in 1761. Fouquet was one of the most prominent actors in the crowded and momentous scenes of the earlier part of the eighteenth century, and exercised a potent influence over the political affairs of the continent of Europe. During the first half of that century his armour was scarcely ever put off. From the first battle of Hochstadt in 1703 to the peace of 1748, his career was one of constant warfare. He served in Germany and on the Rhine under Harcourt and Berwick; fought against Spain in 1719; and again, after a considerable period of service on the frontier, found himself under the banner of Berwick with the army of the Rhine. On the death of the emperor, Charles VI., he was sent to Germany as ambassador-extraordinary, and in that capacity supported the claims of the elector of Bavaria to the vacant throne. He is blamed for inducing the French king to enter the Seven Years' war. It added largely, however, to Fouquet's already numerous honours, for in his conduct of the army of Bohemia during its retreat from Prague, he showed the most consummate strategy. He afterwards commanded in Piedmont the army of Don Phillip, infanta of Spain; and on his return to France, having already been created Marechal de Belle-Isle, he was raised to the peerage and admitted a member of the academy. In 1758 he was intrusted with the ministry of war. Belle-Isle bore an honourable character, and had the good of his country much at heart. He was, perhaps, even more distinguished as a diplomatist than a soldier.—R. M., A.
FOUQUET, Guillaume, Marquis de la Varenne, was a native of La Flèche, and rose from an obscure station to important diplomatic service under Henri IV. of France. His intrigues at the convention of Blois, his zeal in collecting resources against the duke de Mayenne, and the dexterity with which he personated a messenger of the league at the court of Spain, procured for him a seat in the council of state and the office of lieutenant-general in Anjou. He died in 1616.—W. B.
FOUQUET, Henri, a French physician, was born at Montpellier in 1727, and died there in 1806. He early showed a predilection for the study of medicine; but his father having put him to business, it was only when he had arrived at the age of thirty-two that he began to prepare himself for his favourite profession. He obtained the chair of clinical medicine at Montpellier, and became so distinguished as a teacher that his methods were reported and imitated in most of the countries of Europe. Fouquet wrote a number of valuable works.—R. M., A.
FOUQUET, Nicolas, Viscount de Melun and de Vaux, Marquis de Belle-Isle, a celebrated French statesman, was the son of Francis, viscount de Vaux, and was born in 1615. At an early age he gave proofs of ability and spirit. When only twenty he was appointed master of requests; and in 1650 he obtained the office of procurator-general of the parliament of Paris. This situation enabled him to render important services to the queen-mother and to Cardinal Mazarin; and he was rewarded in 1653 by the appointment, along with Servien, to the office of superintendent of the finances. There are very conflicting accounts respecting the manner in which he discharged the duties of this laborious and responsible situation. His friends affirm that he not only borrowed large sums on his personal credit, but even sold a portion of his own estate, to furnish the means of defraying the expenses of the court and the army; while others assert that he enriched himself at the public expense, both by peculation and by dishonest transactions with the farmers-general. Fouquet was for some time the creature of Mazarin, but ultimately became alienated from the prime minister, and plotted his overthrow. After the death of his colleague Servien, in 1659, his influence was vastly augmented, and he lavished great sums of money, with the view of increasing the number of his partisans, and preparing for the coming struggle. He gained over Admiral Nuchèze Crequi, commander of the galleys, Marshals de Gramont and d'Aumont, and many other persons of influence, along with the queen-mother, and had also attached to him, by his liberality, a number of eminent men of letters; among others, Moliere, La Fontaine, Le Vaux the architect, and Le Brun the painter. Mazarin died before the intrigues of Fouquet were brought to a head. On his deathbed the cardinal recommended the celebrated Colbert to the attention of Louis XIV., partly, it is alleged, out of hatred to Fouquet. Be this as it may, on the death of Mazarin Louis resolved in future to be his own minister, and placed Colbert at the head of the financial department. It is said that an investigation into the state of the public finances brought to light serious malversations on the part of Fouquet, and his ruin was decided on. Meanwhile Louis acted with the most profound dissimulation, loaded him with caresses and marks of favour, and shortly before his arrest accepted of a magnificent entertainment from him at his splendid mansion of Vaux. The minister received several warnings of his danger, but his fears were entirely dispelled by this behaviour on the part of the king. He was at length suddenly arrested at Nantes in September, 1661; all his papers were at the same time seized, and his estates confiscated. He was brought to trial on a charge of peculation and of treason. The process lasted for three years, and he was at length found guilty, and condemned to death. Through the intercession of his numerous and influential friends, who did not desert him in his adversity, the sentence was commuted into perpetual imprisonment. He was conveyed to the castle of Pignerol, and died there of apoplexy, 25th March, 1680. A work entitled "Conseils de la Sagessee," has been attributed to him, but it is also claimed for Father Bontauld.—J. T.
