Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon (July 31, 1720 – 1782) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 soldier

Soldier

A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...

 and statesman

Statesman

A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...

 and a nephew of Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu

Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu

Armand de Vignerot du Plessis was a French soldier, diplomat and statesman. Joining the army, he participated in three major wars and eventually rose to the rank of Marshal of France....

. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis XV.

Early life

Before the death of his father, he was known at court as the duc d'Agénois. He entered the army at the age of seventeen, and at the age of nineteen was made colonel of the regiment of Brie. His marriage in 1740 with Louise Félicité de Brehan, daughter of the Comte de Plélo, coupled with his connection with the Richelieu family, gave him an important place at court.

Upon the death of King Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Ventimille

Pauline-Félicité de Mailly

Pauline Félicité de Mailly , marquise de Vintimille, was the second of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France.- Early life and family :...

, in childbirth in 1741, the king's best friend, the duc d'Agénois' uncle, the manipulative duc de Richelieu

Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu

Armand de Vignerot du Plessis was a French soldier, diplomat and statesman. Joining the army, he participated in three major wars and eventually rose to the rank of Marshal of France....

, began to cast about for another candidate to fulfil his royal friend's desires as he did not want Madame de Ventimille's older sister Madame de Mailly, to regain the king's affections. He eventually decided upon the younger sister of both Madame de Mailly and Madame de Ventimille, Marie Anne, the widow of the marquis de La Tournelle.

At a masked ball on Shrove Tuesday, 1742, Richelieu led Marie Anne up to the king and introduced them. The beautiful marquise, however, at first rejected the royal advances. She already had a lover, the young Emmanuel-Armand, and was not inclined to give him up even for the king's sake. As a result, Louis conspired with Richelieu, who was d'Agénois's uncle, to rid himself of the young suitor. Richelieu was quite anxious to do anything to bring about a liaison between the king and Madame de la Tournelle because he knew Madame de Mailly did not view him in kindly light. The result of their deliberations was that Louis, in imitation of the biblical David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

, sent his rival to fight the Austrians in Italy during War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession  – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...

. The young duke was seriously wounded at the siege of Château-Dauphin (1744). Unlike the husband of Bathsheba

Bathsheba

According to the Hebrew Bible, Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. She is most known for the Bible story in which King David seduced her....

, however, the duc d'Agénois recovered from his injuries, and returned to the court in glory.

Louis was in despair, but Richelieu, who was a resourceful man, was not one to lightly accept defeat. He sent his nephew to Languedoc

Languedoc

Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

, where a beautiful young lady had been instructed to seduce him. This she did most effectively; letters of a very passionate nature were exchanged; the lady despatched those which she received to Richelieu, and in due course they were brought to the notice of Madame de La Tournelle, who, furious at her young duke's deceitfullness, turned her attentions to the king.

The duke was later taken prisoner in (1746) and was made a maréchal de camp in 1748. He was a member of the so-called parti devot, the faction opposed to Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...

, to the Jansenists

Jansenism

Jansenism was a Christian theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, who died in 1638...

 and to the parlement, and his hostility to the new ideas drew upon him the anger of the pamphleteers.

In 1753 he was appointed commandant (governor) of Brittany

Governor of Brittany

This page is a list of royal governors of Brittany during the Ancien Regime.*Nominoe, 9th century*Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy from 1380*Jean de Laval, husband of Françoise de Foix, 16th century*Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier 1569-1582...

 and soon became unpopular in that province, which had retained a large number of privileges called "liberties." He first came into collision with the provincial estates on the question of the royal imposts (1758),

Invasion of Britain

In 1759 d'Aiguilion was hand-picked by the French foreign minister Choiseul to take part in a large-scale invasion of Great Britain

Planned French Invasion of Britain (1759)

A French invasion of Great Britain was planned to take place in 1759 during the Seven Years' War, but due to various factors including naval defeats at the Battle of Lagos and the Battle of Quiberon Bay was never launched. The French planned to land 100,000 French soldiers in Britain to end British...

