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VIGNEAU, PAUL (DIT La Verdure)

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DC0215
The ancestor of all the Acadian Vigneaults of North America came from one of the oldest and most picturesque cities of France. Paul Vigneau dit Laverdure was born the son of Jean and Renée Vigneaux of the parish of Saint-Cybard, diocese of Poitiers, in the ancient province of Poitou (now the Department of Vienne), France. Founded in pre-Roman times, Poitiers was a residence of Visigoth Kings in the 5th century AD. In this city are Roman ruins; the Baptistry of Saint-Jean (begun in the 4th century), one of the oldest Christian structures in France; the Romanesque Church of Notre-Dame la Grande and the Angevin-Gothic Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, both built in the 12th century. The University of Poitiers wasestablished here in 1432 by King Charles VII of France.
Paul Vigneault dit Laverdure was born when France was involved in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The war was based on religious conflicts between Catholics and the Protestant Reformation. Cardinal Richelieu, first minister of France, died in 1642, and King Louis XIII, in 1643. King Louis XIV (1638-1715), known as the "Sun King," was only five years old when his father died. His mother, Anne of Austria, ruled France as regent until 1661.
Paul grew up in an era when France was entangled in it's most significant rebellion of the 17th century. "The Fronde" (1648-1661) ravaged France by civil war. It involved the Nobels protesting heavy taxes and the centralized power of the crown.
On the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, King Louis XIV announced thathe would be his own first minister. For the next 54 years he ruled France personally, establishing himself as the absolutist monarch.

New France

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, France and other European nations raced to stake claims in North America. New France was born in 1524, when the Italian explorer, Giovanni de Verrazano sailing in the service if King Francis I of France, set out to find a direct route to Asia. In 1534, King Francis I called upon Jacques Cartier, a pilot from Saint-Malo, to explore new territories in New France. A couple of failedattempts to colonize along the Saint Lawrence River were made by Jacques Cartier and Sieur de Roberval in 1541.
Following his expeditions at Port Royal, in Acadia, Samuel de Champlainarrived at Québec, on 3 July 1608. He and his 27 colonists built the first permanent settlement by the Saint Lawrence River. New France was in the control of the "Company of New France," a private company only interested in profits from the fur trade. They had failed to produce a powerful colony.
In 1663, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, finally convinced the king to bring under his personal control, his overseas empire, to encourage settlement and increase wealth flowing into the royal treasury. In May of 1663, Canada was taken out of the hands of the Company of New France and made a royal province under Louis XIV of France.
The settlements in New France along the Saint Lawrence River were underpopulated and often attacked from one tribe or another of the five Iroquois nations (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas). Since Champlain's time, the French traded peacefully with the Algonquin and Huron Indians. This alliance provoked the hostility of the Iroquois, who wanted this relationship to fail, so they could control the fur trade. The Iroquois were the most feared of all the eastern forest tribes. Their military tactics were cunning and cruel. They never attacked unless they could be sure of an easy victory; they always preferred to strike from ambush, and when they struck, men, women and children alike were cut down in insensate fury. The early settlers could never be sure, when they went out to till their fields, if the Iroquois were lurking in wait.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert sent news to Bishop de Laval in New France, that "his Majesty has resolved to send a good regiment of infantry to Canada to subdue the Iroquois."

