Saturday, February 8, 2025

The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots


February 8 is the anniversary of the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587. The Queen of Scots, having been unjustly imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth of England for twenty years, was beheaded after a sham trial. According to an eye-witness account:
Then she, being stripped of all her apparel saving her petticoat and kirtle, her two women beholding her made great lamentation, and crying and crossing themselves prayed in Latin. She, turning herself to them, embracing them, said these words in French, 'Ne crie vous, j'ay prome pour vous', and so crossing and kissing them, bad them pray for her and rejoice and not weep, for that now they should see an end of all their mistress's troubles.

Then she, with a smiling countenance, turning to her men servants, as Melvin and the rest, standing upon a bench nigh the scaffold, who sometime weeping, sometime crying out aloud, and continually crossing themselves, prayed in Latin, crossing them with her hand bade them farewell, and wishing them to pray for her even until the last hour.

This done, one of the women have a Corpus Christi cloth lapped up three-corner-ways, kissing it, put it over the Queen of Scots' face, and pinned it fast to the caule of her head. Then the two women departed from her, and she kneeling down upon the cushion most resolutely, and without any token or fear of death, she spake aloud this Psalm in Latin, In Te Domine confido, non confundar in eternam, etc. Then, groping for the block, she laid down her head, putting her chin over the block with both her hands, which, holding there still, had been cut off had they not been espied. Then lying upon the block most quietly, and stretching out her arms cried, In manus tuas, Domine, etc., three or four times. Then she, lying very still upon the block, one of the executioners holding her slightly with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place where she lay: and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little gristle, which being cut asunder, he lift up her head to the view of all the assembly and bade God save the Queen. Then, her dress of lawn [i.e. wig] from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and a down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.
There is a great deal of similarity between Mary of Scotland and her descendant, Marie-Antoinette. Both possessed immense beauty, charm, and joie de vivre, along with the ability of inspiring either great love or great hatred. Both are icons of romance and passion, when, in all probability, they had very little actual romance or passion in their personal lives, especially when compared to the sorrows they had to bear. Mary and her first husband, Francis II of France, seemed to have a deep and genuine affection for each other, in spite of the fact that he was afflicted with health problems (like many of the Valois.) Her other two husbands, however, were total and complete wretches, who made Mary's life a living hell. Antonia Fraser, in her stellar biography of Mary, conjectures that the Scottish queen fell in love with her cousin Darnley, before she found out what he was. Other biographers, such as Alison Weir and John Guy, believe that she married Darnley not out of love but to solidify her claim to the English throne, since Henry Stewart was also an heir. At any rate, Darnley was abusive in every way, and unfaithful. He plotted against her, threatening to declare her child illegitimate, telling the Pope and the King of France that she was a bad Catholic, while participating in the murder of her secretary David Rizzio before her eyes. (I might have been tempted to put gun powder under his bed, too.) However, there is overwhelming proof that Mary had nothing to do with Darnley's death, as Fraser, Guy, and Weir all describe in detail. I would especially recommend Alison Weir's excellent Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, in which the events of Kirk o'Field are retraced with precision, exonerating Mary beyond all doubt. Weir shows how Mary was planning to reconcile with Darnley and live with him again, for their son's sake, when the Scottish lords had Darnley strangled, before blowing up his house. As for the marriage with Bothwell, all three biographers mentioned above believe that Mary was kidnapped and raped by him; when she discovered that she was pregnant she assented to a wedding. There was no great romance. She later tried to have the marriage annulled. 
 Mary should have returned to France after the defeat at Carberry Hill and her subsequent escape from her initial captivity. In France, she had lands as Dowager Queen, and her grandmother was still alive. Instead, she chose England and throwing herself upon Elizabeth's mercy. Big mistake. But I think she did not want to be too far from her infant son James, with whom she hoped to be reunited, as only a mother can hope. Mary, like Marie-Antoinette, is often dismissed as being stupid. She did make some imprudent choices, that's for certain. John Guy's biography carefully offers proofs that, in spite of everything, Mary often showed herself to be an astute politician, who successfully played her enemies against each other, avoiding some potential disasters early in her rule. The fact that her personal reign lasted as long as it did, in the turbulent era of the Scottish Reformation, when she was surrounded by those who believed she was Jezebel just because she was Catholic, is remarkable. She would have had to have been more ruthless and cruel, less merciful and tolerant, to have been a successful monarch in that particular time and place. Her abdication, and many of the disastrous decisions she made in those fateful months, happened when she was recovering from assault and a miscarriage/stillbirth. She was obviously going through some kind of breakdown. Almost half of Mary's life was spent as a prisoner, separated from her only surviving child, who was taught to despise his mother as a harlot. When accused of plotting Elizabeth's murder, forged letters were used against her, and she was deprived of counsel. As she declared at her trial:
I do not recognize the laws of England nor do I understand them, as I have often asserted. I am alone without counsel or anyone to speak on my behalf. My papers and notes have been taken from me, so that I am destitute of all aid, taken at a disadvantage.
Before her execution, Mary was told that her life would be the death of the Protestant religion, but her death would be its life. The ultimate reason for her demise was the fact that she was a Catholic queen. With that in mind, she approached the scaffold.
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The Real Reason Dems Despise Musk

