The captured sub-intendant collector is a minor official of the fiscal apparatus of the Ancien Régime: a sub-intendant in charge of collecting the Paulette, the annual tax that guaranteed magistrates the hereditary transmission of their offices. He is known only by his function and his status as a captive.
He was intercepted at the end of the first day of the Fronde and held for several weeks in a safe house in the Faubourg. His capture is the early narrative axis of the plot: whoever holds him holds leverage over the tax machinery that the Cardinal needs to finance his policy. He exercised his function in the name of Cardinal Mazarin. Madeline Boulet is a central figure in the captivity plot, according to the available testimony. The Felón family, on the margins of Paris in the Fronde, is the probable setting of the episode.
Open questions
- His name is not confirmed in any document consulted.
- His temperament and resistance to confinement are unknown.