The Lion in Winter (1968)

My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived. Henry Fitz-Empress, first Plantagenet, a king at twenty-one, the ablest soldier of an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could and ruled, for thirty years, a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married out of love, a woman out of legend. Not in Alexandria, or Rome, or Camelot has there been such a queen....
~ The Lion in Winter (1968)

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) is one of those historical personages about whom there are many wild stories. In Eleanor's case, most of the stories are probably true, although it is highly unlikely that she poisoned her husband's mistress, Fair Rosamund. Fair Rosamund was idealized at Eleanor's expense by later generations, especially the Victorians, for reasons surpassing comprehension. No doubt Rosamund was sweet and lovely, but Eleanor is immensely more interesting, or at least modern people have found her so.

Perhaps part of the contemporary fascination with Eleanor is that she is seen as being a feminist before her time. I doubt that Eleanor saw her actions in terms of being a liberated woman, asserting herself on behalf of the freedom and dignity of women everywhere. Eleanor's motives were usually part of a larger political maneuver which as a queen, a mother and a duchess she found necessary for retaining her power and influence. For a lady of rank, especially rank as exalted as Eleanor's, the loss of power and influence could mean imprisonment or death. Scheming was a matter of expediency; there is no question that she played the game well.

The film The Lion in Winter captures the spirit of the tempestuous relationship between Eleanor and her unfaithful husband, Henry II of England, and their perpetual attempts to outwit each other. Alison Weir's biography of Eleanor sifts through the legends and plumbs the truths. Eleanor left Henry after many years and many children, the murder of St. Thomas Becket being the last straw. She returned to France and became the catalyst for the development of the courts of love. Courtly love was not so much about sex as it was about music, Arthurian legend, chivalry, charming repartee, and showing respect for ladies.

Eleanor eventually found herself imprisoned by her husband for making war against him. He would let her rejoin the family at Christmas and Easter. Their daughters were accomplished and lovely; their sons were mostly wretches, and caused no end of trouble. Eleanor was a generous benefactress of the Church and the poor. She retired at last to the abbey of Fontevrault where she made religious vows before she died. A wonderful book for young readers about Queen Eleanor is E.L. Konigsburg's A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver. 

Below is the scene of Queen Eleanor's arrival for the Christmas court at Chinon in France.

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Communism: Evil as Ever

 From Daniel McCarthy:

Communism didn’t win the Cold War, but it’s doing surprisingly well in the 21st century, including in America. Elsewhere, especially in East Asia, communism is the tyrannical creed of a ruling class that stays in power by jailing its opponents — or rolling tanks over them. Here, especially on college campuses, communism is a status marker and a way to make murder seem cool. Fascism isn’t the totalitarian ideology having a moment in America right now. It’s communism whose chief theoretical work — or Bible, really — has just been published in a new translation by Princeton University Press. Karl Marx’s “Capital” still confers prestige on students and professors who aspire to be revolutionaries without risking their lives. (Read more.)

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Cubist Prague

Personally, I detest cubism. Strange that it thrived in Prague. From Architizer:

To live in a Cubist building in Prague is to immerse oneself in an environment where everyday function meets a kind of geometric experimentation. Unlike traditional homes, these spaces feel slightly disorienting at first glance — walls are angled, surfaces are faceted, and the light behaves differently as it hits sharp corners and fractured surfaces — yet they work as traditional homes, no different to any other.

It is emotionally that Cubist spaces had and still have the most profound effect. They create an entirely different atmosphere from Prague’s Baroque or Gothic interiors. There’s a sense of intentional tension; a feeling that, with its tight angles and bold lines, the space is shifting, revealing more of itself in each experience, becoming a space that invites curiosity and engagement. For many, living within these fractured forms prompts a fresh appreciation of space itself, as each room subtly nudges the occupant to move, observe, and interact with its architecture in a way that is quite theatrical. (Read more.)

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Marie-Antoinette's Sleigh Rides

One of Marie-Antoinette's favorite youthful pastimes was sleigh-riding, which she made popular after she became Queen. What was a perfectly innocent amusement was twisted into something sordid by those who liked to see dirt. It was during the winter of 1775-1776 that the Queen befriended the unfortunate Princesse de Lamballe. According to Madame Campan's Memoirs:

The winter following the confinement of the Comtesse d’Artois [1775-76] was very severe; the recollections of the pleasure which sleighing-parties had given the Queen in her childhood made her wish to introduce similar ones in France.

This amusement had already been known in that Court, as was proven by sleighs found in the stables, which had been used by the Dauphin, the father of Louis XVI. Some were made for the Queen in a more modern style. The Princes also ordered several; and in a few days there was a fair number of these vehicles around. They were driven by the princes and noblemen of the Court. The noise of the bells and pompoms with which the horses’ harnesses were decorated, the elegance and whiteness of their plumes, the varied shapes of the carriages, the gold with which they were all trimmed, made these parties a delight for the eye. The winter was very favorable to them, the snow remaining on the ground nearly six weeks; the drives in the park afforded a pleasure shared by the spectators.

No one imagined that any blame could attach to so innocent an amusement. But the party was tempted to extend its drives as far as the Champs-Elysées; a few sleighs even crossed the boulevards; the ladies being masked, the Queen’s enemies took the opportunity of saying that she had traveled through the streets of Paris in a sleigh.

This became a momentous issue. The public discovered in it a predilection for the habits of Vienna; but all that Marie Antoinette did was criticized. Sleigh-driving, smacking of the Northern Courts, found no favor among the Parisians. The Queen was informed of this; and although all the sleighs were kept, and several subsequent winters lent themselves to the amusement, she would not resume it.

It was at the time of the sleighing-parties that the Queen became intimately acquainted with the Princesse de Lamballe, who made her appearance in them wrapped in fur, with all the brilliancy and freshness of the age of twenty, the image of spring, peeping from under sable and ermine.

To quote from a wonderful post by Catherine Delors:

The Queen introduced sleighing parties, which were organised like this: the Queen invited the women she wanted to be there. When she invited the princesses, she sent a page to convey her personal invitation to those of the princesses’ ladies-in-waiting it pleased her to choose; usually she only asked one at a time. Everyone met at the Queen’s at midday for luncheon; all the men dined together in another room. The Queen never ate in the company of men when the King was not present. The Queen had all the ladies seated at her table. We had quite a long lunch-dinner; then, we went into a salon where we rejoined all the men. Then, as one had to be escorted by lords, as people said in those days, the Queen and the princesses named those who would escort them, and all the ladies relied on chance and drew lots; a very prudent custom which avoided the inconveniences of favouritism and malicious gossip. We went from Versailles to country houses, to La Muette, to Meudon, etc. There, we descended from the sleighs, went into a salon, got warm, chatted for three-quarters of an hour or an hour; after that, we got back into the sledges and returned to Versailles.

(Artwork: "Winter" by François Boucher, 1755)
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Human Fertility is Collapsing

 From Global Guerillas:

Human fertility is collapsing. It’s a tangible collapse. You can see its impact in your personal life — on your kids, extended family, neighbors, and coworkers — and if you dig into the news flow, you can see its impact on the world.

Yet, except for an occasional outburst from Musk, nobody is focused on it. I suspect the reason this collapse isn’t the most critical issue of our time is that we wrongly assume it’s;

• a temporary problem.

• only a problem for wealthy countries.

• solvable with the right mix of policies and cultural tweaks.

However, since the collapse isn’t going away and its effects continuously accumulate, we’ll eventually need to face it. So, let’s get started. (Read more.)

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Realism vs Reality

 From Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem:

The other day, you and your mother and I went to see the new movie, The Return. Those who wisely listen to your Young Heretics podcast can hear your full review, so I’ll be brief here. The film is about Odysseus’s return to Ithaca to reclaim his wife and kingdom after the Trojan War. In Homer’s magisterial epic The Odyssey, the story is one of struggle with the gods, personal heroism and joyful triumph. But this slow, lugubrious version was “realistic.” No gods. No joy. No triumph. Just a lot of maundering angst about wicked war and personal failure

“Why did you not come home after the war?”

“Sometimes war becomes your home…”

Place rolling eye emoji here. (Read more.)

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A Former Nunnery

From Country Life:

 The property — technically No.1 – 3 Barrow Court — is a former Benedictine nunnery, and now a nine-bedroom house with a floorplan larger than the map of some entire villages. There’s nearly 12,000sq ft of space on offer in the main house, with a couple of cellars, an annexe and garage taking the total over 13,000sq ft. As you might have guessed from the name of the place, the house has actually been divided into three — back in the 1970s — but the three parts of the main house are for sale as one, potentially opening up the possibility of making it one enormous house once more. That said, you’d have to get the right permissions in place: this is a Grade II*-listed building that dates back to the 12th century, and as well as planning and conservation officers you’ll also have to bear in mind that it’s offered not as freehold, but with a 972-year lease. There is precedent for it being one home again, naturally. Though it started out as a religious house, it became a wealthy merchant’s house following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. (Read more.)

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Rand Paul: Speaker Mike Johnson Needs to Grow a Spine

 From The Rand Paul Review:

If the US budget is not reined in, we risk a total collapse of the US dollar. The US cannot continue printing money to pay off its exorbitant debts. Congress is punishing hard-working Americans as well as children who aren't even born yet.

No one should come into this world already owing the government money.

That is a form of indentured servitude.

It's a racket.

A system better suited for the mafioso than a constitutional republic.

Yet, cowards like Speaker Johnson continue to be too weak and pathetic to stand up for regular Americans.

America has given Johnson many chances to redeem himself and every time he has failed miserably.

Johnson kowtows to everyone under the sun except for the people he's meant to serve.

Even Democrats see him as weak, which is why they constantly push him around.

Why is hurricane relief included in this bill? That should be a completely separate issue.

(Read more.)

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