Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brunstatt (born Peter Joseph Viktor von Besenval von Brunstatt; 14 October 1721 – 2 June 1791) was a Swiss military officer in French service. He was usually just referred to as Baron de Besenval (the suffix Brunstatt refers to the former barony). Over time and depending on the language, the family name was adapted according to the international careers and marriages of the family members and the different spellings were adopted by chroniclers, historians and journalists.
Pierre Victor de Besenval was the most famous person accused of the crime of lèse-nation during the French Revolution. The baron's case became exemplary. Not only because he was a foreigner, a close friend of Queen Marie Antoinette and one of the first accused of the crime of lèse-nation, but also because of his fame and his famous friends who campaigned for his release.
Contents
Biography
Family and relatives
Pierre Victor de Besenval was born near Solothurn, Switzerland, to Jean Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt and Katarzyna, Baronne de Besenval de Brunstatt, née Bielińska (1684–1761), at the family's country estate, Schloss Waldegg. His father was a colonel of the Regiment of Swiss Guards in the pay of France. Through his mother, Pierre Victor de Besenval was the grandson of the Polish politician Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński. In 1726, when he was five years old, his mother brought him to France, where his parents already lived.
Théodora Élisabeth Catherine, Marquise de Broglie, née de Besenval de Brunstatt (1718–1777), was Pierre Victor de Besenval's sister. His maternal aunt was the diplomatically influential Marianna Denhoff, also known as Maria Magdalena, Gräfin von Dönhoff, née Bielińska.
Although Pierre Victor de Besenval spent the vast majority of his life in Paris, he still represented his family in the political bodies of the city of Solothurn, partially represented by his cousins during his absence.
The family de Besenval was extremely powerful due to their wealth. Between 1707 and 1723, the family ruled the city of Solothurn almost single-handedly. The family's wealth came primarily from the salt trade and the mercenary business with France. The family's concentration of power was therefore viewed with mixed feelings in Solothurn. And when, in 1763, it was proposed that Pierre Victor de Besenval, who had held a seat in the Grand Council (parliament) since 1743, should be made a Conseiller Honoraire in recognition of his services to the reform of the army, this caused a state affair, whereupon Pierre Victor de Besenval was expelled from the Grand Council between 1764 and 1769.
A model military career of a Swiss patrician in French service
In 1731, Pierre Victor de Besenval joined the Swiss Guards as a cadet. He was promoted to ensign in 1733 and became the commander of the regiment's Company de Besenval in 1738. In the French army, he was promoted to brigadier in 1747, maréchal de camp in 1758 and lieutenant-général in 1762. In the same year he was appointed Inspecteur Général of the Swiss Guards and the Grisons Troops in French service. The young baron served at first as aide-de-camp to Victor-François de Broglie during the campaign of 1748 in Bohemia, then as aide-de-camp to the Duc d'Orléans during the Seven Years' War.
Pierre Victor de Besenval was not only friends with the family of the Maréchal Victor-François, Duc de Broglie, but also related to them through his sister's husband, Charles Guillaume Louis, Marquis de Broglie (1716–1786).
In the early 1760s, the Baron de Besenval played a key role in the Duc de Choiseul's reform of the army. After being appointed military governor of Haguenau in 1766, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the Swiss Guards in 1767. Furthermore, in 1781, he was promoted to Commandant en chef of the troops and garrisons in the interior of France.
The queen's favourite, Swiss diplomat and the purchase of the Hôtel de Besenval
After the accession of King Louis XVI in 1774, Pierre Victor de Besenval became a favourite of Queen Marie Antoinette, whom he assisted on various occasions with advice and assistance, such as in the affair: An Incident at the Opera Ball on Mardi Gras in 1778.
At that time, the Baron de Besenval was at the height of his power at the royal court. He was the most influential Swiss ever to have served at the French court. Switzerland, at the time the Confederation of the XIII cantons, capitalised on this influence, using the popular baron as its ambassador to the royal court.
It was on 5 December 1767, that Pierre Victor de Besenval bought his Parisian residence, the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour, thereafter renamed Hôtel de Besenval, and where he kept one of the most famous paintings of its time: La Gimblette by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The Hôtel de Besenval has housed the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation and the residence of the Swiss ambassador to France since 1938.
