Étienne-François-Louis-Honoré Letourneur, also known as, Le Tourneur, or Le Tourneur de la Manche (15 March 1751 – 4 October 1817) was a French lawyer, soldier, and politician of the French Revolution.

Early life and career

Born in Granville,

Manche Manche (, ; Norman language, Norman: ) is a coastal Departments of France, French ''département'' in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy on the English Channel, which is known as , literally "the sleeve", in French. Manche is bordered by ...

, he studied at a military school, then served in the Nord, and in Cherbourg. In 1792, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Manche, and voted in favor of

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

, against a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

(but in favor of possibility of appeal to the people's mercy).

Political career

Letourneur served the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

's National Convention as an overseer of defense during the Siege of Toulon, and took the task of reorganizing the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Fleet. He was elected to the

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate; ) was the system of government established by the Constitution of the Year III, French Constitution of 1795. It takes its name from the committee of 5 men vested with executive power. The Directory gov ...

's Council of Ancients, became one of the government leaders ("directors") on 2 November 1795. In April 1797 he left office, under the system whereby one director retired each year, chosen by lot (''illustration''). He then became a general of the French Revolutionary Army. Under the Consulate, Letourneur was designated by Napoleon Bonaparte '' préfet'' of the Loire-Inférieure '' département'', then counsel for the '' Cour des Comptes''. Nevertheless, Letourneur was

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

d after the end of the French Empire for regicide, living the rest of his life in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letourneur, Louis-Francois 1751 births 1817 deaths People from Manche Directeurs of the First French Republic First French Empire French generals 18th-century French jurists Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars French interior ministers People from the Province of Normandy