Peter Viktor von Besenval

Peter Viktor von Besenval with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Ludwig, around 1766

The Baron von Besenval in his drawing room, ca.1791

Ordnance flag of the Besenval regiment in French Services

Peter Viktor von Besenval, Baron von Brunnstatt , French Pierre Victor de Besenval de Brunstatt , also Bezenval (born October 14, 1721 in Solothurn , † June 2, 1791 in Paris ) was a Swiss military in French service.

Peter Viktor came from the important Solothurn patrician family of the Besenval (Bösenwald, also Bezenwald), who were included in the French as early as 1655/58. Knight status and in 1695 to the imperial baron status. The title of nobility from Brunnstatt refers to the Alsatian lordship of Brunnstatt , which was bought by the Besenval in 1654/57 and 1646 in addition to the Byss lordship. The family repeatedly provided the mayor of Solothurn and ruled the town almost single-handedly between 1707 and 1723 with French pension funds. 1690–1791 the Besenval family maintained a (half) company in the Swiss Guard regiment of the French royal court, and from 1729–38 a Swiss regiment in French service.

Peter Viktor began his military career in 1731 in the Swiss Guard Regiment in France as a cadet. In 1736 he took over the Besenval'sche Guard Company and in 1738 also became its commander. Then followed a model career for a Swiss patrician in the French service:

• 1738 captain
• 1747 Brigadier
• 1748 Adjutant of Marshal Claude-Victor de Broglie during the campaign in Bohemia
• 1757 adjutant to the Duke of Orléans
• 1758 field marshal
• 1762 Lieutenant General and Inspector General of the Swiss and Graubünden troops
• 1766 Military Gourverneur von Hagenau and award of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Ludwig
• 1767 Lieutenant Colonel of the Swiss Guard Regiment
• 1781 commander in chief of the troops and garrisons in the interior of France

In the course of his career Besenval fought in various theaters of war, for example in the Rhine Army in 1734 and 1735, in Bohemia in 1748 and in the Seven Years' War in the battle of Kampen Monastery .

After he had played a decisive role in the reform of the French army by Étienne-François de Choiseul in the 1760s , Besenval became a favorite of Marie Antoinette after 1774 . In July 1789 Besenval was in his capacity as military commander of the Ile de France and governor of Paris commander in chief of the garrison of Paris. While he was still using energetic measures to maintain order in Paris in May, he withdrew the troops from the city of Paris on July 12, which made the storming of the Bastille possible in the first place. When the revolutionary masses demanded his head, Besenval received permission from the king to leave for Switzerland, but he was recognized and arrested during the trip. He escaped death on the intervention of Jacques Necker , but was kept prisoner until he was charged with high treason in April 1790. Among other things, he was accused of planning to set fire to the city of Paris and of making preparations to bloodily suppress the revolution. His defense lawyer Raymond de Sèze was able to refute the allegations and obtain an acquittal. Besenval died in 1791, weakened by the long imprisonment.

In his hometown of Solothurn he held the dignity of a councilor from 1743, which he lost between 1764 and 1769 because of a state affair.

In addition to his military career, Besenval was also active as a writer. He published moral and philosophical essays, short stories as well as novels and his memoirs, which were published by Louis-Philippe de Ségur after his death in 1804/07 . They contain numerous reports on affairs and scandals at the court of Louis XVI, which were attracting great attention at the time of publication. The Besenval family contested the authenticity of the memoirs.

In 1767 Besenval bought the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour in Paris on Rue de Grenelle. The house now serves as the Swiss embassy in France.

Works

• Ghislain de Diesbach (ed.): Mémoires du baron de B. sur la cour de France . Paris 1987 ISBN 2-7152-1459-6
• Louis-Philippe de Ségur (ed.): Besenval, Mémoires, écrits par lui-même. Contenant beaucoup de Particularités et d'Anecdotes sur la Cour, sur les Ministres et les Règnes de Louis XV et Louis XVI, et sur les Evénemens du temps. Précédés d'une Notice sur la Vie de l'Auteur . Buisson: Paris 1805.
• Le whimsy. Paris 1895.

Web links

Commons : Peter Viktor von Besenval  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Andreas Fankhauser: Besenval, Peter Viktor (from Brunnstatt). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Publications by and about Peter Viktor von Besenval in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library