Fiction
'Brother Cadfael's Penance' by Ellis Peters
In terms of story chronology, this is the final book in the Cadfael series; it is set in the 1145. There is a prequel, 'A Rare Benedictine' (1988) which was the 16th book in terms of publication but is set in 1120. I intend to read it in the coming weeks.
This is not one of the stronger books in the series. Its format is like that of 'The Summer of the Danes' (1991) in that Brother Cadfael is taken away from his monastery at Shrewsbury and is involved on the fringes of high level politics. In this case he goes to the ecclesiastical centre of Coventry where there are abortive peace talks between the two sides of the long-running civil war, Empress Matilda and King Stephen. A murder occurs during the talks and once they break up one of the suspects, a young man, Yves Hugonin, that Cadfael met six years earlier in 'The Virgin in the Ice' (1982), is snatched by relatives of the victim.
Cadfael goes into Gloucestershire to secure Yves's release, so violating the terms of his temporary release from his monastery. He also discovers the whereabouts of his imprisoned illegitimate, half-Syrian son, Olivier de Bretagne that he had met only twice before, in 1139 and 1141. Olivier is a supporter of the Empress and is now in his thirties, expecting his wife, Yves's sister, to give birth.
The story is interesting in a number of aspects. There is much discussion about reconciliation between fathers and their adult sons, not just Cadfael and Olivier but also Philip FitzRobert who imprisons Olivier and Yves and his father, Robert of Gloucester, Matilda's half-brother. The book, seeing the meeting for the final time of Olivier and Cadfael is a suitable ending to the series. The description of a small castle in a rural setting and it coming under siege and assault covers aspects not usually featured in the Cadfael series. However, Peters handles it well giving a good perspective of the hazards within the walls.
The central difficulty with this book as with 'The Summer of the Danes' is that the murder feels very bolted on to what is primarily a story about the political situation. Similarly here the resolution to the murder is delivered very simply without Cadfael having to use his skills to unmask the killer. I suppose Peters felt compelled to include a murder in each of her Cadfael books, but this would have been that bit better if she had left it out and simply stuck to the political machinations and resolving the abduction of two of Matilda's soldiers. Overall the series ends a bit with a whimper but fortunately with the large personal issues for Cadfael resolved.
Non-Fiction
'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century' by Ian Mortimer
This book shares a characteristic with a couple of history books that I read last year, notably, 'Hidden History. The Secret Origins of the First World War' by Gerry Docherty & Jim MacGregor and 'Pétain's Crime' by Paul Webster in that the authors feel they are putting forward such a radically alternative perspective on the history they are covering that throughout they have to keep insisting that what they are saying is so very different from anything you may have read on the topic before. First, such incessant haranguing becomes very tiresome to the reader. Second, it is probable that the vast majority of the people who have picked up the book are interested in the authors' perspectives and in many cases will already accept their line of argument; they do not have to be persuaded again and again.
Mortimer believes he had created something called 'virtual history'. He uses this in a very different way to Niall Ferguson for whom it represents counter-factual history. Instead Mortimer uses it to refer to what was called in my youth, 'everyday history', i.e. history of a period seen from the viewpoint of ordinary people rather than the rulers and elites. The focus is on day-to-day life rather than battles and political machinations. I know such history was pushed aside in British schools by the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1992, but even so children still get some of it when they have to pretend to be evacuees or Victorian chimney sweeps or increasingly, passengers on the 'Titanic'. Certainly for people of my generation, everyday history was in fact the norm. Mortimer conveniently forgets all the books especially in the 1970s and 1980s which took the same perspective of him. I even remember the Usborne Time Traveller books which still seem to be in circulation. Yes, they were aimed at children but like Mortimer's book involve the perspective of a time traveller on the period featured and focus on ordinary life in the times 'visited'.
Mortimer would have been better off persisting with the conceit of the reader being a time traveller. This is largely forgotten and only pops up occasionally. Instead you feel as if you are being led around by a prissy lecturer who is as eager to show you how foolish you are, as he is to actually engage you with what he is addressing.
