Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay Bernard René Jourdan, marquis de Launay (1740–1789) was the French governor of the Bastille, the son of a previous governor, and commander of its garrison when the prison-fortress in Paris was stormed on 14 July 1789 ("see Storming of the Bastille"). The marquis Bernard-René Jordan de Launay was born on the night of 8/9 April 1740 in the Bastille where his father, René Jourdan de Launay, was governor. At the age of eight he was appointed to an honorary position in the King's Musketeers ("mousquetaires du roi"). He subsequently entered the French Guards ("gardes-françaises"), a regiment
Bernard de Vésins Bernard de Vésins Count Bernard de Vésins (13 March 1869 – 6 July 1951) was a French soldier, essayist, practicing Catholic and right-wing Action Française militant. He was hostile to Freemasons, Jews and socialists, whom he considered to be working together in conspiracy to undermine the traditional Catholic values of France. In the 1920s he was President of the Ligue d'Action Française during a period when the Catholic church was disassociating itself from the movement. Marie Joseph Pierre Bernard de Lévezou de Vésins was born in Bourges, Cher, on 13 March 1869. His father was Count Victor de Lévezou de