tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46123951396177769082024-03-19T05:22:04.526-07:00Guerrilla HistoryPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-34921801038919207372017-10-27T05:02:00.000-07:002017-10-27T05:02:07.424-07:00Pechenegs<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
One of my favourite people's in history were the Pechenegs who lived near the Urals from about 600ce to 1200ce. They prove not all Steppes horse tribes are warmongering braindead psychos, the Pechenegs were intelligent cowards.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
The Pechenegs were once asked by the Byzantine Emperor to attack the Seljuk Turks. Their return message read, "that since the the Turks were both numerous and fierce, they did not wish to do this, and furthermore, they hoped the Byzantine emperor would be so tactful as to never mention the matter again."</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-50801286072175408432017-10-20T02:24:00.001-07:002017-10-20T02:24:18.872-07:00Sakdina - Thailand's Feudal LegacyImagine a country where everyone was given a number that denoted their worth, their property, their human rights and their status. Then imagine this system ran for six hundred years.<br />
<br />
You don't have, in this documentary I trace Sakdina in Thailand from its creation six hundred years ago to the present day.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/62fX6j9AXnY/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/62fX6j9AXnY?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-48885137179819519552017-09-12T12:20:00.000-07:002017-09-12T12:21:08.414-07:00A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The complete history of the world, entirely in coloured biro, and to think people waste their time writing books on the subject. The only question left unanswered is just how crazy do you have to be a complete a project like this.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gNYZH9kuaYM/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gNYZH9kuaYM?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-37890451148896642032017-06-30T06:57:00.000-07:002017-06-30T06:57:09.455-07:00Hashashin<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
[youtube=http://]</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
At the height of their power the Assassins held sway from Anatolia to Bombay and could bring down princes and Shahs alike. The Assassins were the most feared secret organisation of them all. Founded by Hassan I Sabbah in the 11th century, they were fanatical followers of Ismailis Islam which taught all actions were morally ambivalent, they originally formed in Cairo but when Hassan fell out with the Ismails sect leaders they headed for Persia and in 1090 captured the fortress Alamut.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The sect sought political power by assassination. A favourite method of doing this was using deep sleepers who would infiltrate the target for several years and befriend him before the assassination. The power of the movement rapidly spread west and in Syria they assassinated two Kalifs.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
In 1163 the then Assassin ruler Mohammed II entered into negations with the crusaders and tried to end Islam in the Assassin’s lands. Shortly after 3 assassins were dispatched to kill Saladin. The failure of the attempt was to make them a mortal and powerful enemy and in 1176 Saladin retaliated invading their lands and decimating them. The Assassins on the back foot came to a truce with Saladin and agreed to stop trying to assassinate him.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The Assassins continued as a potent force in Persia and Syria but a series of weak leaders stemmed any possibility of further expansion until the Mongol invasion when the Mongols kidnapped and killed there leader and took their lands.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
In 1260 the Malmuks repulsed the Mongols and they revived the remains of the order under Egyptian control as the ‘Arrows of the Sultan’ where they continued to survive in neutered form for a few centuries.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-83652888055917297322017-06-23T06:55:00.001-07:002017-06-23T06:55:43.500-07:00The Biggest Blag in History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrau5OTsdS171qS9iDI9f2Sl5fM3ej6F6bZZAnybwClvJ8AGQwHyGvq2DfBabHgO3nyYWq0c8qBLJxdPDeI9NgzRjLi19kynRjBt1A61iie9VO0OrJpUPZbt3W40cjros3371BeL4eAA/s1600/london_bridge_1616_by_claes_van_visscher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrau5OTsdS171qS9iDI9f2Sl5fM3ej6F6bZZAnybwClvJ8AGQwHyGvq2DfBabHgO3nyYWq0c8qBLJxdPDeI9NgzRjLi19kynRjBt1A61iie9VO0OrJpUPZbt3W40cjros3371BeL4eAA/s320/london_bridge_1616_by_claes_van_visscher.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 15px;">It was the largest bullion heist in world history, one hundred thousand pounds, the equivalent of a years tax revenue for England.</span><br />
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
While Edward I was away fighting in Scotland, unemployed clerk Richard of Pudlicott took it upon himself the raid the royal treasury. Assembling a crack gang of villains and having inside monks in Westminster Abbey where the haul was stashed. Richard gained entry to the secure abbey and in one night stole as much of the loot as they could carry, supposedly leaving more than half behind.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The job was so successful that it left authorities clueless as to who did it and Longshanks himself had to return from Scotland.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Having blagged the modern equivalent of a few hundred billion it was what to do with so much money that eventually brought the raiders down. Wads of cash, diamonds and royal gold began surfacing in brothels, boozers and gambling dens across London as the gang splashed out their new found wealth about.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Longshanks set his constables about arresting anyone found with the goods, which eventually led back to the fences and finally Richard of Pudlicott.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
Tortured and imprisoned Richard refused to name his accomplices and went on to be tried in the most high profile trial of the middle ages. Richard of Pudlicott was hung and much of the loot recovered, but the monks who helped him and his gang got clean away.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-59008685569384649642017-05-20T09:06:00.000-07:002017-05-20T09:06:38.205-07:00Nazi Radioactive Toothpaste<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzT6YlmNyitczgRLVW6GpepaI_CrswZ9sU70JWu_KsDqYuYeHkVyX74BWr4oega4xtooADFvIB2JVclk9gzB9USeoWOkRW4UrX-mv1s37Ys0zy15Ru7A7A5WbXH47cEqnj8rrGyw3PkU/s1600/toothpaste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzT6YlmNyitczgRLVW6GpepaI_CrswZ9sU70JWu_KsDqYuYeHkVyX74BWr4oega4xtooADFvIB2JVclk9gzB9USeoWOkRW4UrX-mv1s37Ys0zy15Ru7A7A5WbXH47cEqnj8rrGyw3PkU/s320/toothpaste.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Sounds like a bad 50's horror movie, but amazingly the stuff really did exist. Apparently a German company that had grabbed French nuclear supplies after the invasion saw how badly the war was going for Germany and decided the cosmetics industry would be more lucrative than the nuclear arms industry, and hey presto radioactive toothpaste was born.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/toothpaste.htm" href="http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/toothpaste.htm" style="color: #00aadc;">Here</a></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-28349531623758217892017-05-13T05:53:00.000-07:002017-05-20T09:05:55.674-07:00The Woman Who Ruled the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMTydGqMkkTBNQeVcZ3o-wALF5t_rF__N7u1sy5NGU1hXaoBUXHnuNPjigrwW1QiPcuq4eoc9eZ7B_nLae66q6hu72kmacNdq_FCqDyJbzCTegfht-9JAInTgxfB7my-vLyLocDgAoNA/s1600/irenecropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMTydGqMkkTBNQeVcZ3o-wALF5t_rF__N7u1sy5NGU1hXaoBUXHnuNPjigrwW1QiPcuq4eoc9eZ7B_nLae66q6hu72kmacNdq_FCqDyJbzCTegfht-9JAInTgxfB7my-vLyLocDgAoNA/s1600/irenecropped.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Cleopatra, Zenobia and Boudicca, these queens echo down to us from history, they ruled, they became legends, they left their nations utterly destroyed in their wake.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Female rulers being so rare these women usually have the luxury of not having to be remotely as successful to enter legend, however this is not true of all female rulers, some don’t enter legend, even if they don’t destroy the country they ruled, Livia’s controlling of her husband Augustus in his later life and if that’s too much of a rumour there’s Agrippina’s influence on Nero or Theodora’s on Justinian. Though admittedly these women were not recognised rulers just the power behind the throne. However by later Rome outright female rulers existed such as in the 5th century when both the Western and Eastern halves of the Empire were openly ruled women Galla Placidia and Aelia Pulcheria, but even these two highly competent Empresses only ruled as regents for their sons and brothers but not in their own names.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
And while it is true to say each of the above women held great power one women held even greater power, in fact perhaps the greatest power of all, Irene... Yes, I did say, Irene. If you’re are scratching your head and wondering who the hell this Irene is, relax, you certainly aren’t alone, but it probably won’t make you feel any better if I tell you Irene held more power than Cleopatra, Zenobia and Boudicca combined.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
To put you out of your misery Irene was the first female Emperor of Rome. While Irene was certainly not the first woman to rule Rome she was the first to rule in her own name, but remains largely forgotten by history compared a lot of other female rulers, when at this moment by rights there should be a caretaker at the local research library shouting would all feminist authors writing a book about Irene please form an orderly queue.</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
