MONTIJO (de), impératrice Eugénie (1826-1920)

MONTIJO (de), impératrice Eugénie (1826-1920)

Autograph letter signed « Eugénie » to an unknown recipient
[Camden Place, Chislehurst], 4 February [18]73, 1 p. 1/2 in-8°
Clipper mark on upper margin, central fold mark

The Empress’ moving response to her condolences on the death of Emperor Napoleon III, which had occurred less than a month earlier

« Je suis bien sensible à votre sympathie et aux regrets que vous m’exprimez pour celui que nous pleurons et je vous remercie de reporter sur mon fils [le Prince Impérial] l’attachement que vous lui aviez voué. Croyez à tous mes sentiments.
Eugénie »

On January 9, 1873, at 10:45 a.m., Napoleon III died at the age of 64 at his residence in Camden Place. Nearly 60,000 people, one-tenth of them French, including a delegation of workers led by Jules Amigues, gathered in front of the body and participated in the burial on 15 January 1873 in Chislehurst. Subsequently, his widow Eugenie de Montijo built a mausoleum for him at St. Michael’s Abbey, which she had founded in 1881, and where he has since been resting alongside his wife and their only son, Imperial Prince Louis-Napoleon, who was killed at the age of 23 during a patrol during the Anglo-Zulu War.