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
François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest Russia, and married a Russian noblewoman, Princess Sophie Galitzine; their son Alexis Guignard, comte de Saint Priest later returned to Paris and was noted in literary circles. The third son of François, Emmanuel Louis Marie (1789–1881), was a godson of Marie Antoinette. Like his older brother, Guilliame Emmanual, he took part in the invasion of France in 1814. Upon the completion of his military service years later, he became a diplomat and a leader of Legitimist society in Paris. François' nephew, Louis-Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues (1753–1812), was a famous pamphleteer, diplomat, spy and political adventurer during the French Revolution