André-François-Jean du Rocher de Saint-Riveul

Birth: 1772

Death: 1789

A schoolfriend of François-Renée Chateaubriand, who described him as the first victim of the Revolution. Saint-Riveul died on the streets of Rennes during two days of fighting there, 26-27 January 1789. This came about as a result of existing social tensions between popular and more privileged sections of local society being stoked up to boiling point by a political dispute between noble and Third Estate representatives attending the provincial estates.

Appears in these Letters:

1789

10 February: Pre-Revolutionary Violence

Although many of the Letters focus on Paris, they also show that the duchess made considerable efforts to stay informed about events elsewhere in the...