Napoleon Bonaparte and the crumbs of hope

Napoleon Bonaparte must be one of the most written-about people on the planet. However, although he got a brief mention in an article about Benjamin Disraeli, who was a great admirer of his, I would not have expected that he would ever be the subject of an article on here.

I was reading about Napoleon recently, and I unexpectedly came across some material of interest. 

I was surprised to learn that after his final defeat, Napoleon had wanted to come and live in the UK. In exile, he even learned some ‘Englich’ in preparation for the life that he still hoped to have. 

He pinned his hopes on various members of the royal family in turn, only to be disappointed. He may even have lost the will to live when he realised that he would never return to Europe.

I never thought that I would have anything at all in common with Napoleon, but there are some familiar elements in a few of his letters. I know what it is like to live for some years on crumbs of hope, clutching at straws and desperately casting around for possibilities in the form of anything or anyone that might help to provide a way out of an unacceptable situation. 

Wishful thinking predominates, and ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ become major preoccupations. 

Living in such suspense is very painful; it is even worse when the last crumb of hope disappears.

Hope, the loss of hope and the absence of hope are major unseen influences in some people’s lives.

Today’s birthdays: Georgette Heyer and Diana Wynne Jones

Georgette Heyer was born on August 16th 1902.

Diana Wynne Jones was born on August 16th 1934.

There is nothing in Georgette Heyer’s novels relevant to the themes of this blog, although she has been featured here because of some similarities in her and Stella Gibbons’s lives. 

Diana Wynne Jones is very different: her life and her books have been mentioned in several articles and there is still more material to come. 

While Georgette Heyer never wrote about magic, witches or anything occult, Diana Wynne Jones wrote about little else. I wonder whether Georgette’ Heyer’s happy childhood and Diana Wynne Jones’s awful one had anything to do with this.

These two writers have only a few things in common.

They were both born in London and both moved around a lot - at least for a while. They were both heavy smokers, and both died from lung cancer.

While both were very tall, they were very different in appearance. Georgette Heyer was elegant, stylish and kept up with the fashions; Diana Wynne Jones was wild-haired and rather witch-like.

One of the biggest differences is their attitude to publicity.

Georgette Heyer kept herself from the world for most of her life. She is described as ‘ferociously reticent’.

Diana Wynne Jones gave interviews and talks; she visited schools; she wrote articles and spoke about the creative process and her life.

The two authors were usually treated very differently by people they met, as these two amusing anecdotes show:

Benjamin Disraeli: Imperium Et Libertas, death and primroses

Benjamin Disraeli died on April 19th, 1881.

Protocol did not permit Queen Victoria to attend his funeral, but she sent two wreaths of primroses with a simple message attached: “His favourite flowers.”

She used to dispatch many bunches of primroses from Osborne House, her holiday home on the Isle of Wight, to Disraeli, for which he always thanked her effusively. Perhaps he was just being polite; perhaps he really did like primroses more than any other flower.

Queen Victoria sent primroses to Disraeli’s grave at his home in High Wycombe on each anniversary of his death until 1901, when she herself died.

Some people allege that by ‘his’, Queen Victoria meant Prince Albert’s!

Either way, because of what she wrote and sent, primroses became associated with Disraeli’s name and were featured in two legacies, Primrose Day and The Primrose League.

Primrose Day

On the first anniversary of Disraeli’s death, many people in London wore primroses in their hats and buttonholes as a tribute to the great statesman who had done so much for his country and the British Empire.

This established a tradition; for decades to come April 19th was Primrose Day, which became an unofficial national holiday until the First World War.

On the day, people made pilgrimages to Disraeli’s grave and to his statue near the Parliament that was his Mecca.

As late as 1916, Pathé News filmed the laying of a wreath of primroses at Disraeli’s statue outside the Palace of Westminster.

No other Prime Minister’s death has been honoured in this way.

