Four ships of the
French Navy have borne the name ''Belle Poule''.
Ships
The ships are:
* the 36-gun
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
, famous for her duel against the English frigate on 17 June 1778, which started the French intervention in the
American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
; the British 64-gun ship of the line captured her in 1780 and she was broken up in 1801.
* the 40-gun frigate (1802–1806), which acted as a
commerce raider in the Indian Ocean until the British captured her in 1806
* the 60-gun frigate (1828–1888), famous for bringing back the remains of
Napoléon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
from
Saint Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
to France in 1840; she was under command of
François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville, and was painted black for the mission
* The modern schooner , training ship of the
Naval Academy, whose actions with the
Free French Forces during the
Second World War are commemorated by her bearing a
French flag with the
Croix de Lorraine
The Cross of Lorraine (french: Croix de Lorraine, link=no), known as the Cross of Anjou in the 16th century, is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizont ...
.
Name
The name ''Belle Poule'' derives from an incident in 1533.
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe ...
was presented with the keys of
Toulouse by
Paule de Viguier, the baroness Fronteville. Paule was a young girl known for her beauty, and Francis nicknamed her ''la belle Paule''. The name became altered over time to ''belle poule'' through the difference between
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
Occitan pronunciation.
Belle poule at esperso-orange
/ref> The name was later adopted by a Gironde
Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,62 ...
corsair for his vessel, giving rise to it as a ship name in the French navy.
Another version of the story is that Francis called her ''belle poule'', as a play on words. The word ''belle'' is "beautiful", while ''poule'' is a reference to her name, Paule, but also means "chick", which in French, as it was later in English, can refer to a young girl.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belle Poule, French Ship
French Navy ship names