A bit of Romance does no-one any harm, and the story of Roland, his famous horn, and the conflict at Roncesvalles is the very stuff of medieval romance.
777 B.C. Several Muslim ambassadors present themselves at Paderborn in Saxony, to have words with Charlemagne. (more…)
Jeanne d’Arc leading the people / democratic-republicans.us
First, a note of English grammar: the phrase is correct; the word ‘years’ does not need a possessive apostrophe, as the term clearly means “The war of a hundred years”. The blogger may grin all she or he wants, but I have seen books with apparently learnéd writers use both “year’s” amd even “years’”. I will explain; the guilty word is an adjective, modifying the word ‘War’. It is not a possessive, as in ‘the cat’s cradle’, or the ‘boys’ dog. Remember also that plurals are not constructed with an apostrophe. It is not ‘There are too many politician’s in Barcelona’. The word is simply the noun plus ‘s’ = politicians.
So, the Hundred Years War was a lengthy period of conflict between two countries, France and England. It went on for more than a century between the 1330s and 1450s: but it was not one continuous armed scrimmage, but rather series of attempts made by English kings (wouldn’t you know it?) to invade, embattle, dominate, occupy and rule France. The French quite naturally objected. (more…)
Louis (1754 – 1793) was the last (Capet) King of France. He reigned, not well but to the best of his limited capabilities, from 1774 – 92. He joins the list of European monarchs judicially murdered by his own countrymen for political reasons: he was married to an Austrian, Marie-Antoinette. Others on the list are Alexander II and Nicholas II of Russia, Charles I of England and Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Marat dead in his bath after Corday’s visit. From the painting by David.
Two of the more interesting minor players in the French Revolution were Jean-Paul Marat (1743 – 93) and Charlotte Corday D’Armont (1768 – 93). Marat , rather strangely for a French revolutionary leader, was a qualified doctor who practised medicine in London. It was in the British capital that he published his revolutionary tract Philosophical Essay on Man. Marat was thirty when the pamphlet was distributed in English, causing him considerable fame among the English chattering classes. In it Marat contradicted the view of Helvétius which was that science was irrelevant for a philosopher. (more…)
Since the ex-Head of the IMF has been disgraced for not keeping himself under control in a New York hotel suite, the question of who French socialists can promote as their candidate in next year’s Presidential elections remains moot. Someone has to stand up against Monsieur Sarkozy (as I suppose we must call him). I have an idea which I may submit to Paris in my perfectly fluent Norman French:
Since France got rid of Kings and replaced themn as Head of State with Presidents, life for five years if you get elected can only be described as Imperial. You live in one the greatest palaces to be found in the capital. There are fleets of black Peugeots and Citroens and Mercedes which rush you everywhere surrounded by Darth Vaders mounted on BMW bikes. No French king except perhaps Louis IV lived in such pomp as a modern French President. (more…)
Both these resounding names refer to a national defence system. They are, respectively, German and French. The principal difference between the two is that the former was erected in France by the Germans in World War I; the latter by the French between 1929 and 1934 on their own eastern frontier.
The Bible is the sacred book of Christianity. There are many Christian churches, but all accept the two sections of it: the Hebrew scriptures, which we know as the Old Testament, and the Christian writings, known as the New Testament. Roman Catholics, among other Christian churches, accept a third section known as the Apocrypha. This was included in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint).
We are now well launched into the year two thousand and eleven – eleven years after a change of century. As the infamous 20th gradually diminishes in our memory, with its two World Wars, the tentacles of Socialism and the mostly blind grasp of Capitalism dulling our minds, it is satisfying to know that according to U.N. statistics, 200,000 persons will be lifted out of extreme poverty during each day of 2011. What is classified as extreme poverty? Living on $1.25 or equivalent per day. Which is all very well for the rest of Europe and the world, but what about a country where more than a million and half people have no income whatsoever?
General Browning, husband of novelist Daphne de Maurier / homeusers.brutele.b
Arnhem is the sixth largest city in the Netherlands. It was the scene of fierce and remorseless fighting between 17 and 26 September, 1944, following the successful invasion of Normandy in June, by allied troops, ships and airforces.
The idea for a parachute/glider-mounted attack in the Dutch Netherlands is said to have been General Montgomery’s, though it was backed by General Eisenhower, supreme commander of the allied forces, and Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister. The idea was a very good one, strategically speaking, but it failed to take heed of local advice about cleverly hidden German tank regiments between Nijmegen and Arnhem. In fact the allies decided to take no notice whatever of clear and accurate intelligence. Clearly, in the minds of the planners lay the idea that if Arnhem should prove successful, it would raise the morale of the inading allies tremendously – as indeed it would have – had the Arnhem plan worked.
Anti-clericalism is not the same as anti-Christian movements. Most Roman emperors tried to stamp out Christianity from the death of Christ under Tiberius until Constantine the Great decided to adopt Christianity as an official religion within the Empire, thus ceasing the practice of pitting Christians against lions and other wild animals, such as hyenas, in the ring.
The name anti-clericalism applies in modern times to any policy bent on destroying the moral and political power of the Christian Church, and subordinating its non-spiritual functions within the State. Though there have been many instances of anti-clericalism at the expense of the Orthodox Church (Russia and Turkey), and even now in Moslem countries (see recent massacres of Christians in Iraq and Afghanistan), the term is usually restricted to aggressive hostility towards the Roman Catholic Church, its Pope, bishops, priests, monks and nuns. (more…)