Appointed Superintendent of Finance by Mazarin, Nicolas Fouquet worked from 1653 to 1661 to restore the finances of the kingdom, damaged by the episode of the Fronde. Thanks to his office, he accumulated a considerable fortune and had a magnificent castle built on his land in Vaux. Fouquet, who wanted to become "duke of Brittany and king of the adjacent islands", invited the king to Vaux-le-Vicomte, for one of the most beautiful celebrations of the time. It was the last straw that “brought the camel’s back”. Louis XIV, jealous and to show that he is the master, must pull off a nice political coup. Fouquet was arrested on September 5, 1661, tried, then sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress of Pignerol, where he died fifteen years later.
Nicolas Fouquet, the finance man
Nicolas Fouquet was born on January 27, 1615, from a family of modest merchants from Angers, integrated into the nobility of the robe in the 16th century. After studying at the Collège de Clermont in Paris, he rose through the ranks (master of requests, provincial intendant, etc.) to become public prosecutor in the Parliament of Paris from February 1653 while being superintendent of finances, administering alone after the death of 'Abel Servien in 1659. Before dying on March 7, 1661, Cardinal Mazarin presented three men of worth to Louis XIV:Michel Le Tellier, fifty-eight years old, perfect for major political and military affairs; Hugues de Lionne fifty years old, in charge of Foreign Affairs and Nicolas Fouquet, forty six years old and Superintendent of Finances.
Times are tough, money is sorely lacking in state coffers, the monetary system is on the verge of bankruptcy, loans are increasing from financial groups, "savings notes" are introduced and reimbursed when business is better, which leads to embezzlement and forgery...and as Superintendent of Finance, Fouquet covers up these un-Catholic practices.
Through his second wife, Marie Madeleine de Castille, Fouquet was linked to financial circles. Good lawyer, excellent speaker, art lover, he receives and protects artists. His hotel in Saint Mandé, then his castle in Vaux le Vicomte became the new artistic and literary salons between 1654 and 1661…Wishing to reach the post of Prime Minister, he became attached to parliamentarians, marshals and a whole network of spies…
Mazarin, although having praised Fouquet, mentions his too great ambition "if we can take away from his head the taste for buildings and women, he will be capable of great things”. Colbert, who has just been appointed intendant under the direction of Fouquet, would be at the origin of this fact... to better monitor the "chief"!!! This does not help Fouquet's business, because these two men have hated each other for three years...
Guessing Colbert's intentions, Fouquet requested an audience with the king, who received him at the Louvres. He first apologizes to him for the practices made in the management of affairs, assuring him that in the future he would only act in agreement with the king .... the king reassures him with "noble words and worthy”. He won the first game. From then on, the king charged him with secret missions in foreign affairs. Colbert watches over the grain and points the finger at the “scandalous figures and discounts” made by Fouquet, but is careful not to show the practices of the cardinal….
The wrath of the King of France
Louis XIVi felt cheated, did not accept and decided on May 4, 1661 to dismiss Fouquet after the harvest, that is to say after the last tax harvest. Each week, Colbert presents the king with a new fact:he has heard of the fortification work on the Belle-Ile domain...he sends a spy disguised as a merchant...who brings him news:Fouquet maintains a garrison of two hundred men and a impressive armament (four hundred guns, three or four warships, etc.). Mid June 1661, Louis XIV decides that Fouquet will be arrested in Nantes during the States of Brittany in September, then judged.
Despite his network of spies and spies, Fouquet is confident, he sees nothing coming! His position as public prosecutor in the Parliament of Paris protects him from everything... The king then sets a trap for him:he entrusts him with the reform of Parliament and in exchange for a service (a loan of one million) offers him the coveted position. of chancellor. Fouquet is ready to sell his office to serve his king...
Meanwhile, the king and Colbert are finalizing the arrest, but Anne of Austria has to be convinced, who receives funds from Fouquet for the Val de Grâce. Colbert sends Madame de Chevreuse, the great conspirator of the Grand Siècle. Fouquet is kept informed of these intrigues, but does not believe in them...he makes a first mistake in trying to ally himself with Mademoiselle de La Vallière:he offers her twenty thousand pistoles! Unfortunately, she reports him to her lover.
