#but these old men ALSO took advantage of them being orphans & viewed them as means to a goal rather than as people

[yeonban]

And if it wasn't clear enough, every adult who had a say in Sethos and/or Cyno's lives should be damned for eternity

[aion-rsa]

Hamilton: What Happened to Lafayette After He Returned to France?

https://ift.tt/3e6HpMC

He’s one of the most endearing characters in Hamilton. Introduced as bashful and vaguely awkward due to his struggle with the English language, the only major character in the musical with aristocratic titles—besides the King of England, of course—is strangely modest when standing next to the likes of Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr. But the Marquis de Lafayette doesn’t stay that way. Soon enough good-natured modesty gives way to spitting English rhymes faster than anyone else on stage. Actor Daveed Diggs may have even secured his Tony award before playing Thomas Jefferson with Lafayette’s rapid fire verbal assault in “Guns and Ships.”

Yet the thing about the same actor portraying Jefferson is it means we see nothing of Lafayette after the American Revolution is won in Act One. In “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” Lafayette promises he’ll go back to France and “bring freedom to my people if given the chance.” Later the ramifications of that are only opaquely hinted at in Act Two when Jefferson, fresh from helping Lafayette draft a declaration, returns as France’s fiercest advocate… and faces opposition from Lafayette’s biggest American pal. But other than Hamilton telling Jefferson that “Lafayette’s a smart man he’ll be fine,” we don’t actually learn how things transpired for our favorite fighting Frenchman. But that might be because while he survived the French Revolution… to say he was “fine” is wishful thinking on Hamilton’s part.

The truth is Lafayette tried to bring freedom to his people when given the chance, but he lost his own freedom for more than five years in the process (and almost his head). And these horrors were only beginning to reign as Hamilton and Jefferson were rapping about possible American intervention.

In reality, Lafayette and Hamilton’s friendship began a little later than the 1776 meet-and-greet at the bar in Hamilton. Alexander was already Gen. George Washington’s aide-de-camp (secretary) by the time Washington semi-adopted the Frenchman as much as an enlisted man. Washington knew to look for Lafayette in Philadelphia because Benjamin Franklin personally wrote him about how good-natured the young nobleman of only 19 was—Franklin even feared he’d be taken advantage of for his congeniality. Well, that and because Lafayette and his wife had deep roots in French aristocracy.

Like Hamilton, Lafayette became an orphan when he was 13. Unlike Hamilton, he did not suffer from a lack of funds or prestige. Technically named Gilbert du Motier, Lafayette inherited his title after his father was killed fighting the British in the Seven Years’ War (known as the French and Indian War in the U.S.). Some historians believe the death even inspired a strong anti-British sentiment in Lafayette. But then he may also have been driven by notions of his chivalrous lineage that earned him a role in France’s mounted infantry of Dragoons while still a teenager.

No matter the exact reason, he was soon taken by the cause of the American Revolution and speeches of liberty. So much so that he disobeyed his king and father-in-law to cross the Atlantic. Indeed, after marrying Adrienne de Noailles at age 16 (she was 14), Lafayette was forced by the father of the bride to go to London two years later since he wanted to join the American Revolution. Instead he spent three weeks at British court where he was presented before King George III. Lafayette obeyed but then after returning to France, he hid from his in-laws and purchased his own sailing ship the Victoire, which eventually carried him to South Carolina.

By the time Lafayette arrived in America, the Declaration of Independence was almost a year old, the British had carved Manhattan up, and Hamilton was Washington’s right-hand man. Washington met Lafayette at a dinner in August 1777. While the general was told to keep an eye out for the well-connected Lafayette, Washington was nonetheless taken with the boy’s natural fervor for gaiety and democratic ideals. The Continental Congress was also smitten with Lafayette—his refusing payment for his service and instead offering to purchase weapons for the revolutionaries has that effect—and they awarded Lafayette the title of “major general.” While it was an honorary title, Lafayette expected to one day lead a division of men after Washington thought he was ready.

Initially Washington balked at the idea, but eventually did put Lafayette in charge of American soldiers, most famously at the Battle of Yorktown where Lafayette’s men cut off the British’s ability to retreat. The general also thought so highly of the young Frenchman that after Lafayette was wounded in battle, he wrote the surgeon to think of him as Washington’s own son.

Lafayette also formed an extremely personal friendship with Hamilton. To the degree that some still speculate the pair—like rumors about Hamilton and John Laurens—might have had a romantic relationship. They certainly wrote of each other fondly, with Hamilton’s own grandson characterizing the three as “a gay trio” who resembled the Three Musketeers in the early years of Washington’s officers camp. Near the end of the war, Lafayette wrote his wife, “Among the general’s aides-de-camp is a [young] man whom I love very much and of whom I have occasionally spoken to you. The man is Colonel Hamilton.”

After the war, Lafayette returned to France where he became a vocal advocate for a democratic republic that maintained a constitutional monarchy. He’d named his first and only son Georges Washington Lafayette and one of his daughters, at friend Thomas Jefferson’s urging, Marie-Antoinette Virginie. He was promoted high among the French Army and the royal Order of Saint Louis and quickly became a chummy hunting buddy with King Louis XVI. Despite nestling himself further into the royal aristocracy, Lafayette also welcomed what seemed to be an inevitable French Revolution.

Like Jefferson (and most Americans), Lafayette saw his homeland following in the United States’ example and building a republic that valued the rights of individuals. In some ways, he was further along in those aims than Jefferson, as Lafayette was a member of the abolitionist group the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, and called for Black slaves to not only be freed but given farmland. He even wrote Washington in 1783, pushing his father figure to free his slaves. Washington declined.

The revolution that came to France turned out to be anything but what Jefferson had suggested to James Monroe in a 1788 letter. At the time, Jefferson predicted France would soon have “a tolerably free constitution” without “having cost them a drop of blood.” While Jefferson had grown from appraising King Louis XVI as “a good man” to a do-nothing who spent half the day hunting and the other half drinking, Jefferson believed a constitutional monarchy with a strong legislature was possible. After all, for the first time since 1614, France’s Estates-General was gathering in 1719 to create a new general assembly. What emerged was the National Assembly, though in it Lafayette found himself among a minority of aristocrats who believed the upper legislature should be determined by “head” (population) as opposed to “estate” (amount of land owned).

Jefferson—who once fretted 19 of France’s 20 million people lived worse than the most destitute (white) Americans—took this as grand news. He wrote the king would soon allow “freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of commerce and industry, freedom of persons against arbitrary arrest,” and a variety of other freedoms he was simultaneously beginning to lobby for in the U.S., eventually resulting in the Bill of Rights.

In this vein, Lafayette presented on July 11, 1789 his Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the National Assembly. While none of the aristocrats at the time knew that it was at least edited by Jefferson (if not co-written), there was no mistaking it was intended to be seen as a French version of the Declaration of Independence. But it was perhaps already too late since the Storming of the Bastille occurred three days later on July 14. Ironically, Lafayette’s attempt to ensure a peaceful transition to a true republic might’ve helped speed along the bloodshed that soon followed. While the National Assembly eventually approved Lafayette’s Declaration on Aug. 26, King Louis rejected it outright on Oct. 2.

Three days later, a mob stormed Versailles, demanding Louis return to rule from (and be imprisoned at) his Parisian palace. By this time, Lafayette was the popular commander-in-chief of the National Guard of France, an armed force intended to maintain the National Assembly’s peace. He used this position to deescalate violence from a crowd now chanting for Marie Antoinette’s blood. Instead Lafayette appeared on the balcony with the French queen and king, kissing Marie Antoinette’s hand and squashing the bloodlust. Gestures such as these, or his order to allow Louis XVI to attend Catholic Mass in Paris (an order his men disobeyed), led to him being painted as a monarchist, or at least a soft moderate who the radical Jacobin extremists now rising to power suspected of being weak.

Around this time, Hamilton wrote to Lafayette, “I have seen with a mixture of pleasure and apprehension the progress of the events which have lately taken place in your country. As a friend to mankind and liberty, I rejoice in the efforts you are making to establish it, while I fear much for the final success of the attempts, for the fate of those I esteem who are engaged in it.” At this point in 1789, Hamilton was among a minority of Americans who believed the French Revolution could turn ugly; most preferred an optimistic view of Jefferson who predicted the goodness of human nature would reign.

In June 1791, already growing unpopular among Jacobin leaders like Maximillien de Robespierre and Georges Danton for his apparently cushy treatment of the royal family, Lafayette became an enemy of public opinion. This occurred suddenly and violently when he suppressed a gathering of 10,000 people after two men accused of being secret spies for the monarchy were hanged in a lynch mob. Lafayette ordered the National Guard to fire into the crowd, wounding and killing dozens. Afterward a new mob gathered and destroyed Lafayette’s home and attempted to assault his wife. Robespierre branded Lafayette a traitor of the Revolution and Lafayette soon resigned from his post in the National Guard.

