Daniel De Rémy De Courcelle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle, Sieur de Montigny, de La Fresnaye et de CourcelleThe name of his family was " Rémy de Courcelles", but the governor seemed to have signed "Courcelle" while in Canada, so he is known as "Courcelle" in Canada. (; 1626 – 24 October 1698) was the
Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...
of
New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
from 1665 to 1672. For many years the small settlements on the north shore of the
St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...
had been the subject of frequent raids by the Mohawk, one of the five nations that comprised the
Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
. By the early 1660s, the colony was on the verge of collapse. After receiving numerous pleas for help, King
Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
of
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
took several steps to ensure the survival of New France. Courcelle was named as Governor,
Jean Talon Jean Talon, Count d'Orsainville (; January 8, 1626 – November 23, 1694) was a French colonial administrator who served as the first Intendant of New France. Talon was appointed by King Louis XIV and his minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, t ...
as
Intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...
, and the
Carignan-Salières Regiment The Carignan-Salières Regiment was a 17th-century French military unit formed by the merging of two other regiments in 1659. Approximately 1,100 men from the regiment were sent to New France in 1665 to deal with the threat of the Iroquois to the ...
embarked for
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. For the first two years of his administration, however, Courcelle was subordinate to
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (; – 1670) was a French military leader, statesman, and the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont in Picardy, France. A professional soldier, he was a regimental commander during the Thirty Years Wars, a ...
who had been appointed Lieutenant Général of the Americas by Louis XIV and specifically tasked with ending the threat of the Iroquois. Courcelle arrived in New France in September 1665 and "breathing nothing but war" immediately involved himself with supervising the construction of forts along the
Richelieu River The Richelieu River () is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champlain, from which it flows northward through Quebec and empties into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly kno ...
, the main route used by the Mohawk in their raids on French settlements.Eccles, William J. (1979)
“Rémy de Courcelle (Courcelles), Daniel de
” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, accessed January 21, 2024
Tracy authorized Courcelle to lead an expedition of 500 regulars and volunteers against the Mohawk in the winter of 1666. The French soldiers, however, were ill-equipped to operate in the cold and deep snow. They were unaccustomed to using snowshoes, and many suffered from exhaustion, frostbite or hypothermia.
Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...
guides were to meet the expedition at Fort St. Louis, however, after waiting several weeks, Courcelle had set off without them. Without guides the expedition frequently lost their way, and provisions soon became scarce. The expedition eventually reached the Anglo-Dutch settlement of
Schenectady Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...
where Courcelle was able to purchase supplies. While at Schenectady a French patrol skirmished with the Mohawk resulting in the deaths of one officer, five soldiers and one volunteer. Courcelle decided to abandon the invasion and return to the Richelieu forts.
The Jesuit Relations ''The Jesuit Relations'', also known as ''Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (Relation de ce qui s'est passé ..'', are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 an ...
record that over 60 men died from hunger during the expedition, while Captain Francois de Tapie de Monteil of the Poitou Regiment wrote in his journal that "we lost 400 men who dropped dead from cold." Courcelle accompanied Tracy on a much more successful expedition against the Mohawk in the autumn of 1666 that destroyed four Mohawk villages. Peace settlements with all five Iroquois nations were reached by July 1667. Courcelle's main contributions to the colony during his tenure were the actions he took to maintain peace, resolve conflict between the Iroquois and the Algonquin, sustain the fur trade, and raise "the prestige of the French in the eyes" of the Indigenous population. When a Seneca
sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...
was murdered in Montreal in 1669, the three soldiers responsible were quickly arrested, tried and hanged. When the fur trade was threatened by renewed hostility between the Iroquois and the Algonquin, Courcelle mounted a show of force by ascending the St. Lawrence River to
Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
with 56 volunteers and a large
bateau A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. ...
, demonstrating that the French could attack the western Iroquois as easily as they had attacked the Mohawk. Courcelle pressured the
Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...
to bring their furs to Montreal instead of to the English at Albany or to Iroquois middlemen. In 1669, following the orders of Louis XIV, Courcelle established
militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...
companies in which all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 were drilled in the use of arms. This proved invaluable in later wars with the Iroquois and English. Courcelle also encouraged the exploration of the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
watershed and beyond by La Salle, Nicholas Perrot,
Louis Jolliet Louis Jolliet (; September 21, 1645after May 1700) was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore ...
,
Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...
, and Daumont de Saint-Lusson. Courcelle asked to be recalled in 1671. He departed New France in November 1772, and was appointed commander of the citadel at
Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...
. Courcelle married Marie-Anne Dabancourt in 1675 and had at least two sons. He is reported to have been the governor of
Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...
at the time of his death.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Remy De Courcelle, Daniel 1626 births 1698 deaths Governors of New France 17th-century Canadian politicians