“IN MEMORY OF OUR OLD FRIENDSHIP AND ALLIANCE WITH THE KINGDOM OF FRENCH”

The article analyzes and publishes five letters of Elector Augustus I of Saxony (1526–1586) to King Charles IX de Valois of France and his mother Catherine de Medicis from the collection of manuscripts and autographs of the Russian diplomat Peter Dubrovsky (1754–1816), which is conserved in the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. These letters are important fragments of the extensive diplomatic correspondence between the leader of the Protestant princes of Germany and the French royal court, trying to achieve a long-term political and military alliance with the German principalities, in the conditions of the Second Huguenot War that began in France after a three-year peace. The figure of Augustus I was attractive to French addressees due to his long-term friendship with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, with whom the Valois sought an alliance in contrast to the Spanish Habsburgs. The letters dated 1567–1568 mention such significant events as the siege and capture of Gotha, the execution of the imperial knight Wilhelm von Grumbach, the capture of the Saxon Duke Johann Friedrich II, the attempt of the Huguenots to capture Charles IX and Catherine de Medicis in Meaux, the battle of Saint-Denis, etc., as well as their assessment by the Elector of Saxony, with subsequent mediation proposals for a way out of the militarypolitical conflict in France.

diplomatic correspondence, collection of Peter Dubrovsky, Religious wars in France, Reformation, Saxony, Elector Augustus I, Charles IX de Valois, Catherine de Medicis