Tag: French history
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The Anarchist Aristocrat: The Chimerical Career of Joseph Fouché
“And first, let me not be considered responsible either for the Revolution, its consequences, or even its direction. I was a cipher.” – Joseph Fouché, Memoirs (1824) “Turning later to the duke of Otranto, he [Napoleon] said: ‘The man is merely a schemer. He is prodigiously clever and facile with a pen. He is a…
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The Tangled Web We Weave: The Royal Houses of France and England in The Gourd and the Stars
“Henry was eighteen when we met, and I was queen of France. He came down from the north to Paris with a mind like Aristotle’s and a form like mortal sin. We shattered the Commandments on the spot.” – The Lion in Winter “Marguerite and Alys [are Constance of Castile’s daughters], but you shouldn’t worry…
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America’s Eternal Sweetheart: The Transatlantic Love Affair with Lafayette
“Lafayette, we are here.” – Col. Charles E. Stanton, visiting Lafayette’s tomb after the arrival of American forces in Paris during WWI “As I admired this noble countenance of stone, a wry smile crept across the [French] curator’s face. Suddenly the silence was broken. ‘Why,’ asked the curator, ‘should we have a bust of Lafayette?’”…