Charles Godeheu

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Charles Robet Godeheu de Zaimont was Acting Governor General of Pondicherry who is the Commissioner of French army during Dupleix's reign.

[edit] Important incidents

In 1754, Charles Robert Godeheu gave up with the English the Indian territories, especially Madras which was conquered in 1941 conquered by Dupleix and left French to maintain on Deccan region. Actually, from 1751 Dupleix's star began to wane. Robert Clive, a discontented young British factor who had left the countinghouse for the field, seized the fort of Arcot, political capital of Karnataka, with 210 men in August 1751. This daring stroke had the hoped-for effect of diverting half of Chanda Sahib's army to its recovery. Clive's successful 50-day defense permitted Mohamed Ali Khan Walajan to procure allies from Tanjore and the Marathas. The French were worsted, and they were eventually forced to surrender in June 1752. Dupleix never recovered from this blow; Dupleix was superseded in August 1754 by his director Godehou, who made a unfavourable settlement with the British. On 26 December 1954, he made a treaty with Thomas Saunders, the English East India Company's resident at Madras, that forbids to the British and French companies all political activity in India and the activity must be strictly commercial.

His intervention in French activity at that time made an unerasing scar on Dupleix's efforts and became death blow for future expansions of French Colonial Empire in India.

[edit] Titles

Preceded by: Joseph François Dupleix

Governor General of Pondichéry (Acting) 15 October 1754–February 1755

Succeeded by: Georges Duval de Leyrit