Benjamin Disraeli: clothes, debts and a very happy marriage

I have been looking at more information about Benjamin Disraeli’s life, personality and political career. He is still a man of mystery to me. Perhaps describing and contemplating the aspects, good and bad, that have interested and affected me the most will help me to decide what sort of man he really was and how sincere his views were.

This article describes some personal aspects that caught my attention.

Disraeli the dashing dandy

Benjamin Disraeli’s exotic appearance was a major factor in his life.

I have noticed many references in Victorian writings to coal-black eyes. This is odd; I have never seen anyone like that. Perhaps it was just a convention for describing very dark brown eyes. It is also possible that the dim lights they used enlarged people’s pupils so their eyes appeared black.

Disraeli too was described as having coal-black eyes, and he had glossy black hair too. His family was of Italian origin – just like Marie Corelli, he claimed Venetian ancestry - so perhaps this was where the dark colouring came from.

His appearance meant that he could never pass as typically English, so he exploited his looks and went to the other extreme. He became an exhibitionist. He cultivated a flamboyant and exotic image, when he was a young man at least. He modelled himself on Lord Byron and developed a very colourful, striking and outrageous style of dressing in order to attract attention.

For example, he was seen in -

“…a black velvet coat lined with satin, purple trousers with a gold band running down the outside seam, a scarlet waistcoat, long lace ruffles, falling down to the tips of his fingers, white gloves with several brilliant rings outside them, and long black ringlets rippling down upon his shoulders.”

Another notably ostentatious outfit consisted of green velvet trousers with a yellow waistcoat, shoes with silver buckles and lace at his wrists again.

He is said to have worn rouge, powder and perfume too.

He caused a big sensation when walking in central London:

"He came up Regent Street when it was crowded wearing his blue surtout, a pair of military light blue trousers, black stockings with red stripes, and shoes! 'The people,' he said, 'quite made way for me as I passed. It was like the opening of the Red Sea...Even well-dressed people stopped to look at me. I should think so!'"

Men usually wore boots not shoes at the time, which explains why his footwear was mentioned.

Perhaps he was acting a part; perhaps he was making his presence felt; perhaps he just enjoyed the attention.

Other people’s descriptions are better than nothing, but I wish that I could have seen Disraeli in all his glory for myself. He would have been a sight well worth seeing.

Disraeli and the ideal marriage

His critics alleged that Disraeli had no genuine feelings. His well-documented attachment to his wife Mary Anne, formerly Mrs Wyndham Lewis, proves them wrong. He just does not seem like a user or manipulator where she is concerned.

There was a lot of good feeling on both sides; they were devoted to each other. She was exactly what he needed; she provided the financial, emotional and practical support necessary for his political career.

Mary Anne Disraeli has been described as a loud, talkative, over-painted, over-dressed, social-climbing oddity whose speech and behaviour were often bizarre.

Many people disliked her, and Queen Victoria said that she was very vulgar. Disraeli would not permit any criticism of his wife, and when someone once asked him in effect how he could stand it, replied, “Gratitude”.

This sounds sincere, and anyone who can feel genuine gratitude can’t be all bad.

Disraeli had good reason to feel grateful towards Mary Anne. She had rescued him, settled his debts and promoted his political career. He might never have achieved his goal of becoming Prime Minister and a great statesman without her.

She took care of her Dizzy. In return, she got his loyalty and devotion, not to mention a lot of very romantic letters and speeches. 

She was 12 years his senior and 47 when they married, but throughout the 33 years they were together he behaved as if she were young and beautiful. He wouldn’t hear a word against her.

It is a very touching and enviable relationship. They may have seemed a very odd couple to outsiders, but they brought out the best in each other and had something that many people do not, something that enabled Disraeli to say this after Mary Anne had died:

"Marriage is the greatest earthly happiness when founded on mutual sympathy.”

It is good to learn that he had some personal happiness in his life.

Disraeli and his dreadful debts

Benjamin Disraeli’s behaviour towards his wife may have shown him at his best; his attitude towards borrowing money and getting into debt is for me the worst element in his personality. 

