The Isabelline Age - Chapter 6.3

In September 1586, Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg and Counts Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein marched towards Zutphen with a Dutch army, taking positions on the left bank of the IJssel river and then, by means of a pontoon bridge, also on the right bank of the river, thus encircling the city. Zutphen was strategically important to Farnese, who, on receiving the news of the siege, has sent the Marquis of Vasto [6] and has dispatched Francisco Verdugo to come in aid from his provinces in the north: after a first match among the same Willem Lodewijk, Verdugo and his lieutenant Johann Baptista von Taxis in Deventer, because the Dutch, having intercepted the Farnese's courier to Francisco Verdugo, have prepared an ambush. In the end, Verdugo succeeded in going safely to Zutphen, by sending Taxis to guard a fort nearby. To preserve Zutphen's garrison, Farnese assembled a large convoy of food to feed its for three months put under a good escort, whose delivery to the town he entrusted to the Marquis of Vasto. The Dutch besiegers attempted to block the convoy, but he Spanish cavalry opened the way followed by the battalions of foot and the troops put to flank the wagons and close the way, and when the convoy approached to Zutphen, Francisco Verdugo sent a wagon loaded with powder and bullets to the Spanish led by the Marquis del Vasto, who threatened to kill by a battleaxe of a Dutch soldier. Verdugo, thus, made a sortie from Zutphen with several troops, met Del Vasto and Johann Baptista von Taxis, and joined the battle. An unsuccessfully attacked of the Dutch troops on the other side of Zutphen has made believe to Verdugo that the burghers had risen in arms against the few Spanish troops inside the town, and Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg committed the same mistake. After a moment of confusion, the good order has been restored into the Spanish ranks of Verdugo and Del Vasto's troops. The Dutch commanders did not renew the action and began to retire back to their camp. The town and the Zutphen's fort, on the opposite bank of the IJssel river, were secured for the Spanish on 22 September 1586, and in the following weeks Farnese sent back Verdugo to Friesland and appointed Johann Baptista von Taxis in charge of Zutphen. Before that the Spanish army took its winter quarters, on 12 October also Deventer has been captured, and then Del Vasto moved to Brussels to spend the winter there.
Alexander Farnese, with the aim of taking Bergen op Zoom before the winter, sent a regiment under the Marquis of Burgau [7], supported by troops under the Prince of Ascoli [8] and a English company under Thomas Morgan (c.1542–1595), attacking the town also through the Tholen isle. Bergen op Zoom capitulated on 13 November.
On 10 April 1587 Farnese himself captured Geertruidenberg with the help of Robert Dudley, Viscount Lisle [9], followed by the siege of Zaltbommel by the Marquis of Burgau and Rodrigo de Silva y Mendoza (1562–1596), 2nd Duke of Pastrana, and the siege of Buren, possession of the House of Orange, by the English troops of Sir John Wingfield and Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby [10].



[6] Alfonso Felice d'Avalos (1564–1593), son of Fracesco Ferdinando d'Avalos, governor of the Duchy of Milan and Viceroy of Sicily, and his wife Isabella Gonzaga, daughter of Federico II Gonzaga, the first Duke of Mantua and Monferrato, and Margherita Paleologa of Monferrato, was 5th Marquis of Vasto, 5th Marquis of Pescara, Grandee of Spain, Prince Assistant at the Papal Throne, knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece...
[7] Charles of Austria (22 November 1560 – 30 October 1618), Margrave of Burgau, was the son of Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria and his first morganatic marriage to Philippine Welser.
[8] Luigi Antonio de Leyva, 4th Prince of Ascoli, was the first paternal cousin of Sister Virginia Maria, born Marianna de Leyva (4 December 1575 – 17 January 1650), became widely known for the sex scandal and murder in which she was involved, inspiring the character of "The Nun of Monza" in Alessandro Manzoni's novel «The Betrothed».
[9] In OTL the Earl of Leicester.
[10] Called to bring aid to the English allies in the siege of Buren, while he was on way, Claudius van Barlaymont, Lord of Haultpenne and military commander in Spain's Army of Flanders, was assaulted by a sortie an enemy army led by Philip of Hohenlohe at Engelen and mortally wounded, dying at 's-Hertogenbosch on 14 July 1587. Alexander Farnese, who had great confidence in Barlaymont's abilities, has sent him at the Cologne War to help the Catholics in the conflict against the Calvinists Gebhard von Waldburg-Trauchburg.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 6.4

The Armada, composed of 130 ships, organized 11 squadrons formed by purpose-built warships, galleons, galleys and Neapolitan galleasses with 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, led by the highly experienced Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz [11] accompanied by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, competent soldier and distinguished administrator, set sail from Cadiz and along the south-west coast of Spain and Portugal towards Lisbon, from there on 26 May 1587 headed for the English Channel, establishing a safe anchorage in the Solent, by receiving great quantities of supplies from Southampton.
On 21 July the English, prepared at Plymouth, has joined to the Armada, and both sailed on to the east.
Philip II had planned a double attack, initially favoured with a diversionary raid on the port of Brielle by the English, while the main Armada would make a landing on the Dutch coast and started the siege of The Hague. After considering in which locations on the Dutch coast this amphibious landing could have taken place more successfully, because the mouth of the Meuse river, or the nearby Scheveningen, both of which could have offered an opportunity to threaten the Dutch, were difficult to reach by sea as these had as severe drawback the dangerous shoals before the Dutch coast that made these waters hardly navigable.
The extreme north of the North Holland peninsula did not have this drawback and a landing here could thus be supported by Anglo-Spanish sea power in the North Sea, and the terrain seemed to promise the possibility of an easy advance on the important strategic objective of the city of Amsterdam. The area south of Den Helder was therefore selected as the landing place, taking the view that the great city of Amsterdam could easily be approached and captured from this direction, and recommended also because another important objective of the expedition, if the landing was successful, was destroy or at least block the Dutch fleet, in large part based nearby.
The Dutch were aware of the expedition, not having made secret the Spaniards of their preparations, but non being known to them the intended landing location, were therefore forced to spread their forces thinly to guard against all eventualities.
The invasion from the outset has met success, and the disembarkation of the Spanish troops using the cover of the warships to convey the army on barges took place near Callantsoog on 14 August, unopposed.
The Dutch fleet evaded battle after that the Spaniards had made use of the support their gunboats from close inshore, inflicting heavy losses to the Dutch.
Due to communication problems, the contemporary siege of The Hague began only the day after.
The fortress of Den Helder, evacuated by the Dutch garrisons, has offered to the invaders a fortified base: the sight of the Spanish flag on the fortress undermined the already morale of the Dutch sailors, causing full-fledged mutinies on the ships, and this led the surrender of the fleet on 21 August.
From the northeastern provinces and the Brabant 30,000 soldiers of the Spanish armies were added to the invading forces, closing in a vise Dutch rebels, by filling in the space of a few months the complete reconquest of the Dutch provinces under the power of Philip II.



[11] Álvaro de Bazán (12 December 1526 – 9 February 1588), 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz de Mudela, he is famous because, according to Spanish sources, in his fifty-year long remarkable career, was never defeated. Employed in the Spanish navy since a very early age, Bazán certainly earned the confidence of Philip II quickly, and accompanied John of Austria, with whom he was into close relations, in the Holy League formed against the Turks in 1570, distinguishing himself always in favor of the more energetic course during the operations which preceded and followed the Battle of Lepanto, and at the taking of Tunis in the following year. He has fought against António, Prior of Crato, an illegitimate representative of the former Portuguese royal family, in order to enforce the claim of Philip II as heir to the crown of Portugal in 1580–1581. Bazán, recognizing that the England could be a valuable support, but also a grave threat to Spain's empire, a zealous advocate of the negotiations that have led to the Treaty of Nonsuch. He died on 9 February 1588 at Lisbon, after the brilliant success of the Spanish Armada against the Dutch rebels.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 6.5

