Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brünstatt

Peter Victor of Besenval, Freiherr von Brunn Instead, French Pierre Victor de Besenval de Brünstatt, also Bezenval ( born October 14, 1721 Solothurn, † June 2, 1791 in Paris) was a Swiss military in the French service.

Peter Viktor came from the significant Solothurn patrician family of Besenval ( Evil Forest, also Bezenwald ), which had already been 1655/58 raised to the French knighthood and 1695 in the kingdom baron. The noble title of Brunn instead refers to the Alsatian Brunn rule instead, which was bought in addition to the rule Byss 1654/57 or 1646 by the Besenval. The family asked repeatedly to Schultheissen of Solothurn and dominated with French pension funds 1707-1723 the city almost single-handedly. 1690-1791 entertained the family Besenval a ( semi-) company in the Swiss Guards regiment of the French royal court, 1729-38 a Swiss regiment in the French service.

Peter Victor began his military career in 1731 in the Swiss Guards in France as a cadet. 1736 he took over the Besenval'sche Gardekompagnie and in 1738 also their commander. Then followed a pattern career of a patrician Swiss in French service:

In the course of his career Besenval fought on different battlefields, as in the Army of the Rhine in 1734 and 1735 in Bohemia in 1748, during the Seven Years War at the Battle of Kampen monastery.

After he had collaborated in the 1760s to reform the French army by Étienne- François de Choiseul crucial Besenval was a favorite of Marie Antoinette after 1774. In July 1789 Besenval was in his capacity as a military commander of the Ille de France and governor of Paris supreme commander of the garrison of Paris. While he was with energetic measures upheld the order in Paris in May, he moved on 12 July, the troops from the city of Paris from, so that the storming of the Bastille only became possible. As the revolutionary masses called for his head, Besenval obtained from the King permission to depart to Switzerland, but he was recognized and arrested while traveling. On intervention of Jacques Necker, he escaped death, but was further detained until he was indicted in April 1790 for high treason. Among other things, he was accused, he had planned to set fire to the city of Paris and that he had made ​​preparations to suppress the revolution in blood. His counsel, Raymond de Sèze was able to refute the allegations and reach an acquittal. Weakened by the long prison died Besenval 1791.

In his home town of Solothurn he held since 1743 held the dignity of the Great Council, which, however, he lost 1764-1769 because of an affair of state.

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

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

Works

• Ghislain de This Bach ( ed.): Mémoires du baron de la B. sur cour de France. Paris 1987 ISBN 2-7152-1459-6
• Louis -Philippe de Ségur (ed.): Besenval, Mémoires, par lui - même Écrits. 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. Precedes d'une Notice sur la Vie de l' auteur. Buisson: Paris, 1805.
• Le Spleen .. Paris 1895.