Alice Roosevelt Longworth (yes?) said her father, Teddie, wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. I'm not sure about the wedding part but consider this about Charles de Gaulle:
In November 1963, at the funeral of Kennedy, who had been assassinated on the General’s birthday, he towered over the heads of state and government, and insisted on walking to the cathedral beside Jacqueline Kennedy and the diminutive figure of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia despite the concerns of the US security service for his safety. He was seated in the eighth row, which he considered below the dignity of France. So, putting on his spectacles, he made his way forward, greeting fellow statesmen and royalty until he reached the front. ‘Right, we can start,’ he said to a protocol official and sat down where he was.Fenby, Jonathan (2012-06-20). The General: Charles De Gaulle and the France He Saved (p. 516). Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
2 comments:
Welll.... I gotta say, France deserved something better than an eighth row seat. That's the first ally the United States ever had, y'know. No French naval intervention, no victory at Yorktown, no nothing. Of course De Gaulle should have had a first row seat!
It's also part of an ancient French tradition that goes back at least to Louis the Fourteenth: "L'État, c'est moi"
I also dimly remember hearing on British radio (I was a student in England at the time) deGaulle being quoted as saying, in French, "I am France."
If nothing else, deGaulle was not lacking in self-esteeem.
Yours crankily,
The New York Crank
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