INDEPTH: CHAMPLAIN ANNIVERSARY
Biography: Samuel de Champlain, father of New France
Alison Hancock, CBC News Online | March 5, 2004
Considering that he's often credited with being a founder of this country, Champlain's life story remains – almost 400 years after his death – quite a mystery.
Read more about Champlain's 'portrait'
Courtesy: canadiana.org
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We know virtually nothing of Samuel de Champlain's childhood. Even his date of birth is not known for sure, although it is thought to be between 1567 and 1570.
Champlain was born in Brouage, then an important sea port on France's Atlantic coast between Bordeaux and La Rochelle in the old province of Saintonge. His 1610 marriage certificate names his father as Antoine de Champlain, a sea captain, and his mother as Dame Marguerite le Roi.
It is thought Champlain was born a Protestant as Brouage was a Huguenot centre, and Protestant children were often given Old Testament names. By 1603, however, he was Catholic. He preached the Catholic doctrine to the natives he met at Tadoussac.
Growing up in Brouage, a town which supplied salt to the fishing fleets of Europe, Champlain must have been exposed to seafaring from a early age, and likely went to sea as a boy. In 1613, on the publication of his book Voyages, he wrote to the Queen that his love of navigation had been a lifelong affair: "This art it is which from my tender youth won my love."
Champlain was a soldier before he became an explorer. He served in Henry IV's army as "marechal des logis" (billeting officer) in Brittany
during the religious wars that ended with the Treaty of Vervins in 1598.
Henry demobilized his army and Champlain was out of work.
We know from Champlain's own writing that he decided to go to Spain to "cultivate acquaintances" so that he could make a voyage to the West Indies. He had an uncle, "le capitaine Provençal," who, as Pilot-General of the Spanish Navy, was charged with repatriating the Spanish army from Brittany. Champlain sought out his uncle, and sailed with him to Spain where he found a passage to the West Indies
on the St. Julian in January 1599. The St. Julian annually took supplies
to the Spanish colonies, then returned to Spain with treasure.
On his return, two-and-a-half years later, Champlain wrote an illustrated account of his voyage, and from this we know that he spent a month in Mexico City, and visited Panama and Havana.
In 1601, an event took place which was to shape Champlain's destiny. His uncle, Guillaume Hellaine (the same capitaine Provençal), died leaving Champlain a fortune.
Champlain had cared for his uncle, who was married to his mother's sister, during his final illness.
The legacy consisted of extensive lands near the Protestant stronghold of La Rochelle.
Champlain's wealth could have supported a comfortable lifestyle as gentleman farmer, but instead it gave him the independence to pursue his life's work.
Back in France, Henry IV awarded Champlain a pension. At Court he met Aymar
de Chastes, the Vice-Admiral of France, and it was de Chastes who invited
Champlain to sail to Tadoussac with Pont-Gravé in 1603.
The following year, 1604, Champlain sailed as geographer on the voyage commanded by Pierre du Gua de Monts. Although Champlain wrote the date as "April 7th", historians concur that this was an error and the ships actually sailed March 7th. It was this voyage that led to the founding of Acadia.
This colony was recalled to France in 1607, and the following year Champlain sailed on the Don-de-Dieu, his first position of command, to found Quebec.
Champlain's wife, Hélène Boullé, 1620
-National Archives
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On December 29, 1610, 40-year-old Champlain married Hélène Boullé
at Saint-Germain-L'Auxerrois in Paris. She was only 12 – a marriageable age at that time – and her parents demanded a lapse of two years before cohabitation.
Hélène's father Nicolas was the Lord Chamberlain of France, and her brother had been at Port Royal. Champlain's child-bride remained in Paris when he made his yearly trips across the Atlantic to Quebec, although she visited Quebec in 1620.
Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France, died in Quebec City on Christmas Day 1635.
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The Works of Champlain and The History of New France by Marc Lescarbot are available at: The Champlain Society
READING:
Champlain by Joe C. W. Armstrong (MacMillan of Canada, 1987)
The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 by Marcel Trudel (McLelland and Stewart, 1973)
Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France by Samuel Eliot Morison (Little Brown and Company, 1972)
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