Give Caesar his Due?

[lisefrac]

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

Comments

[sprrwhwk]

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.

And that's how I feel about Ned Stark. :-)

[lisefrac]

Heh. Even I know enough about GRRM to appreciate that reference ;)

The Wars of the Roses are supposed to be the inspiration (loosely) for aSoIaF, right? So not quite the right period, but at least the right island ;)

[qnmark]

Very loosely. Richard York did attempt to claim the throne for himself. At least so far it seems to be based on the Wars of the Roses in character names only.

[qnmark]

Regicide often hits not the really awful monarch but the weaker successor. It shouldn't have been Charles I, it should have been any of the Tudors. And it shouldn't have been Louis XVI, who was merely a spendthrift, but Louis XIV, who was a totalitarian mass murderer and a religious fanatic. Even today there's something like it - in Egypt, Mubarak was not as violent as Nasser and Sadat.

[lisefrac]

Any of the Tudors is a lot of Tudors ;) I'd probably ask to spare Elizabeth I, because, well, she's awesome. Even if she did have Charles' grandmother, Mary Stuart, executed.... it was kind of in extenuating circumstances. And at least she didn't make it a public spectacle, which is more than can be said of what Cromwell did with Charles' execution.

[breakinglight11]

I appreciate those articles very much, thanks for posting them!

[lisefrac]

I thought you'd appreciate the Francis of Assisi one. Just don't read the comments. Some of Richard Beck's commentators are not nearly so open-minded as he...

[laurion]

Huh. I wonder if I'm related to the guy who wrote the King Jame book you reference.