http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1624
Here are some one liners...
The Royal Virginia Colony and the Limits of Cooperation -- King James gives the boot to the Virginia Company and takes control of the Virginia colony. He tries to get rid of the Virginia legislature but fails. I talk about separation of powers and the Iran Deal.
A Catholic Cardinal for France and for the Protestants -- Cardinal Richelieu is appointed as minister of France. In many ways his life is an adventure worthy of a novel... which is probably why he has ended up as a character in The Three Musketeers.
The Royal Virginia Colony and the Limits of Cooperation
Despite recent efforts to produce high profits from tobacco crops, it is too little, too late for the Virginia Company. Out of the more than 6,000 colonists sent to Jamestown and surrounding areas over the years, only 1,200 remain alive and more are walking off the boats to die a few weeks later of malaria. (They probably picked it up in an English port before they left but let's not nit pick.) King James the 1st of England has revoked the Company's charter for their incompetence. Virginia is now a direct royal colony. The King attempts to disband the Virginia legislative body called the House of Burgesses, but after 4 years that effort will fail. The Burgesses have become entirely too powerful. The King knows that labor is the limiting factor in producing crops. New colonists are being encouraged to immigrate to the New World, "...for the glorie of God in the propagation of the Gospell..." but with the Indian raids and disease killing off the colonists, it's going to be a tall order to make this Virginia colony a success. [1] [2]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
FYI, a Burgess was a representative of the plantation owner. Two were sent from each plantation to form the first legislative body in North America. The colony was administered by the Governor and his Council. When the King authorized the Burgesses to sit as a legislative body once more, they met separately from the Council. The Council was granted veto power over the laws that the Burgesses passed, but that power was not absolute. The Council and Governor were appointed by the Burgesses. This separation of powers forced them to work carefully with each other. In the modern day, the United States legislature hands over power to the President in order "to get things done!" But even so, it is rarely enough for the Administration. When Secretary of State John Kerry was asked why he hadn't submitted the latest "Iran Deal" to the US Senate as a formal treaty, he replied that it was too difficult to get a treaty passed. Indeed, Mr. Kerry is correct. It is VERY difficult to get a treaty passed. The Founding Fathers knew that any government powerful enough to give you everything you wanted was also powerful enough to take everything you had, so they made sure that government was very inefficient. Thus, only with great need did the legislature cooperate "to get things done!" Right or wrong, if an Administration cannot demonstrate a great need for cooperation, then how much do we really need it as a country? [3] [4] [5]
FYI, a Burgess was a representative of the plantation owner. Two were sent from each plantation to form the first legislative body in North America. The colony was administered by the Governor and his Council. When the King authorized the Burgesses to sit as a legislative body once more, they met separately from the Council. The Council was granted veto power over the laws that the Burgesses passed, but that power was not absolute. The Council and Governor were appointed by the Burgesses. This separation of powers forced them to work carefully with each other. In the modern day, the United States legislature hands over power to the President in order "to get things done!" But even so, it is rarely enough for the Administration. When Secretary of State John Kerry was asked why he hadn't submitted the latest "Iran Deal" to the US Senate as a formal treaty, he replied that it was too difficult to get a treaty passed. Indeed, Mr. Kerry is correct. It is VERY difficult to get a treaty passed. The Founding Fathers knew that any government powerful enough to give you everything you wanted was also powerful enough to take everything you had, so they made sure that government was very inefficient. Thus, only with great need did the legislature cooperate "to get things done!" Right or wrong, if an Administration cannot demonstrate a great need for cooperation, then how much do we really need it as a country? [3] [4] [5]
A Catholic Cardinal for France and for the Protestants
King Louis the 13th of France has appointed Cardinal Richelieu as his chief minister. The King is quite young but he is disciplined and he has learned to depend upon his advisors. The Cardinal will hold a pivotal role during the 30 Years' War, as he attempts to balance his religious obligations to Catholicism with his loyalty to France as a nation. In these turbulent times religious interests and national interests are not always the same thing. The Cardinal is considered a "moderate" in comparison to the fanatics pushing for France to join in a counter-Reformation with the Holy Roman Emperor to destroy the Protestants. No doubt the Cardinal would like Catholicism to triumph, but too often the perfect is the enemy of the good. The Cardinal realizes that if France gets involved in a straight up war, the Emperor will probably win, but France will lose itself in the aftermath. Thus in some sense he must help the Protestants, so that the Emperor does not win too much. If this sounds really, really twisted, now you know how Cardinal Richelieu became a favorite villain in historical fiction well into the modern day. [6] [7]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Look... I admit that I enjoy a good adventure novel every once in a while but I'm not kidding about Cardinal Richelieu. He had a spy network all across Europe. He had his fingers into everything. He paid BIG MONEY for the King of Sweden to invade Germany. If that isn't the plot for a great story, I don't know what is, and the beauty of it all is that it really happened. And King Gustav the 2nd Adolf of Sweden was not just any king. He was a master military tactician. Napoleon admired and studied his tactics. They love King Gustav the 2nd in Sweden today. The Cardinal kept any number of major personalities balanced off against each other including the Holy Roman Emperor. All of this implies that the Cardinal had an extremely compelling personality. If the Cardinal had never existed, it is difficult to imagine France existing today, at least in its present form. [8]
Look... I admit that I enjoy a good adventure novel every once in a while but I'm not kidding about Cardinal Richelieu. He had a spy network all across Europe. He had his fingers into everything. He paid BIG MONEY for the King of Sweden to invade Germany. If that isn't the plot for a great story, I don't know what is, and the beauty of it all is that it really happened. And King Gustav the 2nd Adolf of Sweden was not just any king. He was a master military tactician. Napoleon admired and studied his tactics. They love King Gustav the 2nd in Sweden today. The Cardinal kept any number of major personalities balanced off against each other including the Holy Roman Emperor. All of this implies that the Cardinal had an extremely compelling personality. If the Cardinal had never existed, it is difficult to imagine France existing today, at least in its present form. [8]
This Year on Wikipedia
Year 1624, Wikipedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment