René Goulaine de Laudonnière
Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière was a French Huguenot explorer and the founder of the French colony of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot, sent Jean Ribault and Laudonnière to explore potential sites in Florida suitable for settlement by the French Protestants.
La Floride françoise (French Florida), by Pierre du Val, 17th century.
Athore, son of the Timucuan king Saturiwa, showing Laudonnière the monument placed by Ribault in 1562.
One of Theodor de Bry's engravings, supposedly based on drawings by Jacques LeMoyne, depicting Chief Saturiwa preparing his men for battle.
Fort Caroline was an attempted French colonial settlement in Florida, located on the banks of the St. Johns River in present-day Duval County. It was established under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière on 22 June 1564, following King Charles IX's enlisting of Jean Ribault and his Huguenot settlers to stake a claim in French Florida ahead of Spain. The French colony came into conflict with the Spanish, who established St. Augustine in September 1565, and Fort Caroline was sacked by Spanish troops under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on 20 September. The Spanish continued to occupy the site as San Mateo until 1569.
Fort Caroline
Fort Caroline shown in an old etching
Founding of Fort Caroline
Floride françoise ("French Florida"), by Pierre du Val, 17th century.
