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Best of Pirates
I've kept on rewatching Black Sails, and it is as superb a show as I remembered. Still one of my gold standards for intense, complicated relationships, both of the platonic and/or romantic and/or sexual type. Mind you, due to the Frederician salon, I know a lot more about the earlier 18th century than I did a few years ago, meaning I actually have an idea of what the War of the Spanish Succession (which is raging during the 1705 flashbacks and ended just a year before the main timeframe of the show) was about. Otoh this also means that when Thomas Hamilton is arguing with his father in the big 2.05 flashback and mutters something about the war they're currently fighting being about Protestant rule, I'm going inwardly "not if you're talking about the War of the Spanish Succession, it's not!" (Both of the main candidates - Philippe d' Anjou and Archduke Charles of Austria - were Catholics and sprang from the most Catholic monarchies on the continent. England sided mostly with the Habsburgs because they didn't want Louis XIV's grandson on the Spanish throne (which they saw as indirectly Louis on the Spanish throne), but eventually Charles' older brother died without a son, and thus Charles became Emperor and Britain discovered they also didn't want the renewal of the Empire of Charles V. (i.e. Spain and the HRE ruled by the same Habsburg).
Otoh the dialoge in that scene is heated, Thomas and his father are talking over each other, and maybe Thomas is referring to the earlier Stuart shenanigans, i.e. James II. ousted by William and Mary, and the 1701 Act of Settlement declaring that after Anne, last crowned Stuart, there would be Sophia of Hanover (and descendants). Given Thomas' father the Earl of Ashbourne is powerful in 1705, it does make sense he was of the pro-Act of Settlement party. Otoh, the British aristocracy had been dinstinctly miffed to discover Dutch William of Orange had brought a lot of other Dutchmen to help him reign instead of showering them and only them with juicy offices, and were already trying to prevent a similar thing from happening once Anne kicked the bucket and Team Hannover arrived. Which adds to the Earl's eagerness for Thomas to make something out of this Nassau commission and his bile once it's clear what Thomas' plan actually is.
In terms of Black Sail's narrative structure, it makes sense that both England and Spain are presented as monolithic imperial powers, but in fact Spain had a European scale war fought over who was to rule it during just that era and England was full of internal strife as well. Not that it made a difference to colonial aspirations and the status of slavery, so, like I said, it makes sense that the show doesn't get into this. Otoh given other show themes, it's worth pointing out that of the monarchs ruling England during Thomas Hamilton's adult llife, both William and later Anne were rumored to have same-sex affairs and at the very least had intense friendships. (Clearly, the mistake the Hamiltons made was not to go for a Miranda/Sarah Churchill affair instead. This would have given them the powerful allies for at least some crucial years. (The Favourite crossover, y/y?)
(I also still get a kick out of my discovery that you can connect Captain Flint in three steps to Francesco Algarotti.)
Another history/Black Sails crossover thought is that I find that the same thing applies to Thomas Hamilton as it does to Katte, the tragic boyfriend from Frederick the Great's youth - i.e. the tragic love story, the cruel loss and the resulting Magnificent Bastard determined never to be that powerless again are all quintessential to the tale, BUT I myself am drawn more to other characters and relationships in terms of my centrail fandom interests, because I'm into surivors having to deal with the fallout and the less and trying to continue more than into the Tragic Boyfriends themselves. Now Thomas Hamilton eventually is revealed to be alive, and I remain glad the show did that, so he's only a partially Tragic Boyfriend, but I still find the Flint/Miranda relationship during their post-Thomas decade (and during the show) the more interesting one he had with a Hamilton, because it's so all over the place and hard to define and yet so important to both of them. And just as I have a hard time imagining what a living and aging Katte would have been like, post-show Thomas H. is a blank slate. It makes sense he, too, would have changed as Miranda and James did, but how much/little?
