152 - MAZARIN (Jules, Cardinal), 1602–1661.

MAZARIN (Jules, Cardinal), 1602–1661. Handwritten letter with 4 lines in the author’s own hand, signed “Le Card.l Mazarini,” La Fère, June 19, 1656, 1 p. in-12 (Marginal tear in the lower left corner with minor loss of one letter; page reattached to later laid paper with a collector’s embossed stamp). Paris, , . An interesting letter written at the very beginning of the siege of Valenciennes, concerning communications with the Spanish army and Turenne. Mazarin forwards to his correspondent a package intended for the Count of Fuensaldaña, a Spanish general and diplomat then engaged in operations in the Netherlands: ““I am sending you herewith a package for the Count of Fuensaldagne, containing three passports he requested.” He orders that, if the Count has not yet departed, the package be sent to him “by a trumpeter”; otherwise, the same messenger is to deliver it “to any officer of the Spanish army,” who will be responsible for forwarding it to him. Mazarin adds in his own hand: “You will also find a letter for Mr. de Turaine, which is a duplicate of the one I sent him this morning.” The military situation was particularly tense at the time. Turenne had just begun the siege of Valenciennes, a strategic stronghold held by the Spanish, while Mazarin and the young Louis XIV were following the campaign from La Fère. The very next day, June 20, Mazarin sent further detailed instructions from that town regarding the siege and its supplies. The operation was to suffer a spectacular setback the following month, when Spanish forces and those of Condé managed to break the siege and inflict one of Turenne’s rare defeats on the French army. In its Charavay slipcase (No. 39975).