1-272-902 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Letter from Charles James Fox to his Aunt Emily, 21st October 1798. Letter written from Holkham by Charles James Fox to his aunt, Emily, Duchess of Leinster, relative to her intended letter and petition to the king (George III) against the attainder of her son, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lord Edward had died in confinement at Dublin on 6th June, 1798, of wounds recieved in resisting arrest on a charge of high treason. A bill for his attainder passed the Irish House of Lords in September, and was sent to England for the royal assent. His mother's letter and petition against it (printed in Thomas Moore's Life and Death of Lord E. Fitzgerald, 1831, vol. ii, p. 269) were presented to the king by her brother, the Duke of Richmond, on 24th October, but without effect. The attainder was, however, reversed in 1819. From the third series of Facsimiles of royal, historical, literary and other autographs in the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum: Series I-V, (London, 1899).