But suspicions, arising out of the circumstances of his divorce from a former wife, obliged him to prove his marital capacity before the completion of the contract.

This he did at Venice, before a witness, upon the person of a virgin selected for the experiment.[223] Maria de'Medici, the only child of Duke Francesco, became Queen of France.
[Footnote 221: See above, pp.

361-369.] [Footnote 222: Galluzzi, vol.iii.p.

5, says that she died of a putrid fever.

Litta again inclines to the probability of poison.