Marquis de Toulongeon
(1814-1868)

When Napoléon became Emperor he wanted to follow the traditions of the royal sovereigns of France, and reorganized the hunting parties of the court along the lines of former royal hunts. One of the men charged with this task was the Marquis de Toulongeon. Maréchal Magnan was named grand veneur, but Général Ney, the premier veneur, directed operations. At his death, the office was suppressed. and the marquis de Toulongeon was named capitaine des chasses à tir [captain of shooting] in the Imperial household. He was henceforth responsible for organizing all of the shooting that the Court enjoyed at Compiègne, Fontainebleau and St Cloud.

As one of the Emperor’s aides-de-camps, he accompanied the Imperial couple when they paid an official visit to England in April 1855.

When he died in 1868, the following report appeared in the London Daily News (10 February 1868): 'One of the Emperor's aides-de-camp, and his premier veneur, the General Marquis de Toulongeon, has just died, either suddenly, or after a very short illness, at his chateau of Eclans, in the Jura. Scarcely more than a week ago he was on duty at Compiègne as the Emperor's "first huntsman," directing an Imperial battue. He left Paris afterwards in rude health to enjoy the end of the sporting season at his own house. The manner of his death has not transpired. Some of the papers say he was only 45 years of age. But as Vapereau's " Men of the Time" says that his younger brother, Count de Toulongeon, the deputy for the Jura, was born in l820, there must probably be a mistake about the age of the deceased aide-de-camp. At all events he was in the prime of life.'