Autographs and Manuscripts
HENRI IV (1553-1610). King og France and Navarre. ()
Letter Signed ("Henry") to Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, his Counsellor and the Governor of Saumur, informing him that St. Phal had arrived and was lodging in the Bastille.1 page folio in French with address on the verso, countersigned by the secretary De Neufville, Paris, 1 January 1599.
Henry tells his trusted adviser that the situation with regard to St. Phal is in the state that he wishes, and asks Duplessis-Mornay to come to him the next day if possible, as he very much wishes it.Philippe Duplessis-Mornay (1549-1623) a Huguenot lawyer and writer, had been a principal adviser to Henri of Navarre since 1573. He had only escaped the Massacre of St. Bartholomew through the aid of a Catholic friend. Although disappointed by Henri's conversion to Catholicism in 1593 his loyalty was undimmed, and the two men maintained a lifelong friendship. Henri had appointed Duplessis-Mornay Governor of Saumur in 1589, a position he retained until his eighties. He founded a Protestant University there, later suppressed by Louis XIV. In 1579 he published A Defence of Liberty against Tyrants, justifying resistance by the people against a tyrannical ruler.At this period the Bastille was more a fortress than a prison, and Henri IV kept his treasure there. Some important state prisoners were indeed occasionally held there, but it had not yet acquired its sinister reputation
Stock Code: AU4131
