May 9, 2023 • 29 mins
In August 1661, the superintendent of finance in France threw the party of the century. In September, he was arrested. The lesson: don't fly too close to the sun (king).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey guys,
this is Dana Schwartz, the host and creator of the
podcast you're listening to Noble Blood. Just a quick note
before we start. If you like this podcast, I think
(00:23):
you'll like the books I've written. I wrote a novel
called Anatomy, a Love Story, and just this year the sequel, Immortality,
a Love Story, came out, and both books tell the
story of a young woman in the nineteenth century who
wants to become a surgeon. So what was really inspired
by just my love and obsession about the transition that
(00:44):
happened in surgery in the early eighteen hundreds. And in
the sequel, Immortality a Love Story, if you haven't read
it yet, there are a lot of i'll say celebrity
cameos from historical figures that I've covered on this podcast,
So absolutely check it out. There's a linked by it
in the episode description, and thank you so much. It
(01:18):
was the most magnificent party that France had ever seen.
On August seventeenth, sixteen sixty one, the who's Who of
French society traveled to a country estate called Valla Vicomte,
which was owned by Nicola Fouquet, France's superintendent of finance.
(01:42):
Valle Vicomte was, without a doubt, the most magnificent house
in the entire country, and after five years of extensive renovations,
Fouquet was excited to show off the paradise that he
had built. Thirty four milesales southeast of Paris. The beautiful gardens,
(02:04):
running for nearly a mile and a half were in
full bloom. Their elaborate water works were in full motion,
with eleven hundred jets of water sprang up from the
various fountains and canals. The house itself was stunning, seeming
to float on air thanks to the sparkling moat that
(02:27):
surrounded it. The food served that evening was sumptuous. Thirty
buffet tables held the finest foods, served to guests on
plates of solid gold and silver. The entertainment superb. The
famous playwright Moliery debuted his newest work, a comedy ballet
(02:50):
for the delighted guests, who also later enjoyed a twenty
four of Isolin serenade. It was, in short, a party
so elaborate that it would put any of Gatsby's to shame.
It was a castle so beautiful that it would inspire
one attendee, King Louis the fourteenth, then just twenty two
(03:14):
years old, to hire the very team that built vol
Vicomte to create his own version, the Palace of Versailles.
But the party also sparked something else in Louis the fourteenth, jealousy.
Who was this Fouquet, a descendant of a simple cloth
(03:35):
merchant to so outshine the King of France? And how
exactly had Fouquet obtained the funds required for such a
lavish party. The King stewed and stewed some more. He
had only recently become the independent ruler of France after
(03:57):
almost two decades with a regency council place, and he
was desperate to assert himself, to prove he was an adult.
Perhaps taking on a powerful minister was just the bold
statement he needed. So on September fifth, just weeks after
(04:17):
this amazing party, the King took action. Nicola Fouquet was
arrested on charges of financial misconduct and treason. It was
the party, observers whispered that had tipped the king off
to Fouquet's crimes. The story of Fouquet's downfall has been
(04:40):
passed down through the ages as a cautionary tale, a
warning against hubris. Its message is a simple one. Don't
fly too close to the sun lest you be burned
by the son king. But what if I told you
that there's more, much more to the story. I'm Danish
(05:04):
Schwartz and this is noble blood. The Fouquets had always
been an ambitious family. Just take their emblem a squirrel.
It's not a surprising emblem, given that Fouquet means squirrel
(05:26):
in the dialect of the Lower Luar Valley. But the
Fouquets added their own meaning to the image, a motto
that read, when translated, what heights will he not ascend?
It's a symbol of ambition, of a determination to get
ahead of acting well squirrellly to do so. Nicholas Fouquet
(05:50):
had the emblem and motto placed all over Volvicomte. By
the time Nicholas was born in January sixteen fifteen, the
Fouquet family had already ascended to great heights. Descended from
cloth merchants and anger, the Fouquets had established themselves in
Paris in the late fifteen hundreds, steadily rising through the
(06:14):
ranks of the non royal elite. Nicholas's father, Francois, served
in a high up position in the government and became
a protege of the influential Cardinal Richelieu, chief Minister of France.
After receiving a superb but legal education, Nicholas followed his
(06:35):
father into government and quickly won notice for his skill.
He married well to a woman named Louise, and the
couple soon welcomed a daughter. The future was looking bright,
but tragedy soon befell the family. In early sixteen forty,
Nicholas's father died, followed by his grandfather less than a
(06:58):
year later, and then his wife only six months after that.
At twenty six, Nicholas was now responsible for raising his
young daughter and supporting his widowed mother and twelve siblings.
In addition to his personal troubles, Nicholas was also confronted
(07:19):
with a France in turmoil. The country itself was at
a crossroads in the sixteen forties for a number of reasons.
