Antoine Escalin des Aimars Antoine Escalin des Aimars ( 1498 ? - 1578 ) , also known as Captain Polin or Captain Paulin , later Baron de La Garde , was French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1547 , and " " Général des Galères " " ( " General of the galleys " ) from 1544 . Italian Wars . Polin was noticed by Guillaume du Bellay as a valuable officer of the French Army during the Italian Wars in the Piedmont . Ottoman alliance . Polin succeeded ambassador Antoine de Rincon ( 1538 – 1541 ) in Constantinople . In early 1542 , Polin successfully negotiated the details of a Franco - Ottoman alliance for the Italian War of 1542 – 1546 , with the Ottoman Empire promising to send 60 , 000 troops against the territories of the Spanish king Ferdinand , as well as 150 galleys against Charles , while France promised to attack Flanders , harass the coasts of Spain with a naval force , and send 40 galleys to assist the Turks for operations in the Levant . Polin tried to convince Venice to join the alliance , but in vain . The execution of the alliance would most notably lead to the Franco - Ottoman Siege of Nice in 1543 . In July 1543 , Polin sailed on board 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 . Polin went to see king Francis I of France to obtain troops , which led to the Siege of Nice in August 1543 . Polin supervised the wintering of the Ottomans at Toulon . Then , in 1544 , five French galleys under Polin , including the superb " Réale " , accompanied Barbarossa ' s fleet , on a diplomatic mission to Suleiman . The French fleet accompanied Barbarossa during his attacks on the west coast of Italy on the way to Constantinople , as he laid waste to the cities of Porto Ercole , Giglio , Talamona , Lipari and took about 6 , 000 captives , but separated in Sicily from Barbarossa ' s fleet to continue alone to the Ottoman capital . Jerôme Maurand , a priest of Antibes who accompanied Polin and the Ottoman fleet in 1544 , wrote a detailed account in " Itinéraire d ' Antibes à Constantinonple " . They arrived in Constantinople on 10 August 1544 to meet with Suleiman and give him an account of the campaign . Polin was back to Toulon on 2 October 1544 . Massacre of the Waldensians . In 1545 , Polin was on his way to fight against the English in the area of Boulogne . While in Marseilles in 1545 , Polin was involved as a leader in the massacre of the Protestant Waldensians ( Vaudois ) . Outside the Piedmont the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia , France and Germany . After they came out of clandestinity and reports were made of sedition on their part , the French king , Francis I issued on 1 January 1545 the " Arrêt de Mérindol " , and armed a crusade against the Waldensians of Provence . The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d ' Oppède , First President of the parlement of Provence , and Antoine Escalin des Aimars who was returning from the Italian Wars with 2 , 000 veterans , the " Bandes de Piémont " . Deaths ranged from hundreds to thousands , depending on the estimates , and several villages were devastated . England campaign . After these deeds , Polin participated to the French invasion of the Isle of Wight that same year . He was succeeded as ambassador to the Porte by Gabriel de Luetz in 1547 . In 1553 , Polin again cooperated with the Ottoman fleet in the Mediterranean , in the events surrounding the Invasion of Corsica ( 1553 ) . In 1571 , Polin was involved in the conflict against the Huguenots in La Rochelle as a commander in the French Navy fleet which was making a blocus of the city , together with Filippo di Piero Strozzi .