Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (; – 1670) was a French military leader, statesman, and the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont in Picardy, France. A professional soldier, he was a regimental commander during the Thirty Years Wars, and was later appointed commissary general of French forces in Germany. In 1663, he was commissioned lieutenant-général of the French colonies in the Americas. In 1664, he led an expedition that expelled the Dutch from Guiana. The following year he sailed to New France where, in 1666, he led the Carignan-Salieres Regiment and Canadien volunteers in an invasion of the Mohawk homeland. He returned to France after reaching peace settlements with the Mohawk and the other Iroquois nations, and was appointed commandant at Dunkirk, and later governor of the Château Trompette in Bordeaux.
Early life
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, the son of Pierre de Prouville, bailiff of the citadel of Amiens, and Marie Bochart de Champigny, was born in Amiens . He married Marie de Belin in Paris on 17 November 1624. Tracy had had a son, Charles-Henri, who died at Landrecies in 1655 during the Franco-Spanish War, and a daughter, Marie Chrisante. Tracy married his second wife, Louise de Fouilleuse, on 15 April 1657 at Saint-Eustache in Paris.
Tracy was a professional soldier who was recorded as a captain of light horse in 1632. After the French intervened in the Thirty Years War, he served as a regimental commander and fought in several battles including the Battle of Wolfenbüttel, the Battle of Kempen, the Battle of Freiburg, the Siege of Philippsburg, and the Battle of Nordlingen. He was appointed commissary general of the French army in Germany, and represented France in negotiations with Sweden and the Elector of Bavaria that led to the 1647 Truce of Ulm.
Tracy sailed from La Rochelle in February 1664 accompanied by Antoine Lefèbvre de La Barre, four companies of infantry from the Broglie, Chambellé, Orléans and Poitou regiments, and 650 settlers for the French colonies in the West Indies. He also installed a new governor to the island of Grenada called Monsieur de Vincent.
In April 1665, Tracy left Guadeloupe for the Gulf of St. Lawrence. After anchoring off Percé, Tracy and the soldiers that had accompanied him to the West Indies transferred to smaller ships and disembarked at Quebec on 30 June, 11 days after the first four companies of the Carignan-Salières had arrived from France. To avoid overcrowding in Quebec, Tracy sent the Carignan-Salières companies to build three forts along the Richelieu River, the main route used by the Mohawk in their raids on French settlements. Fort Richelieu was restored and Fort Sainte Anne was erected the following spring on Isle La Motte at the northern end of Lake Champlain. Salières and eight more companies of the Carignan-Salières landed at Quebec in mid-August. The newly appointed Governor General of New France, Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle, and the newly appointed intendant, Jean Talon, arrived with the final contingent of eight companies in mid-September.
Tracy quickly recognized that of the five Iroquois nations, the Mohawk were the most aggressive towards the French. For many years the Mohawk had raided French settlements, and had disrupted the flow of beaver pelts to Montreal by blockading the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers. While the Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Cayuga appeared willing to discuss peace, the Mohawk did not. In December 1665 an Onondaga and Oneida delegation arrived at Quebec to begin negotiations on behalf of themselves and the Seneca and Cayuga.
Return to France
In August 1667, Tracy returned to France leaving Courcelle, Talon, and the Sovereign Council to govern New France. Without the threat of Iroquois raids the colony entered a period of growth and prosperity that lasted until 1684. Tracy sponsored the education of indigenous children, paid for a chapel to be built for the Ursulines, and made a substantial donation to the Jesuits for their chapel. He reorganized the Sovereign Council, and sent the governor of Montreal, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve back to France on indefinite leave, replacing him with Zacharie Dupuy. When Tracy returned to France, Intendant Jean Talon wrote that "he has set the affairs of Canada in such good order that I shall have little to do there." The Tracy Squadron of cadets at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean is named after Tracy. Some 17th-century Jesuit missionaries referred to Lake Superior as Lac Tracy after Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy.