Jean Hérault de Gourville
Jean Hérault de Gourville , Jean Hérault, Baron de Gourville, (born July 10, 1625 in La Rochefoucauld , † June 14, 1703 in Paris ) was a French adventurer and financier. Later on, he was almost on an equal footing with high-ranking nobles, although he came from the smallest of backgrounds and thus embodied a rare exception in his time.
Life
At the age of eighteen, Gourville became a servant in the house of La Rochefoucauld and in 1646 secretary (maître d'hôtel) to François de La Rochefoucauld , the author of the maxims. He was an important help to La Rochefoucauld during the troubled years of the Fronde , in which he played a very active role and made contacts with high circles, including the leader of the Fronde Louis II. De Bourbon, prince de Condé , Jules Mazarin and Nicolas Fouquet . After the Fronde, in a few years as a confidante of Fouquet, who made him the tax leaseholder of Guyonne, he made enormous fortunes in various financial transactions. He increased his wealth further through skill in the card game. In 1660 he bought the Château de Gourville for 100,000 livres and took the name Gourville.
In the fall of Fouquet, Gourville was also charged, but, being warned by Louvois and Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1661, was able to escape and was only hanged in absentia. He went to the Netherlands and London. In 1665 he was explicitly exempted from an amnesty proclaimed by Louis XIV for financiers, but in 1667 he received an official mission to the Netherlands thanks to the contacts made there. In 1668 he returned to Paris, as Condé needed the help of a skillful financier to evade his creditors, and in 1669 became director of the House of Condé. It was also used in diplomatic missions in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. In 1671 he received his amnesty. In 1696 he fell ill and withdrew to his estate, where he wrote his memoirs. They were published in 1724.
source
- Encyclopedia Britannica 1911
Individual evidence
- ^ In the canton of Rouillac . website
- ^ Roland Mousnier The institutions of france under the absolute monarchy , Volume 2, University of Chicago Press 1984. p. 489
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gourville, Jean Hérault de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French financier and adventurer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1625 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | La Rochefoucauld |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 1703 |
| Place of death | Paris |