Events in Petit's story, Europe, the Ottoman Empire and Persia, 1648-1722
1648
Mehmet IV sultan of Ottoman Empire (-1687); called ‘the Hunter’ for his absorption in personal pleasures including hunting despite the many military disasters facing the Empire
1661
Köprülü Fazil Ahmet grand vizier (-1676)
1672
Ottomans at war with Poland (-1676)
c.1675
Jean-Baptiste Fabre takes over the management of a comptoir (commercial agency or trading station) in Constantinople; his house is next to the French embassy
1676
Kara Mustafa grand vizier (-1683)
1679
Guilleragues ambassador at Constantinople (-1685)
1681
French attack Chios
1683
Siege of Vienna; defeat of Ottoman forces; 25 December Kara Mustafa strangled in Belgrade
1684
5 March formation of the Holy League (Innocent XI, Emperor Leopold, Venice, Poland) against the Ottoman Empire
1685
Pierre Girardin (d. 1689) ambassador at Constantinople until his death
1686
Russia joins the Holy League; fall of Ottoman Buda to the League
1687
Süleyman II Ottoman sultan (-1691) accedes and puts down janissary revolt, executing some of their agas (officers); restores order in the Empire but Ottomans lose control of Athens to the Venetians
1689
Pierre Antoine de Castagnères, marquis de Châteauneuf (b.1644 Chambéry) ambassador at Constantinople
Köprülü Fazil Mustafa Pasha Grand Vizier; one of the ablest Grand Viziers ever (called ‘the Virtuous’)
1691
Ahmet II Ottoman sultan (-1695); Austrians defeat Ottomans at Slankamen (in modern day Serbia); death of Grand VizierFazil Mustafa
1692
Fabre sent by Ambassador Châteauneuf to Hungary
1694
7 August 26 year-old Shah Soltan Husayn accedes to the throne of Persia
Firman (royal mandate or decree) banning wine etc; Carmelites expelled from Julfa
1695
Mustafa II Ottoman sultan (-1703)
1696
Carmelites allowed to return to Julfa (28.1.1695 letter of Pope Innocent XII presented to Shah Husayn by Portuguese ambassador Gregorio Pereira Fidalgo)
1697
11 September Battle of Zenta; Habsburgs under Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat Ottomans; mutiny of janissaries who kill Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha and other officials
Hüseyn Pasha grand vizier (-1702)
Marriage of Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Éléonore de La Rochefoucauld-Roye
1699
26 January Treaty of Karlowitz ends Great Turkish War; Sultan cedes Hungary to the Austrians and (temporarily) the Peloponnesos to Venice; Ottoman sovereign formally recognises permanent loss of territory for the first time; Austria replaces the Ottomans as the main power in east-central Europe
15 September Louis de Pontchartrain becomes Chancellor of France, the titular head of the French justice system
11 November the new French ambassador, Charles de Ferriol, baron d’Argental, arrives at Constantinople
1700
Treaty of Constantinople: Russians and Ottomans make peace for 10 years; Russians establish permanent diplomatic mission in Turkey
1702
15 May outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession; conscription of militia in France; beginning of the revolt of the Camisards (Protestants in south central France who revolted against persecution)
Daltaban Mustafa Pasha grand vizier
Marie Petit recorded as tenancière (manager) of a tripot at 30 rue Dauphine, Paris
Jean-Baptiste Fabre returns to Paris where he resides in a house near Petit’s
2 or 10 December Petit signs a note promising to follow Fabre wherever he went
1703
Savoy and Portugal rejoin anti-French coalition
August ‘Edirne incident’: Ottoman army in Istanbul rebels because of overdue pay and deposes Sultan Mustafa II; generalised violence in Istanbul
Ahmet III sultan (-1730); Ahmed III would preside over the so-called ‘Tulip Age’ (1718-1730) of courtly elegance
Mehmed Rami Grand Vizier (formerly Reis Efendi (chief writer) in the chancery)
25 November Petit lends Fabre 8000 livres payable one month after his arrival in Isfahan
1704
Vakhtang appointed regent in Georgia at the request of his uncle, Gorgin Khan
Commencement of works on the Chahar Bagh Madrasa complex
Cornelius de Bruyn arrives in Isfahan
2 April Ferriol sends his secretary Pierre Victor Michel toTransylvania
4 August English take Gibraltar from Spain
13 August Grand Alliance (Britain, Holy Roman Empire, Dutch) defeat the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim, a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession
December Michel en route back to Constantinople from France; Fabre’s brother Mathieu in Paris
1705
End of the Camisards’ revolt in France; Dutch statesman Anthonie Heinsius makes unsuccessful offer of peace to Louis XIV
Plague in Constantinople; Ferriol stays in Palais de France with his drogman; beginning of autonomy of Tunis from Ottomans
2 March departure of Fabre and Petit and the French mission from Toulon on the royal vessel le Trident captained by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Turgis; they sail to Alexandretta then Aleppo
April Fabre and Petitarrive in Aleppo where he is arrested and detained for 8 months; Fabre then returns to Alexandretta then Cyprus, Rhodes, Samos where his nephew Jacques Fabre and his secretary Pierre André Dubies stay with the presents
1706
Allied Anglo-Dutch victory over French at Ramillies (in modern Belgium); Spanish Netherlands fall to Allies; imperial general Eugene of Savoy breaks the siege of Turin and drives French out of Italy; British enter Madrid but are forced to retreat
Corlulu Ali Pasha grand vizier (-1710)
Jan/February: Fabre and Petit reach to Constantinople where they stay incognito 35 days; Fabre resides with the Persian ambassador and Petit with an Armenian
March: Fabre hires the Armenians Baron Sufer and Cordolou to bring baggage and personnel left behind at Samos to Erivan
June: arrival of Fabre and Petit in Erivan
Summer: Shah Soltan Husayn sets out with a retinue of 60,000 on a year-long pilgrimmage to Qom and Mashhad
Severe food shortage in Isfahan, possibly caused by grain merchants taking advantage of the court’s absence; and the people revolt. They gather in the great square, throw stones at the doors of the Ali Qapu palace, shout insults against Soltan Husayn, and call for his brother to be brought out of the harem to replace him.
Lazgi (mountain tribe from the far NW) raids into Georgia; the subsidies normally paid to them had been embezzled by corrupt Persian officials; banditry became commonplace on the roads and caravan routes
August Soltan Husayn in Mashhad
16 August: Fabre dies following a hunting party in Erivan; he is buried in the Armenian burial ground in Etchmiadzin
25 October: Ferriol instructs Michel to get Petit to return to France by ‘toute sorte de moyens […] sans la porter toutefois au desespoir, de crainte qu’elle ne se fit Mahomettane’ and to get back Fabre’s effects
26 October: Michel leaves Constantinople for Persia
November: incident of the orange; Persians arrest the French servant Justiniany; French who had stayed behind in Samos (including Fabre’s nephew Jacques) reach Erzerum where they are arrested and the presents impounded; Petit secures their release; they arrive at Erivan and liberate Justiniany; two Persian soldiers killed when they try to take Justiniany back; 21 November Khan of Erivan demands compensatory justice; at Petit’s order, the Khan executes Baron Sufer and Cordoulou and displays their heads on pikes outside the French residence
December: Petit leaves Erivan for Tabriz in the company of Iman Qoli-Beg/Philippe Zagly; Michel arrives in Tabriz (without passing through Erivan as he was supposed to do); on Iman Qoli-Beg’s advice, the Khan of Tabriz demands to see Michels diplomatic credentials before he will let him proceed to Isfahan (Michel only receives these on 1.3.1708); Petit allowed to proceed to court
After 25 December: Michel leaves Tabriz and reaches the royal camp (Shah Husayn is near Tehran, 3 days’ journey from Qazvin); Petit leaves for the court 4 days after Michel; Michel told to leave for Erivan with Iman Qoli-Beg as his ‘mihmander’ (guide)
1707
French finances in a mess; Vauban, Projet d’une dîme royale (proposal to equalise tax burden)
April: Bishop of Babylon Pidou de Saint-Olon meets Michel near Qazvin en route for Erivan; Iman Qoli-Beg has the Khan of Erivan arrest them both; they refuse his suggestion that they flee to Turkey as cowardly and unworthy of a French envoy
20 May: Michel and Pidou de Saint-Olon arrive in Tabriz where they meet Petit en route for France
21 May: Michel writes to Pontchartrain attesting Petit’s good conduct
25 May: Michel writes to Ferriol attesting Petit’s good conduct and asking that he treat her well in Constantinople; Michel issues promissory note to Petit for 12,000 livres with a personal guarantee
24 June: Michel and Pidou de Saint-Olon return to Erivan
8 July: Petit leaves Erivan
15 July: Michel goes to Canakiers/Kanaker (small Armenian village 1hr from Erivan)
17 July: Khan invites Michel to visit him
25 July: 2nd visit to the Khan
July: Petit returns to the court of Vakhtang V at Tiflis in the company of two Frenchmen (Castelin and Beauregard); 31 August Vakhtang provides Petit with an attestation of exemplary conduct
2 August: the Khan of Erivan executes Iman Qoli-Beg/ Zagly at Michel’s demand (Michel accused Zagly of being responsible for Sufer and Cordolou’s deaths; he also suspected Zagly of conspiring with the English to betray him)
16 August: Petitwrites to Michel from Tiflis
21 August: Michel writes to Petit from Kanaker, having received her letter of 16 August
31 August: attestation of Petit’s good conduct by Castelin, Beauregard, Nerses and Brother Joseph-Marie de Perouse (Capucin brother); Petit attests that Michel is the ambassador when the Shah inquires
September: Petit departs Tiflis; Michel still stuck in Erivan awaiting an invitation to Isfahan
26 September the elderly Pidou de St. Olon leaves for Hamadan so as not to have to travel in the winter
7 October Khan of Erivan returns from his villa at Carpoula to Erivan via Kanaker
11 October Khan sends Michel 20 camels and 30 horses to facilitate his move from Canakiers/Kanaker to Erivan
12 October Michel receives a visit and a gift from the Khan’s household
