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
François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest Russia, and married a Russian noblewoman, Princess Sophie Galitzine; their son Alexis Guignard, comte de Saint Priest later returned to Paris and was noted in literary circles. The third son of François, Emmanuel Louis Marie (1789–1881), was a godson of Marie Antoinette. Like his older brother, Guilliame Emmanual, he took part in the invasion of France in 1814. Upon the completion of his military service years later, he became a diplomat and a leader of Legitimist society in Paris. François' nephew, Louis-Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues (1753–1812), was a famous pamphleteer, diplomat, spy and political adventurer during the French Revolution