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Excerpt from King Charles II - Antonia Fraser, where she mention's Charles' complexion, describing as saturnine. Here is a snippet from the book, hopefully not to much to be in violation of copyright etc
quote:First of all he had an abnormal darkness of complexion, a truly saturnine tint. This darkness was the subject of comment from first. His mother wrote jokingly to her sister-in-law that she had give birth to a black baby and to a friend in France that 'he was so dark that she was ashamed of him'. Show would send his portrait 'as soon as he is a littler fairer'. But Charles never did become fairer. Later the sobriquet 'the Black Boy' would be used, still commemorated in English inn signs.
There was definitely a strain of very dark, swarthy Italian blood in the French royal family, inherited through Marie de Medici, which might and did emerge from time to time. Anne of Austria, wife of Henrietta Maria's brother Louis XIII, was said to have given birth to a baby having the 'colour and visage of a blackamor', which died a month after its birth. In 1664 another Queen of France, wife of Charles' first cousin Louis, was supposed to have given birth to a black child. There was even a 'fanatic' fantasy at the time of the Popish Plot in the 1670s, that Charles had been fathered on Henrietta Maria by a 'black Scotsman' - a neat combination of the two prejudices of the tiime, against the Catholics and the Scots. So it became convenient to refer to the then King as that 'black Bastard'.
Of the many grandchildren of Marie de Medici, Charles was the only one to look purely Italian; the rest being in general both frailer and paler. But his appearance was certainly a complete throwback to his Italian ancestors, the Medici Dukes of Tuscany. Directly descended as he was from Lorenzo the Magnificent there is a striking resemblance in their portraits. Bishop Burnet, alluding to Charles' Italianate appearance and intending to make a political point concerning tyranny, comparing the King to a statue of Tiberius. Marvell was presumably describing the same phenomenon when he described Charles as
Of a tall stature and of sable hue Much like the son of Kish, that lofty Jew
(of a person or their manner) slow and gloomy. "a saturnine temperament" synonyms: gloomy, somber, melancholy, moody, lugubrious, dour, glum, morose, unsmiling, humorless "a saturnine temperament" antonyms: cheerful (of a person or their features) dark in coloring and moody or mysterious. "his saturnine face and dark, watchful eyes" synonyms: swarthy, dark, dark-skinned, dark-complexioned; mysterious, mercurial, moody, brooding "his saturnine good looks" (of a place or an occasion) gloomy.
Origin late Middle English (as a term in astrology): from Old French saturnin, from medieval Latin Saturninus ‘of Saturn’ (identified with lead by the alchemists and associated with slowness and gloom by astrologers). Posts: 890 | From: London | Registered: Apr 2014
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quote:There was even a 'fanatic' fantasy at the time of the Popish Plot in the 1670s, that Charles had been fathered on Henrietta Maria by a 'black Scotsman' - a neat combination of the two prejudices of the tiime, against the Catholics and the Scots. So it became convenient to refer to the then King as that 'black Bastard
What does that say about Black Scots then?
-------------------- The Habsburg Agenda - Defending Western Christian civilization Posts: 890 | From: London | Registered: Apr 2014
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At the time Europeans often called caucasians who were less then pale, not even as much as this Italian guy, "black complexioned"
As you can see from the above quote, if Charles' complexion was similar to the man in this photo it was out of place in England at the time (except for a few foreigners) So if would not be surprising if royals like him used lighter toned makeup
Posts: 42940 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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At the time Europeans often called caucasians who were less then pale, not even as much as this Italian guy, "black complexioned"
As you can see from the above quote, if Charles' complexion was similar to the man in this photo it was out of place in England at the time (except for a few foreigners) So if would not be surprising if royals like him used lighter toned makeup
Have looked up the meaning of saturnine as regards colour, rather than mood?
Can you lookup what sable means?
Do you have a gay crush on European males?
Do you want me to create a post which gives you an excuse to put up Richard Simmons picture?
Posts: 890 | From: London | Registered: Apr 2014
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