Bertrand d'Ornesan, also Bertrand d'Ornezan, Baron de Saint-Blancard (pronounced as /fr/; d. 1540), was a French admiral in the service of King Francis I of France. He was general of the galleys of the Mediterranean (Amiral de la Flotte du Levant).
Bertrand d'Ornesan tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco, Brazil in 1531.[1]
In 1533 Bertrand d'Ornesan joined the Ottoman embassy to France (1533) going to meet Francis I.[2]
For about twenty years, he was a business partner of the Marseilles banker Madeleine Lartessuti, who financed his fleet and was reportedly also his lover. [3]
In 1537, Ornesan began a two-year involvement in operations with the Ottoman Empire under terms of the Franco-Ottoman alliance between Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent. He led a fleet of galleys to Corfu to join the fleet of Barbarossa at the siege of Corfu, but finally failed to convince the Ottomans to participate in a proposed major expedition against Italy.[4] Saint-Blancard had left Marseille on 15 August with 12 galleys and arrived at Corfu in early September 1537.[4] [5] Eventually Suleiman, worried by a plague among his troops,[6] decided to return with his fleet to Istanbul by mid-September without having captured Corfu.[4]
The fleet of Saint-Blancard wintered in Chios until 17 February 1538.[7] It was decided that three ships would go to Constantinople, while the rest of the fleet returned to France. In Constantinople, they were received by the French ambassador Charles de Marillac.[8] Hayreddin Barbarossa provided for the expenses, and the French galleys finally left on 11 April 1538 to return to Nice through Monastir.[9]
Jean de la Vega, a member of his staff, wrote the account of his travels.[10]