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<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>Attention Span History</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/" rel="alternate"></link><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/feeds/all.atom.xml" rel="self"></link><id>https://blog.trentpalmer.org/</id><updated>2021-12-31T00:00:00-08:00</updated><entry><title>Contrasting English Queens</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/contrasting-english-queens.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-12-31T00:00:00-08:00</published><updated>2021-12-31T00:00:00-08:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-12-31:/contrasting-english-queens.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Victoria and Elizabeth II are Queens of England, and are related by blood,
but that is where the similarity ends.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, Queen Victoria was emotional, petty, politically relevant, culturally
relevant, and a dynamic personality. But Elizabeth II was not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Victoria's Contribution to the Historical Record&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Written Documentation&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victory …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Victoria and Elizabeth II are Queens of England, and are related by blood,
but that is where the similarity ends.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, Queen Victoria was emotional, petty, politically relevant, culturally
relevant, and a dynamic personality. But Elizabeth II was not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Victoria's Contribution to the Historical Record&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Written Documentation&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victory wrote 60 million words in her lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This includes her
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria%27s_journals" target="_blank"&gt;journal&lt;/a&gt;,
which fill 122 volumes in the Royal Archive, even after heavy redaction.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Her book
&lt;a href="https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/66173" target="_blank"&gt;Our Life in the Highlands&lt;/a&gt;,
was a best-seller.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria also constantly wrote letters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Victoria's Political Relevance&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Grandmother of Europe&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria was known as the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_of_Europe" target="_blank"&gt;Grandmother of Europe&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having spread her seed amongst Nobility and Royalty all over Europe,
and engaged in constant coorespondence,
she had a profound effect upon International Politics. In theory
this was a key reason why there were no World Wars between
Napoleon and World War One.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;British Empire&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It should be noted however, that the British Empire was at war every
single year of her 64-year reign,
and it was during her reign that the British Empire
reached its zenith.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Victoria's Cultural Relevance&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Arts and Culture&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria was a huge patron of the arts, and her legacy included
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall" target="_blank"&gt;Royal Albert Hall&lt;/a&gt;,
and statues of Prince Albert were erected all over the British Empire.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Customs and Morality&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The court of Victoria and Albert was outwardly morally uptight, and this
percolated through society. The manner in which Christmas was (and still is)
celebrated throughout the Western World, was derived from traditions
begun during the Victorian Era.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perhaps reflecting their sheltered upbringing, they were quite naive
and would laugh at any stupid little joke. How annoying!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Victoria's Dynamic Personality&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Melodrama&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedchamber_crisis" target="_blank"&gt;Bedchamber Crisis&lt;/a&gt;,
of 1839, Government dissolved because Victoria refused to replace
her ladies-in-waiting with the wives of the new ministers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In her photos she never smiled. But contemporary reports suggest that Victoria
did frequently smile, and could really light up the room.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Mental Depression&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria suffered from postpartum depression which poisoned her
relationship with her children and husband.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Upon Prince Albert's
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_Consort#Illness_and_death" target="_blank"&gt;untimely death&lt;/a&gt;,
The Queen entered several years of seclusion and wore black for the rest of her life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Temper Tantrums&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, Albert and Victoria frequently squabbled, events which
usually featured a "scene".&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Daddy Issues&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a result of a troubled upbringing with a
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Conroy" target="_blank"&gt;controlling stepfather&lt;/a&gt;,
Victoria suffered from "Daddy Issues", and developed obsessive attachments to
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lamb,_2nd_Viscount_Melbourne" target="_blank"&gt;Prime Minister Melbourne&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_Consort" target="_blank"&gt;her husband&lt;/a&gt;,
as well as house servants
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(servant)" target="_blank"&gt;John Brown&lt;/a&gt;, and
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Karim_(the_Munshi)" target="_blank"&gt;Abdul Karim&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Brattiness&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Victoria's innappropriate favouritism towards Brown and Karim, both foreigners,
caused resentment amongst her staff.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Pettiness&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria made impolite remarks about other people.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Queen Elizabeth II&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In her youth Elizabeth once outrageously exclaimed, "My Goodness!"&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II were very different from each other.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks for reading!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I recommend &lt;a href="https://rexfactor.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Rex Factor Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Monarch"></category><category term="Victoria"></category><category term="Elizabeth II"></category></entry><entry><title>Ideology Of World War One</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/ideology-of-world-war-one.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-12-25T00:00:00-08:00</published><updated>2021-12-25T00:00:00-08:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-12-25:/ideology-of-world-war-one.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;How did ideology contribute to World War One? It did not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of the extant ideological movements of the time were a factor in
causing World War One. Even &lt;em&gt;ethnicity&lt;/em&gt;, which is the opposite of ideology, played only a
very small role.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This blog post is a response to the …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;How did ideology contribute to World War One? It did not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of the extant ideological movements of the time were a factor in
causing World War One. Even &lt;em&gt;ethnicity&lt;/em&gt;, which is the opposite of ideology, played only a
very small role.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This blog post is a response to the Podcast
&lt;a href="https://www.wdfpodcast.com/" target="_blank"&gt;When Diplomacy Fails&lt;/a&gt;,
which asserts that ideology was a contributing factor, but I disagree.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Communism&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belligerent" target="_blank"&gt;belligerents&lt;/a&gt;
were pro-communist. Even if one were to speculate that any of the belligerents,
might have been capable of being motivated by the desire to prevent the
spread of communism, there was nothing to prevent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While it is true that the outbreak of communism in Russia was tangent, that
only lead to Russia withdrawing from the war.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Democracy&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Democracy is interesting because it had been a huge motivation in the past.
Because the French Revolution gifted France the capability to raise
huge armies,
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_First_Coalition" target="_blank"&gt;The First Coalition&lt;/a&gt;
rose up against it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And Democracy certainly has been a huge factor in other wars. For instance Democracy
gave Athens the spirit to win at
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marathon" target="_blank"&gt;Marathon&lt;/a&gt;.
And Democracy enabled the allies to execute more effectively and win
World War Two.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But despite being the most democratic belligerent in WWI, France did not even have the most
powerful army at the time, Germany did. And there is no indication that France wanted
to spread Democracy to Germany. In a vacuum the only motivation France would have had to
go to war with Germany would have been to recapture
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace%E2%80%93Lorraine" target="_blank"&gt;Alace-Loraine&lt;/a&gt;,
which it lost in the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War" target="_blank"&gt;Franco-Prussion War&lt;/a&gt;,
or to possibly exchange colonial assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Imperialism&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The only exception here is that Serbia's stance was in opposition to the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary" target="_blank"&gt;Austro-Hungarian Empire&lt;/a&gt;.
But in the final analysis, Serbia was merely a pawn.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Russia, France, Italy, Austria, Britain, Ottomans, and Germany were all empires, and thus
unopposed to Imperialism as an idea. Even the King of Belgium possessed colonies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Monarchy&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While it is true that Austria wanted to protect the Monarchy as in institution, the fact that
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria" target="_blank"&gt;Archduke Franz Ferdinand&lt;/a&gt;
was heir to the Austrian Throne was only relevant in the local context of
the assassination in Sarajevo. Indeed, Serbia also had a King.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Ethnicity&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The problem here is that identity is not an ideology. Identity is the opposite
of ideology. Western Elitists may very well hold the ideology that identity is
an ideology, but the ideology of identity being an ideology, is not that same
thing as identity being an ideology. This merely shows how out-of-touch Elitists are.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But even if we stipulate that identity is an ideology, this only applies to
Russia coming to Serbia's defense because the Serbs are Slavs. And while it is
true that the war would not have happened if Russia had not stood up for Serbia,
in the final analysis Serbia was only a pawn. And furthermore, Russia was equally
motivated by &lt;em&gt;sphere-of-influence&lt;/em&gt; considerations in the Balkans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And while it is true that Austria was motivated to contain Serb influence
in its empire, Serbianism is not an ethnicity. A Serb is no more or less a
Slav than is a Czech, Bosnian, or Croat, all of whom were already established
within the empire.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Were the Ottoman Turks Racist? Either way that is immaterial as they
were only able to fight effectively in defense.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nor did Germany invade France for ethnic reasons. Germany attacked France
because the strategy of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan" target="_blank"&gt;Schlieffen&lt;/a&gt;
plan was to defeat France quickly
on the assumption that Russia would be slow to mobilize, thus avoiding
having to fight both at the same time. The fact that Germany entered the
war because of Russian mobilization,
and because Russia was deceptive and duplicitous about that,
is a separate issue from the strategy
of the Schlieffen plan.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nor did America enter the war for 'anti-German' reasons. America
entered the war because she had lent vast amounts of money to the belligerents
and needed to protect her investment. It would be as disingenuous to
cast, as racist, alarm about the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram" target="_blank"&gt;Zimmerman Telegram&lt;/a&gt;,
as it is to cast Trump's Border Wall as racist.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;War as an Ideology&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Statesmen who pushed over the dominoes, may well have
embraced the Glory of War, but that was an evolution; an effect but not a cause.
As of June 28,
no one thought that the destruction of Europe would be therapeutic.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;World War One was caused not by ideology, but by Nationalism and Fear.
Nationalism and Fear are not ideas, they are feelings.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys" target="_blank"&gt;Donkeys&lt;/a&gt;
were not thinking men anymore than
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q" target="_blank"&gt;Democrats are&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ironically, World War Two &lt;strong&gt;was&lt;/strong&gt; caused by Idealism. From
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points" target="_blank"&gt;Wilson's 14 Points&lt;/a&gt;,
to the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles" target="_blank"&gt;Versaille Treaty&lt;/a&gt;, to the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations" target="_blank"&gt;League of Nations&lt;/a&gt;,
to the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic" target="_blank"&gt;Weimar Republic&lt;/a&gt;:
the Elites tried
to remake Society and the World according to their high-minded ideals, but then in
typical fashion shielded themselves from the negative consequences of
their idealism while being unwilling and incapable of enforcing them.
Until
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton" target="_blank"&gt;Patton&lt;/a&gt; came along.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="WWI"></category><category term="Communism"></category><category term="Democracy"></category><category term="Imperialism"></category><category term="Ethnicity"></category><category term="Podcast"></category></entry><entry><title>Xmas</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/xmas.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-12-09T00:00:00-08:00</published><updated>2021-12-09T00:00:00-08:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-12-09:/xmas.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Where does the word &lt;strong&gt;Xmas&lt;/strong&gt; come from?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Early Christians used many symbols such as the Chi Rho, the
Ichthys, the Anchored Cross, and the Sator Square.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Chi Rho&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho" target="_blank"&gt;Chi Rho&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;span style="font-weight:bold"&gt;&amp;#x2627;&lt;/span&gt;
as explained in this
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds&amp;amp;t=594s" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube Video&lt;/a&gt;,
is a symbol composed by overlaying Chi and Rho, the first two Greek …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Where does the word &lt;strong&gt;Xmas&lt;/strong&gt; come from?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Early Christians used many symbols such as the Chi Rho, the
Ichthys, the Anchored Cross, and the Sator Square.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Chi Rho&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho" target="_blank"&gt;Chi Rho&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;span style="font-weight:bold"&gt;&amp;#x2627;&lt;/span&gt;
as explained in this
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds&amp;amp;t=594s" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube Video&lt;/a&gt;,
is a symbol composed by overlaying Chi and Rho, the first two Greek
Letters in the word &lt;em&gt;Christ&lt;/em&gt;. And well, it kind of looks like an
&lt;strong&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt; doesn't it? This is where the word &lt;em&gt;Xmas&lt;/em&gt; comes from.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Anchored Cross&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Early Christians also drew the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchored_cross" target="_blank"&gt;Anchored Cross&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;span style="font-weight:bold"&gt;&amp;#x2693;&lt;/span&gt;
as explained in this
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds&amp;amp;t=628s" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube Video&lt;/a&gt;,
because it contains a cross.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Ichthys&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys" target="_blank"&gt;Ichthys &lt;span style="font-weight:bold"&gt;&amp;#x221D;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;,
otherwise known as &lt;em&gt;The Christian Fish Symbol&lt;/em&gt;, as explained in this
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds&amp;amp;t=544s" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube Video&lt;/a&gt;,
which early Christians used as a secret sign with which to identify
each other, because Christ told several of his Disciples that
he would make them &lt;em&gt;Fishers of Men&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Sator Square&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square" target="_blank"&gt;Sator Square&lt;/a&gt;,
as explained in this
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds&amp;amp;t=203s" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube Video&lt;/a&gt;,
is a mysterious square of 5 Latin words which mirror each other forwards and backward,
both vertically and horizontally.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A translation, derived from the nominal translations of the individual words
in the context of the &lt;em&gt;rotatability&lt;/em&gt; of their arrangement, would
presumable be something like &lt;em&gt;AS YE SOW, SO SHALL YE IN TURN REAP&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="font-family:monospace;font-size:2em;text-align:center"&gt;
R&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;O&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;T&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;S&lt;/br&gt;
O&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;P&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;R&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A&lt;/br&gt;
T&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;N&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;T&lt;/br&gt;
A&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;R&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;P&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;O&lt;/br&gt;
S&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;T&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;O&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;R&lt;/br&gt;&lt;/br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can rearrange the letters into a cross contructed from the word
&lt;em&gt;PATERNOSTER&lt;/em&gt;, which translates to &lt;em&gt;Our Father&lt;/em&gt;, decorated with the
symbolic first and last letters of the Greek alphabet,
&lt;em&gt;Alpha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Omega&lt;/em&gt;, a title ascribed to God
in Revelations, meaning &lt;em&gt;The Beginning And The End&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="font-family:monospace;font-size:2em;text-align:center"&gt;
P&lt;/br&gt;
A&lt;/br&gt;
T&lt;/br&gt;
A&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;O&lt;/br&gt;
R&lt;/br&gt;
P&amp;nbsp;A&amp;nbsp;T&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;R&amp;nbsp;N&amp;nbsp;O&amp;nbsp;S&amp;nbsp;T&amp;nbsp;E&amp;nbsp;R&lt;/br&gt;
O&lt;/br&gt;
O&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;S&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A&lt;/br&gt;
