#flesselles

Episode 1309: A Meal with Big Sister

Translator Notes:

Heads of  Foulon, Berthier, Flesselles, de Launay & Losme.

Picture: MAS Estampes Anciennes

Joseph-François Foullon de Doué, or Foulon born in 1715 was a French politician and a Controller-General of Finances under Louis XVI. In 1789  after the dissmission of Jacques Necker, he was appointed Controller-General of Finances and minister of the king's household, as a choice of the reactionary party. The Parisians resented his wealth, viewed as resulting from exploitation of the poor. The rumour was that during the famine he had said : "If those rascals have no bread, then let them eat hay". As a conservative, he was also hostile to Louis Philippe d'Orléans' circle.

After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, aware of the people's hatred, Foullon fled Paris and attempted to spread the news of his death. He was, however, soon captured by the peasants on Sartine's estate, and taken to the Hôtel de Ville.

Jean Sylvain Bailly and the Marquis de La Fayette tried to intervene, but Foullon was dragged out  by the populace to the Place de Grève were he was hung from a lamp-post. As the rope broke three times in a row, he was beheaded instead, and his head put on a pike with his mouth stuffed with hay.

 Bernard René Jourdan, marquis de Launay born in 1740 was the French governor of the Bastille, the son of a previous governor, and commander of its garrison when it was stormed on 14 July 1789.

Unlike Sombreuil, the governor of Hôtel des Invalides, de Launay refused to surrender the prison fortress and hand over the arms and the gunpowder stored in the cellars to the revolutionaries. He promised that he would not fire unless attacked and tried to negotiate with two delegates from the Hôtel de Ville, but the discussions drew out and a part of the impatient crowd started to enter the outer courtyard of the fortress. After shouting warnings the garrison opened fire. The fighting lasted about four hours, resulting in about 100 casualties among the exposed crowd but only one death amongst the defenders. Eventually de Launay decided to capitulate on the condition that nobody from within the fortress would be harmed, and threatened that he would blow it up. His conditions were rejected but he nevertheless capitulated, reportedly after members of the garrison prevented him from entering the cellars where the gunpowder was stored.

He was then seized and was supposed to be escorted to the Hôtel de Ville, but on the way there, the furious crowd assaulted him, beat him and eventually lynched him by stabbing him repeatedly with bayonets and shooting him once. After the killing, his head was sawn off by Mathieu Jouve Jourdan, a butcher. It was fixed on a pike to be carried through the streets.

Louis Bénigne François Berthier de Sauvigny born in 1737 was a French public servant, particularly an intendant of Paris from 13 September 1776 onwards. By the time the  Revolution broke out  he was already unpopular by, as part of his duties, assuring the army's provisions. The circulating rumours accused him of contribution to the low levels of food supplies in Paris at the time, which was said to be aimed at starving the Third Estate.

On 22 July 1789, he was taken by rioters at Compiegne, brought to Paris and hanged from a lamp post that same day in front of the Hôtel de Ville together with Joseph Foullon de Doué, his father-in-law and member of the Parlement of Paris.

Jacques de Flesselles was born in Paris in 1730 of a family of middle-class origins, which had recently achieved nobility status. As his father, he was a financial official who had served as a royal adviser.

On 13 July 1789, de Flesselles received demands for weapons to equip a citizens militia. He provided only three muskets from municipal stocks and his suggestions of where other stores could be foundfter proved wrong.  Accused of royalist sympathies  after storming of the Bastille on 14 July. Shot dead on the steps of the City Hall, while he was trying to justify his actions and decapitated.

Antoine-Jérôme de Losme was a Bastille major executed on 14 July together with two other invalides for shooting to the crowd storming the fortress. 

And one more picture...