13 October Michel has the chapel in Anabat blessed and ensures daily Catholic mass is said there
15 October Attamadoulet (prime minister) of Persia dies
1 November Michel places the Jesuit mission in Erivan under French protection and has a mass sung there (attended by curious Persians and Armenians)
10 November death from illness of Teissier, one of Michel’s men
20 November Michel stages a spectacular victory celebration in Erivan to celebrate Louis XIV’s victory at the Battle of Toulon (21 Aug)
25 November Shah Soltan Husayn returns to Isfahan
26 November start of Ramadan
20 December Ferriol pays his janissary (guard) Ali Bacha 35 piastres for his return from Trebisond to Constantinople
1708
Death of Éléonore de La Rochefoucauld-Roye, wife of Jérôme de Pontchartrain; distraught Pontchartrain needed to be persuaded not to retire from court
7 February: Michel ill; suspects he has been poisoned by the Grand Patriarch of Etchmiadzin
1 March: Michel’s credentials arrive in Erivan (dated 4.8.1707)
9 March: Khan ofErivan informs Michel that he can travel to the Shah’s court
17 March: Michel leaves Erivan for Isfahan
21 March: Norouz (Persian New Year);Lettre de cachet addressed to M. Habert de Montmort (superintendent of the galley ships) stipulating that Petit should be put in a convent not in prison in Marseille
23 March: James Francis Edward Stewart tries to land at the Firth of Forth to claim the Scottish throne; the fleet of Admiral Sir George Byng drives him back
31 March: Michel arrives in Tabriz
1 April: Petit arrives at Constantinople
13 May: Michel arrives in ‘Tochky’ (Tukhchi?) 1 league outside of Isfahan
18 May: Michel enters Isfahan with a cortège of 300 horses; Shah pays him tayn (per diem allowance of 55 écus
7 June: Michel has an audience with Shah Soltan Husayn
27 June: Michel has an audience with the Attamadoulet
10 July British, Dutch and Austrians defeat French and Bavarians at Oudenarde (Belgium)
1 August: Michelbegins negotiations of the trade capitulations between France and Persia
8 August: Michel celebrates the [false report of the] passage of James Stuart to Scotland with cannon-fire in Isfahan
11 August: Michel meets with Attamadoulet
21 August: Michel meets with the Grand Chancellor Mustaffa Kassy
14 September: solar eclipse in Isfahan
23 September: Shah orders presents to be sent to Michel; Attamadoulet protests but is overridden
24 September: Michel receives the Shah’s presents
26 September: Michel receives some Persian clothing in which he is to appear before the Shah at his final audience
29 September: Michel goes to Zargerib and Abat sabat (?) gardens; Michel’s tayn payments stop as he takes his leave of the Shah
8 October: Mainmander Bachy brings Michel 6 ragams (official orders) he had requested
12 October: Mainmander Bachy brings Michel a further 3 ragams
14 October: Michel receives the text of the trade treaty he has negotiated
23 October: French surrender Lille after siege by Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy
23 October: Mainmander Bachy escorts Michel to farewell audience with Shah
24 October: Attamadoulet sends Michel a present of 10 pieces of cloth
29 October: Michel leaves Isfahan
1 December: Michel arrives at Tabriz
8 December: Michel leaves Tabriz
22 December: Michel arrives at Erivan where he stays at the residence of the Armenian Catholicos; receives congratulatory letter from Pontchartrain
1709
Extremely cold winter in Europe; ‘Great Frost’; a delegation of the Paris Parlement asked for a Lenten dispensation b/c of the acute scarcity of vegetables and fish; 11 September Battle of Malplaquet (Northern France), bloodiest, but indecisive battle of the War of Spanish Succession
25 January: Michel arrives on the border of Persia and Turkey
27 January: Michel enters Kars in Turkey where he is received with due honours by Ismaël Pacha
8 February: Petit returns to Marseille; enters women’s prison ‘Hôpital du Refuge’
10 February: Michel leaves Erzerum for Constantinople
21 March: Michel arrives at Constantinople
1 April: Petit’s first letters to Louis XIV and Pontchartrain
7 April: bread riot in Marseille; crowds gather outside of Hôtel de Ville and the governor is forced to open the granaries of the army
12 April: Lieutenant en la Sénéchaussée de Marseille recognises Petit’s promissory note from Michel as valid
14 April: Michel’s note registered with M. Cuzin, notary at Marseille
May: Ferriol suffers from mental illness; he is bound and held under constant watch in his room; the drogman Brue sent to France with the news; Fontenu, consul at Smyrna, to replace Ferriol by order of the King
5 May: Michel arrives at Chios on a rented Turkish boat
20 May: Michel leaves Chios with a young Greek Jesuit R. Pere Farillon Is sending to Pontchartrain
18 June: Michel in Porto Farina (Ghar El Melh, Tunisia)
5 July: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
7 July: Petit starts a riot in the Refuge
8 July: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
15 July: Michel obtains ‘Lettres Royaux’ and argues that he is not liable for 12200 livres
