Great merchant of medieval France, "the king’s purse"
The richest merchant of fifteenth-century France, self-made, who built a vast trading network spanning the Mediterranean and reaching the East, dealing in spices, silk, gold and silver — rich as a state. He became chief financial officer and creditor to King Charles VII, funding France to win the last stage of the Hundred Years’ War with his own money. But wealth draws lightning: too rich and too influential, he was finally framed by the king, his fortune confiscated, and exiled — his life the very fate of the medieval merchant: one may be rich as a state, yet always depends on, and is at the mercy of, royal power.
Jacques Cœur’s family motto was "to a valiant heart, nothing is impossible." He grew rich enough to lend a king money for war, yet precisely because he was too rich and too influential, he drew suspicion. When the king turned on him, he was charged with poisoning the queen and dealing with infidels, and his whole fortune seized. He proved the dilemma of the medieval merchant: wealth makes you indispensable, and also the prey power most covets.
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