Description:

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley,

Duke of Wellington Account of Assassination Attempt after Waterloo

 

Duke of Wellington, autograph letter signed, to Charles Stuart, May 7, 1819, London. 1 p., 7.125" x 9.125". Expected folds and a few extra wrinkles. A minor closed tear along the right edge mentioned just for accuracy. Else near fine. Ex-Forbes Collection.

 

The Duke of Wellington sent two of his servants to Paris with this brief letter to the British ambassador to France with details about the assassination attempt against him in Paris in February 1818.

 



In full:


"London May 7th 1819


My dear Sir Charles

The bearers of this letter are my Servants Wm Morris & Thomas Carter who saw the shot fired at my carriage in February 18 & met the Man running away who fired it. The Man who drove me Daniel Guivers was turned away some time ago, & I can’t find him; but the footman who was behind the carriage Bernard is a Frenchman, & at Paris. [Siteme?] or any of the People who lived with me at the time will know him.

I shall be very glad if my Servants are sent back as soon as possible. Ever yours most sincerely,


Wellington


H. L. Sir Charles Stuart GCB".

 


As the Duke of Wellington’s carriage reached the entrance to his house early in the morning of February 11, 1818, someone fired a pistol at the coach. The horses quickened their pace, but the Duke did not know of the attempt until his footman Louis Denneux told him. He ordered a pursuit, but the sentries were too late. Two of the Duke’s English servants, William Morris and Thomas Carter, were coming down the street when they heard a pistol shot and met a man running. As no one had raised an alarm, they let him pass, but when informed by the sentries of the attempt, they pursued him without success.

 

The Commissary of Police investigated and interviewed the coachman Daniel Guiver and the footman. In February 1819, the Royal Court of Paris indicted Marie-André Cantillon and Joseph Stanislas Marinet in the assassination attempt, but they were both acquitted on trial. That the Duke of Wellington sent his servants and this letter to Ambassador Stuart in May 1819 suggests that the investigation may have continued beyond that trial.

 

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) was born in Dublin, Ireland, and commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787. He served in Ireland to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was a colonel by 1796 and saw action in the Netherlands and in India. He rose to prominence in the Peninsular War as part of the larger Napoleonic Wars. After leading allied forces to victory at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813, Wellesley received promotion to field marshal. After Napoleon’s exile in 1814, Wellesley served as ambassador to France and received a dukedom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. During the Hundred Days of Napoleon’s resurgence, Wellington commanded the allied army that with a Prussian Army under Gebhard von Blücher defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington ultimately participated in sixty battles over the course of his military career. He twice served as British prime minister as a Tory, once from 1828 to 1830, and again for a few weeks in 1834. He continued as a leading figure in the House of Lords until his retirement in 1846, and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.

 

Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845) was the grandson of Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792) and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1801 and served as Secretary of Legation in Vienna until 1804. He received appointment as a Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1812 and was made a Knight-Grand-Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1815. After the fall of Napoleon, Stuart escorted the exiled French King Louis XVIII back to Paris and served as British ambassador there from 1815 to 1824 and again from 1828 to 1830. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Stuart de Rothesay in 1828. In addition to these diplomatic services, he also served as minister to Spain (1808-1810), Portugal and Brazil (1810-1814, 1825-1826), the Netherlands (1815), and Russia (1841-1844).

 

Provenance: Ex-Forbes Collection. Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), the American owner-publisher of Forbes magazine and a consummate collector, amassed one of the most substantial autograph collections of such breadth and depth that it filled a half-dozen residences on three continents. Many of his manuscripts were sold in a series of multi-million dollar sales by Christie's in the early 2000s. The Forbes name is considered to be the apex of provenance, especially when attached to an item like the above. We are honored to have been chosen by the family to sell at auction the substantial balance of the collection.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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