16 July: Petit ‘défenderesse en Lettres Royaux de récision & en requêtes’
20 July: Michel writes to Louis Sauron at La Ciotat to come to testify against Petit
24 July: ordonnance throwing out Du Bies and Giraud’s case against Michel
25 July: Petit ‘défenderesse en Lettres Royaux de récision & en requêtes’
9 August: Ferriol recovers his health; he manages to call out to the Dutch ambassador from a window and obtain his release from his household staff who had been keeping him prisoner
12 August: Petit’s Requête
13 August: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
19 August: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
21 August: Michel leaves Cap-negre (Tunisia) on ‘L’Entreprenant’ captained by M. Bosquet, ‘capitaine d’artillerie’
1 September: Michel arrives at Toulon where he is held up by contrary winds
3 September: Michel arrives at Marseille
7 September: Michel leaves quarantine in Marseille; his baggage must stay a few more days
20 September: Michel leaves Marseille with the young Greek
27 September: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
3 October: Michel arrives in Paris
7 October: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
22 October: Petis de la Croix translates Shah Husayn’s letter for Louis XIV
1710
Birth of Louis XV; famine and unrest in many French provinces; failure of negotiations at Gertruydenberg to end the War of the Spanish Succession; introduction of the dixième, a theoretically universal tax; victory of Villaviciosa restores Spain to Philip V
24 January: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
10 February: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
12 February: Arrest du Conseil Pontchartrain names Arnoul to judge Petit’s case ‘en dernier Ressort’ at the ‘cour de l’amirauté’ in Marseille
February/March? Michel leaves Versailles for Marseille where Petit’s and Fabre’s effects are being examined (19 May Michel sends a letter to Pontchartain from Marseille)
1711
Death of the Dauphin and of his elder son the Duc de Bourgogne; Louis, duc D’Anjou becomes Dauphin (great-grandson of Louis XIV); England leaves the coalition and signs secret preliminary peace treaty with Louis XIV in London
17 February: Michel leaves quarantine in Toulon on return from Tunis
22 February: Michel writes to Pontchartrain from Marseille
4 April: Ferriol leaves Constantinople for France as his tenure as ambassador is over
15 July: Michel receives letter of appointment as consul in Tunis
August: Michel still in Marseille for trial of Petit’s case against him
1713
Treaty of Utrecht ending the War of the Spanish Succession; more monetary manipulations in France designed to resolve ongoing financial crisis
26 January: Pontchartrain frees Petit from ‘Refuge’
22 March: Petit arranges for the sale of her effects by auction in Marseille
30 June: Petit leaves Marseille for Paris
1714
Cattle plague; decree establishing the right of succession of Louis XIV’s illegitimate offspring (including the Duc de Maine); Louis’s will
July: Louis de Pontchartrain resigns as chancellor
1715
February: Persian ambassador Mohammad Reza Beg arrives in Versailles; Pontchartrain orders that Petit be kept under watch to ensure Reza Beg cannot meet with her
3 May: Petit sends the novelist Alain-René Lesage a package with her account of her adventures; the Paris police chief René d’Argenson reports this to Pontchartrain who intervenes to ensure Lesage will reject her commission to rewrite and publish her memoirs
18 June: Lesage writes to Pontchartrain to refuse the commission to rewrite Petit’s memoirs
1 September: Louis XIV dies; Philippe d’Orléans regent
1718
18 July: Michel dies in Cyprus
1719
19 May: Petit obtains ‘Arrêt de Conseil’ to obtain cassation of earlier judgements against her
7 September: Louis XV revokes judgement against Petit in earlier trial
1722
October: Ferriol dies
23 October: Sultan Husayn surrenders to Malek Mahmud Sistani after an eight month siege of Isfahan in which as many as 80,000 died from starvation and disease
Mehmet IV sultan of Ottoman Empire (-1687); called ‘the Hunter’ for his absorption in personal pleasures including hunting despite the many military disasters facing the Empire
1661
Köprülü Fazil Ahmet grand vizier (-1676)
1672
Ottomans at war with Poland (-1676)
c.1675
Jean-Baptiste Fabre takes over the management of a comptoir (commercial agency or trading station) in Constantinople; his house is next to the French embassy
1676
Kara Mustafa grand vizier (-1683)
1679
Guilleragues ambassador at Constantinople (-1685)
1681
French attack Chios
1683
Siege of Vienna; defeat of Ottoman forces; 25 December Kara Mustafa strangled in Belgrade
1684
5 March formation of the Holy League (Innocent XI, Emperor Leopold, Venice, Poland) against the Ottoman Empire
1685
Pierre Girardin (d. 1689) ambassador at Constantinople until his death
1686
Russia joins the Holy League; fall of Ottoman Buda to the League
1687
Süleyman II Ottoman sultan (-1691) accedes and puts down janissary revolt, executing some of their agas (officers); restores order in the Empire but Ottomans lose control of Athens to the Venetians
