Antoine Escalin des Aimars

Polin was noticed by Guillaume du Bellay as a valuable officer of the French Army during the Italian Wars in the Piedmont.

Polin succeeded ambassador Antoine de Rincon (1538–1541) in Constantinople.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgQNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA459|title=The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571|first=Kenneth Meyer|last=Setton|date=October 10, 1976|publisher=American Philosophical Society|via=Google Books}} In early 1542, Polin successfully negotiated the details of a Franco-Ottoman alliance for the Italian War of 1542–1546, with the Ottoman Empire promising to send 27,500{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/859981|title=Antoine Escalin des Aimars (1498?-1578)|last=Bouvier|first=Yann|journal=Recherches Régionales |year=2007|pages=82|issn=2105-2891}} troops against the territories of the Spanish king Ferdinand, as well as 110 galleys against Charles, while France promised to attack Flanders, harass the coasts of Spain with a naval force, and send 40 galleys to assist the Turks for operations in the Levant.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgQNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA461|title=The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571|first=Kenneth Meyer|last=Setton|date=October 10, 1976|publisher=American Philosophical Society|via=Google Books}} Polin tried to convince Venice to join the alliance, but in vain.Setton, p.459

The execution of the alliance would most notably lead to the Franco-Ottoman Siege of Nice in 1543.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/859981|title=Antoine Escalin des Aimars (1498?-1578)|last=Bouvier|first=Yann|journal=Recherches Régionales |year=2007|pages=81–87|issn=2105-2891}} In July 1543, Polin sailed on board the Ottoman fleet of Barbarossa to the Île Saint-Honorat in the Lérins Islands off Cannes on 5 July 1543, only to find very little ready for the offensive on the French side. Polin went to see king Francis I of France to obtain troops, which led to the Siege of Nice in August 1543.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgQNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA471|title=The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571|first=Kenneth Meyer|last=Setton|date=October 10, 1976|publisher=American Philosophical Society|via=Google Books}} Polin supervised the wintering of the Ottomans at Toulon.

File:French galleys of Captain Polin in front of Pera at Constantinople in August 1544.jpg at Constantinople in August 1544, drawn by Jérôme Maurand (detail of the above).]]

Then, in 1544, five French galleys under Polin, including the superb Réale, accompanied Barbarossa's fleet, on a diplomatic mission to Suleiman.Crowley, p.75 The French fleet accompanied Barbarossa during his attacks on the west coast of Italy on the way to Constantinople, as he laid waste to the cities of Porto Ercole, Giglio, Talamona, Lipari and took about 6,000 captives, but separated in Sicily from Barbarossa's fleet to continue alone to the Ottoman capital.Crowley, p.75-79 Jerôme Maurand,{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/4679640|title=La Méditerranée de Jérôme Maurand (1500-1580)|last=Bouvier|first=Yann|journal=Récits de Voyage et Représentation de l'Espace. La Méditerranée de Jérôme Maurand (1500-1580), Un Espace Vécu (Mémoire de Master, Nice, 2007) |publisher=Université de Nice - CMMC|year=2007}} a priest of Antibes who accompanied Polin and the Ottoman fleet in 1544, wrote a detailed account in Itinéraire d'Antibes à Constantinople.Garnier, p.234 They arrived in Constantinople on 10 August 1544 to meet with Suleiman and give him an account of the campaign.Garnier, p.240 Polin was back to Toulon on 2 October 1544.

{{Main|Massacre of Mérindol}}

File:Massacre of the Vaudois of Merindol.jpg in 1545.]]

In 1545, Polin was on his way to fight against the English in the area of Boulogne. While in Marseilles in 1545, Polin was involved as a leader in the massacre of the Protestant Waldensians (Vaudois).{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rvEBMIIcHQkC&pg=PA405|title=Francis I|first=R. J.|last=Knecht|date=April 26, 1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press|via=Google Books}}

Outside the Piedmont the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France and Germany. After they came out of hiding and were reported for sedition, on 1 January 1545 the French king Francis I issued the "Arrêt de Mérindol" and armed a crusade against the Waldensians of Provence. The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède, First President of the parlement of Provence, and Antoine Escalin des Aimars who was returning from the Italian Wars with 2,000 veterans, the Bandes de Piémont. Deaths ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on the estimates, and several villages were devastated.

File:The French fleet attacks Bembridge.jpg in 1545.]]

After these deeds, Polin participated in the French invasion of the Isle of Wight that same year.{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/britishadmirals00bellgoog|title=The British Admirals: With an Introductory View of the Naval History of England|first=Robert Bell|last=Robert Southey |date=October 10, 1833|publisher=Printed for Longman , Rees, Orme, Brown , Green & Longman [etc.]|via=Internet Archive}}

He was succeeded as ambassador to the Porte by Gabriel de Luetz in 1547.

In 1553, Polin again cooperated with the Ottoman fleet in the Mediterranean, in the events surrounding the Invasion of Corsica (1553).

In 1571, Polin was involved in the conflict against the Huguenots in La Rochelle as a commander in the French Navy fleet which was making a blockade of the city, together with Filippo di Piero Strozzi.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_Va0lM_EOsC&pg=PA20|title=Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister to Henry the Great: Containing the History of the Life and Reign of that Monarch, and His Own Administration Under Him|first=Maximilien de Béthune duc de|last=Sully|date=October 10, 1778|publisher=J. Rivington and Sons|via=Google Books}}

• French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire

{{Reflist}}

• Yann BOUVIER, [https://www.academia.edu/859981/Antoine_Escalin_des_Aimars_1498_-1578_de_la_Garde-Adhémar_au_siège_de_Nice_le_parcours_dun_ambassadeur_de_François_Ier « Antoine Escalin des Aimars (1498?-1578) - De la Garde-Adhémar au siège de Nice, le parcours d'un Ambassadeur de François Ier »], Recherches Régionales, Nice, Conseil Général des Alpes-Maritimes, n°188, Octobre-décembre 2007, 28 pp.
• Kenneth M. Setton The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) DIANE Publishing, 1984 {{ISBN|0-87169-162-0}}
• Roger Crowley, Empire of the sea, 2008 Faber & Faber {{ISBN|978-0-571-23231-4}}

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{{succession box|title=French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire|before=Antoine de Rincon|after=Gabriel, comte de Luetz|years=1541–1547}}

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Category:Ambassadors of France to the Ottoman Empire

Category:1578 deaths

Category:1490s births

Category:16th-century French diplomats

Category:French Navy personnel

Category:French people of the French Wars of Religion

Category:People of the Italian Wars