French Revolution, family and last years
As the uprisings in and around Paris intensified in the summer of 1789, the Baron de Besenval remained firmly attached to the royal court and was given command of the troops which the king had concentrated in Paris to suppress the riots which had been going on for some time. The riots culminated in the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. In the eyes of contemporaries, the Baron de Besenval acted unluckily in the crisis. The aristocracy described the baron's actions as disastrous and decisive for the further course of events, which ultimately led to the French Revolution. When the revolutionary masses demanded his head after the Taking of the Bastille, Pierre Victor de Besenval tried to escape to his home country, Switzerland.
On 26 July 1789, Pierre Victor de Besenval was arrested while fleeing to Switzerland. On 7 November 1789, he was imprisoned in the Grand Châtelet before being accused by the tribunal of the Grand Châtelet of the crime of lèse-nation. His trial in connection with the Storming of the Bastille began on 21 November with the first judicial questioning. The prison cell of Pierre Victor de Besenval was depicted by Hubert Robert in his painting from 1789 Vue de la cellule du Baron de Besenval à la prison du Châtelet (View from the Baron de Besenval's cell in the Châtelet prison).
On 1 March 1790, Pierre Victor de Besenval was acquitted of all charges. This was due in no small part to the fact that his compatriot Jacques Necker – the Genevan banker and French Finance Minister, who was especially popular among the common people – kept his protective hand over him. Necker's popularity among ordinary Frenchmen stood in sharp contrast to the hostility he often encountered at court, where many aristocrats looked down on the Swiss-born commoner and reformer. Following the acquittal, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette had publicly expressed their joy that the baron had been acquitted of all charges.
Another king, King Stanisław II August of Poland, with whom the Baron de Besenval was related on his mother's side, was also pleased by the acquittal. In a letter dated 7 April 1790, the king instructed his envoy in Paris to congratulate the baron's lawyer, Raymond Desèze, on his victory and had the envoy present him with a medal as a token of thanks. The letter of the King of Poland was published in the Moniteur Universel on 16 May 1790.
Remembered by the personalities of his time
Already during his lifetime, Pierre Victor de Besenval polarised opinion, both in France and in his homeland, Switzerland. Loved by some, hated by others, or at least viewed with suspicion, he did not leave his contemporaries indifferent.
The anecdotes and stories about Pierre Victor de Besenval in the memoirs of contemporary personalities are legendary. The baron is mentioned in the memoirs and letters of, among others, the following personalities:
In alphabetical order
Rose Bertin, a French fashion merchant and fashion advisor to Queen Marie-Antoinette
Gabriel de Broglie, the families de Besenval and de Broglie have been related since 1733 through marriage, when Pierre Victor den Besenval's sister, Théodora Élisabeth Catherine (1718–1777), married Charles Guillaume Louis, Marquis de Broglie (1716–1786). Later marriages between the families Cabot de Dampmartin (de Besenval) and de Broglie followed.
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, a French architect who carried out significant renovations at the Hôtel de Besenval
Henriette Campan, Première Femme de Chambre of Queen Marie-Antoinette
François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, a French writer and critic of the Baron de Besenval
Emmanuel, Duc de Croÿ, Prince de Solre et du Saint-Empire, a French General, Maréchal de France and close friend of Pierre Victor de Besenval
Raymond Desèze, the lawyer of Pierre Victor de Besenval
Jean-Baptiste-Denis Després, Pierre Victor de Besenval's secretary
Literary works (partial list)
Pierre Victor de Besenval authored moral-philosophical essays, novels, tales and poetic epistles. However, he is principally known as the author of his memoires, which were published between 1805 and 1806 by Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur, in which are reported many scandalous tales of the court of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. The family de Besenval questioned the authenticity of the memoirs and distanced themselves from them.
"I am fond of the Memoirs of Besenval; in them one finds the French of 1770 and the court of Louis XVI."
The publisher characterised the entire literary work of Pierre Victor de Besenval as: A miscellany of literary, historical and political pieces; to which are added several poems.
Le Spleen
Idées politiques et militaires
Les Amans soldats
Féerie
Socrate et Gassendi
Alonzo
Cœlia
Réflexions sur la Comédie
L'Hermite
Réflexions sur le Ton
Histoire de Revenans
Pensées détachées
Nouvelle espagnole
Du Chagrin
Anecdote bretonne
Première Scène d'une Comédie
Aventure et Conversation de M. le Baron de Besenval avec une Dame de Wesel