The Wit and Wisdom of... Charles I

I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.

Final words of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, beheaded at Whitehall, 30th January 1649, found guilty of "high treason, and of the murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damage, and mischief to this nation."

A groan as I never heard before, and desire I may never hear again.

Reaction of the crowd to Charles' execution.

The Wit and Wisdom of... Charlemagne

Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse, prius tamen est nosse quam facere

(Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right)

Charles, King of the Franks and the Lombards, and the "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire", better known as Charlemagne, c.745- 28th January 814. Regarded as one of the inspirations for the European ideal.

878 A.D.

In this year, at Midwinter, after Twelfth night, the army stole itself away to Chippenham, and harried the West Saxons' land, and settled there, and drove many of the people over sea, and of the remainder the greater portion they harried, and the people submitted to them, save the king, Alfred, and he, with a little band, withdrew to the woods and moor-fastnesses. And in the same winter the brother of Inwar and Halfdene was in Wessex, in Devonshire, with twenty-three ships, and he was there slain, and with him eight hundred and forty men of his force. And there was the standard taken which they call Raven. And the Easter after, Alfred, with a little band, wrought a fortress at Athelney, and from that work warred on the army, with that portion of the men of Somerset that was nearest. Then in the seventh week after Easter he rode to Egbert's stone, on the east of Selwood, and there came to meet him all the Somersetshire men, and the Wiltshire men, and that part of Hampshire which remained of it on this side of the sea; after, he went from the camp to Aeglea, and one night after that to Edington, and there fought against all the army, and put it to flight, and rode after it, as far as the works, and there sat fourteen nights. And then the army gave him hostages with great oaths that they would depart from his kingdom; and also promised him that their king would receive baptism; and that they so fulfilled; and three weeks after, King Guthrum came to him, with thirty of the men who were most honourable in the army, at Aller, which is opposite to Athelney; and the king received him thereat baptism; and his chrism-loosing was at Wedmore; and he was twelve nights with the king; and he largely gifted him and his companions with money.

Text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 878; a reminder of why the Somerset Levels being flooded isn't always a bad thing...

(Taken from Fordham University Medieval Sourcebook)

York Nostalgia-fest

Mainly to help me find them again, but also for anyone else who has ever had anything to do with the University of York, these two links may prove interesting:

http://www-student.cs.york.ac.uk/uni_history/index.html#history (A selection of campus folklore, gathered c.2000)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV9z7YxrMUE (Video showing campus hidden secrets, from 2009)

Under Their Roof

Living with the parents is tough. Thinking you got away, only to find out it was apparently more of a temporary respite, is tough. Luckily, so I don't have to cry with pity and rage, the BBC have helpfully done it for me:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25836241 (for a video of a depressed 27 year old)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25825240 (for some slightly better analysis by Mark Easton)

The depressing bit is, if these are right, I'm not even 1/2 way there yet...

The Curious Cases of the Kings in Odd Places

I feel this could have real mileage as a new Tumblr, to compete with Kim Jong Il Looking at Things, Nick Clegg Looking Sad, Ed Miliband Looking Awkward and other such hilarities: Kings in Odd Places.

First of all, we had Richard III, the wise benevolent ruler of England who was viciously deposed by Henry Tudor/ the cruel child killer who met a just end at the hands of our Tudor saviours (depending on whether or not you've been to the Richard III museum in York). Killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard's remains were found to be under a car park in Leicester, located mainly thanks to the physic powers of the crazy lady from the Richard III Society, and to a lesser extent some very hard work by the University of Leicester, not to mention Channel 4.

Not to be outdone by Channel 4, the BBC have leapt on the bandwagon. This week, they announced that archaeologists from the University of Winchester had found a pelvic bone which belongs to the ninth-century West Saxon King Alfred the Great. Or possibly his eldest son, King Edward the Elder. Or maybe his younger son Æthelweard. At this distance, the chances of finding a relative to parade for DNA proof is going to be fairly tricky, and it's very hard to distinguish between three adult men we know little about from a pelvis fragment.

All of this raises serious questions for the future of archaeology. For a long time it promised to break the grip of historians, by looking beyond the great men and women of the past and telling us how ordinary people lived. And challenging the established narratives given to them by historians by using forms of evidence which are not reliant on written sources. But these cases of 'kings in odd places' are a reversion to the form of archaeology which simply provides historians with the pictures for their books. And that's not cool.