The Carignan-Salières Regiment

In 1665, at the age of 20 years, Paul Vigneault dit Laverdure was enlisted in the Maximy company of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, sent to Canada to combat the Iroquois. It was the first time French troops were detached from the royal army to serve overseas.
The Carignan-Salières Regiment derived it's name from Colonel Thomas-François de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, who raised it at Piedmont, in northern Italy, in 1644. During the following decade, the recruiting for the regiment was done in France. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659, between France and Spain, Carignan's regiment was merged with another, that of Sieur de Salières. A few years later, the Carignan-Salières Regiment had dwindled to just eight companies, or 400 men, which was it's strength when selected to serve in Canada. Since the King wished to send 1000 men to New France, 12 companies were drawn from other regiments and incorporated into the Carignan-Salières Regiment: four from the Lallier regiment, four from Chambelle Regiment, three from Poitou, and one from Broglio.
Colbert de Terron, the intendant of Rochefort, was responsible for the mustering and accommodating the entire regiment to embark near the port of La Rochelle.
The last regiment ended their cross-country march in May of 1665. The men were dispersed in camps on the offshore island of Oleron for final preparations before embarkation, to isolate them from the civilians in La Rochelle, and to deter desertion.
Each of the 20 companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment were named after their captains. They each had a lieutenant and an ensignas commissioned officers, and as enlisted men, two sergeants, three corporals, five lance corporals and forty soldiers, of whom at least one served as drummer.
The soldiers were outfitted in a brown and grey uniform and issued a musket with a bayonet, and they all carried a sword.
Almost all soldiers had a "sobriquet" (nickname) inspired by their appearance or personality. Paul Vigneault was called (dit) Laverdure (la verdure: vigorous, candid or frank).
The first contingent of soldiers boarded the "Joyeux Simeon," charted by a La Rochelle merchant named Pierre Gaigneur. With 4 companies, they sailed out of the harbour, on 19 April 1665.
A month later, the royal ships "Paix" and "Aigle d'Or" loaded eight more, four to each ship, and sailed to Québec, on 13 May 1665.
On the 24th of May 1665, the last of the regiment were embarked on the "Saint-Sébastien" and the "Justice," then sailed to New France.
In 1665, French soldiers were landsmen, all were not used to having to travel to their duties by sea. Crossing the Atlantic ocean in the 16th and 17th century was as unpredictable as it's outcome. Favorable winds could turn stormy, no one knew for certain how long the trip might take.A voyage across the Atlantic depended upon the speed of the wind, and could take up to, on average, nine weeks to Québec City. Conditions on board sailing ships were crowded, damp and cold. The cramped quarters and the boredom and frustration from inactivity occasionally led to bad humor among the passengers. The continuous pitching of the vessel, made them sea sick and more sensitive to weather conditions, especially when the sea was rough. Living in close quarters for about three months did not mean you could associate with just anyone. You were treated differently, according to your social and military rank.
The most perilous part of the journey was the trip up the Saint-Lawrence River to Québec City. The river is Bristling with reefs, and difficult to navigate. The trip took an average of 10 to 12 days. It could lasteven longer if you had to wait for favorable winds.
After weeks at sea, the troops must have been relieved and greatly impressed by the wild beauty of the view of the shoreline along the Saint-Lawrence River.
On the 19th of June 1665, the "Joyeux Simeon" arrived at Québec with the first four companies of French troops to serve in Canada. With the arrival of these men, the settlers felt their future in the colony was much brighter, and they gave the soldiers a welcome they had never seen before in France, where civilians were hostile to the army.
In August, the leaky "Aigle d'Or" and the "Paix" reached Québec, and disembarked eight more companies.
The last eight companies sailed into port, on the 12th of September 1665, after 112 days at sea. They straggled ashore after battling adverse winds, mountainous seas and later scurvy. Twenty men died, the surviving130 ill soldiers quickly filled the limited bed space of the Hotel-Dieu, who's facilities were inadequate for such an influx of patients. Under the care of the Ursuline nuns, the soldiers were nursed back to health.
On the arrival of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, Lieutenant-General Marquis de Tracy ordered the soldiers to construct several forts at strategic locations along the Saint-Lawrence river, to pass the winter.
The acting governor, Monsieur de Courcelles, was eager to launch his first attack on the Iroquois. Courcelles proposed to take the troops through the wilderness in midwinter, against the advice of competent men, who knew well of the iron bite of January cold or what the white hell ofa western blizzard could do to a man on the march. However, Courcelleswould not listen, he knew the Iroquois sent out war parties in winter;and it was absurd, to him, to think that some of the finest troops of Europe could not do anything an Indian could. He began the march on the 9th of January 1666.
On the 24th of January 1666, the Maximy (the company with our Paul Vigneault), La Fouille and Loubias companies, arrived at Trois-Rivières from Quèbec. The Following day, they were made ready to march across the frozen Saint-Pierre Lake, up to Fort Richelieu. It was bitterly cold, the river had turned into an avenue of glaring ice, swept clean by the north-west wind, and so slippery, it was hard to keep their balance when struck by the harder gusts. They camped off river, in thick woods. Sincethey had no tents, the men dug down deep into the snow, to clear the ground in large circles, lining the edges with evergreen boughs, and lighting a fire in the middle. They slept sitting up, with their backs against a wall of boughs, with their legs like wheel spokes pointing to the fire.
They encountered a Mohawk hunting party, that fled and led them into ambush. The soldiers got their first taste of Indian style warfare.
The first campaign turned out to be a complete disaster. The newly arrived soldiers were unfamiliar with the country's distances and climate. Several of the soldiers had their legs slashed by the ice, and others had their hands and feet frozen. More than 60 men were weakened by hunger, or froze to death on the march back to the fort.
In September of 1666, a second campaign was led against the Iroquois. The Indians fled as the army approached. The troops torched four villages and destroyed the food supply of the Iroquois nation. The campaign had proven to be little more than an arduous route march, but it served it's purpose; a peace treaty was signed in July of 1667.
The French now held the balance of power with the success of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. With the security of the colony now assured, the regiment was disbanded in 1668.

Military Colonization

King Louis XIV and his ministers in Paris had another plan for the regiment. New France was only thinly populated, and the soldiers were forseen as potential colonizers. The King had hoped to encourage as many soldiers as possible "to remain in the country by providing them with the means to establish themselves there." Instead of returning to France to live as serfs, they could own land and settle on it with state assistance. Each man would receive a discharge grant of 100 livres (pounds) or 50 livres and a years rations. This was a strong inducement for them to remain in New France, it was likely more money than most ever had at onetime.
According to the law and custom in New France, because of the shortage of labour and cleared land, new settlers were required for a three year term, to serve as labouers at the homes of the inhabitants already settled, before they could obtain land of their own. This was also to encourage the inhabitants to clear more land and grow more grain. The wages of these indentured labouers were also fixed by law at 60 to 90 livres ayear.
Paul Vigneault dit Laverdure chose to settle in New France. He served three years on the property of Barthélémy Verreau, in the parish of Sainte-Famille, Isle d'Orléans, Québec, before he held this land by lease from 1671 to 1682.
/DC0215

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