Radix de Sainte-Foy

Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix, born Charles-Pierre-Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix (13 June 1736, in Paris – 23 June 1810, in Bourbonne-les-Bains), was a noted French financier and politician. He held the position of Superintendent of Finance for the Comte d'Artois. Later, he headed the secret council of advisers for Louis XVI, while the latter was being detained at the Tuileries Palace. He played a big role in the counter-revolutionary circles of the time.

Charles-Pierre Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix was the son of Claude Mathieu Radix and Mary Elizabeth Denis.

In 1759, he started his career as a diplomat, having been named attaché at the French embassy in Vienna. In 1764 he was appointed Treasurer of the Navy, a highly lucrative position where many of his contemporaries have made considerable fortunes.

Summoned to Versailles in 1776 to perform the duties of Superintendent of Finance for the Comte d'Artois, he apparently had no difficulty in raising the huge for the time amount of 300,000 livres, that was believed to have been the required payoff to obtain this position.

The Comte d'Artois was the youngest of the three sons of Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV) and Marie Leszczyńska and, unlike his two brothers Louis XVI and the future Louis XVIII, was inclined for the most part to easy and expensive pleasures, while reluctant to engage in reading and reflection. Radix de Sainte-Foix, as an accomplished courtier, catered to his desires.

Radix had a long affair with the beautiful and intelligent Mary Frances Henrietta Lachs (de Saint-Albin). She served as his courier in communications between Paris and London. With the help of comte d’Artois, he acquired considerable amounts of real estate in Paris.

He was accused in 1780 by Jacques Necker of embezzling five million livres entrusted to him by the Comte d'Artois, but his arrest was not ordered until September 6, 1782. Having been alerted about it, he escaped to London with Miss de Saint-Albin.

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