Gabriel de Luetz

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Portrait of Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon, by Titian , 1541–1542

Gabriel de Lutz , Baron and Seigneur of Aramon and Vallabrègues (* around 1508 probably in Nimes , † 1553 or 1554 in the Provence ) was from 1546 to 1553 French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire , which at that time of Suleiman ruled.

Life

Early life

According to Poldo d'Albenas, the historian of Nîmes, Gabriel de Luetz was a citizen of this city and was probably born there at the beginning of the 16th century. He married in 1526 and, after suffering disputes in his homeland such as the confiscation of his property (which fell to Diane de Poitiers after his death ), he went to the French court, where he was favored by King Francis I and later by his successor Heinrich II attained.

In 1542 Gabriel de Luetz stayed with the Lords of Mirandola . In 1543 he traveled to Constantinople for the first time and was still there with the title of resident during the legation of Jean de Montluc , with whom he was almost constantly at odds.

French envoy to the Sublime Porte

Returning to France, Gabriel de Luetz was appointed ambassador to the Sublime Porte by King Francis I at the end of 1546 and then traveled again to Constantinople. The naturalists Pierre Gilles d ' Albi and Pierre Belon accompanied him. In addition to a political mission, his mission also had a scientific character.

Participation in the Ottoman-Safavid War

Gabriel de Luetz requested that Suleyman I grant the French king a loan of 300,000 ducats, which the sultan refused. After all, the Messenger was an alliance between the Porte and France against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V convey. This complained about the alliance between the Christian king and a Muslim ruler, but Pope Paul III. the renewal of the alliance with the Sultan suggested. Apparently Gabriel de Luetz acquired Süleyman's favor, whom he accompanied on his 1547 campaign to Persia against the Safavids . When the Ottomans encountered difficulties in the siege of Van , the French envoy advised the Sultan to move part of the batteries to the other side of the fortress, which helped Suleyman succeed. Gabriel de Luetz then visited Palestine and Egypt . In January 1550 he went back to Constantinople. He had contributed to Suleyman I abandoning his war against Persia.

Role in the Turkish siege of Tripoli

In 1551 Gabriel de Luetz traveled to France to receive new instructions from King Henry II. On his return to the Orient, he stopped in Malta . There Juan de Homedes , the Grand Master of the Order of Malta , asked him to stand up for the protection of the Tripoli belonging to this order , which was then besieged by the Ottoman admirals Sinan Pascha and Turgut Reis in violation of the treaties concluded by the Sultan. Gabriel de Luetz then sailed to Tripoli and tried to persuade the Turkish commanders to lift their siege of the city , for which he was told by the Dutch diplomat Abraham de Wicquefort in his treatise on the duties of an envoy ( L'Ambassadeur et ses fonctions , edition of 1689, Vol. 2, p. 53) was heavily criticized. His intervention failed and Tripoli was stormed by Sinan Pasha on August 15, 1551.

At least Gabriel de Luetz was able to save the commander of the citadel and 200 Knights of Malta whom he brought back to Malta. From there he sent the French king on August 26, 1551 a long report about the capture of Tripoli and his efforts to save the Maltese. But his presence at the Turkish siege of the city was used by Emperor Charles V and Pope Julius III. to spread the rumor that he helped the Ottomans with their business. Heinrich II tried to clear his ambassador of this accusation and asked the Grand Master of the Order of Malta in a letter dated September 30, 1551 to explain the facts. In his reply of November 17, 1551 Juan de Homedes praised the conduct of the French ambassador. But his relations with the Maltese were by no means friendly; was the grandmaster of a native Spaniard.

Mediation of a Turkish-French company against Emperor Charles V.

Gabriel de Luetz returned to Constantinople with the Turkish fleet. He had never lost sight of France's interest that an attack by the sultan would bind part of the Habsburg forces . Suleyman I interpreted a successful attack by Andrea Doria and Bernardino de Mendoza on Turkish bases in North Africa (September 1550) as a breach of the Adrianople armistice by Charles V, and he was also irritated by Ferdinand's intrigues , through which Ferdinand achieved that in July 1551 the claims to Transylvania were assigned to him. In 1552 Gabriel de Luetz was able to persuade the sultan to undertake a joint French-Turkish land and sea attack. The French ambassador was then on board a Turkish fleet when it devastated the coast near Rhegium in Calabria in July 1552 .

Le Voyage de Monsieur d'Aramon by Jean Chesneau, 1547.

Marquis of the Îles d'Hyères

In his last years, Gabriel de LÜTZ Marquis was of the Mediterranean situated Iles d'Hyeres (also called Gold Islands). He had received this from the Austrian nobleman Christoph von Roggendorf , who was once in the service of Emperor Charles V, but then fled to the Ottoman Empire because of excessive indebtedness and was later interned there in Yedikule Castle. Gabriel de Luetz had been able to mediate Roggendorf's release, and Roggendorf had then entered French services, had been given the Îles d'Hyères in 1550 and passed it on to Gabriel de Luetz in gratitude for his efforts to get his release.

death

In September 1553 Gabriel de Luetz gave up his embassy post in Constantinople and returned to France. His successor as envoy to the Sublime Porte was Michel de Codignac . His position as envoy to Suleyman I had not been easy, as Monluc and others had intrigued to keep him in the dark about the intentions of the French court. He died in the year of his return or the next year on an estate in Provence. His secretary Jean Chesneau published the description of his travels in the Orient as Voyage de Monsieur d'Aramon ; The depiction of the court of Constantinople and the Suleyman campaign in Persia is particularly interesting.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Aramont, Gabriel de Luetz, baron de , in: Biographical dictionary of the society for the diffusion of useful language , Vol. 3 (1843), p. 230.
  2. ↑ a b c Louis Farges: Aramon (Gabriel de Luitz, baron d ') , in: La Grande Encyclopédie , 1886 ff., Vol. 3, p. 538.
  3. ↑ William Bayne Fisher et al: The Cambridge History of Iran , Vol. 6, 1986, p. 382 f. ( online at Google Books ).
  4. ↑ Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , 1984, ISBN 0-87169-162-0 , p. 555 ( online at Google Books ).
  5. ↑ James D. Tracy: Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War , 2002, p. 232 f. ( online on Google Books ).
  6. ^ Sharon Turner: The history of England , Vol. 11 (1839), p. 311 ( online on Google Books ).
  7. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Rogendorf, Christoph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1874, p. 269 ( digitized version ).
  8. ↑ Markus Jeitler: Newcomers and Emigrants - Guntersdorf in the Early Modern Era (1476-1688) (PDF).
  9. ↑ Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , p. 692 ( online at Google Books ).
  10. ↑ Aramon (Gabriel de Luetz, baron d ') , in: Louis Gabriel Michaud (Ed.): Biographie universelle , 2nd edition, 1843ff., Vol. 2, p. 139.
personal data
SURNAME Luetz, Gabriel de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
DATE OF BIRTH around 1508
PLACE OF BIRTH Nîmes
DATE OF DEATH 1553 or 1554
Place of death Provence