Fouquet, Jean 269conquest, and of a limited monarchy to a free decision of
a community to form itself into a state. He considered
France to be an absolute monarchy, and ENGLANDand
Scotland constitutional monarchies. Fortescue returned
to office with the temporarily ascendant Lancastrians in
1470–71 but found himself on the losing side once again
and was captured at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4,
- EDWARDIV now compelled him to make amends
for his past. To recover his estates, Fortescue had to
refute his earlier ideas and write a justification of
Edward’s own title to the throne.
In retirement at Ebrington, where he died between
1476 and 1479, Fortescue wrote his last work, The
Governance of England.In that he suggested that the
king should support himself out of his own property
and that former royal lands should be restored and
made inalienable, and the power of the great magnates,
so destructive in the Wars of the Roses, should be
curbed. He also enunciated the principle that it was
better that the guilty escape than that the innocent be
unjustly punished.
Further reading:John Fortescue, The Governance of
England: Otherwise Called The Difference between an Abso-
lute and a Limited Monarchy,ed. Charles Plummer (1885;
reprint, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926); John
Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Anglie.ed. and trans. S. B.
Chrimes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1949); J. H. Burns, “Fortescue and the Political Theory of
Dominium,” Historical Journal 28 (1985): 777–797;
Anthony Gross, The Dissolution of the Lancastrian King-
ship: Sir John Fortescue and the Crisis of Monarchy(Stan-
ford, England: P. Watkins, 1996).
Foscari, Francesco (1373–1457)Venetian doge
Foscari was born to a noble Venetian family on June 19,
- The career of Foscari illustrated that a rash and
warlike Venetian doge, backed by enough of a faction,
could exercise power over policy in the face of constitu-
tional and procedural devices established by that city’s
famous and sophisticated form of government. He
served on several governing councils from the early
15th century. He was well known for his expansionist
ideas, especially toward the mainland in northern Italy.
That was not the usual or traditional policy of Venice,
which was much more oriented toward maritime trade
and overseas colonies. In 1423 he was elected doge at
the young age, for that office, of about 49 or 50 and
held it for 34 years.
He soon led Venice into expensive and difficult wars
fought primarily by costly mercenary bands of infantry
and cavalry in northern Italy, all with very mixed success.
In a war between 1425 and 1428, Venice conquered Berg-
amo and Brescia, but in later wars the VISCONTIrulers of
MILAN, between 1431 and 1433 and 1435 and 1441,
reversed these gains. At the same time these defeats had
drained the Venetian treasury so that the republic’s
defenses in the eastern Mediterranean were neglected at a
dangerous time of Turkish expansion. After the Turks
decisively defeated a Hungarian army at the Battle of
Varna in 1444, Venice, with few allies because of its con-
flictual expansionist policies in Italy, was quite vulnerable
throughout the whole length of its extensive eastern
Mediterranean empire. All this necessitated yet more
expenditure. This danger, the treason of his son, and the
heavy cost of war taxation over decades led to strong crit-
icisms and eventually the deposition of Foscari. After this
unprecedented action, his death in Venice soon followed,
on October 31 or November 1, 1457.
Further reading: Elizabeth Crouzet-Pavan, Venice
Triumphant: The Horizons of a Myth, trans. Lydia G.
Cochrane (1991; reprint, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Press, 2002); Frederic C. Lane, Venice: A Maritime
Republic (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1973); Garry Wills, Venice: Lion City: The Religion of
Empire(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).foundlings SeeCHARITY AND POVERTY; CHILDHOOD.Fouquet, Jean (Foucquet) (1415/20–1481) French
court painter, manuscript illuminator
Born between 1415 or 1420 at Tours, the illegitimate son
of a priest, Fouquet probably received his early training in
PARISas a manuscript illuminator. Evidence for his early
fame is the supposition that he accompanied a French
mission to ROMEin 1446, when an Italian artist recorded
that Fouquet painted a portrait of Pope EUGENIUSIV with
his two nephews. In ROME, Fouquet would have seen the
FRESCOESin the Vatican by Fra ANGELICO, and the style of
that famous Florentine had a deep and lasting effect on
his own. When Fouquet returned to FRANCE, he opened a
workshop in Tours. He received commissions from
CHARLESVII and members of his court. LOUISXI made
him the official court painter in 1474. Fouquet died in
Tours before November 8, 1481, when a church document
mentioned his widow.FURTHER PORTRAITS
The earliest of Fouquet’s several large panel portraits was
probably that of CHARLESVII, painted between 1440 and
1445 before Fouquet’s trip to Rome, for it showed little
influence from his Italian trip. The portrait was abstractly
staged, objective, and not flattering. Fouquet showed his
sober and clear style in a self-portrait in about 1450, a
small painted enamel roundel. It was among the first self-
portraits done north of the Alps.
About 1450 Fouquet undertook his most famous pair
of pictures, the Mélun Diptych. On the left panel is Éti-
enne Chevalier, the treasurer of France in 1452, being
presented by his name saint to the Virgin Mary and the
Christ Child in the right panel. This was intended to be