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Auction: 15037 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 138

Documents
Portugal
Queen Maria II
1849 (21 February) entire letter to "The Very High and Very Powerful Prince Fernando King of the Two Sicilies, my born brother and cousin". The letter is signed "De vossa Majestade Boa irma e Prima" (of your majesty good sister and cousin) with her signature "A Rainha" (The Queen). The envelope bears a superb example of her wafer seal. Fresh and fine. Photo

Dona Maria II (1819-53) "the Educator" or "the Good Mother". She was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves from 1826 to 1828 and again from 1834 to 1853.

When Maria's grandfather King João VI died in March 1826, there was a succession crisis in Portugal. The king had a male heir, Pedro, but Pedro had proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822 and he was then Emperor Pedro I of that country. The late king also had a younger son, Miguel, but he was exiled in Austria after leading a number of revolutions against his father and his liberal regime.

Before his death, the king had nominated his favourite daughter, Isabel Maria, to serve as regent until "the legitimate heir returned to the Kingdom" — but he had failed to specify which of his sons was the legitimate heir: Peter, the liberal Emperor of Brazil, or Miguel, the absolutist exiled prince.

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Sold for
£280