August 29, 2022 • 45 mins
Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar was responsible for the deaths of 1/3 of her people during her reign, through a series of campaigns to avoid Westernization. This Queen of Madagascar will go down in history for her bloody reign.
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Matthew (00:00):
Macabrepedia makes light of dark subject matters
(00:03):
and may not be suitable for allaudiences. Listener discretion
is advised.
Marissa (00:20):
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. From humblebeginnings run of Alona would go
from the daughter of a commonerto the sovereign queen of a
nation through luck or a trickof fate. Many people put her in
an honorable place in historybecause of how she was able to
successfully stave off Europeancolonization in the 19th
(00:42):
century, and how she was able tomaintain her country's
independence. But others have toask, at what cost known to
history as both runnable Loanathe cruel and the Mad Queen of
Madagascar. Queen random Ilona.
The first was responsible forthe deaths of somewhere between
a third and a half of the peopleon her island during her rule.
(01:03):
As the years progressed, shebecame more and more unhinged,
something that can be seen asher punishments and executions
became crueler, and crueler.
This queen did many things, bothgreat and terrible. Join us as
we add another entry into thisour Macabrepedia.
Matthew (01:35):
Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia marriage of true
crime in the truly bizarre weare your hosts, Matthew and
Marissa. And today we will betaking a trip to
Marissa (01:50):
Madagascar. Oh,
Matthew (01:53):
wonderful.
Marissa (01:54):
Yes, Madagascar is the world's second largest island
country and actually has about220,000 square miles. So for
reference, the US state of Texashas about 268,000 square miles.
So it's a bit smaller, but notby that much.
Matthew (02:09):
What's the biggest Australia?
Marissa (02:11):
No, it's a continent.
Matthew (02:14):
I know kinda just the biggest island. Most of time.
Europe's not but
Marissa (02:21):
so anyway, this main island of Madagascar has
different climates in differentparts. It has tropical along
coastlines in the South. It hasan arid, Atmos like atmosphere.
So it's more desert like andthen fairly temperate inland so
it has kind of all over theplace.
Matthew (02:36):
Madagascar is like southern most it's like
Marissa (02:40):
Southeast of Africa, Africa. Mainland. Yeah. So
Matthew (02:44):
it's
Marissa (02:45):
often called paradise on earth because of its climate.
This is the setting in whichwe're exploring history this
week with Crete Queen rent ofIlona, and it's entirely
possible I will mess up her nameat some point or somebody else's
name in this so apologies if Ido. I did make an effort. So
we'll see what happens
Matthew (03:03):
when we always try to make an effort. We always screw
it up.
Marissa (03:06):
So Queen random Ilona.
Her long name. I'm going to trythis. You might have to cut it
because it might beembarrassing.
Matthew (03:16):
Oh, no, it's embarrassing. We're definitely
leaving it.
Marissa (03:19):
Robidoux Andrey Jana point Marina. I think very long.
Matthew (03:25):
It's quite a few like cultural things. It feels like
it's both a bit of Spanish. Alittle bit of Slavic in there. I
don't know. I have absolutely
Marissa (03:36):
no idea. I won't talk about that because I don't know.
But they are cool names and theyare some of them are quite long.
But anyway, random alone isreally what she goes by. She
also went by Remo at some point.
But random Ilona. She ruled thekingdom Madagascar from 1828 to
1861. She actually had a fairlylong reign. Queen Rania Valona
was born in 1778, the daughterof a tribesmen and servant of
(03:58):
the king of Madagascar at thetime his name was King and
Andrew Jana point a marina. SoAdriana pointer Marina was the
king at the time and randomIlona is father learned of an
assassination plot to kill him.
It was going to be from theKings uncle. So he was trying to
(04:18):
kill him. And so Renovage Mona'sfather, who found out about this
and told the king, and becauseof this, he was rewarded. So at
this point in history,Madagascar was watched and
wanted by many colonial powerswho wanted to control it.
Britain wanted it because it wasan important kind of bridge to
(04:39):
India, where it was located.
France wanted it because theyalready owned some islands that
were nearby, and they wanted toadd Madagascar to the
collection. And King Andrea Annapointed Marina, he wanted
Madagascar to remainindependent, but he was also
interested in learning moreabout the world beyond the
borders from these Westerners.
Matthew (04:58):
Right. This is When he just said it was a bunch of
colonial things in there, and Isaid that the name sounded like
they were, I don't
Marissa (05:04):
know how much of it. I don't know how much it impacted
their culture. Before this. Idon't know
Matthew (05:08):
that that name sounds like it came over with some
colonial influence.
Marissa (05:12):
I have no idea. I have no idea. But basically, he he
was he was very interested inthe Westerners. A lot of this is
the reason for a lot of theconflict that is to come.
Because there were some changesthat occurred in Madagascar from
welcoming welcoming theseWesterners into the land and
attempts at modernization thatother people in the country just
(05:34):
did not like at all. This waslikely part of why his uncle was
trying to take throne from inand assassinate him. Sure. So
that was the reasoning behindthat. But it did not work as he
was worn by random alone hisfather, and in return for saving
his life that came in betrothed,his own son and heir Prince for
dama to run of Ilona. So this isa definitely a commoner girl,
(05:57):
but because of circumstanceswith her father, she became
betrothed to the air ofMadagascar.
Matthew (06:05):
Okay, so she's in she's in line because of marriage or
marital things. You Yes. Okay.
Marissa (06:16):
So, he declared, The king declared that any child
born from these two and theirunion would be first in line of
succession. After Adama woulddie that this realm is the heir
apparent. The king took randomIlona and educated her in the
ways of the court, which reallyset her on her path. From a
(06:37):
humble beginning, she left herparents simple life to being
like a princess and a palace. Sothings changed pretty quickly
for her. She carried her fewpossessions with her and became
who she would become quiteintrigued her and she learned a
lot there and executions werefairly commonplace, which really
left a mark upon her. And whenright of Ilona and Madonna when
(06:58):
she was just 22 years old. Shehad a lot of hope, and in about
this relationship, and thoughshe was the highest ranking of
the 12 wives, it didn't lastlong.
Matthew (07:09):
Well, wives, yes. Oh, yeah, that's a lot of podcasts.
Marissa (07:14):
We're probably not going to do 12 podcasts. So
Matthew (07:16):
I'm saying if you had a wife for every podcast,
Marissa (07:19):
yeah, I guess it's 12 podcasts. Well, she was the
highest ranking but we're Dhammareally didn't seem to care for
her much. So any paid or verylittle attention is not a loving
and happy union. And the surelyimpacted random Ilona, living in
this loveless union. And becauseof this, she became ever more or
maybe not even because of this,but she just was very outspoken
(07:41):
person. And she was really, shetalked a lot about how she did
not like the prince's policiesloudly disagreeing with much of
what he did. Sudama was a lotlike his father and he would
welcome foreigners intoMadagascar. But random Alona
failed to see what these quotegreedy foreigners had to offer
her people and would gladly sayso this just made her diamond
(08:04):
like her even less as you canimagine. And so random alone
anre dama lost what little lovethat they had for each other and
runnable ova started to seekaffection elsewhere taking a
lover.
Matthew (08:15):
Oh, that's never good with with men in power.
Marissa (08:21):
No, it's usually not.
But in this case it I don'tthink it really impacted much
but we'll see. Okay, so in 1810,this saw Prince for Donald
become king or dama afterAdriana appointed Marina died.
So the Queen disagreed with justabout everything she saw her
husband do and she loudly saidso. And after he became king,
this Metro Dhamma allowed moreand more foreigners into the
(08:44):
country looking to westernizethe style of his people. He let
Protestant submission Protestantmissionaries into the country
who set up schools and spreadChristian ideas. And this whole
time, Queen Renova Lova iswatching helplessly seeing
Christianity take root, which isa major threat to her own gods.
Who are the old gods andMadagascar. In 1828, Ridhima
(09:04):
fell ill the island was throwninto turmoil because with the
king dangerously Ill Ill who wasgoing to take over if he died to
Queen. Okay, so the union ofpredominant and random Alona had
not produced produced an airwhich was supposed to be the
line of succession. So, the kingAdriana pointed Marina had
(09:29):
declared that after Redondadied, then his son by this union
would take over that was theoriginal agreement. Sure, but
they had no sons and nochildren. And so, what was going
to happen? By Madagascan custom,random Ilona herself had a claim
to the throne. And if she wereto rule and had a son, even with
another man, then after Redondadied, that son would be rightful
(09:52):
king.
Matthew (09:56):
That seems like I mean, it makes sense, I guess. Yeah.
Not a specific bloodline, butit's still from that union.
Right? I mean, I feel like thatwas still work. It's kind of the
way would still work if that wasever a situation. Right? And
like, European style, monarchy?
Marissa (10:15):
Yeah, I would guess it would be a different wife would
have
Matthew (10:18):
a different would never, I would never be in that
position. Like, unless there wasnot really another choice,
right. But then, but then itwould continue. Like if like,
you know, Mary, or somebody orQueen Elizabeth had had a child,
that child would have had
Marissa (10:31):
the If married, had a child, then that child would
have succeeded rather thanElizabeth for sure. Right in
England.
Matthew (10:38):
So that's not that far off of what it would be, but
it's okay.
Marissa (10:44):
But because of this, this was another reason to act
now, because she would be seenas a threat if another relative
were to be named heir after herdama because she had this claim
this is having an English courtsand all kinds of courts. If you
see a rival who has a claim tothe throne, sometimes they take
them out just to prevent futureissues. Yeah, you know,
Matthew (11:03):
no, no, no, no, no, no.
Marissa (11:06):
Exactly. So King Rama died, and random Ilona lucked
out. Luckily for her as it turnsout, she was pretty mean not
listen to me.
Matthew (11:15):
She liked that because he died.
Marissa (11:17):
While she didn't like him that much. But that's not
why she locked out. She lockedout because two of her Damas
officers decided to keep theking's death a secret until they
could place Prince raka Toby whowas the nephew of the king on
the throne. Okay, so so theother contender,
Matthew (11:34):
he has other people in the lineage, okay?
Marissa (11:36):
Yes. But he's his nephew. So random alone. His
lover overheard them talkingabout this and flew to tell her.
He told her all about thisscheme. So while the princess
supporters slept, she organizedher own supporters to carry out
a coup. She had the support ofthe priests. So she claimed that
(11:57):
she enjoyed the blessing andapproval of the Madagascar jaw,
the gods. She had the support oftwo generals from the Marine
Marina army who approved of hertraditional views. Was she
trying to keep out allWesterners through whom she had
many troops that were marshaledto take the palace? Okay, and
they did. And once they took it,ran of Alona announced that she
(12:19):
was going to be crowned assovereign and if anybody has a
problem with that they shouldspeak now or forever hold their
peace
Matthew (12:28):
so for all those that a quote that's a specific more
Marissa (12:30):
or less what happened four officers stepped forward
and pledged their support forthe prince instead. So they
don't do that. Don't do that.
And they were
Matthew (12:42):
you're gonna instantly put your you're gonna die like
right then almost certainly
Marissa (12:47):
they definitely did they were all killed by spears.
Yeah, immediately. Yeah, who
Matthew (12:51):
who's against me? i As you just saw I'm willing to
murder my way to the throne.
Anybody against me? Me, dummy.
Why did you? Did you not see howI got here to begin with?
Somebody killed that guy. Iknow. So now they're all now
these four generals have beenspeared? In the court?
Marissa (13:12):
Yeah, officers, but yeah, sure. So August 1 1828.
Random alone. I see a bunch ofconflicting reports here, but
for sake of clarity, I'm justgonna say she was 46 years old.
Some say she was in her 30s Idon't know. She hosts an
elaborate ceremony where sheascended to the throne. Proudly
pledging allegiance to herpeople. She said, quote, never
(13:33):
say she's only a feeble andignorant woman. How can she rule
such a vast empire? I will rulehere to the good fortune of my
people in the glory of my name.
I will worship no gods, butthose of my ancestors, the ocean
shall be a boundary of my realm,and I will not cede the
thickness of one hair of myrealm. Just in case you had any
doubt she's like, Nah, we're notgoing to be talking to these
(13:55):
foreigners that much my islandyou're not taking it from me.
Random Luna wasted little timekilling Prince raka Toby's
supporters. She wiped out hisentire bloodline. This is the
nephew in a series of agonizingdeaths, ensuring that they could
not pose a threat in the future.
She even locked his mother awayuntil she slowly starve to
(14:17):
death.
Matthew (14:17):
Oh, okay. Well, that's a Yeah, okay.
Marissa (14:20):
She watched from her royal balcony taking what some
noted as sadistic pleasure inthe executions.
Matthew (14:27):
I mean, so it's a good way to you know, silence your
your your naysayers. Yeah. Whenyou just go up there and you're
like, Nah, nothing sacred. LikeI will. I will tell you to
remind your whole your wholeline back to back to the
beginning will be utterlydestroyed. That that sends a
(14:51):
message.
Marissa (14:52):
It did. It definitely did. And it pretty much cemented
her power. And so now she is thequeen. She's been the Queen But
you know, she
Matthew (15:01):
recognized as the monarch. Yes. So I'm trying to
I'm trying to like, this is my,this is my Western ignorance.
I'm trying to figure out like,I'm trying to put a mental
picture to this. And every timethat I'm doing this, I keep I
keep having like, the the, likethe architecture be very
European. And I feel like Ishouldn't be thinking because
(15:23):
she she wouldn't appreciate thatI don't think and I feel like it
wouldn't be as European as I'm,as I'm, as I'm picturing in my
head.
Marissa (15:31):
Well, I, I mean, I can't speak much about
architecture, because I don'tknow too much about it. But I've
seen pictures of the palaceduring her time and I mean, it's
somewhat reminiscent of Greekarchitecture. It's not it's not
really but it's to me it has alittle bit of like, a temple
vibe, some of it she has columnsand stuff. You can look up
(15:51):
pictures of what it used to looklike,
Matthew (15:53):
oh, I have to so I can paint a better mental picture of
of this scene. Because I mean, Ijust tried to put myself right
there smelled smelled blood. Seethe gleeful appearance of the of
the Queen looking down upon thegore. You don't have to wait for
(16:19):
me to look up a pig.
Marissa (16:21):
Random Ilona gave birth to a son by her lover and
Adriana Maharaja. And he hadalways supported her role. He
was pretty supportive. Sheactually, like raised him up to
the First Minister later on. Butthis was about 11 months after
her husband Retama had died. Andthis child was not accepted as
(16:43):
the next heir in line to thethrone, so she didn't waste a
lot of time and getting her nextheir. And thus her reign began
which would last from 1828 to1861. She wrote from her palace,
which was perched on a cliff topwhich overlooked the village of
1000 villages. And during herreign, the people random Ilona
was ruling would be subjected tonumerous crucifixions,
(17:04):
beheadings, skinning, alive,burning. There were many
tortures and awful things thathappened during her role. And
this was so common that itbecame part of daily life. Oh,
yeah, I mean, she expelled theEuropean merchants and teachers,
diplomats, everybody who wasEuropean basically, with all of
the trade deals that were withBritain and France immediately
(17:26):
cancelled. After one successfulbattle against an invasion, she
slipped the heads of Europeansstuck them on pikes and lined
them on the beaches as a way totell for foreign unfazed
invaders. This is what I'm goingto do if you come in here. And
she banned Christianity. And shesaid that whoever breaks the law
of my kingdom will be put todeath, whoever he may be. And
(17:48):
she meant it. And her lover,Adriana Maharaja, he she loved
him a great deal. Like she waspretty, I guess vicious towards
a lot of people. But toward him,she had a very soft heart. And,
you know, as I said, She raisedhim to First Minister, and he
was confident enough about this,that he became outspoken about
(18:09):
things that random Alona wasagainst. So he was very for
modernization and foreigninfluence coming in.
Matthew (18:16):
What was what's her lover's name?
Marissa (18:19):
Andrea Adriana?
Maharsha.
Matthew (18:21):
Adriana as a as a physician that's like It's like
saying, like Noble or Lordapparently
Marissa (18:31):
I do see some patterns where some parts of the names
overlap so I can imagine
Matthew (18:36):
it's like a title it's like calling him like count or
something.
Marissa (18:40):
Yeah, I mean, the king was Andrea on appointed Marina.
So
Matthew (18:43):
yeah, that's, that's it's it's a position thing. They
don't all just say share thesame names. And also, everything
looks very European. Yeah,everything I'm going through, it
looks like that. It was prettypretty thickly entrenched in
European style of dress andarchitecture.
Marissa (19:00):
Didn't have Europeans for a while. So they definitely
had some influence. There's nodoubt about that. before this
all happened.
Matthew (19:06):
I mean, they made it their own a little bit from what
I'm seeing.
Marissa (19:11):
And the Queen's a traditionalist allies accused
her lover Adriana Maharaja oftreason, because he was talking,
you know, for things that werefor foreign influence and for
stuff like that, which she wasvery much against. Sure. And so
they demanded that he take placein this thing called a 10 Gaina
or trial by ordeal. Oh, yeah,yes. though. Yes. During this
(19:35):
trial, the accused was forced toeat three pieces of chicken skin
that had been robbed with powderfrom the poisonous tango in a
plant. Alright, so if theyregurgitated all three pieces of
this chicken scan together, theywere innocent. It actually this
kind of like smacks of Salemwitch trials in some ways, but
if not, they were guilty andsentenced to death, even if they
had survived ingesting thepoison which they may not which
(19:57):
came from the 10 Ganesh shrubI'm running alone. I heard about
this plan but she didn't want toput him through this ordeal. She
didn't actually think he wouldsurvive. So instead she banished
him to kind of soothe herministers. She showed a soft
spot or otherwise dark andtwisted rain.
Matthew (20:13):
Well, she's so I mean, she's still a lady. She's the
loves.
Marissa (20:18):
However, a few months later, she heard that Andrea
Malhotra was sleeping with ayounger woman with royal blood
while in exile. And this was toomuch. No
Matthew (20:28):
he can't now you have made it out the first time I do.
Yeah. Now you don't messed up
Marissa (20:33):
too much. She was furious with him and she
sentenced him to death. And thusher heart hardened further. And
an 1845 Random Ilona. Sheactually ordered 1000s of her
people to go on a buffalo hunt.
There were like 50,000 people inthis group. They took some
supplies and they were orderedto build a road on their way to
help their travel. Sure,whatever. The road construction
(20:56):
was across jungles and causedthe death of many people.
However, the group progressedregardless of their misery. And
the buffalo hunt lasted aboutfour months, during which 10,000
people died from exhaustion,starvation, and malaria was not
a single buffalo being killed.
Matthew (21:17):
I was gonna say are there even buffalo buffalo is to
be found there.
Marissa (21:20):
I didn't look that up.
That'd be funny if it was
Matthew (21:25):
there. Well, you have to like the Find a go find me a
unicorn.
Marissa (21:32):
Others would be dipped in boiling water, or oil,
boiling oil or tied with ropesand burned alive. She would
place others into coffins. AndEmir them. And some are buried
into holes with dirt showeredupon them while they were alive.
I mean, she classics. Yeah. Soduring this time, right of
(21:52):
aloneness, isolationism wasreally not helping things much.
It was access to the Westernersthat they really needed for
stuff like superior weaponry andengineering skills that they
just didn't have. And they werereally lacking in your ability
to repel their invaders becausethey were so just they weren't
able to match them andtechnology. Sure. As if an
(22:12):
answer to her needs. A manwashes up on Madagascar shores
in 1832 that it really is kindof crazy. This guy's perfect for
what she needed. Okay. Yeah. SoFrenchmen. John Laborde had been
traveling aboard and indeed,around the Indian Ocean. He was
looking for sunken treasure. Hewas a treasure hunter sure when
(22:34):
a storm came and it smashed hisship on some rocks. So he washed
up on shore on a beautifulMadagascan Beach,
Matthew (22:41):
like literally washed up on shore literally was on a
boat or nothing like we'retalking Robinson Caruso.
Marissa (22:49):
And luckily, he was near lands that belonged to a
French plantation owner named dela Estelle, who knew just what
to do about him, that it reallykind of seems faded in a way of
all the places he could havewashed up, hoping to get favor
with the queen Dayla Estellenurse Laborde back to health and
(23:10):
then sent a message to the Queenabout this young Frenchman who
was a skilled weapons maker.
Random Alana was elated at this,of course, and she sent for
Laborde at once convinced thatthis was fate dealing her hand.
And I can't argue with herbecause it kind of seems like it
seems Yeah. Unknown to Laborde,there was a legend that
predicted that a white man wouldbe shipwrecked on the shore and
(23:31):
then would marry a king'sdaughter and roll the island
with fairness and wisdom.
Matthew (23:37):
Why is this? Why is Why is there always that that same
thing that undid the Aztecs?
Yeah,
Marissa (23:43):
I don't know that
Matthew (23:44):
they ever believe have never never by the white savior
height that has never it hasnever worked out for
civilization.
Marissa (23:52):
I mean, it's it's an interesting little law. I can't
think today I mean, it'sinteresting little little story
to this, but he didn't actuallyend up doing that so I don't
know.
Matthew (24:02):
Yeah, well, cuz prophecies don't aren't real.
Yeah.
Marissa (24:06):
So he he did however, have a huge impact on the
nation's future. He establishedfactories to produce cannons
muskets gunpowder iron copperstill, this guy knew his stuff I
was gonna say that the young buthe knew a lot of some
Matthew (24:21):
shit to be able to fix I was gonna say like, yeah you
like at what point in this inhis weapon creation stuff was he
liked the guy who put barrels onthe on the guns or this dude
knew everything from smeltingdown to
Marissa (24:34):
ah, it really kind of seems like he did because I
don't know if he got any help.
But there weren't a lot ofEuropeans left on Madagascar at
this point. So yeah, and so thiskind of ensured that Ireland's
independence could be maintainedas I get produced weapons to
repel the British and Frenchinvaders. Laborde was a young
charming man and he became apersonal favorite of run of
Lunas, which made it easy forher to look past his background,
(24:56):
you know, as a European Yeah,
Matthew (25:00):
get rid of all the Europeans. I mean, they're super
helpful ready, willing to helpus also get rid of European
Marissa (25:07):
Yeah. He was even appointed as young prince were
kowtows personal tutor Ricardois actually her son. I don't
know if I said that but Makotois your son. So he was appointed
as Ricardo is personal tutor andrather Willinger knots he was
likely run up alunos lover also.
Matthew (25:24):
This became where her son come from.
Marissa (25:27):
Now I told you she had a son 11 months after her
husband died, and Makoto andLaborde actually really had a
close friendship as he wastutoring him. And this kind of
started to unsettle thetraditionalists who weren't very
happy with this European comingin of course,
Matthew (25:43):
yeah, you have Yeah, you're trying to get rid of
European influence and thenyou're gonna have your kid
taught by European Yeah, comeon.
Marissa (25:49):
I know. So good look, yeah, random Ilona love to
dramatic scenes showing herruling the Empire and occupying
the same heavenly stratosphereas the Madagascan Gods one major
ritual. So she had a bunch ofrituals, but one major ritual
that she concocted was theQueen's bath, which was part of
the new year's festival. Thiswas based on an older custom
that was like washing away thesins of the population. Right.
(26:14):
But she didn't she changed itfor her own interests. She
created this to make her seatherself seem more Godlike. She
was referred to her subjects asreferred to by her subject as
Madhu, or my god, whichdefinitely seems French. During
this ritual, the Queen herselfwould take a public bath on her
balcony, she would stand on thebalcony with a crimson cloak,
(26:37):
drape Tibet draped about her.
And then her attendants wouldcarry her behind the screen. And
sounds a splashing could beheard at this point when she was
taking a bath. And the lightburning in the Queen's room was
the only light anywhere all theother lights in the city were
extinguished. So you know youreyes were supposed to be trained
on this balcony and then she
Matthew (26:56):
does shadow puppetry.
Yeah,
Marissa (26:58):
she probably knows maybe she did. But no, she would
emerge with an ivory tusks thatwas filled with bath water from
her bath and she would then pourthis off the balcony spraying
the huge crowd that would comefrom miles around to watch this
so she's cleansing them of theirsins whether you bath bath water
use
Matthew (27:17):
bath water you know you there's there's a market for
that still these days.
Marissa (27:21):
There's a market for a lot of stuff you
Matthew (27:24):
ain't got to be a queen it could just be some I
Marissa (27:27):
don't know some influencers sell their farts or
something stupid yeah, there's
Matthew (27:30):
there's influencers that sell their bathwater
literally.
Marissa (27:34):
Hey, hey, go Yeah,
Matthew (27:37):
if that needs to be sorted, put on Patreon. If you
like my bathwater, we can. Wecan we can figure that out.
Marissa (27:44):
So meanwhile, random Ilona turned her attention to
slavery. She followed thetradition of phantom Poiana,
which is forced labor labor inplace of tax payments and money
or goods. She hoped to kind ofboost the economy of Madagascar
by selling slaves, usually fromother ethnic groups within the
(28:05):
country, especially those ofblack African origin, she would
sell them to other countries.
When the British abolishedslavery and freed all of their
slaves in 1834, she announcedthat no one was to follow
Christianity which describesslavery as barbaric. She was
always very againstChristianity, but this was
another reason. And for random,Ilona, this because this
involved a brutal laborconditions, staying way away
(28:27):
from your own home malnutrition,which would cause death. These
people were considered traitors,victims of war non taxpayers, or
Christians who secretly practicetheir religion. These people
could all be sold into slavery.
If they didn't die. Random Alonaconducted a purge to wipe out
the so called traitors who wouldally with her enemies. And over
(28:50):
time, the Queen becameincreasingly paranoid, and used
in him inhumane trials for evenminor offenses. She even made
her disgraced subjects lick herfeet, which she covered in a
bright pink poisonous powder. Imean, this is just a degradation
in her sanity in a lot of ways.
Matthew (29:09):
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's only poisonous if you
ingest it rather than justsubjecting your your feet to it
for a long time.
Marissa (29:21):
Yeah, that's what I'm guessing she didn't. She didn't
die from itself and maybe
Matthew (29:25):
because of the maybe cause a little bit of irritation
more I'm thinking a little bitof a Oh, Insanity, insanity.
Mercury.
Marissa (29:35):
Laborde, meanwhile, who was not super keen on this
persuaded her son, Prince Makototo write to the French
government, asking them to takeover and seek sovereignty of the
island and to install Rikolto asruler. But the French were
occupied elsewhere with a bunchof wars and stuff. And so they
didn't really have a particularinterest in Madagascar at that
time, so they ignored the plea.
Wherever Luna was unaware ofthis plot I'm more interested at
(29:59):
the time in repelling Westernideas and destroying
Christianity. So she was prettymuch preoccupied. She didn't
really notice this going onunder her nose. In 1857, she
continued with this and launcheda more savage persecution than
before targeting the Europeanswho lived on the island at
first, but then moving on to ourown people. Christianity was
there to stay, as the previousmissionaries had done a great
(30:23):
job at teaching Christianity.
And, you know, people just kindof took to it.
Matthew (30:31):
Well, yeah, also Christianity has a built in
level of you're going to bepersecuted for this. Yeah. So I
mean, it makes it by persecutingthem and it helps cement it in
so
Marissa (30:42):
yeah, and she kept on she encouraged crowds to gather
and watch the punishments forthose suspected of clinging on
to their Christian faith. Peoplewere beheaded, boiled alive,
thrown from high cliffs on tosharp volcanic rocks. Others
were forced to drink poison,which would cause a slow and
agonizing death. And when shecouldn't eradicate Christianity
(31:02):
entirely, her efforts ramped up,the punishments got worse and
worse. She went on to annihilatea third, like I said, In the
beginning, a third to a half ofour entire country's population
like this cannot be overstated.
This is an insane number ofpeople. I mean, it's really
amazing that she didn't getdeposed or murdered herself. You
know, I mean, this is an
Matthew (31:24):
Yeah, I'm sure she if she's gonna put herself in a
position where she's godlike insome ways and stuff like that
and making sure that it doesn'tseem like she's hesitates in the
slightest to taking out anyrivals. It sounds to me like
she's building up a, an army ofzealots around her, you know,
that would keep her pretty wellsafe. Yeah, absolutely.
Marissa (31:46):
She had the support of the traditionalists. The
priests, you know, everybody whowas around her fully supported
her.
Matthew (31:53):
So as well, they also help her probably come up with
these ideas too. Yeah. And
Marissa (31:57):
there were attempted coups, which did leave a mark on
her but they weren't successful.
Well, there was one by herlover, her favorite Laborde and
fellow Frenchman John FrancoisLambert, I mean, this is not the
first one they attempted, butthis one this one's more
important. So they had plottedwith another with another
visiting explorer whose name wasPfeiffer, Ida Pfeiffer and
(32:19):
Laborde is old plantation friendremember the guy he'd washed up
on his on his at his beach de laEstelle. So these guys all were
kind of conspiring to placeprints for Koto on the throne.
However, they had somebreakdowns in their
communication and never quitecame to fruition, and then spent
days after their, you know,attempt trying to figure out if
(32:41):
she knew had she uncovered theplot, or were they safe? They
wanted to know they wanted toknow what would happen if she
knew they knew her well enoughto know probably not great.
However, the Queen seemedunusually cheerful. So they
began to relax a little bit.
They figured, oh, maybe we'reokay.
Matthew (33:02):
Yeah, she's happy because she found a plot. She's
like, Oh, I'm gonna bake thesedudes into pies. What? Let's go.
Marissa (33:09):
Yes. So she demanded that all of the Europeans gather
in the marketplace.
Matthew (33:15):
I would know why that people even stayed on this. I
don't know what in the hell?
Marissa (33:21):
No, no, it's not that easy to get off of it and can
sometimes in some cases, butanyway, turns out random Alona
had in fact uncovered the plots,but she intended to merely
banish them rather than killthem. So the men set out on a
seven day journey to the coastor a ship waited to take them
away. What was supposed to beseven days actually ended up
being 53 days. Because on theway there, they were
(33:44):
deliberately slowed down by theQueen's men. And the Europeans
in the group began to die offone by one victims of hunger and
fever. I mean, it wasn't a greatshow. She
Matthew (33:54):
can't wait, wait. So she calls all the Europeans to
her house. Yes, this works onall on a boat.
Marissa (34:01):
While she tells them they have to be they're gonna be
banished, right. So they're theones who then take off to go to
this boat on shore, which isgoing to be a seven day journey
Matthew (34:10):
across land to the ship or to the ship. Yeah,
Marissa (34:13):
yeah. But this, the journey doesn't take seven days.
It takes 53 days, because hermen keep trying to sabotage
then, okay. I went betweenambush and sabotage like eight
times, sorry. So this is this iswhat she was trying to do. I
mean, she was trying to do butshe was also quite successful at
stopping them, and a lot ofways. I mean, lista de la
(34:38):
Estelle Laborde and Pfeiffer didactually make it to the ship
eventually. So these threedidn't make it. They were
exhausted by the time that theygot there, but they didn't make
it. Pfeiffer, however, who wasthe Explorer died a few months
later from fever that hadcontracted during this time. So
it was probably malaria. TheQueen it turned out had devised
a way to get rid of theEuropeans and teach them a
lesson while also Making surethat the foreign powers could
(35:02):
not hold her directlyresponsible for their deaths or
demand justice directly fromher.
Matthew (35:08):
Okay, so that's why she was just kind of like harassing
them while they were going asopposed to just being like,
Marissa (35:13):
just directly killing them. Gotcha.
Matthew (35:14):
Gotcha. Gotcha below.
Man. There's buffalo out there.
I can't speak for them buffaloyou know, you know how wily they
get.
Marissa (35:22):
When the Europe with the Europeans Golan, she
continued to persecute theChristians and her nation being
worse and worse in her savageryfree free from even the
judgmental foreign eyes who werethere before. Each year became
worse and worse. And neverreally stopped. So random Alana,
she did die eventually, though,
Matthew (35:42):
as most humans do.
Marissa (35:44):
She died in her sleep on August 15 1861.
Matthew (35:48):
justice served.
Marissa (35:49):
Yeah, I know, right.
This says she was 79 years old.
Again, a little bit ofdiscrepancy on the ages. But
yeah, again, she had wiped outso much of her population
between 20 and 30,000 peopledied every year of her reign.
And that's a lot of people.
That's a lot of people. She had,however, successfully resisted
colonization for the last threedecades of her reign. So she was
(36:11):
successful in that way at least.
Yeah, she also really
Matthew (36:17):
depending on how you measure success.
Marissa (36:19):
Yeah, exactly. But
Matthew (36:21):
coast is full of Frenchmen regardless.
Marissa (36:25):
Her savagery, anger and madness really characterized her
reign and later years worse, butit was it was there the whole
time. Actually, at her funeral,a spark ignited an explosion
that killed 1000s of people anddestroyed nearby Boyle
buildings.
Matthew (36:39):
Yeah, she's still still got still got one more.
Marissa (36:42):
She still got her bang.
People mourned her death ingreat honor for about nine
months. I mean, she wasn't itwasn't just a complete. Yeah,
I'm so glad she's gone. It wasit was some morning involved as
well. The aftermath ritualsinvolved slaughtering the
animals and distributing themeats to the people. And her son
Prince rocoto, then became kingMakoto. And he withdrew most of
(37:05):
his mother's policies, puttingit into the persecutions. He
rolled for six years, until hewas assassinated. And the new
queen came to power. And her shewas a Christian. And her name
was Ron Ilona, the second butshe was a Christian. So, you
know, you can imagine randomAlana The first was turning over
(37:27):
in her grave. Some claim thatshe had been demonized since she
was a strong female ruler. Andshe certainly was more
successful than most rulers ofher time, like in resisting
colonization, because a lot oftimes, they weren't very
successful in their theircountry fell to that. But she
did maintain her country'sindependence. And so I'm, you
(37:51):
know, good for her on that one,I guess. But reports from
explorers who had come to theisland actually support the idea
that she if she had been Queenmuch longer, she would have
eradicated nearly the entirepopulation of the island. And
maybe she would have, she wascertainly insane by the end of
her reign, which may explainsome of it. She persisted until
(38:11):
the end with the belief that shewas Madagascar Savior, and will
be elevated to the status ofGod. But it's not really in
dispute that she committedgenocide against her own people.
I mean, she claimed to love themand she tried to she was saying
she was trying to protect them,but then she murdered so many of
them. So this is Ron Ilona. Goodand bad. I
Matthew (38:31):
guess. I don't see a lot of good.
Marissa (38:34):
She was able to resist colonization that was big. But
yeah,
Matthew (38:39):
yeah, no, no, it but good. I don't think it's good.
Like I mean, like sure I'm, thisis not this is not a matter of
like, arguing for one cultureover another or anything, but
the way I mean, this is verymuch ends and means
justification. And I don't know,I don't know if just being like,
well, there's an AI killedeveryone on the island. So no
(39:01):
one's being converted anymore.
That's not necessarily good.
Marissa (39:06):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. She was successful doing
that, that that. But I mean,that's all I can give to her
because she was definitely likea very cruel and evil woman. So
I don't know. But anyway, thatis Queen runable. Ona and
hopefully I didn't butcher thesenames too bad. Anyway, I think
we have McCobb minutes.
Matthew (39:25):
Yeah, this week's McCobb minute comes. Inspired by
our recent the recent release ofNeil Gaiman's Sandman. on
Netflix, there is a characterwho is in there who is known as
(39:47):
Fiddler's Green. And we had toedit that because Marissa just
gave a spoiler for the show.
This is not supposed to be aspoiler for the show. Sorry. It
is recently released. This isn'tlike
Marissa (40:00):
It wasn't that big of a spoiler but it's
Matthew (40:02):
it's a pretty big spoiler you know that the you
know the sources anyways,Fiddler's Green is a character
in Neil Gaiman's Sandman. And hethe name Fiddler's Green is from
a maritime its maritime folklorethat the Fiddler's Green is a
(40:24):
place where the Fiddler's alwaysthere's always a fiddler playing
and it's a place where dancersnever tire and it's kind of like
endless shore leaves but it'slike the afterlife for sailors
nice and then it but
Marissa (40:41):
there's no water I'm sorry and it's not on the water
no man shore
Matthew (40:47):
leave okay well surely if you don't want to be on a
boat you sit on a boat all thedamn I want to be not on the
boat. Nice beautiful greenpastures I don't know there are
there are a lots of pieces ofliterature and cinema and
whatnot that were thatreferenced this but it's not
(41:08):
something that's like I've beenin my experience as somebody who
knows a lot of snippets offolklore it was never said the
one when they said Fiddler'sGreen I never realized what that
was but in trigger a memory freeYeah. And then later well, the
from that sailors folklore thenalso is a belief that like if
(41:30):
enough people believe in oneparticular thing that it becomes
reality, like kind of in thatsame theme of the dreaming and
whatnot. But that's not thatMcCobb other than it being a you
know, an afterlife kind of athing. But there is a Calvary
mins poem called Fiddler's Greenare entitled Fiddler's Green. It
(41:52):
was published in the US Army'scavalry journal in 1923. And it
became associated with the FirstCavalry Division and this poem
is halfway down the trail tohell. In a shady meadow green
are the souls of all deadtroopers camped near a good old
(42:14):
time canteen, and this eternalresting place is known as
Fiddler's Green, marching paststraight through to hell the
infantry are seen accompanied byengineers, artillery and marine,
for none but the shades ofCalvary men dismount at
Fiddler's Green, though some gocurving down the trail to seek a
(42:39):
warmer scene. No Trooper evergets to hell. Here he's emptied
his canteen, and so rides backto drink again with friends at
Fiddler's Green. And so when manand horse go down beneath a
saber keen, or in a roaringcharge, fierce melee, you stop a
(43:01):
bullet clean and the hostilescome to get your scalp. Just
empty your canteen and put yourpistol to your head and go to
Fiddler's Green.
Marissa (43:12):
Oh, that's quite McCobb.
Matthew (43:15):
Yeah. Basically says don't surrender, you ain't gonna
go to Hell, no matter what youdo. cavalrymen. But interesting.
That was one that was somethingthat I stumbled upon and trying
to research Fiddler's Green. ButI figured that was pretty,
pretty grim.
Marissa (43:30):
That's a good one.
Yeah.
Matthew (43:33):
And that'll do it for this week's entry. Thank you, as
always for joining us. And youcan support the show over on
Patreon if you so like, if youlike what we do here. We have
recently taken the psychopathytest on there, which some people
seem to enjoy and take alongwith us. reports that I am
(43:56):
clearly the most psychotic of,well, we knew that other people
were in a nice way. But Butyeah, so you can go over there.
It's $5 supports the show. Wethank you greatly for all of you
who listen. And for those whosupport us. You can also reach
us on Twitter and Facebook atMacabrepedia.
Marissa (44:17):
And we're also on Instagram at Macabrepediapod at
gmail. Sorry, we're on we're onInstagram at Macabrepediapod.
And you can also reach us atMacabrepediapod gmail.com. And
of course you can leave us areview. Podcast argument. No, I
can't.
Matthew (44:34):
Of course you can, you know leave give us five star
review and whatever. But youhave to comment. Well if it's
available like Apple allows youto comment. That is how the
algorithm picks us up. You cansay whatever you want in those
reviews, leave five stars and acomment and you can say whatever
you like about me and when youcan also let me know what your
(44:58):
if you take the psychopathy testand let us know what your score
was. So I can really actuallyfeel a little a little crazier.
But anyways, thank you so verymuch and join us next week as we
add another entry into this ourMacabrepedia
Macabrepedia makes light of dark subject matters
(00:03):
and may not be suitable for allaudiences. Listener discretion
is advised.
Marissa (00:20):
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. From humblebeginnings run of Alona would go
from the daughter of a commonerto the sovereign queen of a
nation through luck or a trickof fate. Many people put her in
an honorable place in historybecause of how she was able to
successfully stave off Europeancolonization in the 19th
(00:42):
century, and how she was able tomaintain her country's
independence. But others have toask, at what cost known to
history as both runnable Loanathe cruel and the Mad Queen of
Madagascar. Queen random Ilona.
The first was responsible forthe deaths of somewhere between
a third and a half of the peopleon her island during her rule.
(01:03):
As the years progressed, shebecame more and more unhinged,
something that can be seen asher punishments and executions
became crueler, and crueler.
This queen did many things, bothgreat and terrible. Join us as
we add another entry into thisour Macabrepedia.
Matthew (01:35):
Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia marriage of true
crime in the truly bizarre weare your hosts, Matthew and
Marissa. And today we will betaking a trip to
Marissa (01:50):
Madagascar. Oh,
Matthew (01:53):
wonderful.
Marissa (01:54):
Yes, Madagascar is the world's second largest island
country and actually has about220,000 square miles. So for
reference, the US state of Texashas about 268,000 square miles.
So it's a bit smaller, but notby that much.
Matthew (02:09):
What's the biggest Australia?
Marissa (02:11):
No, it's a continent.
Matthew (02:14):
I know kinda just the biggest island. Most of time.
Europe's not but
Marissa (02:21):
so anyway, this main island of Madagascar has
different climates in differentparts. It has tropical along
coastlines in the South. It hasan arid, Atmos like atmosphere.
So it's more desert like andthen fairly temperate inland so
it has kind of all over theplace.
Matthew (02:36):
Madagascar is like southern most it's like
Marissa (02:40):
Southeast of Africa, Africa. Mainland. Yeah. So
Matthew (02:44):
it's
Marissa (02:45):
often called paradise on earth because of its climate.
This is the setting in whichwe're exploring history this
week with Crete Queen rent ofIlona, and it's entirely
possible I will mess up her nameat some point or somebody else's
name in this so apologies if Ido. I did make an effort. So
we'll see what happens
Matthew (03:03):
when we always try to make an effort. We always screw
it up.
Marissa (03:06):
So Queen random Ilona.
Her long name. I'm going to trythis. You might have to cut it
because it might beembarrassing.
Matthew (03:16):
Oh, no, it's embarrassing. We're definitely
leaving it.
Marissa (03:19):
Robidoux Andrey Jana point Marina. I think very long.
Matthew (03:25):
It's quite a few like cultural things. It feels like
it's both a bit of Spanish. Alittle bit of Slavic in there. I
don't know. I have absolutely
Marissa (03:36):
no idea. I won't talk about that because I don't know.
But they are cool names and theyare some of them are quite long.
But anyway, random alone isreally what she goes by. She
also went by Remo at some point.
But random Ilona. She ruled thekingdom Madagascar from 1828 to
1861. She actually had a fairlylong reign. Queen Rania Valona
was born in 1778, the daughterof a tribesmen and servant of
(03:58):
the king of Madagascar at thetime his name was King and
Andrew Jana point a marina. SoAdriana pointer Marina was the
king at the time and randomIlona is father learned of an
assassination plot to kill him.
It was going to be from theKings uncle. So he was trying to
(04:18):
kill him. And so Renovage Mona'sfather, who found out about this
and told the king, and becauseof this, he was rewarded. So at
this point in history,Madagascar was watched and
wanted by many colonial powerswho wanted to control it.
Britain wanted it because it wasan important kind of bridge to
(04:39):
India, where it was located.
France wanted it because theyalready owned some islands that
were nearby, and they wanted toadd Madagascar to the
collection. And King Andrea Annapointed Marina, he wanted
Madagascar to remainindependent, but he was also
interested in learning moreabout the world beyond the
borders from these Westerners.
Matthew (04:58):
Right. This is When he just said it was a bunch of
colonial things in there, and Isaid that the name sounded like
they were, I don't
Marissa (05:04):
know how much of it. I don't know how much it impacted
their culture. Before this. Idon't know
Matthew (05:08):
that that name sounds like it came over with some
colonial influence.
Marissa (05:12):
I have no idea. I have no idea. But basically, he he
was he was very interested inthe Westerners. A lot of this is
the reason for a lot of theconflict that is to come.
Because there were some changesthat occurred in Madagascar from
welcoming welcoming theseWesterners into the land and
attempts at modernization thatother people in the country just
(05:34):
did not like at all. This waslikely part of why his uncle was
trying to take throne from inand assassinate him. Sure. So
that was the reasoning behindthat. But it did not work as he
was worn by random alone hisfather, and in return for saving
his life that came in betrothed,his own son and heir Prince for
dama to run of Ilona. So this isa definitely a commoner girl,
(05:57):
but because of circumstanceswith her father, she became
betrothed to the air ofMadagascar.
Matthew (06:05):
Okay, so she's in she's in line because of marriage or
marital things. You Yes. Okay.
Marissa (06:16):
So, he declared, The king declared that any child
born from these two and theirunion would be first in line of
succession. After Adama woulddie that this realm is the heir
apparent. The king took randomIlona and educated her in the
ways of the court, which reallyset her on her path. From a
(06:37):
humble beginning, she left herparents simple life to being
like a princess and a palace. Sothings changed pretty quickly
for her. She carried her fewpossessions with her and became
who she would become quiteintrigued her and she learned a
lot there and executions werefairly commonplace, which really
left a mark upon her. And whenright of Ilona and Madonna when
(06:58):
she was just 22 years old. Shehad a lot of hope, and in about
this relationship, and thoughshe was the highest ranking of
the 12 wives, it didn't lastlong.
Matthew (07:09):
Well, wives, yes. Oh, yeah, that's a lot of podcasts.
Marissa (07:14):
We're probably not going to do 12 podcasts. So
Matthew (07:16):
I'm saying if you had a wife for every podcast,
Marissa (07:19):
yeah, I guess it's 12 podcasts. Well, she was the
highest ranking but we're Dhammareally didn't seem to care for
her much. So any paid or verylittle attention is not a loving
and happy union. And the surelyimpacted random Ilona, living in
this loveless union. And becauseof this, she became ever more or
maybe not even because of this,but she just was very outspoken
(07:41):
person. And she was really, shetalked a lot about how she did
not like the prince's policiesloudly disagreeing with much of
what he did. Sudama was a lotlike his father and he would
welcome foreigners intoMadagascar. But random Alona
failed to see what these quotegreedy foreigners had to offer
her people and would gladly sayso this just made her diamond
(08:04):
like her even less as you canimagine. And so random alone
anre dama lost what little lovethat they had for each other and
runnable ova started to seekaffection elsewhere taking a
lover.
Matthew (08:15):
Oh, that's never good with with men in power.
Marissa (08:21):
No, it's usually not.
But in this case it I don'tthink it really impacted much
but we'll see. Okay, so in 1810,this saw Prince for Donald
become king or dama afterAdriana appointed Marina died.
So the Queen disagreed with justabout everything she saw her
husband do and she loudly saidso. And after he became king,
this Metro Dhamma allowed moreand more foreigners into the
(08:44):
country looking to westernizethe style of his people. He let
Protestant submission Protestantmissionaries into the country
who set up schools and spreadChristian ideas. And this whole
time, Queen Renova Lova iswatching helplessly seeing
Christianity take root, which isa major threat to her own gods.
Who are the old gods andMadagascar. In 1828, Ridhima
(09:04):
fell ill the island was throwninto turmoil because with the
king dangerously Ill Ill who wasgoing to take over if he died to
Queen. Okay, so the union ofpredominant and random Alona had
not produced produced an airwhich was supposed to be the
line of succession. So, the kingAdriana pointed Marina had
(09:29):
declared that after Redondadied, then his son by this union
would take over that was theoriginal agreement. Sure, but
they had no sons and nochildren. And so, what was going
to happen? By Madagascan custom,random Ilona herself had a claim
to the throne. And if she wereto rule and had a son, even with
another man, then after Redondadied, that son would be rightful
(09:52):
king.
Matthew (09:56):
That seems like I mean, it makes sense, I guess. Yeah.
Not a specific bloodline, butit's still from that union.
Right? I mean, I feel like thatwas still work. It's kind of the
way would still work if that wasever a situation. Right? And
like, European style, monarchy?
Marissa (10:15):
Yeah, I would guess it would be a different wife would
have
Matthew (10:18):
a different would never, I would never be in that
position. Like, unless there wasnot really another choice,
right. But then, but then itwould continue. Like if like,
you know, Mary, or somebody orQueen Elizabeth had had a child,
that child would have had
Marissa (10:31):
the If married, had a child, then that child would
have succeeded rather thanElizabeth for sure. Right in
England.
Matthew (10:38):
So that's not that far off of what it would be, but
it's okay.
Marissa (10:44):
But because of this, this was another reason to act
now, because she would be seenas a threat if another relative
were to be named heir after herdama because she had this claim
this is having an English courtsand all kinds of courts. If you
see a rival who has a claim tothe throne, sometimes they take
them out just to prevent futureissues. Yeah, you know,
Matthew (11:03):
no, no, no, no, no, no.
Marissa (11:06):
Exactly. So King Rama died, and random Ilona lucked
out. Luckily for her as it turnsout, she was pretty mean not
listen to me.
Matthew (11:15):
She liked that because he died.
Marissa (11:17):
While she didn't like him that much. But that's not
why she locked out. She lockedout because two of her Damas
officers decided to keep theking's death a secret until they
could place Prince raka Toby whowas the nephew of the king on
the throne. Okay, so so theother contender,
Matthew (11:34):
he has other people in the lineage, okay?
Marissa (11:36):
Yes. But he's his nephew. So random alone. His
lover overheard them talkingabout this and flew to tell her.
He told her all about thisscheme. So while the princess
supporters slept, she organizedher own supporters to carry out
a coup. She had the support ofthe priests. So she claimed that
(11:57):
she enjoyed the blessing andapproval of the Madagascar jaw,
the gods. She had the support oftwo generals from the Marine
Marina army who approved of hertraditional views. Was she
trying to keep out allWesterners through whom she had
many troops that were marshaledto take the palace? Okay, and
they did. And once they took it,ran of Alona announced that she
(12:19):
was going to be crowned assovereign and if anybody has a
problem with that they shouldspeak now or forever hold their
peace
Matthew (12:28):
so for all those that a quote that's a specific more
Marissa (12:30):
or less what happened four officers stepped forward
and pledged their support forthe prince instead. So they
don't do that. Don't do that.
And they were
Matthew (12:42):
you're gonna instantly put your you're gonna die like
right then almost certainly
Marissa (12:47):
they definitely did they were all killed by spears.
Yeah, immediately. Yeah, who
Matthew (12:51):
who's against me? i As you just saw I'm willing to
murder my way to the throne.
Anybody against me? Me, dummy.
Why did you? Did you not see howI got here to begin with?
Somebody killed that guy. Iknow. So now they're all now
these four generals have beenspeared? In the court?
Marissa (13:12):
Yeah, officers, but yeah, sure. So August 1 1828.
Random alone. I see a bunch ofconflicting reports here, but
for sake of clarity, I'm justgonna say she was 46 years old.
Some say she was in her 30s Idon't know. She hosts an
elaborate ceremony where sheascended to the throne. Proudly
pledging allegiance to herpeople. She said, quote, never
(13:33):
say she's only a feeble andignorant woman. How can she rule
such a vast empire? I will rulehere to the good fortune of my
people in the glory of my name.
I will worship no gods, butthose of my ancestors, the ocean
shall be a boundary of my realm,and I will not cede the
thickness of one hair of myrealm. Just in case you had any
doubt she's like, Nah, we're notgoing to be talking to these
(13:55):
foreigners that much my islandyou're not taking it from me.
Random Luna wasted little timekilling Prince raka Toby's
supporters. She wiped out hisentire bloodline. This is the
nephew in a series of agonizingdeaths, ensuring that they could
not pose a threat in the future.
She even locked his mother awayuntil she slowly starve to
(14:17):
death.
Matthew (14:17):
Oh, okay. Well, that's a Yeah, okay.
Marissa (14:20):
She watched from her royal balcony taking what some
noted as sadistic pleasure inthe executions.
Matthew (14:27):
I mean, so it's a good way to you know, silence your
your your naysayers. Yeah. Whenyou just go up there and you're
like, Nah, nothing sacred. LikeI will. I will tell you to
remind your whole your wholeline back to back to the
beginning will be utterlydestroyed. That that sends a
(14:51):
message.
Marissa (14:52):
It did. It definitely did. And it pretty much cemented
her power. And so now she is thequeen. She's been the Queen But
you know, she
Matthew (15:01):
recognized as the monarch. Yes. So I'm trying to
I'm trying to like, this is my,this is my Western ignorance.
I'm trying to figure out like,I'm trying to put a mental
picture to this. And every timethat I'm doing this, I keep I
keep having like, the the, likethe architecture be very
European. And I feel like Ishouldn't be thinking because
(15:23):
she she wouldn't appreciate thatI don't think and I feel like it
wouldn't be as European as I'm,as I'm, as I'm picturing in my
head.
Marissa (15:31):
Well, I, I mean, I can't speak much about
architecture, because I don'tknow too much about it. But I've
seen pictures of the palaceduring her time and I mean, it's
somewhat reminiscent of Greekarchitecture. It's not it's not
really but it's to me it has alittle bit of like, a temple
vibe, some of it she has columnsand stuff. You can look up
(15:51):
pictures of what it used to looklike,
Matthew (15:53):
oh, I have to so I can paint a better mental picture of
of this scene. Because I mean, Ijust tried to put myself right
there smelled smelled blood. Seethe gleeful appearance of the of
the Queen looking down upon thegore. You don't have to wait for
(16:19):
me to look up a pig.
Marissa (16:21):
Random Ilona gave birth to a son by her lover and
Adriana Maharaja. And he hadalways supported her role. He
was pretty supportive. Sheactually, like raised him up to
the First Minister later on. Butthis was about 11 months after
her husband Retama had died. Andthis child was not accepted as
(16:43):
the next heir in line to thethrone, so she didn't waste a
lot of time and getting her nextheir. And thus her reign began
which would last from 1828 to1861. She wrote from her palace,
which was perched on a cliff topwhich overlooked the village of
1000 villages. And during herreign, the people random Ilona
was ruling would be subjected tonumerous crucifixions,
(17:04):
beheadings, skinning, alive,burning. There were many
tortures and awful things thathappened during her role. And
this was so common that itbecame part of daily life. Oh,
yeah, I mean, she expelled theEuropean merchants and teachers,
diplomats, everybody who wasEuropean basically, with all of
the trade deals that were withBritain and France immediately
(17:26):
cancelled. After one successfulbattle against an invasion, she
slipped the heads of Europeansstuck them on pikes and lined
them on the beaches as a way totell for foreign unfazed
invaders. This is what I'm goingto do if you come in here. And
she banned Christianity. And shesaid that whoever breaks the law
of my kingdom will be put todeath, whoever he may be. And
(17:48):
she meant it. And her lover,Adriana Maharaja, he she loved
him a great deal. Like she waspretty, I guess vicious towards
a lot of people. But toward him,she had a very soft heart. And,
you know, as I said, She raisedhim to First Minister, and he
was confident enough about this,that he became outspoken about
(18:09):
things that random Alona wasagainst. So he was very for
modernization and foreigninfluence coming in.
Matthew (18:16):
What was what's her lover's name?
Marissa (18:19):
Andrea Adriana?
Maharsha.
Matthew (18:21):
Adriana as a as a physician that's like It's like
saying, like Noble or Lordapparently
Marissa (18:31):
I do see some patterns where some parts of the names
overlap so I can imagine
Matthew (18:36):
it's like a title it's like calling him like count or
something.
Marissa (18:40):
Yeah, I mean, the king was Andrea on appointed Marina.
So
Matthew (18:43):
yeah, that's, that's it's it's a position thing. They
don't all just say share thesame names. And also, everything
looks very European. Yeah,everything I'm going through, it
looks like that. It was prettypretty thickly entrenched in
European style of dress andarchitecture.
Marissa (19:00):
Didn't have Europeans for a while. So they definitely
had some influence. There's nodoubt about that. before this
all happened.
Matthew (19:06):
I mean, they made it their own a little bit from what
I'm seeing.
Marissa (19:11):
And the Queen's a traditionalist allies accused
her lover Adriana Maharaja oftreason, because he was talking,
you know, for things that werefor foreign influence and for
stuff like that, which she wasvery much against. Sure. And so
they demanded that he take placein this thing called a 10 Gaina
or trial by ordeal. Oh, yeah,yes. though. Yes. During this
(19:35):
trial, the accused was forced toeat three pieces of chicken skin
that had been robbed with powderfrom the poisonous tango in a
plant. Alright, so if theyregurgitated all three pieces of
this chicken scan together, theywere innocent. It actually this
kind of like smacks of Salemwitch trials in some ways, but
if not, they were guilty andsentenced to death, even if they
had survived ingesting thepoison which they may not which
(19:57):
came from the 10 Ganesh shrubI'm running alone. I heard about
this plan but she didn't want toput him through this ordeal. She
didn't actually think he wouldsurvive. So instead she banished
him to kind of soothe herministers. She showed a soft
spot or otherwise dark andtwisted rain.
Matthew (20:13):
Well, she's so I mean, she's still a lady. She's the
loves.
Marissa (20:18):
However, a few months later, she heard that Andrea
Malhotra was sleeping with ayounger woman with royal blood
while in exile. And this was toomuch. No
Matthew (20:28):
he can't now you have made it out the first time I do.
Yeah. Now you don't messed up
Marissa (20:33):
too much. She was furious with him and she
sentenced him to death. And thusher heart hardened further. And
an 1845 Random Ilona. Sheactually ordered 1000s of her
people to go on a buffalo hunt.
There were like 50,000 people inthis group. They took some
supplies and they were orderedto build a road on their way to
help their travel. Sure,whatever. The road construction
(20:56):
was across jungles and causedthe death of many people.
However, the group progressedregardless of their misery. And
the buffalo hunt lasted aboutfour months, during which 10,000
people died from exhaustion,starvation, and malaria was not
a single buffalo being killed.
Matthew (21:17):
I was gonna say are there even buffalo buffalo is to
be found there.
Marissa (21:20):
I didn't look that up.
That'd be funny if it was
Matthew (21:25):
there. Well, you have to like the Find a go find me a
unicorn.
Marissa (21:32):
Others would be dipped in boiling water, or oil,
boiling oil or tied with ropesand burned alive. She would
place others into coffins. AndEmir them. And some are buried
into holes with dirt showeredupon them while they were alive.
I mean, she classics. Yeah. Soduring this time, right of
(21:52):
aloneness, isolationism wasreally not helping things much.
It was access to the Westernersthat they really needed for
stuff like superior weaponry andengineering skills that they
just didn't have. And they werereally lacking in your ability
to repel their invaders becausethey were so just they weren't
able to match them andtechnology. Sure. As if an
(22:12):
answer to her needs. A manwashes up on Madagascar shores
in 1832 that it really is kindof crazy. This guy's perfect for
what she needed. Okay. Yeah. SoFrenchmen. John Laborde had been
traveling aboard and indeed,around the Indian Ocean. He was
looking for sunken treasure. Hewas a treasure hunter sure when
(22:34):
a storm came and it smashed hisship on some rocks. So he washed
up on shore on a beautifulMadagascan Beach,
Matthew (22:41):
like literally washed up on shore literally was on a
boat or nothing like we'retalking Robinson Caruso.
Marissa (22:49):
And luckily, he was near lands that belonged to a
French plantation owner named dela Estelle, who knew just what
to do about him, that it reallykind of seems faded in a way of
all the places he could havewashed up, hoping to get favor
with the queen Dayla Estellenurse Laborde back to health and
(23:10):
then sent a message to the Queenabout this young Frenchman who
was a skilled weapons maker.
Random Alana was elated at this,of course, and she sent for
Laborde at once convinced thatthis was fate dealing her hand.
And I can't argue with herbecause it kind of seems like it
seems Yeah. Unknown to Laborde,there was a legend that
predicted that a white man wouldbe shipwrecked on the shore and
(23:31):
then would marry a king'sdaughter and roll the island
with fairness and wisdom.
Matthew (23:37):
Why is this? Why is Why is there always that that same
thing that undid the Aztecs?
Yeah,
Marissa (23:43):
I don't know that
Matthew (23:44):
they ever believe have never never by the white savior
height that has never it hasnever worked out for
civilization.
Marissa (23:52):
I mean, it's it's an interesting little law. I can't
think today I mean, it'sinteresting little little story
to this, but he didn't actuallyend up doing that so I don't
know.
Matthew (24:02):
Yeah, well, cuz prophecies don't aren't real.
Yeah.
Marissa (24:06):
So he he did however, have a huge impact on the
nation's future. He establishedfactories to produce cannons
muskets gunpowder iron copperstill, this guy knew his stuff I
was gonna say that the young buthe knew a lot of some
Matthew (24:21):
shit to be able to fix I was gonna say like, yeah you
like at what point in this inhis weapon creation stuff was he
liked the guy who put barrels onthe on the guns or this dude
knew everything from smeltingdown to
Marissa (24:34):
ah, it really kind of seems like he did because I
don't know if he got any help.
But there weren't a lot ofEuropeans left on Madagascar at
this point. So yeah, and so thiskind of ensured that Ireland's
independence could be maintainedas I get produced weapons to
repel the British and Frenchinvaders. Laborde was a young
charming man and he became apersonal favorite of run of
Lunas, which made it easy forher to look past his background,
(24:56):
you know, as a European Yeah,
Matthew (25:00):
get rid of all the Europeans. I mean, they're super
helpful ready, willing to helpus also get rid of European
Marissa (25:07):
Yeah. He was even appointed as young prince were
kowtows personal tutor Ricardois actually her son. I don't
know if I said that but Makotois your son. So he was appointed
as Ricardo is personal tutor andrather Willinger knots he was
likely run up alunos lover also.
Matthew (25:24):
This became where her son come from.
Marissa (25:27):
Now I told you she had a son 11 months after her
husband died, and Makoto andLaborde actually really had a
close friendship as he wastutoring him. And this kind of
started to unsettle thetraditionalists who weren't very
happy with this European comingin of course,
Matthew (25:43):
yeah, you have Yeah, you're trying to get rid of
European influence and thenyou're gonna have your kid
taught by European Yeah, comeon.
Marissa (25:49):
I know. So good look, yeah, random Ilona love to
dramatic scenes showing herruling the Empire and occupying
the same heavenly stratosphereas the Madagascan Gods one major
ritual. So she had a bunch ofrituals, but one major ritual
that she concocted was theQueen's bath, which was part of
the new year's festival. Thiswas based on an older custom
that was like washing away thesins of the population. Right.
(26:14):
But she didn't she changed itfor her own interests. She
created this to make her seatherself seem more Godlike. She
was referred to her subjects asreferred to by her subject as
Madhu, or my god, whichdefinitely seems French. During
this ritual, the Queen herselfwould take a public bath on her
balcony, she would stand on thebalcony with a crimson cloak,
(26:37):
drape Tibet draped about her.
And then her attendants wouldcarry her behind the screen. And
sounds a splashing could beheard at this point when she was
taking a bath. And the lightburning in the Queen's room was
the only light anywhere all theother lights in the city were
extinguished. So you know youreyes were supposed to be trained
on this balcony and then she
Matthew (26:56):
does shadow puppetry.
Yeah,
Marissa (26:58):
she probably knows maybe she did. But no, she would
emerge with an ivory tusks thatwas filled with bath water from
her bath and she would then pourthis off the balcony spraying
the huge crowd that would comefrom miles around to watch this
so she's cleansing them of theirsins whether you bath bath water
use
Matthew (27:17):
bath water you know you there's there's a market for
that still these days.
Marissa (27:21):
There's a market for a lot of stuff you
Matthew (27:24):
ain't got to be a queen it could just be some I
Marissa (27:27):
don't know some influencers sell their farts or
something stupid yeah, there's
Matthew (27:30):
there's influencers that sell their bathwater
literally.
Marissa (27:34):
Hey, hey, go Yeah,
Matthew (27:37):
if that needs to be sorted, put on Patreon. If you
like my bathwater, we can. Wecan we can figure that out.
Marissa (27:44):
So meanwhile, random Ilona turned her attention to
slavery. She followed thetradition of phantom Poiana,
which is forced labor labor inplace of tax payments and money
or goods. She hoped to kind ofboost the economy of Madagascar
by selling slaves, usually fromother ethnic groups within the
(28:05):
country, especially those ofblack African origin, she would
sell them to other countries.
When the British abolishedslavery and freed all of their
slaves in 1834, she announcedthat no one was to follow
Christianity which describesslavery as barbaric. She was
always very againstChristianity, but this was
another reason. And for random,Ilona, this because this
involved a brutal laborconditions, staying way away
(28:27):
from your own home malnutrition,which would cause death. These
people were considered traitors,victims of war non taxpayers, or
Christians who secretly practicetheir religion. These people
could all be sold into slavery.
If they didn't die. Random Alonaconducted a purge to wipe out
the so called traitors who wouldally with her enemies. And over
(28:50):
time, the Queen becameincreasingly paranoid, and used
in him inhumane trials for evenminor offenses. She even made
her disgraced subjects lick herfeet, which she covered in a
bright pink poisonous powder. Imean, this is just a degradation
in her sanity in a lot of ways.
Matthew (29:09):
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's only poisonous if you
ingest it rather than justsubjecting your your feet to it
for a long time.
Marissa (29:21):
Yeah, that's what I'm guessing she didn't. She didn't
die from itself and maybe
Matthew (29:25):
because of the maybe cause a little bit of irritation
more I'm thinking a little bitof a Oh, Insanity, insanity.
Mercury.
Marissa (29:35):
Laborde, meanwhile, who was not super keen on this
persuaded her son, Prince Makototo write to the French
government, asking them to takeover and seek sovereignty of the
island and to install Rikolto asruler. But the French were
occupied elsewhere with a bunchof wars and stuff. And so they
didn't really have a particularinterest in Madagascar at that
time, so they ignored the plea.
Wherever Luna was unaware ofthis plot I'm more interested at
(29:59):
the time in repelling Westernideas and destroying
Christianity. So she was prettymuch preoccupied. She didn't
really notice this going onunder her nose. In 1857, she
continued with this and launcheda more savage persecution than
before targeting the Europeanswho lived on the island at
first, but then moving on to ourown people. Christianity was
there to stay, as the previousmissionaries had done a great
(30:23):
job at teaching Christianity.
And, you know, people just kindof took to it.
Matthew (30:31):
Well, yeah, also Christianity has a built in
level of you're going to bepersecuted for this. Yeah. So I
mean, it makes it by persecutingthem and it helps cement it in
so
Marissa (30:42):
yeah, and she kept on she encouraged crowds to gather
and watch the punishments forthose suspected of clinging on
to their Christian faith. Peoplewere beheaded, boiled alive,
thrown from high cliffs on tosharp volcanic rocks. Others
were forced to drink poison,which would cause a slow and
agonizing death. And when shecouldn't eradicate Christianity
(31:02):
entirely, her efforts ramped up,the punishments got worse and
worse. She went on to annihilatea third, like I said, In the
beginning, a third to a half ofour entire country's population
like this cannot be overstated.
This is an insane number ofpeople. I mean, it's really
amazing that she didn't getdeposed or murdered herself. You
know, I mean, this is an
Matthew (31:24):
Yeah, I'm sure she if she's gonna put herself in a
position where she's godlike insome ways and stuff like that
and making sure that it doesn'tseem like she's hesitates in the
slightest to taking out anyrivals. It sounds to me like
she's building up a, an army ofzealots around her, you know,
that would keep her pretty wellsafe. Yeah, absolutely.
Marissa (31:46):
She had the support of the traditionalists. The
priests, you know, everybody whowas around her fully supported
her.
Matthew (31:53):
So as well, they also help her probably come up with
these ideas too. Yeah. And
Marissa (31:57):
there were attempted coups, which did leave a mark on
her but they weren't successful.
Well, there was one by herlover, her favorite Laborde and
fellow Frenchman John FrancoisLambert, I mean, this is not the
first one they attempted, butthis one this one's more
important. So they had plottedwith another with another
visiting explorer whose name wasPfeiffer, Ida Pfeiffer and
(32:19):
Laborde is old plantation friendremember the guy he'd washed up
on his on his at his beach de laEstelle. So these guys all were
kind of conspiring to placeprints for Koto on the throne.
However, they had somebreakdowns in their
communication and never quitecame to fruition, and then spent
days after their, you know,attempt trying to figure out if
(32:41):
she knew had she uncovered theplot, or were they safe? They
wanted to know they wanted toknow what would happen if she
knew they knew her well enoughto know probably not great.
However, the Queen seemedunusually cheerful. So they
began to relax a little bit.
They figured, oh, maybe we'reokay.
Matthew (33:02):
Yeah, she's happy because she found a plot. She's
like, Oh, I'm gonna bake thesedudes into pies. What? Let's go.
Marissa (33:09):
Yes. So she demanded that all of the Europeans gather
in the marketplace.
Matthew (33:15):
I would know why that people even stayed on this. I
don't know what in the hell?
