Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Regularity]

Altogether, neither England's nor Scotland's finest moments - Scotland's timing over the whole thing was really bad, too - a few years later and we were tied up in the war of the Spanish Succession, and wouldn't have cared about offending Spain!

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Altogether, neither England's nor Scotland's finest moments - Scotland's timing over the whole thing was really bad, too - a few years later and we were tied up in the war of the Spanish Succession, and wouldn't have cared about offending Spain!

 

The timing was driven by desperation - the country was already on its knees with the disastrous harvest failures of the 1690s, coming after a century punctuated by civil war and religious division. It was a last throw of the dice. (My reading of Wikipedia...)

Edited May 20, 2021 by Compound2632

[Regularity]

Desperation is never a good time to make a rash decision that overcommits resources in short supply.

 

I must admit that the joint crown might have done a bit more to sort things out, but William III was probably more interested in his Dutch* and English trading empires than his Scottish subjects welfare, and Mary seems to have taken against her father's "papist" sympathies. Whether or not that extended to resentment against all Scots I don't know.

 

* I love the fact that the Dutch Republic had a monarch!

[Adam88]

Never lend money to a country which has green in its flag.

[Compound2632]

14 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I must admit that the joint crown might have done a bit more to sort things out,

 

William III had put some effort into sorting Scotland out, maybe not on the scale or with the ruthlessness seen in Ireland, but there were Jacobite uprisings that were vigorously suppressed, culminating in the infamous Massacre of Glencoe, which he may or may not have authorised or known about.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Compound2632

[Andy Hayter]

5 hours ago, Regularity said:

They inter-married pretty quickly, and took up the language and culture sufficiently enough to cease being Vikings in any meaningful sense.

 

And indeed on arrival in England insisted that French be the language of court.

Sadly they fell out with their French neighbours and over the next 350 years gradually lost their land to the French.

Then along  came Henry V.  He changed the rules and insisted that English be the language of court.

1415 Agincourt.  Splendid English victory over a numerically superior French force. 

And the deciding factor?

For the first time in 350 years the king is shouting orders to his generals in a language that the enemy could not understand!

 

[Compound2632]

6 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

Then along  came Henry V.  He changed the rules and insisted that English be the language of court.

1415 Agincourt.  Splendid English victory over a numerically superior French force. 

And the deciding factor?

For the first time in 350 years the king is shouting orders to his generals in a language that the enemy could not understand!

 

Explain Crecy and Poitiers then!

[alastairq]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Explain Crecy and Poitiers then!

 Mushy peas? 

 

[DonB]

 

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Explain Crecy and Poitiers then!

 

Now the difficult questions ! ---No good asking me ...I was "advised" to drop History during the school year before O-levels,  I was thoroughly fed up with Bismarck at the time!

[alastairq]

I always thought it was fortuitous, naming a politician after a warship....

 

[Grade 3 History O level....good job I never entertained going to a Uni?}

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, DonB said:

Now the difficult questions ! ---No good asking me ...I was "advised" to drop History during the school year before O-levels,  I was thoroughly fed up with Bismarck at the time!

 

The Schleswig-Holstein question again? (Himself has prompted me into re-reading Royal Flash.)

 

I prefer the Holstein-Florentine question: which came first, the spinach or the egg?

[drmditch]

29 minutes ago, DonB said:

 

 

Now the difficult questions ! ---No good asking me ...I was "advised" to drop History during the school year before O-levels,  I was thoroughly fed up with Bismarck at the time!

Not as much as the young 'Kaiser Bill'.

[drmditch]

Re: Schleswig Holstein' question.
Has anyone found a good recent biography of Palmerston?

[TheQ]

Just now, drmditch said:

Re: Schleswig Holstein' question.
Has anyone found a good recent biography of Palmerston?

No, But "Morton Peto" By Adrian Vaughan covers the period of the Schleswig Holstein problem as Morton Peto built Railways in Schleswig.

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Re: Schleswig Holstein' question.
Has anyone found a good recent biography of Palmerston?

 

Is the 2012 one by David Brown unsatisfactory? I haven't read it.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Compound2632

[alastairq]

5 minutes ago, TheQ said:

No, But "Morton Peto" By Adrian Vaughan covers the period of the Schleswig Holstein problem as Morton Peto built Railways in Schleswig.

 Gollygosh!

A masterclass in introducing a violent swerve into existing thread drift!

Well done! 

[Regularity]

10 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

Then along  came Henry V.  He changed the rules and insisted that English be the language of court.

No, that was his father, Henry IV (who came in two parts, apparently).

Given the changes which occurred to the English language, 1399 saw not so the first monarch to speak English as his natural mother-tongue since 1066, as the first monarch to speak it full stop!

[wagonman]

15 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

(I've been reading the Wikipedia article. But I did read a book about it once - I think Norman Davies' The Isles has a chapter.)

 

Chapter 9

 

 

[wagonman]

4 hours ago, alastairq said:

 Mushy peas? 

 

 

A casus belli if ever I tasted one....

[petethemole]

32 minutes ago, wagonman said:

 

A casus belli if ever I tasted one....

They certainly helped cause mine

Edited May 21, 2021 by petethemole

[Tom Burnham]

13 hours ago, TheQ said:

No, But "Morton Peto" By Adrian Vaughan covers the period of the Schleswig Holstein problem as Morton Peto built Railways in Schleswig.

I believe Morton Peto was the only railway engineer to play in an FA Cup Final. Didn't know there was a biography of him. What's it like?

Edited May 21, 2021 by Tom Burnham
Typo corrected

[Ian Simpson]

I'm going to add Francis Marindin here. He played for the Royal Engineers in the 1872 Cup Final. 

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

I'm going to add Francis Marindin here. He played for the Royal Engineers in the 1872 Cup Final. 

 

As a referee for FA Cup Finals in 1880 and 1883-90, he was considered "one of the outstanding referees who really knows the rules" [Wikipedia, source not stated]. Having read quite a number of his accident reports, that really does not surprise me in the least!

[CKPR]

On 21/05/2021 at 05:44, Compound2632 said:

Explain Crecy and Poitiers then!

Aren't these both soups ?! [NB with good reason, History and French are absent from CKPR's set of 11 'O' levels]

[Nearholmer]

Without wishing to be picky, this ‘FA Cup Final’ question must boil down to how one defines ‘railway engineer’, in that several prominent teams were formed originally as ‘railway works’ teams, so almost certainly had railway craftsmen on the strength.

 

Veering off at an angle, league rather than FA cup I think, in about 1910 Northampton Town (Wolverton staff) and Swindon Town were involved in some sort of tussle for top place, which I think Swindon won. To commemorate the friendly rivalry between railwaymen, they jointly commissioned Bassett Lowke to make a train (G1 or G2 I think) for them, consisting of a County 4-4-0 and a rake of coaches, the loco named differently on each side, for the two counties, and the coaches having either the squad names, or league match venues and scores (I’m struggling to remember which) on the compartment doors. Whether it survives, I don’t know - pity if not.