Strange And Scandalous Ongoings In Denmark In The 18th Century

This blond and buxom lady is the English-born Queen of the Danish king Christian VII (1766-1808), Caroline Mathilde (1751-1775). She was a both tragic, and scandalous figure, but somehow she didn't lose her popularity with the Danes. Her brother, "Mad King George" III (1760-1820), was worried when she, at the tender age of 15, sailed off to marry the Danish king who was reputed to be rather "weird", although in some respects a quite accompliced, young man. Presumably some rumors of the king's odd behavior had reached England before the wedding, but married they were, and they had two children, Frederick VI of Denmark (1768-1839) and Princess Louise Augusta (1771-1843) whom she doted on.

King Christian VII and his queen, Caroline Mathilde

Both of the royal children were officially "legit", although everybody knew that the princess, Louise Augusta, was in reality the daughter of the King's German physician, Johann Friedrich Struensse (1737-1772). The King had met him when he went on an extended tour of Europe in 1769. By then, it was obvious that the poor, young man on the royal throne of Denmark and Norway was suffering from something that to modern doctors looks like a kind of Schizophrenia. As a child he had received a most brutal handling of a cruel governor, which may have led to a very unfortunate development of his illness. 

Johann Friedrich Struensee

Nobody knew how to handle a sick man who was also a king, except Struensee, who also took hand of Caroline Mathilde, so to speak. She, who was young and full-blooded, fell in love with the German charmer, and, on the evidence of portraits, it's obvious that he, and not the king, was the biological father of the Princess Louise Augusta. 

 

The Princess Louise Augusta

Struensee rose to an almost absolute power over the King, and he practically ruled the country. He even had the Council of State abolished, and from then on he gained more and more power. In many ways he was a most gifted as well as a very charming man, but the Danes hated him for instituting a lot of reforms that were far ahead of time and which they didn't understand or saw as "un-Christian". However, as he didn't even bother to learn the language, he became a sitting pigeon to his many enemies at court. 

"Bootee-Katherine" (c. 1745-1805)

While this happened the King got totally besotted with a prostitute, "Støvlet-Katrine" (: "Bootee-Katherine") who actually may have been of royal blood. Her father might very well have been her godfather, Prince George Ludwig of Brunswick-Bevern, who supported her as a child. As to her mother, then she was a boot-designer who may have been of African origin. Anyway, Bootee-Katherine and the King had fun, touring bars and brothels, until she was evicted and booted out of the country. 

I doubt that this scandal was considered worse than what the Queen did: She rode out with her lover, but not using a "lady saddle" or dressed appropriately for a woman: She wore some kind of Jodhpur which was considered extremely immoral.

 

Caroline Mathilde with her daughter, her lover and her husband

Between March 1771 and January 1772 Struensee issued no less than 1069 cabinet orders, i.e. three or even more a day. One of his reforms was the abolishment of all censorship, which led to a flood of pamphlets against him, his rule and his behavior. Not quite grasping the political turmoil he gave rise to, he ended up being arrested by the King's stepmother, The Dowager Queen, Juliana Maria, who was the mother of the King's disabled half-brother, Prince Frederick. One of his friends and closest affiliates, Edward Brandt, (who at one point had given the King a beating!), as well as the Queen, Caroline Mathilde, were arrested.

Struensee and Edward Brandt were executed in a very inhuman manner - probably after extended torture - and the Queen, Caroline Mathilde, was sent into exile in Celle in Germany. Without ever seeing her beloved children again, she died a few years after at the tender age of 23. However, her daughter, Louise Augusta, married Frederick Christian II. Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and their daughter, Caroline Amalie, became the queen of Denmark when she married King Christian VIII. To me, that's a quite strange development of the scandalous love story of a queen and a German doctor who gained power of a country whose language he didn't speak and who was executed in a most barbaric manner.

Queen Caroline Amalie, the granddaughter of Queen Caroline Mathilde and Struensee 

https://historiskerejser.dk/caroline-mathilde/ 

 

https://kvindebiografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Caroline_Mathilde 

 

https://graenseforeningen.dk/leksikon/louise-augusta-1771-1843-prinsesse-hertuginde-af-augustenborg 

 

Wikipedia

"50 Shades of Hay"

 

Yes, of course, "50 Shades of Hay" must be a bestseller in the horse community! I wonder who wrote it, but I suspect that the author of this erotic masterpiece may be some retired, but sprightly spinster horse, out of her harness, and still full of "IT". As it is, several human spinsters, like e.g. Jane Austen and the Bronte-sisters, have proved that what it takes to write truly passionate stories is a good imagination and the way with words that conduct that feeling to the readers. 

The fairest filly of the stable may be blushing, although we can't see it for the fur on her cheeks. She is full of Oomph, and just about to neigh her approval of the horsey writer and her bestseller. Hay is the name of the game!

 

Even the most innocent and even virginal of all the pretty "My ponies" are impressed with the unbeatable imagination of the writer. However, I bet that her brother, Biggy Pony, strangely enough, wouldn't understand what it's all about. Just as it is in the world of humans, women understand the porn of men. They may not like it, but they do understand it. Men, on the other hand, will not be able to appreciate what in its very nature is porn for women. 

 

The European Femicide of the 17th Century

In Europe, we had our own equivalent to the Salem witch craze. Over the years some 1000 people were burnt at the stake in Denmark, which at that time can't have had an estimated population of more than e.g. 3-4 million. Both men and women were killed as witches, but 90% of the victims of this insanity were women, and the majority were menopausal. Not that a beautiful, young woman couldn't end her life at the stake, but the fact is that most of them were more than 50 years of age. That makes me think of the fairy tale witch, ugly, warty, cruel, and murderous. In a patriarchal society, such a woman, definitely may have had cause for revenge, but what was the reason for her society to persecute her? What had she done to deserve something like torture and execution? Well, first of all she must have been a scapegoat for much of what people were taught to fear at that time, like e.g. the age-old enemy, Satan, who was supposed to be out hunting for souls all the time. 

The witch hunt was considered legit as it had a religious bearing. One of the milestones in Denmark was the public decree "Om Troldfolck oc deris Medvidere" (: "About Witches and Their Accomplices") which was published in 1617. This decree is connected with one of the most ardent, Danish witch hunters of them all, namely the King Christian IV (1588-1648). His sister, Anna, was married to another royal super witch hunter, the Scottish king James I/VI. When she left Denmark in 1589 to join her future husband, her journey was made impossible by a violent storm. This unforeseen misfortune convinced Christian of foul play, and a couple of misfortunate women were burned at the stake as witches because they were seen as the culprits who had raised the vicious storm.

Christian was a full blooded Renaissance man who had become king at the tender age of 11. When he wasn't making babies - and he had 23 or maybe even more by several women - he waged wars or built beautiful castles. However, he really had it in for witches and took a personal interest in burning everyone who was convicted. 

The witch craze wasn't the invention of King Christian as long before his birth on April 12, 1577, it had started. The first ones went in 1540 which is a few years after The Reformation of the Danish church. When we went from being Catholic to becoming Protestant, the character of Satan came into focus. All of a sudden, people had to accept another kind of personal responsibility than The Catholic Church demanded. The king at that time, Christian III, took the church riches and jailed the Catholic arch bishops in a new tupsy turvy world that played havoc on the minds of the ordinary people of the country. They must have felt threatened by all those "bad women who were Satan's handmaids". People were confused, and they became obsessed with the (imaginary) need of reporting each other.

Some unfortunate (and innocent!!!) woman might be accused of "stealing the butter luck" of someone else who found that she couldn't churn butter anymore. Another well-known "crime" was milking a cow from far off or ruin the beer.
 

A way to discern between ordinary women and witches was to hide a needle or a pair of scissors under her seat. If she seemingly found it hard to sit, that was a "waterproof" sign of her being a witch because they were assumed not to be able to abide steel. What's even more strange, is that in some cases, all it took was someone else dreaming about her being a witch.

The last one to be burned at the stake as a witch in Denmark was Anne Palles. In 1693 she had the audacity to threaten the bailiff, who evicted her and her husband from their farm, by turning around and pee into the farmyard. That was seen as one of the witch ways of bringinga loads of calamities upon the farm and the people who evicted her, and when Anne was tortured she confessed that she had been visited by Satan in the shape of a black cat. This nonsense from a tortured human being lead to her death at the stake, but the king at the time, Christian V, showed her mercy as he saw to it that she was beheaded before being burned.

As it is, there have been more witch cases after Anne Palles execution, but they were of a more private nature: Both in 1722 and 1800 a woman was murdered for "being a witch", and as late as 1934 the last witch accusation was submitted. 

 

Woman Who Killed for Lust

I'm sure a lot of men would find Sheila LaBarre charming. Actually, she proved that fact several times, but not like most of these men would have wanted, unless they were of a masochist disposition. In many ways, she behaved like some male serial killers, enticing her victims to visit her on the farm where she lived to torture, control and, in some cases, even kill them, probably during sex.

As a very young girl, she had plans of becoming an artist and a model. However, having been abused by her father and his friends for years did something to her mentality and sent her out on another course in life. When she married, 19 years old, and became a stepmom that must have been an attempt at escaping her past as the abused daughter of a man unfit to be a father, but as it is, she herself turned into a physical and emotional abuser of both her husband and her stepdaughter: Not surprising, the marriage only lasted for 6 weeks. However, soon after that failed marriage, she married another man whom she treated just as badly. Of course, that marriage also ended in a divorce, but in 1987 she set her trap for someone else, using a "Lonely Hearts"-ad.: The wealthy, widowed chiropractor, Wilfred LaBarre. 

Soon after moving in with him, she succeeded in taking over his large horse farm, to isolate him, and also to get her hands on his finances, yes, actually, his entire property. They never married, but she also started to use his name "LaBarre". One of her exploits was luring young men to the farm to abuse and exploit them. At one point, she even married one of them, Wayne Ennis, and did what she could to abuse him, right under the nose of Wilfred LaBarre. However, Wayne escaped her, but they never divorced, and in 2000 Wilfred died, presumably from natural, although suspicious, causes, although some don't believe that. 

Sheila's "thing" was bringing young men home to the farm and abuse them, but the first one she murdered (as far as we know) was after the death of Wilfred: Michael DeLuge whose birth certificate was found in her septic tank. His body, on the other hand, was never found. Soon after what is thought to be her first murder, she lures another young and vulnerable man to the farm: Kenneth Countie. She promises him love and shelter, but only gives him starvation, physical and mental torture, before she tires of him and murders him. This time she is brought to court and sentenced to jail for life, but she is still being investigated for more murders of men. Her statement at the trial that she in reality was "an angel sent by God to punish pedophiles" may have been an attempt of claiming innocence because of insanity, but whatever it was, it didn't help her: Sentenced she was.

 

As it is, I see Sheila LaBarre as a sad case of a victim being turned into an abuser and killer by being the treatment she received at the hands of abusive men. To me, it's obvious that her childhood made her what she became ....

 

https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-news/sheila-labarre-case-who-did-she-kill 

 

https://www.truecrimene.com/episodes/episode-4 

 

Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

Winning The Game In The Animal Kingdom

 

 

Mama bear fighting off a male to protect her cubs, even though he is larger and stronger than she is. Are we surprised? No, somehow that's expected in the animal kingdom: Females exhibit an extreme vigor when their young are being threatened, and often humans are romanticizing this trait in many species. 

Many breeds of insects are amazing! Some of them behave like true Amazon soldiers, female and vigorous. Other characteristics in females is their not letting themselves get duped by "sweet words". The male may bring some kind of food as a gift, when wooing her, but should she get hungry she doesn't think twice of having him for a snack.
 

In the animal Kingdom, most males are bigger than the females, but even though the sexes may get into fights, that's not the usual set-up. Males fight males to impress females or simply to gain the upper-hand of a rival. The fights of males and females take other forms, like e.g. in tree-going animals like smaller monkeys. Males, intent on mating or out to steal her food, may pursue her, but she has a useful tactic of seeking refuge on the thinnest branches that will not carry his weight. That means that she may not be the easy target people think she is, as sneakiness makes up for muscles - and she knows it. Another tactic maybe to play dead:

Well, whatever wins the game is all right with me ....

