COEUR

coeur, jacques (_c._ 1395-1456), founder of the trade between france and the levant, was born at bourges, in which city his father, pierre coeur, was a rich merchant. jacques is first heard of about 1418, when he married macee de leodepart, daughter of lambert de leodepart, an influential citizen, provost of bourges, and a former valet of john, duke of berry. about 1429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named godard; and in 1432 he was at damascus, buying and bartering, and transporting the wares of the levant--gall-nuts, wools and silks, goats' hair, brocades and carpets--to the interior of france by way of narbonne. in the same year he established himself at montpellier, and there began those gigantic operations which have made him illustrious among financiers. details are wanting; but it is certain that in a few years he placed his country in a position to contend not unsuccessfully with the great trading republics of italy, and acquired such reputation as to be able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the knights of rhodes and to venice herself. in 1436 coeur was summoned to paris by charles vii., and made master of the mint that had been established in that city. the post was of vast importance, and the duties onerous. the country was deluged with the base moneys of three reigns, charged with superscriptions both french and english, and charles had determined on a sweeping reform. in this design he was ably seconded by the merchant, who, in fact, inspired or prepared all the ordinances concerning the coinage of france issued between 1435 and 1451. in 1438 he was made steward of the royal expenditure; in 1441 he and his family were ennobled by letters patent. in 1444 he was sent as one of the royal commissioners to preside over the new parlement of languedoc, a dignity he bore till the day of his disgrace. in 1445 his agents in the east negotiated a treaty between the sultan of egypt and the knights of rhodes; and in 1447, at his instance, jean de village, his nephew by marriage, was charged with a mission to egypt. the results were most important; concessions were obtained which greatly improved the position of the french consuls in the levant, and that influence in the east was thereby founded which, though often interrupted, was for several centuries a chief commercial glory of france. in the same year coeur assisted in an embassy to amadeus