T&lt;/br&gt;
E&lt;/br&gt;
R&lt;/br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I recommend watching the entire video because it is fantastic.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center"&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZdV7xL_Ds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;
&lt;img style="max-width:90vw;height:auto" src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/qUZdV7xL_Ds/0.jpg" alt="Christianity As An Artistic Force (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective"/&gt;
&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact I recommend watching the entire playlist for the same reason.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(You'll have to sign into to watch the video about Paul Rubens).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center"&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WByxidQTk9E&amp;list=PL5JqSuIvtmAOZzE7Eq6Q4uyXgma2zEGj2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;
&lt;img style="max-width:90vw;height:auto" src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/WByxidQTk9E/0.jpg" alt="Waldemar Januszczak Documentary | Perspective"/&gt;
&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</content><category term="Christmas"></category><category term="Pompeii"></category><category term="Sator"></category><category term="Ichthys"></category><category term="Chi Rho"></category><category term="Anchored Cross"></category><category term="Symbolism"></category></entry><entry><title>Trebia Trasimene Cannae and Zama</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/trebia-trasimene-cannae-and-zama.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-10-18T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-10-18T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-10-18:/trebia-trasimene-cannae-and-zama.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;What are the four major Battles of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Punic_War" target="_blank"&gt;Second Punic War&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you said, "Trebia, Trasimene, Cannae, and Zama", you are correct!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Prologue&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 218 BC, Carthaginian General Hannibal, with an army of 40,000
and more than 30 war elephants, crossed the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees" target="_blank"&gt;Pyrenees Mountains&lt;/a&gt;,
then crossed the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh%C3%B4ne" target="_blank"&gt;Rhone River …&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;What are the four major Battles of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Punic_War" target="_blank"&gt;Second Punic War&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you said, "Trebia, Trasimene, Cannae, and Zama", you are correct!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Prologue&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 218 BC, Carthaginian General Hannibal, with an army of 40,000
and more than 30 war elephants, crossed the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees" target="_blank"&gt;Pyrenees Mountains&lt;/a&gt;,
then crossed the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh%C3%B4ne" target="_blank"&gt;Rhone River&lt;/a&gt;,
and then crossed
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alps" target="_blank"&gt;The Alps&lt;/a&gt; in winter,
and invaded Northern Italy, otherwise known as
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisalpine_Gaul" target="_blank"&gt;Cisalpine Gaul&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Trebia River&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In December, on a floodplain of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trebia" target="_blank"&gt;Trebia River&lt;/a&gt;,
Hannibal decisively defeated a Roman Army led by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Sempronius_Longus_(consul_218_BC)" target="_blank"&gt;Roman Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hannibal's &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidian_cavalry" target="_blank"&gt;Numidian Cavalry&lt;/a&gt;
were instrumental in victory, and the Carthaginian Light Infantry out-flanked the Roman
Infantry. But the battle was decided when a hidden Carthaginian unit ambushed the
Roman Army from behind while they were engaged.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Lake Trasimene&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the Spring of 217 BC, Hannibal crossed the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apennine_Mountains" target="_blank"&gt;Apennine Mountains&lt;/a&gt;,
marched for four days through the swamps near the mouth of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno" target="_blank"&gt;Arno River&lt;/a&gt;
(which flows through modern Florence and Pisa), and ambushed a Roman Army which was led by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Flaminius_(consul_223_BC)" target="_blank"&gt;Roman Consul Gaius Flaminius&lt;/a&gt;,
as it marched along the shore of
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Trasimene" target="_blank"&gt;Lake Trasimene&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This was (and still is), the greatest ambush in human military history. And once again
the Roman Army was wiped out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Cannae&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rome scrambled to rebuild it's army, and once again on August 2 216 BC, met Hannibal at the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae" target="_blank"&gt;Battle of Cannae&lt;/a&gt;. This time the
Roman Army was led by both &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_consul" target="_blank"&gt;Consuls&lt;/a&gt;:
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Terentius_Varro" target="_blank"&gt;Gaius Terentius Varro&lt;/a&gt;, and
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Aemilius_Paullus_(consul_219_BC)" target="_blank"&gt;Lucius Aemilius Paullus&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once again, Hannibal had more and better Cavalry.
