François Fidèle Ripaud de Montaudevert (1755 – 1814) was a French privateer best known for bringing a group of volunteers from Isle de France to aid Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore in his conflicts with the British East India Company.
François Fidèle Ripaud | |
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| Occupation | privateer |
Biography
editFrançois Ripaud was born in Saffré, northwestern France, in a middle-class family. He enrolled as a sailor at aged 11, on the Le Palmier. In 1770, he reached Mauritius, where he married in 1784. He had two children.[1] In 1797, he sailed from Mauritius to Mangalore and sought a meeting with Tipu Sultan, in which he promised to raise a large force in Mauritius for the Sultan. In 1798, Ripaud came back to Mauritius with two envoys from Tipu Sultan. Anne Joseph Hippolyte de Maurès, Governor-General of Île de France (Mauritius) made a proclamation, on 29 January 1798, seeking volunteers for an "expedition to travel to Mysore to assist Tipu in his resistance to British encroachment in south India".[2] Approximately 100 men were recruited, and they left for Mangalore on the French frigate La Preneuse on 7 March 1798.
The French involvement provided Governor-General Richard Wellesley with the pretext to invade Mysore, which culminated in the death of Tipu in May 1799.[3]
References
edit- ^ "dgdgf". Cs.asm.free.fr. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "The Tyrant Diaries | Francois Gautier". Outlookindia.com. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Seringapatam 1799: Malartic". Lib.mq.edu.au. 2007-01-03. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
Bibliography
edit- À la mer, en guerre. Jean Feildel, 1965.
- Ces Hommes de la Mer. Marcelle Lagesse, IPC Edition, ISBN 2-906761-06-0.
- Voyages, aventures et combats, Chapter 14. Louis Garneray, Paris, Éditions Phébus, 1984 ; Rééd. Payot, 1991.