Description:

Disraeli Benjamin

Bi-fold stationery with black trim, 4.5" x 7", on letterhead of 2, Whitehall Gardens. Dated "May 15, 76", and signed by Benjamin Disraeli as "B Disraeli". Penned on three sides with the verso blank. Center fold with tiny intact separations along fold lines. Near fine

 

Known as a dandy, a novelist, a brilliant debater and England's first and only Jewish prime minister, Disraeli is best remembered for bringing India and the Suez Canal under control of the crown.  Disraeli became prime minister for the second time in 1874 at the age of 70. Acting on his own, he purchased a controlling interest in the Suez Canal conferring the title of Empress of India upon the Queen and in so doing earning himself the title of Earl of Beaconfield in 1876. Although initially curious about Disraeli when he entered Parliament in 1837, Victoria came to detest him over his treatment of Peel. Over time, her dislike softened, especially as Disraeli took pains to cultivate her. 'Everybody likes flattery; and, when you come to royalty, you should lay it on with a trowel"  Disraeli's biographer, Adam Kirsch, suggests that Disraeli's obsequious treatment of his queen was part flattery, part belief that this was how a queen should be addressed by a loyal subject, and part awe that a middle-class man of Jewish birth should be the companion of a monarch. By the time of his second premiership, Disraeli had built a strong relationship with Victoria, probably closer to her than any of her Prime Ministers except her first, Lord Melbourne. When Disraeli returned as Prime Minister in 1874 and went to kiss hands, he did so literally, on one knee.

 

Disraeli's ALS to Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet joyfully announces that Queen Victoria was quite pleased with Frere's achievements while accompanying the Prince of Wales to Egypt and India. His letter noted that she in fact was offering him an elevated position of which he ultimately was allowed to choose between being made a baronet; or a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (the later of which is referred to in this letter). He chose the former, but the queen bestowed both honours upon him.

 

Disraeli's letter is shown in part below:

 

"May 15 - 76

Dear Sir Bartle,

The Queen has commanded me to express Her Majesty's gracious pleasure that you should attend Her Majesty at Windsor, Right Honorable Sir Bartle Frere on Wednesday next when after the council the Queen will personally (illegible) on you the grand (illegible) of the Order of the Bath as a further proof of Her Majesty's sense of your valuable services during the memorable visit … the Prince of Wales to her (illegible) Empire.

 

Yours faithfully,

B Disraeli"

 

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath) is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing  a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as "Knights of the Bath". George I "erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order". He did not (as is commonly believed) revive the Order of the Bath, since it had never previously existed as an Order, in the sense of a body of knights who were governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred.

 

In the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the knight-to-be taking a bath (possibly symbolic of spiritual purification) during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry. Clothed in a special robe, he was led with music to the chapel where he spent the night in a vigil. At dawn he made confession and attended Mass, then retired to his bed to sleep until it was fully daylight. He was then brought before the King, who after instructing two senior knights to buckle the spurs to the knight-elect's heels, fastened a belt around his waist, then struck him on the neck (with either a hand or a sword), thus making him a knight. It was this accolade which was the essential act in creating a knight, and a simpler ceremony developed, conferring knighthood merely by striking or touching the knight-to-be on the shoulder with a sword, or "dubbing" him, as is still done today. In the early medieval period the difference seems to have been that the full ceremonies were used for men from more prominent families.

 

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