Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived."

                               Jean-Luc Picard

Today will be a change in format that you have seen before. It will mostly be a biography and a history lesson.

Good news:

A 75 year old man down in Pace, Florida (Near Pensacola) went shopping at Home Depot with his wife. They were in two cars. The man had been having signs of Alzheimers for about a year and he was supposed to follow his wife to and from Home Depot. They got separated in traffic and the man dissappeared. Several hours later the county cops near Butler, Georgia found a car stopped on the side of a rural road. They asked the driver is he is OK and said that he is taking a break from driving. The cops got his tag number and left. A little later the cops ran the tag it it showed up as a car belonging to a missing man from Florida. The cops hustle back out to the car on the country road and find the car (out of gas) but no man. They cruise the road and find the man walking down the road. They take him back to the station, give him a cup of coffee and let him take a nap on the couch while they call the man's relatives. The relaives get on the road to Butler to pick him up. The cops check the man's credit cards and find that not only had he came to Butler, Georgia, he had bought gas in Wildwood, Florida down toward Tampa. He had driven over 1,000 miles aimlessly. His family finally arrives and gather up this poor man and take him back to Pace, Florida safe and sound. By the way, The Home Depot he started from was only 2 1/2 mile from his house. That could happen to any of us, unfortunately.

Mensa had their monthly dinner at the Brick City Grill last night. I was there but I don't feel any better informed.

                                 Eleanor of Aquitaine

                                        1122-1204

This is a biography of one of the most fascinating people in history. Her life reads like a soap opera so I will give the main characters soap opera nicknames to save space and they are:

Eleanor of Aquitaine………..Ellie

Henry II, King of England….Hank

Louis VII, King of France…..Lou

Eleanor’s real name was Alia-Aenor meaning “another Aenor”. Eleanor’s mother’s name was Aenor of Chatellerault and a female birth was of no consequence in the high middle ages, they were looking for male heirs to carry on the family name. Her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, one of the richest men in Europe and Ellie was his eldest child and the apple of William’s eye. William died when Ellie was 15 and he left everything to Ellie making her the richest woman in history to date. William had contacted the king of France, Louis VI earlier and requested that in the event of his death Louis VI would promulgate the marriage of Ellie and Louis’ son who would become Louis VII, king of France. Louis VI obliged William and after much pomp and circumstance, Ellie and Lou were married eventually making Ellie the Queen of France. There was one stipulation. Ellie made the Aquitaine estate exempt from being absorbed into the French realm. Aquitaine estate was in what is now south central France. Now here is where the fun starts. The 2nd Crusade began a few years after Lou became King and he being a very pious man, did the Pope’s bidding and started gathering an army to go to Jerusalem and try to kick the Muslims out. Ellie joined in the fervor and personally began recruiting men to go. She even offered 2,000 of her own vassals. Not only that, she insisted on going on the Crusade herself being the first woman to do so. Upon arrival in the Holy Land, Ellie became enamored with all those knights in shining armor and decided it was party time, especially with her uncle Raymond, a French knight. Many people were not pleased that Lou brought Ellie with him, but Lou was so enamored with his young bride that any thing she wanted was OK with him. Lou was an ineffective military leader; he was more of a religiously pious man. He was pretty wimpy on the whole. Even before leaving on the Crusade, Lou and Ellie were estranged and after they returned Ellie wearied of Lou’s weaknesses and began looking for a way out of the marriage. She found that they had a mutual relative which made their marriage illegal and Lou granted a divorce but kept custody of their two children. While all of this was going on, Ellie was scanning the countryside looking for a virile and powerful bachelor. She found one in the 19 year old Henry, the Duke of Normandy and heir to the English throne. Ellie wrangled a meeting with Hank and had a series of sleepovers. Ellie was a sexually experienced 30 year old woman and Hank was a 19 year old virtual virgin meaning that Hank didn’t have a chance. Soon after this encounter he and Ellie were married. Eventually Hank was crowned Henry II, the King of England and Ellie as Queen. Ellie and Hank squabbled from the git-go primarily because of what Ellie perceived as Hanks indiscretions with other women. Although it was well known that Ellie’s pantyhose had been on fire continuously since the Crusades and she had innumerable trysts and brief encounters herself. You men that are married and those that have been married will understand how Ellie was able to justify this hypocrisy in her own mind. Nearly all women are capable of it. In fact one of her lovers was probably Hank’s father Geoffrey of Anjou who counseled Hank to not mess with Ellie from the start. But in spite of all of that, Ellie delivered Hank five sons and three daughters in a span of 13 years. They were William, Henry, Richard (the Lionhearted), Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor and Joan. Hank had many, many illegitimate children also. In spite of her obvious hypocrisy, Ellie goes to France and starts planning the unseating of Hank with the help of the King of France among others. She calls in two of her sons to help plan a coup but her sons ain’t buying what Mom is selling and tell Hank what is going down. Hank takes a ship over to France, gathers up Ellie and heads back to England. As soon as the ship docks at Southampton Hank sent her to the Castle of Winchester to cool her heel under house arrest. Ellie remained under arrest for 15 years in spite of her sons beseeching Hank to release her. While Ellie was paying her dues in Winchester, Hank strikes up a liaison with an Irish beauty named Rosemund Clifford. Normally, Hank was discreet with his mistresses, but he flaunted Rosemund for several years. Rosemund died in 1176 and was buried in the nunnery at Godstow and Hank contributed largely to the nunnery in her behalf. Hank dies in 1186 and the unquestioned heir to the throne was he and Ellie’s son Richard. The only problem here was that Richard had been captured on the way home from yet another Crusade and was being held for ransom in a castle in Germany. Upon hearing of Hank’s death, Richard got word back to England to immediately release his Mother. Ellie was released and immediately beseeched the Pope to engineer the release of her son which he did, for a price. After an enormous ransom had been paid with a large chunk going to the Vatican, Richard was released and returned to England and was crowned King. During all of this time Ellie had engineered the marriage of two of her daughters to the King of Castile and the King of Navarre respectively. Ellie lived through the reign of Richard and a large part of the reign of her son King John also. It was her son King John that signed the Magna Carta declaring that the king was not omnipotent and granted certain rights. This document was the first its kind and laid the foundation for human rights in England. Ellie returned to Aquitaine for a while and in fact directed the defense of her castle from an attack by some of her grandchildren. What I am trying to tell you is that greed knows no limits even up to trying to savage your own grandmother. Ellie eventually tired of all of this hassle and went to the place of Hank and Richard’s tombs, Fontevraud Abbey, and took the oath of a nun. She lived the rest of her days in relative serenity. In 1204, at the age of 81, Ellie died and was buried along side her husband Henry II and son Richard I.

