Boyer de Cremilles, Louis Hyacinthe, French general (1700-1768). Letter signed.

€ 500,00

Highly interesting letter concerning the establishment of the Institution du Mérite militaire, a French military order that was created on 10 March 1759 by King Louis XV for foreign-born, non-Catholic military officers in French service. The letter is addressed to Johann Christian Fischer (1713-62), a German officer who led mostly German mercenaries in French service, so-called Volontaires Étrangers, since the 1742 Siege of Prague during the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1743 Fischer was authorized to raise a company of light cavalry and infantry that came to be known as the "Chasseurs de Fischer". The company fought in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War and was dissolved in 1776, being largely incorporated to the hussar regiment of Louis Gabriel Marquis de Conflans.

Boyer de Cremilles, who served in the war ministry under Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle, was delighted to inform Fischer of the new Order of Merit and originally attached a copy of the royal ordinance issued for its creation. As Protestants were excluded from the Order of Saint Louis, this new honour was supposed to offer them "compensation", and although it was reserved for foreigners in French service, he was convinced that the "entire military corps will be delighted" and that it would bolster general morale.

Minor browning.