The Siècle history podcast

Listening to @TheSiecle yet? Per listener reviews: - "well-researched & incredibly in-depth" - "thoughtful, clearly constructed scripts" - "both amiable & authoritative" - "the opening music slaps" Links here! I suggest starting with Episode 1: thesiecle.com/start/

"Now begins the practice of blowing up of houses […] it stopped the fire where it was done." Diary of Samuel Pepys, September 4, 1666. This was a last resort attempt to save the Tower of London, as the Great Fire of London was approaching it. The Tower stored large quantities of gunpowder and fire reaching it would greatly magnify the catastrophe (especially as many people were seeking refuge there). Conventional firefighting methods had largely failed. Fire engines were few and of limited effectiveness. Water supply was disrupted. Thames waterwheels and parts of the distribution system were damaged early in the fire. As Pepys noted, blowing up houses "at first did frighten people more than anything". But near the Tower it worked. The fire ran out of fuel, "and then it was easy to quench what little fire was in it, though it kindled nothing almost".

Episode 50 chugging along!

I'll be giving a talk on mystics and revolution on Monday! Available via zoom

@guilaugustin But the first 90% of writing any episode is easy; the second 90% is much harder.

@guilaugustin I am optimistic it will be soon!

Merry Sièclemas!

@Bisho567 Not per se. Part of the problem is that I just shifted to a new era and so have to catch up on reading July Monarchy books. Also as I get into more niche subjects I’m having to read more French-language sources, which is slower for me.

@TheSiecle Just realised there is a new episode. Haven't had time to listen so far but it will be worth the wait. Have you found it difficult to research this period of french history?

@fagmyer Can’t trust either one — Louis-Philippe was bald by the time he took the throne and his distinctive hair is a toupée.

@TheSiecle Louis looks like he could be a person of color in this daguerrotype. But not in this painting.

Of course, only two French monarchs (not including unrecognized claimants) have ever been photographed: Napoleon III and Louis-Philippe.

King Charles III is the sixth British monarch since the 1855 photo of Victoria and Napoleon III. There have been zero reigning French monarchs after Napoleon III (again excluding unrecognized claimants).

An 1842 daguerrotype of Louis-Philippe:

Hudson Lowe sending increasingly exasperated reports home to Castlereagh.

In case you missed it — new episode! Come listen to me going slowly mad:

NEW EPISODE: After launching a failed coup, France's blue-blooded ex-prime minister Jules de Polignac tried to flee the country disguised as a noblewoman's manservant. (It went poorly.) But who was the mysterious "Marquise de Saint-Fargeau" who helped him? thesiecle.com/factcheck4/

This map of the Isthmus of Suez comes from Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. It records an attempt to assess whether a canal could be built between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. An ambitious project. Undermined by a surveying mistake. During the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, French engineers searched for traces of the ancient canal and identified remains in the Wadi Tumilat. The plan was to reuse parts of this earlier route for a modern canal. The survey, led by Jacques-Marie Le Père, concluded that the Red Sea was about 8–9 meters (30 ft) higher than the Mediterranean. This would have required a system of locks and made a direct canal appear impractical. The project was not pursued further. Later surveys in the 1840s showed the sea level difference was negligible. The Suez Canal, completed in 1869 under Ferdinand de Lesseps, was built as a sea-level canal without locks. Image source: New York Public Library, Description de l’Égypte, État moderne, vol. 1, pl. 11.

Flatpack is back! 🥳 We jump back into the timeline with a recap of one our current main characters, Duke Karl. We look at how his upbringing as a son of Gustav Vasa and watching two of his brothers mess up being king prepared him for fighting his nephew for the throne.

If anyone can help, I am trying to get a digital copy of "Jean Lhoste (1987). Les Entomologistes français. 1750-1950" AND/OR "Jean Gouillard (2004). Histoire des entomologistes français, 1750-1950." They do exist in DRMed digital versions but I'm region-locked from buying them.

@jchmcl09 @RBrookhiser The July Monarch did come close to war with Britain over Egypt, but ultimately Louis-Philippe (who spent many years in exile in England) flinched and pulled back from his prime minister Adolphe Thiers' belligerency.

@jchmcl09 @RBrookhiser Setting aside geopolitics, both Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III — who had come to their thrones in unorthodox ways — were kind of desperate to win the favor of the unimpeachably legitimate Queen Victoria.

@RBrookhiser March 17, 1778, England declared war on France almost 3 years after Lexington and Concord hostilities began. The two countries were at War 23 times since 1109 with the last being 1815. Of that 706 years, their wars took up 130 years or 18% of the time. After 1815 and the end of Napoleon, they were generally on the same side. I don't count the Vichy government years. What do you account as to the end of their "warring" rivalry? British stability versus French instability?