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
VIII., former duke of Savoy, who had been chosen pope as Felix V. by the
council of Basel; and in 1448 he represented the French king at the
court of Pope Nicholas V., and was able to arrange an agreement between
Nicholas and Amadeus, and so to end the papal schism. Nicholas treated
him with the utmost distinction, lodged him in the papal palace, and
gave him a special licence to traffic with the infidels. From about this
time he made large advances to Charles for carrying on his wars; and in
1449, after fighting at the king's side through the campaign, he entered
Rouen in his train.

At this moment the great trader's glory was at its height. He had
represented France in three embassies, and had supplied the sinews of
that war which had ousted the English from Normandy. He was invested
with various offices of dignity, and possessed the most colossal fortune
that had ever been amassed by a private Frenchman. The sea was covered
with his ships; he had 300 factors in his employ, and houses of business
in all the chief cities of France. He had built houses and chapels, and
had founded colleges in Paris, at Montpellier and at Bourges. The house
at Bourges (see HOUSE, Plate II. figs. 7 and 8) was of exceptional
magnificence, and remains to-day one of the finest monuments of the
middle ages in France. He also built there the sacristy of the cathedral
and a sepulchral chapel for his family. His brother Nicholas was made
bishop of Lucon, his sister married Jean Bochetel, the king's secretary,
his daughter married the son of the viscount of Bourges, and his son
Jean became archbishop of Bourges. But Coeur's gigantic monopoly
caused his ruin. Dealing in everything, money and arms, peltry and
jewels, brocades and woollens--a broker, a banker, a farmer--he had
absorbed the trade of the country, and merchants complained they could
make no gains on account of "that Jacquet." He had lent money to needy
courtiers, to