Medici, Marie de'

One page, folio (11 7/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 300 x 198 mm), two red wax signet seals on verso, horizontal creases, Brussels, 3 July 1638.

Sale, Phillips, 15 June 1983, lot 501. acquisition: Christopher Edwards, 2005

Marie writes that M. Monsigot (her representative at the English court, and an opponent of Richelieu) has kept her advised about the progress of her commission to the English court, and she did not want him to leave England without taking this letter to her correspondent with her thanks for the assistance he gave to her son-in-law Charles I of England and her daughter Henrietta Maria, and asks him to continue to offer assistance where necessary to ensure their affection for her, and assures him of her friendship.

Marie, the mother of Louis XIII, had been exiled by Richelieu, and in the early 1630s escaped confinement to reach Brussels, where she was accommodated on Spanish soil (another of her daughters was married to Philip IV of Spain). Later in 1638 Marie decided to visit her daughter in England, which was communicated by Monsigot to Charles. The visit was somewhat against the wishes of the king; her Catholic entourage did Charles no favours given the climate of his court at that time.

Henry Rich (1590-1649) was made first Earl of Holland in 1624. He spent time at the French court in the 1610s, during which he became acquainted with Marie and helped arrange the marriage between Charles and Henrietta Maria.

For a letter from Cosimo de Medici to Marie on the death of her husband, Henri IV, see lot 957.