9 – Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet was born in 1615. With the titles of Marquis de Belle-Île and Vicomte de Melun et Vaux, he was Superintendent of Finances in France and one of the top figures in the French aristocracy at the time of King Louis XIV.
Born and brought up in an influential and affluent French family in Paris and being schooled by Jesuits, Fouquet became an advocate at the Parlement de Paris when he was still in his teens. He had a number of jobs through the 1640s, first in the provinces and then with the army of Cardinal Mazarin. It was through this role that he was able to buy – for that was how you got ahead in the seventeenth century – the position of procureur général to the parlement of Paris.
Knowing which side his bread was buttered, while Mazarin, chief Minister to the king, was in exile, Fouquet remained loyal to him, safeguarding his property and updating him about any key developments at court. When Mazarin returned, Fouquet demanded the office of Superintendent of the Finances and was given it. He was now in charge of what money went where and of negotiations with key financiers who made loans to the king. A combination of Fouquet’s own personal wealth and his confidence in himself, together with his prominent position at the Parlement, meant the financial transactions to which he was a party were protected from external investigation. Quickly he almost had Mazarin in a supplicant position and while the numerous demands on the French public purse meant Fouquet often had to borrow money from his own credit, he was able to take advantage of this confusion between the public funds and his own for his own ends.
Fouquet presided over a period of serious disorder in the French public finances: fraud with impunity was rife and generous aid and favors were handed out to financiers of the government whenever they required it. Fouquet, therefore, became one of the wealthiest men in France. Mazarin was so involved in the corruption that he could not adequately punish Fouquet. King Louis grew more and more irritated with Fouquet’s extravagant expenditures. He had bought the port of Belle-Île-en-Mer in the hope of taking refuge there in case of disgrace. He spent huge sums in building a grand chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte where he also gathered together an incredibly impressive collection of art, manuscripts and antiques.
It was only a matter of time before the King had had enough. He secretly decided to condemn Fouquet to disgrace on May 4, 1661. So rich and powerful was Fouquet at that stage of his reign that Louis feared acting against Fouquet. Fouquet was at the head of a very influential group of French farmers who were likely to cause the king real trouble if Fouquet were attacked. The king accordingly used crafty devices to force Fouquet to sell his position as procureur général, thereby losing its protective privileges and paying the price of it into France’s public purse. The king’s musketeers arrested Fouquet just after a meeting of the provincial estates of Brittany where all of the king’s ministers attended.
Fouquet’s trial was long and complicated, lasting for three years. Fearing that Fouquet may turn into a seriously dangerous enemy if acquitted, King Louis did his utmost to ensure that the trial went his way. Fouquet was sentenced to banishment, but Louis made sure his punishment was changed to life imprisonment. Fouquet died in 1680.