Charles-Xavier Franqueville d'Abancourt

Charles-Xavier Joseph de Franqueville d'Abancourt (born July 4, 1758 in Douai , † September 9, 1792 in Versailles ) was King Louis XVI's last minister of war from July 23 to August 10, 1792 . .

Life

youth

Charles-Xavier Joseph d'Abancourt was the son of Jacques Joseph Abancourt, royal councilor in the Parliament of Flanders , and Marie Charlotte de Pollinchove. At the age of 15 he joined the first company of the Musketeers of the Guard in February 1774 and went through a steep military career. At the beginning of 1791 he was Rittmeister in the 21st Regiment of the (heavy) Cavalry and on November 6th, 1791 Lieutenant Colonel in the 5th Regiment of Hunters on Horseback in Nancy . He was open to the ideas of the French Revolution , but was against the abolition of the monarchy.

minister

After the resignation of Girondist ministers, a government consisting of moderate feuillants was formed. The politician Pierre August Lajard (1757-1837) suggested Louis XVI. in a letter dated July 20, 1792, d'Abancourt proposed as a suitable new Minister of War. The king hesitated with his consent, among other things with reference to the close relationship of d'Abancourt with the French statesman Charles Alexandre de Calonne . But Lajard replied that d'Abancourt was only a third cousin of Calonne. So d'Abancourt was appointed Minister of War on July 23, 1792, also because of his devotion to the king. In a letter addressed to the President of the Legislative National Assembly the next day, he affirmed his loyalty to the Constitution and stressed that he had put his personal interests aside and gladly accepted the burden of the great responsibility of his new office in the face of the danger threatening the fatherland. However, he was only to serve as minister for 19 days.

At that time France was at war with Austria and Prussia. D'Abancourt wanted to conquer the militarily important city of Germersheim , which is now in Rhineland-Palatinate, and had over half a million cartridges sent to the area. The judgment delivered on July 15, 1792 order of the National Assembly, all the troops that more than 30,000 fathoms of Paris remove would have had the commander of the Swiss Guard , Louis Augustin d'Affry , subject to objection by arguing that serving the King regiment according to the treaties from 1763 and 1764 could only be sent away with the consent of the Helvetic Diet. D'Abancourt took up this reply - probably in order to continue to have a protective force for the king - and announced to the National Assembly on August 2 that Louis XVI. had revoked the departure of the first detachments of the Swiss Guard. On August 9, 1792, however, the minister of war ordered the 300 Swiss guardsmen in Mantes not to return to Paris, but to move to Dieppe , located on the English Channel , presumably to have a haven for the royal family in an emergency.

Capture and Death

During the Tuileries Storm on August 10, 1792, the Minister of War did not appear to be particularly prominent. Nevertheless, the same day the politician Jacques-Alexis Thuriot de la Rozière accused him of having delayed the removal of the Swiss Guard against orders and of being one of the main culprits in the misfortune of that day. Charges were brought against d'Abancourt. Together with his key employee, Berthier, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Prison de la Force prison in Paris . The advocate general and syndic of the Seine department, Pierre-Louis Roederer , announced on August 11th that the prisoner had been transferred to Orléans , where he arrived the next day and was to be tried in court-martial for treason against the nation ( lèse-nation ) .

The National Assembly ordered a little later that d'Abancourt and other prisoners should be brought from Orléans to Saumur . But the enthusiastic supporter of the revolution, Claude Fournier L'Héritier (1745–1825), known as "the American", who had traveled with a troop from Paris , opposed her transfer to Saumur and instead ordered her to be taken to Paris (September 4, 1792) where they should be brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal . On September 7th the train of prisoners arrived in Étampes and on September 8th in Arpajon . Apparently d'Abancourt saw his fate coming and settled his last affairs in writing. After arriving in Versailles , he learned of the September massacres in Paris. Near the orangery, d'Abancourt and 43 of his fellow prisoners were killed by an angry crowd after they had been separated from their escort; only eight prisoners were able to escape. Fournier may have been involved in this crime. The murderers cut off the heads of their victims and impaled them on the gate of the castle.

literature

• A. Auzoux: Abancourt 3. In: Dictionnaire de Biographie Française. Volume 1. 1932, Col. 22f.

Remarks

1. ↑ The claim that d'Abancourt was a nephew of Calonne is incorrect (according to A. Auzoux (see lit.), col. 22 in contrast to the article Abancourt in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911).
2. ^ So A. Auzoux, Col. 22f.
3. ^ According to the 1911 article Abancourt in the Encyclopedia Britannica , Fournier was falsely accused of complicity, while A. Auzoux (col. 23) believes him to be an accomplice.

predecessor	Office	successor
Pierre August Lajard	Minister of War of France June 18, 1792 - June 23, 1792	Joseph Marie Servan de Gerbey