Cardinal de RICHELIEU

Lot 208
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Result : 3 200EUR
Cardinal de RICHELIEU
L.S. to M. d'Aiguebère, in Aire [-sur-la-Lys]. Paris, November 5, 1641. 1 p. in-4 oblong. Address on the back with remains of silk lakes, sealed with small armoured seals. Slight wetness. The address is from 1641, when d'Aiguebère resisted heroically. The whole letter is encrypted except for the first sentence " Jay receu vostre lettre du 28e du passé" and the last "Je suis entièrement content de vous". A stronghold disputed in the United Provinces during the Thirty Years' War, it was besieged by 25,000 men of the Marshal of La Mailleraye from 19 May 1641; the town capitulated on 26 July. La Meilleraye left the command to d'Aiguebère, but the population was fiercely hostile to the French, and the cardinal-infant [Ferdinand of Austria, who died 3 days after the writing of this letter] in turn besieged it. The resistance of Aiguebère is one of the most famous feats of arms of that time; the city capitulates only after 4 months, forced by famine (December 7).
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