Lot 496
ANNE (1665-1714), QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
Letter signed to the Duke of Lorraine
Auction: Day Two | Thursday 20 August from 10am | Lots 199 - 555
Description
London, St James's Palace, 23 April 1709. In French, single bifolium written on 2 sides, the body of the letter in a neat clerical hand, signed and with autograph subscription by Anne at foot, ‘Mon Frere, Votre bonne soeur, Anne R’, conjugate address leaf retaining wafer seal
Provenance
Private Collection of a Gentleman
Footnote
Writing in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession, Anne thanks Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (1679-1729) for ceding his claim to the duchy of Montferrat, and promises to do her utmost to see that the terms of any peace are in his interests ('vous pouvez etre assuré, que cette demarche m'obligera à prendre plus fortement à coeur les Interets de votre Maison, et de les appuier de tout mon Credit aupres des Hauts alliez, afin que la Paix ne soit point conclue, sans qu'on prenne les mesures les plus propres det les plus convenables pour vous procurer une satisfaction equitable'.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which brought an end to the war in 1713, Louis XIV of France agreed to cease harbouring James Stuart, the ‘Old Pretender’, who was in consequence exiled to the duchy of Lorraine. After the Fifteen, Stuart sought to return to the duchy, but Leopold, under pressure from the regent of France, refused to receive him.