WEBVTT - Prometheus in Paris 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:10.559 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. One brief 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.760 housekeeping note before we begin. This fall, I am teaching 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.520 an online romance writing class with Not Sorry. It starts 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.119 October sixth. It's on Sundays, and it's virtual, so you 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.319 can sign up if you're based anywhere in the world. Again, 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.960 starting October six it will go from eight weeks. This 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.280 program is so much fun. Last year I taught a 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.720 class on horror writing. I had an amazing time. If 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.040 you're interested in writing, or you're already a writer, or 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.000 just want to like dip your toes into what it 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.879 means to write romance or characters with chemistry, or if 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.760 you've ever wanted to do Nano raimo, write a novel 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.360 in November. This is a great opportunity. It's an incredibly 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:56.200 supportive community and it offers accountability for your writing. So 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.920 if you want to join us, sign up now at 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.160 not Sorry works dot com. If you sign up quick, 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.200 there's an early bird discount. There's also scholarships available if 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.119 you scroll on the page and apply for that information. 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.280 I just love teaching these classes. I love making writing 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.640 accessible and building a fun community. And I've had a 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.720 great time this class. I'm teaching with a brilliant co teacher, 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.200 vanessa's Oultan, who I absolutely love. She's so smart and 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.320 so funny. I just know we're gonna have a great 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.240 time this October. So if this interests you, absolutely join us. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:36.479 Let's get into the episode. The man who arrived in 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.400 Paris was one of the most famous people on the planet, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.080 the type of person who influenced fashion and caused crowds 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.880 to gather on the sides of streets to cheer his carriage. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.000 Passing collectibles would be printed with his face in honor 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.160 of his arrival in France, and dinner parties would be 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.720 thrown for him. The French considered him to be another 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.680 Mutan or Galileo, a great intellectual in the vein of Voltaire. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:10.120 He was Benjamin Franklin, and for most Parisians he was 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.560 almost certainly the only person from America that they would 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.040 have heard of, the man who had managed to pull 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.920 lightning from the heavens. It was an honor and a 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.960 privilege that he was choosing to spend time in France, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.600 and the French were going to make sure that he 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.240 knew that they understood that. Within weeks of his arrival, 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:38.119 women began wearing lightning dresses and hats with metal lightning 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.480 rods sticking out of them, complete with small chains trailing 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.760 down to ground any possible electric charges. Although I imagine these 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.720 were only styles worn in comfortably sunny weather. Women also 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.280 styled their pompadours to resemble the famous fur cap that 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.639 Benjamin Franklin chose to wear instead of the more standard 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.600 powdered wig. The women called the hair do a coffeur 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.720 a la Franklin. Paris had a case of Franklin mania. 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.440 His book of Poor Richard's aphorisms was translated and published 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:19.360 in French copies of Lacience de bonam. Richard frequently appeared 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:25.120 at the most glamorous salons. Franklin's portrait appeared over mantles, 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.920 his face was embossed on collectibles, dishes, walking sticks, and 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.080 snuff boxes. The French, Franklin wrote in a letter to 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.840 family back in America, have made your father's face as 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.720 well known as that of the moon. In fact, the 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.520 mania became so extreme that King Louis the sixteenth himself 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.560 was a little annoyed by it. As a tongue in 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.200 cheek gesture, he commissioned a chamber pot for a friend 0:03:54.520 --> 0:04:00.440 with Benjamin Franklin's face on it. Franklin's social calendar was 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:05.320 an endless parade of parties, dinners, and salons. It seemed 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.080 that he spent most of his time flirting with his 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.280 many female admirers. As a matter of fact, it seemed 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.640 as though Benjamin Franklin was having so much fun in 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.839 Paris that anyone might be forgiven for thinking that pleasure 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.480 was the reason he was there in the first place. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.000 But the truth was something kept hidden by design from 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.520 almost everyone in Europe. Benjamin Franklin was in France on 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:36.440 a mission, and though he certainly enjoyed being fitted, he 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.719 knew that his mission was critically important to the fate 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.000 of what he hoped would one day be his young nation. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.560 The American Colonies were at war with the British for 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:57.440 their independence, and in seventeen seventy seven they were lacking money, food, uniforms, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.960 and hope. Even the fai to see that George Washington 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.320 and his meager army might defeat the vastly superior British 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.160 forces would only be possible with the help of an 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:17.320 outside resource. The American revolutionaries needed France, and so they 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:24.000 needed Benjamin Franklin. So while Parisian socialites amused themselves dressing 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:29.880 to honor Franklin's scientific achievements, Franklin himself was hard at 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.160 work trying to figure out a way to convince a 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:38.719 monarch to help fund revolutionaries attempting to overthrow that very 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.479 same system of government that he presided over. Franklin sat 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:48.360 at feasts trying to play his diplomatic hand exactly right, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.320 while he knew that at those exact same moments American 0:05:53.400 --> 0:06:00.839 troops were starving. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:07.039 Benjamin Franklin wasn't always a revolutionary. Just a few years 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.440 before he would sign the Declaration of Independence, he was 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:15.520 a loyal British subject, actually trying his diplomatic best to 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.960 work within the colonial system while tensions between the British 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:24.960 and the colonists were rising. In seventeen seventy two, Franklin 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.080 was co Postmaster General and he was faced with a 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:34.200 massive scandal. An anonymous source had forwarded along a collection 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:39.039 of private letters written by the Governor of Massachusetts. The 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.760 governor was writing to British officials, saying that he thought 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.520 the colonies needed harsher oversight and more troops, even that 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:52.200 certain liberties that English citizens enjoyed ought to be restricted 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:58.120 amongst the colonists. Obviously, the letters were massively inflammatory, the 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:02.320 type of rhetoric that would only stoke the growing revolutionary 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:07.200 sentiment in America. Although Franklin decided that the letters should 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.480 not be published or made public, he showed them to 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.840 Samuel Adams and the members of the Massachusetts House. The 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.920 letters did not stay secret for long. They were published 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.880 in the Boston Gazette. English officials were furious about the scandal. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.360 Those were private letters that had been leaked, and the 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.600 source of the leak had not been identified. Who had 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.440 given the letters to Franklin in the first place. Franklin 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.440 was summoned to England to testify before the King's Privy 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:43.320 Council in a room referred to as the cockpit. Franklin 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.119 understood just how infuriated the colonists were, and he tried 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.040 to reason with the Englishmen, advocating for the British to 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.920 appoint a new governor and lieutenant governor in Massachusetts. But 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.840 the men in the cockpit had no interest in an 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:04.920 engaging in good faith with Franklin. Instead, Franklin was mocked 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:09.240 and ridiculed by the Solicitor General. He was accused of 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.800 dishonor and thievery. Benjamin Franklin had come to England hoping 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:19.560 to turn the temperature down on revolutionary talk. He sailed 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:24.600 home convinced that revolution was the only way forward. A 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.560 little over a year later, the first shots of the 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:32.559 Revolutionary War would be fired at Lexington and Concord. Though 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.720 the revolutionaries had the strength of their convictions, that was 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.840 one of the only strengths they had. American soldiers were untrained, 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.679 under fed, and massively underfunded. If they were going to 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:51.479 stand a fighting chance against the British, they needed help. 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:57.120 On October twenty sixth, seventeen seventy six, Benjamin Franklin, then 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.640 seventy years old, was sent to France as one of 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:05.440 three diplomats on a top secret mission to secure French 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.200 support for the revolution. He traveled with two of his 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.800 grandsons on a ship called the Reprisal. It was an 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:19.080 incredibly treacherous journey. Franklin wrote that the voyage quote almost 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.920 demolished me. They had limited rations on board, and by 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.199 the time Benjamin Franklin landed in Europe he had boils 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.360 and scabs all over his body, including on his balding scalp. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.440 But even more dangerous than the risk of disease or 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.960 dangerous seas was the fact that Benjamin Franklin was technically 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.360 traveling as a traitor. The British Navy patrolled the Atlantic, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.200 and if they captured him as a signer of the 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:53.320 Declaration of Independence, he could have been hanged. Fortunately, Franklin 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.880 managed to make it to Brittany intact, and though he 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.319 had planned on keeping his arrival in France a secret celebrity, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.840 made that challenging word that the famous Benjamin Franklin was 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.120 on their shores, made to Paris before he did, and 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:15.760 the celebrations of all things Benjamin Franklin began. One thing 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.760 that Benjamin Franklin understood implicitly was how to play act 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.559 the role of an American. In order to delight the French, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.920 he wore an iconic fur hat in the style of 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:33.000 a hat that had been famously worn by the philosopher Rousseau, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.200 which gave Franklin both an intellectual and a delightfully rustic 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:43.400 frontier style appeal. The hat also served the additional purpose 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.800 of covering the scabs that still covered his head from 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.480 the miserable ship ride across the Atlantic. Franklin was a 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:57.160 bonafied sensation, the most famous American in the world, and 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.720 a celebrated scholar scientist. When he moved into a house 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.920 in the suburbs outside Paris, invited by the man who 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.520 owned the manor, a lightning rod was hoisted on the 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:13.120 roof in Franklin's honor. He received what seemed like an 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:18.240 endless stream of visitors, including plenty of women who adored 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.480 his company and whom he adored wright back. His favorite 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.199 was a woman named Madame Brion, his thirty three year 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:31.640 old married neighbor, a year younger than Franklin's daughter. The 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:36.120 two had an incredibly close relationship. They played chess and 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.200 had tea multiple times a week, and though their letters 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.720 were intimate in a loving way and Franklin made his 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.560 sexual interest clear, Madame Brion politely reminded him that she 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.560 was a married woman, and the two just genuinely seemed 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.760 to enjoy each other's company. From that point on, the 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:01.560 relationship became more platonic and paternal, But Benjamin Franklin was 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.680 an incredible flirt, which was one of the primary modes 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.360 of communication in France. One particular line that I think 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.280 shows off his celebrated charm came when he was playing 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.880 a game of chess with a woman. Instead of checkmating 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:22.480 his opponent, he simply claimed her king. The woman scolded him, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.360 telling him in France they didn't take kings that way. Ah, 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:32.240 Franklin replied, we do in America. As enjoyable as his 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.880 socializing was, it wasn't the reason Benjamin Franklin was in France. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.000 He needed to convince King Louis the sixteenth to join 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.960 with the fledgling United States of America, to recognize it 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.400 as a nation and support it in its revolution against 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.240 the British. Now, if there's one thing France loves, it's 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.640 fighting the British, and just a few years earlier, the 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:01.640 British had humiliated France in the Seven Years War, cementing 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:06.760 British domination in America and Canada. France did have a 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.440 vested interest in restoring the balance of power away from 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.600 England in the New World, and they had a personal 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:19.720 interest in defeating the British. But Benjamin Franklin's task was 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.000 still a massively difficult one. For one, much as he 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.920 was trying to convince France that the United States was 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:31.800 an actual unified nation, that was a long way off. 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.360 America was fighting the Revolutionary War, yes, but there was 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.439 still no consensus even among the Continental Congress whether America 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.400 was one people or thirteen pulling together for a common cause. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:55.959 For another thing, France's resources were already massively strained, and 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.240 if they sent ships to North America, they would be 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.120 playing a risk ski games in terms of their ability 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.000 to protect France itself and the French West Indies against 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:11.760 the vastly powerful and far superior British navy, the most 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.520 powerful navy in the world. It was such a dangerous 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.679 proposition that Louis the sixteenth wrote a letter to the 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.280 King of Spain. King to King, he knew that whether 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.360 or not to recognize the US was an incredibly important decision, 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.240 but it wasn't one that he wanted France to have 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.320 to make a loan. And then all of that aside, 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.960 there was the philosophical issue of asking King Louis the 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:42.520 sixteenth to fund the overthrow of another monarch. While trying 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.680 to win the French government over, Franklin told them about 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.080 how powerful George Washington's army was. Washington was leading an 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.920 army of eighty thousand men, he said, well trained, fierce 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.320 fighters who would stop at nothing until they achieved their 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.760 freedom from tyranny. Franklin said that Americans could hold out 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:07.280 for thirty years, and when reports reached France that the 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:12.120 British had taken Philadelphia, Franklin just smiled and shook his head. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.920 It was all part of the plan. The river would freeze, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.640 you see, and the British would be trapped there. Franklin 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:25.640 was fully bluffing. Washington had closer to fourteen thousand men, 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.080 nowhere near eighty, and they were so poor that they 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.920 couldn't afford uniforms. When Philadelphia fell to the British, a 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:39.400 British officer commandeered Benjamin Franklin's own home, stealing his books, 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:45.320 private papers, and scientific equipment. Though Franklin's ally in France, 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.800 the Foreign Minister Compe de Vergen, was able to sneak 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.160 Franklin and the Americans some funds under the table. The 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.840 French were not going to officially support the Revolution unless 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.640 there was some proof that it wasn't a fully lost cause. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.640 All Franklin could do, much to the chagrin of his 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:11.400 American colleagues watching from across the ocean, was weight continuing 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.320 to wage his personal charm offensive against the French people. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:24.760 After months of bluffing and treading water, the tide finally 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:30.960 shifted on October seventeenth, seventeen seventy seven, when Americans defeated 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:35.520 the British general John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.200 It was a tremendous victory, a turning point in the Revolution, 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.720 and exactly the sword of moment Benjamin Franklin needed in 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.640 order to convince the French that helping the Americans was 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:54.680 backing a winning team. Franklin sprang into action, writing detailed 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.360 and poetic accounts of the incredible victory, taking particular time 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.600 to raise the French soldiers who had been fighting alongside 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.240 the colonists, Because even if the French government had been 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:11.600 hesitant to officially join in the American Revolution, there was 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:17.680 no shortage of valiant young frenchmen, particularly young noblemen inspired 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.120 by the daring do of the Marquis de Lafayette, who 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.960 wanted to prove their medal on a field of battle 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.879 that would also incidentally give them a chance to humiliate 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:35.280 the British. Franklin's efforts worked. On February sixth, seventeen seventy seven, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.439 Benjamin Franklin met with the Foreign Minister Version to sign 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:44.359 not one, but two treaties. The first was a treaty 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:48.600 of Friendship and commerce. The second, and more important of 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:53.320 the two, was a treaty of military alliance. Not only 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.000 had France officially recognized the United States as a nation, 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:03.639 it had officially joined in its rugs revolutionary efforts. Imagine 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.880 the scene of French officials that day at the end 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.320 of the eighteenth century, and try to picture what you 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:16.399 imagine they might be wearing, fine silks, embroideries, the type 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.520 of clothing that reflects the importance of the occasion within 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:25.960 a culture where people were already wearing incredibly ornate, decorated clothing. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:32.800 In contrast, Benjamin Franklin wore a simple brown wool waistcoat suit. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.760 But he had a very specific reason for the outfit 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.120 he chose. It was the exact same suit he had 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.280 been wearing less than a decade earlier, when he was 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:48.639 berated and humiliated by the British while testifying in the cockpit. 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.879 Now that same jacket would witness the signing of the 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.400 treaty that might help America cast off Britain's yoke forever. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.480 It was an act of sirctorial vengeance, the eighteenth century 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:09.480 equivalent of Princess Diana's revenge dress. Franklin did wear slightly 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.720 more formal garb a month later when he appeared at 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:17.399 Versailles for the ratification of the alliance. This time he 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.000 wore a black velvet suit lined with white ruffles and 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.879 silk stockings. Even still, the chamberlain took a moment's pause 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.840 before letting him into court because Franklin wasn't wearing the 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:35.480 wig and sword that was required by court etiquette. Still then, 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.359 as today, dress codes are more suggestions when you're famous, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.639 and Franklin was invited into an audience with King Louis 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:51.520 the sixteenth in the King's Great Chamber. The king extended 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.439 a message of goodwill to Congress, stating that he hoped 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.359 the alliance would be quote for the good of our 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.720 two nations. Franklin was effusive in his gratitude and replied 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.800 to the King with the type of remark that seems 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.080 so poignant in its dramatic irony, that I'm tempted to 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:16.000 believe it was apocryphal. If all rulers ruled with your benevolence, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.840 Franklin told the King Louis the sixteenth republics would never 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.720 be formed. Once the formal acknowledgments were taken care of, 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.280 Franklin was invited to spend time with the royal family. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.359 When account relates that while Franklin was watching a game 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.240 play out on a gaming table, he was honored by 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:42.520 the particular notice of the Queen, who courteously desired him 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.560 to stand near to her, and as often as the 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.400 game did not require her immediate attention, she took occasion 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.919 to speak to him in very obliging terms. Franklin and 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.359 Marie Antoinette were also said to have strolled through the 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.119 gardens of Versailles, where he explained to her the basics 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:06.960 of his electrical experiments. Allegedly, Marie Antoinette asked Benjamin Franklin 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.600 if he was worried that, like Prometheus, who was chained 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.520 to a rock with his liver plucked out for all eternity, 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:17.320 he too worried that he would be punished for stealing 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:22.200 fire from heaven. Franklin replied that he would quote if 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.440 he did not behold a pair of eyes pass unpunished, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.600 which have stolen infinitely more fire from Jove than he 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.760 ever did, though they do more mischief in a week 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.959 than he has done in all my experiments. The task 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.840 of official recognition was done, but Benjamin Franklin's work was 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:47.159 far from over. The revolutionaries were in desperate need still 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.159 of money, supplies, and ammunition, and trying to get the 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.359 French people to provide it became the central focus of 0:21:55.359 --> 0:22:00.280 Franklin's work. Biographer Stacy Schiff recounted how at one point 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.280 the Americans sent Franklin a thirty eight page list of 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.040 the things they needed from the French, including quote, a frigate, 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.359 a ship of the line, and forty nine thousand uniforms, 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:17.439 as well as spoons, trumpets, paint, and thimbles. According to Shiff, 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:24.880 the demands was so massive that Franklin was left speechless. 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.879 It's at this point that another Founding father makes a 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:33.400 cameo in the story. In seventeen seventy eight, future President 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:38.359 John Adams joined Franklin in France as an ambassador. It 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.200 was a terrible idea from the start. If you've seen 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.520 the excellent HBO mini series John Adams starring Paul Giamatti, 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:51.320 you probably have a fairly good understanding of what sort 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:57.000 of man Adams was. Principled and brilliant, but straightforward, blunt, 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:01.720 hard working, with no patience for nonsense. In other words, 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:06.480 a terrible fit for France, where diplomacy was more reliant 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:11.080 on charm and flirtation than anything else. He was also 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:16.240 a terrible match for Benjamin Franklin, who, as shiff elegantly 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.959 put it, was a master of the French art of quote, 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:27.200 accomplishing much while appearing to accomplish little. Adams despised Franklin. 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.840 Where was the man who had written Poor Richard's Almanac? 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:33.840 Early to bed, Early to rise? All of that. The 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.719 Franklin that Adams saw in France was a lush who 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:42.080 seemed to spend more time socializing than working. He was 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.200 invited to dine every day and never declined, Adams wrote, 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:49.560 and it was the only thing in which he was punctual. 