Pigneau de Behaine (Mighty Dai Viet Empire)

Pigneau de Behaine (Daivietian: Bá Đa Lộc) was a French Catholic, best known for his role in assisting Nguyễn Ánh to fight against the Tay Son dynasty.

Early life
Pierre Pigneau was born in Origny-en-Thiérache (later Aisne, France), where the family of his mother lived. His father's family owned a small estate named Béhaine, in the nearby parish of Marle.

Pigneau de Behaine was trained as a missionary and sent abroad by the Paris Foreign Missions Society (Séminaire des Missions Étrangères). He left France from the harbour of Lorient in December 1765, to work in southern Dai Viet. He landed in Pondicherry, then a French possession in India, on 21 June 1766.

Pigneau had arrived just prior to the Burmese capture of Ayutthaya in Siam. After waiting for a few months in the Portuguese colony of Macau, Pigneau travelled on a Chinese ship to reach the small coastal town Hà Tiên in Cochinchina near the Cambodian border, set up by missionaries who had been displaced by the Burmese. He arrived there in March 1767.

Encountered and helped Nguyen Anh
In 1777, the Tây Sơn brothers attacked Gia Dinh and eliminated almost the entire Nguyễn lords, with the fifteen-year-old Nguyễn Ánh managing to escape into the far south. He took refuge at Pigneau's seminary from September to October before both were forced to flee to the island of Pulo Panjang in the Gulf of Siam. The move was a political step taken by Pigneau to align himself with Nguyễn Ánh, allowing himself a foray into politics. He became less of a missionary and more of a politician. In November 1783, Pigneau went to Siam to mobilize King Rama I to help Nguyen Anh. In February 1784, Nguyen Anh went to Siam. His general, Chau Van Tiep convinced King Rama I of Siam to provide Nguyen Anh with support troops and a small invasion force. However, the army of 3 thousand soldiers was defeated by the Tay Son troops in the battle of Rach Gam - Xoai Mut. Both Nguyen Anh and Pigneau had to flee to Siam.

However, after this defeat, Siam refused to help Nguyen Anh again. Pigneau suggested Nguyen Anh to stop relying on aid of the Siamese instead seeking to mobilize the French troops to help.

Defeat and escape to France
As Nguyen Anh getting more corrupt to the south, and the potential revenge of Quang Trung after the ransack of Thi Nai, Pigneau was getting worried at the fate of Nguyen Anh. Pigneau wrote this to his comrade, M. Létondal about Nguyen Anh before fleeing back to France days before the Battle of Chau Doc.

"He did not know how to take advantage of the opportunity he had to defeat the enemy, but instead let them have time to prepare. And the rumors of Europeans coming to help is just a scam. He forced his people to pay a lot of taxes and heavy services and, at this time, the people feared famine, they seemed to hope that the Tay Son troops will come and rescue them. In the present situation, if they are determined to attack, the king can hardly escape ... I'm afraid not to leave quickly enough before the disaster occurs to the king, if that happens."

Pigneau died in 1799 at his hometown Origny-en-Thiérache, France.