KING LOUIS XVIII (FRANCE) - MILITARY APPOINTMENT SIGNED 08/22/1815 CO-SIGNED BY: LAURENT DE GOUVION SAINT-CYR - HFSID 49464

LOUIS XVIII and LAURENT de GOUVION SAINT-CYR
Military appointment dated 1815 during the Second Restoration for a Major's promotion, signed by Louis XVIII as King and the Minister of War, Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
Military appointment signed: "Louis", as King of France, "Gouvion St-Cyr" as Secretary of State for War, 17½x11¼. August 22, 1815. Appointment of Auguste Louis Gabriel Sophie, Count of Montaiyu, to the rank of Major. KING LOUIS XVIII of France (1755-1824), the grandson of the guillotined Louis XVI and the son of Louis XVII (who died in prison in 1795, unrecognized by the French Republic), lived in exile from 1791 until 1814, when Allied armies restored him to power by defeating Napoleon. He returned to Paris in April 1814, taking up residence in the Tuileries Palace, only to flee the city in March of 1815 when Napoleon, escaped from his own exile, returned to Paris for the Hundred Days. Defeated again at Waterloo, Napoleon was permanently exiled, and Louis returned to the capital. Intent on restoration of Bourbon power and the privileges of the aristocracy, Louis XVIII did not undo all of the reforms introduced by the Revolution and Napoleon, and tried to restrain the ultra-Royalists who wanted more vengeance upon their defeated foes. Louis actually retained many Napoleonic officers in his service, which proved to be a mistake since many of them defected to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. Louis reigned until 1824, the last French monarch to die while still on the throne. LAURENT de GOUVION SAINT-CYR (1764-1830) was a French commander, fighting in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was chosen as a captain in a volunteer battalion in 1792, and by 1796 was commanding the centre division of Jean Victor Marie Moreau's army in the Revolutionary Wars. Two years later, he succeeded André Masséna in the command of the army of Italy, but left to return to France after the first operations of the campaign against Germany. By the Napoleonic Wars, Saint-Cyr felt jaded by Napoleon for not being recognized for his service in the Revolutionary Wars, but continued to fight and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars was eventually noted as Napoleon as being equal to him in defense and unmatched in the marshalate. In July of 1815, Saint-Cyr was appointed War Minister, but resigned soon after in November. Multiple folds. Surface creases. Corners worn and creased. Lightly soiled. Faint stains on front. Toned, esp. on outer margins. Ink notes (unknown hand). Edges slightly worn. Otherwise, fine condition.