Charles Xavier Joseph de Franque Ville d'Abancour (4 July 1758 in Douai – 9 September 1792 in Versailles)[1] was a French statesman, minister to Louis XVI[2] and a nephew of Charles Alexandre de Calonne.
D'Abancourt was Louis XVI's last minister of war (July 1792), and organised the defence of the Tuileries Palace during the 10th of August attack. Ordered by the Legislative Assembly to send away the Swiss guards, he refused, and was arrested for treason to the nation and sent to Orléans to be tried.
At the end of August the Assembly ordered Abancourt and the other prisoners at Orléans to be transferred to Paris with an escort commanded by Claude Fournier l'Americain. At Versailles, they learned of the September Massacres in Paris. Abancourt and his fellow-prisoners were murdered in cold blood in massacres on 9 September 1792, and Fournier was unjustly charged with complicity in the crime.[3]
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Pierre August Lajard |
Secretary of State for War 23 July 1792 — 10 August 1792 |
Succeeded by Joseph Marie Servan de Gerbey |