War on the Frontier

In 1688 the Glorious Revolution in Britain concluded with King James II's deposition and replacement by William and Mary. It triggered King William’s War, a multi-continent conflict and a Puritan coup in the British colony of New York.

Empire and Frontier: Colonel Peter Schuyler and the Valiant Iroquois in King William's War: 1689-1701, by Samuel Marquis, follows King William’s War in upstate New York, telling the story through the lens of three of its most important participants: Peter Schuyler, the Dutch-American mayor of Albany; Lawrence, a Mohawk war captain; and Hilletie van Olinda, a Mohawk-Dutch woman who served as the colony’s official translator.

Marquis presents nine years of conflict in the frontier between New York and Canada. It was a three-cornered war with France on one side, European New Yorkers on the other and the native tribes in the area aligning by tribe with these powers.

He begins with the cooperative Covenant Chain, an alliance with European New Yorkers and the powerful Haudenosaunee (the five allied tribes of the Iroquois Nation). Two decades old when war broke out in 1689, it had grown into a mutually beneficial association, one bringing wealth and peace to both sides, and a deep friendship among the peoples within the two coalitions.

Intermixing resulted, creating many like the book’s three principals. Lawrence and Schuyler were friends and collaborators, borrowing the best aspects of each man’s society for use in his own. Hilletie forged a role as an in-between for the two societies, a virtually unique position of authority for a seventeenth-century woman.

The Glorious Revolution brought unwanted disruptions. Serious trouble began with a coup in New York City. The King James-appointed Royal Governor was chased out by a faction led by Jacob Leister, a fanatic anti-Catholic who established a dictatorship. Following this, the French governor of Quebec launched a surprise attack on Schenectady. The inhabitants were massacred, opening nine years of frontier war.

Divided internally, New York’s initial response was feeble, even while its Iroquois allies provided retribution for Schenectady. In subsequent years, the Iroquois were ground down by the French. The war devolved into bloody stalemate.

Empire and Frontier is a fascinating book, offering insight into multicultural Seventeenth-century New York with its blend of Dutch, English, German and Indian society. It shows how the different groups worked together and exposes the divisions present, particularly the different Protestant factions. It's the story of colorful participants forging a civilization out of the wild while swept up in the violent currents of empire.

“Empire and Frontier: Colonel Peter Schuyler and the Valiant Iroquois in King William's War: 1689-1701,” by Samuel Marquis, Pegasus Books, August 2026, 368 pages, $29.95 (Hardcover), $19.99 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.