A HISTORIC letter written in Worcestershire by the brother of Napoleon has sold at an auction.

Lucien Bonaparte lived at Thorngrove House, Grimley near Worcester, between 1810 and 1814 after being captured in Sardinia.

The auctioned letter was written at Thorngrove and posted in Shrewsbury on November 25, 1813.

It sold at the auction house in Shrewsbury for £500.

Andy Neal, stamp specialist at Halls Fine Art, said: "There was no trace of any secret mark, so perhaps it was smuggled to Shrewsbury to avoid censorship.

"The letter was to Francis Hodgson, Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge.

"Hodgson had translated the poetry of Juvenal into English and Lucien was seeking his help to translate his own epic poem, Charlemagne, into English."

Lucien was the younger brother of Napoleon.

As president of the Council of Five Hundred, he was one of the participants of the Coup of 18 Brumaire that brought Napoleon to power in France.