french revolution

There are always those who see opportunity in chaos. The destruction of the old order leaves gaps that need filling, and “men of vision” see nobody better than themselves to fill those gaps. This does require a certain moral flexibility, of…

Nobility in pre-Revolutionary France was something of a double-edged sword. Of course it came with great privilege, and the nobles of France were permitted behaviour that was unthinkable for those of lower orders. But it also came with…

There’s nothing that epitomises the attitudes of pre-Revolutionary France quite like the job of executioner. The men in this job served the royal will, dealing out death and torture as decreed by the upper classes. Officially they were…

Art knows no boundaries, it is said. But before the mass media that arrived in the late 19th century, art in the main was a very upper class affair. And art itself became highly formalised in turn. The strictures that the early surrealists…

Clotworthy Skeffington the Fifth, heir to the Earldom of Massereene, was born on the 28th January 1742 in County Antrim. His impressive name came from John Clotworthy, a son of the High Sheriff of Antrim who backed the right horse during…

Germaine de Stael, one of the most extraordinary figures in an extraordinary period of European history, was born as Anne Louise Germaine Necker in Paris in 1766. Her parents were Swiss, and though not noble were of high station. Her…

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and died in 1838. He lived through probably the most significant period in French history, and was involved in it throughout. In this he is practically unique, as nobody else managed…