To prevent the chaos of a succession crisis, It had become necessary for the king to make a rapid matrimonial policy.
Alongside the consent to the marriage of his youngest daughter Catherine Michelle of Spain (10 October 1567 – 6 November 1597) with her second cousin Charles Emmanuel I (12 January 1562 – 26 July 1630), Duke of Savoy, who wanted to implement openly an pro-Spanish policy for the diplomatic isolation in which he was [12], it was necessary choose the best candidate with which marry the heiress Isabella. As it had failed the proposal that the king marry the duchess, widow too, to strengthen his position in the Lusitanian chores, the Portuguese hope that it was chosen the son of Catalina de Braganza, Teodosio of Braganza (28 April 1568 – 29 November 1630), went immediately disappointed: it was necessary preserve the purity of blood and of lineage, and maintain the prosperous reigns in family.
She was engaged early with the Archduke Rudolf, now Holy Roman Emperor, but a marriage it never come true.
The husband chose for her was therefore the second brother of the Emperor Rudolf II, the Archduke Ernest of Austria (15 July 1553 – 12 February 1595), who was well known to Philip II because he had lived with his brother Rudolf at court in Spain (1563-1571) [13], and already then the king had allotted to him an Infanta for marriage, but, when Ernst turned back at Vienna in 1571, the plan had failed.
Ernest had an appropriate name (earnest, serious), because it is said that he had a deeply serious expression, and it has never been seen laughing.
The years in Spain have emphasized in Ernest the ideal image of high nobility of that time, a domineering distinctive pride, a proud detachment and an dignity stiff; he had mastered the chivalrous military practice of war craft, that still had found application in tournaments and similar occasions, but he had not neglected to learn German, Latin, Spanish, French and Czech; he knew something about art, literature, music and painting, from whitch, thus, he became therefore broadminded, friendly, tolerant, humanistic and interested artistically.
The double wedding between the princesses and their respective spouses took place in Zaragoza on 11 March 1585.
The marriage, which is not known whether happy, however, was well-stocked and blessed by children; after a first stillborn daughter (15 April 1587), the twins (10 March 1590) of whom survived the long-awaited heir, the Infante Philip, who, with the birth of the Infanta Isabella (25 November 1591), seemed to guarantee the continuation of the family for a new generation, much that in 1592 the Archduke Ernest could accompany in Netherlands his brother Cardinal Albert, appointed Governor, where would have served as Captain-General of the Army of Flanders to examine the situation of the belt defence of trace-italienne type fortresses scattered around the Netherlands to stop possible rebellion outbreaks in future, evermore focussed in the Northern provinces, the condition of the reflux of migrants from the north (expecially of skilled craftsmen and rich merchants and tradesmen in Antwerp [14], so that the port town has recovered its former glory and the supremacy, Ghent and Bruges), the fiscal-military state; the first step for Alexander Farnese, to which now the son-in-law and the cousins of the Philip II were going on, as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in a time of peace was to convene a meeting with the noble counselors of the major cities and the representatives of the higher clergy to discuss about the desire of less troubles and of more peaceful future capable of generating prosperity. The southern Netherlands provinces, any city in the Flemish territory, great or little, required that, for better or worse, the years together under the same Spanish Crown, the most powerful in the world, do not leave only traces of war, but also trade and cultural exchanges. The other part of Spanish project was to damage economically the the northern provinces in order to force them to remain under the protective wing of Spanish Crown.



[12] In the tangle of the diplomatic actiones and of government in which he had put himself (the failed military enterprise to recover the dominion over Geneva (Too important was the location of Geneva as strategic passage of communication between the South and the North of Europe because Henry III could ignore the question, with the risk that the city, once fallen in the hands of the Savoy, could become easy and direct passage for Spanish armies to the Netherlands); the resentment, more and more acute, of Henry III of France to the point of fearing an open break, even for the machinations of the Savoy, to make raise Languedoc and Provence; the question of the royal title and rights of precedence in Italy, the plans designed to enlarge gradually his possessions as the purchase of Sardinia in exchange for the territories beyond the Alps, the rights over Asti or the aspirations over Saluzzo and the Monferrato), for the warlike spirit, ambitious, impetuous and bold Charles Emmanuel it was necessary the support or the condescension of Spain. But the consent to marriage has been, at that moment, the only concession of Philip II to the requests of Charles Emmanuel to make the alliance between them explicit and concret.
[13] At this time, Philip II no had male heir except the not capable of governing Don Carlos, and existed the possibility that Rudolf, or Ernest, had to take this heritage.
[14] In TTL, it was restarted in those years the «Antwerp's Golden Age», which brought the city port to be the richest city in Europe, a city very cosmopolitan, «the centre of the entire international economy» (Achilles Ornois, «The capitalism, or everything upside down», 1977), with an extraordinary policy of religious toleration, which attracted also a large Jewish community, becoming, for the influx of people from everywhere and intellectual tolerance, a centre for the European free press. Marked by its opulent past, Antwerp, with its more than 100,000 inhabitants regained, was less in importance only to Paris, but the most Spanish of all cities in northern Europe: The Antwerp's natives refered to themselves as «sinjoren» («señores», gentlemen), referring to their be closely linked to the Spanish social uses. Even after the 'Spanish fury', the terrible looting suffered by the city in 1576, recalled by a black marble tombstone at the entrance to the town hall, of the reconquest to the Calvinist occupants in 1585 with the great military feat of Alessandro Farnese, right in the center of the magnificent facade of the town hall in Grote Markt or Plaza Mayor, there was the coat of arms of Philip II, king of Spain and ruler of the Netherlands. The international port and trading area were the main trade platform with Spain and for Spaniards: American gold and silver bought here tapestries, altarpieces, paintings and furniture that filled the monasteries, churches and Spanish palaces. But here there was also the printing press. From the time of Charles V, Antwerp was a real publishing center in Castilian. Hundreds of books were published. The best editor was Christophe Plantin, who has had the honor of undertaking the largest printing company in the XVI century, on the Vrijdagmarkt square, so much that was named by Philip II "Architypographus Regii", dutifully added to the title pages of his pressed books, and obtained the exclusive privilege of printing all missals and prayer books for the New World. It's not wrong said that American Indians were Christianized with catechisms made in Antwerp in the Plantin's printshop. The works that had been started on the bottom of the Scheldt in order to allow also the heavier ships to reach Antwerp were resumed. After the war, the Spaniards had operated in every way to further develop the port, increase trades and to do come back the bankers, shifted to Amsterdam during the wartime, in order of to make Antwerp the financial center of the Western nations. Antwerp lived non only the stimulation of economic recovery, but rised also a Golden Age of the baroque artists: Antoon Van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Pieter Verbrugghen, and especially Pieter Paul Rubens, who worked for kings of Spain not only with brushes, but in secret diplomacy missions. As Antwerp also Bruges, where came from the sea by canals wool from Castilla, Biscayan iron, sugar from the Canaries, or rice and alum from Aragon and Catalonia, Ostend, Ghent, Cambray and many other important centers economic have received a strong impulse of recovery.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 6.6

Philip II, led by the opinion that a German prince would be more welcome in the Habsburg Netherlands as governor, after the recent Italian and Spanish governors, appointed Albert [in OTL Ernest] in 1592: he could have earn the sympathy of the Dutch in order to preserve these lands for the House of Austria, rescue the Catholic religion against the spread of the new doctrine and, probably, he would be heard more willingly by subjects. Albert and Ernest made their entry into Brussels, greeted with cheers. Despite the efforts and human moderation with which Albert and Ernest led the reins of the government, however, the (artificially fed) patriotic's turmoils were not terminated, because alongside these turmoils inflamed by the intrigues of Protestant princes, too great had been the interests in the war also for a part of the Spanish nobility that, holding in these lands the highest offices and having the administration of the finances, had enriched themselves.
On 12 February 1595 in Brussels the Archduke Ernest died.
In opening of his body, it was found a stone in the bowels and a piece of glass, which had perforated the adjacent parts.

Even if some of Philip II's political objectives have been achieved, and so the Italy appeared firmly in the hands of the Spaniards, the Mediterranean seemed pacified with the defeat of the Turks (Lepanto), the colonies of America continued to send their silver, the revolt in the Netherlands extinguished, gained the peace with France and England, however the continue war against the piracy in the Atlantic, the violence and riots in Aragon, the umpteenth bankruptcy of the State in 1596 and many other internal and external problems, have advised to Philip to not let that after his death the Infanta Isabella became queen alone, having for more to ensure the succession only the delicate Prince Philip, who in fact died shortly after, on 20 July 1599 at age nine, and the Infanta Isabella.
In May 1598 Philip II announced his decision to marry off another time his eldest daughter and heiress Isabella Clara Eugenia with another cousin, Archduke and Cardinal Albert of Austria [15], after his resigning from the College of Cardinals on 13 July, left for Spain on 14 September, unaware that Philip II had died the night before, where the marriage took place in Valencia on 18 April 1599.



[15] The Archduke Albert, who we already know him as Viceroy of Portugal and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, even if formerly Cardinal (of the title of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme) and Archbishop of Toledo, Primate of Spain and titular of other many ecclesiastical benefits, because he not ordained ordained priest and bishop, was released without much difficulty from his religious commitments by Pope Clement VIII before the wedding could take place.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 7.1

Having received the news of the death of his third wife Catherine of Austria (28 February 1572), Sigismund II Augustus Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, has started looking for his fourth wife, because it had been predicted by astrologists that he would have a child only by the fourth marriage, as his progenitor, Wladislas II Jagiello. But he did not manage, since in less than in five months he died (7 July), marking the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty.
Rapid had been the transformation of the State's organization: through the Union of Lublin (signed on 1st July 1569) [1] had been introduced the elective monarchy. The king had at his side a council (become then the Senate), consisting of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries and of the aristocracy, but on all the most important issues the king had to consult (the provincial diets and) the Sejm. But a sole social class was absorbing all the power: the nobility. On the one side, blocking any excess of power of the aristocracy (the Senate) but also the reinforce of the royal authority as well as the opportunity to implement reforms; on the other side, progressing radically in the abolition or reduction of the rights of other social classes (it was denied the bourgeoisie even buying of land tenures). Poland was becoming an exclusively nobiliary republic, without a strong central power, without a standing army, and with finances rather disorganized [2]. Only for merit of Sigismund II Augustus the country had been kept together, even on the religious side; he demonstrated a spirit of tolerance which facilitated the rapid spread in Poland, just twenty years after the Reformation, of the Protestantism (consolidating its power in the state; were held publicly the synods, was freely celebrated the Lutheran cult, etc.), but also the introduction of several sects anti-Trinitarian, worrying disbandments within the Catholic Church (it was requested to celebrate Mass in the vernacular, to abolish celibacy for priests, to not send tithes to Rome, and to remove the bishops from the Senate and from the political power), the high penetration of the Jesuits.

