Nicolas Fouquet - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

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Nicolas Fouquet is the second wire of François IV Fouquet, adviser of State to the Parlement of Paris and associated Compagnie of the islands of America, and Marie de Maupéou, resulting from an big family of the dress. The Fouquet family made fortune in the trade of cloth before reconverting itself into the magistrature. Contrary to the claims of the time of the Fouquet clan, the family is not Noble. She carries money to the crawling squirrel of mouths , with the currency “ Quo not ascendet? ” (“Until where won't it go up? ”). A “foucquet” is indeed, in Patois areas of the West (Angevin), a squirrel. Like Maupéou, Fouquet are “an exemplary family of the Counter-Reformation”, of a spirituality very close to François Dirty and Jeanne de Chantal. On the twelve surviving children of the couple, the six girls become nuns, all the boys are tonsures and two of them are bishop S.

In the same spirit, it is with the Jésuite S of the college of Clermont that his/her parents entrust the education of Nicolas. In parallel, it helps his mother, Marie de Maupéou, in the preparation of drugs for the poor. Its taste for chemistry and pharmacy persists throughout its life. His/her older brother being intended to join the dress, like his father, the Nicolas young person is initially directed towards the ecclesiastical state. Consequently, it receives the tonsure in January 1635. He becomes treasurer of the abbey Saint Martin's day de Tours and receives the benefit of the Prieuré of Saint-Julien de Doüy. Despite everything, its family still hesitates over the orientation to give to her career. It is finally the right which carries it - according to the jurisconsult Christophe Balthazar, on council of Richelieu in person: Nicolas passes his license of Droit to the Sorbonne and is made register in the table of lawyers.

Political career

Magistrate

In March 1633, his/her father asks for to the cardinal a load of advise at the Parliament of Paris for Nicolas. Its request is refused: the older brother, François V, has already an identical load. Nevertheless, it obtains the following year a responsibility of advising with the Parlement of Metz, lately created by Richelieu. This granting testifies to the favor to François and confidence to the cardinal as a Nicolas, who obtains a waiving of age limit. Nicolas receives a mission of the cardinal: to inventory papers of the Treasury of the chancellery of Vic, where are preserved all the titles of temporal of the évêché of Metz and the abbey of Gorze. It is a question of checking if the duke Charles IV of Lorraine does not encroach on the rights of king de France, which is always the case when they are territories wedged abroad and attached recently to France; it is the casus belli usually used. It is indeed a question of justifying the entry of the French troops in its States which occupy the duchy before the conclusions of Nicolas. The young man discharges his task with brilliance.

In 1635, the older brother of Nicolas enters the orders. From now on, it is Nicolas who carries the hopes of social rise of his father, which buys with his son a Charge of Master of the requests of the Hotel. There too, Nicolas receives a waiving of age limit. In 1638, it is detached from the court of Metz to take part in the sovereign Council imposed by France on Nancy. It carries out large train, fascinating to it share with the meetings with the comedy, the balls and the feasts. The same year, his/her father, to associate it with its business, yields to him a share in the Company of the islands of America.

François Fouquet, feeling near to death, pushes his son with the marriage. Nicolas throws his reserved on Louise Fourché of Quéhillac, grand-daughter of Jean Fourché, lord of Quéhillac, old mayor of Nantes. The contract is signed on January 10th 1640 in Nantes between the parents. It is a rich person marriage: Louise brings in dowry 160.000 silver books and revenues on private individuals more the ground of Quéhillac. Nicolas receives his parents the property of his load of Master of the requests estimated at 150.000 books, with in more one revenue of 4.000 books to sum of money 18, which represents approximately 20.000 books of capital. Moreover, Louise as Nicolas have strong family ties in Brittany: Louise by her parents (his father is to advise at the Parliament of Brittany) and Nicolas by his Chalain cousins and the bonds of his/her father with the companies of trade of the Atlantic. François Fouquet dies little of time, followed afterwards to the beginning of the year 1641 by the maternal grandfather of Nicolas, Gilles de Maupéou.

At the 26 years age, Nicolas Fouquet thus finds chief of his family clan. He takes again the activities of his father within the various maritime companies in which the family holds shares: Company of the islands of America, of Senegal or of News-France. In 1640, it belongs to the first shareholders of the Société of Cape-North and in 1642, it enters that of the Eastern Indies.

In parallel, to sit its social position, it acquires of the noble ground of Vaux, in Brie, in the bailliage of Melun, which confers the title of Viscount to him of Are worth. However, shortly after its marriage, six months after having given rise to a girl, Marie, his wife dies. In 1642, the death of Richelieu, guard of long time of the Fouquet family, comes to put an end to its colonial and maritime dreams. Fouquet then chooses definitively the service of the State. Fortunately for him, the ministerial team is maintained in place by Louis XIII then, with died of this one, by the regent Anne of Austria: the Cardinal Mazarin takes the succession of Richelieu and becomes the new owner of Fouquet.

In 1644, it is named intendant of justice, organizes and finances with Grenoble in the Dauphiné, undoubtedly on personal decision of the regent. It is a difficult station for a little tested young man, who more is in a province at the height regional idiosyncracy. Fouquet makes there one of rare odd of its career. During the summer, whereas it took its station, it leaves its station without authorization to attend the establishment of his Francois, older brother appointed bishop of Agde. However, in its absence, a anti-tax riot burst. It is revoked at once by Mazarin, on the initiative of the Séguier chancellor. Fortunately, a second incident enables him to curtail its disgrace: on the way of return, new riots start with Valence. Thanks to its coolness, to its oratorical talents and its personal courage, Fouquet manages to calm the play. In reward, it reinstates since 1646 the body of the Masters of the requests. Mazarin entrusts to him a mission of observation at the time of the seat of Lérida, in Spain. Having given any satisfaction, Fouquet is named the following year intendant with the army of Picardy, on personal decision of Anne of Austria.

Under the Sling

In 1648, he becomes intendant of the Généralité of Paris. The Fronde gives to its post office an unhoped-for importance. It lines up immediately side of Anne of Austria and Mazarin, thus gaining the indéfectible favor of the queen. After the stop of Union, it sends to the queen a letter advising to negotiate and divide its enemies, attitude which it preserves throughout the Sling. During the head office of Paris, it deals with the service of the subsistence.

In November 1650, it crosses an important step by buying for 450.000 books the load of public prosecutor of the Parlement of Paris, with the blessing of Mazarin like regent. It enters thus the elite of the dress. It benefits from it to sit its social status by a second marriage, concluded in February 1651. The new Mrs Fouquet, born Marie-madeleine de Castille-Villemareuil, belongs to a family of merchants anoblis. She is only 15 years old, has 36 of them to him. Its dowry is lower than that of Marie Fourché, but it brings in compensation a vast circle of relations. At the same time, the Parliament votes the expulsion of Mazarin. This one took the initiative while being exiled in Germany. Officially, Fouquet, public prosecutor, educated against Mazarin. In writing pad, it holds Mazarin informed until its back in favor, thanks to his brother Basile, called “the Fouquet abbot”, chief of the secret police of the cardinal. July 31st, a royal stop transfers the Parliament to Pontoise. Fouquet supervises the operation, under the gibes of crowd.

It has its revenge at the end of the Sling: at the time of the Bed of justice of the October 22nd 1652, after the reading of the act of amnesty, it makes a great speech renting the leniency of the king and fustigating his colleagues remained fronder in Paris. Thereafter, it will be pitiless toward the partisans of Cop.

Superintendent of finances

In February 1653, the duke of Vieuville, Superintendent of finances, dies suddenly. Fouquet, supported by financial friends, stands as at once candidate to his succession. Even if Mazarin, being repugnant to slice, also appointed the diplomat Abel Servien with the same load, Fouquet carries it on February 7th on candidates of first importance like Tellier, Mathieu Molé, the former superintendent of Houses or the marshals of Villeroi and of Hospital. It owes its nomination with its good behavior during the Sling, but also with the influence of his Basile brother. With superintendence a patent of minister is matched, who allows Fouquet to sit at the Conseil of In-High, the most powerful monarchical authority. Fouquet is thus the youngest person in charge of Finances of the Old Mode. As regards its competence, the opinions vary. One of its biographers, Jean-Christian Petitfils, estimates that “he knew little about the mysteries of finance” and that he was “foreign in the middle of the publicains”. The historian Daniel Dessert states on the contrary that it “is prepared to face the frightening task of royal Finances” and that it “knows interior operation of finance”.