First of all, their king was a child. Louis the
fourteenth was only four years old when his father died
in sixteen forty three. Until he came of age, a
(07:41):
regency council ruled the country, headed by his mother, Anne
of Austria and her controversial adviser, a protege of Richelieu's
named Cardinal Jeweles Mazarin. Secondly, the country was in the
midst of the devastatingly expensive and bloody Thirty Years War,
(08:02):
and Thirdly, civil war in France was brewing In the
late sixteen forties and early sixteen fifties. A series of
uprisings known as the Fronde, saw local governments and hereditary
princes attempting to fight off the encroaching power of the crown.
(08:22):
Throughout the Frond, Nicholas Fouquet stayed loyal to the Crown,
earning him the favor of Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin's approval facilitated
Fouquet's further rise in government. In sixteen fifty Fouquet became
Attorney General of the Parliament of Paris. In sixteen fifty one,
(08:42):
he remarried to Marie Madeleine Castile, a wealthy heiress from
a prominent family. The couple would go on to have
five children together. Two years later, with the Frond. Finally over,
Fouquet reached the pinnacle of his power. To reward his
unwavering loyalty, Cardinal Mazarin appointed him Superintendent of Finance. Fouquet
(09:09):
now served directly on the King's Council. In his new job,
Fouquet was in charge of making sure the crown had
enough money to fund its various projects, wars, and other expenses.
It wasn't an easy job. The financial system of seventeenth
(09:29):
century France was, to put it lightly, a mess. Tax
revenues were not enough to cover the crown's expenses, leaving
the government reliant on personal loans from private citizens called financiers.
The Superintendent often served as the loan recipient in order
(09:50):
to shield the crown from liability. The terms of these
loans were flexible and irregular. What was documented on on
paper was usually only part of the true picture, which,
as you can imagine, makes delightful work for historians. In
other words, being superintendent was a highly powerful position, but
(10:16):
it was also a very vulnerable one, particularly because Fouquet's
mentor and de facto boss, Cardinal Mazarin, had a taste
for dipping into the state coffers. The unregulated nature of
the financial system allowed for substantial corruption, which Mazarin took
(10:37):
full advantage of. He accepted bribes, rigged contracts, and skimmed
off state accounts to the tune one modern scholar estimated
of twenty three million livre a year. His actions weren't secret.
Many high up finance officials, including Fouquet, knew what Mazarin
(11:00):
was doing, but the Cardinal was simply too powerful to
be stopped. Fouquet himself was becoming quite powerful with his
dual positions of Attorney General of the Paris Parliament and
Superintendent of Finance. He was making an estimated five hundred
thousand livres a year, more than most nobles, though nothing
(11:24):
compared to Mazarin's income. Fouquet put that money to good use,
building lavish estates like Valla Vicomte and regularly entertaining the
crown's creditors in order to convince them of the Crown's solvency.
He also personally advanced the crown millions of livre. But
(11:46):
under the surface things were shakier. Fouquet's patron, Cardinal Mazarin,
was becoming more demanding and less supportive. Mazarin also had
a new protege, Jean Baptiste Colbert, an ambitious and clever
man who wanted the job of Superintendent of Finance for himself.
(12:08):
Fouquet began to fear that Colbert would turn Mazarin against him,
and even went so far as to draft a plan
of defense in case Mazarin arrested him. But nothing came
of it, and in sixteen sixty one, Cardinal Mazarin died.
With the all powerful Cardinal dead, King Louis the fourteenth,
(12:32):
now twenty two, could finally come into his own He
shrank the Royal Council and began personally supervising much of
the business of government, including financial matters. Part of Louis's
motivation for this level of involvement was political. When he
(12:52):
was a child, he had been terrorized by the rebellions
of the Front, and he was determined to strengthen the
Crown's power in order to protect the crown from any
future challenges. His motivations were also personal. After eighteen years
under the thumb of powerful advisers, the King wanted to
(13:13):
do things his own way. When writing his memoirs, the
King would make his point clear quote, it was not
my intention to share my authority end quote. By this
point sixteen sixty one, Fouquet had spent nearly twenty years
in government, though, and he was accustomed to a particular
(13:35):
way of life and of doing business. He failed to
recognize the King's determination to become the only center of power,
and instead he continued to flaunt his own wealth and power,
as he had done under Mazarin's reign. Fouquet's rival, Colbert,
wasn't so oblivious. He quickly cozied up to the King,
(13:59):
whispering in his ear about Fouquet's impudence and inappropriate conduct.
