Quicksilver Reading CompanionOn the road between Scheveningen and The Hague in December 1687, Daniel Waterhouse intercepts the carriage of William Penn as both men travel to meet with the Prince of Orange.
“When Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the Gentleman?” — This radical rhyme is attributed to John Ball, a priest during the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt; it was used to challenge the fixed social hierarchy by suggesting that class distinctions did not exist at the creation of humanity.
“how are things in your Overseas Possession, Mr. Penn?” — William Penn was a prominent Quaker and the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania; despite his radical faith, he maintained a close, controversial friendship with the Catholic King James II.
“Did you ever settle that dispute with Maryland?” — The Penn-Calvert Boundary Dispute was a protracted legal battle over the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland; it remained unresolved for decades until the mid-18th-century survey known as the Mason-Dixon line.
“accept Pennsylvania, or let the King continue owing you sixteen thousand pounds” — In 1681, King Charles II settled a massive debt owed to Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, by granting the younger Penn a charter for a vast tract of land in America, leading to the founding of Pennsylvania.
“chats about Religious Toleration” — Religious toleration was the central political flashpoint of the 1680s; while Penn sought genuine freedom for all faiths, many English Protestants feared King James II was using “toleration” as a legal Trojan horse to restore Catholic supremacy.
“spires of the Binnenhof” — The Binnenhof is a Gothic complex of buildings in The Hague that has served as the political heart of the Netherlands and the meeting place of its States General since the 13th century.
“head, and more so by the hat, of a captain of the Blue Guards” — The Blue Guards were an elite Dutch infantry regiment that served as the personal bodyguard of William of Orange and were famous for their discipline and distinctive uniforms.
“William of Orange” — William III of Orange was the Dutch Stadtholder and a nephew of James II; he was the primary continental rival to Louis XIV and would eventually lead the Glorious Revolution to seize the English throne.
“exiled to a Protestant college (now extirpated) in Saumur” — The Academy of Saumur was a prestigious Huguenot university in France where Penn studied as a young man; it was forcibly closed by Louis XIV in 1685 following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
“The sand-sailing is excellent today.” — Sand-sailing, or land yachting, was a Dutch engineering marvel and pastime; the scientist Simon Stevin famously built wind-powered carriages for the Dutch royalty that could outpace a galloping horse.
“knuckling under to the King, simply because he waves a Declaration of Indulgence” — The 1687 Declaration of Indulgence was a royal decree by James II that suspended penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters, a move that split the Whig party between those who welcomed the freedom and those who feared royal absolutism.
“half-hanged, drawn, and quartered in London” — This was the gruesome statutory penalty for high treason in England; the victim was dragged to the gallows, hanged until nearly dead, emasculated, disemboweled, and finally chopped into four pieces.
“mistress, an Englishwoman named Elizabeth Villiers” — Elizabeth Villiers was the long-term mistress of William of Orange; she was famously described as having great wit and political influence despite being “squint-eyed” and lacking traditional beauty.
“a Swiss mathematician named Fatio” — Nicolas Fatio de Duillier was a brilliant mathematician and a real historical figure. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘His movements and pastimes are generally close to historical fact… It really happened that a Count Fenil hatched a plot to kidnap William of Orange during a sand-sailing expedition and that the plot was divulged and stopped by Fatio.’
“perihelion of the ellipse… aphelion” — These terms from orbital mechanics describe the points in a planet’s orbit where it is closest to (perihelion) and farthest from (aphelion) the sun, based on the laws of Johannes Kepler.
“hung in the darkness like Moons of Jupiter” — The four Galilean Moons were a major focus of 17th-century astronomy; because their eclipses could be predicted with precision, they were used as a “celestial clock” to help sailors determine longitude.
“The Father Francis Affair” — This 1687 dispute occurred when Isaac Newton and other Cambridge fellows refused King James II’s mandate to grant a degree to a Benedictine monk, marking Newton’s first major entry into national politics.
“Fatio had been raving for some minutes about the Bernoullis” — The Bernoulli family was a dynasty of Swiss mathematicians; Jacob and Johann Bernoulli were among the first to fully grasp and expand upon Leibniz’s version of calculus.
“Liselotte is the grand-daughter of the Winter Queen” — Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of James I of England; her brief reign in Bohemia helped trigger the Thirty Years’ War, and her descendants provided the Protestant line of succession for the English throne.
“when the Peace of Westphalia was finally signed” — The 1648 Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War and established the principle of Westphalian sovereignty, which remains a cornerstone of modern international relations.
“The King of France has very chivalrously decided to take the side of Liselotte” — Louis XIV used his sister-in-law’s inheritance claims as a legal pretext to invade the Palatinate, sparking the War of the Grand Alliance.
“people of the Palatinate who… have lately fled from that place” — This refers to the Devastation of the Palatinate, a brutal scorched-earth campaign by French forces that destroyed cities like Heidelberg and created a massive wave of refugees across Europe.
Original annotations by: quillman, stephenson