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

Philippe Auguste and Ingeborg

[mildred_of_midgard]

(Although what would make this even more hilarious, admittedly in a somewhat dark way, would be if Buckingham was like, "I have a great idea, you shouldn't bleed him!" and the docs were all "What a quack!")

Hahaha, so the day you posted this, my French practice in a biography of Philippe II Auguste (12-13th century) had me reading about how he treated his second wife very badly, locking her in a castle with inadequate basic necessities, assigning her ladies in waiting whose job was to verbally abuse her, and denying her priests and doctors. At one point, she's sick, and she can't even be bled!

Me: Weeelllll...The abusive asshole might have accidentally done her some good there, ha.

(Why did he treat her this way, you ask, cahn? The biographer devotes a lot of pages to the debate, summarizing what historians have said about that question and what the primary sources say, and the answer is, we don't know. He seems to have taken an instantaneous or near-instantaneous dislike to her, set her aside immediately after the marriage, and spent the rest of their married lives arguing with her about whether he was impotent with her, and the marriage was unconsummated and thus invalid, and he was free to remarry (Philippe's story); or whether they totally did it on their wedding night and thus she was still the rightful queen (Ingeborg's story). Also, Philippe was just an asshole in general, ask the Jews.)

Because Philippe's and Ingeborg's claims were the reverse of Bob's and Frances's, Philippe did not feel compelled to run around showing everyone he could get an erection with anyone but his wife. :P

P.S. My French streak is still going!