There is nothing more satisfying than being able to recognize the services of the one closest to you. It cannot be easy to be the husband of the queen, especially in addition to being the father of the petite-reine, who was 4 months old when Paul won Crown and 13 months when I stepped down.
The text was written on Dec. 30, and calligraphed Dec. 31. It reads:
To him whose life I hold dearer than my own, I recommend me to you. It is one thing to follow the pursuit of glory so that one might bring honor to the one he loves, but another thing entirely to bring praise to his beloved by stepping aside and letting glory pass. Such act of true virtue, humility, modesty, and generosity has gone not unnoticed, and equity demands that it go not unrewarded. Wherefore let these presents serve as notice to all that my privy clerk and confessor is hereby and henceforth entered into the rolls of the members of the Queen's Order of Courtesy. Written by the hand of her who is and always will be yours, on the morn before Epiphany,
© 2012, Sara L. Uckelman.