Lot 105

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Description:

Rare intercepted secret intelligence, Du Vernay to Count Tekely circa 1682, letter from Boucault Du Vernay (French Minister at Ratisbon) French envoy extraordinaire to Transylvania to Count Tekely (Count Imre Thokoly de Kesmark) Hungarian statesman and military leader, n.d., but it is thought that the English translation was written 22 September 1682, on laid paper with period watermark, reading as follows:
(Outer fold) Letter intercepted from nv. Du Vernay to Count Tekely

Translated Copy of the Letter to Count Tekely

My Lord
I thank your Ld.p for your letter of the 7th from the Camp before Fileck, w.ch I received with the instructions to Our Amb.r at the Port but am surprised that they should be opened before they came to his hands; I hope however he hath now received them. You will find by my last to Sieur Fagel, how often they have promised to make good their word, and that I would already have given you notice of every thing, but I wanted an opportunity. If you shall send to me any of your Servants, they must take care not to come to my house but in the night, our business being to be dispatch unknown to any one. They must take especiall care, how they travell in the road that leads directly from Jawarow to Nimoraw, there being severall horsemen appointed by the King of Poland to search and stop all travellers. I think therefore it will be most secure to leave Premissan [Przemsyl] & Jaroslaw on the right hand, ordering it soe, as if they came to me from Jandamaria [Sandomierz], and that the Place from whence they set forth; for I am surrounded with Spies. I recommend the enclosed letters to your Ld.p that you will please to transmit them upon the first opportunity, and I will be as carefull in all things you shall devise of me. I am with all my heart.
Your Lordship,
Du Vernay

Provenance: Estate of Arturo Peralta Ramos II

Literature: AN ACCOUNT OF THE SECRET SERVICES OF MONSIEUR DE VERNAY, (the French minister at Ratisbonne to Count Teckeley as they pass''d by way of letter, with the cypher and key taken from the original, printed in French at Ratisbonne). Ratisbon [German], 1683.

Other Notes: The Hungarian Revolt under Imre Thokoly (1657-1705)
The 27 February 1673 Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor suspended the Hungarian Constitution, and the appointment of Johann Caspar Ampringen, dictator, deprived 450 Protestant clergy of their living and condemned 67 more to the galleys, leading to an uprising.

The Magyars were greatly encouraged by Louis XIV of France and chose the high-born Thokoly as their leader. War began in 1679 and Thokoly soon gained control over upper Hungary and in 1681 compelled the Emperor to an armistice after receiving support from Transylvania and Turkey. By 1682 he has captured many fortresses from the Emperor.

The first intercepted message illustrates their position in late 1682: military activity at the camp before Fileck where Thokoly arrived on 27th September and which was later taken; surreptitious French support for the Hungarian opposition from the Poles under the influence of the Emperor. It is evident that this letter did not reach its addressee, endorsed by William Blathwayt, the English Under-Secretary of State, and published in 1683, Ratisbon in AN ACCOUNT OF THE SECRET SERVICE OF MONSIEUR DE VERNAY.

Boucault du Vernay was officially the French envoy to Transylvania, an area which in 1682 was independent of the Emperor and allied to the Turks. Transylvania supported Thokoly and Du Vaernay was involved in helping the Hungarian rebels. If ''Fileck" is Filakova in Slovakia (northeast of Budapest and just across the border from Hungary), then Thokoly was near Transylvania and Du Vernay was clearly a little further north, in the southeast of Poland. Travelers bringing letters to him were to leave Przemsyle and Jarslaw on t

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March 2, 2017 11:00 AM EST
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Charlton Hall

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