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cahnMore diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-06 05:39 pm (UTC)1. I found Lauzun asking Louis permission to make a trip to Holland, but that could be because he needed to be released from his job duties for the trip, not because it would have been illegal for him to leave the country.
One thing that I was reminded of was Voltaire's memoirs, where he's all appalled at Alexei and Fritz being given or threatened with the death penalty for leaving the country, and acts like it's unheard of--but given that this is Voltaire and the genre is snark, nobles leaving without permission could have been illegal in France too, there just weren't any monarchs whose heirs got embroiled in major scandals. (I mean, not in recent memory, at least--there was always Louis XI fleeing Dad (Charles VII) and going to Burgundy. Where, hilariously, the Burgundians were like, "We'll be super nice to him and he'll be super grateful to us when he comes to the throne!!" AND THEN it turns out just like 1740 in Prussia. :PPP)
2. Things that FW and Louis did have in common: when one of Fouquet's valets who had *not* followed him into prison, faithfully but unsuccessfully tried to break his former master out from prison, said valet was executed on a scaffold that could be seen from Fouquet's window. The valet's name was La Forêt.
:(
3. When the restrictions on Fouquet and Lauzun are lightened up in later years, they're allowed to eat with each other. Social commentary:
Moreover, if they liked, Saint-Mars could eat with them. Here we see one of the niceties of the prison system: the preservation of rank. Saint-Mars the jailer, although recently ennobled, was of lower rank than either Foucquet or Lauzun. Even in a prison setting, in order for him to share their table, the two aristocrats had to invite him.
4. Eustache's name. Where Horowski just says some historians carelessly wrote "Dauger" instead of "Danger" or "d'Angers" for many years, Wilkinson elaborates:
As it is written on the original letter de cachet, his name is given as Eustache, but what appears to be his surname is disputed, with some scholars reading it as Dauger, with a u, and others as Danger, with an n. In the letter in which he warned Saint-Mars to prepare for the arrival of a new prisoner, Louvois gave the prisoner’s name as Eustache d’Auger, and this, or more usually the variant Dauger, is the name by which this mysterious man has been best known ever since. However, Eustache’s name would have several variations in the official correspondence as time went on: Eustache Danger (February 15, 1679), Dangers (September 13, 1679), d’Angers (April 8, 1680), or even simply ‘the man Eustache (December 23, 1678; January 20, 1680; July 10, 1680). In his paper presented at a colloquium at Pignerol in 1987, historian Bernard Caire convincingly demonstrated that the prisoner’s name was Danger, Dangers, or d’Angers.
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-07 07:36 am (UTC)Cahn, Louis XI’s Dad whom he’s running away from because they have such a bad relationship is none other than the former Dauphin crowned by Jeanne d’Arc. In Shaw’s St. Joan, when Joan persuades Charles to give her what she wants and let her relieve the siege of Orleans, one of the early arguments she uses is asking him whether he doesn’t want to restore France for his son, and Charles immediately replies: “No: he’s a horrid little boy”. Given Charles ends up starving to death and aware his nobility is already with the Rising Sun, one can see where that’s coming from, I guess.
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-07 12:09 pm (UTC)Lol no.
Cahn, Louis XI’s Dad whom he’s running away from because they have such a bad relationship is none other than the former Dauphin crowned by Jeanne d’Arc.
Aaaand, the Duke of Burgundy whose court he runs away to, Philip the Good, favors him so much (in hopes of rewards from the future King of France) that *his* son, future Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, resents feeling sidelined, and he ends up with such a bad relationship with his father that he considers going to France to seek refuge at the court of Charles VII! Though this does not come to pass, which is a pity for gossipy sensationalists. But it's dysfunctional families all the way down.
(Am now imagining the AU where Fritz goes to London and Frederick of Wales to Potsdam.)
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-08 05:45 am (UTC)FW: Look, kid, I'm not financing you a court in exile without you working for a living. Who do you think I am, Louis XIV? If you're doing okay in the army, I'll even invite you at my next Tobacco College session.
Meanwhile in Albion:
G2 & Caroline: At last we have a reason to disinherit Fritz of Wales and make Billy the next King! Hooray!
Fritz of Prussia: Katte, Peter, have you ever seen such a dysfunctional royal family?
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-09 04:38 am (UTC)Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-09 12:42 pm (UTC)Maybe I'll request it for some exchange, but alas, I can't do Yuletide this year, because I'm planning for sleep loss in November/December while I take another stab at tackling my back pain.
Fritz of Prussia: Katte, Peter, have you ever seen such a dysfunctional royal family?
*dead*
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-13 04:53 am (UTC)Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-13 12:56 pm (UTC)More seriously, since I know I'm going to be mentally incapacitated, it would be unfair to sign up. Even if having you bail me out is a lot of fun for me. :DDDDD
Re: The Man in the Iron Mask: Assorted Tidbits
Date: 2022-08-16 04:49 am (UTC)