Governor of the Bastille he wrote to the Lieutenant-General of Police: "The head of Monsieur La Riviere is always heated and I begin to despair that his poor head may not heal without the remedy ... With profound respect ... " On the sidelines the magistrate wrote: "To hang" Bernard-Rene Jourdan de Launay was the last Governor of the Bastille and took his post in October 1776. He paid Jumilhac 300,000 livres for his post as governor. The Marquis de Launay was born in the Bastille in 1740. His father, René Jourdan de Launay, had already been governor for twelve years and died there
Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay responsibility for the imprisonment of two prime figures in the royal necklace scandal: Cardinal Louis de Rohan and Jeanne de La Motte-Valois. He behaved correctly and considerately with both, although the latter was an extremely difficult inmate. Until 1777 he was Seigneur of Bretonnière in Normandy. De Launay also owned and rented out a number of houses in the "rue Saint-Antoine", neighboring the Bastille. The permanent garrison of the Bastille, under de Launay, consisted of about 80 "invalides" (veteran military pensioners) no longer considered suitable for regular army service. Two days before 14 July they were reinforced by thirty Swiss