The key political event that acts as the backdrop to ‘Casanova Shadows’, in particular Part 2, is the Seven Years War which raged from 1756 to 1763, beginning the year prior to Casanova’s flight to Paris after his escape from the prisons of the Venetian inquisition in 1757. The Seven Years War is regarded as the first truly global war, stretching across North America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Indian sub-continent. Its main protagonists were France and Great Britain. Ultimately, British success, and with it the expansion and consolidation of its empire, established Britain as the world’s dominant military, commercial and political power. Moreover, France’s bitterness towards Britain as a consequence of the war lead to Louis XVI effectively bankrupting the country through its support of the American colonists against Britain in the American War of Independence. This in turn lead to the French revolution and the rise of Napoleon.
As far as Casanova goes (and ‘Casanova Shadows’), the constant search for funds by the royal court to supply their armies as well as its own extravagant lifestyle (in particular that of Madame de Pompadour) gave him the opportunity to become rich almost overnight by helping to establish the Paris lottery, the biggest and most successful of its kind that Europe had ever seen.
An article on the Seven Years War is available along with 26 other articles on Casanova’s life and times here.
‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is freely available here.
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