Store cupboard of quotes – week 9 answers

Dan Jones is a leading historian who has written several books about the Plantagenets. The Hollow Crown is a Sunday Times best seller and his book The Plantagenets: the Kings who made England is a must have for anyone with an interest in medieval England. In these quotes he wrote about the following monarchs.

  1. “ King John sent instructions to the royal servant Hubert de Burgh, who was serving as Arthur’s jailer, demanding that he should blind and castrate his prisoner.”
  2. “Had Henry III been richer, less beset by other problems and a more competent military strategist, securing Sicily for his second son might have resembled the masterful pan-European geopoliticking in which his grandfather Henry II might have specialised. Unfortunately, he was none of those things. He was a naive fantasist with a penchant for schemes.”
  3. “Henry I was, as one contemporary chronicler put it, “the man against whom no one could prevail except God himself.” The fourth son of William the Conqueror, he enjoyed an exceptionally long, peaceful, and prosperous reign of thirty-five years, in which royal authority in England reached new heights. After his father’s death in 1087, England and Normandy had been split apart. Henry ruthlessly reunited them.”
  4. The Holland family traced their own royal ancestry through Henry IV’s sister Elizabeth. In January 1444 the most senior Holland, John, earl of Huntingdon, was promoted to duke of Exeter, with precedence over all other dukes except for York—another elevation specifically credited to his closeness in blood to the king. John Holland died in August 1447, and his son Henry Holland eventually succeeded to his duchy.” 
  5. “Pope Pius II, watching England from afar, would later describe Henry VI in this phase of his life as “a man more timorous than a woman, utterly devoid of wit or spirit, who left everything in his wife’s hands.”
  6. While Edward IV was accustomed to fighting on foot, Warwick was said by one chronicler to prefer to run with his men into battle before mounting on horseback, “and if he found victory inclined to his side, he charged boldly among them; if otherwise he took care of himself in time and provided for his escape.” 
  7. “ Richard the Lion-Heart had been the first nobleman north of the Alps to take the Cross in Autumn 1187. His departure to the Holy Land had been delayed almost two years by his quarrel with his father.”
  8. “He had the Plantagenet temper in perhaps the most potent form. It is said that in a fit of rage Edward I once literally frightened a man to death.” 
  9. and 10. Perhaps most surprising of all, the deposed and imprisoned King Henry was not murdered. This had been the fate of the two Plantagenet kings who had lost their crowns before him: Edward II died while in custody at Berkeley Castle in 1327, while Richard II was killed at Pontefract in 1400, the year following his deposition. Ironically, Henry’s survival was perhaps a mark of his uniquely pitiful and ineffectual approach to kingship—for it was much harder to justify killing a man who had done nothing evil or tyrannical, but had earned his fate thanks to his dewy-eyed simplicity. Permitting Henry to remain alive was a bold decision that Edward IV would come to regret. But in 1465 it must have struck the king as a brave and magnanimous act.” 

Store cupboard of quotes week 8 – the constitution.

The Magna Carta
  1. “If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government’s being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.” John Adams.
  2. “…taxation and representation should be co-extensive. Do not women pay taxes? As you might guess this quote comes from a time when women were seeking the vote.” Bertrand Russell
  3. “…she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.” Thomas Hardy
  4. “[The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. ” I think this is Gladstone but I’ve put my notes in a safe place!
  5. “Necessity hath no law.” Oliver Cromwell
  6. “I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England.” Queen Elizabeth I
  7. “A store of traditions and presidents.” Winston Churchill
  8. “I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner” – Tony Benn.
  9. “To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay right or justice” – The Magna Carta.
  10. “We are not interested in the possibility of defeat; they do not exist.” Queen Victoria

Store cupboard of quotes

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed by the Acts of Union with Scotland (1707) and Ireland (1801). This was amended in 1921 with the partition of Ireland. Wales formally became part of the UK in 1536 when Henry VIII passed the Laws in Wales Acts which effectively incorporated Wales.

All of which seems pretty clear cut – apart from the fact that the Treaty of Rhuddlan in 1284 and the union of the Scottish and English crowns in the person of James VI of Scotland I of England also had their part to play as did other events, treaties and relationships down the centuries.

There is no such thing as a written constitution, or so I learned when I did O level politics many moons ago. This week’s store cupboard therefore has to do loosely with the puzzle of the British constitution:

  1. If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government’s being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend. These thoughts come from an American president.
  2. …taxation and representation should be co-extensive. Do not women pay taxes? As you might guess this quote comes from a time when women were seeking the vote. This philosopher and political thinker was a key mover and shaker of the period.
  3. …she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle. This writer was influenced by the history of the region in which he wrote – and darkling thrushes.
  4. [The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. One of Victoria’s Liberal prime ministers.
  5. Necessity hath no law. A warts an’ all kind of politician.
  6. I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England. I’m not giving a clue for this one!
  7. A store of traditions and presidents. KBO.
  8. I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner – this famous 20th century politician died in 2014.
  9. To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay right or justice – on its first outing it lasted 10 weeks.
  10. We are not interested in the possibility of defeat; they do not exist. She may or may not have been amused at the time!

