Fouquet

Fouquet, Nicolas (1615-1680), a French financier, born of a good Breton family. In 1650 he was made procureur-general, and in 1653 surintendant des finances as a reward for his loyalty in the struggle with the Fronde. He was afterwards, however, accused of wasting and devoting to-his own purposes the public funds, one special accusation being that he employed 18 millions in building a chateau for himself. The king, spurred on by Colbert and jealous of certain alleged pretensions upon Fouquet's part towards Louise de la Valliere, allowed him to be arrested and tried before a commission, the result of the trial - which lasted four years - being a lifelong imprisonment. La Fontaine, Madame de Sevigne, and others vainly pleaded for Fouquet.