Fortification built the Baron de Tott for the Ottoman Empire

François Baron de Tott (, ) (August 17, 1733, Chamigny,

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 ...

– September 24, 1793,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) was an

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

and a French military officer of Hungarian origin. Born on August 17, 1733, in Chamigny, a village in northern

, the descendant of a Hungarian nobleman, who had emigrated to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and then moved on to

with the cavalry of Count Miklós Bercsényi, and was later raised to the rank of

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Career

As a youngster, François joined the regiment his father was serving in, and in 1754 was promoted to the rank of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

. In 1755 he travelled to Constantinople, the

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

of the Ottoman Empire, as the secretary of his uncle Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, who had been appointed ambassador. His main duty was to learn the

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

, to investigate the situation in the Ottoman Empire and to gather information about the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

. He returned to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1763, and was sent to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 1766 by the French government. In 1767, he was appointed

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in Crimea in order to learn about the country and incite the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

to rebel against the

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. François de Tott played a major role during the

Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

. Leaving Crimea for a while, he was commissioned by the Ottoman government with the task of defending the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

against the Russian fleet. Following in the footprints of

Claude Alexandre de Bonneval Claude Alexandre, Count of Bonneval (14 July 1675 – 23 March 1747), was a French army officer who later went into the service of the Ottoman Empire, eventually converting to Islam and becoming known as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa. Life The descenda ...

, known as Humbaracı Ahmed Pasha, François de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to make

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

s, and was instrumental in the creation of mobile artillery units. He built fortifications on the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later naval school. He travelled across the Ottoman Empire, visiting coastal cities around the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, mainly

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

and

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

. He also prospected the area for the construction of a canal in Suez. Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Friedhof - Grab von Baron Franz von Toth - 1

François Baron de Tott's Memoirs were published in four volumes. He returned to Hungary from Switzerland, where he had moved after the French Revolution. He died on September 24, 1793, in Hungary. Tott was the father of artist Sophie de Tott.

Bibliography

* Tott (Baron Ferenc de), ''Memoires du Baron de Tott Sur les Turcs et les Tartares'', Amsterdam, 1784 and 1785, 203 pp., 220 pp., 180 pp. and 152 pp.ILAB
and Paris 1785 in two Volumes, 273 pp., 264 pp. Volume
1
an
2
of the 1784 edition, and volume
12
an
3
of a 1785 English translation. * Deherain (Henri), ''La mission du baron de Tott et de Pierre Ruffin auprès du khan de Crimée'', '' Revue de l'histoire des colonies françaises'', 1923, 1-32 * Farnaud (Christophe), ''Culture et politique: la mission secrète du baron de Tott au Levant'', mémoire de maîtrise, université de Paris-IV, 1988 * Font-Reaulx (Anne de), ''Présence française dans l'Empire ottoman au XVIIIe siècle: le baron de Tott (1733-1793)'', in Position des thèses de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1964, 65-69 * Laulan (Robert), ''Un artilleur français improvisé à Constantinople au XVIIIe siècle, le baron de Tott'', Revue de l'artillerie, 1932, CX, 343-363, 392-411 et 460-481 * Peyssonnel (Claude Charles de), ''Lettres de M. de Peyssonnel, ancien consul à Smyrne, contenant quelques observations relatives aux mémoires qui ont paru sous le nom de Baron de Tott'', Amsterdam, 1785 * Saman (Edouard), ''François de Tott, diplomate et baron de Louis XVI'', Marseille, 118, 1979, 84-95 * Vissière (I.): " Les Turcs du baron de Tott ", in La Méditerranée au XVIIIe siècle, CAER, Université de Provence, 1987, 251-272

External links

Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, on the Turks and the Tatars Vols. III
an
III
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Who is who

Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron de Tott, Francois 1733 births 18th-century French military personnel 1793 deaths Hungarian nobility Barons of Tott 18th-century French diplomats French travel writers French political writers 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers 18th-century Hungarian people French people of Hungarian descent French male non-fiction writers 18th-century French memoirists

Career

See also

Bibliography

External links

References