1689
Pierre Antoine de Castagnères, marquis de Châteauneuf (b.1644 Chambéry) ambassador at Constantinople
Köprülü Fazil Mustafa Pasha Grand Vizier; one of the ablest Grand Viziers ever (called ‘the Virtuous’)
1691
Ahmet II Ottoman sultan (-1695); Austrians defeat Ottomans at Slankamen (in modern day Serbia); death of Grand VizierFazil Mustafa
1692
Fabre sent by Ambassador Châteauneuf to Hungary
1694
7 August 26 year-old Shah Soltan Husayn accedes to the throne of Persia
Firman (royal mandate or decree) banning wine etc; Carmelites expelled from Julfa
1695
Mustafa II Ottoman sultan (-1703)
1696
Carmelites allowed to return to Julfa (28.1.1695 letter of Pope Innocent XII presented to Shah Husayn by Portuguese ambassador Gregorio Pereira Fidalgo)
1697
11 September Battle of Zenta; Habsburgs under Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat Ottomans; mutiny of janissaries who kill Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha and other officials
Hüseyn Pasha grand vizier (-1702)
Marriage of Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Éléonore de La Rochefoucauld-Roye
1699
26 January Treaty of Karlowitz ends Great Turkish War; Sultan cedes Hungary to the Austrians and (temporarily) the Peloponnesos to Venice; Ottoman sovereign formally recognises permanent loss of territory for the first time; Austria replaces the Ottomans as the main power in east-central Europe
15 September Louis de Pontchartrain becomes Chancellor of France, the titular head of the French justice system
11 November the new French ambassador, Charles de Ferriol, baron d’Argental, arrives at Constantinople
1700
Treaty of Constantinople: Russians and Ottomans make peace for 10 years; Russians establish permanent diplomatic mission in Turkey
1702
15 May outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession; conscription of militia in France; beginning of the revolt of the Camisards (Protestants in south central France who revolted against persecution)
Daltaban Mustafa Pasha grand vizier
Marie Petit recorded as tenancière (manager) of a tripot at 30 rue Dauphine, Paris
Jean-Baptiste Fabre returns to Paris where he resides in a house near Petit’s
2 or 10 December Petit signs a note promising to follow Fabre wherever he went
1703
Savoy and Portugal rejoin anti-French coalition
August ‘Edirne incident’: Ottoman army in Istanbul rebels because of overdue pay and deposes Sultan Mustafa II; generalised violence in Istanbul
Ahmet III sultan (-1730); Ahmed III would preside over the so-called ‘Tulip Age’ (1718-1730) of courtly elegance
Mehmed Rami Grand Vizier (formerly Reis Efendi (chief writer) in the chancery)
25 November Petit lends Fabre 8000 livres payable one month after his arrival in Isfahan
1704
Vakhtang appointed regent in Georgia at the request of his uncle, Gorgin Khan
Commencement of works on the Chahar Bagh Madrasa complex
Cornelius de Bruyn arrives in Isfahan
2 April Ferriol sends his secretary Pierre Victor Michel toTransylvania
4 August English take Gibraltar from Spain
13 August Grand Alliance (Britain, Holy Roman Empire, Dutch) defeat the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim, a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession
December Michel en route back to Constantinople from France; Fabre’s brother Mathieu in Paris
1705
End of the Camisards’ revolt in France; Dutch statesman Anthonie Heinsius makes unsuccessful offer of peace to Louis XIV
Plague in Constantinople; Ferriol stays in Palais de France with his drogman; beginning of autonomy of Tunis from Ottomans
2 March departure of Fabre and Petit and the French mission from Toulon on the royal vessel le Trident captained by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Turgis; they sail to Alexandretta then Aleppo
April Fabre and Petitarrive in Aleppo where he is arrested and detained for 8 months; Fabre then returns to Alexandretta then Cyprus, Rhodes, Samos where his nephew Jacques Fabre and his secretary Pierre André Dubies stay with the presents
1706
Allied Anglo-Dutch victory over French at Ramillies (in modern Belgium); Spanish Netherlands fall to Allies; imperial general Eugene of Savoy breaks the siege of Turin and drives French out of Italy; British enter Madrid but are forced to retreat
Corlulu Ali Pasha grand vizier (-1710)
Jan/February: Fabre and Petit reach to Constantinople where they stay incognito 35 days; Fabre resides with the Persian ambassador and Petit with an Armenian
March: Fabre hires the Armenians Baron Sufer and Cordolou to bring baggage and personnel left behind at Samos to Erivan
June: arrival of Fabre and Petit in Erivan
Summer: Shah Soltan Husayn sets out with a retinue of 60,000 on a year-long pilgrimmage to Qom and Mashhad
Severe food shortage in Isfahan, possibly caused by grain merchants taking advantage of the court’s absence; and the people revolt. They gather in the great square, throw stones at the doors of the Ali Qapu palace, shout insults against Soltan Husayn, and call for his brother to be brought out of the harem to replace him.
