Vaux was the tragic
setting for the downfall of Minister Fouquet who paid the price
of life imprisonment because of an embezzlement he did not commit
and because of the jealousy of others.
 Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680) who ordered the
construction of Vaux-le-Vicomte was descended from a line
of parliamentarians. His father, François Fouquet was
maritime and commercial affairs to Cardinal Richelieu.
His own career was marked by a rapid rise as finance
minister to Louis XIV of France.It was at Vaux, that Fouquet gave an incomparable "fête" in honor of his King on 17 August 1661. Guests were enchanted by the promenade, dinner, theatricals and fireworks. Mistakenly, the extravagance of these entertainments has often been understood to have been the chief cause of Fouquet's downfall. Voltaire himself was to add to the myth writing; "On 17 August at 6 in the evening, Fouquet was King of France; at 2 in the morning, he was nobody." Following a trial on trumped-up charges of embezzlement designed by his ambitious enemy Colbert, Louis XIV sentenced his former finance minister to life-imprisonment. At the same time the king placed under lock and key certain sensitive state secrets to which he suspected Fouquet was privy. This theory has led a number of authors, among them Alexandre Dumas in "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," to link the fate of Fouquet with that of the man in the iron mask. |
For a period of ten years
under Fouquet's protection, Vaux was also a haven for leading
French artists. Writers, poets, painters and sculptors gave the
best of their talents to the glory of Vaux.
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Jean DE LA FONTAINE (1621-1695). This great French poet who was born in Chateau-Thiérry was a protégé of Fouquet. |
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Jean-Baptiste POQUELIN, known as MOLIERE (1622-1673) This famous French playwright was born in Paris, the son of a tapestry maker, and valet de chambre to the King. At Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1661 he performed the Ecole des Maris and then a ballet-comedy written for the fête of August 17 called Les Fâcheux. His greatest works make use of type-cast but vivid characters to attack personal or public vices. |