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
Louis Le Provost de Launay municipalities to have a rural guard passed into law the next year. He voted against the Gambetta, Freycinet, and Jules Ferry ministries and against the credits for the Tonkin expedition. When the right-wing Ligue des Patriotes was created in 1882, members of the Appel au Peuple committee were present at the constitutive general assembly, as were Blanquists, revisionists, members of the Jeunesse Antisémite and members of Jules Guérin's Antisemitic League of France. Le Provost de Launay and Jules de Cuverville, both prominent Bonapartists, were members of the steering committee. On 4 October 1885 Le Provost de Launay ran on the