Note 524 — Chapter XX

Unpublished despatch, August 4, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy. The project for the surrender of Casale was revived two years later and put into execution, thanks to the skill of the Abbé Morel, Minister of Louis XIV. to the Duke of Mantua, and without the intervention of the Abbé d’Estrades. On September 30, 1681, Louis XIV.’s troops entered Casale. We know what this policy led to, and how, at the peace of Ryswick, he was compelled to surrender everything, even Pignerol, his father’s valuable conquest. However, Louis XIV. was well advised to break off the negotiation in 1679, since Marshal d’Estrades acquainted him, on March 11, from Nimeguen, “that this new attempt was of a nature to defer the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of general peace:”—Unpublished letter of the Marshal d’Estrades, Imperial Library, Manuscripts, Papiers du Maréchal d’Estrades, vol. xii. p. 1015