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Lot 59

STUART (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD)
Letter signed and subscribed ("Vostre tres affectioné Cousin/ Jacques R"), to the duc de Bourbon, written on the death of his wife, Rome, 16 March 1735

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,125 inc. premium

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STUART (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD)

Letter signed and subscribed ("Vostre tres affectioné Cousin/ Jacques R"), to the duc de Bourbon, written on the death of his wife, ("...l'amitié que vous m'avez toujours temoignée, – m'est un seur garent de la veritable part que vous prenez à la pérte que j'ai faite de la Reine et à mon afliction...") and thanking him for his kind letter of 15 February; address leaf, trace of seal in black wax, 1 page, guard, folio, Rome, 16 March 1735

Footnotes

THE OLD PRETENDER MOURNS THE DEATH OF HIS QUEEN: James had married Clementina Sobieska in 1719 and by her had the two sons that kept Jacobite hopes alive, Charles Edward (ʻBonnie Prince Charlie') and Henry Benedict. But the marriage was not happy, and the Queen eventually retired to a convent: ʻThe pope, fearing the Stuarts might abandon the Roman Catholic faith to regain their throne, took Clementina's part and reduced James's allowance. While Clementina wrote "wronged wife" letters to the king of France and the queen of Spain, her husband wrote to his wife's relatives, at one stage suggesting to her father that she should be sent back to Ohlau...He visited her at the convent, but no reconciliation resulted, and neither talked afterwards of what was discussed. The quarrel turned into a grim internecine war which left supporters of the movement in Britain and throughout Europe greatly demoralized. By playing on the pope's fear that Prince Charles might abandon his Roman Catholic faith, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, outwardly Jacobite but in the pay of London, ensured that Clementina remained in the convent and reconciliation proved next to impossible. While James blamed his old enemy, the earl of Mar, Clementina railed against the Dunbar-Hay clique, who were hated even by fellow protestant Jacobites. All this dissent caused irreparable damage to James's cause' (Hugh Douglas, ODNB).

The recipient of this letter, Louis Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon and Prince de Condé, had previously held the position of chief minister to his cousin Louis XV.

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