Royal finances are then in a disastrous state. Whereas the needs for money of the crown are immense, at the same time to finance the war and for the personal expenditure of Louis XIV, the Treasury is in Banqueroute, the tax economic situation is calamitous (the sizes do not return any more) and the noble metal stock available, insufficient. To face, Fouquet is not based on a precise economic theory. However, it knows experiment which the main issue of the French State is its lack of credit: treating, farm and other backers do not trust him. It thus gets busy to restore the credit by respecting the contracts signed between these treating and the Treasury and in their agreeing of the advantageous rates. Thus, it assigns on new funds of old tickets of the Saving, thus compensating for part of the Banqueroute of 1648. It stresses the “extraordinary businesses”: creation and sale of loads, creation of new rights, emissions of revenues and loans, the whole under very advantageous conditions for treating. Contrary to monetary handling passed, it imposes in July 1653 a revaluation of the Livre tournaments: the sprays gold passes from 12 to 10 books. The credit is done more abundant and the situation improves.

Far from encouraging with wisdom, this clearing causes new ill-considered expenditure. As of 1654, the crisis returns. Fouquet must engage in an important way on its personal fortune and even that of its close relations. In November 1657, it must thus take responsibility for its a third of a package deal of 11,8 million books. Its personal credit enables him to cover engagement, but at the price of an interest of 20 %.Parallèlement with the difficulties which it encounters in the exercise of its load, it must take into account the changing favor of Mazarin and criticisms of Colbert, intendant of this last. Exasperated by these tensions, it offers even its resignation, which is refused. He hardly gets along either with his Servien colleague: as of December 1654, it had had to claim with the king a payment to delimit the functions of each one. Servien had been seen allotting the expenditure, and Fouquet the receipts.

The policy of Fouquet enables him to constitute broad customers among the big businessmen of the kingdom. Moreover, considerable financial flows which pass by the hands of the superintendent as well as a network of spies and advisers make it possible Fouquet to consolidate its position. The largest lords become his/her friends and/or its obliged. Lastly, his/her Maupéou cousins as his remarriage guarantee a good seizure to him on the dress. Fouquet devotes its social rise by marrying his/her Marie daughter with Armand de Béthune, marquis de Charost, descendant of Sully. It equips his daughter princièrement: she brings 600 000 pounds with its husband in louis of gold and money.

With died of Servien in 1659, Fouquet is confirmed only in its load, that it preserves until the removal of the latter in 1661. It successfully pushes back an intrigue of Colbert to raise it of superintendence, gets busy to convince Mazarin of the need for reducing the national expenditure and simultaneously, works with a vast financial recovery package founded on the improvement of the perception of the indirect taxes (centralization of the general farms), the lightening of the sizes (given on the arriérages of unpaid sizes), the cleansing of municipal finances (checking of the debts of the cities) and, always, the improvement of the relations with the big businessmen. In spite of the end of the war, however, the situation of royal finances remains very degraded. The big businessmen prefer to lend to the Court that with the king, and Fouquet must engage its personal signature once again, to grant considerable interest rates, to grant handing-over and to resort to the extraordinary businesses.

The assessment of its superintendence does not achieve the unanimity. Traditional historiography reproaches Fouquet its absence of clear economic principles, its timidity to reduce the “extraordinary businesses” and to extinguish the royal loans, but especially its collusion with the medium of the big businessmen, his clientelism and its personal enrichment. Daniel Dessert judge this assessment largely marked by criticisms of Colbert and prefers to underline the starter of financial rectification obtained by Fouquet, by means altogether similar to those of Colbert:

“Actually, there does not exist deeply different financial policy between Fouquet and its rival. What differentiates them, it is their style: all in nuances, subtle keys at the first; in attacks at the second. ”

One objected to this thesis which if Fouquet had a political well coherent, it does not have like Colbert be the author of a coherent system administrative.

Colonial and maritime adventures

Shareholder, following his father, of colonial companies of exploitation, Fouquet is aware of the problems inherent in these companies which often hesitate between religious goal and commercial goal, have insufficient means and suffer from the competition of the English and the Netherlanders. Quickly, it thus decides to intervene in the colonies in a more direct way, by being made ship-owner. As of the years 1640, its family buys or makes build several ships, of which war buildings. Some seem to be used for the race, under commission of France as of Portugal; a part will be sold with the crown of France in 1656. Members of the relationship are also placed at strategic functions: in 1646, his/her cousin president de Chalain becomes governor of the Breton port of Concarneau.

