#battle of minden

[bantarleton]

With today being the 264th anniversary of the battle of Minden, it seems only right to share this excellent piece featuring a private soldier of the 51st Foot at the battle. Artwork by Patrice Courcelle for Helion & Company’s “Like a Brazen Wall,” written by Ewan Carmichael.

#minden #history #british army #military history #18th century #battle of minden #7 years war #seven years war #French and Indian war

[frevandrest]

Just learned that Gilbert's father died at the battle of Minden. That's the third frev person I know whose father participated in the battle (SJ and Hérault's), and the second one whose father died (Hérault's). Gilbert's dad was also a 20 something aristo officer. Small sample, but I guess there is something to say about the stupidity of giving such young men so high positions in the battle command based on birth.

#what do i know #but sj's father survived #and he was in his 40s #it's not aristo vs commoner thing #and it could be a coincidence #but this seems to require a lot of experience #giving 20 somethings high ranks just because of the birth status seems mega stupid #or idk giving them ranks based on frev importance #sj had a higher rank in his 20s than his father ever had #so it's not just aristos #but it seems mega stupid #except in frev they have an excuse of not having officers #so they had to use people they had #frev #gilbert

[qui-rault]

Aulard on Herault de Sechelles

Okay here we go, another author who is absolutely in love with Herault. I’m not even joking, Aulard is completely head over heels for this man. So here is his chapter on Herault de Sechelles in his book Les orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention: l'éloquence parlementaire pendant la Révolution française (Tome 2). Link here: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5441755r  

A few notes: 

When I make a translation, I am not agreeing or disagreeing with anything an author says. It's important to keep in mind that every author has their own agenda and writes about historical events and historical figures within the context of their own viewpoint. Aulard , as you will see, is a keen supporter of Danton, and he labels Herault as a Dantoniste throughout the entire chapter. Whether Herault should be considered as a strict Dantoniste is, in my non-professional opinion, up for debate. A lot of people are still not aware, for example, that he and Fabre d'Eglantine were arrested separately to, and before Danton and Camille were arrested, and it was only afterwards that it was decided that they should be tried together.

Aulard neglects to give sources for several of the statements that he makes and is very condescending towards Robespierre and Saint-Just. He also seems to try to justify Herault’s actions during the revolution by saying that he was mostly acting to keep Robespierre off his back. I personally think this is incredibly injurious to Herault, who was an active participant in the Revolution – we have no reason to believe, as many would like to, that he was only pretending to support the Revolution to survive, rather than because he genuinely believed in its principles.   

Also, apparently Herault bought a lottery office for one of his mistresses and I just … cannot deal with this man.  

Anything with an asterisk is my personal note/observation. I will take the time to remind every one again that my French is dismal and that is why I always link the original. Huge thank you again to @ans-treasurebox for helping me with translating parts of this and also to @orpheusmori who had to sit there and put up with me losing my mind over Herault on the Discord for several nights in a row.

 

Chapter VIII – Herault de Sechelles  

I 

Herault de Sechelles was the ornament of the Dantonist party. A man of the court and of noble family (1), a classical and lucid spirit, an orator enamored with academic elegance, he forms a perfect contrast with the rusticity of Legendre. When he was very young, he was introduced to Marie Antoinette by her cousin Madame de Polignac, pleased her, and obtained from her a position as a lawyer at the Chatelet. He won great success there through his talent for speaking and by the choice of his causes, calculated to interest the sensitivity of his protectors. "There is applause on all sides, says one of his biographers, at his eloquent indignation against the ingratitude of a pupil towards his tutor and against the odious behavior of an opulent girl who had abandoned her mother in need." 

(1) His grandfather had been lieutenant general; his father, colonel of the Rouergue regiment, had perished gloriously at the Battle of Minden (Jules Claretie, Les Dantonistes, p. 317). He was also a nephew of the Marshal de Contades (Souvenirs de Berryer, I, 1) 

In 1779, at the age of 19, he published Eloge de Suger. Serious and charming, he was soon called, by the favor of the Queen (1), to the post of Advocate General in the Parliament of Paris. The parliamentarians, he would say, hated him, either because of the rapidity of his fortune (2), or for his philosophism. 

(1) She sent him, it is said, a scarf embroidered with her own hand. - His last speech as a lawyer was a triumph: the magistrates and the audience accompanied him, applauding, to his carriage. Journal de Paris of August 7, 1785, quoted by J. Claretie, ibid. 

(2) La pere de Berryer's (ibid.) says that he had been appointed after a hard fight and he adds "He had justified this sudden elevation by the marvelous ease of speaking, which he had shown in various causes of brilliance." 

He did not believe himself out of place among the combatants of July 14, and he broke with the court party at the beginning of the revolution. At the end of 1790, he was elected judge in Paris, then he became commissioner of the king at the tribunal de cassation. A member of Parliament for Paris in the Legislative Assembly, he hesitated at first between the royalists and the Jacobins. On the 6th of October, he protested against the revolutionary decree issued the day before on the ceremonial of the royal session. Interrupted as an aristocrat, he was silent and observed in silence until the end of 1791. 

On the 29th of December, he delivered a speech on war, in which, in the manner of Brissot, but more briefly, he drew a picture of the state of Europe: according to him, each power was too poor to desire war. All the more reason to demand a lot, to summon the King of Prussia, to intimidate the counterrevolutionaries from within. Is he for war or for peace? Does he support Brissot or Robespierre? We don't know; but we can see in his somewhat equivocal words the Dantoniste policy: let's make war, but let’s be sure about making it, after having defeated the court. 

This speech pleased and, although ambiguous, rang true. From then on, Herault followed a democratic line. On the 14th of January, in response to the declaration of Pilnitz, he proposed to the Assembly an address to the people, in which the perfidy of the court was clearly indicated. As for the threats of Europe, France only had to rise to confound them. "Certainly, the French, after having taken such a high rank, will not resolve to descend to the last place; yes, the last, for there is on earth something more vile than a slave people, it is a people who become so again after having known how to cease to be so." 

On the 24th of January, he attacked the draft decree presented by the diplomatic committee in response to the Emperor's office: "I regret, he said, that the committee did not announce or rather reiterate the known resolution of France, which, as a consequence of her renunciation of any conquest, having also renounced to meddle in any way with the form of government of other powers, must doubtlessly, in the face of all mankind, expect the most perfect reciprocity; and when one will see a wise people regulating within its homes the form in which it suits it to live, leaving peace to its neighbors and seeking order for itself; if ambitions, vengeance, dare to arm themselves against the happiness of such a people, the world, posterity, history, by pitying them, will avenge them, and will mark with eternal opprobrium their vanquished enemies and even their conquerors, if there could be any.” 

This elevated and diplomatic language made an impression and the Assembly voted the draft decree of Herault, by which the king was invited to declare to the emperor that he could henceforth treat with him only in the name of the French nation, to ask him if he wanted to remain the friend of the French nation and to give until the 15th of February to respond. 

He was twice rapporteur for the legislation committee: on the 22nd of February, on ministerial responsibility, the conditions of which he discussed pleasantly; on the 7th of April on the acceleration of judgments in cassation. 

At the beginning of July 1792, the gravity of the circumstances had led the Assembly to add an extraordinary commission to the diplomatic and military committees. The diplomatic qualities of his words led Herault, on the choice of his colleagues, to be designated for the drafting of the report relating to the declaration of the homeland in danger, a report which would be read with passionate attention by all of Europe (July 11). "Our most important business, he said, is to go to war soon, and not to wait for a chance or a set back which, however slight, might make some of the powers who are now mute observers, but whose diplomatic correspondence shows us, perhaps in the distance, secret hopes and a prudence subordinated to fortune, determine to be against us. Let us therefore produce a great movement, let us deploy a formidable apparatus, let us interest each citizen in his fate: let’s call, it is time, all over the fatherland, all the French, all those who, having sworn to defend the Constitution until death, have the happiness of finally being able to carry out their oath. The fatherland is in danger, and this single word, like the electric spark, hardly left within the national representation, will resound the same day in the 83 departments, will rumble on the heads of the despots and their slaves; and this single word will repel their attacks, or will victoriously support the negotiations, if, however, these are negotiations that we can hear and which in no way alter the immutable sanctity of our rights.”  

In a more critical than enthusiastic spirit, Herault examines the objections that could be made to this declaration; he exposes them with a gift of objectivity very rare in this time of passion. He ends with a sufficiently warm oratory: "When, under Louis XIV, despotism, seconded by the genius of Turenne, held in check four armies at the same time, let us believe with confidence in the cause of the human race and in the miracles of freedom. Ah, gentlemen, a prophetic voice rises in my heart: we have sworn to be free; it is to have sworn to conquer! Called, in the face of the universe, to stipulate the rights of humanity, let us avenge these sacred and imperishable rights: I swear by these phalanxes which will gather from all parts of France, and by you, intrepid Gouvion, by you, brave Cazotte; and by all of you whom a death so beautiful and so desirable has reaped before the victory, under the walls of Philippeville; virtuous citizens, whose memory will henceforth preside over our destinies, and whose souls, quivering with joy in the depths of the tombs, will share in all our triumphs!”  

In matters of revolutionary enthusiasm, that is all that the noble and pure rhetoric of Herault de Sechelles can give. He understands, he interprets with truth the spirit of 1792; he is not under its influence. His reason approves of patriotic folly; his heart does not share it. There is in this beautiful spirit an inability to be moved, to vibrate with the same passions as the people. He admires Danton and would like, I believe, to possess his sympathetic verve; but, whatever he does, he mingles with the passions of the time only as a dilettante, with the reserve of a delicate observer, with a good will that is immediately cooled by a innate decency. His friend Paganel said that he distinguished himself from the men of his party by "his liberal education, his gentle affections, the tastes and the urbanity which reveal the beautiful forms of his body and the noble and brilliant features of his face". (1)  

(1) Paganel, II, 247. Cf. Souvenirs du pere du Berryer, I, 176 “Herault de Sechelles was not forty years old in Year II. He was one of the most handsome men in France, tall, dark-faced, very noble; he had the manners of the court." 

Indolent, selfish, he pleased everyone, even the fiercest sans-culottes, who forgave him his status as a ci-devant because of his modesty, his affability, and the pleasant turn he gave to the most revolutionary measures. Paganel, believing to praise him, judges him severely "He spared, he says, all opinions, and appropriately took, but only for his defense, the colors of each party." No, Herault was not a hypocrite (1), but an epicurean who tasted the flower of each opinion in turn, an eclectic to whom it seemed that all sides were right, but that there was more common sense and good faith in that of Danton. He loved life; but he did nothing ugly to avoid the guillotine. His laziness explains what is undulating in his politics, and Paganel was truer and shrewder when he wrote "laziness dominated over all his tastes, and the love of women over all his other passions. His speeches to the tribune, his work on the committees, were many victories he won over himself, were so many thefts from his pleasures. Herault lavished a life which promised him only brief pleasures. He was always ready to lose it. He felt that the genius of the Revolution would prevail over his precautions and his prudence; and each event warned him of his destiny. He spared himself the terrors of it, by filling with much existence the few days which were counted to him..." 

(1) This reputation came to him from the contrast which was noticed between his political gravity and his private playfulness. Saint-Just would say hatefully in his report: "Herault was serious in the Convention, a buffoon elsewhere, and laughed incessantly to excuse himself for not saying anything". And Sieyes wrote in his intimate notes: "Brilliant with his success, H. de S., in his distraction, looked like a very happy funny fellow, who smiled at the irascibility of his thoughts" (Sainte-Beave, Causories du Lundi, t. V).” 

Mais c’est la Herault tel que le fit la crise meme de la Terreur.* In 1792, he is still smiling and optimistic. It does not seem that the fall of the throne moved him. On the 17th of August, he traced with a rather bold hand the first draft of the revolutionary tribunal. His educated voice mingled with the great voice of Danton in the work of national excitement which marked, in August 1792, the dictatorship of the Cordeliers and Girondin patriots. His proclamation on the capture of Longwy (August 26) is not lacking in emphasis, any more than the noble letter he wrote on September 10, in his capacity as president, to the widow of the heroic Beaurepaire. 

*This sentence has eluded my ability to translate.  

In the first six months of the Convention where he represented the department of Seine-et-Oise, his speeches were rare. Elected president on the 2nd of November, he was sent with Simon, Gregoire and Jagot, to Mont Blanc. He was still there during the trial of the king, whom he condemned, it is said, by letter, but without saying to what penalty. The Convention liked to be presided over by this man of noble face and conciliatory manners. They put him at their head on two important occasions. It was he who presided temporarily, in place of Isnard, on the night of May 27 to 28, when the commission of the Twelve was broken up for the first time. On the 2nd of June, he replaced the tired Mallarme in the chair, and had the sad honor of guiding the Convention in the walk it took in the Tuileries Gardens and the Carousel, to make people believe that it was free and to save its dignity. It was therefore to the beautiful Herault that Hanriot made his crude reply "The people did not rise to listen to phrases, but to give orders." 

He was made a deputy to the Committee of Public Safety on the 30th of May "to present constitutional basics". On the 10th of June he tabled the famous draft Constitution, improvised with so much haste. Circumstances alone made the short and dull report he read on this subject famous. There is only one original idea: the establishment of a national grand jury, to which each department would appoint a member, and whose function would be “to protect the citizens from the oppression of the Legislative Body and the Executive Council.” This article was rejected on the 16th of June at the request of Herault himself, who declared that he had always considered the institution of the a national jury to be very dangerous. This is the first time that a reporter has admitted to having an opinion other than expressed in their report. And yet, on the 24th of June, he proposed in his name an additional article: of the censorship of the people against its deputies and of its guarantee against the oppression of the legislative body. This system contained the single Chamber, counterbalanced it as a second Chamber, and tended to the same end as the "national jury". This bicameriste insistence of Herault served as a theme for the Robespierrist Jacobins to slander him. "We remember, Saint-Just would say in his report, that Herault was with disgust the mute witness of the work of those who drew up the plan of the Constitution, of which he skillfully made himself the shameless reporter." (1) 

(1) Yet Couthon praised Herault’s attitude on the committee to the tribunal (26 brumaire an II). 

Yet nothing would alter the favor he enjoyed at the Convention. Re-elected to the Committee of Public Safety, on the 17th of July he made this chimerical and Jacobin proposal, inspired by the beautiful dreams of Jean-Jacques, at which his skepticism must have made him smile to himself, "Citizens, you decreed this morning that the house of the traitor Buzot, in Evreux, would be razed. The Committee of Public Safety thought that it was necessary to celebrate the return of freedom in this city by a civic festival, in which six young virtuous republicans will be married to six young republicans chosen by an assembly of old men. The dowry of these young girls will be provided by the nation". The Convention adopted the proposal. 

As we can see, his talented pen didn't hesitate to align with the ideas of others. There was even one instance where he acted as a rapporteur to interpret the underlying opposition of the Robespierrists to Danton's inclinations. On August 1st, 1793, Danton had proposed the establishment of the Committee of Public Safety as a provisional government, seeing in this unity of dictatorship the most effective means to defend the nation and the revolution. Hérault had too much political acumen and was too much a friend of Danton to hesitate in opposing the anarchic and disorganizing spirit alongside him. Nevertheless, he allowed himself to be influenced and presented a report against his master's proposal, contributing to its rejection on August 2. 

On the 9th of August, by a singular favor, the Convention called him once more to the chair. They wanted her noblest and finest speaker to appear and speak in their name at the national holiday, which was held the next day in honor of the acceptance of the Constitution by the people. It was a new federation. Mixed with an immense retinue in which there were delegates from all the primary assemblies of the Republic, the Convention went slowly to the Champ de Mars, according to the program created by David, and stopped at six solemn stations, in front of the fountain of regeneration, in front of the triumphal arch erected in honor of the women of October 6, at the Place de la Revolution, at the Invalides, at the altar of the fatherland, and finally in front of the monument for the warriors who died for the fatherland, at the Champ de Mars. 

Herault thus delivered six speeches which shone more by the high decency of the expressions than by the internal feeling. He moved the people, however, when he addressed the dead soldiers: "Ah! how happy you were! You died for your country, for a land dear to nature, loved by heaven; for a generous nation, which vowed a dedication to all feelings, to all virtues; for a Republic where places and rewards are no longer reserved for favor, as in other states, but assigned by esteem and by trust, you have therefore fulfilled your function as men and French men; you entered the tomb after having fulfilled the most glorious and desirable destiny that there is on earth; we will not outrage you with tears.” 

The spirit of this festival, as reflected in the speeches of Herault de Sechelles, was entirely philosophical and naturalistic: "Oh Nature! exclaimed the friend of Danton, receive the expression of the eternal attachment of the French for your laws, and that these fertiles waters that spring from your breasts , that this pure drink that watered the first humans consecrate in this cup of fraternity and equality, the oaths that France makes to you on this day, the most beautiful that the sun has lit since it was suspended in the vastness of space.” 

The inspiration of the six speeches of the president of the Convention had no deist, spiritualist character: it is the indirect negation of the ideas of Rousseau, the glorification of the positivist tendencies of Diderot. One can imagine what sadness, sincere and respectable, Robespierre must have experienced at this demonstration which already foresaw the Feast of Reason. I admit that he, who was born to preach, was envious of the role of great philosophical pontiff that the Dantonist Herault played that day. But it was a deeper feeling, a believer's pain that kindled in him that hatred, of which the harmless and amiable haranguer was to be the victim. 

II 

From then on, [Herault] felt himself watched by the symbolic and frightening eye which figured on the banners of the Jacobins, and he saw that Robespierre was watching him. He immediately darkened the color of his presidential speeches, but without carmagnole. Soon he had himself sent on a mission to Alsace, and he wrote, from Plotzheim, on 7 Frimaire Year II, in Jacobin style: "I have taken all possible measures to raise the department of Haut-Rhin to the level of the Republic. The public spirit was entirely corrupted there. Intelligence with the enemy, aristocracy, fanaticism, contempt for assignats, speculation and non-execution of the laws everywhere: I fought all these scourges, I suspended the department, created a departmental commission; I forced the popular Society to regenerate itself; I broke up the surveillance committees, the least of which were feuillants, and I replaced them with sans-culottes; I organized here the movement of terror which alone could consolidate the Republic: I have created a central committee of revolutionary activity, which requires the rapid action of all the authorities; a revolutionary force detached from the army and which covers the whole department; a revolutionary tribunal, finally, which will bring the country to its senses. " 

Thus declaimed this delicate,* for reason as much as for personal prudence: we know, moreover, that he was not rigorous to the aristocrats of Alsace and that he did not shed a drop of blood (1). 

*Aulard uses delicate here as a noun and I’m genuinely not sure what to translate it as. Possibly he means fop, or dandy, possibly someone who is tricky or someone who is tactful, as in a “delicate situation”. However, these are only my suggestions and possibly inaccurate.  

(1) Cf. Hist. De la Revol. Fr. Dans le departement du Haut-Rhin, par Veron-Reville, 1865, in-8.  

But, since the feast of August 10, Robespierre had been weaving a skillful plot against him and was trying to undermine the Dantonist party through him. His plan, indicated in his intimate notes (2), was to make Herault pass for a spy for foreign powers in the Committee of Public Safety.  

(2) Le proces des dantonistes, par le docteur Robinet, pass. 

The care which this serious spirit took to learn about all foreign affairs, his continual handling of diplomatic papers, might give some pretext to the accusation of communicating to the enemy the plans of the revolutionary government.  

As it happened, like everyone else, he had had relations with Proly, bastard of the Prince of Kaunitz. On 26 Brumaire, Bourdon (de l'Oise) echoed these rumors, and dared to say to the Convention: "I denounce to you the ci-devant attorney general, the ci-devant noble Herault Sechelles, member of the Committee of Public Safety, and now commissioner in the Army of the Rhine, for his liaisons with Pereyra, Dubuisson and Proly." But the mine burst too soon: there was a general protest, and Couthon himself had the honesty to pay homage to the patriotism of Herault. 

However, an incident had occurred in Alsace, which gave pretext to enormous calumnies. In Brumaire, a letter was intercepted at the outposts of General Michaud's army, who sent it to Saint-Just and Lebas, in Strasbourg. Signed: the Marquis de Saint-Hilaire, this letter tended to lead people to believe in intelligence between the people of Strasbourg and the enemy. The trick was crude. But how to make Saint-Just listen to reason? He immediately imprisoned part of the authorities of Strasbourg, and left in his post only the mayor Monet, and a deputy. A second letter arrived immediately, same signature, dated Colmar, 7 Frimaire Year II. The mayor was reproached for not having yet delivered the city, despite the money received: and the "marquis de Saint-Hilaire" added: "I have only been here (in Colmar) to talk to our friend Herault, who promised me everything." 

On the spot, the representative Lemane, who had replaced Saint-Just and Lebas in Strasbourg, had the mayor arrested and, insultingly, sent the letter to Herault. [Herault] brought together the authorites and the popular Society of Colmar and, in a long speech, warns them against the machinations of the royalists, adding that he asks for his recall. It was, among the patriots of Alsace, a cry of pain, for Herault had made himself loved during his mission. But he was exasperated by Lemane's suspicion (1). 

(1) Veron.Reville, pass.  

Back at the Convention, he was all the more anxious to justify himself because his colleagues on the Committee displayed an insulting distrust of him. Young Robespierre claimed to have brought back from Toulon a document which proved the betrayal of his college: "Ah! how could I be vile enough, cried Herault, to abandon myself to criminal liaisons, I've only had one intimate friend since the age of six. Here he is! (pointing to Lepelletier's painting) Michel Lepelletier (2) O you, from whom I will never part, whose virtue is my model; you who were, like me, the butt of parliamentary hatred, happy martyr, I envy your glory. I would rush like you, for my country, to meet the daggers of freedom; but were it necessary that I were assassinated by the dagger of a Republican? - Here is my profession of faith. If having been thrown by the chance of birth into this caste that Lepelletier and I have not ceased to fight and despise is a crime which I must atone for: if I must, I still have the freedom to make new sacrifices; if a single member of this assembly sees me with suspicion at the Committee of Public Safety: if my prorogation, a source of continually recurring hassles, can harm the public thing before which I must disappear, then I pray the National Convention to accept my resignation from this Committee." 

Not one of the accusers answered a word; the Convention not only passed on the agenda on the resignation of Herault, it ordered the printing of his speech (9 Nivose). 

(2) assassinated Lepelletier, like Marat, had only admirers. In reality, Herault could not bear his vanity, and mocked him. This president, after 89, refused one day to sit at the same table as a simple prosecutor. We find the comic account of this incident as it took place at Herault’s house, in Oeuvres completes de Bellart, VI, 128. 

This triumph did not stop the calumny. On 11 Nivose, Robespierre wrote in his own hand and had Collot, Billaud, Carnot and Barère sign this letter to Herault, "Citizen colleague, you had been denounced to the National Convention, which sent this denunciation back to us. We need to know if you persist in the resignation which you have, it is said, offered yesterday to the National Convention. We ask you to choose between perseverance in your resignation and a report of the Committee on the denunciation of which you have been the object: because we have here an indispensable duty to fulfill. We await your written repudiation today or tomorrow at the latest." These hypocritical threats did not intimidate Herault: he did not resign, and the Committee made no report. 

The documents of young Robespierre, we have them: they are in the Archives. These are Spanish papers seized by one of the cruises on an enemy ship: the name of Herault is not even stated there. It is to be believed that the famous threatening letter had no other purpose than to force Herault to reveal himself, in the event that, as was hoped, he would be guilty of high treason. We can guess Robespierre's rage, his confusion, in the presence of this disappointment. His audacity knew no bounds: on 26 Ventose, Herault was arrested with Simond for complicity with the enemies of the Republic and relations with a citizen charged with emigration. The next day, on a summary report from Saint-Just, the Convention ratified this arrest, but did not decree it until 11 Germinal with the Dantonists. 

In the meantime, the innocence of the defendant had come to light: the emigre whom he had been accused of hiding in his home was none other than his own secretary, Catus, appointed by the Committee of Public Safety and who, if he had crossed the border, had only been able to do so for a diplomatic mission. They were careful not to confront Herault with this. Moreover, Saint-Just's report of 11 Germinal did not make the slightest allusion to this grievance, which had been the official cause of the Dantonist's [Herault’s] arrest. It was not even brought up at the revolutionary tribunal. (1) 

(1) Cf Robinet, 349-352.  

In order to ruin Herault, it was necessary to resuscitate the old grievance formerly disavowed by Couthon, and to accuse him of complicity with the foreigner. Saint-Just dared to say: "Herault, who had placed himself at the head of diplomatic affairs, did everything possible to avert the projects of the government. Through him, the most secret deliberations of the Foreign Affairs Committee were communicated to the foreign governments. He had Dubuisson make several trips to Switzerland, to conspire there under the very seal of the Republic.” 

It was not easy for the men of the revolutionary tribunal to color the condemnation of Herault who had exclaimed proudly, in the style of Danton: "I challenge you to present the slightest clue, the slightest adminicle possible, to make me only suspect of these communications." (2)  

(2) Asked about his name and where he lives: "My name is Marie-Jean, a name not very prominent even among the saints. I sat in this room where I was hated by parliamentarians." Accused of complicity with Chabot and others, he confined himself to denying that he had knowledge of the affair. The court did not insist. But it must be recognized that Herault's notorious intimate relationship with the Abbe d'Espagnac made an unfavorable impression. 

They then read to him the famous papers seized on a Spanish ship, two letters from Las Casas and Clemente de Campos, Ambassador of Spain, in which Herault was mentioned by name as an agent of the foreign country. The unfortunate replied: "The tenor of these letters, the perfidious style in which they are written, sufficiently indicates that they were fabricated abroad only to make patriots into suspect and to ruin them. And certainly, the trap is too grossly overstretched to let myself get caught up in it!" Now, and this is not the least infamy of the Robespierreists, the prosecution had not hesitated, in order to ruin Herault, to insert his name in the two Spanish letters, to fabricate all the passage where his accomplices were supposed to reveal his name. We have said it: these papers are in the Archives, M. Robinet published them, and there is no question of Herault’s involvement. 

Asked about his mission in Alsace and about his negotiations in Switzerland, he replied, according to Topino-Lebrun, that he had worked, with Barthelemy, for the neutrality of Switzerland, and protected France from an army of 60,000 men. . -And Dubuisson's mission? It was Minister Defeorgues who gave it to him. -And Proly? - "I never communicated to Proly anything in politics, there was none (sic). Moreover, I had to confront myself with Proly. I was deceived, like Jay Sainte-Foix, like the Convention, like Jean-Bon, who wanted to take him on as a secretary, like Collot d'Herbois." And he added: "Like Marat, Proly was carried in triumph. The Convention, by a solemn decree, received my explanations."  

Then came the insignificant accusation of having corresponded with a refractory priest. To which Herault replied that this priest, being a simple canon, could not be submitted to the oath and therefore could not be refractory. Finally, in a sort of peroration, he recalled what he had done and suffered for the Revolution. "It is here," he said, "the moment to invoke my services, to remind my judges of this Constitution which has cost me so much sweat, this Constitution accepted by all good French citizens as making them happy:  It is by this Constitution that I saved the fatherland, and I can tell the French what a Roman general said: At this time, in which I have saved you, let us go to the Capitol to give thanks to the gods. These were not the only services I rendered to the fatherland: I was seen on the memorable day of July 14, 1789." Here, either foolishly or by malice, the Bulletin defers these six lines that conclude Herault’s defence to the next issue: "On July 14, 1789, I had two men killed beside me: I have not ceased to be pursued by the royalists, and especially in my mission in Sardinia. I was appointed judge, to the great regret of all the counter-revolutionaries who shuddered with rage; and when I accepted this post, it was necessary to have had courage to fill it." 

All accounts agree that Herault was imperturbable in the midst of these dreadful debates. Condemned, he said coldly: "I expected that!" And later, approaching Camille, who was choked up and foamed with rage: "My friend, let's show that we know how to die." On the cart, according to Desessarts, "he was placed alone on the last seat; he carried his head high, but without any affectation; the most beautiful color shone on his face. Nothing announced the slightest agitation in his soul: his eyes were gentle and modest, he cast them around him without seeking to fix attention or to inspire interest. One would have said, seeing him, that cheerful ideas were occupying his imagination." 

III 

Such was the political career of Herault, much inferior to the personal merit of this distinguished man, one of the finest natures that appeared at the end of the eighteenth century. His philosophical opinions were those of Diderot, for who, a little denigrating, he wrote an unreserved eulogy (1). 

(1) Voyage a Montbar, etc., au IX, in-8, p. 107-108.  

They were also those that Buffon expressed to him in 1785: "I have always named the creator, said the great writer to him in an intimate outpouring; but you only have to remove this word, and naturally replace it with the power of nature, to give rise to two great laws: attraction and impulse (2).” 

(2) Ibid., pg. 36.  

The same philosophical freedom appeared in Herault's conversation. Shortly after 89, the lawyer Bellart, invited to the house in Epone, was scandalized by the remarks which he heard there. "The master of the house rested from the impieties with the obscenities. Finally, in two or three days, I discovered that he was materialistic to the highest degree." Bellart took it into his head to convert him and delivered to him a tirade as orthodox as Sganarella's remonstrance to Don Juan: "Don't be afraid," replied the other; although materialistic I will still take care of you, if necessary (3)." 

(3) Oeuvres de Bellart, tom. VI, p. 125-129. 

In frimaire Year II, Vilate attended a conversation between Herault and Barere on the supreme goal of the Revolution. Herault placed himself above all from a philosophical point of view. He already saw "the reveries of paganism and the follies of the Church replaced by reason and truth." "Nature, he said, will be the god of the French, as the universe is its temple." He therefore expressed his intimate feelings when, on the feast of August 10, surrounded by all his colleagues, he addressed an official prayer to Nature. On his mission at Colmar, he had made a proclamation "to replace, he said, false religions by the study of nature", and issued a decree which made the decadi obligatory, and instituted a festival of Reason in each canton capital (4). 

(4) Sciout, Hist. De la Constitution civile, III, 741.  

To the Robespierrist animosity aroused by such opinions, it would have been necessary to oppose pure and rigid mores. But this delicate* (perhaps entirely disgusted) lived in an elegant orgy. He was the titular lover of the beautiful and famous Sainte-Amaranthe. He knew the art of living together in peace, around him, several young women whom his beauty had fascinated. He made them wear his colors, yellow and purple, and the ultra-Jacobin Vinent denounced in his journal the impudence of this debauched young patriot. He himself confesses all this in gallant letters published by La Morency, the authenticity of which is indisputable. 

*Same issue with the use of the word delicate.  

