Mind you, there are things you can really critisize James for. But not "unmanly tears" (this is so 19th Century Stiff Upper Lip Talk! Both in the Renaissance and in Baroque times, men crying was not seen as shameful - note Walter Raleigh, for example, repeatedly refers to crying in his letters from the Tower, and none of the Victorians thought he was less of a dashing hero for it) or his idea that pan-European peace in general and England/Spain peace in particular was a good thing.
(Not letting his daughter return to England after she and her husband got kicked out of Bohemia was harsh, and I can understand Elizabeth the Winter Queen going from "best Dad ever!" in her early letters to him just after her marriage to "my father has ever more hurt than helped us" a decade later. But: future Charles I had always been a sickly child. And during James' life time, he wasn't yet married, nor did he reproduce. Which means that if Charles had died while Elizabeth and her husband were in England, Elizabeth would have become Queen - and Frederick, the guy who had just started a cross European war by accepting the Bohemian Crown and who had proved his complete lack of military skills or ability to maintain a useful network of allies, would have become King. I can understand why James would do everything to avoid that prospect.)
Now, if I had to make a case against James, his obsession with witchcraft would certainly feature. He wasn't so blind (especially in his later years) that the posssibility of false testimony didn't occur to him, and he had some later cases investigated for that reason, but still, the man wrote an entire book to encourage the persecution of witches, which it duly did, and his idea that the storms that disrupted Anne's and his ships when they were about to marry each other had been conjured by a coven cost eight women their lives. Which was only the beginning. And you can argue he had as bad a taste in boyfriends as Heinrich (as in, the brother of Fritz).
(Here's a competition: Kalckreuth & Kaphengst vs Somerset & Buckingham!)
Not to mention that his idea of how to treat kid' Charles' stutter and walking problems were as barbaric as the medical regime kid future F1 was put under, with Charles lucking out what once he was in England, his appointed caretakers were Robert and Elizabeth Carey who actually had way more sensible ideas and put a stop to the other ones. ANd while we're talking family, given James himself was repeatedly kidnapped in his youth, I can see why he thought the heir of the throne had to be especially guarded and that he would only entrust him to people he really really trusted to do that, i.e. the Earl of Mar and his wife (who had been James' own governess and apparently the sole person kind to him in his childhood), but he could have been more understanding about Anne's desire to raise her own son. All not great traits! And none get critiqued by the Victorians.
Kalckreuth: I ended up a Field Marshal, Somerset ended up in prison and then while out of it, still disgraced! Also, I could have had Fritz and nobly chose Heinrich, while he had to marry the Howard girl, a marriage that was instrumental to his downfall. There is no comparison.
Somerset: I guess we're not mentioning your bonkers attempt to make a pass at Mina as a way to keep Heinrich when he was truly sick of you, then. I may have made mistakes, but my wife loved me so much that she never once attempted to blame me, on the contrary, she insisted on exonorating me during every interrogation. I don't see any of the unfortunate women you ended up marrying doing that for you, Kalckreuth.
Buckingham: It's a severe insult to my financial acumen to compare me to Kaphengst. Yes, I spent a lot of money, but I also found ever new avenues to generate it, and I made my entire family rich. Meanwhile, he pissed away all that Heinrich gave him and ended up broke.
Kaphengst: Yeah, well, I never was impeached or accused of having poisoned Heinrich, was I? I didn't get murdered, only to have my murder greeted by near universal cheer in the entire country! My having a good time only affected me. And okay, Heinrich and his art collection and his plans to visit Paris. But still! I object to this comparison!
Lehndorff: Speaking entirely without bias and objectively, I vote Kalckreuth and Kaphengst being the worst.
Fritz: If Kaphengst and Kalckreuth didn't turn out like Somerset and Buckingham, it's only because I kept the lot of them, Henri and his boytoys, far, far away from power. That's why I did it. For Prussia. Not because I needed therapy via roleplay or anything. My impeccable taste, on the other hand...