Even out of power, Lafayette still wrote about the need of sparing the king and queen. In August 1792, Danton put out a warrant for Lafayette’s arrest. King Louis XVI, meanwhile, was executed at the guillotine on Jan. 21, 1793, where school children licked up the specks of blood that splattered from his neck and onto the ground. Marie Antoinette would suffer the same fate later that year, but by Feb. 1, France had already declared war on Britain, as well as Holland and Spain, and demanded the U.S. join them in the fighting to come. Secretary of State Jefferson was enthusiastic, but many Americans had come around to Hamilton’s cynicism about the French Revolution, most notably President Washington. Vice President John Adams summed it up best: “Danton, Robespierre, Marat, etc. are furies. Dragons’ teeth have been sown in France and will come up as monsters.”

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Lafayette, for his part, attempted to flee his way back to the United States. He didn’t get further than the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium). There he was arrested by the rival government and began more than five years of hell. He did better than family members though. His wife’s sister, mother, and grandmother all fell beneath the guillotine and the cheers of the mob in the Reign of Terror. His wife, meanwhile, begged permission to take her five children and stay with Lafayette in prison.

By this point, Lafayette had spent more than a year in solitary confinement after almost escaping Austrian custody with the aid of Angelica Schuyler Church (Eliza’s sister and Hamilton’s sister-in-law). As punishment he was half-starved when his wife and four daughters stayed with him in his cell. Elsewhere his son Georges Washington fled to America where he hoped to meet with his namesake, the President of the United States. Washington, who viewed Lafayette like a son, reportedly wanted to meet the boy but could not do so without looking as if he was sheltering the son of an accused traitor to our nominal ally. Instead Georges spent the winter of 1796 living with Alexander and Eliza Hamilton before getting to finally meet the now former president the following spring.

As Secretary of State, Jefferson did mastermind a plan to aid Lafayette and his family. Under dubious rationalizations, he got Congress to agree to finally pay Lafayette and his wife a salary for their service during the Revolutionary War, gaining universal support to offer a monthly pension to a national hero who in his own nation was considered a traitor.

After more than five years of imprisonment—and Robespierre falling under his own guillotine—Lafayette was finally released in 1797. Alexander Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow reports his hair had entirely fallen out of his head and his countenance resembled more cadaver than a living man. But even then, Lafayette was just one of many political prisoners in the Austrian Netherlands the newly victorious General Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated the freedom of. And yet, Lafayette could not return to America as he hoped because of new tensions between Bonaparte’s emerging dictatorial government and the Adams administration. Thus Lafayette eventually returned to France in 1800 where he retired from politics, despite Napoleon offering him multiple titles and opportunities, including becoming minister to the United States. Lafayette wanted the titles, but he did not want to be a member of Napoleon’s government. He also refused his friend Thomas Jefferson, now President of the United States, when Jefferson offered to make him governor of Louisiana in 1803.

Lafayette remained absent from public life until Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo in 1815—though he made enemies with the British again when he attempted to help the disgraced French emperor flee to the United States—and in 1824 he finally returned to America where he received a rapturous welcome in all 24 existing states he visited. He even got to lay the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston during the Declaration of Indpendence’s 50th anniversary. By this time, Hamilton was long dead, but Lafayette lived to see the truth in Hamilton’s enthusiastic promise from 1798 after Lafayette’s release from prison: “The only thing in which our [political] parties agree is to love you.” He also swore their friendship would “survive all revolutions and all vicissitudes.”

Lafayette died in 1834 and was buried in a cemetery in Paris… where his grave was consecrated with a layer of soil from Bunker Hill.

The post Hamilton: What Happened to Lafayette After He Returned to France? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2BHIUEc

[booker-and-boo]

Yo so I took these questions from @exspiravitae and probably gonna use my Worgen Rogue Denewulf.  

 What are your character’s most recurring conflicts, internally and externally? Why are they recurring? Does your character respond to these conflicts the same time, and if so, are they getting tired of doing so? If they respond differently, why?