However the Carthaginian Army was outnumbered by the Roman Army nearly two to one. But
through clever and deceptive battle-field deployment and maneuver, Hannibal's more-experienced infantry
managed to completely surround the Roman Infantry, which consequently fell-in on itself, and unable to fight or maneuver,
was almost completely wiped out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Battle of Cannae was (and still is), one of the bloodiest days in human history with perhaps 50,000 - 70,000
casualties in the span of just a few hours.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Zama&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By waging war against &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage" target="_blank"&gt;Carthage&lt;/a&gt;,
Roman General
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus" target="_blank"&gt;Publius Cornelius Scipio&lt;/a&gt;
compelled Hannibal to return with his Army to Africa, where the two met in 202 BC at the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama" target="_blank"&gt;Battle of Zama&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This time Rome had the superior Cavalry as Numidia was now allied with Rome. Hannibal's 80 war
elephants spooked and were inneffective.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At first, the Carthaginian Cavalry attempted to lure the Roman Cavalry away from the Battle Field
by fleeing. However, Hannibal's tactic of placing his veterans in the rear back-fired, because about the
time that the first two lines of Carthaginian Infantry were wiped out and the third line was engaged,
the Roman Cavalry returned to the Battle Field and rolled-up the Carthaginians from behind.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Carthage was routed from the Battle Field and the fleeing troops were easily pursued and killed by the
Roman Cavalry in the flat terrain. On the Ancient Battle Field, you were a winner ... until you were not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hannibal would regret not having attacked the City of Rome following the Battle of Cannae.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Second Punic War earned for Rome the reputation of refusing to give up and refusing to accept defeat.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Rome"></category><category term="Carthage"></category><category term="Hannibal"></category><category term="Elephants"></category></entry><entry><title>Hillbillies</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/hillbillies.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-09-01T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-09-01T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-09-01:/hillbillies.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly" target="_blank"&gt;Hillbillies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
are so called because their
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Scots_people" target="_blank"&gt;Ulster-Scots&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
Ancestors supported King William III during the Williamite War.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Ulster&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You may be familiar with current events in Northern Ireland. This history goes back to
a time when Scots from Southern Scotland and Northern England colonized
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster" target="_blank"&gt;Ulster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
which is Northern Ireland.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Scottish Marches …&lt;/h3&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly" target="_blank"&gt;Hillbillies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
are so called because their
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Scots_people" target="_blank"&gt;Ulster-Scots&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
Ancestors supported King William III during the Williamite War.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Ulster&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You may be familiar with current events in Northern Ireland. This history goes back to
a time when Scots from Southern Scotland and Northern England colonized
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster" target="_blank"&gt;Ulster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
which is Northern Ireland.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Scottish Marches&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But why did the Ulster-Scots migrate from the
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Marches" target="_blank"&gt;Scottish Marches&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
to Northern Ireland?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is an oft-repeated scenario in Medievel Europe involving something called a
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_(territory)" target="_blank"&gt;March&lt;/a&gt;.
Please click through to the Wikipedia Article to see the long list of Marches
all over Europe!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To summarize, a March is a border region or frontier
region where the Presiding Lord, often titled a
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess" target="_blank"&gt;Marquise&lt;/a&gt;
was allowed additional fortifications and military capability above and
beyond that allowed ordinary Nobility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And so this oft-repeated scenario was that in a border region or March,
the local Nobility would have the means to enrich themselves with repeated
cross-border raids. But this unfortunately always came at the expense of
the local population, thus the motivation to flee to Ulster.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;King William III&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So let's circle back.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hillbillies were so called because their
Ulster-Scots Ancestors supported
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England" target="_blank"&gt;King Billy&lt;/a&gt;
during the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamite_War_in_Ireland" target="_blank"&gt;Williamite War&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Also known as &lt;em&gt;William of Orange&lt;/em&gt;, he was installed
as King of England during a coup known as the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution" target="_blank"&gt;Glorious Revolution&lt;/a&gt;
in 1688, in which
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution" target="_blank"&gt;King James II&lt;/a&gt; was deposed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;King James II (and VII)&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So what was King James' problem?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;King James II was thown out of office because he
was Catholic, because his second wife
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Modena" target="_blank"&gt;Mary of Modena&lt;/a&gt;
was also Catholic, and because together they parented
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart" target="_blank"&gt;James Francis Edward&lt;/a&gt;
and raised him as a Catholic.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Williamite War&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ok, let's circle back to the Williamite War in 1689.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It turns out that while King James II was deposed as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
he still had an armed force in Ireland with which he fought a war against, and
was defeated by, King William III in Northern Ireland. This is when the Ulster-Scots
became known as supporters of King Billy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Anglo-Dutch Wars&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But why was William of Orange installed as King?
I am not going to answer this question.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But it should be noted that William of Orange was also the ruler
of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and the Dutch Republic.
