Designer Diary: Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy

Sarah Franklin, the only surviving child of her parents, Deborah Read and Benjamin Franklin.

Though in actual fact she never left the country (and thus never set foot in France), she was a leader in relief work during the American Revolutionary War and frequently served as her father's political hostess as her mother had died in 1774.

Her father, Benjamin Franklin, was of course one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and probably one of the first real ambassadors to another country - France!

Eliza de Feuillide born Eliza Hancock, the cousin of novelist Jane Austen.

Though in fact not really a poetess, she was the inspiration for Jane Austen for a number of her works.

Born in India, she moved to England and then later to France, where she married a French count, becoming the comtesse de Feuillide.

She herself managed to escape to England, but her husband was arrested for conspiracy in 1794 and guillotined. Such was life during the French Revolution.

Charles James Fox, a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career lasted 38 years.

He never truly was the king's emissary, but he did have an interest in France, going on a number of expeditions to Europe, becoming well known in the great Parisian salons, meeting influential figures such as Voltaire, Edward Gibbon, the duc d'Orléans and the marquis de Lafayette, and becoming the co-owner of a number of racehorses with the duc de Lauzun.

He is best known for supporting the American war for independence, even dressing in the colors of George Washington's army.

Johann Michael von Kovacs, commander of the first squadron of volunteer hussars for the Prussian army, consisting of mainly Hungarian deserters.


Hussar officer (Source: Wikipedia)

Two different people, in celebration of women's achievements in science in Prussia:

• Maria Margarethe Kirch, a Prussian astronomer and one of the first famous astronomers of her period (start of the 18th century)
• Margarete Hoenigsberg, one of the first women to study medicine and thereby obtain an M.D.

Gertrude is named for Gertrude, Princess of Hanau, wife to Frederick William, elector of Hesse and Prussian king.

However, she is based on Sophia of Hanover, electress of Hanover and heiress of the kingdom of Great Britain. Sophia was a friend and admirer of Gottfried Leibniz while he was a librarian at the Court of Hanover. She was well-read in the works of Descartes and Spinoza.

Finally, the Great Library represents the Royal Library of Berlin, for which Frederick the Great had a wonderful new building built at the time.


Sophia of Hanover (Source: Wikipedia)

Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein, also known as Baron vom Stein, a Prussian statesman, who played a large part in the reforms that led to the German unification and promoted the abolition of serfdom.

A courtesan was not a prostitute or mistress of a man of rank originally, but a courtier, a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person. In the 18th century, courtesans of the higher echelons had affairs with wealthy and influential people for social and political reasons. They were well-educated and worldly, and were chosen for their breeding. One of the most famous examples was Madame de Pompadour.

Jean-Bernard, abbé Le Blanc (1701-1781), a French art critic, one of the Parisian literati, who through Mme de Pompadour (his patron!) was appointed historiographer of the king.

Bernadette is a fictional woman based on the man responsible for bringing about the great change in French gardening in the 18th century. Until the early 18th century, the jardin à la française was in fashion, but with France's military defeats and the consequential lack of funds, these "French-style" gardens fell into disarray. In the middle of the century Abbe le Blanc brought back descriptions of the English landscape garden, and started a new trend, reviving the landscape scene and inspiring Rousseau to write about the "nobility of nature".

Constant was the father of Françoise d’Aubigné, the second wife of the French king and untitled queen of France. When Françoise was still young, her father Constant was incarcerated for debt, and when freed he and his family embarked on a journey to the West Indies, for he believed he had been made governor of the island of Marie-Galante. The post was not vacant, however, and he returned to France, leaving his family in Martinique. He died a little later, a failure.

Happily it didn't prevent Françoise from rising to eminence using her wit and wisdom to live the life of a précieuse, a cultured and well-mannered young lady, zealous of her reputation. With some luck and good connections, she managed to become the king's second wife.

Jacques-Louis David, considered to be the pre-eminent French painter of the era, was extremely influential (together with figures such as Marie Antoinette) in his depiction of fashion, including footwear. Fashion was becoming simpler and less elaborate, resulting from the emergence of modern ideals of selfhood as found in the ideals of the Enlightenment philosophers.

Shoes had high, curved heels (the origin of modern "louis heels") and were made of fabric or leather. Shoe buckles remained fashionable until the end of the century.


Woman's silk brocade shoes (Source: Wikipedia)

Elena is named for Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, an art lover and a strong woman who was the catalyst behind the emancipation of the serfs.
The character is based, however, on another Grand Duchess, Maria Nikolaievna, an artistically gifted woman and a passionate art collector. In later life she even became President of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.


Elena Pavlovna (Source: Wikipedia)

Two different people:

• Maria Jacoba van Goor, a member of the regents family van Goor, who inherited action in the slave trade and agonized over it in her novel Trois Femme. It is whispered that Maria Jacoba perhaps had belonged to that mulatto race of mixed blood, a combination of European, African and Asian blood. No coincidence, of course, that there portraits of her were kept limited to just the one, and that it was clearly "Grecified".

• My paternal grandmother, Jacoba Francina Bierman, in loving memory.

Eustachy Potocki, a Warsaw nobleman, who married Maria Kątska and received a parcel of land as part of Kątska's dowry. He established a jurydyka, a settlement right outside the royal city, and named the town Maryenstadt after his wife, adding the German "stadt" to please the Saxon king of Poland. The neighborhood soon became part of Warsaw and was razed to the ground during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, after which it had to be rebuilt.

Two different people, both born from very wealthy family:

• Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Italian mathematician and philopher. One of her principal patrons was Pope Benedict XIV. She was the first woman to be appointed professor at a university.

• Laura Bassi (1711-1778), a member of the Italian Academy of the Institute of Sciences and a chair of the Institute of Experimental Physics. She became Europe's first female professor in physics. She was mainly interested in Newtonian physics and lectured on this topic for 28 years. She, too, enjoyed the patronage of Pope Benedict XIV.