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586

Impassioned Letter Signed by French Captain Revel to King Louis XVIII, Declaring Napoleon Had Raped

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Impassioned Letter Signed by French Captain Revel to King Louis XVIII, Declaring Napoleon Had Raped

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Auction Date:2013 Jul 23 @ 17:00 (UTC-7 : PDT/MST)
Location:11901 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90025, United States
Long, emotional letter signed by Captain Jean-Honore-Frangois Revel to King Louis XVIII, dated 6 September 1816. Written in French. Revel married Eleonore Denuelle de La Plaigne and soon was sent to jail for fraud three months into their marriage. The couple divorced on 29 April 1806 and soon his ex-wife became the mistress to Napoleon, and bore his first illegitimate son, Count Leon, proving that Napoleon could produce an heir. Letter serves as a sort of plea, as Revel is trying to discredit his wife's divorce because it would mean he loses his dowry. The first four lines of the letter crystallize the unsavory perspective in which Revel was victimizing himself: ''Victim of the Usurper, Stricken by arbitrariness and calumny, I invoke the laws of my fatherland in vain. Deign to read, oh my King, the sufferings of my heart...I brought before the courts the invalidity of the divorce obtained by my wife as a result of the orders of the Usurper who had made her his mistress. At the same time I published the story of that rape to preserve the memory of the enormous crime which Bonaparte had committed against me, a story that was all the more necessary to my best interests since I could not say as a plaintiff what I was permitted to write as the narrator of my personal misfortunes. The publication of my book was allowed by the appropriate authority. The first edition disappeared like lightning. My success attracted the attention of the followers of Bonaparte. The perpetrators of the rape--whom I described--pulled all their strings to obliterate my work as soon as it appeared, even to deprive me of my royalties...an illegitimate child born of...a criminal relationship with Bonaparte...'' Card-style letter measures 8.5'' x 13'' on 11pp., front and verso, with a horizontal and vertical fold as well toning along edges and a tiny .25'' tear to p. 1, else very good condition overall.
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