Tuesday 14 June 2011

Anniversary of the Peasants' Revolt (1381), Battle of Naseby (1645) and the Mutiny on the Bounty (1789)

Today we remember three anniversaries linked by a single theme. Treachery and rebellion against lawful authority.

Lest Beaker Folk forget:

  • Wat Tyler was stabbed to death. 
  • The Parliamentary forces, although temporarily victorious and even martyring Charles I, had to come crawling back to get the Monarchy re-instated after they realised their version of ratbaggery and supposed godliness was boring, annoying and pointless. And Charles II was interesting. Ireton and Cromwell, among others, were hanged and dragged around the streets. Even though they had been dead for years.
  • The Mutineers ended their lives eating only breadfruit and living on Pitcairn Island - outwardly beautiful but in fact you couldn't even get a mobile signal. Fletcher Christian died at the age of 28 after a fight with a Tahitian.

So let us forget all mutinous talk this week, and get back into the Doily Mines and get pressing. Hnaef was only joking about the mice in there. They're rats, anyway.

2 comments :

  1. Posthumous execution, quite brilliant, topped only by posthumous conversion in histories top 10 list of pointless activities performed in the name of vanity.

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  2. Actually, Watt Tyler had quite a nice line in Pyrrhic Defeat. In the end it was feudalism on the pointy end of the dagger.

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