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Auction: 339 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale at NY INC, Grand Hyatt
Lot: 2079

Uskok War or War of Gradisca - Signed letter in German from Archduke Maximilian to Archduke Ferdinand (Emperor Ferdinand II), dated in Vienna on September 22, 1616, showing paper seal with red wax on reverse, with interesting contents including: "the good name of His Imperial Majesty and of our whole house has to be restored, the insolence of the Venetian Lords must be tempered and other highly dangerous complications prevented. (...) the fierce outbreak of force by the enemy hardly can be met by other means than through combined action of all of our house. This has to be enacted first of all by His Imperial Majesty and Dilection and then also with the defense expedients promised by His Royal Majesty and Dilection of Spain and also those ordered by the Holy Empire (...)"; Archduke Maximilian also suggests two points of negotiation with Spain and to dispatch special persons to meet the Spanish Ambassador in Prague and the Governor of Milan (then in Spanish hands). The Uskok War confronted the Austrians and Spanish, and the Venetians, Dutch and English. The Uskoks, Croatian soldiers who became pirates, were vassals of Archduke Ferdinand. The attacks by the Uskoks on Venetian merchantmen resulted in the siege by Venice of the Friulian city of Gradisca, located on the Northern shores of the Adriatic Sea, and the war with Austria which broke out in 1616. As a result of a problematic situation in Germany, Ferdinand wanted to avoid the commitment of the war, as Venice also did, in this case due to fear of a Spanish intervention. Finally, a treaty of peace was signed on November 6, 1616, including the mediation of Philip III of Spain, Emperor Matthias the King of Bohemia, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and the Republic of Venice, with the consequence of Venetians returning to Austria the territories which they had occupied in Istria and Friuli. An English translation of the letter is included. Fine.

Sold for
$260