If a child resembled his father, then no matter what rumors spread outside—that the child had been born of his mother and another man—they would collapse on their own.
There had once been such a rumor: that Napoleon was the son of Letizia and Earl Marbeuf, who had funded his military schooling. The earl showed Napoleon an unusual degree of concern. Later, because Napoleon resembled his father Charles, the rumor remained nothing more than a rumor.
The pamphlets printing this rumor had come from London across the Channel. Napoleon had once inspected newspapers and publications arriving from Britain in August.
Georgiana remembered that Napoleon-Louis-Charles was destined to die young, but she knew neither how nor when he would die.
To avoid suspicion, she consciously kept her distance from Hortense. She had not even sent a gift, making her seem terribly ill-mannered.
Even if Georgiana had given the little baby a pacifier, if he accidentally choked on his saliva and died, she would still be held responsible. She would rather be called a barbarian.
Rothschild had five brothers, who established branches in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna, and Naples. Their father, Meyer Rothschild, served Count William IX of Hesse-Kassel.
Where there were court confessors, there were also "court Jews." Their job was to provide kings, princes, and princesses with hidden wealth without the common people knowing. In return, these Jews who provided financial services to royal nobles received all kinds of privileges.
During the American Revolutionary War, Britain hired a Hessian army totaling 22,000 men—2,000 more than the 20,000 men dispatched from Britain itself. Half of the Hessian mercenaries who survived the war remained in America.
Hesse-Kassel had no specialty products except mercenaries. These mercenaries differed from ordinary sellswords: the king collected payment from other countries, then sent Hesse's government troops to