450ème anniversaire en vidéo - Florida Celebrates 450 Years of French History (movies)

Colloque

Jean Ribault, Dieppe et La Floride

samedi 4 mai 2013

Salle des congrès Boulevard de Verdun

Dieppe

Pré-programme des interventions (sous réserve de modifications)

(par ordre alphabétique des auteurs)

Amiral François Bellec, le partage du monde après le Traité de Tordesillas

Franck Boitelle, présentation de la biographie de Jean Ribault qu’il vient d’écrire

John de Bry, archéologue, autour des fouilles sur la côte atlantique, lieu du naufrage des navires  de Jean Ribault en 1565

Pascale Goutagny, autour de la cartographie

Professeur Haudrère, Jean Ribault et l’histoire maritime

Pierre Ickowicz, conservateur du Musée de Dieppe, Dieppe, Jean Ribault et la navigation

Hélène Lhoumeau, les expéditions de Floride

Philippe Montillet, les commémorations Jean Ribault

Jocelyn Nayrand, éditeur, en 2012, des textes de Laudonnière et de Le Chaleux autre marin Dieppois contemporain de Jean Ribault membre de l’expédition de 1565

Annick Notter,  conservateur du Musée de La Rochelle, organisatrice de l’exposition Floride un rêve français

Deux repas sont prévus par les organisateurs : un déjeuner  sur  place et un  dîner au casino  ( inscription nécessaire 45 €*)

La journée se terminera au château-musée de Dieppe où la colonne Jean Ribault sera mise en lumière.

* mel:  terresetmersdivoire (at) gmail.com)

A century of commemorations around Jean Ribault and Florida

1921: excavations done at Parris Island under the orders of General Eli Cole found the remains of ‘Charlesfort’ and the exact location of Jean Ribault’s first 1562 colony.

May 1, 1924: inauguration of the Jean Ribault Monument at the mouth of Saint John’s River (Mayport) in Jacksonville. Were present Pastor Lauga, representing the French Ambassador, and Mr de Simonnin, General Consul of France in New Orleans who retraced the history of French settlements in Florida.

May 5, 1924: ceremony in Parris Island (South Carolina), organized by the “Huguenot Society of South Carolina”, on the location of Charles Fort. A commemorative stone was sealed by the representative of France and American troops rendered honors. General Cole handed over a section of a post from the fort that was deposited in the Museum of French Protestant History in Paris.

March 27, 1927: thanks to a grant from the US Senate, provided at the request of the “Huguenot Society of South Carolina”, a monument was erected in Parris Island in presence of the secretary of the French Embassy in Washington and the Secretary of the Navy.

July 7, 1935: at the suggestion of the “Friends of the Old Dieppe” and the “French Protestant Friendship Committee”, and with support from Mayor Mr Perrotte, a monument designed by Dieppe architect Georges Feray (1892-1965) and sculpted by L. Ghiot, was erected in the courtyard of the Castle-Museum of Dieppe. Military honors were rendered and the US Consul was leading the US delegation.

1958: the Jean Ribault Monument was transferred from Mayport to Fort Caroline National Park.

2012: 450th anniversary. Events in Florida (April 26-May 6), in South Carolina, in France (university seminar on May 12), exhibition and seminar in La Rochelle in the fall of 2012), , etc.

2012: archeological project by University of North Florida to find the remains of Fort Caroline.

… Spring 2014: Jacksonville (Florida), a university seminar is in the works.

