Talk:Françoise-Marie Jacquelin

Translation from Françoise-Marie Jacquelin
Here is a fair translation from the French of the story of Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, called Madame La Tour found at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7oise-Marie_Jacquelin

Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, called Madame La Tour (born in 1602 in France, died in 1645 in Saint-Jean, in Acadia), was the second wife of Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, the governor of Acadia 1631 to 1642 and from 1653 to 1657. Mother of a son, she became the first woman of European descent to raise a family in the land that would become New Brunswick. She is recognized as an Acadian heroine for her defense of Fort La Tour against Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay in the absence of her husband. Many artists were inspired by her life, about which much is yet unknown.

The origins of Francoise-Marie Jacquelin are blurred. She was born in 1601 or 1602 in France. According to Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay, she is the daughter of a barber in Le Mans, France, and became an actress in Paris. According to other sources, she is the daughter of a doctor and was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, France. It is also possible that she was a business woman. No evidence confirms these facts and she is more likely to be part of the lesser nobility. The only certainty about her is that she was an Huguenot. In 1640, the representative of Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour in La Rochelle, France, one Desjardins Du Val, gave her his marriage proposal which she accepted.

Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour (1593-1666), son of Claude de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, was probably born in Champagne, France. He arrived in Acadia in 1610 with his father and took up the fur trade. Samuel Argall, of Virginia, attacked Port Royal in 1613, killing and expelling several French. Charles de La Tour and a few others escaped and chose to remain living with the Micmacs. He married a Micmac woman in 1625, and she gave him three daughters. La Tour became governor of Acadia in 1631 and built Fort Sainte-Marie, or Fort La Tour, at the site of the present city of Saint John, New Brunswick. The marriage of La Tour and Francoise-Marie Jacquelin was held in Port Royal, Acadia, in 1640. The couple then settled at the mouth of the River Saint John in at Fort La Tour. She gave birth to a son, becoming the first woman of European descent to raise a family in the territory that became today's New Brunswick. It seems that her son died down age 3 (although there is now some evidence that he may have been sent back to France to be raised by a sister of Francoise-Marie Jacquelin).

Participation in the civil war and death

A civil war was raging then between her husband and Charles de Menou d'Aulnay. Following the death of Governor Isaac Razilly in 1635, they began vying for control of the French colony of Acadia. Françoise-Marie defended her husband right from the time of their marriage. In 1642, the forces of d’Aulnay established a blockade at the mouth of the St. John River. She went to France to appeal the order of the King for the arrest of her husband and his return to France to answer charges of treason. She was successful and received permission to bring a warship and provisions to Fort La Tour. Two years later, she returned to France, where she learned that her husband had lost all credit with the French court because of the accusations of d’Aulnay. Despite the ban on leaving France imposed on her by the authorities, Francoise Marie Jacquelin borrowed money from friends and fled to England, where she bought food and chartered a ship to return to Fort La Tour. Captain Bailey, the captain of the ship, stopped en route at the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to fish. Then the boat is stopped by d'Aulnay’s vessel off Cape Sable, but Françoise-Marie hid successfully in the hold. The ship finally arrived in Boston after six months of travel. Françoise-Marie Jacquelin sued Captain Bailey in the courts of Massachusetts, both for the undue delay and for his refusal to take her to St. John as agreed. Thanks to £ 2,000 pounds compensation she collected in the lawsuit, she chartered three ships, with which she managed to break the blockade of Aulnay so she could enter the St. John River. She finally arrived at her home in late December 1644.

D'Aulnay launched an attack against the fort in early 1645, while her husband Charles de La Tour was in Boston seeking the help of English since he had received no supplies from France. In his absence, La Tour had left Francoise Marie Jacquelin in charge of his 45 men defending the fort. D'Aulnay heard the news of his absence from deserters and arrived at the fort on April 13th, 1645 with 200 men under his command. Françoise-Marie, determined to defend the fort, sent away d’Aulnay’s man requesting her surrender. A battle lasting three days ensued. At Easter, the fourth day of fighting, d’Aulnay’s cannon created a breach in the parapet of fort. D'Aulnay attacked with part of his men, armed with two cannons. According to oral tradition, LaTour’s mercenary Swiss-born Hans Vanner let d'Aulnay’s troops crawl to the battlements while the defenders were asleep or celebrating Easter Mass. Anyway, the troops of Francoise-Marie were alerted by the noise of d’Aulnay’s attack and engaged in pitched battle with hand to hand fighting, causing heavy losses in both camps. D'Aulnay promised he will give quarter meaning safety to all defenders if Francoise Marie Jacquelin capitulated, She then surrendered given the desparate situation she and her men were in. The conflicting stories and biased opinions mitigate against knowing accurately what happened then or the the sequence of events. The writings of authors such as Nicolas Denys considered impartial by the historians agree on several points. According to them, D'Aulnay went back on his promise, and, ignoring the terms of the capitulation and took into custody all the survivors of the garrison. A gallows was erected following which all prisoners were hanged, except probably Andre Bernard who accepted the job of executioner. Françoise-Marie Jacquelin was forced to watched the scene, a rope tied to her neck. She died three weeks later. D'Aulnay died accidentally in 1650, causing a war of succession between Emmanuel Le Borgne, Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour and Nicolas Denys. La Tour married the widow of d'Aulnay as a way of reconciling the two families, and restore peace so he could go back into peaceful possessions of his holdings.

Most authors give Françoise-Marie Jacquelin the name of Madame La Tour although it was not the title of nobility since, according to the fashion in France at the time, a married woman always signed using her maiden name. Françoise-Marie Jacquelin is considered a heroine of her people. Her biographer George MacBeath described her in 2000 as the heroine of Acadia’s most remarkable early history. The historian William Francis Ganong says that the Battle of Fort La Tour is the most tragic event in the history of New Brunswick. The major novels she has inspired are “A Parisienne in Canada (1640-1650)”, published in 1927 by the French Maurice Soulie, and “A Daughter of France: A Story of Acadia”, written by Eliza F. Pollard in the early twentieth century. Chiasson made a television documentary about her in 1987. Emma Haché wrote the first play of Francoise-Marie Jacquelin, Looking out to The horizon, in 2004. Several painters have represented Francoise Marie Jacquelin, Charles William Jefferys with Madame La Tour Defending Fort St. Jean and Francoise Marie Jacquelin Meeting Charles de La Tour. Adam Sherriff-Scott has represented her among others sword in hand in front of the fort and then the rope around her neck as she is forced to watch his men hanged. The sculptor Albert Deveau has represented her, her husband and D'Aulnay, for the Port of Saint John. The New Brunswick Museum in Saint John has a painting from the seventeenth century, long considered the true portrait of Marie-Francoise Jacquelin. In 2006, she was the subject of a radio program in the series of remarkable people forgotten aired on the Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada.


 * Translated by User:Fort1621, moved here by Pburka (talk) 12:19, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm the author of the French article and I wish to thank you for the translation. I added some more information recently though, about the fake painting and the reasons for the uncertaincy about her origins. Actually, historians know her parents and her birth place but it's her birth date that still seem unclear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.201.136.251 (talk) 17:34, 6 October 2013 (UTC)