François de Noailles

François de Noailles, (2 July 1519 – 19 September 1585) Papal Prothonotary, made Bishop of Dax in 1556, was French ambassador in Venice in the 1560s,[1] and French ambassador of Charles IX to the Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1575.[2]

Not to be confused with François de Noailles (1905–2009).

François was one of three brothers who served as French diplomats, three of the 19 children of Louis de Noailles and Catherine de Pierre-Buffière.[3] He was born on 2 July 1519 at the Château de Noillac.

Within the context of a Franco-Ottoman alliance, and the obtention of special trading and diplomatic privileges between France and the Ottoman Empire since 1535-1536, François de Noailles endeavoured to maintain the diplomatic monopoly of France with the Ottoman Empire, in order to have economic and political leverage in the Mediterranean, against Spain and Italian city-states.[4]

After the Battle of Lepanto, he tried to mitigate the impact of the Christian victory over the Turk, claiming that overall not much ground had been gained over the Ottomans.[5]

François de Noailles, Bishop of Dax, was a pro-Huguenot. In 1574, François de Noailles worked at obtaining the support of the Ottoman ruler Selim II in favour of William of Orange and the Dutch rebellion.[6] Selim II sent his support through a messenger, who endeavoured to put the Dutch in contact with the rebellious Moriscos of Spain and the pirates of Algiers.[7] Selim also sent a great fleet which conquered Tunis in October 1574, thus succeeding in reducing Spanish pressure on the Dutch, and leading to negotiations at the Conference of Breda.[7]

François died at Bayonne on the 19 or 20 September 1585.[8]

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Guillaume de Grandchamp de Grantrie		 French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
1571-1575		 Succeeded by
Gilles de Noailles

See also
  • French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire

Notes
  1. The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) by Kenneth M. Setton, p.830
  2. Firearms of the Islamic world in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait Robert Elgood, Tareq Rajab Museum (Kuwait) I.B.Tauris, 1995 ISBN 1-85043-963-X, p.240
  3. Teulet, JB Alexandre, ed., Relations Politiques de la France Et de L'Espagne Avec L'Ecosse Au XVIe Siècle: Correspondances Françaises 1515-1603, vol.1, Paris (1862), viii-ix.
  4. Anti-Italianism in sixteenth-century France Henry Heller University of Toronto Press, 2003 ISBN 0-8020-3689-9. p.108
  5. The Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II Vol II Fernand Braudel, University of California Press, 1996, p.1103
  6. The General crisis of the seventeenth century by Geoffrey Parker, p.61
  7. Parker, p.61
  8. De Larroque, Tamizey, 'Biographie Politique de François de Noailles', in Revue de gascogne: bulletin bimestrial de la société historique de Gascogne, vol. 6, (January 1865) pp.9-25.
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