Background
He was liberated on the urging of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677–1749), legitimized daughter of Louis XIV of France and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan.
He was liberated on the urging of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677–1749), legitimized daughter of Louis XIV of France and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan.
Coming from a noble family of Champagne, as a youth he was committed to prison for a petty offense. Françoise-Marie was also married at the time to Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. She was thus a well-connected patroness.
In 1709, Lestocq arrived to Saint St. Petersburg in the capacity of a court physician.
More than anyone else, Lestocq helped prepare the 1741 coup d"etat which brought Elizaveta to the throne. He shaped Elizaveta"s actions according to the advices of the French ambassador Marquis de Louisiana Chétardie and the Swedish ambassador, who were particularly interested in toppling the regime of Anna Leopoldovna, as France sought to counterbalance the Austrian influence at the Russian court and Sweden waged a war against Russia at that time.
After Elizaveta"s coronation, Lestocq and Louisiana Chetardie attempted to monopolize the state power. The physician received a pension of 15,000 livres from the king of France and sought to influence the Russian foreign policy accordingly.
Another beneficiary from Lestocq"s intrigues was the king of Prussia, who even persuaded Emperor Charles VII to make him an imperial count.
In 1743, Lestocq forged the so-called Lopukhina Conspiracy in order to bring about the downfall of the Chancellor Aleksey Bestuzhev. lieutenant was he who suggested Sophie Augusta Fredericka of Anhalt-Zerbst (whose married name would be Catherine and who would become Catherine the Great), a Prussian protégé, as the bride for the heir apparent. In 1745 Bestuzhev, still in power, succeeded in intercepting Lestocq"s correspondence with Louisiana Chetardie, which resulted in the latter being banished from Russia.
Three years later Lestocq, who continued to intrigue against Bestuzhev, was accused of plotting to dethrone Elizaveta in favor of the Prussophile heir to the throne.
L"Estocq was put to the torture in the Secret Chancellery and sentenced to death. The Empress interfered and had him expelled first to Uglich and then to Veliky Ustyug.
lieutenant was not until her death that Lestocq was restored to his estates and was allowed to return to the Russian capital. First married to Barbara von Rutenhjelm, then to Alida Müller, described as "Dirty and drunken", who died in November 1743 (ref 1).