* * * *</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
So it was to Irene the honour fell of being the first women to rule Rome in her own name as Emperor not Empress-Regent and what a reign it was to be matching the reigns of the most famous household name male Emperors. Unfortunately these household name male Emperors are not Diocletian, Hadrian or Augustus but Nero and Commodus, it fact to call her Caligula or Elagabalus would be to flatter her legacy, as through a combination of utter selfishness, murder, treachery and complete incompetence her reign was one of the most unmitigated disasters Rome suffered in its 2000 year history, Hannibal did less damage, and most likely this is the women Margaret Thatcher was a reincarnation of.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Now it wasn’t all roses for Irene at the beginning she didn’t inherit a Rome at the height of its power rather a Roman Empire that was down but far from out and needing a competent hand to nurture it back to health, instead she left it face down in the dirt and then sent a herd of elephants to trampling its face into a cow pat. So female writers then have not exactly flocked to inform the world about this sister’s accomplishment of becoming the most powerful person in the ancient world, here in the name of feminism I hope to correct this omission in female literature and let the world know about this un-mitigating female disaster.</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
* * * *</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Helen of Troy may be a myth, but Irene of Constantinople unfortunately for all the citizens of that city is a historical fact, unlike Helen though Irene didn’t hail from Sparta but its great rival Athens. She was of noble birth but also an orphan so had little going for her except her looks, being rated as one of the beauties of her age. These looks got the note of the heir to the Roman Empire Leo. It was quite unusual for Roman Emperor to marry for anything but politics, the odd lucky one got to marry for love, and a few later ones tried to, often with a concubine or serving girl and quickly got the chop, the great unwashed being rather snooty about who they tipped their caps to. One Emperor Theodosius II when forced to marry by his sister Aelia Pulcheria had demanded that he wanted the most beautiful girl to be found, but he seems to be the only Emperor prior to Leo to marry for looks. So when Leo then the son of the reigning Emperor told his father he wanted to marry a young and pretty girl of his choice rather than have an arranged political marriage it was quite unusual for his father to consent. So 17 year old Irene of Athens, the face that sank a thousand ships, was brought before the son of the Emperor of Rome and on looks alone he chose her from many candidates as his bride. Leo settled down with his trophy wife becoming Emperor Leo IV six years later and reigning for just 5 years before dying in 680 leaving their 10 year old son Constantine as Emperor and the 28 year old Empress Irene as his regent. In effect a footballer’s wife had now become the most powerful woman on Earth.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
At first Irene was only Empress-regent for her son but her later in her reign was to get this changed and herself declared senior Augustus and her son Junior formally making her Rome’s first official female ruler. The duel senior/junior Emperor relationship was very common in ancient Rome and either lasted harmoniously or the junior Augustus would bump off the senior to seize power. In this case with the relationship being that of mother and son surely she wouldn’t torture him to death at a time he wasn’t even trying to usurp her power?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
However before we start discussing family shenanigans there’s even more pressing matters at hand for a megalomaniac seizing absolute power for herself to deal with. Rome wasn’t to healthy at that time, Spain had been invaded, North Africa was on its last legs, Italy was being pressured by Lombards and the Pope calling to the Empress for aid, worst of all the Arabs had retaken Egypt, this was bad but even worse the Arab army that was marching on the Middle East burning villages and farms and making it impossible for the Empire to feed itself, but you see mass death by starvation the loss of territory didn’t really bother her, what was really important was starting a religious purge, just to unite your people as your being invaded by foreigners. And what better way to organise a religious purge than remove 70% of the leadership of the army, because it’s the last thing you need when enemy armies are rampaging your countryside. However one can marvel at the competence and efficiency of Irene’s religious persecutions of the army, so effective was it she utterly destroyed the entire Roman army’s capabilities as a fighting force for two decades. However on the bright side despite the destruction of the army and famine throughout the Empire there was a happy ending as more importantly she did get her way on whether pictures of God where allowed in churches or not.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Now with all the important issues in the city settled, it was time to turn her attention to those pesky Arabs invaders and who better to deal with than he army she had just terrorised and the territories in the Empire under Arab threat? The army magnificently marched out of Constantinople and straight into the Arab camp and joined them followed by the province of Sicily.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Unsurprisingly at this point there was a little discontent in the Empire with Irene’s rule and when her son Constantine reached the age of 17 the provincial army declared him Emperor and revolted, with few willing to defend Irene the revolt was over almost as soon as it started with her imprisoned in a country palace. So happy days returned to the Empire under Constantine, that was until it turned out he really wasn’t a soldier in the mould of Trajan or Alexander, having more acutely attuned personal survival instincts and a fast horse. So Constantine adopted the policy of Danegeld to stop the Arab invasion which of course proved scandalous to middle class tax payers who undoubtedly complained ‘why should I pay for a lazy Arab to sit and do nothing, he should get a job, like attacking our Empire,’ and as this happened Irene was able to manipulate palace politics and get herself restored to the throne.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
With the Danegeld payments ceasing now Irene was back in power the Arabs sent a fresh army to invade the Empire. Constantine perhaps sensing he needed to save face, and perhaps the Empire after his failed attempt at rule immediately gathered and army and headed to fight the Arabs but as he reached Anatolia news reached him from his mother the Arab army had turned back and returned to Egypt. Constantine returned to Constantinople expecting the gratitude of the city but instead met with derision and cries of cowardice as Irene’s message to him had been a lie and the Arab army hadn’t turned back. Irene had her son seized and dragged back to the palace where she had his eyes torn out after which he died. Ok she totally undermined the war effort, helped the enemy invade her country, but on the bright side she did get to torture her only child to death.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
With half her empire occupied, her son murdered, her army betrayed, Irene now turned her attention to the economy it was still too healthy. She had always encouraged and even mix of corruption, factionalism and Social Darwinism among her palace advisers, a government based on the philosophy if they’re killing each other, they’re not killing me served her well. However with much of the city shocked by her brutal treatment of her son she started she had maybe gone a stage too far so some serious divide and rule was needed, playing off faction against faction with graft and bribes. Soon the economy was bankrupt and just as she had spent the last penny from the royal coffers the Arabs started getting shirty again. This time Irene took a leaf out of her son’s book and opted for Danegeld. However the city had no money, so she made the Arabs an exceptionally huge offer based on the principle what does it matter whether you promise someone a million or a billion when you haven’t got a penny to pay them. To her this seemed perfectly logical, however the citizens of Constantinople failed to see this logic and were getting very worried the Arabs may get a miffed when they found out they weren’t going to get a single payment.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Now Irene had ignored the Lombard threat to Italy and the Pope’s pleas for aid, and when they finally invaded the treacherous Pope decided to undermine her rule by actually protecting the people of Italy and worse still without any consultation of the Empress. The Pope did a deal with Charlemagne to protect the citizens of Italy and crowned him Holy Roman Emperor, so 400 years after the last Western Emperor the Empire was divided into two again. The situation became even more intolerable when the Pope suggested to Charlemagne he might do a better job at ruling the Eastern half than Irene. Irene acted quickly and offered to marry Charlemagne, an offer he apparently private laughed at deducing she just wanted to lure him the Constantinople to murder him, but in public entered polite negotiations. At this point the citizens of the Eastern Empire ungrateful for the years of fine rule Irene had given them rose up, not at the fact they were broke, starving, the Empire was divided and what’s left taken piece by piece, I mean that’s bad, but and uncouth, unwashed trouser wearing barbarian on the throne, now that’s beyond the pale. The revolt spread quickly, the forces loyal to Irene didn’t defect to the rebel’s camp though, because their weren’t any forces loyal to Irene and she was hauled out the palace and sent captive to Lesbos where she died or was murdered a year later.</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
