After a stint on the Adriatic and the second Oceanic, she was transferred to the new Olympic upon its completion. When the Olympic collided with the HMS Hawke in 1911, she was working on board. Both ships, though heavily damaged, managed to limp into port under their own steam, and no lives were lost in the incident. After the Olympic was repaired, she went on working on it. A year after the accident, she joined the crew on the Titanic.

Violet was not yet asleep when the Titanic hit the iceberg and ordered on deck from her cabin. Together with other stewardesses she was ordered into a lifeboat to show passengers that they were safe. Someone thrust a baby at her in the last moment, and together with that unknown baby she was later taken aboard the Carpathia.

Some people would have called it quits at that point and started looking for a land bound employment. I know, I would. Not so Violet, who was back aboard the Olympic by June of the same year. Except for a stint on the P&O’s Malwa, she continued working on the Olympic until the Great War began.

Image source

In 1914, Violet Jessop began training as a nurse (V.A.D.) and joined the second Britannic, sister ship to both the Olympic and the Titanic, on November 12th 1916. The Britannic hit a German mine on November 21st. Almost all the sites dealing with that particular incident put Violet Jessop on the first lifeboat to be lowered and which was caught in the still running propeller of the Britannic. This story is anecdotal and not based on fact. Rather, Violet jumped over board of the fast sinking ship and hit her head on the rump in the process.

This time round, Violet is kept land bound first until repatriation in 1917. She worked ashore until 1920, when she returned to work on the Olympic. Leaving the Olympic upon the commissioning of the second Majestic (the former Bismarck), she continued to work as a stewardess until the outbreak of the Second World War. It was years later that it turned out she had broken her skull when jumping ship, and never been treated for it.

If you are interested in reading her story in her own unexcited and understated words, her autobiography was edited by John Maxtone-Graham and published by Sutton in 1997.

Cover of Dead Poets Society

We all know the movie “The Dead Poets Society” The leader was a teacher at an all boys school who was played by Robin Williams. Robin Williams was so inspirational as this spirited teacher that we now have a founder of a real Dead Poets Society of America. Walter Skold founded the group and has just finished a tour of three months in his “Poemobile” documenting the graves of dead poets and calling attention to their work. He traveled 15,000 miles visiting the graves of 150 dead poets in 23 states.

Skold, 49 left his job as a public school technology teacher to pursue his passions of poetry and photography. He bought a used cargo van with a rack for cameras and supplies, shelves for books, and a desk that could double as a bed. Skold said, “It’s a way to honor our American poets and historically resurrect their work.” He enters his reports on line and sometimes includes tombstone art. He welcomes others to seek out the graves of dead poets in their areas and post their discoveries online.

Image via Wikipedia

During the three months of his travels, Skold visited the graves of, Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and many of the lesser poets. He’s making a film documentary called ” Finding Frost: Digging up America’s Dead Poets.” Next year he hopes to visit dead poets buried in Europe.

Image via Wikipedia

In Maine, He found the graves of 29 dead poets whose final resting place was unknown to the public. Skold said, ”Many of these individuals were great artists who had such interesting lives that I think it’s a shame they’ve been lost to our literary history.” He said, “I’m trying to bring back those poet’s work and lives who had value and have been forgotten for one reason or another.

Image via Wikipedia

The Library of Congress believes Skold is the first to undertake the task. Peter Armenti said, “I think it’s a fascinating project. I’m glad somebodies doing it.” Skold’s efforts has the blessings of nine state poets laureate,each of whom was enlisted to join in poetry readings during his road trip. Marjory Wentworth from South Carolina said, “My hope is that it’s going to bring people to poetry who might not otherwise be interested. Anything that increase the interest for good poetry is an extraordinary thing.

http://writinghood.com/writing-business/getting-published/

http://socyberty.com/work/writing-an-impressive-resume/

http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/the-movie-that-was-banned-in-23-states/

http://bizcovering.com/opportunities/who-wants-to-pan-for-gold/

Mata Hari in full garb

In 1895, when she was aged just 19, she married a Dutch army officer 21 years her senior, a man she had met through a lonely hearts ad. When he was assigned to Java in the Dutch East Indies in 1897, Margeretha went with him. Little is known of her time there though she did give birth to two children, one of whom died in mysterious circumstances. It was obvious, however, that she must have drunk deep of the local culture. Her marriage though was not a happy one. On her return to the Netherlands in 1902, they were divorced with her husband taking custody of their surviving daughter. Travelling to Paris, Margarethe now reinvented herself. Despite having little money she trained as an exotic dancer paying her way by means of prostitution. She very soon became an expert in the erotic and seductive dancing of the Far East. She adopted the stage name Mata-Hari (the eye of the day, though she liked to translate it as the sunrise of the day). She created and choreographed her own dance routines which she described as her Sacred Dances. She wasn’t afraid to push the acceptable boundaries of the day, and her routines would invariably end in her naked (accept for her bra, not out of modesty but because she was self-conscious at being a little flat-chested) and sprawled out upon the floor. She excused all this as being necessary for the sake of her art, and dressed it all up with a fake religious mysticism. She very quickly became a sensation, touring the capital cities of Europe with her one woman show captivating the public and seducing her audience as she went; and she did quite literally seduce her audience procuring a string of lovers, often more than one at a time. As she remarked, “I satisfy all my caprices. I can sleep with a Duke, wake with a Count, and then dine with a General.” She claimed to be a Javanese Princess and with her dark, flirtatious eyes, long dark hair, and tanned olive skin she could easily have been of the ethnic extraction of those she now portrayed, though at 5ft 10in she was tall even for a woman from Holland. A witness to her dancing described her as, “feline, trembling in a thousand rhythms, and exotic yet deeply austere, slender and supple like a a sacred serpent.” She also had a childlike charm that appears to have been genuine. She enjoyed playing to the gallery.

