Jacques Coeur

• Born: c. 1395
• Birthplace: Bourges, France
• Died: November 25, 1456
• Place of death: possibly Chios, Greece

French merchant, statesman, and financier

Coeur, a fifteenth century merchant, trader, and financier, amassed the greatest fortune ever made by an individual Frenchman. His innovations and business methods had lasting effects on medieval commerce and trade. As a wealthy entrepreneur, he created trade routes in France and opened up French trade with the Levant.

Sources of wealth: Trade; inheritance

Bequeathal of wealth: Relatives; confiscated

Early Life

Jacques Coeur (jahk kur) was born in Bourges, France, around 1395. He was the son of Pierre Coeur and Dame Bacquelier, the widow of a butcher. Pierre was a furrier of modest fortune; his marriage advanced him in the society of Bourges, since the Butchers’ Corporation was one of the more powerful trade guilds in the city. Jacques’s brother Nicolas became archbishop of Luçon, and his sister married Jean Bochetel, secretary to the king. Jacques was educated at the École de la Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges but did not attend university. From an early age, he intended to be a merchant like his father.

In 1418 or 1420, Coeur married Macée de Léodepart, the daughter of the provost of Bourges and former valet of the duc de Berry. The marriage placed Coeur in the top tier of Bourges society. He and his wife had five children of whom there is a record. Two of the children, Jean and Henri, entered the Church, with Jean becoming archbishop of Bourges and Henri appointed canon of la Sainte Chapelle. Another son, Geoffroy, entered the king’s service as a functionary; Ravand joined his father in business; and Coeur’s only daughter, Perrette, married Jacquelin Trousseau, the viconte de Bourges.

First Ventures

Soon after his marriage and with the aid of his mother-in-law, who had been previously married to a banker, Coeur became a manager of one of the twelve exchange houses of Bourges. In 1429, he founded a coinage business with two associates. He was accused of falsifying the quality of his coins and faced imprisonment. However, King Charles VII granted him a pardon.

In 1432, Coeur made his first trip to the Levant with a group of merchants from Montpellier. There is considerable disagreement among scholars of the Middle Ages as to the purpose of his travels. The trip could have been a spiritual pilgrimage, a diplomatic mission for the duc de Bourgogne, an investigative expedition to scrutinize the Muslims in preparation for a Crusade, or a voyage to establish trade with the Levant. Although Coeur did eventually establish a highly profitable trading business with Levantine merchants, he did so twelve years later; it is not very probable that trade was the purpose of the 1432 trip. However, he did return to France with knowledge he would use to build his vast trading empire.

Mature Wealth

Once back in France, Coeur established a trading company and exchange at Montpellier. He quickly built a reputation as an astute financier and trader. He became involved in the silk industry at Florence, where he had a silk-manufacturing facility. He joined the Arte della Seta, the silk makers’ guild. In 1436, Charles VII summoned him to Paris and bestowed the office of argentier (master of the mint) on him. Coeur served in this office from 1436 to 1451, having complete control of the ordinances governing the coinage of France. In 1438, Charles VII made Coeur the court banker and a member of the king’s council. Coeur also became the collector of the salt tax.

Holding these offices placed Coeur in a most advantageous situation for expanding his business activities and increasing his wealth. He was in contact with all members of the royal court and all of the foreign countries with which France dealt politically and commercially. Consequently, he was able to acquire goods from all regions of France and from many other countries. He became involved in the salt market in the Loire and Rhone Valleys and in the wheat market in Aquitaine, and he imported wool from Scotland. He also began to import spices, cloth, and other products from the Levant. He established a trade circuit which commercially linked the French cities of Paris, Rouen, Montpellier, Lyons, Avignon, and Limoges.

In 1444, he outfitted his first ship for trading with the Levant. By1449, he had a fleet of seven trading ships and had established trading houses and exchanges in major towns in France, including Paris, Montpellier, Marseille, Lyons, and Tours. His trade with the Levant increased his wealth through the sale of merchandise, but, more important, it enabled him to make enormous profits from the differences in the currencies of France and other countries. By 1449, Coeur possessed a fortune whose worth no other individual Frenchman would ever match. He established himself as the creditor of Charles VII and the members of the royal court.

Evidence of his wealth was visible throughout France as he purchased and built private houses and chapels in his native Bourges, in Lyons, and elsewhere. Coeur owned property throughout France. In 1443, he began construction of his grande maison (great house) at Bourges. The building was extraordinary for its time both in size and in elaborateness of decoration.

