The Corsican Guard Affair was an event in French and papal history, illustrating

Louis XIV of France LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

's will to impose his power on other European leaders. On 20 August 1662, soldiers of

pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII (; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, and he held various d ...

's Corsican Guard came to blows with the Frenchmen guarding the French embassy in Rome. Shots were fired at the coach of Charles III de Créquy, the French ambassador, leaving several dead and wounded, including one of the ambassador's pages. In effect, some time earlier, a crime had been prevented by the Corsican guards on the orders of cardinal Flavio Chigi (Alexander's nephew), in the gardens of cardinal Rinaldo d'Este's villa. D'Este was very angry and appealed to foreign ministers to end arbitration. De Créquy was sent to Rome by Louis as ambassador extraordinary to put an end to the conflict between the cardinal and the papal guards and so he was accompanied by several soldiers. The situation broke down when the duke's soldiers passed through a tobacco shop and reviled two Corsican guards in a Roman cabaret. The perpetrators were punished, but this did not satisfy Alexander or his guards, with the latter wanting to avenge the affront, leading to the incident on 20 August 1662. The pope did not react to the incident and Louis ordered the duke to leave Rome and summoned the

papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is a ...

to Paris - in effect, a breaking-off of diplomatic relations - while the parlement d'Aix decided that France should annex the papal possessions in

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

. On 12 February 1664 agreement was reached in the Treaty of Pisa. The governor of Rome was forced to come to Paris to explain the incident, the Corsican guard was dissolved and a pyramid built in Rome to mark the site of the incident. The papal legate, cardinal Chigi, appeared before Louis on 29 July 1664 and publicly apologised for the incident, on which France returned Avignon to the pope. The incident was commemorated by a tapestry now on show at the

château de Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the French monarchs, includ ...

, a section of the ceiling of the

Hall of Mirrors The Hall of Mirrors () is a grand Baroque architecture, Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hall and its adjoining salons was intended to ...

in Versailles, and a bronze medallion from a side lantern of the Louis XIV Victory Monument which is now kept at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

Sources

The Corsican Guard on ''corsicanews''

1662 in France 1662 in Italy History of Corsica History of the papacy Ancien Régime