In World War One Holland was neutral, and this allowed Mata Hari to easily move from one country to another. Indeed, the outbreak of hostilities did not seem to disturb her comfortable life at all. She still performed in Berlin and Paris and her fame continued to grow. It did though make her a candidate for recruitment by the various intelligence services of the combatants. She only slept with the most prominent people and the value of her pillow talk could be priceless, she would make the perfect spy. In November, 1914, the German Consul in Holland, Karl Kroemer, believed he had recruited her for just such a role. He paid her 20,000 francs to spy for Germany, issued her with a code name, and provided her with invisible ink. She took the money, forgot her code name, and threw away the invisible ink. Mata Hari was motivated by sex and what it could provide for her, not politics, and certainly not war. She was later recruited by French Intelligence as a double-agent. Again she took the money but she didn’t seem to have any clear idea of what all this meant or the perillous position in which it placed her. She also didn’t realise how many people hated her and were disgusted by her activities. What to her was fun was to others degrading and vile. For many she was little more than an infamous courtesan, a harlot, a thief, and a liar. There was nothing she would not do to feather her own nest.

In January, 1917, the French Intelligence Services intercepted a radio transmission from the German Consulate in Madrid praising the work of an agent code-named H-21. This was known to be the code-name for Mata Hari. Having received no information of any value from Mata Hari themselves they now assumed that she must be working for the Germans after all. On 13 February, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in Paris and charged with espionage. She did little to defend herself against the charges and throughout her trial was coquettish, coy and flirtatious with the Court, seemingly unaware of the seriousness of the charges she was facing.

Everything now was against her. A supposedly worldly woman she showed herself to be tremendously naive. She never truly grasped the fact that a guilty verdict would cost her her life, or perhaps she didn’t want to. She struggled to understand that her amusements, or caprices as she put it, could be despised and feared by others. A guilty verdict was inevitable.

On the morning of 15 October, 1917, Mata Hari was awoked from a deep sleep and informed that her personal appeal to the French President had been rejected and that she was to be executed post-haste. She said little but did request that she be able to write a couple of letters, she was allowed to do so. she did so quickly before dressing. Never one to miss an opportunity she dressed to impress. Wearing high-heels and stockings, she draped a long black fur lined cape over her silk kimono, and placed a wide-brimmed black velvet hat at a flirtatious angle upon her head. She then calmly said, “I am ready.”

Standing before the firing squad she requested to be neither bound nor blindfolded. This was surprisingly agreed to, so there she stood before her executioners erect and nerveless, staring them directly in the eye. As the order to fire was given and the shots rang out she fell slowly to her knees before falling back her face turned towards the sky. An officer then walked forward to administer the coup de grace, placing a revolver to her temple and shooting her through the head.

Was Mata Hari a spy? It is highly unlikely. She was as much a victim of her reputation as her activities. She had no interest in politics, she was an entertainer, she made love not war.

Mary Shelley

By 1816, Mary Godwin, who was born on 30 August, 1797, the daughter of the radical philosopher William Godwin and the proto-feminist Mary Wollstencraft who had authored the first feminist book, “The Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, and had died soon after giving birth, had eloped with her lover the poet Percy Byssche Shelley. Her father, who had been a keen advocate of ‘free love’ had shown himself to be not so keen when it came to his own daughter, and had effectively ostracised her. This had shocked Mary, a young woman already haunted by the thought that she had caused the death of her mother, but she was very much in love and besotted with the libertine Shelley and resisted his attempts to share her with his friends. She had already lost one child and was pregnant with his second when they decided to escape the harassments of home (Shelley was, after all, married) and travel to the Continent.

The year 1816, became known as “the year without summer.” The eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies, the largest eruption for a thousand years, had deposited huge amounts of dense, black volcanic ash into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun, and Europe was beset with unusual weather. There was frost in August and the temperatures fell below freezing, rivers flooded, red snow fell in Italy, crops failed and there was widespread famine, as storms raged across the Continent, and the rain was incessant.

