Paul Barillon d'Amoncourt (1630-1691) was the French ambassador to England from 1677 to 1688, succeeding Henri de Massue, 1st Marquis de Rouvigny.
Biography[]
Paul Barillon d'Amoncourt was born in 1630, and he became Intendant of Paris in 1666, Flanders in 1667, and Amiens in 1668. He became a Councillor of State in 1681, and he concurrently served as Ambassador to England from 1677 to 1688, receiving great courtesy from Kings Charles II and James II of England. Both crypto-Catholic monarchs confided in Barillon, with Charles even confiding that the Popish Plot was an invention and Titus Oates, its inventor, a villain. He arranned the marriage of the future Queen Anne to Prince George of Denmark, finding the groom entirely unimpressive. At the same time, he intrigued with the Whig leaders, but the discovery of his bribes to Algernon Sidney would damage Sidney's reputation after his execution for involvement in the Rye House plot. Barillon used the Popish Plot to bring down the pro-Dutch minister Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby by publishing letters suggesting secret intrigues between himself and the lord. In 1679, however, he briefly fell from grace after one of his letters revealing that Charles II had obstructed a French treaty with the Netherlands was leaked. Afterwards, he was far more careful about what he committed to paper, and he served as ambassador to France until the Glorious Revolution, after which William III of England expelled him as an insult to the French. He died soon after his return to France.