Annapolis Royal is a small Canadian town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, and was known as Port Royal until the Conquest of Acadia in 1710 by Britain. The town was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for almost 150 years, until the founding of Halifax in 1749. It was attacked by the British six times before permanently changing hands after the Conquest of Acadia in 1710. Over the next fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital. Including a raid during the American Revolution, Annapolis Royal faced a total of thirteen attacks, more than any other place in North America. As the site of several pivotal events during the early years of the colonisation of Canada, the historic core of Annapolis Royal was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1994. Port Royal (Acadia) The original French settlement at present-day Port Royal, known as the Habitation at Port-Royal, was settled in 1605 by François Gravé Du Pont, Samuel de Champlain, with and for Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. (Annapolis Royal is twinned with the town of Royan in France, birthplace of Sieur de Mons.) The Port-Royal site is approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) west of present-day Annapolis Royal at the mouth of the Annapolis River on the Annapolis Basin. The first settlement was abandoned after being destroyed by British-American attackers in 1613. Scottish settlers, under the auspices of Sir William Alexander, established their settlement, known as Charlesfort in 1629 at the mouth of the Annapolis River (present site of Annapolis Royal). The settlement was abandoned to the French under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1632). A second French settlement replaced the Scottish Charlesfort at present-day Annapolis Royal. It was also called Port Royal and it developed into the capital of the French colony of Acadia. Port-Royal under the French soon became self-sufficient and grew modestly for nearly a century, though it was subject to frequent attacks and capture by British military forces or those of its New England colonists, only to be restored each time to French control by subsequent recapture or treaty stipulations. Acadia remained in French hands throughout most of the 17th century. Creation of Annapolis Royal In 1710 Port Royal was captured a final time from the French at the 1710 Siege of Port Royal during Queen Anne's War, marking the British conquest of mainland Nova Scotia. The British renamed the town Annapolis Royal and Fort Anne after Queen Anne (1665–1714), the reigning monarch. The name was formed by combining the queen's name 'Anne' with that of 'polis', the Greek word for city and taking part of the former French name Port-'Royal'. The Annapolis Basin, Annapolis River, Annapolis County, and the Annapolis Valley all take their name from the town. Siege of Annapolis Royal (1711) After success in the local Battle of Bloody Creek (1711), 600 Acadians and native warriors attempted to retake the Acadian capital. Under the leadership of Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin they descended on Annapolis Royal and laid siege to Fort Anne. The garrison had fewer than 200 men, but the attackers had no artillery and were thus unable to make an impression on the fort. They eventually dispersed, and Annapolis Royal remained in British hands for the remainder of the war. Under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Acadia was granted to the British; however the vague boundary definitions saw only the peninsular part of Nova Scotia granted to Britain, and the next half century would be turbulent years as Britain and France acted out the final struggle for Acadia and North America.