By June of that year, Mary, who was by now calling herself Mary Godwin Shelley, her lover Percy, the notorious Lord Byron (mad, bad, and dangerous to know) their friend Dr John Polidori, and Mary’s step-sister  Clara (Claire) Clairmont were living together at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Because of the inclement weather they had been unable to leave the villa for sometime. To relieve the boredom they would often read poetry and tell each other stories. On the night of 16 June, as a storm raged outside, Lord Byron was reading from The Phantasmagoria, a book of German ghost stories. To the noise of the rain, the howling of the the wind, as the villa shook with the thunder and the sky-line was lit by intermittent flashes of lightening, he spoke in menacing tones. His friends were entranced and listened in rapt silence, then in fading light as the candles flickered and the fire blazed, he slammed shut the book startling his audience, and demanded that they all must write a ghost story.

Mary, was the only one among them who took the suggestion seriously. She was desparate to emerge from her companions shadows and show herself worthy of their company. She was also tormented by the death of the mother she had never known and the loss of her own baby. She had few ideas but she had a morbid fascination in the corrolary between life and death and the possibility of resurrection. A week later the conversation had turned to the principles of life and could its secrets ever be communicated. That night, on 22 June, she could not sleep and her consciousness was tormented by waking nightmares, ” My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the bounds of usual reverie . . . I saw the vivid phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.” Frankenstein had been born.

It took a year for Mary to complete her manuscript, in the meantime she had married Percy Shelley on 30 December, 1816. The novel Frankenstein, subtitled, Prometheus Unbound, was published anonymously in January, 1818. and was a success if not a publishing sensation. This was because many people believed it to have been authored by Percy Shelley, who had done the foreword, and Mary had indeed permitted Shelley free-licence to edit the book as he wished and there has been much conjecture as to how much of the book was actually written by Mary herself. This seems unfair for Mary understood her book, she knew full-well the ideas that propelled it, and understood the effect it would have, ” Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator.” She wished to, ” speak to the mysterious fears of our nature”, that would ” curdle the blood and quicken the beating heart.” She achieved all of this through the centuries and down the ages.

Following the publication of the book Mary and Percy returned to the Continent, mainly to avoid Percy’s creditors. They lived mostly in Italy, constantly on the move and staying with friends. It was a difficult time for Mary, who had to endure the death of both of her children by Percy which plunged her into a deep depression, a depression that was to return to her at regular intervals throughout the rest of her life. Her mood wasn’t helped by Percy who continued to indulge his belief in free-love, and had numerous affairs. Mary sought solace elsewhere, though in friendship not in manifestations of the sexual act. Even so, Mary had a fourth child by Percy who she named after her wayward father. On 8 July, 1822, Percy Shelley drowned when his boat Don Juan sank in a storm in the Bay of Lerica. His body was cremated on the beach at Viareggia by Lord Byron and others, he was aged 29. Mary was devastated, and she returned to England where she lived with her father and continued to write. She never remarried saying that she had been married to a genius and that it was only possible to marry one. She died on 1 February, 1851, aged 53, in great pain from a suspected brain tumour.

Of the others who were there that momentous stormy night at the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron died of a fever on the Island of Messalonghi where he had gone to fight in the Greek War of Independence against Ottoman rule. John Polidari, who is credited with writing The Vampyre (the first vampire story in English) was heavily in debt from gambling and suffering from depression. He died on 24 August, 1821, according to the coroner from natural causes though the likelihood is he committed suicide by taking prussic acid. Claire Clairmont, the former mistress of Byron, lived to the ripe old age of 80, dying in Florence in 1879. 

The most iconic building on Tyneside is the Tyne Bridge (1924-28).  This was constructed by the engineers Mott, Hay & Anderson, who also built the Syndey Harbour Bridge, but the architectural portions were designed by Robert Burns Dick.  It’s a very memorable design, with an immense iron arch held between robust concrete pylons that show a strong Egyptian influence.  The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922.  It provoked a craze for Egyptian artefacts.  Ancient Egyptian design was one of the influences on Art Deco, which was the most popular style in the 1920s.

Robert Burns Dick was born in Stirling, Scotland in 1868.  His family moved to Newcastle where his father worked in the brewing trade.  After education at the Royal Grammar School, he served articles with W.L. Newcombe FRIBA from 1883-8 and attended art classes.  He was employed as an assistant to Armstrong and Knowles from 1888, but began independent practice in 1892.  A partnership with C.T. Marshall (1866-1940) lasted from 1895-7, and he joined in partnership with J.T. Cackett in 1899.  It is generally accepted that Burns Dick provided the artistic input to the firm while Cackett provided the business acumen.  

In 1905 he joined the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries and was elected FRIBA on 8 January 1906, having been proposed by Cackett, A.W.S. Cross and G. Hubbard.  He was a member of the Northern Architectural Association, acting as President from 1914-8 and Treasurer from 1928-47.  During his terms as President he wrote a series of articles on the war and its effects on architecture.  Conservative in politics, Burns Dick joined the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery.  He was seconded from military service in 1915 to design works for Short Brothers.  

