cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 45

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Unfortunately, there was then at Berlin a King who pursued one policy only, who deceived his enemies, but not his servants, and who lied without scruple, but never without necessity.

(from The King's Secret - by Duke de Broglie, grand-nephew of the subject of the book, Comte de Broglie, and grandfather of the physicist) )

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From:

luzula

I guess this is a little late, given that I have already written and posted this story, but what about the status of fencing masters? I had an army officer (a gentleman's son with no means of independence) briefly consider this as a career when he left the army, but ultimately he trained as a surgeon instead. (Which I know is a lower status job than physician, but he was in exile in France at the time and could not really study at university due to being a Protestant.)

From:

selenak

Honestly, I don't know. My instinct is to say that fencing master is more repectable because it's a manly occupation directly connected to soldier-ness (even though no one fences in wars anymore the later the century gets), and presumably often is a job for former soldiers. But that's just me guessing. Mildred is the one reading a biography of the Chevalier d'Eon right now, she should know!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Well, I don't *know*, but I wouldn't disagree. I did a search through the bio for "fenc", and most of the hits had to do with gender, not social class. I only saw one mention of the Chevalier giving fencing lessons; otherwise, they make their money in fencing tournaments.

Given the lack of mention of horror at crossing class boundaries, I would assume that a gentleman's son (but not daughter :P) could take up a respectable job as a fencing master! (But it would still be an insult if someone implied that Louis XV could do it when he lost his day job as king. Frankly, I think that would get you thrown in the Bastille for lese majeste.)