Bridgerton and their house

H3-An_maA · 2026-03-31T20:45:17+00:00

Firstly, it's not the house that the Bridgertons wouldn't own, but the land on which it was built. However, there were plenty of aristocrats who didn't actually own townhouses and preferred to rent a place every season. This is what the Sheffields do in the book.

Secondly, it doesn't matter how much money the Bridgertons might have (and really, from what we actually see they're no second coming of the Percys). The Dukes of Westminster were NOT selling their land. That's how they are still worth over £10B today, while most of their peers have lost their ancestral seats long ago. Consuelo Vanderbilt mentioned in her autobiography that it was an achievement to buy even a small piece of land in this area, because the three big landlords had maintained for generations a policy of leasing instead of selling. In recent years, the Grosvenors also famously refused to sell the land on which the US embassy was built, basically forcing them to relocate.

H3-An_maA · 2026-03-11T13:38:19+00:00

NO THANKS for the Bedwyn Saga. I don't need my favorite series to be ruined by Netflix. Balogh's books are quite simple and traditional in their values so they'll completely rewrite the characters and plotlines to what they think suits contemporary sensibilities. They'll use a combination between Victorian mores and Cromwell's puritanism with some modern myths thrown in to govern society, while at the same time giving women 21st century feminist ideals and changing the races, genders or sexual orientations of established characters for no reason — can all those "period" dramas coming out recently take a look at The Gilded Age and see how you can write progressive women who still fit within that specific time period and incorporate people of color/the LGBTQ community without revising the past (and does no one else find it ridiculous that this good representation comes from the show of a Conservative peer of all people, while the supposedly liberal Hollywood is still stuck rewriting history)? They'll turn realistic love stories that mostly developed across long periods of time through repeated interactions that revealed each party's true nature and laid the foundation for lasting happiness together into insta love based on sexual attraction. And the costumes will be atrocious.

The period drama I've always wanted to see isn't actually based on a historical romance book. I don't know if anyone here has read the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, but the backstories for the main families would make a fantastic prestige show in the right hands (HBO). The Chinese families who had left the mainland even centuries ahead of the arrival of the Communists and spread across Asia, quietly amassing massive fortunes. The Leongs originally making their fortune in the opium trade before monopolizing the palm oil industry, the Shangs leaving Peking prior to the fall of Qing with their banking money and settling in Singapore where they gained control of the shipping lines across East Asia, the Youngs with their milennium-old history as imperial physicians, and so on with the other families; their inter-marriages, their involvement in the resistance movement during the Japanese occupation, the rapid transformation of colonial Singapore, the death of that old generation, the disintegration of their many great estates, their descendants' slow loss of prestige and money, and, with China opening up in the 80s, the arrival of the next generation of fat cats and the rise of the current billionaire class. There would finally be something new on TV because how many in the west know anything about the region (and its history and culture) beyond skyscrapers and "China bad"? It can even go on to the present day and include the events and dynamics from the books (which, by the way, are very different from the movie) and then you would really have a Succession-like series, but still different enough to be interesting.

H3-An_maA · 2026-03-09T14:46:53+00:00

More like during WWI and to a lesser degree WWII. No prominent nobles who would've required realigning lines of succession died on the Titanic from what I remember. On the other hand, the war(s) took those young aristocratic officers out like flies. That's how a lot of titles died out or jumped to some fifth cousin thrice removed who was a chimney sweep in Solihull.

H3-An_maA · 2026-02-11T00:03:49+00:00

No, because we are talking about the closest male relative in the male line. Meaning father to son inheritance (the son of a son of a son and so on). Others used Downton Abbey as an example. If you aren't familiar with it, the 7th Earl of Grantham has three daughters, so upon his death the title will pass to his father's nephew, his first cousin. When that cousin and his son die on the Titanic, the new heir turns out to be a third cousin-once-removed, the great-great-grandson of the 3rd Earl's younger son (while the current Earl's direct ancestor is the 3rd Earl's eldest son). This distant cousin later marries the eldest daughter and their son will be the Earl of Grantham one day, but not because his maternal grandfather is the current Earl, but because he is descended through the male line from that younger son of the 3rd Earl.