With the death of Sigismund II Augustus, the Polish throne, formally already elective, but in reality hereditary in Jagiellonian family, it had become de facto elective. The first interregnum (1572–1573) appeared full of threats: had flared up again the antagonism between nobility and aristocracy, between Catholics and Protestants [3], while tempers were disoriented and divided among several candidates, all eager to get on a throne that promised glory and power.
The Duke of Anjou, brother of Charles IX of France, emerged as a possible candidate [4] supported by the pro-French circles among Polish nobility, which hoped to reduce Habsburg influences and put an end to the wars with Ottoman Empire (a traditional French ally), while the French court, which expressed interest in this idea, hoped to profit of the lucrative Baltic Sea trades.
Finally, after many difficulties, the Duke of Anjou was elected king [5].
But at the newly elected, almost to signify to him that the supreme power belongs to the nation and not to the king, had been dictated special conditions (the so-called "Henrician Articles" and the "Pacta Conventa"); in case of violation of these terms, the nobility would have been dissolved from the obligation of obedience.



[1] This union was born in a very special atmosphere. The State was been engaged on the eastern side in a constant rekindling of the war against Muscovy, to which, in the last years, was added the interference of Sweden about the question of the possession of Livonia and Estonia; on the western side, the Habsburgs were a neighbour (and an alleged ally) anything but reliable. In the south, instead, the policy had been rather oscillating: in front to the advance of the Turks, Sigismund the Old had shown himself almost passive (not helped his nephew Louis II at Mohács (1526), did not take a clear position between the Habsburg party and the Zápolya's party during the dispute for the throne of Hungary, etc.), but he had proceeded, however, at the fortification of the southeastern borders (by founding in those regions the fortress of Bar (named from Bari, Italian fief of his wife Bona Sforza); now, Poland was risking of compromising itself with Turkey because of the overbearance exercised by some magnates in the political questions and in the succession of Wallachia. At the international level, were in crisis the relations with the Habsburgs and the Holy See: with Philip II of Spain due to the Italian inheritance of the mother Bona (the Duchy of Bari, with a large amount of movable and immovable property, and in addition the so called «Somme Napolitane», the sum of 520,000 gold ducats provided by Bona to Philip II and never returned); with the Holy See because of the refusal to grant him the separation from his wife because of her alleged infertility, and with the Emperor Maximilian II for having interfered, by opposing, to this separation and not having supported his maternal inheritance claims. Inside, the reign was also marked also by the religious question, in fact, the Protestantism (with the addition of the presence of several sects anti-Trinitarian, guided in part by Italian reformers) had begun to spread out rapidly gaining ground not only among the bourgeoisie, but also among the nobility: they clung there not because of conviction of faith when for interests economic (freedom from the payement of tithing) and political (freedom from any interference of the ecclesiastical tribunals). It was thus verified the paradoxical situation that a monarchy of ancient Catholic tradition had "blessed" the creation at the borders of Poland, a country to which was repugnant to solve by force a question of liberty of conscience, of two heretic states-vassals, formally subject to homage to the king but actually independent, with a policy, as well as decidedly inauspicious from a point of view purely religious, even very short-sighted from a point of view tactical and for survival of the State: the Duchy of Prussia from the territories of the (Catholic) Order of the Teutonic Knights, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (as part of the Livonia) from the territories of the (Catholic) Order of the Swordtails Knights (or Livonian Brothers of the Sword). For Sigismund II Augustus, seeing clearly that he was the last of the Jagiellons,without a dynastic continuity, the Union was a suitable precaution to prevent any possible breach between its two peoples after his death, replacing the personal union of the Crowns of Poland and of Lithuania with a real union in an only elective monarchy; Sigismund II Augustus renounced for himself and his descendants to the hereditary rights over the Duchy of Lithuania, and the feudal rights on estates he owned there; in the «Republic of Both Nations» (Res Publica Utriusque Nationis) the two States had in common the foreign policy and the currency, while had remained distinct the laws, the finances, the administration and the army; common possession (condominium) of the two States united had became the Duchy of Livonia, while the southern Lithuanian Voivodeships (Ukraine) were incorporated into the Poland; the common Sejm would have taken place in Warsaw, although the coronations would continued to take place in Krakow.
[2] The king had the right to convene the diets, to preside the same and to confirm the resolutions; but he not had the power to declare war (he had the right to call to weapons the gentlemen to make war, and by right appointed as leader of the armies of the republic), nor make peace or treaties, nor send ambassadors to foreign powers, nor put taxes or alienate the crown goods, nor change the religion or laws. The king appointed to the posts of the government and to the ecclesiastical benefits vacant (bishoprics, abbeys, etc., but after six months without an nomination, returned to the Pope the power to choose the bishops, and these latter had the right of conferring the secondary benefits. The Justice was administered on behalf of the king. The resolutions of the Sejm had the force of law only when they were taken unanimously.
[3] Protestantism had penetrated even in the Polish-Lithuanian State through the merchants, businessmen, students and the nobles who had studied abroad. Already in 1520 the writings of Luther have began to spread , but it was during the reign of Sigismund Augustus (1548-1572) that the Reformation had its greatest expansion in Poland. Catholics and Protestants, kept in balance by Sigismund Augustus and united only in appearance, hoped everyone in their respective triumph. These last and their leader, the Calvinist Jan Firlej, Great Marshal of the Crown and Voivode of Krakow, sought to obstruct in any way the government of Jakub Uchanski, Primate of Poland and Archbishop of Gniezno, appointed as temporarily ruled of the «Republic of Both Nations» during the interregnum, and to direct the election in favor of a Protestant candidate.
[4] According to a popular story, a Polish gentleman named Krasocki, dwarf in stature, welcomed during his stay in France by Catherine de' Medici, had been able to captivate (and preserve) the good graces of her. Returning to his homeland when was still living Augustus, he had boasted of the capital of France as a center of good taste, of urbanity and knowledge, had commended the magnificence of Charles IX, the spirit of Catherine, and especially the value of the Duke of Anjou, brother of the king. There being more seductive thing that the narratives made out with gratitude, came to pass that soon Poles were seduced by the idea of a French king. Later came the official delegation, headed by Bishop of Valence, Jean de Montluc.
[5] The election began on 3 May 1573, and on 9 May it turned out that French candidate won. On 11 May 1573, Henri of Valois was nominated King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, then the Polish delegation arrived in Paris on 19 August; on 10 September, after the Mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Henry approached to the altar in order to take his oath on the Pacta Conventa in front of Pierre de Gondi (1533–1616), Bishop of Paris and a protégé of Catherine de Médicis, and in the presence of the Polish delegation, imitated immediately afterwards by Charles IX for agreements regarding France (equip a fleet to make the Poles masters of the Baltic Sea; in case of war with the Muscovites, providing 4,000 artillery men Gascon and ensure their payment for six months, and even longer if necessary; assist the Poles in any other war against the neighboring princes, both by means men and by means subsidies proportionate to the need; ensure commercial advantages for Poland; etc.) in order to reassure the Poles; afterwards, three days later in the Grande-Salle du Parlement de Paris Henry has received the "certificate of election to the throne of Poland-Lithuania", signing the Henrician Articles and the Pacta Conventa. He was crowned in Krakow only on 21 February 1574 (ceremony interrupted by the cackles of the Protestants, who, as usual, wanted to impose themselves on others by violence that has always distinguished them in every part of Europe, and that only thanks to the cool head of Henry, who ordered to the Primate Jakub Uchanski to begin again the ceremony without to pay attention to the clamor of the Protestants led by Jan Firlej, it was avoided degenerating into acts of violence!).
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 7.2

Henryk Walezy (Henry of Valois) [6] did not like the Poland.
At Henry did not care anything of Poland or of the Polish matters: bored, not appreciating the country, and exasperated due to the opposition of his turbulent Polish subjects, with a few senators who had decided to settle their personal quarrels by violent means, he has pretended to be ill during the day to avoid the institutional commitments, while at night he amused with his French entourage.
And the Poles have started to dislike him [7].
After six months of reign, the inexperience of the King and his lack of leadership spirit had come to light.
The unexpected news of his brother's death (30 May 1574) has been for him a liberation: Henry welcomed this a the grace of the Providence and planned his flight to France in order to act as regent for his nephew. He secretly fled from Poland on the night of 18 June 1574. «Adieu à la Poloigne», had wrote the French poet Philippe Desportes, who was in the entourage that accompained the king. The Poland had fallen into discontent and confusion. Most of the nobles were ready to declare the throne vacant [8]. The bishops and the senators, in order to avoid internal struggles, were determined to keep Henry on the throne, refusing to declare the interregnum, decision that had prevailed and had made convene a Diet to Warsaw on 24 August 1574.
There, it was accepted a compromise: the Diet recognized again Henry as king, but warned him that he would have to return «in person» in Poland not later than 12 May 1575 [9], if he would wished to retain his crown, thus allowing to him to be satisfied while having fun in spectacular receptions and in lavish feasts during the Carnival in Venice, into the pleasures more dubious of the Venetian nights.
Catherine de' Medici hastened to send envoys to her son in Venice with clear orders not to think to aspire to the regency in France for the young new king, his nephew, but to not overlook the most minute precautions to protect his throne Polish and the crown which already had on the head. Meanwhile she was also bringing forward a project of marriage between his son and Princess Elisabeth of Sweden (5 April 1549 – 20 November 1597), hoping to dispel the gossip about him and find a strong ally in the Sweden [10]. Catherine de' Medici had therefore written to Charles Dançay (1510–1589), French ambassador to Copenhagen in 1574, asking for information on the unmarried sister of John III, King of Sweden, and «un portrait naturel, non flatté» of the princess, who was then twenty five years. Claude Pinart (c.1525 – 14 September 1605), French Secretary of State, was sent to Sweden as extraordinary ambassador [11], with a letter from the same Henry (dated 4 December 1574). Departed for Sweden on 19 December, after a long and perilous journey at that time of year, Pinart arrived in Sweden two months later. On 9 February 1575 he was at Nyköping, where stayed until 23 the same month. There he met the Duke Charles of Södermanland, brother of King John III, and the Princess Elizabeth of Sweden, who came to the brother's Court to attend the wedding of one of her maids of honor. Pinart was welcomed joyfully by the duke, but instead in Stockholm the King John III looked at him with some suspicion due to the secret talks conducted between the king's brother and the French ambassador, fearing the king, who was already escaped to some attacks against him, that it was plotting behind him to depose or assassinate him. King John III sent the most important dignitaries of his court to Pinart in order to lead him to Stockholm, where he arrived on 24 February 1575, and on 1st March the contract of marriage was concluded [12].

