Thank You. People Need To Breathe And Take A Moment To Think Before They Run To Their Keyboards. 

Sansa : What about the North? Dany : Let it go…let it go…!  I can imagine Emilia Clarke singing. 

Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire and other heroines of the French wars of religion

Between 1562 and 1598, France was torn by civil and religious conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants. During this period, women distinguished themselves as spies, propagandists, political leaders or negotiators. Some of them even fought weapons in hand.

Agrippa d’Aubigné tells in his Universal history of Marie de Brabançon, widow of Jean de Barres, lord of Neuvy. In October 1569, the lady found herself besieged in her home by the king’s lieutenant who had 2,000 men and two cannons. She personally defended the most dangerous breach with a pike in her hand. Shamed by her example, her soldiers fought bravely. Observers recounts that they saw her defending the breach several times with her weapon. She nonetheless had to surrender in mid-November, but was allowed to walk away freely by the king’s command. Another lady noted for her military acumen was Claude de la Tour, dame de Tournon who defended her city against the protestants in 1567 and 1570. They couldn’t, however, breach her defense and had to leave.

Ordinary women also found themselves on the frontline. The city of La Rochelle was besieged between 1572 and 1573 and the townswomen fought in the defense. Brantôme tells that the besiegers saw a hundred women dressed in white appearing on the walls. Some of them performed support functions while others wielded weapons. Their bravery was confirmed by another account who tells that the women acted as “soldiers or new amazons” and that their courage led a street in La Rochelle to be called the “Ladies’ Boulevard”. Agrippa d’Aubigné similarly shows the women fighting with sword and gun. Brantôme adds that he heard that one of these women kept at home the weapon with which she fought and that she didn’t want to give it to anyone.

Another valiant lady was Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire (c.1528/30-1588) who came from a prestigious military family. She married the lord of Miremont, gave birth to three daughters, but was widowed and had to defend her lands. Agrippa d’Aubigné tells that Madeleine led a troop of 60 cavaliers against her enemy Montal, lieutenant of the king. When she fought, Madeleine charged ahead of all others, with her hair unbound in order to be recognized by both friends and foes. In 1575, Montal lured Madeleine and her troops away from the castle and planned to seize the place. The lady returned, charged at the enemy and routed their cavalry. Montal was wounded in the ensuing fight and died a few days later.

Letters written by Madeleine have been preserved and reveal another aspect of her character. They show a modest, polite woman, who cared for her husband’s illegitimate children and treated them like her own. 

Bibliography:

Arnal J., “Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire”

Bulletin de la Société des lettres, sciences et arts de la Corrèze

D’Aubigné Agrippa, Histoire universelle

Lazard Madeleine, “Femmes combattantes dans l’Histoire universelle d’Agrippad’Aubigné”

Pierre Jean-Baptiste, De Courcelles Julien, Dictionnaire universel de la noblesse de France

Viennot Elianne, “Les femmes dans les « troubles » du XVIe siècle”

The way they invented love...

I don’t usually talk about my personal life here, but I really need to vent. 

I have misophonia and it’s ruined my life. I have left jobs, schools, limited contacted with family members, considered suicide, self-harm, etc. due to certain triggers, the main one being throat clearing. It might sound ridiculous to someone who doesn’t understand what misophonia is, but I want you to try a little experiment: count how many times your co-workers clear their throats in a single work day. If you work in an office, it’s a lot. In one of my jobs, it’s constant. 

One of the worst parts of it is the feeling of helplessness and complete and utter rage that comes with each trigger. I’m a 10 out of 10. I feel physical and mental pain when I hear my triggers. It’s like having someone stabbing my brain and my ears over and over again, sometimes all day long. 

There is no cure. 

I’ve tried to get certain family members to care and understand, but many still insist on making the triggering sounds whenever I’m around over and over and over agin. If I can’t even get my own family to listen and understand, how can I possibly explain this situation to co-workers? 

At this point, I’m seriously considering giving up one of my dream jobs because of my misophonia. I know quitting is a dumb decision during these uncertain times, but I physically and mentally need to get away from people. 

Are there any jobs out there (besides I.T.) that involve rarely interacting with people? I’ve tried doing online jobs, but people are so demanding and rarely pay you any money, plus there are tons of scams out there. 

I’m at the end of my rope here. All this pressure and pain has been building for years. I think I’d be better off living as a hermit, but even hermits have bills to pay.

“I’ve also known what you’ve lost” - Damn Mrs. Wheatley

I once saw a parent take their 7-10 year old child to see Prometheus. Needless to say, the child was traumatized by the alien birth scene. 

Also, I can’t help but laugh at the parents who let their 10-year-olds watch Deadpool and then complain about the language, violence, and sexual content in a film that is clearly rated R. 

why the fuck would you bring young children to an 11 pm screening of “Joker.” There is absolutely nothing in that movie for children, what are you doing. It’s almost midnight and this movie is rated “R”

I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t go to late night screenings of R rated movies with the expectation that there will be children in the theater with me. 

At least once the children actually started getting upset she left, but jeez, maybe make sure a movie is appropriate for children before you buy tickets. 

I decided to read Washington Square, and now Catherine Sloper will haunt me all the rest of my born days.

She's the anti-Fanny Price and the anti-Anne Elliot, in that she's in a similar situation (so similar that I almost have to believe it was intentional) but makes all the wrong decisions because she happens to be stuck with horrible men. But her story's still worth telling because she still matters. She manages to maintain her dignity even in her small, pathetic story. She gets broken and it's sad, because she deserved better, yet the fact that she recognizes she deserved better is what keeps her strong in the end.

I should hate it but I don't, because instead of pure cynicism or mockery, there's compassion there, a recognition that even flawed, unremarkable people deserve our care. Almost nothing happens, yet in the week and a half since I read it, I keep thinking about it. I'm slotting it alongside Eugene Onegin as an anti-Austen story that fascinates me because of the sad ending. (And then I'm going to imagine that Catherine moves to Cranford and gets to experience sunshine and comedy and friendship).

Edward’s consort, Queen Isabella, is an enthusiastic book collector. She has many volumes of religious devotion, including a spectacular apocalypse; a two-volume Bible in French; a book of sermons in French; two books of Hours of the Virgin; and various antiphonals, graduals, and missals for use in her chapel. She also owns an encyclopedia (Brunetto Latini’s Tresor, in French) and at least two history books: Brut (bound with the Tresor) and a book about the genealogy of the royal family. She also owns at least ten romances. Among them are The Deeds of Arthur (bound in white leather), Tristan and Isolda, Aimeric de Narbonne, Perceval and Gawain, and The Trojan War.

Ten romances suggest that Isabella is keen on reading. But this is not the full story. Not only does she borrow books from her friends, she takes books from the royal lending library. This contains at least 340 titles and is housed in the Tower of London. As a younger woman, she borrows romances for herself and titles such as The History of Normandy and Vegetius’ text on warfare for her sons.

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, Ian Mortimer

august slipped away | sidney/charlotte