Alexandre de Prouville

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (c. 1596 or 1603–1670) was a French aristocrat, statesman, and military leader. He was the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont (Picardy)

He first made his name as a regimental commander in Germany in the 1640s, then was appointed Commissary-General of the French troops serving in Germany. In 1647 he represented France at the Ulm negotiations with Sweden and Bavaria.

After driving out the Dutch from the West Indies in 1664, the Marquis de Tracy was appointed lieutenant-général of New France. The governor was not present, so de Tracy acted as the governor in the Sovereign Council.

From his base in Quebec City, as Lieutenant General of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, he initiated a brutal war against the Iroquois peoples. After defeating them and destroying their crops and villages, he launched an attack against the Mohawk nation and caused destruction to their territory in central present-day New York. Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy seized all the Mohawk lands in the name of the king of France. He forced the Mohawk to accept the Roman Catholic faith and to adopt the French language as taught by the Jesuit missionaries. A mission village for Mohawk Catholics, Kahnawake, was set up south of Montreal.

Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy died in Paris in the parish of Saint-Eustache on April 28, 1670.

Legacy
The Tracy Squadron of cadets at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean was named in his honour.