Reports on Georgia by Juyé, a French Diplomat in Constantinople

Abstract

The present work „Reports on Georgia by Juyé, a French Diplomat in Constantinople“ provides the description and analysis of the 16th century political processes and military actions going on in the Middle East, in particular, in the Caucasus. The Iran-Ottoman wars of that period went beyond the borders of the regional conflict and gained an international resonance. Therefore, European diplomacy carefully observed the situation in the Caucasus, and in particular, in Georgia.

Despite the difficult situation, most European rulers instead of forming an anti-Ottoman coalition, in accordance with their own political economic interests, separately tried to establish diplomatic and political ties with the Ottomans.

Since the 20s of the 16th century, the French royal door was opened to the Sultan for normalizing the relationships. For the success in European policy the key factor of French diplomacy was the influence upon the ongoing Iran-Ottoman conflict in the Middle East at that particular time. The French have been particularly vigilant in monitoring developments on the Eastern Front. The information of Juyé, the diplomat of the French Embassy in Constantinople, is an important source, not only for studying the Eastern policy of French diplomacy, but also for studying the history of foreign and domestic affairs of Georgia of that time.

The period of particular interest in the letters of Juyé is the last quarter of the 16th century. His letters also reflect the fundamental directions of Ottoman foreign policy in the second half of the 16th century. In these relations, Juyé made the analysis of the Diplomatic Activities of Other European Missions in Constantinople, which rendered invaluable service for French Court in Developing an Eastern Foreign Policy.

The information of the French diplomat gives a clear picture of the importance of the positions of the Georgian kings and princes in European Eastern politics, their foreign policy vectors. Consequently, the correspondences of Juyé are of interest as they represent the contemporary views and analysis of the epoch, which significantly complements the existing Georgian narrative sources around those events.