Cruelty to animals was also punished in a manner we might emulate
lol, tell us how you really feel, Acton!
He's writing in 1932 and therefore feels free to share his opinions. Obviously I can't condone the castration of kids, even youthful psychos, but making animal tormentors and killers stand in a public square with their victims around their necks, hmmmmm.....
Heh, I'm sensing a theme: no one can tell Marguerite Louise what to do!
That is certainly the disputable motto of her life!
this kiiinda makes me wonder if he was suffering from some other problem that the alcohol was self-medication for.
Well, if you're gay, your father is the ultimate bigot of Italy and your rebellious mother not only is far away but never seems to have showed much interest in your existence - the one time Gian Gastone saw Marguerite Louise was when he was trying to do a runner from his marriage to Paris and Dad ordered him to go back, and while the two did meet, it was a short meeting, and there was no correspondence afterwards, as there had none been before - I'd say you hit the ground running in the emotional ballast stakes. Add to this a marriage of mutual loathing with orders to reproduce (and since the wife you don't want and who doesn't want you had a child from her previous marriage, Dad KNOWS she's fertile and it must be you) and a country where everyone is a stranger except for the hot teenager you brought along, well...
And let's not forget the sheer amount of time Cosimo ruled. If Gian Gastone had had the chance to rule himself as a young man, then it might have been different, but by the time he achieved power, his self destructive life style was truly set in stone.
Re: Harold Acton: Last of the Medici 2: This is the end, my friend...
lol, tell us how you really feel, Acton!
He's writing in 1932 and therefore feels free to share his opinions. Obviously I can't condone the castration of kids, even youthful psychos, but making animal tormentors and killers stand in a public square with their victims around their necks, hmmmmm.....
Heh, I'm sensing a theme: no one can tell Marguerite Louise what to do!
That is certainly the disputable motto of her life!
this kiiinda makes me wonder if he was suffering from some other problem that the alcohol was self-medication for.
Well, if you're gay, your father is the ultimate bigot of Italy and your rebellious mother not only is far away but never seems to have showed much interest in your existence - the one time Gian Gastone saw Marguerite Louise was when he was trying to do a runner from his marriage to Paris and Dad ordered him to go back, and while the two did meet, it was a short meeting, and there was no correspondence afterwards, as there had none been before - I'd say you hit the ground running in the emotional ballast stakes. Add to this a marriage of mutual loathing with orders to reproduce (and since the wife you don't want and who doesn't want you had a child from her previous marriage, Dad KNOWS she's fertile and it must be you) and a country where everyone is a stranger except for the hot teenager you brought along, well...
And let's not forget the sheer amount of time Cosimo ruled. If Gian Gastone had had the chance to rule himself as a young man, then it might have been different, but by the time he achieved power, his self destructive life style was truly set in stone.