JAMES II | autograph letter signed, to the Comte de Lauzun, 1690

JAMES II

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("JR"), TO THE COMTE DE LAUZUN 

in French, celebrating the French naval victory at the Battle of Beachy Head ("...la defait et dissipation de l'armée nantes des Anglois et Hollandois par M: de Tourville, si bien que voila la france maitre de la mer...") and promising to request Louis XIV for prompt help for Lauzun's proposed attack, which can now be undertaken safely ("...une divertion il me semble que ce que j'avais propose que vous trouvait ci faisable ce pouvoit entreprendre retour sans nul risque..."), 1 page, 4to, Brest, 20 July 1690, integral address leaf, near-complete red wax seal impression, docketed ("19 no 174") 

AN IMPORTANT LETTER WRITTEN DURING JAMES'S UNSUCCESSFUL MILITARY CAMPAIGN TO REGAIN HIS THRONE. Although this letter was written less than a month after King James's defeat at the Battle of the Boyne - where Antoine, Comte de Lauzun (1632-1723), had been one of his commanders in the field - it brims with optimism. James had news of the decisive French naval victory off Beachy Head, when the outnumbered Anglo-Dutch fleet was forced to flee up the Thames. French command of the Channel brought about an invasion panic in England, but Louis XIV rejected recommendations that he should exploit the victory by sending further troops to Ireland so the battle did not, in the end, mark the turning point in James's fortunes that he hopes for in this letter.  

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