The Comtat Venaissin — a papal enclave surrounded by French territory in Provence — issued coinage under its own authority precisely because it answered to Rome, not Paris. Gregory XIII appointed Charles of Bourbon as legate and Georges of Armagnac as co-legate during a period when the papacy was aggressively reasserting administrative control over its French territories following the disruptions of the Wars of Religion. Charles of Bourbon is the same cardinal later proclaimed "Charles X" by the Catholic League in 1589, a claim France never recognized.
The dual-authority format naming both legate and co-legate on a single issue is unusual in the Comtat series.
The Comtat Venaissin — a papal enclave surrounded by French territory in Provence — issued coinage under its own authority precisely because it answered to Rome, not Paris. Gregory XIII appointed Charles of Bourbon as legate and Georges of Armagnac as co-legate during a period when the papacy was aggressively reasserting administrative control over its French territories following the disruptions of the Wars of Religion. Charles of Bourbon is the same cardinal later proclaimed "Charles X" by the Catholic League in 1589, a claim France never recognized.
The dual-authority format naming both legate and co-legate on a single issue is unusual in the Comtat series.