Silverfoxesclub-digest
Thursday, June 21 2001
Volume 01 : Number 279

"Love Lifts to God"

After checking with my partner, who is French by birth, the present Comte de Paris, Henri, is directly descended from Charles X, the last King of France. Several things struck a chord as I was reading Ben's posting: Marie Antoinette, the Revolution and Napoleon, specifically.

Poor old Marie Antoinette was the sister of the Austrian Emperor, betrothed to Louis XVI and married to him when she was 15. Of course, as it was in those days at that level, the marriage was purely political, mostly for alliances and also to get heirs for the throne. There was a "minor" problem, though. The French hated the Austrians, so for all of her life in France, she was known as "L'Autrichienne", which is a play on words in French. It means "The Austrian Woman", but if said in the way the French would say it, it can also be translated as "the other Bitch" - "chienne" being the female of dog in French. She also was extremely naive and said a few things that got her into a lot of trouble; most notably "Let them eat cake", which is not exactly correct. She actually said, when told of the starving people, "Surely there are some croissants left over from breakfast; they can have those." This after several bad harvests in France, causing discontent among the people who felt (rightly so) that their king and his queen were out of touch, sequesterd away with the court at Versailles, while they had no bread to eat.

She was also hated by the courtiers at Versailles and had Louis build the "Petit Trianon" (another small palace) on the grounds at some distance from the main "house", just for her and her friends, along with a "country village" by the side of a large pond, where she and the friends could play at being farmers. ("Nature" was in at the time, thanks to Rousseau and Voltaire). There were affairs (probably mere dalliances) with various men, the most notable being Axel Fersen, a Danish courtier. There was also an unfortunate affair over a diamond necklace, again, made worse due to a combination of her naievity and the hatred of the French court for her.

The Revolution came about over a number of years and in a number of ways too voluminous to try to fit in here. The point I'd like to make is that it wasn't really about the "haves" vs the "have nots", or the rich against the poor. France was suffering from poor, almost non-existant leadership on the part of Louis XVI. The nation was bankrupt, financially. Louis was really not fit to be king, neither did he (truthfully) want to be king. He was just as happy hunting in the woods around Versailles and was on July 14, 1789 - the day the Bastille in Paris fell to the mob. There were the aforementioned bad harvests, military defeats and the fact that, in large part, the old feudal system still was in force, though most of the big landownwers were "absentee", living in Versailles with Louis. Some of the nobles wanted Loius to become a constitutional monarch, like the English King, but Louis clung stubbornly to the ancient idea of "divine right" - that God had put him on the throne to rule and that no-one was going to tell him how to govern!

The nobles forced a parliament on him and things steadily got worse. There was unrest in Paris and in several large cities around the country. Riots were common - people were starving. The monarchy and the Church heirarchy seemed not to care. Then - the lawyers got involved (really!) - and it turned bloody! A certain Dr. Giullotin had invented a device some years before that would guarantee a quick, "merciful" form of capital punishment by decapitation, which beacme known as the guillotine or the "widow maker". Robespierre, Danton, Marat and their henchmen used it with aclarity to decimate the royal family, the nobility and anyone else who had been "tainted" by "noble" contact, eventually falling victim to it themselves (except for Marat, who was murdered in his bathtub). Eventually, the revloution imploded (as they are wont to do, with very few exceptions) and that paved the way for a Corsican corporal of the French Army to step up and work his way to the top - Napoleon Bonaparte.

The point I wanted to make about THIS little corporal, is that when he made himself Emporer, he created a nobility with which to surround himself. There is a distinction made these days (I am led to believe) between the nobility of the "ancient regime" (i.e. who came before the Revloution) and those titles created by Napoleon. By the way, isn't it interesting that the other little corporal, who came about 120 years after him (Hitler) made exactly the same mistake in Russia as Napoleon? Getting caught there by the brutal winter, which eventually led to both their downfalls? At the risk of being boring, I would like to direct you to an excellent history of the French Revloution - "Citizens" by Simon Schama, an American professor of history (Harvard, I believe). He presents the revolution in an unbiased manner, leaning neither left nor right, politically. Sorry this post is soooo long, but this period of history is a bit of a passion of mine! Thanks to Ben again for all his hard work and effort!!

Richard in DC.
------------------------------
From: "Ben Boxer" benboxer@mediaone.net
Subject: Marie Antoinette and Hans Axel Fersen

Richard of DC has again inspired me with his remarks in his latest posting about French history. He speaks of Marie Antoinette and her cozy house on the grounds of Versailles. The Petit Trianon is one of my favorite places in the world. I have spent many hours inside and outside it. In the queen's day, she had a garden of Sevres porcelain flowers there which sprayed floral scents into the air using a hydraulic mechanism invented by her intimate friend, the American, Benjamin Franklin.

I used the Petit Trianon as the setting for a gala party in my novel, "The Seventh Eye," given by Eugenie, Empress of the French in the mid-19th century. Nearby is a large shade tree under which I used to sit beside a lovely open pavilion called the Temple of Love. There I would escape from frantically busy days as a journalist in Paris and read poetry or works of history.

From that vantage point, I could see the spot where, in 1908 (?), two American schoolteachers claimed to witness an unusual scene. They said they saw a pretty woman, beautifully dressed in the style of the late 18th century, sitting at an easel outside the Petit Trianon painting a picture. They could not hear what was said, but servants came to her in a state of great agitation and told the lady something which obviously frightened her, for she gathered up her skirts and ran into the house with them.

The school marms later wrote a pamphlet about the experience and, after much research, concluded they had penetrated the veil of time and had seen Marie Antoinette at the very moment in October 1789 when she was informed that an army of women had arrived at Versailles after marching from Paris, intent upon forcing the royal family to return with them and take up residence at the Tuileries---which, of course, was the beginning of the end for the French royals.

In his posting, Richard also spoke of the queen's "dalliances" with various men, the most notable being Axel Fersen, a "Danish courtier." Thanks, Richard! Fersen is one of my historical favorites! He was born in the same year as Marie Antoinette. Both were a year younger than her husband.

Count Hans Axel Fersen, 1755–1810, was a Swedish (not Danish) soldier and diplomat, son of Count Fredrik Axel Fersen, and he was generally called "Hans." He entered (1779) the French service, was aide-de-camp of comte de Rochambeau in the American Revolution, and later at the court of Versailles became a favorite of Marie Antoinette. He was recalled (1784) to Sweden, but returned to Paris on the eve of the French Revolution.

In 1791 he helped the marquis de Bouillé plan the flight of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to Varennes, and he himself drove their coach outside the city limits, but the king and queen were arrested at Varennes and later executed. (See attached drawing made at the guillotine when the executioner lifts the head of Louis XVI to show the cheering crowd.) There is an excellent French film about the escape attempt, called "La nuit de Varennes," which is worth watching.

Fersen later held diplomatic posts at Vienna and Brussels and in 1801 was made marshal of Sweden by Gustavus IV, whom he accompanied to Germany in the Napoleonic Wars. After the Swedish revolution of 1809 that forced Gustavus IV to abdicate, Fersen was accused by popular rumor of reactionary intrigues and was killed by a mob---ironically, on the 19th anniversary of the flight to Varennes, which was the night he had forever lost access to Marie Antoinette.

He had later, however, worked closely with Marie Antoinette's surviving daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte, in searching for the lost dauphin, her younger brother, Louis XVIII, whom they never believed really died in prison in 1795 at the age of 12.

While in the throes of his passion for Marie Antoinette after he returned from America, Fersen wrote a letter to his sister, Sophie, in Sweden in the early 1780s in which he said he would never marry because he "could not belong to the woman I love," meaning, of course, the queen. He never did, either, and died single and childless.

There were many stories about his probable homo- or bisexuality as a handsome young man which were never quite laid to rest despite his "affair" with the queen. His perpetual bachelorhood did nothing to allay the rumors. Interestingly, a 1930s film about Marie Antoinette starring Norma Shearer and based on Stephan Zweig's powerful biography of the queen also starred Tyrone Power as Fersen. Power in real life was bisexual, a beauty known as "a man who loved men, but married women." I studied drama under the aegis of his mother, Nan Martin, when I was very young, at Schuster-Martin in Cincinnati.

Fersen was a letter writer and must have trusted his sister with all the secrets of his soul. The love letters between him and the queen and, later, it is said, between him and certain men, came into her hands. They must have been whoppers because someone in the family burnt them posthaste after his death, thus depriving history of some obviously choice bits of information.

Not me, of course. I have been deprived of nothing about Hans Axel von Fersen! My fertile imagination takes over where history leaves off, as it did in my novella about ancient Egypt, "The Amarna Secret." At the Snooker Club, I have been slowly working on an audio novella starring Fersen and his silverfox lover, the Abbe Abidiqué, which you will be able to share soon.

I am closing the Snooker Club this month and am planning to incorporate it into the Silverfoxes Clubhouse as a wing, or annex, of the club if enough of you guys live up to your promises and make some donations or buy some club T-shirts or mugs or mousepads! The store is open on the site, as is the PayPal account for donations, but so far business ain't too brisk.

I am presently involved in delicate negotiations for a new site which will enable me to set up a much bigger and better Clubhouse with video clips, hot pictorials, and hot audios which have been locked away in the Snooker Club for paying members only. But it takes money.

One of the audio sections is devoted to my sexy stories (me performing them on tape) about a horny 18th century French monk who roams the world looking for love. One of his great loves is Count Hans Axel von Fersen! It is called "The Swedish Diplomat Series," and I have thus far only recorded Part One. There are seven parts, outlined below. I have attached some pix from the Web page for you to preview each part.

Here is what you will read on the Web page:

Only once in his long lifetime, before meeting the devoted young man in whose arms he died, did the Abbé happen upon a relationship to equal that with Bertrand, which he writes about in "Last Love," and his first love for the old monk in "Beau Geste." In a series of stories included in the "Confessions" under the collective title "The Swedish Diplomat," he recounts the extraordinary adventures which evolved from his affair with a man forty years his junior.

"The General's Party" begins with the chance meeting of the Abbé, 64, and a handsome young man of 24, Hans Axel von Fersen. Hans is newly arrived in Paris on orders from the King of Sweden. The Abbé falls in love with him at first sight, as shown in the illustration.

In "Love Aloft," Hans has been appointed aide-de-camp to the Comte de Rochambeau, the French general who will lead the French forces fighting with the Americans in their revolution against the British. The Abbé accompanies them as the French army's Chaplain-in-Chief. In America, the dashing young Marquis de Lafayette assigns Hans and the Abbé to a dangerous aerial reconnaissance mission over enemy territory in a hot-air balloon.

In "The Captives," Hans and the Abbé, blown off-course by unexpected winds, must land the balloon in uncharted territory to search for firewood to get the balloon aloft again. Captured by hostile Indians, the ever-resourceful Abbé negotiates their release in a most extraordinary way.

Back on the front lines with the French and the Americans in "Yorktown," the Abbé, shown in the illustration conspiring privately with Hans, conceives a bold and brilliant plan to confound the British General Cornwallis on the eve of the decisive Battle of Yorktown.

In "Old Ben's Electric Socket," the American Revolution having been won at last, the Abbé and his beloved young man return to Europe to participate in the Peace Treaty of Paris, joining the American delegation led by silverfoxy old Ben Franklin, the discoverer of electricity. The Abbé proves that he also knows how to strike a few sparks!

Dark and dangerous to the throne, "The King's Secret" is known only to the Abbé and to his king, Louis XVI (pictured). For the first time in history, the Abbé reveals it here in the pages of his "Confessions."

In "The Queen's Secret," the beautiful Marie Antoinette complicates the lives of Hans and the Abbé. Hated by the French and unloved by her husband, the queen falls in love with Hans. In responding to her passion, Hans, who had thought himself exclusively gay, discovers his bisexual nature for the first time, but what is he to do about his adored Abbé, the silverfox love of his life?
------------------------------
From: Edward eho01@alumni.poly.edu
Subject: Specialist on Gay Issues

U.S. Agency Plans to Hire a Specialist on Gay Issues

(NYTimes, Eric Schmitt)

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- The Agriculture Department is advertising for a "gay and lesbian program specialist" who would help improve working conditions for the agency's gay employees.

Gay advocates said today that they believed it was the first time an administration had sought to hire someone to handle gay and lesbian issues in the federal workplace.

"It's a big deal," said E. Julian Potter, who was President Bill Clinton's liaison to the gay and lesbian community. "It takes an enormous amount of time to affect this kind of change within an administration."

Mimicking employee relations programs now common in corporate America, the specialist's duties will include dealing with barriers to recruitment, hiring and career advancement for gay and lesbian workers.

The job posted today on the Office of Personnel Management's Web site (www.usajobs.opm.gov) evolved from a series of employee advisory councils created last year by the secretary of agriculture, Dan Glickman, and inherited by his successor in the Bush administration, Ann M. Veneman.

The advisory councils, which are made up of representatives from the department's various agencies, advise the secretary on specific employee groups, including African- Americans, American Indians, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and women.

The gay and lesbian specialist would help to carry out policies recommended by the department's gay and lesbian employee council that are adopted by the department.

Program specialists for the other employee councils were also advertised today.

"These councils are meant to be the conduits of information and ideas," said Donna D. Beecher, the Agriculture Department's director of human resources management. "The specialists are high-level staff."

Ms. Beecher said the department did not keep track of how many of its 98,000 employees are gay.

Over the years, federal agencies have created special positions to handle issues concerning employees who are Hispanic or women, for instance, but the Agriculture Department job appears to be the first comparable position for gay workers.

"If the secretary retains this approach, she is very knowledgeable about corporate America and the best practices within the human resources world," said Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian advocacy group.

Requirements for the job are fairly broad, including a "skill in and ability to participate as senior resource person in planning projects" and an "ability to assure that written and oral communications are bias- free and that diversity is respected and valued," the advertisement states.

The salary for the civil service job is $74,697 to $97,108, depending on the candidate's qualifications and experience.
------------------------------ From: "luvhog" luvhog@ameritech.net
Subject: humour He's not easy but

I'm not saying he's easy, but.....

he's been on his knees more times than Billy Graham.

he's been laid on more kitchen floors than linoleum.

he's done more screwing than Black and Decker.

he's responsible for more merry men than Robin Hood.

he's turned more tricks than Harry Houdini.

he's been boarded more times than Amtrak.

he's been mounted more often than Trigger.

he's been involved with more animals than Marlin Perkins.

he's entertained more troops than Bob Hope.

he's been at more bedsides than Dr. Kildare.

he's been turned more ways than Rubik's Cube.

he's spent more time under men than barstools.

he's seen more traffic than the George Washington Bridge.

he's had more turnovers than the International House of Pancakes.

he's been under more sheets than the Ku Klux Klan.

he's had more marines land on him than on Iwo Jima.

his body has been declared a national recreation area.

His proctologist entered him in the Grand Canyon look-alike contest.