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

Re: Chevalier d'Eon II: England and the King's Secret

[luzula]

Yay, the Chevalier d'Eon! All I knew about him/her was: there's interesting gender stuff? And spy stuff? Also I think there might be an anime series? So I'm very glad to have this amusingly written summary--thank you! Love the teenage girl and her letter.

The famous philosopher reminded Broglie that in England the King was not sovereign, the laws were, and while everyone who lived in the kingdom was subject to those laws, no one could be held against his will unless there was evidence that some law had been violated.
Oh right. So I guess England will never suspend habeas corpus, then?

Laws in England were immutable. If a law was violated, Hume boasted, the government had the obligation to prosecute the criminal, no matter his status.
Allow me to express some polite skepticism of this statement, too...I mean, not that I doubt that France was worse.

Re: Chevalier d'Eon II: England and the King's Secret

[mildred_of_midgard]

Well, sure, but that's why he says "at least in theory." There was no "at least in theory" in France; in France, the law was *specifically* that all your civil rights depended on your rank and the king's whim.