 From American Refugees:

Democrats have plenty of reasons to hate Elon Musk. His DOGE operation is making them look like crooks straight out of Boss Tweed-land with government waste, much of it to pay off friends and political allies, in the stratosphere. And he’s only getting started.

Already uncovered are at least a half-trillion in government waste regarding COVID-19. Giant sums of money were frittered away studying things like transgenderism in animals with absolutely no knowledge by taxpayers.

No one knows the extent of it, at least not yet.

Meanwhile, numerous ad hominem from the quondam left are appearing on X and the networks aimed at Musk’s youthful tech-savvy team, accusing them of being, essentially, too wet behind the ears to be doing this. Maybe it’s true of some of them, but worth noting is Founding Father James Monroe was 18 on July 4, 1776, Alexander Hamilton 21 and the great theorist of the Constitution James Madison 25.

Look for more of these smears going forward, but the deep down reason they most abhor Mr. Musk is that he is an apostate. He used to be on their side. He was their genius. What happened? (Maybe just the simple application of facts.)

The dislike of apostates is not just restricted to Muslims who have an unpleasant tradition of, shall we say, taking it to the mattress. Apostasy can be a monumental threat to all sorts of core beliefs (liberalism? progressivism?), especially when they are old and unexamined. Systems unravel. (Read more.)

 

From Tierney's Real News:

Elon Musk’s team is sorting through (auditing) the US Treasury ledgers to find waste and fraud. Estimates are that 20-25% of our spending is on waste, fraud and grift - amounting to roughly $2 TRILLION in US tax dollars per year. In other words, if we got rid of the money laundering and the grift we could pretty much balance our budget and pay off our debt.

I’ve audited the books of several corporations and I ALWAYS FOUND at least 10% in waste to cut - and another 10% that I would deem fraudulent “kick-backs or overpayments.” I found that the only people who did NOT want me to audit the books were corrupt department heads or the “keepers of the books” who were using the company’s money as their own piggy bank.

The same is true for Government - the only people who are against this auditing exercise are corrupt bureaucrats, politicians, donors and contractors who are getting kickbacks and benefiting from the fraud. If you see people protesting the audit, they are the fraudsters. (Read more.)


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Why Did the Trojan War Last for Ten Years?

 From The Greek Reporter:

With Troy, there is one obvious reason why a single city was able to withstand against the Greek forces for ten years. The reason is that it was not just a single city withstanding those forces. In fact, Homer describes in his Iliad (written c. 650 BCE) a coalition of nations from Anatolia and even parts of Europe on the side of the Trojans.

If it really had been just the isolated city of Troy standing against the Greeks, it probably would have fallen quickly. Yet, that is definitely not what Homer described. When we see what he did describe, it is not surprising at all that the Trojan War lasted so long. On the side of the Trojans, there was the kingdom of the Phrygians and the kingdom of the Lydians. It appears that Homer was describing the world of the Trojan War based on the geopolitics of his own era or those just shortly before.

The Phrygian kingdom that Homer refers to controlled a huge part of Anatolia. It was quite rich and powerful and could actually be described as a small empire. Troy was closely associated with them. In fact, King Priam of Troy supposedly married a Phrygian princess. Later, Greek writers often called the Trojans ‘Phrygians.’ The kingdom of Lydia was powerful, too. After the fall of Phrygia in approximately 700 BCE, Lydia immediately rose to fill the power vacuum, indicating that it had already been a powerful state. (Read more.)


