Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 40

[cahn]

I'm trying to use my other account at least occasionally so I posted about my Yuletide gifts there, including the salon-relevant 12k fic that features Fritz, Heinrich, Voltaire, Fredersdorf, Saint Germain, Caroline Daum (Fredersdorf's wife), and Groundhog Day tropes! (Don't need to know canon.)

Comments

Re: Lochiel of the '45, by John Sibbald Gibson (1994)

[cahn]

[personal profile] cahn, if you're reading this: just as a refresher, the book is primarily about Donald Cameron of Lochiel, who was the clan chief of one of the largest Highland clans involved in the ‘45 on the Jacobite side.

Ha - thank you as always for the orientation!

'at his birth, the silver shoe which had come into the family's possession by supernatural means could not be made to fit the infant John's foot'!

Heh, this is great.

Dungallon gave ‘very ingenious and satisfactory answers to such questions as I asked him’, and that he was ‘a person who procured very good in intelligence’. Would he really have done this if he gave himself up as a ruse?? Apparently he didn't tell them where Lochiel was, though. I guess we'll never know his motives. This also reminds me of Anne Mackintosh and her husband--I've seen speculations that they were not actually at odds, but that they were consciously each picking a side so that they had insurance whichever side won. Which of course many families did, but not as dramatically!

Oh, yeah, that's a good point that he might have been trying to play both sides a little. Or maybe giving some true intelligence so they'd believe him when he gave false intelligence about Lochiel?

‘There had been something close to complete accord among the Scottish Highlanders to serve their rightful king.’ Really?

Hee! I'm always grateful when you guys point out the unreliable narrators.

Re: Lochiel of the '45, by John Sibbald Gibson (1994)

[luzula]

Re: Dungallon turning informer, the really famous informer was Murray of Broughton, who had been secretary to the Prince, and turned King’s Evidence. From what I've read, his information led to the hanging of various of his earlier companions. I haven't read much about him as a person (perhaps Mildred has?), but I do wonder about his motivations. He was actually a driving force behind getting the Rising going, so why betray it later? There is of course the obvious motivation of saving his own skin. But given that so many of the executed Jacobites died proudly and unrepentantly, he must have known that he would be despised for betraying his companions. Which he really was. Also, his wife Margaret was an ardent Jacobite, and I wonder what she thought of him! He has written memoirs, which I assume contain self-justifications, but I haven't read them...

Re: Lochiel of the '45, by John Sibbald Gibson (1994)

[mildred_of_midgard]

I haven't read much about him as a person (perhaps Mildred has?)

Alas, no!

Re: Lochiel of the '45, by John Sibbald Gibson (1994)

[cahn]

Oh wow. If you ever do read about him I'd love to hear what people/he himself think his motivations were!