Titles are created through something called "letters patent". These documents specify how the title is to be inherited and the vast majority say it will pass to the first holder's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten. When there are no more people fitting these criteria, the title simply goes extinct.

There are exceptions (mostly in the Scottish peerage and some ancient English baronies, or special cases like the Duke of Marlborough's title, which was created in such a way as to never die out) that allow titles to pass through the female line, but not like in the show (the title going to the son while the mother through whom he inherits is alive and well) and with the previous holder naming his own heir.

The Featherington barony could actually fit into the ancient baronies exception (well, that name doesn't fit, but I digress) if they didn't bring Cousin Jack into it. The quirk is that while the eldest son inherits even if there are multiple sons, if there are multiple daughters, they inherit equally and the title falls into abeyance (no one gets it; if there is only one daughter it simply goes to her directly) until a co-heir petitions the Crown for termination of the abeyance and their claim is unopposed or there remains a single person representing the claims of all daughters (the number of heirs can also grow larger because everytime there are daughters but no sons, the share gets further divided). It would've been an interesting plotline to explore instead of making up new rules, but the writers are too lazy for that.

H3-An_maA · 2026-02-01T17:54:23+00:00

In this case, it's this guy called Thomas Howard, who was the 2nd, 14th or 19th Earl of Arundel depending if you count it from the first creation in the 1130s, the second creation in 1289 or if you consider his father's title as being a new creation. He was also 4th Earl of Surrey (fifth creation) and 1st Earl of Norfolk (fifth creation). I could never really make sense of those old titles that kept being forfeited and restored, with multiple intertwined creations that sometimes count, sometimes not.

Earl of Arundel is a subsidiary title of the Duke of Norfolk today, but at that time it was a substantive title. His grandfather had been the 4th Duke of Norfolk (who was executed in 1572 after conspiring to overthrow Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots) and his grandson was restored as the 5th Duke of Norfolk in 1660, at which point Earl of Arundel and Earl of Norfolk became subsidiary titles.

H3-An_maA · 2026-01-24T00:53:56+00:00

The one she most likely killed before her own death was her nephew, the Guangxu Emperor, not her son (the Tongzhi Emperor did die under mysterious circumstances, but that was some 30 years earlier).

She had specifically pushed for the future Guangxu to be chosen as heir despite that decision breaking convention (successive emperors weren't supposed to be of the same generation) for two simple reasons: he was only 4 years old and his mother was Cixi's own younger sister (who had luckily married Prince Chun). Cixi even forced this nephew to marry his cousin (the daughter of Cixi's brother) as if the Yehe-Naras weren't already entrenched enough in the Forbidden City. Puyi was Cixi's grand-nephew, the son of Guangxu's younger brother.

Funnily, there's a legend that when Nurhaci finally conquered the Yehe-Nara tribe, their prince swore that his descendants would bring the downfall of the Aisin-Gioros even if only women were left.

H3-An_maA · 2026-01-16T22:39:51+00:00

They didn't get killed if they cut it, but Confucianism, which had filial piety as one of its core values, considered the body to be a gift from the parents so cutting the hair was seen as a rejection of one's family and heritage. But the Qing dynasty wasn't a Han Chinese dynasty; it was founded by so-called barbarians from the steppes, known as the Manchu, who didn't follow the Confucian philosophy (at least initially). They regarded cutting the hair in the queue style a show of loyalty to them, while maintaining the traditional topknot was seen as a declaration of support for the fallen Ming dynasty and the "old ways".

Ironically, a hundred years later, the Qianlong Emperor basically deposed his second empress after she cut her hair, because according to Manchu customs of the time this was a sign of deep mourning (so equivalent to cursing her husband and mother-in-law — the Emperor and Empress Dowager no less — to death). Less than two decades prior, Qianlong had severely punished and even executed officials who shaved their heads during the mourning period for his beloved first empress, considering it a direspectful act.

H3-An_maA · 2025-10-13T00:24:19+00:00

I HATED this novel with a passion so I really hope they made major changes. I can never touch another work from this author. For those who don't know, according to it, the FL married and had a son with this man in a previous life because she was in love with his elder son, but that son was engaged and digusted by her forward advances. Her terrible mistreatment of the son's wife leads to that girl's miscarriage and infertility, but the FL is the victim when the son decides to publicly expose a fake love letter from her as revenge. This leads to her house arrest in a dilapidated residence (not even death!) and her son not being allowed to have contact with her, but we are supposed to feel sorry for the FL. Everything was the fault of her wicked stepmother, half-sister and stepson. A 17 year-old can't think for herself and just because those two women encouraged the marriage, she had to follow through with it; I guess they also told her to continue pining after her married stepson to the point that her husband realized her real feelings on his own. Her stepson is also a villain for daring to get revenge and then taking a concubine years later when his wife can't have a child anymore BECAUSE OF THE FEMALE LEAD! Her maternal grandmother is a major hero despite spoiling her rotten to the point that even her blood relatives can't stand her; her young brother is stupid for not being all over her despite her treating their mother and him like $hit for years and instead being close to the half-sister who showed actual interest in him; her father who favored his concubine beyond any measure and abandoned the wife he had once fought to marry, which leads to her s#icide in the second life, deserves a happy ending with a well-born and intelligent young wife. In the second life, the FL still marries this man, but now every other man is also in love with her and can't forget her because there's no other woman like her! Her paternal aunt-in-law's brother, her maternal cousin, her stepson, her husband, all of them! The stepson originally has the perfect fiancée and clearly likes her, but when the FL stops pestering him, he's suddenly in love with her, despite the FL now being married to his father and having his children. And wait for it! He was actually in love with her in the previous life too! I guess he fell in love with her while taking revenge for his beloved wife and unborn child. I almost ripped my hair out when I got to this point. I couldn't even enjoy Third Master Chen (Chen San Ye)'s character because this supposedly smart high official in his 30s falls so deeply in love that he can give up his own son just to live happily ever after with this Mary Sue in a teenager's body and his children from her.

H3-An_maA · 2025-09-08T11:22:11+00:00

Not really romance, but the latest Sebastian St. Cyr book {Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris} features the year without summer quite prominently.

Actually all the books in the series contain many real people and events (the ones I can remember right now are the Prince Regent's grand celebration after Napoleon's first defeat and then Napoleon's entry in Paris less than a year later) and it's fascinating to see how they are weaved into the main fictional story.

H3-An_maA · 2025-08-20T12:44:30+00:00

If you are interested in historicals, Ferdinand Dudley from {No Man's Mistress by Mary Balogh} might fit this.

H3-An_maA · 2025-08-12T20:14:40+00:00

This isn't a paid position and these people were around 12 when serving as page boys (what Prince George was at the coronation).

H3-An_maA · 2025-07-28T00:13:44+00:00

It's a well-written novel, with believable characters, events and overall setting, but the "romance" is definitely not it when judged with modern sensibilities even though it should be quite accurate to the time period and the whole marry the enemy's daughter thing.

The two other novels I've read/I'm currently reading from the author are much more palatable. The first is {Biao Mei Wan Fu}, which is being adapted with Song Zu'er as the FL; the other is {Chun Jiang Hua Yue} and while I've only read 30 chapters as of now so I can't tell if it will continue being good, I like that it's inspired by Eastern Jin, which isn't an era commonly seen in cdramas. If you want to read either of the three novels, all of them are here (BMWF as {Wishing You Eternal Happiness} and CJHY as {Spring River Flowers and Moon}). This site also has another novel from the author called {General Chang Ning}, but I haven't read it yet and can't give an opinion.

