The peace of Utrecht, signed after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, confirmed Great Britain's possession of the Islands of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia but, in so doing, posed an immediate threat to France's domination of the Canadian interior. Fortunately France had been allowed to retain Cape Breton Island, also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the result was the creation of the Fortress of Louisbourg to act as guardian both to the river as well as those French possessions along its hinterland. French military engineer, pre-eminent in their field after years of campaigning with Louis XIV, constructed and armed the fortifications of Louisbourg and turned the citadel into the most impregnable fortress outside Western Europe.

From the moment it was finished it stood as the barbican of Canada and became an obvious target when France and England went to war again in 1740. After a protracted operation Louisbourg fell to a combined force of British and American troops in 1745, but was handed back to France in exchange for Madras at the peace negotiations in 1748. Captured again in the Seven Year's War and thereafter retained, it continued to prove its worth against French threats later in the century and only ceased to be of major strategic importance after 1815.

Monamy painted a view of the fortress after its capture in 1745 (see N.M.M. cat. BHC 0363) whilst this picture shows it around the time of its return to French ownership in 1748.