Dominique (orDomingue)de Gourgues (1530–1593) was a French nobleman and soldier. He is best known for leading aprivateer attack againstSpanish Florida in 1568, in retaliation for theno quarter given after the capture ofFort Caroline and the subsequentMassacre at Matanzas Inlet. He was a captain inKing Charles IX's army.
De Gourgue's early life is not well known. He came from the old and powerful family of Gourgue, one of the most important families of the French city ofBordeaux. He served in theItalian wars underMaréchal de Strozzi, was captured bySpaniards in 1557, and then by theTurks, and served several years in thegalleys. After his return to France, he made a voyage toBrazil and theWest Indies, and then entered the service ofDuke de Guise, and was employed against theHuguenots.[1]
Philip II of Spain was aRoman Catholic king who hatedProtestants, including the FrenchHuguenots, and considered them heretics. He ordered his troops to kill any they found in the colonies. Therefore, in 1565, troops underPedro Menéndez de Avilés notoriously massacred hundreds of Frenchmen aroundFort Caroline in what is nowJacksonville, Florida. After capturing the fort and slaying nearly all his prisoners, Menéndez hung their bodies on trees, with the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen but as Lutherans."[2] The massacre aroused indignation in France among Protestants and Catholics alike. The French king sent complaints to the Spanish court, but Menéndez and his associates, instead of being punished for the deed, received rewards and honors.[1]
Embittered by the cruelty and indignity that he had suffered from the Spaniards, de Gourgue determined to avenge the murder of his Protestant compatriots, though he was himself a Catholic.[1] He sold everything he had and borrowed money from his brother Antoine to recruit a crew and charter three ships. He sailed toCuba with two hundred men, never telling them the goal of their trip. Once in Cuba he made his intentions clear, and his crew approved his choice of revenge. Gourgue then moved to attack Spanish-held Fort Caroline, which they had renamed as Fort San Mateo, enlisting the aid of Fort Caroline's old allies, theSaturiwa andTacatacuru clans of theTimucua Indians. The fort soon surrendered to de Gourgue's forces. The French and Indians killed the Spanish prisoners in retribution for Fort Caroline and other massacres of Protestants.[3] They hanged the prisoners with the inscription, "Not as Spaniards but as murderers."[2]
De Gourgue returned to the port ofLa Rochelle on 6 June 1568. He was received cordially by Monluc, governor ofBordeaux, but coldly by the court, which feared a rupture with Spain. For several years he lived in obscurity, almost in misery, atRouen with the president of Marigny, until restored to the king's favor in 1572. He was given command of a vessel, and participated in theSiege of La Rochelle, commanding the largest vessel of the squadron. In 1592 DonAntonio de Crato appointed him commander of the fleet for a campaign for the crown ofPortugal against Philip II. While on the journey, de Gourgue died.[1]
