"KING LOUIS XVIII - SIGNED RETIRED SQUADRON LEADER'S COMMISSION FOR THE BENEFIT OF  MONSIEUR DE LA CRAYE" 
Countersigned by Minister of War to Napoleon I, Count of the Empire, the Duke de Feltre and Marshal of France in 1816 Clarke 
Size: 18" x 12" (46 cm x 30.5 cm), Signed and sealed 
KING LOUIS XVIII of France (1755-1824), the grandson of the guillotined Louis XVI and the son of Louis XVII (who died in prison in 1795, unrecognized by the French Republic), lived in exile from 1791 until 1814, when 
Allied armies restored him to power by defeating Napoleon. He returned to Paris in April 1814, taking up residence in the Tuileries Palace, only to flee the city in March of 1815 when Napoleon, escaped from his own exile, 
returned to Paris for the Hundred Days. Defeated again at Waterloo, Napoleon was permanently exiled, and Louis returned to the capital. Intent on restoration of Bourbon power and the privileges of the aristocracy, 
Louis XVIII did not undo all of the reforms introduced by the Revolution and Napoleon, and tried to restrain the ultra-Royalists who wanted more vengeance upon their defeated foes. Louis actually retained many Napoleonic 
officers in his service, which proved to be a mistake since many of them defected to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. Louis reigned until 1824, the last French monarch to die while still on the throne. 
Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke (17 October 1765 – 28 October 1818), French General of the Revolution and of the Empire, Minister of War to Napoleon I, Count of the Empire, the Duke de Feltre and Marshal of France in 1816.
Denis Marguerite Millot de la Craye. Born in Dijon on February 15, 1748, Denis Marguerite Millot de la Craye began his military career on May 12, 1762 as a student at the Auxonne-Bapaume in artillery school. On February 9, 1773, 
he incorporated as a second lieutenant in the Bourbon-Cavalry regiment, which had become Bourbon-Dragons. Promoted lieutenant in 1775, he continued his career with this regiment and received the insignia of knight of the order of 
Saint Louis. In October 1791, he emigrated to join the army of Prince de Condé in Worms. From 1792 to 1801, he participated in all battles in the Army of the Princes as a cavalry captain. He left the royalist army definitively 
in August 1801 to retire in his native region, Burgundy.