Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 46

[cahn]

Background: The kids' school has a topic for "Unit" every trimester that a lot of their work (reading, writing, some math) revolves around. These topics range from time/geographic periods ('Colonial America') to geography ('Asia') to science ('Space') to social science ('Business and Economics'). (I have some issues with this way of doing things, but that's a whole separate post.) Anyway, for Reasons, they have had to come up with a new topic this year, and E's 7/8 class is doing "World Fairs" as their new topic.

Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*

Comments

Money, Money, Money

[selenak]

Okay, I‘ve been waiting for a new post to share this bit of not sexy, but sensational (kinda) information which is how on earth Charles I financed his eleven years of personal rule between basically Buckingham’s assassination and the evening of the Civil War without calling a Parliament. Reminder: one of the biggest problems of both James I and VI and Charles was that Parliament was the one institution allowed to raise taxes, so in theory, they had to call Parliament, which would decide on a budget for the King, in modern parlance. And Parliament increasingly wanted very different things from what the Kings wanted, especially when it came to their faves. James got around this once by doing the „King asks for one time loan from subjects due to national emergency“ thing which basically you‘re allowed to do ONCE as a monarch. Charles did that, too, but he had to figure out other means or cave and call for a Parliament. Once Buckingham was dead, there was one last Parliament, but as the Commons were under the impression that without Buckingham, Charles would give into their demands, while Charles personally blamed one of the most popular leaders of the Commons for Buckingham‘s murder due to the rethoric the guy had employed, things went down from there, and it became the last Parliament for eleven years.

Now, previously I had assumed Charles either took a lot of credits or raised taxes on his lonesome, never mind legalities. But no. Also, I was stunned to discover that Charles actually managed to make the state solvent and get out of the red and into the black in the state household without calling Parliament and raising taxes once. How did he, or rather his financial advisor and Lord Treasurer Weston, accomplish this marvel? Mainly by rediscovering a lot of medieval laws. These included the one featuring in every Robin Hood story, i.e. you weren‘t allowed to hunt in royal forests (unless you paid a fine). And then there was the fact that under James, knighthoods and other titles had been sold like candy (mostly by Buckingham), remember? Well, Weston found a medieval law from Edward III‘s time that said that knights not attending the coronation of a new king and personally swearing loyalty to their new liege could be fined. Not only were most of these new knights from all over the country but there had actually been plague hitting London at the time of Charles‘ coronation, so it really had not been well attended. So now the royal treasury presented the bill. And then there were the royal lands, of which Charles sold quite a lot. Like I said, the most amazing thing is that he managed to get enough money out of all this to not only finance his court (and growing painting collection) but his entire administration for eleven years.

(Ending the war with the Spanish and the trade war with the French which Buckingham had started helped, too.)

(But then he fucked up this pleasing situation by totally misjudging Scotland in his attempt to anglisize its church services for good. Charles had been born in Scotland, of course, but he had only lived there for three years, so to all intents and purposes, he was English, and as opposed to his father completely misjudged the Scots and how far he could go there. Cue expensive war!)

Re: Money, Money, Money

[mildred_of_midgard]

I couldn't have told you this off the top of my head any more, but it is ringing faint bells from high school days. Points for creativity!

Re: Money, Money, Money

[selenak]

I bet many a vanity knight who just bought the title because it made his merchant or landowner self look even better cursed said creativity. :) But it's interesting that Charles went through all this rigmarole instead saying "Screw the law, I have soldiers" and sending those to collect the cash - as was pointed out, very much tied to how he saw himself, which was as a good and lawful sovereign, with the Commons being the evil populist demagogues sowing the seeds of unrest and encouraging murder in his perspective.

Re: Money, Money, Money

[aella_irene]

There was an exhibition about Charles I's art collection, which included the legend that he got the Triumphs of Caesar paintings thrown in while buying his art collection because the vendor was trying to woo an expensive dwarf courtesan, and needed the cash.

Re: Money, Money, Money

[mildred_of_midgard]

Okay, that I *didn't* know!

Re: Money, Money, Money

[selenak]

That, the podcast I've been listening to me didn't include, more's the pity. Do you know who the expensive dwarf courtesan was?

Re: Money, Money, Money

[aella_irene]

No, I am now fighting through the various reviews of the exhibit (Charles I: King and Collector, early 2018) to see if I can find a website that looks right.

Re: Money, Money, Money

[cahn]

Oh wow, that is a fun story!

Re: Money, Money, Money

[luzula]

I did know about digging up the medieval laws! Because I'm listening to the English Civil War portion of the Revolutions podcast right now...

And yeah, points for creativity.

Re: Money, Money, Money

[selenak]

Enjoy! Mind you, while the first two seasons are informative and entertaining, my own sense was that the podcast doesn't become really great until THE Revolution arrives, the French one, but from that point onwards till Comrade Stalin cosplays Animal Farm which forms the end of the Russian Revolution on the podcast, it's fabulous.

Re: Money, Money, Money

[cahn]

Mainly by rediscovering a lot of medieval laws.

That... is diabolical!

Well, Weston found a medieval law from Edward III‘s time that said that knights not attending the coronation of a new king and personally swearing loyalty to their new liege could be fined.

Heeeee. Okay, I find this one hilarious. "You wanted to pay to be a knight, did you? Well, you'll just have to pay AGAIN!"

Re: Money, Money, Money

[selenak]

I find it hilarious, too, but I bet the knights did not. :)

One of the earliest things the Long Parliament did was to shut all those financial loopholes down, though not to spare the knights but to make Charles and future royals entirely dependent on them. I bet before those eleven years of personal rule, most people in the kingdom(s) who weren't lawyers specializing in old laws wouldn't even have been aware of the existence of said medieval laws, including Charles!

ETA: And of course you know how Charles II. who did not have that loophole anymore solved his financial problem - by making the secret treaty with Louis XIV promising to convert to Catholicism in exchange for cash (and fulfilling it by converting five minutes before he died).

James II: I don't need no stinking loopholes and I am a true son of the Church! I just need obedient subjects! Dad was right, just too nice!

Re: Money, Money, Money

[cahn]

Lol, yes, it's the kind of thing that is much funnier centuries later and not having to do it myself :)

One of the earliest things the Long Parliament did was to shut all those financial loopholes down, though not to spare the knights but to make Charles and future royals entirely dependent on them.

I imagine also they were annoyed at Charles having loopholes! (I mean, not that that would have been the main reason at all, but I'm sure it didn't help... :) )

And of course you know how Charles II. who did not have that loophole anymore solved his financial problem - by making the secret treaty with Louis XIV promising to convert to Catholicism in exchange for cash (and fulfilling it by converting five minutes before he died).

Oh, right! You of course did tell me that but I forgot, thank you for the reminder!