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 ( spoilery in nature )

Also, I think I'm coming around to the "Mrs. Silver in the Treasure Island era isn't Madi, it's Max" theory. ( Spoilery thoughts once more. )