Background
Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fézensac was born on October 17, 1739, in Paris, of a family from Armagnac. He was brought up with the children of the king of France, and showed some taste for letters.
Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fézensac was born on October 17, 1739, in Paris, of a family from Armagnac. He was brought up with the children of the king of France, and showed some taste for letters.
He entered the army in 1754, was successively colonel of the Grenadiers and the Royal-Vaissaux regiment, and in 1780 was made maréchal-de-camp. Some pieces of verse and several comedies gained him admission to the French Academy in 1784. He was elected deputy to the states general of 1789 by the nobles of Paris, and, animated by Liberal ideas, he soon joined the Third Estate, and seconded Necker's financial schemes. He served on the committee charged with the issue of assignats, and was named president of the Constituent Assembly on March 14, 1791. In May 1791, he was promoted lieutenant-general, served under Lafayette, and in February 1792, was given the command of the Army of the South. In September of the same year he completed the conquest of Savoy, but in November 1792 he was accused of royalist leanings, and had to take refuge in Switzerland. In 1795 his name was erased from the list of émigrés and he returned to Paris, where he died on December 30, 1798.
Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fézensac was married to Jeanne Marie Hocquart de Montfermeil. They had several children.
