Jacques Cœur
[2] About 1429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named Godard; and in 1432 he was at Damascus, buying and bartering, and transporting the wares of the Levant—gall-nuts, wools and silks, mohair, brocades and carpets—to the interior of France by way of Narbonne.
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 of Italy, and acquired such a reputation as to be able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the knights of Rhodes and to Venice itself.
[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.
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.
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 in Guienne.
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.
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 of Rhodes.
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.
They had partial success when Antoine de Chabannes, who had appropriated and bought Cœur's domains in Puisaye, himself lost royal favor upon the accession of King Louis XI in the early 1460s.
Streets and squares named after Jacques Cœur exist in numerous French towns and cities, including Bourges, Montpellier, and Paris.
These include a marketplace in the Antigone neighborhood along the Lez; an artificial lake, the Bassin Jacques Cœur in the city's new Port Marianne [fr] district; and a theater in Lattes.
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 four galleys) 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.
