| François Fidèle Ripaud | |
| Occupation: | privateer |
François Fidèle Ripaud de Montaudevert (1755–1814) was a French privateer, notable for bringing a group of volunteers from Isle de France (Mauritius) to aid Tipu Sultan in his resistance against the British.
François Ripaud was born in Saffré, northwestern France, in a middle-class family. He enrolled as a sailor at aged 11, on the Le Palmier. In 1770, he reached Mauritius, where he married in 1784. He had two children.[1] In 1797, he sailed from Mauritius to Mangalore and sought a meeting with Tipu Sultan, in which he promised to raise a large force in Mauritius for the Sultan. In 1798, Ripaud came back to Mauritius with two envoys from Tipu Sultan. Anne Joseph Hippolyte de Maurès, Governor-General of Île de France (Mauritius) made a proclamation, on 29 January 1798, seeking volunteers for an “expedition to travel to Mysore to assist Tipu in his resistance to British encroachment in south India”.[2] Approximately 100 men were recruited, and they left for Mangalore on the French frigate La Preneuse on 7 March 1798.
The French involvement provided Governor-General Richard Wellesley with the pretext to invade Mysore, which culminated in the death of Tipu in May 1799.[3]