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Estaing, Charles Hector, comte d'[shArl ektOr´ kONt destaN´] Pronunciation Key, 1729–94, French admiral. After serving in India he was given (1778) command of a French fleet sent to aid the colonists in the American Revolution. Planning to attack Newport, R.I., he was undone by a storm and had to put in at Boston for repairs. In 1779 he cooperated with Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in the unsuccessful attack on Savannah. In 1780 he returned to France. Estaing commanded the National Guard at Versailles during the invasion (Oct. 5–6, 1789) of the palace by a Parisian mob, but he took no action. Sympathetic to some of the aims of the French Revolution, yet personally close to the royal family, he testified (1793) in favor of Marie Antoinette during her trial. He was later guillotined as a royalist.
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