The National Archives’ display will also include Lord Alfred Douglas’s petition to Queen Victoria pleading for the release of his lover Oscar Wilde.

Fans of Jane Austen are to be given the chance to see the novelist’s will as part of the National Archives’ Love Letters exhibition.

The author, famed for works such as Pride And Prejudice and Emma, died at the age of 41 in 1817 and left “everything of which I may die possessed” – except for two other bequests – to her “dearest sister” Cassandra.

The National Archives holds death duty accounts which show Austen’s estate was worth £661 2s – around £49,000 in today’s money – after debts, probate and funeral expenses.

Vicky Iglikowski-Broad, principal records specialist in diverse histories at the National Archives said: “Jane Austen’s will r

See Full Page