#ac s

I'm not leaving tumblr (yet) but I just thought I'd share the fact that (for the ac fandom at least) there still is the council that is a pretty chill place as of now and you'll most likely see me stay active on there (as soon as I'll have more time). I might even try to start posting my fics and imagines or something. Here's the link for anyone that doesn't know it yet: https://council.assassinscreed.com/en/

In Game:

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield was a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice.

During his first term as Prime Minister in 1868, Benjamin introduced the Corrupt Practices Act which was meant to end electoral bribery. Wishing to maintain its grasp on London, the British Rite of the Templar Order plotted to kill Benjamin to stall the implementation of the act indefinitely and allow its favored candidate, Gladstone, to become Prime Minister. While Gladstone gave precedent to domestic issues, Disraeli was a staunch and self-styled imperialist.

The Templar James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan hired men to kill Benjamin, although the plot was foiled by the Assassin Jacob Frye. He infiltrated Benjamin's carriage after learning from the Templar-affiliated gang Blighters member of the plot, pretending to be his bodyguard. Though Benjamin was suspicious, his wife Mary Anne allowed Jacob to speak. A gunshot interrupted their conversation and Jacob defended the Disraelis from their Blighter attackers. While Jacob was busy with the attackers, more Blighters arrived and hijacked Benjamin's carriage. After Jacob managed to rescue them, Benjamin voiced his opinion that Gladstone was the one responsible for the attacks and stormed into Downing Street, vowing to get even with his hated rival.

Benjamin and his wife were later invited by Jacob and his twin sister Evie to their train hideout to request invitations for the ball at Buckingham Palace, to which Mary Anne sadly admitted that none were available. Benjamin said that if Gladstone were in attendance, he'd give Jacob his invitation card. However, Evie suggested that instead Jacob steal the Gladstones' invitations. Benjamin and his wife, delighted at the prospect of humiliating Gladstone, then gladly provided them with the couple's address.

Benjamin later became embroiled in a Templar plot to bomb Parliament. He was held hostage by the Templar leader, but was thankfully saved by the Frye twins, who proceeded to defuse all the bombs around Parliament. Benjamin then brought the Frye twins to meet with the Queen, who properly thanked them for foiling the Templars.

In Real Life:

Benjamin Disraeli, in full Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield, Viscount Hughenden of Hughenden was born on December 21st, 1804. Disraeli was of Italian-Jewish descent, the eldest son and second child of Isaac D’Israeli and Maria Basevi.

The most important event in Disraeli’s boyhood was his father’s quarrel in 1813 with the synagogue of Bevis Marks, which led to the decision in 1817 to have his children baptized as Christians. Until 1858, Jews by religion were excluded from Parliament; except for the father’s decision, Disraeli’s political career could never have taken the form it did.Disraeli was educated at small private schools. At the age of 17 he was articled to a firm of solicitors, but he longed to become notable in a more sensational manner. His first efforts were disastrous. In 1824 he speculated recklessly in South American mining shares, and, when he lost all a year later, he was left so badly in debt that he did not recover until well past middle age.

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By 1831 Disraeli had decided to enter politics and sought a seat in Buckinghamshire, near Wycombe, where his family had settled. As an independent radical, he stood for and lost High Wycombe twice in 1832 and once in 1835. Realizing that he must attach himself to one of the political parties, he made a somewhat eccentric interpretation of Toryism, which some features of his radicalism fitted. In 1835 he unsuccessfully stood for Taunton as the official Conservative candidate. His extravagant behavior, great debts, and open liaison with Henrietta, wife of Sir Francis Sykes (the prototype of the heroine in his novel Henrietta Temple [1837]), all gave him a dubious reputation. In 1837, however, he successfully stood for Maidstone in Kent as the Conservative candidate. His maiden speech in the House of Commons was a failure. Elaborate metaphors, affected mannerisms, and foppish dress led to his being shouted down. But he was not silenced. He concluded, defiantly and prophetically, “I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me.”

After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837. In 1846, Prime Minister Robert Peel split the Conservatives over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which involved ending the tariff on imported grain. As a result of his clashes with Peel in the House of Commons, Disraeli became a major Tory figure. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s, Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.

Upon Derby's retirement in 1868, Disraeli became prime minister briefly before losing that year's general election. He returned to opposition until the general election of 1874, when he led the Tories as they won an outright majority.

Disraeli's second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire and the desire of other European powers, such as Russia, to gain at its expense. Disraeli arranged for the British to purchase a major interest in the Suez Canal Company (in Ottoman-controlled Egypt). In 1878, faced with Russian victories against the Ottomans, he worked at the Congress of Berlin to obtain peace in the Balkans at terms favorable to Britain and unfavorable to Russia, its longstanding enemy. This diplomatic victory established Disraeli as one of Europe's leading statesmen.

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World events thereafter moved against the Conservatives. The Second Anglo-Afghan War and the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa undermined his public support. He angered British farmers by refusing to reinstitute the Corn Laws in response to poor harvests and cheap imported grain. With Gladstone conducting a massive speaking campaign, his Liberals bested the Conservatives at the 1880 general election.

Disraeli died on April 19th, 1881 at the age of 76. In his final months, he led the Conservatives in opposition. He had always maintained a close friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 appointed him Earl of Beaconsfield. His last completed novel, Endymion, was published in 1881 shortly before his death, more than 50 years after his first.

In Game:

John Elliotson was an English author, teacher and physician that worked at the Lambeth Asylum in London during the mid-19th century. He was also a member of the British Rite of the Templar Order.

In 1868, Elliotson, on the orders of Crawford Starrick, created a concoction that consisted of datura stramonium and opium. Dubbed Starrick's Soothing Syrup, it was marketed as a cure for all ailments and quickly spread across the city via distributors, rendering many of London's residents mentally weak and subservient. Elliotson also had batches of the tonic delivered to Lambeth Asylum, where he worked, so he could use it on the local patients.

However, that same year, Elliotson was informed that the Assassin Jacob Frye had destroyed the distillery where the Syrup was being made. Without a continuous supply of new tonic, the doctor was forced to restrict its use within the asylum. During a demonstration of trepanation to his students, Elliotson accidentally killed the subject, leading him to have another cadaver sent up from the morgue.

Unbeknownst to Elliotson, Jacob had taken the place of the body and was escorted right to the auditorium, where he assassinated the doctor. As he lay dying, Elliotson mocked the Assassin for thinking his death would prevent Starrick from realizing his designs for humanity and questioned whether Jacob had considered the consequences his actions might have.

Indeed, while Elliotson's elimination ensured production of the Syrup ceased permanently, thus cutting off one of Starrick's principal revenue streams, it also caused the asylum to close down. As well as this, medical care throughout the city was in disarray, as people turned to counterfeit tonics in the Syrup's absence. Meanwhile, genuine medicine was being stolen and sold to the highest bidders; thankfully, the situation would improve after Florence Nightingale began petitioning for regulations.

In Real Life:

John Elliotson was born on October 29th, 1791, Southwark, London.  After studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, at the University of Cambridge, and in London hospitals, Elliotson taught at London University (now University College).

Professor Elliotson's application of "animal magnestism" scandalised the hospital medical committee. Rather than abandon his mesmerist techniques as instructed, however, he resigned his offices to pursue his mesmerist practice. Elliotson edited a mesmerist magazine, The Zoist. In 1849, he founded a mesmeric hospital. Elliotson was also founding member of the Phrenological Society (1838).

When the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal [quoted in the British Medical Surgical Journal (1846)] asserted that, compared to ether, mesmerism could perform "a thousand times greater wonders, and without any of the dangers", Elliotson heartily agreed. Mesmerism was undoubtedly useful in a minority of cases for minor surgery and perhaps the presence of a charismatic physician. Yet as the century wore on, most patients - and their surgeons - preferred to take their chances with anesthetics rather than any form of hypnosis.

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Elliotson was the physician of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, John Forster, William Charles MacReady, Harriet Martineau, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Elliotson continued to provide mesmeric demonstrations from his own residence at 37 Conduit Street, Hanover Square (which he eventually quit in 1865). In partnership with Engledue, he began publishing The Zoist in 1843, and, in 1849 founded the London Mesmeric Infirmary. As his reputation rapidly declined, his once lucrative practice also disappeared, and he died, penniless, in 1868 in the London home of a medical colleague, Edmond Sheppard Symes (1805-1881).

In Game:

Duleep Singh was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire and the youngest son of Ranjit Singh, ruling from 1843 to 1846. He was also an associate of, and great-uncle to, the Assassin Henry Green.

In 1868, Duleep was asked by his great-nephew, Henry Green, to procure architectural plans of Buckingham Palace. However, he was foiled in this endeavor, as the schematics had already been obtained by men in the employ of Crawford Starrick. Duleep subsequently told Henry, and his acquaintance Evie Frye, where the plans had been taken, so they could get them back.

Ultimately, Henry and Evie did not succeed in acquiring the schematics, leading the latter to contact Duleep again later on. Passionate as he was about returning to his home country, the Maharaja bartered with Evie; in exchange for her help in recruiting politicians to his cause, Duleep would tell her where she could find copies of the plans she sought.

In between escorting politicians to their destinations, Duleep spoke with Evie on a variety of topics, including his attempts at returning to India, her parents and her relationship with Henry. After bringing William Ewart Gladstone, who had been quite abrasive during his conversation with the Maharaja, to the Sinopean Club, Duleep told Evie that the plans she sought were located in the White Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace. The two then bid each other goodbye.

Singh was later aided by Evie and her brother Jacob in his quest to reclaim his birthright as Maharaja.