Burns Dick was a founding member of the Newcastle Society, which was established in 1924 to create a Green Belt around the city and to give Newcastle a modern centre.  He had a reputation as a good planner of buildings and was also regarded as a fine draughtsman of perspectives.  He travelled in Belgium, France and Italy.  By 1914 he was residing at Millmont in Fenham.  Burns Dick retired to Esher in 1940 and died there on 11 December 1954.

Image via Wikipedia

In later years Raddisson wrote the story of his life that facinated the civilized world. He probably was not a great writer to begin with but it he had stuck to French which he spoke and understood, it would have been more understandable. Instead he set down his story in English, which he did not understand very well, and a wild jumble of some of the Indian languages. As written most of it can be understood with some certainty, and other parts cannot be interpreted in any fashion. Still it is a great story of exploration and Raddisson’s colorful and horrendous experiences.

When Raddisson was sixteen in 1652 he and his family lived in the Canadian settlement of Three Rivers. On a beautiful spring day he and two of his friends went to hunt ducks. Indians were camped over the hills and the boys were warned to keep away. These were the hated Iroquois who constantly were on the lookout for any settlers who wandered away from the settlement. After killing a number of ducks the other boys headed home but Raddisson wasn’t ready to go. He wandered on alone looking for more game. After making a good days catch he turned back for home. He had a load of geese, ducks, and a crane, but due to circumstance Raddisson wasn’t to get home any time soon.

In the tangled grass he stumbled over the dead bodies of his friends. They were naked with bullet and tomahawk wounds. In his fear and apprehension Raddisson headed for the river but it was too late. Twenty or thirty heads of Iroquois bobbed up out of the grass and bushes. He had time to fire one shot before the happy Iroquois grabbed him. Raddissons captors dragged him back to the woods, laughing and howling, they showed him the scalps of his friends, who had so cheerfully started out with him that morning.

Image via Wikipedia

Raddisson saved his life by his courage and boldness. One of the ways he did it was by giving one of the Indians a good beating who insulted him. The Iroquois Indians admired bravery above all things. At first they took his clothes and kept him tied up but as their good impression of him grew they gave him back his clothes and began to feed him. They combed and greased his hair and painted his face red to make him look more like them. Gradually Raddisson was given more freedom and taken on hunts.

When he was taken on a visit to a Mohawk village the tribe was so taken with Raddisson that an old squaw adopted him into her family. Well fed and cared for he was no longer considered a prisoner. Raddisson lived the carefree life of a young warrior, playing most of the day with his young Indian companions. Daughters of the lodge waited on him and carried his pack when he was hunting. Everything was going well when Raddisson met a white prisoner of the Iroquois. While they were hunting the white man persuaded Raddisson to kill their Indian companions and escape.

Image via Wikipedia

These Indians had done him no harm and had been good to him. Raddisson hated do it but hardened his heart and killed the sleeping warriors and escaped to the Saint Lawrence. They were caught by pursuing warriors who were hot on their trail. The other prisoner was killed and Raddisson was beaten and tortured unmercifully. He was then taken back to his Indian family. He was again punished and tortured but due to the pleas of his Mohawk mother, father,and brother, his life was saved. After he was nursed back to heath, Raddisson finely made good his escape. He escaped to a Dutch settlement and from there went to France. You would think he would have been contend to stay at home after this experience, but this was only the beginning of Raddisson’s many expeditions.

http://socyberty.com/military/the-suicide-of-keiffer-wilhelm-soldier/

http://socyberty.com/holidays/carve-a-jack-o-lantern/

http://socyberty.com/history/america-the-beautiful-2/

http://socyberty.com/history/the-fertile-land/

Image Source

The Life & Times of Florence Marryat

Florence Marryat was born in Brighton, Sussex. Her parents separated when she was still a child and she was educated entirely at her parent’s residences, with the help of her father’s extensive library and a bunch of governesses. In 1854 she married Thomas Ross Church at Penang, Malaya. Thomas was an officer of the British army in India, so they spent their married life traveling India. In 1860 Florence suffered a breakdown and, pregnant, returned to Brighton with her three children, while her husband remained in India.  

While caring for her children alone, Florence wrote her first novel. Love’s Conflict was published in 1865, with modest success. Many reviewers of her work were alarmed by such themes as adultery, alcoholism and marital cruelty. She rejected the accusations of sensationalism, saying she wrote from her own experience. No wonder that her first marriage broke down in 1879, though she had eight children with Thomas Ross Church. Later that year she wed Colonel Francis Lean.  

Cover of There Is No Death

There Is No Death

In 1874, Florence interviewed for a London newspaper a prominent clairvoyant. This marked the beginning of her belief in spiritualism. She participated in countless seances and claimed having communicated with her two dead daughters and her brother who died in a shipwreck. She wrote down her experiences in a highly successful non-fiction book, There Is No Death, and the sequel The Spirit World. Spiritualism also influenced her works of fiction in such novels as The Clairvoyance of Bessie Williams or The Strange Transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs.

Image via Wikipedia

Her major work There Is No Death is being published now on the web on the site GhostWritings.

One of her psychic investigations was recounted here: There Is No Death in Bruges-la-Morte.

