Joseph Francois Dupleix, marquis, a French soldier and statesman, born at Landrecies, Jan. 1, 1697, died in Paris, Nov. 10, 1764. In 1720 he was sent as an agent to Pondicherry, and in 1730 was appointed director of Chanderna-gore, and during an administration of ten years acquired an immense fortune and changed that insignificant town into a flourishing city. In 1742 he became governor general of the French possessions in India, and through his energy and executive ability raised them to a degree of prosperity until then unknown. When La-bourdonnais captured Madras in 1746, Dupleix refused to accede to the terms of capitulation, kept possession of the city, and sent Labour-donnais to France under a charge of treason. Letters of nobility were conferred upon him the same year. In 1748 he defended Pondicherry against Admiral Boscawen, who attacked it with a fleet of 30 vessels and a land force, and forced him to raise the siege. Peace having been concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, Dupleix turned his attention toward territorial acquisition by political intrigue. On the death of the Nizam ul-Mulk, sultan of the Deccan, he supported the claim of Mirzapha Jung to the throne, and gained in return large possessions, covering 200 leagues of coast.

Other acquisitions followed, which were confirmed by the Great Mogul, and France seemed about to' obtain paramount power in India. The English, alarmed by these French successes, increased their forces under Lawrence and Clive. Dupleix submitted a plan of operations designed to open the way to Delhi, but the French company rejected it. He was recalled to France in 1754, and spent the rest of his life in a vain endeavor to obtain from the government some reimbursement of the fortune which he had spent in attempting to establish French supremacy in India.