Никола Фуке: Францияның қаржы министрі және құлағының тарихы

French official (1615–1680)

Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (nikɔla fukɛ; 27 January 1615 – 23 March 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth. He fell out of favor, accused of peculation (maladministration of the state's funds) and lèse majesté (actions harmful to the well being of the monarch). The king had him imprisoned from 1661 until his death in 1680.

Nicolas Fouquet was born in Paris to an influential family of the noblesse de robe (members of the nobility under the Ancien Régime who had high positions in government, especially in law and finance). He was the second child of François IV Fouquet (who held numerous high positions in government) and of Marie de Maupeou (who came from a family of the noblesse de robe and who was famous for her piety and charitable works). :18–23, a chartered company for the colonization of French Islands, including missionary work and trade and investment. who survived into adulthood, all 5 girls took vows. Among the male children, 4 took the cloth and 2 became bishops. :51

After some preliminary schooling with the Jesuits at the age of 13, Fouquet received his law degree from the University of Paris. Cardinal Richelieu advised Fouquet on this career choice. :40

In 1634, Fouquet was appointed councilor of the Parliament of Metz. Richelieu charged him with the sensitive task of verifying the accounts to determine whether or not Charles IV of Lorraine was skimming money that rightfully was due to the King of France. Fouquet, still a teenager, accomplished this task with brio. Cardinal Richelieu died in 1642, but Fouquet was successful in impressing his successor as chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, who became his protector (over the long term, the relationship was tense making him the youngest person to hold this position in the Ancien Regime. The royal finances were in a disastrous state at this time, due to many years of war under Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and antiquated revenue practices. Only about half of total tax revenues collected actually ended up in the royal treasury, the rest being skimmed off by various parties along the way. In this unsettled situation, Fouquet was responsible for decisions as to which funds should be used to meet the demands of the state's creditors, but also for the negotiations with the great financiers who lent money to the king. Fouquet’s willingness to honor some of the royal promises enhanced the credibility of the crown as a borrower and strengthened the credit of the government, though the controls on this process were either ineffective or non existent. The long wars, and the greed of the courtiers, made it necessary at times for Fouquet to meet the demand for funds by borrowing upon his own good credit. The disorder in the accounts became hopeless, but was also normalthe kingdom had a long history of poorly controlled royal finances. In any case, debt issuance could not resolve the deplorable economic situation of the realm without an underlying ability and willingness to rein in expenditures and to bring in tax revenues. Fouquet became the central actor in a debt situation that was fundamentally untenable. Fouquet had drawn up a plan to bring some order to public finances, but he never made progress in implementing it, though it was taken up later by Colbert. fed the king's displeasure with adverse reports about the deficit and unflattering reports about Fouquet. However, Fouquet had some protectionshis high position at the parlement (he remained procureur général) gave him immunity from prosecution by any authority except the Parlement, which he largely controlled. At Vaux and other major properties he owned (notably, his estate in Saint Mandé, which bordered on the Château de Vincennes), Fouquet gathered rare manuscripts, paintings, jewels and antiques in profusion, and above all surrounded himself with artists and authors. Jean de La Fontaine, Pierre Corneille, Madame de Sevigné and Paul Scarron were a few of the many artists and authors who received his invitations, and for some, his patronage. Heightening the concerns of the king, Fouquet was found to have ordered several warships in the Netherlands, which could have served both his colonial ambitions and as an implicit threat to the king. The king was also concerned about Fouquet’s carefully cultivated network of friends and clients, which made him one of the most influential individuals in the realm. As a child, Louis had observed the armed conflict that threatened his monarchy during the Fronde and had solid reasons to be concerned about rebellion. As superintendent, Fouquet headed the enormously wealthy and influential corps of partisans (tax farmers), which, if challenged as a group, could have caused the king serious trouble. By crafty devices, Fouquet was induced to sell his office of procureur général, causing him to lose his immunity from royal prosecution; he paid the money received from the sale (about 1 million livres) into the royal treasury as a gesture to earn the favor of the king. :140,:156 and the trial was held in written formFouquet, a convincing orator, was not allowed to speak in his own defense. The accusations that were the subject of the trial could be punishable by death. :156 The king, disappointed with what he regarded as a lenient decision, "commuted" the sentence to life imprisonment at the fort of Pignerol and confiscation of Fouquet's property. :167 He also launched a vendetta against Fouquet's friends, supporters and family., The former minister bore his imprisonment with fortitude; he composed several translations and devotionals there.

Fouquet's story is often entwined with that of the Man in the Iron Mask, who is often identified as the true king or even as an identical twin brother of Louis XIV. As such, he is a pivotal character in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne, where he is depicted heroically. Aramis, an ally of Fouquet, tries to seize power by replacing Louis XIV with his identical twin brother. It is Fouquet who, out of sheer loyalty to the crown, foils Aramis' plot and saves Louis. This does not, however, prevent his downfall. James Whale's film The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) is very loosely adapted from Dumas' novel, and by contrast, depicts Fouquet as the story's main villain, who tries to keep the existence of the king's twin brother a secret. Fouquet is portrayed by Joseph Schildkraut. In the 1977 version, Fouquet is portrayed by Patrick McGoohan. In The Fifth Musketeer (1979), based on the same novel, he is portrayed by Ian McShane. In a departure from history, most of these films show him dying in the 1660s. Fouquet was portrayed by Robert Lindsay in Nick Dear's play Power. Fouquet's life (and his rivalry with Colbert) is one of the background plots/stories in the historical novel Imprimatur by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti. Fouquet and his arrest also figure prominently in Roberto Rossellini's 1966 film The Taking of Power by Louis XIV, where Fouquet is played by Pierre Barrat. In the second of Peter Greenaway's Tulse Luper films, a Nazi general by the name of Foestling, played by Marcel Iureș, becomes obsessed with Fouquet and attempts to recreate his life and death. Fouquet is described but not mentioned by name in an episode of HBO's The Sopranos. Where Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. makes a comparison of Underboss Johnny Sacrimoni to King Louis' finance minister who tried to outshine him and his estate, who in the end was imprisoned. The page numbers the biographies of Fouquet written by Dessert and Petitfils are taken from the French Wikipedia article about Fouquet.