Fouquet, on his teeth, throws himself into the mouth of the wolf:thinking he is doing well, he confesses to the king that his mother asked him for a loan…on August 11, he succeeded in selling his position as prosecutor…on August 17, 1661, he invited the king to a party at Vaux le Vicomte. The party was so lavish that the monarch was upset and ordered it to be arrested three weeks later for embezzlement.
The Arrest of Fouquet
On September 1, the king arrives at the Château de Nantes, with his musketeers; on the 2nd, despite an attack of malaria, Fouquet attended a first meeting of the council; the same evening Louis XIV summons a feverish d'Artagnan for the arrest, the king then postpones the operation to September 4. On the night of the 4th, the musketeer called his company on the grounds of preparing a hunt for the king; on September 5, at the end of the Council of Ministers around 11 a.m., the King held Fouquet back for a moment to check if everything was ready in the courtyard…then let the Superintendent go…who climbed into his sedan chair and left !
D'Artagnan did not intervene immediately, waiting for confirmation from Le Tellier who was busy! When the latter finally gives him the long-awaited order, d'Artagnan accompanied by fifteen men leaves after Fouquet whom he finds in Place St Pierre...Fouquet is amazed and will only have these words "I did not expect in that, I thought I was in the king's mind better than anyone in this realm."
Fouquet is driven towards Angers, in a screened carriage, escorted by the musketeers. The king informed of the smooth running of this operation, informed the courtiers...and everything went very quickly:the close members of Fouquet's family were exiled, others were arrested, the garrison of Belle-Ile submitted, Colbert had them searched and inventory the residences of Fontainebleau and Saint Mandé…and comes across a document hidden behind a mirror, a kind of “defence plan”, the measures to be taken in the event that Fouquet is arrested…many of the Greats of the kingdom are mentioned (head of squadron, general officers like Créqui or de La Rochefoucauld).
The trial and the end of Nicolas Fouquet
On September 12, the superintendency of finance was replaced by a Royal Council of Finance, entrusted to Colbert. A chamber of justice is set up presided over by Séguier to judge Fouquet. Meanwhile, Fouquet, ill, is transferred to Vincennes. The trial opened in March 1662, Colbert organizing the whole:choice of the chamber, of the presidents and of the prosecutor, installation of his uncle among the judges, intimidation, blackmail and corruption...Fouquet tried to exonerate himself, underlined the misappropriation of documents, falsifications of minutes...
The king urges the magistrates. Fouquet's friends struggle. Time passes, Fouquet is imprisoned. On November 14, 1664, the written instruction was closed. The prisoner appeared at the Grand Arsenal before the judges, he was accused of lèse majesté and the crime of péculat (embezzlement of public funds). He defends himself by proving that Mazarin was responsible for the finances and by showing that there were cases of lèse majesté much more serious than his... opinion turns in his favor...
On December 12, 1664, the court reporter gives his verdict:the accused was not a good administrator, but is not guilty of the crime of peculation; the state crime is unfounded… the rapporteur requests banishment from the kingdom and confiscation of property. Thirteen votes out of twenty-two. The disgruntled king turns the banishment into life imprisonment! Fouquet's fortune passes to the state, the king thus recovers magnificent pieces and works of art and... the whole team made up of Le Nôtre, Le Vau and Le Brun for Versailles.
D'Artagnan leads his prisoner to the fortress of Pignerol. Fouquet remained under the care of Monsieur de Saint Mars, under draconian conditions:a three-room apartment, two valets assigned to his service, a ban on meeting people, writing, going out... until 1677 when his living conditions detentions are less severe. He can then walk on the ramparts, meet Lauzun, then in 1679 receive his wife and children! But Fouquet died of a stroke on March 23, 1680 in his Pigenrol jail... The Gazette de France mentions his death on two lines.
A scapegoat?
After the death of Mazarin, it was necessary to designate a culprit to endorse the faults of the precedents. The king succeeded in a major political action:Fouquet had managed to become a "centre", far too many people gravitated around him, Louis XIV could no longer bear him... To break with the past, he needed something grandiose in order to affirm his superiority and be the Master, it was the arrest of Fouquet.
Bibliography
- J.C. Petitfils - Fouquet. Perrin, 2008.
- Fouquet, historical biography of Daniel Dessert. Fayard, 2014.
- Fouquet or the Offended Sun, by Paul Morand. Folio, 1985.