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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1090

King Charles II - Peace With Algeria
1666 (31 July) letter of appointment, signed at the foot of the text, addressed to "the Aga Adabasbees", reading:

Charles the second by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the faith. To our trusty and wellbeloved friends and allies the Aga Adabasbees and the rest of the honourable Council of State and Warre in the City and Kingdome of Algiers. Greeting. Wellbeloved friends and alleys' wee are very glad to find on all occasions the just and punctual observance you and your subjects have for the peace between us. Wee doubt not all doe answerer it with like returns of amity and good correspondence which wee resolve shall remain firm and inviolable on our part, and therefore have thought fit to send the bearer our trusty and wellbeloved William Lever our consul to reside and remain within your city of Algiers for the preserving and improving the common friendship and correspondence between us in the room and place of Captain Tacker whom wee have thought good to recall to our service nearer home. Wee desire you will receive and entertain our consul with your usual favour and kindness and to countenance him and his affairs in all things with that justice and good will that may perpetuate the amity and good intelligence between us, which wee assure you wee are most ready to doe on our part. And soe wee bid you farewell. Given at our court at Whitehall ye 31 day of July 1666 in the eighteenth year of our reigne."

Signed with autograph subscription: "Your Loving friende Charles R".

Paper somewhat browned and text a little faded in places, perhaps as a result of having been kept in Algeria for some time, though perfectly legible and a remarkable document.



Notes: In 1621 Robert Mansell had led a failed campaign to Algiers which resulted in some 3,000 held captive in Algiers and attacks of retaliation on the English coast including a raid on Penzance in 1640 and other Pirate raids up and down the country. King James I had negotiated directly with the Pasha in 1622. With King Charles' II's restoration and the resurrection of the Royal Navy a peace treaty was reached with Algiers.



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Estimate
£1,500 to £2,000

Starting price
£1200