Early Years
He was born in Paris, the son of Louis Antoine Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu, Duke of Fronsac, and of his wife, Adélaïde de Hautefort. His father was the son and heir of King Louis XV of France's favourite, Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, 3rd Duke of Richelieu (1696–1788). Known by the courtesy title of comte de Chinon during the lifetime of his distinguished grandfather, he was married in 1782 at the age of fifteen to Rosalie de Rochechouart, a deformed child of twelve, with whom his relations were never more than formal. Immediately after the wedding, Chinon embarked upon the Grand Tour with his tutor, visiting the cities of Geneva, Florence and Vienna. After three years of foreign travel, he entered Queen Marie Antoinette's Regiment of Dragoons and the next year assumed his aged grandfather's place at court as a premier gentilhomme de la chambre to King Louis XVI of France. At the Palace of Versailles, it was his duty to attend the King during the highly ritualized daily lever and coucher ceremonies. Despite his young age, he had a reputation at court for puritanical austerity. When his grandfather died and his father succeeded to the Richelieu dukedom in 1788, Chinon became the Duke of Fronsac (duc de Fronsac).
By 1789, he was a captain in the Esterhazy Regiment of Hussars. On 5 October of that year, he was in Paris when the March on Versailles began. Worried about the safety of the royal family, he disguised himself as one of the crowd and started out on foot to Versailles in order to warn the King and Queen. Unable to break through the large number of people on the road, he took a shortcut through the woods. He arrived just as the angry mob was converging on the palace. He went immediately to the Queen and convinced her to seek refuge in the King's apartments, thus arguably saving her life for a while.
Read more about this topic: Armand-Emmanuel De Vignerot Du Plessis, Duc De Richelieu
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