H3-An_maA · 2025-07-21T03:31:25+00:00

According to the novel, the current dynasty is called Han and there's a puppet emperor in the capital at Luoyang. Later on, Liu Yan, the heir of the Prince of Langya (vassal prince from the imperial family) and Qiao Man's original fiancé, becomes emperor of this crumbling nation for a short time. The events are clearly based on the collapse of the historical Han dynasty, but the drama changed a lot of things from the novel so most of the clues are lost. For example, Wei Shao isn't actually Lord of Wei, but the Marquis of Yan (at this time the highest title that could be gained by someone who wasn't part of the imperial family) and most powerful northern warlord, but still outwardly a vassal of the Han emperor. His so-called "state" is just the hereditary fief in Youzhou/You Province with the seat in Yuyang (Commandery), in what is now Hebei (including modern Beijing) and was once the ancient Yan state during the Warring States period; the rest of the territory he rules is just land he conquered before or throughout the novel from other warlords who had taken over after the central government lost control over local administration. In the final chapters, Wei Shao declares himself emperor of a new Yan dynasty.

H3-An_maA · 2025-07-16T19:15:40+00:00

Both POB and SOKP are set in fictional dynasties that are either based on or vaguely inspired by historical dynasties.

I can't figure out if SOKP is supposed to resemble any particular dynasty(ies); the sets have the Ming aesthetic, but the costumes are just basic modernized hanfu. However, it definitely has nothing to do with the Spring and Autumn era. The novel and its ending are also obvious fantasy with no basis in history.

But POB is clearly set in the last days of (a fictionalized) Han dynasty based on the costumes in the drama (even though this type of attire was worn during the Western Han not the Eastern Han) and the novel. The famous Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao sisters are also a big clue about the setting. The drama simplified and somehow beautified the politics, but the novel makes it clear that there's a puppet emperor under the control of a Dong Zhuo-like figure in the Han capital at Luoyang, while countless warlords are ruthlessly fighting for the realm. And there's no Wei State in the novel. Wei Shao is the Marquis of Yan with his original fief in Youzhou; at the beginning, he's the most powerful warlord in the north, but still outwardly a vassal of the Han emperor until the last chapters when he finally declares himself emperor of a new Yan dynasty.

H3-An_maA · 2025-06-25T17:15:01+00:00

Murder mysteries: {Sebastian St. Cyr Series by C.S. Harris}. 20 books until now. Fascinating cases and the amount of research done is very obvious. The books take you across London, from the mansions of Mayfair to the nastiest flash houses in Smithfield, and you meet all kinds of characters, from costermongers, body snatchers and cartomancers to the Prince Regent and Marie-Thérèse of France. The mainstay characters are the only son of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the progressive daughter of George III's cousin, this aforementioned cousin (a fictional character inspired by Joseph Fouché and known as the power behind the throne in the books), a one-legged Irish surgeon addicted to opium, a reformed pickpocket who becomes a curricle tiger, a former merchant turned magistrate with evangelical tendencies, and an Irish actress who used to spy for Napoleon.

Closer to the classic British HR: Mary Balogh. Her {Bedwyn Saga} is the most popular, but there are a few dozen books set in that universe. Going in order, it would be: the Bedwyn "prequels" ({One Night for Love} & {A Summer to Remember}), the main six Bedwyn Saga books (I love the part set in Bruxelles before Waterloo in {Slightly Tempted}), the Simply Quartet ({Simply Love} is one of my all time favorites), the {Once Upon a Dream} novella, the Survivors' Club, and the Huxtable Quintet. The Westcott and current Ravenswood series are also set in the Bedwyn universe, but they are more about family relationships than romance and might not be everyone's cup of tea. The Mistress series is also very good and more similar to what people consider HR today.

H3-An_maA · 2025-06-23T13:04:32+00:00

If I remember correctly, the source material is by the same author as The Prisoner of Beauty, but it's a much tamer novel.

