[PRINCE IMPERIAL] BASSANO, Napoléon Maret, duc de (1803-1898)

[PRINCE IMPERIAL] BASSANO, Napoléon Maret, duc de (1803-1898)

Letter signed « Duc de Bassano » to Jean Joseph Xavier Alfred de Morton de La Chapelle, Comte de la Chapelle, who was the friend and collaborator of Napoleon III
[Camden Place, Chislehurst] July 1879, 1 p. in-8° on mourning paper
Envelope enclosed (stamped on 8 October 1879, probably corresponding to a later letter sent by the Duke of Bassano)
Vertical tear on the first page, without damage to the text, a few small spots in the bottom margin

A moving response to the condolences addressed to the Empress Eugenie for the tragic loss of her son, the Prince Imperial, who had died a few weeks earlier in Zululand

« Monsieur le Comte,
Je suis chargé par sa majesté l’Impératrice [Eugénie] de vous transmettre tous ses remerciements pour les sentiments que vous lui avez exprimés dans son immense malheur.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Comte, l’assurance de ma considération distinguée
Le Grand Chambellan
Duc de Bassano »

Secretary of State to Napoleon III, Napoleon Joseph Hugues Maret, Duke of Bassano (1803-1898) became Grand Chamberlain to Napoleon III and received, on 30 December 1855, the plaque of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. He is one of the few in the inner circle of the imperial family. After the events of 1870, the Duke of Bassano remained attached to the Emperor, and then, after the latter’s death, to the Empress, whom he did not leave until when, at the age of eighty, his eyesight being very weakened and having some difficulty in behaving, he had to retire to his children’s home.