Bastille day

 Taking of the Bastille, July 14,1789

   Built as the Bastion de Saint-Antoine the Bastille was originally known as the Saint-Antoine gate. But during the Hundred Years' War, between the years of 1370-1383 during the reigns of Charles VI and Louis XIII, the gate was extended, creating a fortress to defend the east end of Paris and L' Hotel Saint-Pol Palace the Bastion de Saint-Antoine. It was used as a castle and safekeeping of the royal jewels. However, after the Hundred Years' War it became a state prison instead, reputedly in the 17th century, for the upper class. The prisoners were mainly political prisoners, those that had committed high treason or some other kind of offense against either the King or the state. But the Bastille also held religious prisoners (Hugenots), young rakes held at the request of their families, free thinkers and authors of seditious and sexual material. It wasn't until letters of the royal seal, lettre de cachet, that made the Bastille one of the darkest symbols of royal despotism, even though conditions of imprisonment were considered generally comfortable. Visitors were welcomed, servants were brought to them, books, clothes their furniture and a daily ration paid by the state gave them a luxury cuisine.

   But some of that began to change a bit with the reign of Louis XV when the prison began housing more and more common criminals, whose existence was  considerably less comfortable. The commoners were held within a 5-7 storied towers with each prisoner having a room about 15 feet (4.6 m) across with various, if not sparse, furniture. luckily at this time the cachots, rat infested and oozing dungeons, were no longer in use.

  As the result of gunpowder and arms being stored in the Bastille , days of disturbances and the people, whose fears were being raised by a number of rumors, demanded access to these not the freeing of prisoners, as I believe we were taught in school, because there were only a total of 7 prisoners in the Bastille on July 14,1789. The regular garrison consisted of 82 invalides ( veterans who were no longer capable of doing service in the field) with reinforcements of 142 grenadiers from one of the regiments of Swiss mercenary, summoned by the King shortly before July 14. under Governor Bernard-Rene de Luanay. Around mid morning a large crowd had gathered outside the Bastille demanding the gunpowder and the arms, the removal of the guns and the surrender of the prison. Slow negotiations began when two representatives of the mob were invited inside.

  Around 1pm the mob broke into the undefended outer courtyard and the chains on the drawbridge were cut. An exchange of gunfire broke out and in the mid-afternoon the mutinous Gardes Francaises ( the French Guard) of the Royal Army and two cannons, which were originally supposed to help the governor protect the prison. De Luanay ordered a ceasefire and   in spite of his surrender demands being refused, he surrendered. Then the mob swept in to take control of the fortress at around 5:30 pm.

   98 rioters and 1 defender were killed in the storming of the Bastille. De Luanay was dragged toward the Hotel de Ville, but was stabbed to death in the street by the mob and several of his officers were also killed. The Gardes Francaises intervened and protected the invalids of the garrison  and the Swiss soldiers. The leader of the Swiss mercenaries would later prepare a detailed report on the fall of the Bastille and laying the blame at de Luany's feet by reporting on his indecisiveness.

Regimental Flag flown over the Bastille at the time of the Revolution

Butter is for Barbarians?

 Yes I know that is a strange title for well... anything, but I am reading Harry Turtledove's "Give Me Back My Legions!" or at least trying to read, my cats usually have other ideas. Anyway the book is a slight fictional telling of the lead up to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in present day Germany, and the actual battle. The two main characters are Arminius, prince and eventual leader of the Cherusci tribe and Publis Quinctilius Varus, a Roman politician who's great-uncle in-law just happens to be Emperor Augustus Caesar. So far Augustus has sent Varus, who was stationed in Syria which was a real feather in his cap, if you will, to Germany to make it more Roman and civilized, less backwards more like Gaul. People seem to have the "better you than me" mentality and Varus wishes it was anybody else but him being sent to Germany. But what was he to do? It was not like he could say "No" to the Emperor. Varus makes it to Massilia,which it turns out is present day Marseille, where he is eventually met by the two town officials, one was a wine seller and the other one was an olive oil seller. The three have a discussion about Germany, at least in the book they do in real life...who knows. Anyway, this discussion  has them talking about "The Germans do buy wine, Not much of a market for oil, I'm afraid They use butter instead." Then a thought from Varus arises "If butter didn't mark a true barbarian, what did?" The answer "And they drink beer". So that is where the title of this post comes from to which I say "Excuse me just who the Hell do you think you are and I don't give a flying fig WHO you're related to, your butt is MINE!" The book implicates that the phrase "son of a whore" seems to a favorite.