Florence’s father, Captain Marryat, played an important part in the famous story of The Ghost Photograph of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.

The Princess Maria Antonia, as a young girl

She was hated, genuinely hated, and most of her subjects were to want to see her dead. Why? What did she do to bring upon herself such public opprobrium?

She was the youngest daughter of the Austrian Emperor Francis I and his wife Queen Maria Theresa. Francis and his Queen ran an informal Court and little, sweet, irrepressible Maria Antonia was allowed to run free. She learned to play the harpsichord, enjoyed games, and had an idyllic childhood, but her education suffered as a result and even as a teenager she could barely read and write.

In August, 1765, her father, Francis I, died. leaving her formidable mother, Maria Theresa (a woman she barely knew and lived in fear of) as Regent during the minority of her brother, Joseph. Maria Theresa was seeking to secure a marriage alliance with Austria’s traditional foe France. A smallpox epidemic had recently decimated the Royal children leaving Maria Antonia as the only possible candidate for marriage to the young French Dauphin, so in 1767, aged 12, she was betrothed to the 14 year old, Louis. The official wedding ceremony took place at the Palace of Versailles on 16 May, 1770. Marie Antoinette (as she was by now known) was  tall, somewhat self-conscious, ash-blonde, pale-skinned, with piercing blue eyes. She was not particularly pretty but rather had a face and a bearing that made her appear haughty and aloof, if not arrogant. Even so, she was well-received by the crowds that thronged the streets on her arrival in Paris. Louis, a plump, shy, nervous young man, did not seem taken by the occasion at all.

A Royal marriage was traditionally expected to be consumated on the night of the wedding, and the Royal Court waited anxiously for this to happen, but nothing happened, and wasn’t to happen for another 7 years. Louis had no interest in his new young wife, he didn’t appear to like her very much, and they barely spoke. He was happiest out of her presence, in his workshop practising his lock-making skills or out hunting. Marie Antoinette, neglected by her husband, gambled, played cards late into the night, and indulged a young womans love of fine clothes and jewellery. Their behaviour, however, was making them a laughing stock. It was in these early years that her reputation as a frivolous, uncaring, aristocrat first took hold. Throughout this period she was constantly bombarded by letters from her mother that were critical almost to the point of abuse, accusing her of lacking dignity, losing her attractiveness, and of being unable to sexually arouse her husband. she could barely stand to read them let alone pen a reply. On 11 June, 1775, Louis was crowned King Louis XVI of France, and it was evident that this loveless, barren marriage could not be allowed to continue.

In April, 1777, the recently crowned Emperor Joseph I of Austria, visited his sister and brother-in-law. Going on a walk with Louis in the gardens at Versailles he took him to one side and explained to Louis the requirement of a King to produce an heir, demanded that he make love to his wife, and even told him in no uncertain terms how to do it. In the meantime, Marie Antoinette, starved of affection from her husband, had sought it elsewhere and had become particularly close to two ladies of the Royal Court, the Duchesse de Polignac and Princess Lamballe. With the whole of Europe aware that she was in receipt of no sexual gratification from Loius the closeness of this relationship led to inevitable rumours of lesbianism. Already known as L’Autrichienne (the Austrian Whore, or Bitch) people were saying that she was not so much married to the King as married to excess, sexual and otherwise, and pornographic literature was already circulating on the streets of Paris.

Joseph’s little pep talk, however, seems to have done the trick. On 19 December, 1778, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie Therese. A Queen’s pregnancy was a public event, and the Royal Court would be invited in to witness the birth. So on the night of the birth itself the Queen’s bedchamber was packed with Courtiers. But it was it was to be an agonising birth, and Marie Antoinette, whose screams rent the night air, almost bled to death. Louis, out of concern for his wife and to spare her such indignities in the future, henceforth banned the tradition. With motherhood came greater responsibility and a new-found relationship with her husband the closeness of which shocked many of those at the Royal Court. It would appear that they were at last a married couple and Marie Antoinette now began to display the mantle of dignity that had previously been lacking. 

Louis XVI, had learned to appreciate his wife and their was a genuine warmth between them. He had given to her the Trianon Garden as a present and she turned it into a personal rural idyll. But it would be wrong to suggest that everything was rosy in the garden. Marie Antoinette did have affairs and she was particularly close to the dashing Swedish Count Festen whom would be her lover at times of great stress. Her presumed affairs were common currency on the streets of Paris and the literature portraying her as a lascivious sexual predator available to all in sundry behind the back of poor, unaware, cuckolded, impotent Louis, were easily found. On 22 October, 1781, she gave birth to a son, Louis Joseph and on 27 March, 1785, a second son, Louis Charles. The people doubted if they were the King’s.

Marie Antoinette, with her children, and in her pomp

The Affair of the Queen’s Necklace was to destroy beyond any hope of redemption the already tarnished reputation of Marie Antoinette, and it was to bring into disrepute the very existence of the institution of the Monarchy itself.

