Modena. The Este court of Modena receives a letter addressed to the young Maria Beatrice from Pope Clement X, urging her to accept the marriage proposal of James Stuart, Duke of York, in England (obviously to establish a Catholic king and queen in England). The English court must choose a second wife for James Stuart, Duke of York, who had been widowed the previous March. His first wife, Catherine of Braganza, was sterile. The English court is considering Maria Beatrice d’Este, of the Duchy of Modena. In the spring of 1673, Lord Peterborough, who had been charged with finding his future wife, had spoken in Paris with the Jesuit Father Alexander Conn, who had introduced him to the Modenese abbot Gaspare Rizzini, from whom he had learned about Laura Martinozzi’s daughter: very young, beautiful, lively, highly cultured, a brilliant conversationalist, and a lover of art and music. Unfortunately, Maria Beatrice isn’t entirely on board: she would like to become a nun instead. Initially the answer is therefore negative, but after several pressures, crucially the letter from the Pope, Maria Beatrice accepts.
