ALS signed “GR,” one page, 7.5 x 9, April 20, 1789. George penned this letter to his Foreign Secretary, the Duke of Leeds, praising the penitent conduct of Sir Robert Keith, Ambassador at Vienna. The letter was written soon after His Majesty recovered from his first attack of porphyria. In full, the letter reads: “The Duke of Leeds cannot but wish to know how Sir Robert Keith conducted himself; I should not do justice to him if I did not express that no man could in an handsomer manner declare his having recalled the objectionable letters and that he shall be happy and ready back under the direction of his principal. He owned his own warmth of temper and spirit but that his heart was never open to return to his duty. I have said nothing but approbation of his having recollected himself every thing…to what may pass between him and the Duke of Leeds.” Mild toning throughout, intersecting folds, and a reinforcement to the second integral page, otherwise fine condition.
Five days prior, Keith had met with the Duke of Leeds, a meeting acknowledged in this dispatch. The implication is that the monarch had stepped into a dispute between the Duke and Keith after some type of transgression, perhaps a postponement of an earlier meeting. The Duke of Leeds had only recently ascended to his position following the death of his father a month prior to this letter. Despite some apparent reluctance on Keith’s part to return to Vienna, the British diplomat is is still lauded for his behavior. Keith served as an envoy to Vienna for twenty years, during which he was primarily left to his own devices with virtually no instructions from the King. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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