Fouquet wants to go further and to create in Brittany a domanial power being able to be used as a basis for vast colonial and commercial companies. They is accordingly that it binds to famous the Breton house of Rieux, with which it repurchases several grounds in the neighborhoods of the Golfe of Morbihan. In 1658, via Jeanne-Pelagie de Rieux, owner of the island of Yeu, it makes strengthen the island where it brings armed vessels. The same year, it buys Belle-Île, of which it restores the walls, and where it makes build a port, stores and warehouses. It seems well that the island is also intended to be a plâce of safety, a refuge in the event of lawsuit. At the same time, it constitutes via a figurehead a trading company de bound for Spain and the Indies, whose boats use Belle-Île as home port and warehouse. With the head of ten ships, used for the coastal traffic or the trade with the long course, Fouquet is classified among the first ship-owners of the kingdom.

In order to prevail itself of a legitimate authority, Fouquet buys in 1660 with the duke of Damville the load of viceroy of America, which he entrusts to a man of straw: the letters of provision grant to the holder the authorization to exempt taxes the goods and ammunition intended for the places existing or to create in America. The objective of the superintendent is then to take the control of the trade of the skins and furs of Acadie, as well as fishing with the Morue. However, it cannot concretize its projects following the opposition of the Compagnie of News-France. Its projects in Newfoundland and with the the Antilles know the failure pareillement, undoubtedly because of the dispersion of the efforts of Fouquet.

Guard of arts and the letters

Saint-Mandé

Fouquet has many residences. Young man, it resides in the family home of the street of Jouy, in Paris. He acquires then a residence close to the street of Matignon, before moving in the hotel of Castille, brought in dowry by his second wife. He has then the hotel of Narbonne and that of Émery, being next to that of Mazarin. He also buys a great property with Saint-Mandé. He makes it rebuild and embellish. He constitutes a large collection of books there (27 000 volumes), exceeded only by that of Mazarin (50 000). Its taste of the gardens develops to with it: it refits them, decorating them with statues, greenhouses and orangeries. Nevertheless, it does not show a very refined taste: he seeks before all the decorative and sumptuous parts. He gives many receptions to it and plays large game there. In 1656, it receives successively the Court, Gaston of Orleans and the queen Christine of Sweden.

Be worth-the-Viscount

Starting from 1653, it makes build splendid a castle with Be worth-the-Viscount (current commune of Maincy). The starting field, bought before its accession with superintendence, consists only of waste lands and an old castle. It starts by repurchasing methodically the grounds around: the whole of the field represents, in the long term, more than 200 contracts, certain purchases relating only to a few arpents of ground. It makes shave the village of Are worth, some other hamlets and wood, divert a river and tear off vines. Moreover, of work of water conveyance are realized.

It made there work Vau, Brown the and Ours. It is surrounded by a small court of writers like Molière, the Fountain, Madam de Sévigné or Madam de Scudéry. The king comes there for the first time in July 1659. The July 17th 1660, Fouquet receives there again, accompanied by the infante, whereas they return from Saint-Jean-with-Luz.

The July 11th 1661, it receives once again the Court. Louis XIV who has not been able to attend the festival, another is given the August 17th. It sumptuous, with jets of water, fireworks, ambiguous (dresser) given for more than 1000 covers and is supervised by François Vatel and creation of the part of Molière the Annoying . Louis XIV is furious to see such an amount of splendor whereas its own residences are empty. The origin of so much of money appears suspect to him. The offer of Fouquet to give him Vaux does nothing but irritate it more. According to the abbot of Choisy, Louis XIV declares Anne of Austria: “Won't Ah, Madam, we make return throat to all these people-there? ”

The patron

Fouquet founds a living room with Meudon as of the end of the Sling. It attracts there Paul Pellisson, Charles Perrault, Quinault, Ménage, the Fountain. He attends also scientists like the doctor Samuel Sorbière or the philosopher Mothe Vayer. As of 1660, it is interested in Molière.

In Vaux, its living room joins together the invaluable ones rather. Fouquet itself written poems, songs, enigmas and poems in set rhymes, according to the fashion of the time. It pensions many poets, like Corneille (2000 pounds per annum), Scarron (1600 pounds) or Gombauld (1000 pounds), and protects the sculptor François Anguier and its disciple François Girardon. Its generosity with regard to the artists does of it one of the most powerful patrons of France, well in front of the cardinal Mazarin and even the king. In thanks, Corneille dedicates its Oedipus (1659) to the superintendent, “not less of the humanities that finances”, and Madeleine de Scudéry places it in its Clélie, history Roman with the same row as Richelieu as a guard of arts and the letters.

