Count Raoul du Bisson (11 January 1812 – 27 February 1890) was a French aristocrat, adventurer and ''agent provocateur''. He belonged to a Norman family ennobled by

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

and was a relative of Henri Conneau, a personal friend and physician of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

.Richard Hill, ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan'' (London: Frank Cass, 1967), p. 116. In 1863, Du Bisson recruited a band of directionless Europeans in the cafés of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and marched them down to

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

, where he pronounced it his intention to establish a colony for the production of

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. Crossing into the

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, his party had been inspected by Egyptian customs and was found to be in possession of numerous arms and even cannon. This has led to the supposition that he may have been acting on the orders of Khedive İsmail Paşa, who was planning an invasion of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. After inquiries with the French authorities regarding his credentials, İsmail abandoned his plans and Du Bisson was on his own. In Khartoum, Du Bisson made numerous demands on the governor-general, Musa Paşa Hamdi, who eventually declared him ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (PNG) is a foreign diplomat that is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplo ...

''. In early 1864 he led his band to

Kassala Kassala (, ) is the capital of the state of Kassala (state), Kassala in eastern Sudan. In 2003 its population was recorded to be 530,950. Built on the banks of the Mareb River, Gash River, it is a market city and is famous for its fruit gardens. ...

, thence eastward to Kufit. There he claimed that he had the support of the French government to punish the Ethiopian emperor

Tewodros II Tewodros II (, once referred to by the English cognate Theodore; baptized as Kassa, – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. His rule is often placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia and brought an end to ...

for having declared the French vice-consul Guillaume Le Jean ''persona non grata'' in Ethiopia. The British formally protested Du Bisson's presence, but the French government denied any involvement. Nevertheless, the presence of a group of sixty armed Europeans on his border—and who had only gotten there with the connivance of the khedive and the governor-general—led Tewodros to suspect a French–Turkish–Egyptian alliance against him. Du Bisson also intrigued with the local Beja tribesmen and the Egyptian government eventually ordered him to leave. His men left via Kassala and Sawakin, but not before helping put down the mutiny of the 4th Regiment at Kassala. He published an account of his Sudan adventure in 1868. After the Sudan, Du Bisson returned to France. There are contradictory reports of his ultimate fate. According to some, he was killed in the fighting during the siege of Paris by the Germans in 1870. According to others, he got involved in the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

in 1871 and was forced into exile, where he died. According to yet others, he was the leader of the republican Central Committee of the Twenty Arrondissements and boastfully claimed to have been a

Carlist Carlism (; ; ; ) is a Traditionalism (Spain), Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty, one descended from Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain, Don Carlos, ...

in Spain, a

Legitimist The Legitimists () are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of t ...

under the Second Empire, and a general of King

Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies Ferdinand II (; ; ; 12 January 1810 – 22 May 1859) was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859. Family Ferdinand was born in Palermo to King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. ...

.Frank Jelinek, ''The Paris Commune of 1871'' (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1965), pp. 102, 145, 270.

Works by Du Bisson

*Du Bisson, Raoul. ''Les Femmes, les eunuques et les guerriers du Soudan'' he Women, Eunuchs and Warriors of the Sudan Paris: H. Dufton, 1868.

References

{{Authority control 19th-century French nobility Military personnel of the First Carlist War 19th-century French explorers