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Lot 67

GEORGE III
Autograph letter signed and subscribed ("Your most affectionate Father/ George R") to his son Fredrick, fearing French troops would overrun Hanover, after the Peace of Basel, Weymouth, 22 September 1795

15 September 2021, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,402.50 inc. premium

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GEORGE III

Autograph letter signed and subscribed ("Your most affectionate Father/ George R") to his son Fredrick, Duke of York ("My dear Frederick"), looking forward to seeing him on Sunday and expressing his displeasure at "...the unfair conduct of the King of Prussia coming more to light every day...", fearing that "...we shall soon see that he has permitted the French to place a Garrison in the Town of Osnaburg, and probably from there advance into my Electorate... the idea of bringing home the Cavalry seems not to be given up...", one page, creased at folds otherwise in clean, fresh condition, narrow paper window mount, 4to (230 x 185mm.), Weymouth, 22 September 1795

Footnotes

'THE UNFAIR CONDUCT OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA': George III writes to his son as Commander-in-Chief of the army during the French Revolutionary Wars to relate his concerns that the King of Prussia, after signing the Peace of Basel with France in April 1795, would let French troops overrun Hanover from nearby Osnaburg.

Whilst George III at this time ruled both the electorate of Hanover and Britain and whilst William Pitt reiterated in the Commons that 'the Elector of Hanover will never separate himself from the King of England', our letter seems to reinforce the theory by historians such as Guy Stanton Ford that it was Prussian rather than English interests that determined Hanover's fortunes. George III's fears expressed here that Hanover would be occupied by Prussian troops were not realised until March 1801 when Tsar Paul of Russia, then a friend of France, coerced Frederick William III to temporarily occupying the Electorate (see Stanton Ford, Hanover & Prussia, 1796-1803: A Study in Neutrality, 1903, review by Sidney B. Fay, The American Historical Review, Vol. 9. No.4, July 1904).

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