Archduchess of Austria and Empress of the French (1791-1847). Autograph letter (fragment) signed. Salò [?]. 8vo. 2½ pp. on bifolium. In French.
$ 1,930 / 1.800 €
(90481/BN60229)
Beautiful letter to a Viennese count, asking him to take in her 13-year-old son William Albert, who was supposed to continue his military studies in Vienna. Apparently, the recipient had previously taken care of Marie Louise's and Napoleon Bonaparte's only son Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-32), as Marie Louise alludes to his premature death with respect to his services towards her ("The attachment to all proofs and the vivid devotion that you have shown me, my dear Count, during the time that you were with my son and since the unfortunate moment when he was taken from me").
Marie Louise expresses her gratitude to the recipient in heartfelt words, underlining that she would only entrust her beloved son to someone in whom she has absolute confidence: "Separating myself from him is certainly one of the most painful sacrifices that I have made in my life and I would not have a moment of relief in its course if I could not have the certainty of having placed him with someone whom I trust like myself". As William Albert "has a constitution much too delicate to allow him to enter an academy", Marie Louise hopes that he will be accommodated in the recipient's house, "from where he could follow the course of public instruction". In a postscriptum she assures the recipient that she would appoint a teacher for William Albert so that he would merely have "to house and nourish him". - William Albert, later Prince of Montenuovo (1819-95), was the first-born son of Marie Louise and her second husband Adam Albert von Neipperg. At the time of his birth, Marie Louise was still married to Napoleon Bonaparte, then in exile on St Helena. William Albert was legitimized upon his parents' marriage in 1821 and, in 1864, elevated to the status of Prince of Montenuovo in Austria. As envisaged by his mother, William Albert followed a military career in the Austrian army, which he joined in 1838, eventually rising to the rank of a Field Marshal Lieutenant. - Traces of folds. With minimal tears..