Ambassador, French foreign minister to the United States.

Signed the French-American Treaty of Alliance (1778) with Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee.

Received as doctor of law at the University of Strasbourg and admitted in the diplomatic personnel of the King (1749). Appointed secrétaire de légation to the Palatine elector at Mannheim (1753).

Employed at the Ecole Militaire (1759-61). Premier secrétaire to the comte du Châtelet-Lomont, Ambassador to Vienna (1761-66). Premier commis des affaires étrangères (1766-78) with the title of secrétaire du conseil d’état (1776).

Minister plenipotentiary for the King at Congress (1778-80). Ennobled in 1778. Named Conseiller d’état (1780).

Born in Masevaux. Brother of Joseph- Mathias Gérard de Rayneval, premier commis des affaires étrangères.