Recent content by Diamantina

Have any of you read Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld? Is it all right that I am bringing it up? If you have previously discussed this title here on AH.com, please forgive me for bringing it up again. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50253429-rodham?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ZCcPPM0R5b&rank=1...

Wow, pipisme! I just finished reading the timeline from the start. It took me two days. I am impressed :cool: Nice that you made Megan Lloyd George the first female PM in the world. You really ought to write a novel set in this timeline. I would read it for sure.

Venetia Stanley was a walking security risk because H.H. Asquith wrote her hundreds of love letters full of sweet nothings and state secrets and sent them to her in the regular mail. Fortunately for Asquith, Venetia Stanley was discreet, but what if she had a maid who chanced upon them and...

https://www.amazon.com/MISSES-BRONTËS-ESTABLISHMENT-AMY-WOLF-ebook/dp/B00YW5YLAO/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26041504-the-misses-bront-s-establishment In 1844, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë decided to establish a girls' school and published a prospectus, but...

So let us have Brussels for the capital of a Belgian kingdom established in 1757. What next?

OK, but the POD is 1757. Ghent and Liege would not have had universities then, I think. So the capital would be either Brussels or Charleroi?

What about Leuven (Louvain)? The Catholic University is quite famous (I know of it mostly because Archbishop Fulton Sheen earned his Ph.D. there). And since Philip of Bourbon-Parma and Du Tillot brought prominence to the University of Parma in our TL, would it make sense if Louven became the...

Thanks, aenigma, for your helpful entry about King Philippe (the current king, not the Duke of Parma who becomes King Philippe in my timeline). I do not speak Dutch (my closest connection to the language is a very sweet Dutch-Indonesian lady whom I know from church and who is now in frail...

By the way, Louise Élisabeth (nicknamed Babette by her father) seems to have been a fairly interesting woman. She was apparently ambitious for a throne, and seems to have been vital in arranging that her husband be named to the throne of the Austrian Netherlands. When that failed, she seems to...

Yes, Albert I was a remarkable man and a worthy king -- one of the kings who would have been good and effective even if they had no kingdom to their name. And yes, most of the Saxe-Coburg line did not come up to Albert I's standard. Since I do not know much about Belgian politics, what are the...

Good idea. I had not thought of that. Which Belgian cities were the most prominent in the mid-18th century?

The Bourbon-Parmas would have been fluent in French, like most royalty and nobility in 18th-century Europe. Probably French (based on Parisian norms) would have been the official language, with Flemish decidedly in second place. Ed.: The wife of Philip of Bourbon-Parma was Louise Élisabeth of...

Wikipedia states in its entry on Philip, Duke of Parma (1720-1765): As part of the Treaty of Versailles (1757) between Austria and France, it was intended that Phillip would become king of the Southern Netherlands in a deal that would see French troops occupy key positions in the country –...

Giacomo Lercaro, the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna, was considered papabile in the 1963 conclave, but ultimately thought to be too "radical". Lercaro, who had turned the episcopal palace of Bologna into an orphanage and preached about a "Church of the poor", can be seen in some respects as a...