Store cupboard of quotes 7 answers

Dylan Thomas is associated with Laugharne Castle who leased the nearby Castle House during the 1930s and 1940s. The quotes this week were from a selection of Welsh writers and poets.

  1. “Don’t worry about the bits that you can’t understand. Sit back and let the words wash around like music.” Quote can be found in a sequel to a very famous children’s book – Roald Dahl is of Scandinavian descent but was baptised in Cardiff in 1916. He served in the RAF during the war before becoming a writer. He had links with Derbyshire – attending Repton School in his youth.
  2. “The function of posterity is to look after itself.” The hard drinking Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas.
  3. “Woe be to him who reads but one book,” George Herbert the seventeenth century poet associated with metaphysical poetry wrote this very sensible line.
  4. “Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages? … I guess it’s because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears – Chaucer’s, Boccaccio’s, Henry Knighton’s, Thomas Walsingham’s. Froissart’s, Jean Creton’s… writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.” Historian and actor who informed the Romans that Brian was not the Messiah – just a very naughty boy…Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay.
  5. “I do love the past but wouldn’t want to live in it.” The best selling novelist of Tipping the Velvet and The Fingersmith fame.
  6. “Men are born ignorant not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” Bertrand Russell the Nobel prize winner of 1950 was a man of many talents.
  7. “It’s people with obsessions who do the real harm in the world.” Dick Francis is associated with crime and horses. He was born in Pembrokeshire.
  8. “When all’s said, and done, if civilisation drowns the last colour to go will be gold -the light on a glass, the prow of a gondola, the name on a rosewood piano as silence engulfs it.” Gillian Clarke is writing about the Titanic in these lines.
  9. “The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the twentieth century.” This Welsh born novelist created Kingsbridge and built a cathedral of words – I keep taking us back to Ken Follett!
  10. A girl from the Welsh Marches who wrote under two names wrote the Brothers of Gwynedd but wrote this line in a book about a battle of 1403: “He sat staring before him, seeing nothing but a long line of Mortimers, inexhaustable and prolific to the end of time.”  Edith Pargeter, also known as Ellis Peters, wrote this line in her book about the Battle of Shrewsbury. The book is called A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury.

Store cupboard of quotes – week 7

Dylan Thomas is associated with Laugharne Castle who leased the nearby Castle House during the 1930s and 1940s. Therefore thinking slightly out of the box this week the store cupboard of quotes this week features Welsh authors:

  1. “Don’t worry about the bits that you can’t understand. Sit back and let the words wash around like music.” Quote can be found in a sequel to a very famous children’s book – The author is of Scandinavian descent but was baptised in Cardiff in 1916.
  2. “The function of posterity is to look after itself.” A hard drinking Welsh poet.
  3. “Woe be to him who reads but one book,” Seventeenth century poet associated with metaphysical poetry.
  4. “Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages? … I guess it’s because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears – Chaucer’s, Boccaccio’s, Henry Knighton’s, Thomas Walsingham’s. Froissart’s, Jean Creton’s… writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.” Historian and actor who informed the Romans that Brian was not the Messiah – just a very naughty boy.
  5. “I do love the past but wouldn’t want to live in it.” The best selling novelist of Tipping the Velvet and The Fingersmith fame.
  6. “Men are born ignorant not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” Nobel prize winner of many talents.
  7. “It’s people with obsessions who do the real harm in the world.” This writer is associated with crime and horses.
  8. “When all’s said, and done, if civilisation drowns the last colour to go will be gold -the light on a glass, the prow of a gondola, the name on a rosewood piano as silence engulfs it.” Which famous ship and which Welsh poet?
  9. “The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the twentieth century.” This Welsh born novelist created Kingsbridge and built a cathedral of words.
  10. A girl from the Welsh Marches who wrote under two names wrote the Brothers of Grynedd but wrote this line in a book about a battle of 1403: “He sat staring before him, seeing nothing but a long line of Mortimers, inexhaustable and prolific to the end of time.”  What are the names by which the authors known and what famous battle took place in the Welsh Marches in 1403 that became the title for one of her novels

Why not take a virtual visit to the British Museum at www.britishmuseum.org/collection or visit the Courtauld Gallery online at www.courtauld.ac.uk

Store cupboard of quotes castles 1

How did you do? I hope that you realise that there’ll be at least two more castle themed challenges – next week’s History Jar Challenge will be Welsh castles.

