- Samuel Bernard
Samuel Bernard (born 1651 in
Sancerre , diedJanuary 18 ,1739 ), Count of Coubert (1725), was a French financier.Of Dutch origin, Samuel Bernard was the son of the painter and engraver
Samuel-Jacques Bernard (1615-1687). His family was Protestant, but his father, according to the apocryphal memoirs of theMarquise de Créquy , "had embraced the sect ofArminius [and] had been forced into exile."He created the
French Guinea Company . Declared by Saint-Simon to be "the most famous and richest banker in Europe," he lent important funding to theKingdom of France during the reigns ofLouis XIV andLouis XV .Louis XIV, having exhausted his finances, notably turned to Bernard in 1708 to finance the
War of the Spanish Succession . In order that the King would not have to stoop to receive the financier in an audience, theController-General of Finances ,Nicolas Desmarets (1648-1721), carefully choreographed a meeting which took place at Marly. According to Saint-Simon:Bernard returned dazzled from this walk, and Desmarets secured from him all the funding that he needed.
Samuel Bernard was ennobled in 1699 by Louis XIV, and created "Count of Coubert" by Louis XV in 1725. On December 29, 1719, he had effectively acquired the land of
Coubert (Seine-et-Marne ) with its château, which he had rebuilt from 1724 to 1727, possibly byGermain Boffrand . He also had a magnificent home constructed in Paris at 46rue du Bac . In 1731, he purchased the land ofGlisolles in Normandie.Samuel Bernard was first married to Magdelaine Clergeau, then remarried in 1720 to Miss Saint-Chamans, sister of one of his daughters-in-law. He had several children:
* Samuel-Jacques Bernard (1686-1753), Count of Coubert (1739), who was superintendent of finance, landholding, and business for the queen (1725) (from his first marriage).
*Gabriel Bernard de Rieux (1687-1745), who married the daughter of comte de Boulainvilliers, president of the second Chamber of Inquests at the Parliament of Paris (from his first marriage).
* Vincent Bernard de la Livinière.
* Bonne Félicité Bernard (from his second marriage), who marriedMathieu-François Molé , "président à mortier " of the Parliament of Paris.He also had several daughters by Marie-Anne-Armande Carton, known as Manon, daughter of the actor
Florent Carton Dancourt , and wife of Jean-Louis-Guillaume Fontaine (1666-1714), commissioner and controller-general of the Navy:*
Louise-Marie-Madeleine Fontaine (1706-1799), who married the "fermier général"Claude Dupin (a tax and customs officer), landlord of thechâteau de Chenonceau .
*Marie Anne Louise Fontaine (1710-1765), who married Antoine Alexis Panneau d'Arty, a high-level tax official from 1737 to 1743.
*François Thérèse Fontaine (1712-1765), who married Mr. Vallet de La Touche.ee also
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*worldcat id|id=lccn-n2004-56458
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