Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois (c. 12 October 1671 – 12 July 1749) was a French Naval officer who served as Governor of New France from 1726 to 1746.
Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois | |
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| Born | 12 October 1671 Orléans, France |
| Died | 12 July 1749 (aged 77) Paris, France |
| Occupation(s) | Career in the Marines, Governor General of New France |
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Biography
editSon of François IV de Beauharnais, Charles had two brothers who also impacted the history of New France. Claude de Beauharnois was a French Naval officer who spent time commanding ships that maintained supply lines to the colony and François de Beauharnois was intendant of New France for a time.
The governor worked well with frontier traders, explorers, and missionaries. His term saw a great expansion in the number of western forts with the leadership of people like La Vérendrye, and the linkage of Canadian and Louisiana colonies. Exploration was pushed west to the Rocky Mountains by La Vérendrye and his sons.
Despite a generally peaceful and prosperous administration, he was blamed for the fall of Fortress Louisbourg in 1745, and was recalled in 1746, returning to France to following year.[1]
Beauharnais was one of three governors-general of Canada known to have owned enslaved people. During his tenure, he owed 27 people, among them two Africans and a number of Meskwaki and Inuit.[2]
Legacy
editMany places carry his name including the town of Beauharnois, Quebec and Fort Beauharnois, Minnesota.
References
edit- ^ Winsor, Justin, ed. (1887). Narrative and Critical History of America: The English and French in North America, 1689–1763. Vol. 5, Part 2. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- ^ Trudel, Marcel (1960). L'esclavage au Canada français: Histoire et conditions de l'esclavage [Slavery in French Canada: History and Conditions of Slavery] (in Canadian French). Quebec City, Québec, Canada: Les Presses Universites Laval. p. 137.
External links
edit
- Standen, S. Dale (1974). "Beauharnois de la Boische, Charles de, Marquis de Beauharnois". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. III (1741–1770) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
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