In 1772, Louis XV had commissioned the Parisian jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge to make a special and spectacular necklace for his lover the Madame du Barry. No expense was to be spared and the necklace they made came to be valued at 2,000,000 livres. Unfortunately, for the jewellers Louis XV died before it could be paid for. The cost of its creation had almost bankrupted the jewellers and they remained desparate to sell it. Surely, the ever-extravagant Marie Antoinette would purchase it, and on every occasion worthy of celebration they tried to sell it to her. But she was no longer the Marie Antoinette of old, she was a mother, a devoted wife, and a responsible Queen, her days of excess were at an end. Moreover, she did not want anything that had been made for such a disreputable woman as the courtesan du Barry. Still they kept trying. 

In 1784, a woman named Jeanne de la Motte, who claimed to be a descendant of King Henry II of France, and liked to use the name Valois, became the mistress of Cardinal de Rohan. The Cardinal was an ambitious and duplicitous man who had conspired against the Queen and as such had acquired her displeasure and seen his stature at Court wane as a result. He was desparate to win back her favour. De la Motte, claimed to be a close personal friend of the Queen’s and promised to work on his behalf to win back that favour he so desparately desired. She brought him letters she said were from the Queen (they were in fact forged) that convinced the Cardinal that Marie Antoinette was in fact in love with him. He fell for it and pleaded with Jeanne to arrange a meeting for him with the Queen, which she agreed to do. On a dark moonlit night in August 1784, the Cardinal met a woman in the Gardens at Versailles that he believed was Marie Antoinette. She was in fact a prostitute, Nicole Leguay d’Oliva, who bore a striking resemblance to the Queen and been hired by Jeanne for the role. They exchanged a few words, the Cardinal presented her with a rose, and she promised to forgive his past duplicity. They then parted.

Hearing of Jeanne’s apparent close relationship with the Marie Antoinette the jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge approached her in yet another attempt to sell the necklace to the Queen. She agreed to try. She was though determined to procure the necklace for herself. She told her lover, the Cardinal, that the Queen wished to purchase the necklace but that she could not be seen to do so and that in light of their recent reconciliation whether he would secure it for her. The Cardinal was delighted to be seen to do so and negotiated the purchase of the necklace presenting to the jewellers what he believed were notes from the Queen promising to pay the 2,000,000 livres in instalments. The necklace was handed over to him and he in turn presented it to someone he believed was a valet of the Queens. He turned out to be Jeanne de la Mottes husband. However, when the jewellers received no payment for the necklace they approached the Queen who curtly informed them that she had no knowledge of the affair.

The plot quickly unravelled and on the 15 August, 1785, the Cardinal de Rohan was arrested. Three days later so was Jeanne de la Motte. In May, 1786, all those involved in the necklace affair were brought to trial in a case that scandalised France. The Cardinal de Rohan was largely seen as a dupe and cleared of all charges, he was, however, banished from the Court. The prostitute Nicole Leguay d’Oliva, was also cleared. Jeanne de la Motte, was sentenced to be branded and flogged, she was indeed stripped naked and whipped in public, she was then taken to a womens prison to serve a life sentence but managed to weasel her way out of after serving only a year. Her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment. The real victim of the necklace affair, however, was Marie Antoinette, who had been blameless. She may have had no involvment in the affair but it fitted in perfectly with her popular image as the woman who partied while her people starved, gambled when they had no money to feed their children, and dressed extravagantly while they wore rags.  She may never have said, “Let them eat cake”, but she would wouldn’t she. Her reputation previously tarnished was in tatters. The king may be a decent enough fellow but his Queen was still L’Autrichienne.

By, 1787, France was a country in turmoil.  A series of failed harvests had left many close to starvation, the economy was bankrupt and close to meltdown, and a complicated and disjointed system of taxation which left many of the better-off exempt made raising extra revenue almost impossible. The King, who was unable to effectively govern through personal rule, was forced to convene an Estates General (the elected legislature of France not summoned since 1614) to address the issues. Marie Antoinette, whose political influence over her husband had always been minimal, nevertheless opposed the convening of the Estates General, and when it exerted its power and refused to disband itself as the King had ordered, she wanted him to take a hard-line and use the army, but Louis shrank from bloodshed.

On 14 July, 1789, everything changed when the storming of the Bastille turned what had been a crisis into a revolution. Yet again, Marie Antoinette cajoled and urged her husband to use the army on the people, but he knew the loyalty of the troops could no longer be relied upon, and the thought of Frenchmen killing Frenchmen continued to horrify him. In truth, Louis was indecisive and apathetic and control of the situation was quickly snatched from his grasp. Marie Antoinette, who had always appeared somewhat childlike and lacking in concentration, now displayed the strength of character her husband lacked. She actively conspired against the new Revolutionary Government and wrote copious letters to her brother the Emperor Joseph in Austria begging for his help. On 5 October, a furious mob of mostly women, descended on Versailles from Paris, they were desparate for bread and demanded of the KIng that he order the opening up of the granaries. He agreed but this did not satisfy them and they refused to disperse. On the night of the 6th a group of women broke into Marie Antoinette’s bedchamber with the intention of murdering her but she had heard the commotion and managed to escape through a secret passageway to the King. The following morning the mob physically removed the Royal Family and took them back to Paris where they handed them over to the Revolutionary Government which promised to protect them as long as they remained in the Tuilleries.