Setting aside the patronising tone that pervades the book, it is reasonably well written looking at different aspects such as towns and villages, travel, food, medicine, etc. in turn and viewing them for different social classes. There are new aspects which are revealed notably on crime. The chapter on literature of the time is really different in nature and indicates the motives behind Mortimer's interest in the time and the place. Mortimer has gone on to produce similar books on different time periods. I do not know whether he maintains the patronising tone in these and maybe given their success most people who buy the books do not seem unhappy about it. If you can remember other 'everyday history' books on the Middle Ages you probably have no need for this book. It is a useful reference if you want to set fiction in 14th century England or if you have never read or been taught about how people lived in that context.
Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Monday, 16 July 2012
What If the English Won the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)?
My views on this topic can be found in my e-book ‘On Other Fields: Alternate Outcomes of the Middle Ages’ by Alexander Rooksmoor. It is available for purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/On-Other-Fields-Alternate-ebook/dp/B008LMT9WO/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1342436531&sr=1-8
Canadian
readers might prefer to access it through: http://www.amazon.ca/Other-Fields-Alternate-Outcomes-ebook/dp/B008LMT9WO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1375772395&sr=8-4&keywords=Rooksmoor
What If Burgundy Had Persisted?
My views on this topic can be found in my e-book ‘On Other Fields: Alternate Outcomes of the Middle Ages’ by Alexander Rooksmoor. It is available for purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/On-Other-Fields-Alternate-ebook/dp/B008LMT9WO/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1342436531&sr=1-8
Canadian
readers might prefer to access it through: http://www.amazon.ca/Other-Fields-Alternate-Outcomes-ebook/dp/B008LMT9WO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1375772395&sr=8-4&keywords=Rooksmoor
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Flags of South-West England
I read this week that the county of Dorset had selected a flag for the county. Apparently before this it simply had a design of three lions in a row that looked very like that used by the England cricket and football teams rather than being distinctive. I sometimes drive through Dorset, which is where the South-West region of England begins, though of course the capital of what in the early Medieval period was the Kingdom of Wessex was at Winchester in Hampshire, the next county East, which now falls in the South-East region of England. The impetus for Dorset, which apart from the Poole-Bournemouth-Christchurch conurbation is primarily rural to get its own flag, comes quite clearly from Cornwall.
A few years back, probably encouraged by steps towards greater establishment of a Welsh identity with the increase of learning the Welsh language from the late 1970s onwards and the Welsh Assembly more recently, the Cornish began to rediscover their identity and to promote the Cornish language. Cornish, like Welsh, is a Celtic language and its popularity has now reached an extent that there is now a Cornish language Wikipedia. Anyway, the flag of the white cross on the black background often accompanied by the Cornish word for Cornwall, 'Kernow' began appearing on cars right across the South of England. Even when you are two or three counties away from Cornwall you will see it emblazoned in numerous places. Partly I think this stems from the English love of tiny states, a sense of wanting your locale to be independent and of esoteric languages. The Cornish flag is the negative of the medieval flag of the kingdom later duchy of Brittany, another state with Celtic people many of whom came from Cornwall to settle. However, Brittany part of France from the 14th century remodelled their flag in the 1930s to resemble the US flag though keeping the black and white colours.
In online discussions there was a debate that with Devon ,which borders Dorset to the West adopting even unofficially such a flag, Dorset should have one too. In a vote ran by the county council, the winning design won 2,086 votes (54% of the share) with the next nearest of the four designs put forward, winning only 856 votes (22% of the share). This is a small proportion of the county's population (145,000 people live in Poole alone) but it follows the theme established by Cornwall and Devon, so I guess it is not going to cause offence. The gold and red were in Dorset's coat of arms and in the badge of the county regiment and it was the colour of the Wessex dragon too, plus, as people have pointed out, local landmarks like Gold Hill and Golden Cap. One of the two designers lives in Sweden and as with the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish flags which all share the cross of St. Olaf as their basis, you can see a developing shape with the South-West flags, though attributed to different saints.
It is certainly bright and colourful. I know the red lines are in keeping with the black ones of Devon's flag but they are sensible, as from the numerous examples of this flag that I have seen flying this weekend, the gold becomes very pale in sunlight and it would be difficult to distingush this from the white cross if the red did not mark it out.
