QUEEN VICTORIA (GREAT BRITAIN) - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 04/30/1898 - HFSID 82948

QUEEN VICTORIA
1898 letter signed by Queen Victoria to the provisional president of Uruguay, commending him for being elected
Manuscript letter signed "Victoria R I." meaning "Queen Empress Victoria" in gray ink. 2 pages, 7¾x13, black bordered (1 sheet folded, front and verso). April 30, 1898. Addressed to the newly-elected president of Uruguay. In full: "Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the faith, Empress of India, &c., &c., &c., to the Provisional President of the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay sendeth Greetings! Our Good Friend! We have received the letter which you addressed to Us on the 10th of February last and in which you informed Us that in response to the general desire of your fellow-citizens, you have assumed the position of Provisional President of the Republic. In thanking you for this communication, We request you to accept our sincere congratulations on this distinguished mark of the confidence of your fellow citizens and to believe that the desire which you express, to confirm and strengthen the friendly relations which happily subsist subsist [sic] between Great Britain and the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, is cordially reciprocated on Our Part. And so We recommend you to the protection of the Almighty. Given at our court at Windsor Castle the 30th Day of April One Thousand Eight hundred and ninety eight in the sixty-first year of our reign. Your Good Friend". This letter was to Juan Lindolfo Cuestas, who served as president of Uruguay from 1897 to 1899. Victoria ascended to the throne on June 20, 1837 (her coronation ceremony was held the following year), just 23 days after this lock of hair was obtained. Queen Victoria (1819-1901), the last member of the House of Hanover to reign as a British monarch, ruled the United Kingdom longer than any other monarch before or since. Her 63-year reign (1837 until her death in 1901) endeared her to her subjects, and she gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. The Queen leaned more toward the liberal side until she met and married her husband, Albert, in 1840. Albert, an able political figure himself, was a conservative who managed to convert his wife to his ideologies. The royal pair had nine children - four sons and five daughters - before Albert's death in 1861. Victoria's reign was celebrated with two jubilees, honoring her 50 and 60 years on the throne. Lightly toned, stained soiled and creased. Hole in upper corner near spine of letter. Folded in quarters and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.