Jean-Paul de Saumeur (1598 – 20 December 1667), often called Chevalier Paul , was a French admiral and naval officer who served in several Mediterranean campaigns.

After having been a simple seaman on behalf of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, from which he was excluded for having killed his corporal, he became a privateer in the Mediterranean Sea then joined the Royal Navy at the request of Cardinal Richelieu and fought during the entirety of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659).

However, Captain Georges Bourgoin, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts in Marseille, discovered that Chevalier Paul was not the natural child of the Marquis and a washerwoman.

He highlighted Paul's legitimate parentage of an officer from a Catholic and bourgeois family in the Dauphiné, Captain Elzias Samuel and young lady Jeanne Riche, who were married in Marseille.

The Council of the Grand Priory of Saint-Gilles, in view of the documents produced, concluded indeed, on November 14 1633 he was "worthy to be received among the brothers-arms and go to the convent in Malta."

He spent the first years of his life at Château d'If with Father Julien de Malaucène, but from a young age he felt the desire to travel.

On the isle of Moscovici near Lesbos, he installed artillery guns in a tower, which carries to this day the name of Captain Paulo, in order to cannonade the enemy warships which were within their range.

He joined the squadron of Henry de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Lieutenant General of the naval armies, and took a leading role in many instances of combat against the Spanish fleet.

The same year, together with Abraham Duquesne, Paul saved (under fire from the guns of San Sebastian) French ships which were run aground and were about to be burned.

In the squadron of the Marquis de Brézé on 22 May 1646, Paul led the disembarkation of Talamone in Tuscany and on 14 June was prominent in the Battle of Orbetello during which he destroyed two enemy frigates.

[4] Having left from Provence in April 1650 on the Flagship La Reine, 52 canons and 600 crewmen and troops, Chevalier Paul was escorting some small warships filled with munitions when he discovered between Cap Corsica and the isle of Capraja five Spanish warships which had crossed in order to stop reinforcements, rations and munitions that France sent to Porto-Longone on the isle of Elba.

Not wishing to flee this superior force, Paul engaged in combat and received more than 150 bullets on the side of his ship when at the same time he sent 1200 to his enemies.

[citation needed] In 1661, Paul fought using the lone vessel L’Hercule, which had 28 cannons and 320 crewmen, against 25 Turkish ships for an entire day.

After having crossed the Barbary Pirates on the shores of Italy and Provence, Paul took part in the Duke of Beaufort’s expedition against Jijel and on 24 August 1664 he crushed an Algerian squadron at the Battle of Cherchell.

[4] The last campaign of Chevalier Paul was when he sailed in 1666 accompanying Maria Francisca of Savoy to Lisbon, where she was to mary King Alphonso VI.

[3] His death was described in these words: “Monsieur Paul de Saumeur, knight of Saint John of Jerusalem, lieutenant-general of the king’s ships, a man strongly renowned for the valiant exploits and faithful services he gave to his majesty, died on the 20th day of the month of December and was buried in the same month in 1667, in the cemetery under the porte of St Lazare of this city of Toulon, with the sacraments, by myself.” - Father Villecrosi, oratory priest, announced the news several days after his speech at the funeral in the Cathedral of Toulon.

He served us in his home, which is so clean and well maintained, that it seemed to be a small delightful palace.” The provincial biographer Claude-François Achard, described: Chevalier Paul was quite tall, he had something dark about his face: his mustache and tuft of hair formed a type of Maltese cross.

Never was there a man so intrepid in danger, nor a captain who carried out his duties better.Never forgetting his modest origins, he bequeathed to the poor the entirety of his belongings, and asked to be buried among them at the cemetery of Toulon.

He sat down at his side, and spoke with him of the adventures of youth, enquired if he had children, recommended to him to go and wait at his hotel; the same day procured for him in the navy an employ which allowed him to honorably support his family.