Despite St. Augustine, the nation‘s oldest city, marking its 450th anniversary earlier this month, it’s fitting that King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain are in St. Augustine this week as Sunday marks the 450th anniversary of Spain establishing its hold over Florida.
While it’s not often included in the history books, Sept. 20, 1565, was one of the pivotal days in American history because of French efforts to colonize the American Southeast
Backed by the French crown and Huguenot leaders, Rene de Laudonniere led a French expedition to Florida, with most historians thinking they landed at the St. Johns River in June 1564. Despite some hardships and poor decisions, the colony survived until the next September when French reinforcements under Jean Ribault arrived.
As Ribault replaced Laudonniere in command, Spanish forces under Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine just to the south of the French colony. Ribault launched an attack on St. Augustine, only to have his fleet destroyed by a sudden hurricane. Menendez led the Spanish to Fort Caroline and ran the French off. Attacking Fort Caroline at dawn on Sept. 20, the Spanish took the French by surprise and easily captured the post, forcing Laudonniere and the remaining French forces to abandon the colony. A few weeks later, Menendez found the shipwrecked Frenchmen and slaughtered most of them -- including his gubernatorial rival Ribault -- at the Matanzas River.
While St. Augustine went on to survive as the longest established city in the United States and thrive as a tourist attraction, Fort Caroline was lost to history until longtime U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett, D-Fla., led the fight to have a national memorial honoring the French colony. Besides being in politics, Bennett was a historian, writing books on the First Coast's history including works on Laudonniere and Fort Caroline. A replica of Fort Caroline now stands on the southern bank of the St. Johns as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville.
There has been some speculation in recent years that the French colony was actually located further north along the Atlamaha River in south Georgia. But most historians believe it was based on the St. Johns, noting that the Spanish marched two days to the north to take Fort Caroline.
Regardless, the fall of Fort Caroline, and an abandoned attempt to found a colony in South Carolina, marked the end of French colonization attempts in what is now the American Southeast, leaving Spain, and eventually England, as the main powers in the region.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
