Not to be confused with Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson, Governor of New France

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

 http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=35274

Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson (August 16, 1696, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 - August 22, 1764, Paris) 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...

 politician, son of the 1st Marquis d'Argenson

Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1652-1721)

Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, 1st marquis d'Argenson was a French politician.-Biography:Argenson was born in Venice where his father, also Marc-René, was ambassador...

 and the younger brother of René Louis d’Argenson. d'Argenson became general lieutenant of the Paris police in 1720, 1737 Intendand of Paris and 1743 secretary of state for war. He successfully helped Maurice de Saxe reorganizing the army, contributing to the victories of 1744 and 1745. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled at the Imperial Free City of Aachen—Aix-la-Chapelle in French—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, on 24 April 1748...

, he was active in improving military training and founded the École Militaire

École Militaire

The École Militaire is a vast complex of buildings housing various military training facilities located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, southeast of the Champ de Mars....

 in 1751. The Champs Élysées and the Place de la Concorde were planned by him.

D'Argenson supported the Encyclopedists of d'Alembert

Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...

 and Diderot, whose first volumes were dedicated to him and provided his friend Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

 with material for his Siècle de Louis XIV. A letter written by the booksellers associated with the endeavor appealing for his help in releasing Diderot from prison in 1749 can be found on the ARTFL Encyclopédie Project. http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/node/108 He was named an honorary member of the French Academy of Sciences

French Academy of Sciences

The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...

 in 1726 and the Academy of Inscriptions in 1748.

He had to resign due the influence of 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:...

in 1757, was confined to his country seat Ormes and returned to Paris only after the death of his powerful enemy.