He was very good at persuading people to lend him money and invest in his business enterprises.

He had borrowed and lost a fortune by the age of 21. His South American mining investment venture and the publishing enterprise both failed to bring in the huge amounts of money he had hoped to make for himself and his supporters.

Not doing everything possible to support oneself, not living within one’s means, having feelings of entitlement to other people’s resources, sponging off friends and acquaintances and asking to borrow more instead of paying back the original loan all seem very horrific to me.

Perhaps Disraeli would have asked what else could someone with expensive tastes, great ambition and little money of his own do. He said, “As a general rule, nobody has money who ought to have it.”

Perhaps he thought that living within one’s means was all very well for ordinary people, but such rules should not apply to a great but unrecognised genius. Some scruples were luxuries that he could not afford, and the end justified the means.

As Lord Stanley explained to Queen Victoria, “Mr Disraeli has had to make his position, and men who make their positions will say and do things which are not necessarily to be said or done by those for whom positions are made.”

This is very true!

The childhood of Marie Corelli

I described some painful events in the life of the Queen of Victorian Best-sellers Marie Corelli recently. Writing about an episode in Rudyard Kipling's childhood gave me the idea of investigating Marie Corelli's childhood.

There is little information available and much confusion about her parentage. She deliberately muddied the water herself; she obscured her past with a fog of lies and deceit. We will never know for sure whether the Scottish poet, scholar and journalist Charles Mackay was her real father or, as she insisted, her adopted father. It is likely that her mother was a servant and Marie was born illegitimate. She would have seen this as a terrible disgrace, something to be ashamed of and kept hidden; she claimed Venetian blood and gave herself an Italian name in compensation and to hide her real parentage.

What we do know is that despite having a kind man as her official father, she was very unhappy as a child.

King Charles II and synchronicity

I have been doing some research into the English Civil War, the Commonwealth and the Restoration.

I was looking for examples of the swing of the pendulum from one extreme to the other and the way that some people reject one way of life only to adopt one that is equally bad and damaging.

Reading about the Restoration reminded me of a time when I read a lot of historical novels, many of which featured the Merry Monarch King Charles II. He seemed very glamorous to me and much more interesting than most of England's kings. I was impressed by his involvement with the Royal Society and his patronage of Sir Christopher Wren.

I decided to refresh my memory about his life and reign when I got the chance, in the light of all the things I had learned since I read about him when I was just a schoolgirl.

I took some time out to go and meet a former colleague. She put a book into my hands; she said that when she told her husband she would be seeing me, he took a book from his bookcase and said, “Give her this.” 

The book was about the life and times of King Charles II!

No one knew that Charles II was very much on my mind. I have only met her husband once, a few years ago, yet somehow he sensed what I was thinking about.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but the universe often ensures that I get the books I want. I just wish that this would work for other things...

Mayor and Llewelyn Davies connections: a tangled web

This article consists of material left over from my recent post about convenient deaths associated with the Austen, Mayor and Disraeli families. While doing the research for that post, I came across some information, leads and connections that I wanted to follow up. I decided to stick to the main subjects and leave the extra material and further research for another time.

Mary Sheepshanks and her connections

Flora M. Mayor was a lifelong friend of the social reformer Mary Sheepshanks. Mary Sheepshanks knew Flora’s fiancé Ernest Shepherd; Flora at one time believed that Ernest preferred Mary. Mary actually had feelings for someone else:

“In 1905 Mary Sheepshanks fell in love with Theodore Llewelyn Davies. However, he was in love with Meg Booth, the daughter of social investigator, Charles Booth. After she refused him, Davies committed suicide. “

Suicide is only suspected: he drowned while bathing alone in a pool in the River Lune. It is thought that he hit his head on a rock. He was 34 years old at the time.

Theodore Llewelyn Davies was uncle to the five Llewelyn Davies brothers, one of whom also drowned in a suspected suicide pact.

Two exploited women: Maria Callas and the Duchess of Windsor

I remember watching a TV programme about the final years of the Duchess of Windsor in Paris a while back. This reminded me of something I had read about the later life of Maria Callas.

