#coololdlady

[moyrascott]

Lee Krasner. What a cool old lady. Love her. Love her art. She totally rocks. Thanks @catherine.pring for the spur to come see her work. Aliveness. Matters. #artmatters #coololdlady #beyourownicon (at Barbican Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1hh4eCHt_b/?igshid=1gvapxalc2vzl

[sarcasticarepa]

#TrueStory leaving the #gym I walked by an #oldlady walking 2 #dogs #smoking a #blunt. She says to me, would u like some young man? I kindly refused. #EndAOfStory #CoolOldLady #marijuana #weed #LegalizeIt #nyc #NoHarm 😂 #funny #jokes #comedy #astoria

[yespolkadotkitty]

Doing my civic duty earlier, helping a little old lady down the hospital steps. We made small talk as we went and I asked her what she had been up to lately.

She told me she had been in town yesterday and at a loose end so went to the cinema to see, of all things, Deadpool. I asked her what she thought of it.

"It was exciting. They should have more films like that on the over 60s club. And I like that Ryan Reynolds. He looks like he could be a bit dirty."

I want to be her when I get old.

[rawmythistory-blog]

A middle-aged lady with an umbrella holds off the Bavarian coup of 1886. By herself.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Franconia and Swabia, sometimes known as "The Fairy Tale King," did a lot of cool stuff. If you're a theater or ballet aficionado, you might know that Tchaikovsky was fascinated by the handsome, brooding, young monarch and may have used him as an inspiration for Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. Ludwig, so far as anybody knows, was not in love with a swan, but he did have a passion for nature and referred to his  closest (and lifelong) female confidante as "dove" (she in turn called him "eagle," because he was rough like that). He was also known as "The Mad King" which is always a cool epithet, even if in this case it was unfairly given by a group of traitorous counselors. Since our raw moment today is only peripherally about Ludwig, we're not going to do him justice and go into his many accomplishments. At some point we might talk about how he saved Richard Wagner's career (the opera guy, not the modern ornithologist), but that's a story for another day. Suffice it to say that Ludwig's obsession with the arts and general unsociability did not endear him to his advisors. When he put the royal family deep into debt with his patronage of theater and architecture, they began to suggest that he should be limited in his powers. He, in turn, suggested that he was the King of Bavaria, and they could be replaced pretty easily (Richter, 1954, "The Mad Monarch: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria;" McIntosh, 1982, "Ludwig II of Bavaria: the Swan King").

Ludwig II, doing what he did best: brooding and looking mysterious

He also had fantastic taste in architecture. Though he put his family into debt building castles, including this one (Neuschwanstein, or New Swan Stone), the castles have been a major source of income for Bavaria, via tourism.

If we can learn anything from Jafar, it's that royal counselors do not like to be upstaged (also how to dress. I don't think there's a snappier man in fiction than the Vizier of Agrabah). The counselors, primarily lords and dukes, decided to make a pre-emptive move and stage a coup, after which they intended to install Prince Luitpold, Ludwig's uncle, as regent. Luitpold wasn't the worst, and insisted that proof be provided that his nephew was truly out of his mind. The conspirators went to work drumming up that poof. To give you a sense of the sort of slander they cooked up, and the meager evidence they used, Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (certified gangster and the basis for Admiral Gilad Pellaeon in Star Wars) referred to their report as "rakings from the King's wastepaper-basket and cupboards."(Blunt, 1970, "The Dream King: Ludwig II of Bavaria," pg 216). The report was submitted to a group of corrupt psychiatrists at the Munich Asylum, who signed it having never met or examined Ludwig.*

How anyone could doubt the sanity or general Kingliness of a man with facial hair this stylin' is beyond me.