* * * *</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Irene often takes a lot of stick from many historians and it is sometimes be argued that Irene was the worst female ruler in the whole of history surpassed only by Britain in the 1980’s and at the beginning of this article I contrasted Irene’s fame with that of other female rulers such as Cleopatra, Zenobia and Boudicca and made the suggestion that she was deliberately forgotten by female writers who write books on the others obsessively. However there is a historical convention that when judging the reign of a rule you look at the state of the country at the beginning of their reign and the state at the end and judge them on the difference. If I use this convention Irene’s reign was undoubtedly bad but not terminal, she inherited an ailing empire and drove it to wrack and ruin, but not irreparably and the Empire was restored again under her successors to its full might. Whereas Cleopatra and Zenobia both inherited healthy countries and lead them to total annihilation by the end, so perhaps Irene can even be compared favourably to them.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Irene of Athens ruled the Roman Empire for 22 years, as Empress-Regent, Senior Augustus and then Empress, she was the first women to rule Rome in her own name in its history and her rule and unmitigated disaster, under her reign the Empire was once again divided into two, lost half its territories, was economically broken, collapsed as a military force, within she promoted corruption and treachery, riddled it with religious persecution and inflicted it with famine.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
Oh yes, and was made a Saint.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-78337688189745057222017-05-13T05:07:00.001-07:002017-05-13T05:07:05.449-07:00English Civil War, which faction would you join?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs2PQUBSc7jk3438CAsdyn3YxxEgeIUr1zZHCYp1Fiiu5lVCQznISOBjhqPPC1HTH8XJuXt3EK5DSkEYcoFzMcf_N1A_QGlNfsOXzXUQUL9iEWDnW-wzau6ty8Hl5RN9EIIRfhxhzEgU/s1600/diggers-on-hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs2PQUBSc7jk3438CAsdyn3YxxEgeIUr1zZHCYp1Fiiu5lVCQznISOBjhqPPC1HTH8XJuXt3EK5DSkEYcoFzMcf_N1A_QGlNfsOXzXUQUL9iEWDnW-wzau6ty8Hl5RN9EIIRfhxhzEgU/s320/diggers-on-hill.jpg" width="252" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The English Civil War was the birth place of modern day radical views that had been building up since John Ball and John Wycliffe. Religious movements such Methodists, Quakers, Puritans found there origins there along with Communism, Anarchism and Socialism. Here's just a few of the opposing factions, which one would you join?</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Royalist </strong>–<br />
King Charles I was put on the throne by God and he is not subject to earthly authority he is not subject to the will of his people and any attempt to question his absolute authority is to question God’s will thus heresy. Charles I must be maintained in power and the property and status of the lords he created kept in place too. If keeping control of the country means encouraging foriegn countries, Scotland, Ireland, Holland and France to invade England it is not treason and his right to do so. England has long had the Magna Carta and the idea of rule through parliament, however Scotland believes in the Divine Right of Kings, absolute royal power, the English system is wrong. Charles's queen is Catholic, so is one of his sons and among his strongest supporters are the catholic lords. He believes in religious tolerance for his loyal subjects, but not for disloyal ones such as the confederates in Ireland.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Presbyterian</strong><br />
You were the dominant force in the Houses of Parliament before the civil war and then again during the Rump Parliament, the Independents accuse you of corruption. You are suspicious of the New Model Army and wished to appease the king and come to an amicable peace, however if he refuses to convert to your religion he must go. You see your solace across the border in Presbyterian Scotland, you support all the Scottish incursions into England and would like to see them unify the whole country under Presbyterianism. You will even deal with Charles II to achieve this, as long as he converts to Presbyterianism first.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Leveller</strong><br />
All people should be equal, the wealth of the rich should be taken from them and all people given an equal share. The right to own property should be abolished. The country should be ruled by a democratic parliament with universal suffrage and all people equal in the eyes of the law. Human rights must be respected and religious tolerance adopted. The best way to achieved this is by military coup by the leveller regiments in the New Model Army rising. If Cromwell becomes a tyrant you must assassinate him.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Ranter</strong><br />
Like the Quakers you believe in the inner spirit and accept no authority, but you believe anyone who accepts this is bound by no earthly laws and are free to do anything. God is pantheistic and in everything, alcohol, free sex, drugs, people shouldn’t live life obsessed with the afterlife but live this life to the full now. You will ride up and down the countryside, running hell, fire and damnation preachers out of town and preaching universal love instead.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Independent</strong><br />
The tyrant Charles I must be overthrown by all means necessary, tried and executed as a traitor. You support the creation of the New Model Army this is the way to win the war, not a Presbyterian alliance with Scotland and will give England to power to resist Scotland after the war. You are morally outraged at the licentiousness and corruption of the world and want to pass laws to impose piety and a strong moral code, however tolerating all moderate religions. The Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, Quakers and Fifth Monarchists are beyond saving. Government should be honest and if that means making Cromwell king, so be it.<br />
<br />
Watch the video<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EfJnYmbIh9g/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EfJnYmbIh9g?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Fifth Monarchist</strong><br />
You believe it is the dawning of a new golden age, soon Christ’s kingdom on Earth will come, it will be brought in by a society of saints marching on Europe, however at the moment the country is too corrupt. Your job is to convert powerful people and win parliamentary elections if this fails military coup and gain control of the country to make the land fit for saints. Your main support comes from tradesmen and some of the army, you control several seats on the Parliament of Saints and you are strongly anti-Cromwellian.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>Digger</strong><br />
The Levellers are mostly middle class agitators or soldiers in the New Model Army, talk a lot and do little. You are peasants at the bottom rung of society and have nothing, land ownership has robbed every Englishman of his birthright, all land is the common property and no-one has the right to own it. Enough with talking, the Diggers will simply move on to the land and begin farming on a collective basis all over the country. You believe the world is sinful and soon the final judgement will come, however those who live puritanical lives will be spared.</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
<strong>Quaker</strong><br />
You believe in the inner light and reject priests and scripture. You don’t like the corruption of the world, you refuse to take public oaths or pay tax, you hate organised churches and disrupt their services. Sometimes you go into rapture and often wear no clothes. You accept no authority, whenever you meet lords or nobles you use insulting terms of address to them</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-17737025979384330702017-02-28T10:38:00.003-08:002017-03-01T00:03:15.298-08:00MacBeth the True Story<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSxS89xcNaqeUyek_msIw1ojzgMIwJjuNExfy8wDkLXOft6O0fbH7RuMdnprbrx-UIllK7Izdy9D1WixVJb4trAD-om6EFEcN2ZZLiX1LIXV-IhLD2ooN_n_RAUCtZ8Lma85KJNA6Ax00/s1600/macbeth_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSxS89xcNaqeUyek_msIw1ojzgMIwJjuNExfy8wDkLXOft6O0fbH7RuMdnprbrx-UIllK7Izdy9D1WixVJb4trAD-om6EFEcN2ZZLiX1LIXV-IhLD2ooN_n_RAUCtZ8Lma85KJNA6Ax00/s1600/macbeth_1.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Wolves Circling</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the dawn of the 11th century Scotland was a declining nation, and one that really shouldn’t have survived at all. Divided within into highland and lowland, then again into Mormaer (Earldoms) each with little in common except mutual hatred and treachery towards one another. To the north Caithness, Shetland and Orkney were in the hands of the Norsemen, ever building strength to both raid and snatch more Scottish soil. To the south the powerful Northumbria, the traditional foe with it’s greedy eyes ever transfixed on the lowlands. In the west the ancient kingdom of Strathclyde was still independent and in somewhat of a renaissance, stretching as far south Cumbria and a jagged thorn. Overseas Cnut was building his Scandinavian Empire intent to add the Scottish crown to his own. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Scotland hung together by a thread</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Mormaer in principle owed fealty to the king, who could call upon them to defend Scotland from foreigners. Amongst the Mormaer one stood out in power, the northerly province of Moray, much larger than it is now, stretching from west coast to east and encompassing almost the entire of the Grampian mountains. The power of Moray rivalled that of the king himself, technically the Mormaer of Moray was still a vassal of the king, though, Irish chroniclers always referred to the Mormaer of Moray as King of Moray, reflecting the fact the Mormaer of Moray were virtually independent monarchs of the highlands.