Category: aristocracy & titles
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The Woman Behind the Man
Hi everyone. I was reading information the other day about Napoleon, and then got to reading about his first wife. So, I decided to share a look behind the man at the woman who helped to make him who he was. Josephine Bonaparte was born Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie. I thought I…
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Down the Rabbit Hole!
It hardly seems possible, but the tenth anniversary of starting Second Son fast approaches: November 13, 2013. (The meet-cute scene between Darcy and a young Lizzy during the dinner at Chatsworth was the first scene I wrote.) I remember those heady days of researching anything and everything, including a deep dive into the history of…
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A “Baron” By Any Other Name, May Not Be As Correct As One Assumes…
Being a “baron” means a man holds a title of the nobility. In the British system, he is below a viscount (baron, viscount, earl, marquess, duke). In those countries without “viscounts,” a baron is below a “count,” which is the same as an earl in Britain.
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The Enlightenment, Austen, and the Regent
Historians are nothing if not epochal creatures. We divide time into epochs and apply catchy names—The Golden Age, The Dark Ages, the Renaissance, and so on. Some span centuries, some only decades. Their kinship rests in that each marks moments—long or short—when everything changed. Such is the case of that ninety-year revolution we call The…
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What Is a “Dowager”? How Is She Addressed?
Likely, when someone uses the word “Dowager,” images of Dame Maggie Smith’s portrayal of Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham from “Downton Abbey” fame. But what does the word “dowager” mean?
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Does the Picture Match the Box?
I hate puzzles. This goes back to my childhood, to those achievement tests the schools insisted you take. My bane (besides spelling) was spatial relations. Those line drawings that you had to fold into a box mentally were the downfall of my existence. Everything else was excellent. Then there were spatial relations where seventy-five percent…