So shall we go back to the 18th Century today?
Continue reading “Marlborough’s Hero’s part 3: School of the Soldier.”
Let’s Go Down to the Melee part 2.
Time to Go back to the Tourney and Catch up with the knights methinks.
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views.
Bond, James Bond
Millions of book sales, 23 feature length movies grossing $4,809,157,447 and counting, six actors, one dry martini, “Bond, James Bond.” Continue reading “Bond, James Bond”
Marlborough’s Hero’s Part 2.
Taking the Queens Shilling
You could have been one of them rascals in red waiting with Joseph Fleet for the order to advance that day in Bavaria, well before you go head over heels down to the local tavern to let the sergeant buy you a round let me tell you a few things about taking the Queen’s shilling. Continue reading “Marlborough’s Hero’s Part 2.”
Changing the Face of Piracy.
How did a bunch of thieves and murderer’s become hero’s? Ever wonder? Here’s how I see it. Continue reading “Changing the Face of Piracy.”
The Ottoman War.
Yes I know it sounds like a titanic struggle between a man and his footstool, but actually I often feel that one of the great forgotten wars is that of the attempted Ottoman conquest of Europe. Continue reading “The Ottoman War.”
Lets go down to the Melee part 1
In the early days a tournament was essentially a large pitched mock battle between two opposing sides. The idea being to practice for war but instead of killing the opponent you made him your prisoner, entitling you to some ransom or a choice of his armour and horse or both.
Most assuredly this was the way William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart thought of a tournament, though it is doubtful they would have ever used that word in the context we know today and doubtless he would have been most perplexed and interested in equal measure at how this test of arms changed with time, so what is a Melee you ask? Follow me and lets find out. Continue reading “Lets go down to the Melee part 1”
Jousting the once and future sport?
Two American made program’s have recently caused me to ask the question is Jousting the next Olympic sport or is it just a fad?
Jousting is being whispered to be the next Olympic sport. It’s a long road from English Heritage events but people are talking about it seriously.
The American tradition of Renaissance Fair’s allowed the sport to re-emerge from obscurity and in 2012 Full Metal Jousting appeared on the History Channel, bringing modern competitive jousting its first international screening.
But does this sport have what it takes to come back to the fore amongst other equestrian sports. In those terms it would seem so, for after all it remained a popular activity all the way from about 1100 to the 16th Century.
The sport is still as violent as ever though. Although events in Britain, where the joust is an officially recognised sport, are relatively tame geared towards crowd pleasing than doing damage, there was one fatality in 2011 and fractures are as common as they are in rugby.
American professional jousting emphasises full contact and violence in the old tradition and injuries are rife, with the use of solid heavy lances made of hemlock in the case of National Geographic’s earlier show, aired in 2011, “Knights of Mayhem” which makes use of traditional armour unlike Full Metal’s modern “Iron Man” take on body protection.
Cutting edge outfits and reality drama aside I am not convinced that Full Contact Jousting will ever become a professional, popular sport until the risk factor is minimised. Polo is the closest thing to jousting today, it is fast, it is dangerous but it is also non contact and injury not as guaranteed, if you get injured in Polo you have probably broken the rules.
Jousting is the “polo” opposite where the infliction of pain is a necessary evil, but does it have to be? I don’t think so.
The Sport of Fencing is arguably much older than Jousting and in the 17th century the violent aspect of training to kill a man in a duel was removed and by 1900 formal rules had appeared.
Unless the practice of War aspect is eliminated from Jousting I don’t think it can progress much further, professional competitor Shane Adams has said what is missing from the sport is money, I would say that what is missing is safety, money will come when something big changes, for there are no more safeguards now than there was in 1300. Until that happens it will essentially remain an extreme sport.
How to resolve this? I think that jousting would make a great popular sport and by following the example of sword fencing I think it can attain this status.
By making the joust electric you instantly stop trying to hurt the opponent and start trying to score on him, this would further be improved by making the lances out of some sort of either easily breakable material or an incredibly bendy one, so as to lessen the impact. Perhaps there will always be a place for historic jousting but to make it a popular sport things have to change, because things have moved on and though we are sadly bombarded constantly by gratuitous graphic violence in the movies, the need to watch it live has yet to reappear. Traditionally points were awarded according to where you struck your opponent, and so it would be so again, so and so point awarded for shoulders, chest, waist and so on. By allowing the practice of war to be removed you are left with a modern (possibly Olympic) sport that can be enjoyed with as much adrenaline as any equestrian event but in as much safety as well.
These be my thoughts thanks for reading them, I suggest you stop now or who knows what will happen.
Josh.
What’s in a Name? The Margherita Pizza.
Last night I had a Margherita Pizza for dinner. Yum. And I would like to simply state that I think that this dish is nothing short of Italian Brilliance, possibly that country’s greatest gift to Western Civilisation! Being a Pizza enthusiast I suddenly wondered what the deal with it was and why was it called Margherita?
I Hereby show you my findings.
Pizza in one form or another has been around for centuries, decended from simple MedIterranean flatbreads, the people of Naples had called their simple creations of yeast based bread and paste Pizza long before the thing we buy at the supermarket came along.
In its origional form I don’t think it sounds very appetising, but as time went on the Pizza’s of Naples, cooked by its poorer citizens became a tourist attraction and drew wealthier diners down into the sticks to sample their tasty creations, served by open air vendors, Pizza bakeries or by peddlers. Apparently it was a favourite in winter but it bares little resemblance to what we know as Pizza today. What changed? Well in 1889 the Royal cook Raffael Esposito made three special Pizza’s for the King and his consort Queen Margherita of Savoy. One was a completely new take on the traditional plain pizza, hitherto either topped with a tomato paste (since the 16th century-ish) anchovies or olive oil and presumably that mysterious red paste. It was a pizza made with tomato sauce, olive oil, green basil and Mozzarlla cheese, the vibrant colours on this pie created the illusion of the Italian flag and the Queen enjoyed it so much that not only did cheese become prevalent on all Pizza’s from then on but this favoured creation became known as “The Margherita Pizza” and according to the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, it and the Marinara are the “only” types of Pizza in the world.
Anybody hungry?
Later, Josh.