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Friday, February 7, 2025

History of the Louvre

Louvre, 17th Century

 It was at the Louvre in 1623 during Carnival that Prince Charles first saw Louis XIII's youngest sister Henrietta Maria, dancing in a masque. From Art and Object:

Though it’s now known for its renowned art collection, the Louvre began its life as a fortress in the 12th century designed to protect what was then the western edge of Paris. Built by Philip II, the medieval fortress featured a 98-foot tall keep and a moat. It was used to defend the city until Paris grew and other defensive structures were built on the new outskirts of the city in the 14th century. 

In the 16th century, however, Francis I demolished the original fortress and rebuilt the Louvre as a Renaissance-style royal residence. It continued to house the royal family until 1682 when Louis XIV built the Palace of Versailles.

Part of the medieval structure can still be seen today in the Louvre’s Salle Basse, built in the 13th century.

 In addition to building the renaissance palace, Francis I was an avid art collector. The art he amassed in the 16th century still makes up a core piece of the museum’s collection today, including works by Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as the museum’s most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. (Read more.)

Henri IV lying in state at Louvre

Henri IV built the Grand Galerie at the Louvre. From Open Editions:

Louis XIII continued the tradition established by his father. In August1612, when the Duke of Pastrana was given an audience in the Petite Galerie, he entered the king’s apartment from the salle des gardes and walked through the antechamber and bedchamber, which were decorated by members of the court disposed by rank in a crescendo that terminated in the gallery. The gallery itself had been set up as a throne room, with Louis XIII and Maria de’ Medici seated side-by-side on an elevated platform at the far end of the room, looking out on the river Seine. Behind them, the ladies of the court stood on stands shaped as “those of a theatre,” while the pages of the king’s and queen’s bedchambers stood behind barriers placed along the sides of the room.19 Along with the members of the royal family, large numbers of courtiers attended such ceremonies, as reported by Camillo Guidi in September 1618:

Monsieur de Bonneuil […] led me to His Majesty, whom I met midway down the gallery as he was coming towards me […] The audience was long and favorable […] and one might say that the whole court and nobility was there.20

(Read more.)

Some impressions of Louis XIII. From The Secret Lives of Royals, Aristocrats and Commoners:

Louis XIII was short, ungainly, and---until disease attacked him---inclined to corpulence. He was not beautiful, although Sully, who had served the royal house so faithfully, professed to admire the boy's regular features. His nose was too large, his head out of proportion to his body, his chin projected, his lover lip was unpleasantly thickened, and his mouth was usually half-open. Owing to the awkward formation of his palate he was compelled to speak little and slowly to avoid a trying stammer. He suffered from chronic gout, and it is almost certain that he had at least one epileptic fit. His teeth were decayed, and he was a continual invalid through persistent dyspepsia. Most of these physical defects may be traced in his family history. Many of them he bequeathed to his sons. Philip inherited his undersized stature as well as his brown hair and swarthy skin. In profile Louis XIV challenged comparison with the ancestral Bourbons, and was in more ways than one a true grandson of Henri IV. (Read more.)


 And his brother Gaston, HERE.

Purchase My Queen, My Love, HERE.
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Demons in the Sky

 From Tierney's Real News:

This is Part 3 of my report on the DC crash. If you haven’t read Part One and Part Two yet - please do so before you read on. I’m not going to repeat much of the information I’ve already shared … but I will build on it.

In my analysis, I have found many discrepancies (and holes) between what the media and ‘expert’ pundits are telling the public and what actually happened. I will cover those one by one. None of them individually tells the whole story - but they should be viewed in totality to paint a picture of the most plausible explanation.

Also, many of the so-called ‘expert’ videos that I’ve seen from YouTube ‘pilots’ smack of deception, coverup and CIA - so I don’t put much trust in those. Why? They are leaving out major facts in their analysis.

In my first report, I showed you a video of the crash that I found on X that was leaked to CNN that, to me, was the most accurate view of the crash. Up until that point, the only videos we were shown of the crash were grainy and hard to see.

https://x.com/PriscillaMirage/status/1885337679161942143

This video clearly makes it look like the Blackhawk helicopter flew directly into the plane. (Read more.)

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The Largest Volcanic Eruption in Human History

 From Smithsonian:

Our story begins on a very bad day about 74,000 years ago. The planet was starting to move out of one of its more recent ice ages, although in the tropics there was little change in climate between the Ice Age glacial episodes and the warmer interglacial episodes. A wide range of late Ice Age mammals inhabited the world, including woolly rhinoceroses and mammoths up in the cold regions of Eurasia, along with huge bison, giant deer, wild horses, and a variety of smaller mammals. Giant lions, sabertoothed cats, and huge bears fed on these large prey animals.