Wiltshire, the other county in the South-West (it borders Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire) seems to have gone for something entirely more exotic and which looks more like a flag of some Caribbean island. It was introduced in 2007. The golden bird is a Great Bustard extinct in the UK since 1832 but has been re-introduced in the county. The green and white represent grass on chalk hills of Wiltshire. The circle apparently represents the standing stones at Stone Henge and Avebury in the county and the three white and three green refer to the six counties that currently border Wiltshire. So lots of references in there. However, it does not look that English.
The St. Pirn Flag of Cornwall
A few years back, probably encouraged by steps towards greater establishment of a Welsh identity with the increase of learning the Welsh language from the late 1970s onwards and the Welsh Assembly more recently, the Cornish began to rediscover their identity and to promote the Cornish language. Cornish, like Welsh, is a Celtic language and its popularity has now reached an extent that there is now a Cornish language Wikipedia. Anyway, the flag of the white cross on the black background often accompanied by the Cornish word for Cornwall, 'Kernow' began appearing on cars right across the South of England. Even when you are two or three counties away from Cornwall you will see it emblazoned in numerous places. Partly I think this stems from the English love of tiny states, a sense of wanting your locale to be independent and of esoteric languages. The Cornish flag is the negative of the medieval flag of the kingdom later duchy of Brittany, another state with Celtic people many of whom came from Cornwall to settle. However, Brittany part of France from the 14th century remodelled their flag in the 1930s to resemble the US flag though keeping the black and white colours.
Not to be outdone by Cornwall, the next county East along the peninsula, Devon, which is often lumped together with Cornwall (for example the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary of police) though the Cornish often dislike the people of Devon, well, in 2003 Devon developed a similar flag but with dark green in the place of black. I have seen this on some cars but not to the extent of the Cornish ones which I feel sell to tourists as well as locals. Devon also lacks that historic identity of being a separate state that Cornwall was until the 10th century and also does not have its own language.
The St. Petroc Flag of Devon
In online discussions there was a debate that with Devon ,which borders Dorset to the West adopting even unofficially such a flag, Dorset should have one too. In a vote ran by the county council, the winning design won 2,086 votes (54% of the share) with the next nearest of the four designs put forward, winning only 856 votes (22% of the share). This is a small proportion of the county's population (145,000 people live in Poole alone) but it follows the theme established by Cornwall and Devon, so I guess it is not going to cause offence. The gold and red were in Dorset's coat of arms and in the badge of the county regiment and it was the colour of the Wessex dragon too, plus, as people have pointed out, local landmarks like Gold Hill and Golden Cap. One of the two designers lives in Sweden and as with the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish flags which all share the cross of St. Olaf as their basis, you can see a developing shape with the South-West flags, though attributed to different saints.
The St. Wite flag of Dorset
It is certainly bright and colourful. I know the red lines are in keeping with the black ones of Devon's flag but they are sensible, as from the numerous examples of this flag that I have seen flying this weekend, the gold becomes very pale in sunlight and it would be difficult to distingush this from the white cross if the red did not mark it out.
Are we going to see a sweep of flags across England now, all associated with local saints, as I suggested for local replacements for St. George's Day? Possibly. A lot of this has to do with the branding of counties and their corporate identity. This may be a challenge now especially in those counties broken up by unitary authorities such as Berkshire (North of Hampshire) and Somerset. Somerset which borders Devon and and Dorset, is in a similar situation to how Dorset was until recently, with a heraldic badge but no flag per se.
The Badge of Somerset
Though parts of Somerset were in Wessex, its dragon is different. A red dragon does appear on the Welsh flag to the North-West of Somerset. I can imagine now, Somerset will come up with its own flag, there are already online discussions about this. Maybe it could adopt something along the lines of 'Land of the Setting Sun', I could envisage that, with a nice blue sky and green base. However, it might also go with the same kind of cross as Cornwall, Devon and Dorset perhaps with the red and blue on white, probably a blue cross, outlined in white, so it does not appear too close to the flag of England as a whole.
The flag of Wessex
Wiltshire, the other county in the South-West (it borders Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire) seems to have gone for something entirely more exotic and which looks more like a flag of some Caribbean island. It was introduced in 2007. The golden bird is a Great Bustard extinct in the UK since 1832 but has been re-introduced in the county. The green and white represent grass on chalk hills of Wiltshire. The circle apparently represents the standing stones at Stone Henge and Avebury in the county and the three white and three green refer to the six counties that currently border Wiltshire. So lots of references in there. However, it does not look that English.
