ARDENNES. [Duc de BOUILLON]. Letter signed "Juste" addressed - Lot 161

Lot 161
Go to lot
Estimation :
400 - 500 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 500EUR
ARDENNES. [Duc de BOUILLON]. Letter signed "Juste" addressed - Lot 161
ARDENNES. [Duc de BOUILLON]. Letter signed "Juste" addressed to Frédéric-Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne (1605-1652), Duc de Bouillon and Prince de Sedan, then in Rome to command the Pope's army. Paris, September 7, 1646. 1 p. folio. Address on verso "Monseigneur le Duc de Bouillon à Rome", with two armorial black wax seals. Letter devoted to negotiations for the cession of the principality of Sedan. "Monseigneur, Nous partons pour aller à la cour à Fontainebleau pour travailler à votre affaire, si nous y trouverons de la disposition car on dit que les mêmes que vous y avez fait envoyer par Mr. l'abbé de saint Nicolas n'avaient pas été bien reçus et que Madame votre femme [Éléonore de Bergh, duchesse de Bouillon, femme de tempérament qui aura plus tard une rôle dans la Fronde] aura bien de peine à redresser ce que ces receveurs [?] ont gâté. We'll be able to tell you more in the next few days, if we're given the freedom to talk about your interests and if there are [...] grounds for negotiation, we'll do everything we can to revise some of your instructions, as there are some things that reason must dispense us from asking [...]". The Pope's bull and the "transaction" are then discussed: "making the cens because V[otre] S[eigneurie] se doibt soustenir que ces affaires ayant été faites soigneusement soupesées, il fut trouvé que vous y estiez mal faché [...]" Ecclesiastical privileges and benefits in the principality of Sedan have already been settled. Then there is the question of the use of the woods, the tailles and the "Sedan saltworks": "There is more appearance how in right to bailler mainly to what esteems that you are well angry towards all that one should call of us by rewarding it and of the value of the bottom and its recognition since 1559 [i.e. the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis]. We must focus mainly on the solid fiducial rate [...]". [The Duke of Bouillon, freshly released, had gone to Rome to take command of the Papal army, at the request of Innocent X. Since losing the principality of Sedan in 1642 as a result of his participation in the Cinq-Mars plot, the duke had been relentless in his pursuit of the compensation promised by Mazarin. The agreement to exchange the principality of Sedan was finally reached in March 1651: the Duc de Bouillon ceded Sedan and Raucourt to Mazarin and received, in compensation, the dukedoms of Albret and Château-Thierry and the counties of Auvergne and Évreux].
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue