DESTRUCTION OF CORSICAN PYRAMID

MAUGER, Jean: France, 1668, Bronze, 41 mm
Obv: Bust of Louis XIV (right)     LUDOVICVS XIIII. REX CHRISTIANISS.
Rev: Religion, holding a cross and bible, standing before toppled pyramid     VIOLATAE MAJESTATIS MONUMENTUM ABOLITUM
Exergue:  PIETAS OPT. PR. ERGA CLEMENTEM IX.    M.DC.LXVIII.
Signed: MAVGER. F.
Ref: Divo 46/109; Boudeau 269

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.
This medal, one of three related to the Corsican Guard Incident, commemorates the destruction of the pyramid in Rome in 1668.
Like most of the medals in this series, this medal was likely struck in the early 18^th century.

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