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 (1750–63), he allowed publication of many works by the philosophe s, including 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 {{link=French Revolution">French Revolution , he helped conduct the defense of Louis XVI (1792). He was arrested in 1793, tried for treason, and guillotined.