Jean-François de La Rocque, Sieur de Roberval

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Suggested Reading

Roberval, Jean-François de La Rocque, Sieur de
Jean-François de La Rocque, Sieur de Roberval, French lieutenant-general in Canada (b in France c 1500; d in Paris 1560). A courtier of noble descent, he received a royal commission as lieutenant-general of Canada 1541, despite being a Protestant convert. He was set in command over explorer Jacques CARTIER, who had already made 2 expeditions to Canada and who sailed again that May.

Roberval, delayed by shortage of funds and equipment, set out Apr 1542. By that time Cartier had decided to abandon his settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal [Cap-Rouge, Qué]. The 2 expeditions met in the harbour of St John's, Nfld, going in opposite directions. Roberval, with a party of around 200, reoccupied Cartier's settlement. The ensuing winter was disastrous, the colonists' morale being undermined by climate, disease and internal disputes. After some weeks exploring in the direction of HOCHELAGA [Montréal] during the summer of 1543, the surviving colonists abandoned the colony and returned to France. The expedition's failure ended any immediate prospect of colonization of Canada and brought Roberval financial ruin. He was killed with other Protestants in a Paris street affray at the start of the French Wars of Religion.

Author JOHN G. REID


Suggested Reading
H.P. Biggar, ed, A Collection of Documents Relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval (1930); Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Les vaines tentatives, 1524-1603 (1963).

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