Editing Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (section)

==Fall==
The immediate cause of Turgot's fall is uncertain. Some{{ww|date=March 2025}} speak of a plot, of forged letters containing attacks on the queen shown to the king as Turgot's, of a series of notes on Turgot's budget prepared, it is said{{ww|date=March 2025}}, by [[Jacques Necker|Necker]], and shown to the king to prove his incapacity. Others{{ww|date=March 2025}} attribute it to the queen, and there is no doubt{{citationneeded|date=March 2025}} that she hated Turgot for supporting [[Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes|Vergennes]] in demanding the recall of the comte de Guînes, the [[Ambassador (diplomacy)|ambassador]] in [[London]], whose cause she had ardently espoused at the prompting of the Choiseul clique. Others{{ww|date=March 2025}} attribute it to an intrigue of Maurepas. On the resignation of [[Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes|Malesherbes]] (April 1776), whom Turgot wished to replace by the abbé Very, Maurepas proposed to the king as his successor a [[wikt:nonentity|nonentity]] named Amelot.

Turgot, on hearing of this, wrote an indignant letter to the king, in which he reproached him for refusing to see him, pointed out in strong terms the dangers of a weak ministry and a weak king, and complained bitterly of Maurepas's irresolution and subjection to court intrigues; this letter the king, though asked to treat it as confidential, is said to have shown to Maurepas, whose dislike for Turgot it still further embittered. With all these enemies, Turgot's fall was certain, but he wished to stay in office long enough to finish his project for the reform of the royal household before resigning. To his dismay, he was not allowed to do that. On 12 May 1776 he was ordered to send in his resignation. He at once retired to [[La Roche-Guyon]], the château of the Duchesse d'Enville, returning shortly to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life in scientific and literary studies, being made vice-president of the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] in 1777.<ref name="EB1911"/>