Title: A Letter from King Louis XIII delivering orders to set up an additional company for the garrison of Fort Barraux en Dauphine. Manuscript on Paper, with secretarial signature of Louis XIII and signature of Secretary of State, August 1634
Condition: Very Good
An early 17th century letter from King Louis XIII, delivering orders to set up an additional company for the garrison of Fort Barraux en Dauphine. The construction of this fort, then called fort de Saint-Barthélémy, began on August 24, 1597 by the Duke of Savoy Charles-Emmanuel, in order I to defend the entrance to the Grésivaudan valley. This follows the battle of Pontcharra of September 17, 1591 during which the French army commanded by Lesdiguières defeated the army of the Duke of Savoy Charles-Emmanuel. Despite everything, Savoy began the construction of a bastioned fort on the lands of the Kingdom of France, the completion of which was awaited by Henri IV. The troops of the Duke of Lesdiguières succeeded, on March 15, 1598 and thanks to a stratagem, in taking control of the fort, the construction of which was just completed. The fort also played the role of a prison, notably during the French Revolution and during the two world wars. Antoine Barnave was notably interned there in 1793.
This letter bears the secretarial signature of Louis XIII and is countersigned by his Secretary of State at the time.
Louis XIII, also known as "the Just", was son of Henri IV and Marie de Médicis, reigning as King of France from 1610 to an early death 1643, due to a fatal case of tuberculosis. His reign was largely dominated by his reliance on his chief ministers to govern France, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes and then Cardinal Richelieu, the latter who aided him in establishing the Académie française, ending the revolt of the French nobility, weakening the Protestant Huguenots, and combating the Habsburgs during the Thirty Years War, during which France asserted its military dominance in Europe.
One manuscript on paper, 33 x 20 cm
This manuscript is in very good shape, with old fold marks to the paper, and old staining to the rear.