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.200 To make matters worse, Adams also had to bear witness 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:59.920 to Franklin's tremendous celebrity. As Adams put it, Franklin was green, 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:05.280 did like quote an opera girl everywhere they went. Adams 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.480 was so unpopular in France that the Foreign minister actually 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:14.399 insisted that Franklin be the only American representative, and so 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.920 Adams was sent back across the Atlantic, although his mistrust 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:23.760 and resentment of Franklin never abated. In seventeen eighty three, 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:27.359 Adams wrote a letter stating, quote, if I was in 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:31.400 Congress and Franklin and the marble Mercury in the garden 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:34.920 of Versailles were in nomination for an embassy, I would 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:38.440 not hesitate to give my vote for the statue upon 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:43.920 the principle that it would do no harm. The growing 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:49.200 sentiment of resentment of Franklin's slow progress in France seemed 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:55.199 to be shared amongst the United States. America needed resources immediately, 0:24:55.640 --> 0:25:00.000 and France was not providing them. Why couldn't Franklin get more? 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:04.520 At one point, Congress was so frustrated with Franklin that 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.359 they floated the idea of replacing him. That notion was 0:25:08.400 --> 0:25:12.960 so abhorrent to Franklin's friend and ally, the Foreign Minister Vergennes, 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:17.240 that Virgen immediately sent over a large shipment to America 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:21.040 and wrote to make sure that Congress understood that he 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:25.280 had only granted it specifically on account of Benjamin Franklin. 0:25:26.240 --> 0:25:31.080 Franklin continued his efforts to fund the Americans, writing letters 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:35.119 and missives, charming the French, and trying to secure supplies 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:39.159 as best he could, but by seventeen eighty one the 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:43.520 war was dragging on. It was midnight when a courier 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:48.360 arrived at the suburban home Franklin lived in with incredible news. 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:53.840 The Americans had achieved victory at Yorktown with the help 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:56.960 of six thousand men that King Louis the sixteenth had 0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:03.600 sent under Lieutenant General Rochambeau. George Washington had trapped General Cornwallis, 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:08.000 and a helpful French fleet posted just offshore meant that 0:26:08.040 --> 0:26:10.800 the British wouldn't be able to escape or send for 0:26:10.880 --> 0:26:21.000 more supplies. Cornwallis had no options. He surrendered. The American 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:24.919 Revolutionary War was all but over, and John Jay and 0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:28.560 John Adams arrived in Europe to work with Benjamin Franklin 0:26:28.920 --> 0:26:31.760 on finalizing the end of the war with the British. 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:35.920 Though the nature of the American treaty with France meant 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:39.359 that the Americans were supposed to consult with France and 0:26:39.600 --> 0:26:44.360 Virgin on their British peace agreement. John Jay and Adams 0:26:44.440 --> 0:26:48.760 bulked at that idea and preferred to work independently. It 0:26:48.920 --> 0:26:53.160 was a tricky situation for Franklin, who had seen firsthand 0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:56.080 just how much the French had done for them and 0:26:56.160 --> 0:26:59.720 how much Virgin had done for him personally, but he 0:26:59.760 --> 0:27:03.280 had no choice but to go along with the other negotiators. 0:27:03.920 --> 0:27:08.439 France was understandably upset at being left completely out of 0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:11.840 the peace agreement, and so it was left to Franklin 0:27:12.200 --> 0:27:16.560 to apologize to Verzhen, which he did in an absolutely 0:27:16.960 --> 0:27:21.240 masterful letter. He wrote that the omission quote was not 0:27:21.640 --> 0:27:24.800 from want of respect for the King, whom we all 0:27:24.920 --> 0:27:28.159 love and honor. It is not possible for anyone to 0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:31.040 be more sensible than I am of what I and 0:27:31.200 --> 0:27:35.040 every American owe to the King for the many and 0:27:35.280 --> 0:27:39.639 great benefits and favors he has bestowed upon us. The English, 0:27:39.800 --> 0:27:43.280 I just now learn flatter themselves that they have already 0:27:43.320 --> 0:27:47.600 divided us. I hope this little misunderstanding will therefore be 0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:52.919 kept a perfect secret, and that they find themselves totally mistaken. 0:27:53.920 --> 0:27:57.440 He added that he hoped, quote, the great work which 0:27:57.480 --> 0:28:01.600 has hitherto been so happily conducted, is so nearly brought 0:28:01.640 --> 0:28:05.280 to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will 0:28:05.320 --> 0:28:09.239 not be ruined by a single indiscretion of ours, And 0:28:09.440 --> 0:28:13.040 certainly the whole edifice falls to the ground immediately if 0:28:13.040 --> 0:28:16.640 you refuse, on that account to give us any further assistance. 0:28:17.560 --> 0:28:21.040 Did you catch that last part? Not only had America 0:28:21.080 --> 0:28:25.280 excluded France from negotiating in the peace agreement, but now 0:28:25.440 --> 0:28:30.679 America needed more money, and the absolutely insane part the 0:28:30.800 --> 0:28:34.800 letter worked. Next time you apologize, if it doesn't end 0:28:34.920 --> 0:28:38.960 with the person you wronged giving you more money, just 0:28:39.080 --> 0:28:42.600 know that Benjamin Franklin was operating on a different level, 0:28:43.760 --> 0:28:48.000 and the affection the French had for Benjamin Franklin lasted 0:28:48.080 --> 0:28:52.880 until the end. When Franklin eventually left the country, it 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:57.040 was Marie Antoinette who personally lent him a litter carried 0:28:57.040 --> 0:29:02.840 between mules because franklin health issue made normal coach travel uncomfortable. 0:29:03.800 --> 0:29:06.560 I want to be clear, as an American citizen, I 0:29:06.600 --> 0:29:10.360 am personally very grateful to the French for everything they 0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:14.200 did for us in the Revolutionary War, but hindsight being 0:29:14.240 --> 0:29:18.280 what it is looking back, it was a catastrophic move 0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:22.600 for the French monarchy. According to Schiff, the value of 0:29:22.680 --> 0:29:26.880 French material and manpower sent by Louis the sixteenth was 0:29:26.920 --> 0:29:31.200