Nicolas Fouquet to Joseph Duchesne

Continued from previous post.

Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (January 27, 1615 – March 23, 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. From 1642 to 1650, he held various intendancies, at first in the provinces and then with the army of chief minister Cardinal Mazarin and, coming thus in touch with the court, was permitted in 1650 to buy the important position of procureur général to the parlement of Paris. During Mazarin's exile, Fouquet remained loyal to him, protecting his property and keeping him informed of the situation at court.

Jules Mazarin (1602–1661), was a French-Italian cardinal, diplomat, and politician, who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death. At seventeen he accompanied Girolamo Colonna, one of the sons of Filippo I Colonna, to the university of Alcalá de Henares in Spain, to serve as his chamberlain.

Girolamo Colonna (23 March 1604 – 4 September 1666) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and member of the noble Colonna family.  After the death of Pope Urban, he participated in the Papal conclave of 1644 that elected Pope Innocent X.  Pope Innocent X later appointed Colonna as Ambassador of the Holy See to Spain.

Pope Innocent X (6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), was Pope from 1644 to 1655.  In a strong show of support for the independent (and Catholic) Confederate Ireland during the Civil War (1642–49), the Pope sent as nuncio extraordinary to Ireland, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo. Rinuccini arrived at Kilkenny with a large quantity of arms, military supplies including twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder, and a very large sum of money.

Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (September 15, 1592[1] – December 28, 1653) was a Roman Catholic archbishop in the mid seventeenth century. He was a noted legal scholar who became chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV, who made him the Archbishop of Fermo in Italy. In Ireland, Rinuccini backed Owen Roe O'Neill, who used his Ulster army to fight against his former comrades who had accepted a deal with the English Royalists to try to prevent a Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland in 1648.

Owen Roe O'Neill ("Red Owen", ca. 1590–1649), was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster.  In 1648 Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, repelled Owen's military advance on Kerry in Ireland, and forced him back to Ulster.

Murrough McDermod O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin and 6th Baron Inchiquin (1614–1674). O'Brien studied war in the Spanish service and fought against the confederate Catholics on the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. On 20 August, 1642, Inchiquin, accompanied by Barrymore, Viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky, and Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, with only two thousand foot and four hundred horse, overthrew General Garret Barry at Battle of Liscarrol with seven thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse.

Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (25 April 1621 – 16 October 1679) was a soldier, dramatist and politician from the British Isles who sat in the House of Commons of England at various times between 1654 and 1679.  After the execution of King Charles I, he originated a scheme to bring about the Restoration [of the English monarchy]. On his way abroad to consult with King Charles II, he was unexpectedly visited by Oliver Cromwell in London. Cromwell informed him that his plans were well known to the council, and warned him of the consequence of persisting in them. Cromwell offered him a command in Ireland against the rebels that entailed no obligations except faithful service. It was accepted.

Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader who was part of the joint republican, military and parliamentarian effort that overthrew the Stuart monarchy as a result of the English Civil War, and was subsequently invited by his fellow leaders to assume a head of state role in 1653. As such, Cromwell ruled as "Lord Protector" for a five-year segment (1653–58) of the 11-year period of republican Commonwealth and protectorate rule of England, and nominally of Ireland, Wales and Scotland. In 1628 Cromwell sought treatment for valde melancolicus (depression) from London doctor Theodore de Mayerne.

Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne (September 28, 1573 – March 22, 1654 or 1655) was a Swiss-born physician who treated kings of France and England and advanced the theories of Paracelsus.  Mayerne studied first in Geneve and later moved to the University of Heidelberg. Later he moved to Montpellier to study medicine, graduated 1596 and received his doctorate in 1597. His dissertation defended the use of chemical remedies in medicine, under the guidance of Joseph du Chesne; this was the first intimation of his interest in Paracelsian theorie

Joseph Duchesne or du Chesne (c.1544-1609) was a French physician. A follower of Paracelsus, he is now remembered for important if transitional alchemical theories.  In 1598, Duchesne became the royal physician attending Henry IV of France.



Continued in the next post.