Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

[cahn]

Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

Comments

Re: <i>The '15: The Great Jacobite Rebellion</i> by Daniel Szechi (2006)

[cahn]

Ohh, this is neat!

Really the most charming military detail is the war in the north and west of the Highlands, which was fought entirely between Highland troops. These people were neighbors and did not want to incur blood feuds if they really didn't have to, so the war became a sort of shadow boxing. There were thousands of men in the field, and Inverness was taken and retaken several times, but only two men are recorded to have died! I find this charming.

I love this. This reminds me of a book philomytha read about trench warfare in WWI, where a lot of times they basically evolved relationships that were more like neighbors than enemy combatants, so they would basically just sort of go through the motions.

Argyll pestered the government, basically saying that if they had let him negotiate, the war would have been over now! Finally they got tired of him.

Aw, that's great!

Whigs and Jacobites were neighbors and had socially interwoven lives in ways that they didn't have in England. So when the government tried to have about 100 of the elite prisoners from Scotland tried in England, the whole Scottish legal establishment obstructed it completely--and not just the legal establishment, but also the Whig elite. They also obstructed the dispossession of the estates of the Scottish rebels. When the government came to take their estates, it suddenly was found that large debts were owed to their Whig neighbors, or maybe the estate actually legally belonged to someone else!

That's just wonderful! (And not something that I feel is very much true of, say, the current-day US, with some small exceptions, sigh.)

one day being as like the other as two eggs and these eaten without either pepper or salt.

Aww indeed! :(

Re: <i>The '15: The Great Jacobite Rebellion</i> by Daniel Szechi (2006)

[mildred_of_midgard]

This reminds me of a book philomytha read about trench warfare in WWI, where a lot of times they basically evolved relationships that were more like neighbors than enemy combatants, so they would basically just sort of go through the motions.

Oooh, yes, that is an excellent comparison!