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Besenval (de), Pierre Victor

Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brünstatt

Born

14 October 1721

Died

2 June 1791

A Swiss officer of the Gardes Suisses who rose to lieutenant-general in the French service and became a familiar figure in Marie Antoinette’s circle, Besenval held the command of the troops of the interior from 1781. In July 1789 this gave him charge of the regiments assembled around Paris, and it was his cavalry that was stoned on the place Louis XV on 12 July. Receiving no useful instructions and unwilling to fire on the city, he withdrew his forces towards Sèvres, and they did not intervene at the Bastille. Arrested near Provins while attempting to leave France, he was tried before the Châtelet for lèse-nation and acquitted on 1 March 1790. He died in Paris in June 1791.

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14 Oct 1721Birth of Baron de Besenval See them in the timeline →