Louis Auguste the Wet cooper of Breteuil

Louis Charles Auguste the Wet cooper , baron of Breteuil , baron of Preuilly, is a diplomat and French politician born with Azay-le-Ferron (Indre) the March 7th 1730 and died in Paris the November 2nd 1807.

Biography

Wire of Claude the Wet cooper of Breteuil and Marie-Therese de Froullay, the baron de Breteuil accepted an excellent education in Paris and engaged in the army where it was useful with the rank of handlebar of gendarmerie during the Seven Year old Guerre. January 24th 1752, it married Miss Parat de Montgeron. The couple had only one girl, Marie-Elisabeth Emilie, married with the count de Goyon of Matignon.

Diplomatic career

Breteuil was useful with distinction in the royal diplomacy. He was initially ambassador plenipotentiary near the voter of Cologne (1758) then was ambassador in Russia (1760) near Elisabeth Ire then of Catherine II. He could diplomatically miss at the time of the palace revolution which carried the latter on the throne.

Ambassador in Sweden, it could be made appreciate Gustave III and defend the interests of France in a serious conflict which opposed two factions of the Diet. But he asked his recall in 1766.

He was then sent to Vienna, then with Naples, then again with Vienna. He was, in the name of Louis XVI, mediator during the war for the succession with the throne of Bavaria which, after the death of the Elector Palatine Charles-Theodore, deceased without posterity, opposed the Prussia and the Austria and was the main actor of the negotiation of the Treaty of Teschen, signed on May 13rd 1779, which made it possible to solve this disagreement. But, in 1780, it was replaced in Vienna by the cardinal of Rohan, which marked the beginning of a hostility between the two men which was going to appear of great consequence.

Minister for the House of the king

The baron de Breteuil returned to France in 1783 and was named Minister for the House of the king and Paris.

In 1784, it was charged, with the General inspector of finances, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, to negotiate the repurchase by Louis XVI of the Domaine of Saint-Cloud to the duke of Orleans. In reward, the baron was in charge of the administration of the field and settled with the House of the Email, which one called from now on the Pavillon of Breteuil and which always exists with Sevres.

It is him which made stop its enemy the cardinal of Rohan implied in the Affaire of the collar of the queen. Its honesty with the queen in one difficult moment was worth the recognition of Louis XVI to him, but it underestimated the antipathy of the opinion with regard to Marie-Antoinette, that the brutal partiality with which it treated the cardinal of Rohan made only reinforce.

As a minister of Paris, it was enlightened and generous and prepared important reforms in the hospitals and the prisons, in particular to improve the condition of the prisoners. It made to demolish houses located on bridges and quay of Gèvres, and it is thanks to him that the low-reliefs of Jean Goujon were preserved, which decorate the fountain with the market of the Innocent ones, at Paris. It protected arts and the men of letters.

Member of the Academy of Science on December 11th 1785, it interceded near the King so that Jean-Dominique Cassini (Cassini IV) obtains funds to equip the Observatoire with Paris of new instruments.

Because of a dissension with Calonne, the baron de Breteuil resigned of his functions on July 24th 1788 and withdrew himself in his castle.

Under the Revolution

Having preserved the confidence of the king, the baron de Breteuil was consulted by this one on the evolution of the situation the day before the French revolution. He was opposed to the convocation general states and advised in energetic repressive Louis XVI series of measure to come to end from agitation from June and July 1789.

During the reference of Jacques Necker and liberal ministers on July 11th 1789, Louis XVI names the baron de Breteuil to succeed to him like principal minister, hundred hours hardly before the Storming of the Bastille . As of on July 16th, Louis XVI must however point out Necker and Breteuil emigrates the 17 or July 18th, 1789 in Germany then in Suisse.

With Soleure, in November 1790, it receives a letter of Louis XVI giving him to be able for “ to treat with the courses foreign and to put forward on its behalf all the measures which could tend to restore the royal authority and interior peace in the kingdom ”. But, this company, it inevitably enters in conflict with the diplomacy of the Princes and their principal council, his old Calonne rival.

After the failure of the escape of the royal family, which it contributed to prepare with the court of Sweden, Breteuil receives from Louis XVI the order to pacify its relations with the princes. But its mistrust with regard to the brothers of the king - the count de Provence and the count d' Artois - and his defense of the royal prerogatives, although justified in certain connections, appear with the eyes of the foreign sovereigns like the proof of the internal dissensions to the royal family, of which they take pretext not to intervene in France. Breteuil is the object of violent attacks on behalf of the entourage of the princes, which supports that he seeks to make use of capacities which were expressly revoked by Louis XVI. After the execution of Marie-Antoinette, Breteuil is inclined and withdrawn with Hamburg.

It regains France in 1802. On its return, it tries, but without success, to obtain the restitution of the house of Breteuil, become quite national. Living in a great destitution, it is saved misery only by the heritage of a cousin: by will, the Marquise of Créquy left him its Château of Montflaux to Saint-Denis-with-Gastines. He dies in 1807.

Publications

He left Mémoires , published in 1859.

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