Pierre Dugua de Mons

Background

Pierre Dugua de Mons was born about 1560 in in Royan, Saintonge, southwestern France. His family, of Italian origin, was Catholic, but Monts was Protestant .

Career

He served Henry IV of France with great devotion. In 1603 he was made director of the "Compagnie Française" and sailed the following year to America, taking as his lieutenants Poutrincourt, Biencourt, Pont-Gravé, and Samuel de Champlain, who already had been in Canada. They settled at Port Royal in order to encourage the fur trade, and Monts returned to France the same year. In the meantime his privilege had been revoked, but he regained it, and again sent to Canada, Champlain, who eventually founded Quebec (1608). The murder of Henry IV (1610) and the eclipse of the Protestants frustrated all Monts's plans, and he died in poverty the following year in Paris.

Achievements

• Monts founded the first permanent French settlement in Canada. He travelled to northeastern North America for the first time in 1599 with Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit.

Religion

His family was Catholic, but Monts was Protestant.

References

• Pierre Dugua de Mons gentilhomme royannais premier colonisateur du canada