Denewulf’s biggest conflict externally his relationship with people in a broader, more general sense. Which actually correlates into his internal conflict: his morality. Denewulf is -for lack of a better term- an asshole, making him prone to pissing a lot of people off and at the worst times edging others into fighting him when he’s shitfaced. Denewulf’s early life wasn’t exactly pretty, therefore he’s harnessed and weaponized that fueling hatred towards the world and made armour out of apathy towards others emotions and values. Though yes, he does have some friends; Denewulf is mostly alone and prefers the company of shadows compared to the company of others. Somthing his new found friends -which were unwilling on his part- have learned to simply accept.  For the most part in how Denewulf reacts and responds to these conflicts, it is indeed at the same time. And quite frankly, after the events that had transpired in Mists of Pandaria and seeing the damage on a physical level, it’s left Denewulf shamed and at least attempting to mend his ways. He’s still an asshole, but he’s slowly growing to be an asshole with a heart. Denewulf knows he can’t do a full 180 degree turn around and be this happy go lucky guy, that’s simply not his way and hasn’t been his way since he was at the age of 12. He’s also damn near his 40′s so that’s also taking it’s toll on him. 

    Who has most greatly influenced your character without their knowledge? (Not necessarily in an intentionally manipulative way, but who helped shape them into what they are now without your character realizing them to be the source?) How has this person’s influence made itself manifest in your character?

Actually, this is most likely going to be both Talmoren and Zyten. Talmoren is the stranger of the two men who have managed to greatly influence the old wolf, as Talmoren is part of the exact thing he hates. The Scourge and all things associated to that. Though Denewulf never experienced the events of Wrath, Denewulf has had enough experiences with a part that came from The Scourge. Sylvanas and her Forsaken. However;Talmoren has managed to make the Worgen lessen some of his hatred towards Death Knight’s somewhat. Either that or he just tolerates Talmoren.  On the other hand, Zyten is definitely a powerful influence as Zyten expresses much of the lost morality that Denewulf lacks. Zyten is compassionate and warrior with a heart of gold. The Warrior just met Denewulf once, got into a fight with him, and hasn’t left him alone since then. Which is honestly a good thing, as Denewulf has actually picked up a few things from the younger man than he would have picked up on his own. Growing up with the idea that the world is a terible place full of assholes, Zyten’s look at it is more on the lines of; “we need to save these people because it’s the right thing to do.” However, Zyten is still willing to beat the absolute piss out of some Horde, to which Denewulf understands that language much easier than the former.  Denewulf’s definitely still an ass, but with Zyten’s help, he’s begun to put others lives before his own -as Denewulf is rather selfish- and typically doesn’t put any hidden motives behind them. He normally does it because it’s just engrained that this is right, and this is how it should be. Though he’s not as brash and quick to act as Zyten is; Denewulf impliments these things into his own character and skills. Honing them and almost becoming a sort of...unsung hero from the shadows of sorts? Without much of the in game story? 

   Is there any one aspect of your character that most prominently defines them: their status as a parent, a monarch, a peasant, a scientist? How does this aspect bleed into their other statuses?

Denewulf’s definitely one of those characters that while he does bad things, he does them because they are necessary and can play a part in seeing the much bigger picture. He’s not going to do something simply because it’s what he wants, or to see what it’ll get him in the end. Denewulf’s learned a lot from when he was an orphan and running the streets of Gilneas stealing morsels of bread to just survive.  To say how everything’s bled into other aspects of his life; Denewulf is first and foremost a killer. It’s a language he knows and deals well with. If it’s got coin and doesn’t involve stupidly high risks? He’ll take it. And much of his wisdom has come from the many instances in which he’s fucked up and found himself in an unwanted situation. Whether that makes him better or not is debatable, but Denewulf isn’t there to beat around the bush or rush into any mission because someone else wants it done now.

For other areas and statuses; it’s important to understand that Denewulf originally became a willing Worgen in Ralaar’s Wolfcult. Even to this day Denewulf doesn’t view his affliction as a curse, but, instead sees it as a blessing. In his line of work and lifestyle in general, it’s good to have keen senses, and being a Worgen makes you acutely more aware of things than you would be as a human. He’s accepted his gift and uses it to his advantage with greed and a lust to fulfill whatever desires he has. Even killing a few unknowing Forsaken should he stumble upon them.  

   What is, in your opinion, their most reprehensible flaw? Why is that, and not any other flaw, the worst? Who would they be without it?