Portrait

Behind a rather frail physical appearance, and in spite of its young experiment, it expressed a great courage and a coolness. It is not disturbed easily in the adversity, and it counts on the resources of its intelligence and its eloquence to triumph over the worst difficulties.

This charmer, thanks to his persuasive verb, can as well subjugate rough crowd, overflowing of misery and anger, that the refined spirits of the court or the Palate, which are délectent by listening to it opiner. In a difficult position, it always appears like a man of dialog, of negotiation, and its inventive and flexible spirit enables him to adapt to the circumstances and to control the events. It analyzes the situations quickly and can benefit from the circumstances. In short, it shows qualities of man of action, united with one direction of the measurement which can spare recourse.

It is which predisposes it to become a superintendent of Finances, effective and adulated, able, a such conjurer, to make emerge the capital. One notices a phenomenon which will follow Fouquet its life whole: everywhere where it passes, its personal seduction, its faculty to impose itself on the others make wonder. Nicolas has a flexible and inventive spirit; he has many qualities seldom joined together at only one man: he is full with charm and he knows the tax and financial apparatus perfectly kingdom.

Its character also pushes it to fulfill its function as well as possible, by a desire to be useful so much although to reach glory; it is ready with all to lose to triumph… Teenager then young man it rubs with the questions of high policy and the economic problems most serious which agitate the kingdom; the maritime businesses and colonial are early familiar for him.

Few women had resisted Fouquet and those which, like Madam de Sévigné, or the Marquise of the Plessis-Suspension brace, had not been its mistresses, were rented to be his/her friends. However, it made the error make advances with Louise of Vallière, mistress of Louis XIV, which will further increase the ire of the king towards him.

The lawsuit

Reasons of the fall

When Mazarin dies in March 1661, the favor of Fouquet seems with its roof: it controls the private Council of the sovereign, who charges it with creating the Council commercial and entrusts several missions of secret diplomacy to him. However, criticisms ceaseless of Colbert against Fouquet end up bearing their fruits: Louis XIV defies more and more minister considered to be too ambitious. Contrary to the tradition, the extravagant festival of Be worth is not the cause of the arrest of Fouquet: the decision of the reference, of the consent even of the king, was made before, on May 4th. She is explained mainly by the impression of Louis XIV to be played by Fouquet: after him to have promised to return to a healthier management of his finances, the superintendent fell down in his old practices. The resolution of the king hardens when Colbert submits the reports of his/her cousin to him, Colbert de Terron, on the fortifications and the armament of Belle-Île.

Two elements make obstacle with the fall of the superintendent: from its load of public prosecutor, Fouquet is justifiable only before the Parliament, which it controls. Then, the superintendent enjoys the favor of Anne of Austria. Colbert counters methodically: initially, it is arranged so that Fouquet spontaneously proposes to the king to sell his load for him to give the Ensuite product of it, it gains with the anti-Fouquet cause the duchess of Chevreuse, old friend of the queen-mother. If Fouquet is informed of these carried out, it does not include/understand the danger of it and on the contrary, accumulates awkwardnesses.

The arrest

Whereas the court is with Nantes for the States of Brittany, the September 5th 1661, Louis XIV orders with D' Artagnan to stop the superintendent for embezzlements. Obviously surprised, Fouquet offers to make give Belle-Île to the king and manages to make warn its close relations, who will not use this respite to destroy his documents more compromising.

Hugues de Lionne, his friend, asks the king to share the disgrace of the superintendent, but Louis XIV refuses. Beautiful-Isle goes without resistance to the royal troops. The seals are posed on all the residences of Fouquet, and those of its customers. Mrs. Fouquet is exiled with Limoges, her brothers Louis and François confined in their dioceses. Gilles is deposed of his load of first rider, and even Basile must be exiled in Guyenne. Some of his/her closest friends, like Pellisson, are imprisoned, the others assigned with residence.

