Dear Folk,
Love your enemy and drive him nuts.
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. Be kind to each other.
Ellsworth Weaver