Also, I think I'm coming around to the "Mrs. Silver in the Treasure Island era isn't Madi, it's Max" theory. At that point, presumably Jack and Anne are both dead, and Nassau is under complete British control once more, and I could see Max deciding an inn in Bristol is the safer option, plus she and Silver while having zero romantic interest in each other did make good allies repeatedly in the course of the show, they're both experts at self reinvention, and both decided betraying a person to save that person was worth it at some point. Let's see how I feel about it once I reach s3 and reencounter Madi.
Otoh the dialoge in that scene is heated, Thomas and his father are talking over each other, and maybe Thomas is referring to the earlier Stuart shenanigans, i.e. James II. ousted by William and Mary, and the 1701 Act of Settlement declaring that after Anne, last crowned Stuart, there would be Sophia of Hanover (and descendants). Given Thomas' father the Earl of Ashbourne is powerful in 1705, it does make sense he was of the pro-Act of Settlement party. Otoh, the British aristocracy had been dinstinctly miffed to discover Dutch William of Orange had brought a lot of other Dutchmen to help him reign instead of showering them and only them with juicy offices, and were already trying to prevent a similar thing from happening once Anne kicked the bucket and Team Hannover arrived. Which adds to the Earl's eagerness for Thomas to make something out of this Nassau commission and his bile once it's clear what Thomas' plan actually is.
In terms of Black Sail's narrative structure, it makes sense that both England and Spain are presented as monolithic imperial powers, but in fact Spain had a European scale war fought over who was to rule it during just that era and England was full of internal strife as well. Not that it made a difference to colonial aspirations and the status of slavery, so, like I said, it makes sense that the show doesn't get into this. Otoh given other show themes, it's worth pointing out that of the monarchs ruling England during Thomas Hamilton's adult llife, both William and later Anne were rumored to have same-sex affairs and at the very least had intense friendships. (Clearly, the mistake the Hamiltons made was not to go for a Miranda/Sarah Churchill affair instead. This would have given them the powerful allies for at least some crucial years. (The Favourite crossover, y/y?)
(I also still get a kick out of my discovery that you can connect Captain Flint in three steps to Francesco Algarotti.)
Another history/Black Sails crossover thought is that I find that the same thing applies to Thomas Hamilton as it does to Katte, the tragic boyfriend from Frederick the Great's youth - i.e. the tragic love story, the cruel loss and the resulting Magnificent Bastard determined never to be that powerless again are all quintessential to the tale, BUT I myself am drawn more to other characters and relationships in terms of my centrail fandom interests, because I'm into surivors having to deal with the fallout and the less and trying to continue more than into the Tragic Boyfriends themselves. Now Thomas Hamilton eventually is revealed to be alive, and I remain glad the show did that, so he's only a partially Tragic Boyfriend, but I still find the Flint/Miranda relationship during their post-Thomas decade (and during the show) the more interesting one he had with a Hamilton, because it's so all over the place and hard to define and yet so important to both of them. And just as I have a hard time imagining what a living and aging Katte would have been like, post-show Thomas H. is a blank slate. It makes sense he, too, would have changed as Miranda and James did, but how much/little?
Also, I think I'm coming around to the "Mrs. Silver in the Treasure Island era isn't Madi, it's Max" theory. At that point, presumably Jack and Anne are both dead, and Nassau is under complete British control once more, and I could see Max deciding an inn in Bristol is the safer option, plus she and Silver while having zero romantic interest in each other did make good allies repeatedly in the course of the show, they're both experts at self reinvention, and both decided betraying a person to save that person was worth it at some point. Let's see how I feel about it once I reach s3 and reencounter Madi.
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This said, I don't think Madi would trust him the same way again, either, BUT the last thing we see is that she does stand near him, so some kind of reconciliation is in the future, and also, we don't know what will happen to her people. She might use the inn in Bristol to get some of them out of the country? But like I said, I'm open to all options now. :)
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mutters something about the war they're currently fighting being about Protestant rule, I'm going inwardly "not if you're talking about the War of the Spanish Succession, it's not!"