The instruction

September 7th, Fouquet is transferred to the castle from Angers. The searchings begin, in the presence of Colbert, however ordinary person without role in the instruction. Throughout research, it makes carry to the king, in any irregularity, of the inventoried parts, of which some are preserved and certain returned after a few days. Colbert also makes analyze all the seized accounts and all financial registers, in order to seek pieces of evidence against Fouquet there. Behind a mirror, with Meudon, one discovers the “plan of defense” of Fouquet: they are instructions in the event of crisis, written by Fouquet itself in 1657, at one time when he believes that Mazarin swore its loss. The report provides that in the event of imprisonment and of setting to the secrecy of Fouquet, the governors who count among his/her friends lock up in their citadel and threaten to enter in dissidence to obtain its release - “projects of revolt which had deserved death if the ridiculous one had not softened the crime of it”, notes the abbot of Choisy. Indisputably factious, this plan is indeed unfinished, lacunar and completely unrealistic person. One also raises a commitment entered into by the contractors of the Gabelle S to pour an annual pension of 120.000 books to a recipient whose name is left blank: it is clearly about a Pot-de-vin. Thereafter, Fouquet will show Colbert to have made place at his place a document resulting from papers of Mazarin: in fact, paper is not mentioned in a first official report established before the visit of Colbert, and is found only after one meticulous visit of the places by this last.

September 12th, Louis XIV removes superintendence, replacing it by the royal Council of finances. Colbert takes the station of Fouquet to the Council of In Top, with the rank of minister. A room of justice, normal expression of the restrained Justice of the king, is made up the 15. It is made up magistrates of the Cour of the assistances and Court of Auditors. Its object is “the research of the abuses and embezzlements made in finances since 1635”. December 1st, Fouquet is transferred to the castle from Amboise; the population insults it on its passage.

The instruction of the lawsuit of Fouquet is open on March 3rd 1662. Consequently, procedure embourbe. The interrogations begin on March 4th, whereas Fouquet is not informed of the seized parts and that no procedural document was notified to him. In May, he is accused. July 6th, a stop of the Council of In Top prohibits to him to be provided in front of the Parlement, in spite of its quality of former public prosecutor. He is not confronted with the witnesses before July 18th, and one grants a council to him only on September 7th. October 18th marks a big step of the lawsuit: the court hands down a judgment of appointement, which forces the procedure to continue in writing.

The president indicates a list of rapporteurs. Mrs. de Maupéou, who acts for the account of her son, challenges two of them, as it has the right of it. Louis XIV retorts that it had chosen these two magistrates precisely, and refuses any modification. December 10th, Colbert makes replace Lamoignon, considered to be too favorable to the defendant, and Pierre Séguier substitutes to him, of which hatred for the former superintendent is notorious.

Lastly, on March 3rd 1663, the court agrees to communicate to Fouquet the parts of its choice, and agree to use only those which he would have studied. During this time, the accomplices of Fouquet are considered and condemned. Thus, Jean Herault de Gourville is condemned to died by Contumace for “peculation” and Lèse-majesté. The Marchioness of the Plessis-Suspension brace, probably the best friend of Fouquet, is imprisoned.

In parallel, the friends of the prisoner publish make out in his favor. Pellisson, embastillé, publishes in hiding-place a Discours with the king by one of his faithful subjects on the lawsuit of Mr. Fouquet whose Louis XIV takes note. the Fountain written and makes circulate, without name of author, a Élégie with the Nymphs of Are worth , poem dedicated to “Mr. F.” calling upon the leniency of the king, which is worth its pension withdrawal to him by Colbert. The public opinion starts to be turned over. Colbert, furious, makes pursue the authors and the hawkers of gazettes.

Reproached crimes

The two reproached crimes are the peculation (misuse of public money by a public accountant) and the lese-majesties, liable both to the Capital punishment.

Peculation

The counts of indictment can be gathered as follows:

reception of pensions on the firm invitations to tender;
acquisition of rights on the king by the means of various figureheads;
reassignation of old out of date tickets;
granting of advances in the State in office plurality with a function of director of the funds, in order to draw benefit from it.

The charge supports its argumentation, resulting from the coterie of Colbert, on two types of evidence: initially, the opulence of Fouquet and its many acquisitions, then, the testimony of several big businessmen as well as the papers found during the searchings.

On the first point, the charge supports the poverty of Fouquet before entering the businesses: with proof, it had to borrow the 300 000 pounds of its load of public prosecutor. It puts also ahead the committed important expenditure for Vaux. It puts then ahead its immense current fortune, on the basis of account 38 discovered in its clerk: between February 1653 and the end 1656, Fouquet received 23 million books. On this amount, 3,3 million comes from its pledges and salary, the remainder making up of tickets of the Saving, of ordinances of cash and received sums of people of businesses. For the charge, that proves that Fouquet confuses the receipts intended for the personal State and its incomes.

