79/2178 [Netherlands]. (Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours). Manuscript, French, pen and brown ink, 22p., 16th cent. (±1581), folio.

- Lvs. frayed; waterstains in lower margin.

= Probably an official copy made after the original signed agreement, between the Duke of Anjou and the Dutch United Provinces in which he accepts the official reign. It was signed by all Provinces, except Holland and Zeeland in 1580 and ratified in 1581. François, duke of Anjou (1555-1584), son of king Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, was asked by William the Silent to become the hereditary souvereign of the Netherlands after the United Provinces had left the Habsburg rule of Philips II. After the French Fury in Antwerp failed in 1583, his troops were massacred and he withdrew from the Low Countries and died the next year from malaria. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE LXXXI.