In Real Life:

Maharaja Duleep Singh later in life nicknamed the Black Prince of Perthshire, was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, was born on September 6th, 1838. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s youngest son, the only child of Maharani Jind Kaur.

After the death of his father in 1839, Duleep Singh lived quietly with his mother, Jind Kaur, at Jammu, under the protection of the Vizier, Raja Dhian Singh. He and his mother were recalled to Lahore in 1843 after the assassinations of Maharaja Sher Singh and Dhian Singh, and on 16 September, at the age of five, Duleep Singh was proclaimed Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, with Maharani Jind Kaur as Regent.

On December 13th, 1845, when Duleep was six, the British declared war on the Sikhs and, after winning the First Anglo-Sikh War, retained the Maharaja as nominal ruler, but replaced the Maharani by a Council of Regency and later imprisoned and exiled her. Over thirteen years passed before Duleep Singh was permitted to see his mother again.

After the close of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab on March 29th, 1849, he was deposed at the age of ten and was put into the care of Dr John Login and sent from Lahore to Fatehgarh on December 21st, 1849, with tight restrictions on who he was allowed to meet. No Indians, except trusted servants, could meet him in private. As a matter of British policy, he was to be anglicised in every possible respect. His health was reportedly poor and he was often sent to the hill station of Landour near Mussoorie in the Lower Himalaya for convalescence, at the time about 4 days’ journey. He would remain for weeks at a time in Landour at a grand hilltop building called The Castle, which had been lavishly furnished to accommodate him.

In 1853, under the tutelage of his long-time retainer Bhajan Lal (himself a Christian convert), he converted to Christianity at Fatehgarh with the approval of the Governor-General Lord Dalhousie. His conversion remains controversial, and it occurred before he turned 15. He later had serious doubts and regrets regarding this decision and reconverted to Sikhism in 1886.

Duleep Singh’s arrival on the shores of England in late 1854 threw him into the European court. Queen Victoria showered affection upon the turbaned Maharaja, as did the Prince Consort. Duleep Singh was initially lodged at Claridge’s Hotel in London before the East India Company took over a house in Wimbledon and then eventually another house in Roehampton which became his home for three years. He was also invited by the Queen to stay with the Royal Family at Osborne, where she sketched him playing with her children and Prince Albert photographed him, while the court artist, Winterhalter, made his portrait.

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He eventually got bored with Roehampton and expressed a wish to go back to India but it was suggested by the East India Company Board he take a tour of the European continent which he did with Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login. He was a member of the Photographic Society, later Royal Photographic Society from 1855 until his death.

On his return from Europe in 1855 he was given an annual pension, and was officially under ward of Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login, who leased Castle Menzies in Perthshire, Scotland, for him. He spent the rest of his teens there but at 19 he demanded to be in charge of his household. Eventually, he was given this and an increase in his annual pension.

When he was 18, Singh wrote to his mother in Kathmandu, suggesting that she should join him in England, but his letter was intercepted by the British in India and did not reach her. He then sent a courier, Pundit Nehemiah Goreh, who was also intercepted and forbidden to contact the Maharani. Duleep Singh then decided to go himself. Under cover of a letter from Login he wrote to the British Resident in Kathmandu, who reported that the Rani had ‘much changed, was blind and had lost much of the energy which formerly characterised her.’ The British decided she was no longer a threat and she was allowed to join her son on January 16th, 1861 at Spence’s Hotel in Calcutta and return with him to England.

While in exile, he sought to learn more about Sikhism and was eager to return to India. Though previous efforts were thwarted by his handlers, he reestablished contact with his cousin Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who on 28 September 1884, left Amritsar for England along with his sons Narinder Singh and Gurdit Singh and a Sikh granthi (priest), Pratap Singh Giani. He also brought a list of properties held by Duleep Singh in India. All this renewed his connection with Sikhism.

The British Government decided in 1886 against his return to India or his re-embracing Sikhism. Despite protests from the India Office, he set sail for 'home’ on 30 March 1886. However, he was intercepted and arrested in Aden, where the writ of the Governor General of India began. He could not be stopped from an informal re-conversion ceremony in Aden, far less grand and symbolic than it would have been in India, done by emissaries sent by Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who was earlier planning the Pahaul ceremony at Bombay. Duleep was forced to return to Europe.

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Duleep Singh died in Paris in 1893 at the age of 55, having seen India after the age of fifteen during only two brief, tightly-controlled visits in 1860 (to bring his mother to England) and in 1863 (to cremate his mother’s body).

Duleep Singh’s wish for his body to be returned to India was not honored, in fear of unrest, given the symbolic value the funeral of the son of the Lion of the Punjab might have caused and the growing resentment of British rule. His body was brought back to be buried according to Christian rites, under the supervision of the India Office in Elveden Church beside the grave of his wife Maharani Bamba, and his son Prince Edward Albert Duleep Singh. The graves are located on the west side of the Church.