Jean DUFOUR (ID #I22178)
(male)- DEATH: 1513, Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- +Girarda DE FURNO (d. bef 1550)
Rétable de Jean de Furno, Eglise des Cordeliers, Fribourg
One result of the "fraudulent extorsion" of the Duke
of Savoie by Jean de Furno was that he was able to pay
for this stunning rétable. Photo by Catherine Minck-Brandt.
This is the famous Jean DuFour or de Furno of Annécy who served as secretary for Charles I, Duke of Savoie. After leaving the court of Savoie, possibly as a result of a disappointing outcome of legal procedings that he instituted over property rights, he found his way to Geneva and then to Fribourg, where, at a propitious moment, he produced a testament of Charles I that he claimed was dictated to him in 1489. This testament had an interesting effect. The principal heir, Charles II, son of Charles I, had died died in 1496 at the age of 8 years, and the provisions of the testament donated an enormous sum to Bern and Fribourg in the event that Charles II had died without producing an heir. Bern and Fribourg were understandably overjoyed. The current Duke, Charles III, first cousin of Charles I, disputed the document, and after a long series of negotiations, including interventions by the King of France, the Emperor, and the Pope, eventually agreed to pay various parties in order to extinguish any further claims. During the dispute, de Furno obligingly produced even more documents in favor of even more Swiss cantons. Although some historians seem to have accepted de Furno's claim that he had not presented the testament at the time of the death of Charles I for the reason that the terms were unfavorable to his patrons in the house of Savoie, the fact that he was able to produce other documents of a similar nature was enough to sway the opinion of almost all historians. A number of individuals are said to have become very wealthy as a result of his dispute, but there may have been other reasons, such as payment for military or other services, for citizens of Bern or Fribourg to be paid various sums by Charles III. There are many documents in the Archivio di Stato di Torino apparently relating to this affair.
