Details
ANNE, Queen of England (1702-1714). Letter signed with autograph subscription (at foot, 'Mon Frere, votre bonne Soeur Anne R') to the Duke of Lorraine (Leopold I), St James', 30 April 1714, in French, 2 pages, 4to, integral address leaf, seals, red silk ties, contemporary endorsements (tear in 1st leaf and small splits in folds, professionally repaired).
An urgent request for the Duke to expel the Old Pretender from his territory. '[Je] prie S[on] A[ltesse] R[oyale] de vouloir eloigner de les Etats celui qui forme des pretensions a la Couronne d'Angleterre'. The Queen is concerned that he may take advantage of his nearness to England to cross the Channel, and asks that he should be sent further away so as to end this source of trouble, 'en éloignant a une plus grande distance de mes Royaumes la personne qui déclare ouvertement y avoir droit afin que s'en voyant ainsi eloigné, il puisse avoir moins de Communications avec des Gens mal intentionnez'.
The Pretender had fled to the Duke's protection at Bar-le-Duc when the terms of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 demanded that Louis XIV expel him from France. His presence there was, as the letter conveys, a source of anxiety for Anne's subjects and a focus of intrigue for the Jacobites. Her request was however ignored, and it was from Bar-le-Duc that the Pretender set out for Scotland in 1715.
An urgent request for the Duke to expel the Old Pretender from his territory. '[Je] prie S[on] A[ltesse] R[oyale] de vouloir eloigner de les Etats celui qui forme des pretensions a la Couronne d'Angleterre'. The Queen is concerned that he may take advantage of his nearness to England to cross the Channel, and asks that he should be sent further away so as to end this source of trouble, 'en éloignant a une plus grande distance de mes Royaumes la personne qui déclare ouvertement y avoir droit afin que s'en voyant ainsi eloigné, il puisse avoir moins de Communications avec des Gens mal intentionnez'.
The Pretender had fled to the Duke's protection at Bar-le-Duc when the terms of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 demanded that Louis XIV expel him from France. His presence there was, as the letter conveys, a source of anxiety for Anne's subjects and a focus of intrigue for the Jacobites. Her request was however ignored, and it was from Bar-le-Duc that the Pretender set out for Scotland in 1715.
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