Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier de Breteuil
Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier, Baron de Preuilly and de Breteuil ( born September 14, 1648 Montpellier, † May 24, 1728 in Paris ) was an officer of the French royal house of Louis XIV, who at court had the task of the ambassadors of foreign prince prepare for an audience and to present to the king. Thus the title of the Introducteur ambassadeurs was connected.
Life
Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier was the youngest son of Louis Le Tonnelier, director of the province of Languedoc and consultants of the Paris Parliament.
As a former Lecteur du Roi, which allowed him access to the petit lever ( part of the elaborate Hofsitte under Louis XIV ), he was sent by Louis XIV as envoy extraordinary to Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga - Nevers, Duke of Mantua, in 1682. His job was to monitor the enforcement of the agreement concluded with the duke secret treaty and find out how France could have more influence on the Italian provinces of Mantua and Montferrat (both the Habsburg Monarchy, which represented the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, as well as Savoy Piedmont entertained at the same time similar ambitions ).
During his message activity de Breteuil came into conflict with the intricacies of the protocol and he threw himself with Marquis Luigi de Canossa, who represented the Holy Roman Emperor at the court. Recalled in 1684 to Paris, he sold his office as Lecteur du Roi, but retained his right of access to the king and his apartment in the Palace of Versailles and as 1698 with the death of Étienne Chabenat, seigneur de Bonneuil, the Office of Introducteur of ambassadeurs free was exercised de Breteuil this task until he sold to Joseph Magny, marquis de Foucault, for 250,000 livres his post in the year of death of Louis XIV (1715 ).
Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier in 1697 married to Gabrielle Anne de Froulay. The two were the parents of the Marquise du Châtelet, scholar and lover of Voltaire, and of Abbot Élisabeth Théodore Le Tonnelier de Breteuil ( 1710-1781 ).
The Office of the Introducteur ambassadeurs was given de Breteuil, although he was not of noble birth. In 1699 he bought the orphaned Barony of Preuilly and borrowed her his title. In 1706 he received permission to bear the name de Breteuil alone or jointly with de Preuilly.