Ivanhoe is associated with Conisburgh Castle created by Sir Walter Scott.

2. 

Peveril Castle in Castleton, Derbyshire, is part of the title of another Sir Walter Scott Novel.

3.

Ian Flemming the creator of 007 described Dover Castle as “the wonderful cardboard castle” in Moonraker.

4.

Brave Dame Mary, a novel by Louisa Hawtry featured Mary Bankes defence of Corfe Castle for the Royalists against the Parliamentarians.

5.

Men of Harlech was sung by the defenders of Rorkes Drift in the film Zulu which starred Michael Caine.

And just to finish – Victor Hugo said that “if we don’t build castles in the air we don’t build anything on the ground” – Fictional Castles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_castles

Store Cupboard of quotes week 6 – castles

George Herbert the seventeenth century metaphorical poet said that castles are “forrests of stone” (I’ve not spelled it wrong.) And that’s your first quote for the week. Your challenge is to answer the ten questions linked to the castles in the five pictures:

Name the fictional knight associated with this castle created by Sir Walter Scott.

2.

This castle is part of the title of another Sir Walter Scott Novel.

3.

A famous author of a famous secret agent described this castle as “the wonderful cardboard castle,” – which author, which secret agent and which castle…it’s in a book that has the word moon in it’s title.

4.

A novel by Louisa Hawtry featured a brave dame associated with this castle – which dame? which castle?

5.

This castle, or its guardians, feature in an extremely well known song that Michael Cane sang during an epic film. Which castle? Which song and which film?

And just to finish – Victor Hugo said that “if we don’t build castles in the air we don’t build anything on the ground” – how many fictional castles can you identify. Currently all I can envisage is a very large pink one with fireworks in the sky above it – which isn’t very helpful!

Store cupboard of quotes 5 – monastic (ish) answers

This week’s quotes were very loosely about all things monastic. How did you do?

  1. “My imagination is a monastery and I am a monk.” John Keats
  2. “Living in a monastery, even as a guest rather than a monk, you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”  Odd Thomas (what a wonderful name) is the protagonist of Dean Kootz’s series of thrillers.
  3. Francis Grose describes this abbey as “undoubtedly light and elegant, it wants that gloomy solemnity so essential to religious ruins.” It’s Tintern Abbey and the poet is William Wordsworth.
  4. “Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney– and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill.” You can find Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, penned by the incomparable Jane Austen.
  5. “Here grandeur triumphs at its topmost pitch In gardens, groves, and all that life beguiles; Here want, too, meets a blessing from the rich, And hospitality for ever smiles: ” John Clare wrote these lines at the beginning of Milton Abbey ended his days in a “mad house” in Northamptonshire.
  6. Who says “Get thee to a nunnery?” Hamlet says this to Orphelia in er…Hamlet.
  7. “What ? did not regret, he found grave difficulty in remembering to confess.”  Cadfael has difficulty in remembering to confess and his prolific creator was Edith Pargeter writing as Ellis Peters.
  8. “They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman” The writer of The Woman In Black is Susan Hill who gives the gothic a macabre and spine chilling twist.
  9. “The day has come not only to abolish forever those unnatural laws, but to punish, with all rigour of the law, such as make them; to destroy convents, abbey, priories and monasteries and in this way prevent their ever being uttered.”  Martin Luther nailed his ideas to the cathedral door at Wittenburg.

10. Let me take this other glove off
As the vox humana swells,
And the beauteous fields of Eden
Bask beneath the Abbey bells.
Here, where England’s statesmen lie,
Listen to a lady’s cry.

Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,
Spare their women for Thy Sake,
And if that is not too easy
We will pardon Thy Mistake.
But, gracious Lord, whate’er shall be,
Don’t let anyone bomb me.

The poem is In Westminster Abbey by Sir John Betjeman

And finally novels/that feature a monk or indeed a nun in no particular order :

The Cadfael series by Ellis Peters – set during the Anarchy.

In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End Ken Follett

Dissolution by C J Sansom

The Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne

The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh (children’s)

The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Store cupboard of quotes week 5

Martin Luther on beer drinking

As always you are more than welcome to add relevant quotes via the comments box. This week’s quotes are very loosely about all things monastic.

