My grandmother compiled a book from my greatgrandmother's diaries and letters. Because of that I know things about my ancestors since about 1750. One of them, he must have been a "great-something" five or six generations before me, was a general in the Swedish king's army (Finland was Swedish territory until 1809, when it was conquered by Russia).
So, the story goes that the king was a very young boy, impulsive and spoiled, who only wanted to go to war. This ancestor of mine would have lost his patience and slapped the king in the face. For that he got death penalty.
His wife put on her best dress, the one she had worn for her wedding, and went to beg for mercy, but it was no good. He was decapitated shortly after.
The family legend tells that the fabric of this dress was used to cover a chair, and my greatgrandmother wrote that when she was a little girl she once made a hole on the backside of this chair and saw, through several overlapped layers, a finely embroidered fabric.
Could it be that rebellion is genetic?
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