Sasha Clarkson

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Sasha Clarkson has posted 752 annotations/comments since 16 February 2013.

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Second Reading

About Prince of Denmark Christian

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Prince Christian and Charles were second cousins; their great-grandparents were Frederick II of Denmark, and his wife Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, whose daughter Anne married James I & VI f England and Scotland.

His mother, Sophie-Amalie of Brunswick- Lüneburg, was part of the same family which founded the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain. On that side, Christian was first cousin to both the future George I, and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle, who were themselves first cousins.

About Thursday 23 April 1663

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Prince Christian and Charles were second cousins; their great-grandparents were Frederick II of Denmark, and his wife Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, whose daughter Anne married James I & VI f England and Scotland.

His mother, Sophie-Amalie of Brunswick- Lüneburg, was part of the same family which founded the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain: Christian's first cousin on that side was the future George I.

About Monday 20 April 1663

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Re the £20 for papa Pepys:

Sam's informal income and expenses are increasing now, but it's only three years since he was keeping a wife and a servant on £50 per year.

About Tuesday 14 April 1663

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A very long day for Sam up "betimes" - (4:30ish?) and still at the office after 9pm. While the others are in the crowd, hoping (and failing) to gain the attention of the royal pair, Sam has his meal, and then informally inspects the timber store and shipyard on his way home.

Sam probably feels that he has no need to be glimpsed by the Royals in a crowd. Instead he is acquiring his reputation as a man of business; he was doing Carteret's accounts a last week. When the knights come back, Carteret* is with them. Sam is still at work in the office. Carteret then has a conversation with Sam about the Navy finances and Parliament's current ugly mood.

Although Sam is junior, not an MP (yet); and nor does he have a title or (yet) a fortune, he has a higher profile than the knights with the royals via Sandwich (his relative), Carteret and Coventry. He also has regular meetings with the Duke prior to Tangier committee meetings.

* NB Carteret is a baronet and outranks the knights, as well as being of ancient lineage. These things barely matter today, but in Sam's times they mattered a great deal.

About Monday 13 April 1663

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Today for Pepys is 23rd April Gregorian, so sunrise would be around 4:47 local time (no daylight-saving remember). So, by 5 o'clock it would have been light for a considerable time: there's a long twilight at this latitude. "Betimes" probably meant first light before dawn, or earlier - or with the birds' dawn chorus!

About Sunday 12 April 1663

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Type in "Seething lane to Whitehall" on Google maps.

Even by the most direct route, it's the best part of three miles: a significant walk, I'd have thought, for a woman encumbered by Sunday finery. Elizabeth must have had some sturdy footwear. Pavements (sidewalks) barely existed (until after 1666 in London), and roads were full of potholes, dirt and worse ...

I'm a fast walker, and I reckon it would take me 35 minutes or so on my own, but walking in company is slower: I guess that the walk took them an hour.

Creed seems to be using Sandwich's Whitehall lodgings at the moment: he has his family home in Oundle, about 20 miles from Brampton/Hinchinbrooke, but appears to have no lodgings of his own in London. Of course, as a bachelor he wouldn't need a household. His recent appointment as Treasurer to the Fleet is over, but he's still acting as Sandwich's retainer: presumably waiting for something else "to turn up".

About Wednesday 8 April 1663

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The Oxford/Cambridge Mater of Arts was not and is not a postgraduate degree in the sense that it is at most modern universities: in Pepys' day it was the main undergraduate degree. In the following centuries, the (originally) intermediate degree known as the baccalaureate gradually became more important, and became the main undergraduate qualification.

MA is not a qualification, but a rank, denoting a full voting member of the University.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mas…

NB 'Bachelor' as in a degree has a different linguistic root to 'bachelor' as in an unmarried man, but the two words merged in English.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ba…

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ba…

About Thursday 9 April 1663

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It may be worth noting that Hayter is Pepys' clerk, not just an office clerk, so Sam perhaps sees this as an attack upon himself personally, especially as Hayter is high in his regard.

About Thomas Hayter

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"emptions"
... perhaps he had a sign reading "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) on his wall? ;)

About Tuesday 7 April 1663

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Will's coming up 21, too old to be beaten, and probably the wrong class too. Remember he is Blackborne's nephew. He is also far more than a servant, much more like a personal assistant.

Sam stands up for Tom Hater, whom he greatly esteems, and whose career he assists. Ironically, Hater would eventually get the bumbling Minnes' job as Comptroller of the Navy!

About Tuesday 31 March 1663

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"... hearing by and by ..."
Remember that home and office are in the same building, so comings and goings are likely to be observed and, perhaps, attract comment.

About Sunday 29 March 1663

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The "National Debt" didn't exist as a formal concept then, nor indeed was there a budget.

The government's inability to manage its finance, and the cost of the Dutch Wars, led to the disastrous "The Great Stop of the Exchequer" in 1672, after the Diary had ended.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sto…

In the longer term, the desire to avoid a repetition led to the creation of the Bank Of England in 1694.

About Saturday 28 March 1663

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Trusting Papa Pepys to run his own affairs:

The trouble is, they aren't entirely his own affairs any longer. He and Sam were joint executors of Uncle Robert's estate, but Sam is the active executor doing the work. In particular, Sam is paying the bills: even though they do not know fully what the estate is worth.

An added complication is that people of John's station often bought their daily goods on credit, which makes keeping tabs on expenditure more difficult. Sam clearly doesn't want to upset his "poor" dad, but if he's settling the bills, he needs to know what the outgoings are.

About Thursday 26 March 1663

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“I love you Sam”

“I love you Bess”………."

I wonder?
Perhaps they called each other 'Mr Pepys' and "Mistress Pepys" even in bed?

... unless she referred to his/their secret ambitions:

"Arise Sir Samuel" (giggle)
".... You do please me greatly Lady Pepys"
etc ;)

About Monday 23 March 1662/63

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"Thence to see my Lord Sandwich, and who should I meet at the door but Major Holmes."

I love the conversational style Sam uses so often: "Then in comes ..."

Anyway ... phew!

About Thursday 19 March 1662/63

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"... by which I learned a great deal, and was glad of his company." That is the key to Pepys' success: natural gregariousness, natural curiosity, and an ability to listen as well as talk.

"pride and corruption" I suspect that the meaning of "pride" here is more akin to arrogance, so I interpret the phrase as "an arrogant sense of entitlement".

Of course, what is considered to be corrupt varies greatly from society to society and from era to era - and can change in a generation. Sam is a child of the Commonwealth and Protectorate after all!