  1. “My imagination is a monastery and I am a monk.” The author of this quote was prone to writing odes about urns and autumn days.
  2. “Living in a monastery, even as a guest rather than a monk, you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”  The protoganist of this novel is call Odd and it’s writer is an American known for science fiction, horror and fantasy.
  3. Francis Grose describes this abbey as “undoubtedly light and elegant, it wants that gloomy solemnity so essential to religious ruins.” History and literature remembers the abbey much better from the lines written by a romantic poet better associated with the Lake District. Where is the abbey and who is the poet?
  4. “Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney– and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill.” Which author penned these words mocking the gothic novel and which fictional abbey is the title of the book where you can find Henry Tilney?
  5. “Here grandeur triumphs at its topmost pitch In gardens, groves, and all that life beguiles; Here want, too, meets a blessing from the rich, And hospitality for ever smiles: ” The romantic poet who wrote these lines at the beginning of Milton Abbey ended his days in a “mad house.” Who is he?
  6. Who says “Get thee to a nunnery?”
  7. “What ? did not regret, he found grave difficulty in remembering to confess.” Which well-known fictional monk located during The Anarchy has difficulty in remembering to confess and who was his prolific creator?
  8. “They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman” The writer of The Woman In Black.
  9. “The day has come not only to abolish forever those unnatural laws, but to punish, with all rigour of the law, such as make them; to destroy convents, abbey, priories and monasteries and in this way prevent their ever being uttered.”  He nailed his ideas to the cathedral door at Wittenburg.

10. Let me take this other glove off
As the vox humana swells,
And the beauteous fields of Eden
Bask beneath the Abbey bells.
Here, where England’s statesmen lie,
Listen to a lady’s cry.

Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,
Spare their women for Thy Sake,
And if that is not too easy
We will pardon Thy Mistake.
But, gracious Lord, whate’er shall be,
Don’t let anyone bomb me.

What is the title of this poem and who wrote it?

And finally just to keep you thinking – how many novels/series can you identify that feature a monk or nun as its main protagonist?

Store cupboard of quotes – cathedral answers

Carlisle Cathedral
  1. Robert Louis Stephenson said “I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.” – Robert’s grandfather also named Robert began the tradition of lighthouse building The author’s father and two uncles were also lighthouse keepers. If you’d like to know more then Bella Bathuhurst’s book The Lighthouse Stephensons is for you.
  2. Charles Dickens wrote this description of Canterbury Cathedral in David Copperfield which drew on his own childhood experiences after his father was imprisoned for debt. “The rooks were sailing about the cathedral towers; and the towers themselves, overlooking many a long unaltered mile of the rich country and its pleasant streams, were cutting the bright morning air as if there were no such thing as change on earth.”
  3. “Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.” Henry Kissinger won a Nobel prize having served in Richard Nixon’s administration.
  4. Thomas Carlyle, also known as the Sage of Chelsea, said “The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better.”
  5. “Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone. – W.H. Auden wrote this line in On this Island.
  6. “The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.”  – Ken Follett wrote two books which featured the town of Kingsbridge – The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End which is placed two hundred years after the first novel. For those of you looking for something historical to get your teeth into there are the books and a mini-series featuring Ian McShane, Matthew Macfadyen and Eddie Redmayne.
  7. “The most solid thing was the light. It smashed through the rows of windows in the south aisle, so that they exploded with colour, it slanted before him from right to left in an exact formation, to hit the bottom yard of the pillars on the north side of the nave. Everywhere, fine dust gave these rods and trunks of light the importance of a dimension. He blinked at them again, seeing, near at hand, how the individual grains of dust turned over each other, or bounced all together, like mayfly in a breath of wind. He saw how further away they drifted cloudily, coiled, or hung in a moment of pause, becoming, in the most distant rods and trunks, nothing but colour, honey-colour slashed across the body of the cathedral. Where the south transept lighted the crossways from a hundred and fifty foot of grisaille, the honey thickened in a pillar that lifted straight as Abel’s from the men working with crows at the pavement.” – The author of this rather lengthy quote about the building of Salisbury Cathedral is William Golding better known for his work The Lord of the Flies. The book featuring Salisbury Cathedral is called The Spire.
  8. “If you seek his monument, look around.” – whose epitaph is this and where can it be found? This particular epitaph can be found in St Paul’s Cathedral on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, Seventeenth Century London’s great church builder.
  9. “Along the sculptures of the western wall I watched the moonlight creeping: It moved as if it hardly moved at all Inch by inch thinly peeping Round on the pious figures of freestone, brought And poised there when the Universe was wrought To serve its centre, Earth, in mankind’s thought.” Thomas Hardy wrote about Salisbury Cathedral after visiting it he is best known for his novels set in Wessex.
  10. “Somehow, cathedrals have contrived to snap free of the sectarian exclusivity of the parish church. They answer to a longing for congregation and communal space. Their key is a quality unfashionable to social analysis, the offer of solitude with beauty. You need not to be of faith to sit quietly and contemplate the loveliness of a cathedral. As a dean once hinted to me in a whisper, “Here we don’t bang on about God.” Simon Jenkins writes for The Guardian and wrote the book called England’s Cathedrals.
Ely Cathedral