Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay permanently stationed in Paris except in time of war. In 1776 de Launay succeeded M. de Jumilhac as Governor of the Bastille. As was the custom with many senior positions under the Ancien Régime, the marquis purchased the office of governor from his predecessor as a form of investment. The thirteen years that he spent in this position were uneventful, though on 19 December 1778 he reportedly made the mistake of failing to fire the cannon of the Bastille as a salute on the birth of a daughter (Madame Royale) to King Louis XVI. In August 1785 he was given
Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin (1689–1720) was a French military officer serving in Acadia. He was a member of a successful privateering force at the time of Queen Anne's War, and led native and French forces in the defense of Acadia. Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin was born in 1689 at Pentagouet (site of present-day Castine, Maine) and was the son of Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, third Baron de Saint-Castin, and Pidianske, an Abenaki woman. Bernard-Anselme's brother was Joseph d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, an Acadian military chief. After his father's departure for France in 1701, relations with the Abenaki