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
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