On August 17, 1661, Nicolas Fouquet — Finance Minister of France and one of the wealthiest men in all of Europe — made the worst mistake of his life: he threw a party. At his newly completed château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, south of Paris, he hosted a celebration so breathtaking that the young King Louis XIV stood speechless. And in that moment, Fouquet's fate was sealed forever.
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Crowns & Conquests·2/2·1′
The place
Palace of Versailles
The Sun King's Fury
How one party changed history — the night that birthed Versailles
Reign of Louis XIV (1661)Palace of Versailles
Moral of the Story
“Never outshine the master — the most dangerous thing in a kingdom is making the king feel small.”
Characters
L
Louis XIVN
Nicolas FouquetD
d'ArtagnanM
MolièreA
André Le NôtreA
Anne of AustriaSource
Voltaire, "Le Siècle de Louis XIV"; Saint-Simon's Memoirs; historical records of the Fouquet trial