212 | Leaving France, “Turning Turk,” Becoming Ottoman
So many popes and Catholic kings have allied themselves with Saracens
and Turkish rulers that I would be a fool to scruple about doing likewise. Do
not our princes ally themselves daily with Protestant rulers, who our Church
condemns and treats the same as Muslims? My conscience and my honor make
no objections to this plan. If I can steal Hungary from the Emperor... I will
do a great service to [France], because states gain by degrading their rivals as
much as by conquests, and it will bring me much honor and more profit. As I
lack not for genius, nor courage, nor battle experience, perhaps I will succeed.In his optimism, Bonneval deploys remarkable language. He moves from the
metaphor of being like a sovereign power to overtly equating himself to a Chris-
tian state at war, justified in forging a one-man alliance with a non-Christian
power. His own national identity is notably absent from this letter; while Bon-
neval specifically mentions Turks, Germans, and Hungarians, he presents him-
self as a stateless—but with “genius,” “courage,” and “battle experience,” hardly
powerless—individual.
That jaunty spirit withered as others fought to control his future. The Aus-
trian ambassador at Istanbul, Baron von Talman, began negotiating for Bon-
neval’s deportation to Hapsburg lands. (Or if we can believe Bonneval, von
Talman was simultaneously arranging to poison him.) Meanwhile, Villeneuve
was caught between directives: the Sublime Porte offered to invite Bonneval to
Istanbul—but only if King Louis XV consented, which he would not, for two
reasons. One was concern for the diplomatic explosion likely to erupt between
France and Austria if France supported Bonneval’s goals; the other was official
disapproval of Bonneval’s past history. In October, Secretary of State Chauvelin
instructed Villeneuve,
Although the comte de Bonneval is French, a man of gentle birth, and related
to people of very high rank in France, and although the King has forgiven
him for the pain caused by his quitting His Service to enter the service of the
[Hapsburg] Emperor the King’s enemy, His Majesty nevertheless cannot for-
get that fault by which the comte de Bonneval is now and forever a man whom
His Majesty cannot, must not, and will not hear anything about.“Nation” in this instance is defined on a completely personal basis, embodied in
the king. In punishment for breaking his allegiance to Louis XV’s predecessor,
Bonneval must be denied the protection of national identity at this crucial point
in his career, and Villeneuve (who represented the French nation abroad) could
have nothing to do with him.
Yet secretly Louis XV had other intentions. Though forbidden to assist Bon-
neval, Chauvelin ordered Villeneuve to ensure his safety:
Because ultimately... we would not be angered if he moved to Constanti-
nople, where he could gain [the Ottomans’] confidence, and whereby the