King Louis XIV's finance superintendent, Nicholas Fouquet, decided to build himself a cha^teau on a grand scale. No expense was spared. The finest architects of the day were summoned and put to work. Landscape designers, too. And when the Cha^teau Vaux-le-Vicomte was finally complete, well, it was only natural Fouquet should decide that a house warming party was in order.
Bad move.
The event was beyond lavish and made the balls held by the "Sun King" look positively puny by comparison. The king, who had had persistent problems with the nobility since ascending the throne at the age of 5, was not amused. Definitely not. Three weeks later, Fouquet was arrested on hurriedly drawn up corruption charges, evicted from his dodgily financed cha^teau and lobbed into jail for life, never to be heard of again.