During the 1660s, friction grew between Louis XIV and the Pope due to multiple disagreements about French representation in the College of Cardinals, diplomatic immunity in Rome, and more. Tensions reached a climax when the Corsican guards quarreled with the French ambassador’s entourage, which resulted in the death of the ambassador’s wife’s page. In retaliation, Louis XIV occupied the papal enclave in Avignon and forced the Pope to sign the Treaty of Pisa in 1664, which demanded several humiliating concessions from the papacy, including a public apology from the Pope’s nephew, Cardinal Chigi, as depicted on this medal. Translation from the Medailles sur les principaux evenements du regne entier de Louis le Grand, pg. 79: The Audience with the Papal Legate (Cardinal Chigi), 1664 The dissolution of the Corsican Guard was not the only reparation promised to the King; there were other demands in the articles of the Treaty of Pisa. Among the most significant was that the Pope would send Cardinal Chigi, his nephew and the Papal Legate, to make to his Majesty the most sincere apologies. The Cardinal was obliged to assure the King that his Holiness’s recognized the displeasure he had caused the King with his insult to the Duke de Créqui, and, on behalf of himself and his entire household, to make the most respectful assurances of obedience and attachment to the King. The Papal legate arrived at Marseilles on the 14th of May, and during the audience he had with the King at Fontainebleau on the 28th of July, he publicly read this apology, which detailed the mollifications offered by the Pope. This is the subject of this medal: The Papal Legate reads before the King the document which contained the Papal appeasements. The legend and the epistle, CORSICUM FACINUS EXCUSATUM LEGATO AT LATERE MISSO XXVIII JULII. Signify “satisfaction for the attack of the Corsicans, made by a Papal Legate the 28 of July 1664.