. He was to command a force that would land in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to support a Jacobite rising

Jacobite rising

The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...

 against the crown. He would then lead his troops southwards trapping the British defenders in a pincer between themselves and another French force that would land in southern England

Southern England

Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...

. The plan was eventually abandoned following the French naval defeat at Quiberon Bay

Battle of Quiberon Bay

The naval Battle of Quiberon Bay took place on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War in Quiberon Bay, off the coast of France near St. Nazaire...

.

d'Aiguilion finally alienated the parlement of Brittany

Parliament of Brittany

The Parlement of Brittany was a court of justice, under France’s Ancien Régime, with its seat at Rennes. The last building to house the parlement still stands and is now the Rennes Court of Appeal, the natural successor of the parlement.-Parlements under the Ancien Régime:As with all the...

 by violating the privileges of the province (1762). In June 1764 the king, at the instance of d'Aiguillon, quashed a decree of the parlement forbidding the levying of new taxes without the consent of the estates, and refused to receive the remonstrances of the parlement against the duke.

On November 11, 1765 La Chalotais, the procureur of the parlement, was arrested, but whether at the instigation of d'Aiguillon is not certain. The conflict between d'Aiguillon and the Bretons lasted two years. In the place of the parlement, which had resigned, d'Aiguillon organized a tribunal of more or less competent judges, who were ridiculed by the pamphleteers and ironically termed the bailliage d'Aiguillon. In 1768 the duke was forced to suppress this tribunal, and returned to court, where he resumed his intrigue with the parti devot and finally obtained the dismissal of the minister Choiseul

Étienne François, duc de Choiseul

Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period...

 (December 24, 1770).

When Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

, acting on the advice of Madame du Barry

Madame du Barry

Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...

, reorganized the government with a view to suppressing the resistance of the parlements, d'Aiguillon was made minister of foreign affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs (France)

Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs ), is France's foreign affairs ministry, with the headquarters located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris close to the National Assembly of France. The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the government of France is the cabinet minister responsible for...

, Maupeou

René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou

René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou was a French politician, chancellor of France, whose attempts at fiscal reform signalled the failure of enlightened despotism in France.-Biography:...

 and the Abbé Terray (1715–1778) also obtaining places in the ministry. The new ministry, albeit one of reform, was very unpopular, and was styled the "triumvirate

Maupeou Triumvirate

The Triumvirate refers to the trio of ministers who came to power in Old Regime France in 1771 following a coup orchestrated by René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou. Maupeou became Keeper of the Seals, Joseph Marie Terray became Controller-General of Finances, and the Duc d'Aiguillon became...

." All the failures of the government were attributed to the mistakes of the ministers. Thus d'Aiguillon was blamed for having provoked the coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

of Gustavus III, king of Sweden, in 1772, although the instructions of the comte de Vergennes

Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes

Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1774 during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence....

, the French ambassador in Sweden, had been written by the minister, the duc de la Vrillere.

D'Aiguillon, however, could do nothing to rehabilitate French diplomacy; he acquiesced in the first division of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, renewed the Family Compact

Pacte de Famille

The Pacte de Famille is one of three separate, but similar alliances between the Bourbon kings of France and Spain.- The first Pacte de Famille :...

, and, although a supporter of the Jesuits, sanctioned the suppression of the society. After the death of Louis XV he quarrelled with Maupeou and with the young queen, Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....

, who demanded his dismissal from the ministry (1774). He died, forgotten, in 1782. In no circumstances had he shown any special ability. He was more fitted for intrigue than for government, and his attempts to restore the status of French diplomacy met with scant success.

He was the father of Armand, duc d'Aiguillon

Armand, duc d'Aiguillon

Armand II de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, duke of Aiguillon succeeded his father Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon....

, who succeeded him as duc d'Aiguillon.