And the context for this is that throughout the 17th Century,
England and the Netherlands had been fighting a series of
disastrous and expensive wars against
each other known collectively as the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Dutch_Wars" target="_blank"&gt;Anglo-Dutch Wars&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed it was just prior to the Second Anglo-Dutch War
that New Amsterdam became New York.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The purpose of the Anglo-Dutch Wars was to establish control
of International Colonial Trade, but it was believed that
having a single King and Ruler of both England and several
countries in the Lowlands would create peace.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Principality of Orange&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As an interesting aside, let's just point out that the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Orange" target="_blank"&gt;Principality of Orange&lt;/a&gt;
came into existence in 1163 per Holy Roman Emperor
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor" target="_blank"&gt;Frederick Barbarossa&lt;/a&gt;
in order to serve as a March in the context of his
conflict with the Papacy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Fighting" target="_blank"&gt;Born Fighting&lt;/a&gt; is a
&lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Born-Fighting-Scots-Irish-Shaped-America/dp/0767916891" target="_blank"&gt;Book&lt;/a&gt;
written by &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb" target="_blank"&gt;Senator James Webb&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While I have not read the book, the Television Series Born Fighting
from the Smithsonian Channel is also narrated by Senator James Webb
and is very fun and interesting to watch.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Appalachia"></category><category term="Hillbillies"></category><category term="Ulster"></category><category term="Scots-Irish"></category><category term="King William III"></category></entry><entry><title>Veneti</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/veneti.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-08-07T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-08-07T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-08-07:/veneti.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Who were the Veneti? This is not an easy question to answer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Baltic Veneti&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula_Veneti" target="_blank"&gt;Vistula Veneti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
were called &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wends" target="_blank"&gt;Wends&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;,
by German-speaking people. But another theory is that &lt;em&gt;Veneti&lt;/em&gt; is a diminutization
of &lt;em&gt;venus&lt;/em&gt;, as per Latin origins. And for further confusion, Slavs living
near Germanic settlements were also called …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Who were the Veneti? This is not an easy question to answer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Baltic Veneti&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula_Veneti" target="_blank"&gt;Vistula Veneti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
were called &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wends" target="_blank"&gt;Wends&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;,
by German-speaking people. But another theory is that &lt;em&gt;Veneti&lt;/em&gt; is a diminutization
of &lt;em&gt;venus&lt;/em&gt;, as per Latin origins. And for further confusion, Slavs living
near Germanic settlements were also called &lt;em&gt;Wends&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Vistula Veneti&lt;/em&gt; hailed from Eastern Poland.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Adriatic Veneti&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriatic_Veneti" target="_blank"&gt;Adriatic Veneti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
lived in a region that we now identify as "the area around Venice".
Indeed, this area is known by the name
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneto" target="_blank"&gt;Veneto&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;,
or &lt;em&gt;Venetia&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Strabo, the Greek historian, conjectures that the &lt;em&gt;Adriatic Veneti&lt;/em&gt; are
related to the Veneti of Brittany.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Breton Veneti&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneti_(Gaul)" target="_blank"&gt;Veneti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
of the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany" target="_blank"&gt;Breton Peninsula&lt;/a&gt;,
were a tribe of Gauls which were defeated by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimus_Junius_Brutus_Albinus" target="_blank"&gt;Julius Brunus Albinus&lt;/a&gt;,
in a
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimus_Junius_Brutus_Albinus#During_the_Wars" target="_blank"&gt;naval battle in 56 BC&lt;/a&gt;,
as part of Julius
Caesar's campaign to pacify Gaul.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Part of the drama here was that the
Veneti were experienced in operating on the ocean, whereas the Romans
would have only ever known the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
In particular, ships sailed by the Veneti were faster than the Roman ships.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://play.acast.com/s/historyofgermany/040-wends-sorbs-andotherslavs" target="_blank"&gt;Wends, Sorbs, and Other Slavs - History of Germany Podcast 40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-60-the-celtic-holocaust/" target="_blank"&gt;The Celtic Holocaust - Hardcore History 60&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10657" target="_blank"&gt;"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries by Julius Caesar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</content><category term="Wends"></category><category term="Veneti"></category><category term="Brittany"></category><category term="Italy"></category></entry><entry><title>Guideschi You Guys</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/guideschi-you-guys.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-08-06T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-08-06T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-08-06:/guideschi-you-guys.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;"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.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Gunpowder Plot&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You are probably familiar with the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot" target="_blank"&gt;Gunpowder Plot&lt;/a&gt;,
in which &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes" target="_blank"&gt;Guy Fawkes&lt;/a&gt;,
attempted to blow up Parliament on 5 …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;"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.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Gunpowder Plot&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You are probably familiar with the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot" target="_blank"&gt;Gunpowder Plot&lt;/a&gt;,
in which &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes" target="_blank"&gt;Guy Fawkes&lt;/a&gt;,
attempted to blow up Parliament on 5 November 1605.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And thus, because Guy Fawkes was reviled for his crime, the expression "You Guys" emerged
as an insult.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Norman Conquest&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But how did an Englishman come by the names "Guy", and "Fawkes"?
