Details
FOUCHÉ, Joseph, Duke of Otranto (1759-1820). Autograph letter signed (with initial 'O') to the Count of Montfort ('vôtre altesse Royale' i.e. Jérôme Bonaparte), n.p. [Linz], 3 August 1819, including cancellations and emendations, 3 pages, 8vo (browned, occasional spotting, last paragraph underlined in pencil, small tear and two small holes, not touching text).
A PROTESTATION OF HIS INNOCENCE: his meeting with 'M[essieur]s de Richelieu et Cannings' has been misinterpreted by a Lausanne newspaper correspondent; he recalls his own restrictions on the press: 'J'avoue que je suis un grand coupable d'avoir entravé la Liberté des journaux; si vous avez sous la main un bon confesseur qui se sente le courage de m'absoudre de tous les péchès que j'ai commis à ce sujet pendant dix ans de ministère, faites moi le plaisir de me l'envoyer m[ai]s dittes lui que je ne me contente pas d'une absolution pour rire; [j'en ai] reçu beaucoup de ce genre qui ne m'empechent pas d'etre exilé [à] Linz'. After more complaints about the conspiracy rumours that follow him, Fouché ends with a tribute to the Princess 'qui a accaparé tous les coeurs à Carlsbad' and a joke about religious converts.
Fouché, best known as Napoleon's chief of police, had -- ironically in view of the friendly tone of the present letter -- given orders for the arrest of both Joseph and Jérôme Bonaparte in August 1815. Briefly appointed ambassador to Dresden, he was recalled and exiled at the Restoration in 1816, then became an Austrian subject, residing at Linz. Stratford Canning was minister-plenipotentiary in Switzerland until the late summer of 1819. Armand, Duc de Richelieu, was out of office and passing through Lausanne when the meeting with Fouché took place. One of seven letters by Fouché to Jérôme Bonaparte published in E. Deuth's Mémoires de Jérôme et Catherine Bonaparte (1866 vol. vii, pages 381-394).
A PROTESTATION OF HIS INNOCENCE: his meeting with 'M[essieur]s de Richelieu et Cannings' has been misinterpreted by a Lausanne newspaper correspondent; he recalls his own restrictions on the press: 'J'avoue que je suis un grand coupable d'avoir entravé la Liberté des journaux; si vous avez sous la main un bon confesseur qui se sente le courage de m'absoudre de tous les péchès que j'ai commis à ce sujet pendant dix ans de ministère, faites moi le plaisir de me l'envoyer m[ai]s dittes lui que je ne me contente pas d'une absolution pour rire; [j'en ai] reçu beaucoup de ce genre qui ne m'empechent pas d'etre exilé [à] Linz'. After more complaints about the conspiracy rumours that follow him, Fouché ends with a tribute to the Princess 'qui a accaparé tous les coeurs à Carlsbad' and a joke about religious converts.
Fouché, best known as Napoleon's chief of police, had -- ironically in view of the friendly tone of the present letter -- given orders for the arrest of both Joseph and Jérôme Bonaparte in August 1815. Briefly appointed ambassador to Dresden, he was recalled and exiled at the Restoration in 1816, then became an Austrian subject, residing at Linz. Stratford Canning was minister-plenipotentiary in Switzerland until the late summer of 1819. Armand, Duc de Richelieu, was out of office and passing through Lausanne when the meeting with Fouché took place. One of seven letters by Fouché to Jérôme Bonaparte published in E. Deuth's Mémoires de Jérôme et Catherine Bonaparte (1866 vol. vii, pages 381-394).
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium