In 1574, the Duke of Ferrara Alfonso II of Este (r. 1559-1597) attempted a diplomatic coup to change the geopolitical situation in continental Europe. It had all started on 18 June 1574, when Henry of Valois - designated as King of Poland - decided, after the death of his brother Charles IX, to return to France, at the time shaken by the Wars of Religion, to become king under the name Henry III. At this point the Sejm (the assembly of Polish prince electors in charge of electing a new ruler) was faced with the arduous task of finding a new ruler for Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this point, Alfonso decided to take advantage of one of his contacts, Dr. Solomon Nathan Ashkenazi - a Jew of Venetian origin who worked as a physician at the Sultan's court and had been the physician of the late King Sigismund Augustus II - to make his election feasible. Ashkenazi immediately sought contact with some of his agents in Italy: one was a certain Isacco di Fano, while the other was a certain Emanuele, a Jewish banker who lived in the Venice ghetto. Alfonso also sought the support of the Ottomans: two letters dated 1 December 1574, preserved in the State Archives of Modena, written by Alfonso - presumably on the basis of some Ashkenazi suggestions - to both Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Sultan Murad III, refer to an alleged kinship between the House of Este and the House of Osman - which was impossible to identify. Unfortunately, Alfonso decided not to avail himself of Ashkenazi's effort and the doctor expressed his frustration at such blatant mockery to Isaac: ‘not so much for the money but I am sorry to be mocked’. Ashkenazi expressed his final thoughts on the situation in a letter sent to the Duke on 2 May 1575, in which he emphasised that he had done his best ‘with great fatigue’. After this failed attempt to reshape the European geopolitical scenario, Stephen Bathory was elected to the throne of Poland and Alfonso's original idea faded forever.