Add MS 89078

Volume containing the following letters and documents relating to Napoleon Bonaparte and Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington:

1.) Letter addressed to Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington from the French Commissionaire of War relating to a complaint against an English officer from the 30th Regiment, 11 May 1819.

2.) Draft Declaration of Outlawry issued upon Napoleon Bonaparte after his escape from Elba, 13 March 1815, French. The draft is believed to have been written by the British Foreign Secretary, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and 2nd Marquis of Londonderry, with additions by Prince Klemens von Metternich and others.

The Declaration states that as Napoleon had broken the Treaty of Fontainebleau, ‘he has deprived himself of the protection of the law, and has manifested to the universe that there can be neither peace nor truce with him. The powers consequently declare, that Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations; and that, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance’.

The Declaration is signed by most of the signatories of the Treaty of Paris including:

Austria: Prince Klemens von Metternich

Spain: Don Pedro Gomez Labrador, Marquis of Labrador

France: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Prince de Bénévent; Emmerich Joseph Wolfgang Heribert, Duke of Dalberg; Frederick Seraphin, Marquis de La Tour du Pin and Count of Gouvernet

Great Britain: Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty and 1st Marquess of Heusden; George Cathcart; Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and 2nd Marquess of Londonderry

Portugal: Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Faial and Palmela; António de Saldanha da Gama, Count of Porto Santo; Joaquim Lobo da Silveira

Prussia: Prince Karl August von Hardenberg; Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt

Russia: Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky; Graf Gustav Ernst von Stackelberg; Count Karl Robert Nesselrode

Sweden: Count Carl Löwenhielm

3.) Copies of personal and military requests from officers in the British Army to a superior officer. Most of the requests ask for permission to return to England on leave. Decisions regarding the requests have been written in pencil next to the original request.

4.) Letter to Charles Stewart, Ambassador to Vienna, and later 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, from Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, 8 May 1815. In the letter Wellington discusses the military situation before the Battle of Waterloo, including estimates of the size of the armies and possible defensive and offensive tactics.

5.) Letter to Charles Stewart, Ambassador to Vienna and later 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, from Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, 25 June 1815. In the letter Wellington relates his and Blucher’s success at the Battle of Waterloo and the news of Napoleon’s abdication.

6.) Letter to Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, from Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, 24 December 1826, offering a clerkship at Woolwich to Stewart’s friend Mr Kennedy.

7.) Instructions for the officers stationed in observation upon the mountains of La Rhune, November 1813. The instructions were written by Major General Sir George Murray to Captains Stanely and Brawne stating what actions they should take if they should spot the enemy. Also included is a memorandum for Mr Hooke.

8.) Copy of a letter from Gebhard von Blucher to Karl Friedrich von dem Knesebeck, 19 June, relating the news of the Allies victory over Napoleon.

9.) Letter to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Henry Browne from Lord Hardinge, 25 September 1854, confirming Browne’s appointment in command of the 80th Regiment of Foot. On the back of the letter is a private note to Browne congratulating him on his appointment.

10.) Letter to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Henry Browne from L.M. Tonna of the United Service Institution, 7 November 1854, thanking Browne for his contribution of the original order of thanks from the Duke of Wellington to his army after the Battle of Salamanca.