Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Inventor, writer and arms dealer
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais is remembered as man of many talents and adventurous life. Born in Paris in a family of a humble watchmaker, he invented an escapement mechanism still used in watches today when he was only 19. His mentor, Jean-André Lepaute, took all the public credit for this invention, but the intractable Pierre won recognition for his invention by the Royal Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, he was hired by Louis XV at the Royal Court at Versailles and through a marriage with a rich widow who died a year later came into a possession of a considerable wealth. He took the name of Beaumarchais from one of her estate since Pierre-Augustin Caron sounded too ordinary.

During his life, he served as harp teacher to the daughters of Louis XV, wrote the famous plays The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1781) and conducted secret royal missions to England and Germany for both Louis XV and Louis XVI. He even spent some time in Spain probably running the slave and tobacco trade. Since he was addicted to financial speculation, he became arms supplier of American revolutionaries and organized a fleet of merchant ships to carry cannons, ammunition and other equipment. Because of his involvement in another arms smuggling affairs, Beaumarchais was initially imprisoned and then exiled at the beginning of the French revolution. He returned to France in 1796, but died three years later.