From 6b89e36ec72131bbcf6080a46c969c126bdc6f6a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Trent Palmer Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2021 14:10:26 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] add guideschi-you-guys.md --- content/guideschi-you-guys.md | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 71 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/guideschi-you-guys.md diff --git a/content/guideschi-you-guys.md b/content/guideschi-you-guys.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b78537 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/guideschi-you-guys.md @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +Title: Guideschi You Guys +Date: 2021-08-06 +Tags: Insults, Guideschi, Brittany, Italy +Category: Etymology + +"You Guys!" was an insult. But this expression was transformed into a term +of endearment, in America, by the working class. Because that is what the +working class do. + +### Gunpowder Plot +You are probably familiar with the +[Gunpowder Plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot){target="_blank"}, +in which [Guy Fawkes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes){target="_blank"}, +attempted to blow up Parliament on 5 November 1605. + +And thus, because Guy Fawkes was reviled for his crime, the expression "You Guys" emerged +as an insult. + +### Norman Conquest +But how did an Englishman come by the names "Guy", and "Fawkes"? +According to Wikipedia, +[Fawkes is a name of Norman-French origin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawkes){target="_blank"}. + +Well now. It just so happens that the +[Normans invaded and conquered England in 1066](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Conquest){target="_blank"}, +an event from which the history of English Nobility ever since can be traced. + +### Guy of Nantes +And yet more than a half century before the Normans even +[settled in Normandy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy#Viking_period){target="_blank"}, +which they would not do until the middle of the 9th Century, +(from where they would later sail across the English Channel and conquer England), +[Guy of Nantes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_of_Nantes){target="_blank"} +was Count of Nantes, as of 778, which was of course the late 8th Century, +the [County of Nantes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Nantes){target="_blank"} +being located next door to what was not yet Normandy nor inhabited by Normans, +and Guy (of the Guideschi Family), not being Norman but Frankish of descent. + +Well, that was awkward. + +### Breton Peninsula Geography +So who was Guy, who were the Guideschi, and why were they occupying a small principality +in between what are today Normandy and Brittany in the NorthWest corner of France? + +If you will recall that Charlemagne became King of the Franks in 768, but he was never able +to conquer the +[Breton Peninsula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany){target="_blank"}, +because the terrain was too rough. Thus he appointed +Guy's father [Roland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland){target="_blank"} as +Count of Nantes, intending for the County of Nantes to be a buffer zone of containment +protecting the Carolingian Empire from the inhabitants of the Breton Peninsula, (who +could not be conquered on account of the rough terrain). + +### Excile to Italy +Anyway, one thing led to another. Guy's son +[Lambert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_I_of_Nantes){target="_blank"} +had a falling-out with Charlemagne's son +[Louis the Pious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_the_Pious){target="_blank"}, +which resulted in the Guideschi Family being exciled to Italy. + +And then in 834 Lambert was given the +[Duchy of Spoleto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Spoleto){target="_blank"}, +even though he was exciled, and the Guideschis firmly ensconsed themselves in the +chaos and intrigue of what at that time passed for statecraft in Italy. + +### Conclusion +In conclusion I really have no idea where I was going with all this, but +thanks for reading all the way to the end, you guys! + +Here's a +[podcast about the Guideshi](https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/blog/episode-16-hey-guy){target="_blank"}.