MARGARITA OF AUSTRIA. Letter signed "Margarita d'Austria", i - Lot 18

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MARGARITA OF AUSTRIA. Letter signed "Margarita d'Austria", i - Lot 18
MARGARITA OF AUSTRIA. Letter signed "Margarita d'Austria", in Italian, to Commander Hernando de La Fuente. Parma, July 15, 1557. One p. 1/2 in-folio, address on spine, armorial wax seal under paper; wet. She explains that she arrived safely in Parma but, due to bad weather and the war, was unable to write earlier. " ... Noi haviamo inteso per il viaggio come Campli è stato maltratto et quasi sacchagiato et che l'altre terre hanno grossamente patito et patiscono, et massime Civitaducale, et non solo per le gravezze de soldati et pagamenti estraordinarii ma per mancamento di governo et di chi amministri loro buona giustitia, di che ce ne duole infinitamente..." Translation: "... We heard during the trip how Campli [northwest of Pescara] has been mistreated and almost ransacked and that other lands have suffered severely, and are suffering, and especially Civitaducale [now Cittaducale, between L'Aquila and Terni], and not only by the burden of soldiers and extraordinary taxes but by lack of government and men to administer good justice, which we infinitely regret..." She goes on to say that she wants to remedy the situation, and that she is letting the people concerned know that she will do so. THE RAVAGES OF THE "SALT WAR" BETWEEN THE POPE AND SPAIN. From a Neapolitan noble family hostile to the ruling Habsburgs in Naples, Pope Paul IV decided to double taxes on salt imported from that kingdom into the Papal States in 1556, in order to shore up his ailing finances. The Duke of Alba, viceroy of Naples, decided to attack Rome, ravaging the countryside as he went, while the pope's troops devastated the states of Margaret of Austria... A French force commanded by the Duc de Guise failed to repel the Spanish-Napolitans, and the Pope was forced to sign a peace treaty in September 1557. GOVERNESS OF THE SPANISH NETHERLANDS AND PRINCESS OF ITALY, MARGUERITE OF AUSTRIA (1522-1586) was Charles V's natural daughter. Born and raised at the Spanish court in the Low Countries, she was married twice, first in 1536 to Alexander de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who was assassinated (1537), then in 1538 to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, but the union was not a happy one. Her half-brother Philip II of Spain appointed her ruler of the Low Countries, but she had to share power with a council dominated by Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, who took unpopular measures such as increasing the military presence and pursuing a repressive religious policy against Protestants. Marguerite of Austria struggled to promote a policy of conciliation, and the cardinal was finally dismissed under pressure from the nobility in favor of William of Orange and the Count of Egmont. The situation did not improve, however, and after the arrival of the brutal Duke of Alba in Brussels in 1567, the princess withdrew to Abruzzo in Italy: her father Charles V had given her fiefs there, and Philip II appointed her governor of L'Aquila in 1572. The same Philip II then imagined reforming the governance of the Netherlands by entrusting the civil administration to Marguerite of Austria, while the army would remain under the command of her son, Alexander Farnese, but the brilliant captain was reluctant to share power, and the project remained a dead letter. The princess therefore remained in Italy, purchasing Ortona in 1582 and building a palace where she lived out her remaining years.
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