In a surprising way, and in spite of the requests for Fouquet, the magistrates do not draw up any state of the goods of the defendant, who could have allowed to solve the question. Indeed, Fouquet on its side denies its alleged poverty at the time to enter in load like its current richness. Throughout the procedure, it is defended skilfully, benefitting from an insufficient financial culture of the chancellor Séguier. It is evasive on the thorniest questions for him, like that of the town dues, and exploits the weaknesses of the charge like the complexity of the file.

On the bottom, Daniel Dessert gives reason to the superintendent. He judges that the various produced figures with load are “various, contradictory, in a word debatable” and in front of being handled with precaution. For him, they testify more to the circulation of the effects and the money between the hands of Fouquet and his/her collaborators that width of fortune of this last, and thus of the diversions which it would have made. on the basis of notarial act existing, of papers of the lawsuit and the parts relating to the payment of the succession, it estimates the fortune of Fouquet during its arrest at 15,4 million books of credit and 15,5 million liability, is a negative balance of 89.000 books. Fouquet would thus not have gained to be a superintendent. Moreover, Fouquet would not have stolen its money to the king: all its acquisitions would be paid or in the course of payment with the money of its couple. He concludes that “the whole of the file, incriminating evidences and interrogations, does not make it possible to prove any failure of Fouquet. ”

Jean-Christian Petitfils shows himself more reserved. Its own estimate of the state of the goods of Fouquet emphasizes a credit of 18 million books and a liability of 16,2 million, is a positive balance of 1,8 million. It also stresses the income statement and in particular the importance of the expenditure, like on the disorder of the accountancy of Fouquet. If “nothing shows that it drew directly from the cases of the Treasury (…) it is difficult to admit that in the middle of this orgy of forgery and misappropriation, Fouquet remained white like snow. ” Like much by its contemporaries, Fouquet would thus indeed have grown rich while behaving as banker, financier and treating with respect to the State, while at the same time it was at the same time directing funds.

Lese-majesty

The charge, rather thin, is based primarily on the plan of defense of Saint-Mandé, which was not known at the time of the arrest: one in due form reproaches Fouquet for having fomented a plan of rebellion by corrupting governors of place and officers, by strengthening some of his grounds, by constituting a fleet of vessels armed in war and trying enlister in his party the Society of Jesus.

With the foot of the wall, Fouquet calls upon a movement of madness and denies any serious character with the contents of the plan. For him, its only crime is not to have burned this paper written at once. He concludes while turning over the courtesy to his indicter, Séguier, of which the behavior during the Sling had not been free from any reproach, and especially whose son-in-law, the duke of Sully, to the Spaniards the doors Mantes had opened of which he had the government.

The judgment

Whereas the king claims discreetly but firmly death, the Room of justice recognizes guilty Fouquet of peculation and lese-majesty on December 21st 1664, and condemns it, by thirteen votes against nine, with the only banishment out of the kingdom and with the confiscation of its goods. It is a terrible disavowal for Colbert, which devoted three years of efforts to obtain the capital punishment. The marquis de Sourches notes in his Mémoires that the news is received “with an extreme joy even by the people of modest means of the shops. ”

The contemporaries are unanimous: the verdict and the popular jubilation are due to an iniquitous lawsuit. The abbot of Choisy notes as follows: “the way in which one began there to lose it brought back the hearts in its party. It was guilty; but, by continue it against the forms, one irritated the judges in his favor, and its alleged innocence was an effect of blind and precipitated anger its enemies. ” In the same way, Voltaire, while recognizing that Fouquet “dissipated the public purses and (…) in used like his clean”, explains this lenient sentence by “the irregularity of the procedures made against, the length of its lawsuit, the odious eagerness of the Séguier chancellor against him, the time which extinguishes the public desire, and which inspires the compassion for the unhappy ones, finally requests always more sharp in favor of unfortunate that the operations to lose it are not pressing. ”

Not hesitating to resort to the Denial of justice, Louis XIV commutes the sentence to perpetual detention with Pignerol, royal fortified town located in the the Alps, and disgraces the judges, of which Lefèvre D' Ormesson and Pierre de Roquesante, which did not apply its wills in this business. The financial friendly rich person of Fouquet are consequently continued room of justice, which sits until in 1669. The noble ones are not worried.

