(no subject)

Died on this day in 954 aged 34 King Louis IV of France (my toy,wikipedia). Grandson of Edward the Elder. When Louis was a child his father was deposed and his mother took the child Louis and herself to her father's court in England where he grew up. When the usurper Rudolph died Louis was summoned back to France by the French nobles to take his rightful place as King, once there he didn't have any real power over much of anything. He married the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor to end a quarrel over Lorraine.

Born on this day in 1658 Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (my toy,wikipedia). Great grand mother of Adelaide who married William IV. On the death of Elisabeth's second husband she supported her step-son who wanted sole rule of Saxe-Meiningen over her own son (their father's will stipulated that power should be shared) who had (shock!) married a commoner, which was clearly utterly beyond the pale from her perspective.

Reading Wednesday

Reading: the Dark Forest (still). Now I'm about 80% through I can say that I'm enjoying it, I haven't noticed the difference-in-translation (other people might, I'm a bit rubbish at that sort of thing), it's quite dense reading (probably because I'm bad at understanding Chinese writing, even in English, especially I'm bad at Chinese names) and not going super fast. Story progresses, female characters remain sadly not very present, science continues entirely made up.

I suspect I will drag this one out until Ancillary Mercy is out, but if I don't I have a pile of other stuff to read...