It also makes it look so certain. *This is* Richard III, and we can tell because we have the DNA to prove it. Ok, credit where it's due, they were right. But what if they weren't? It'd be hard to claim the Richard III Society and Channel 4 have a burning interest in the Greyfriars, and the University of Leicester would have looked fairly silly for following a vanity project. The certainty with which the findings were presented was impressive; they'll also be almost impossible to replicate, as the maybe-Alfred at Hyde Abbey in Winchester demonstrate. The last thing archaeology needs is to suffer from a 'CSI effect,' where people think it can offer concrete answers and concrete results. Anyone who has done any archaeology, be it commercial, academic or amateur, will tell you this simply isn't the case.

But, the really big question is, where will this trend of 'kings in odd places' end? Reading Abbey must be looking round for any idea of what they did with the body of Henry I. Malmesbury Abbey will be looking to promote the interest in Æthelstan. Glastonbury Abbey has Anglo-Saxon monarchs Edgar and Edmund Ironside somewhere in its ruins, not to mention their claimed Arthur grave. And of course, the Princes in the Tower, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, are buried in Westminster Abbey; even now there are petitions to get them exhumed. But why stop at kings? Surely Andrew the Apostle, whose alleged remains at St Andrews were destroyed during the Reformation, deserves a look in? And then what? Beyond being able to label the signs correctly, does it really advance anything?

But to be fair, even if this potential trend of big-name-discovery archaeology contributes sod all to archeology, or to history, it'll make for a lovely Tumblr.

The Student is Not Your Friend

Sixth Formers are an odd crowd. On the cusp of adulthood, for many these can be their best years in compulsory education. You're either the eldest at secondary school, treated like an elite crops. Or you're at college, which is a more grown-up version. Many are contemplating or actively planning three years away from home. At the time, it seems so grown up.

But sixth formers are still children. Acting like an adult, looking like an adult, is no substitute for being an adult, with adult concerns. Even the most mature of them have not experienced a fraction of real life.

This can pose an enormous challenge for staff who work with this age, especially youngish members of staff (such as yours truly). I was born in the same decade as all the students at my college, with only a five year gap between me and the eldest upper sixth. Many of them have siblings older than me. Because of this, it is very easy to think of the nicer ones as being 'like friends.' (within a given definition of friend). The problem is, when they act up, as they often do, you can be exposed to a huge sense of disappointment.

Take what I call my 'awkward squad' of upper sixth students. They're seemingly very nice, even if they can't stop talking, hugging, and throwing stuff around. Hidden depths and all that. Yesterday, I went over to ask them to keep it down, and got this response:

"Right, I'm not in the mood to listen to you right now, so don't bother talking to me, and I'll keep quiet, ok?"

If you've made the mistake of forgetting that these are not your friends, this would have been a big slap in the face. As it was, I quelled my response ("I'm not in the mood to talk to you on any of the days ending in a 'y', but beggars can't be choosers, eh?!") and got on with my day. But it did bring home that these people are just children, for all their self-projected adulthood.

But I also truly understood what the staff guidelines mean when they say we must act like a 'responsible parent' towards the students. Yes, it means keeping a proper professional barrier between you and the students in your care. And yes, it does mean you can share in their good times. But it also means you'd better be prepared for disappointment from time to time.

P.S. On the offchance any of my Explorers read this, it doesn't apply to you... but that's another post for another day!

The People's Republic of Toilets

In a desperate attempt to distract me from my imminent driving test, the following sign outside the toilets at the St Albans test centre left me puzzled:

"Please leave the toilets in the State in which you would wish to find them."

This immediately got me thinking. What State would I like to find myself in? France, that's a nice place. Or Fiji. Or Iceland, I'd like to go back there again some day.

But then I realised, these are all places, not States. So perhaps the test centre staff were advocating an alternative to the democratic nation state, like a theocracy, an autocracy, an isocracy, or a kleptocracy. 

(Incidentally, a magocracy is apparently a society ruled by magicians. That'd be quite entertaining...)

With thoughts such as these, I reckon passing the test was an even bigger achievement...