Fouquet

Also known as: Abbe Fouquet / M. Fouquet / M. le Surintendant Fouquet / Monsieur Fouquet / monsieur le surintendant / the intendant / the minister / the superintendent / the superintendent of finances / the superintendent of the finances / the surintendant-general · Family: Royal court · Role: superintendent of finances · First appears: Chapter 17

In chapter 17, Fouquet secured Aramis’s nomination as bishop and was his patron; they also preached and hunted together. As superintendent of finances, he served Louis XIV, while Colbert examined his administration and revealed that it had left the state financially exhausted. Fouquet and Colbert became rivals and enemies, and when Colbert was appointed intendant of the finances, Fouquet’s position was threatened. He also sat in council with Lyonne and Letellier.

At Saint-Mande in chapter 54, Fouquet’s connections included D’Eymeris and Lyodot, whom he called friends, while Gourville was his friend and D’Eymeris one of his creatures. He was married to Madame Fouquet, though he said he saw little of her, and he courted Marquise de Belliere and Marguerite Vanel, who still loved him. Madame de Plessis-Belliere accepted him as a tender friend but refused to become his mistress. Fouquet reconciled with his brother Abbe Fouquet in chapter 55—“Then we are friends?” said the abbe, with a bow. “Oh, yes, friends.”—and funded his expenses and armed men. He also employed Vatel, doubled his salary, directed Gourville, and maintained a household of friends and protégés including La Fontaine, Pelisson, Conrart, and Loret.

When D’Eymeris and Lyodot were condemned to hang, Fouquet arranged their rescue with Abbe Fouquet, giving him one hundred thousand livres and establishing the escape route. He paid D’Artagnan twenty thousand livres and gave him D’Eymeris’s diamond, prompting D’Artagnan to withhold evidence and spare his life. Fouquet’s fortifications at Belle-Isle, its garrison, and its corsairs were then discovered; advised by Aramis, he went to the king, revealed that Belle-Isle had been fortified, and offered Louis XIV its proprietorship while retaining the usufruct. When Louis XIV demanded a million livres, Fouquet ordered Colbert to remit nine hundred thousand livres in gold that evening.