Elizabeth castle was in construction during the 16th century during the same time the cannon was introduced as an affective form of defence especially for jersey. It was built in order to protect the shores of the island and especially the harbours. The castle was names “Elizabeth Castle” because of the Elizabeth being the queen at the time.
Battle of Jersey
The battle of Jersey took place January 6th, 1781 due to the Anglo-French war and American Revolution war being unsuccessful to invade the island in order to protect American and French shipping. The island had been occupied by British privateers who would disrupt important shipping for the French, which caused the French governor at the time to interfere.
The French decided to attack with 2,000 French men, but a storm had caused only 1,200 to arrive in jersey. The French surprisingly landed unexpectedly with 800 of them landing at La Roque, due to the fact that the guards deciding to leave their post to go drinking, and the other 400 troops had landed on the rocks where they concluded they where completely lost, and 200 troops landing the next morning (due to the storm). The French managed to invade undetected and captured the governor and made him sign a letter which meant he had to surrender Elizabeth castle. Once they arrived at Elizabeth castle the occupants there, didn’t care that he had signed the surrender because he was a prisoner and decided to open fire on the French.
The battle lasted nearly 15 minutes, and happened at the royal square, with the British winning due to having more utilities and soldiers. After the war the British had captured 600 soldiers including the 200 French that landed the next morning.
Film Idea (documentary)
We are going to use the battle of jersey in our own film and create a documentary on what had happened and the events leading up to the event and even what had happened. We are going to include different sounds that we will record whilst we are there. and Include context on the painting of “the death of major Pierson”.