Lazgi (mountain tribe from the far NW) raids into Georgia; the subsidies normally paid to them had been embezzled by corrupt Persian officials; banditry became commonplace on the roads and caravan routes
August Soltan Husayn in Mashhad
16 August: Fabre dies following a hunting party in Erivan; he is buried in the Armenian burial ground in Etchmiadzin
25 October: Ferriol instructs Michel to get Petit to return to France by ‘toute sorte de moyens […] sans la porter toutefois au desespoir, de crainte qu’elle ne se fit Mahomettane’ and to get back Fabre’s effects
26 October: Michel leaves Constantinople for Persia
November: incident of the orange; Persians arrest the French servant Justiniany; French who had stayed behind in Samos (including Fabre’s nephew Jacques) reach Erzerum where they are arrested and the presents impounded; Petit secures their release; they arrive at Erivan and liberate Justiniany; two Persian soldiers killed when they try to take Justiniany back; 21 November Khan of Erivan demands compensatory justice; at Petit’s order, the Khan executes Baron Sufer and Cordoulou and displays their heads on pikes outside the French residence
December: Petit leaves Erivan for Tabriz in the company of Iman Qoli-Beg/Philippe Zagly; Michel arrives in Tabriz (without passing through Erivan as he was supposed to do); on Iman Qoli-Beg’s advice, the Khan of Tabriz demands to see Michels diplomatic credentials before he will let him proceed to Isfahan (Michel only receives these on 1.3.1708); Petit allowed to proceed to court
After 25 December: Michel leaves Tabriz and reaches the royal camp (Shah Husayn is near Tehran, 3 days’ journey from Qazvin); Petit leaves for the court 4 days after Michel; Michel told to leave for Erivan with Iman Qoli-Beg as his ‘mihmander’ (guide)
1707
French finances in a mess; Vauban, Projet d’une dîme royale (proposal to equalise tax burden)
April: Bishop of Babylon Pidou de Saint-Olon meets Michel near Qazvin en route for Erivan; Iman Qoli-Beg has the Khan of Erivan arrest them both; they refuse his suggestion that they flee to Turkey as cowardly and unworthy of a French envoy
20 May: Michel and Pidou de Saint-Olon arrive in Tabriz where they meet Petit en route for France
21 May: Michel writes to Pontchartrain attesting Petit’s good conduct
25 May: Michel writes to Ferriol attesting Petit’s good conduct and asking that he treat her well in Constantinople; Michel issues promissory note to Petit for 12,000 livres with a personal guarantee
24 June: Michel and Pidou de Saint-Olon return to Erivan
8 July: Petit leaves Erivan
15 July: Michel goes to Canakiers/Kanaker (small Armenian village 1hr from Erivan)
17 July: Khan invites Michel to visit him
25 July: 2nd visit to the Khan
July: Petit returns to the court of Vakhtang V at Tiflis in the company of two Frenchmen (Castelin and Beauregard); 31 August Vakhtang provides Petit with an attestation of exemplary conduct
2 August: the Khan of Erivan executes Iman Qoli-Beg/ Zagly at Michel’s demand (Michel accused Zagly of being responsible for Sufer and Cordolou’s deaths; he also suspected Zagly of conspiring with the English to betray him)
16 August: Petitwrites to Michel from Tiflis
21 August: Michel writes to Petit from Kanaker, having received her letter of 16 August
31 August: attestation of Petit’s good conduct by Castelin, Beauregard, Nerses and Brother Joseph-Marie de Perouse (Capucin brother); Petit attests that Michel is the ambassador when the Shah inquires
September: Petit departs Tiflis; Michel still stuck in Erivan awaiting an invitation to Isfahan
26 September the elderly Pidou de St. Olon leaves for Hamadan so as not to have to travel in the winter
7 October Khan of Erivan returns from his villa at Carpoula to Erivan via Kanaker
11 October Khan sends Michel 20 camels and 30 horses to facilitate his move from Canakiers/Kanaker to Erivan
12 October Michel receives a visit and a gift from the Khan’s household
13 October Michel has the chapel in Anabat blessed and ensures daily Catholic mass is said there
15 October Attamadoulet (prime minister) of Persia dies
1 November Michel places the Jesuit mission in Erivan under French protection and has a mass sung there (attended by curious Persians and Armenians)
10 November death from illness of Teissier, one of Michel’s men
