Pale of Calais
| Pale of Calais | ||||||||||
| Calaisis | ||||||||||
| Overseas possession of England | ||||||||||
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Motto Veritas Temporis filia "Truth, the daughter of Time" |
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 The Pale of Calais (yellow) in 1477.
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| Capital | Calais | |||||||||
| Languages | English, French, Flemish | |||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | |||||||||
| Political structure | Overseas possession | |||||||||
| Lord | ||||||||||
| • | 1346–1377 | Edward III (first) | ||||||||
| • | 1553–1558 | Mary I (last) | ||||||||
| Governor | ||||||||||
| • | 1353 | Reynold Cobham (first) | ||||||||
| • | 1553–1558 | Thomas Wentworth (last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Late Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Battle of Crécy | 26 August 1346 | ||||||||
| • | Treaty of Brétigny | 8 May 1360 | ||||||||
| • | Siege of Calais | 1 January 1558 | ||||||||
| • | Peace of Vervins | 2 May 1598 | ||||||||
| Area | ||||||||||
| • | 1477 | 52 km² (20 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Currency | Pound sterling | |||||||||
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| Today part of |
 France
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The Pale of Calais (French: le Calaisis) is a historical region in modern-day France that was controlled by the monarchs of England following the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Pale is an archaic English term for "area, jurisdiction". The capture by the English is the subject of Auguste Rodin's 1889 sculpture The Burghers of Calais. In 1558, the expanding Kingdom of France took the Pale of Calais in the aftermath of the Siege of Calais.
Calais fell after the Battle of Crécy in 1346 to Edward III of England following a desperate siege. Its seizure gave him a defensible outpost where his army could regroup, and the city's position on the English Channel meant that, once it was taken, it could be resupplied easily by sea. Its retention was confirmed under the Treaty of Brétigny, signed on 8 May 1360, when Edward renounced the throne of France, in return for substantial lands in France, namely Aquitaine and the area around Calais. By 1453, at the end of the Hundred Years' War, it was the only part of mainland France to remain in English hands.
While it was possible to resupply and defend Calais easily by sea, in the absence of any natural defence it depended on fortifications built up and maintained at some expense. However, its main defence had been that both the French and the Burgundians coveted the city, but each preferred to see it under the English rather than their rival. Changing political circumstances with the division of Burgundian interests in the Low Countries between France and Spain meant that, in 1550 when England surrendered the area around Boulogne, which Henry VIII had taken in 1544, the approaches to Calais were opened.
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Wikipedia