Robert or Robin Fichepain was a French merchant who worked for Francis I of France and Henry II of France, primarily supplying fabrics. Several records of fabrics he supplied to the Scottish court survive.
Career Fichepain's family was from Tours where he served his apprenticeship as a merchant. He was probably a relation of Jeanne Boucault, wife of the painter Jean Clouet, and a daughter of Martine Fichepain and a Tours goldsmith Gatien Boucault. She was a daughter of the armourer Thomas Fichepain of Tours and a cousin of Jean Fichepain, usher of the royal treasury.Catherine Grodecki, Documents du Mintier Central des Notaires de Paris: Histoire de l'Art au XVIe Siécle, 2 (Paris, 1986), p. 162 nos. 734, 736.
In March 1525, Fichepain and René Tardif supplied fabrics for the funeral of Louis II de la Trémoille.Louis de La Trémoille, Les La Trémoïlle pendant cinq siècles, 2 (Nantes, 1892), p. 102.
By June 1536, Fichepain and his colleagues, the brothers Jean and René Tardif, were merchants of the "argenterie", working directly for the French court and following its progresses.Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: 1535–avril 1539, 3 (Paris, November, 1889), p. 220 no. 8531.James R. Farr, The Work of France: Labor and Culture in Early Modern Times, 1350–1800 (Lanham, Maryland, 2008), p. 134. Marie Tardif was the wife of another merchant from Tours, Jacque Delafons. Delafons supplied silks and cloth of gold and silver to Marguerite de Navarre for the wedding of Jeanne d'Albret in 1541.Casimir Chevalier, Histoire de Chenonceau (Lyon, 1868), pp. 134 fn. 2, 286.
In January 1537, Tardif and Fichepain supplied silks and woollen fabrics to James V for his wedding to Madeleine of Valois.Louis, duc de La Trémoille, Les La Trémoille pendant cinq siècles: Charles, François et Louis III (Paris, 1894), pp. 28–29. James V bought red velvet, satin, and taffeta at Blois ahead of his entry to Paris for a gown, doublet, and "hugtoun". The Scottish records names the merchant as "Robert Fischpen".Accounts of the Treasurer, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp, xvi, 6. Tardif was paid 13,256 livre tournois for supplying fabrics to dress the women of the French court, of the households of the queen Eleanor of Austria, the dauphine Catherine de' Medici, and Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Berry in 1539 and 1540.Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: 1539–decembre 1539, 4 (Paris, November, 1890), p. 164 no. 11751.
In 1548, Mary of Guise, the widow of James V, asked her envoy Henri Cleutin to buy cloth of gold for a gown for Mary, Queen of Scots, from René Tardif and Robert Fichepain. Pierre de la Lande made dresses or gowns for Mary in France. Mary of Guise had married James V as a "daughter of France", fulfilling the Treaty of Rouen (1517), and so bought her clothing fabrics from the French royal argenterie merchants.Rosalind K. Marshall, "Hir Rob Ryall: the Costume of Mary of Guise", Costume, 12:1 (1978), p. 6: National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 29.2.5 ff. 18, 27.
On 1 April 1549, Fichepain wrote a letter to Mary of Guise recommending an apothecary or herbalist, René Balezay from Tours, who hoped to work for her in Scotland or in France. Balezay was married to a daughter of Fichepain's master, the merchant with whom he had served his apprenticeship. Fichepain was at the French court and had seen Mary, Queen of Scots, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland from the Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1925), pp. 37–39.
Mary of Guise visited France in 1550,Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (Collins, 1977), pp. 183–193. and bought fabrics and clothes for herself and for Mary, Queen of Scots, from the merchants of the argenterie, Fichepain and René Tardif and Pierre Gaillard or Gallant. The transaction was overseen by the French treasurer.Rosalind K. Marshall, "Hir Rob Ryall: the Costume of Mary of Guise", Costume, 12:1 (1978), pp. 6–7.Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), pp. 38–40. The schedule of purchases survives in duplicate in the National Library of Scotland. Prices were not recorded, the items listed include cloth bought for gifts of clothing, for farthingales, for the costumes of fools and for ladies in waiting.Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland from the Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1925), pp. xxvi–xxiv
In France, in 1551, René Tardif supplied velvet, satin, taffeta, and Holland linen to Mary, Queen of Scots. His business partner and relation Claude Fichepain received the payment.Jane T. Stoddart, The girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1908), p. 37 Jean Tardif (the younger) became a magistrate or eschevin of Tours and his family was ennobled.François Jamet, Journal des principales audiences du Parlement, 2 (Paris, 1662), p. 453. Robert Fichepain was mayor of Tours in 1556/1557,Bernard Chevalier, Histoire de Tours (Tours, 1985), p. 404. and the proprietor of an estate, La Goujonnière or Goguerie.
References
External links Shopping for Mary Queen of Scots in 1548 National Library of Scotland: Catalogue description of manuscript Adv. MS. 29.2.5