FRANÇOIS I. Letter signed "Françoys" countersigned... - Lot 2 - Osenat

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FRANÇOIS I. Letter signed "Françoys" countersigned... - Lot 2 - Osenat
FRANÇOIS I. Letter signed "Françoys" countersigned by his secretary Nicolas de Neufville, addressed to Jean de Selve. Lyon, May 2 [1522]. One p. in-folio, address on the back, marginal binding punctures. THE KING AT WAR WITH CHARLES QUINT FORBIDS POST HORSES TO ANYONE OTHER THAN HIS MEN. Following the defeat that his troops had just suffered at La Bicoque (La Bicocca, near Milan), and the uprising in Milan, Francis I was preparing an expedition to Italy in Lyon, but this would be postponed to a later date because of the alliance signed shortly afterwards between Charles V and the English king Henry VIII. "Mr. President, because I am well aware that there are several couriers and other people in my kingdom who usually run day and night carrying letters and news to my enemies from all sides, I want and intend that no one from now on, be they French or others of whatever state or vaccination they may be, no longer have to run by horse and carriage without having expressly my letters of leave and passage, except for those who carry the packages of my ordinary posts or the horsemen of my escuyerie who have a bulletin signed by their countersignature. For this reason, monsr le president, I ask you and ask you very expressly that, incontinant these letters seen, you send to ask those whom you know who will have horses of posts in their houses, as well in my city of Paris as in ten leagues around icelle, and make them expres commandments, inhibicions and deffenses by me, on certain and large penalties, that from now on they no longer have to hold the said horse-drawn posts, nor to give or deliver them to any persons whatsoever. And of those that you will find who will transgress and do the opposite, make justice, pugnicion and correction such and so griesve as to the case will appear, in order that the others take example there. And in doing so you will be doing me a pleasure and a very pleasant service... " A HIGH MAGISTRATE AND DIPLOMAT CLOSE TO THE ROYAL POWER, JEAN DE SELVE (1475-1529) came from a merchant family that had long since entered the service of the monarchy. A jurist, he had a brilliant judicial career, first as a counselor in the parliament of Toulouse, then successively as first president of the parliaments of Rouen, Bordeaux and finally Paris. He began his personal rise under Louis XII, but after the battle of Pavia (1525) he became an important advisor, first to Louise of Savoy, then to François I. In Paris, Jean de Selve was one of the regent's loyal supporters in dealing with the Court and Parliament's criticisms of royal policy at the time of the king's captivity (1525-1526), and then played a central role in the two most resounding trials of his time: that of the Constable of Bourbon (1522-1523) and that of the financier Jacques de Beaune, Baron de Semblançay (1525). He was also employed in Italy as vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Milan during its occupation by France (1515-1520), and was entrusted with several diplomatic missions: to negotiate the marriage of Louis XII with Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII (1514), to obtain the release of Francis I (1525), and finally to conclude the peace of the Ladies with Charles V (1529).
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