Governor of the Bastille nine years after his birth. He was a Black Musketeer of the King, officer in the Gardes Françaises until 1763-1764, then captain of a cavalry regiment. During the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, De Launay was arrested and escorted to the town hall by one of the leaders of the Revolution, Pierre-Augustin Hulin. In the Place de Greve the furious crowd attacked the escort, assaulting and eventually beheading Governor Launay. After the capture of the fortress, Prosper Soulès assumed the interim duties of acting commander. Governor of the Bastille The Bastille or Bastille Saint-Antoine was completed in
Louis-Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues Louis-Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues Emmanuel Henri Louis Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues (25 December 1753 Montpellier – 22 July 1812 Barnes, London) was a French pamphleteer, diplomat, spy and political adventurer during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. At the age of fourteen, d'Antraigues joined the army. Initially a member of the Garde du Corps at the Palace of Versailles, he eventually became a captain of the Royal Piedmont Cavalry Regiment. Increasingly, though, he became dissatisfied with army life as he became acquainted with several of the leading lights of the Age of Enlightenment. In 1770, he met Jean-Jacques