will be less wealthy, but more brave and more faithful to
us.” In reports back to Paris, Montcalm complained bit-
terly that with limited resources and troops, he and his
army were headed for disaster.
Montcalm was ordered to attack a series of Brit-
ish forts, starting with the major fortress at Oswego on
Lake Ontario. This attack (July 1756) as well as one
against Fort William Henry on Lake George (August
1757) showed that he could use his limited resources
to great effect. However, the British recovered from
these attacks and in 1758 set out to attack Fort Caril-
lon (Ticonderoga) on Lake Champlain, controlled by
Montcalm’s forces of 4,000. The British general, James
Abercromby, with 17,000 men, attacked Carillon with-
out artillery, a lack that left the British vulnerable and
allowed Montcalm to win a decisive victory. French
losses were about 400, while Abercromby left some
2,000 dead and wounded behind. Although Montcalm
had warded off the far superior English attack, the gov-
ernment in Paris refused to send him any more troops
or matériel.
Seeing Montcalm as a threat, the British sent more
forces into New France, and he was forced to abandon
Ticonderoga when they won a decisive victory at Lou-
isburg (1758) and moved on the main city of Quebec.
At first, because of that city’s geography, Montcalm con-
cluded that they could not land any troops there. Once
they did, he hurriedly moved his army to Quebec. Com-
manded by General James Wolfe, the British landed
some three miles downriver from the city on 26 June
- A second force commanded by Brigadier General
Robert Monckton captured Port Levis, and both forces
laid siege to Quebec, although the high cliffs there did
not allow a direct assault. Wolfe ordered that farms near
Quebec be burned, so that the occupants would flee into
the city and drain supplies from the stores there. When
Montcalm did not attack, Wolfe decided on a daring
surprise. In a remarkable maneuver, he crossed the river
with a body of troops and scaled the steep banks in si-
lence. On the morning of 13 September, Montcalm’s
army found the British force on high ground above
them. With Wolfe’s troops holding the advantage of a
higher position and surprise, the quickly formed French
line was soon broken, and during the battle Montcalm
was shot and wounded mortally. He succumbed to his
wounds the following day, and that evening his body
was buried under the floor of an abandoned Ursuline
convent nearby. Wolfe had also been killed in the battle,
but he died knowing that he had taken Quebec. On 18
September, the city fell to the British, ending French
control of Canada forever.
The authors of The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mili-
tary Biography write: “Montcalm’s fame rests on a short
career during which he never commanded more than
some 4,000 regular troops, and which ended with his
death and defeat, and the loss of France’s considerable
American colonies for all time. It might be thought
strange that he should be remembered as one of France’s
most respected soldiers, yet few dispute his right to the
name. The respect is partly due to his extremely attrac-
tive personality, and the unusual affection he inspired in
his subordinates; and partly to the impressive successes
he achieved with indifferent resources in the face of a
superior enemy.”References: Lewis, Meriwether Liston, Montcalm: The
Marvelous Marquis (New York: Vantage Press, 1961); Cas-
grain, Henri Raymond, Wolfe and Montcalm (London:
Oxford University Press, 1926); Winsor, Justin, Note on
the Spurious Letters of Montcalm, 1759 (Cambridge, U.K.:
John Wilson and Son, 1887); Windrow, Martin, and
Francis K. Mason, “Montcalm, Louis-Joseph, Marquis
de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran,” in The Wordsworth
Dictionary of Military Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.:
Wadsworth Editions Ltd., 1997), 196–198; Windrow,
Martin, Montcalm’s Army (Reading, Pa.: Osprey Publish-
ing, 1973); Beatson, Lieutenant-Colonel R. E., The Plains
of Abraham. Notes, Original and Selected (Gibraltar, Gar-
rison Library Press, 1858).Montfort, Simon de, earl of Leicester
(ca. 1208–1265) English military leader
Simon de Montfort was born about 1208 at his fami-
ly’s castle, Montfort-l’Amauri, in the village of Mont-
fort in the Île de France, near Paris. He was the son of
Simon de Montfort l’Amauri, who had suppressed the
Albigensians in a crusade in southern France. Because
de Montfort’s older brother, Amaury de Montfort (ca.
1192–1241), was the heir to family’s estate in France, he
renounced his right to these lands to claim the Montfort
lands in Leicester, England. These had belonged to his
grandmother, and his father had been granted them by
King John, along with the earldom of Leicester, in 1207.
Because de Montfort’s father had then sided with the
French king against John, he lost the English earldom.montFoRt, Simon De, eARl oF leiceSteR