Historical
and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
DESTRUCTION OF CORSICAN PYRAMID MAUGER, Jean: France, 1668, Bronze, 41 mm In 1662, as a result of an insult to Pope Alexander VII
by the Duke du Crequi, the French ambassador to the Papal States, the
pope's Corsican Guard led an attack against the French ambassador's Guard
in Rome. Louis XIV of France retaliated by seizing Papal Venaissin and
Avignon and forcing the pope to accept very humiliating terms by the Peace
of Pisa (1664). In fulfillment of this treaty,
Cardinal
Chigi, the pope's
nephew, came to Paris in 1664 to tender the pope's apology to Louis. The
Corsicans were banished forever from the Roman States, and in front of the
guard-house that they had occupied, a pyramid was erected in Rome, bearing
an inscription which embodied the pope's apology. In 1668, with the
accession of the new pope, Clement IX, and as a gesture of good will,
Louis ordered the destruction of this humiliating pyramid.
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