A valuable document for the history of travel and navigation in the sixteenth century.
The receipt dated 14 June 1567 lists the association of shareholders for the financing of a ship built in Spain at Blaise de Monluc’s initiative. The sum was to be paid “on the feast of Christmas next.” This association involved “Polin Duchany, procurator for nobleman Dominique Lichany, the King’s treasurer,” “Martin de Gene pedi … a merchant residing in San Sebastian in Spain”, merchants from the town of Bayonne Algalarrondo, and Martin d’Augnebels, “for the sale … of a ship that high and mighty lord Messire Blayse de Monluc chevallier de l’ordre du roy avoyt cy devant fait faire [livrer] au lieu de Saint Jehan de Luz.” The documents were drawn up by Bordeaux notaries.
The group includes the following:
1. Power of attorney dated 26 February 1568 drawn up by “Bartholomé Redon procureur en la cour praticien” residing in Bordeaux, signed Royans (1 f.)
2. Receipt of 14 June 1567 signed Paulin Lichany etc. (3 ff.), with codicil (1) f. (and 1 f. bl.)
3. Deed signed Clarito de Clariti (2 ff.): Anthoine Du Prat knight of the royal order
4. Deed signed Jehans de Géroby.
The previous year, 1566, Blaise de Monluc had been involved in his son Peyrot’s commercial expedition to the Gulf of Guinea and the coast of La Mine, with the support of the Admiral de Coligny and the unofficial help of the King and Queen Mother (see Gabriel Loirette, who used documents from the Gironde archives and Courteault, Blaise de Monluc, historien, p.496 n. 4). This expedition ended in disaster: some of the French, after pillaging Funchal on the island of Madeira, were massacred by the Portuguese in October 1566. Dominique de Lichany, mentioned in our documents, was the paymaster of this first expedition.
Clarito de Clariti, who signed one of our deeds, also mentions Captain Guillaume de Lebruc (?). Clarito de Clariti was a ship’s captain before setting up as a merchant in Bordeaux around 1570 (Bernard Allaire, Crépuscules ultramontains, p.39); he appears in a deed preserved in the Archives de la Gironde for an obligation to deliver cloth to Pandolfo Cenami, a merchant from Tours, dated October 1572 (quoted by Allaire, Crépuscules ultramontains, p.154, n. 499).
It’s unclear whether Blaise de Monluc intended to finance another expedition to Africa or if the ship was intended to sail elsewhere.
Extremely rare account of the financing of a ship and the preparation of an expedition in the sixteenth century.