This tale of Eleanor is by no means complete with all the plots, intrigues and travels that occurred throughout her long life. But in summary she was the richest woman in history up until that time, the Queen of two countries, the mother of two Kings and the mother of two Queens. What a magnificent life.

This date in history January 7

1776    On this date super patriot Samuel Adams writes a letter to his friend James Warren stating that the hope for a confederation amongst the American Colonies is not dead ,”but sleepeth”. He also said that neither he nor James needs to worry about it happening because their enemy, England, would force it upon them. The next day Samuel’s cousin, John Adams, wrote a letter to James Warren’s wife Mercy inquiring if she would prefer an American Monarchy (king) or a republic (what we have now). He regaled her with the virtues of a republic but he said ”THERE IS SO MUCH RASCALITY, SO MUCH VENALITY AND CORRUPTION, SO MUCH AVARICE AND AMBITION, SUCH A RAGE FOR PROFIT AND COMMERCE AMONG ALL RANKS AND DEGREES OF MEN EVEN IN AMERICA THAT I DOUBT THERE IS ENOUGH VIRTUE TO SUPPORT A REPUBLIC.” That statement was made by one of our founding fathers almost 223 years ago. Does it sound familiar? There was a meeting in Philadelphia soon after this where the core of the designers of this great nation met to determine what form of government we would pursue. After the meeting, Ben Franklin walked out and a woman waiting outside said “What is it going to be Mr. Franklin.” Ben said “It will be a republic, madam, if we can hold it.”

1901    In November of 1873 a man named Alfred Packer led a group of 21 men out of Bingham Canyon, Utah acting as a guide headed for the gold fields near Breckenridge, Colorado. The winter of 1873-1874 was an exceptionally harsh one and the men eventually staggered into the camp of Ute Chief Ouray. Ouray graciously welcomed the men and fed them and allowed them to rest. He also encouraged them to wait until the grip of winter was broken before proceeding. After being refreshed by food and rest, Packer and five others decided to head out in spite of Ouray’s warning. As you might expect, these six men eventually ran out of food and energy and made camp. Two months later Alfred Packer walked into the Las Pinas Indian Agency alone looking surprisingly healthy considering the story he told about his ordeal. Packer said that the men he was guiding began to die from starvation and exposure and the others ate them for survival. Packer further said that eventually there were only he and a man named Shannon Bell left. He said the Bell went crazy as hell and attacked with a hatchet and Packer had no choice but to shoot in self defense. The story sounded plausible until an investigation showed 5 corpses in a small area, not strung out as stated by Packer. Packer went on trial and was convicted of manslaughter and served 18 years. On this date Packer was released. He told yet another tale after he got out. He said that He had left the camp to go find the trail and after he returned he was faced with Shannon Bell holding a bloody hatchet and the others dead and a pot on the fire was boiling with a human roast inside. When Bell saw Packer he charged with his hatchet aloft and Packer shot him twice in the stomach killing him. Packer admitted that after killing Bell he cut off some selected parts and took them with him for survival. This version seemed the most palatable (pardon the expression). If I am not mistaken, the students at Harvard vote for the worst restaurant in Cambridge every year and give it “The Alfred Packer Award”.

1953    In his final “State of the Union” address President Harry Truman announces that United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. The development of a hydrogen bomb had been allowed because of the detonation of a nuclear device by the Russians in 1949 and the arms race was under way. Finally, a treaty was reached whereby atmospheric testing of nuclear devices was banned. Then everybody went to underground testing. The scorpion was out of the bottle y’all. Now everybody has a nuclear weapon including Pakistan and India, for crying out loud.

Born today:

1800    United States President Millard Fillmore. He said “May God save our country for it is obvious the people will not.”

1891    US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Those that don’t have it, can’t show it. Those that have it, can’t hide it.”

1957    US television journalist Katie Couric. She said “If I were to come on the air in the morning and announce that the planet was going to explode in three hours, we would get calls about my hair.” People are shallow, Katie.

Died today:

1981    US writer William Feather. He said “An indictment against civilization is that happiness and intelligence is seldom found in the same person.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow