19th century engraving showing the city of Algiers from the sea. • ISTOCK The janissaries and corsair captains who constituted the "Invincible Militia", holders of the power of the regency of Algiers, knew perfectly the European political situation. During the minority of Louis XIV, from 1643 to 1653, Algiers had thought he could have no regard for France, considering it weakened by its continuous war against Spain. Subsequently, Algiers lent a sympathetic ear to the overtures made to it by competitors from France, signing a treaty with the Dutch in 1680, then with the English in 1682. In both cases, Louis XIV intended to chastise the regency. Three hundred guns against Algiers In 1664, he instructed his cousin François de Bourbon-Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort and grandson of Henri IV, to occupy Djidjelli (now Jijel), an important maritime base for corsairs. The affair having ended short, he sent him back the following year to the coasts of the regency of Algiers, assisted by a former corsair that Richelieu had made captain in the Royale:Jean-Paul de Saumeur, known as the " Knight Paul". In August 1665, the fleet of the Duke of Beaufort and the Chevalier Paul set fire to an Ottoman squadron in front of Cherchell, notably sinking the Sultan's flagship. Not content with this victory, the Chevalier Paul rushed to La Goulette, where he took three new corsair vessels, two of which were burned. Algiers sued for peace, which was signed in May 1666. But immediately, the regency of Algiers refused to free, as it had promised, the more than 1,100 French slaves languishing in its prisons. Also, at the end of the XVII th century, the Algerian example had become viral, and the corsairs of the other regencies then multiplied their assaults in the Mediterranean. Louis XIV decided to attack them at their very bases. In 1680, he appointed Abraham Duquesne lieutenant general of the naval armies, to notify his ultimatum to the three regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. In June 1681, at the head of a squadron of seven vessels of over 40 guns, Duquesne made known the king's intentions to Algiers and Tunis. Then, having assured himself of the sultan's neutrality, he headed for the island of Chios, where the Tripolitan corsairs lurked. On July 23, bombarding the port, he sank six of the eight privateer ships of Tripoli. The Sublime Porte, frightened, forced this regency to sign peace in October 1681. But that of Algiers, to show that it feared nothing, went on the offensive. On July 27, 1683, in response to a bombardment, Lazarist Father Jean Le Vacher was muzzled at a cannon, the fire of which threw his gruesome remains onto the French fleet. Consequently, a French fleet anchored in July 1682 in the Bay of Algiers and bombarded the city for three nights. Now, far from intimidating the corsairs, this emboldened them. Duquesne therefore returned in June 1683 and again bombarded the city. While the dey of Algiers was ready to sign peace, he was assassinated by the head of the corporation of corsairs, Mezzomorto, who seized power and ordered a merciless struggle. On July 27, 1683, in response to a bombardment that destroyed more than 1,000 houses and killed so many Algiers that 12 boats were filled with their corpses, the Lazarist Father Jean Le Vacher, vicar apostolic, was tied to the mouth of a cannon whose fire projected its macabre remains on the French fleet. Despite new bombardments, Algiers, on the verge of famine, did not yield. Bombs in negotiations The king then replaced Duquesne by Tourville. With the help of a negotiator, Denis Dusault, director of concessions in Africa, a treaty was signed in April 1684. For the first time, the Invincible Militia had therefore agreed to humble itself before the reason of the bombs. France thought that the punishment would serve as an example to the Barbary world. But it was not so; Tripoli resumed its corsair operations the day after the peace of 1682. Louis XIV therefore ordered Marshal d'Estrées, vice-admiral of France, to bombard this city on June 22, 1685. On the 29th, Tripoli gave in on everything. D'Estrées then appeared before the regency of Tunis, which was divided by a civil war, and in September obtained the renewal of the French concessions by the two Tunisian powers. Between the 1 st and on July 16, 1688, a deluge of 10,000 bombs destroyed the monuments and houses of the wealthy corsairs of Algiers. However, in Algiers, the climate was different. The corsairs could no longer bear the immobility to which peace had reduced them and which was ruining them. With the agreement of the dey Mezzomorto, they contravened the commitments of 1684. As a result, Versailles resumed sending punitive cruises in 1686 and 1687. The response of the dey was not long in coming:he had all the French chained up, from the consul to the captains, and had them sold as slaves. A second war broke out. Between the 1 st and on July 16, 1688, a deluge of 10,000 bombs destroyed the monuments and homes of wealthy corsairs. Consul André Piolle was then lynched by the mob, and the other Frenchmen were fired upon in turn. For each, Admiral d'Estrées immediately had an Ottoman or a Moor hanged on a raft. But, on July 18, the admiral was recalled to France because of the European situation caused by the English Glorious Revolution. Algiers then had the impression of being truly invincible. In 1689, France decided to resume negotiations, entrusted to a talented man:Captain Guillaume Marcel. This financially interested the Dey Mezzomorto, but the treaty had barely been signed in September 1689 when the corsairs and janissaries, considering themselves cheated, rose up against the Dey, who had just enough time to flee to Constantinople. Read also Vauban embraces France with an "iron belt" From 1681 to 1689, the wars against Algiers had been fought during the longest period of continental peace in the reign of Louis XIV. By the financial burden they entailed, by their intensity and their duration, they cost the kingdom of France more than they brought in. The Marseilles trade therefore considered that the bellicose demonstrations, unnecessarily costly, hampered its economic activity. Finally, in 1690, an agreement was reached between Versailles and Algiers. However, the peace between France and the regency of Algiers was henceforth nothing more than a truce renewed more or less regularly, neither of the two parties believing in the good faith of the other. This mutual distrust meant that, until 1830, the corsairs of Algiers remained a major problem for France in the Mediterranean. Find out more The Barbarians, J. Heers, Perrin (Tempus), 2008.
