Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (c. 1596 or 1603 – 1670) was a French aristocrat, statesman, and military leader. He was the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont (Picardy).

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy

Seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont (Picardy)
Born1596 or 1603
Died1670
Paris
Occupation(s)Aristocrat, statesman and military leader
Governor general of the French Antilles
In office
9 November 1663 – February 1665
Preceded byPhillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy
Succeeded byAntoine Lefèbvre de La Barre
Lieutenant general of New France
(acting governor)
In office
6 May 1665 – 12 September 1665
Preceded byAugustin de Saffray de Mésy
Succeeded byDaniel de Rémy de Courcelle
Signature

Life

The Marquis de Tracy first made his name as a regimental commander in Germany in the 1640s, then was appointed Commissary-General of the French troops serving in Germany. In 1647 he represented France at the Ulm negotiations with Sweden and Bavaria.[1]

In 1664 a fleet under the Marquis de Tracy carried a force of soldiers and colonists led by Antoine Lefèbvre de La Barre of the newly formed Compagnie de la France équinoxiale to Cayenne.[2] They left the port of La Rochelle, France, on 26 February 1664 with two warships and 400 soldiers.[3] The expedition included 1,200 settlers.[4] They arrived in Cayenne on 11 May 1664.[3] On 15 May 1664 the Dutch general Guerin Spranger agreed to capitulate.[2]

The Marquis de Tracy was then appointed lieutenant-général of New France. The governor was not present, so de Tracy acted as the governor in the Sovereign Council.[1] From his base in Quebec City, he led the Carignan-Salières Regiment in a campaign against the Iroquois peoples. After defeating them and destroying their crops and villages, he launched an attack against the Mohawk nation and caused destruction to their territory in central present-day New York. Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy seized all the Mohawk lands in the name of the king of France. He forced the Mohawk to accept the Roman Catholic faith and to adopt the French language as taught by the Jesuit missionaries. A mission village for Mohawk Catholics, Kahnawake, was set up south of Montreal.[1]

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy died in Paris in the parish of Saint-Eustache on 28 April 1670.[1]

Legacy

The Tracy Squadron of cadets at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean was named in his honour.

See also

Notes
  1. Lindsay 1912.
  2. Julien, Lanier & Cosnard 1857, p. x.
  3. Mercier 2009, p. 14.
  4. Denis 1837, p. 25.

Sources
  • Denis, Ferdinand (1837), Brésil (in French), Firmin Didot frères, fils et c, retrieved 28 July 2018
  • Julien; Lanier; Cosnard (1857), Mission de Cayenne et de la Guyane Française (Avec une carte geographique.), Voyages et travaux des missionnaires de la compagnie de Jésus: pour servir de complément aux lettres édifiantes (in French), retrieved 28 July 2018
  • Lindsay, Lionel (1912). "Alexandre De Prouville, Marquis de Tracy" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  • Mercier, Jean Edouard (1 April 2009), "Le XVIIe Siècle" (PDF), L'armée française et la Guyane (in French), Ibis Rouge Editions, ISBN 978-2-84450-350-3, retrieved 26 July 2018
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