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tanaise</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Kingship of Scotland was always a bloody business, more a matter of plots and assassination that rightful succession. in the 11th century, never was this more true. So precarious was the position of Scotland that a single weak link and the nation would succumb to the wolves that surrounded it. Just as Edward I’s empire collapsed & fell apart in the hands of the weak Edward II or Henry V’s conquests were left in the hands of the infant Henry VI. One weak ruler and Scotland would be overrun. Scotland avoided this by not practicing primogeniture, but instead a system known as Tanistry.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Scottish lords named a ‘Tanaise’ as heir, the Tanaise was an adult selected from among the lords larger family group. The Tanaise would be an adult, proven in battle and the most capable of ruling. based on his acheivements. His extended family included; brothers, nephews, uncles, sons, stepsons, cousins ect. The extended family or a lord during the height of his reign would be in a constant brutal struggle to prove the fittest to be Tanaise.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the noble in question died, the Tanaise would become lord and often slaughter his entire extended family to secure his position. More often than not a relative not named Tanaise would get in first, murdering both the lord and his Tanaise and proving even more ruthless and canny and fit to rule. When the new Mormaer or king came to power he then had to find an extended family to begin the struggle to succeed him. Family ties were given a low priority in this, and adoption, by marrying widows with sons, was just as legitimate as a blood relative in the extended family grouping in which one would undoubtedly excel in brutality and treachery. Scotland owed it’s existence to Mr Darwin.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Hubble</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was the world Macbeth was born into, around 1005, the son of Findlaech Mac Ruaridh, Mormaer (Earl) of Moray. Little is known about his ancestry but he was possibly the grandson of Malcolm II, the king of Scotland, through his mother.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Macbeth was around 15 his father was murdered by his cousin who became Mormaer and began the slaughter of the family. One of the advantages of Tanistry unlike primogeniture is children are spared, but Macbeth at 15 was old enough to be considered a threat and disposed of. The young MacBeth seems to have had his head screwed on and managed to flee south to the sanctuary of the court of King Malcolm II. The young Macbeth resided in Malcolm’s court for at least a decade finding both favour and high office which suggests he was quite capable. In 1031 he is mentioned as one of the emissaries sent by Malcolm to Cnut, delivering Malcolm’s submission after Cnut’s invasion of Scotland, along with two other Scottish kings.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A year later Macbeth's torch was so strong he was able to raise an army an march on Moray to avenge his father’s murder and become Mormaer. Arriving with a band of men he caught the current Mormaer (his cousin Gillacomgain, his father‘s assassin) by surprise, Gillacomgain took refuge in one of his strongholds which Macbeth surrounded and set on fire and Gillacomgain and fifty of his men burnt to death.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bubble</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Macbeth was now Mormaer of Moray the second most powerful man in Scotland, he had served the king well for over a decade and had proven a canny and ruthless politician as well as a capable commander. He probably considered himself to be a good candidate to be named Tanaise by Malcolm. However Malcolm was about to drop a bombshell on both Macbeth and Scotland.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 1034 Malcolm II died. On his deathbed he abolished Tanistry and adopted European primogeniture as the legitimate method of succession for Scotland. Malcolm named his young unproven grandson Duncan as heir, his own son being ineligible having joined an order of monks.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This would have been all well and good if Duncan had proven a good king. Shortly after becoming king, obviously aware of the doubts upon his shoulders, Duncan made the bold move of going on the offensive against his enemies. The Saga or Orkneyinga tells the story of a massive Scottish attempt to regain the islands from the Norse and their calamitous defeat at the final battle.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Duncan after the defeat must have felt his position weakened. So to remedy it in 1039 he decided to try again. His objective was to strike a blow at his main foe, the Northumbrians. This time he lead his forces personally, laying siege to Durham. However the siege quickly deteriorated into a shambles as the city held out, the besieging Scots ran out of supplies and retreated chaos</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Dunecan, king of the Scots, advanced with a countless multitude of troops, and laid siege to Durham, and made strenuous but ineffective efforts to carry it. For a large proportion of his cavalry was slain by the besieged, and he was put to a disorderly flight, in which he lost all his foot-soldiers, whose heads were collected in the market-place and hung up upon posts. Not long afterwards the same king, upon his return to Scotland, was murdered by his own countrymen."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Historia Ecclesiae Dunelmensis</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Scotland had been humiliated twice and the wolves that circled licking their lips. The fact that Macbeth’s coup never became a civil war suggests it was orchestrated with the consent of the other Mormaer. Evidence for this can be seen in that after Macbeth seized power there was no massacre of his extended family or assassinations of his rivals. The Mormaer probably agreed Duncan needed, a return to the old ways was needed and Macbeth the natural Tanaise.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No report of the event that occurred or how Macbeth’s usurping of the throne occurred, though a certain Mr Shakespeare has a rather famous theory.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 1040 <b>the Annals of Ulster</b> announced,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Donnchad son of Crinan, king of Alba, was killed by his own people.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Annals of Tigernach reported,</b>“Duncan was killed at an immature age”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Chronicle of Melrose states,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“By Macbeth, the son of Finleg (Findlaech), he was struck down; The mortally wounded king died in Elgin (in Moray)”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Marianus Scotus</b> wrote</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Duncan, the king of Scotland, was killed in the autumn by his earl, Macbeth, Findlaech's son"</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fact that Duncan died in Moray suggests that Duncan took the initiative again and marched north to attack Macbeth. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Bothgafnane taken to the Blacksmiths hut and died of his wounds there.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Toil</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With Duncan dead, Macbeth was now Tanaise King of Scotland. However the hereditary heir was Duncan’s son Malcolm ‘Canmore’, who proclaimed himself king. Testimony of how the Scots recognised Macbeth not Canmore is the lack of support his claim gained. Canmore and his brother Donald tried to gain support for their cause against Macbeth but failed and after two years were forced in exile overseas, Donald to Ireland and Canmore to Northumbria.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first serious challenge to Macbeth’s throne came in 1045 when Duncan’s father, Crinan, who as Abbot of Dunkeld, a position that commanded substantial resources, organised what was described as a sizable rebellion, which left 180 of his men dead. Why Macbeth left Crinan in such a strong position when he had usurped his son is a mystery. Was Crinan one of the lords that supported Macbeth coup in Scotland’s darkest hour? Was Macbeth still ruling independently enough from the other Mormaer to be allowed to dispose of him? Or was Macbeth showing a fatal weakness by not brutally deposing of his enemies, something he notably didn’t do to many others who would be aparty to his downfall.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After the failure of Crinan’s rebellion the middle years of Macbeth’s rule seems to have been one of stability and prosperity. In 1052 he showed great statesmanship when Edward the Confessor expelled all Normans from England, Macbeth granted them refuge and lands, many of them loyally served him to the end.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Prophecy of Berchan</b> gives a clear description of Macbeth and his rule,</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The ruddy faced king... will possess Scotland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The strong one was fair, yellow-haired and tall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brimful of food was Scotland, east and west,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During the reign of the ruddy, brave king”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strong, brave and ruddy (red) faced (perhaps with rage) if this is added to tall, fair and with long blond hair, a picture of huge terrifying warrior emerges, the kind of man to forge a country in a violent age.