Eugénie de Montijo, Empress / Signed autograph letter / Imperial Prince

  

Autograph letter signed “Eugénie” to Marie-Thérèse Bartholoni [Camden Place], Chislehurst, June 1, [1872], 2 pp. The year “72” added in violet pencil (in another hand). Light stains on the fourth page.

A tender exile letter from the deposed empress, conveying the greetings of her son, the Prince Imperial, to some young ladies. “I have long wanted to write to you, my dear Madame Bartholoni, but I have, as you know well, been unwell, and I have only recently begun to feel better. We have had many visitors from France, who naturally have taken up our time. Everything that comes to us from there softens our exile, and it is with pleasure that we think of your stay here.

My son asks me to send all his regards to those young ladies and to tell them how much their presence charmed Camden. I am carrying out his commission. We are eagerly awaiting news from the Somme. Believe me, dear Madame, in all my sentiments. Eugénie” Our memories of Mme Marie-Thérèse Bartholoni: she hosted a brilliant salon that inspired Marcel Proust.

The witty conversation of the former “beauty of the Empire” seems to have strongly inspired him. A fateful date, June 1, for the Prince and his mother the empress. Seven years later, to the day, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, aged 23, meets his death in southern Africa, killed by Zulu warriors.