Charles-Marie Le Myre de Vilers (17 February 1833 – 9 March 1918) was a French naval officer, then departmental administrator.

[3] On 11 August 1863 Admiral Pierre-Paul de La Grandière signed a Treaty of Friendship, Trade and French Protection with King Norodom of Cambodia.

[6] The French state attorney and the Cambodian grand mandarin both refused to hear the case, since the idea that a king should be tried in court was unprecedented.

In December 1881 Le Myre de Vilers forced Norodom to accept a convention under which Saigon's Conseil Privé could rule over disputes like this.

[7] He wrote, I believe that we render a real service to His Majesty if we give him the means to settle contentious litigations resulting from contracts made with Europeans.

We thus shield His Majesty from ventures of schemers who will always end up abusing the Royal treasury; [and] we ensure for Cambodia the financial cooperation of respectable firms.

[3] In June 1884 his successor Charles Thomson forced Norodom to sign a new agreement and started to consider outright annexation of Cambodia.

Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony relied on the Patrimonio-Miot interpretive letter, which Le Myre de Vilers rejected.

He managed to get the Malagasy government to take out a loan from the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris in order to pay the 10 million francs compensation agreed in the treaty.

The deputies also agreed that Jules Develle, the Foreign Minister, should send Le Myre de Vilers to Bangkok to negotiate a treaty to guarantee French rights along the Mekong and to obtain compensation from Siam.

Develle considered this response "insolent" and "unsatisfactory", imposed a blockade on 26 July 1893 and issued a second ultimatum, which the Siamese accepted rather than lose yet more territory.

Le Myre de Vilers then told him the French warships in the Gulf of Siam could at any moment make matters quickly change for the worse.

At a final meeting on 1 October 1893 Le Myre de Vilers refused to alter the Convention but agreed to append a procès-verbal to address Siamese concerns.

The exhausted Prince finally gave in and signed the Treaty and Convention to avoid the risk of war against superior French forces.

[3] In late June 1894 the French resident general, Paul Augustin Jean Larrouy, said the state of affairs in Tananarive was very tense.

He said the French government was not satisfied with the Malagasy justice system, which had corrupt officials and made little effort to apprehend criminals, and was considering taking control over internal affairs.

Le Myre de Vilers wrote a personal letter to Rainilairivony in which he advised him to fully accept the French demands.

"Of two perils, the prime minister has chosen the more distant, a rupture with France, hoping to profit from a European incident which might turn our attention from Madagascan affairs.

[20] That winter French troops under General Metzinger(fr) occupied the ports of Tamatave and Majunga, and in March 1885 most of the 15,000-strong expeditionary force disembarked unopposed.

[21] After his return to France Le Myre de Vilers intervened in discussions in the Chamber on the annexation of Madagascar, abolition of slavery there, and the actions of Joseph Gallieni, which he fully supported.