Secrets of Vatican Diplomacy. Nuncio Giovanni Antonio Davia’s Participation in the Election of Frederick Augustus I of Saxony as King of Poland
Abstract
The aim of the article is to show the role played by the nuncio Giovanni Antonio Davia in the election in 1697. The article was written on the basis of both published and unreleased correspondence of Nuncio Davia with the State Secretariat from the Vatican Archives and the Vatican Library. After the death of King John III Sobieski, the election that took place in 1697 was one of the most corrupt. Among a number of candidates, the son of King John III, James and Louis de Bourbon, the Duke of Conti, had the most serious chances of winning the crown. To the surprise of the nobility gathered on the electoral field, at the last moment, the candidacy of the Protestant Saxon elector, Frederick Augustus Wettin, who had previously secretly converted to Catholicism, was announced. In order to complete the formalities of Frederick’s conversion to Catholicism, which had been kept secret since 2 June 1697, Nuncio Davia had to authenticate it. The nuncio did not yield to the pressure of the supporters of the French candidacy seeking to block the Wettin election and issued an opinion on its validity. For this reason he was accused by Wettin’s opponents of acting illegally and of being guided by private interests, since Nuncio Davia owed his nephew’s release from Turkish captivity to Frederick Augustus’ intercession. It has to be said that as a result of various circumstances, Archbishop Davia had to visit Warsaw in a role which was not expected for a papal nuncio, i.e. as a representative of the Pope who kept a neutral stance towards internal conflicts. The Saxon ruler’s candidacy and subsequent conversion to Catholicism forced the nuncio to take actions that were praised by the Saxon supporters on the one hand, and contested by the supporters of the French camp on the other. However, contrary to the accusations made by the latter, one may be inclined to believe that it was not private motives but the interests of the Catholic Church that led the nuncio to authenticate the conversion of Frederick Augustus Wettin to Catholicism.
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