ANST - Ides of June

[j'lynn yeates]

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another from Sir.B.

'wolf



Dear Folk,

Today June 15th is the anniversary of so many things – overwhelmingly
important things. So if you do not feel like going to work, you have
ample excuses. I will give you three.

On this day in 1215 The Magna Carta was signed by John Lackland of
England. You may remember John as the youngest of Henry II’s sons. He
is generally portrayed as a greasy, sniveling coward. Fact is that
John
has such an ill-repute in England that no heir to the throne since
has
been named John. John came to the throne originally as Prince John
who
was just sitting in for his noble brother Richard I, the Lionheart.

When Rick was heading back from the Third Crusade in 1192 he had the
misfortune to be captured by Leopold, Duke of Austria. Leo was no
fool,
he sent Rick in chains to Emperor Henry VI. Meanwhile, Saladin, his
old
enemy and friend, died.   It took over a year for Prince John to get
together enough money to ransom his brother Rick.  Say what you will,
John did send the money by Western Union and Rick did go free.

Now when someone else is in charge of the house for awhile, you find
that things have changed. Rick was kind of miffed that John had lost
lots of French dirt. First thing out of the chute, Rick heads up
folks
from England to go whomp up on the French. Rick never did stay long
in
England. In fact he married Berengaria of Navarre (May 12, 1191) when
he was on his way to the Crusade. Eleanor had dragged the poor girl
all
the way to Cyprus to marry her warrior son. Queen B never even set
one
dainty foot on Albion. She probably would not have liked it there
anyway. Food was horrid. Rick finally got his at a small French
castle
called Chalus. Took a crossbow bolt in the shoulder, it got infected,
he died (March 1199).

John became king and needed a queen. He married a sprightly lass
named
Isabella of Angoulem. The blushing bride was 12 years old at the
time.
When not cavorting and raising taxes John did much to subdue the
Welsh
and the Scots and the Irish.  Made sure that all Englishmen practiced
with the Welsh longbow. Yea!

Anyway, John got cornered by his barons. At a place called Runnymeade
he signed a piece of parchment granting rights of governance to his
barons. This did nothing for the common folk directly, mind you. This
Magna Carta John repudiated as soon as he got free of the rather
well-armed barons. Of course, the barons declared an unpleasantness
against John (the First Baronial War 1215-1217) which went on until
William Marshall put them down. Bill Marshall was called upon to
protect John’s son Hank III after John’s passing (Oct 19, 1216).

Some say that the Magna Carta was the beginnings of democracy in
England. To me it shows that you can get folks to sign just about
anything if you have a nice sharp broadsword and the will to use it.
Anyway, happy Magna Carta Day!

On a similar note, on this day in 1381 Wat Tyler died thus putting an
end to Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. Here was a man of the people. The pass
phrase, which I stole for my ending of "Long Lankin," was "When Adam
delved and Eve spun, who were the gentlemen?" Essentially, somewhere
along the line we were equal; what happened? Where did we get these
kings? Good question. Someday I will tell you about the origins of
"government."

Finally, and I know this is getting long, on June 15th, 1648, Margret
Jones of Charlestown, Massachusetts Colony, was the first person in
the
New World to be executed for witchcraft. I cannot celebrate that but
will say that with the present political realities of certain Texas
governors, she certainly will not be the last.

So that is the news for today in the trenches, in the Debil’s Ditch.
Be
kind to each other. Love your enemy and drive him nuts.


Your chronicler,
Ells

=====
"That proves you are unusual," returned the Scarecrow; "and I am
convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world
are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a
tree, and live and die unnoticed." -- L. Frank Baum in _The Land of
Oz_

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