André Belo - MAP FORUM

Описание: MAP FORUM - 18 January 2022

The Arrest of the false King Sebastian by Ferdinando I de' Medici in 1601: A Political Gift to Spain as Compensation for the French Alliance

This presentation highlights the richness of the Archivio Mediceo del Principato (the Medici Gran Ducal Archive), showing how its materials can shed light on the political and diplomatic dimensions of the case of the false Dom Sebastian, the man who announced himself in 1598 as the lost king of Portugal of the battle of the Three Kings (1578).

After his liberation from the jails of the Republic of Venice in December of 1600, the false Sebastian headed to Livorno, but he was arrested upon his arrival in Florence. Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany seized the occasion to deliver the man to Philip III, as a means of mending the deteriorated relationship with Spain.

André Belo (b. 1971) is Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor) in the Department of Portuguese Studies at the University of Rennes 2 in Brittany, France. He was a member of the project "News Networks in Early Modern Europe" between 2011 and 2013. His newly published book Morte e Ficção do Rei Dom Sebastião (King Sebastian's Death and Simulation), Lisbon, Tinta da China, 2021, 355 pp., is the result of his most recent research, a case study on political imposture in Early Modern Europe.