Description
FRÉDÉRIC-GUILLAUME II OF PRUSSIA. Set of 2 letters signed "Fr. Guillaume" to Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries, then advisor to Louis XVIII in Ham, Westphalia. 1794. - Camp d'Oppalin [in East Prussia, now Opalino in Poland], July 17, 1794. "I am charmed that your stay in my States has made you love its asylum. MY PROVINCES OF FRANCONIE ARE OPEN TO YOU as those of the Lower Rhine have been, and I have already given my orders to Baron de Hardenberg, my ruling minister in the margraviates so that your family and the people who have attached their fate to yours, will find there the same welcome they enjoyed in Westphalia. I would have thought myself fortunate not to be able to limit to these feeble consolations the marks of MY ESTIMATE FOR THE TRUE FRENCH, and it is by repeating the assurance to you that I pray to God... that he may have you in his holy and worthy care...". (1/4 p. in-4). The King of Prussia was then in close proximity to Poland, where Tadeusz Kościuszko had been leading an insurrection since March 1794 in an attempt to free the country from Russian occupation, but some of whose units had also clashed with Prussian troops. - Potsdam, October 27, 1794. "You must have no remaining worries about the act of conscription that you have been falsely made to fear for THE FRENCH EMIGRANES REFUGE IN MY STATES. I am so far from having withdrawn from them the interest that I proved to them on so many occasions that there is a large number of them to whom I have recently granted the azile, and, if THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DAY AND THE LOICES OF PRUDENCE THAT THEY REQUIRE DO NOT PERMIT ME TO BELIEVE INDISTINCTLY MY PITY, I have only put restrictions on them which impartiality cannot help applauding. It will give me great pleasure to see that you, Monsieur le maréchal, continue to find in your present residence the tranquility and advantages that have made you prefer it, and, assuring you of all my esteem, I pray to God that he may have you in his holy and worthy keeping..." AMBIGUOUS ATTITUDE OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. Favoring high-ranking French émigrés (including the royal family), he refused to become more involved, and especially to support the military action of monarchist forces, for fear of provoking the French revolutionary regime too directly. MARECHAL DE CASTRIES, EXILE COMPANION OF THE FUTURE LOUIS XVIII. A friend of Jacques Necker, with whom he stayed at the start of his emigration, Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, Marquis de Castries (1727-1801) served in the army of the Princes, then as principal advisor to the Comte de Provence, the future Louis XVIII. He died in Wolfenbüttel in 1801. Nephew of Marshal de Belle-Isle, he had enjoyed a distinguished military career under the Ancien Régime, distinguishing himself in the Seven Years' War in Corsica, the Caribbean and Germany. Secretary of State for the Navy from 1780 to 1787, he made a major political contribution to the success of the American War of Independence.
47
FRÉDÉRIC-GUILLAUME II OF PRUSSIA. Set of 2 letters signed "Fr. Guillaume" to Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries, then advisor to Louis XVIII in Ham, Westphalia. 1794. - Camp d'Oppalin [in East Prussia, now Opalino in Poland], July 17, 1794. "I am charmed that your stay in my States has made you love its asylum. MY PROVINCES OF FRANCONIE ARE OPEN TO YOU as those of the Lower Rhine have been, and I have already given my orders to Baron de Hardenberg, my ruling minister in the margraviates so that your family and the people who have attached their fate to yours, will find there the same welcome they enjoyed in Westphalia. I would have thought myself fortunate not to be able to limit to these feeble consolations the marks of MY ESTIMATE FOR THE TRUE FRENCH, and it is by repeating the assurance to you that I pray to God... that he may have you in his holy and worthy care...". (1/4 p. in-4). The King of Prussia was then in close proximity to Poland, where Tadeusz Kościuszko had been leading an insurrection since March 1794 in an attempt to free the country from Russian occupation, but some of whose units had also clashed with Prussian troops. - Potsdam, October 27, 1794. "You must have no remaining worries about the act of conscription that you have been falsely made to fear for THE FRENCH EMIGRANES REFUGE IN MY STATES. I am so far from having withdrawn from them the interest that I proved to them on so many occasions that there is a large number of them to whom I have recently granted the azile, and, if THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DAY AND THE LOICES OF PRUDENCE THAT THEY REQUIRE DO NOT PERMIT ME TO BELIEVE INDISTINCTLY MY PITY, I have only put restrictions on them which impartiality cannot help applauding. It will give me great pleasure to see that you, Monsieur le maréchal, continue to find in your present residence the tranquility and advantages that have made you prefer it, and, assuring you of all my esteem, I pray to God that he may have you in his holy and worthy keeping..." AMBIGUOUS ATTITUDE OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. Favoring high-ranking French émigrés (including the royal family), he refused to become more involved, and especially to support the military action of monarchist forces, for fear of provoking the French revolutionary regime too directly. MARECHAL DE CASTRIES, EXILE COMPANION OF THE FUTURE LOUIS XVIII. A friend of Jacques Necker, with whom he stayed at the start of his emigration, Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, Marquis de Castries (1727-1801) served in the army of the Princes, then as principal advisor to the Comte de Provence, the future Louis XVIII. He died in Wolfenbüttel in 1801. Nephew of Marshal de Belle-Isle, he had enjoyed a distinguished military career under the Ancien Régime, distinguishing himself in the Seven Years' War in Corsica, the Caribbean and Germany. Secretary of State for the Navy from 1780 to 1787, he made a major political contribution to the success of the American War of Independence.
You may also like
