LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM: (1835-1909)

LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM: (1835-1909) King of the Belgians 1865-1909. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. A very good A.L.S., `Leopold´, three pages, 8vo, Château de Laeken, 3rd January 1895, to Isabelle d´Orleans, in French. The letter bears to the heading an attractive embossed crowned Royal monogram. The King writes to his cousine a few months after her husband, Philipe VII Count of Paris, passed away, stating `Je m´empresse de vous accuser réception de l´aquarelle que vous avez bien voulu m´envoyer en souvenir du Comte de Paris et de l´image pieuse qui l´accompagnait. Daignez, chère cousine, agréer l´expression de tous mes remerciements. Vous connaissez mon sincère attachement à celui qui n´est plus et dont, tous avec vous, nous avons pleuré la perte...´ (Translation: "I hasten to acknowledge receipt of the watercolor you so kindly sent me as a memento of the Count of Paris and the accompanying religious image. Please accept, dear cousin, my heartfelt thanks. You know my sincere devotion to the one who is no longer with us, and whose loss we all mourn with you.--") VG to EX

Isabelle of Orleans (1848-1919) Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans, Countess of Paris. Spanish infanta and French Princess of the House of Orleans. She was the wife of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris.