Toby Osborne

The Surrogate War between the Savoys and the Medici: Sovereignty and Precedence in Early Modern Italy

promotion of the Medici from a banking family to a princely dynasty during the sixteenth century was one of the political success stories of early modern Italy.1 On 27 August 1569, Pope Pius V Ghislieri signed the bull Pontifex Maximus in which he declared his intention to recognize Cosimo I de Medici, duke of Florence, as grand duke of Tuscany, out of gratitude for his services to the church and the defence of the Catholic faith, not least in supporting the struggle against heresy in France.2 In February 1570, after formally receiving the bull the previous December, Cosimo travelled to the papal court for his coronation. The popes master of ceremonies recorded the splendour of Cosimo Fs entry and reception, as did the anonymous Roman avvisi. Having been met on the outskirts of the city by a series of papal representatives, Cosimo entered it at the head of a reported 122 carriages, to the amazement of the watching crowds. The Florentine community of Rome organized games at the Diocletian Baths at which Cosimos second son, Cardinal Ferdinand de Medici, awarded the prizes to the victors.3 The ceremonies climaxed on Laetare Sunday (5 March), in the sala regia of the Vatican palace, when Cosimo was crowned by the pope. A triumphant moment in his eventful life, it also marked an upturn in his familys fortunes.4 As recently as 1527, the Medici had been exiled from Florence, during the short-lived republic, and the familys ducal title, which dated to 1532, was less than forty years

Introduction: diplomacy and cultural translation in the early modern world.

The essays in this collection explore diplomacy as a form of cultural translation. Out of necessity, Europeans sought new ways of conducting diplomacy in the changing environment of the early modern world, as they grappled with challenges from within their old but crumbling respublica christiana, and also with changing relations with powers and communities beyond it. Reflecting the current vitality of research into early modern diplomacy and practice that has extended the boundaries of what we consider as constituting “diplomacy,” these essays collectively examine how Europeans, on state and sub-state levels, interacted with powers from the Near East, Asia and Africa. In doing so, they contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how increasingly globalized diplomatic agents deployed symbolic and rhetorical languages that could be shared amongst different participants.

Daniel M. Unger, Guercino's Paintings and His Patrons' Politics in Early Modern Italy

later. Together, the essays offer a stimulating demonstration of the breadth of approach currently being taken in relation to the baroque. But perhaps most striking is the continuing influence of Significant Thinkers, chiefly Benjamin and Deleuze, while Burckhardt and Wölfflin (less prominently Riegl too), remain prominent. The essays serve as a reminder that any attempt to rethink the baroque will always be guided by the rethinking that went before.

A Queen Mother in Exile: Marie De Médicis in the Spanish Netherlands and England, 1631–41

Marie de Medicis (1575–1642), daughter of Grand-Duke Francesco I of Tuscany and Archduchess Joanna, and the queen consort of Henri IV of France, was widowed on 14 May 1610 following the assassination of her Bourbon husband. For the next four years, until September 1614, she acted as regent of France on behalf of her elder son, Louis XIII, but thereafter the relationship became increasingly problematic, culminating in the fall in 1617 of her favourite, Concino Concini, and her temporary internal exile at Blois. During the 1620s, when Cardinal Richelieu assumed power as Louis’s creature, her alienation from her elder son became still more pronounced because of her growing hostility to the Cardinal-Minister’s policies and his successful working relationship with the king. After she failed to oust the cardinal through a court coup, more famously known as the Day of Dupes (11–12 November 1630), she withdrew from court, first to internal exile at Compiegne. In July 1631 she slipped out of the French kingdom to self-imposed exile abroad, never to return. Between 1631 and the autumn of 1638 she was in the Spanish Netherlands; after passing through the Low Countries, she crossed the Channel to England, where she remained until the summer of 1641. Returning to the Continent, she passed once again through the Low Countries on her way to the imperial city of Cologne where, on 3 July 1642, she died.

Abbot Scaglia, the Duke of Buckingham and Anglo–Savoyard Relations During the 1620s

This article examines diplomatic relations between England and the Italian duchy of Savoy during the 1620s through the Savoyard ambassador, Alessandro Scaglia. Historians have generally viewed England’s participation in the Thirty Year’s War from an essentially English viewpoint, underplaying as a result the critical importance of the Anglo-French and Anglo-Spanish wars to Savoy. The article argues that Scaglia drew upon dynastic affinities between the Stuart and Savoyard ruling families and on his own qualities to cultivate friends at the English court, principally the duke of Buckingham. These friends, in turn, increased Scaglia’s influence which established him as a leading mediator in England’s wars. This was crucial in providing leverage against France and Spain in Savoy’s sphere of territorial interest in north Italy. The article shows how this strategy ultimately broke down with the reconfiguration in English foreign policy following Buckingham’s death, and the impact this had on the war for Mantua and Monferrat in north Italy.