Database: The Crimson Rose

The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Crimson Rose are fictional figures that take the spirit of various genuine historical characters: aristocrats who attempted to subvert the goals of revolutionary France.* -- * It's just as well they're fictional, because imagine you were real and you had a nickname like that? "Oh thank goodness, 'the Scarlet Pimpernel' is here...". It would be impossible not to think people were being sarcastic. -- One of these is William Wickham, born in 1761 in Yorkshire, England. Wickham, a Lieutenant-General in the army of His Majesty King George III, organized a spy network based in Switzerland and France to coordinate with French Royalists and combat the Great Terror. After Thermidor, he returned to England and died peacefully in 1840. ** -- ** Thermidor was a revolt. IT's not to be confused with Lobster Thermidor. Just in case you thought that after a lovely thermidor, Wickham returned to England and died peacefully of seafoor poisoning. --