Even if her style did not reveal the truth of Herault in every line, what interest would Morency have had, in 1799, in forging the documents with which she decorated her autobiographical novel of Illyrine? (1)  

(1) Illyrine ou l’ecueil de l’inexperience, an VII, 3 vol., in-8. 

Certainly, neither the mores nor the style of this cheerful woman are recommendable. It was she who wrote, with her French and her heart: "We are only happy by doing: it's my morality." But there is an air of truth in the confidences which is further accentuated by the author's thoughtlessness. Yes, the mistress of the conventionnel Quinette was too silly to imagine the details, so probable, so vivid, of her affair with Herault, she who could only support Illyrine's reputation by gross plagiarism (2). 

(2) When she saw the handsome Dantonist, she thought she saw, she said naively, the god of love, the graces of Apollo. Invited to dinner with Quinette, in the luxurious apartment of Hérault, she admired the large library, the elegant living room, the outfit of the young conventionnel "his redingote de levite of bazin anglais, lined with blue taffeta."* 

*Redingote de levite is a type of jacket/coat, while bazin anglais is a type of fabric.  

The story of the visit she made to him at the Convention on the day when he was named president (November 2, 1792) is a piquant tableau of the mores of the time. She handed him, shortly afterwards, a petition in favor of divorce, which Herault read to the Convention and, he said, caused applause. But, a few days later (November 29, 1792), the gallant president was sent to the mission. "It is from the Committee of Public Safety, with the horses at the carriages, that I am writing to you, dear and beautiful; I am leaving at this moment for Mont-Blanc with a secret and important mission...". And, after having spoken to her of his mistresses and of the perfidy of Sainte-Amaranthe, he ended thus: "Adieu, Suzanne. Go sometimes to the Assembly in memory of me. Adieu. The horses rage, and one believes me nationally occupied, while I am only in love with my very dear Suzanne." 

When Herault returned, everything was his, and he bought a lottery office for his mistress, for which the security of 30,000 francs was lent, she affirms, by the Abbe d'Espagnac. It hurts to see Danton's friend take pleasure in such base intimacy which bordered on cynicism. La Morency has innocuously traced the picture, quite Pompeian, of the erotic distractions of his orgy comrades. No less naively, she explains this shamelessness: "It is rather to kill himself, she says, that he takes pleasure to excess, than to be happy." Herault said to her, probably in the first weeks of 1794 "Sinister omens threaten me, I want to hasten to live; and when they tear me from life, they will think they are killing a man of thirty-two: well! I will have eighty years, because I want to live for ten years in one day!". 

It must be admitted: this epicureanism, so indecent in such circumstances, gave color and force to the Robespierrist accusations and compromised Danton's party. But should we see in Herault, as in such a friend of Hebert, a wallowing brute? "Elegant writer, says Paganel, he devoted to letters all the time he stole from the tastes that dominated in him." I have not been able to read Eloge de Suger, which he published at the age of twenty-nine; but his Voyage a Montbar (1785) is an exquisite piece in every respect, in which Buffon lives whole again, man and author. In there, Herault does not show himself, as Sainte-Beuve said, "a light, unfaithful and mocking spy" (1), but an observer and a painter. By the fine truth of his insights, he is ahead of Stendhal, whose dryness and precision he has. A laborious writer, he constantly pursues brevity and simplicity, and he achieves the strength of Chamfort, with more breadth of intelligence and a concern for general insights that he perhaps owes to his association with Buffon (2). 

(1) Causeries de Lundi, IV, 354.  

(2) In 1788, he published (or rather had printed) le Codicile politique et pratique d’un jeune habitant d’Epone. Revised in prison, this work was not widely distributed to the public until 1801 under the title Theorie de l'ambition. These moral reflections, influenced by a philosophy that is a little too positive and dry, offer a pessimism that is tempered by a good-toned irony. M. Claretie has already pointed out the most remarkable of these maxims as well as a chapter on conversation, where Herault characterizes the most ingenious conversationalists of the end of the eighteenth century and the ideal orator as the one who would summarize the different kinds of spirit of Thomas, de Delille, de Garat, de Cerutti, d'Alembert, de Buffon, de Gerbier and a few others, lawyers or actors. This is the school where he trained and learned to please. 

This very modern spirit, turned towards the future, à la Diderot, does not drag scholarly chains after him; he does not have the superstition of Latin, the adoration of Greco-Latin legend. But he knows how to enjoy the past, and tastes true erudition, for example in the Abbe Auger, the translator of Demosthene, for who he pronounced an elegant funeral oration, at the Societe des Neuf-Souers, in 1792. At a time when the University no longer taught Greek, and perhaps for that very reason, Herault says true things about Demosthene, whom he judges as a politician as much as an artist. "The Revolution, he says, by developing our political ideas, made us appreciate the works of some ancients and enjoy all their genius, a measure which we lacked." 

He admires in the Greek orator "this proud and sensitive soul, which carries within it all the dignity and all the pains of the fatherland: this general movement, without which there is no popular eloquence, where the accessory relations, tightly packed, roll on high in periods which compensate for the extent of the ideas by the precision of the style.” But here, it is of himself that he thinks and it is his own talent that he designates when he says: "Never, above all, he never ceased to equal, by his efforts, this beauty, this continuous perfection of language, that happy mechanism, so familiar to the orator that he could not even cease to be elegant in the most impetuous apostrophes, in the most vehement outbursts: a rarer merit than one might think, because it is due to a particular kind of spirit, and mainly to the address which is the gift of multiplying the force by distributing it. Here we recognize Buffon's ideas on oratorical style. 

He himself had made up, for his own use, a kind of rhetoric which was found in his papers and which the Magasin encyclopedique published in 1795. These are practical precepts, recipes distributed without order, but which bear the mark of experience and whose interest is all the greater since Herault is the only orator of the Revolution to whom we owe a technique of his art. There is a question that first fascinated those who inaugurated the political forum in France: Should we read the speeches or say them? Both methods had supporters: some used them alternately depending on the circumstances. As for improvisation, even those who abandoned themselves to it seemed to excuse themselves for it as if it were negligence: so Herault, who by the way hardly improvised, only poses the alternative, read or say? - “It is only by speaking, he remarks, and not by reading, that one can make what one says truly perceptible, this is the custom of the lawyers of the Parliament of Bordeaux; otherwise, one flounders; the ideas relax, weaken and soon die out. This is what happens to M. de Saint-Fargeau: hence the easy word of most lawyers who are so fond of talking about business. To reconcile the need for a full and concise style with the other, I think you have to learn by heart. It is true that it is costly, but glory is at the end, and that is the way to surpass both those who speak and those who write." 

Memory is therefore the first part of public speaking. But how should one learn a speech? 

"I meditate on it, says Herault, the main idea, the accessory ideas, their number, their order, their connection, the plan of each part, the divisions, the subdivisions of each object. I dare to affirm that it is then impossible to make a mistake. If one forgot the speech, one would be in a condition to repeat it on the spot; and how much moreover the rhythmic sentences, a little ornamented, a little brilliant, in a word all that strikes the self-esteem of the one who must speak, are they not engraved in the memory with extreme ease!” 

"A very useful and very convenient procedure, to which you must get used to, to make up your mind quickly and to remember a multitude of ideas at the same time, is, when you have these ideas, to retain from each only the word that carries, and whose mere memory reproduces the entire phrase. Voltaire said somewhere: "The best words are the couriers of thoughts". Applying this adage here in another sense, I would say that you have to get your brain used to needing only head words [mot tetes] throughout the whole range of longer discussion." 

"To learn by heart, this word pleases me. There is, in fact, only the heart which retains well and which retains quickly. The slightest thing which strikes you in place makes you retain it. Therefore, the art would be to hit each other as much as possible."* 

*The French here reads: L’art serait donc de se frapper le plus qu’il serait possible. I genuinely have no idea if he means that we should be hitting each other with the force of our words … or actually physically hitting each other. Either could be possible with this man.  

"To write. The memory remembers better what it has seen in writing. Make it like a painting where one reads in the way that one speaks." 

"Memory is also aided by figures: thus count the number of things you have to learn, in a speech, for example." 

"I have also experienced that it was very useful for me to speak to remember a speech; I often tried to speak in public for an hour, and sometimes two, without any kind of preparation. I came out of this exercise with a singular aptitude, and it seemed to me in those moments that if I had had to give a speech, which I would have only read, I would have come out of it with a great advantage.” 

After memory, action seemed to him the most important part of eloquence. When he first started out as a lawyer, he had taken lessons from Mademoiselle Clairon. "Do you have a voice?" she asked me, the first time I saw her. A little surprised at the question, and moreover, not really knowing what to say, I answered: "I have one like everyone else mademoiselle. - Well! you must make one for yourself." Here are some of the precepts of the actress, which Herault tried to follow: "There is an eloquence in sounds: study above all to give roundness to your voice; so that there is roundness in the sounds, you have to feel them reflecting against the palate. Above all, go slowly, simple, simple!" She said to him: "What do you want to be? An orator? You must be one everywhere, in your room, in the street." She also gave this advice, purely scenic and bad for a speaker: "To dye the words with the feeling that they give birth to." 

Herault says that he constantly thought of Mlle Clairon's voice, and he characterizes his own manner by recalling that of his teacher: "She takes her voice from the middle sometimes softly, sometimes forcefully, and always in such a way as to direct it as she pleases. Above all, she often moderates it, which gives it the slightest brilliance that makes it shine. She goes very slowly, which contributes at the same time to furnishing the mind with ideas, grace, purity and nobility of style. I maintain that there is, in speech, as in music, a sort of measure of tones which helps the mind, at least mine. I have felt that going quickly offends and prevents the exercise of my ideas..." "... Do not believe that this is a real slowness. One disguises it, sometimes by force, sometimes by warmth that we give to certain words, to certain phrases. The result is a pleasing variety, but the bottom line is always serious and posed." 

Such was his concern to speak well that for a long time he compelled himself to declaim in the morning the fury of Orestes and the whole role of Mahomet, to the point of scratching his voice: in the evening he felt a strong diction, easy and varied. He neglected no means of training. 

He carefully studied the gesture itself. Clairon said to him: "Your type is nobility and dignity in the supreme degree. Very few gestures, but place them appropriately, and observe the oppositions which bring out the changes in gestures." He himself said: "The multiplied gesture is small, is meager. The broad and simple gesture is that of true feeling. It is on this gesture that you will be able to convey a great movement." These notes contain even more practical remarks on action: "It is important to be firm on the feet which are like the base of the body, and from which all the assurance of the gesture proceeds. One cannot practice too much in one's room to walk firm and well under oneself, legs on feet, thighs on legs, body on thighs, back straight, shoulders low, neck straight, head well placed. I noticed that in general, gestures become easier when the body is tilted. When it is straight, if the arms are long, there is a risk of lack of grace. The mid-length gesture is infinitely noble and full of grace. Don't wiggle your wrists, even in the biggest movements. Before expressing a feeling, make the gesture (1)." 

(1) The most technical remarks follow: "The soul of the arm is in the elbow ... It is in the elbow that the movement necessarily begins. - When you want to raise your arm, raise your elbows: let it be in general level with the hand. - Also open your arms. These open gestures open beside the body are better than those made in front of you. - By raising your elbow you round your arm. - Also lower your head to make it easier to raise the arms. The gesture is in the combination of the head and the arm. Raise the arm all at once, that is to say, the arm and the hand together. Make the gesture often before speaking: that there often remains an end which can still rise when you have spoken. Open and spread fingers announce astonishment, admiration, surprise; add to it also the elevation of the chest which expands to receive the idea that strikes it.”  

Finally, here is a piece of advice which reveals the secret of the disdainful grace with which he appears on the platform: "You must always seem to create what you say. You must command in words. The idea that one speaks to those inferior in power, in credit and above all in spirit, gives freedom, assurance, even grace. I once saw d'Alembert in a conversation at his house, or rather in a hovel, for his room deserved no other name. He was surrounded by cordons bleus,* ministers, ambassadors, etc. What contempt he had for all these people! I was struck by the feeling that the superiority of the spirit produced in the soul." 

*Cordon bleus are blue ribbons, i.e. members of an order of knighthood known as L’Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit. 

This rhetoric of Herault, so ingenious, explains the pleasure of his eloquence; it also explains its weakness. This orator, so preoccupied with training himself, with raising his head, with rising to the height of the subject, does not have in him the sources of oratorical inspiration, always ready and from which a Danton, a Vergniaud, and even lesser haranguers, rise up. I don't believe that he lacks conviction, nor that we should believe in the words that Bellart attributes to him: "When we asked him what party he was from, he answered that he was from the one who doesn't give a fuck about the others." No, there was sincerity in him about his philosophical and political preferences. But he did not have that revolutionary faith which transfigured even the most miserable in times of crisis.  

In his Traite sur l’ambition, he distinguishes between male brains and female brains; I believe that he should be placed, whatever has been said of it, in the second of these two categories. 

#qui posts #frev #herault de sechelles #i have many thoughts on this man #and i am subjecting you all to them #soon #also please feel free to reach out with feedback! #saint-just #danton #camille desmoulins #robespierre

[pub-lius]

happy 4th of july, here's lafayette pt. 1

i hope you're all excited for this edition of appeasing @thereallvrb0y because he's my son. i haven't finished the research for this so im gonna be doing that as i go, but i have. so. much. information on this man. and by that i mean im limiting it to just two of my books that have info on him, Lafayette by Harlow Giles Unger, and The Marquis Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio. I highly recommend both of these, individually or together. okay let's go

Early Life in Chavaniac

Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born into a noble, provincial family that belonged to the Nobility of the Sword, meaning they earned their titles through military achievements, on September 6, 1757 in Chavaniac, France. His childhood home was the Chateau de Chavaniac which had 18 rooms, so he was always rich. The countryside was referred to as the Auvergne, so if you hear the term "Auvergne nobility/princes/princesses", they mean hillbilly rich people.

Gilbert/Lafayette (which are the two names for him I will be rotating between) had this dad named Roch-Gilbert, Marquis de Lafayette, who was killed in the Seven Years War at the Battle of Minden, and that made young Gilbert want to be a solider. Roch-Gilbert was one of many generations in his family to die in historical (mostly military) events.

Roch-Gilbert, however, was the first of his line to marry into the Nobility of the Court, which are old money people who are just rich because they were born that way, and they have direct ties to the royal family. The Nobility of the Court lived in Paris and Versailles for the most part, and looked down heavily on the Auvergne nobility the same way Elon Musk would look down on someone like Shane Dawson.

The senior Marquis de Lafayette married Marie-Julie de La Rivière, who was from a very prestigious family that were very well connected (included some members of the Order of Saint Louis for military service). Since she was Nobility of the Court, she spent a lot of her time in Paris, and was pretty absent from her son's life.

Despite this, Lafayette was still raised primarily by women. His grandmother was the head of the household at the chateau, and took care of all family matters. His two aunts and an older female cousin helped to raise the little marquis.

He was a feisty little kid too. I'm sure if you've been around for a while in Lafayette spaces you've heard the story of the Beast of Gèvaudan. Basically there were some rumors going around that there was a scary monster roaming the countryside killing people and animals. Lafayette, who was about 6 at the time, gathered his gang of friends to go kill it, but never found it. The going theory was that it was a starving wolf.

"I recall nothing in my life that preceded my enthusiasm for glorious tales or my plans to travel the world in search of renown." -Lafayette, 1780

Move to Paris

Lafayette traveled to accompany his mother in Paris in December 1767, which was a massive change for a ten year old. Paris was a huge city full of people richer than him, and at this time, he wasn't used to not being the richest person in the room.

Lafayette's tutor, Abbè Fayon, accompanied him on the journy. Up until this point, Fayon was focused on teaching Lafayette tradition, and everything he needed to know to uphold his rank, such as the history of their lineage, a little bit of Greek and Latin, and more necessary information to become an army officer and feudal landholder, as that was the system France was still under: lords owning large portions of land and allowing peasants to leave and work on them for an exchange of a portion of the profit. (spoiler alert: this doesn't end well). Fayon would remain in Lafayette's employ from the rest of his life.

In Paris, Lafayette would be surrounded with Enlightenment philosophy, which only turned his ambition into rebelliousness as he went into his teenage years.

Lafayette first attended the Collége du Plessis, where he had a close group of friends who looked up to him and generally did whatever he said. There was one time where they didn't, when Lafayette "wanted to mount a revolt to prevent the unjust punishment of one of my comrades... I was not as well-supported as I might have hoped." -Lafayette, "Autobiographie".

Lafayette was very skilled in Latin rhetoric, and won a prize for it (though did not win the university wide competition, which was disappointing). This sparked a fascination with Republican Rome, and he eventually started reading the works of Louis-Sébastien Mercier, who would become a heavy influence.

When he was 13, he was secured a place in the Black Musketeers by his great-grandfather, Comte de La Rivière. The Black Musketeers were soldiers of the King's guard. Lafayette was very excited for the appointment, but later realized it was ceremonial.

He had been thrilled "to ride to Versailles in full uniform to hear the king tell me... that he had nothing to order, and to report back to the commander of the musketeers the same news that was repeated to him three hundred and sixty-five days a year." -"Autobiographie"

(side note: "Autobiographie" is one of Lafayette's memoirs. He began one in 1780, and finished another later on.)

Lafayette's mother and grandfather both died in 1770, leaving him with a vast inheritance and more mommy issues. His greatest income, after he inherited all the older generations' properties, was around 130,000 livres per year, and, in a society where a skilled employer with a steady income earned around 1,000 lives per year, this was, in academic terms, a shit ton of money. This is why people say Lafayette was the richest man in France at the age of 12.

With all this money, the focus became on getting Lafayette in the court, which meant he would have to get married sooner rather than later. That's around when he was introduced to Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles.

The Noailles family is like. the most important family besides the royal family in the Court of Versailles. This family is like literally the court. Adrienne's father was one of Louis XV's closest advisors, the family belonged to several chivalric orders, and they had direct connections to both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

It is very abnormal that a family like this would marry one of their daughters to a provincial nobleman, but Lafayette was a really strange case. He was. unnecessarily rich. Like there is no other Auvergne nobleman who made this amount of money. France also used the dowry system, and Adrienne's father, Duc d'Ayen had five daughters he would need to pay dowries for- but he wouldn't have to give Lafayette a dowry because he was SO. FUCKING. RICH.

Adrienne was the second of Duc d'Ayen's daughters, and he wanted to marry off her and her older sister as soon as possible. However, the Duchesse refused to let him marry her TWELVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER, and this caused a lot of issues between them.

"You don't know my wife. No matter how bitterly she argues, she'll apologize like a rueful little girl if you show her she is wrong, but she will never budge if she doesn't see it." -duc d'Ayen

"My mother and father were constantly quarreling- and refused to tell us why." -Adrienne

The duchesse was entirely right btw, and the duc was really creepy! she also just didn't want to be separated from her children. there's just so many tragic situations here and all the time in the french court

Eventually, Adrienne's parents agreed to post pone the marriage for two years, so Adrienne and Gilbert were married when he was 16 and she 14. However, in the meantime, they were completely unaware that the marriage was happening.

“The two marriages were arranged [Adrienne’s aforementioned sister was being married at the same time to Vicomte de Noailles], but only on condition that no one was to mention them to my sister before a year had passed and to me before eighteen months. My mother agreed that Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Lafayette would meet us haphazardly from time to time, either at my mother’s home or on walks. But my mother did not want us to be distracted from our education.” -Adrienne de Lafayette

During those eighteen months, Adrienne developed a major crush on Gilbert, but he was more focused on organizing his little friendgroup's shenanigans.

That wouldn't last long because Gilbert moved into the Noailles mansion at Versailles in February 1773, and was enrolled in the Académie de Versailles. This was a school for very high ranking noblemen, including Princes of the Blood, which is what relatives of the royal family were callled.

Gilbert was embraced by the Noailles' as a son, and he was very happy to have a family again. However, as we shall soon see, Lafayette didn't quite live up to the duc's expectations for a Noailles son.

Lafayette and Adrienne had a very grand wedding, but were not permitted to consummate their marriage for some Catholic reason I forgot, but it was a gateway for Lafayette to enter to King's court for the first time. More about that next time on the Disney channel

#history #amrev #marquis de lafayette #lafayette #french history #frev #american history #amrev history #adrienne de lafayette #do it for richie 💪

[alphaman99]

Dave Benner

Today in 1776, Gilbert du Motier, more commonly known as Marquis de Lafayette, arranged entry into the Continental Army as a major general.

Born into a rich and prominent French family, Lafayette became convinced that the cause of the states was a noble one. His choice altered the course of history, as he emerged as an American hero that befriended many of the most important people of his time. His decision to fight for the American cause may have been influenced by the death of his father at the hand of the British at the Battle of Minden during the Seven Years’ War.

At first appearing as no different from other foreign soldiers of fortune that entered the war on the side of the American states, Lafayette’s deeds won him incredible admiration. He befriended George Washington, emerged as an able commander, and even played a key role in the French Revolution.

What set Lafayette apart from other foreign soldiers was his candid demeanor. He refused to accept any pay for his services, and explained that his job was to do whatever he could to help Washington and the Continental Army. “I am here to learn, not to teach,” he told Washington. He even committed himself fully to learning English en route to North America.

Despite Lafayette’s eventual popularity, some confusion existed concerning his stature in the army. Congress viewed his commission as an honorary one, but Lafayette considered himself as a true general that would gain control of a division when Washington deemed him ready. In the end, Lafayette complied with Washington’s wishes concerning his leadership, realizing that full command would be impossible given his foreign birth.

Outside of his role in the war, Lafayette did much to influence the course of the war beyond himself. Lafayette used his political influence to secure the deployment of 6,000 French soldiers to North America to be commanded by Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau. In 1779, his wife even gave birth to a son, who they named Georges Washington Lafayette. After his interregnum in France, Lafayette returned to the states to fight again.

Lafayette fought honorably at almost every major battle of the war, including Brandywine, Valley Forge, Monmouth, and Yorktown. With the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette even wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man, France’s declaration of rights. Today, his name is recognized by thousands of streets and parks, where he is possibly the most admired foreign person in the United States.

[nordleuchten]

A Second Letter from La Fayette's Father

I am quite happy right now because I stumbled about this letter from La Fayette’s father and at first I fought it was a letter written two his sister a few two weeks prior to his death that was included in the online exhibition “LaFayette: Citizen of Two Worlds” from Cornell University. As it turns out, it is a different letter.

This letter is written by La Fayette senior to his mother, who would eventually raise his son, after his death at the Battle of Minden. Unlike the letter written to his sister (July 16, 1759), La Fayette’s handwritten message can in parts actually be seen here.

Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette to Marie Catherine de Suat, dame de Chavaniac, July 25, 1759:

DE CHAMBRUN, RENE. “WASHINGTON, SECOND PERE DE LAFAYETTE.” La Nouvelle Revue Des Deux Mondes, 1981, pp. 579–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44201764. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023.

Adieu, ma très chère mère. Conservez-vous pour l’amour d’un fils qui ne saurait vivre sans vous et qui ne cessera d'avoir l'honneur d'être avec le plus tendre et le plus respectueux attachement, ma très chère mère, votre très humble et tout obéissant serviteur et fils.

Lafayette.

Je vous prie de vouloir bien assurer des sentiments les plus tendres et les plus vifs ma sœur et ma femme et de faire mes compliments à M. Vidal --

J’embrasse mon fils.

My Translation:

Farewell, my dearest mother. Assure yourself of the love of a son who cannot live without you and who will never cease to have the honor of being, with the most tender and respectful attachment, my very dear mother, your very humble and obedient servant and son.

Lafayette.

I beg you to assure my sister and my wife of the most tender and passionate feelings and to pay my compliments to M. Vidal --

I kiss my son.

It goes without saying, that this is a very personal and therefore very moving letter, especially since it would be his final good-bye to his mother. What I find quite noteworthy beyond that, is the similarity to the letters his own son would write almost twenty years later.

Both men are in a very similar situation; young soldiers, far away from home, entangled in a war against England (even facing off the exact same officer) with a pregnant wife and a young child at home. While the younger La Fayette’s letters appear to be far more outspoken on the subject of the love for his children, I feel like the older La Fayette’s feelings are no less sincere. We have to take into account that there is a much smaller sample size with La Fayette senior than with his son and that he was his own person, with his own writing style and own way to express himself. But even these two letters show somewhat of a consistency. The older La Fayette ends this letter by “kissing” his son. He ends the letter to his sister with saying:

(…) Please kiss my son for me

#marquis de lafayette #la fayette #french history #father and son #1759 #letters #michel louis christophe roch gilbert motier #Marie Catherine de Suat #lafayette: citizen of two worlds #cornell university #la fayette senior #the similarities are actually quite striking come to think of it

[centuarettedfeu]

Louis Georges Érasme, marquis de Contades was allegedly the grandpa of Hérault de Séchelles. After an affair with Marie-Hélène Moreau de Séchelles in 1737 she got pregnant and she had a child named Jean-Baptiste Martin Hérault de Séchelles (Hérault’s dad). This child was adopted by the husband of Marie-Hélène, René Hérault, and as he grow up he choose the same career of his true father: the military. He participates as a colonel in the battle of Minden, in which one he’s mortally wounded in the head and he finally dies in August of 1759, some months before Hérault was born.

Accordingly to Jean-Jacques Locherer investigations, marquis of Contades was very present in Hérault childhood —being also very close to the mother and grandmother of the child— to the point he was the one who commissioned a portrait of little Marie-Jean to his friend, the artist Drouais, resulting the famous portrait of a 4 years old Hérault dressed as Gilles or Pierrot.

I didn’t knew those details but it feels so nice grandpa was close to Hérault when he was a child. Also they had a very strong resemblance, not only psychologically but physically.

#frev #Hérault de Séchelles #Héraultie #frev art

[acrossthewavesoftime]

I would like to ask numbers 18, 25 and 27. :-)

Thank you, my dear! :D

18. Look at the clock and assume the numbers are forming a historical year (e.g. 17;58 would be 1758) What is the world like in that year? Are any significant events going to occur?

It's 1759! We're knees deep in the Seven Years' War, and there'll be, among others, the battles of Minden, Kunersdorf, the Plains of Abraham and Quiberon Bay, in which my person of interest of this era, Samuel Graves, participated. 1759 is also known as an annus mirabilis to both Great Britain and Prussia (Das Mirakel des Hauses Brandenburg). In celebration of their victories, particularly reducing the French fleet to matchwood at Quiberon Bay, the British come up with a new song for their celebrations called Heart of Oak. And because a song is not enough, they decide to further commemorate 1759 by naming a new Royal Navy ship Victory-- the Victory who saw action on this day 217 years ago at Trafalgar.

25. Who is the most overrated historical figure, in your opinion?

I answered that one already, but to throw another name into the ring: Empress Elisabeth of Austria. If I see yet another pseudo-'revolutionary' or 'feminist' approach to milk her rather sad life story for the entertainment media, piggybacking off the 1950s Romy Schneider films, I am going to scream.

27. What’s your favourite historical “What if…” scenario?

I have several, but none as intricate as the one @vankeppel and I made up about what would have happened to European politics of the early 18th century had William III and Mary II had a daughter.

A personal secret wish of mine would be to see what could have been had John Graves Simcoe for once listened to his wife and not taken the the diplomatic mission to Portugal. His family was heavily, lastingly impacted by his sudden death, with most children unable to even say farewell to him. I would love to see what might have been, had he maybe lived to old age and died of natural causes in his late 70s. I suspect that the lives of his daughters might have taken a rather different direction.

#ask #ask game #ask reply #nordleuchten #hms victory #on this day #elisabeth of austria #william iii #william of orange #mary ii #john graves simcoe #17t century #18th century

[annastrxng]

📷--Cheryl Campbell

Name: Marie Louise Jolie de La Riviere

Fc: Cheryl Campbell

Family: Husband: Michel Du Motier, Marquis de La Lafayette & Son: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis de Lafayette

Place of Birth: 1737 Chaveniac, France

Gender: Cis Female

Pronouns: She/her

Sexuality: Straight

Personality: Adoring, aristocratic, soft and diplomatic

Backstory: She was a young mother who was very smitten with Michel. Blessedly of the same aristocratic class, the match was almost made in heaven. After being married a short while, she became an early widow after Michel was killed in the battle of Minden during the Seven Years War. She continued to raise little Lafayatte until he was twelve when she grew sick and died. She left to her darling son and most precious treasure all of her wealth. Unfortunately, she never got to see him become a successful member of the French Royal Army nor his successes in America nor did she get to oversee his wedding to Marie Adrienne Francoise De Noailles.

Marie has a huge heart for the humanities-- art, music, and reading. She never boasted her intellect, rather she allows her personality and knowledge to shine for itself.

#OKAY so this is kinda cheating but the FC makes the same face that Gilbert does in Turn so it had to be done #answered ask

[yr-obedt-cicero]

This is what my book says about it, as well as the sources

“eventually wrote over forty plays, as well as poetry, three novels, and several books of recollections. He was married with two daughters and four sons. In her diary in 1777, Mrs. Thrale, the friend of Samuel Johnson, wrote of Richard Cumberland, “I have a notion, Dieu me pardonne [God forgive me] that Cumberland is a-..." She continued, "Effeminacy is an odious quality in a He creature, and when joined with low jealousy, actually detestable." Long after the war for America, she was still writing that something whispered in her heart that "Cumberland did like the Masculine gender best." In 1780, Germain sent Cumberland on an important diplomatic mission to try to negotiate peace with Spain. After the Revolutionary War, they became neighbors, and Cumberland wrote an affectionate personal memoir in which he called Germain "one of the very best companions of the age, though he had neither the advantages of literature, the brilliance of wit, nor any superior pretensions to a fine taste in the elegant arts." Benjamin Thompson was unique among American loyalists in gaining high office in Britain and later in the Holy Roman Empire. He was even knighted, which caused the marquess of Wellesley to dub him "Sir Sodom Thompson, Lord Sackville's under Secretary."—”

(source)

Well, aside from him sounding hella bi already, I found that our dear Germain, more importantly known as, Lord George Germain, who became Viscount Sackville, has some other cases of homosexuality as well.

Some background for those who haven't read the book, and aren't sure who we are researching, Germain was a British Secretary of State during the American Revolution. Though he gained wide noteriety when court marshalled for cowardice while a British general serving under Prince Ferdinand at the Battle of Minden in Germany during the Seven Years War. Born in 1716 into an illustrious family, he became a member of Parliament in 1741, a major general in 1755, and commander in chief of British forces in Germany, under the authority of German Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. But in 1759 Sackville was court-martialed for refusing to obey Ferdinand’s command to advance at a crucial moment in the battle of Minden. Public opinion declared him a coward, and the court sentenced him to political disgrace and military exile: “Lord George Sackville is, and he is hereby adjudged, unfit to serve his Majesty in any military capacity whatever.” Sackville, though, retained his seat in Parliament and in 1769 changed his name and gained a fortune in the process. One of his admirers, the widowed Lady Betty Germain, willed her estate to him on the condition he take her last name, and Lord George Germain he became.

