$1,599
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) Endorsement Signed, 18 August 1808. Folio-format wove paper bifolium, typographically preprinted, "Rapport a sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi," from the Minister of War, Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, Count Hunebourg (1765-1818). The original secretarial document addressed to Napoleon and detailing a plan to move four battalions from Italy to Spain, with an extensive note in a secretarial hand modifying the plan, on outside and inside pages; signed "Napol." Clean, some ink lifting and show-through, 13 x 8 1/2 in. Napoleon successfully forced the abdication of Ferdinand VII of Spain, but the Spanish people revolted in May 1808, causing the French Emperor to face down a military threat that culminated in the Siege of Roses in the fall of the same year. "Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, 1st Count of Hunebourg, 1st Duke of Feltre (1765-1818), born to Irish parents in Landrecies, was a politician and Marshal of France. Clarke was one of the most influential and charismatic Franco-Irish generals in the French army during the Napoleonic period. He had close links to the Irish Brigade of France. His father served in Dillon's (where Clarke himself served for a time) and his mother's father and several uncles served in Clare's. With the outbreak of the French Revolution, Clarke served in the early French Revolutionary Wars in the Army of the Rhine and by 1793 had been promoted to general de brigade." (Wikipedia).
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2016-10-30
