CHARLOTTE la Beauté et la Tragédie

De: TOM GAUTHIER

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Charlotte, la Beauté et la Tragédie, is three stories woven into the tapestry of the early history of French Canada – Quebec. The stories are set in factual events and personal accounts of the early settling of Quebec. Giving life to history required connecting the dots in the records with the suppositions of human behavior, emotions, and actions that the events infer.

The first is the story of Charlotte Roussel, born in of Évreux, France, in 1646, in the reign of Louis XIV, and growing up in poor circumstance with little prospect for the future. When her father dies, we see her accepting an offer to join the filles du roi, Daughters of the King. With few first-hand accounts of the lives of the Filles du Roi, Charlotte's story is an exception, sadly due to her tragic end, but also for her marriage to an historic figure, Pierre Gautier dit Saguingoira. We follow Charlotte as she makes the perilous voyage to the colony of Quebec, and up to her recorded presence at Maison Saint-Gabriel in Ville-Marie (the future Montréal) and her meeting of Pierre.

The second story is of Pierre Gautier dit Saguingoira. From his birth in Surgères, France it tells the life of Pierre Gautier from humble birth, to taking a leap of faith, sailing to the new French colony of Quebec, and being thrust into the recorded history of its creation, including becoming the first settler of René-Robert de la Salle's stories Lachine. We will also learn how Pierre Gautier became Pierre Gautier dit Saguingoira.
Had Charlotte Roussel and Pierre Gautier remained in France in the 17th century, they would be lost in the chaos that was that time and lost to our history.

History is fascinating, and to try for clarity one needs the points of view of all the people and events recorded.
So the third story is the viewpoints, experiences, and actions of the indigenous people who witnessed the arrival of the French. Titled La Confédération Iroquois, it is an important element to the story of the French settling of Quebec. This is the history of the interactions with the native Iroquois Nation of tribes, and the Algonquin and Wendat (called Huron by the French) tribes.
And finally, we merge the stories in the part titled A Convergence of Fates, and it is exactly that. The convergence of the lives of Charlotte Roussel and Pierre Gautier (now dit Saguingoira), the growth of their family and the building of a community, all in the shadow of the actions of the Iroquois.
The culmination is the climactic conclusion, with twists and turns in the fates of all the players.

While this book is a history of people, places, and events, it is written in the genre of Historical Fiction, allowing the author to give you historical facts wrapped in feelings – the essence of human existence.
The voyageurs paddling a birchbark canoe loaded with two tons of pelts for fifteen hours a day must have had something to say about it over the evening campfire. The settler looking at stones and trees to shape into a home for his family must have a thought while sweat pours down his back. So we give them voice.
A voice of fear, joy, elation, doubt – a human voice.

The Filles du Roi are the over seven hundred women sent to Quebec by Louis XIV during a ten-year period, to marry soldiers and settlers, raise families in the wilderness, and who became the women who populated Nouvelle France. It is estimated that two thirds of French Canadians today are descendants of the Filles.
Footnote: Charlotte and Pierre are the author's 7th great-grandparents, and his motivation for recording these stories for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.