Jules Patenotre des Noyers

Who was Jules Patenotre des Noyers?

Jules Patenôtre des Noyers was a French diplomat.

Noyers was born at Baye. Educated at the École Normale Supérieure, he taught for some years in the Algiers lycée before he joined the diplomatic service in 1871. He took service from 1873 to 1876 in the North of Persia. In 1880, he was minister plenipotentiary in Stockholm, Sweden.

In September 1883 he was named French minister to China and could conduct his most important mission in 1884, when he was sent as to regularize the French dominion in Annam. The Harmand Treaty of 25 August 1883 had not been ratified by the French parliament and had upset the Chinese government. Patenôtre left Marseille at the end of April 1884 with a modified version of the treaty drafted by the Quai d'Orsay for signature by the king of Annam. At the end of May, he moved to a military vessel near Cap Saint-Jacques, learnt about the end of the Sino-French war and the Tientsin Accord of 11 May and received additional instructions from Paris. He arrived in Hải Phòng on 26 May and in Huế on 30 May, and started discussions with Nguyễn Văn Tường, the Regent.