Etienne Charles De Lomenie De Brienne

Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne was born in Paris in 1727. Excelling in school he entered the church.  He quickly rose through the ranks becoming the Archbishop of Toulouse although many including the King would doubt his actual belief in god.  

In 1787 he became president of the Assembly of Notables using that position to condemn Calonne whom he would soon replace as finance minister.  As finance minister he faced a rapidly worsening economic situation.  He did have several notable successes:  he brought about increased toleration for Protestants, removed restrictions on the internal trade of grain, the abolishment of the corvée (enforced, unpaid labour to improve infrastructure) and established provincial parlements.  

There were problems however when he tried to institute a more wide ranging reform in the form of a general land tax.  The parlement refused to cooperate and were sent into exile to Troyes in August 1787. Brienne’s star seemed to be in the ascendancy as he was appointed principal minister and he was able to successfully negotiate with the parlement who returned to Paris.  Realising the need for radical change it was agreed to call an Estates General some time before 1792.  In face of more protest from the parlement a Plenary Court was established by the May Edicts of 1788 consisting of the Princes of the Blood and other key royal officials.  Many saw this as an attempt to circumvent noble power and this led to a series of incidents across France notably the Day of Tiles in Grenoble in June 1788.  As tensions escalated Brienne ordered the Estates Generals to assemble in 1789.  Seen as failing to solve any of France’s problems Brienne would be removed from office to be replaced by Necker.

Brienne would in the following years: be made a Cardinal, move back to France and take the oath of the Civil Constitution of the clergy, publicly renounce his Catholic faith in 1793 which did not prevent him from being arrested and dying in prison possibly having poisoned himself.

Barère on Louis XVI ’s minister M. de Brienne.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 1, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p197

An administrator full of wit but lacking in tact and ability, practising a versatile despotism rather than absolute power, having liberal views in his proposals but never carrying them out, L. de Brienne knew neither how to bend to public opinion, listen to public needs, nor foresee the dangers of the future.  He hated the parliaments through his ministerial traditions and made war on them. Above all, he believed in his genius for finance, while in reality he only knew how to take money from the treasury vaults. Public credit was destroyed, the fund holders were in terror, public honesty was forgotten and justice paralysed.