antibes - Antoine Escalin des Aimars

Photograph by Valeria Ceruttion Flickr.
Polin went to see king Francis I of France to obtain troops, which led to the Siege of Nice in August 1543. Antoine Escalin des Aimars (1498?-1578), also known as Captain Polin or Captain Paulin, antibes later Baron de La Garde, was French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1547. Polin was noticed by Guillaume du Bellay as a valuable officer of the French Army during the Italian Wars in the Piedmont. Polin succeeded ambassador Antoine de Rincon (1538–1541) in Istambul. The execution of the alliance would most notably lead to the Franco-Ottoman Siege of Nice in 1543.
In July 1543, Polin sailed onboard the Ottoman fleet of Barbarossa to the Île Saint-Honorat in the Lérins Islands off Cannes on 5 July 1543, only to find very little ready for the offensive on the French side.
