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
Claudio Gabriele de Launay fall of Napoleon, de Launay re-entered the Savoyard army and was promoted to the Maggiore grade in 1825, Colonel in 1831 and Luogotenente Generale in 1843, the same year in which he became the last Viceroy of Sardinia. After the defeat in the First War of Independence in Italy, de Launay was elected Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1849, holding at the same time the office of Foreign Minister, the first one after Vittorio Emanuele II's ascent to the throne. After the dissolution of the Parliament due to the overcoming of the Italian crisis, the king put