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The line, Brimful of food, suggests what facts seem to support, Scotland was a stable and prosperous land for a time. So stable that in 1049 felt secure enough to leave Scotland and go on a pilgrimage to Rome. Leaving your country was a big deal for any medieval king, but for Macbeth, with a pretender Malcolm Canmore exiled in Scotland’s main rival Northumbria, this was the bold move of a confident man.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Macbeth arrived in Rome in Easter 1050 where he visited the poor areas of the city and scattered so much silver in the streets it was written of by monks in Hamburg. Why he went on pilgrimage is less clear. As a Norman ally was he seeking more favour from the pope against England? Was it to try and get the pope to legitimise his rule over Malcolm Canmore? Or maybe he just was genuinely pious.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Trouble</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Towards the end of Macbeth’s reign discontent emerged in Scotland. The reasons are unknown, but for the first time Malcolm Canmore found support for his cause in Scotland and he was to return to haunt Macbeth.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Earl Siward of Northumbria hadn’t harboured Canmore for all these years out of kindness, but as a card to play in the prolonged struggle between the two realms, in 1034 he decided to play it.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records,</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This year went Siward the earl with a great army into Scotland, both with a ship-force and with a landforce, and fought against the Scots, and put to flight the king Macbeth, and slew all who were the chief men in the land, and led thence much booty, such as no man before had obtained. But his son Osbarn, and his sister's son Siward, and some of his housecarls, and also of the king's, were there slain, on the day of the Seven Sleepers”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to the chronicle, Siward and Canmore rode at the head of a large army into Scotland and defeated Macbeth, however it’s not this straight forward. Amongst the Northumbrian army were a lot of the personal troops of Edward the Confessor, which suggests it was an English not Northumbrian orchestrated invasion, perhaps in response to Macbeth’s harbouring of Normans.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By standards of the day the invading force was huge. The Northumbrian Chronicles paint a vivid picture, a large Northumbrian fleet lead by Canmore captured the city of Dundee and was joined by Scottish rebels including horse. They marched out to the plains of Gowire past the capital Scone and Edinburgh, probably pillaging in an attempt to force Macbeth to face them. Macbeth presumably having to ride the country to muster forces to fight such a huge invasion. The campaign was recorded as being costly to men on both side and culminated in one of the most massive battles seen to date in Scotland, the Battle of Seven Sleepers (Dunsinane). The Northumbrian Chronicle tells little of the battle but that Macbeth’s forces charged down from the hills at the Northumbrians and were put to flight. The annals of Ulster record as many as 3000 Scottish dead, 1500 English dead and all of Macbeth’s Normans wiped out.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Battle of Seven Sleepers put Canmore in firm control of the Lowlands, for the English this was enough, who made a separate peace with Macbeth and returned home with their booty.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Canmore now devoid of English support lacked the power to venture into the highlands and confront Macbeth. Meanwhile Macbeth still Mormaer of Moray, the most powerful Mormaer in Scotland retreated to the security of his highland kingdom where he mounted a guerrilla war against Canmore raiding south. For three years Macbeth carried out his war leading ambitious raids deep into the lowlands and retreating north assured the lowlanders could never follow, he was to prove wrong. 1057 Malcolm Canmore managed to lead a force to Macbeth's surprise across the Grampian mountains and ambush the unsuspecting Macbeth, at the village of Lumphanon, deep in Moray, as he returned from a southern foray. Macbeth was slain in the battle.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Macbeth 1005-1057 (King 1040-57)</b></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is always said, with the death of Macbeth died Tanistry in Scotland, as Malcolm Canmore and his descendants ruled in primogeniture from then on. However in a great twist of irony it was perhaps Macbeth himself who ended it when his own stepson became his successor, ‘Lulach the foolish,’ never crowned, Lulach survived his father by only seven months before Canmore invaded Moray again and slew him. Whereas Canmore himself was succeeded by his brother (briefly) before his son. Macbeth may not have been the last Tanaise monarch of Scotland, but he was the last Highlander.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Bibliography</b><br />Macbeth, Man and Myth - Nick Aitchison<br />In Search of British Heroes - Tony Robinson<br />Annals of Ulster<br />Annals of Tigernach<br />Chronicle of Melrose<br />Prophecy of Berchan - Marianus Scotus<br />Anglo-Saxon Chronicle<br />Northumbrian Chronicle<br />The literary encyclopaedia<br />Dot to doomsday - http://www.stephen.j.murray.btinternet.co.uk</i></span></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-60233080686755808932017-02-14T17:20:00.000-08:002017-02-14T17:25:16.028-08:00US cavalry 1866-90<br />
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjyF296xTMJkDelEomsp_uF8SNtL7h-I8WOI7TAM6D8V0g4JceekQiit4vA6f_B9fIOepzetX_oCP3swjRbDj0ntm5e8O5-DMTmHevl8wKukxpyGzYL8Jj49EE1MD-Ui-F-501aH0qliQ/s1600/us-cavalry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjyF296xTMJkDelEomsp_uF8SNtL7h-I8WOI7TAM6D8V0g4JceekQiit4vA6f_B9fIOepzetX_oCP3swjRbDj0ntm5e8O5-DMTmHevl8wKukxpyGzYL8Jj49EE1MD-Ui-F-501aH0qliQ/s320/us-cavalry.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyone who grew up on a diet of cowboy films will have the image of the US cavalry charging over the horizon guns a-blazing dressed in striking blue uniforms, bandannas, and yellow hats chasing the Indians off at the last moment to save the day. In this little piece of writing I aim to destroy this image, so if you are squeamish please look away.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1865 the American Civil War ended the country was in recession and broke, disbanding the huge armies was a priority and the few remaining roles highly sought after. One of these was the worst job in the army, cavalry deployed on the plains.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After the ACW the number of regiments deployed on the plains was increased from 6 to 10, two of the regiments were black and these were arguably the two best.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With there being an overabundance of officers getting in a regiment was incredibly difficult and promotion hopes terrible. After the war an estimated 88% of officers were West Point graduates and 12% enlisted men promoted during the civil war. Between 1866 and 1890 it took roughly 25 years to get promoted from lieutenant to major. It was even more difficult for Confederate officers who often joined as NCO’s or even enlisted men.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9GYtUdZ-0DU/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9GYtUdZ-0DU?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">If there were too many officers, there was a shortage of enlisted men. The proverbial bottom of the barrel was scraped and nuances in the law used. One such was the fact Indian territory was technically outside of the United States so civil law didn’t apply and men convicted of crimes in the US weren’t criminals on the plains, so on the run criminals proved an excellent source of recruits. Another was recent immigrants. On average half of the troopers were recent immigrants; in numerical order the nationalities were Irish, German/Austrian, Italian, British, Dutch, French, Swiss, other nationalities. Of the 260 who died at Little Big Horn 30% were Irish.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The average age of 23 troopers came from a quite amazing diversity of backgrounds, US recruits could come from good families whereas immigrant motivation tended to be poverty. A company of Custer’s cavalry had 3 Professors, a doctor, a telegraph operator, a printer, 2 lawyers, 4 cooks, 3 schoolteachers, a farm labourer, a book keeper, a farm boy, a dentist, a blacksmith an ivory carver, a young man of position trying to gain a commission and a salesman ruined by drink.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The main problem the cavalry faced was not the Indians but desertion, roughly 1/3 of all soldiers deserted and companies were often as low as 50% strength. A special kind of professional deserter even emerged called ‘snowbirds’ they would join the army to see themselves through the winter, then desert in summer.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From the 60’s to the late 70’s the cavalry received no training other than basic drill. This is quite amazing when you consider most recruits had never seen a horse let alone ridden one. No riding training was provided whatsoever. When a trooper was went on patrol this was the first time he rode his horse. Hopefully he would have the luxury of weeks of uneventful patrolling in agony from saddle sores to learn horsemanship skills, but if he was unlucky enough to see trouble right away he had big problems, new recruits had little hope against the skilful Indian riders. From 1880 proper training procedures were established. Recruits learnt shooting, marching, physical fitness exercises, riding, mounted and dismounted sabre drill.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Equipment too was not standardised. Cavalry were given a single uniform when they enlisted but the uniform was so poor quality it quickly fell apart, it was also useless to in winter cold so most cavalry unlike in Hollywood movies reverted corduroy, buckskin or flannel scouting suits.