Catherine de' Medici | Letter signed, to Raimond, Seigneur de Fourquevaux, 8 November 1566

Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France (1519-1589) 

Letter signed ("Caterine") as Queen Mother, to Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie, Seigneur de Fourquevaux ("Monsieur de Fourquevaulx"), her son's ambassador to Spain, 8 November 1566

in French, discussing the topical diplomatic point of whether foreign envoys should accorded the title of ambassador, opining that she does not much care if they are merely treated as envoys, acknowledging that for some time French practice during the reigns of François I, her late husband Henry II, and her late son François II has been to recognise them as ambassadors, but expressing concern that other nations should reciprocate so that they are all given the same security, immunity and freedom due them; Catherine also observes that she has had good reports of the health of her son-in-law Philip II of Spain and her daughter Queen Elizabeth [de Valois, Philip's third wife], through the Sieur de St. Sulpice.

4 pages, folio, integral address leaf, papered seal, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (south east of Paris), 8 November 1566

Catherine was the most powerful woman in 16th-century Europe, celebrated as the embodiment of power, glamour and cruelty, particularly during the reigns of her three young sons. She was the daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and the wife of King Henry II of France (reigned 1547-1559); she was also the mother of the three kings who followed him: Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574) and Henry III (1574-1589). Among the crimes traditionally laid at her door is instigating the St Bartholomew Massacre of French Huguenots in August 1572, during the reign of her 22-year-old son Charles IX.

Her correspondent, the soldier and diplomat Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie, baron (Seigneur) de Fourquevaux (1508-1574), was successively the governor of Narbonne, an Ambassador to Spain, and Capitoul of Toulouse. He is described on the address-leaf as "chevalier de lordre du Roy monsieur mon filz son conseiller et ambassadeur en espaigne"

PROVENANCE:

J.A. Stargardt, Berlin, 5 July 2000, lot 1182