François-Régis de La Bourdonnaye

François-Régis de La Bourdonnaye
Portrait from Biographie pittoresque des députés, Paris, 1820
Born	La Varenne, Maine-et-Loire, France
Died	Drain, Maine-et-Loire, France

François-Régis de La Bourdonnaye, Comte de La Bretèche, (19 March 1767 – 28 July 1839) was a French national deputy from 1815 to 1830. He sat on the extreme right, and was known for his violent attacks on the governments of the Bourbon Restoration. In 1829 he was briefly Minister of the Interior. In 1830 he was made a peer of France a few months before the July Revolution ended his political career.

François-Régis de La Bourdonnaye was born in La Varenne, Maine-et-Loire, on 19 March 1767. He was from a noble Breton family which participated in the crusades, and of which a branch had settled in Anjou a century before. In 1786 he joined the Austrasia infantry regiment as an officer. In the early days of the French Revolution 1789–1799 he was a member of the pro-monarchy Chevaliers du poignard (Knights of the dagger) who placed themselves at the service of King Louis XVI. He was arrested at the Tuileries on 28 February 1791 by the National Guard, and after a few days of detention was sent back to his regiment at Briançon.

La Bourdonnaye left France to join the army of Condé in October 1791, and spent several months in Switzerland after it was dissolved. He returned to France under the Directory and stayed for a short period in Orléans under the name of Guibert. On 23 Fructidor V he married Mlle Volaige de Vaugirauld at Angers. He was forced to temporarily leave France again, and returned to Switzerland in Vendémiaire VI. He remained there until October 1802, when he returned to live at the Château de Mésangeau in the Drain commune of the Maine-et-Loire department.

In 1802 La Bourdonnaye was called to the electoral college of the Maine-et-Loire department to represent the canton of . On 6 Fructidor XI he was appointed to the General Council of Maine-et-Loire by decree. In the year XII he also became a member of the Angers Municipal Council, holding office until 1815. He proposed to the General Council in 1806 to make Napoleon the hereditary ruler, and was twice commissioned by the Municipal Council and General Council to carry to the foot of the throne the "tribute of gratitude and admiration of the department". In 1807 he ran as a candidate to the legislative body, but was not elected. He was Secretary of the General Council in 1807. He chaired the General Council in 1813 and 1814, and in this role in 1814 requested and received from his colleagues the oath of allegiance to the king.