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cavalry horses differed from Indian ponies in that they lacked both the speed and stamina but were superior in that they could be ridden in winter unlike the Indian ones.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Up until 1870 there was no standardisation of weapons, a cavalry troop would have carried a mixture of Sharp muzzle loading carbines, short range Spencer repeating rifles, Springfield muzzle loading rifles, Remington’s and others, pistols were similarly mixed, the only standard weapon was the 1860 cavalry sabre which was not carried on campaign. In 1870 a standardised breach loading Allin Springfield’s were issued to all troops.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Warfare involved mostly long rides, hunger and exhaustion but little fighting, encounters tended to be ambushes with one side heavily outnumbering the other. Catching Indians on the run was almost impossible due to their superior horsemanship skills. Taking prisoners was rare for the cavalry and being captured meant slow torture and death so suicide was common if an action was going badly. Ironically the second biggest killer after the enemy was men falling off their horses.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Patrolling miles from civilisation the prospects for the wounded were grim, 5 out of every 1000 men died form wounding, however disease was to prove the biggest killer of all. Twice as many cavalry died from disease as were killed by Indians.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Life in the cavalry was harsh and not remotely romantic like in movies, it was mostly for the dispossed; criminals, the empoverished or people who couldn't adjust to normality after the ACW. Pay was poor and propsect virtually zero, fights ended either in death or victory, but despite this it wasn't very dangerous with a death rate of only 0.13 percent.</span></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-71508455159403559292017-02-07T06:09:00.001-08:002017-02-08T09:00:09.213-08:00Female Fuhrer and the British Fascisti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKGW7_mBqS9RSO3nlSqDrW1mOVqaV7CQc1r8w-6Vt8Rf5u7Yj2LnQcCQ1mvuR8ii6QoB0336Uaenh1K-OAsySunpxdHpMalY0Nt6jSwvO_WT3MszJ8ilpcWSimlrbyQ9lMUD1OuadO7OE/s1600/52020889.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKGW7_mBqS9RSO3nlSqDrW1mOVqaV7CQc1r8w-6Vt8Rf5u7Yj2LnQcCQ1mvuR8ii6QoB0336Uaenh1K-OAsySunpxdHpMalY0Nt6jSwvO_WT3MszJ8ilpcWSimlrbyQ9lMUD1OuadO7OE/s400/52020889.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="290" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha Lintorn-Orman</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Introduction</span></strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The History of British Fascism tends to be dominated by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, itself a very a-typical fascist organisation. However Baronet Mosley’s (touted as future British Prime Minister during his tenure in both the Labour and Conservative parties) conversion to Fascism didn’t occur until 1931 when he visited Mussolini in Italy and the British Union of Fascists wasn’t formed until 1932 a full ten years after Il Duce’s march on Rome and 6 years after Hitler had published Mein Kampf.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mosley wasn’t Britain’s first taste of Fascism then, by far, few appreciate long before Mosley Britain had a flourishing right wing scene of would be Nazi’s and Fascists all trying to work out what these strange ‘continental’ ideologies were with varying degrees of quirkiness. By the 30’s such names as ‘Imperial Fascist League, the British Empire Fascists, the Fascist League, the National Fascisti, the Kensington Fascist Party, the Yorkshire Fascists, the Empire Fascist League, the Social Credit Greenshirts, the British Fascisti, the British United Fascists, the National Worker’s Party, the National Socialist League, the Nordic League and the Right Club.’ <em>(1)</em> Would have been common place in the right wing scene. It was one of these aforementioned groups, The British Fascisti, to whom the honour of being the first British fascist group falls.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrTGtogxBwSaFyTfZR1IL1o8i8AgfGkdlRfOK2_RqnHFHjT78OAbJ3O1BTRJhuIDxDz2ZScFRv_cE2vg8eOynLxvGeIVs2MHJJir4cCwgO9wPG85TVy6wdNOBPlhIQxFwz9Y9DKAco3kc/s400/blanche_lintorn_orman.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="281" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha Lintorn-Orman (left),<br />mother Blanche (middle)</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Illegal Girls Scouts</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1908 Baden Powell formed the Boys Scouts, girls were forbidden to join Baden Powell feeling the activities too unladylike. However 2 years later at the first scout rally held at Crystal Palace he was surprised to see a troop of girl scouts march past him.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the scout mistresses responsible for this was Blanche Lintorn-Orman and one of the girls her 15 year old daughter Rotha Lintorn-Orman. The girls had got away with joining by only putting their first name’s initial on the application form and their deception had escaped notice by them being them located in rural Liphook far from any other scout organisation. The act forced Baden Powell’s hand, shortly after he formed a female version of the scouts and a year later young Rotha was leader of the only troop in the country with royal patronage, Princess Louise’s Own Bournemouth troop.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This act of female defiance seems to have been the first step in a life of breaching male social convention for the young Rotha Lintorn-Orman and gives us insight into the unique upbringing she had at the hands of her mother. We can also guess from the experience she developed a love of uniforms as for the rest of her life Lintorn-Orman was to either wear a British Army uniform, Red Cross uniform or the uniform of her own personal adult scout troop, to the ranks she would attract such figures as William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) and Maxwell Knight who Ian Fleming would include in his James Bond novels as ‘M’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Watch the video version of this article.</span></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bFoXiL4WuvA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bFoXiL4WuvA?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: left; float: left;" width="320"></iframe><span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Rotha was the daughter of a British army major, but her grandfather was Field Marshall Sir John Lintorn Arabin Simmons and she grew up in a minor gentry household able to afford a servant. When World War One broke out like many women Rotha went to work, but unlike most she did it by joining the army as an ambulance driver serving in the Reserve Ambulance Corp and later the Scottish Women’s Hospital Corps with whom she won Croix du Chairite twice for bravery, serving on the Drins Front in Serbia. In 1917 she was invalided back home with malaria where she joined the Red Cross and became commandant of the Motor School at Devonshire House in charge of training ambulance drivers.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Epithany</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1922 Mussolini marched on Rome at the head of his own troop of boy scouts, in Britain it caused heads more to shake than to turn at this strange form of foreign mysticism called Fascism, it was to have an a lasting effect on Rotha. Legend goes that Rotha was in her garden in her Somerset home planting vegetables and alarmed by the Labour Party, the growing influence of the trade union movement and Vladimir Lenin, when an epiphany struck her, to start a fascist party in Britain.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In early 1923 just a few months after Mussolini’s march to power Rotha placed several adverts in the right-wing journal, The Patriot, which read “Seeking Anti-Communists” and within a few weeks and most likely much too her surprise had over 200,000 anti-communists signed up and her mother signed over £50,000 of the family fortune to Rotha to run the movement</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha’s then does not only enjoy the unpresidented curiosity of being a woman who founded and lead a fascist party; in 1923 Britain was still months short of its third ever woman MP, women at that time only had limited suffrage (limited by age, wealth and education level) and only had that for 5 years. She was the first woman to found and lead a political party of any kind.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_Bkck7AiymaBKkG4QQXzuNTqytylGJ2GXrBTJvrhKCSQ5FnWLlh7q6TCh1l0QlW0De0GH9MxkQ3d2y3hhKjc_EFLQGQ9smQReRplBkM-Gbzm847kAZoyK-vnSz1sqH8f3Ezu2AHG3j0/s1600/british-fascisti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A Very British Fascisti</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha started the British Fascisti, but what exactly was a British Fascist? 10 Years later Oswald Mosley was to wrestle with this realising German and Italian forms were not really suited to Britain but it could be said at least Mosley understood what fascism was and why he was modifying it, what Rotha seems to have built is anything but a Fascist movement.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_Bkck7AiymaBKkG4QQXzuNTqytylGJ2GXrBTJvrhKCSQ5FnWLlh7q6TCh1l0QlW0De0GH9MxkQ3d2y3hhKjc_EFLQGQ9smQReRplBkM-Gbzm847kAZoyK-vnSz1sqH8f3Ezu2AHG3j0/s400/british-fascisti.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The British Fascisti</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s often taken by modern readers as a derogatory put down that at the time many people said what Rotha wanted to create an adult scout troop. However early scouting was quite different to its modern counterpart. Scouts carried Union Jacks and Badon Powell had based the movement not on the militaristic Boy’s Brigade but the individualist thinking cadet corps he was in command of during the 2nd Boer War, scouting was about bushcraft, frontiersmenship and survival skills.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pathe News</span><br />
