I've uploaded year 1450 to the TSP Wiki...
http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1450
Here are some one liners...
The Little Ice Age and the Wolves of Paris -- A harsh winter has pushed the wolves into Paris. 40 are killed. I also talk about Mission: Wolf in Colorado.
The Great Vowel Shift Revisited -- WTF! :-) I talk about how language changes so much it often becomes incomprehensible a few generations later. This explains the Talmud but I don't talk about that at all.
Headline History News -- How did "Mocha" come to mean "Coffee?" And the First Royal Mistress is actually a formal position at the Royal court.
The Little Ice Age and the Wolves of Paris
Through this harsh winter 30 children and 10 adults have been killed as a pack of wolves roam the streets of Paris. The wolves have a pack leader that the Paris citizens have named Courtaud [COOR-too] which means "stumpy" or "bobtail". Breaches in the city walls have made it easy for the wolf pack to moved in and out of populated areas. In the end, the wolf pack is lured to the Notre Dame Cathedral where the citizens spear and stone the wolves to death in front of the Church. [1] [2] [3]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
The most common reason for wolf attacks is rabies but that doesn't seem to be the case here. During the beginnings of Little Ice Age the winter cold intensified from 1430 to 1455. In difficult winters, wolves are forced into populated areas looking for food. Obviously when wolves live close to humans, attacks on humans will increase. In the coming years more and more wolf attacks will be reported. [4]In the modern day, there is a temptation to treat wolves like dogs but there is something primitive and unpredictable about wolves. I don't want to scare anyone, but this isn't "Lassie" we are talking about here. Kent Weber of Mission: Wolf in Colorado rescues wolf-dog crossbreeds and "pet" wolves that can't survive in the wild. He is educating the public that wolves are good for nature but not good for humans so don't make them "pets". Good advice.
[5] [6]
The most common reason for wolf attacks is rabies but that doesn't seem to be the case here. During the beginnings of Little Ice Age the winter cold intensified from 1430 to 1455. In difficult winters, wolves are forced into populated areas looking for food. Obviously when wolves live close to humans, attacks on humans will increase. In the coming years more and more wolf attacks will be reported. [4]In the modern day, there is a temptation to treat wolves like dogs but there is something primitive and unpredictable about wolves. I don't want to scare anyone, but this isn't "Lassie" we are talking about here. Kent Weber of Mission: Wolf in Colorado rescues wolf-dog crossbreeds and "pet" wolves that can't survive in the wild. He is educating the public that wolves are good for nature but not good for humans so don't make them "pets". Good advice.
[5] [6]
The Great Vowel Shift Revisited
At the beginning of the century people started speaking English by pronouncing their vowels more up the throat. No one knows what prompted this change. Scholars are mystified. English replaced Latin in court proceedings when it was ruled that the defendant should be able to understand what was said in court as he was being tried. King Henry the 5th started using English in his normal communications probably to gain popular support amongst the people. The bottom line is that the language has changed so radically and so quickly that a man who was a child in 1400 can barely be understood by his own grandchildren today. [7] [8]Here is a modern example. Try to guess how your grandfather might react to the following:
OMG! Dad had a mobile moment when he forgot how to tie his bow tie, but luckily YouTube came through for him. :-) #WTF. [9]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
English was the language of the peasantry, but after the Black Death, there was a labor shortage and the aristocracy had to learn some English in order to talk to their English-speaking servants. Then the author, George Chaucer, wrote popular works in English. The majority of peasants didn't read, so who was reading his work? Lady Berkeley opened a grammar school for learning English. Do you think Lady Berkeley gave a hoot about teaching the peasants how to speak English? They already knew how. She was teaching the aristocracy and I think (without proof) that the aristocracy found the down-the-throat pronunciation difficult and softened the way it was spoken.
English was the language of the peasantry, but after the Black Death, there was a labor shortage and the aristocracy had to learn some English in order to talk to their English-speaking servants. Then the author, George Chaucer, wrote popular works in English. The majority of peasants didn't read, so who was reading his work? Lady Berkeley opened a grammar school for learning English. Do you think Lady Berkeley gave a hoot about teaching the peasants how to speak English? They already knew how. She was teaching the aristocracy and I think (without proof) that the aristocracy found the down-the-throat pronunciation difficult and softened the way it was spoken.
Headline History News
- In a Word: Mocha: Coffee becomes a major export through the port city of Mocha in Yemen. [10] [11] [12]
- The First Royal Mistress: France's First Mistress, Agnès Sorel, has died. She was the first to hold this formal position.[13] [14]
- The Jack Cade Rebellion: The English peasants revolt over royal abuse of power, corruption and excessive war debt. [15]
- Vatican Library: Pope Nicholas the 5th begins collecting books for the new Vatican Library.[16] [17]
- John Cabot is Born: He will the first to step foot on the North American continent. [18]
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