Comments on: TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 26

By: Mike S

Mike S — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:13:59 +0000

Just finishing off the marriage comments. The hemophilia problem was a later development of the marriage of Queen Victoria’s and Prince Albert’s female offspring (daughters and grand-daughters) into other royal/imperial families, in particular the Romanovs (Russia) and the Hohenzollerns (Prussia/Germany). if there was a genetic transfer from the Hapsburgs, its was the lip, a certain stubborn obtuseness and a lack of concern or empathy for others.

By: robert

robert — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:04:06 +0000

@10 f’ing is spelled with a lower case f unless it begins the sentence.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:53:51 +0000

“Why am I not surprised?” — I might hazard a guess: probably because a picture of the place is on the F’ing cover of the book.

By: John Roth

John Roth — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:00:42 +0000

So they’ve got a plan to use Parley’s Folly instead of just moving elsewhere and nuking it. Why am I not surprised?

By: robert

robert — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:21:37 +0000

Yes, the reference surely was to the Austrian branch, not the Spanish branch, whose inbreeding led to dynastic destruction.

By: Eva Norman

Eva Norman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:21:34 +0000

You lucky Austria (ruled by the Habsburg family) marry instead of making war. (In order to extend your borders)

A standard wittism in old Europe

Eva
The Lurker from the North

By: Mark Swanson

Mark Swanson — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:18:10 +0000

See the last story in Ring Of Fire II. The Habsburg informal motto was (in Latin): “Let others wage war. You, happy Austria, marry.” Historically, most of the Habsburg lands in Europe were acquired by marrying heiresses. (Especially the heiresses to Burgundy and Spain.) Not that they objected to conquering things: it’s how that got a lot of the Balkans.

By: Mike S

Mike S — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:06:55 +0000

“Let others war, you, happy Austria, go and marry.” The Hapsburgs, especially the Austrian branch of the family were famous for large imperial/royal families with lots of daughters to marry off to the rest of Europe’s royal/imperial families as a means of establishing alliances. There’s a reason Marie Antoinette was married to Louis XVI. The Austro-French alliance was a 180 from the traditional enmity that dated back to the late 1400s and the duels between Maximilian and Francis.

By: TJL

TJL — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:58:48 +0000

The Habsburgs expanded their empire and relations by marrying (usually to cousins) – i.e., rather than killing people they used sex to coopt the ruling class.

By: Silly

Silly — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:56:47 +0000

I think the Habsburgs were a dynasty that married into a very great number of the old Royal families. IIRC, this caused some measure of friendship between the royal families of Europe, and also resulted in the hemophilia stuff, although I am very unsure about the last part.