Pigneau de Behaine

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Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau (1741 - 1799), commonly known as Pigneau de Behaine, was a French Catholic priest best known for his role in assisting Nguyen Anh (later Emperor Gia Long) to establish the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam after the Tay Son rebellion.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Meeting with Nguyen Anh 3 Intervention and return to Vietnam 4 References

[edit] Early life

Pigneau was born in Behaine, Origny-en-Thierache (later Aisne, France) and was trained as a missionary in the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres. He left France in 1765 to work in southern Vietnam. Pigneau had arrived just prior to the Burmese capture of Ayutthaya in Siam. After waiting for a few months in the Portuguese colony of Macau, Pigeanu was posted to work in a coastal border town Ha Tien, set up by missionaries who had been displaced by the Burmese. There he worked in a school with approximately forty students of Chinese, Siamese, and Vietnamese extraction. In 1768, the missionaries were jailed for three months when Siamese authorities complained to the local ruler Mac Thien Tu that the school had afforded shelter to a refugee Siamese prince. He was put into a wooden and iron frame fastened around his limbs weighing eight pounds. Pigneau refused family requests to return to France saying that his missionary work was more important than a comfortable life.In 1770, the school was attacked by Chinese and Cambodian pirates, who massacred some of the students and burnt down the establishment. Pigneau was forced to escape with the survivors to Pondicherry (now in Tamil Nadu, India), then a French territory, after a long sea journey through Malacca. While in Pondicherry, he was made Bishop of Adran and Apostolic Vicar of Cochinchina. He also completed a Vietnamese dictionary while in exile, following in the footsteps of Alexandre de Rhodes. In 1774, he went to Macau to gather staff before returning to re-establish himself in Ha Tien.

[edit] Meeting with Nguyen Anh

In 1777, the Tay Son brothers attacked Saigon and eliminated almost the entire Nguyen dynasty, with the fifteen-year-old Nguyen Anh managing to escape into the far south. He took refuge at Pigneau’s seminary in September and October, before both escaped to the island of Pulo Panjang in the Gulf of Siam. This was also a political step by Pigneau to align himself with Nguyen Anh, allowing himself a foray into politics. He became less of a missionary and more of a politician. In 1778, The Nguyen forces were able to recapture Saigon, before losing it again in 1781, being forced to retreat to the island of Phu Quoc. In 1782, the tide turned again and Nguyen Anh and Pigneau returned to Saigon. In 1783, the Nguyen were again defeated, and Nguyen Anh and Pigneau returned to Phu Quoc. They had to escape again when their hideout was discovered, being chased from island to island until they reached Siam. Nguyen Anh then asked Pigneau to appeal for French aid, and pledged to allow Pigneau to take his son Canh with him. Pigneau and the child prince then left in December, arriving in Pondicherry in February 1785. The French administration in Pondicherry was resolutely opposed to intervening in southern Vietnam, stating that it was not in the national interest. In July 1786, Pigneau was allowed to travel back to France to ask the royal court directly for assistance. News of his activities reached Rome where he was denounced by the Spanish Franciscans, and offered Prince Canh and his political mandate to the Portuguese.

[edit] Intervention and return to Vietnam

Arriving in February 1787 at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles, Pigneau had difficulty in gathering support for a French expedition to install Nguyen Anh on the throne. This was due to the poor financial state of the country prior to the French Revolution. Pigneau was helped by Pierre Poivre who had been involved previously in French interests in Vietnam. Eventually, he was able to seduce the technicians of military action with his precise instructions as to the conditions of warfare in Indochina and the equipment for the proposed campaign. He explained how France would be able to "dominate the seas of China and of the archipelago." By November, his constant pressure had proved effective. In November 1787, a treaty of alliance was concluded between France and Cochin China in Nguyen Anh’s name. Four frigates, 1650 fully equipped French soldiers and 250 Indian sepoys were promised in return for Pulo Condore and harbour access at Tourane (Da Nang). Only four days after the treaty was signed, the foreign minister sent instructions to the Governor of Pondicherry to scupper the deal. Louis XVI himself told Pigneau that Conway was appointed Governor of Pondicherry simply to remove him from Europe.

However, Pigneau found the governor of Pondicherry unwilling to fulfill the agreement, and he was forced to use funds raised in France and enlist French volunteers. Pigneau was unaware of this duplicity. Although the Royal Council had already decided in October 1788 to endorse Conway, Pigneau was not informed until April. He defiantly noted: "I shall make the revolution in Cochinchina alone." He rejected an offer from the English, and raised money from French merchants in the region. He used this to equip two ships, buy weapons and ammunition, hire volunteers and deserters. His private expedition left for Vietnam on June 19 1789 and arrived in July 1789. The forces helped to consolidate southern Vietnam, and French officers were used to train the navy, which destroyed the Tay Son fleet at Qui Nhon in 1792. Heavy fighting occurred there to capture the fortress, until it was captured in 1799. Pigneau died there of dysentery in the same year, after having served his final years as an advisor and de facto foreign minister to Nguyen Anh. He was buried at Saigon with full military honours. Nguyen Anh's funeral oration described him as "the most illustrious foreigner ever to appear at the court of Cochinchina." He was buried in the presence of the crown prince, all mandarins of the court, the royal bodyguard of 12,000 men and 40,000 mourners.

Only a few of Pigneau's men stayed more than two or three year, disappointed in the lack of a quick fortune. Pigneau had wanted a Catholic as Vietnamese king. However he failed to convet Canh, who died twenty years before his father in any case.

He often compromised his religious principles when they came into conflict with political and diplomatic imperatives. Initially he had taught Canh to refuse to engage in ancestor worship, something that shocked and angered Nguyen Anh. He later changed his mind on the papal ban and proposed to consider ancestor worship as a civil ceremony, a simple manifestation of respect for the dead. He cited the apostles as being tolerant of local customs as his justification.

[edit] References

• Hall, D. G. E. (1981). A history of South-east Asia. Macmillan. 
• Cady, John F. (1964). South East Asia: Its historical development. McGraw Hill. 
• Buttinger, Joseph (1958). The smaller dragon : a political history of Vietnam. Praeger.