20 November Michel stages a spectacular victory celebration in Erivan to celebrate Louis XIV’s victory at the Battle of Toulon (21 Aug)
25 November Shah Soltan Husayn returns to Isfahan
26 November start of Ramadan
20 December Ferriol pays his janissary (guard) Ali Bacha 35 piastres for his return from Trebisond to Constantinople
1708
Death of Éléonore de La Rochefoucauld-Roye, wife of Jérôme de Pontchartrain; distraught Pontchartrain needed to be persuaded not to retire from court
7 February: Michel ill; suspects he has been poisoned by the Grand Patriarch of Etchmiadzin
1 March: Michel’s credentials arrive in Erivan (dated 4.8.1707)
9 March: Khan ofErivan informs Michel that he can travel to the Shah’s court
17 March: Michel leaves Erivan for Isfahan
21 March: Norouz (Persian New Year);Lettre de cachet addressed to M. Habert de Montmort (superintendent of the galley ships) stipulating that Petit should be put in a convent not in prison in Marseille
23 March: James Francis Edward Stewart tries to land at the Firth of Forth to claim the Scottish throne; the fleet of Admiral Sir George Byng drives him back
31 March: Michel arrives in Tabriz
1 April: Petit arrives at Constantinople
13 May: Michel arrives in ‘Tochky’ (Tukhchi?) 1 league outside of Isfahan
18 May: Michel enters Isfahan with a cortège of 300 horses; Shah pays him tayn (per diem allowance of 55 écus
7 June: Michel has an audience with Shah Soltan Husayn
27 June: Michel has an audience with the Attamadoulet
10 July British, Dutch and Austrians defeat French and Bavarians at Oudenarde (Belgium)
1 August: Michelbegins negotiations of the trade capitulations between France and Persia
8 August: Michel celebrates the [false report of the] passage of James Stuart to Scotland with cannon-fire in Isfahan
11 August: Michel meets with Attamadoulet
21 August: Michel meets with the Grand Chancellor Mustaffa Kassy
14 September: solar eclipse in Isfahan
23 September: Shah orders presents to be sent to Michel; Attamadoulet protests but is overridden
24 September: Michel receives the Shah’s presents
26 September: Michel receives some Persian clothing in which he is to appear before the Shah at his final audience
29 September: Michel goes to Zargerib and Abat sabat (?) gardens; Michel’s tayn payments stop as he takes his leave of the Shah
8 October: Mainmander Bachy brings Michel 6 ragams (official orders) he had requested
12 October: Mainmander Bachy brings Michel a further 3 ragams
14 October: Michel receives the text of the trade treaty he has negotiated
23 October: French surrender Lille after siege by Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy
23 October: Mainmander Bachy escorts Michel to farewell audience with Shah
24 October: Attamadoulet sends Michel a present of 10 pieces of cloth
29 October: Michel leaves Isfahan
1 December: Michel arrives at Tabriz
8 December: Michel leaves Tabriz
22 December: Michel arrives at Erivan where he stays at the residence of the Armenian Catholicos; receives congratulatory letter from Pontchartrain
1709
Extremely cold winter in Europe; ‘Great Frost’; a delegation of the Paris Parlement asked for a Lenten dispensation b/c of the acute scarcity of vegetables and fish; 11 September Battle of Malplaquet (Northern France), bloodiest, but indecisive battle of the War of Spanish Succession
25 January: Michel arrives on the border of Persia and Turkey
27 January: Michel enters Kars in Turkey where he is received with due honours by Ismaël Pacha
8 February: Petit returns to Marseille; enters women’s prison ‘Hôpital du Refuge’
10 February: Michel leaves Erzerum for Constantinople
21 March: Michel arrives at Constantinople
1 April: Petit’s first letters to Louis XIV and Pontchartrain
7 April: bread riot in Marseille; crowds gather outside of Hôtel de Ville and the governor is forced to open the granaries of the army
12 April: Lieutenant en la Sénéchaussée de Marseille recognises Petit’s promissory note from Michel as valid
14 April: Michel’s note registered with M. Cuzin, notary at Marseille
May: Ferriol suffers from mental illness; he is bound and held under constant watch in his room; the drogman Brue sent to France with the news; Fontenu, consul at Smyrna, to replace Ferriol by order of the King
5 May: Michel arrives at Chios on a rented Turkish boat
20 May: Michel leaves Chios with a young Greek Jesuit R. Pere Farillon Is sending to Pontchartrain
