military also. The Recollect order of Franciscan monks acted as military chaplains in the colony. These men held Mass, herd confessions and administered last rites as needed.

This statue of celebrated heroine Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères (1678-1747) stands on Verchères Point near Montreal. It is the work of Quebec artist Louis-Philippe Hébert (1850–1917), who was commissioned in 1911 to create what was decribed as 'Canada's Statue of Liberty'. Governor-General Lord Grey, better known as the donator of Canadian Football's Grey Cup, was crucial in the origin of the project.