Alexandre, Chevalier de Chaumont (1640 – 28 January 1710 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
) was the first French
ambassador for King
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
in
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
in 1685.
[Chakrabongse, C., 1960, Lords of Life, London: Alvin Redman Limited] He was accompanied on his mission by
Abbé de Choisy, the Jesuit
Guy Tachard
Guy Tachard (; 1651 – 1712), also known as Père Tachard, was a French Jesuit missionary and mathematician of the 17th century, who was sent on two occasions to the Kingdom of Siam by Louis XIV. He was born in Marthon, near Angoulême.
In 1 ...
, and Father
Bénigne Vachet of the
Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris. He was also bringing back to Siam the two ambassadors of the 1684 First Siamese Embassy to France.
Asia in the Making of Europe By Donald F. Lach, p.253
He tried without success to convert King Narai the Great to Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and to conclude significant commercial treaties.
He is best remembered for his memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
s describing life in 17th century Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
A "Chevalier de Chaumont" is also mentioned several times in the Jesuit Relations
''The Jesuit Relations'', also known as ''Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France'', are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 and ending in 1673.
Originally written ...
.
See also
* France–Thailand relations
France–Thailand relations cover a period from the 16th century until modern times. Relations started in earnest during the reign of Louis XIV of France with numerous reciprocal embassies and a major attempt by France to Christianize the kingdom ...
Notes
External links
Chevalier de Chaumont (French)
1640 births
1710 deaths
Knights of Chaumont
17th-century French diplomats
French memoirists
French male non-fiction writers
Ambassadors of France to the Ayutthaya Kingdom
18th-century memoirists
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