The flag of Wiltshire
Like many people I prefer Chrys Fear's 2006 alternative which was stimulated by chalk horse carvings on hillsides in Wiltshire and seems to sum up the prehistoric culture of the region. The green also echoes that of the Devon flag, a nearby county.
Chrys Fear's flag for Wiltshire
Just to wrap up, I looked at the flag of the main component of Wessex, which is Hampshire, though it falls into the South-East region rather than the South-West. There is a rather dull flag which looks like something that was created by the council in 1977, though it was adopted in 1992 to celebrate the centenary of the county council which had been established in 1889. It had to have special permission due to the inclusion of the crown.
Current flag of Hampshire
The 'Daily Echo' newspaper has launched a campaign for a better Hampshire flag and of the designs on show I like the two from Michael Jacobs:
Designs by Michael Jacobs for flags of Hampshire
These would seem to keep with the style which is gathering momentum along the South coast counties. The rose is an important symbol in the county, which has the Rose Bowl as a key sports venue too. The Tudor rose shown here does appear on Hampshire county badges already. The green and gold of the first design are reminiscent of the flags of Devon and Dorset which seems sensible. The latter references the Wiltshire green but also the naval traditions which are very strong in Hampshire due to Portsmouth and Southampton.
I like the fact that there is cross-referencing between these newly appearing county flags and I hope that Hampshire, unlike Wiltshire, adopts something sensible and that people of the county can be proud of. To show how different things can be when you move to a new region, I include the flag of Mercia which covers what is primarily today the West Midlands of England. This has a Cross of St. Andrew, also known as the saltaire, best known from the flag of Scotland. This could far too easily be mixed with the Scottish flag or even just iconography of the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party).
I like the fact that there is cross-referencing between these newly appearing county flags and I hope that Hampshire, unlike Wiltshire, adopts something sensible and that people of the county can be proud of. To show how different things can be when you move to a new region, I include the flag of Mercia which covers what is primarily today the West Midlands of England. This has a Cross of St. Andrew, also known as the saltaire, best known from the flag of Scotland. This could far too easily be mixed with the Scottish flag or even just iconography of the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party).
The flag of Mercia
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Why It Would Be No Surprise If Berwick Went Into Scotland
The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumbria (population over 26,000) lies on the English side of the border between England and Scotland. It has changed hands between the two countries 13 times since the 13th century and looks on the verge of changing hands once again. Ever since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 there has been talk of shifting the border and now it has reached the state that a motion is going through parliament to effect the change. The majority of the local population support the change. It will not be without challenges. Scotland has a different legal system to England (for example court cases can have a 'not proven' verdict in addition to a 'guilty' or 'not guilty' verdict) and on an increasing numbers of points of law there are differences. The two systems were never combined when England and Scotland were joined by the Act of Union in 1707 and since the creation of the Scottish Parliament the laws have diverged further. This means lawyers from England cannot practice in Scotland and vice versa, so all the solicitors in Berwick will have to go for retraining. The same applies to teachers. If you are trained in England you cannot teach in Scotland which despite the so-called National Curriculum introduced in 1992 has different subjects (for example Citizenship was introduced a lot earlier there than in England) and examinations. Scottish children do not sit SATS at 7 years old, they have qualifications called Highers rather than 'A' levels and Scottish students studying in Scotland do not have to pay fees in the way English have to pay in England. Despite their smaller population the Scots had five universities when England only had two and education is much more respected in Scotland. Anyway, the differences mean that for some people in Berwick it is going to be a question of moving away or getting new qualifications. Estate agents (there are 3 companies based in Berwick) are already complaining as they would apparently have to be retrained (and there was me thinking that all estate agents had to be amateurs!).
