FOUQUET, foo-ki, Nicolas, French statesman, VISCOUNT DE MELUN AND DE VAUX, AND MARQUIS OF BELLE ISLE: b. Paris, 1615; d.
Pignerol, 23 March 1680. He received in 1650 the important appointment of procureur-general to the parliament of Paris, and three years later was advanced to be superintendent of finance. His rapid advance made him ambitious of suc ceeding Mazarin as first minister, but he had a formidable rival in Colbert. Fouquet's plans were, however, brought to naught; for in the first place Louis himself took the reins of power into his own hands when they slipped froth the grasp the dead cardinal, and in the second place, instigated thereto by Colbert, he suddenly arrested Fouquet in September 1661. After a trial extending aver three years, Fouquet was sentenced to perpetual exile and the loss of all his property, but the sentence was afterward altered to life-long imprisonment. From the circumstance of his imprisonment at Pignerol, Fouquet, in spite of the fact that he died in 1680, has been misidentified with the Man With the Iron Mask (q.v.), who, however, lived till 1703.
foo-ke-a tan-vel, Antoine Quentin, French revolutionist : b.
Herouelles, near Saint Quentin, 1747; d. Paris, 7 May 1795. As a member of the revolutionary tribunal he distinguished himself by his alacrity in pronouncing the verdict of guilty, and at tracted the attention of Robespierre, who gave him the office of public accuser before this tribunal. The victims now became numberless. Fouquier drew up the scandalous articles of ac cusation against the queen, Marie Antoinette. His thirst for blood seems to have been in creased by gratification, until it became a real insanity. He proposed the execution of Robe spierre and all the members of the revolutionary tribunal 9th Thermidor, 1794, was himself removed on the 14th Thermidor. (1 Aug.), 1794, and arrested. He died under the guillotine. i There does not appear to be a trait the life of this monster which can entitle his crimes to the same palliation as those of Robespierre, who considered the extermination of the aristocracy as a necessary evil. Consult Domenget, (Fouquier-Tinville, et le tribunal revolution naire> (1878).