Mary of Modena's letter to Lord John Caryll, year 1692 or 1693

Source:

Handwriting of the Kings and Queens of England, W. J. Hardy, 1893

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.21209/page/n155/mode/2up

Above: Mary of Modena, painted by Sir Peter Lely.

Mary of Modena, full name Maria Beatrice Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este (born September 25/October 5, 1658, died April 26/May 7, 1718) was queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of King James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the younger brother and heir presumptive of King Charles II. She had no interest in politics and was devoted to James and their children, only two of whom survived to adulthood: James Francis Edward and Louisa Maria Teresa.

Born a princess of the northwestern Italian Duchy of Modena, Mary is primarily remembered for the controversial birth of James Francis Edward, her only surviving son. It was widely rumoured that he was a "changeling", brought into the birthing chamber in a warming pan in order to perpetuate her husband's Catholic Stuart dynasty. Although the accusation was almost certainly false, and the subsequent Privy Council investigation affirmed this, James Francis Edward's birth was a contributing factor to the "Glorious Revolution", the revolution which deposed his father and replaced him with his eldest Protestant daughter from his first marriage to Anne Hyde, Mary II. She and her husband, William III of Orange, would reign jointly as "William and Mary."

Exiled to France, the "Queen over the water", as the Jacobites called Mary of Modena, lived with her husband and children in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, provided by King Louis XIV of France. Mary was popular among Louis's courtiers, while James was seen as boring. As a widow, Mary spent much of her time with the nuns at the Convent of Chaillot, where she and her daughter Louisa Maria Teresa spent their summers. In 1701, when James II died, the young James Francis Edward became king at the age of 13, in the eyes of the Jacobites. Because the boy was too young to have actual authority, Mary represented him as regent until his sixteenth birthday. When James was asked to leave France as part of the settlement from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. Mary stayed in France, despite having no family there. Louisa had already died of smallpox, and, fondly remembered by her French contemporaries, Mary died from breast cancer in 1718.

The letter:

I made bold last night to open these letters of yours, seeing ther were others in it, I took out one for Lady Sophya, and one for Strickland; hear is your owne, which have not been out of my hands. I hope your cough is better, and that it will soon permitt you to com again amongst us. Wee are all well, God be thanked, and my daughter has been weened with greater facility then I could have hoped for.
M. R.