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cahn
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-15 03:34 pm (UTC)Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-15 04:07 pm (UTC)(Not letting his daughter return to England after she and her husband got kicked out of Bohemia was harsh, and I can understand Elizabeth the Winter Queen going from "best Dad ever!" in her early letters to him just after her marriage to "my father has ever more hurt than helped us" a decade later. But: future Charles I had always been a sickly child. And during James' life time, he wasn't yet married, nor did he reproduce. Which means that if Charles had died while Elizabeth and her husband were in England, Elizabeth would have become Queen - and Frederick, the guy who had just started a cross European war by accepting the Bohemian Crown and who had proved his complete lack of military skills or ability to maintain a useful network of allies, would have become King. I can understand why James would do everything to avoid that prospect.)
Now, if I had to make a case against James, his obsession with witchcraft would certainly feature. He wasn't so blind (especially in his later years) that the posssibility of false testimony didn't occur to him, and he had some later cases investigated for that reason, but still, the man wrote an entire book to encourage the persecution of witches, which it duly did, and his idea that the storms that disrupted Anne's and his ships when they were about to marry each other had been conjured by a coven cost eight women their lives. Which was only the beginning. And you can argue he had as bad a taste in boyfriends as Heinrich (as in, the brother of Fritz).
(Here's a competition: Kalckreuth & Kaphengst vs Somerset & Buckingham!)
Not to mention that his idea of how to treat kid' Charles' stutter and walking problems were as barbaric as the medical regime kid future F1 was put under, with Charles lucking out what once he was in England, his appointed caretakers were Robert and Elizabeth Carey who actually had way more sensible ideas and put a stop to the other ones. ANd while we're talking family, given James himself was repeatedly kidnapped in his youth, I can see why he thought the heir of the throne had to be especially guarded and that he would only entrust him to people he really really trusted to do that, i.e. the Earl of Mar and his wife (who had been James' own governess and apparently the sole person kind to him in his childhood), but he could have been more understanding about Anne's desire to raise her own son. All not great traits! And none get critiqued by the Victorians.
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-17 01:42 am (UTC)(Here's a competition: Kalckreuth & Kaphengst vs Somerset & Buckingham!)
This one made me laugh. :)
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-17 07:23 am (UTC)Somerset: I guess we're not mentioning your bonkers attempt to make a pass at Mina as a way to keep Heinrich when he was truly sick of you, then. I may have made mistakes, but my wife loved me so much that she never once attempted to blame me, on the contrary, she insisted on exonorating me during every interrogation. I don't see any of the unfortunate women you ended up marrying doing that for you, Kalckreuth.
Buckingham: It's a severe insult to my financial acumen to compare me to Kaphengst. Yes, I spent a lot of money, but I also found ever new avenues to generate it, and I made my entire family rich. Meanwhile, he pissed away all that Heinrich gave him and ended up broke.
Kaphengst: Yeah, well, I never was impeached or accused of having poisoned Heinrich, was I? I didn't get murdered, only to have my murder greeted by near universal cheer in the entire country! My having a good time only affected me. And okay, Heinrich and his art collection and his plans to visit Paris. But still! I object to this comparison!
Lehndorff: Speaking entirely without bias and objectively, I vote Kalckreuth and Kaphengst being the worst.
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-18 02:06 am (UTC)Fritz: If Kaphengst and Kalckreuth didn't turn out like Somerset and Buckingham, it's only because I kept the lot of them, Henri and his boytoys, far, far away from power. That's why I did it. For Prussia. Not because I needed therapy via roleplay or anything. My impeccable taste, on the other hand...
Fredersdorf: :)
Henri: *cough*
Glasow*cough*Biche: Woof!
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-19 12:41 am (UTC)Buckingham: It's a severe insult to my financial acumen to compare me to Kaphengst.
Kaphengst: Yeah, well, I never was impeached or accused of having poisoned Heinrich, was I?
Hee!
And I love Lehndorff getting the last word!
Re: David Bergeron: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - I
Date: 2024-01-22 08:15 pm (UTC)