Francois Le Clerc had set out from France in 1553 with three royal ships and a number of privateers under commission from Francis I of France, who is envious of the riches returning to Spain from the New World.

The seven-ship pirate fleet led by le Clerc sacks Santiago de Cuba in 1554, occupies it for a month, and leaves with eighty thousand pesos in treasure.

So completely devastated is Cuba's first capital that it will soon be completely eclipsed by Havana, never to recover its former prosperity.

The first attack and resultant burning of Havana comes in 1555 at the hands of de Sores, leading a band of Huguenot pirates.

The number of ships that de Sores used in the attack varies in different accounts from two to twenty.

Nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur") de Sores takes Havana easily, plundering the city and burning much of it to the ground.

He also burns the shipping in the harbor and lays waste to much of the surrounding countryside, and seems to have found time to organize a play "to insult the pope".

After destroying the fortress of La Fuerza Vieja in today's Calle Tacón, he leaves without obtaining the enormous wealth he had hoped to find in Havana.