Yeeeaaah. I mean, they will have a Jacobite attempt at invading in 3 years as part of this war, and one of the articles of the final peace treaty will be making France acknowledge the Protestant succession in Britain, but...it's not the main thing the war was about, no. Not even if you take into account that part of how England/Britain got into this war was William III's extreme objection to having Catholic Louis as a neighbor (Leopold not being a direct threat to Protestantism in the Netherlands the way Louis was, see also 1672).
ETA: I forgot to add, I'm currently reading an essay on the origins of the War of the Spanish Succession, for German practice, and the Protestant succession gets, like, a paragraph.
I also still get a kick out of my discovery that you can connect Captain Flint in three steps to Francesco Algarotti.)
I still get a kick out of your discovery that you can connect practically ANYONE in three steps to Algarotti! ;)
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It has, and I'm still in awe you were able to deliver such a comprehensive summation of it!
ETA: I forgot to add, I'm currently reading an essay on the origins of the War of the Spanish Succession, for German practice, and the Protestant succession gets, like, a paragraph.
Deservedly so, I'd say. I mean, if you'd have asked the avarage Brit in 1705 what England gets out of participating in the War of the Spanish Succesion, I suppose the answer would have been "no Sun King turning Spain into his backyard, and also, plundering a few Spanish ships is always neat", not "maybe the French will ditch the Jacobites in the peace treaty?".
I still get a kick out of your discovery that you can connect practically ANYONE in three steps to Algarotti! ;)
Well, for anyone I need the proverbial six steps, but Flint is easier due to Oglethorpe showing up in his series, and the academic Boswell edition providing me with the crucial Oglethorpe = Tebay intel. Not to mention the earlier discovery that the young Mitchell whom Algarotti is hanging out with while also being in a love triangle with Lord Hervey and Lady Mary (seriously, when did the man sleep?) is the same Andrew Mitchell who later is Britain's envoy in the 7 Years War.
...Someone really ought to do a series just focused on 18th century envoys. They meet all the interesting people, and some of them have sensational affairs.
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I'm still in awe you're able to deliver comprehensive summations of individual books! I can do topics, or shorter works like essays or book chapters, but summarizing a book is orthogonal to how my brain works, no matter how useful it would be for salon. Thank god we have you!
I mean, if you'd have asked the avarage Brit in 1705 what England gets out of participating in the War of the Spanish Succesion
Trade with Spain. Spain having this vast overseas colonial empire, and England/Britain and the Netherlands, as the Maritime Powers, both being heavily dependent on their navies and on trade. The idea of losing trading privileges to France was one of the main reasons the English public got so outraged that they wanted to go to war.
In the final peace treaty, a major victory for the British was that they won the asiento, a contract that gave them the exclusive right to supply slaves to Spanish colonies, to the exclusion of France. The public was so excited about this--"We're rich!"--that they started investing heavily in the newly founded South Sea Company (1711). Overestimating the actual profits to be made out of the asiento (1713) led directly to the collapse of the South Sea Bubble (1720).
But I suppose "Our profits to be made for enslaving more human beings!" doesn't sound nearly as good in a modern-day show as "Our religious principles!" ;)
Well, for anyone I need the proverbial six steps
I know, I was joking about how much Algarotti got around. Good lord, when *did* the man sleep?
Or as you once put it, "Ms Terrell, hot stuff Algarotti was clearly part of the intendended entertainment for the Lappland nights!"
...Someone really ought to do a series just focused on 18th century envoys. They meet all the interesting people, and some of them have sensational affairs.
I agree! I have seriously considered making a Yuletide fandom out of them. (Not this year, alas; I have plans for back pain treatment that has a high likelihood of disrupting my sleep, and have already confirmed with my boss that this is a good time for me to be less than productive at work.)