Marissa (33:21):
No, no, it's not that easy to get off of it and can
sometimes in some cases, butanyway, turns out random Alona
had in fact uncovered the plots,but she intended to merely
banish them rather than killthem. So the men set out on a
seven day journey to the coastor a ship waited to take them
away. What was supposed to beseven days actually ended up
being 53 days. Because on theway there, they were
(33:44):
deliberately slowed down by theQueen's men. And the Europeans
in the group began to die offone by one victims of hunger and
fever. I mean, it wasn't a greatshow. She
Matthew (33:54):
can't wait, wait. So she calls all the Europeans to
her house. Yes, this works onall on a boat.
Marissa (34:01):
While she tells them they have to be they're gonna be
banished, right. So they're theones who then take off to go to
this boat on shore, which isgoing to be a seven day journey
Matthew (34:10):
across land to the ship or to the ship. Yeah,
Marissa (34:13):
yeah. But this, the journey doesn't take seven days.
It takes 53 days, because hermen keep trying to sabotage
then, okay. I went betweenambush and sabotage like eight
times, sorry. So this is this iswhat she was trying to do. I
mean, she was trying to do butshe was also quite successful at
stopping them, and a lot ofways. I mean, lista de la
(34:38):
Estelle Laborde and Pfeiffer didactually make it to the ship
eventually. So these threedidn't make it. They were
exhausted by the time that theygot there, but they didn't make
it. Pfeiffer, however, who wasthe Explorer died a few months
later from fever that hadcontracted during this time. So
it was probably malaria. TheQueen it turned out had devised
a way to get rid of theEuropeans and teach them a
lesson while also Making surethat the foreign powers could
(35:02):
not hold her directlyresponsible for their deaths or
demand justice directly fromher.
Matthew (35:08):
Okay, so that's why she was just kind of like harassing
them while they were going asopposed to just being like,
Marissa (35:13):
just directly killing them. Gotcha.
Matthew (35:14):
Gotcha. Gotcha below.
Man. There's buffalo out there.
I can't speak for them buffaloyou know, you know how wily they
get.
Marissa (35:22):
When the Europe with the Europeans Golan, she
continued to persecute theChristians and her nation being
worse and worse in her savageryfree free from even the
judgmental foreign eyes who werethere before. Each year became
worse and worse. And neverreally stopped. So random Alana,
she did die eventually, though,
Matthew (35:42):
as most humans do.
Marissa (35:44):
She died in her sleep on August 15 1861.
Matthew (35:48):
justice served.
Marissa (35:49):
Yeah, I know, right.
This says she was 79 years old.
Again, a little bit ofdiscrepancy on the ages. But
yeah, again, she had wiped outso much of her population
between 20 and 30,000 peopledied every year of her reign.
And that's a lot of people.
That's a lot of people. She had,however, successfully resisted
colonization for the last threedecades of her reign. So she was
(36:11):
successful in that way at least.
Yeah, she also really
Matthew (36:17):
depending on how you measure success.
Marissa (36:19):
Yeah, exactly. But
Matthew (36:21):
coast is full of Frenchmen regardless.
Marissa (36:25):
Her savagery, anger and madness really characterized her
reign and later years worse, butit was it was there the whole
time. Actually, at her funeral,a spark ignited an explosion
that killed 1000s of people anddestroyed nearby Boyle
buildings.
Matthew (36:39):
Yeah, she's still still got still got one more.
Marissa (36:42):
She still got her bang.
People mourned her death ingreat honor for about nine
months. I mean, she wasn't itwasn't just a complete. Yeah,
I'm so glad she's gone. It wasit was some morning involved as
well. The aftermath ritualsinvolved slaughtering the
animals and distributing themeats to the people. And her son
Prince rocoto, then became kingMakoto. And he withdrew most of
(37:05):
his mother's policies, puttingit into the persecutions. He
rolled for six years, until hewas assassinated. And the new
queen came to power. And her shewas a Christian. And her name
was Ron Ilona, the second butshe was a Christian. So, you
know, you can imagine randomAlana The first was turning over
(37:27):
in her grave. Some claim thatshe had been demonized since she
was a strong female ruler. Andshe certainly was more
successful than most rulers ofher time, like in resisting
colonization, because a lot oftimes, they weren't very
successful in their theircountry fell to that. But she
did maintain her country'sindependence. And so I'm, you
(37:51):
know, good for her on that one,I guess. But reports from
explorers who had come to theisland actually support the idea
that she if she had been Queenmuch longer, she would have
eradicated nearly the entirepopulation of the island. And
maybe she would have, she wascertainly insane by the end of
her reign, which may explainsome of it. She persisted until
(38:11):
the end with the belief that shewas Madagascar Savior, and will
be elevated to the status ofGod. But it's not really in
dispute that she committedgenocide against her own people.
I mean, she claimed to love themand she tried to she was saying
she was trying to protect them,but then she murdered so many of
them. So this is Ron Ilona. Goodand bad. I
Matthew (38:31):
guess. I don't see a lot of good.
Marissa (38:34):
She was able to resist colonization that was big. But
yeah,
Matthew (38:39):
yeah, no, no, it but good. I don't think it's good.
Like I mean, like sure I'm, thisis not this is not a matter of
like, arguing for one cultureover another or anything, but
the way I mean, this is verymuch ends and means
justification. And I don't know,I don't know if just being like,
well, there's an AI killedeveryone on the island. So no
(39:01):
one's being converted anymore.
That's not necessarily good.
Marissa (39:06):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. She was successful doing
that, that that. But I mean,that's all I can give to her
because she was definitely likea very cruel and evil woman. So
I don't know. But anyway, thatis Queen runable. Ona and
hopefully I didn't butcher thesenames too bad. Anyway, I think
we have McCobb minutes.
Matthew (39:25):
Yeah, this week's McCobb minute comes. Inspired by
our recent the recent release ofNeil Gaiman's Sandman. on
Netflix, there is a characterwho is in there who is known as
(39:47):
Fiddler's Green. And we had toedit that because Marissa just
gave a spoiler for the show.
This is not supposed to be aspoiler for the show. Sorry. It
is recently released. This isn'tlike
Marissa (40:00):
It wasn't that big of a spoiler but it's
Matthew (40:02):
it's a pretty big spoiler you know that the you
know the sources anyways,Fiddler's Green is a character
in Neil Gaiman's Sandman. And hethe name Fiddler's Green is from
a maritime its maritime folklorethat the Fiddler's Green is a
(40:24):
place where the Fiddler's alwaysthere's always a fiddler playing
and it's a place where dancersnever tire and it's kind of like
endless shore leaves but it'slike the afterlife for sailors
nice and then it but
Marissa (40:41):
there's no water I'm sorry and it's not on the water
no man shore
Matthew (40:47):
leave okay well surely if you don't want to be on a
boat you sit on a boat all thedamn I want to be not on the
boat. Nice beautiful greenpastures I don't know there are
there are a lots of pieces ofliterature and cinema and
whatnot that were thatreferenced this but it's not
(41:08):
something that's like I've beenin my experience as somebody who
knows a lot of snippets offolklore it was never said the
one when they said Fiddler'sGreen I never realized what that
was but in trigger a memory freeYeah. And then later well, the
from that sailors folklore thenalso is a belief that like if
(41:30):
enough people believe in oneparticular thing that it becomes
reality, like kind of in thatsame theme of the dreaming and
whatnot. But that's not thatMcCobb other than it being a you
know, an afterlife kind of athing. But there is a Calvary
mins poem called Fiddler's Greenare entitled Fiddler's Green. It
(41:52):
was published in the US Army'scavalry journal in 1923. And it
became associated with the FirstCavalry Division and this poem
is halfway down the trail tohell. In a shady meadow green
are the souls of all deadtroopers camped near a good old
(42:14):
time canteen, and this eternalresting place is known as
Fiddler's Green, marching paststraight through to hell the
infantry are seen accompanied byengineers, artillery and marine,
for none but the shades ofCalvary men dismount at
Fiddler's Green, though some gocurving down the trail to seek a
(42:39):
warmer scene. No Trooper evergets to hell. Here he's emptied
his canteen, and so rides backto drink again with friends at
Fiddler's Green. And so when manand horse go down beneath a
saber keen, or in a roaringcharge, fierce melee, you stop a
(43:01):
bullet clean and the hostilescome to get your scalp. Just
empty your canteen and put yourpistol to your head and go to
Fiddler's Green.
Marissa (43:12):
Oh, that's quite McCobb.
Matthew (43:15):
Yeah. Basically says don't surrender, you ain't gonna
go to Hell, no matter what youdo. cavalrymen. But interesting.
That was one that was somethingthat I stumbled upon and trying
to research Fiddler's Green. ButI figured that was pretty,
pretty grim.
Marissa (43:30):
That's a good one.
Yeah.
Matthew (43:33):
And that'll do it for this week's entry. Thank you, as
always for joining us. And youcan support the show over on
Patreon if you so like, if youlike what we do here. We have
recently taken the psychopathytest on there, which some people
seem to enjoy and take alongwith us. reports that I am
(43:56):
clearly the most psychotic of,well, we knew that other people
were in a nice way. But Butyeah, so you can go over there.
It's $5 supports the show. Wethank you greatly for all of you
who listen. And for those whosupport us. You can also reach
us on Twitter and Facebook atMacabrepedia.
Marissa (44:17):
And we're also on Instagram at Macabrepediapod at
gmail. Sorry, we're on we're onInstagram at Macabrepediapod.
And you can also reach us atMacabrepediapod gmail.com. And
of course you can leave us areview. Podcast argument. No, I
can't.
Matthew (44:34):
Of course you can, you know leave give us five star
review and whatever. But youhave to comment. Well if it's
available like Apple allows youto comment. That is how the
algorithm picks us up. You cansay whatever you want in those
reviews, leave five stars and acomment and you can say whatever
you like about me and when youcan also let me know what your
(44:58):
if you take the psychopathy testand let us know what your score
was. So I can really actuallyfeel a little a little crazier.
But anyways, thank you so verymuch and join us next week as we
add another entry into this ourMacabrepedia
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