It didn't take much for Colbert to convince Louis that
Fouquet was bad news. Louis would later write that he
believed Fouquet was quote continuing his extravagant expenses, fortifying strongholds,
(14:21):
decorating palaces, forming conspiracies, and purchasing important offices for his
friends at my expense, in hope of soon becoming the
sovereign arbiter of the state end quote. Long before the
August party at Vaal Vicomte, the King had Fouquet in
(14:43):
his sights. Instead of being the catalyst for Fouquet's arrest,
as many have asserted the party was just the final
nail in his coffin. By early September, the King was
ready to move. He summoned a loyal musketeer to orchestrate
Fouquet's arrest, and on September fifth, sixteen sixty one, the
(15:07):
King's twenty third birthday, Fouquet was taken into custody, charged
with financial misdeeds and treason. His homes were searched and
his papers seized. The king delighted at how smoothly the
arrest had gone, announcing it to the court, declaring that
he would now manage the country's finances himself. With Fouquet
(15:31):
in custody and the weight of the state behind him,
Louis expected that prosecution would be swift in this. However,
the King was gravely mistaken. Nikola Fouquet would not go
down without a fight, As he answered, Knowing that the
(15:53):
interrogations would be read by the chambers judges, he began
to weave his own defense and assert his right to
a fair trial. Fouquet never missed an opportunity to blame
Mazarin for any financial irregularities, or an opportunity to question
why he wasn't being allowed access to legal counsel. As
(16:15):
Fouquet fought from within the prison walls, his family and
friends were taking the fight to the larger world. His
wife and mother took to falling on the ground and
begging for mercy whenever they saw the King or his mother,
which was not a good look for the royal family
to have sobbing women at their feet. And Fouquet had
(16:37):
been a prominent literary patron, so many writers took up
his cause, publishing pamphlets in his defense that spread through
Paris like wildfire. Consider that a lesson befriend writers. Colbert
tried to fight back, publishing pamphlets of his own and
arresting the printers of pro Fouquet materi burials. At the
(17:01):
same time, Fouquet and his lawyers he had finally been
granted access to council, were bombarding the Special Council with
requests to turn over evidence, to explain the charges, and
to allow Fouquet regular access to his advocates, things that
Colbert's specially appointed judges fought hard against. Despite the growing
(17:26):
tide of public support and his occasional legal victories, Fouquet
still must have been terrified as he contemplated his fate
from his cell. There were small moments of grace. However.
Throughout his imprisonment, Fouquet was supervised by the same musketeer
who had initially arrested him, and the two men grew
(17:49):
to respect one another. In August sixteen sixty four, as
Fouquet was transported between two prisons, the musketeer noticed that
Fouquet's family had lined the streets along the transport route.
He was moved and the musketeer ordered the transport to slow,
and Fouquet's wife leaned through the windows of her husband's carriage,
(18:13):
hugging him. It was the first time the family had
seen each other in nearly three years. Another bright light
came from a surprising source, one of Colbert's specially appointed judges.
In sixteen sixty two, motivated by the overwhelming scale of
the case, the decision was made for two reporteurs to
(18:37):
be appointed. These reporteurs would be in charge of conducting
the investigation and summarizing their findings to the judges before
the final verdict. Once again, Colbert and the King made
sure that the nominees came from their own camp. However,
they miscalculated when it came to judging the moral fiber
(18:58):
of one of the nominees, Olivier Ormisan. Ormison was by
no means a partisan of Fouquet, but he strongly believed
in the rule of law and balanced administration of justice.
Throughout the trial, despite enormous pressure from all sides, Ormison
worked hard to achieve a semblance of fairness. He was
(19:20):
a skilled orator, a clever mediator, and a thorough investigator,
even uncovering proof that some of the financial documents being
used as evidence against Fouquet had been forged, likely by
some of the Special Court judges themselves, and he always
made sure that Fouquet's petitions were heard. All of the
(19:43):
legal back and forth took time, and as the months
and then years passed, the King and Colbert became increasingly
concerned with the length of the trial. After all, the
longer the trial went on, the more chance there was
for public sace sympathy to continue to shift to Fouquet,
(20:03):
and for unflattering details about the King in Colbert's personal
involvement with the trial to emerge. People had already begun
to whisper about what the drawn out trial meant for
Louis How powerful was the king really if he couldn't
complete such a simple prosecution. It was a question that
(20:24):
Louis hoped to lay to rest when the Special Court
announced that they would finally begin deliberations in December sixteen
sixty four, more than three years after Fouquet's initial arrest.
Though public sympathy had shifted toward Fouquet over this time,
many of his allies doubted that Colbert's specially appointed judges
(20:47):
would be as sympathetic as the public. They had to
hope that Fouquet's final defense of himself, conducted in person
and seemingly favorably received by the judges, would be a nuts.
Over the course of several days, the two reporteurs Ormison
and Saint Helene presented their cases. Ormison, who went first,
(21:12):
produced a balanced report in line with his behavior throughout
the case. He concluded that Fouquet had been occasionally sloppy
and negligent in his work, but that the evidence on
hand did not conclusively prove him guilty of intentional crimes.
