Superintendent of Finances for Louis XIV. In 1656 Fouquet’s younger brother Louis met the painter Nicholas Poussin in Rome and then wrote his brother a letter describing a “great secret” the painter had told him. In 1661, Fouquet was suddenly and unexpectedly arrested on vague and unsubstantiated charges of sedition and venality. After the arrest, Louis XIV insisted on sorting through his former minister’s personal effects alone and in private.
Fouquet’s mother and brother Charles were members of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrament, and the secret society supported Fouquet during the mock-trial that ensued. Nicholas was eventually imprisoned, and guards who so much as spoke to him were either hanged to sentenced to die on prison ships. Some historians believe Fouquet is the mysterious “Man in the Iron Mask”.