Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Erinminkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty seven, just a few months before Queen
Speaker 1: Victoria would become the monarch of an empire at age eighteen,
Speaker 1: a group of six ambassadors arrived to England from the
Speaker 1: island of Madagascar. The six ambassadors had made the perilous
Speaker 1: journey from the eastern coast of Africa to London on
Speaker 1: behalf of their queen, the Queen of Imerna, Queen Ranavalanu.
Speaker 1: Emerna or the Merna Kingdom, was the largest and most
Speaker 1: powerful kingdom on the Madagascar island. It was dense with
Speaker 1: natural resources and had achieved military supremacy and near full
Speaker 1: island dominance during the reign of Rotima, who allied with
Speaker 1: the British Empire, but that allegiance ended the moment Ratama
Speaker 1: died and his wife Ranavala became Queen. Ranava tore up
Speaker 1: all the arrangements with European powers, ejected their ambassadors, and
Speaker 1: declared that the Marna Kingdom would exist under a policy
Speaker 1: of complete isolation, with an emphasis on returning back to
Speaker 1: native traditions and cultures. There would be no more Christian
Speaker 1: missionaries in in Marna. The mRNA people who had already
Speaker 1: converted would be accepted for the time being, but by
Speaker 1: the end of her reign they would suffer bloody persecution.
Speaker 1: Queen Ranavolina had one priority to return Amerna to the
Speaker 1: way it had been before European settlers, and she would
Speaker 1: kill as many people as necessary in order to achieve
Speaker 1: her vision. I suppose that single mindedness does reveal a
Speaker 1: second priority, preserve her own power, protect the crown at
Speaker 1: any cost. The six ambassadors who came to meet with
Speaker 1: the British King William the Fourth were given a lovely
Speaker 1: diplomatic tour of England. They went to the mint, the dockyard,
Speaker 1: the Tower of London, the zoological gardens. But however pleasant
Speaker 1: their stay, the ambassadors refused to budge from their message.
Speaker 1: The queen had sent them with two letters. She dictated
Speaker 1: in polite but unambiguous language, the law of her country
Speaker 1: would not be dictated by Europeans. Christianity would not be tolerated.
Speaker 1: Europeans were forbidden from living in Madagascar, with the exception
Speaker 1: of those soldiers taken as prisoners. Of war to England
Speaker 1: about to welcome their own queen to the throne. Runovalinot
Speaker 1: was an object of fascination. Depictions of her in Victorian
Speaker 1: sources ranged from bewilderment to outright racism. In contrast to
Speaker 1: tiny Queen Victoria, standing only five tall, a paradigm of
Speaker 1: domesticity and Christian femininity, Queen Navolina was terrifying, a bloodthirsty
Speaker 1: despot who would slaughter her own people, are enslave them,
Speaker 1: who refused trade alliances with Europe, and who obey traditional
Speaker 1: rituals that the nineteenth century Europeans seemed strange and superstitious.
Speaker 1: The problem wasn't that she was a woman, no, of
Speaker 1: course not. Their next monarch was about to be a woman.
Speaker 1: But Victoria was going to be the right kind of woman,
Speaker 1: a civilized, domesticated woman. Run of Alina, they wrote, was
Speaker 1: what would happen if a woman allowed her bassist, most
Speaker 1: heathenistic impulses to run unchecked. It's no wonder, then, that
Speaker 1: the few depictions we have of Queen Ronavolina in the
Speaker 1: English language are sparse and heavily woven with racism. She
Speaker 1: tops lists of the most bloodthirsty queen in history, often
Speaker 1: casually referenced as Queen Ronovolna the Bloody or Queen Ronovolna
Speaker 1: the cruel. Recently, there's been a small school of thought
Speaker 1: that attempted to recast her as a feminist hero, someone
Speaker 1: who fought off the imperialist forces in order to protect
Speaker 1: her kingdom. But that doesn't really fit her either. She's
Speaker 1: both and she's neither. Ronavolina was cruel, her reign was bloody.
Speaker 1: She was a selfish and paranoid ruler, but she was
Speaker 1: also politically adept and militaristically minded. She continued the expansion
Speaker 1: of the Marina Kingdom that her husband began to this day.
Speaker 1: The few preserved relics of traditional Malagas culture that we
Speaker 1: do have are mostly thanks to her. So I begin
Speaker 1: this podcast with the disclaimer that there are very few
Speaker 1: reliable English language sources that present a clear picture of
Speaker 1: Ronovolna's reign. Many of the writings come from the Christian
Speaker 1: missionaries that she expelled, who would have purposefully exaggerated their
Speaker 1: stories of her cruelty. All we can do is attempt
Speaker 1: to tease out what we do know from the sources
Speaker 1: we do have. The story beneath is of a distant
Speaker 1: and challenging woman who defied European supremacy, a woman who
Speaker 1: would rather kill than compromise. I'm danishchwartz and this is
Speaker 1: noble blood. There are few details about Queen Roanevolina's early life,
Speaker 1: but most historical accounts put her birth in seventeen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Sometime during her childhood, her father saved the life of
Speaker 1: the mRNA king from an assassination attempt. In thanks, the
Speaker 1: king betrothed his son Radama to Ranevolina and promise that
Speaker 1: she would be his senior wife and that their children
Speaker 1: would be prioritized in the line of succession. The two
Speaker 1: were married and an eighteen time, Radama's father died and
Speaker 1: Radama became king of Inmerna. Radama was seventeen and Ronevolana
Speaker 1: was twenty two. As a leader, Rodama the first focused
Speaker 1: on expansion. His priority was building up the Marina Kingdom
Speaker 1: to one day control the entire island of Madagascar. To
Speaker 1: that end, he made a deal with Great Britain. They
Speaker 1: would provide him with weapons and Western style training for
Speaker 1: his army, and in return, Radama would eliminate slavery, which
Speaker 1: had been the cornerstone of most of the economies of
Speaker 1: the kingdoms on Madagascar. The deal with the British, which
Speaker 1: had been meant to secure the future of the Marina economy,
Speaker 1: would in fact do the opposite. Eliminating the slave trade
Speaker 1: had been a strategic move on the part of the British,
Speaker 1: not one of benevolence. They undercut the economy of the kingdom,
Speaker 1: and before it could be rebuilt, they arrived in order
Speaker 1: to trade under incredibly lucrative and one sided turns. If
Speaker 1: Madagascar could be made into a colony, all the better
Speaker 1: to keep it from the French first, but more importantly,
Speaker 1: it was a strategic stronghold, a resource rich island in
Speaker 1: the Indian Ocean. Under Rodama, the first nobles began to
Speaker 1: adopt a new Latin alphabet of the Malagas language. A
Speaker 1: brief side note, the native language on Madagascar is spelled
Speaker 1: Malagasy phonetically, but pronounced to the best of my ability
Speaker 1: and understanding, Malagas. The Malagas written language had previously been
Speaker 1: closer to Arabic, and along with westernized militarization and language,
Speaker 1: Radama also welcomed Christianity missionaries throw I had done the island,
Speaker 1: setting up schools and converting mostly lower class Malagas people.
Speaker 1: The queen watched all of this but said nothing. Her
Speaker 1: husband's eagerness was understandable. They both wanted their kingdom to
Speaker 1: be strong. They both wanted to control the resources of Madagascar,
Speaker 1: but he didn't seem to understand the threat of Christianity.
Speaker 1: Christianity meant worshiping a new God, for going the spiritual
Speaker 1: traditions of the Malagas people, the traditions that had given
Speaker 1: the monarchy it's very power. The king was only the
Speaker 1: king because the blood of holy ancestors flowed through his veins.
Speaker 1: Ruhama died at age thirty five, though the exact nature
Speaker 1: of his death isn't known. He was a heavy drinker,
Speaker 1: prone to fits of rage and violence when he was drunk.
Speaker 1: It was a combination of poor health, erratic behavior, and alcohol.
Speaker 1: His wife had given him no children, and so before
Speaker 1: his death, he decreed that the next in line for
Speaker 1: the throne would be his nephew. But Ronavolino was prepared.
Speaker 1: The night her husband lay dying, she gathered a small
Speaker 1: group of noblemen and military guardsmen and took the throne
Speaker 1: for herself, declaring herself Queen, the nephew, and the rest
Speaker 1: of her husband's family were brought to the palace. Any
Speaker 1: one of them could have a claim to the throne,
Speaker 1: could declare that she was illegitimate and raise an army
Speaker 1: to oppose her, and so Ranevolina ordered that every single
Speaker 1: one of them be killed. Because there was a superstition
Speaker 1: that forbade spilling of royal blood, Ranavola had every death
Speaker 1: done by strangulation. Hers would be a bloodless coup. Technically,
Speaker 1: according to the writings of a missionary who was expelled
Speaker 1: by Ranevolna a few years later into her reign, during
Speaker 1: her coronation ceremony, the new queen was anointed with the
Speaker 1: blood of a freshly killed bull. That little anecdote an
Speaker 1: attempt to paint her as primitive and barbaric, is almost
Speaker 1: certainly not true. There are no other sources corroborating that.
Speaker 1: What we do know about her coronation on May twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nine, is that she wore a dress in
Speaker 1: the French style, constructed from embroidered red velvet and silk,
Speaker 1: embroidered with her initials and rice stocks, a symbol of
Speaker 1: the indigenous plant life on the island. Her dress had
Speaker 1: a row of gold buttons. Ranevolina had specific tastes in
Speaker 1: her clothing, high quality European fabrics and silhouettes with specifically
Speaker 1: Malaga's details. Clothing wasn't the only thing that the new
Speaker 1: queen had strong opinions on. As soon as her coup
Speaker 1: was complete, she dissolved the treaty her husband had made
Speaker 1: with the British. Both in terms of national and personal policy,
Speaker 1: Ronovolna was intensely private. Unlike members of the court, she
Speaker 1: refused to be photographed. She almost never spoke in public,
Speaker 1: perhaps insecure about her lack of complete literacy in the
Speaker 1: new written Malagas alphabet, which would have made her unable
Speaker 1: to read long speeches, and so her few appearances in
Speaker 1: public were spectacles of red silk and imposing crowns. Her
Speaker 1: power was protected through fear and rumor, and she kept
Speaker 1: a close circle of nobles and officials, with whom she
Speaker 1: consulted on matters of the state. Though Ronavolino never remarried,
Speaker 1: she did take a number of love hers after her
Speaker 1: husband's death, whom she would then make prime minister. But
Speaker 1: even they weren't immune from her wrath. Far from it.
Speaker 1: One of those lovers turned Prime minister, a man named
Speaker 1: Andreami Haja, was chastised for his pro European ideology, and
Speaker 1: so he was sentenced to undergo one of the ultimate
Speaker 1: horrors of ronav Alamo's court, the Tanginna ordeal. The idea
Speaker 1: of trial by ordeal was nothing new on Madagascar, nor
Speaker 1: was it something new in Europe, especially not during the
Speaker 1: witch trials, but Ranavalina gloried in it. During the Tangina Ordeal,
Speaker 1: a suspect would be given a poison tanginent nut. He
Speaker 1: or she would then be forced to eat three pieces
Speaker 1: of chicken skin. If the poison forced them to vomit
Speaker 1: up all three pieces of chicken skin, they were innocent.
Speaker 1: If they failed to vomit up all three pieces, or
Speaker 1: the poison just killed them out right, that meant they
Speaker 1: were guilty and deserved to die. And the queen's lover
Speaker 1: refused to undergo the ordeal, and so he was killed
Speaker 1: on the spot. About one in three people who underwent
Speaker 1: the Tangina ordeal survived. Nobles and slaves alike were sentenced
Speaker 1: to the ordeal. When Ronovolina's niece died of whooping cough,
Speaker 1: all of the slaves that had served her were accused
Speaker 1: of witchcraft and sorcery and forced to undergo the ordeal.
Speaker 1: There were other malogust traditions that Ronovolina were vitalized. Her
Speaker 1: spirituality revolved around the sun or golden idols that were
Speaker 1: heavily guarded, and she made policies based on a process
Speaker 1: called sick kid, which you threw dried beans on a
Speaker 1: board and used mathematical formulations to come to a decision.
Speaker 1: But Ronovolina was also one who recognized the utility of
Speaker 1: Western technology, especially when it came to technology that would
Speaker 1: help keep her island entirely self sufficient, and a gift
Speaker 1: came to Madagascar in the form of a French adventurer
Speaker 1: by the name of Jean la Board. In eighteen thirty one,
Speaker 1: Jean la Board was sailing off the coast of Madagascar
Speaker 1: attempting to rescue treasure from other ships that had sunk
Speaker 1: in the Indian Ocean. Surprise, surprise, La Board himself was shipwrecked,
Speaker 1: and thanks to a royal decree, everything and everyone that
Speaker 1: washed up on shore became property of the Marina government.
Speaker 1: La Board was summoned to Ranavalina's court. La Board wasn't
Speaker 1: just an adventurer. He was also a brilliant engineer, and
Speaker 1: he and Ronavolina immediately struck up a mutually lucrative partnership.
Speaker 1: He would be given all of the land and resources
Speaker 1: he needed in order to manufacture military equipment for Marina,
Speaker 1: so that Ranavolina would have no more need for trading
Speaker 1: at all. La Board set to work. The man began
Speaker 1: with an arms and munitions factory, but soon he had
Speaker 1: created an entire city of production, complete vertical integration. He
Speaker 1: had blast furnaces to produced cast iron, pudding mills for
Speaker 1: wrought iron, a steel plant, cement plant, a textile mill.
Speaker 1: He produced not only cannons and swords, but bricks, tiles, pottery, glass, porcelain, silk, soap,
Speaker 1: and candles. The city he built, according to a Malagas novelist,
Speaker 1: had risen from the ground by the will of a
Speaker 1: single individual and the industry of a multitude. After all,
Speaker 1: la Board didn't work alone. He had the assistance of
Speaker 1: as many slaves as he needed, thanks to the system
Speaker 1: in place in which the poor could pay their taxes
Speaker 1: not with money but through forced labor. Some claim, with
Speaker 1: no evidence, that la Board and Queen Navlna became lovers.
Speaker 1: It maybe a nice story, but there's no way to
Speaker 1: know one way or the other. She did have a
Speaker 1: son born before Laborde arrived, by one of her early
Speaker 1: prime ministers, but she tactfully pretended that the father was
Speaker 1: her deceased husband, the king, even though mathematically that was impossible.
Speaker 1: But labor became a circuit father to her son through
Speaker 1: mentoring him and teaching him. He would give him tours
Speaker 1: of his factories, teach him the science behind the technology.
Speaker 1: The two confided in each other became each other's closest confidants.
Speaker 1: As rone Volna's reign began to become deadlier, and it
Speaker 1: was about to become far deadlier. In thirty five, rone
Speaker 1: Volna became sick with a mysterious illness. She lay in
Speaker 1: bed for days, a fever, wedding her brow with sweat
Speaker 1: and stored in her vision. No one was allowed in
Speaker 1: or out of the palace, but words still traveled fast.
Speaker 1: The queen was going to die, but then a miracle
Speaker 1: one morning, when the sun shone through the windows of
Speaker 1: the new palace that Laboord had helped construct for her,
Speaker 1: Ronavolino had returned to health. It was a miracle she knew,
Speaker 1: sent to her by the gods of her ancestors, and
Speaker 1: it was a sign that Christian missionaries needed to leave
Speaker 1: the island. She had tolerated Christianity for a while, tolerated
Speaker 1: it among the lower class of Malagas people, but Christianity
Speaker 1: had started to infiltrate the nobility, and Ronevalina knew that
Speaker 1: if it continued to spread, it would erode every cultural
Speaker 1: tradition that her kingdom maintained. Christianity would become a parasite,
Speaker 1: sucking at Mariner culture, blotting it out like ink on
Speaker 1: a page. Christianity was an invading force, and so Rona
Speaker 1: Volna became a queen at war. After her recovery, Ranavalina
Speaker 1: outlawed the baptizing of Malagas subjects, and she banished all
Speaker 1: of the non native missionaries. The next year, she would
Speaker 1: begin executing not just the European Christians, but her own
Speaker 1: converted subjects. Christians who refused to renounce their new religion
Speaker 1: were subject to enslavement at best, or trial by ordeal
Speaker 1: and execution at worst. Missionaries were turned home to Europe
Speaker 1: salivating at the mouth with stories of Rona Volna's brutality
Speaker 1: and the martyrs of their sacrificed Christian brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: There was a thirty seven year old woman, they said,
Speaker 1: named ross Lama, who was speared to death and hurled
Speaker 1: over a cliff. Other Christian converts were burned at the stake,
Speaker 1: or boiled alive or brutally dismembered the There are estimates
Speaker 1: that by eighteen forty one, five of the native population
Speaker 1: of Imrina had been killed through the Tanginna ordeal. There
Speaker 1: are some estimates that any given servant who had worked
Speaker 1: under Runevalina for twenty years would have survived seven ordeals,
Speaker 1: seven times, taking the poison vomiting up all three chicken
Speaker 1: skins to prove their innocence. European powers would see Ranavalina's
Speaker 1: ruthlessness in person one more time before her reign was over.
Speaker 1: In eighteen forty the Queen declared that all European trade
Speaker 1: would be cut off entirely. The British and French stirred uncomfortably.
Speaker 1: Madagascar was a prime and important location. Those resources were
Speaker 1: incredibly valuable, and it would make an incredibly lucrative colony,
Speaker 1: and so in a rare moment, of cooperation from historic enemies,
Speaker 1: the British and French joined forces to jointly attack the
Speaker 1: coast of Madagascar. Renevlina annihilated the advance almost immediately. The
Speaker 1: British and French were fooled by primitive, cheap facade on
Speaker 1: the island coast behind it was the real fortress. The
Speaker 1: European vessels were forced to flee, and the soldiers that
Speaker 1: had attacked on the shore were quickly dispatched with Navalina
Speaker 1: had their skulls, the skulls of twenty European casualties affixed
Speaker 1: to pikes and placed on the shore to ward off
Speaker 1: any future attacks. There were no polite diplomatic apologies. I
Speaker 1: find it very odd Renevalina said that the British and
Speaker 1: French would interfere in my affairs. How would Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: and Louis Filippe take it if I were to meddle
Speaker 1: with their countries. I have as much right to nail
Speaker 1: my enemy's head at the end of a pole as
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria has to send her prisoners into exile. The
Speaker 1: humiliating defeat for the European powers was better retold than
Speaker 1: as a story of Ranevolna's evil and brutality her quote
Speaker 1: unparalleled reign of terror and fear. Ranavolina's final challenge would
Speaker 1: come another decade later, when she put down a coup
Speaker 1: from a wealthy French European slave trader who had managed
Speaker 1: to entice to his side the two men Ranevolna held
Speaker 1: closest to her her son and la Board. The French
Speaker 1: slave trader, a man named Limbert, wrote a charter giving
Speaker 1: himself the right to exploit all of the minerals and
Speaker 1: forests of Madagascar, with a provision to give ten percent
Speaker 1: to the monarchy. He went around to the courts of
Speaker 1: Europe attempting to gather support and raise an army. It
Speaker 1: would be a lucrative proper position if they succeeded and
Speaker 1: overthrew Ronavolina. They were sure that they could convince her
Speaker 1: son to sign the agreement, but the sting of past
Speaker 1: defeat put off England and France from another attempt to
Speaker 1: challenge Ronavolina, and so without a European army, Lambert came
Speaker 1: directly to Madagascar himself and managed to win the support
Speaker 1: of the Crown Prince and the engineer Lombard. They had
Speaker 1: seen the queen's ruthlessness firsthand and her viciousness, and Marina
Speaker 1: was isolated and traditional, yes, but at what cost? Maybe
Speaker 1: the future was European, and so the prince agreed to
Speaker 1: join in on the rebellion. It failed almost instantly. For
Speaker 1: all of the depictions of Ronavolina as a hedonistic madwoman,
Speaker 1: she was an efficient and effective leader with a network
Speaker 1: of spy and the loyalty of her military. After the
Speaker 1: small coup was dispatched of her son was forgiven. He
Speaker 1: was just a young man led astray. But after that
Speaker 1: she banished all Europeans from Imerna, including La Board. He
Speaker 1: had been a close friend and confidante for over twenty
Speaker 1: five years, but he had betrayed her. He left Madagascar
Speaker 1: on her orders and returned to France for a queen
Speaker 1: they said was insane and bloodthirsty. It struck me as
Speaker 1: odd that he would be allowed just to leave and
Speaker 1: return home. After all, that's a strategic decision to protect
Speaker 1: her kingdom from French retaliation. To me, sending Lombard home
Speaker 1: reads as a woman who was less emotional in her violence,
Speaker 1: less well insane than the writings of angry Europeans and
Speaker 1: vengeful missionaries would have led you to believe. There are
Speaker 1: only a few Malagas women who wrote account of Ranovolina,
Speaker 1: but one is a woman named ran I Raka, who
Speaker 1: wrote in a letter after Ranavalina's death, the late Queen
Speaker 1: is not so cruel as she's been represented. Many of
Speaker 1: her subjects have really been killed by her orders, but
Speaker 1: it was not wanton cruelty. It was through the laws
Speaker 1: of her late predecessors. You have seen her. She is intelligent.
Speaker 1: It's estimated that during Ranovolina's reign as many as fifty
Speaker 1: percent of the Marina population was killed, and thanks to
Speaker 1: both her torture and executions, but also from the famine
Speaker 1: caused by the scorched earth policies her armies took when
Speaker 1: it came to enemy kingdoms. From Ranovolna's perspective, violence wasn't capriciousness.
Speaker 1: She was a woman who believed fiercely in the religious
Speaker 1: right of the Tanginna ordeal, which allowed the gods to
Speaker 1: decide who lived and who didn't. She was steadfast in that,
Speaker 1: not making decisions based on anger or emotions. If people
Speaker 1: needed to die, so be it, but the Marina people
Speaker 1: as a whole wouldn't die. That was the important thing
Speaker 1: preserving the kingdom itself. That's the story of the quote
Speaker 1: bloody Queen Renovalina, But stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear about her death and what happened next.
Speaker 1: After the Queen's death, her son and then her son's
Speaker 1: wife took over the throne and in Marina almost immediately
Speaker 1: reverted back to European influence. The francohovah Wars, which began
Speaker 1: in three led to the end of the Marina Kingdom
Speaker 1: and the creation of the French Protectorate, which then became
Speaker 1: the Colony of Matta Gascar. French claims to the property
Speaker 1: that Laboard had left in Madagascar gifts from the queen
Speaker 1: became the pretext for their armed invasion. There's one detail
Speaker 1: about Queen Roneval in his funeral that seems worth mentioning.
Speaker 1: The queen died in her sleep at age three after
Speaker 1: a thirty three year long reign, but during the funeral
Speaker 1: and arrant, spark flashed and caused a nearby barrel of
Speaker 1: gunpowder to explode. Several bystanders were killed. Even in death,
Speaker 1: Ronavolana maintained her reputation. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 1: The show was written and hosted by Danis Schwartz and
Speaker 1: produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales,
Speaker 1: and you can learn more about the show over at
Speaker 1: Noble blood tails dot com. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M hmm.