Lot 183
CATHERINE DE MEDICIS (1519-1589, QUEEN OF FRANCE) SALEROOM **NOTICE: SIGNED BUT LETTER NOT AUTOGRAPH**
LETTER SIGNED 'CATHERINE', CHAMBORD, 6[?] MAY 1572, TO MONSIEUR DE FERALS
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 19 June 2019 at 12:00 BST
Description
French ambassador in Rome, endorsing Ippolito II d'Este, Cardinal of Ferrara, as a Papal candidate, countersigned de Neufville, wafer seal, address panel to verso, little browning at edges, 1 p., folio.
Footnote
Note: Following the death of Pope Pius V on 1st May 1572, various French, Spanish and Italian factions tried to influence the outcome of the new Pope. In the event Ugo Buoncompagni was elected Pope [Gregory XIII] on 13 May 1572, chiefly through the influence of Cardinal Antoine Granvella and King Philip II of Spain. A follow-up letter in the same vein was sent by Catherine de Medicis to Monsieur de Ferals on 12 May 1572, to which King Charles IX added a note saying that the French should support Cardinal Farnese if Cardinal of Ferrara could not be elected. However, a memoranda arrived too late. This latter letter is included in "Lettres de Catherine de Medicis", vol. 4, 1891, p. 100.