Vindictive. Denewulf is incredibly vindictive amongst many of his other flaws. However, this one actually takes the cake. First and foremost; it should be noted that Denewulf’s father gave him up to the Orphanage in Gilneas when his mother died in childbirth. Denewulf for the longest time could not and still hasn’t let go of that pulsating hatred towards his sire, even when he has already brutally maimed him and his new wife in cold blood during the Worgen Assult on Gilneas during Cataclysm. Amongst other relationships gone horribly wrong, the one with his father is the most prominent, as Denewulf still is broiling in rage and hatred. But at the same time, he gets weirded out by seeing others having these good, healthy and happy relationships with other people. With Denewulf having no idea about what it’s like, he tends to get more closed off and reserved than normal when he sees parents and their children being close and happy. Sometimes getting full blown seething with anger that he needs to walk off and cool down.  I’d say his vindictive personality takes the cake, simply because of the fact it’s what drives him to fucking murder peoples asses in the worst means imaginable. And he doesn’t care if a 2-8 year old is watching. He will fucking murder your ass if you wrong him in any way. To be frank? Denewulf even without his vindictive flaw is and would still be an absolute asshole. He’ll just be less prone to murdering in horrible ass ways? Sooo...-wait. No. Yeah he’d still murder some poor guys ass in some horrendous fashion. 

    What was the defining moment for your character; what choice did they make that has most heavily influenced their current situation? If they could go back and make a different choice, would they? What would change for them if they did?

Definitely a defining moment was when Denewulf made his first murder. Had it not been for Denewulf feeling wronged and with a desire to impose his possessiveness over the woman he had fallen in love with in his younger years? Denewulf would have never learned how skilled he was at killing men in cold blood. Though he was still inexperienced and never killed anything before, Denewulf wanted to make a statement and learned that he had skills and lacked all sense of a moral and honorable code. It’s actually a driving part of what made him who he is today, and another reason that lead him to become a Worgen in Ralaar’s Wolfcult. He knew he could do it, and wanted to do it again to one person in particular. His father. To be honest? Denewulf would have still done it. Though I think if he hadn’t, nothing much would have changed. Just that his ex-lover would be married to someone else. 

    What is their favorite flavor of pudding?

He’s never actually had pudding, but he screams a Butterscoth type guy to me. (Totes not because I love that pudding NOPE)

[jeremyau]

People Don’t Follow Titles: Necessity and Sufficiency in Leadership

June 15, 2017 | Reading Time: 6 minutes

“Colonel Graff: You have a habit of upsetting your commander. Ender Wiggin: I find it hard to respect someone just because they outrank me, sir.” — Orson Scott Card

***

Many leaders confuse necessary conditions for leadership with sufficient ones.

Titles often come with the assumption people will follow you based on a title. Whether by election, appointment, or divine right, at some point you were officially put in the position. But leadership is based on more than just titles.

Not only do title-based leaders feel like once they get the title that everyone will fall in line, but they also feel they are leading because they are in charge — a violation of the golden rules of leadership. This makes them toxic to organization culture.

A necessary condition for leadership is trust, which doesn't come from titles. You have to earn it.

***

Necessary conditions are those that must be present, but are not, on their own, enough for achievement.

Perhaps an easy example will help illuminate. Swinging at a pitch in baseball is necessary to hit the ball, but not sufficient to do so.

War offers another example. It's necessary to know the capabilities of your enemy and their positions, but that is not sufficient to win a battle.

Leadership can be very similar. Being in a position of leadership is necessary to lead an organization, but that is not sufficient to get people moving towards a common goal. Titles, on their own, do not confer legitimacy. And legitimacy is one of the sufficient conditions of leadership.

If your team, organization, or country doesn't view you as legitimate you will have a hard time getting anything done. Because they won’t work for you, and you can’t do it all yourself. Leadership without legitimacy is a case of multiply by zero.

There is a wonderful example of this, from the interesting history of the Mongolians. In his book The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, Jack Weatherford tells an amazing story of the unlikely, but immensely successful, leadership of Manduhai the Wise.

250 years after Genghis Khan, the empire was in fragments. The Mongols had retreated into their various tribes, often fighting each other and nominally ruled by outsiders from China and the Middle East. There was still a Khan, but he exercised no real power. The Mongol tribes were very much at the mercy of their neighbors.

In 1470 the sitting Khan died, survived only by a junior wife. There were immediate suitors vying for her affection because by marrying her the title of Khan could be claimed. Her name was Manduhai. Instead of choosing the easy path of remarriage and an alliance, she decided to pursue her dream of uniting the Mongol nation.

