French officers ordered back to Waterloo: (so, If At First You Don’t Succeed?)
Err just what fwench military succsesses are there? bear in mind William of orange was a Viking, as was a lot of his army!!
Posted by Chris Edwards
04/24/2008 at 12:46 PM
Chris I think you will find William of Orange was actually Dutch.
LyndonB
Yes my school taught that too but when I was looking at the Tapestry in Normandy the English translation mentioned his father or mother who was Viking, this might explain his red hair in the tapestry, I did a quick google search but it seems to be a fwench secret?
Posted by Chris Edwards
04/25/2008 at 09:41 AM
Oooh, you guys are getting so historical. Kewl. But don’t forget who was who back then.
The Celts were there in France, way way back in the day, until the Romans beat up on them, only to lose out to the Vandals, Visigoths and the Franks when their Empire fell. I guess the Franks won eventually, since their name is the name of the country today, in the same way the Saxon conquest of Britian eventually went to the Angles, giving us Angle-land (England). But weren’t the Saxon, Angles, and Jutes tribes of the Franks to begin with? That was my take. And the Franks themselves were people who had come down from the Norse areas, but back when Rome was still in it’s glory. Or was it that the Norse were of Frankish descent? It seems they migrated back and forth there, every few hundred years or so. Probably due to Global Warming.Under the Franks in France, Charles Martel - the guy who liked cognac, right? - stopped the muslim invasion in France in 732. Several generations later we had Charlemagne, then later the kingdom broke into France, Germany, and whatever was left over.
I think the Vikings actually became Normans around 910 with some treaty with France, and quickly integrated into french life by intermarriage. Meanwhile, back in England 150 years later, King Harold - another guy of Frankish descent - fought off the Vikings from Norway - distant cousins - only to fall a very short time later to William of Normandy in 1066. Another frankish-Norwegian-viking.
So the whole thing was cousin against cousin, internecine warfare played out over a thousand plus years. That anyone of them had red hair is no surprise at all. Charlemagne had red hair and blue eyes, and was very very tall for his day ... his Norse roots came through strongly.Jump forward several hundred years, and we’ve got William of Orange, born in Germany but raised in Brussels when he inherited Orange in France. So the German guy becomes French - and trades one Frankish locale for another, while being brought up in a third. Then came that whole rebellion against religious prosecution (protestants and witches), his drive to unite the low countries, his Oath of Abjurgation (similar to the American Declaration of Independence nearly 200 years later) ... and William wound up shot dead. But the movement lived on, and 2 decades later the Nederlands became their own country. I’ve found several portraits of William, young and middle aged, and he seems to have dark hair. But there is one portait of him at 16 by van Dyck, and his hair does seem auburn. But the whole painting has a sepia tone, so who can really tell? He had the genetic mix that could have made him a redhead, and there’s also a possibility that the “orange” association could be missunderstood to be about hair color.
Egads. Thanks for making me review 2000 years of European history in 20 minutes just to have my two cents input. We Americans aren’t entirely untutored you know. We just find all those old battles and alliances so tedious. But it is to wonder if the whole ultra tolerant attitude of the low countries - the same one that is giving them problems today with the prostitutes, druggies, homosexual trysts in the parks, and the muslim invasion - doesn’t come down from William of O himself. That’s what he stood for, and a whole country rose up from his viewpoints.
Now clue me in ... how was Wm of O involved in any great French military victories? If anything, I’d say he fought against them. Even the OTHER William of Orange, William III, KoE until 1702, who was raised (and born) Dutch, and had dark hair, fought well against Louis XIV’s invasion, though the French army did sort of occupy the whole country until William flooded the place.
Ok, never mind, I figured it out.
You guys meant William, son of William(who was son of William(who was son of William(who was son of John William)) and Wilhelmina(daughter of Augustus Willaim(son of Frederick William))) and Wilhelmine(daughter of Frederick William). The William who was the father of William, William, William, William, and Wilhelmina.
It’s all clear to me now. Willaim II, son of William I - not to be confused with William II, son of William I the 1066 guy, child of the Vikings, who just happened to be known as Rufus the Red due to his hair color. And certainly not to be confused with his younger cousin William II, whom we think of as Wilhelm, the last German Emperor, he of the impressive (non-red) mustache, who was the father of only one William, and was mostly descended from guys named Frederick. And William.
sorta reminds me of ...
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam…
Waitress: ...spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam…
Vikings: Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Waitress: ...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.
Wife: Have you got anything without spam?
Waitress: Well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it.
Wife: I don’t want ANY spam!
Man: Why can’t she have egg bacon spam and sausage?
Wife: THAT’S got spam in it!
Man: Hasn’t got as much spam in it as spam egg sausage and spam, has it?
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam… (Crescendo through next few lines...)
Wife: Could you do the egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam then?
Waitress: Urgghh!
Wife: What do you mean ‘Urgghh’? I don’t like spam!
Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Waitress: Shut up!
Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Waitress: Shut up! (Vikings stop) Bloody Vikings!
04/25/2008 at 12:26 PM
