Governor of the Bastille of Acy, lord of Beu and Nesle-en-Tardenois, chamberlain of the King. He is quoted in numerous documents between 1386 and November 1404, date of his death that are now held in the department of manuscripts of the Bibliothèque nationale de France . The last governor to hold this position, the unfortunate Bernard-René de Launay, appointed in 1776, was beheaded on 14 July 1789 and replaced by a provisional governor during the demolition of the building. At the end of the Ancien Régime, the governor of the Bastille was reduced to being a subordinate of the lieutenant-general of police. He could
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