Argenson, René Louis De Voyer De Paulmy, Marquis D'

Related Category: French History: Biographies

(rənā´ lwē də vwäyā´ də pōmē märkē´ därzhäNsôN´), 1694–1757, French foreign minister (1744–47), brother of Marc Pierre d'Argenson. Well intentioned but impractical, he sought to form a federation of Italian states and to make France the disinterested arbiter of international affairs. After committing numerous blunders he was dismissed and appointed president of the Academy of Inscriptions. A friend of François Marie de Voltaire and the Encyclopedists, he spent the rest of his life in study and in literary pursuits. He left memoirs.