The betrothal ceremony took place on 21 April in Stockholm, having also ratified the Sejm the marriage treaty, not without some embarrassment [13] at not having been consulted and because the mission had been conducted solely by the French, and the princess, with a retinue of 1,500 among knights and persons escort, departed on 1st May. The wedding took place at Wawel Cathedral on 14 May 1575 and the wedding celebration continued for two weeks, when Elizabeth was also crowned as Queen of Poland.
Even if the relationship between Henry and Elizabeth has been described as happy, there were rumors that the marriage was not consummated. The couple was distant, because also of religious reasons [14], and they could see each other only a few weeks a year because have began years of strong military engagement for the king, during which he was able to fully showcase his skills. In the end of the same year (12 December) a rebellion in the [Royal] Prussia and a revolt were begun in the city of Danzig against the Polish power about the recognition of Danzig's privileges, strongly reduced with the introduction of the Karnkowski Statutes. Failed all attempts at diplomatic mediation and with solemn decree declaring them guilty of treason, Henry moved there leading a powerful army, and, without the firing of a single shot, he saw surrender to him, one after another all the Prussian towns, except, however, Danzig, whose inhabitants had put their safety in their immense wealth, in the almost impregnable fortifications, in the numerous artillery, and especially encouraged by the secret support of Denmark and of the Emperor Maximilian II. Soon after Maximilian's II death (12 October 1576) Danzig's position was weakened and its army was utterly defeated in the battle of Lubiszewo on 17 April 1577. Then, a siege of the city began. However, after a few months, Polish army was unable to take the city by force: the siege ended and citizens had swore again loyalty to King Henry (Treaty of Malbork, 16 December 1577).



[6] He was baptized at birth «Alexandre Edouard» («Alexandre», in tribute to one of his godfathers, Antoine de Bourbon[-Vendôme], jure uxoris King of Navarre; «Edouard», in honor of his other godfather Edward VI, King of England; his godmother was the dowager duchess of Mantua Catherine of Habsburg, future third wife of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland [for Wikipedia.fr the princess of Navarre, later queen Jeanne d'Albret]); pretty soon the use of his first name was abandoned. As evidenced by numerous documents, especially from 1560 and with the accession of Charles IX, the favorite son of Queen Catherine de Medici was commonly called «Edouard». In subsequent years, the religious and political conflict between Catholics and Protestants was worsened considerably. Catherine de' Medici, who attached great importance to symbols, wanted to free her fourth son from a name cumbersome because recalled an heretic former sovereign. The queen-mother anted to reassure the Catholic world, and the change of name of his son was considered as an opportunity to show everyone that the Valois were great servants of the Roman orthodoxy. Catherine de Medici, during the tour de France, which lasted for more than two years, to present the young king Charles IX to his subjects and to work for national reconciliation, has chose the traditional procession in honor of Saint Saturnin, first bishop of Toulouse, to organize a symbolic ceremony: the Confirmation of Edouard by the hands of the Cardinal d'Armagnac. Eventually, he has changed name at the age of thirteen and a half: on 17 March 1565, at the Cathedral of Saint Etienne in Toulouse, together with the sacrament of confirmation, his baptismal names were officially canceled and replaced by that of «Henri» (named after his deceased father), in accordance with the wishes of his mother, and more consistent the fate of the heir to the throne of France. The custom of adopting a "confirmation name" (probably become the middle name(s) in some English speaking countries), a saint’s name [or a virtue (eg. charity, chastity, prudence, etc.), or the name of a loved one or admired friend] at the Confirmation, was done in order to adopt the saint as a special heavenly patron or to honor a saint to whom one had a special devotion. The practice is still in use today, but after the Council Vatican II, some dioceses have encouraged to not picking a new name at confirmation: the idea is that, having a person already received a Christian name in baptism, continuing to use that name at the Confirmation, will serve as a link between these two sacraments of Christian initiation.
[7] After his arrival in Poland, Henry was accused of bad faith from his subjects, especially by the non-Catholics, because at the Diet of his Coronation he confirmed the Pacta Convecta in the most general terms without mentioning the Henrician Articles and the Warsaw Confederation Act (which guaranteed religious liberty; to the oath for religious tolerance «pacem inter dissidentes de religione servabo», he had added the words «salvis juribus regni»); many among the Protestants had declared that, if the king he had not honored his obligations, they considered themselves automatically absolved from their pledge of allegiance to him, even talking openly be ready to the rebellion. Amid the general turmoil, convinced that the offered crown would have given to him no other advantage except "to wear it", nor other power except the one that his subjects would want to reserve to him, Henry decided to abandon any attempt to participate in the government, dedicating himself to dance, theater, hunting, entertainment (frivolous and dishonest), by living in the midst of his French retinue (he had brought with him about 600 men, as well as the Dukes of Nevers and Mayenne, the marquis of Elbeuf, etc.) and of the few Poles courtiers who flattered him. Similar indolence would been not perhaps as unbecoming in a nation that had adopted an organization such as Poland, if the King Henry had not lavished without discernment public office exclusively to the comrades of his pleasures...
[8] The Polish nobles disliked his immoral conduct, and considered probably him, for his attitude, "effeminate" and weak, they had little regard for him while he was in the country, hardly they would have regard for him who was in Venice with the Polish royal treasury. The king's position seemed to appear even weaker than it was.
[9] In OTL, beacause Henry failed to appear in the specified time, the throne was declared vacant. «Adieu à la Pologne».
[10] Between the two countries since 21 July 1544 there existed a treaty of defensive alliance and for commerce.
[11] In the embassy of Pinart, there was also a painter, Nicolas Belliard (who appeared in the maison (household) of the Duke of Alençon as a valet), to whom Catherine had entrusted the delicate mission to make the portrait of the princess. But Henry III in the same time, entrusted the mission to an another painter, to make the portrait of Louise of Lorraine[-Vaudémont or Mercœur] (30 April 1553 – 29 January 1601), on which he had cast his eyes by crossing the Lorraine in the journey to his new kingdom. Belliard was sent again in Sweden, by Henry this time, with the mission secret «de peindre une seconde fois la princesse Elisabeth, et, cette fois, en costumes francais semblables à ceux que porte la Princesse de Lorraine, sur son propre portrait» probably to compare the beauty of the two princesses.
[12] In OTL, when the Pinart received the instructions to break off negotiations because Henry suddenly and unexpectedly has announced that he had decided to marry Louise of Lorraine, the King of Sweden, offended by the lightness of the King of France and furious against his representative, came almost to mistreat the poor French ambassador, who had a lot of troubles to leave Stockholm.
[13] Because the king could neither marry, nor divorce without consent of the Senate and of the Sejm.
[14] Despite King John III of Sweden was pro-Catholic and worked under the pression of his wife in order to bring back the kingdom to the true faith and allegiance to the Catholic Church, and despite he forced his sister to marry with Catholic rites, Elizabeth was a staunch Protestant: for this reason the Polish Protestant party attempted to gather around her and make her become their leader. Understood this, Henry had sought a closer personal relationship with her, who had gained a greater political influence, by obtaining a valuable political ally.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 7.3

In the meantime, Ivan the Terrible of Muscovy resumed the hostilities against the «Republic of Both Nations»: invaded the domains of the nominal «Kingdom of Livonia» of his formally Danish vassal, the Duke Magnus of Holstein, brother of Frederick II of Denmark, and in the space of six weeks occupied the remainder of Livonia, excluding the city of Riga and some castles; then he declared war on Poland.
The fear for the Poles was the rising threat of Moscow: consequently the Sejm of January 1578, established in Warsaw to deliberate on the war and the question of Livonia, was persuaded easily to grant to Henry subsidies for the inevitable war against Muscovy [15].
It was also searched by the king the alliance with his brother-in-law, John III of Sweden, involved in turn in the war against Ivan IV due to the attempted conquest of Swedish controlled Reval and of Estonia. For the Swedish King has been the occasion to re-present the issue about the substantial inheritance of his wife, that had not been resolved after the death of Sigimund II August, claimed in exchange the possession of the entire Livonia. But also Poland claimed the whole of Livonia, without accepting a Swedish rule of any part of it.
John III had also many domestic problems. He was known for his clear Catholic sympathies, inspired by his Polish wife Catherine Jagiellon (1 November 1526 – 16 September 1583) (who had her own Catholic staff, among them several Catholic monks and priests), reintroducing several Catholic customs in the rites, by restoring Catholic convents in Sweden, by receiving the Jesuits and Franciscans in order to work to introduce the Counter-Reformation, allowing their to open Catholic schools (and closing the Protestant schools since 1583), intensifying diplomatic contacts with the Catholic powers, by sending and receiving envoys and ambassadors from the Holy See and Philip II of Spain.
All this, in addition to the frictions with Swedish clergy and nobility, and to have shocked the Protestants, had attracted against him his younger brother Duke Charles of Södermanland (4 October 1550 – 30 October 1611), a fervent Protestant, and his sisters, who in the autumn of 1573 had prepared a plot to assassinate him and to place the Duke Charles upon the throne: however, the coup did not materialize and the plot was revealed in September 1574. John III considered very dangerous his brother Charles, who in 1568 had been the real leader of the rebellion against Erik XIV [16], who was also a steadfast and immovable Protestant, with whom the relations had been always more or less strained. With his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy of Södermanland, Närke and Värmland (important territories in central Sweden, where he exercised powers almost by king), got by his father's will as an appanage indipendent and where had sturdily resisted all the king's endeavours to restrict his authority, Charles was an annoying impediment in the endeavours of John III to unify the realm, supported by the nobility and the majority of the members of the Estates. Furthermore, the king had always the suspect that his brother was preparing another rebellion against him: he gave orders to keep Charles and his sisters under watch and was not to be allowed access to them in the Stockholm Castle during his absence, as well as in any other royal castle.
If the original project of the Swedish King was to demand the Livonia as compensation for the Jagiellonian inheritance and with the addition of the Estonia under Swedish rule to create a «Kingdom of Livonia» for his son Sigismund, now this was the occasion to get rid of a bulky brother, by satisfying his thirst for power and independence with a realm all its own. To demonstrate good faith to want to maintain a close relationship with «Republic of Both Nations», John III has also proposed to Domenico Alamanni [17], the Polish envoy to Stockholm, considered an expert on Baltic issues, emphasizing the need to maintain good relations between the two countries, the marriage between the Duke Charles and the Polish Princess Anna Jagiellon (18 October 1523 – 9 September 1596), sister still spinster of Sigismund II Augustus and the Queen consort of Sweden, who has been humiliated when, despite the initial promise, thanks to an oversight in the Henrician Articles, had not been married by Henry of Valois.
It mattered little if the groom had twenty-eight years and the bride fifty-five, or if it had been asked to them "their" consent. The idea of getting rid of increasingly problematic territories, yet retaining these in the each other's spheres of influence, had seemed an attractive solution for both nations.



[15] In this same Diet, in spite of the opposition of many deputies, due to the mental disorder of the Duke Albert Frederick of Prussia (7 May 1553 – 28 August 1618), to the regency (as administrator) of the duchy was appointed his cousin, George Frederick of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (5 April 1539 – 25 April 1603), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and the last member of the older Franconia line of the House of Hohenzollern, in order to secure the military support of this latter in the planned campaign against Russia.
[16] King Erik XIV of Sweden (13 December 1533 – 26 February 1577), eldest son of Gustav I, carefully educated (he studied many languages and sciences, dealing mainly of astrology, which he cultivated throughout his life, well as political science, impressed especially by the doctrines of Machiavelli) as well as politically ambitious, he would be able to truly become a great king, so much so that in the last years of his father's government is possible to see the influence of him in the diplomatic action, but then he showed signs of mental instability, a condition that eventually led to insanity. Among the many marriage negotiations undertaken, from 1556 Erik had sought the hand of Anna of Saxony (23 December 1544 – 18 December 1577), only surviving child of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes of Hesse. Lutheran convinced, she was the wealthiest heiress in Germany of her time, besides the fact that a marriage with this rich heiress would bring to obtain the great value of relations with the important electoral houses of Germany [In OTL she became the second wife of William of Orange]. The wedding, especially strongly supported by Anna's maternal grandfather, Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse, who believed to gain an other valuable ally for the German Protestant cause, took place by proxy on 24 August 1561 in Leipzig, and in person on 30 September in Uppsala Cathedral. In foreign policy, Erik tried to expand his influence in the Baltic region and in Estonia, causing a clash with King Frederick II of Denmark, the Poland and the Hanseatic League, so that most of his reign was dominated by the war, in which Erik personally led the armies Swedish. In domestic politics, he followed generally a strongly adverse political to the aristocracy, opposing to their privileges and imposing them many tributes. Similarly Erik proceeded against his step-brother John, who had received by their father Gustavo the important duchy of Finland and who had pursued an independent foreign policy and of expansion in Estonia and Livonia; after that he had married the Polish Princess Catherine Vasa, in 1563 the couple had been seized and John was prosecuted for high treason by Erik's order. From 1563 onwards, the king's insanity became pronounced, and his rule became even more arbitrary and marked by violence. In addition, just a few months after the wedding, difficulties were arose between Erik and his wife. The rumours that they had an unhappy marriage since 1565 it were well known in all the Courts of Germany. After a stillborn daughter in October 1562, the couple had had the Princess Anna on 5 November 1563 and the desired heir Gustav Maurice on 8 December 1564, who died unfortunately on 3 March 1566, by dropping the Queen Anna into a severe depression and suicidal thoughts, period during which she also tried to drown her grief with excessive alcohol consumption. Meanwhile the mental disorders of Erik were increasing and, among the war, the king's insanity and other problems, the administration was fallen into the hands of Erik's favorite and secretary Jöran Persson, ousting the nobles of the Privy Council, giving rise to the birth of opposition groups. Though Erik distrusted the nobility as a whole, he became particularly suspicious of Nils Svantesson Sture, member of a very influential family, who was arrested and tried, but then released, because according to an astrological reading, a «light-haired man» would claimed the throne, deemed by Erik to be the same Nils Sture. When in January 1567, a page of the king, who had been sentenced to death for desertion, under torture had accused Svante Sture, father of Nils, and other several nobles of sabotaging Erik's marriage and his opportunity to have an heir, and that the Queen Anna had begun an affair with Nils Svantesson Sture. While Persson continued to collect evidence against king's (perceived and real) opponents, Erik, who had continued to have a large number of mistresses, had developed the idea of separation from his wife in order to marry his non-noble mistress Karin Månsdotter (who was a good friend of Persson's wife Anna Andersdotter), official royal mistress and for which he had dismissed all the others. Summoned a riksdag in Uppsala in mid-May 1567 to settle the quarrels, Erik, who probably in that time suffered from some sort of mental collapse, suspicious of high treason, had ordered to imprison several men from the noble family Sture, murdered in the following days. After having been brought back to the capital, Erik was initially left isolated for several weeks, remaining in a state of madness for half a year, cared for by Karin Månsdotter, whom he married in the summer. Meantime the Queen Anna was pregnant again, and at this point she has been accused by the king of being her lover: Erik accused Anna of adultery and made plans to separate from her. Anna was put under pressure: either would have confessed his adultery or she would be executed as her lover. At this point she made a suitable confession, agreeing on 22 August to plead guilty. On 1st September 1572, she was brought to Gripsholm Castle until to childbirth, in order to hold her in captive as an adulteress. There, on 13 November 1567 the last child of Queen Anna, a son, was born. On the basis of the allegation, Erik XIV didn't recognized the child as his son; but rather, being present at the birth, he grabbed the child and threw him out of the window, killing him. After this event so cruel, she attempted suicide. On 14 December Anna had to sign her consent to the final separation from her husband, while the king was not willing to pay maintenance for her. Erik XIV married his mistress Karin Månsdotter morganatically on 29 December 1567: for his controversial wedding with a commoner, the marriage was regarded as a scandal and insult by the nobility. During this period, Erik was periodically affected by his mental problems, and a regency ruled in his stead. The marriage, as well as king's mental problems, caused rumours. The regents elected to rule decided to release king's step-brother John from prison, and decided to arrest Persson. At the first news appeared of the remarriage of her former husband, Anna of Saxony insisted that her marriage with Erik was not legally ended yet, and thus he had no right to remarry. The king had ordered at this point the immediate transfer of her to Strömsholm Castle, entrusted to the control of queen dowager Catherine Stenbock, the third and last wife of King Gustav. Because the King recovered from his illness later in the year, it was allowed to him to retake his throne, and his first act it was to release Persson. Towards his brothers, he tried to reconcile with their. However it was rumored that Erik had had plans to have his brothers and other enemies killed before the wedding, but they were to have been warned, probably by Karin herself through queen dowager Catherine Stenbock, because these people did not attend the official wedding, which took place in Storkyrkan on 4 July 1568, followed the next day by the coronation of Karin. At the matrimony the children of the couple had been present to confirm their official status as legitimate and the infant Gustav (born on 20 January 1568) as royal heir. An uprising of nobles started in the summer of 1568, led by king's step-brothers Charles and John, who used the Erik's marriage to the commoner Karin Månsdotter as pretext. Almost the entirety of the nobility, wishing to have revenge for the treatment received by Erik, rallied behind the two dukes. This rebellion resulted in the dethronement of Erik XIV, who was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother John (III), and who was supposedly poisoned on 26 February 1577 from arsenic during his imprisonment at Örbyhus Castle.
[17] Domenico Alamanni (died 1595), Florentine political exile who emigrated to Poland, was among the suite of Jan Babtysta Tęczyński (1540–1563) in the Polish diplomatic mission in Sweden in the summer of 1561, in order to reach an agreement on the question of Livonia and conclude an alliance Polish-Swedish in function anti-Muscovite, and that led to a proposal of marriage to be concluded between Vasa and Jagiellons, on the night of 18 June 1574; he was also the first to discover the flight of the King Henry of Valois and to give notice.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 7.4