  Now for a bit about Arminius. He was a German prince, who joined the Roman auxiliary to learn the methods of Roman warfare and bring them back to Germany. Because Arminius rose through the ranks to the equestrian rank, which was just below patrician , and achieved roman citizenship. So far in the book he has won  a battle, with some help from Roman legionaries, against Pannonian forces outside the town of P
oetovio and a friend of his has come to the Roman encampment to tell him that Arminius betrothed's father has just broken his promise of marriage between his daughter and Arminius, and promised her to someone else. Arminius was able to get permission from the senior officer Titus Minucius ( isn't that what A-Rod is having surgery for?) Basilus to go home and get things straighten out.

  So that folks is where I am in the book.  I must say I don't have a good feeling about Titus Minucsius Basilus. I know a Titus succeeded Augustus so I wonder if this is the one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonia    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_order  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/35390/Arminius

  I hope everybody had a happy & safe Independence Day. I know I haven't done much posting lately but it seems to have been a case of having nothing to say and having 20 things I would want to say. Hopefully, I'm in the middle of the two cases, but right now I feel like I am leaning more on the side of not having much to say. But I will try and be a little chatty. Well now that could lead to me being a whole lot chatty.

  Any way,  I've been on a nostalgia trip of sorts. mainly remembering books that I have read or had read to me as a child and wondering if I was being to immature wanting to read them again. "Little Women" isn't all that bad and neither is it's sequel "Little Men". But I wonder if "Bayou Suzette" by Lois Lenski would be okay. I remember my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Heap,  would read this book and others by the same writer, to the class. One of the other books Mrs. Heap would read to us was "Strawberry Girl". This book was a little close to home for her because when and where she came from, strawberry growing and harvesting were, and I believe still are, the main source of income for the community. She said, and this was common through out all farming communities, that the children would get so many weeks off of school, well heck I guess you could say that the schools would shut down completely, to help bring in the strawberry harvest.

  Now that I think about it, I don't know if it's the books that I miss or her.  Both are really on my mind right now. Does this ever happen to you? Things or people that you haven't thought of in years are all of a sudden in your thoughts almost constantly. I hope she is all right.

Happy 4TH of July!

 

 

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, EVERYONE! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIRK!

Aine

  Anine is  the Irish goddess of love, wealth, sovereignty and summer. She is associated with the moon and midsummer.She is sometimes represented by a red mare. She is the daughter of Egobail, the sister of Aillen and or Fennen, and is claimed as an ancestor of many Irish clans

 Dearest Annie,

   I can't believe that it has been one year since you left us. You were a warm. funny, smart, loving and very giving. Us Dirkettes met on the TalkSports board and when things got a bit abusive towards us you started up the original Dirkettes board, but it seems like no sooner that you started it, dear Annie, we lost you. We were so worried about you that we kept asking if you were sick, on vacation or something. My post asking if you were okay was the last one before your brother Neal posted with the news of your death. Even now I get a knot in my stomach and cry over you not being here.I guess the board was too much for Neal to deal with and he deleted the Dirkettes board. It is understandable, but we missed getting together. So I started the Dirkettes return board. partially for Dirk and partially for you. The core group, at least in my opinion they are the core, found their way to the board and we have stayed together for the most part. I hope I have done you proud with it.  My gosh Aine, you would have been so ecstatic over Dirk and the Mavericks win. I believe     that in some way you helped them in you're own way from above.It maybe naive but that is how I feel .  

                                                                                                      Misha    

  

 

Cronaim thu, Aine. Erinn go Brach!