DU TILLOT, GUILLAUME. - French political figure, b. in Bayonne on 22 May 1711. After completing his studies in Paris, he entered the service of the Spanish Infante Philip in 1730 and followed him in 1749 when the latter took possession of the Duchy of Parma as intendant of the royal household. He worked against the civil privileges of the Church, expelling the Jesuits and abolishing the Inquisition.
He also devoted his reforming activity to education; to him is owed the Constitution for the new royal studies (1768). His policies earned him numerous enemies, but his position was strengthened by the intervention of Louis XV, who in 1756, to pay the debts of the duchy, imposed his appointment as minister of finance. In 1765 he was created Marquis of Felino, but upon Philip’s death and the succession of Ferdinand to the duchy, he encountered new difficulties, also due to the hostility of the Duchess Elizabeth. Thanks to the support of the French court, he continued to govern with almost absolute powers, persisting in reforms inspired by a firm Colbertism. In 1771 a sudden uprising endangered the minister’s life; forced to leave Parma, he died forgotten in Paris in December 1774.