Choiseul (shwoi'-zeul), Stephen Francis, Duke of. Born in 1719. He gained high rank in the army, was then employed as a diplomat at Rome and Vienna, and honored with a peerage. He became prime minister of France, it was reported, through the influence of Madame de Pompadour. In 1770 he was dismissed from office, and exiled to one of his estates. He died in 1785.

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