Colbert's father, Nicolas Colbert, operated as a clothier in his birthplace of Reims, France. He claimed to have Scottish ancestry. A general (but unconfirmed) belief exists that he spent his early youth at a Jesuit college, working for a Parisian banker, as well as working for the father of Jean Chapelain. In 1640, at the age of 21, Colbert had the post of commissaire ordinaire des guerres in the war office; a position generally attributed to the marriage of an uncle to the sister of Secretary of War Le Tellier. Colbert's father Nicolas, however, used his political position and wealth to purchase the title for his son. Colbert's role as commissaire was to inspect troops; this would become an important position and one that would propel him into notoriety in 1648 with the events of the Fronde. In 1648, he married Marie Charron, a daughter of a member of the king's council. Her dowry was 100,000 livres. The marriage contract also mentioned Colbert's 50,000 livres "deriving from his profession"
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Colbert's father, Nicolas Colbert, operated as a clothier in his birthplace of Reims, France. He claimed to have Scottish ancestry. A general (but unconfirmed) belief exists that he spent his early youth at a Jesuit college, working for a Parisian banker, as well as working for the father of Jean Chapelain. In 1640, at the age of 21, Colbert had the post of commissaire ordinaire des guerres in the war office; a position generally attributed to the marriage of an uncle to the sister of Secretary of War Le Tellier. Colbert's father Nicolas, however, used his political position and wealth to purchase the title for his son. Colbert's role as commissaire was to inspect troops; this would become an important position and one that would propel him into notoriety in 1648 with the events of the Fronde. In 1648, he married Marie Charron, a daughter of a member of the king's council. Her dowry was 100,000 livres. The marriage contract also mentioned Colbert's 50,000 livres "deriving from his profession"
© Copyright Wikipédia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0