Ormison recommended that Fouquet be banished from France and that
(21:34):
his estates be confiscated, which is harsh, sure, but it's
nothing compared to what Ormison's fellow Reporteur Saint Helen recommended
in his own summing up several days later, which was death.
Now it was all up to the judges. Louis, not
wanting to leave anything to chance, began a concerted pressure campaign,
(21:58):
sending emissaries to lection sure certain judges about their civic responsibilities,
and making remarks in public about how dangerous Fouquet was.
On December seventeenth, the judges gathered for a final time.
One by one, they announced their verdicts. When the final
(22:19):
result came in, the results were stunning. Of the twenty
two judges, only nine voted for death. The remaining thirteen
voted for banishment. It might not sound like a victory,
but when an absolute monarch goes after you in court,
(22:39):
any win counts. Three years earlier, no one expected Fouquet
to escape with his life, but now it looked like
that would just happen. But there was still one more
hurdle to clear. King Louis had final say on Fouquet's sentence,
and he was furious. Fortunately for Fouquet, King Louis was
(23:03):
unwilling to risk the public outcry that would come if
he insisted on the death penalty, so he instead sentenced
Fouquet to life in prison. Fouquet was immediately sent to
a prison fortress in the Alps, where as Vincent J.
Pitts puts it in his book Embezzlement and High Treason
(23:23):
in Louis the fourteenth France, he experienced a kind of
quote living death end quote. All outside contact was forbidden,
as were pens and paper. His windows were barred to
prevent escape, blocking out the sunlight. It was only in
April sixteen seventy four, after ten years in prison, that
(23:47):
Fouquet was allowed to begin exchanging letters with his wife,
and even then only two a year. Five years later,
the family was allowed to visit. For the first time
in eighteen years, Fouquet could hold his children, all of
whom were now young adults. His youngest son, born in
(24:09):
sixteen sixty one, the year of Fouquet's arrest, likely barely
recognized his father. However, there was hope of a more
permanent reunion. In the late sixteen seventies, rumors circulated that
Fouquet was about to be pardoned, but it was in
empty hope, and in March sixteen eighty Nicola Fouquet died
(24:35):
suddenly of a stroke at sixty five years old. Though
no one would suffer as much as Fouquet, those noblemen
involved in the trial who had dared to defy the
king would also feel his wrath. Olivier Ormison was essentially
shunned from public life, and so were many of the
(24:58):
judges who had voted against death. Conversely, many of those
who had attempted to persecute Fouquet thrived under Louis the fourteenth,
none more so than Colbert, who rose to the highest
ranks of government and was well rewarded for it. He,
even despite his role in orchestrating one of the most
(25:21):
infamous and blatantly corrupt show trials of the age, was
given the task of reorganizing the country's legal codes. The
taint of Fouquet's disgrace would linger over his family, but
not forever. Toward the end of Louis the Fourteenth's reign,
the aging king welcomed some of Fouquet's nephews into royal life. Historians, however,
(25:47):
took longer to soften on Fouquet. Until the late twentieth century.
Most agreed that Fouquet was in fact guilty of the
crimes he was accused of and deserving of the punishment
he received. However, that attitude has been changing. In nineteen
eighty three, the eminent historian Roland Mousener declared at a
(26:11):
conference that Fouquet was quote not guilty according to the
spirit and practices of the time. His trial was unjust
tainted with irregularities and manipulations end quote. Fouquet's legacy has
also been refurbished in a more literal way vall Le Vicomte.
(26:33):
Fouquet's estate has undergone a four decade restoration and now
welcomes more than three hundred thousand guests a year, guests
who can wander the beautiful grounds where the Superintendent of
Finance once hosted the greatest party of a generation, blissfully
(26:55):
unaware that disaster awaited him just beyond the gates. That's
the story of the trial of Nicola Fouquet. But continue
listening after a brief sponsor break to hear about a
(27:15):
very specific literary connection to this story. Remember that kindly
musketeer who allowed Fouquet to see his family briefly during
his incarceration. Despite that musketeer's relatively small role in Fouquet story,
(27:42):
he would go on to have a much larger one
in another famous story. After his time with Fouquet, the
musketeer continued to serve the king, eventually being promoted to
captain lieutenant. He later became governor of the city of
Lille before being killed in battle on June twenty fifth,
(28:02):
sixteen seventy three. Twenty seven years later, the French novelist
Gatienne Courtilles de Sandra published a fictionalized memoir of the
very Real Musketeer, which contained a number of swashbuckling adventure stories.