<a data-mce-href="http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24121" href="http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24121" style="color: #00aadc;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Film Footage of British Fascisti</span></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha’s idea of the role of the movement is perhaps the most unique thing about it and explains its unusual methods. She had a millenarian vent believing in the coming communist revolution in Britain and the Fascisti role was not so much to become a political force or take power but to try and create trained, disciplined, self sufficient people to get the country running again after a communist revolution. In this respect the image Rotha Lintorn-Orman’s had of her British Fascisti was akin to that of the survivalist movement in the US preparing for the post-holocaust.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The role of women in the Fascisti was equal to that of men, even training wise, female members complained they were expected to change the tyres on vehicles the same as men. While the suffragette movement had ended before Rotha grew up this didn’t stop her having strong opinions on equalising the voting rights for men and women. In fact while most of the suffragette movement had died the one area of radicalism old suffragettes continued in right wing politics, such as the Pankhurst’s Anti-Socialist League, in fact several former suffragette far right groups existed. Membership of the fascisti didn’t just attract proto-feminists but perhaps the most reactionary element of society, the legions of middle aged, middle class, reactionary military wives and widows. It’s unclear by how many the women in the British Fascisti outnumbered the men, but it was quite considerable. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of the British Fascisti was fascist feminism, as later Mosley’s Blackshirts had to tone down the sexist elements of British Fascism much to the derision of leading German Nazis on his visits, in fact 25% of Mosley’s Blackshirts themselves were female and so many women marched with him he had to ban female members form wearing matching black coloured skirts to stop the press dubbing his movement ‘the Blackskirts’.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiHMO3mh7hIvUuJBxIw_BwC8pIS13BR7sQOYC5UvxPZxTnkBjselxEuEf3oGnoC9DZ3Lt00zJNwc2-mFm8NFDOyl_7MNDfHL5HNfWwQk90bt26pZ6DYIUZPjzOfdCwEktB6TSRzPZjNHg/s320/buf.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Women Blackshirt</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Politics wise was ano</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ther curiosity as the British brain at that time didn’t really comprehend fascism, other European countries had the advantage of centuries of absolute monarchies, centralised governments or dictatorships in their recent history. Rotha later was to dislike Mosley’s calling him a communist. It’s quite ironic when the first fascist in Britain sees a man who does actually understand what fascism is and immediately thinks him a communist. The British Fascisti itself spent much of its efforts providing stewards for Conservative Party meetings which in those days were known to come under disruption from communists and socialists. The Fascisti also openly encouraged its members to vote Conservative and it's two main political lines seem to have been the government should pass anti-union legislation and equal votes for women. In Feminine Fascism Julie V. Gottlieb even suggests the British Fascisti was a feminist response to the Primrose League. The club run since the 19th century for women Conservatives, whose entire leadership and committee were men. Also that Rotha who had seen how women had equal treatment during the war had decided uniforms was another way of female emancipation.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Perhaps then the British Fascisti can be considered an early vision of feminism. A uniformed, marching, tyre changing, Ju Jitsu fighting, millenarian, survivalist, Conservative voting, union jack flying, girl scout troop.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Organisation</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The British Fascisti was more a paramilitary group than a political party, while it stood candidates, the pinnacle of its electoral success was winning just two local council seats. However on the professionalism of paramilitary side it put the British Union of Fascist to shame.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fearing an imminent communist revolution the British Fascisti had adopted both paramilitary and intelligence wings. Its intelligence wing was run by Maxwell Knight who upon leaving the Navy had become impressed by Mussolini and joined the British Fascisti. Knight’s organised the intelligence wing of the British Fascisti so well he was noticed and recruited by MI5 to become Britain’s top spymaster and the figure ‘M’ in the James Bond movies is based upon him. Knight was said to have members of the Fascisti infiltrate the Communist Party, trade union movement and the Labour Party. Ironically just over a decade later as spymaster he would be sending his agents out to infiltrate the British Union of Fascist and other right wing groups, it was Knight who was responsible for the internment of many British Nazis and Fascists during the war, including Mosley and many of his former British Fascisti comrades. Knight was also the first member of MI5 to suspect the communist leanings of some of its members, however he wasn’t believed by his superiors, perhaps because his earlier membership of the British Fascisti had made them wary of any anti-communist claims by him. Finally it was Knight the former member of a political group lead by a woman who introduced women into MI5 on equal status to men. There had been a few before but he was seen as the man who did most to liberate the service.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The paramilitary wing of the British Fascisti run on strict military principles, members wore uniforms based upon Italian Blackshirts, it was divided into regional ‘troops’, district and county commands, a central command in London presided over by a chief of staff. Both men and women received the same military training including Ju Jitsu and survival techniques.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was claimed there were 800 commands, with 200 to 500 members in each. When the commands took to organising street patrols from 1924, the highly unusual sight for the time of militaristic, marching and drilled groups of uniformed women was unleashed on the bemused British public. These women's street patrol according to inteviews with x-members seem to have been one of the main draws for women members. During the general strike of 1926 the Fascisti's female members were expected alongside the male to engage in violence if needed.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLh_XGt6Wu2EF45PfmELL8FQYrnc2MTlNXNzoKaAg45UJibBlaXtE3dlkaJG2YskyfmXQQ2RnFPJFXozjH7SjSyzUI90_IcM8xDB-7vOS509e4yLtoy8jOBmJTNEdEz8MSmG_V0PWFdww/s1600/mw53134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alumni & Fall</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLh_XGt6Wu2EF45PfmELL8FQYrnc2MTlNXNzoKaAg45UJibBlaXtE3dlkaJG2YskyfmXQQ2RnFPJFXozjH7SjSyzUI90_IcM8xDB-7vOS509e4yLtoy8jOBmJTNEdEz8MSmG_V0PWFdww/s320/mw53134.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="239" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha Lintorn-Orman</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some quite notorious historical figures also passed through the ranks of the Fascisti, some who left to form of join more genuine Fascist or Nazi organisations such as William Joyce and Arnold Leese.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">William Joyce, who defected to Germany at the outbreak of World War Two and became the infamous Lord Haw Haw got his facial scare while at a British Fascisti parade, he believed a Jewish Communist responsible and the incident is said to be the source of his fervant Nazism. Arnold Leese was a vet and militant vegetarian, teetotaller, animal rights activist perhaps the most fanatical anti-Semite Britain has ever produced, despite not believing Nazi racial theory and having no objection to Jews other than Kosher food. Leese who left the British Fascisti in 1924 and formed the Imperial Fascist League in 1928 claimed he found no Fascism in the British Fascisti, but “conservatism with knobs on”</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The demise of the Fascisti came from being both too moderate for some and too extreme for others. A large section broke away in 1926 to join the male dominated, non fascist, Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies, the dispute being sex and politics based. Moderates feeling the Fascisti too extreme defected, but a lot women members not wanting to be under a male organisation stayed. Much more of the membership was lost to newer genuine fascist organisations disillusioned by the tame fascism, groups like the National Fascisti, Imperial Fascist League and a dozen more were to whittle away members.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When Mosley formed the British Union of Fascist, Union, was an idealistic term as he didn’t really have ideas of giving the other groups choice, those Fascist groups that refused to choose to unite with him, he would force to or destroy. The last large section of the Fascisti defected to Mosley lead by Neil Francis Hawkins in 1932, the remaining anti-Mosley Fascisti was down to 500 members and found themsleves under constant violent attack from the Blackshirts. Britain’s first Fascists were ultimately killed by Britain’s last.