François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé

François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé (1739 — 1800), French general, born at Cluzel-Saint-Èble, served in the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), and as governor in the Antilles conducted operations against the English in the War of American Independence. On his return to France he became governor of the Three Bishoprics, of Alsace and of Franche-Comté.

Hostile to the French Revolution of 1789, Bouillé had continual quarrels with the municipality of Metz, and brutally suppressed the military insurrections at Metz and Nancy, which the harsh conduct of certain noble officers had provoked. He became Commander in Chief of the Army of the Meuse, Sarre and Moselle in 1790. Then he proposed to King Louis XVI that the royal family should take refuge in a frontier town where an appeal could be made to other nations against the revolutionists. When this project failed as a result of Louis XVI's arrest at Varennes (21 June 1791), Bouillé went into exile in Russia and died in London (1800).

Original text adapted from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica