Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix
Encyclopedia
Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix, born Charles-Pierre-Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix (13 June 1736, Paris
– 23 June 1810, Bourbonne-les-Bains
), was a noted French financier and politician. He held the position of Superintendent of Finance for Comte d'Artois. Later, he headed the secret council of advisers for Louis XVI, while the latter was being detained at the Tuileries Palace
. He played a big role in the counter-revolutionary circles of the time.
In 1759, he started his career as a diplomat, having been named attaché at the French embassy in Vienna
. In 1764 he was appointed Treasurer of the Navy, a highly lucrative position where many of his contemporaries have made considerable fortunes.
Summoned to Versailles
in 1776 to perform the duties of Superintendent of Finance for the comte d'Artois, he apparently had no difficulty in raising the huge for the time amount of 300,000 livres, that was believed to have been the required payoff to obtain this position.
Comte d'Artois was the youngest of the three sons of Louis XV and, unlike his two brothers, was inclined for the most part to easy and expensive pleasures, while reluctant to engage in reading and reflection. Radix de Sainte-Foix, as an accomplished courtier, catered to his desires.
Radix had a long affair with the beautiful and intelligent Mary Frances Henrietta Lachs (de Saint-Albin). She served as his courier in communications between Paris and London. With the help of comte d’Artois, he acquired considerable amounts of real estate in Paris.
He was accused in 1780 by Jacques Necker
of embezzling five million livres entrusted to him by the Comte d'Artois, but his arrest was not ordered until September 6, 1782. Having been alerted about it, he escaped to London with Miss de Saint-Albin.
At the very time - just after the fall of Bastille - when the comte d’Artois was escaping from France, Radix de Sainte-Foix arrived from London to Paris.
Soon he was well received by the Duke of Orleans
, and was active in his salons where he rubbed shoulders with Choderlos de Laclos, Nathaniel Parker Forth and Bertrand Barère. He also got in touch with various members of his family, including his nephew Antoine Omer Talon, and the young lawyer Huguet de Semonville
who were both happy to serve him.
, Minister of Foreign Affairs, started to organize resistance to the progress of the Revolution; he thought that Radix de Sainte-Foix had the right financial and various other skills for this sort of business.
And so, the funds of the Civil List (la Liste civile), voted annually by the National Assembly
were partially assigned to secret expenses. These were the considerable amounts of money traditionally assigned to the princes' expenses. It was the idea of Mirabeau
to use them to preserve the constitutional monarchy.
Arnault Laporte
was in charge of the Civil List and he collaborated with both Montmorin and Mirabeau. After the death of the latter, Radix de Sainte-Foix took his place in trying to manipulate the course of the Revolution with money.
It was Radix who encouraged Louis XVI to place Dumouriez into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to replace Valdec Lessart
. Radix was so convincing that Louis XVI never had any doubts that his commitment to the good cause was sincere. The king, who had no overall strategy, often seemed to place his trust in people who did not really deserve it.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Radix was selling some of his Paris properties in order to acquire great estates in the provinces, that were then being sold off as biens nationaux
. These were highly successful speculative investments that he acquired at low cost. Thus, for example, he purchased the Château de Neuilly
, located at Neuilly-sur-Seine
, but early in 1792 sold it to Madame de Montesson.
He placed most of his funds in England and, in 1792, lived modestly in a large apartment - part of the arcades of the Palais Royal
. He shared this apartment with Geoffroy Seiffert, a former doctor, and one of the co-founders of the Jacobin Club
. At his apartment, he entertained such regulars as Dumouriez, Talleyrand, Ivan Simolin (Russian ambassador to France), Montmorin, Rayneval
, and the General Biron
. Thus, he was able to interest some popular leaders such as Georges-Jacques Danton in the money from the Civil List; the benefit of it all, as history proved, was rather poor.
who, during the trial of Louis XVI, were ignorant of the role played by Radix de Sainte-Foix and of the revelations that he could provide. In view of the documents found in the armoire de fer
, at the request of the Girondins, it was decreed that he should be arrested, and explain himself in court.
He was interrogated on Feb. 27, 1793 at the Criminal Court in Paris by Philippe Rühl, a friend of Danton, with the inquest being chaired by Jules-François Paré
, Danton's former clerk. Yet the testimony of Bertrand Barère helped to acquit him. In his memoirs published long after these events, Barère tells that it was Dumouriez who pressured him to intervene on behalf of Radix. In truth, Barère had everything to fear from the possible revelations from Radix.
Radix was nonetheless sentenced to house arrest; he remained there only until next June.
It was Robespierre who decided to call him to account once again; now he was accused of conspiring with the Austrians
. But, again, his protectors (Barère, Alexis Vadier
and the Committee of General Security
) intervened to prevent him from being tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal
. On 7 Pluviôse II, he was allowed to move to la maison de santé Belhomme
- a prison and private clinic.
On 18 Vendémiaire III (9 October 1794), he was finally sent to be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, but on 3 Brumaire III (24 October 1794), he was acquitted.
Released from prison, he waited for the next opportunity to engage in politics. Later on, Talleyrand, his old friend and accomplice, again used his services, along with others such as Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, a Swiss banker living in Paris.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– 23 June 1810, Bourbonne-les-Bains
Bourbonne-les-Bains
Bourbonne-les-Bains is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.-Spa:Bourbonne is a health resort due to hot springs. These thermal springs were known to the Gauls and to the Romans who built baths...
), was a noted French financier and politician. He held the position of Superintendent of Finance for Comte d'Artois. Later, he headed the secret council of advisers for Louis XVI, while the latter was being detained at the Tuileries Palace
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
. He played a big role in the counter-revolutionary circles of the time.
During the Ancien régime
Charles-Pierre Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix was the son of Claude Mathieu Radix and Mary Elizabeth Denis.In 1759, he started his career as a diplomat, having been named attaché at the French embassy in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1764 he was appointed Treasurer of the Navy, a highly lucrative position where many of his contemporaries have made considerable fortunes.
Summoned to Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
in 1776 to perform the duties of Superintendent of Finance for the comte d'Artois, he apparently had no difficulty in raising the huge for the time amount of 300,000 livres, that was believed to have been the required payoff to obtain this position.
Comte d'Artois was the youngest of the three sons of Louis XV and, unlike his two brothers, was inclined for the most part to easy and expensive pleasures, while reluctant to engage in reading and reflection. Radix de Sainte-Foix, as an accomplished courtier, catered to his desires.
Radix had a long affair with the beautiful and intelligent Mary Frances Henrietta Lachs (de Saint-Albin). She served as his courier in communications between Paris and London. With the help of comte d’Artois, he acquired considerable amounts of real estate in Paris.
He was accused in 1780 by Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker was a French statesman of Swiss birth and finance minister of Louis XVI, a post he held in the lead-up to the French Revolution in 1789.-Early life:...
of embezzling five million livres entrusted to him by the Comte d'Artois, but his arrest was not ordered until September 6, 1782. Having been alerted about it, he escaped to London with Miss de Saint-Albin.
At the very time - just after the fall of Bastille - when the comte d’Artois was escaping from France, Radix de Sainte-Foix arrived from London to Paris.
Soon he was well received by the Duke of Orleans
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans commonly known as Philippe, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror...
, and was active in his salons where he rubbed shoulders with Choderlos de Laclos, Nathaniel Parker Forth and Bertrand Barère. He also got in touch with various members of his family, including his nephew Antoine Omer Talon, and the young lawyer Huguet de Semonville
Charles Louis Huguet, marquis de Sémonville
Charles Louis Huguet, marquis de Sémonville was a French diplomat and politician. He was made a count of the First French Empire in 1808, and marquis in 1819.-Biography:...
who were both happy to serve him.
Louis XVI in the Tuileries
From 1791 onwards, MontmorinArmand Marc, comte de Montmorin
Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin de Saint Herem was a French statesman. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Navy under Louis XVI....
, Minister of Foreign Affairs, started to organize resistance to the progress of the Revolution; he thought that Radix de Sainte-Foix had the right financial and various other skills for this sort of business.
And so, the funds of the Civil List (la Liste civile), voted annually by the National Assembly
National Assembly (French Revolution)
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly , which existed from June 17 to July 9, 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly.-Background:...
were partially assigned to secret expenses. These were the considerable amounts of money traditionally assigned to the princes' expenses. It was the idea of Mirabeau
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau was a French revolutionary, as well as a writer, diplomat, freemason, journalist and French politician at the same time. He was a popular orator and statesman. During the French Revolution, he was a moderate, favoring a constitutional monarchy built on...
to use them to preserve the constitutional monarchy.
Arnault Laporte
Arnaud II de La Porte
Arnaud II de La Porte French statesman, Minister of the Marine, Intendant of the King's Civil List .-Early life and career:...
was in charge of the Civil List and he collaborated with both Montmorin and Mirabeau. After the death of the latter, Radix de Sainte-Foix took his place in trying to manipulate the course of the Revolution with money.
It was Radix who encouraged Louis XVI to place Dumouriez into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to replace Valdec Lessart
Claude Antoine de Valdec de Lessart
Antoine Claude Nicolas Valdec de Lessart 9 September 1792, Versailles ) was a French politician...
. Radix was so convincing that Louis XVI never had any doubts that his commitment to the good cause was sincere. The king, who had no overall strategy, often seemed to place his trust in people who did not really deserve it.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Radix was selling some of his Paris properties in order to acquire great estates in the provinces, that were then being sold off as biens nationaux
Biens nationaux
Biens nationaux, or "national property", was a concept in French history. During the French Revolution, the possessions of the Roman Catholic Church were declared national property by the decree of November 2, 1789. These were sold to resolve the financial crisis that caused the Revolution...
. These were highly successful speculative investments that he acquired at low cost. Thus, for example, he purchased the Château de Neuilly
Château de Neuilly
The château de Neuilly is a former château in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Its estate covered a vast 170 hectare park called "parc de Neuilly" which comprised all of Neuilly that is today to be found between avenue du Roule and the town of Levallois-Perret. The castle was built in 1751, and was...
, located at Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...
, but early in 1792 sold it to Madame de Montesson.
He placed most of his funds in England and, in 1792, lived modestly in a large apartment - part of the arcades of the Palais Royal
Palais Royal
The Palais-Royal, originally called the Palais-Cardinal, is a palace and an associated garden located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris...
. He shared this apartment with Geoffroy Seiffert, a former doctor, and one of the co-founders of the Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
. At his apartment, he entertained such regulars as Dumouriez, Talleyrand, Ivan Simolin (Russian ambassador to France), Montmorin, Rayneval
Joseph Matthias Gérard de Rayneval
Joseph Matthais Gérard de Rayneval served as under-secretary of state to Comte de Vergennes.In 1776, he produced a memo of the strategic situation, Reflections on the Situation in America....
, and the General Biron
Armand Louis de Gontaut
Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.-Early titles:Born in...
. Thus, he was able to interest some popular leaders such as Georges-Jacques Danton in the money from the Civil List; the benefit of it all, as history proved, was rather poor.
Radix taken to account
There were very few members of the National ConventionNational Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
who, during the trial of Louis XVI, were ignorant of the role played by Radix de Sainte-Foix and of the revelations that he could provide. In view of the documents found in the armoire de fer
Armoire de fer
L'armoire de fer refers to a hiding place at the apartments of Louis XVI of France at the Tuileries Palace where some secret documents were kept. The existence of this iron cabinet, hidden behind wooden panelling, was publicly revealed in November 1792 to Roland, Girondin Minister of the Interior...
, at the request of the Girondins, it was decreed that he should be arrested, and explain himself in court.
He was interrogated on Feb. 27, 1793 at the Criminal Court in Paris by Philippe Rühl, a friend of Danton, with the inquest being chaired by Jules-François Paré
Jules-François Paré
Jules François Paré was a French politician.-Life:A contemporary of Georges Jacques Danton at the collège at Troyes, Paré first became a clerk during his studies in Paris and then, thanks to his employer's support, received the post of departmental commissar and then of secretary to the...
, Danton's former clerk. Yet the testimony of Bertrand Barère helped to acquit him. In his memoirs published long after these events, Barère tells that it was Dumouriez who pressured him to intervene on behalf of Radix. In truth, Barère had everything to fear from the possible revelations from Radix.
Radix was nonetheless sentenced to house arrest; he remained there only until next June.
It was Robespierre who decided to call him to account once again; now he was accused of conspiring with the Austrians
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. But, again, his protectors (Barère, Alexis Vadier
Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier was a French politician of the French Revolution.-Early career:Son of a wealthy family in Pamiers, Ariège, he served in the army of the king Louis XV, taking part in the Seven Years' War and the Battle of Rossbach on 5 November 1757...
and the Committee of General Security
Committee of General Security
The Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror....
) intervened to prevent him from being tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
. On 7 Pluviôse II, he was allowed to move to la maison de santé Belhomme
Pension Belhomme
-History:Around 1765, the joiner Jacques Belhomme took on the construction of a building for the son of a neighbouring aristocrat, who had been mad since birth. Seeing that running an asylum was more lucrative than joinery, he opened an asylum for lunatics, old people and whoever else rich...
- a prison and private clinic.
On 18 Vendémiaire III (9 October 1794), he was finally sent to be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, but on 3 Brumaire III (24 October 1794), he was acquitted.
Released from prison, he waited for the next opportunity to engage in politics. Later on, Talleyrand, his old friend and accomplice, again used his services, along with others such as Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, a Swiss banker living in Paris.
Further reading
- André Doyon, Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix (1736-1810), Paris, 1966.
- Olivier Blanc, Les Hommes de Londres, histoire secrète de la Terreur, Paris, 1989.
- Olivier Blanc, La Corruption sous la Terreur, Paris, 1992.