The Public Audience of the Apostolic Nuncio Galeazzo Marescotti at the Election Sejm of 1669, Its Significance and Ceremonial

Abstract

Paying attention to the ceremonial aspects of the early modern diplomatic practice is one of the main postulates of the historians of diplomacy. The presented article focuses on the political circumstances and ceremonial manifestations of the participation of the apostolic nuncio Galeazzo Marescotti in a public audience at the election sejm of 1669, as a result of which Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki was elected king. The Holy See’s informational policy regarding the political practice and ceremonial of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the interregnum and the election period is discussed, especially in the emergence of a new interregnum in 1668, as a result of the abdication of John II Casimir Vasa. The papacy’s diplomatic involvement towards the new election was at that time hampered by the cold relations between the nuncio and the ambitious primate of the Kingdom Mikołaj Prażmowski. The article also deals with the preparations for the nuncio’s audience at the election sejm that took place from the beginning of May 1669, demonstrating the secondary nature of this event for the political life of the Commonwealth. Then, the diplomat’s entry into the election field is presented, as is the detailed course of the audience, which culminated in the consigning of papal letters and the nuncio’s oration. The noble reception of Marescotti’s audience is also analysed. The article deals with the issues of political, diplomatic, and visual functions of the diplomatic audience. The hearing of the representative of the Holy See at the elective sejm is presented as an expression of the mutual belonging of the parties (the papacy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) to the seventeenth-century European political order.