Editing Nicolas Fouquet (section)

== Trial and life imprisonment ==
The trial lasted almost three years. Many procedural aspects of the investigation and trial were highly questionable, even by the standards of the 17th century. For example, the officials charged with the investigation answered directly to Fouquet's arch-enemy, [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]]; the trial was held before a special court where judges and prosecutors were handpicked by Colbert for being hostile to Fouquet and sympathetic to the king;<ref name=":7">{{cite book|series=Fayard|author=Inés Murat|date=1980|isbn=2-213-00691-1|location=Paris|pages=420–421|title=Colbert<!-- |total_pages=475 -->}}</ref><sup>:156</sup> and the trial was held in written form{{snd}}Fouquet, a convincing orator, was not allowed to speak in his own defense.<ref name=":2" />

Nevertheless, some of the charges against Fouquet were supported by evidence that Fouquet found difficult to refute, notably the ‘cassette of [[Saint-Mandé|Saint Mandé]]’. The cassette contained incriminating documents that had been found after his arrest; they were hidden behind a mirror in Fouquet's estate near Paris. The cassette contained a plan of defence written in 1657 at a time when Fouquet was on bad terms with Mazarin, that was modified in 1659. The plan instructed his supporters on what they should do if he were ever to be arrested, including taking up arms. It also envisaged a naval operation in the Bay of the Seine.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Galliae|first=Vexilla|date=2020-07-31|title=[CEH] L'arrestation de Nicolas Fouquet (2/2)|url=https://www.vexilla-galliae.fr/civilisation/histoire/ceh-larrestation-de-nicolas-fouquet-2-2/|access-date=2022-02-02|website=Vexilla Galliae|language=fr-FR}}</ref>

The accusations that were the subject of the trial could be punishable by death.<ref name=":2" /> They were:
* Misdeeds in the administration of royal finances and misuse of public funds (''peculat'', a capital crime). This accusation included: appropriation of large sums of the Crown’s money; receiving payments from illegally acquired rents; lending money to the king while serving as ''ordonnateur'' (a public function for regulating public expenditures and receipts); and the private use of funds from the royal treasury.
* The crime of ''lèse-majesté'', including the purchase of Belle-Île without the king’s authorization; corruption of royal officers and governors in a fortified place; and conflict of interest, notably with high-ranking members of the king’s court.<ref name=":2" />

During the trial, French public sympathy tended to support Fouquet. [[Jean de La Fontaine|La Fontaine]], [[Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné|Madame de Sévigné]], [[Jean Loret]], and many others wrote on his behalf.

The guilty verdict and the sentence of banishment were handed down on 20 December 1664{{snd}}out of 22 judges, 13 were for banishment and 9 were for the death penalty.<ref name=":7" /> The king, disappointed with what he regarded as a lenient decision, "commuted" the sentence to life imprisonment at the fort of [[Pignerol]] and confiscation of Fouquet's property.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Morand|first=Paul|title=Fouquet, ou Le Soleil offusqué|publisher=Gallimard, collection Folio Histoire|year=1985|isbn=2-07-032314-5|location=Paris|language=fr}}</ref><sup>:167</sup> He also launched a vendetta against Fouquet's friends, supporters and family.<ref>A report of Fouquet's trial was published in the Netherlands, in 15 volumes, in 1665–67, in spite of the remonstrances which Colbert addressed to the [[Estates General (France)|Estates-General]]. A second edition under the title of ''Oeuvres de M. Fouquet'' appeared in 1696.</ref><sup>,</sup><ref name=":4"/><sup>:150–152</sup>[[File:Citadelle de Pignerol.jpg|thumb|Seventeenth century etching of the Citadel of Pignerol, where Fouquet was imprisoned for 15 years and where he died in 1680.]]In December 1664, Fouquet was taken to the prison fortress of [[Pinerolo|Pignerol]] in the Alps (in what is now Italy). He remained there, incarcerated in harsh conditions, until his death in 1680.

There, [[Eustache Dauger]], the man identified by historical research as the [[Man in the Iron Mask]] but whose real name never was spoken or written, is said to have served as one of Fouquet's valets (but the link between Fouquet's imprisonment and the Man in the Iron Mask is controversial<ref name=":2" />). Fouquet's wife was not allowed to write to him until 1672 and she was allowed to visit him only once, in 1679.<ref name="zeit">{{cite news|author=Volker Steinkamp|title=Das letzte Fest des Nicolas Foucquet|newspaper=Die Zeit|date=14 August 2011|url=http://www.zeit.de/2011/33/Foucquet/komplettansicht|language=de}}</ref> The former minister bore his imprisonment with fortitude; he composed several translations and devotionals there.<ref name=":4"/><sup>:156, 167</sup>