18 June: Michel in Porto Farina (Ghar El Melh, Tunisia)
5 July: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
7 July: Petit starts a riot in the Refuge
8 July: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
15 July: Michel obtains ‘Lettres Royaux’ and argues that he is not liable for 12200 livres
16 July: Petit ‘défenderesse en Lettres Royaux de récision & en requêtes’
20 July: Michel writes to Louis Sauron at La Ciotat to come to testify against Petit
24 July: ordonnance throwing out Du Bies and Giraud’s case against Michel
25 July: Petit ‘défenderesse en Lettres Royaux de récision & en requêtes’
9 August: Ferriol recovers his health; he manages to call out to the Dutch ambassador from a window and obtain his release from his household staff who had been keeping him prisoner
12 August: Petit’s Requête
13 August: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
19 August: Petit ‘demanderesse en requêtes’
21 August: Michel leaves Cap-negre (Tunisia) on ‘L’Entreprenant’ captained by M. Bosquet, ‘capitaine d’artillerie’
1 September: Michel arrives at Toulon where he is held up by contrary winds
3 September: Michel arrives at Marseille
7 September: Michel leaves quarantine in Marseille; his baggage must stay a few more days
20 September: Michel leaves Marseille with the young Greek
27 September: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
3 October: Michel arrives in Paris
7 October: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
22 October: Petis de la Croix translates Shah Husayn’s letter for Louis XIV
1710
Birth of Louis XV; famine and unrest in many French provinces; failure of negotiations at Gertruydenberg to end the War of the Spanish Succession; introduction of the dixième, a theoretically universal tax; victory of Villaviciosa restores Spain to Philip V
24 January: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
10 February: Petit writes to Pontchartrain
12 February: Arrest du Conseil Pontchartrain names Arnoul to judge Petit’s case ‘en dernier Ressort’ at the ‘cour de l’amirauté’ in Marseille
February/March? Michel leaves Versailles for Marseille where Petit’s and Fabre’s effects are being examined (19 May Michel sends a letter to Pontchartain from Marseille)
1711
Death of the Dauphin and of his elder son the Duc de Bourgogne; Louis, duc D’Anjou becomes Dauphin (great-grandson of Louis XIV); England leaves the coalition and signs secret preliminary peace treaty with Louis XIV in London
17 February: Michel leaves quarantine in Toulon on return from Tunis
22 February: Michel writes to Pontchartrain from Marseille
4 April: Ferriol leaves Constantinople for France as his tenure as ambassador is over
15 July: Michel receives letter of appointment as consul in Tunis
August: Michel still in Marseille for trial of Petit’s case against him
1713
Treaty of Utrecht ending the War of the Spanish Succession; more monetary manipulations in France designed to resolve ongoing financial crisis
26 January: Pontchartrain frees Petit from ‘Refuge’
22 March: Petit arranges for the sale of her effects by auction in Marseille
30 June: Petit leaves Marseille for Paris
1714
Cattle plague; decree establishing the right of succession of Louis XIV’s illegitimate offspring (including the Duc de Maine); Louis’s will
July: Louis de Pontchartrain resigns as chancellor
1715
February: Persian ambassador Mohammad Reza Beg arrives in Versailles; Pontchartrain orders that Petit be kept under watch to ensure Reza Beg cannot meet with her
3 May: Petit sends the novelist Alain-René Lesage a package with her account of her adventures; the Paris police chief René d’Argenson reports this to Pontchartrain who intervenes to ensure Lesage will reject her commission to rewrite and publish her memoirs
18 June: Lesage writes to Pontchartrain to refuse the commission to rewrite Petit’s memoirs
1 September: Louis XIV dies; Philippe d’Orléans regent
1718
18 July: Michel dies in Cyprus
1719
19 May: Petit obtains ‘Arrêt de Conseil’ to obtain cassation of earlier judgements against her
7 September: Louis XV revokes judgement against Petit in earlier trial
1722
October: Ferriol dies
23 October: Sultan Husayn surrenders to Malek Mahmud Sistani after an eight month siege of Isfahan in which as many as 80,000 died from starvation and disease