Why then is this desire to migrate to what is becoming increasingly a distinct country from England? Scotland covers 78,772 km² compared to 130,439 km² of England, making Scotland 60% of the size of England but with its population of only 5.1 million compared to 50.7 million in England, having a tenth of its population. Scotland has 72 MPs (though there are plans to cut this to 59) who sit in the UK Parliament in Westminster, London, compared to 529 for England, so in Scotland you get 1 MP in London for every 53,000 people compared to 1 per 70,000 people in England. In addition in Scotland you also vote for 129 MSPs who sit in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (England has no regional parliaments despite attempts to establish them), so you get more democratic representation in Scotland. In addition, Scotland, partly because of the influence of the SNP (Scottish National Party) a nationalist party which pursues rather Socialist policies, welfare provision is better in Scotland especially free care for the elderly and I imagine that has been a key issue to swing the population of Berwick towards Scotland. If you have children or are old or have elderly relatives then generally you are better off in Scotland than England. About 400,000 English people live in Scotland and about 700,000 Scottish people live in England (many of them in London). Even Scottish newspapers note that there is prejudice against English settlers in the country, though this is less in the big cities. Little attention is paid to Scots in England and certainly there is no resentment towards them as is reserved for the Irish. It will be interesting to see how the population of Berwick is received given that they live so close as it is anyway. Maybe it will be perceived as a victory for Scottish moves towards independence and certainly for the policy line that has been adopted on education and welfare since 1999. Are places like Longtown in Cumbria, Wooler, Belford and Otterburn in Northumbria opt to cross the border next? What would happen if Carlisle (Cumbria) opted to move? Could we see in a few decades time Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a border town between the two countries?
To some extent this whole issue casts doubt on all the references to patriotism that people claim so much. Maybe it is not that serious, given that it is about regions of one country. Parts of the Nord Rhein-Westfalen and of Rheinland-Pfalz provinces of Germany once belonged to Prussia (most of which is now part of Poland anyway) and Bavaria and most of Nieder Sachsen was British until 1866. However, what it does say is that patriotism matters less than having a social policy which serves the needs of the bulk of the population. I think that is a stronger driving factor than any references to flags emblazoned with the Cross of St. George (England) or the Cross of St. Andrew (Scotland), and the shift of Berwick demonstrates that. English politicians should wake up to the fact that people would rather shift country than put up with the ever deteriorating welfare and education situations in England.
Why then is this desire to migrate to what is becoming increasingly a distinct country from England? Scotland covers 78,772 km² compared to 130,439 km² of England, making Scotland 60% of the size of England but with its population of only 5.1 million compared to 50.7 million in England, having a tenth of its population. Scotland has 72 MPs (though there are plans to cut this to 59) who sit in the UK Parliament in Westminster, London, compared to 529 for England, so in Scotland you get 1 MP in London for every 53,000 people compared to 1 per 70,000 people in England. In addition in Scotland you also vote for 129 MSPs who sit in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (England has no regional parliaments despite attempts to establish them), so you get more democratic representation in Scotland. In addition, Scotland, partly because of the influence of the SNP (Scottish National Party) a nationalist party which pursues rather Socialist policies, welfare provision is better in Scotland especially free care for the elderly and I imagine that has been a key issue to swing the population of Berwick towards Scotland. If you have children or are old or have elderly relatives then generally you are better off in Scotland than England. About 400,000 English people live in Scotland and about 700,000 Scottish people live in England (many of them in London). Even Scottish newspapers note that there is prejudice against English settlers in the country, though this is less in the big cities. Little attention is paid to Scots in England and certainly there is no resentment towards them as is reserved for the Irish. It will be interesting to see how the population of Berwick is received given that they live so close as it is anyway. Maybe it will be perceived as a victory for Scottish moves towards independence and certainly for the policy line that has been adopted on education and welfare since 1999. Are places like Longtown in Cumbria, Wooler, Belford and Otterburn in Northumbria opt to cross the border next? What would happen if Carlisle (Cumbria) opted to move? Could we see in a few decades time Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a border town between the two countries?
To some extent this whole issue casts doubt on all the references to patriotism that people claim so much. Maybe it is not that serious, given that it is about regions of one country. Parts of the Nord Rhein-Westfalen and of Rheinland-Pfalz provinces of Germany once belonged to Prussia (most of which is now part of Poland anyway) and Bavaria and most of Nieder Sachsen was British until 1866. However, what it does say is that patriotism matters less than having a social policy which serves the needs of the bulk of the population. I think that is a stronger driving factor than any references to flags emblazoned with the Cross of St. George (England) or the Cross of St. Andrew (Scotland), and the shift of Berwick demonstrates that. English politicians should wake up to the fact that people would rather shift country than put up with the ever deteriorating welfare and education situations in England.
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