The experience of the 6 October, when Marie Antoinette had barely escaped with her life, despite her outward calm, had terrified and effected her deeply. She now feared for the safety, not just of herself and her husband, but of the children. She began to plot an escape. Louis, who was still King and would have the final say, seemed incapable of making a decision and was paralysed by events. So it was Marie Antoinette, along with Count Fersten, who would make the arrangements. On the night 20 June, 1791, they set out in disguise and in a single carriage heading for the Royal fortress at Montmedy. They got as far as the small town of Varennes just a few miles from their destination when they were stopped by the local postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet. He recognised the King, it was said from his likeness on a banknote. A squadron of cavalry sent to escort the Royal Family to safety never arrived and instead they were taken back to Paris in triumph. There could be little doubt now that the King opposed the Revolution, and their trial and the abolition of the monarchy was from this moment an inevitability. The stony silence which greeted their arrival back in Paris would seem to indicate that the people knew this to; and Jean-Baptiste Drouet, became one of those little known people who inadvertently change the course of history.

The Royal Family were now effectively prisoners of the Government. In April, 1792, France declared war on Austria. Marie Antoinette could barely disguise her delight, now at last rescue might be at hand. Unfortunately, Joseph had died and been replaced by his brother Leopold as Emperor. Marie Antoinette did not have the same close relationship with Leopold that she’d had with Joseph, and they hadn’t actually spoken for 25 years. Even so, she wrote to him begging him for his help and giving him her heart-felt desires for a swift Austrian victory.

On 10 August, 1792, the Paris mob attacked the Tuilleries Palace. The King’s Swiss Guard fought bravely to protect the Royal Family but outnumbered were massacred almost to a man and hundreds were killed. The Royal Family were forced to flee in desparation to the Legislative Assembly where they were hidden under tables until the Marquis de Lafayette could muster National Guardsmen for their protection.

On 3 September, guards opened up the prisons to the Paris mob. The mob went on the rampage murdering more than 1200 inmates mostly aristocrats, royalists and opponents of the revolution. One of whom was Marie Antoinette’s old friend the Princess Lamballe whose head was cut off, placed on a pike, and paraded beneath the Queen’s window. Marie Antoinette, horrified, refused to look.

Such was the depth of hatred towards the Royal Family that on 21 September, 1792, the Monarchy in France was officially abolished. The war against Austria which had at last turned in France’s favour had ended the last possibility of rescue. In December, Louis Capet (as he was now known) was tried with treason against the Revolutionary Government. The guilty verdict was passed by an overwhelming majority, though the decision to execute him was a much closer decision. Louis had a last visit from his family a few nights before his execution but turned down the opportunity to see them again. He went to the guillotine on 21 January, 1793, it was said with great dignity.

It was only a matter of time before Marie Antoinette herself was brought before the Court. Unlike Louis, whose execution was seen as necessary but did elicit sympathy from the people (even Robespierre felt obliged to state that the execution of Louis was nothing personal) Marie Antoinette was truly hated. She had survived attempts to murder her, had regularly endured abuse in the streets, and she had refused the opportunity to escape with her children early in the revolution, insisting that the Royal Family must stay together and that she would remain at her husbands side. Now she would suffer the same fate.

Marie Antoinette, was placed under guard and a 24 hour watch, someone would watch her even when she undressed for bed. Her gaolers were harsh and unsympathetic, whenever she was interrogated her hands would be bound even though she requested they not be, and her children were taken out of her care. On 14 October, 1793, she was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and charged with conspiring against the Government (which was undoubtedly true) spending millions of livres on herself and her friends and other sundry charges. Most damaging, however, and hurtful, was the accusation that she had sexually abused her son, Louis Charles. The young dauphin was bullied into confirming that this was true. His sister never forgave him but his mother did. Marie Antoinette, refused to even acknowledge this charge. Finally, under constant provocation she turned towards the women in the Court and said, ” If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother.” A ripple of  sympathy could be felt as the women could see that it was not a Queen who stood before them but a woman and a mother. It made no difference this was little more than a show trial. Two days later on 16 October, 1793, Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine. She appeared calm and relaxed and made no attempt to address the crowd. She merely apologised to the executioner for accidentally standing on his foot. Like her husband Louis, she died with courage and great dignity. Her body was later disposed of in an unmarked grave, and the French had at last got what they had for so long desired.

Prematurely born, Newton was not expected to survive.  Born on January 4, 1643, Newton lived to be 84, dying on March 31, 1727.  Hannah Ayscough, Newton’s mother, gave birth to him in the town of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England.  Newton’s father, Isaac Newton, died three months prior to his birth (”Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727)”; “Isaac Newton”).