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rotha received much criticism personally for her masculinity, never married, doing a man’s job and never being seen out of uniform. She herself would play Santa Claus at the Fascist Children’s Club Christmas parties and won a fancy dress contests dressed as a grandfather. Rotha also after World War One had increasingly become dependant on drugs and alcohol, like so many men who saw similar service she was most likely suffering shellshock and paranoia, the later of which may have fuelled her communist takeover scenario. Shortly before her death in 1935 at just 40, her mother cut off her allowance as she believed British Fascisti members were supplying her with drugs for cash.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Had she lived, unlike other prominent British Fascist leaders it’s doubtful she would have been interned during World War Two, a Home Office report in the 1930's assessing the dangers to national security of the various organisations in Britain, reads it considered her a “harmless lunatic”.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(1) British Fascism and the Measures Taken Against It by the British State - David Botsford</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement - Julie V. Gottlieb</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A century of British Fascism – John Hope</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFv6bQcTwUmonBhW1zRhfDvS-c63ZuaHqFgIPzlsb0wzli7Hlthq-L_mekdn3CUooOgs6PfX9x1vha-aUIwTZmzRoVVvc0oSJ8PuStHb8vmto2idzcJHJciCOWzoZsOdF0wHD23uyBaE/s1600/blanche_lintorn_orman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-56165927967644473552017-01-31T11:18:00.000-08:002017-02-08T09:00:40.826-08:00Titanic, the Woman who sank 3 times.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1IbxLOra_CWmT-8pn58CO0Lin7wm54UdT4vKWSHLp1FKYJIE3lgHTroFtQ5RnAq8xVl6qklD0Lp_Tp5PXD2LX3BUEVwpulmVVkgjLi88_Owb_db_QkTBV-R-KRes-mr0NluR1wf5VuE/s1600/brittanic_titanic__olympic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1IbxLOra_CWmT-8pn58CO0Lin7wm54UdT4vKWSHLp1FKYJIE3lgHTroFtQ5RnAq8xVl6qklD0Lp_Tp5PXD2LX3BUEVwpulmVVkgjLi88_Owb_db_QkTBV-R-KRes-mr0NluR1wf5VuE/s320/brittanic_titanic__olympic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">In 1908 the White Star Line began the construction of 3 giant Olympic Class Ocean Liners that would be the three biggest ships ever built. In 1911 the first, RMS Olympic was completed, followed by RMS Titanic in 1912 and RMS Brittanic in 1915. While the Titanic’s story has become legend, the fact the other two ships had major disasters too remains more obscure.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
</div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Enter Violet Jessop born in Argentina in 1887 to Irish parents Violet had her first encounter with death at a young age as she survived tuberculosis. In 1911 Violet got a job on the newly completed RMS Olympic, the largest ship in the world and considered unsinkable. As the ship steamed out of Southampton on an ill-fated journey to New York the Olympic was hit by the aging Royal Navy ship HMS Hawk which was fitted with a ram. The ram tore deeply into the Olympic's hull, flooding three of her sixteen water tight compartments (it would take five to flood to sink her as happened to Titanic) and Olympic was able to safely limp back to Southampton.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQejfWfFbtOeCoqSlHG-Bj_srOhVx9n96_jcU0zrlwz0cSfnsgk6fYwA6HpaamEauQd6zjHNsT0qq6AzOC2ZdhyphenhyphenEfHqMT_SFTVSlaCz2i8fe2yTX3SgxYlMX1qIUsJFNIzcEPa0RD8Zo/s1600/violet_jessop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQejfWfFbtOeCoqSlHG-Bj_srOhVx9n96_jcU0zrlwz0cSfnsgk6fYwA6HpaamEauQd6zjHNsT0qq6AzOC2ZdhyphenhyphenEfHqMT_SFTVSlaCz2i8fe2yTX3SgxYlMX1qIUsJFNIzcEPa0RD8Zo/s320/violet_jessop.jpg" width="244" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With the Olympic laid up for major repairs Violet was transferred to the Titanic and set sail on her maiden voyage 6 months later. On the fateful night Violet recalls being ushered onto a life boat pretty early so had a rather easy time of the most famous disaster, but not so of the next one. During WWI Violet volunteered for the Red Cross and was crazily posted on the third sister ship, Brittanic, which was serving as a hospital ship. In 1916 in the Aegean the Brittanic struck a mine and went down in 30mins, unlike the Titanic’s 2 hours. Violet made it to a lifeboat again but this time the lifeboat didn't make it clear of the Britannic's huge propellers and was sucked in, violet was forced to leap from the life boat amongst the dismembered limbs of the propeller's victims expecting to be killed to but instead was sucked underwater by the disappearing hull. As she was sucked under the water as the ship went down she banged her head against the keel fracturing her skull.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You would think this third disaster would be enough and she wouldn’t want to go near the water let alone another Olympic class ship. But after the war Violet returned to work on the now repaired Olympic for another five years and continued sailing until 1950 when she retired at the age of 63.</span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<br /></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612395139617776908.post-45008525040919932522017-01-28T20:56:00.000-08:002017-02-08T09:01:48.039-08:00WWII Suicide Bombers?<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">What did allied bombing missions do when they ran out of bombs?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiESZDmTruow3_J0cmgUL17JFn1NXLoO-_iiBTeWs8rRO_hg_BcBYoVq5YEHzTbwolq0EWmXDZrmzl6BXVy9O1s1oTH2V8Gp7lOvlA7sSnqZJH3uYEcFplOp0Egdydz82tdQGvuzqicQms/s1600/nicholas-stephen-alkemade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiESZDmTruow3_J0cmgUL17JFn1NXLoO-_iiBTeWs8rRO_hg_BcBYoVq5YEHzTbwolq0EWmXDZrmzl6BXVy9O1s1oTH2V8Gp7lOvlA7sSnqZJH3uYEcFplOp0Egdydz82tdQGvuzqicQms/s320/nicholas-stephen-alkemade.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nicholas Alkemade</span></strong><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">In 1944, Alkemade's Lancaster was attacked by nightfighters and caught fire, it began to spiral out of control which caused the tail gunner somewhat of of problem. Trapped in the plane, the flames moving towards him, his parachute charred embers, Alkemade had the choice of a deaths, either a Joan of Arc or a 9/11 jumper. He chose the latter and lept from the plane at a height of 5500 metres, fingers crossed this was the less painful death of the two, but instead of becoming a blob of strawberry jam he had the good fortune to hit the canopy of several pine trees that cushioned his fall and landed on a mattress of soft snow. The poor guy though did sprain his leg. The Gestapo made the pretence they were a bit miffed with his story at first when he was captured but in truth were </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">probably getting used to it by then........ read on.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> Watch the video version of this article.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2u5c3mKKBak/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2u5c3mKKBak?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ulu5zcCw3dIzF_p2SKq72OSmCZOqk6HRRuGD64tZGJeCdW-RIEGzpiaDH_wC9M3JKjuhHO7orzV-Mwv01iS7s0CK4ZOCIhMUqH6qBP5zINc7wwaAZXQDh9kg93ld6dbd7hyphenhyphenIod1BAFA/s1600/chissov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ulu5zcCw3dIzF_p2SKq72OSmCZOqk6HRRuGD64tZGJeCdW-RIEGzpiaDH_wC9M3JKjuhHO7orzV-Mwv01iS7s0CK4ZOCIhMUqH6qBP5zINc7wwaAZXQDh9kg93ld6dbd7hyphenhyphenIod1BAFA/s1600/chissov.jpg" /></span></a><strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ivan Chisov</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1942 in the middle of a raging air and land battle and while his plane was being attacked by several German fighters, the Soviet Pilot decided to take a stroll out the door of his plane at 7000 metres. If you think that was rather eccentric he then decided to not to open his perfectly functioning parachute strapped to his back thinking it may attract machine gun fire and it could kill him, unlike falling 7000 metres. Ivan then lost consciousness by the time he was out of machine gun range, so unable to open his parachute but fortunately still had the good aim to hit the side of a snowy ravine sliding and rolling down the side till he came to a safe halt right at the feet of of a troop of Soviet cavalry who whisked him unharmed from the battlefield to safety.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwUIE-CCU-eIVbpUkHZVSpTl25Rri26DWBNg-hCkYJxPbv7YHyI8OoCZHJxKCqdWTSZrxO1VDv822w1gPGvYSNpcfnHZ6aiDiDbHp-wA3ckxG_b2V_dqNNlJKQhJZdrV-6RYGC-TcJWPk/s1600/alan-magee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwUIE-CCU-eIVbpUkHZVSpTl25Rri26DWBNg-hCkYJxPbv7YHyI8OoCZHJxKCqdWTSZrxO1VDv822w1gPGvYSNpcfnHZ6aiDiDbHp-wA3ckxG_b2V_dqNNlJKQhJZdrV-6RYGC-TcJWPk/s320/alan-magee.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div style="color: #3d596d; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Not to be outdone the Americans quickly got one of their pilots to throw himself into the skies. </span><strong style="background-color: white;">Alan Magee </strong><span style="background-color: white;">was in a Flying Fortress over France in 1943 when a clumsy German pilot shot one of the wings off at 6700 metres. The plane started spiralling toward the ground and the wounded Magee, his parachute shredded had the choice going down with the plane or just beside it, he chose the latter. Losing consciousness after he bailed out he miss the horror movie that follow. In an act of precision bombing he managed to break his fall by crashing through the glass roof of St Nazaire railway station sustaining several broken bones, a partially severed arm, lung, kidney, and face damage. How many train passenger suffered heart attacks from the surprise is unrecorded. Fortunately the Germans had the technology to rebuild him and create the world's first 6 Million Deutschemarks man, and he lived to ripe old age.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008140610493136104noreply@blogger.com0