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Lot 62

CHARLES EDWARD STUART (ʻThe Young Pretender')
Autograph letter signed ("C.R."), in French, to his banker and gentleman of the bedchamber Giuseppe Caietan Cantini of Rome, Florence [Palazzo di San Clemente or ʻdel Pretendente'], 14 November 1780

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,500 inc. premium

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CHARLES EDWARD STUART (ʻThe Young Pretender')

Autograph letter signed ("C.R."), in French, to his banker and gentleman of the bedchamber Giuseppe Caietan Cantini of Rome, expressing pleasure at good news from Tomasi and giving news of himself ("...je suis encore très occupé dés affairés de Ma Maison, qui m'occuperá encore d'avantage, qu'ante j'aurois de quois Le Meublér, attendant L'es Vaisaux's avec Impatience..."); integral address leaf ("Pour Cantini./ A Rome", red wax seal bearing the arms of Great Britain, surrounded by the garter and surmounted by a crown, 1 page, guard to address leaf, some insignificant spotting but overall in fine and attractive condition, 4to, Florence [Palazzo di San Clemente or ʻdel Pretendente'], 14 November 1780

Footnotes

ʻJE SUIS ENCORE TRÉS OCCUPÉ DES AFFAIRES DE MA MAISON' – THE IMPENDING END OF JACOBITE HOPES. The sixty-year-old prince had married the twenty-year-old Louisa in 1772, the marriage being politically and connubially a failure; Charles taking to drink and Louisa embarking on an affair with the poet Alfieri. Two weeks after the date of our letter on, inappropriately enough, St Andrew's Day, the drunken prince attacked Louisa, being found by the servants trying to strangle her. She fled to Rome and the protection of Charles's brother Henry, Cardinal York: ʻThe breach was recognized by observers such as Horace Mann as a more or less final blow to the dynastic hopes of the exiled line. York's protection ceased in 1783 when he was enlightened as to the (continuing) Alfieri affair. An official separation was negotiated by Gustav III of Sweden in 1784' (Eirwen E. C. Nicholson, ODNB).

Additional information

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