My Favorite People

...In History! Hahaha

I'm such a history nerd, but I just have to talk about some people we could all learn from.

Marie Antoinette

What can we learn from a disgraced, beheaded queen? Surprisingly, a lot.

Maria Antonia was born into the powerful Hapsburg Dynasty. She was considered very beautiful and was smart, but lazy. She was not being educated in the way a future queen should be, and when she was merely 14 she was married to Louis Auguste, the Dauphin (or heir to the throne) of France. Her first mistake was not even hers; her mother, Empress Marie Therese, should have married her off when she was older. But Marie Therese was constantly looking to align herself with powerful countries since she was being pressured by her arch rival, Frederick of Prussia.

In the beginning, people loved her, but she came to be hated by the French people for her spending and seemingly uncaring demeanor to her people's well-being. Plus, she was an "Austrian Dog."

Lesson learned: Besides the obvious "hold on to your head" approach, education is important, along with wisdom! While Louis did help the U.S. gain our freedom from England, it also bankrupt his country causing the commoners to riot and rebel. Neither one had been educated or prepared to take the throne. Also, be careful with your spending and treatment of those less fortunate than you.

Octavia Minor

You probably don't know of Octavia Minor unless you watched Rome or have read about Caesar Augustus. She was the older sister of Octavian, later known as Augustus Caesar. Yep, you guessed it, Julius was their uncle! She is probably my most favorite woman in history because she appears to have been quite the lady.

She was originally married to a man named Marcellus and had two daughters and a son (who shared his father's name). It appears to have been a love match and she was happy until Marcellus Sr. passed away. In Rome, you basically had to remarry and her brother Octavian, who was serving as the leader of Rome having been adopted by Caesar in his will, decided to marry her to Marc Antony. This was a problem because Antony had already met and had children with Cleopatra. Antony agreed and they had two daughters together. Octavia was a good wife; she even helped raise troops for him! But as I'm sure you've heard, he ditches Octavia for Cleo. Fast forward a few years later and Antony and Cleopatra have committed suicide leaving 3 children: Cleopatra Selene, Alexander Helios and Ptolemy. Well, Octavia took the children in as her own and raised them in her home even though she must have been angry with Antony.

Lesson learned: To be gracious and forgiving of people. She obviously didn't hold grudges either!

I'm sorry, this is probably the most boring blog entry EVER but I had a lot of fun sharing some of my knowledge with you!

I promise for a more exciting post tomorrow!

With all my love, Morgan