Emmanuel - Armand de Richelieu , duc d ' Aiguillon Emmanuel - Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu , duc d ' Aiguillon ( July 31 , 1720 – 1788 ) was a French soldier and statesman and a nephew of Louis François Armand du Plessis , duc de Richelieu . He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis XV . Biography . Early life and intrigue . 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 Vintimille , in childbirth in 1741 , the king ' s best friend , the duc d ' Agénois ' uncle , the manipulative duc de Richelieu , 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 , sent his rival to fight the Austrians in Italy during War of the Austrian Succession . The young duke was seriously wounded at the siege of Château - Dauphin ( 1744 ) . Unlike the husband of Bathsheba , 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 , 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 , to the Jansenists 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 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 . He was to command a force that would land in Scotland to support a Jacobite rising 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 . The plan was eventually abandoned following the French naval defeat at Quiberon Bay . d ' Aiguilion finally alienated the " parlement " of Brittany 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 organised 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 ( December 24 , 1770 ) . Foreign Minister . When Louis XV , acting on the advice of Madame du Barry , reorganised the government with a view to suppressing the resistance of the " parlements " , d ' Aiguillon was made minister of foreign affairs , Maupeou 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 . " 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 " of Gustavus III , king of Sweden , in 1772 , although the instructions of the comte de Vergennes , the French ambassador in Sweden , had been written by the minister , the Duc de la Vrillère . D ' Aiguillon , however , could do nothing to rehabilitate French diplomacy ; he acquiesced in the first division of Poland , renewed the Family Compact , 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 , who demanded his dismissal from the ministry ( 1774 ) . He died , forgotten , in 1788 . The announcement of his death was worded as follows in Annonces Affiches Avis Bibliothèque nationale Arsenal 8 H 26195 n° 64 septembre - décembre 1788 : 4 septembre 1788 ( probably date of the burial , other sources mention a date of death of 1 September ) Emmanuel - Armand Duplessis - Richelieu , duc d ' Aiguillon , pair de France , noble génois , chevalier des ordres du roi , lieutenant général de ses armées , ancien lieutenant de la compagnie des chevau - légers de la garde ordinaire de Sa Majesté , gouverneur général de la haute et basse Alsace , gouverneur particulier des ville , citadelle , parc et château de La Fère , ancien lieutenant général de la province de Bretagne , ancien commandant pour Sa Majesté de ladite province , ancien ministre et secrétaire d ' État des affaires étrangères et de la guerre . Décédé rue de l ’ Université , présenté à Saint - Sulpice et transporté à la Sorbonne . He was the father of Armand , duc d ' Aiguillon , who succeeded him as duc d ' Aiguillon . On d ' Aiguillon ' s governorship of Brittany : See also