In addition to his involvement in trade and finance, Coeur played a very important role in the affairs of state both in France and abroad. In 1444, Charles VII sent him to the Languedoc as one of the commissioners charged with overseeing the newly established parliament there. In 1448, he visited Pope Nicholas V at the Vatican. While there, Coeur succeeded in bringing about an agreement between Nicholas V and Amadeus VIII (Antipope Felix X), which ended the papal schism.

Coeur’s relationship with Charles VII provided many of the avenues that enabled him to attain his great wealth, but it also brought about his downfall. Coeur was favored by both the king and his mistress Agnès Sorel, who was the first of the royal mistresses to exert significant political influence. In 1441, the king granted letters of patent to the Coeur family, which gave it status as nobility. The king placed Coeur in a most influential position in his government. Coeur in return provided assistance, primarily in terms of money, to the king. However, he also assisted the king and his mistress in more private ways. Coeur’s son-in-law Jacquelin Trousseau owned the Château Bois-Sir-Aimé near Bourges, where Charles VII and Sorel wished to spend their summers. The residence was in very poor condition, and Coeur paid to have it renovated for the king and Sorel. Coeur was among Sorel’s favorites, and he served as her confidant. Given her influence over Charles VII, it is very possible that Coeur owed much to her for the favors he received from the king.

Whatever the case may have been, Sorel’s death in 1450 brought about Coeur’s downfall. With the death of Sorel, Coeur lost his protection at court, and Charles VII lost the one person who was able to dispel his depression. It was rumored that Sorel had been poisoned, and soon accusations against Coeur as the murderer reached the king. Scholars have clearly established Coeur’s innocence and emphasized the extreme jealousy and animosity of the courtiers toward Coeur, an ennobled bourgeois and extremely wealthy upstart to whom most of the courtiers owed large sums of money. Another factor which probably influenced Charles VII was his intense hatred of his son Louis. While Coeur remained loyal to the king, he also had an amiable relationship with Louis.

On July 31, 1450, Coeur was arrested at the Château de Taillebourg. He was charged with treason to the king, poisoning Sorel, practicing alchemy, and financial wrongdoing. He was imprisoned at Poitiers, tortured, forced to admit guilt, and brought to trial with the king’s prosecutor Jean Dauvet presiding. Coeur’s sentence to death was proclaimed on May 23, 1453, and read to him on June 3. Due to the intervention of Pope Nicholas V, the sentence was reduced to imprisonment until such time as Coeur would manage to pay a fine of 550,000 livres. On October 27, 1454, Coeur escaped from Poitiers, and with the help of his family and others he managed to reach Rome, where he found protection with Nicholas V. In 1456, he left Rome on an expedition supposedly to fight the infidels. Coeur died on November 25, 1456, possibly at Chios, Greece.

Legacy

Jacques Coeur was an outstanding businessman and entrepreneur. His activities as a trader and financier created a trade network within France and also opened up new markets in other European countries and in the Levant. His system of setting up separate companies for his various business ventures was revolutionary for his time. By hiring managers and agents to represent him in exchanges and stores in towns throughout France, he developed a multilevel business organization, which was in a sense a precursor of the modern structure of business. In addition, his enormous wealth sustained France and enabled Charles VII to finance the troops necessary to halt the English conquest. Coeur’s grande maison, which he had built in Bourges at the height of his success as an entrepreneur, is one of the most beautiful and impressive structures in France. As he amassed his fortune, his influence had an important impact on France, and by consequence the world, in the areas of international trade and business entrepreneurship.

Bibliography

Bishop, Morris. The Middle Ages. New York: American Heritage, 2001. Good introductory text about the Middle Ages. Treats towns and trade, the role of the bourgeoisie, and how merchants, such as Coeur, changed the economic base from land to money.

Hunt, Edwin, and James Murray. A History of Business in Medieval Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Discusses the development of guilds and corporations, and how business changed in the fifteenth century. Includes a list of further readings.

Lopez, Robert S. The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. In-depth presentation of daily activities of merchants and traders, including marketplaces, contracts, loans, agents, factors, and means of exchange.

Potter, David, and William Doyle, eds. France in the Later Middle Ages, 1200-1500. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Covers French politics and society, including the Hundred Years’ War, the nobility, and the king and his officials, with special attention to the financial officers and the king’s revenues.

Reyerson, Kathryn L. Jacques Coeur: Entrepreneur and King’s Bursar. New York: Longman, 2004. One of the few biographies of Coeur in English. Well researched and current. Recounts Coeur’s career in a historical context.