Clément Charles François de Laverdy

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Clément Charles François de Laverdy (1723 – 24 November 1793) was a French statesman.

[edit] Life

He was a member of the parlement of Paris when the case against the Jesuits came before that body in August 1761. He demanded the suppression of the order and thus acquired popularity.

King Louis XV named him Controller-General of Finances in December 1763, but the tasks at hand seemed to surpass Laverdy's financial abilities. Three months after his nomination, he forbade the publishing of all material on the issure of his administration, refusing both advice and criticism.

Laverdy used all means, sometimes illicit ones, to replenish the treasury, and was even accused of having himself profited from the commerce in wheat. A court intrigue led to his sudden dismissal on October 1, 1768. From that moment on, he lived in retirement until, during the French Revolution, he was involved in the charges against the financiers of the Ancien Régime. The Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced him to death, and he was guillotined on in 1793.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. In turn, it cites:
  • Alphonse Jobez, La France sous Louis XV (1869)