Nicolas Fouquet
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Nicolas Fouquet (born February 23, 1615 in Paris , † March 23, 1680 in the fortress of Pignerol ), Marquis of Belle Isle , Viscount of Melun and Vaux , was Minister of Finance under the young Louis XIV .
Life
Fouquet came from an influential family of the official nobility ( noblesse de robe ). His father François Fouquet was Maître des requêtes in the State Council of the King of France, his mother was the writer Marie Fouquet , née Marie de Maupéou.
After attending school with the Jesuits , Fouquet was admitted to the Paris Supreme Court, the Parlement , at the age of thirteen . In his youth he held several higher offices, and in 1636, just twenty, he was able to buy the office of Maître des requêtes. In 1640 he married Louise Fourché for the first time and in 1641 bought the country estate of Vaux. Between 1642 and 1650 he held various director posts, first in provinces and finally with the royal army. After he had come into contact with the court through Cardinal Mazarin , in 1650 he was allowed to buy the important office of "Procureur général" (Attorney General) at the Paris Parliament. During Mazarin's exile he was cleverly loyal to him, securing his possessions and keeping him informed of the situation at court.
After Mazarin's return, Fouquet demanded and received as a reward the office of Oberintendant des Finances (1653), Surintendant des Finances , a position which, in the uncertain state of government, not only gave him the power to decide how the state's debts were to be paid , but also allowed negotiations with the "financiers", the big bankers who lent the king money. His appointment was welcomed by the wealthy class, because Fouquet had largely acquired his great wealth through his (second) marriage in 1651 to Marie Castille from a wealthy official noble family.
His own standing, especially his infallible self-confidence, added to the government's credibility, while his high position in parliament (he remained Procurator General) protected his financial transactions from investigation. Before him as finance director, Mazarin soon had to act as a supplicant himself. The long wars and the greed of the courtiers (who followed Mazarin's example) made it necessary at times to cover the financial needs by borrowing in his own name; but he soon turned this confusion between public funds and his own in his favor.
The financial mess became hopeless; fraudulent transactions could be carried out with impunity, and the bankers were kept engaged as customers by official favors and generous help. Fouquet's fortune now even surpassed Mazarin's, but the latter was too involved in similar proceedings for him to intervene. The day of reckoning was reserved for his representative and successor Colbert .
After Mazarin's death on March 9, 1661, Fouquet expected to be appointed head of government; but Louis XIV mistrusted his scarcely disguised ambitions, and the well-known quote when he took over the government that he would become his own first minister, he uttered with regard to Fouquet. Colbert fed the king's displeasure with negative reports of the deficit, particularly accusing Fouquet. The lavish spending and personal display of the finance minister heightened the king's ill will. Fouquet had spent enormous sums on a palace on his estate in Vaux-le-Vicomte , which in its dimensions, magnificence and magnificence of decoration gave a taste of the Palace of Versailles . Here he collected rare manuscripts, beautiful paintings, jewels and antiques in abundance, and moreover he surrounded himself with artists and writers. His house was open to the noble world, and the kitchen was under François Vatel ; La Fontaine , Corneille and Scarron were among his guests.
On August 17, 1661, Louis XIV was entertained in Vaux with a fête that only one or two other in French history can match in grandeur. Here was Molière's Les fâcheux listed for the first time. The splendid reception sealed Fouquet's fate. It was the drop that broke the barrel. Louis XIV had the fortifications of various cities in view through Fouquet and worried that another Fronde , led by Fouquet, could be dangerous to him. However, he was too cautious to openly take action against such a powerful minister. Clever tricks - Fouquet was suggested an even higher office or he imagined he could get it - he was tempted to sell his office as General Procurator. In this way he paid the price to the treasury and lost the protection of his privileges.
Three weeks after his visit to Vaux-le-Vicomte, on September 5, 1661, when the King was in Nantes to address the Assembly of Estates , Fouquet, who had accompanied him, was arrested by Charles d'Artagnan . The trial against him lasted almost three years, and the violation of the rules of the judiciary in the process is the subject of numerous monographs. Public opinion was on Fouquet's side and many petitions were made on his behalf, including La Fontaine and Madame de Sévigné . Louis behaved throughout as if he were leading a campaign against Fouquet; evidently he feared that Fouquet would play the role of Cardinal Richelieu . The court eventually sentenced him to banishment, but the king defied it in an absolutist act and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Abroad, the former finance minister could have betrayed too much or let his machinations run free. Fouquet was taken to the fortress of Pignerol ( Pinerolo ) in early 1665 , where he died in 1680. During his imprisonment, he was in contact with the man in the iron mask . He was temporarily available to Fouquet as a servant when his actual prison servant La Rivarol was ill.
Marshal Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle (1684–1761) was his grandson.
Works
- Fouquetiana. sn, Paris ca.1660
literature
- Daniel Dessert: Fouquet. Fayard, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-213-01705-0
- Daniel Dessert: La Royale. vaisseaux et marins du Roi-soleil. Fayard, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-213-02348-4
- Chantal Grell: Les années Fouquet. LIT, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5737-9
- Christine Howalt: The Nicolas Fouquet Case. Patronage as a means of political self-expression 1653-1661 , Pariser Historische Studien 96 (Ed. Institut Historique Allemand Paris), Oldenbourg 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-71939-0
Web links
- Literature by and about Nicolas Fouquet in the catalog of the German National Library
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Abel Servien |
Chief Financial Officer 1653–1661 |
(Suspended) Jean-Baptiste Colbert (de facto) |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fouquet, Nicolas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Viscount de Melun, Viscount de Vaux, Marquis de Belle-Isle |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French finance minister under Louis XIV. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 23, 1615 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 23, 1680 |
| Place of death | Fortress of Pignerol |