Through the summer of 1497, and into late fall, Henry VII the Tudor, may well have been disturbed by the many tumults and upsets that had threatened his reign, time and again that year. But by Christmas, he could also look back to a year marked also by a steady supply of surprise breakthroughs, resolutions and alliances. The results by end of year for Henry, according to J.D. Mackie, after so much offense, intrigue, and suspense, looked very well indeed.
There had been the uprising that started with Cornish miners and who faced off with the King's men near Blakheath in June. The week after these were put down, Henry squared off with James IV in Scotland over the pretender Perkin Warbeck [p. 143]. Scots advanced on Norham in July, and were repulsed. That same month there was also the finalising of the Magnus Intercursus [p. 139] and the many certain worrisome details to iron out of the previous year's omnibus trade law with the Dutch.
After Warbeck was scared into submission and surrendered himself, (around the first of October, 1497 [p. 145]), Warbeck's wife, Lady Katherine Huntly was also captured and in time was brought into Henry's court.
In addition to using Don Pedro de Ayala from the Spanish court the year before (1496) as an ambassador with James IV in Scotland, Henry also used this diplomat to finalise certain milestones in his relations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with a marriage. The betrothal of ten year-old Arthur, the English heir apparent would have him marry Catherine of Aragon, the infant daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella [p. 148]. The settlement reached in July, was celebrated formally in August, and every few months thereafter, until the youths could come of age. By the end of September, Ayala had also secured a truce between James and Henry for ten years.
Through November, while at Exeter, Henry also established a great tax collecting scheme. The program was extensive, strict, and far-seeing. It's reach and effects, Mackie tells us, went on for some ten years til 1507. [p. 146] At some point Henry and his train left Exeter, arriving in Westminster November 27. Here again Warbeck was made to tell his tale again. An assistant to him, a serjeant farrier and a deserter were captured and hung at Tyburn on December 4 [p. 147]. After much hard work, and even well laid plans, Henry could see himself as, and be respected all over as, a stable monarch [p.150]. At peace with everyone but the French, and quiet again domestically, these were reasons a King could rest contentedly.
Each of these stories, the one Perkin Warbeck told after his capture about what he had in fact done, the story of the truce of Henry and James, a peace that would last til their deaths, and the one about poor Prince Arthur and his bride to be Catherine of Aragon, all deserve to be chapters of their own. I'd like to find a book in English about Pedro de Ayala.
___________________________________
quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Is it time for breakfast, yet?
Found a bunch of semi-related things in front of me today. This hardly ever happens to me anymore. Different unintended paralells or, overlaps from different fields and areas, also seeming to call attention to themselves and each other.
Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.
"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.
They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.
'Mediocrità ' indeed.
or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
_____________________________________
Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.
Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
[definitions from, Javitch, Daniel : Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture , ed. Robert W. Hanning and David Rosand (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983). More later.]___________________________________
Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.
"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
_____________________________________
There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.
They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
Businesses of different walks have begun boycotting this Platform of Breitbart, because of how they talk about people and their behavior, by the disallowing of ads of these companies on said Platform. Ads on the internet these days act as subsidy contracts between the major advertised companies and high traffic websites. So, this comes as a potential blow fiscally, a limiting of the ad market for Platform Breitbart to 'keep the lights on' and for their columnists to get paid. And when big influential companies start paying other outlets to advertise on other platforms, other companies follow suit.No Facts Chex #BreitbartCereals— A.M. Pines (@AM_Pines) December 1, 2016
Cornfederate Flakes. #BreitbartCereals— Mona Lisa Scowl (@memepunk) December 1, 2016
So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.
Now we have to eat Kelloggs,for standing up to Breitbart, like Lego dropped D Mail ads. And back #StopFundingHate https://t.co/SkzHLTiHzJ— Polly Toynbee (@pollytoynbee) December 1, 2016
‘Honey bunches of a-holes’: Internet eviscerates rightwing boycott of Kelloggs with #BreitbartCereals https://t.co/xTwU3weNSX pic.twitter.com/i8MysWXqGN— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 1, 2016
'Mediocrità ' indeed.
or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
_____________________________________
Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
Maybe funniest of all was the very random approval by the Gov Office of Ethics yesterday afternoon via twitter. A series of tweets from the office came upon the announcement that the PEOTUS shamboll we are currently pretending to find unity with made a public announcement that he would opt to postpone til 15December, an announcement about his business dealings, but not get into the details, quite yet.Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President https://t.co/Pk5fW3l54w— neditsimple (@neditssimple) November 27, 2016
The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.
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