Jacques Coeur (1395-1456), French merchant. Coeur was a wealthy merchant that traded in a variety of goods including silk, salt, wheat, spices and wool, from Scotland to the Levant. He served as councillor to King Charles VII of France from 1438 until he was falsely accused of poisoning the King's mistress in 1451 and imprisoned. With the help of friends he escaped in 1455, fleeing to Italy and then the Greek island of Chios. Illustration from 1865.