Letters of Christina of Sweden to the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain Galeazzo Marescotti on the «Neapolitan sums» (from the collection of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of sciences)
Keywords:
Spain, Holy See, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jan II Casimir, Christina of Sweden, Apostolic Nunciature in Spain, Decio Azzolino Jr., Clement X, Galeazzo Marescotti, history of international relationsAbstract
The publication is a translation and commentary of four letters from the former Queen of Sweden Christina Vasa to the Apostolic Nuncio in Madrid Galeazzo Marescotti in the period 1672-1673, which turned out to be the least documented period in her biography. All four letters are devoted to the topic of the so-called «Neapolitan sums» - loans issued by Bona Sforza, the Dowager Queen of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1557 to Philip II of Spain. As the second cousin of Jan II Casimir, the former king of Poland, Christina called herself his only legitimate heir and made claims, relying on the support of Cardinal Decio Azzolino Jr., her Roman con dant. The course of the correspondence testi es to the establishment of business relations between the correspondents in the previous period and re ects attempts to rely on the support of Pope Clement X, his nephew, Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and other unnamed in uential hierarchs, and dissatisfaction with obstacles that will prove insurmountable in the future. Correspondence from the collection of N. P. Likhachev serves as a documentary con rmation of the assumptions of Polish scientists of the late 19th century about Kristina's struggle for the «Neapolitan sums»
