Jean De Watteville (1618-1702) was a
Burgundian Burgundian can refer to any of the following:
*Someone or something from Burgundy.
*Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now known as Burgundy (F ...
noble of
Flemish extraction who became a
Carthusian monk.
His father was Pierre de Watteville, who settled in Spain and pursued a military career. His mother was Giuditta de Brebbia, daughter of a senator from Milan. Jean De Watteville was born in Besançon in 1618, and joined the army at a young age. He fought in Italy for the Habsburgs against the French. Having killed a Spanish officer in a quarrel, De Watteville fled to Paris, where he sought refuge in a Carthusian monastery.
[Dee, Darryl. ''Expansion and Crisis in Louis XIV's France: Franche-Comté and Absolute Monarchy, 1674-1715'']
University Rochester Press, 2009, , p. 194, n. 60
De Watteville apparently found the practice of chastity burdensome, and one night was discovered climbing over the monastery wall. He killed the Prior with a shot from his pistol and made his escape.
[ The following day he killed another man in a pub brawl, and so fled onwards again to Spain. In ]Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...
he seduced the daughter of his host before killing again, this time during a duel with a gentleman, son of a Spanish grandee, and so was forced to go on the run once more. eventually he arrived in Turkey, where he converted to Islam and became a Pasha.[
De Watteville then defected to the Venetians and handed over to them several Ottoman fortresses in return for a Papal guarantee that he would be pardoned and could return to the priesthood. This done he returned to Burgundy and collected various rich benefices, plotting to overthrow Spanish rule and replace it with that of Louis XIV. His ambition was to become ]Archbishop of Besançon
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...
, but the Pope reminded him about the double murder, breaking of vows, apostasy etc. and he withdrew to another rich abbey.
References
1618 births
1702 deaths
Pashas
{{France-noble-stub