[French Revolution] LOUIS XVI (King of France, 1754-1793) [Marie Antoinette (1755 - 1793)]
Document Signed, payment for the Queen's Stables
Signed document from the third son of Dauphin Louis, King of France from 1774 to 1792, husband of Marie Antoinette, deposed in September of 1792, tried for treason December 1792, found guilty, condemned to death and guillotined. 1 page, folio, Maison de La Reine [Paris], 6 December ["derniere mois"] 1789, addressed to the Administrator of the Royal Treasury, M. Marc Antoine Francois Marie Randon de la Tour, responsible for the expenditure of the household, ordering the "Administrateur de mon Tresor Royal" to pay Monsieur Joseph Duruey 5000 livres to furnish the payment for the rental of the Maison de Fleury for the "service of the [Queen's] stables ('Ecurie')." Signed "Bon / Louis" by the King himself and additionally signed in the King's name by a secretary. 9.5 x 11.4 inches [23.9 x 29 cm], nicely matted and framed with gray velvet surrounding a hand-colored period engraved portrait (Chez Le Blond, fils Cadot, Graveur - Avignon. Trimmed to size, nicks to edges and repaired tear evident along right edge. Unexamined out of the original Charles Hamilton frame, but otherwise in apparently fine condition. 16 x 32 inches [40 x 81 cm] overall.Joseph Duruey (1741 - 1794) was appointed secrétaire du Roi in 1781 and then in 1783 Général des Finances de la Généralité de Poitiers. This was followed by his appointment in 1787 to the court at Versailles as treasurer of foreign affairs and banquier de la cour. From 1787 until 1792 he acted as director of the Caisse d’Escompte and in 1790 was appointed the role of administrateur du Trésor royal. In 1790, the same year that he was appointed royal treasurer, he and his wife bought château de Mortefontaine in the Oise but following his execution in 1794 it was confiscated by the state and was subsequently acquired four years later by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul. Duruey may have avaded execution if he had not been discovered to have aided Louis XVI in his plan to go into exile. In 1791 the king told Duruey of his plans and thus Duruey lent him the sum of 3,200,000 livres. Initially, when the king’s attempts were aborted, Duruey’s part in the plan was not disclosed. However, a hiding place in the king’s apartments at the Palais des Tuileries was then discovered and in it was correspondence between the king and Duruey, Mirabeau and many others who were all subsequently found guilty by the Revolutionary government. (18936)
History & Historiography Autograph Document Autograph Letter