King Charles III Signed Royal O’Reilly Spanish New Orleans Louisiana Expedition

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King Charles III Signed Royal O’Reilly Spanish New Orleans Louisiana Expedition:
$14500.00

For your consideration is an exceptionally important original Real Cdula of King Charles III of Spain (17161788), issued at Madrid on 5 July 1772, adjudicating a maritime claim arising directly from Lieutenant-General Alejandro OReillys 1769 military occupation of New Orleans and establishment of effective Spanish authority in Louisiana. The multi-page manuscript, written in Spanish in a formal eighteenth-century chancery hand on handmade laid paper measuring approximately 8.25 by 11.75 inches per leaf, is addressed to Don Miguel de Altarriba, Intendant of the Army and Royal Treasury of the Island of Cuba and the City of San Cristbal de La Habana, one of the principal officials of the new Bourbon military-fiscal administration created at Havana after the British occupation of 1762; the Real Academia de la Historia independently records Altarribas 1764 responsibilities in matters of Guerra y Hacienda. The instrument concludes with the royal subscription Yo El Rey, followed by Por mandado del Rey nuestro Seor and the countersignature and elaborate rbrica of Pedro Garca Mayoral, Secretary of the Council and Chamber of the Indies for New Spain. Garca Mayoral was subsequently created Conde de Valdellano, but the distinction belongs later in 1772: the Gazeta de Madrid of 13 October 1772 still describes him by his Council of the Indies office when announcing Charles IIIs grant of the comital title, confirming that Conde de Valdellano should not be retroactively applied to him in the dating or signature line of this July document.
The cdula determines the claim of Don Gernimo de Oliva, owner (dueo) of the privately held frigate El Valeroso Alexandromodernized El Valeroso Alejandrocommanded by Don Joseph [Jos] Carbo, for freight earned while the vessel was employed by the Real Hacienda in the 1769 expedicin a la Nueva Orleans. The vessel name is repeated independently in the body and contemporary chancery docket and is therefore secure. The expedition is unequivocally OReillys operation: the Library of Congress records that OReilly took possession of Louisiana on 18 August 1769 and introduced measures designed to reassert Spanish authority following the resistance to Antonio de Ulloas government. The cdula preserves the commercial terms with remarkable precision. Olivas total entitlement was 115,033 reales de plata; 78,540 reales had initially been paid for only three months and nine days of recognized service, leaving 36,493 reales contested. These figures mathematically resolve to an exact rate of 23,800 reales per thirty-day accounting month, or 793 reales per day: 99 credited days produce exactly 78,540 reales, while the full 145-day interval from 1 July through 25 November 1769 produces 115,033 reales, and the omitted 46 days produce 36,493 reales. The accounting therefore demonstrates a fixed time-based freight agreement and establishes that the dispute concerned continuation of the vessels contractual freight while it remained compulsorily occupied in Crown service, rather than an arbitrary royal gratuity. The administrative Environment is independently corroborated by the surviving OReilly expedition archive, which preserves records of privately freighted vessels, troop transports, Cuban Treasury expenditure, artillery and supplies, confirming that private shipping formed an integral part of the expeditionary system.
The reason for the additional forty-six days makes the manuscript particularly significant. Around the September equinox the frigate was initially authorized to depart New Orleans, but a contrary order issued the same day required it to remain for matters of mi Real servicio, and Captain Carbo was unable to obtain the necessary passport or clearance. Most importantly, the resulting investigation records that estara ocupada la Fragata en custodiar los Reos de Estado, y guardar el vestuario de la tropathat El Valeroso Alexandro was occupied guarding State prisoners and safeguarding the troops clothing and equipment. This places the privately chartered frigate directly within the security apparatus generated by OReillys suppression of the 1768 Louisiana revolt. The wording establishes the ships state-prisoner duty as fact; although the surviving cdula does not individually name the prisoners, its chronology belongs squarely to the detention and prosecution phase following OReillys restoration of Spanish control. The vessel remained in Crown service until 10 November 1769, when it finally departed New Orleans carrying part of the Regimiento de Lisboa, arriving at Havana on 25 November. Independent research on OReilly confirms that the first battalion of the Lisbon Regiment, numbering 679 men, formed part of his Louisiana force, making the regiment named in the cdula an identifiable component of the occupation army rather than an incidental military passenger contingent. Thus Valeroso Alexandro can be firmly identified as a privately owned, Crown-chartered merchant frigate serving as an auxiliary military and logistical vessel during OReillys New Orleans expedition, employed successively in transport, detention/security duty, protection of military stores, and troop redeployment.
The case had already reached the Council of the Indies before Charles IIIs final intervention: an earlier Royal Cdula of 27 January 1771 directed Oliva to pursue his claim before Altarribas tribunal at Havana; Altarribas investigation and revised liquidation favored the shipowner; the proceedings were transmitted to Spain for fiscal and Council review; and the present instrument formally confirms Altarribas definitive decision, approves the additional payment, and orders the result entered in the Contadura General. It closes: Fecha en Madrid a cinco de Julio de mil setecientos y setenta y dos. / Yo El Rey. / Por mandado del Rey nuestro Seor. / Pedro Garca Mayoral. A contemporary external docket independently summarizes the same proceeding, naming Gernimo de Oliva, El Valeroso Alexandro, its freight on the New Orleans expedition, and confirmation of the Havana ruling, providing unusually strong internal corroboration of the manuscripts interpretation. Archival research further locates the case within the correct institutional landscape: AGI, SANTO_DOMINGO,2624 contains duplicated papers of the Intendants of Army and Royal Treasury, precisely the administrative series through which proceedings of this class were transmitted. Physically retaining its original chancery script, iron-gall ink, transmission and filing folds, period laid paper and a substantial grape-cluster-type watermark, the document is best understood not simply as a Charles III autograph or colonial fiscal decree, but as an original royal judgment preserving the financial, maritime, military and political machinery by which Bourbon Spain consolidated its rule in New Orleans after the Louisiana Insurrectionuniting Madrid, Havana, the Council of the Indies, the Cuban Royal Treasury, OReillys army, private Atlantic shipping, State prisoners and Spanish Louisiana in a single contemporary documentary chain.