[Regency royal imposter: ?Princess Olive of Cumberland?, title claimed by Olivia Serres.] Manuscript ?Copy Letter to the King from the Princess Olive?, a lengthy appeal to William IV, complaining of 'desertion and neglect', ending with a petition.

Despite a recent book by Miles Macnair supporting Serre's claims, the case for her imposture is overwhelming, as her entry in the Oxford DNB demonstrates. See also the various reports of the matter (for example Ryves v. Duke of Wellington, Law Times, 31 October 1846). 23pp., foolscap 8vo. On six loose bifoliums of laid paper with 1833 Britannia watermark of Gilling & Alllford. Good, on lightly aged and worn paper. Folded into the customary packet, and docketed on reverse of last leaf 'Copy Letter to the King from the Princess Olive'. (Note that this is not how such a document would have been described had the recipient been a royal representative.) Clearly a draft, with a number of lacunae, and a few emendations in another hand in pencil. The document and its ?signature? do not appear to be in Serres? autograph: they do not resemble other examples consulted, for example the manuscript offered for sale at Sotheby?s in London in July 2009. The few pencil annotations are in another hand, and although more like, are still not likely to be in her hand. Written in the year before Serres' death, and apparently unpublished. The first page is headed 'A letter to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty' and begins; 'Sire | The high opinion I wish to Cherish that your Majesty when truth claims your attention will do no wrong induces this public appeal to your justice for the cons[iderati]on and redress of my unprecedented wrongs which I have from Year to yr patiently & degradingly submitted to rather than lay open to the English Nation the true Cause of the desertion and neglect of my late Royal Parents Relatives'. The document ends with the petition (pp.21-23), headed: 'To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The dutiful and humble petition of Olive Princess of Cumberland - London Feby 1833.' It begins: 'Sheweth | That your Petr altho she is the legitimate Daughter & Sole Heir of his late Royal Highness Henry Frederick, Duke off Cumberland by her Royal Highness Olive his first and lawful Wife is disposed of all her Birthrights except her rank & name of her late Royal Parents'. The petition claims that she 'lawfully proved in the prerogative Court in the month of June 1822' a 'Bequest of his late Majesty Geo[rg]e. the 3rd of ?15,000'.