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
Pierre-Augustin Hulin assembled a company of seventy men armed with five cannons. Around 3 o'clock he led his men from Les Invalides to the Bastille. Two hours later artillery fire and pressure from the Bastille personnel persuaded its governor Marquis de Launay to capitulate. By this time the attacking mob lost around a hundred men, the defenders of the Bastille had only one man killed. Hulin and his deputy Jacob Elie defended De Launay from the mob and sent him under an armed escort to the Hôtel de Ville. According to Pitra, Hulin and Elie saved De Launay from lynching at least