A French Connection and the Lanerolle Saga

Sunday Island

Reviewed by Leelananda De Silva

The Odyssey and Living Legacy of sieur de La Nerolle – The French Lieutenant of the Expedition Escadre de Perse to Ceylon in 1672– Neptune Publications (Pvt) Ltd. (2018) – 100 pages. Rs. 2,000/=.

by Yasmin Rajapakse

Scholarly works of mainstream history have little space for the many colourful sideshows that crowd and illuminate the historical narrative. They are referred to in footnotes or ignored altogether. This volume deals with one of those footnotes in history. In 1672, the French sent an expedition to Ceylon under Admiral de Lahaye and it reached Trincomalee. From there, they sent emissaries to the Kandyan King, and one of those emissaries was the French lieutenant De La Nerolle. K.M. de Silva has one paragraph on this expedition in his History of Ceylon. Lorna Devarajah in her volume on the Kandyan Kingdom, has a few references and none of them mention De La Nerolle. He is not even a footnote in the history of Sri Lanka, according to these standard works. Yasmin Rajapakse has brought to life this relatively unknown figure in history, with a fascinating story of his origins and his life and career. This volume is more social, than political history.

Yasmin Rajapaksa has been prominent in Sri Lanka in keeping the French connection alive. She was presenter and producer of the weekly television magazine “Bonsoir” for 20 years from 1985 to 2005 (about a thousand programs). As she says, she has always had a passion for France. She has produced a documentary film on Count de Mauny, the Frenchman who lived in the little islet off Weligama, apart from other writings and films. She has been awarded high honours by the French government. Here is an amateur historian pursuing her own intellectual interest and producing a charming monograph on a forgotten corner of Sri Lankan history. It is worthy of emulation by other uncertified intellectuals.

The volume has five chapters, and some beautiful pictures of the many aspects of this story. In chapters one and two, the author deals with the background of the French East Indies company and the idea of sending an expedition to control Trincomalee harbour. The French were there in Trincomalee for a very short time, and they were thrown out by the Dutch. The Kandyan King appears to have ceded Trincomalee to the French, expecting that they will confront the Dutch, who were the colonial rulers of most of Ceylon. Chapter three deals with the failure of the expedition and the delegation sent to Kandy by the French admiral to meet with the king. De La Nerolle was a part of this delegation, and it is his story that we find in chapters four and five. De La Nerolle came from a French Huguenot family, and his family background is traced in the volume. De La Nerolle never went back to France, and lived and died in Kandy.

There is a long and informative Preface to this volume, by Mahinda De Lanerolle, which traces the fortunes of the 10 or 12 generations of the Lanerolle family. It would have been more logical if the story of the Lanerolles narrated in the preface was placed as an appendix to the book. That should not detract from the outstanding quality of the preface, which is a model of genealogical history.

Sieur de La Nerolle, once he came to Kandy, never left it. The volume offers us fascinating information about the Kandyan Court of that time, especially during the reign of King Wimaladharmasuriya II. The king appears to have been anxious to know about the religious rivalries in Europe, especially between Catholics and Protestants and he made use of the presence of Europeans in Kandy to obtain more knowledge about these developments. He encouraged debates and La Nerolle was involved in some of these intellectual discussions. There was strong antagonism between Catholic and Protestant factions. Some of the foreigners, which included Catholic priests (Robert Knox was in Kandy during the earlier days of La Nerolle), were anxious to convert people to their faith. There is some reference in the volume to attempts made to allow La Nerolle to return to France. La Nerolle married a Kandyan lady and had children, and he was not allowed to return.

The Lanerolles were originally of Kandyan stock. The generations that came immediately after La Nerolle, married into Kandyan families. So at about the time of the third or fourth generation, the Lanerolles were a mix of French and Kandyan. A little later, the Lanerolles migrated down south, and by the time of the seventh or eighth generation, they were no longer Kandyans, and had merged with the Ceylonese middle class, living in areas closer to Colombo and to Galle. The Lanerolles preferred living under Dutch colonial rule than in Kandy’s feudal regime.

Mahinda De Lanerolle, in his preface, describes some of the leading personalities of his clan, and they had become lawyers, doctors, educationists and public servants. Twelve generations have passed by and it is a far cry from La Nerolle. If the expedition of Admiral de Lahaye to Trincomalee had succeeded, we would have had French Trincomalee. Instead we had French Pondicherry in India due to the French setback in Trincomalee. Yasmin Rajapakse has related a fascinating and curious story of a distant French connection.