Alexandre de Chaumont

Alexandre de Chaumont (Alexandre II. De Chaumont; * 1640 in Paris , †  January 28, 1710 ibid) was a French naval officer and the first French ambassador to the court of Siam in Ayutthaya .

Life

Alexandre II. De Chaumont was the son of Alexandre I de Chaumont and his wife Isabelle du Bois-des-Coeurs. He initially took up a military career. He became ship's captain in 1671 and a little later (1672) major in the French Navy in the Levant . Between 1685 and 1686 he was envoy of the French King Louis XIV. To the court of King Narai (r. 1656 to 1688) in Siam. He was accompanied to Siam by the Catholic Abbé de Choisy , the Jesuit Guy Tachard and Father Bénigne Vachet from the Paris Mission . Their aim was to convert King Narai to Catholicism and with him the entire Siamese people. The conversion did not succeed, also because the Siamese were Buddhists from the beginning . Another goal, the conclusion of a trade agreement, he achieved, however, also with the support of the Greek Chancellor Constantine Phaulkon , who was a favorite of King Narai. France was able to mine tin in Phuket . His companions on his return to France in 1686 included Kosa Pan (Siam's first ambassador in France) and his companion.

On January 3, 1689, Chaumont married Jeanne de La Guérinière, with whom he had a son, Alexandre III. Charles de Chaumont, had.

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Chaumont wrote a report on his experiences in Siam: Relation de l'ambassade de Monsieur le chevalier de Chaumont à la Cour du Roy de Siam, avec ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable durant son voyage . Paris: Arnoult Seneuse et Daniel Horthemels , 1686. It was reissued in 1733 in Paris.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/organize/1085/19294-The-Beginning-of-Relations-with-European-Nations-a.html (last accessed on August 9, 2012)