Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil

Louis Charles Auguste le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil ( born March 7, 1730 in Azay- le -Fron, Indre, † November 2, 1807 in Paris) was a French diplomat.

Life and work

Breteuil was only twenty-eight when he. Ludwig XV was appointed ambassador to the Elector of Cologne; two years later he was sent to Saint Petersburg. He arranged that he was brought to the throne during the palace revolution, by Catherine II, would be temporarily absent from his post. In 1769 he was sent to Stockholm, and then he represented the government in Vienna, Naples and Vienna again until 1783, when he was recalled to become a minister of the royal household. In this role, he led major reforms by the prison administration. As a close friend of Marie Antoinette, he immediately came into conflict with Calonne, who in 1787 called for his dismissal. His influence over the king, and especially the queen remained unshaken.

In Necker's dismissal on July 11, 1789 Breteuil succeeded him as Chief Minister. The fall of the Bastille three days later prepared the new Cabinet, the end, and Breteuil went with the first emigrants to Switzerland. In Solothurn in November 1790, he received an order from Louis XVI. the exclusive authority to negotiate with the European courts, and to control the ill-advised diplomacy of the émigré princes in his efforts, he soon came into conflict with his old rival Calonne, who was one of her chief adviser. In 1791 he was the dispersion of the emigrants a walk through the Verena gorge near Solothurn create.

After the failure of the flight to Varennes, in their planning, he had been involved, Breteuil received from Louis XVI. Instructions that were intended to re-establish friendly relations with the prince. His distrust of the brothers of the king and his defense of the franchise of Louis XVI. were justified to some extent, but his unyielding attitude towards the Prince emphasized in the eyes of foreign rulers, the disunity of the royal family. This saw the Comte de Provence natural representative of his brother and found in the contradictory statements of the negotiators an excuse for their non-interference in favor of Louis. Breteuil himself was the target of violent attacks on the part of the party of the princes who claimed that he insist on claiming powers. Louis XVI had been terminated. After the execution of Marie Antoinette he retired near Hamburg in the private life and did not return until 1802 to France.