Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (
Villegaignon,
Seine et Marne,
France,
1510 –
Beauvais,
January 9,
1571) was a French naval officer (vice-
admiral of
Brittany) who attempted to help the
Huguenots in France escape persecution.
A notable public figure in his time, Villegaignon was a mixture of soldier, scientist, explorer, adventurer and entrepreneur. He fought
pirates in the
Mediterranean and participated in several wars. He also commanded the French naval fleet that took
Mary Stuart, then five years old, to France, since she was promised to marry the
Dauphin of France.
In his book, "
Brazil, A Land of the Future", Austrian writer
Stefan Zweig describes well the colorful character of Villegaignon:
"Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, half pirate, half scientist, a dubious but attractive figure, is a typical product of the Renaissance (...) He has been brilliant in war and a dilettante in the arts. He has been praised by Ronsard and feared by the Court, because his character is incalculable. Hating any regular occupation, despising the most enviable positions and the highest honours, his volatile spirit prefers to be free to indulge unhampered its fantastic moods. The Huguenots believe he is a Catholic and the Catholics believe he's a Huguenot. Nobody knows which side he is serving, and he himself probably doesn't know much more than that he wants to do something big, something different from anyone else, something wild and daring, something romantic and extraordinary."
Villegaignon became an important historical figure in his failed dream to build a "
France Antarctique", by invading present-day
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil in
1555 with a fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and colonists, mainly French Huguenots and
Swiss Calvinists who sought to escape Catholic persecution in
Europe. He wanted also to secure a permanent base in Brazil in order to explore
brazil wood, then a very valuable source of red
dye and hard wood for construction (which gave the name to what was to become Brazil), and to explore
precious metals and
stones, which the Europeans believed to exist in abundance in the land.
After a number of battles against the
Portuguese, the French colonists were defeated by
Estácio de Sá, a nephew of the third Portuguese Governor-General of Brazil,
Mem de Sá, in January 20,
1567. Villegaignon had already returned to France, in 1557, disgusted with the infighting between Catholics and Protestants in the small colony. He embraced the Catholic faith in France and died on
January 9,
1571 in
Beauvais.
