Marie de' Medici. Letter signed ("Marie"), 2 pages (13.75 x 9.5 in.; 349 x 241 mm.) in French, 1 July 1614, to her nephew; mar...

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Marie de' Medici. Letter signed ("Marie"), 2 pages (13.75 x 9.5 in.; 349 x 241 mm.) in French, 1 July 1614, to her nephew; marginal browning and fraying. Marie de' Medici. Letter signed ("Marie"), 2 pages (13.75 x 9.5 in.; 349 x 241 mm.) in French, 1 July 1614, to her nephew; marginal browning and fraying. Marie de' Medici laments: the people are ungrateful. The Queen Regent informs her nephew of her plans to travel to Blois; upon her arrival there, on Saturday, the 19th, she will let him know of her decision. Marie asks him to tell her son, the King, which she remains in good health, thanks to God, who stands by her. While the people are ungrateful, the Queen is pleased with the affection that the nobility has shown her son and she is happy to be of service to him whenever needed. Soon, news will arrive from the Marquis of Concino, [known as the Marquis d'Ancre] who is at this moment in Brittany, carrying out her orders. If the city remains peaceful, Marie will take a short trip, in which the Regent hopes to meet with the officers in power in Brittany, in order to make peace with them and repair the divisions among them. After her meeting with the officers, she will contact her nephew, and assures him of her control over the situation. The early summer of 1614 was a turbulent period of French history. With the murder of her husband, Henry IV in 1610, Marie de Medici became regent of France for her son, Louis XIII, and devoted herself to governing with a capricious passion. Her chief counselor at this time was the unscrupulous Marquis d'Ancre, mentioned in this letter. Under their rule, the princes of the blood revolted and the Queen, unable to gain control, was forced to buy their loyalty six weeks before writing this letter during a meeting at Sainte Menehould. If she had hoped to pacify them indefinitely, she was mistaken, although with the arrival of the Cardinal Richelieu to her council in 1616, her position against the nobility was greatly strengthened. However, by then, Louis had reached age sixteen and rebelled against her autocratic treatment of him, ordering the murder of d'Ancre and the exile of the Cardinal and the Queen.