One hundred and forty four years after that, another French
(28:25):
author picked up to Courtilles Desandras's work while doing research
on Louis the fourteenth, and he was inspired to write
his own account of that very real musketeer's world. That
author was Alexandre Dumas, and the novel he created, inspired
by the very musketeer who had once guarded Nicholas Fouquet
(28:48):
Charles d'Artagnan, is, of course, The Three Musketeers. Noble Blood
(29:09):
is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from
Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The
show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
(29:32):
Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey guys,
this is Dana Schwartz, the host and creator of the
podcast you're listening to Noble Blood. Just a quick note
before we start. If you like this podcast, I think
(00:23):
you'll like the books I've written. I wrote a novel
called Anatomy, a Love Story, and just this year the sequel, Immortality,
a Love Story, came out, and both books tell the
story of a young woman in the nineteenth century who
wants to become a surgeon. So what was really inspired
by just my love and obsession about the transition that
(00:44):
happened in surgery in the early eighteen hundreds. And in
the sequel, Immortality a Love Story, if you haven't read
it yet, there are a lot of i'll say celebrity
cameos from historical figures that I've covered on this podcast,
So absolutely check it out. There's a linked by it
in the episode description, and thank you so much. It
(01:18):
was the most magnificent party that France had ever seen.
On August seventeenth, sixteen sixty one, the who's Who of
French society traveled to a country estate called Valla Vicomte,
which was owned by Nicola Fouquet, France's superintendent of finance.
(01:42):
Valle Vicomte was, without a doubt, the most magnificent house
in the entire country, and after five years of extensive renovations,
Fouquet was excited to show off the paradise that he
had built. Thirty four milesales southeast of Paris. The beautiful gardens,
(02:04):
running for nearly a mile and a half were in
full bloom. Their elaborate water works were in full motion,
with eleven hundred jets of water sprang up from the
various fountains and canals. The house itself was stunning, seeming
to float on air thanks to the sparkling moat that
(02:27):
surrounded it. The food served that evening was sumptuous. Thirty
buffet tables held the finest foods, served to guests on
plates of solid gold and silver. The entertainment superb. The
famous playwright Moliery debuted his newest work, a comedy ballet
(02:50):
for the delighted guests, who also later enjoyed a twenty
four of Isolin serenade. It was, in short, a party
so elaborate that it would put any of Gatsby's to shame.
It was a castle so beautiful that it would inspire
one attendee, King Louis the fourteenth, then just twenty two
(03:14):
years old, to hire the very team that built vol
Vicomte to create his own version, the Palace of Versailles.
But the party also sparked something else in Louis the fourteenth, jealousy.
Who was this Fouquet, a descendant of a simple cloth
(03:35):
merchant to so outshine the King of France? And how
exactly had Fouquet obtained the funds required for such a
lavish party. The King stewed and stewed some more. He
had only recently become the independent ruler of France after
(03:57):
almost two decades with a regency council place, and he
was desperate to assert himself, to prove he was an adult.
Perhaps taking on a powerful minister was just the bold
statement he needed. So on September fifth, just weeks after
(04:17):
this amazing party, the King took action. Nicola Fouquet was
arrested on charges of financial misconduct and treason. It was
the party, observers whispered that had tipped the king off
to Fouquet's crimes. The story of Fouquet's downfall has been
(04:40):
passed down through the ages as a cautionary tale, a
warning against hubris. Its message is a simple one. Don't
fly too close to the sun lest you be burned
by the son king. But what if I told you
that there's more, much more to the story. I'm Danish
(05:04):
Schwartz and this is noble blood. The Fouquets had always
been an ambitious family. Just take their emblem a squirrel.
It's not a surprising emblem, given that Fouquet means squirrel
(05:26):
in the dialect of the Lower Luar Valley. But the
Fouquets added their own meaning to the image, a motto
that read, when translated, what heights will he not ascend?
It's a symbol of ambition, of a determination to get
ahead of acting well squirrellly to do so. Nicholas Fouquet
(05:50):
had the emblem and motto placed all over Volvicomte. By
the time Nicholas was born in January sixteen fifteen, the
Fouquet family had already ascended to great heights. Descended from
cloth merchants and anger, the Fouquets had established themselves in
Paris in the late fifteen hundreds, steadily rising through the
(06:14):
ranks of the non royal elite. Nicholas's father, Francois, served
in a high up position in the government and became
a protege of the influential Cardinal Richelieu, chief Minister of France.
After receiving a superb but legal education, Nicholas followed his
(06:35):
father into government and quickly won notice for his skill.
He married well to a woman named Louise, and the
couple soon welcomed a daughter. The future was looking bright,
but tragedy soon befell the family. In early sixteen forty,
Nicholas's father died, followed by his grandfather less than a
(06:58):
year later, and then his wife only six months after that.
At twenty six, Nicholas was now responsible for raising his
young daughter and supporting his widowed mother and twelve siblings.
In addition to his personal troubles, Nicholas was also confronted
(07:19):
with a France in turmoil. The country itself was at
a crossroads in the sixteen forties for a number of reasons.
