Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon

Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon

Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon (* 1510 in Provins ; † 1571 in Beauvais-en-Gâtinais ) was Vice Admiral of Brittany in the service of the French crown and founder of a short-lived colony in Brazil : Antarctic France ( France Antarctique ).

Villegagnon was an illustrious and controversial figure of his time. He came into contact with the later reformer Johannes Calvin at an early age , studied law in Orléans and joined the Knightly Order of the Maltese in 1531 . Subsequently, he took part in the conquest of Algiers by Charles V in 1541 and in 1548 commanded the expedition that brought Maria Stuart to the French court. In 1553 he was appointed Vice Admiral of Brittany.

The most important station of his life, however, was undoubtedly his expedition to Brazil, which he undertook in 1555. The French King Henry II had given the Calvinist admiral Gaspard de Coligny permission to found a colony where the French Huguenots could practice their religion freely, a measure to defuse the increasing religious conflicts. Villegagnon landed with about 600 men in the bay of Rio de Janeiro , where he had Fort Coligny built. The export of Brazilian wood was to serve as the economic base of the colony. Two years later the colony was supported by a second expedition which also included a number of Calvinist preachers, including Jean de Léry . Subsequently, the conflicts within the colony intensified due to Villegagnon's authoritarian leadership style and independent interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, which ultimately led to a falling out with the Calvinists, who were exiled on the Brazilian mainland. In 1558 the Calvinists were sent back to France; Villegagnon had five people who refused to be executed. Only a year later, in 1559, he left his colony himself, which was finally destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567.

This episode was described by his adversary Jean de Léry in his famous Histoire d'un voyage fait en la Terre du Brésil from 1578.

Upon his return, Villegagnon was reconciled with the Catholic Church and became an exponent of the Huguenots' opponents. In 1567 he became governor of Sens , four years later he died in Beauvais-en-Gâtinais.

literature

• Jean de Lery: Among ogreers on the Amazon. Brazilian diary 1556-1558. (Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique. Translated by Ernst Bluth, reviewed, edited and appended by Karl H. Salzmann. Reprint of the Paris 1586 edition, 2nd edition). Albatros, Düsseldorf 2001. ISBN 3-491-96031-2
• André Thevet : Le Brésil d'André Thevet. Les singularités de la France Antarctique . Chandeigne, Paris 1997. ISBN 2-906462-31-4

Web links

• France antarctique on the website herodote.net ( French )
• The French in Brazil on the website colonialvoyage.com ( Engl. )