And boy does he have some interesting cases of highly possible homosexuality.

Interestingly, modern biographer, Piers Mackesy, comments on Sackville's sexuality as such reads;

“I have dwelt on Sackville's homosexual reputation in the belief that it was his Achilles' heel. It may help to explain the strangely hostile reaction which he aroused in many people - a hostility which seems to go beyond what his reserve and arrogance could account for in themselves. It may explain his difficulty in forming happy working relationships with some of his colleagues, and the recurring hints of instability which flit through his life. It may shed some light on the web of passions in which the Minden affair is tangled.”

(source)

More interestingly, besides his relationships with Cumberland and Thompson, claims of Germain being homosexual, or at least committing such acts, were quite common.

More rumors of Germain's homosexuality spurred, one of the relations between Lord George, George Stone, whom was the Primate of Ireland, and a young army officer from Scotland called Robert Cunningham, whom Lord George had installed as aide-de-camp to the Primate. Horace Walpole reported that Lord George ‘is supposed to have a seraglio, which is not at all in the style of a country that is famous for furnishing rich widows with second husbands. His friend the Primate ... is accused of other cardinalesque dispositions too ... Epigrams, ballads, pasquinades swarm. May I send you a very gross one that came to the Primate's hand... as he was at dinner at the Castle: “Religion is now become a mere farce/ Since the head of the Church is in Cunningham's arse.”

Another case is of him calling a soldier he met in Ireland a “beautiful warrior” according to biographer Stanley Weintraub, in his book, Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783;

“The marriage may have also been cover, although the first of his five children was born within two years of the wedding, and Lord George remained a devoted husband. Gossips suggested on occasion that he was a covert homosexual—the reason for his late marriage and his circle of loyal young male associates. Sodomy was a capital crime, and a scurrilous pamphlet published soon after his court-martial claimed that his promotion of a "beautiful warrior" he had met on duty in Ireland had a dark side. Such unproved malice was another burden he would continue to endure, as there seemed always someone of the wrong sort—at the least a young social inferior—in his entourage.”

(source)

Soonly after the Revolution started to ignite, King George III had appointed Germain Secretary of State for the American Colonies. (Back then, the British government actually had three secretaries of state; one for northern Europe, one for South, and another for East, while one for West.) The choice wasn't appreciated by many officers, as Germain had earned himself the title of a coward. But more over, in 1776 William Jackson wrote a slandering poem, Sodom and Onan, under the pen name, Humphrey Nettle, attacking King George III for appointing Germain despite his bad name. Accusing the King of agreeing “to pardon Sodomites and damn the Nation. / Sackville, both Coward and Catamite, commands / Department honourable, and kisses hands / With lips that oft in blandishment obscene / Hath been employed.”

So yeah, Germain didn't help his case when he appointed two other supposed homosexuals, Richard Cumberland, and Benjamin Thompson, during his career to key positions. Notably, apparently Thompson and Germain also shared every meal together, and was considered a "great favorite" of Germain's. But in letters Thompson claims Germain to being a fatherly figure to him instead.

And also, after Germain died in 1785, Richard Cumberland wrote a book called The Character of the Late Viscount Sackville to try and defend his character but without much of any success success.

In my honest opinion, I think he was bisexual, with a couple of relationships with men, but a happy marriage with his wife. Hope this helped!

#Lord George Germain #George Sackville #Benjamin Thompson #Richard Cumberland #amrev #american history #american revolution #queer history #history #british history #asks #queenbottomless #cicero's history lessons

[metalindex-hu]

Manowar: Battle Hymns

Manowar: Battle Hymns - https://metalindex.hu/2024/01/11/manowar-battle-hymns/ -

Egy újabb kihívás, aminek áldozatául, vagy inkább mártírjául estem, ugyanis Coly felhozott egy ötletet, hogy ajánljunk egymásnak olyan zenekarokat, akiktől még a BÜDÖS ÉLETBEN!!! nem hallgattunk semmit, de nyitottak vagyunk az ajánlásra, hogy mely lemezekkel kezdjük meg a kalandozásainkat, vagy jobb esetben nálam a kínzásokat… De majd kiderül a cikk végén!

Első kihívásom az amerikai Manowar együttes, akiket egy picikét taszítónak találtam mindig is, tekintve a megjelenést, a rájuk aggatott true metal kifejezést és a legutóbbi időkben a Hellfest körüli fiaskó és az ex-gitárosuk gyermekpornó miatti lesittelését. Ezek után vajon mennyire volt kedvem belehallgatni a zenéjükbe? Semennyire! De tekintettel arra, hogy ennek a kihívásnak a részese lettem, megropogtattam a nyakamat, megkerestem és elkezdtem hallgatni azt a lemezüket, amit Coly ajánlott, a debütáló Battle Hymnst. Az első dolog amit alaposan lecsekkoltam, az a borító: Tök jó az ókori Római Birodalom sas szimbóluma, de amikor jobban szemügyre vettem, azon kaptam a fejem hogy a sasnak hasizmai vannak… Oké, már a kimaxolt maszkulinitást a borítóra is rábiggyesztették! És pont a Birodalmi Sasra! Itt egy picit elgondolkodtam ezen, tekintettel arra, hogy nagyon is szeretem az ókori történelmet és filozófiát és hadviselést, ezért ezt nem kicsit éreztem merésznek! Persze anno láttam képeket a Manowar együttesről, hogy úgy néznek ki, mint négy Conan a barbár és igyekeznek úgy feszíteni, mint valami félistenek, de erre mondom azt, hogy zenére kéne koncentrálni, nem pedig a megjelenésre (ez még a glam bandákra is vonatkozik)! A zenét illetően az első kiadást szedtem le, hogy jobban megpróbáljam megérteni az akkori lemezproduktumot és hogy a zenekar hogy állt hozzá az első lemeznél a hangzáshoz. Erre egyből megkaptam a válaszomat. Elég naivan! Habár a lemezt jól fogadták, minden bizonnyal voltak olyan mint ÉN, akik ezt a lemezt nem feltétlenül neveznék überszuperbrutáljó heavy metal lemeznek. A hangzásnál két különösen fontos pont csapta ki nálam a biztosítékot:

1. Alig hallani a lábdobot. Nyilván az újra kiadott verzión jobban hallani, hol zakatol a lábdob éppen (már ha azt lehet zakatolásnak nevezni), de az első kiadásban olyan szinten hátul kullog, hogy csodálkozom, egy banyatankos vén nyugger nem üvöltött rájuk, hogy ne tartsák föl!

2. A basszusgitár… Joey DeMaio basszus sávjai olyan szinten elől vannak, hogy szó szerint és negatív értelembe véve is erotikusan hatnak, ergo, b***ák a fülemet! Arról ne is beszéljünk, hogy bizonyos helyeken indokolatlanul is rá van téve a torzítás, mint például a Dark Avenger dal kezdésénél, ráadásul indokolatlanul meg is nyújtja és rátesz még valami phaser effektet, aminek pláne semmi értelme. A Wiiliam’s Tale basszus szólóról ne is beszéljünk… Az komolyan a nettó fölöslegesség esszenciája… Ha jól olvastam, akkor ő a banda főnöke és már producere is, ez gyakorlatilag annyit jelent, hogy az ő egója szerint ugrál a zenekar! Már a kezdetektől! A producer helyében, én bementem volna felvétel közben egy kalapáccsal és szétvertem volna az effekteket és megmondtam volna neki hogy SOHA TÖBBET!

Ennyi negatívum mellé még hozzátenném a dalok összetételét is. A Death Tone inkább hard rocknak hangzik, mint metálnak, a Manowar pedig egy kicsit punkosabb beütésű vidám nótának. A Battle Hymns-nél pedig előjött az a hiba, amit ugyan nem nagyon mondunk hibának, de ha az ének elcsúszik a tisztgitárrésztől, én attól a falat tudom kaparni, sőt akár le is bontom!

Ennek ellenére azért vannak rajta a füleimnek teljesen korrekt dalok és el kell ismernem, hogy Ross the boss egy remek riffgitáros, Eric Adams pedig egész korrekt énekes. Szerintem ők ketten viszik leginkább ezt a lemezt. A Metal Daze egy igazán tetszetős nóta, bár nem vagyok nagy híve annak, hogy éltessük és Istenítsük a metált, mert fölösleges. A másik nagy kedvencem a Shellshock, aminek kezdő gitárriffje egyszerű de nagyszerű. A hangzás lehetne egy picivel harapósabb, de nyilván 82-ben még nem voltak olyan jó erősítőfejek. A Dark Avenger fölösleges basszus intróját leszámítva, egy egész jó Black Sabbath-os iheltésű nóta, amit én plusz pontnak fogadok el.

Első szűz füles hallgatásomra a Battle Hymnst ímmel-ámmal nevezném egy korrekt lemeznek és még későbbi újra kiadott verziójára is ugyanezt tudom elmondani, mert néhány dal nálam nem teszi totálisan korrekté az anyagot. Azt olvasva pedig, hogy ez a lemez agresszív… ’82-es lemez… Nézzük meg, milyen lemezek jelentek meg akkor, és ennél a lemeznél agresszívabbak: Motörhead – Iron Fist, Iron Maiden – The Number of The Beast, Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance, Accept – Restless And Wild és Venom – Black Metal.

Igen, az én fülemnek nem elég agresszív ezekhez a lemezekhez képest, de nyilván ez szubjektív, hogy kinek mi az. Gondolom, megjelenés után rögtön kapni fogom az áldást egyes olvasóktól (főleg Vilmától), hogy nem értek én ehhez. No problem! Addig, amíg gyűlnek majd a megjegyzések én addig végiggondolom a melóhelyemen, hogy érdekel-e a dolog.

Öröm és egyben kínzás is volt ezt a lemezt végighallgatni. Remélem lesz még ilyenben részem, de jobban örülnék valami olyan zenekarnak és lemeznek, ami sokkal jobban rávesz arra, hogy az egész diszkográfiájukat végigtoljam a melóhelyen.