First of all, their king was a child. Louis the
fourteenth was only four years old when his father died
in sixteen forty three. Until he came of age, a
(07:41):
regency council ruled the country, headed by his mother, Anne
of Austria and her controversial adviser, a protege of Richelieu's
named Cardinal Jeweles Mazarin. Secondly, the country was in the
midst of the devastatingly expensive and bloody Thirty Years War,
(08:02):
and Thirdly, civil war in France was brewing In the
late sixteen forties and early sixteen fifties. A series of
uprisings known as the Fronde, saw local governments and hereditary
princes attempting to fight off the encroaching power of the crown.
(08:22):
Throughout the Frond, Nicholas Fouquet stayed loyal to the Crown,
earning him the favor of Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin's approval facilitated
Fouquet's further rise in government. In sixteen fifty Fouquet became
Attorney General of the Parliament of Paris. In sixteen fifty one,
(08:42):
he remarried to Marie Madeleine Castile, a wealthy heiress from
a prominent family. The couple would go on to have
five children together. Two years later, with the Frond. Finally over,
Fouquet reached the pinnacle of his power. To reward his
unwavering loyalty, Cardinal Mazarin appointed him Superintendent of Finance. Fouquet
(09:09):
now served directly on the King's Council. In his new job,
Fouquet was in charge of making sure the crown had
enough money to fund its various projects, wars, and other expenses.
It wasn't an easy job. The financial system of seventeenth
(09:29):
century France was, to put it lightly, a mess. Tax
revenues were not enough to cover the crown's expenses, leaving
the government reliant on personal loans from private citizens called financiers.
The Superintendent often served as the loan recipient in order
(09:50):
to shield the crown from liability. The terms of these
loans were flexible and irregular. What was documented on on
paper was usually only part of the true picture, which,
as you can imagine, makes delightful work for historians. In
other words, being superintendent was a highly powerful position, but
(10:16):
it was also a very vulnerable one, particularly because Fouquet's
mentor and de facto boss, Cardinal Mazarin, had a taste
for dipping into the state coffers. The unregulated nature of
the financial system allowed for substantial corruption, which Mazarin took
(10:37):
full advantage of. He accepted bribes, rigged contracts, and skimmed
off state accounts to the tune one modern scholar estimated
of twenty three million livre a year. His actions weren't secret.
Many high up finance officials, including Fouquet, knew what Mazarin
(11:00):
was doing, but the Cardinal was simply too powerful to
be stopped. Fouquet himself was becoming quite powerful with his
dual positions of Attorney General of the Paris Parliament and
Superintendent of Finance. He was making an estimated five hundred
thousand livres a year, more than most nobles, though nothing
(11:24):
compared to Mazarin's income. Fouquet put that money to good use,
building lavish estates like Valla Vicomte and regularly entertaining the
crown's creditors in order to convince them of the Crown's solvency.
He also personally advanced the crown millions of livre. But
(11:46):
under the surface things were shakier. Fouquet's patron, Cardinal Mazarin,
was becoming more demanding and less supportive. Mazarin also had
a new protege, Jean Baptiste Colbert, an ambitious and clever
man who wanted the job of Superintendent of Finance for himself.
(12:08):
Fouquet began to fear that Colbert would turn Mazarin against him,
and even went so far as to draft a plan
of defense in case Mazarin arrested him. But nothing came
of it, and in sixteen sixty one, Cardinal Mazarin died.
With the all powerful Cardinal dead, King Louis the fourteenth,
(12:32):
now twenty two, could finally come into his own He
shrank the Royal Council and began personally supervising much of
the business of government, including financial matters. Part of Louis's
motivation for this level of involvement was political. When he
(12:52):
was a child, he had been terrorized by the rebellions
of the Front, and he was determined to strengthen the
Crown's power in order to protect the crown from any
future challenges. His motivations were also personal. After eighteen years
under the thumb of powerful advisers, the King wanted to
(13:13):
do things his own way. When writing his memoirs, the
King would make his point clear quote, it was not
my intention to share my authority end quote. By this
point sixteen sixty one, Fouquet had spent nearly twenty years
in government, though, and he was accustomed to a particular
(13:35):
way of life and of doing business. He failed to
recognize the King's determination to become the only center of power,
and instead he continued to flaunt his own wealth and power,
as he had done under Mazarin's reign. Fouquet's rival, Colbert,
wasn't so oblivious. He quickly cozied up to the King,
(13:59):
whispering in his ear about Fouquet's impudence and inappropriate conduct.
