Honoré d'Albert, 1st Duke of Chaulnes, Marshal of France, Vidame of Amiens and Seigneur of Picquigny through his marriage to Claire Charlotte Eugénie d'Ailly, Countess of Chaulnes, was the first Duke of Chaulnes, a title created by Louis XIII in 1621.

The siege of Arras took place from 22 June to 9 August 1640, during the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635, a connected conflict of the Thirty Years' War. A French army besieged the Spanish-held town of Arras, capital of the province of Artois, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, which surrendered after holding out for 48 days.