cahn | Frederick the Great and Other 18th-C Characters, Discussion Post 31

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cahn

And in this post:

-

luzula is going to tell us about the Jacobites and the '45!

-I'm going to finish reading Nancy Goldstone's book about Maria Theresia and (some of) her children Maria Christina, Maria Carolina, and Marie Antoinette, In the Shadow of the Empress, and

selenak is going to tell us all the things wrong with the last four chapters (spoiler: in the first twenty chapters there have been many, MANY things wrong)!

-

mildred_of_midgard is going to tell us about Charles XII of Sweden and the Great Northern War

(seriously, how did I get so lucky to have all these people Telling Me Things, this is AWESOME)

-oh, and also there will be Yuletide signups :D

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From:

cahn

HUH. I guess I'd always thought English peerages were titles tied to a demesne, like I learned about when I learned about the feudal system and everything! English peerages are weeeeeird!

From:

luzula

In Scotland, the "of Placename" naming system was used for gentry (even if you just owned a small farm), not just for the peerage. And you were generally adressed as Placename. For example, if your name is Ewen Cameron, then there are probably hundreds more with the same name, so using either first or last name doesn't help much. But if you are also laird of Ardroy, then it makes sense to adress you by that as your name. (Ewen of course also has a hereditary Gaelic chieftain title "Mac 'ic Ailein" = "son of Allan", and a Gaelic form of his name, Eoghan, and also a Gaelic nickname to distinguish himself from other Eoghans, "Eoghan Mor", or "Tall Ewen".)

If someone doesn't have that sort of name (such as BPC's military officer Lord George Murray) you can tell that he's not a landowner and thus a younger son.

ETA: Actually you will not see Ewen adressed as "Eoghan Mor", but "Eoghain Mhoir", which is in the vocative. Guess how glad I am to have an Irish person who knows Gaelic in the fandom! Very happy, that's what. Oops, this somewhat sidetracked into Flight of the Heron stuff...

Edited Date: 2021-10-11 10:13 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

For example, if your name is Ewen Cameron

just as a TOTALLY RANDOM EXAMPLE :D

...I am glad you said that because I was confused as to why sometimes he was called Cameron and sometimes Ardroy!