Voltaire
He was bouncing along in his carriage, with sparks of unpleasantness in his face because his wig kept falling in his face.
He was born a Frenchman, but he had just been banished from France. He had talked about the French king with words of dislike. The French king had put him in jail twice when he was young and now had banished him.
So Frederick of Prussia asked him to come live with him. At first, all went well, but after some time, arguments began to spring up between them. After a while, Voltaire was glad to leave, and he departed to the Golden Lion and sighed with relief. But he sighed too soon - the next morning, 4 Prussian soldiers entered his room and demanded that Voltaire return the golden key and special book of verses that King Frederick wanted back. When they found out that the treasures were in trunks which would follow him later on, they put him in chains until the treasures should arrive. Thus he remained, and thus he wondered where the next spot on earth would be where he should finally set up his pen and paper and desk and call that place his future home.
Dear Gillian,
ReplyDeleteVoltaire was put in prison the first time because he challenged an aristocrat to a duel (he was not an aristocrat so he was not supposed to threaten an aristrocrat). He was a philosopher who wrote books to illustrate his ideas on freedom and equality. He influenced the founding fathers of the US revolution, and the leaders of the French revolution also. He spent many years in exile in Switzerland because the King believed that his ideas were dangerous for the country.