In 1578 Polish–Lithuanian–Swedish forces scoring a number of victories in Liviona had begun to push back Muscovite forces, by marking the turning point in the war. King Henry of Poland, prepared for a large counteroffensive, together with his chancellor Zamoyski, led the Polish–Lithuanian army in a series of decisive campaigns, until financial support from the Polish parliament, not interested in continuing a war in order to ensure a kingdom to someone else, was dropping in 1581, and Henry failed to achieve a definitive victory on Muscovite forces in Livonia before the onset of winter. Not realising that the Polish–Lithuanian advance was on the wane, Ivan the Terrible began negotiations, led for the «Republic of Both Nations» by Jesuit Antonio Possevino, papal legate, that concluded with the Truce of Jan Zamoyski on 15 January 1582: under the agreement Muscovy would ceded all areas in Livonia it still held. Possevino failed in his (unconvinced) attempts to make negotiations also in John III's name. Only following a decision by Swedish king, the war with Russia ended in 1583 when the Tsar signed on 10 August 1583 the truce at the Plyussa River north of the city of Pskov: according to the truce, Sweden, though having ceded Estonia to incorporate it into Livonia, had kept Narva and Ivangorod (and other towns) under his control, as well as the conquests made in Karelia and Ingria; Muscovy kept a narrow passage to the Baltic Sea at the estuary of the Neva River, between the rivers of Strelka and Sestra.
Meantime, since April 1578, the Swedish Duke Charles of Södermanland, was at Heidelberg in order to make a marriage proposal to the German Princess Anne Marie of the Palatinate (24 July 1561 – 29 July 1589), daughter of Louis VI, Elector Palatine, and Elisabeth of Hesse.
Recalled to Sweden by brother king, cunningly taken advantage of its desire for power with the prospect of getting a realm all its own where as champion Protestant heresy, he could cultivate his worship of a people which had adopted Lutheranism as the official religion, Charles willingly accepted the marry a Catholic woman, but only with a ceremony in a Protestant rite (on 11 May 1579 at Nyköping), by granting to Anna only the possibility of a proxy marriage in the Catholic rite (on 23 April at Ujazdów Castle).
Charles took possession of his kingdom already in middle 1582, proclaimed Riga as capital, sponsored several large works to complete a reconstruction of the Sigulda Medieval Castle as future official residence of the king, conquered the island of Ösel in 1585 (siege of Kuressaare [or Arensburg] Castle), throwing Denmark out of the Baltic, when already Anna Jagiellon had been confined first in Viljandi, then in Põltsamaa Castle. There were rumors that Charles had the intention to seek a divorce so he could marry a younger woman and became father of a legitimate heir, having already an illegitimate son by his mistress Karin Nilsdotter (c.1551–1613) [18].
The post-war for Livonia has been a period of political stability; Swedish gradually replaced German, aswell as the administration. The Counter-Reformation had been tried by the activity of the Jesuits, arrived in the wake of the Catholic queen in Livonia, but met with resistance from the population, particularly the commoners and lower nobility: old Livonian towns were mostly Lutheran and the gentry also expressed support for the new confession, even if the wars had caused much confusion in religious life.

The end of the Livonian war also entailed the opportunity for Henry to move closer to his wife, so that on 11 July 1584 was born their daughter, the Princess Catherine Margaret.



[18] Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm (4 March 1574 – 17 March 1650).
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 8.1

These were years of a strong Catholic ferment in the Eastern and North Europe , with an energetic action on the part of Rome to recapture from the heresy these lands mainly by means of the Counter-Reformation.

The Pope Gregory XIII, in fact, had not renounced the great project to reconstitute a great alliance of Catholic states against the Turks, in order to achieve those conclusive results that the particularism of the powers engaged at Lepanto had made impossible a decade earlier. Now that plan was fueled new hopes, because the Sultan Murad III was engaged in a grueling war against the Persians, interpreted in the Roman Curia as a unique opportunity.
The European courts increasingly harked back between them the news of the serious defeats in the war waged by the Turkish Sultan Murad III against the Shah, news exaggerated willingly by the old hatred and the continuing fear that there were even after Lepanto. The possibility to launch, simultaneously with the war in Asia, a decisive blow against the sultan in the Balkans and the Mediterranean was too alluring because the papal diplomacy does not commit itself with all its resources: it was thought even in Rome that the Ottoman Empire would could easily be destroyed if the league was made sufficiently timeliness to take advantage of the favorable conjuncture in Asia.
At the center of the new project of crusade there was now the hope of a concentric action against the Turks: by land from the Empire, Hungary, Poland, Sweden (regained to Catholicism) and Muscovy, and assaulted by sea by the Christian fleet, if Spain and Venice had joined the league. knowing the Polish military strength, the commitment of the Poles in the crusade soon became for the Roman Curia as a necessary condition to carry out the great design, and it was believed that an expedition, properly subsidized from Rome, against Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia would could even end with the conquest of Constantinople.
So in June 1579 the Secretary of State Tolomeo Gallio (25 September 1527 – 3/4 February 1607) invested the nuncio Giovanni Andrea Caligari (14 October 1538–1585) [1] the task of convincing Henry to accept the command of the crusade, renouncing for the moment to the hostilities against the Muscovites, by directing all his efforts and energy to the destruction of the secular enemy of Christianity.
At the same time, for this it was necessary to give effect to the Counter-Reformation in Sweden, ally essential to achieve the peace between the king of Poland and Muscovite Tsar.
By having proved his capacity to better manage the difficult relationship with an overbearing king as Philip II, Pope Gregory XIII had decided (5 January 1577) to send Giovanni Battista Castagna as his special legate to Sweden in order to give a decisive turn to the issue of the conversion of King John III [2] and of the return of his kingdom to the faith of the Church of Rome, suggesting this as a means to emphasize the Swedish pride against Denmark in the Scandinavian scene to break Denmark's dominating position. His mission was to «assist», invested of «papal authority», the Queen Catherine Jagiellon and the other Papal envoys in Poland who have held the relations also with the Sweden Court, to emphasize the opportunity to maintain good relations with Muscovy, to allow the Papal great project of a great alliance of Catholic states against the Turks, also with the participation of Poland, Muscovy and a Catholic Sweden.



[1] With Brief of 16 October In 1574, Caligari had been appointed apostolic commissioner and collector of Portugal by Gregory XIII, with, in addition to the normal functions associated with these offices, the commission to bring to King Sebastian, returned from an expedition to Morocco, sword and hat blessed by the Pope, as sign of papal satisfaction with the Catholic merit acquired by the faithful against the Moors. During his permanence in Portugal Caligari had collaborated in organizing a new African expedition, which was concluded with the unfortunate Portuguese defeat in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir (4 August 1578) and the death of Sebastian himself. So much appreciated as to be requested by Carlo Borromeo in Milan to become his Vicar General, Caligari had been instead intended to the much more substantial office of nuncio in Poland, with the power of legate a latere, on 28 December 1577, by replacing Vincenzo Laureo. To the nuncio had been commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to supervise, and suppress if necessary, any agreements that bound Henry the Protestant nobles, and the promotion of relations with King John III of Sweden (who was drawing closer to the Catholic powers, including France and Spain) and the Emperor Rudolf II, working in concert with the new nuncio in Vienna Orazio Malaspina (died on 27 January 1582), in the broader context of the Papal plans for a new alliance of Christendom against the Turks.
[2] Vincenzo Dal Portico (4 March 1520 – 1590), nuncio in Poland from 1568 to 1573, also tried, during his stay in Poland, to bring the Lutheran Sweden to the obedience with Rome using friendship and esteem that he enjoyed with the Jagiellonian, relatives of John III of Sweden. On his own initiative, using the Princess Anne Jagiellon, sister-in-law of the Swedish king, Dal Portico had advanced a tempting proposition: the mediation of the Pope in the conflict between Denmark and Sweden (Northern Seven Years War, 1563–1570) in exchange of the abandonment of Protestantism by Sweden. But Pope Pius V refused to take care of a peace between two heretical, and indeed, knowing that the Queen consort Catherine Jagiellon wanted to be communicate under both kinds, had distrusted the nuncio from proceeding in those contacts. In 1572, when Sigismund Augustus died without heirs, Dal Portico has intruded, without a commission, in the succession problem. Such arbitrary conduct cost him the recall in Rome. The next nuncio, Vincenzo Lauro (28 March 1523 – 15 December 1592), who belonged to a branch of the family of Sanseverino, with insight and disillusionment, and with uninhibited lucidity, in order to each time to derive the maximum benefit to the cause of Rome, he flattered, while not believing in his sincerity, John III of Sweden, husband of Catherine Jagiellon, who appeared willing to the conversion: «although this could be a simulation to secure for himself [the possible succession to] the kingdom of Poland for which, having the favor of Turkish [the Sultan] if he could with the authority of Our Lord, to have also the Catholics on his side, he would have a very great part of the kingdom of Poland; however, it might be of benefit, to earn him, do not exasperate him, but keep him in hope [to obtain the Catholic support]» (letter to Cardinal Gallio, Secretary of State, 14 September 1574). In OTL Giovanni Battista Castagna has served as the Papal Legate to Flanders and Cologne from 1578 to 1580.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 8.2