It didn't take much for Colbert to convince Louis that
Fouquet was bad news. Louis would later write that he
believed Fouquet was quote continuing his extravagant expenses, fortifying strongholds,
(14:21):
decorating palaces, forming conspiracies, and purchasing important offices for his
friends at my expense, in hope of soon becoming the
sovereign arbiter of the state end quote. Long before the
August party at Vaal Vicomte, the King had Fouquet in
(14:43):
his sights. Instead of being the catalyst for Fouquet's arrest,
as many have asserted the party was just the final
nail in his coffin. By early September, the King was
ready to move. He summoned a loyal musketeer to orchestrate
Fouquet's arrest, and on September fifth, sixteen sixty one, the
(15:07):
King's twenty third birthday, Fouquet was taken into custody, charged
with financial misdeeds and treason. His homes were searched and
his papers seized. The king delighted at how smoothly the
arrest had gone, announcing it to the court, declaring that
he would now manage the country's finances himself. With Fouquet
(15:31):
in custody and the weight of the state behind him,
Louis expected that prosecution would be swift in this. However,
the King was gravely mistaken. Nikola Fouquet would not go
down without a fight, As he answered, Knowing that the
(15:53):
interrogations would be read by the chambers judges, he began
to weave his own defense and assert his right to
a fair trial. Fouquet never missed an opportunity to blame
Mazarin for any financial irregularities, or an opportunity to question
why he wasn't being allowed access to legal counsel. As
(16:15):
Fouquet fought from within the prison walls, his family and
friends were taking the fight to the larger world. His
wife and mother took to falling on the ground and
begging for mercy whenever they saw the King or his mother,
which was not a good look for the royal family
to have sobbing women at their feet. And Fouquet had
(16:37):
been a prominent literary patron, so many writers took up
his cause, publishing pamphlets in his defense that spread through
Paris like wildfire. Consider that a lesson befriend writers. Colbert
tried to fight back, publishing pamphlets of his own and
arresting the printers of pro Fouquet materi burials. At the
(17:01):
same time, Fouquet and his lawyers he had finally been
granted access to council, were bombarding the Special Council with
requests to turn over evidence, to explain the charges, and
to allow Fouquet regular access to his advocates, things that
Colbert's specially appointed judges fought hard against. Despite the growing
(17:26):
tide of public support and his occasional legal victories, Fouquet
still must have been terrified as he contemplated his fate
from his cell. There were small moments of grace. However.
Throughout his imprisonment, Fouquet was supervised by the same musketeer
who had initially arrested him, and the two men grew
(17:49):
to respect one another. In August sixteen sixty four, as
Fouquet was transported between two prisons, the musketeer noticed that
Fouquet's family had lined the streets along the transport route.
He was moved and the musketeer ordered the transport to slow,
and Fouquet's wife leaned through the windows of her husband's carriage,
(18:13):
hugging him. It was the first time the family had
seen each other in nearly three years. Another bright light
came from a surprising source, one of Colbert's specially appointed judges.
In sixteen sixty two, motivated by the overwhelming scale of
the case, the decision was made for two reporteurs to
(18:37):
be appointed. These reporteurs would be in charge of conducting
the investigation and summarizing their findings to the judges before
the final verdict. Once again, Colbert and the King made
sure that the nominees came from their own camp. However,
they miscalculated when it came to judging the moral fiber
(18:58):
of one of the nominees, Olivier Ormisan. Ormison was by
no means a partisan of Fouquet, but he strongly believed
in the rule of law and balanced administration of justice.
Throughout the trial, despite enormous pressure from all sides, Ormison
worked hard to achieve a semblance of fairness. He was
(19:20):
a skilled orator, a clever mediator, and a thorough investigator,
even uncovering proof that some of the financial documents being
used as evidence against Fouquet had been forged, likely by
some of the Special Court judges themselves, and he always
made sure that Fouquet's petitions were heard. All of the
(19:43):
legal back and forth took time, and as the months
and then years passed, the King and Colbert became increasingly
concerned with the length of the trial. After all, the
longer the trial went on, the more chance there was
for public sace sympathy to continue to shift to Fouquet,
(20:03):
and for unflattering details about the King in Colbert's personal
involvement with the trial to emerge. People had already begun
to whisper about what the drawn out trial meant for
Louis How powerful was the king really if he couldn't
complete such a simple prosecution. It was a question that
(20:24):
Louis hoped to lay to rest when the Special Court
announced that they would finally begin deliberations in December sixteen
sixty four, more than three years after Fouquet's initial arrest.
Though public sympathy had shifted toward Fouquet over this time,
many of his allies doubted that Colbert's specially appointed judges
(20:47):
would be as sympathetic as the public. They had to
hope that Fouquet's final defense of himself, conducted in person
and seemingly favorably received by the judges, would be a nuts.
Over the course of several days, the two reporteurs Ormison
and Saint Helene presented their cases. Ormison, who went first,
(21:12):
produced a balanced report in line with his behavior throughout
the case. He concluded that Fouquet had been occasionally sloppy
and negligent in his work, but that the evidence on
hand did not conclusively prove him guilty of intentional crimes.
Ormison recommended that Fouquet be banished from France and that
(21:34):
his estates be confiscated, which is harsh, sure, but it's
nothing compared to what Ormison's fellow Reporteur Saint Helen recommended
in his own summing up several days later, which was death.