Newton’s mother remarried three years after his birth.  After his mother’s remarriage, Newton spent the majority of his childhood with his grandmother, Margery Ayscough.  Under his grandmother’s care, Newton did not apply himself in school and eventually was removed by his mother (”Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727)”).

Newton despised his mother’s new husband, Reverend Barnabus Smith.  At the age of ten, Newton’s stepfather died, leaving his mother widowed once again.  After the death of her second husband, Newton’s mother came back with three younger siblings (Hall 232).  Newton’s mother removed him from school, to have him work on the farm.  However, Newton did not do well as a farmer and later attended Cambridge (”Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727)”; “Isaac Newton”).

While at Cambridge, Newton became interested in modern philosophers such as Descartes and Galileo.  Newton also developed a theory “that would later become infinitesimal calculus” (”Isaac Newton”).  Five years after enrolling at Cambridge, Newton graduated despite failing at geometry (Hall 232).

Calculus is often credited only to Newton.  However, controversy exists concerning the creation of calculus.  Around the same time, Newton and Gottfried Leibniz created calculus.  Each have their own notes regarding calculus and “most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed infinitesimal calculus independently” (”Isaac Newton”).  Newton published his work much later than Leibniz, which creates the controversy, even though “Newton is said to have claimed that he had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared being mocked for it” (”Isaac Newton”).

Newton and Leibniz created infinitesimal calculus such as additions to the theory of infinite series. Both also contributed to the creation of differential calculus, which includes derivations and differentiation.  While Newton and Leibniz hold the credit for creating infinitesimal calculus, Newton first applied it to physics (”Isaac Newton”; “Differential calculus”).

Newton also made many crucial contributions to the field of physics.  Newton published his three laws of motion in his book Principia. Newton’s three laws of motion reinforced “the idea that all laws describing the universe should be mathematical” (”Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727)”).

Isaac Newton influenced many people and studies throughout his life.  Newton’s work, especially Principia, is “considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science” (”Isaac Newton”).  Newton and his work leave many wondering where the world would be without his contributions to mankind.

Works Cited

“Differential calculus.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 6 Oct 2009, 21:03 UTC. 11 Oct 2009 .

Hall, Donald E. “Isaac Newton.” Great Thinkers of the Western World (Edition 1992): 232(5). General OneFile. Gale. Sullivan East High School. 6 Oct. 2009 .

“Isaac Newton.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 5 Oct 2009, 11:01 UTC. 5 Oct 2009 .

“Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727).” World of Earth Science. Eds. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 2 pp. 2 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Sullivan East High School. 6 Oct. 2009 .

Her mother had high hopes of becoming a nurse but there was no money for schooling. She did eventually become a midwife. Katherine Baker settled in Laurel Mississippi and met James Anthony Price whom she married. Price was a carpenter by trade but worked long hours at a saw mill to support his family. “Do your best” was a constant refrain this little girl and her brother heard.

Image via Wikipedia

Both parents were children of Methodist Ministers. James played the tuba and Katherine sang in the choir. Their daughter was in love with music and she was provided piano lessons from the time she was three and a half years old. She practiced faithfully and at nine years old she was taken to a concert in Jackson, Mississippi to hear Marian Anderson. The experience was life altering.

At school she was a member of the choral group where she sang soprano and played piano for concerts. She sang at church for worship services and at funerals, weddings, and at events around town. When she graduated from high school she received a scholarship to Wilberforce College. She planned to return to Laurel to teach voice and piano but fate had other plans for Leontyne Price. One teacher suggested she change her major to voice and another tutored her to find her true voice which was lyric soprano.

Image via Wikipedia

In 1948 Leontyne went to New York to attend the Juilliard school of Music. She worked and her parents helped what they could. A white family who her aunt worked for put in a substantial amount to get her through her graduate studies. Opera became Leontyne’s obsession after she saw a production of Richard Strauss’s Salome, based on the biblical story.

Image via Wikipedia

African Americans were not fully accepted in Opera, although the history of African American Opera singers date back into the nineteenth century. New York City’s Metropolitan Opera maintained it’s no-blacks policy until 1950. Now Leontyne had even more work to do. She studied Italian and other languages she would sing in, and she studied the art of acting. It paid off and she received a minor role in the Opera by Giacomo Puccini. but it was her performance of “Bess” that set her on the road to fame.

Image via Wikipedia

Leontyne Price most heralded performance was “Aida” at La Scala, in Milan in 1959. She was the first opera singer to be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. By the time she retired she had three Emmy’s and twenty Grammy Awards among her other awards. She spent some of her retirement writing a book for young readers published in 1990. In closing her book of Aida, she wrote

“Aida has given me great inspiration on stage and off. Her deep devotion and love for her country and for her people-her nobility, strength and courage-are all qualities I aspire to as a human being. I will never forget her.”

http://quazen.com/reference/biography/the-rebellion-of-nat-turner/

http://socyberty.com/history/slaves-at-marthas-vineyard/

http://socyberty.com/history/rosa-parks-legacy/

http://quazen.com/reference/biography/nicholas-winston-rescued-jewish-children-from-nazis/