Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy
Born	1596 or 1603
Died	1670 Paris
Commands held	governor in the Sovereign Council.
Awards	seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont (Picardy)
Other work	aristocrat, statesman, and military leader

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).

Life

He 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.

After driving out the Dutch from the West Indies in 1664,{{(previous statement erroneous - The Dutch and French were not at war in the 1660s and were allies during the 2nd Anglo-Dutch War 1664-1667. The French under De Tracy and Le Febvre did settle 650 colonists in Cayenne. There were a handful of Dutch Jews attempting to found a colony on the island since 1658 that had migrated there after Portugal took back Brazil from the Dutch. The Dutch did have a minor claim to Cayenne since 1615. The colonists there in 1664 offered no resistance. The Jewish colonists left Cayenne to the French and moved on to Surinam. The Dutch far from being driven out of the West Indies, sent a large fleet into the Caribbean to destroy and harass English shipping and colonies while subduing the renegade Sir Robert Holmes, There would not be any conflict between the Dutch and French in the Caribbean until 1672 (Franco-Dutch War 1672-1678 after Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy's death))}} the Marquis de Tracy was appointed lieutenant-général of New France. The governor was not present, so de Tracy acted as the governor in the Sovereign Council.

From his base in Quebec City, as Lieutenant General of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, he initiated a brutal war 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.

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

Legacy

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

See also

• Vincent Basset Du Tartre (surgeon major)
• Pierre de Saurel
• Alexandre Berthier

References

• Lindsay, Lionel (1912). "Alexandre De Prouville, Marquis de Tracy" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

• "Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
• Histoire de Sorel-Tracy