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Auction: 313 - Numismatic Collector's Series - Ft. Worth, TX
Lot: 1473

Louis XVI King of France (1754-93, ruled 1774-92); deposed in the French Revolution, he was charged with treason against the people and guillotined a few months later. Late date Manuscript Document Signed "Louis" as King, in French, 1/2 page, folio, Paris, April 19, 1791. After his family´s 1789 displacement from the palace at Versailles, he orders in virtual imprisonment at the Tuilleries that the paymaster general of the civil list "Pay to Mr. Leger, surgeon in ordinary to the Queen the sum of one hundred fifty pounds as a supplement to his salary for the first six months of 1971, his yearly salary being 300 pounds." Louis has written "Eighty" in his own hand after his signature, possibly to reduce the sum so that the balance could be added to the secret fund drawn from his civil list to finance the restoration of the regular monarchy. Countersigned below by Arnault "Laporte," who helped the royal family secret the money, and would also assist in their attempted escape from Tuilleries just two months after the date of this document. Fabric tape at three points at edges, soiling, small holes in blank lower half, otherwise VG. In their June 1792 escape, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their two children dressed as commoners, hid in a secret room in Laporte´s quarters, and then fled Paris, hoping to reach Montmedy, a royalist stronghold on the Belgian border. They were arrested thirty miles from their goal when they were recognized by a postmaster.

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$900