Louis XIV (1638-1715), King of France. Letter signed ‘Louis’ (autograph signature), probably from the pen of Toussaint Rose, the cabinet secretary, Au camp près de Dole, 9 June 1674, addressed to ‘ma cousine’ [Louise Christine de Savoie]. 1 p. in-4°, royal crown watermark.
Letter written during the siege of Dole which Louis XIV led himself from 27 May to 6 June 1674.
” Ma cousine, le marquis de St Morice ma rendu les marques obligeantes de v[ot]re souvenir dont vous laviés chargé pour moy, je vous en remercie de tout mon cœur souhaitant les ocasions de vous pouvoir mieux vous tesmoigner lestime que je fais de v[ot]re amitié de laquelle vous demandant la continuation je prie dieu quil vous ayt ma cousine en sa Ste et digne garde “. [My cousin, the Marquis de St Morice has shown me the obliging signs of your remembrance which you have entrusted to me. I thank you with all my heart, wishing that I could better testify to you the esteem I have for your friendship, which I ask you to continue, and I pray to God that he may have you, my cousin, in his holy and worthy keeping.]
Louise Christine de Savoie (1629-1692), whose mother was a sister of Louis XIII, was a first cousin of Louis XIV.
Thomas-François Chabod, Marquis de Saint-Maurice (1624-1682) was ambassador of the Duchy of Savoy to the French court from 1667 to 1673. He wrote the Lettres sur la cour de Louis XIV (1667-1670), published in 1910.
Toussaint Rose (1611 [or 1615]-1701), secretary to Cardinal de Retz and Cardinal Mazarin, was secretary to the King’s cabinet from 1657, and a member of the Académie française in 1675. He imitated Louis XIV’s handwriting perfectly.
He “imitated the King’s handwriting so exactly, wrote Saint-Simon, that it cannot be distinguished from that which the pen counterfeits […]. It is not possible to make a great king speak with more dignity than Rose did, nor more appropriately to everyone, nor on every subject, than the letters he wrote in this way, and which the King signed with his hand.” (Saint-Simon, Mémoires, bibl. Pléiade, vol. I, pp. 821-822).
Letters from Louis XIV during the siege of Dole are extremely rare.
2 800 €