http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1630
Here are some one liners...
The Year of the Three Musketeers -- It's an historical novel but it concerns the times and characters of this time so I'm mentioning it.
Welcome to Beantown: The Founding of Boston, Mass. -- I talk about the Puritans established a city on a hill and a model for Christian Charity. I also talk about Beantown and the Great Molasses Flood.
The Day of the Dupes: Cardinal Richelieu vs the Queen Mother -- Queen Mother Marie of France takes advantage of the King's illness to push a peace treaty with France than amounts to surrender of France's influence, but she has been duped! Her supporters are arrested and she flees.
The Year of the Three Musketeers
The novel "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas won't be published until 1844 but the stories in the book are set in France between the years 1625 and 1631. This is an historical novel so many of the characters are real people in a fictional plot while historical events surround them. D'Artagnan is a real person though he is really nothing like the character in the book. Queen Anne of Austria (queen consort to King Louis the 13th) is real, filled with intrigues and tragic in many ways... really. Cardinal Richelieu is real and quite the villain both in the story and in reality. So these people were good subjects for speculation in a novel that will remain popular into the modern day. [1] [2]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Cardinal Richelieu has often been the subject of speculation in popular novels, and films. From what I read in historical accounts (meaning real history books) he seems to have loved France and wanted to keep it whole as a national entity and under the rule of a French king. To that purpose he moved Heaven and Earth. That means a lot of people got pushed out of the way, good and hard. His spy network was real and he really did manipulate the 30 Year's War to pit the Protestant King Gustav the 2nd against the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, a Catholic. A Catholic Cardinal set that up... all for the sake of France, and apparently it worked. So, as you are reading The Three Musketeers and you ask yourself, "Could anyone really be this crafty and cold-blooded?" The answer is "Yes. Someone really could be because someone really was that crafty and cold-blooded."
Cardinal Richelieu has often been the subject of speculation in popular novels, and films. From what I read in historical accounts (meaning real history books) he seems to have loved France and wanted to keep it whole as a national entity and under the rule of a French king. To that purpose he moved Heaven and Earth. That means a lot of people got pushed out of the way, good and hard. His spy network was real and he really did manipulate the 30 Year's War to pit the Protestant King Gustav the 2nd against the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, a Catholic. A Catholic Cardinal set that up... all for the sake of France, and apparently it worked. So, as you are reading The Three Musketeers and you ask yourself, "Could anyone really be this crafty and cold-blooded?" The answer is "Yes. Someone really could be because someone really was that crafty and cold-blooded."
Welcome to Beantown: The Founding of Boston, Mass.
John Winthrop, the new Governor of the Massachusetts Company, has arrived in Salem, but Salem is out of food, so they move the new colonists to Charlestown. This is the first capital Massachusetts. In the modern day, Charlestown is a neighborhood in Boston, but in 1630 it is a separate town. Unfortunately, the water supply is poor, so Governor Winthrop moves the group to a spring with good water. They named the town Trimountaine (Three Mount) referring to the three hills in the area. (As the city develops, two of the hills will be leveled so that only Beacon Hill will remain.) The city is to be "a model of Christian Charity,"... "a city upon a Hill" as Winthrop put it. Later, the city will be renamed "Boston" after the city in England and the English patron saint of travelers and farmers. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
FYI, "Boston" is a corruption of the name for "Saint Botolph" who is the English patron saint of travelers and farmers. (Saint Christopher is also a patron saint of travelers but Saint Botolph was an Englishman so the Puritans gave him priority.) A club named Saint Botolph Club was established in 1880 by John Quincy Adams (the grandson of the US President of the same name). Boston is often called "Beantown" due to the distinct molasses flavor of their baked beans. And while we are talking about molasses, Boston is also the site of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. A tank of molasses burst and went rushing through the streets at 35 miles per hour giving the lie to the phrase, "slow as molasses." Twenty-one people were killed and many more were injured. This disaster led to regulations on businesses to insure the public safety, so if you ever wondered how the government got involved in your own business on your own property, now you know. [8] [9] [10]
FYI, "Boston" is a corruption of the name for "Saint Botolph" who is the English patron saint of travelers and farmers. (Saint Christopher is also a patron saint of travelers but Saint Botolph was an Englishman so the Puritans gave him priority.) A club named Saint Botolph Club was established in 1880 by John Quincy Adams (the grandson of the US President of the same name). Boston is often called "Beantown" due to the distinct molasses flavor of their baked beans. And while we are talking about molasses, Boston is also the site of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. A tank of molasses burst and went rushing through the streets at 35 miles per hour giving the lie to the phrase, "slow as molasses." Twenty-one people were killed and many more were injured. This disaster led to regulations on businesses to insure the public safety, so if you ever wondered how the government got involved in your own business on your own property, now you know. [8] [9] [10]
The Day of the Dupes: Cardinal Richelieu vs the Queen Mother
The French King Louis the 13th has managed to throw off his mother's overbearing manipulation, and has been depending on Cardinal Richelieu for advice, but after a lengthy illness, the King has called for a priest to receive last rites. The Queen Mother sees her opportunity to stab the Cardinal in the back, metaphorically, and probably literally if the King dies. She conspires, with her supporters amongst the nobles, to push her pro-Catholic, pro-Spain acceptance of a peace treaty with Spain. But Spain (and Cardinal Richelieu) see the treaty for what it is: the surrender of French influence and eventually, the surrender of France itself. The Queen Mother forces the King to choose between her and the Cardinal. The King calls the Cardinal to his lodge and lays down the law. King Louis supports the Cardinal against Spain, and he will sign warrants against the Cardinal's enemies, including one against the Queen Mother. The King is not sick. The Queen and her supporters have been duped! She flees to the Spanish Netherlands, never to return. [11] [12] [13]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Please don't feel sorry for Queen Mother Marie. She was absolutely horrible to King Louis. He didn't deserve even half the stuff she dished out to him while growing up. She was also a terrible ruler. The Queen Mother was a member of the Italian Medici family so she let her Italian friends run France.... right into the ground. Cardinal Richelieu was one of the Queen Mother's men, but he soon sided with the King. King Louis the 13th knew a bad ruler when he saw one and the Queen Mother was a bad ruler. If she wanted peace with Spain, the decision was easy. Some historians say that the King was manipulated by the Cardinal, but the King was not an idiot and he could hardly do worse than Queen Mother Marie. The Cardinal was competent and pro-France. That was enough. [14]
Please don't feel sorry for Queen Mother Marie. She was absolutely horrible to King Louis. He didn't deserve even half the stuff she dished out to him while growing up. She was also a terrible ruler. The Queen Mother was a member of the Italian Medici family so she let her Italian friends run France.... right into the ground. Cardinal Richelieu was one of the Queen Mother's men, but he soon sided with the King. King Louis the 13th knew a bad ruler when he saw one and the Queen Mother was a bad ruler. If she wanted peace with Spain, the decision was easy. Some historians say that the King was manipulated by the Cardinal, but the King was not an idiot and he could hardly do worse than Queen Mother Marie. The Cardinal was competent and pro-France. That was enough. [14]
This Year on Wikipedia
Year 1630, Wikipedia.
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