The next great blow to the Huguenots was in 1628, when the city of La Rochelle, an Huguenot stronghold, came under siege by French forces under the personal command of Cardinal de Richelieu. This siege dragged on for fourteen months. Of a population of 25,000, an estimated 10,000 died of starvation or disease. When La Rochelle finally fell, the living were too weak to bury the dead who littered the streets. One other effect of the fall of La Rochelle was the termination of the Huguenots’ political aspirations. The Huguenots as a political party ceased.