According to Wikipedia,
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawkes" target="_blank"&gt;Fawkes is a name of Norman-French origin&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Well now. It just so happens that the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Conquest" target="_blank"&gt;Normans invaded and conquered England in 1066&lt;/a&gt;,
an event from which the history of English Nobility ever since can be traced.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Guy of Nantes&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And yet more than a half century before the Normans even
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy#Viking_period" target="_blank"&gt;settled in Normandy&lt;/a&gt;,
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),
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_of_Nantes" target="_blank"&gt;Guy of Nantes&lt;/a&gt;
was Count of Nantes, as of 778, which was of course the late 8th Century,
the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Nantes" target="_blank"&gt;County of Nantes&lt;/a&gt;
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.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Well, that was awkward.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Breton Peninsula Geography&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;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?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you will recall that Charlemagne became King of the Franks in 768, but he was never able
to conquer the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany" target="_blank"&gt;Breton Peninsula&lt;/a&gt;,
because the terrain was too rough. Thus he appointed
Guy's father &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland" target="_blank"&gt;Roland&lt;/a&gt; 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).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Excile to Italy&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyway, one thing led to another. Guy's son
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_I_of_Nantes" target="_blank"&gt;Lambert&lt;/a&gt;
had a falling-out with Charlemagne's son
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_the_Pious" target="_blank"&gt;Louis the Pious&lt;/a&gt;,
which resulted in the Guideschi Family being exciled to Italy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then in 834 Lambert was given the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Spoleto" target="_blank"&gt;Duchy of Spoleto&lt;/a&gt;,
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.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;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!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here's a
&lt;a href="https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/blog/episode-16-hey-guy" target="_blank"&gt;podcast about the Guideshi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Insults"></category><category term="Guideschi"></category><category term="Brittany"></category><category term="Italy"></category></entry><entry><title>Lohengrin</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/lohengrin.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-07-29T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-07-29T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-07-29:/lohengrin.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Have you heard of &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3NtcDdgDLlnptu72CWBxWM" target="_blank"&gt;Lohengrin&lt;/a&gt;?
It is a German Opera written and composed by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner" target="_blank"&gt;Richard Wagner&lt;/a&gt;
in 1850. I happen to think that German Opera is more
entertaining than Italian Opera, but enough about me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;King Ludwig II&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Which brings me to
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria" target="_blank"&gt;King Ludwig II of Bavaria&lt;/a&gt;.
If I understand …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Have you heard of &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3NtcDdgDLlnptu72CWBxWM" target="_blank"&gt;Lohengrin&lt;/a&gt;?
It is a German Opera written and composed by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner" target="_blank"&gt;Richard Wagner&lt;/a&gt;
in 1850. I happen to think that German Opera is more
entertaining than Italian Opera, but enough about me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;King Ludwig II&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Which brings me to
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria" target="_blank"&gt;King Ludwig II of Bavaria&lt;/a&gt;.
If I understand correctly,
King Ludwig was very fond of Lohengrin, and built
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle" target="_blank"&gt;Neuschwanstein Castle&lt;/a&gt;
as a private world for himself where he could live alone in a fantasy
inspired by the
&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_the_Swan" target="_blank"&gt;Knight of the Swan Legend&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;,
on which Lohengrin is based.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But don't judge King Ludwig II too harshly: he was after all a cigar connoisseur,
drove a smoking-hot golden carriage, and Neuschwanstein Castle is
an excellent place to take selfies. You really should visit the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marstallmuseum" target="_blank"&gt;Marstallmuseum&lt;/a&gt;
at &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphenburg_Palace" target="_blank"&gt;Nymphenburg Palace in Munich&lt;/a&gt; and see the
&lt;a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Dress_Coach_of_King_Ludwig_II.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;golden carriage&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Needless to say, Lohengrin is quite different from the
&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2g12QZ0wXFoyOyDo8nUUsM" target="_blank"&gt;Strauss Operas&lt;/a&gt;
that your great-great-great Grandmother used to listen to on
her smartphone in the bathtub.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Lohengrin&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So what happens in Lohengrin?
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Fowler" target="_blank"&gt;King Henry the Fowler&lt;/a&gt;
fights the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians" target="_blank"&gt;Magyars&lt;/a&gt;.
This means we have to talk about the Magyars, King Henry's Son
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor" target="_blank"&gt;King Otto I&lt;/a&gt;,
the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lechfeld" target="_blank"&gt;Battle of Augsburg&lt;/a&gt;
which is sometimes called the Battle of Lechfeld,
and the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongols" target="_blank"&gt;Mongols&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Magyars&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ok, the Magyars are descended from a nomadic-steppe-people who settled on
the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hungarian_Plain" target="_blank"&gt;Hungarian Plain&lt;/a&gt;,
which is sometimes called the Carpathian Plain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately for them, the Hungarian Plain was not quite vast
enough to support a prosperous nomadic lifestyle. And so for some hundreds
of years, the Magyars raided and pillaged all over Europe. It should be noted that
Hungary considers 1896 to be the 1000th anniversary of the Magyars entering the Carpathian Plain,
and in that year many memorials, monuments, and museums were
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Budapest#19th_century" target="_blank"&gt;built in Budapest&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As stated above, the Magyars came into conflict with King Henry the Fowler
who was the King of
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Francia" target="_blank"&gt;East Frankia&lt;/a&gt;.
East Frankia evolved from the Eastern Parts of the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Empire"&gt;Carolingian Empire&lt;/a&gt;
that was originally put together by
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne" target="_blank"&gt;Charlemagne&lt;/a&gt;.
