Gabriel de Luetz, Baron et Seigneur d'Aramon et de Vallabregues (died 1553), often also abbreviated to Gabriel d'Aramon, was the French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1553, in the service first of Francis I

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

, who dispatched him to the Ottoman Empire, and then of the French king Henry II

Henry II of France

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...

. Gabriel de Luetz was accompanied by a vast suite of scientists, Jean de Monluc

Jean de Monluc

See also Jean de Montluc d. 1579 etc.Jean de Monluc was a French nobleman, the brother of Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc and a member of the Monluc family....

, philosopher Guillaume Postel

Guillaume Postel

Guillaume Postel was a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist, diplomat, professor, and religious universalist.Born in the village of Barenton in Basse-Normandie, Postel made his way to Paris to further his education...

, botanist Pierre Belon

Pierre Belon

Pierre Belon was a French naturalist. He is sometimes known as Pierre Belon du Mans, or, in Latin translations of his works, as Petrus Bellonius Cenomanus.Belon was born in 1517 at Soulletiere near Cérans-Foulletourte...

, naturalist Pierre Gilles d'Albi, the future cosmographer André Thévet

André Thévet

André de Thevet was a French Franciscan priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer who travelled to Brazil in the 16th century...

, traveler Nicolas de Nicolay

Nicolas de Nicolay

-Biography:Born at la Grave in Oisans, in the Dauphiné, he left France in 1542 to participate in the siege of Perpignan which was then held by Emperor Charles V of Austria....

 who would publish their findings upon their return to France and contribute greatly to the development of early science in France.
In 1547, he accompanied Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...

 on his conquest of Persia in the Ottoman-Safavid War (1532–1555), with two of his secretaries, Jacques Gassut and Jean Chesneau

Jean Chesneau

Jean Chesneau was a French writer and secretary to the French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon.Together with d'Aramon and a second secretary Jacques Gassut, he accompanied Suleiman the Magnificent in 1547 on his conquest of Persia in the Ottoman-Safavid War...

, and is recorded as having given advice to the Sultan on some aspects of the campaign. Chesneau wrote Le Voyage de Monsieur d'Aramon dans le Levant, an interesting account of the travels of Gabriel de Luetz.

In 1551, Gabriel de Luetz joined the Ottoman fleet to attend to the Siege of Tripoli

Siege of Tripoli (1551)

The Siege of Tripoli occurred in 1551 when the Ottomans besieged and vanquished the Knights of Malta in the fortress of Tripoli, modern Libya. The Spanish Habsburgs had established a fort in Tripoli in 1510 under Charles V, and remitted it the Knights in 1530...

, with two galleys and a galliot.

Gabriel de Luetz is also known to have convinced Suleiman to send a fleet against Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

, for a combined Franco-Turkish action in 1552. In July 1552, the fleet raided Rhegium in Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

, laying waste to 30 miles of coast, with Gabriel de Luetz onboard who reported the devastation in a July 22 dispatch to the king of France:
Gabriel de Luetz was succeeded by Michel de Codignac

Michel de Codignac

Michel de Codignac was French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1553 to 1556, and successor to Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon.Michel de Codignac lobbied for Ottoman support during the Invasion of Corsica...

 as ambassador to the Porte, who himself was succeeded by Jean Cavenac de la Vigne

Jean Cavenac de la Vigne

Jean Cavenac de la Vigne, seigneur d'Auvilliers, was French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1556 to 1566. He was the successor of Michel de Codignac, who had returned to Europe in 1558, passing through Venice in July 1558, and betrayed the French cause by entering in the service of Philip II...

.