When between 17 and 27 July 1574, Venice is unleashed in welcoming wonderful at Henry de Valois who was fled from Poland with the intention to take over the regency of the Crown of France for his nephew, between joyous feasts and uproarious shows, the Papal Nuncio Giovanni Battista Castagna, still called «Archbishop of Rossano», would have liked advantage in order to weave diplomatic actions in support to the great project of Pope Gregory XIII of a great Catholic alliance against the Turks, even more so after that the Most Serene Republic had signed a separate treaty of peace with the Ottoman Empire on 7 March 1573 to preserve its commercial interests, resume the trade with the Orient, and gain new economic affairs.
Born in a noble family with important ties to the Roman Curia (the Cardinals Domenico Giacobazzi (1444–1528), Cristoforo Giacobazzi (died 1540), Girolamo Verallo (1497–1555)), walked the curial "cursus honorum", obtained the doctorate in "in utroque" laws (civil and canon law), Castagna had served as personal secretary his relative Cardinal Girolamo Verallo, Auditor and Datarius in his diplomatic mission to France, then appointed Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura by Pope Julius III and chosen to be the new Archbishop of Rossano (1st March 1553) [3][4], was a distinguished prelate «for life honesty and morals, wise in the spiritual as well as in temporal» affairs (Pope Julius III), briefly Governor of Fano and then of Perugia, had participated in the later sessions of the Council of Trent from 1562 to 1563, serving also as president of several conciliar congregations, with full confidence on the part of Pope Pius IV and in close friendship with Carlo Borromeo. In Rome, in fact, it had been relied heavily on his ability to control, on his supervision to the progress of work [5], during which it were recognizable and visible the action decided and outspoken of Castagna, who expressed the Roman point of view and even the Roman interests, however, not in manner obliging as a courtier-prelate, ready for anything in view of the career, but with the deep conviction of one who is fighting (and this arguing in a deepened manner from the point of view canonical and institutional) for a proper change and renewal.
After the Council, Castagna would wanted to devote his energies to his archdiocese of Rossano, but in Trento his acts have been so valuable to the Holy See that it was decided to use him to relevant assignments. Appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Spain in 1565, he had served there until 1572, by resigning immediately from his diocese.
The nunciature period not had been easy, indeed, had been full of friction reasons: the tug of war thorny between the Spanish and the Roman Inquisition on the competence of judgment; the failure to respect of the authority of the Holy See by a basically prevaricating monarchy in terms of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; Philip II that seems to «want to be Pope» in his kingdoms; the Spanish clergy, entrenched in its habits [6], proud and reticent towards the decrees of the Council and of Rome, as well as deeply prone to civil authority, and especially; lastly for him the Protestant heresy was a tremendous danger, alerting repeatedly, therefore, Philip II to go personally to tame the rebellious Flanders, as well as to support the Queen Margaret of England and help the French Catholics against the Huguenots.
Dead Pius V (1 May 1572), it had seemed that even the fervor for the crusade against the Turks not would have survived. In August he has been replaced by Nicolò Ormaneto (c.1515 – 18 January 1577), Bishop of Padua. During his nunciature, he has also celebrated (25 August 1566) the baptism of the first daughter and heiress of King Philip II, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, who had had as godparents her step-brother Don Carlos, represented by Don Juan de Austria because he did not even have the strength to support the child during the ceremony, and her paternal aunt Joanna.
Briefly Governor of Bologna, prestigious office but that he would prefer to avoid because the new Pope Gregory XIII was bolognese and he was afraid of having their hands tied by the looming presence of the Pope's relatives, Castagna was appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Venice with Brief of 15 June 1573, already on July 4 he has arrived in the lagoon city.
His task would be to convey to Rome the news (from Flanders, from Genoa, from the Levant, especially from Constantinople, from Poland) that in Venice also arrived ahead than other Italian Courts.
His duty would be to monito the presence of heretics and of their doctrines, being the city most exposed of others because large shopping center and, therefore, "open", in addition to goods, even to men, to ideas, to transgressions, and also thriving center editorially.
Also here he had to fight the failure to respect of the authority of the Holy See and the prevarication of the Most Serene Republic in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ingrained and centuries-old practice deeply rooted in the Venetian mentality, only apparently bent by Pope Julius II at the beginning of the century.
When the plague has devastated Venice between late July and October of 1575, with the dripping of the population, the nuncio has found shelter in Luvigliano (27 July), near Padua, and from here in Vicenza (2 August), and finally Bologna (22 December).



[3] Thanks to renounce in his favor of the Archdiocese by Paolo Emilio Verallo, brother of the cardinal.
[4] He had quickly receive all the minor and major orders and the ordination to the priesthood by Filipo Archinto, Bishop of Saluzzo and Governor of the city of Rome, on 30 March 1553, then the episcopal consecration at the home of and by Cardinal Girolamo Veralli, assisted by Gerolamo Maccabeo de Toscanella, Bishop of of Castro [del Lazio], and Pietro de Affatati, Bishop of Accia (Corsica).
[5] Castagna was often intervened, for example, because the wording of the texts and of the conciliar decrees were better accommodated in Latin. Distinguishable his interventions, his stances: he was uncompromising opposer to the granting of the chalice to the laity until lose his temper with those who, instead, were inclined to consent to a request that showed a heretical wickedness, with accusations of having a pliable and weak Catholicism, seen as collusion with the heresy. Castagna on other points, however, was practical, flexible, sensitive to the common sense tips: for example he considered as valid the clandestine marriages, and for this reason he argued that if civil laws disapprove and annul the clandestine marriages, the Church, even if disapprove them, do not annul them; he was a staunch supporter of the decree on the obligation of residence of the bishops in their episcopal see.
[6] To be remembered that Castagna had asked to prohibit, in application of the Tridentine decree about the duels, «the hunting of bulls», considered a sort of duel but «ugliest» (letter to Mons. Girolamo Rusticucci, Secretary of State, 11 July 1567): but how to get the ban when the Franciscan and humanist Antonio de Córdoba (1485-1578) was going affirming, with widespread consensus, that «the hunting of bulls have nothing to do with the sins» (letter to Mons. Girolamo Rusticucci, Secretary of State, 8 March 1568)?
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 8.3

Arrived in Stockholm on 13 April 1577, the Queen Catherine and the Polish Jesuit Stanislaw Warszewicki [7], her chaplain, did everything to mitigate the mood of King John III, who persisted in not wanting to receive the legate. On April 22, finally Castagna obtained the first audience, during which he expounded the Papal view, but John III has assumed a dismissive attitude.
To this first, unsuccessful, audience, followed not entirely peaceful relations even with the queen, who, by persevering in wanting to receive the communion «sub utraque specie» (in both kinds) and despite the refusal to give at her the dispensation regarding this by both Pope Pius V (1572) and Gregory XIII (1574) much that she had refused to take communion altogether, now had returned to seek the involvement of Castagna to get this dispensation: of course she had been refused to him because the same Castagna regarded this as a sign of heresy and it had been banned by the Tridentine Council [see note 5].
However, starting from the success attributed to him, to which in fact he had not had to do, of the conversion to Catholicism of the king's sister, the Princess Cecilia of Sweden [8], then with the arrive in the summer of 1578 of theSpanish ambassador Francisco de Eraso to discuss an alliance with Spain in key anti-Denmark, and, although discouraged by the cold attitude of the king, who had insisted that the «main point» of the negotiation was that to get to and in order to get the conversion of him and of his kingdom to the Catholic faith, in a situation in which «things of religion in those parts are already on bad terms», there was to «attempt every way» [9], the action of the nuncio began to gather some good successes.
To the proposal of a "treaty of concord" between the two faiths (on the Polish model or the Augsburg Interim), Castagna had obtained from the king that the «teachers» of the smaller religious confessions were expelled and that it be forbidden to them to make «cliques» in «private houses», in order to simplify the number of contenders to beat, and later the permission for Catholics of a «more space» free to control into the universities, the possibility to intensify the preaching, the strengthening of the Jesuit presence although it not frowned upon by the local "clergy"; the nuncio acted also actively n the context of public opinion, minimizing the suspicions of a possible conversion of the king, avoiding "dexterously" to emphasize the «question of religion» because the Crown Prince Sigismund was already brought up in the Catholic faith, and now it was necessary to prepare a Catholic kingdom over which he would reign [10].
In the spring of 1583 the Queen Catherine, who suffered from gout, fell sick and died in Stockholm on 16 September 1583.
So to the nuncio was lacking a valuable support especially in the always delicate relationship with the King. But, behold, on 12 December 1583, in his last but one consistory, Pope Gregory XIII elevated him to the cardinalate: Castagna left Sweden and returned quickly to Rome where received on 9 January the red biretta and the title of Cardinal Priest of San Marcello, and took possession of the church of San Marcello al Corso on 13 January.