Indeed, there is today a region of Bavaria called
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franconia" target="_blank"&gt;Franconia&lt;/a&gt;, which has
&lt;a href="https://www.vgn.de/en/tickets/all-day-ticket-plus/" target="_blank"&gt;excellent regional passenger trains&lt;/a&gt;
connecting innumerable picturesque little cities and towns
which are perfect for taking &lt;a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/odqMdaJvpB528WaQ8" target="_blank"&gt;selfies&lt;/a&gt;
and &lt;a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/vLCGa7c8xAqEJ15D8" target="_blank"&gt;drinking the local bier&lt;/a&gt;.
But I digress.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Battle of Lechfeld&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Magyars were finally defeated by King Henry the Fowler's son King Otto I
near Augsburg in 955, &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg" target="_blank"&gt;Augsburg&lt;/a&gt;
being an ancient city in Bavaria that goes all
the way back to the Roman Empire.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;King Otto I of East Frankia was the greatest King since Charlemagne, and the
Battle of Lechfeld was equal in importance to the
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings" target="_blank"&gt;Battle of Hastings in 1066&lt;/a&gt;,
in the context of European History, but deeper analysis of that is above my
pay grade. (This is a free blog post)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyway, the Magyars gave up their raiding, became Christianized, and adopted
a more agrarian lifestyle on the Hungarian Plain where they founded the Nation
of Hungary around the year 1000. In the 13th Century, the Mongols invaded Hungary,
&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Mongol_invasion_of_Hungary" target="_blank"&gt;but were never able to advance beyond Hungary into Western Europe&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more riveting entertainment about the Mongols, I recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore
History Podcast, in particular the subseries &lt;em&gt;Wrath of The Khans&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks for reading, I'm fresh out of cigars.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Opera"></category><category term="Franks"></category><category term="Magyars"></category><category term="Mongols"></category></entry><entry><title>Battle In The Middle Ages</title><link href="https://blog.trentpalmer.org/battle-in-the-middle-ages.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2021-07-27T00:00:00-07:00</published><updated>2021-07-27T00:00:00-07:00</updated><author><name>Trent Palmer</name></author><id>tag:blog.trentpalmer.org,2021-07-27:/battle-in-the-middle-ages.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;There were three type of battles in Europe in the Middle Ages:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#raids"&gt;Raids&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#sieges"&gt;Sieges&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#field-battles"&gt;Field-Battles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were two types of soldiers in Europe in the Middle Ages:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;cavalry&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;and infantry.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;h3 id="raids"&gt;Raids&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Infantry tended to not be used in raids, because horses had
the advantage in speed and mobility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="sieges"&gt;Sieges&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cavalry …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;There were three type of battles in Europe in the Middle Ages:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#raids"&gt;Raids&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#sieges"&gt;Sieges&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#field-battles"&gt;Field-Battles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were two types of soldiers in Europe in the Middle Ages:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;cavalry&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;and infantry.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;h3 id="raids"&gt;Raids&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Infantry tended to not be used in raids, because horses had
the advantage in speed and mobility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="sieges"&gt;Sieges&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cavalry were not much use in sieges, but when infantry were not
available, the cavalry could obviously dismount.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Later in the Middle Ages, infantry began using CrossBows, which
were easy to use, and effective in sieges. And so, when infantry
were available for sieges, they would often use CrossBows, and
would often be Mercenaries.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="field-battles"&gt;Field-Battles&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In set-piece battles, cavalry and infantry could work together.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance cavalry could not charge infantry that were in tight formation
with spears. But cavalry were useful for attacking the enemy's flanks,
and for pursuit in the case of a rout. However, for economic reasons,
most field battles were fought between cavalry because it was too
expensive to muster both cavalry and infantry most of the time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Crusades&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Crusades demonstrate that although most field battles in
Europe during the Middle Ages were fought between Cavalry, the warriors
of that age were capable of more sophisticated tactics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here it should be noted, that because lands to the East tended to
be more arid, the opponents fighting against the European Crusaders
were more skilled on horseback and with the bow and arrow. Eastern-style
fighting was much more cavalry-oriented.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What tipped the scale in favour of the Crusaders in certain battles
that they won, was the fact that the CrossBow could outrange the bow-and-arrow.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, the Crusaders would line up infantry with edged-weapons in front,
behind them would be CrossBow Infantry, with Cavalry protecting the flanks.
The edged-weapon infantry would protect the CrossBowMen, who would shoot
over the top and protect the edged-weapon infantry from enemy harrassment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Recommended&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This blog post is inspired by
&lt;a href="https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Wittenberg To Westphalia Podcast&lt;/a&gt;, specifically
&lt;a href="https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/blog/episode-38-warfare-in-the-middle-ages-part-1" target="_blank"&gt;Episode 38&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href="https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/blog/episode-39-what-is-war-baby-dont-hurt-me" target="_blank"&gt;Episode 39&lt;/a&gt;, and
&lt;a href="https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/blog/episode-40-the-actual-war-bits" target="_blank"&gt;Episode 40&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Battle"></category><category term="CrossBow"></category><category term="Sieges"></category><category term="Raids"></category></entry></feed>
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