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
Chateau and Seigneurie de Launay changed hands numerous times. Ultimately it was acquired by an unremarkable local who lived there with his family for a decade. To the previous insults of fire, political confiscation, war and vandalism was now added the shameless pillage and sale of historic fixtures. Arguably Launay was at its historic ebb when it was sold to Marcel Pierre Cléach and his wife in 1970. Monsieur Cléach was early in his political career in 1970. He would go on to become one of the longest serving and most powerful French Senators of the Fifth Republic. He also began the process of restoring