The French MacDonald
Peers of the realm in ridiculous regalia seems to be a bit of a theme this month, so following on from Ned looking like an old cushion, and Jacques Bergeret looking like a handsome old devil, here's a another French peer with something to say on the subject....
I'm currently reading a book about Marshal MacDonald, Duke of Tarentum. MacDonald has a fascinating backgound and strong connections to the Outer Hebrides where I'm from. His father Neil MacEachen was a Jacobite tacksman from South Uist and a close confidante of the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart. It was MacEachen who was responsible for concealing the prince in the Hebrides and for smuggling him out of Scotland and back to France, after the Battle of Cullodon and the failure of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. MacEachen later followed the prince to France where he lived in poverty for most of his life after Stuart was exiled to Rome.
His son Alexandre MacDonald joined the army with a minor commission and progressed through the ranks to become a highly respected general. Marshal MacDonald had a testy relationship with Napoleon, who initially distrusted him but eventually recognised his loyalty and military brilliance. MacDonald remained unflinchingly loyal to Napoleon until his abdication, but from that point onwards transferred his allegiance to back the restored monarchy. He later became Marshal of France, High Chancellor of the Order of the Legion d'Honneur and, like Bergeret, a Peer of France.
Towards the end of his life. MacDonald visited Britain and made a pilgrimage to North Uist to vist his family's ancestral home. A travel diary kept by the Duke during this trip has recently been discovered in the Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, and has been translated by Jean-Didier Hache and published by the Islands Book Trust.
During MacDonald's tour of Britain he was presented to both the House of Lords and the House of Commons where he was appalled by the MPs lack of ceremonial dress.
The Marshal, himself a member of the French parliament, is much surprised by the fact that the British parliamentarians do not wear any sort of uniform or costume indicating their position and that they are:
"...sitting or lying on their benches with hardly any decency."
Politicians with hardly any decency? Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose... ;)
Hache, J.D., and Stuibhart, D. U., (2010), The French MacDonald. Journey of a Marshal of Napoleon in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The 1825 travel diary of Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexandre MacDonald, The Islands Book trust, Isle of Lewis.