Chapter 1: A French Admiral and some hard wood.
The admiral himself, like any self respecting Frenchman, he had facial hair of sorts.
On one of those travels, he would get lucky [1] a large shipment of Brazil Wood had been leaving port near the bay of Guanabara and being the active experienced commander that he was, managed to capture the whole of the small fleet with minimal losses on his side and not letting a single enemy ship to flee. He brought his haul before the king of France Henry II who was impressed by the strong wood, sure it wasn't diamonds or gold or silver but it was still a precious almost exclusive resource that so far had only been found in Brazil, Villegagnon then requested to his King the possibility of establishing a permanent presence in the region, they already had knowledge of the land thanks to the friendly Tamoios and Portugal seemingly did not give it's American colony the time of the day[2], it was clear France had much to gain by taking over the place something Henry II seemingly agreed on and decided to give it a large sum of money[3] as well as soldiers to build a fortress for the unborn colony, it was way more than Villegagnon expected and he profusely thanked his monarch for trusting his advice and funding his idea.
Henry II of France, eternal enemy of the Huguenots, consolidator of royal power and had an eye for jousting.
Henry II of France, eternal enemy of the Huguenots, consolidator of royal power and had an eye for jousting.
Now, outside of hunting for Portuguese ships Villegagnon had a new target: hunting colonists. It wasn't easy as even the Portuguese had trouble finding willing people [4] to develop the land and had to turn to using degradados the criminals who for one reason or another were exiled into the colonies, while France certainly had it's high amount of criminals (Hugenots would count too if you asked Henry II), Villegagnon didn't want his colony to be made up of just dregs of society and low lifes, he wanted to truly build a kingdom worthy of His Majesty, one thing that did help him was the amount of publicity his campaign was having thanks to how much the king seemed interested in it, so outside of the funds he got from royals he managed to find a few nobles who wished to contribute (either out of genuine interest or to curry favor with the monarch by going along with his plans) as well as more colonists, with a few craftsmen in between [5] even if the admiral had to scoure some prisons in order to fill his quota. In 14 of August of 1555, they set off from Dieppe towards the Guanabara Bay.
Arriving in the 10 of November, the party were quick to set up camp in the island of Serigipe and thanks to the large number of soldiers, craftsmen and local natives, the dubbed Fort Coligny was completed in less than three months and counted with 10 batteries to protect the settlement [6]. After having made their strong point, they headed towards the Flamengo beach and the Carioca (or Carioqué River to the colonists) and Gloria hill and there founded Henriville in homage to the monarch funding the whole expedition, they would use the river as a source of fresh water and quickly began building up their new homes alongside their native allies.
Thanks to all their time working together, both groups quickly began working together on not only extracting Brazil wood and a few other plants but also some exotic animals that would be sent to Henry II alongside a letter requesting more colonists, especially craftsmen and soldiers, alongside some French women to marry his white countrymen since not all were willing to reproduce with the local native women, something Villegagnon took issue with but decided to not press it[7] out of fear of lack of loyalty when they were already surrounded by enemy waters and territory. Upon arrival of such items in the court, Henry II felt vindicated in his decision that the colony was worth it and while he could not fully fulfill all of his admirals requests, he did send a considerable amounts alongside a few more friars as given the intensity of the Counter Reformation as well as the fact the "Hugenot Menace" seemed to grow even amongst his nobles not coincidentally those who were the most against his reforms to continue centralization of the kingdom, at least Coligny remained loyal to the Church [8].
For four years the colony grew as the "reinforcements" had arrived and already children had been born in the colony, the soldiers were training some of the man and natives into a militia who already had a deep knowledge of the land, the priests that came were converting the local Tamoios either by themselves or with help of the Caboclo children of the natives who themselves shared their knowledge of what plants were good for medicine, which ones meant instant deaths, which fish were best to catch in the times of the year and how to protect against the unique Semitropical existence that was unfamiliar and hostile to French men used to Temperate weathers, the collecting of Brazil Wood kept making good profit in France and becoming the hulls of new ships of the navy.
The map of the colony showing off the strategic position of the place as well as the Fort de Coligny defending the heart of the bay.
However the first major problem of the colony would come with two major happenings: in the midst of 1557 Dom João III of Portugal dies and the regency of Dom Sebastião under his mother Catherine of Austria which will see the kingdom more aligned with Habsburg interests and nothing better exemplified that more than with the 1559 expedition led in person by Mem de Sá, the General Governor, initially grouping in the capital of the colony in Salvador they received reinforcements in the Capitanies of Ilhéus, Porto Seguro and Espírito Santo and set off with two ships and eight other smaller vessels. However, Tamoio scouts had spotted the fleet and Villegagnon was able to prepare a trap, using his two available ships in hiding, reinforcing the fortress and placing additional cannons in strategic hidden places for a surprise attack, so when the expedition of Sá came and delivered the ultimatum to the French colonists, upon the refusal he began his assault and thus signed his defeat as the hidden ships showed up behind his small fleet while the well built fort bombarded it as well, finally the hidden cannons were the coup de grâce that finished off the fleet with only one smaller ship barely limping away that Villegagnon decided wasn't worth the chance, especially once he had identified among the floating dead bodies, the armor that only a commander could have [9], he immediately despatched the fastest ship towards France with a emergency latter towards the king about the opportunity of a lifetime to secure the whole of Brazil for the crown: an assault on the capital of Salvador itself.
