The Moneyman Author:Costain, Thomas B. In fifteenth-century France Jacques Coeur was the king's moneyman. Born a commoner in 1395, Jacques Coeur was a man of astonishing ability and vision. As history's first great merchant prince, he built up trade between France and the Levant until his wealth was the greatest that had ever been amassed by a private citizen. — But Coeur wanted mor... more »e than mere wealth. He wanted to raise the social level of all classes, to replace war between nations with world trade.
In 1436 Charles VII summoned Coeur to his court. There his successes continued. In close liaison with the wise and beautiful Agnes Sorel, Coeur directed the war against the English, even advancing large sums from his personal fortune to help drive the enemy from Normandy. When the health of the king's mistress began to fail, it was Coeur who chose the sixteen-year-old Valerie to succeed her, not realizing that the choice would weave the first strands in a fatal net of love and intrigue.« less