The parts, stolen in the 1980s and seized by the Belgian police, date for most revolutionary, consular and imperial periods.
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The letter is filled with scratches, spelling mistakes and digressions on the King’s health problems but is invaluable. At least it was what the thieves were thinking about, in the 1980s, with thousands of other documents, in the French national and departmental archives.
The letter written and signed by Louis XIII, addressed in 1628 to Cardinal de Richelieu during the headquarters of La Rochelle, is in very good condition and, no doubt, the major piece of the important restitution which took place on Tuesday 5 October, in Liège, Belgium. In total, some 550 stolen documents were delivered to Hélène Farnaud-Defromont, Ambassador of France in Belgium, framed by two officers. These pieces had been stolen in the National or Departmental Archives and the Historical Defense Service in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne).
In 2001, the Belgian police seized two tons of paper in a thief and remembers. The band was judged and sentenced a few years later but its members had resulted in a few thousand rooms to amateurs, Belgium and France. The letter of Louis XIII, she had been stamped by a ministry and was therefore found to be invasable.
A missive of Louis XIII
“Without this stamp, it would have been a few thousand euros,” says Bernard Wilkin, Chief of Works at the Belgian State Archives who behave, in Liège, 360 kilometers of shelving. Failure to have been negotiated under the cloak, or on the Internet, the missive of Louis XIII will therefore reinstate the collections of the Ministry of Europe and foreign affairs. “It’s great!”, Jubile Nicolas Chibaeff, Director of Department’s Archives.
In addition to the King’s letter, M me Farnaud-Defromont was given documents relating to the German presence in Alsace-Lorraine, passports that were necessary for traffic on the national territory During the Napoleonic period and the restoration or acts concerning the navy and an orgous factory.
At the beginning of the year, 600 pieces had already been returned by Belgium to the departmental archives of the Marne. In France, the Archives of the State discovered by leading the investigation that the other 200 still lack, subtilized in 39 French departments, to the historical service of the Defense, the National Archives, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of the Ministry. Finance.
Collaborations
The thieves, obviously experienced, particularly targeted documents from revolutionary, consular and imperial periods, particularly popular for their aesthetics, highlight Belgian experts. These papers include illustrations, feather features, waxpings or signing a historical character. Amateurs can pay a few thousand euros a letter signed by Napoleon’s hand.
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