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Alex Deane

10 Jan, 12 tweets, 3 min read

People have lockdown projects; here's mine. Characteristically low effort. I'll post a daily thread about an anecdote from #history that interests me. Except I don't commit to doing it daily. You may find none of them interesting.
With that ROUSING commencement, here's the 1st.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte joined the French army when his ambitions of following his father into the law were stymied by his father’s death. He was a brilliant soldier & gained rapid advancement.

He married a woman who’d previously been engaged to Napoleon & was the Emperor’s older brother’s wife’s sister; those Bonapartes liked to keep things tight (hey Joseph, be King of Naples! No, be King of Spain!).

@HansaProjekt

In the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Prussians under Blücher were taking a beating from the French. Lübeck is a beautiful Hanseatic port (hi, @HansaProjekt!). In 1806, at the Battle of Lübeck, Bernadotte and co caught Blücher’s retreating army & marmalised them.

There were some Swedes fighting alongside the Prussians. Bernadotte captured them, and treated them courteously and well (& tried in vain to treat Lübeck well, as his men sacked it).

The Swedes headed home to a problem. The king was heirless & going senile. Who to get to be the new king? Hey, how about that nice Frenchman who was so decent to us at the Battle of Lübeck? Plus, close to the Emperor, can’t hurt…

@RoyalsSwedish

Thus a Frenchman came to be ushered onto the throne of Sweden, giving us the House of Bernadotte which reigns to this day (@RoyalsSwedish fan account).

What’s the lesson today? When you have got the whip hand, sometimes it's not only right, but it pays, to be nice. People remember it. This is lesson I believe to be applicable beyond one’s behaviour to defeated 19th century Swedish minor nobility.

Anyway, he was Crown Prince for a while, but as the king was well & truly gone by then he was running things PDQ. What did the newly Swedish Crown Prince do? Why, he took his new country to war. Against France. What can one say? The man had élan.

Wisdom of crowds. Hashtag for this?

The people have spoken.

Adding #deanehistory hashtag to this thread so the first one is picked up with it.

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Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

12 Jan

This is the 3rd instalment of #deanehistory.

John of Bohemia, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor, was also known as John the Blind. He was – and I may have given this away – visually impaired.

He didn’t let this get in the way of his empire building & army leading and, as was the way at the time, in the end all roads led to having a scrap with the English. At Crécy, in 1346.

It is an understatement to say that it was a bad day for the French & their allies. England’s forces, under Edward III and his son the Black Prince, demonstrated the superiority of the longbow in a comprehensive defeat of a much larger force.

Read 8 tweets

Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

11 Jan

Here is the second instalment of #deanehistory (the people have spoken on the hashtag). It is shorter & more graphic than yesterday’s.

Lord Haw Haw, real name William Joyce, was the voice of the Nazis on air during the Second World War & was of course the last person executed for treason in the U.K. - so far, so well known.

Less well known is that he was captured by a British intelligence unit after the war - specifically by a Jewish German who’d fled the nazis and signed up with us.

Perfect, yes? But it gets better.

Read 4 tweets

Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

10 Jan

https://twitter.com/SocialM85897394/status/1347991233466138624

I don’t normally quote RT but her own words are clear. “No member state is ALLOWED” to get its own vaccines.

https://twitter.com/SocialM85897394/status/1347991233466138624

Throughout our interminable process of getting out of the EU, remainers would (whilst never listening) demand reasons for leaving - “but don’t say sovereignty, it’s meaningless, and we’re sovereign in the EU in any case,” etc etc.

Well...

Although to be fair to them I do recall them saying - if we Brexit there will be a punishment budget, half a million unemployed, an outrageous and repugnant ability to source our own vaccines, supergonorrhoea... so we should see things in the round really.

Read 4 tweets

Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

9 Jan

As it seems that everyone right of centre will be purged from this platform in due course, whilst acknowledging that my lowly position means it’ll be a while before they get around to me I thought I’d go for broke whilst I’m still here.

Here goes.

Parody accounts aren’t funny.

Men & women are different.

Tax cuts are good. They stimulate economic growth & let people spend more of their own money.

Alcohol is enjoyable. So is sugar.

Judge people on merit, not gender or ethnicity.

There is such a thing as the canon in the arts. Good, better, best.

I don’t care what box sets you’ve watched.

Cycling enthusiasts are weirdly culty and self-righteous. Which is unfair on a perfectly good form of transport.

America is a force for good in the world.

Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty.

Read 10 tweets

Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

7 Jan

Let us strike a bargain, you possess a gift
But I can speak the jargon
That can give your gift the needed lift.
You possess the know-how
And I command the show-how
Oh, how successful you could be ... with me!
Eglantine, Eglantine!
Oh, how you'll shine!

1/8

Your lot and my lot have got to combine.
Eglantine, Eglantine!
Hark to the stars
Destiny calls us
The future is ours!
As the shine sells the boot,
And the blossoms the fruit
All you need to succeed in your plan
Is the proper ally upon whom to rely
And I'm your man.

2/8

For I have an acumen that's nigh superhuman.
I sell things that nobody can!
So I humbly suggest
You accept to my behest
I'm your man!
Eglantine, Eglantine
Oh, how you'll shine
Your lot and my lot have got to combine
Eglantine, Eglantine
Hark to the stars
Destiny calls us ...

3/8

Read 9 tweets

Alex Deane

@ajcdeane

7 Jan

Much hypocrisy seen in attitudes about political violence. But don't avoid the obvious point- what happened in DC was appalling.

Worse, Schumer is right: the President “egged on” the mob- that “this president bears a great deal of the blame.”

A terrible end to the Presidency.

Why do I say this- a Brit, not an American- do I think my view makes a difference? Of course not. But
- this is a site for opinions;
- we all care about what happens in the USA;
- sometimes I've been as close to a Trump supporter / apologist as UK / intl media allows on air.

So I look aghast at the attitude on show in the twilight of the Presidency. It destroys so much of any legacy, and affirms some of the worst criticisms against which some have defended the President over years.

Read 6 tweets

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