DU TILLOT, GUILLAUME. - French statesman, b. at Bayonne on 22 May 1711. Having completed his studies in Paris, he entered the service of the Infante Filippo of Spain in 1730; he followed him in 1749, when the latter took possession of the duchy of Parma, as intendant of the royal household. He acted against the civil privileges of the Church, expelling the Jesuits and abolishing the Inquisition.
He also devoted his reforming activity to education: the Costituzione per i nuovi regi studi (1768) was his work. His policy gained him numerous enemies, but his position was strengthened by the intervention of Luigi XV, who in 1756, in order to pay the duchy’s debts, imposed his appointment as minister of finance. In 1765 he was created Marquis of Felino; but, after Filippo’s death and the succession of Ferdinando to the duchy, he encountered new difficulties, also because of the hostility of Duchess Elisabetta. Thanks to the support of the French court, he continued to govern with almost absolute powers, persisting in reforms inspired by a convinced Colbertism. In 1771 a sudden uprising endangered the minister’s life; forced to leave Parma, he later died forgotten in Paris in December 1774.