One of the most impressive collections of historical letters ever amassed sold for more than £3 million at Christie’s after it was discovered in a laundry room a few months ago.

A passionate love letter written by Napoleon, a diplomatic note in the hand of Elizabeth I and a letter of condolence sent by the poet John Donne were among more than 570 letters collected secretly over 30 years by a banker in Switzerland.

Albin Schram, who died two years ago, stored them in a filing cabinet wedged between the washing machine and tumble dryer in the basement of his home in Lausanne. Schram’s family did not know of the collection existence until after his death.

The manuscripts drew collectors from all over the world, most of them bidding by telephone. Christie’s exceeded its £2 million estimate for the collection halfway through the sale.

The letters came to light after Susannah Morris, a specialist from the auction house, was invited to examine the hoard by Schram’s family. She was astonished to discover letters from scientists, composers, writers and artists, including Sir Isaac Newton, Beethoven, Darwin, Voltaire, Pushkin and Monet, as well as political figures such as Churchill and Cromwell.

Schram, the son of an Austrian industrialist, was born in Prague in 1926 and, after the annexation of Czechoslovakia, was conscripted into the German army in 1943. Captured by the Russians, he was imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp in Russia but escaped in 1945 to Vienna. There he studied law and was employed at the ministry of justice. He became a banker and moved to Lausanne.

His first purchase, made in 1973, was a passionate love letter written in 1795 by Napoleon to his future wife, Josephine. It is one of only three known to exist from the period when they were engaged and was written after a heated argument the previous evening.

Napoleon signed off the letter: “Je te donne trois baisés – un sur ton coeur, un sur ta bouche un sur tes yeux” (“I send you three kisses – one on your heart, one on your mouth and one on your eyes”).

It was estimated to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000, but was sold to an anonymous collector for £276,000, a world record for a letter in Napoleon’s hand.

A note from Elizabeth I to Henry IV of France, in which the Queen acts with great diplomacy in granting the French ambassador to England permission to extend his stay by two months, was expected to sell for between £12,000 and £18,000. It fetched £33,600.

A letter written in 1650 by Oliver Cromwell was expected to sell for £10,000 to £15,000. It was sold for £84,000. Written the year after the execution of Charles I, it states that: “I have not sought theise thinges. Truly I have beene called to them by the Lord and therefore am not without some good assurance that Hee will inable his poore worme, and weake servant to doe his will, and to fulfill my generation.”

The letter by Donne, a touching letter to Lady Kingsmill written the day after the death of her husband on October 26, 1624, sold for £114,000. Donne suggests that we should not presume to contest God’s actions, “although we could direct him to do them better”.

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