SAVOIE - PHILIBERT II LE BEAU and MARGUERITE D'AUTRICHE - Lot 494

SAVOIE - PHILIBERT II LE BEAU and MARGUERITE D'AUTRICHE Bronze medal. Undated "Coat of arms of the Duke of Savoy and Marguerite" (1502). (284 g; Ø 120 mm). ♦ Mazerolle 30; Kress 528; Jones 16; TNG XX,4 Engraver: Jean Marende, a silversmith from Bourg en Bresse. Suspension hole. Later casting. Retouched. Light brown patina. Very nice. Medal offered by the magistrate of Bourg-en-Bresse on the occasion of the joyful entry of the Duchess of Savoy in 1502. Philibert II, known as le Beau, born at the Château de Pont-d'Ain on April 10, 1480, and died there on September 10, 1504, was Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont from 1497 to 1504. Raised at the French court, he accompanied King Charles VIII on the Naples Campaign. He earned a reputation as a fine captain. On September 26, 1501, he married Marguerite d'Autriche, daughter of Maximilien de Habsbourg and Marie de Bourgogne, and thus sister of Philippe le Beau. She had been engaged in her youth to the dauphin Charles, the future Charles VIII, before being married in 1496 to the infant Jean de Castille, who died just six months after their union. She remarried Philibert de Savoie in 1501, but her second husband died in 1504, aged 24. Marguerite then returned to the Netherlands, where she ruled on behalf of her nephew Charles V from 1507 to 1515, and then from 1519 until her death in 1530. She is credited with the beautiful church of Brou near Bourg en Bresse.