FRIDAY the 13th the real origin?

[acroyear]

Happy anniversary, the Batle of Hastings!

As of tomorrow, England will have had 1,940 years without a successful invasion by any outside power and only two distinct breaks in its monarchy in all that time.

"Stirrups are cool" - a soldier under William I, in the locker rooms after the match.

"Fighting Jason Voorhees would have been an easier match..." - a soldier under Harold, found on field lying under his broken shield.

Comments

[fiona64.livejournal.com]

On a serious note, I seem to recall that the origin of Friday the 13th as an inauspicious date has to do with the destruction of the Knights Templar and the immolation of Jacques deMolay.

However, I also admit that I could be misremembering.

Jeff is currently reading a book on the Battle of Hastings, and he maintains that 10/14 is also the date that Bishop Odo started the world's biggest stitch-and-bitch session by commisioning the Bayeux Tapestry.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Friday the 13th was the evening that Harold arrived at the field, thus committing himself and the Saxon army to the fight. The fight, like most medieval conflicts, happened the next morning. Two rounds, mostly stalemated, until Harold's forces thought they had the better of the Normans during a withdrawel and made the mistake of charging the field. The horse-and-stirrup couldn't break the shield wall up a steep hill, but on open ground, the Saxons fell into the territory best suited to the knight on horseback and they were cut to ribbons. The age of the two-ton war machine had begun.

As for the day itself, there are no end of references to it, many apocryphal (or at least, wildly inaccurate). google around, there's plenty to choose from including the templar story, at places like snopes.com. Certainly Hastings is among the earliest confirmed events. Many others got attached to that day (in some cases, on a month/year combo where it didn't actually happen) strictly out of legend and association.

superstitious evangelical christians have gone and added that date as the date of many negative events of the bible, including the crucifiction, eve's fall, the fall of satan, etc. my guess would be that it isn't the crucifiction, as even if there was a friday, april 13th (my cat's birthday, btw ;-) ) in the years 26-37 AD (to give some breathing room), it would also have to coincide with the lunar calendar in order to be the right weekend for passover. an astronomer with more time than i might come up with the calculation.

[mandrakan.livejournal.com]

Which were the two distinct breaks?

Cromwell, obviously, but which of the four other violent transitions "counts"?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

i generally tend to consider the steven & maud fight to be the other, but historians may say there was just one and be done with it.

the wars of the roses definitely continued to have a king at all times, so the only other questionable time was the period between henry viii and elizabeth, with the short reigns of Edward, Lady Jane, and Bloody Mary, as like with the wars of the roses, that period just showed that the nobles were more in charge than the crown.

granted, it was a bit of a stretch to go from Queen Anne to George I merely to avoid a catholic...

[mandrakan.livejournal.com]

And from Elizabeth I to James I to avoid yet another woman. I learned recently that Henry VIII's will specified that Elizabeth was to be followed by the heirs of Henry's sister Mary, not Margaret.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

ah, so in the same semi-senility in which state he "forgave" Mary and Elizabeth, he also effectively tried to forgive his former best friend, Charles Brandon?

but of course, that's what SOME tried to do - Mary's daughter was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, queen for 10 days after the death of elizabeth. So that line had already been tried *before* elizabeth, and sumarilly discarded.

Mary's other daughter also only had a girl and Parliament was surely done with tempermental women by the death of Elizabeth. one wonders what might have happened if they hadn't tried to rush it, but as we all know, religion and politics were hand in hand at the time...

[queenmaggie.livejournal.com]

That's right. He didn't like me. He said that I was too promiscuous. ;D
At least I got a real annulment befor emarrying the next husband. And I only had three spouses.