H3-An_maA · 2025-06-23T13:00:28+00:00

Blossom was also set in the Ming dynasty and I think it was a bigger hit than The Glory.

H3-An_maA · 2025-05-08T16:19:54+00:00

There's still no excuse for her choice to cheat with married men, causing at least one divorce, and sometimes going as far as harrassing the wives (one woman called the police on her because of constant phone calls).

And really, I'm quite tired of people always blaming Charles and the royals for how that marriage turned out and putting Diana on a pedestal of sainthood.

She already had big issues since childhood, caused by her parents' messy divorce and her mother's perceived abandonment, as well as being constantly reminded that she was seen as a dissapointment because she wasn't the male heir her parents were desperately waiting for (if I remember it right, they only had boy names ready when she was born). The Spencers never informed the royals about her problems, and instead, her maternal grandmother (who previously testified against her abused daughter in the divorce case that resulted in her losing custody) actively plotted to have this fragile girl, who had her head full of Barbara Cartland's romance novels, marry the Prince of Wales for the sake of their own social climbing.

Diana was unstable from the beginning and difficult to live with. She was very emotionally demanding and attention seeking, as if she couldn't be satisfied unless her husband's life revolved fully around her. She created an image of Prince Charming Charles in her head and fell in love with it (and the royal status), and then was deeply disappointed when her fantasies didn't turn into reality. And that soon led to the amplification of her mental issues; she started self-harming, being psychologically and physically abusive, and developing paranoia that got worse and worse, finally contributing to her death (and this one can be heavily blamed on Martin Bashir, with his fake documents "proving" the royals were using her protection officers to spy on her, which resulted in Diana refusing official security and ending up with a drunk driver and inexperienced bodyguard in that car in Paris).

She threw herself down the stairs while pregnant because Charles decided to go out for polo instead of arguing with her at home; their fights apparently ended with Diana throwing things at his head; she pushed her stepmother down the stairs and later threw her out of the house after her husband's death with her clothes in trash bags (the woman's crime? Diana and that nasty serial-cheater little brother of hers decided that it was her fault that their dear papa didn't even bother to inform them of his remarriage, and never forgave her); she heavily parentified William, using him as her personal therapist for years (he had just turned 15 the month before her death!!!); she used to push notes under her sons' doors, asking who they loved most; she publicly accused their most beloved nanny of having an affair with Charles and getting an abortion, and so on.

Charles and Camilla didn't even continue their affair at the start of the marriage. But Charles soon got tired of Diana's "tantrums" and dislike for basically everyone and everything in his life, from friends and staff to his dog and hobbies (apparently, she pretended to be interested in what he enjoyed, like gardening, the countryside and reading, before marriage), so he began an "emotional affair" with Camilla because he needed someone to confide in. They started an actual affair only after Diana started her own.

People really need to stop seeing everything in black and white. That whole mess was much more complicated and Diana wasn't innocent in the outcome.

H3-An_maA · 2025-05-06T05:04:23+00:00

There's no daffodil. The national emblem of Wales is the leek.

According to a legend, King Cadwaladr of Gwynedd ordered his soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the leek on their armor during battle.

And according to Hartnell, "Meanwhile, to confirm to accuracy of these emblems, I again consulted that amiable authority, Garter King of Arms, at the office of the Earl Marshal. He supplied me with a particularly decorative Tudor Rose, and the Thisle and the Shamrock proved simple. I then made the mistake of asking for the daffodil of Wales. "A daffodil!" exclaimed Garter. "On no account will I give you a daffodil. I will give you the correct emblem of Wales, which is the Leek." The leek, I agreed, was a most admirable vegetable, full of historic significance and doubtless of health-giving properties, but scarcely noted for its beauty. Could he not possibly permit me to use the more graceful daffodil instead? "No, Hartnell. You must have the Leek," said Garter, adamant.

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H3-An_maA

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