Jacques Cœur (/kɜːr/,[1]French:[kœʁ];c. 1395 inBourges – 25 November 1456 inChios) was a French government official and state-sponsored merchant whose personal fortune became legendary and led to his eventual disgrace. He initiated regular trade routes betweenFrance and theLevant. His memory retains iconic status inBourges, where he built a palatial house that is preserved to this day.
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He was born atBourges, the city where his father, Pierre Cœur, was a rich merchant. Jacques is first heard of around 1418, when he married Macée de Léodepart, daughter of Lambert de Léodepart, an influential citizen, provost of Bourges and a formervalet ofJohn, Duke of Berry.[2]
About 1429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named Godard; and in 1432 he was atDamascus, buying andbartering, and transporting the wares of the Levant—gall-nuts,wools andsilks,mohair,brocades andcarpets—to the interior of France by way ofNarbonne. In the same year he established himself atMontpellier, and there began the gigantic operations which have made him illustrious among financiers. Details are wanting; but it is certain that in a few years he placed his country in a position to contend fairly well with the great trading republics ofItaly, and acquired such a reputation as to be able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the knights ofRhodes and toVenice itself.[2]
In 1436, Cœur was summoned to Paris byCharles VII and made master of the mint. This post was of great importance, and the duties onerous. The country was deluged with base monies from three reigns, charged with superscriptions both in French and English, and Charles was determined to make sweeping reforms. In this design he was ably seconded by the merchant, who, in fact, inspired or prepared all the ordinances concerning the coinage of France issued between 1435 and 1451. In 1438, he was made steward of the royal expenditure; in 1441 he and his family were ennobled by letters patent. He chose the mottoA vaillans cuers riens impossible, "To a valiant heart, nothing is impossible". In 1444, he was sent as one of the royal commissioners to preside over the new parliament ofLanguedoc inPézenas, where his house can still be seen, a position he held until the day of his disgrace. In 1445, his agents in the East negotiated a treaty between the sultan ofEgypt and the knights of Rhodes; and in 1447, at his instance, Jean de Village, his nephew by marriage, was charged with a mission to Egypt.[3] The results were most important; concessions were obtained which greatly improved the position of the French consuls in the Levant, and that influence in the East was thereby founded which, though often interrupted, was for several centuries a chief commercial glory for France. In the same year, Cœur assisted in an embassy toAmadeus VIII, formerDuke of Savoy, who had been chosen Pope asFelix V by thecouncil of Basel and in 1448 he represented the French king at the court ofPope Nicholas V where he was able to arrange an agreement between Nicholas and Amadeus, and so end the papal schism. Nicholas treated him with the utmost distinction, lodged him in the papal palace, and gave him special licence to traffic with the infidels. From about this time he made advances to Charles to carry on his wars and in 1449, after fighting at the King's side throughout the campaign, he enteredRouen in Charles' triumphal procession.[2]
At this point, Cœur's glory was at its height. He had represented France in three embassies, and had supplied funding for the king's successful reconquest ofNormandy. He was invested with various offices of state, and possessed a fortune that was viewed as colossal and unprecedented by his contemporaries. He had 300 managers in his employ, and business houses in many of the chief cities of France. He had built houses and chapels, and had founded colleges inParis, atMontpellier and atBourges.[2] ThePalais Jacques-Cœur in Bourges was exceptionally magnificent and remains today one of the finest monuments of the Middle Ages in France.[4] He also built a sacristy and a family burial chapel inBourges Cathedral. His brother Nicolas Cœur was madeBishop of Luçon, his sister married Jean Bochetel, the King's secretary, his daughter married the son of the Viscount of Bourges, and his son Jean Cœur becameArchbishop of Bourges.[2]
Cœur also actively acquired titles and properties during his heyday: e.g. thelordship of Ainay-le-Vieil in 1435, the Château de Boisy byPouilly-les-Nonains in 1447, the Château deMenetou-Salon and the lordship ofBarlieu in 1448, the lordship ofPuisaye in 1450, theChâteau de Maubranche [fr] in 1451.[5]
Cœur's huge monopoly also caused his ruin. Dealing in everything (money and arms, furs and jewels, brocades and wool), and acting as a broker, banker, and farmer, he had absorbed much of the trade of the country, and merchants complained they could make no profit because of him. He had lent money to needy courtiers, to members of the royal family, and to the King himself, and his debtors, jealous of his wealth, were eager for a chance to cause his downfall.[2]
In February 1450Agnès Sorel, the King's mistress, suddenly died. Eighteen months later it was rumoured that she had been poisoned, and a lady of the court who owed money to Jacques Cœur, Jeanne de Vendôme, wife of François de Montberon, and an Italian, Jacques Colonna, formally accused him of having poisoned her. There was not even a pretext for such a charge, but for this and other alleged crimes, King Charles VII on 31 July 1451 gave orders for his arrest and for the seizure of his goods, reserving for himself a large sum of money for the war inGuienne. Commissioners extraordinary, several of which were among Cœur's enemies at the royal court, were chosen to conduct the trial and an inquiry began, the judges in which were either the prisoner's debtors or the holders of his forfeited estates. He was accused of having paid French gold and ingots to Muslim infidels, of coining light money, of kidnapping oarsmen for his galleys, of sending back a Christian slave who had taken sanctuary on board one of his ships, and of committing frauds and exactions in Languedoc to the King's prejudice. He defended himself with all the energy of his nature. His innocence was manifest but a conviction was necessary, and in spite of strenuous efforts on the part of his friends, after twenty-two months of confinement in five prisons, he was condemned to do public penance for his fault, to pay the king a sum equal to about £1,000,000 in 1911,[2] (about £98.8 MM in June 2024) and to remain a prisoner till full satisfaction had been obtained. His sentence also included confiscation of all his property, and exile during His Majesty's pleasure.[2]
On 5 June 1453 the sentence took effect. AtPoitiers, the shame of making honourable amends was accomplished and for nearly three years nothing is known of him. It is probable that he remained in prison. Meanwhile, his vast possessions were distributed among Charles VII's favorite courtiers.
In 1455 Jacques Cœur contrived to escape from France intoProvence. He was pursued, but a party headed by Jean de Village and two of his old managers, carried him off toTarascon, whence, by way ofMarseille,Nice andPisa, he managed to reachRome. He was honorably and joyfully received by Nicholas V,[2] who was fitting out an expedition against the Turks. On the death of Nicholas,Calixtus III continued his work, and made his guest, Cœur, captain[2] of a fleet of sixteen galleys sent to the relief ofRhodes.[2] Cœur set out on this expedition, but was taken ill on the island ofChios, and died there on 25 November 1456. After his death Charles VII showed himself well disposed to the family, and allowed Jacques Cœur's sons to inherit whatever was left of their father's wealth.[2]
Following Cœur's disgrace and death, his heirs attempted to recover some of his former properties in legal procedures that lasted several decades. They had partial success whenAntoine de Chabannes, who had appropriated and bought Cœur's domains inPuisaye, himself lost royal favor upon the accession of KingLouis XI in the early 1460s. The reversal, however, was short-lived, and Chabannes recovered all the titles and properties by special provisions of theTreaty of Conflans in 1465. The procedures were finally settled in 1489 between the Cœurs and Jean de Chabannes, Antoine's son and sole male heir.
The urban palace Jacques Cœur had built for himself inBourges, orPalais Jacques-Cœur, is a major monument of French 15th-century civil architecture. It was converted into a court house in the 19th century, and carefully restored in the 20th century.
Other buildings are allegedly or inaccurately associated with Jacques Coeur. Themaison de Jacques Cœur in Paris is generally viewed as having been built or purchased by Jacques Cœur's sonGeoffrey, thus a misnomer.[6] Other ancient houses are known asmaison de Jacques Cœur, inPézenas,Sancerre, andL'Arbresle.[7]
During theSecond French Empire, Jacques Cœur was celebrated as a precursor of the policy of economic expansion promoted byNapoleon III.[8] He was portrayed byÉlias Robert as one of a series of statues of illustrious Frenchmen inNapoleon III's Louvre expansion. Another public statue of Jacques Cœur, by sculptorAuguste Préault, was erected in 1879 inBourges in front of the entrance to his palace.[9]
He was portrayed on a French banknote, theBillet de 50 francs Jacques Cœur [fr] designed at the end of theThird Republic, in use underVichy France and until June 1945.
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Streets and squares named after Jacques Cœur exist in numerous French towns and cities, includingBourges,Montpellier, andParis. Bourges honored its native son in multiple instances, e.g. theLycée Jacques-Cœur [fr] (Cœur High School) and theThéâtre Jacques Cœur (Cœur Theater). In Montpellier, Jacques Cœur is associated with the development of the local port ofLattes. Several projects were named after him in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as the city expanded towards the sea along the riverLez. These include a marketplace in theAntigone neighborhood along the Lez; an artificial lake, theBassin Jacques Cœur in the city's newPort Marianne [fr] district; and a theater inLattes.
TheRoute Jacques Coeur [fr] is ascenic route that links together a number of sights and castles nearBourges, many of which however have no historical associations with Jacques Cœur.
In a 1997 biography,[10] French historianJacques Heers [fr] revises the established view in French historiography, according to which Jacques Coeur exhibited outstanding skills and success as a merchant. He notes that there is no evidence that Cœur's ventures, e.g. in mining near Lyon, were particularly profitable, and that the fleet he established for Levantine commerce was modest in size (never more than fourgalleys) compared with those of prominent Italian or Catalan merchants. Instead, Heers suggests that Cœur's success was overwhelmingly due to his position at the royal court, and that his riches came from leveraging his privileged access to state resources. Thus, Heers implies that, rather than a brilliant merchant, Cœur is best viewed as a skilledtechnocrat and a predecessor to the likes ofNicolas Fouquet orJean-Baptiste Colbert.
François Villon, in his poemÉpitaphe, refers to Cœur's fabled wealth:
De pauvreté me guermantant,
Souventes fois me dit le cœur :
"Homme, ne te doulouse tant
Et ne démène tel douleur:
Si tu n'as tant qu'eut Jacques Cœur,
Mieux vaux vivre sous gros bureau
Pauvre, qu'avoir été seigneur
Et pourrir sous riche tombeau."
To ease my poverty,
my heart sometimes says to me:
"Don't fret so
and go crazy with pain:
If you haven't as much as Jacques Cœur,
it's better to live in your coarse burrel,
poor, than to have been lord
and rot in your rich tomb."
Jacques Cœur appears inFulcanelli'sMystère des Cathédrales (1926) where the "master alchemist" speculates that Cœur was a successful alchemist or associated with alchemists and that he was a silversmith in the literal sense, i.e. that he could transmute base metals into small quantities of silver.
Jacques Cœur (referred to simply as “Monsieur Jacques”) appears inMikhail Bulgakov's novelThe Master and Margarita as the first guest atWoland's grand ball.
He is the titular protagonist ofLe Grand Cœur, a 2012 novel byJean-Christophe Rufin who was also born inBourges.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cœur, Jacques".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 645–646.
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