During the Anglo-French war in Europe (1626-1629), the English organized a military expedition under the command of two brothers, Jarvis and Thomas Kirke, to conquer the French settlements in Canada. In the summer of 1627, the Kirke expedition seized Port Royal, on the eastern shore of the Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia), and occupied Tadoussac, 160 kilometres north of Quebec on the St. Lawrence. It then proceeded upriver to Quebec and demanded the surrender of the settlement. Winter forced the English expedition to withdraw, but it returned the following spring. With only 18 armed men available to defend Quebec, Governor Samuel de Champlain had little choice. He surrendered to the English on 20 July 1629.
Less than three years later, France would reclaim these settlements. Under the Treaty of Saint-Germaine, signed on 29 March 1632, the English returned Quebec and Port Royal to France. Champlain, who had languished in an English prison for three years, returned to rebuild Quebec.
