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, the Pontifical Legate, 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.