Louis XV — Pièce signée « Louis » , contresignée par le Duc de Choiseul - Commission de capitaine commandant, régiment de Languedoc pour Jean Baptiste d'Alleyrac - 1768

Piece signed “Louis” in the name of Louis XV, king of France and Navarre, countersigned “Le Duc de Choiseul”, Secretary of War. The document is dated December 26, 1768, at Versailles.

Written in brown ink on a sheet of parchment, with the first line in calligraphy in large ornate letters with flourishes, an era-in manuscript note at the top summarizing the purpose of the act, and a seal affixed on paper at the bottom right.

By this commission, the king appoints Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac (spelled “d’Alleyrac” on the document) as captain commandant of the lieutenant-colonel company of the Regiment of Languedoc, a vacant post at the time, and orders the regiment’s colonel to validate him in this function. This appointment appears on the same date in the officer’s service records, published according to the regiment’s checks.

Dimensions: 46.8 x 29 cm
Condition: Good state of conservation for a document of this period. Presence of archival creases, small stains and smudges, and a curved tear around the seal’s tab. The latter is held by a kraft paper mounting, visible at the verso; see photos for more details.
Number of pages: 1 page

Carefully shipped in a rigid, waterproof packaging.

- Louis XV, nicknamed “the Well-Beloved”, born February 15, 1710 in Versailles and died May 10, 1774 in the same city, was a king of France and Navarre. A member of the Bourbon family, he reigned over the Kingdom of France from September 1, 1715 until his death. He is the only king of France to be born and die at the Palace of Versailles. Wikipedia

- Étienne-François de Choiseul-Beaupré-Stainville, comte puis duc de Choiseul [in 1758] et duc d’Amboise [in 1764], born June 28, 1719 in Nancy and died May 8, 1785 in Paris, was a French statesman. He was the head of Louis XV’s government from 1758 to 1770. Wikipedia

- Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac, French officer born April 2, 1737 at Saint-Pierreville (Ardèche) and died in 1796. A voluntary recruit to the Regiment of Languedoc in 1754, he went to Canada the following year as a lieutenant and took part in the battles of Lake Saint-Sacrement (1755), Fort William Henry (1757) and Fort Carillon (1758). Returning to France, he served in Corsica between 1765 and 1768 and was promoted to captain in 1768. His memoirs were published under the title “Military Adventures in the Eighteenth Century”. Biographical Dictionary of Canada.