Maria Callas’s 'suspicious death'
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She died at her home in Paris on September 16th 1977, after living in loneliness and isolation for many years.

A heart attack was given as the official cause of her death, but the following disturbing extracts from articles I found online suggest a very different story; a colleague believes that she was poisoned for her money:

“Opera legend Maria Callas was murdered for her $9 million (GBP5 million) fortune, according to film director Franco Zeffirelli.

Zeffirelli, who has made a film of the soprano's last days called Callas Forever, is convinced the singer was poisoned in 1977 at the age of 53 by pianist Vasso Devetzi.

Zeffirelli explains, ‘In her last years, Maria was totally under the control of a woman named Vasso Devetzi. Little by little, she cleared everyone away.

I have been told Maria left a will giving everything to her maid, her driver and a musicians' retirement home. But after she died, there was no sign of this will and Devetzi got most of what Maria had.

Devetzi was giving Maria sleeping pills and amphetamines the whole time. It is legitimate to think that Devetzi killed Maria and then stole everything she had.’

He adds that Devetzi, who is now dead, ordered for Callas's body to be ‘cremated immediately after the funeral service’ and ‘there was never an autopsy’ as it was widely suspected Callas died of a heart attack.”  

Read the full article from 28/11/2004 here.

Unseen influences: positive interference and reverse sabotage

My reading, research and personal experiences have convinced me that unseen influences can and do interfere with and sabotage people’s lives. There is another side to this: unseen influences can have a beneficial effect. This kind of interference can induce positive paranoia, where it seems that the universe is staging things for one’s personal benefit.

Strangers in public places may be used to inconvenience, frighten and attack people; they may also be used in a positive way: this is the other side of the story. I have personal experience of what might be called positive interference or reverse sabotage. This article contains some of the best examples from my memories.

The case of the children and the beautiful sailing ships
There was a time in my life when I was continually looking for new attractions and places to take children to. Rather than disappoint them and waste time and money, I used to investigate a possible venue first to see if it was worth visiting. 

On one occasion, I went to see what an indoor market that had recently reopened had to offer. It was much bigger and better than I had expected; it was full of attractions that my young friends would love. I was delighted. I bought some soup from an African food stall to celebrate. The soup was very warming and nourishing, and combined with the pleasant surprise energised me so much that I decided to walk to another attraction not too far away and check that out too. 

This place was not nearly as good as the first one, but at least I discovered this in advance. I realised that it was near a canal that I could follow to a place where I could catch a Riverbus. As I walked beside the water, I encountered a group of young children who were trying to catch fish even though it was raining. They stopped me because they wanted to show me their catch: they had a glass jar with a few tiny silver fish inside. One fish was floating upside down; I decided not to tell them that it was dead!

They kept me talking for a while; I resumed my walk beside the canal. When I got to the pier, I saw the back of a departing Riverbus: I had missed it by a few seconds because of those children, and would need to wait a while for the next one. 

Unseen crimes: an introduction

It is now quite common to hear people use expressions such as 'dysfunctional family' and 'control freak'. Energy vampires (people not appliances) are following the same path towards general recognition: there is a lot of useful information about them available in books and online.

It is now the turn of unseen crimes to go public. These are not crimes in the legal sense; they are committed by people who operate from another dimension in such a way that their activities cannot be detected or linked to the perpetrator. 

Such crimes are the hidden cause of some runs of bad luck; they may be behind misfortunes, accidents, injuries, illnesses and even deaths. The perpetrators are usually completely unaware of what they are doing and how it affects people: they never make the connection between what has been going on in their minds and what is happening to people around them. 

Someone who did such things deliberately would be considered to be practising black magic; the people who do it unconsciously can be said to be performing psychological black magic, psychic crime or mind-power crime. The motives vary: for example, it can be done in revenge, as a punishment, in self-defence, in an attempt to influence the victim or as a pretext to approach someone.