End

Officially, Nicolas Fouquet dies in the fortress of Pignerol on April 3rd, 1680, under the eyes of his son, the count of Vaux, which is there in visit. Death is due to a crisis of apoplexy and fact following a long illness. No death certificate is established, but an ordinance enumerates the expenses pulled by the disease then the funeral of Fouquet. With the remainder, the family does not dispute the circumstances of the death; no autopsy is thus practiced. The body of Fouquet is deposited in the church Holy-Claire de Pignerolle, as it is the habit for the late former prisoners of the fortress, before being transferred in the Fouquet vault from the convent of the Visitation-Holy-Marie, in Paris (current reformed church of the Marsh, Rue Saint-Anthony).

However, several sources throw the disorder on this account of the events. Gourville affirms in its Memories that Fouquet was released little from time before dying, confirmed thesis, according to Voltaire in his Siècle of Louis XIV , by the countess of Are worth, her daughter-in-law. It should be noted however that the first writing of the years after the events and that second married the count of Vaux after the death of Fouquet. Robert Challes reports in his Memories a theory that the first clerk of Colbert would have entrusted to him: slackened following the intercession of dauphine, Fouquet would have died in Châlon-sur-saône, possibly of an indigestion. It is the first to mention possible a Empoisonnement. In spite of its level of detail, the theory as reported by Challes is not very probable.

Lastly, it is necessary to mention an addition autograph of Louvois at the end of a letter addressed to Saint-March, geôlier of Fouquet: “mandez me how it is possible that named Eustace did what you sent to me, and where it took drugs necessary to do it, not being able to believe that you provided them to him. ” “Called Eustace” is Eustace Dauger, another prisoner of Pignerol, locked up there to prevent that it does not reveal a secrecy of State, and who became the servant of Fouquet. The text sybillin of Louvois lets think of a poisoning but, if Dauger would have had the material possibility well to do it, no mobile is recognized to him. Petitfils supposes that “drugs” of which it is question were used to work out Invisible ink and concludes that Fouquet died of natural death. Serves, while considering “plausible” poisoning, also underlines the absence of mobile, and draws aside as “materially impossible” the idea that Colbert can be about it in the beginning.

Its high social position at the time of its arrest, and thus the many secrecies which it was supposed to know, the eagerness of the king, which broke the sentence of the judges, make that many authors, among whom Alexandre Dumas in the Viscount of Bragelonne , interfered the fate with Fouquet to that with the Homme with the mask iron. This thesis does not have historical bases.

Genealogy

Jehan Fouquet │ ├─> François Ier Fouquet │ X Perrine Dugrat │ │ │ ├─> François II Fouquet │ │ X │ │ │ │ │ ├─> François III Fouquet († 1590) │ │ │ X Benign Marie │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> François IV Fouquet (1587 - 1640) │ │ │ │ X Marie de Maupéou (1590 - 1681) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> François V Fouquet (1611 - 1673) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Anne Fouquet (born in 1613) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Nicolas Fouquet (1615 - 1680) │ │ │ │ │ │ X Louise Fork (1620 - 1641) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Marie Fouquet (1640 - 1716) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ X Louis Armand de Béthune │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │.... │ │ │ │ │ │ X Marie-madeleine de Castille │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Louis Nicolas Fouquet │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> François │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Marie-madeleine Fouquet │ │ │ │ │ │ │ X Emmanuel Balaguier de Crussol d' Uzès │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │.... │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Charles Armand │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Louis │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Marie-Elisabeth Fouquet (born in 1619) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Elisabeth Fouquet (born in 1620) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Marie-Therese Fouquet (1621 - 1709) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Basile Fouquet says the abbot Basile (1622 - 1680) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Yves Fouquet (1628 - 1651) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Louise-Agnes Fouquet (born in 1630) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Madeleine Fouquet (born in 1632) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Louis Fouquet (1633 - 1702) │ │ │ │ │ ├─> Gilles Fouquet (1637 - 1694) │ │ ├─> Jean Fouquet │ │ ├─> Christophe Ier Fouquet (1559 - 1628) │ │ │ X Elisabeth Barrin │ │ │ │ birth of the branch of Fouquet-Chalain │ │ ├─> Isaac Fouquet │ ├─> Christophe Fouquet (1534 - 1596) │ │ │ birth of the branch of Fouquet-Bouchefollière

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