French illustration showing off the ill fated attack of Mem de Sa against Fort Coligny, from "La Cosmographie Universelle" made in 1560
The map of the colony showing off the strategic position of the place as well as the Fort de Coligny defending the heart of the bay.
However the first major problem of the colony would come with two major happenings: in the midst of 1557 Dom João III of Portugal dies and the regency of Dom Sebastião under his mother Catherine of Austria which will see the kingdom more aligned with Habsburg interests and nothing better exemplified that more than with the 1559 expedition led in person by Mem de Sá, the General Governor, initially grouping in the capital of the colony in Salvador they received reinforcements in the Capitanies of Ilhéus, Porto Seguro and Espírito Santo and set off with two ships and eight other smaller vessels. However, Tamoio scouts had spotted the fleet and Villegagnon was able to prepare a trap, using his two available ships in hiding, reinforcing the fortress and placing additional cannons in strategic hidden places for a surprise attack, so when the expedition of Sá came and delivered the ultimatum to the French colonists, upon the refusal he began his assault and thus signed his defeat as the hidden ships showed up behind his small fleet while the well built fort bombarded it as well, finally the hidden cannons were the coup de grâce that finished off the fleet with only one smaller ship barely limping away that Villegagnon decided wasn't worth the chance, especially once he had identified among the floating dead bodies, the armor that only a commander could have [9], he immediately despatched the fastest ship towards France with a emergency latter towards the king about the opportunity of a lifetime to secure the whole of Brazil for the crown: an assault on the capital of Salvador itself.
French illustration showing off the ill fated attack of Mem de Sa against Fort Coligny, from "La Cosmographie Universelle" made in 1560
Hello everyone! Welcome to my first TL on this site! This is something I had in mind for what? Over a year now? What's important is that I finally stopped procrastinating and thanks to having finished my first batch of college exams and having the time, I was able to research about the subject better in order to have plausible PODs so this could work. Anyways, footnote time.
[1]: in OTL, Villegagnon managed to find some good stuff here and there but wasn't too much to impress Henry I guess, here he hits the jackpot and is able to capture a large amount of Brazil Wood which further convinces Henry about the feasibility and profitability of an colony, our first POD.
[2]: It was true, Portugal wasn't giving too much care into Brazil, it was a decent source of Brazil Wood and sugar plantations were getting off the ground but it was small change compared to India, the East Indies/Spice Islands and even Africa. While Portugal will come to defend their territory their neglect of it will bite them in the ass.
[3]: Henry was quite the penny pincher here but given the status of debt the kingdom had it's not surprising but even then it was a reason for why the colony couldn't sustain itself or develop quick enough to stand on it's own feet here with a more impressive haul, Henry is willing to go the extra mile.
[4]: This was true in OTL, outside of a few adventurers and ambitious noblemen no one wanted to go there willingly, it was seen as a horrible fate, worse than death even. Fun fact about that, in one of Gil Vincente's play O Auto da Barca do Inferno one of the character outright prays to God for "rid him of hell and of going to Brazil amen", so there really was a dread for ending up there among the common Portuguese folk.
[5]: Another factor for the failure of the colony was the infighting and lack of loyalty between Villegagnon and the people he recruited, so here with a better reputation because of Henry's generosity more willingly people who trust or at least, recognize that Villegagnon is the one in charge will make things more stable.
[6]: Another butterfly, more people including professional soldiers and craftsmen means the natives aren't overworked as well as the fact the fort ends up bigger and done in smaller time window, the joint work also means the natives and colonists are getting along and bonding, another factor to keep the colony stable.
[7]: Villegagnon had this idea of marrying off the mostly male colonists towards the native women…. Forcibly with as you can guess was the cause of revolt for some of them who actually attempted a coup, which saw them executed and further weakening the colony. Here with better cooperation between both people, Villegagnon doesn't feel the need to push for something like that and instead just asks Henry for female colonists to sway those who refuse to be with native women.
[8]: A pretty significant POD too as Coligny remaining Catholic removes a key leading figure of the Hugenot movement and makes their leadership that much weaker, this will be better explained in the next update but just know that even with Protestant sympathies and Henry living on, he will remain a Catholic and loyal to the crown, especially given his importance in the next chapter…
[9]: Yep, Mem de Sá is dead, another pretty significant butterfly as it removes a competent administrator and military leader of Brazil and makes it even vulnerable especially since there will be disputes between family members and other influential men trying to take control.
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