People lived in many parts of the Old World by then but had not yet reached Australia or the Americas. The bulk of the human population were archaic members of our species, Homo sapiens, which first appeared in southern Africa about 100,000 to 300,000 years ago. By 74,000 years ago, these people had spread out of Africa and may have occupied much of Asia, as well as parts of southeastern Europe. However, Europe was still dominated by another human species, the Neanderthals, who had adapted to life on the edge of the northern ice sheet. In contrast to archaic Homo sapiens, Neanderthals had a shorter, stockier, more muscular build and shorter limbs, a body type suitable for attacking large prey and adapted for reducing heat loss in the cold climate. In the far reaches of Asia, ancient humans had spread to many of the islands of modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia. On one now known as Flores, east of Java and Bali, they evolved into a dwarfed species, Homo floresiensis. Now nicknamed “hobbits,” these people stood only about 3 feet and 7 inches tall, shorter than any modern adult Pygmies (given their small brain size, some anthropologists question whether they are even in our genus, Homo). Flores is part of the island chain (including Sumatra, Java, and many smaller islands of the Malay Archipelago) that makes up of most of modern Indonesia. These islands are built completely of volcanoes, both active ones and ancient, dormant ones. Their climate is tropical and their jungle is dense. So much vegetation grows on the rich volcanic soil, in fact, that it’s often hard to recognize signs of volcanoes there. (Read more.)

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Thursday, February 6, 2025

The New Jane Austen TV Series

 
From House and Garden:

Set in 1830 and 1840, 13 and 23 years after Jane’s passing, the story begins when Cassandra visits Isabella (Rose Leslie of Game of Thrones fame), the niece of her long-dead fiancé, who is on the verge of losing her home following her father’s death. While she appears to be there to support Isabella, Cassandra’s true mission is to recover a hidden bundle of private letters that could jeopardise Jane’s reputation. As she uncovers them, she is transported back in time, reliving the joys and heartbreaks of her youth. Flashbacks introduce Young Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) and Jane (Patsy Ferran), as they experience the romantic entanglements, friendships, and disappointments that shaped their lives and inspired Jane’s timeless novels. (Read more.)


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‘Bloodletting’ at FBI

 From Sharyl's Substack:

The heavy-handed FBI raid at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8, 2022, as Trump was engaged in a dispute over what presidential records he was entitled to possess, is just one of many controversies that has plagued the FBI in the past decade related to the agency’s political targeting of Trump.

On Aug. 19, 2019, the Inspector General (IG) announced former FBI Director James Comey mishandled sensitive and classified documents in his campaign to undermine Trump in the press. The IG referred Comey to the Dept. of Justice (DOJ), but the DOJ declined to prosecute.

On Aug. 19, 2020, FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to doctoring a document to justify a secret wiretap against Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Under FBI rules, the wiretap would have enabled the FBI to access Trump’s communications since Page communicated with people who communicated with Trump. It was all part of an effort to frame Trump for Russia collusion in the FBI’s ill-fated “Operation Crossfire.” Nobody else who knew about or was involved in document fraud was named or charged.

FBI Director Wray repeatedly gave false information in testimony to Congress, claiming there were no “Section 702” surveillance abuses, when there are many in the public record. (Read more.)

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Musical Instruments of 16th- and 17th-Century Music

 From Interlude:

We were looking at some music title pages from a collection in the Bibliothèque Nationale and found some interesting representations of music as part of the title page designs. In this title page for a book of keyboard music from 1670, little putti hold up a banner with the title. At the center bottom is a music book, to be tied closed with ribbons, flanked by a two-manual harpsichord on the left (without its legs), and a virginal, normally played on a tabletop, on the right. On the back wall, from the left, are wind instruments, including a cornett in curved wood, a recorder, and a racket, shown with its distinctive cylindrical body. To the right is a guitar. On the other side of the banner is a lute and then a viol with a pointed Baroque bow laid over the top.

 The publishers Le Roy and Ballard, founded by Adrian Le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard in 1551, used title-page frames filled with instruments and player: sat the top right, Justice wealds her sword, and below her, are two putti playing viols. Music books frame the grotesque at the bottom centre. Two more putti inhabit the bottom left corner, playing two more viols. All together, the four putti give us an entire consort of viols, from large to small. In the top right corner, an unreadable label seems to indicate a female mathematician specialising in geometry, with her book of drawings and a T-square. (Read more.)

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