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
Bernard de Vésins Bernard de Vésins Count Bernard de Vésins (13 March 1869 – 6 July 1951) was a French soldier, essayist, practicing Catholic and right-wing Action Française militant. He was hostile to Freemasons, Jews and socialists, whom he considered to be working together in conspiracy to undermine the traditional Catholic values of France. In the 1920s he was President of the Ligue d'Action Française during a period when the Catholic church was disassociating itself from the movement. Marie Joseph Pierre Bernard de Lévezou de Vésins was born in Bourges, Cher, on 13 March 1869. His father was Count Victor de Lévezou de