Louis Marie Florent du Châtelet
Louis Marie Florent du Châtelet or full spelling: Louis Marie Florent de Lomont d'Haraucourt, duc du Châtelet (born November 20, 1727 , † December 13, 1793 ) was a lieutenant general and diplomat in French service. Born in Semur-en-Auxois , he died under the guillotine in Paris .
Life
He came from the House of Châtelet (a younger line of the House of Chasteler, which in turn split off from the House of Lorraine in the 13th century under Thierry de Lorraine, Seigneur d'Autigny, son of Duke Frederick I of Lorraine .)
Louis Marie Florent de Lomont was the son of Florent Claude, Marquis du Châtelet and Émilie du Châtelet , pen pal of Voltaire . In 1740 he took on the title of Marquis du Châtelet. Later he called himself Comte de Lomont or Comte du Châtelet-Lomont. Since 1770 he also carried the title Duc du Châtelet.
On April 24, 1752 he married Diane Adélaïde de Rochechouart. This marriage united two of the most respected houses in France (→ House Rochechouart ). At the wedding in Versailles , King Louis XV. , the Queen , the members of the royal family, parents and friends of both Houses in attendance.
At the Lorraine Court
During this period, the Marquis du Châtelet was Colonel of the Régiment de Quercy and chamberlain of the former Polish King Stanislaus I. Leszczyński , the father-in-law of Louis XV. and recently Duke of Lorraine and Bar . (It was not a hereditary title, however.) Châtelet stayed in Lunéville , where his mother had died a few years earlier and where the former Polish king had a large court. In 1754 he became Colonel of the Régiment de Navarre . On August 9, 1754 he was promoted to brigadier in the "Régiment du Roi" and in 1767 to lieutenant colonel .
After his father's death in 1765 he inherited the Cirey Castle .
As governor of Semur-en-Auxois and Toul , he was soon promoted to Maréchal de camp and decorated with the Grand Cross of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis .
Ambassador in Vienna
In 1761 he was appointed ambassador to the court of Vienna, and in the same year Louis XV appointed him ambassador. Emperor Franz I ruled here as Franz III. formerly Duke of Lorraine and Bar. Châtelet replaced the previous ambassador César Gabriel de Choiseul-Praslin , who was appointed Foreign Minister.
After the death of Stanislaus I. Leszczyński in 1766, the duchy he had ruled finally fell to France. Châtelet then saw no more reason to stay in Lunéville and moved to his home town of Cirey-sur-Blaise . In 1768 he was appointed French ambassador to the court of London and in 1770 was given the non-hereditary title of duke.
revolution
In 1787, Louis XVI. convene the provincial assembly to adopt financial and economic reforms. The Duc du Châtelet was appointed Chairman of the Provincial Assembly of the Île-de-France by the King , who honored him as a «cousin». This institution, which consisted of members of the three estates, met for the first time on July 11th of that year in Melun . The Duc du Châtelet gave the opening speech at this meeting.
In 1789, after the Estates General had been convened , there was increasing unrest in the country, which also spread to the Gardes-Françaises , in which the Duc du Châtelet was one of the commanders at that time. The district assemblies were denied meeting in fear that the principles propagated by the agitators would contradict the spirit of discipline of the force. At the beginning of July 1789, those of the Gardes-Françaises who refused to obey the order to return to the barracks were to be taken to the "l'Abbaye" military prison. To prevent this, however, the population had already demolished it.
On July 12th, the unpopular Duc du Châtelet in Paris was recognized by the crowd and attempts were made to get hold of him. He fled to a military building on Chaussée d'Antin, where a Capitaine Barbet stood protectively in front of him. He then got his comrades to escort their Colonel safely to the Hôtel de Richelieu, which served as their headquarters.
It did not ultimately prevent the Duke's arrest; the terror spares no one, worker, peasant or duke, anyone who seemed suspicious was put on the list.
On December 13, 1793, the Duc du Châtelet was beheaded by the guillotine on the " Place de la Révolution " in Paris.
Legacy
Louis Marie Florent, Duc du Châtelet , bequeathed the Barony de Cirey, the lords of Cirey, Bouzancourt , Marbéville , his part of the lordship of Brachay , a third of the lordship of Arnancourt , his rights to Morancourt and Blumeray , his fiefdom Charmememont, Boulevaux, Paulie à Cirey and Stainville à Fays, then the lords of Saint-Amand, Saint-Eulien , Haussignémont , Chagny , Mertaut and Outrepont , parts of the lordship of Pierrefite, the lords of Naive, Loisey , Culey , Rozières, Rupt-sur-Saône , Érize-la-Brûlée , Erize-les-Saint-Dizier , Rumont, Lomont , Montboillon , Torpes , Amances , Senoncourt and Vy-les-Lures , the castle of Semur-en-Auxois , as well as lands in Origny , Ville-Thierry and Varenne.
progeny
Louis Marie Florent du Châtelet had a niece by marriage, later Madame de Simiane, Diane-Adélaïde de Damas, daughter of Jacques-François de Damas and Zéphirine-Félicité de Rochechouart, sister of the Duchess of Châtelet.
In 1777 she married Charles-François de Simiane, a French officer who died or fell in 1784. Since her parents had also died, the young widow was now treated by the Châtelets like their own daughter.
Footnotes
- ↑ Here, too, it is not a question of a rank, it means the position of the regiment owner
literature
- All in French
- Dictionnaire de la noblesse, Badier, 1772
- Histoire généalogique de la maison du Châtelet de Dom Calmet, Nancy, 1741;
- Cirey-le-Château - La Marquise du Châtelet (sa liaison avec Voltaire) page 164 de l'abbé Piot, paru dans les Mémoires de la Société des lettres, des sciences, des arts, de l'agriculture et de l'industrie de Saint-Dizier , Tome 7, 1892-1894.
- Archives du Tribunal du 17 août 1792, Arch. Nat. W248, dossier 6 (Cabanis, Boulland) et W248, dossier 7 (Lacroix) → des pièces sur la famille Châtelet-Simiane (états de dépenses, faux certificats de présence ou d'émigration, etc.)
- + Maison du Châtelet
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Châtelet, Louis Marie Florent you |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lomont d'Haraucourt duc du Châtelet, Louis Marie Florent de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French officer, most recently lieutenant general and diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 20, 1727 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 13, 1793 |