Addig is, PEACE! 

[kom-poetry-channel]

All right, all right, I'll translate the patriotic doggerel and get it out of the way!

I was, actually, working on translating some fairly serious poetry when this minor verse of Kipling's came to my attention and insisted on taking up all the lyrical parts of my brain. I ended up translating it out of sheer self-defense just so I could be thinking about some other words than "England's sword unsheathed / put half the world to flight". Kipling wrote this literally as schoolboy history, for "A School History of England", but for all I call it 'doggerel' you can't say he didn't put his best effort into the thing; that repeated bitter "not while" is really quite memorable. One hopes nobody in the Foreign Office in, say, 1956 (or 1941, or 1947, or 1973…) had learned their Atlantic history from the book and allowed it to influence their attitude to the hegemon. Churchill's quip, about the US always doing the right thing after all alternatives have been tried, comes to mind; but he was in school twenty or thirty years too early for the "School History". Kipling's opinion on the colonial rebellion may have been widespread among the British elite - indeed for all I know he got it from his own schoolbooks. At any rate the position that the colonies had been defended at extreme expense and the colonials ought to pay was the core of the whole conflict, and Kipling naturally takes the strongest version of the English side of the dispute. Adam Smith, contemporary to the rebellion, took the opposite side that if the colonies couldn't be made to pay, they should rather be made independent - in which case, presumably, they'd be paying for their own defense whether they liked it or not. But Smith was an economist and thought of incentives and efficiency; Kipling was a patriot and thought of loyalty and duty. Economics be damned, the colonials had a duty to the Crown and ought to pay for the Royal Navy the same as every other subject; and by the evidence of the first two verses, he's genuinely angry, more than a century later, that they chose otherwise.

The switch from that anger to the elegiac calmness of "After" is a little startling; in the "School History" these verses were separated by the narrative text describing the war, and Kipling may not have thought of them as being two parts of the same poem. It does seem that being angry brought out his best effort; "worshippers at Freedom's shrine" is heartfelt if sarcastic, "too busy to think of war" is conventional.

The illustrations for "Before" are mostly paintings of scenes from the Seven Years' War (presumably the specific conflict Kipling had in mind, with "Frenchman gone from the North" and "shattered Spain"); in order, they are:

"Half the world to flight" - scenes from the most famous battles in each major theatre: climbing the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham, advancing with fixed bayonets at Minden, and following Clive into the attack at Plassey.

"New-built cities" - contemporary map of the English colonies.

"Pole to Line" - Battle of Quiberon Bay by Richard Paton.

"Did not quit her then" - Washington at Monongahela, organising the rear guard after Braddock's disaster.

"Foes were driven forth" - Battle of Quiberon Bay, the Day After by Richard Wright.

"Frenchman from the North" - capitulation of Montreal.

"Clean-swept oceans" - Bombardment of El Morro Castle during the Capture of Havana, Raphael Monleon.

"What they owed" - Join or Die, showing eight colonies as pieces of a snake.

Norwegian text:

Før

Ikke mens Englands sverd påny drev halve verden på flukt ikke mens nybrøten bygd og by pustet bak hennes tukt ikke mens England til forsvar ga hen gull, og skip, og blod - disse Frihetens svorne menn: da var de henne tro!

Ei før hver uvenn fra kysten fór og England vant deres sak ei før franskmannen rømte fra nord og spanjolens rike lå vrak ei før på ryddet og trygget hav intet fiendtlig flagg å se husket de Frihetens strenge krav og tok til motet for det!

Etter

Snø ligger tykt over Valley Forge isen på Delaware men de som falt her for kong George de bryr seg aldri mer.

Ikke skjønt kusymra smått om senn bryter ut der solstrålen når og knuffende kråkereir kunngjør igjen at vårt England på ny har vår.

De rører seg ikke for smeltet fonn eller isen som tiner i fjorden; og de som falt for Washington ligger like stilt i jorden.

De rører seg ikke når blomsterflor fordriver furuskogs dis, og i alle steinete beiter gror akeleie og filtkongslys.

Hver for sitt land, i åpen strid, kjempet og møtte sin død; og den gode jord, fri for hat og nid, dekker dem i sitt skjød.

Hun har ingen tid til menneskers hær; mot vinter og is hennes slag; og se, de årlige blomstene er hvor de var i fedrenes dag!

Gullris hvor beite mot skogen lir når kongslysets blomst har falt fra og sumak-løv som høsten gir fargen til blodet de ga.

#poem #poetry translation #english to norwegian #rudyard kipling #the american rebellion #amerikas opprør #norwegian language

[frevandrest]

Speaking of the battle of Minden (1759), I only recently learned that Saint-Just's father fought in there, too.

So both Saint-Just and Hérault had fathers who participated in the battle of Minden. Something something historical parallels etc.

#this is not a new info #but it was new to me #because i somehow missed it #i wonder if they knew #like i doubt they ever talked about anything #but what if they knew that their fathers both fought there #but only sj's father survived #it's not surprising because he was in his 40s and an experienced soldier #while hérault's father was a 21 year old boy #but still #frev #saint-just #hérault

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.1 (before 1900)

30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic. AD 69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis. 527 – Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. 607 – Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607). 902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabid army, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily. 1203 – Isaac II Angelos, restored Byzantine Emperor, declares his son Alexios IV Angelos co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade. 1291 – The Old Swiss Confederacy is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter. 1469 – Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise. 1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela. 1571 – The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus is concluded, by the surrender of Famagusta. 1620 – Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way of England. 1664 – Ottoman forces are defeated in the battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár. 1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history. 1759 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments. 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay): Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action. 1800 – The Acts of Union 1800 are passed which merge the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya. 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843. 1834 – Construction begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull. 1842 – The Lombard Street riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. 1849 – Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo. 1855 – The first ascent of Monte Rosa, the second highest summit in the Alps. 1863 – At the suggestion of Senator J. V. Snellman and the order of Emperor Alexander II, full rights were promised to the Finnish language by a language regulation in the Grand Duchy of Finland. 1876 – Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state. 1893 – Henry Perky patents shredded wheat. 1894 – The Empire of Japan and Qing China declare war on each other after a week of fighting over Korea, formally inaugurating the First Sino-Japanese War.

#Events

[onsieluenkeli]

Uh, egyszer már (100 éve) jöttem a terhesség utáni hassal. Jóval a WMN előtt, és azok a Londoni Magyarok sem nagyon léteztek még. Emlékszem a testképzavar miatt beindult egy szokásos veszekedés és vita cunami, ostoba gúnyokkal, nekem pedig eszembe jutott egy éppen várandós családtagom, és feldobtam példának. Örökre emlék. Azt hiszem ez volt az első igazán látványos megértés ami visszapattant az ölembe. Előtte magyarázhattam bármit, soha semmi nem ment át, sokszor kínomban kegyetlenül lehordtam mindenkit, és ment a szemet-szemért rendesen. De abban a pillanatban amikor elfogadást gyakoroltam, egy pillanat alatt megfordult minden, és elkezdtek nem bántani.

Nem vagyunk tökéletesek, mindenki küzdhet valamilyen kihívással, problémával, testképzavarral. Nem tudhatod mi a történet a képek mögött. Mind EMBEREK, és tiszteletet, és megértést érdemelnek ugyanúgy. ⤵️

Az incelekről pedig annyit, hogy

A házunk előtt, az utcán, van egy hatalmas fa. (Semmi különös, csak az eltévedt trabantokat nem bírja elviselni :)

Sokan szeretnek alatta elmenni, egy kicsit megállni, és hűsölni. Én pedig akaratlanul is hallom a beszélgetéseket. Néha kinézek rájuk, vagy becsukom az ablakot... (egyszer így szakadt ki a szemöldök piercingem. Beleakadt a függönybe. afranc 😅) Szóval a FA alatt mindig történik valami. Van aki csak gyereket levegőztet, más ott szakít, de volt már részegtől kezdve lassan minden... Az egyszerre csacsogó barátnőket aligha lehet érteni, de a srácok "a férfiak" beszélgetése sajnos jól kivehető. És sokuk ugyanazon a szinten kommunikál, akár csak az incelek. = Az utca emberei. Én simán el tudom képzelni róluk azt, hogy otthon is mindenkit leszólnak, lekritizálnak a saját szüleik, vagy a nagyszüleik is... - hogy néz má az ki!?!? - Biztos egy bdös krva!!! <- Ez inkább egy kör, amiben a szerencsétlenek rosszul szocializálódtak, és adják tovább, és tovább... És nincsen meg a jó oktatás, a normálisabb család, a jobb baráti háttér ami még időben felnyitná a szemüket, vagy terelné őket egy kevésbé kínos incel-mentesebb irányba.

És óriási hiba sztereotipizálni őket, lenézni, mert egyáltalán nem biztos hogy nincsen senkijük, lúzerek, vagy szerencsétlenek. Akiket hallgatni szoktam sem alja, trágya emberek, inkább mintha a szüleik visszhangoznának... <- és ez az igazán gáz, és a súlyos probléma, amin én sem tudok már nevetni, mert már baromi régóta hallom, látom, és olvasom.

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[garudabluffs]

A Ukrainian tank is pictured driving through a bombed-out area in Siversk, Ukraine on January 21, 2023. The inset images feature former President Donald Trump during a rally in Minden, Nevada on October 8, 2022 and the cover of his 1987 book "The Art of The Deal." Trump on Thursday argued that he has the ability to easily negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war "within 24 hours."

Trump Says He Could End Russia's War 'Within 24 Hours' of Negotiation 01/28/2023

READ MORE Trump Says He Could End Russia's War 'Within 24 Hours' of Negotiation (msn.com)

Uranium ‘Bullets’: How US Military Tanks Dominate in Battle 01/28/2023

"Penetrating the armor of an enemy tank is the name of the game in tank warfare. The M1A2 Abrams main battle tank can fire a highly-accurate kinetic energy sabot round. This shell uses depleted uranium that can be deadly against any tank around the world. Still, the shells could cause health problems for soldiers and civilians who are exposed to potential radiation.Uranium ‘Bullets’: How US Military Tanks Dominate in Battle."

READ MORE Uranium ‘Bullets’: How US Military Tanks Dominate in Battle (msn.com

#Trump Russia Ukraine #tanks for the help