Early in the morning (about four a.m.)  of June 10th, 1886, the conspirators assembled a large commission, including von Gudden (the leading "psychiatrist"), to enter the castle and seize the king. Fortunately for Ludwig, at least two of his subjects remained loyal: a coachman named Fritz Osterholzer, who gave the king warning in time to call for the police, and the main character of this raw moment: Princess Dona Esperanza Felicitas Alexandra de Sarachaga Lobanova Rostovskaya, Braroness Truchsess von Wetzhausen, Baroness of Sarachaga, Uria, Echevarria, Azpiroz, Urrutia and Medibil (Richter, 1954, "The Mad Monarch: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria").

People called her "Spera" for short.

The Baroness was the Russian-born daughter of a major Spanish nobleman who married a Russian princess. She was raised in large part by the Empress of France, Marie Therese, after her father did like any respectable Spanish noble married to a Russian princess would do and got killed in a duel (it's worth noting that his own father, Spera's grandfather, had done the same). After the French Revolution of 1848, Spera went to St. Petersburg to be raised as a princess. She is said to have claimed that her childhood was both good and bad, because on the one hand she had many people who loved her, and on the other they kept dying. This emotional solidity might have paved the way for her brave defense of Ludwig, or perhaps her consistent good-treatment by monarchs across Europe engendered her loyalty. Or maybe it was because, by the time of the coup in Bavaria, she was married to Ludwig II's First Minister; Baron Friedrich Truchsess von Wetzhausen (Prince Philipp zu Euelenburg-Hertefeld, 1934, "The End of King Ludwig II and Other Experiences;" Richter, 1954, "The Mad Monarch: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria").

Spera wasn't just loyal - she was known as a wit and an incurable prankster. Early in her marriage to the Baron took him on a long hike that ended at a beautiful, secluded palace. She squeed over the place, and he was so taken with it and with her enthusiasm that he marched up to the door and demanded to know who the owner was, that he might buy it for his wife (these were some pretty baller people, you understand). The gardener who answered was a little confused, and replied that the owner was right in front of him - the palace belonged to Spera (Prince Philipp zu Euelenburg-Hertefeld, 1934, "The End of King Ludwig II and Other Experiences).

So when the conspirators' men charged the castle, as the police were on their way, they were confronted by a furious 47 year old Baroness. Among the mob were some noblemen, and she (bff of Queen Isabella of Spain, and of course a good friend of King Ludwig's, and  so on) knew them personally.

"COUNT TORRING!" She cried, "YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE ASHAMED OF YOU!" (Richter, 1954, "The Mad Monarch: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria," pg 265)

This probably gave Count Torring pause. Either way, the commission to arrest Ludwig stood still for a moment, stymied by the loyal Baroness. Spera, however, wasn't remotely finished with them, and raised her umbrella like a sword. Had her father and grandfather not been long dead from their duels, one likes to believe they would have been very proud.

"Then, with raised umbrella, she attacked the gendarmes - and the line really broke." (ibid).

The commission was routed, and the police given time to arrive to their king's defense. But he probably didn't need the cops, with Spera at his castle door.

"I shall not leave the King to these traitors!" (ibid) she shouted after the confused commission, and ran to find Ludwig. He was in his appartments, having hidden when Fritz Osterholzer gave him the sign to do so. Spera identified the conspirators she had seen in the commission to the king by name, which enabled him to have them arrested.

Unfortunately for Spera and Ludwig, the coup was eventually successful, but less so than it would have been otherwise, and certainly much later on. Thanks, almost entirely, to Baroness Spera and her umbrella of doom.

Spera lived a long, super cool life, and we'll probably deal with her again some time.

  So this picture is obviously not of Baroness Spera, but it's as close as I could get. Bizarrely, nobody seems to have depicted this raw moment in art.

*Ok, one of them, von Gudden, of them did meet him once, eight years before, for a brief period and not in the context of making a diagnosis. Any psychiatrist worth the paper their degree is printed on will tell you that's not enough to depose a king.

-A.G.F.  

[hiiamahugenerd]

This is basically going to be me in 30 years. I want to hang out with this lady all day, so cool.