A 17 year old military cadet becomes 6th Duc de Richelieu 1822

 

In the first years of the Bourbon restoration after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the fifth Duc de Richelieu, who had fought against him and achieved the rank of Major General in the Russian Army, served twice as France’s Prime Minister before dying on the 17 May 1822. Ten days later his successor as sixth Duc, Armand François Odet Chapelle de Jumilhac, wrote this letter to his father. He was seventeen (born 20 December 1804; died 1879) and a military cadet at the prestigious St Cyr academy, founded by Napoleon in 1802.  A feature of the letter is the less than formal and rather charming words the young man uses to sign off with.

Unusually for me, this letter has provenance: it was once in the enormous and famous library of the Earl of Crawford evidenced by a handstamp Bibliotheca Lindesiana. The library was dispersed through a number of large auctions and this letter has since gone down in the world to end up on my desk.

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Transcription

Addressed to: Monsieur Monsieur le L^t  C^ol  M^r de Jumilhac  Com^t  le 16^e Division militaire   Lille   Nord

Datelined :  Paris ce 26 Mai 1822

Red P despatch postmark of Paris.

Comme je retourne ce soir à St Cyr cher Père j’ai voulu avant de partir vous donner des

As I return this evening to St Cyr, dear Father, I wanted before leaving to give you

nouvelles de tout ce qui vous interesse ma tante et ma mère sont toujours un peu souffrantes

news of everything which will interest you my aunt and my mother are still suffering a little

 quoique mieux, Armand qui avait eu la fievre longtems est bien remis il va tous les jours à

though better, Armand [his younger brother named Louis-Armand]who had the fever for a long time has recovered well he goes every day

l’Ecole de Natation ce qui le fait grandir et engraisser on lui a ordonné aussi de prendre des

to the Swimming School which makes him grow and get fatter also he has been told to

bains de mer ce qui forcera ma mère à le mener à Dieppe probablement dans 6 semaines. Du

swim in the sea which will oblige my mother to take him to Dieppe probably in six weeks time.

reste tout le monde va très bien mon Oncle J. et sa femme qui j’ai vu hier, Jules et la sienne

For the rest, every one is going on very well my Uncle J and his wife who I saw yesterday, Jules and his [wife],   

enfin mois, nous aurions tous eu bien besoin de vous dans ces tristes jours ou non seulement

finally me, we have all much needed you during these sad days where not only

nous mais tout Paris était en Dueil [mis-spelling for Deuil]. Nous avons eu une audience au Roi

us but all Paris was in mourning. We [he and his mother?]  had an audience with the King

qui nous a reçu a merveilles nous a embrassé tous deux et paraissait fort touché ; Monsieur et

who received us perfectly and embraced both of us and appeared much affected. Monsieur

Madame qui nous ont reçu après ont été aussi fort aimable. Nous devons aller aujourd’hui chez

and Madame [who ?] received us afterwards were also very kind. Today we must go to visit

M^r le Duc d’Angouleme et chez M^me la Duchesse de Berry après l’audience des quels je

Monsieur the Duc d’Angouleme and Madame the Duchesse de Berry after which I

retournerai dans ma prison pour y passer encore quatre mois qui seront très pénibles quoique

will return to my prison to spend another four months which will be very tiresome even though

Nous ayons beaucoup d’ éxercices differents qui couperont un peu le tems par exemple demain

We have many different exercises which will make the time pass a bit faster for example tomorrow

on commencera à aller lever le plan des environs de S^t Cyr ce qui est très utile et très amusant

we will begin making a survey of the surroundings of St Cyr which [will be] very useful and interesting

nous allons commencer les éxercices du canon dont on s’occupe beaucoup enfin il faudra beau

we are going to start training in using cannon wich [ill]occupy us a lot finally it will be necessary to

travailler pour pouvoir dans quatre mois aller vous offrir ma première Epaulletes et vous dire

work hard to be able in four months’ time to show you my first Epaulettes and to tell you

combien je vous aime.  OJ [ ?]

how much I love you. [the initials I read as for Odet Jumilhac]

Reference

Wikipedia: Armand-Francois-Odet Chapelle de Jumilhac