 

Crypto-Demons

 

Trump’s $TRUMP Coin 

I don't pretend to know everything about crypto-currencies, but I know enough to make me not wanting to buy some. Or put another way: To me, the very existence of cryptocurrencies sets my inner alarms going: That's too strange to be safe! What makes my inner alarms go from alert to super-alert when reading about this special "coin" is the name Trump, which to me means "fraud", "back-stabbing", "callousness" and a lot of other not exactly pretty things. Because of that, it will be obvious that I wasn't surprised when I read this: "Donald Trump supporters lose $12,000,000,000 after his meme coin collapses"

Trump the Grifter has been selling various objects and assets, like e.g. his used "gold shoes". As far as I remember, he got a steep price from a MAGA-man who somehow saw these worn shoes as a wonderful - and maybe even "magic" - buy. For instance, he - or some other MAGA - may see tRump as a kind of money-magician who somehow may transfer his presumed "luck" to his followers. 

The truth is that while he is making fortunes for himself, he is ignoring the needs of others - or downright robbing them. For instance he made a law about taxing poverty while enriching billionires.

What does Gangster-Don gain by selling Crypto coins? Well, they may be sold in unlimited numbers, thus giving him an instant money-boost. There are no limits and no disclosures, just a secret flood of finances, without "fingerprints", so to speak. Those who want to influence the politician tRump may do so by buying his coins and that's the paved road to illicit actions within the presidency. For instance insider trading ....

All of this reminds me of the OneCoin-scheme by Ruja Ignatova. She cheated masses by looking and acting as their friend, eager to better their life, while robbing them".

 

FBI has been looking for her for some years, but she seems to be good at hiding, probably because she has influential friends/business-partners. The OneCoin-setup is not only an ordinary scam, but a Ponzi-scheme, and it worked fine in the first stages, but ended up robbing ordinary people of their savings, just like tRump's Crypto.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/27/trump-supporters-lose-12bn-as-presidents-crypto-boom-fades/ 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/28/business/crypto-mogul-trump-coins-civil-fraud-charges/index.html

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/crypto-prices-tumble-trump-fuelled-euphoria-fades-2025-02-28/ 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/27/trump-meme-coin-cryptocurrency 

 

https://www.uniladtech.com/news/tech-news/donald-trump-supporters-lose-12-billion-after-meme-coin-collapse-393345-20250228 

 

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C8-3/ALDE_00013206/ 

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-crypto-meme-coins-wrong-1235246237/ 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/22/business/ruja-ignatova-cryptoqueen-fbi-most-wanted-cec/index.html 

 

Wikipedia

Driven By The Wish To Become Someone Else

Not much is as private and personal as one's looks. However, to accept the looks one was born with and accept that THIS IS ME, seems to be very difficult for some people. The feeling that "this is not good enough to be ME" may be very strong with some of them, and they enter surgical programs that may end up in turning them from normal looking individuals into something beyond, or far from, normal. I would say that they traded what they had of good looks for a dream of obtaining the ultimate beauty. What's interesting is that they seem to work from a belief in standards for beauty that in reality have been developing over years, and what's considered beautiful today was seen as ugly at some earlier time period: Beauty is not a constant.

Would we find these healthy looking, young women beautiful? Naahh, today they would be seen as "dumplings" or even "fatties". It would not be obvious what gave them the idea that they were pretty enough to compete about the trophy in a beauty contest.

I take for granted that this remedy was quite expensive when it was for sale, but I doubt it was of any use except warding off more or less unwanted advances from milady's husband. The women (and men?) using it have had great dreams of becoming their best self in looks, but why are looks so very important? I know that beauty opens doors, both to private pleasures and to what might be called "a career": Many, both men and women, have achieved new social possibilities through good looks and some have made a career out of it.

Yes, self-delusions thrive when it comes to looks. One may have a tactic of turning one's head into a more appealing angle to the camera when one has one's photo taken. I admit that I have a couple of photos that I simply refuse to acknowledge, although the person in the pictures undeniably is wearing my clothes, sitting in my chair or patting my pet. It's ridiculous, but that's the way it is with some/most (?) of us.
 

Yup, at long last, a really useful invention: Replaceable heads!!! 

Wow, that sure would save time! However, if I was offered such an opportunity, I would choose to have new and different personalities: Today Snow White and tomorrow maybe "The Evil Queen".