Exchanging emails on the current state of public discourse, Rev. George Rutler, the unofficial chaplain of this happy Corner and the author of Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, makes the following observation:

The Prince Imperial Napoleon Eugene (son of Napoleon III) was killed fighting for the British at Ulundi in 1879 on, of all dates, July 4. His great uncle Jerome, later King of Westphalia, had been married to Elizabeth Patterson in Baltimore by Bishop Carroll, cousin of the only Catholic signer, and last surviving signer, of the Declaration of Independence, but Napoleon I refused to recognize his new American sister-in-law. When Elizabeth’s brother died, his widow married the 1st Marquess of Wellesley, brother of the future Duke of Wellington. Thus the Duke of Wellington’s sister-in-law was the sister-in-law of the sister-in law of Napoleon. I think our current political debates would be more elevated if the candidates had a better historical perspective.

Indeed.