Charles-Grégoire de Beauchamps

Charles-Grégoire, the Marquis of Beauchamps (25 July 1731 – 5 May 1817) was a French military general and politician. During the run up to the French Revolution, he sat as a Second Estate member of the Estates-General in the summer of 1789.

Life Charles-Grégoire was born and baptised at Cherbonnières, roughly 19 km (13 miles) to the east of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, between Poitiers and Bordeaux in rural western France. He was a younger son of Henri-Charles de Beauchamps (1701-1777), lord of the manor at Cherbonnières. His mother, Madeleine-Dorothée de Lescours, was probably also of aristocratic provenance. He embarked on his military career late in 1757 when he took part in the disastrous (for France) Battle of Rossbach, receiving but surviving fourteen injuries, and retaining his "colours", albeit in a badly shredded condition. He was awarded the Cross of St Louis for his valour and progressed with a military career that took him, eventually, to the rank of a Maréchal de camp.

In April 1789, with the government in financial crisis, the Estates General was summoned for the first time since 1614 in order to come up with ideas for solving the government's cash shortage. As matters turned out, delegates arrived with their own agendas and the French Revolution broke out a couple of months later. The parliament was divided into three classes (estates): Church, Nobility and Commoners. The Marquis of Beauchamps, by now a cavalry colonel, He was promoted to Maréchal de camp on 29 February 1816 and died fifteen months later.