[7] Stanislaw Warszewicki (c.1530 – 3 October 1591) was one of the greatest Polish Jesuits, activist of the Counter-Reformation, translator, writer and scholar. Student at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, at Wittenberg (under the direction of Melanchthon, one of the main German Protestant Reformers) and at the University of Padua, he had been secretary of King Sigismund II Augustus. After being ordained a priest in 1562, he had gone to study in Rome and in the same year he had entered the Jesuit novitiate. In the years 1570–1572 he had been the organizer of the Jesuit college in Vilnius. In 1574, on the initiative of Pope Gregory XIII and with the support of the Princess Anne of Poland, he had gone in Sweden with the task of persuading John III Vasa to convert to Catholicism. In the years 1578–1581 he was the confessor of the Swedish Queen Catherina Jagiellon, wife of John III, and teacher of Crown Prince Sigismund. He was also in the years 1582–1590 rector of the Jesuit college in Lublin, where he had preached, disputing with the Arians.
[8] Dowager Margravine of Baden[-Rodemachern], probably she converted to secure the rights of her sons in the familiar conflict for the domains of her deceased husband.
[9] About the conversion of John III to Catholicism, the Queen Catherine had answered that the monarch was willing, but that the public opinion would not accept it. In this light the requests of Catherine to obtain the dispensation to receive the communion "sub utraque", were seen as a way for John III to investigate what changes and how far the Catholic church would be willing to grant in order to introduce a Counter-Reformation. Castagna, who did not know what to do or what to feign to do, at his search of instruction from Rome, received by the Cardinal Gallio, Secretary of State, a disarmingly and embarrassing answer that «many things have happened differently respect to what it had been assumed here» (in Rome), and thus, he «should be able to find a way of getting by, knowing find by himself the solutions to the accidents and take advices in the arena».
[10] The nuncio continued to hope for a «some kind of order» from Rome, some precise instruction. But Gallio did not know what to tell him: «We can not give you other instructions unless pray God», wrote, adding in sweet-and-sour tone that he (Castagna) «can console himself» thinking that he was at the service of God and of His Vicar, and that his mission was giving him the «science» (knowledge) of harsh climates.
 
The Isabelline Age - Chapter 8.4

But although the great project of the Holy See to reconstitute a great alliance of Catholic states against the Turks could be charming, it came up against an insurmountable difficulty: the real political situation in Poland and Sweden, that the Papal Curia seemed incapable of understanding conveniently, linked to the hopeless utopianism of Gregory XIII, who ignored (or underestimated) the fact that the major enemies of the Polish kingdom were, in fact, not the Turks, but the Muscovites, and deluding himself that the appeal to the good feelings of King Henry would be enough to distract the king from a commitment made in the oath of the Pacta Conventa, that is, to maintain peace with the Turks and to move against the Muscovites to regain Livonia and avenge the massacres committed in Lithuania by Ivan the Terrible. So, while Caligari received by the Papal Secretariat the dispatches to offer to Henry the command of the forces against the infidels, the Polish armies joined with the Swedes were obtaining one after the other numerous victories on the Muscovites [11].

The peace negotiations showed the huge difference of views between the Polish nuncio Giovanni Andrea Caligari and the the Jesuit Antonio Possevino (10 July 1533 – 26 February 1611), Papal envoy to Moscow, accompanied by Giovanni Paolo Campana (25 January 1540 – 27 April 1592), rector of the Jesuit college in Prague then nominated Provincial for the Order in Poland, and other confreres called from Brno: the Jesuit, with his political realism that distinguished his Order, considered that the main objective of his mission should be to achieve peace between Russia and Poland, preliminary to any more ambitious project; Caligari opposed instead the need to take advantage of circumstances to get the tsar defeated the (long-awaited) unification of the Churches and his commitment to participate in the crusade (position corresponded to the official directives of the Papal Secretary of State). Inevitably, the latter was recalled to Italy and replaced in the nunciature in Poland by Alberto Bolognetti (8 July 1538 – 9 May 1585) on 10 April 1581 [12]. if substantially the contribution of the nuncio Bolognetti remained marginal compared to that of Possevino in peace negotiations with the Muscovites [13], he had had greater weight, in view of the possibility of realization of the anti-Turkish Christian League, helped also by Possevino and nuncio in Vienna, in encouraging King Henry to take the position of the Emperor Rodolf II in the contrast that this latter had with Stephen Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, in the Hungary's claim.
Created Cardinal in the consistory of 11 December 1583, at the death of Ivan the Terrible (18 March 1584), Bolognetti took advantage of his new prestige, both to the Polish Court than to the Roman, in order to deprive of authority Possevino. The contrast, however, was not so much of a personal nature, but was primarily the result of an opposite judgment of the two about the new guidelines of the Polish Court after the death of Ivan the Terrible [14]: the conditions of instability of the Muscovy have too flattered the political ambitions and the national hatred of Polish nobility against the Muscovites.
To Bolognetti [15] was succeeded briefly in the nunciature Girolamo Vitale de' Buoi (1542 – 26 January 1596), who focused his attention on the progress of the Counter-Reformation realized substantially by the energetic action of the Jesuits, led by the indefatigable Antonio Possevino [16]; but already in the summer of 1585 he came into conflict with the Primate of Poland and some Polish bishops, reluctant to accept the conditions imposed by the Council of Trent (the residence obligation in the own diocese, the compliance with the canonical age to receive ecclesiastical benefits, the respect of the prerogatives of the Holy See, etc.), and since it was necessary first of all keep (if not accomplish) the unity of the Catholic party, eliminating any internal conflict, to facilitate the action of the Counter-Reformation, in October 1586 it was destined to succeed him the archbishop of Naples Annibale di Capua (... – 2 September 1595) of the family of the dukes of Termoli, with power of legate a latere. He was admittedly of pro-Habsburg sympathies, since his family was traditionally linked to loyalty to the King of Spain.

Possevino was among those who were in the wake of the Princess Anne, became Queen of Livonia for the marriage with Charles of Sweden, and who had intended to facilitate the revival of the Catholicism in that land, in Muscovy and from hence in Asia; towever, the anti-Catholic resistance in Livonia was stronger than it was thought, and to the penetration of Catholicism in Muscovy was not granted space. The 24 April 24 1582 Possevino was in Riga. The city at that time had almost nothing to Catholic.
The queen made a great show of religious piety, participating twice daily to rituals of various kinds, so as to attract a large audience, although it was prayed in Polish or Latin. The resistances were begun when she wanted the return to the Catholic worship of the cathedral of Riga, vagheggiando the erection of a special diocese for Livonia. Then, she opted for a church a little less important, that of St. George, but had the advantage of having around some vacant land on which to build a Jesuit college. Again there was no lack of opposition among the population, but especially there was the decisive intervention of King Charles, who wanted absolutely nothing of Catholic in his own kingdom.



[11] Henry had no resistance to the great project of an anti-Turkish league, but when the nuncio tried to get a more precise commitment, reality reasserted itself: the exigencies of war against the Muscovites were still raised in all their urgency and the Polish king, supported by the loyal adviser Jan Zamoyski, exposed to the nuncio the thousand obstacles which opposed the papal project. Western Catholic powers, observed Zamoyski, had already demonstrated their inconsistency, their inability to bring to the end the offensive against the Ottoman Empire after Lepanto: the Poles would not have taken the risk of being isolated against the Turks? For more, to advantage of the Polish campaign against the Muscovites, Henry had been forced by his councilors to resume the contact with Murad III, inciting the sultan to unleash the Tartars against the Muscovites. Essentially the first papal initiative in Poland ended with a resounding failure. The picture of the situation seemed to change when the Polish victories had indutto the same Tsar Ivan to seek papal mediation in order to open peace negotiations. Of course the Roman Curia had completely distorted the significance of this initiative, seeing in the negotiations started by the Tsar an excellent opportunity to regain to the orthodoxy the «separated brethren» (and therefore, it was proposed to Ivan the unification of the Orthodox Church to the Catholic Church on the basis of the conclusions of the Council of Florence) and, of course, to widen the front of the league against the Turks with the participation of the same Muscovites.
[12] Bolognese as Gregory XIII and with him remotely parented, by him, so strongly inclined to surround himself with fellow citizens and relatives, in 1574 had been called to the Roman Court, initiated to the diplomatic career, at first made Prothonotary Apostolic and Referendary of both signatures, Alberto Bolognetti was later appointed (25 February 1576) nuncio at the court of the kingdom of Etruria, then to the Republic of Venice (10 September 1578) and appointed Bishop of Massa (27 April 1579).
[13] The Tsar had showed, once obtained by means of the papal mediation the peace of which he was anxious, his provisions to engage in a war against the turkish empire have become scarce, precisely at the same time that the project of the league had received new impetus by the Spanish favorable attitude testified to the Pope in the summer of 1583 by Ambassador Duke of Olivares, and the new Turkish threat against Crete.
[14] The Possevino had been flattered, by means of the project of an expedition in order to seize by force the Muscovite crown also proposing the catholicization of Muscovy as the best guarantee of the joint commitment of the Russians and the Poles against the Ottoman Empire, by the great idea to reconquer to the Catholic Church the fabulous empire of the tzars, and had adhered substantially to this project, based on which the Roman Curia would have to financially support the expedition. Bolognetti however, and with him, the Papal Secretariat of State, believed responsible the Jesuit, for the ascendancy of which undeniably he enjoyed in the Polish Court and on the Sejm, of a project that would have made it more and more remote and problematic the possibility of the league against the Turks.
[15] When arrived in Poland the news of the death of Gregory XIII, Bolognetti undertook the journey to go to Rome and attend the conclave, but he died at Villach, in Carinthia.
[16] In contrast to his predecessor, de' Buoi carried out an action concordant with the one of Possevino, extolling without reservations the merits of him and of the Jesuits.
 
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