Room 2D

From Februs 39, the start of a new four-part coming-of-age comic novel written by David Harrison and drawn by Paula Meadows. This series supposedly makes up the first of three instalments, but I haven’t come across the other two.  

Penultimate part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 44 Theroigne de Mericourt was born Anne-Joseph Mericourt into a rich Liege family in 1762. Her upbringing was chaste and modest, the young girl brought up in the Church by God-fearing parents. It was their intention that their young daughter should take holy orders and indeed she took instruction for four years in her teens with a view to entering a convent. However, it was not to be for Anne-Joseph Mericourt, who had blossomed into a truly beautiful young woman, decided that the cloistered life of the convent was not for her. To the chagrin of her devoted parents Anne-Joseph decided, in 1784, to seek her fame and fortune in Paris, for her beauty had attracted much favourable comment. She changed her name to Theroigne, presumable because she felt that Anne-Joseph lacked a little glamour. It was not long before she became the favourite of the Paris Opera set, always seen at opening nights, always the Belle of the Ball. She wa

Twelfth part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 43 Catherine the Second of Russia, later to be known as Catherine the Great, was born Sophia Augusta Fredericka, Princess of Auhalt-Zerbst on 2nd May 1729 in Stettin, Prussia. Her father was Prince Christian August, a general in the Prussian army but the driving force in the young Sophia’s eventual rise to fame was her mother, Princess Johanna Elizabeth, a woman of great ambition. The seeds of influence were sown early when Prince Karl August, one of Princess Johanna’s brothers, became engaged to Elizabeth, the Empress of Russia, but the boy died unexpectedly in 1727 before any nuptials could be arranged. Johanna’s cousin, Karl Frederick, had also married the daughter of Peter the Great, so the strength of relationship between the Prussian and Russian courts was firmly established by the early part of the 18th century. When Empress Elizabeth sought a wife for her son and successor, Peter III, much deep and earnest corresponden

Eleventh part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 42 The future Countess du Barry was born on August 19th 1743 in Vaucoleurs, France, as humble Jeanne Becu, a child born out of wedlock to a pastry cook named Annie Becu. It is suggested that Jeanne’s father may well have been a friar who served as spiritual advisor to the local convent (the irony is not lost!) a man named Jean Baptiste Gormand of Vaubernier who was certainly Annie Becu’s lover. Thanks to the friar’s influence, Jeanne had a better education than she might have expected at the convent of Saint-Aure in Paris. At fifteen she left school and took on several positions as lady’s maid to the wealthy and influential, thus she had access to the nobility of Paris. In 1763 she met a notorious rake named Jean du Barry, and eventually became his mistress. He was known in Paris as ‘Jean the Vile’ and was frequently interviewed by the police for his custom of prostituting his lovers, Jeanne Becu included. It appears from journ

Tenth part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 41 The name of Princess Irene Batthyany is not one which is familiar to most people but, nevertheless, she had a brief flirtation with both fame and humiliation as the beautiful wife of Count Lajos Batthyany whose reign as President of Hungary was brief and tragic, ending in his execution. The widowed Princess, though spared such a fate, was nonetheless subject to a very public shame which forms the basis of this particular ‘Moment’. In the mid 19th century, Europe was controlled by mighty empires, one of the biggest being the Austrian Empire which then included part of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary. The year of 1848 became known as the year of revolution because, almost simultaneously, many of these subordinate nations began to flex their muscles and demand varying degrees of self government. In the forefront of these nations was Hungary.