EDWARD VII, (1841-1910). King of Great Britain and Ireland.
Autograph Letter Signed, as King ("Your devoted Brother Bertie") to "Dearest Helen" [his sister-in-law Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont, widow of his younger brother Leopold, Duke of Albany].
3 pages 8vo in Edward's almost illegible script, on paper headed by his monogram of an embossed EVII in red surmounted by a gold crown, Marienbad, 5 September 1907.
An affectionate family letter, congratulating his sister-in-law on the birth of a son to her daughter Alice, Countess of Athlone, and sympathising over the illness of Sir Robert Collins, Helen's trusted adviser and Comptroller of her Household. Helen's husband Leopold, Queen Victoria's fourth son, was a haemophiliac who had died in 1884, leaving Helen a widow at 23. She never remarried and came to rely on the (entirely platonic) friendship and devotion of Sir Robert, who had been her husband's tutor.
"Many thanks for your kind letter & I rejoice to learn such good news of dear little Alice's recovering fr. her confinement & that it is a fine & strong boy - I was delighted for them having a son as I know how much they as well as you wished for it - may my little great nephew grow to be a confort & satisfaction to his Parents & Grandmother. I am greatly distresed to hear of poor dear dear excellent Sir R. Colllins deplorable state of health as it is the first I had heard of it - though I thought him greatly aged & altered when I saw him last . . . Tomorrow I finish my "cure" & leave for England - Pray let me find a line on Saturday next at Buck: Palace . . . & let me know how he is. Please tell Lady Collins how deeply I feel for her great anxiety & also for you as he is such a trusted old & devoted friend!"
The baby boy whose birth the King here celebrates was Rupert, Viscount Trematon. Sadly, he was killed in a car accident in 1928 at the age of 20.
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![Autograph Letter Signed ('Albert Edward') as Prince of Wales to the Archbishop of York [William Thomson], 2 pages 4to with integral blank leaf, Sandringham, 31 January 1887.](http://t.maggs.com/n/5/4050AU1765A.jpg "Autograph Letter Signed ('Albert Edward') as Prince of Wales to the Archbishop of York [William Thomson], 2 pages 4to with integral blank leaf, Sandringham, 31 January 1887."){kind=small}
Autograph Letter Signed ("Albert Edward") as Prince of Wales to the Archbishop of York [William Thomson], 2 pages 4to with integral blank leaf, Sandringham, 31 January 1887.
