- François Baron de Tott
François Baron de Tott ( _hu. Báró Tóth Ferenc) (
August 17 ,1733 ,Chamigny ,France -September 24 ,1793 ,Hungary ) was anaristocrat and a French military officer of Hungarian origin.Born on
August 17 ,1733 inChamigny , a village in northernFrance , the descendant of a Hungarian nobleman, who had emigrated to theOttoman Empire and then moved on toFrance with the cavalry of CountMiklós Bercsényi , and was later raised to the rank ofbaron .As a youngster, François joined the regiment his father was serving in, and in 1754 was promoted to the rank of
Lieutenant . In 1755 he travelled toIstanbul , thecapital city of the Ottoman Empire, as the secretary of his uncleCharles Gravier, comte de Vergennes , who had been appointed ambassador. His main duty was to learn theTurkish language , to investigate the situation in the Ottoman Empire and to gather information about theCrimean Khanate .He returned to
Paris in 1763, and was sent toSwitzerland in 1766 by the French government. In 1767, he was appointedconsul in Crimea in order to learn about the country and incite theCrimean Tatars to rebel against the Imperial Russia. François de Tott played a major role during theRusso-Turkish War (1768–1774) . Leaving Crimea for a while, he was commissioned by the Ottoman government with the task of defending theDardanelles against the Russian fleet.Following in the footprints of
Claude Alexandre de Bonneval , known as Humbaracı Ahmed Pasha, François de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to makehowitzer s, and was instrumental in the creation of mobile artillery units. He built fortifications on theBosphorus and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later naval school.He travelled across the Ottoman Empire, visiting coastal cities around the
Mediterranean Sea , mainlyAlexandria ,Aleppo ,Smyrna ,Salonika andTunis . He also prospected the area for the construction of a canal in Suez.François Baron de Tott's Memoirs were published in four volumes. [Napoleon Bonaparte, "Mémoires du Baron de tott (1789. Janvier)," "Napoleon: Manuscrits inédits, 1786-1791 publiés d’après les originaux autographes par Frédéric Masson et Guido Biagi" (Paris: Société d’Éditions Littéraires et Artistiques, 1910), 241-248.] He returned to Hungary from Switzerland, where he had moved after the
French Revolution . He died onSeptember 24 ,1793 in Hungary.Bibliography
* Tott (Baron Ferenc de), "Memoires du Baron de Tott Sur les Turcs et les Tartares", Amsterdam, 1784 and 1785, 203 pp., 220 pp., 180 pp. and 152 pp. [ [http://www.ilab.org/db/book2285_696.html ILAB] fr icon] and Paris 1785 in two Volumes, 273 pp., 264 pp.
* Deherain (Henri), "La mission du baron de Tott et de Pierre Ruffin auprès du khan de Crimée", Revue de l'histoire des colonies françaises, 1923, 1-32 fr icon
* Farnaud (Christophe), "Culture et politique: la mission secrète du baron de Tott au Levant", mémoire de maîtrise, université de Paris-IV, 1988 fr icon
* Font-Reaulx (Anne de), "Présence française dans l'Empire ottoman au XVIIIe siècle: le baron de Tott (1733-1793)", in Position des thèses del'Ecole des Chartes , 1964, 65-69 fr icon
* Laulan (Robert), "Un artilleur français improvisé à Constantinople au XVIIIe siècle, le baron de Tott", Revue de l'artillerie, 1932, CX, 343-363, 392-411 et 460-481 fr icon
* Peyssonnel (Claude Charles de), "Lettres de M. de Peyssonnel, ancien consul à Smyrne, contenant quelques observations relatives aux mémoires qui ont paru sous le nom de Baron de Tott", Amsterdam, 1785 fr icon
* Saman (Edouard), "François de Tott, diplomate et baron de Louis XVI", Marseille, 118, 1979, 84-95 fr icon Vissière (I.): " Les Turcs du baron de Tott ", in La Méditerranée au XVIIIe siècle, CAER, Université de Provence, 1987, 251-272 fr iconExternal links
* [http://www.kimkimdir.gen.tr/kimkimdir.php?id=606 Who is who] tr icon
* [http://www.crlv.org/outils/encyclopedie/afficher.php?encyclopedie_id=209 Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages] fr iconReferences
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