1544. Carta de Álvaro da Costa para a sua mãe, Maria Borges.

Private letter from Álvaro da Costa to his mother, Maria Borges.

The author gives his mother some news about military actions in Italy, and asks her to send it him news from their family.

Some of the news in this letter refer to the wars in Italy from 1542-1546, more specifically the Battle of Ceresole, which took place on April 11, 1544, in the Italian northern region of Piedmont. The battle was won by the French forces of the Count of Enghien, who fought the imperial army of the Marquis del Vasto (or Gasto, as it is written in the letter). This is one of the letters in the collection "Corpo Cronológico", a documental fund under the custody of the National Archive of Torre do Tombo. It is a collection composed mostly by documentation of judicial and administrative nature, from 1161 to 1696. After the earthquake of 1755 many scattered documents were incorporated in this fund. Just like the name suggests, the main criterion of organization within the Corpo Cronológico is the documents' date.