407:). This pleasure palace was built in an exotic style with a large central pavilion anchoring four attached apartments wherein he lodged his four mistresses of the day who, it was said, more than tolerated each other, inviting each other to dine and socialize in their suites with or without their patron. At times Beaujon would have them all together in his central apartment to amuse him of an evening with their brilliant conversation and other charms. It is to be mentioned that this harem-like existence is only attested for the period after the early death of his wife in 1769. They had had no children, and Beaujon never remarried, having found this alternative domestic arrangement more to his liking.
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of the provinces too restrictive for someone of his talents and ambitions anyway, he removed to Paris where he was to remain until the end of his days. (Some later writers would assert that he fled
Bordeaux due to unpopularity following his "profiteering" in connection with the famine, but Masson shows that this was clearly not true, being more probably a case of the sort of calumny the extremely rich always seem to attract.) The vast Beaujon townhouse in Bordeaux still exists, though Nicolas sold it off at the time of his marriage, in 1753, to Louise Elisabeth Bontemps, herself a granddaughter of
315:, in particular by lending enormous sums (in the millions, year after year) during the Seven Years' War, which enabled the French Navy, bankrupt as was the rest of the government, to continue to function. During this period he became a Farmer General (Under the royal French fiscal system, the responsibility for tax collection was "farmed out" for a fee to private individuals who were responsible for meeting a set quota for the year; anything else they collected reverted to themselves; considerable fortunes were made entirely legally in this way.). Around this time he also gained entry into the
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famines early in the eighteenth century. Nicolas
Beaujon, the eldest son, followed in the family footsteps and early made a fortune in commodities, mostly grain, and most notably during yet another famine. These were uncommonly frequent in France during this period due to a combination of outdated administrative practices making it cumbersome for the government to bring stocks of grain to where they were needed quickly enough to make a difference. Private entrepreneurs often stepped in at this sort of juncture, alleviating the misery whilst lining their own pockets.
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architect
Girardin. During the French Revolution, his tomb was desecrated and his remains dispersed. His immense fortune was left to his wife's niece Charlotte Bontemps Duchess de La Châtre and Marchioness de Jaucourt of whom descendants exist today (though they are of course not descendants of Beaujon himself).
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As was sometimes the case when private individuals undertook large relief operations for a profit, charges of profiteering arose from some critical locals. Beaujon was proved innocent of any wrongdoing in a court of law (though to be fair he had made a tidy sum saving his city) but finding the scope
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Born in
Bordeaux, the scion of two very wealthy local commercial families, the Beaujons and the Delmestres, Nicolas's father, Jean, had greatly increased his families' fortunes in the course of saving Bordeaux from disaster twice by timely acquisitions and importations of grain during catastrophic
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Beaujon died in Paris in late 1786 of a hemiplegia (semiparalysis probably brought on by a stroke) and was honoured with a huge funeral pomp culminating with the deposition of his remains in a magnificent tomb in the chapel of St. Nicholas of Roule, which had been founded by him and built by his
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under the name of "Chevrier", his mistress, to marry in order to lend a patina of decency to the whole affair. (Other historians consider de
Surville to have been Adelaîde's true father). She went on to marry Jean Frédéric Perregaux, the first president of the Banque de France which he helped to
379:, King of Naples and Sicily, lived there until the Emperor designated it the official residence of his son and heir the little "King of Rome". Napoleon was also to sign his abdication at the palace in Beaujon's "silver boudoir". Other famous residents included Russian Tsar
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In 1784 Beaujon founded, on his grounds, the HĂ´pital
Beaujon, originally intended for poor orphans, becoming a general hospital during the Revolution, in 1795, and which continues in operation today (although removed to the Parisian suburb of Clichy in 1935).
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or
Council of State under Louis XV. Perhaps the richest private individual in France in his day, and certainly the best connected financially, Beaujon also served as the private banker to many persons of rank or position, most notably to
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In addition to his city palace, Beaujon also commissioned the architect
Girardin to create a "folie" for him on the considerable land attached to his principal residence (it extended in a wide band running to the north of the
363:). His architectural alterations and art galleries gave this residence international renown as "one of the premier homes of Paris". Beaujon owned it until the year of his death, when he transferred the property to King
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He did, according to some historians, have an illegitimate daughter, Adelaïde de Praël de
Surville, who took her name from the man Beaujon arranged for her mother, Louise Dalisse, a famous dancer at the
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to make substantial alterations to the buildings and to design an
English-style garden. On display was his massive art collection which included such well-known masterpieces as
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Once established in the capital, Beaujon rapidly emerged as one of the richest men in France, playing a crucial rĂ´le in the financing of the government of
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In 1773, he bought, for the price of one million livres fixed by the Abbé de Terray, the Hôtel d'Évreux in Paris (today known as the
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the Duke de Raguse, with no children, and Alphonse, now the Count de Perregaux, to the daughter of Marshall
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47:adding citations to reliable sources
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