Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 44

[cahn]

Not only are these posts still going, there is now (more) original research going on in them deciphering and translating letters in archives that apparently no one has bothered to look at before?? (Which has now conclusively exonerated Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf from the charge that he was dismissed because of financial irregularities and died shortly thereafter "ashamed of his lost honor," as Wikipedia would have it. I'M JUST SAYING.)

Comments

Re: Luz tries to read a historical romance

[mildred_of_midgard]

In brief because back pain: I agree this book sounds monstrously inaccurate, but I thought the Clearances had started at least by 1770, and Wikipedia says they started around 1750-1760, and the very first ones started before the 45. Though obviously not on a large scale, affecting all clans, until later in the 18th century.

Re: Luz tries to read a historical romance

[luzula]

Sorry about the back pain! : (

I guess it depends what you mean by the Clearances. It's true that in the 1740's, some clan chiefs (notably the Campbells) had started giving leases to the highest bidder, instead of to the families who were the traditional tenants. Sometimes these kinds of evictions were also driven not by economic reasons but by clan rivalries or politics, such as when Colin Roy Campbell as factor evicted Stewarts from Appin in favor of Campbells.

But from what I've read, the main driver behind the Clearances came when the elite could make more money by having less people on their land, than by having it be well populated. Which was not yet true in the mid-18th century, as I understand it.

ETA: But sure, I could have expressed myself more carefully! "The point at which the Clearances were affecting all the clans at a large scale was not until several decades later."