Categotry Archives: Mr. Al
Intermission
I was hoping to have some more history posts from Mr. Al for you now, but he decided to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month, too. He’s got his research books piled up and his legal pad ready, but we’re going to extend his intermission until December. Sigh.
Mr. Al Goes Exploring
He started working on another historical series, but I talked him into writing for NaNo, and seriously doubt he will be providing me with any new posts just yet. So I asked him to let me have any more of the kind of pictures I’ve been posting over the last week. Instead, he gave me this:
Mr. Al’s Postcard
Mr. Al does a lot of this sort of thing. He makes postcards from old photos, putting in his sense of humor. I think sometimes he rivals LOLcat. I’m going to be posting one of these each week until I can get him to fork over a guest post. 🙂
Sidewalk Art
Mr. Al was walking around near campus when he saw this. What amazed him was that it was made using pieces of bark like they had as ground cover around the tree. My guess is some art student was in the mood.
Ah Maria, The End
Maria Theresa’s response to her growing infirmities was to push herself even harder. When she was told that these exertions would be her undoing, she redoubled her efforts. These were not the actions of a woman who was denying her mortality; they were the actions of a woman who knew she was dieing and wanted to get it over with. There was very little in the world that frightened Maria Theresa. Nothing frightened her personally. Certainly not the thought of […]
Ah, Maria, the End is Near
If Maria Theresa, Queen of Austria, was feeling her age by 1780, it isn’t hard to understand why. If she’d had only two children instead of sixteen, and those two were Marie Antoinette and Joseph, that would have been enough to age Mother Theresa prematurely. Toss in fourteen more, the rigors of not just running, but re-building the Austrian Empire from practically the ground up, starting this at age twenty-three, with no formal training, in what was very much a […]
Ah Maria, A Long Distance Scolding
Watching Marie Antoinette take her place in the history books was not easy for her mother. Snubbing the king’s mistress would prove the least of Marie’s mistakes. In 1774, King Louis XV died. The Dauphin became King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette became Queen of France and life did not improve. For Maria Theresa things became, if such were possible, even worse. France was still vital to Austria’s long term strategy of containing Prussia. Maria still had a very full plate, […]
Ah Maria, What Does it Mean to Be Untouchable
As my readers may recall, Marie Antoinette’s finally speaking to Madame Dubarry was hardly the end of her troubles. A baby was still years away and Marie had begun to acquire the very unfortunate habit of publicly displaying contempt for her husband. The girl never learned. Said Joseph after the 1777 visit to Paris, “She does not love him in the least.” I say “The 1777 visit” because it was the big one that finally put some, ahem, firmness, into […]
Ah Maria, It’s a Royal Dressing Down
So many people became embroyled in the stalemate between Marie Antoinette and the King’s mistress, Madame Dubarry – starting with the king’s daughters and ending with, of course, Mom; Maria Theressa of Austria. Marie Antoinette’s continued slighting of Madame Dubarry had finally been pushed to it’s logical, or perhaps I should say illogical conclusion. France and Austria were facing the possibility of war. This was not Marie’s fault alone. Brother Joseph’s connivance in the partition of Poland was the event […]
Ah Maria, How to Tell Who Reigns
Queen Maria accidentally gave Marie Antoinette a puritanical upbringing by example. But she knew when to draw the line. How to teach as much to Marie? “The Court of Versailles was beside itself with delight at the spectacle of this child setting herself up against the King’s mistress, therefore, against Louis himself.” And this was what Marie Antoinette could not grasp. She was too young and too un-worldly to understand what Madame Dubarry meant to King Louis. As a result, […]
Ah Maria, She’s the Most Powerful Woman in France
Maria Theressa of Austria sent her daughter, Marie Antoinette, off to France with little preparation and many fears. Prince Louis didn’t help matters when he put off the consummation for years. Wrote Maria to Marie on the subject of getting her husband to…cooperate…so to speak. “On no account any peevishness, but only tenderness and caresses; for too much eagerness could ruin everything. Gentleness and patience are the only things that can help. Nothing so far is lost. You are both […]
