[Rarebooks] fa: INTRIGUES OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN WITH THE PRINCE OF PEACE 1808 (re. Manuel Godoy, Napoleon, &c.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, July 6. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/oktqup4

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The Intrigues of the Queen of Spain, with the Prince of Peace and Others. Written by a Spanish Nobleman and Patriot who alone can be acquainted with the Intrigues and Amours of the Above Personages. London: Printed and published by J. Bell and J. de Camp, at the  National Register Office, no. 11, Catherine-Street, Strand ; and may be had of every Bookseller and Newsman throughout the Kingdom, 1808. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (21.5 cm) bound in recent quarter goatskin and marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine label; iv + 132 pp.

A lively, racy and scurrilous bit of propaganda aimed at Manuel Godoy, the corrupt, pro-French royal favorite of the king and queen of Spain, who had been named "Principe de la Paz" (Prince of [the] Peace) by Carlos IV for signing the Treaty of Basel in 1795, taking Spain out of the war with France. In this putative biography of Godoy, he is portrayed as the worst sort of social climber, born in humble obscurity, "in a room ornamented with five whole, and one broken, chairs," who worms his way into the heart (and arms, and bosom, and—) of Princess Maria Luisa, wife of the clueless future king Carlos IV, and from this well-upholstered springboard, leaps his way up the ladder to become prime minister, Duke of Alcudia, Captain-General of the Army, etc., etc., enriching himself and his cronies and betraying the interests of Spain at every step of the way. The narrative leaves off just as the disastrous consequences of Godoy's policies become clear, with Napoleon's armies occupying Spain and Carlos IV forced to abdicate. The book is a lively, if hardly reliable, read and moves at a rollicking pace, with much on the cat-and-mouse back-and-forth between Napoleon and his Spanish dupes. Quite uncommon: OCLC locates only 5 copies in the U.S. An American edition was published in Boston the following year.

Foxing and an early owner's signature to the title-page, scattered lighter spotting to the rest of the text; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound in an attractive modern binding with a fittingly Iberian feel to it.