The Life and Times of First Duchess of Cumberland

Chapter 5
She expected to see the fabulous court and instead sees something rapidly becoming dull and monastery-like.

To quote Monty Python, "Oh, you're no fun anymore!"

One suggestion. These intricate marital arrangements are pretty hard to follow.

It might be easier if they were more spread out; i.e. each marriage gets a line for itself.

Also (this would be more work, unfortunately) brief recapitulations of the descents of each spouse (where important). Birth years, too.

A more tabular format would make all this context easier to grasp.

Right now, what I grasp is:

Prince Rupert's marriage to Frances Bard was recognized, and their children became the ruling family of Palatinate; some of them have married into the French court.

James II remarried to an older French Princess.

James II's Protestant son lived, and became James III. His son is married to a Palatinate cousin.

Willam of Orange has married a daughter to a Hapsburg scion.

Beyond that, I'm rather confused.
 
All Stuarts and Cumberlands (and their offspring as of 1690) are listed down the page 3 (no point to relist other than correct the styling of James of Cambridge's kids (all but Eleonora shall be "of Cambridge" and not "of Wales") . And the marriage of Edgar is to the eldest daughter of Maurice of Simmern-Kaiserslautern won't happen till 1703 (his brother Charles of Cambridge will be married in 1695, likely covered in next chapter, or the one following it since the next one will likely be Poland special, featuring pre-election shenanigans of sons of John Sobieski).
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=8217328&postcount=57

ATL marriages other than covered there (meaning other than England, Palatinate and Portugal)

Austria
Archduke Joseph of Austria (b.1678) is betrothed to Juliana-Mary of Orange(b.1679)
Archduke Charles (b.1685) is betrothed to Infanta Maria-Juana of Spain (b.1680), daughter of Mary of Modena by Juan Jose of Austria but recognized by Carlos II as his child (for lack of other options, LOL)
France
Dauphin Louis of France is married to Anna-Maria-Luisa de Medici, his first cousin, as his second wife (since 1690)
Their firstborn son, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1682) is betrothed to his second cousin, Anna-Maria of Savoy, since 1691
Orleans kids not covered above:
Alexander-Louis, Duke of Valois (b.1673), is married to his first cousin, Maria-Therese of France, Madame Royale(b.1667), since 1688
Philippe, Duke of Chartres(b.1674) is married to Infanta Isabel-Luisa of Portugal (b.1669) since the same year
Elisabeth-Charlotte, Mademoiselle de Chartres, is formally betrothed to Prince Charles of Cambridge, created Duke of Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1692, heir to British throne
Tuscany
Grand Prince Ferdinando de Medici is married to Anna-Maria of Neuburg and Prince Gian Gastone de Medici is married to Violante-Beatrice of Bavaria (swticheroo of brides) in 1690
Poland
Jakub Ludwik Sobieski is married to Ludwika Karolina Radziwill (b.1664) since 1686, got from this marriage the title of Duke of Slutsk and a f*ckton of money he plans to use to secure himself a title of King. No male grandchildren for King John III so far.
Lorraine and Bar
Duke of Lorraine and Bar is betrothed to Hedwig-Elisabeth of Neuburg (b.1673) since 1690. Since the Duke is of the same age as Archduke Joseph, the marriage won't be consummated till 1695
Tsardom of Russia
Tsar Feodor III(b.1662)
From first marriage with Agafia Grushetskaya (died in 1688 of miscarriage complications) - son Ilya (b.1681) and daughters Tatiana, Irina and Fotinya (Hellenization of Svetlana to sound more "courtly") born in period from 1682 till 1686
From the second marriage with Marfa Apraxina(b.1664) in 1689 - son Sergei born in 1690
Grand Duke Peter of Russia (OTL Peter the Great) married to Charlotte-Dorothea-Sophia of Hesse-Homburg, niece to Duke of Courland, known after conversion to Orthodox faith as Grand Duchess Sophia Feodorovna, since 1691. Both spouses are born in 1672, no children from the marriage so far.
Sophia Alexeevna of Russia (b.1657) - Princess of Courland since 1683, married to Prince Frederick of Courland, brother to Duke of Courland. Children from marriage - daughter Maria - born 1685.
Sweden
Charles XI of Sweden is married to Marie-Elisabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1675
Surviving children from marriage- Elisabeth-Hedwig (b.1676), married to Gustav-Samuel-Leopold of Palatinate-Kleeburg (b.1676), her first cousin once removed, in 1692, to secure the Swedish Crown in the family in case of lack of surviving male issue of Charles XI
Marie-Sybille (b.1680), betrothed to Prince Christian of Denmark(b.1675), second son of King of Denmark, the same year, to secure "armed neutrality" between Sweden and Denmark in Cologne Crisis
 
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My boyfriend (who has aviation engineering degree) informed me recently that Leibniz calculating machine is another technological cool idea I can work into my TL (along with Hooke's telegraph) - apparently it was not that hard to made, and interested sponsor can make use of them. Now I'm pondering on this idea, as while Hooke's telegraph is a near miss from OTL, this one may be slightly too clock-punk'ish.
 
My boyfriend (who has aviation engineering degree) informed me recently that Leibniz calculating machine is another technological cool idea I can work into my TL (along with Hooke's telegraph) - apparently it was not that hard to made, and interested sponsor can make use of them. Now I'm pondering on this idea, as while Hooke's telegraph is a near miss from OTL, this one may be slightly too clock-punk'ish.
I don't see any good reason why an OTL invention shouldn't be useable. There was also Pascal's Calculator, slightly older than Leibniz's version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_calculator
 
Dmitry is now doing the in-details specs for me on how such a thing could have been improved to be workable (offering to use it for Navy-related calculations).

Leibniz was chosen because he worked for Palatinate/Hannoverian Royal families in OTL. I think I'll use it later. It just went unnoticed by me, as unlike Hooke's land semaphore, I had no obvious ideas on how to put it in practical use. My boyfriend thinks that it can be REALLY useful for coordinates-related calculation (astronomy tables and stuff), and a working model may be made by a capable carpenter using late 17th century technology in one day (it will be slightly bigger that the prototype we know, but that's a byproduct of stabilizing the construction for mass manufacture).
They can also be used in accounting as Pascal's machine initially was.

It's amazing how much of improvement you can get from having one extra tech-savy ruler to sponsor some inventors, and the land semaphore and Leibniz's calculator are relatively cheap to make, but can lead to VERY interesting ATL tech consequences.
 
Saw the thing about "royal monopoly" on Pascalines and for some reason I think of "Apple vs IBM of late 17th century" if Leibniz is invited to work in Heidelberg and is successful in improving Pascalines.
French royal monopoly vs imported designs, LOL.
 
Maybe some of Leibniz's ideas could be used in Heidelberg, and from there "translated" to London given the family ties between England and the Palatinate?
 
In fact, Leibniz' ideas can improve Morland's designs, but as was decided on Appolinis and Dianae TL, it's much more practical for revolutionizing everyday accounting to import Russian abacus (TTL- through Courland) before Napoleonic wars when it made it to Europe OTL.
The brother of a famous author Charles Perraut (spelling? Anyways, the guy who wrote Cinderella) invented really interesting accounting mechanism whose design fault was really small, but I think I'll stop on a telegraph a century earlier compared to OTL.
 
The brother of a famous author Charles Perraut (spelling? Anyways, the guy who wrote Cinderella) invented really interesting accounting mechanism whose design fault was really small, but I think I'll stop on a telegraph a century earlier compared to OTL.

Perrault. And he was also a doctor as well as the designer of the colonnade facade of the Palais du Louvre IIRC
 
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