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