Jean-Paul de Saumeur (1598 — 20 December 1667), often called Chevalier Paul was a French admiral and naval officer who served in several Mediterranean campaigns. Despite his very modest origins, he was attracted to the Navy from a young age. After having been a simple seaman on behalf of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, from which he was excluded for having killed his corporal, he became a privateer in the Mediterranean Sea then joined the Royal Navy at the request of Richelieu and fought during the entirety of the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659). His numerous victories earned him the appointment of lieutenant-general and vice-admiral of the Levant. He was named a knight of grace and a commander by the Grand Master Martin de Redin. He ended his career in 1666 by transporting the princess of Savoie-Nemours to Lisbon, who would later become the queen of Portugal. A skilled courtier, he did not forget his modest origins and knew how to be generous. Origins and Youth According to unconfirmed rumors, he was the son of a laundress and of Paul de Fortia, Marquis of Piles, governor of the Chateau d'If. However, Captain Georges Bourgoin, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts in Marseille, discovered that Chevalier Paul was not the natural child of the Marquis and a washerwoman. He highlighted Paul's legitimate parentage of an officer from a Catholic and bourgeois family in the Dauphiné, Captain Elzias Samuel and young lady Jeanne Riche, who were married in Marseille. The Council of the Grand Priory of Saint-Gilles, in view of the documents produced, concluded indeed, on November 14 1633 he was "worthy to be received among the brothers-arms and go to the convent in Malta." The transformation of his surname Samuel into Samuel or Saumeur would have been intended to avoid allusions to a distant Jewish origin, He always called himself "Capitaine Paul". He spent the first years of his life at Château d'If with Father Julien de Malaucène, but from a young age he felt the desire to travel. He travelled for three years before entering into the service of a commander of the order of St. John of Jerusalem as a sailor. Saumeur began sailing at the age of twelve in the navy of the Order of Malta. Military career In service of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Several years later, Paul returned to