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No doubt Louis XIV's famous visit to Vaux-le-Vicomte gave him his first idea of what Versailles might become. Like many people of mixed blood he was a strong nationalist; at the newly built Vaux he first saw the perfection of contemporary French taste, free from that Italian influence which had hitherto been fashionable. Its master, Nicolas Fouquet, gave a house-warming there, 17 August 1661, and invited six thousand people to meet the King. It proved to be his own farewell party; the King, with mingled admiration and fury, examined the establishment in all its sumptuous detail and decided that Fouquet's ostentation (luxe insolent et audacieuxe) was unsuitable for a subject and intolerable for a minister of finance. He did not modify this view as the evening wore on and such gifts as diamond tiaras and saddle-horses were distributed to the guests. Louis returned Fouquet's hospitality by clapping him in gaol and we seldom hear of other people giving parties for the King.
Mazarin had just died and Fouquest's real crime was ambition: he was intriguing to make himself head of the government. Had Louis XIV been the man everybody supposed him to be, Fouquet would have ruled both King and country; Louis however had other ideas and to put them into practice he was obliged to get rid of this clever, unscrupulous statesman. . . [s]o Fouquet went to his long martyrdom in the fortress of Pignerol.
Comments (1)
Nancy Mitford, about Vaux-le-Vicomte:
No doubt Louis XIV's famous visit to Vaux-le-Vicomte gave him his first idea of what Versailles might become. Like many people of mixed blood he was a strong nationalist; at the newly built Vaux he first saw the perfection of contemporary French taste, free from that Italian influence which had hitherto been fashionable. Its master, Nicolas Fouquet, gave a house-warming there, 17 August 1661, and invited six thousand people to meet the King. It proved to be his own farewell party; the King, with mingled admiration and fury, examined the establishment in all its sumptuous detail and decided that Fouquet's ostentation (luxe insolent et audacieuxe) was unsuitable for a subject and intolerable for a minister of finance. He did not modify this view as the evening wore on and such gifts as diamond tiaras and saddle-horses were distributed to the guests. Louis returned Fouquet's hospitality by clapping him in gaol and we seldom hear of other people giving parties for the King.
Mazarin had just died and Fouquest's real crime was ambition: he was intriguing to make himself head of the government. Had Louis XIV been the man everybody supposed him to be, Fouquet would have ruled both King and country; Louis however had other ideas and to put them into practice he was obliged to get rid of this clever, unscrupulous statesman. . . [s]o Fouquet went to his long martyrdom in the fortress of Pignerol.