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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Edward VII, King of Great Britain (1841-1910) to William Ernest

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00496.024 Author/Creator: Edward VII, King of Great Britain (1841-1910) Place Written: London, England Type: Letter signed Date: 22 February 1901 Pagination: 3 p. ; 24 x 19 cm. Order a Copy

Writes to Ernest, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach. Announces the death of his mother Victoria. Signed "Edward Rex" with his addition of the day and closing salutation "Good Brother and Cousin." Written on black-bordered stationery.

Sir, My Brother and Cousin,
It is with the deepest affliction that I announce to Your Royal Highness the decease of My Most Honoured and Beloved Mother, Her Majesty Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, of blessed memory, whom it pleased God to call from this world on the evening of the 22nd : ultimo at half past six o'clock, in the 64th Year of her Reing,
[2] and I feel convinced that you will participate in My own, and in the public grief, for the loss of a Sovereign so justly beloved and revered
In acquainting Your Royal Highness, at the same time, with My accession to the Throne, I assure You that it will ever be My Earnest desire to cultivate and to maintain the relations of friendship and good understanding which so happily subsist between Our respective
[3] Crowns, and that it will always afford Me the greatest pleasure to prove to Your Royal Highness the sincerity of the invariable attachment and highest Esteem with which I am,

Sir, My Brother and Cousin,
Your Royal Highness's
London, Good Brother and Cousin
February 22nd, 1901. Edward Rex
To
My Good Brother and Cousin,
The Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar Eisenach

Edward VII, King of Great Britain, 1841-1910
William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, fl. 1876-1901
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901

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