First, she had to choose a consort that would allow her to keep the title of Queen. There was one remaining legitimate survivor of Genghis Khan’s bloodline – a sickly 7-year-old boy. Orphaned as a baby and neglected by his first caregiver, he had been under Manduhai’s protection for a few years. Because of his lineage, she took him to the Shrine of the First Queen and asked for divine blessings in installing him as the Great Khan. They would rule together, but clearly, due to his age and condition, she would be in charge.

Although her words would be addressed to the shrine, and she would face away from the crowd, there could be no question that, in addition to being the spiritual outcry of a pilgrim, these words constituted a desperate plea of a queen to her people. This would be the most important political speech of her life.

She was successful in securing the appointment. But Manduhai understood that the title of Great Khan for the little boy and Khatun (Queen) for her would not be enough. She needed the support of all the Mongol tribes to give the titles legitimacy, and here there were a significant number of obstacles to overcome.

Twice before in the previous generations, boys of his age had been proclaimed Great Khan, only to be murdered by their rivals before they could reach full maturity. Other fully grown men who bore the title were also ignominiously struck down and killed by the Muslim warlords who tried to control them.

First Manduhai had to keep herself and the boy, Dayan Khan, alive. Then she had to demonstrate that they were the right people to unite the Mongol tribes and ensure prosperity for all. This would take both physical battles and a strategic understanding of how to employ little power for great effect. Her success was by no means guaranteed.

Throughout their reign, as on this awkward inaugural day, they frequently benefited from the underestimation of their abilities by those who struggled against them. In the world where physical strength and mastery of the horse and bow seemed to be all that really mattered, no one seemed to anticipate the advantages of patient intelligence, careful planning, and consistency of action.

It was these traits that led Manduhai to carefully craft her plan of action. She needed to position herself as a true leader that could unite the Mongol tribes.

Vows, prayers, and rituals before a shrine added much needed scared legitimacy to Dayan Khan’s rule, but without force of arms, they amounted to empty gestures and wasted breath. Only after demonstrating that she had the skill to win, as well as the supernatural blessing to do so, could Manduhai hope to rule the Mongols. She had enemies on every side, and she needed to choose her first battle carefully. She had to confront each enemy, but she had to confront each in its own due time. Manduhai needed to manage the flow of conflicts by deciding when and where to fight and not allowing others to force her into a war for which she was not prepared or stood little chance of winning.

She made an important strategic alliance with one of the failed suitors, a popular and intelligent general who controlled the area immediately east of her power base. Then she went to battle to secure her western front. Some tribes supported her from the outset, due to the spiritual power of her partnership with the boy, the ‘true Khan’. The rest she conquered, support snowballing behind her.

In addition to its strategic importance, the western campaign against the Oirat was a notable propaganda victory, demonstrating that Manduhai had the blessing of the Shrine of the First Queen and the Eternal Blue Sky. Manduhai showed that she was in control of her country.

Grinding it out in the trenches inspired support. Manduhai demonstrated the courage and intelligence to lead and to provide what her people needed. She was not an empire builder, seeking to conquer the world. Rather, she was pragmatic desiring to unify the Mongol nation to ensure they had the means to thwart any future attempt at takeover by a foreign power.

In contrast to the expansive territorial acquisition favored by prior generations of steppe conquerors, Manduhai pursued a strategy of geographic precision. Better to control the right spot rather than be responsible for conquering, organizing, and running a massive empire of reluctant subjects. … Rather than trying to conquer and occupy the extensive links of the Silk Route or the vast expanse of China, she sought to conquer just the strategic spot from which to control them.

Her story teaches us the difference between necessity and sufficiency when it comes to leadership.

Manduhai ticked all the necessary boxes, being a Queen, choosing a descendant of Genghis Khan to rule by her side, and asking for meaningful spiritual blessings. While necessary these were not sufficient to rule. To actually be accepted as a leader, she had to prove herself both on the battlefield and in strategic negotiations. She understood that people would only follow her if they believed in her, and saw that she was working for them. And finally, she also considered how to use her leadership to create something that would continue long after she had gone.

Manduhai concentrated the remainder of her life in protecting what she had accomplished and making certain that the nation could sustain itself after her departure. With the same assiduous devotion she had applied to the battlefield and the unification of the Mongol nation, Manduhai and Dayan Khan now set to the reorganization of the Mongol government and its protection in the future.

In this, she succeeded. She cemented her power as Queen by ultimately working for the peace and prosperity of the entire Mongol nation. Perhaps this is why she is remembered by them as Mandukhai the Wise.