A few dates related to Jean Ribault

Between 1515 and 1520: birth (no official record was found)
1555, 1557, 1560: several maritime campaigns against the Flemish who were vassals of the Spanish crown in the conflict opposing Henri II’s France to Philip II’s Spain.
February 18, 1562: Jean Ribault departs France via Le Havre de Grâce (now Le Havre), for an exploratory and sovereignty expedition for France in the New World.
April 29-May 1, 1562: arrival in Florida. First French settlement in Charles Fort (in nowadays South Carolina).
June 11, 1562: Jean Ribault sails back to France to report his discovery, with the goal of returning to Florida with colons, primarily Huguenots who would find a safe haven during the troubled times of the Wars of Religion in France. Back on July 20 in Dieppe then occupied by Huguenots who don’t recognize the Crown’s authority, Jean Ribault joins them. But the city surrenders to the King in October. Jean Ribault, along with other local dignitaries, flees to England.
1563: Jean Ribault is in England and offers his services to the queen Elisabeth the first. He publishes the account of his trip to Florida in English in London. The Queen, getting world of the perilous situation of the small garrison left behind in Florida, offers to launch an expedition under Jean Ribault’s command. But the sailor does not want to serve England. He is imprisoned in the Tower of London. He will escape and return to France in 1565.
1564: second French expedition, without Jean Ribault. René de Laudonnière establishes the fort La Caroline at the mouth of the Fleuve de May, nowadays St John’s River.
May 26, 1565: new sailing of Jean Ribault for Florida, for a settlement expedition.
Second half of August 1565 (August 28?): arrival on Florida’s coast.
September 20 1565: Fort Caroline, protected only by a small garrison under the order of Laudonnière, falls to the Spanish who slaughter everyone who could not escape.
End of September 1565: assassination and death in Matanzas (South of de Saint Augustine), of Jean Ribault and the majority of the French who had stayed with him, a storm having caused them to lose their ship and to fight on land.

French expeditions in Florida (1562-1567)

Summary of the 1562 expedition

On February 18, 1562, a French sailor left the port of Dieppe, then one of the major French ports, on his way to the New World.
The expedition reached the Florida coast on April 30 and Jean Ribault, its commander, erected a stone column bearing the crest of France to claim the sovereignty of his country on this part of American soil. The gesture was important since it was going against the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas which has shared the new lands, “discovered or to be discovered”, between Portugal and Spain.
He settled a small garrison in a place he named Charlesfort (South Carolina) in the honor of King Charles IX and sailed back to France to announce his discovery, his claim on the land and to organize a new trip that was to bring colons. It ended up being his second in command, René de Laudonnière, who came back first un June 1564 and founded Fort Caroline near current-time Jacksonville. Ribault came back in 1565 but the expedition ended with the massacre or almost all the French by the Spanish.

450 years later, this adventure is little known except by a few specialists of maritime history and 16th century expeditions. In Dieppe, in the courtyard of the Castle-turned-museum, a replica of the 1562 column was erected between the two World Wars, and a street and port jetty are named after Jean Ribault.

In Jacksonville, Florida, Jean Ribault is remembered, citizens considering him to be the founder of their town. The City of Jacksonville was founded 450 years ago by Jean Ribault, making it one of the oldest cities in the US. Several official buildings, including a library and a school, are named after him. North of the city lies the Fort Caroline national Memorial and where a replica of the 1562 columns was erected in 1924 and named The Ribault monument. The University of North Florida-UNF) is working on this adventure and archeologists excavate the locations of the first settlements.

The four Florida expeditions

1562: first Florida expedition led by Jean Ribault who give an account of it in his journal published in London in 1563: The whole and true Discoverye of Terra Florida.
1564: second trip led by captain de Laudonnière who was Jean Ribault second in command in 1562.
1565: third expedition led by Jean Ribault, that ended with the massacre of the French and the assassination of Jean Ribault, ordered by Spanish commander Menendez de Avila.
1567: fourth expedition led by captain de Gourgues who wanted to avenge and wash the honor of his country.

Brief review of four expeditions in Florida

1562: the first expedition to Florida led by Jean Ribault who realizes in 1563
in his narrative published in London in 1563 and The Whole true Discoverye of Terra
Florida. French translation by Suzanne Lussagnet in The French
America during the second half of the sixteenth century. Volume II: The French in Florida,
Paris, PUF, 1958.

1564: second voyage under Captain Laudonniere of which was the second of John
Ribault in 1562

1565: third expedition led by Jean Ribault, trip that ended with the massacre
the French commander decided by the Spanish Menendez de Avila, including
the murder of Jean Ribault.

1567: fourth expedition led by Captain Gourgues "and eager to revenge
raise the honor of his country. "