François Pouqueville

François Pouqueville
François Pouqueville in front of Ioannina (Collection du Chateau de Versailles)
Born	(1770-11-04)4 November 1770 Le Merlerault, Normandy, France
Died	20 December 1838(1838-12-20) (aged 68) Paris, France
Nationality	France
Occupation	Academician, diplomat, writer, physician, historian, archaeologist
Known for	His influential diplomacy and writings

François Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville (French: [pukvil]; 4 November 1770 – 20 December 1838) was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, member of the Institut de France.

First as the Turkish Sultan's hostage, then as Napoleon Bonaparte's general consul at the court of Ali Pasha of Ioannina, he travelled extensively throughout Ottoman occupied Greece from 1798 to 1820.

With his far reaching diplomacy and with his writings, he became a prominent architect of the Philhellenism movement throughout Europe, and contributed eminently to the liberation of the Greeks, and to the rebirth of the Greek Nation.

From a young age, his uncommon talent as a writer reveals itself. He began a lifelong correspondence with his younger brother, Hugues, and their dear sister, Adèle, the three remaining very close throughout their lives.

His innumerable detailed letters to his siblings are still today an exceptional source of knowledge on every aspect of the life of a world traveller, explorer, and diplomat, during the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Empire, and the Restoration of the French Monarchy, at the turn of the 19th century.

François Pouqueville studied at the college of Caen before joining the Lisieux seminary. He became deacon and was ordained at 21. He then was vicar in his native county of Montmarcé.

Initially known for his convictions as young Royalist minister, he was protected and saved by his own congregation from the cleansing massacres orchestrated against the aristocrats by some uncontrolled revolutionary mobs during the Reign of Terror period.

However, in these exalting times, like many of the young French , he started supporting the rising democratic movement and, when on 14 July 1793 (year 2 of the French Republic) the primary Assembly of Le Merlerault adopted the new Constitution, François Pouqueville was its Secretary.