born Dec. 6, 1721, Paris, France
died April 22, 1794, Paris
French royal administrator.
A lawyer, he was made a counselor in the Parlement (high court) of Paris in 1744. As director of the press (175063), he allowed publication of many works by the philosophe s, including Denis Diderot 's Encyclopédie . In 1775 he became secretary of state for the royal household and instituted prison and legal reforms, including ending the misuse of lettres de cachet , and supported the economic reforms of the comptroller general, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot . He failed to win the king's support for his projects and resigned in 1776. In the French Revolution , he helped conduct the defense of Louis XVI (1792). He was arrested in 1793, tried for treason, and guillotined.