FOUQUIER, Pierre-Eloy, a French physician, was born in 1776, and died in 1850. He was very successful as a practitioner and teacher of medicine, and was in 1820 appointed professor to the faculty of Paris. Fouquier rendered valuable services to his country during the continental blockade, and whilst the typhus was ravaging France. After the death of Marc he became first physician to Louis Philippe, and shortly afterwards received the decoration of the legion of honour.—R. M., A.
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, Antoine Quentin, the infamous public accuser during the Reign of terror in France, was born at Herouel, near St. Quentin, in 1747. He was the son of a farmer, and at an early age repaired to Paris to seek his fortune. In 1781, some eulogistic verses of no great merit, which he addressed to Louis XVI., procured him the situation of clerk in the police establishment. When the Revolution broke out, Fouquier ranged himself on the side of the extreme democratic party, and was deep in their counsels. He became the friend of Robespierre and Danton, and from his intelligence, coolness, and sanguinary principles, was deemed by them worthy to be appointed public accuser. He discharged the duties of his office in a way which fully realized the expectations of his masters, and was seldom absent from the tribunal by day, or the committee of public safety by night. Persons of both sexes and all ages; the innocent and the guilty; royalists, Girondins, and Jacobins; his own associates, Hebert, Clootz, Danton, and Desmoulins—were accused and hurried to the scaffold by this monster with the coolest indifference. On one occasion he procured the condemnation of no fewer than eighty individuals in four hours; and yet the committee of public safety, not satisfied with this dreadful amount of bloodshed, incessantly urged him to accelerate the executions. Even on the day of Robespierre's arrest, he signed the condemnation of forty-two victims, complacently observing that justice must have her course. The fall of that sanguinary tyrant, however, deprived Fouquier of his most powerful protector, and he was at length brought to trial, 8th May, 1795, before that tribunal which had been the scene of his own atrocities. He was condemned, and executed next day along with fifteen judges and jurors of the revolutionary tribunal, amid the loud execrations of a vast crowd of spectators, whom his brutalities had shocked and disgusted.—J. T.
FOURCROY, Antoine François de, a celebrated chemist, contemporary of Lavoisier, Vauquelin, and Berthollet, was born at Paris, June 15, 1755. He was the son of a pharmaceutical chemist, several of whose ancestors were distinguished at the bar. He was educated at the college of Harcourt, where he was only remarkable for the possession of considerable declamatory powers, and of a taste for music and poetry. He at first endeavoured to gain a living as a copyist and writing-master; but, on the recommendation of his father's friend, Vicq-d'Azyr, he undertook the study of medicine. Fourcroy so distinguished himself in this pursuit, that he obtained the annual prize, and thus became entitled to his diploma without paying the usual fee, amounting to six thousand francs; but as he was the protege of Vicq-d'Azyr, the secretary of the newly-formed Société Royale de Médecine, with which the old faculty was at war, this was refused him. A subscription was then raised for him among the members of the new society, and he was thus enabled to pay the fees for his diploma (1780). He now began to practise medicine, but does not appear to have met with much success. He was elected a member of the Academy of Science in the anatomical
