Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (May 2014)|
|Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial|
Portrait of Vaudreuil by Donat Nonnotte
|Governor of Louisiana|
|Preceded by||Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne|
|Succeeded by||Louis Billouart|
|Governor General of New France|
|Preceded by||Marquis Du Quesne|
|Succeeded by||Province of Quebec|
|Governor of Trois-Rivières|
|Preceded by||Jean-Marie-Josué Boisberthelot de Beaucours|
|Succeeded by||Claude-Michel Bégon de la Cour|
|Born||22 November 1698
Quebec, New France
|Died||4 August 1778
Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Marquis de Vaudreuil (22 November 1698 – 4 August 1778) was a Canadian-born colonial governor of Canada (New France) in North America. He was governor of French Louisiana (1743–1753) and in 1755 became the last Governor-General of New France. In 1759 and 1760 the British conquered the colony in the Seven Years' War (known in the United States as the French and Indian War).
Life and work
He was born to the Governor-General of New France, Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil and his wife Louise-Élisabeth, daughter of Pierre de Joybert de Soulanges et de Marson, in Quebec. He was the uncle of Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil.
Vaudreuil-Cavagnial rose quickly through the New France military and civil service, in part owing to his father's patronage but also due to his own innate ability. Commissioned an officer of the French army while still a youth, in 1733 he was appointed governor of Trois-Rivières, and in 1742 of French Louisiana, serving there from to May 10, 1743 to February 9, 1753 and proving himself a skilled officer and capable administrator. He moved to France in 1753 before being appointed by King Louis XV as governor of New France in 1755.
The first governor of New France to be born in Canada, his leadership was questioned and some of his orders were ignored by officials of the French army such as Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who judged him to be "too Canadian". Although Vaudreuil-Cavagnial held supreme civil authority in Canada and was technically commander-in-chief of all French forces there, he clashed often with Montcalm, the military commander in the field, who resented his oversight role. The two men grew to detest one another, much to the detriment of the French war effort. Vaudreuil-Cavagnal had excellent relations with the Canadian militia and with the Native-Canadian tribes allied with France; Montcalm looked down on both, preferring to rely upon French regular troops and making poor use of irregular Canadian and pro-French Native-Canadian forces.
After Montcalm lost to the British forces under Maj. Gen. James Wolfe at Quebec City in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Vaudreuil-Cavagnial tried to rally resistance to the British, but to no avail. He was forced to surrender Montreal on 8 September 1760 to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Amherst.
The Marquis sailed back to France in British custody, and was imprisoned, from November 1761 to May 1762, in the Bastille prior to trial for the frauds and peculations that had helped to ruin Canada. He was joined by Bigot, Cadet, Pean, Breard, Varin, Le Mercier, Penisseault, Maurin and Copron amongst others. After an inquiry in 1763, he was exonerated; Bigot and Cadet were banished, and the latter ordered to repay six million Francs. Of the 21 men brought to trial, 10 were condemned, six were acquitted, three received an admonition and two were dismissed for want of evidence. Absent were 34, of whom seven were sentenced in default, and judgement was reserved in the case of the rest.
After selling his Canadian seigneuries at Vaudreuil and Rigaud to his cousin, Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière, he retired to his ancestral estate near Rouen, although the episode ruined his fortunes. He died in Paris on 4 August 1778.
His nephew Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil was the second in command of the French naval units supporting the Americans during the American Revolution. He was present at the defeat of the British fleet by the French at the pivotal Battle of the Chesapeake during the siege of Yorktown in 1781, although he was later defeated by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Saintes.
- Canadian Hereditary Peers
- Articles of Capitulation of Montreal
- Timeline of Quebec history
- Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil
- Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil
- Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil
- W. J. Eccles. "Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Pierre de, marquis de Vaudreuil", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000, retrieved March 15, 2009
- Parkman, Francis: "Montcalm and Wolfe"
- W. J. Eccles. "Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Pierre de, marquis de Vaudreuil", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000
- Barron, Bill (1975). The Vaudreuil Papers: A Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the French Province of Louisiana, 1743-1753, New Orleans: Polyanthos, 543 p.
- Frégault, Guy (1952). Le Grand marquis : Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil et la Louisiane, Montréal: Fides, 481 p.
- Frégault, Guy (1955). La Guerre de la Conquête, Montréal: Fides, 514 p.
- Roy, Pierre-Georges (1938). La Famille de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Lévis, 216 p. (online)
- Le Jeune, Louis, "Pierre de Cavagnal, marquis de Vaudreuil", in Dictionnaire général de biographie, histoire, littérature, agriculture, commerce, industrie et des arts, sciences, mœurs, coutumes, institutions politiques et religieuses du Canada, volume II, Ottawa: Université d’Ottawa, 1931, pp. 764–767. (online)
- Casgrain, Henri-Raymond (1895). Lettres du marquis de Vaudreuil au chevalier de Lévis, 215 p. (online)
- Casgrain, Henri-Raymond (1890). Extraits des archives des Ministères de la marine et de la guerre à Paris : Canada, Correspondance générale, MM. Duquesne et Vaudreuil, Gouverneurs-generaux, 1755-1760, Québec : L.J. Demers, 322 p. (online)
- Vaudreuil, Pierre de Rigaud de (1763). Mémoire pour le marquis de Vaudreuil, grand-croix de l'Ordre royale & militaire de Saint-Louis, ci-devant gouverneur & lieutenant général de la Nouvelle France, Imprimerie de Moreau, 46 p.
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- CyberAcadie : Biographie : Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, marquis de Vaudreuil (in French).
- Canadian Military Heritage - Mutual Dislike Between Colonial and Metropolitan Officers.
- 1759 From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham (Virtual Exhibition).
- National Battlefields Commission (Plains of Abraham).
Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville
|French Governor of Louisiana
Louis Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec
Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis Duquesne
|Governor General of New France
Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst