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IN MEDIAS RES: the LIFE of CLAUDE DE SEYSSEL for The CHAPTER ONE IN MEDIAS RES: THE LIFE OF CLAUDE DE SEYSSEL For the historian, Claude de Seyssel has proved to be an extremely elusive gure. Unlike many of his contemporaries including Erasmus, who used friendly correspondence to boost his standing in the world of letters, Seyssel shunned even the most common forms of humanist self-promotion. He did not write many eloquent letters, and he seems to have had few friends, at least at the French court. All that remains of his correspondence is a collection of dry diplomatic dispatches. Clearly, he preferred the day-to-day, concrete world of shifting diplo- macy and policy-making to participation in the nascent Republic of Letters. Although he often appeared as a scholar, translating ancient histories, giving elaborate orations at court, and writing well-crafted works glorifying the French monarch, Seyssel’s biography indicates that at least during his lifetime, his identity as a scholar was overshadowed by his role as a political actor. Scholarship functioned as a tool in the service of his career as a diplomat and military advisor. He appears as a gure struggling to maneuver in a world characterized by the constant twists and turns of sixteenth century diplomacy, and reveals how the experience of political chaos lay at the heart of his search for order and stability.1 Seyssel was born around 1450 in Aix-les-Bains in the duchy of Savoy. Situated in the western Alps with its capital at Chambéry, the duchy of Savoy began as a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages. By the fteenth century, Savoy, like France, was in the process of consolidation and expansion. During the reign of Amadeus VIII (1391–1436), the duchy acquired signi cant territory in Piedmont east of the Alps, and its ruler was promoted to the status of duke by the 1 The most important biography of Seyssel is the extensive monograph by Alberto Caviglia, Claudio di Seyssel (1450–1520): La vita nella storia di suoi tempi. A more concise biography may be found in the introduction of Jacques Poujol’s critical edition of the Monarchie de France. There is also a short biography and discussion of Seyssel’s politi- cal thought in Donald Kelley’s in his introduction to J.H. Hexter’s translation of The Monarchy of France, 1–28. 28 chapter one Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund in 1416. In the fteenth century, Savoy included both Nice and Geneva, but by the sixteenth century the focus of the duchy turned east of the Alps toward Italy. Savoy and the other western territories were dif\ cult to defend against France, and the plains of Piedmont offered fertile land, greater population, and more possibility for expansion. Turin, the largest city in Piedmont, became the capital of the duchy in 1560. Savoy was not a uni ed state during Seyssel’s lifetime. It consisted of domains culturally divided into French and Italian regions by the Alps. As in other feudal states, private wars between ef-holders were tolerated; thus throughout the \ fteenth and sixteenth centuries, two factions fought for power within Savoy: the ‘Savoyard’ party which inclined toward France, and the ‘Piemontese’ which inclined toward the Holy Roman Empire.2 The Seyssel family was Savoyard but remained loyal to the ruling dynasty of Savoy, whether it leaned toward France or the Empire. The of\ cial language of the court was the Savoyard dialect of French, Seyssel’s mother tongue. Savoy was unique among the states of Italy for its military culture. In the last decades of the fteenth century, Savoy was embroiled in many factional disputes and civil dissentions, largely due to a succession of short-lived reigns and minorities which brought about regencies and foreign intervention. The baronial culture of Savoy to which the Seys- sel family belonged was warlike, susceptible to constant feuds between proud, violent, and rebellious nobles.3 In 1491, Claude de Seyssel’s cousin Charles de Seyssel engaged Savoy in a civil war against the duchess regent. When his side lost, only the intercession of Charles VIII of France spared him from death. Seyssel’s father, also named Claude de Seyssel, held the most important military position in Savoy as Maréchal de Savoie from 1462 and played an important role in the history of Savoy in the mid- fteenth century. After a series of military victories, the duke of Savoy appointed the elder Seyssel as his lieutenant 2 On the two factions in Savoy, see Lino Marini, Savoiardi e Piemontesi nello Stato Sabaudo (Rome, Instituto storico italiano per l’età moderna e contemporanea, 1962), vol. 1, 1418–1536. 158–175. 3 Information on the Seyssel family is found in Charles Buet, Les ducs de Savoie au xve et xvie siècles, and more extensively in Marc Seyssel-Cressieu, La maison de Seyssel, ses origins, sa généologie, son histoire. Already in the eleventh centuries, the Seyssel family was among the great vassals at the court of the count as counselors participating in judicial, diplomatic, and military decisions. .
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