Now it was all up to the judges. Louis, not
wanting to leave anything to chance, began a concerted pressure campaign,
(21:58):
sending emissaries to lection sure certain judges about their civic responsibilities,
and making remarks in public about how dangerous Fouquet was.
On December seventeenth, the judges gathered for a final time.
One by one, they announced their verdicts. When the final
(22:19):
result came in, the results were stunning. Of the twenty
two judges, only nine voted for death. The remaining thirteen
voted for banishment. It might not sound like a victory,
but when an absolute monarch goes after you in court,
(22:39):
any win counts. Three years earlier, no one expected Fouquet
to escape with his life, but now it looked like
that would just happen. But there was still one more
hurdle to clear. King Louis had final say on Fouquet's sentence,
and he was furious. Fortunately for Fouquet, King Louis was
(23:03):
unwilling to risk the public outcry that would come if
he insisted on the death penalty, so he instead sentenced
Fouquet to life in prison. Fouquet was immediately sent to
a prison fortress in the Alps, where as Vincent J.
Pitts puts it in his book Embezzlement and High Treason
(23:23):
in Louis the fourteenth France, he experienced a kind of
quote living death end quote. All outside contact was forbidden,
as were pens and paper. His windows were barred to
prevent escape, blocking out the sunlight. It was only in
April sixteen seventy four, after ten years in prison, that
(23:47):
Fouquet was allowed to begin exchanging letters with his wife,
and even then only two a year. Five years later,
the family was allowed to visit. For the first time
in eighteen years, Fouquet could hold his children, all of
whom were now young adults. His youngest son, born in
(24:09):
sixteen sixty one, the year of Fouquet's arrest, likely barely
recognized his father. However, there was hope of a more
permanent reunion. In the late sixteen seventies, rumors circulated that
Fouquet was about to be pardoned, but it was in
empty hope, and in March sixteen eighty Nicola Fouquet died
(24:35):
suddenly of a stroke at sixty five years old. Though
no one would suffer as much as Fouquet, those noblemen
involved in the trial who had dared to defy the
king would also feel his wrath. Olivier Ormison was essentially
shunned from public life, and so were many of the
(24:58):
judges who had voted against death. Conversely, many of those
who had attempted to persecute Fouquet thrived under Louis the fourteenth,
none more so than Colbert, who rose to the highest
ranks of government and was well rewarded for it. He,
even despite his role in orchestrating one of the most
(25:21):
infamous and blatantly corrupt show trials of the age, was
given the task of reorganizing the country's legal codes. The
taint of Fouquet's disgrace would linger over his family, but
not forever. Toward the end of Louis the Fourteenth's reign,
the aging king welcomed some of Fouquet's nephews into royal life. Historians, however,
(25:47):
took longer to soften on Fouquet. Until the late twentieth century.
Most agreed that Fouquet was in fact guilty of the
crimes he was accused of and deserving of the punishment
he received. However, that attitude has been changing. In nineteen
eighty three, the eminent historian Roland Mousener declared at a
(26:11):
conference that Fouquet was quote not guilty according to the
spirit and practices of the time. His trial was unjust
tainted with irregularities and manipulations end quote. Fouquet's legacy has
also been refurbished in a more literal way vall Le Vicomte.
(26:33):
Fouquet's estate has undergone a four decade restoration and now
welcomes more than three hundred thousand guests a year, guests
who can wander the beautiful grounds where the Superintendent of
Finance once hosted the greatest party of a generation, blissfully
(26:55):
unaware that disaster awaited him just beyond the gates. That's
the story of the trial of Nicola Fouquet. But continue
listening after a brief sponsor break to hear about a
(27:15):
very specific literary connection to this story. Remember that kindly
musketeer who allowed Fouquet to see his family briefly during
his incarceration. Despite that musketeer's relatively small role in Fouquet story,
(27:42):
he would go on to have a much larger one
in another famous story. After his time with Fouquet, the
musketeer continued to serve the king, eventually being promoted to
captain lieutenant. He later became governor of the city of
Lille before being killed in battle on June twenty fifth,
(28:02):
sixteen seventy three. Twenty seven years later, the French novelist
Gatienne Courtilles de Sandra published a fictionalized memoir of the
very Real Musketeer, which contained a number of swashbuckling adventure stories.
One hundred and forty four years after that, another French
(28:25):
author picked up to Courtilles Desandras's work while doing research
on Louis the fourteenth, and he was inspired to write
his own account of that very real musketeer's world. That
author was Alexandre Dumas, and the novel he created, inspired
by the very musketeer who had once guarded Nicholas Fouquet
(28:48):
Charles d'Artagnan, is, of course, The Three Musketeers. Noble Blood
(29:09):
is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from
Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The
show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
(29:32):
Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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