Born to a Protestant family in Saint-Jean-Chambre, Ardèche,[citation needed] he studied Law and, after literary attempts, became a lawyer to the parlement of Paris.

He was one of those who induced the Estates-General to proclaim itself a National Assembly on 17 June 1789, and approved, in several speeches, of the storming of the Bastille and of the taking of the royal family to Paris (October 1789).

[1] Boissy d'Anglas demanded that strict measures be taken against the Royalists who were conspiring in Southern France, and published some pamphlets on financial issues.

[1] Elected to the National Convention, he sat in the centre, le Marais, voting in the trial of Louis XVI for his detention until deportation should be judged expedient for the state.

[1] He was protractor of the committee which drew up the Constitution of the Year III which established the French Directory; his report shows apprehension of a return of the Reign of Terror, and presents reactionary measures as precautions against the re-establishment of "tyranny and anarchy".

[1] After the defeat at Waterloo and the subsequent abdication of Napoleon, 1815 Boissy d'Anglas was one of the five commissioners sent by the Provisional Government to try to negotiate peace terms with the Duke of Wellington and Prince Blücher.