The island of Newfoundland had been contested territory between France and England for some time before Queen Anne's War broke out in 1702.

French raids during King William's War in the 1690s had completely destroyed English settlements, including the principal port of St.

In the winter of 1704–5 Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, the French governor at Plaisance, led a siege of St. John's in which much of the town was destroyed, but Fort William was not taken.

[citation needed] Philippe Pastour de Costebelle, who succeeded Subercase as governor at Plaisance, was presented with an opportunity to once again assault St. John's directly when a number of French ships stopped at Plaisance in late 1708, including the frigate Vénus and some French privateers from the West Indies.

Saint-Ovide recruited a force of 164 from the various ships, the local settlers, and the Mi'kmaq, and set out for St. John's on 14 December 1708.

From 1705 to 1708 he ran the colony without significant incident, and participated in a raiding expedition in 1707 against French fishing settlements.

[6] Gunner William I'Anson of Fort William reported numerous failings of the English force, including poor access to powder for their muskets, numerous instances of cowardice and indifference, and most pivotal in his view, a misapprehension concerning the alarm: The calling of the centryes Fire!

France ceded most of its claims to Newfoundland in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and Costebelle oversaw the relocation the French inhabitants to the new outpost of Louisbourg on Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island).

[4] Saint-Ovide was awarded the Order of Saint Louis for his actions, and succeeded Costebelle as governor of Île-Royale in 1718.