Jean Pierre de Gottrau de Billens
Jean Pierre de Gottrau de Billens , Lord of Treyfayes, (born August 25, 1727 in Friborg ; † ? 1800 or 1805 in Piedmont ), came from the Billens line of the patrician family of the same name from Freiburg. He was the son of Henri Joseph Charles and Marie Anne Marguerite de Reyff and was married to Marie Madeleine de Reynold de Cressier. He was a councilor, officer and freemason and conspired against the aristocratic government of Freiburg.
Councilor and officer
Jean Pierre de Gottrau was initially a member of the Council of Two Hundred and from 1752 a member of the Council of State (Heimlicher). He entered the French service as an officer in the Swiss Guard Regiment de Diesbach and experienced the battles of Fontenoy and Rocourt as well as the sieges of Bruxelles, Anvers and Naumur during the War of the Austrian Succession . Between 1750 and 1760 he was a lieutenant colonel in an Austrian dragoon regiment and became adjutant to Count Saint Germain and informant to the Duke of Choiseul . He was a knight of the Mauritius and Lazarus orders as well as the holder of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joachim .
Freemasons and conspirators
Jean Pierre de Gottrau was enlightened and founded a Masonic lodge in Freiburg in 1763 . He conspired against the government and made contacts with the rest of Switzerland, including Lorenz Plazid Schumacher , whom he met in Vienna in 1761 and who was executed in 1764 as the head of a conspiracy against the Lucerne government. De Gottrau owned an arsenal and ammunition in his Freiburg town house opposite the Notre Dame church. But he was arrested after Lorenz Plazid von Schumacher is said to have revealed his name during his interrogations in Lucerne. Jean Pierre de Gottrau was banned from the Confederation on July 29, 1763 and his Masonic lodge was abolished. He then lived in Rheinfelden, Augsburg and Vienna as well as in Nice, Pavia and Valencia.
literature
- Historically Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland
- Ernst Tremp: Gottrau, Jean-Pierre de (de Treyfayes). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ François Joseph Nicolas Baron d'Alt in his work “Hors d'oeuvre” (cf. Alexandre Daguet: Album de la Suisse romande 2, 1844, pp. 81–87)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gottrau de Billens, Jean Pierre de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss, statesman, military, conspirator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 25, 1727 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Friborg |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1800 or 1805 |
| Place of death | Piedmont |