Give Caesar his Due?
The title is the chapter of the History of Britain I'm listening to right now--but really, this is a random post.
This is an amazing article, and one which resonated with me personally.
This is also an amazing article. This blogger--and the example of St. Francis of Assisi--really exemplifies what Christianity is at its best.
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I'm still listening to Simon Schama's History of Britain 1603-1776--specifically right now I'm working my way through the 1640s and the English Civil War(s). I find it all utterly, utterly fascinating; this time period combines two things I love--monarchy and tragic downfalls. I've come to a few conclusions.
1) Despite what the Steeleye Span song "Montrose" has to say at James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, the dude was kind of a dick, who basically changed sides because the Covenanters didn't want him at their party any more, who only succeeded as much as he did by exploiting the long-running feud between the Highlands and the Lowlands, and who sacked Aberdeen in horrible, horrible ways.
2) I just feel really bad for Charles I. The guy was clearly not cut out for kingship--he never would have been, either, had his older brother not died. If he were a Crusader Kings character, he would have Diplomacy 0.
What was especially poignant to me was how he was bullied into signing the attainder that saw his advisor Strafford executed, and how, according to Schama, he felt regret for that for the rest of his (short) life, and thought his own execution in 1649 was punishment for betraying a loyal servant.
He's seems like he was a decent human being--very devoted to his family, for example, and with a strict moral code--but he had the misfortune to be a monarch, and he lost his head for that.
The thing that gets me, too, is every step of the way he seemed to be making the choice that seemed the best course of action at the time. It's only that altogether, and in the Puritan fervor of the times, that his decisions added up to bad news. Of course the Scots would accept the Laudian prayer book. Of course he should go to Parliament after 11 years without to ask for funds to put down the Covenanters. Of course he should consider Strafford's offer of bringing in Irish troops. When all his advisors were executed or imprisoned or otherwise taken from him, of course he would lean on his (Catholic) wife. Of course he didn't want to give up his right to raise a militia. And so on and so on.
And yeah, I'm struck with the sense that so many people had to die for stupid, stupid things--for the minor differences between one flavor of Protestantism and another. So pointless--so pointless that the monarchy would be restored a little more than ten years later! It's only in retrospect that we paint the English Civil War(s) as being about this struggle to form a constitutional monarchy, but at the core, it started with religion.
It makes me very grateful that we live in a relatively bloodless time.
--
I've told acousticshadow2 that in lieu of a traditional bridesmaid gift, if she can get me a copy of King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire, I will love her forever. Because that's how I roll.
--
I would like to share natbudin's quote about why he never got into CK2: "I didn't want to devote that much time to learning a game that didn't involve trains."
This is an amazing article, and one which resonated with me personally.
This is also an amazing article. This blogger--and the example of St. Francis of Assisi--really exemplifies what Christianity is at its best.
--
I'm still listening to Simon Schama's History of Britain 1603-1776--specifically right now I'm working my way through the 1640s and the English Civil War(s). I find it all utterly, utterly fascinating; this time period combines two things I love--monarchy and tragic downfalls. I've come to a few conclusions.
1) Despite what the Steeleye Span song "Montrose" has to say at James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, the dude was kind of a dick, who basically changed sides because the Covenanters didn't want him at their party any more, who only succeeded as much as he did by exploiting the long-running feud between the Highlands and the Lowlands, and who sacked Aberdeen in horrible, horrible ways.
2) I just feel really bad for Charles I. The guy was clearly not cut out for kingship--he never would have been, either, had his older brother not died. If he were a Crusader Kings character, he would have Diplomacy 0.
What was especially poignant to me was how he was bullied into signing the attainder that saw his advisor Strafford executed, and how, according to Schama, he felt regret for that for the rest of his (short) life, and thought his own execution in 1649 was punishment for betraying a loyal servant.
He's seems like he was a decent human being--very devoted to his family, for example, and with a strict moral code--but he had the misfortune to be a monarch, and he lost his head for that.
The thing that gets me, too, is every step of the way he seemed to be making the choice that seemed the best course of action at the time. It's only that altogether, and in the Puritan fervor of the times, that his decisions added up to bad news. Of course the Scots would accept the Laudian prayer book. Of course he should go to Parliament after 11 years without to ask for funds to put down the Covenanters. Of course he should consider Strafford's offer of bringing in Irish troops. When all his advisors were executed or imprisoned or otherwise taken from him, of course he would lean on his (Catholic) wife. Of course he didn't want to give up his right to raise a militia. And so on and so on.
And yeah, I'm struck with the sense that so many people had to die for stupid, stupid things--for the minor differences between one flavor of Protestantism and another. So pointless--so pointless that the monarchy would be restored a little more than ten years later! It's only in retrospect that we paint the English Civil War(s) as being about this struggle to form a constitutional monarchy, but at the core, it started with religion.
It makes me very grateful that we live in a relatively bloodless time.
--
I've told acousticshadow2 that in lieu of a traditional bridesmaid gift, if she can get me a copy of King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire, I will love her forever. Because that's how I roll.
--
I would like to share natbudin's quote about why he never got into CK2: "I didn't want to devote that much time to learning a game that didn't involve trains."