Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 45

[cahn]

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) )

Comments

Re: Trashy Faves and Poisons

[selenak]

Ha, I hoped you'd be as delighted as I was by this latest peace of sensationalistic gossip.

OMG. I really need to know exactly how this is phrased in the primary source(s).

You and me both, because I heard it in a podcast. However, I then googled and came across this detailed article on Frances which you might find useful, especially in terms of who confessed what.

I knew James gave him a million titles, I didn't know he used them to double the number of titles in the realm!

To be fair: the guy who started the idea of title selling as a way of solving the constant Stuart monarch problem of getting cash when your Parliament isn't willing to hand it over had been Robert Cecil (sone of Willliam), Earl of Salisbury, aka the most competent minister James ever had, but he was dead by then, and anyway he only sold "baronet" as a title. Whereas Buckingham went into business for himself as well as the King and didn't stick to "baronet" but went through the entire hierarchy, so naturally the old nobles went spare in their hate-on for that alone, in addition to the envy.

Re: Edward II, yes, I also had heard that the red poker story now is discounted.

Re: Trashy Faves and Poisons

[mildred_of_midgard]

You and me both, because I heard it in a podcast. However, I then googled and came across this detailed article on Frances which you might find useful, especially in terms of who confessed what.

Thank you! I have bookmarked it for when my detective energies are not focused on 1768-1772. (My plan re The King's Secret, btw, since the boring part lasted for hundreds of pages, is to focus on reading up on 1768-1772 from a variety of perspectives and take notes, then to come back to Broglie's take on that period, then to do a series of write-ups for salon, including the Chevalier d'Eon, Broglie, and "things I, Mildred, have learned about 1768-1772.")