King William's War

King William's War, first of four North American wars, waged by the English and French from 1689 to 1697, and the American phase of the War of the Grand Alliance, also known as the Nine Years' War (1688-1697), in Europe. The French and English colonists, aided by Native Americans, raided each other's settlements. Following a series of English raids in Canada, the French governor of Canada, Comte de Frontenac, planned counter-attacks on New York and Boston in 1690. As initial steps in his campaign, the French and their Native American allies burned Schenectady, New York, laid waste Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and destroyed Fort Loyal, Maine, while French privateers based in Acadia (present Nova Scotia, Canada) harried New England (north-eastern United States) shipping. The New England colonists raised an expeditionary force and placed it under the command of the new governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Phipps. This force captured Port Royal in Acadia but was unsuccessful in its attacks on Montreal and Quebec (Canada). For the rest of the war the French and their Native American allies ravaged the northern frontiers of the New England colonies. The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 restored Port Royal to the French but left the problems between the French and English colonies unresolved. Warfare resumed in 1702 in Queen Anne's War.