Background
Jacques was born in 1395, in Bourges, France, the city where his father, Pierre Coeur, was a rich merchant.
Jacques was born in 1395, in Bourges, France, the city where his father, Pierre Coeur, was a rich merchant.
Jacques Coeur learned to gain from every opportunity for profit which presented itself.
He speculated first on the money exchange, then traveled to the countries of the eastern Mediterranean.
He advised Charles VII to reform the coinage and to mint a coin which was named "gros du Jacques Coeur" (1447).
The taxes (indirect taxes and the tax on salt) whose collection he controlled in the south of France helped feed his own treasury.
The speculations of Jacques Coeur formed an interlocking unity.
He also had agents at Avignon, Lyon, Rouen, Saint Malo, La Rochelle, Limoges, and Tours.
By way of Bruges he traded with Scotland, and at the briefest truce in France's war with England, he dealt with that country. Every commodity interested him: wheat, salt, spices, hides, woolens, cloth.
He owned a workshop in Florence where he was registered with the Arte della Seta (silk guild).
He collaborated with Italian bankers in transferring funds to Rome and to the Geneva markets, and obtained additional coin by working silver mines around Lyon. A traditionalist, Jacques Coeur invested the money made from commerce in many estates in the provinces of Berry, Bourbonnais, and Beaujolais, which was possible because the king had ennobled him.
His palace at Bourges symbolized the realization of his motto: "To the valiant heart nothing is impossible.
"The fall of Jacques Coeur from power was as rapid as his rise.
He escaped and became commander of a papal fleet that sailed against the Turks in 1456.
(French Edition.)
He married Macée de Léodepart, daughter of Lambert de Léodepart.