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The Last Knock For The Beginning

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Eulalia said:
Quite right, I'd forgotten T. Cromwell was beheaded. An occupational hazard, working for Henry VIII, scarily unpredictable, gives him an earldom and makes him Lord Chancellor, a fortnight later he has him beheaded, and soon after that he's blaming others of his Council for making false accusations, and threatening to chop their heads off too... But (a/c Wiki) Edward Hall, a contemporary chronicler, records that Cromwell made a speech on the scaffold, professing to die, "in the traditional faith" and then "so patiently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged and Boocherly miser, whiche very ungoodly perfourmed the Office". Of course, it depends whose side you're getting the story from.
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I'm anxiously awaiting the third book of Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and hopefully another miniseries with Mark Rylance as the later-life Cromwell. The book is way behind schedule, but is supposed to appear early next year.
 
Loxuru said:
Georges Danton, executed on the guillotine in Paris, april 5th 1794 :
"Show my head to the crowd! It is worth while to look at!"
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... and Louis XVI, just before his execution on the January 21-1793, asking for the executionner:

"A-t-on des nouvelles de Mr de la Pérouse ?" ("Have we some news from Mr de la Perouse ?" (Chief of the naval expedition which he had contributed to bankroll in 1785 ! ))

:D:devil::D​
 
messaline said:
... and Louis XVI, just before his execution on the January 21-1793, asking for the executionner:

"A-t-on des nouvelles de Mr de la Pérouse ?" ("Have we some news from Mr de la Perouse ?" (Chief of the naval expedition which he had contributed to bankroll in 1785 ! ))

:D:devil::D​
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Sorry Your Majesty.

La Perouse arrived in Botany Bay, Australia in 1788, just weeks after the arrival of the First Fleet and Arthur Phillip who would establish the settlement that would become Sydney in the next bay to the north, Sydney Harbour. During the visit his chaplain died and was buried here, there is a charming commemorative ceremony held every year in the man's honour. He may even have been the first European to die in the Sydney region, I'm not sure on that point.
La Perouse sailed on into the south Pacific and was never seen again.
The Sydney suburb of La Perouse is named after him.

6224186137_c35d57651b_b.jpg
 
messaline said:
... and Louis XVI, just before his execution on the January 21-1793, asking for the executionner:

"A-t-on des nouvelles de Mr de la Pérouse ?" ("Have we some news from Mr de la Perouse ?" (Chief of the naval expedition which he had contributed to bankroll in 1785 ! ))
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Louis XVI then wanted to adress the crowd, but he was prevented to do so by rolling drums of the soldiers around the scaffold.

One of the candidates to sail with the La Pérouse expedition, was a young artillery officer from Corsica, named Napoleon Buonaparte. His application was denied.
 
Loxuru said:
Louis XVI then wanted to adress the crowd, but he was prevented to do so by rolling drums of the soldiers around the scaffold.

One of the candidates to sail with the La Pérouse expedition, was a young artillery officer from Corsica, named Napoleon Buonaparte. His application was denied.
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And Hitler's application to art school in Vienna was denied. The moral of the story: Don't deny the applications of short guys with domineering personalities....
 
messaline said:
It was the Captain Peter Dillon who discovered the wrecks of the Boussole and the Astrolabe, his boats, broken down at Vanikoro, an atoll of the Salomon'Islands, in 1826-1827 : we can suppose that he died there ...
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It's a reminder to us in our safety minded and risk averse society that world travel in the 18th century was a dangerous thing. Imagine the First Fleet, 11 small wooden ships setting out in 1787 for the other side of the world, where there were no towns, no cities, no communication with the old country. No guarantee that they could even farm or feed themselves.
The closest analogy today is sending people to settle Mars. Dangerous, lonely and a very limited chance of return.
How bizarre that La Perouse should have arrived in that one spot at almost the same time. What on earth did he think, finding a small British fleet in the middle of nowhere?

Here's that monument at La Perouse from the English language side, for those whose French isn't up to the French.

Monument_Botany_Bay148.jpg
 
messaline said:
... and Louis XVI, just before his execution on the January 21-1793, asking for the executionner:

"A-t-on des nouvelles de Mr de la Pérouse ?" ("Have we some news from Mr de la Perouse ?" (Chief of the naval expedition which he had contributed to bankroll in 1785 ! ))

:D:devil::D​
Click to expand...
And Sir Walter Raleigh, at his execution, asked to see the headsman's axe, and then said, "'Tis a sharp medicine, but it cures all diseases." I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.
 
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