Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
Now there are those of you two or three together who may wonder how Robbo’s swimming of the Tiber has affected his attitude toward this anniversary of the discovery of a plot among English Catholics to blow up Parliament and the King?
My response? Not a’tall.
You see, in part I am still a dedicated Anglophile. As much as I detest the early Hanovarians, I still believe the ‘45 was a ridiculous undertaking. Ditto the plots to undo the earlier Stuart monarchy, however dismal its record. I am no great fan of James I. But I remain a devotee of Good Queen Bess and the footing on which she placed This Sceptre’d Isle, and I loathe the machinations of those who sought to bring it down.
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November 5, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Christine
I don’t think any right-thinking Catholic actually supports the Guy Fawkes plot.
As to the rest of your post (particularly the line about your devotion to the Pretender to the English throne responsible for the martyrdom of the most illustrious saints in all of Albion’s history), we mercifully extend our forgiveness and love you anyway…
November 5, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Robbo
Heh. My flawed soul thanks you for your mercy and I will do my best to explain to God my admiration for someone who was a leetle too quick with the firewood.
But “Pretender”? Are you still sore over the Battle of Bosworth Field?
November 5, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Christine
I’m sore over the unlawful capture, imprisonment, and beheading of Mary Stuart, who, as every good Jacobite knows, was true heir to the throne…
November 5, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Robbo
Ah, of course.
It always struck me that if Mary had played her cards more sensibly and had not been so disposed to overly-clever intrigues, she might have had a considerably better chance of winding up on the throne instead of minus a head.
November 5, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Christine
If I were unlawfully confined for 19 years of my life, I’d plot to escape as often as I was given the chance! Besides, everyone knows the casket letters were forged…
November 6, 2009 at 2:32 am
Jordana
The oldest and I were pondering today what good English Catholics do for Guy Fawkes’ Day. While one supposes they aren’t in favor of blowing up Parliament, burning the poor fellow in effigy might be a bit much.
November 6, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Christine
Nothing prevents us from burning effigies of, say, the Cromwells, Henry VIII, or a certain illegitimate monarch…
November 6, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Robbo
Yes, but wasn’t the whole reason she was even in England in the first place because she’d been chased out of Scotland for practicing factional politics? A born trouble-maker, that one.
November 6, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Christine
My dear Robert, considering your Anglican past, you can be forgiven for having swallowed wholesale English revisionist history and speaking so flippantly of a Catholic queen and martyr!
November 7, 2009 at 12:01 am
Robbo
My dear Christine, you may be interested to know that last evening I watched the 1970 Richard Harris epic “Cromwell” (the rail-splitter, the Man of the People). I watched it for no other reason than because Alec Guinness played Charles I (and played him brilliantly, IMHO – even looked like him if Van Dyke is to be relied on).
Anyhoo, while papering over the rat-bastard Protector’s evil side, the movie proved surprisingly kind to Charles, not suggesting that he didn’t make horrible decisions, but rayther that he did so for noble reasons.
Unfortunately, the movie also suggested that Charles was boxed in to his showdown with Cromwell and Parliament by the machinations of Queen Henrietta Maria, who was not only a foreigner (and for a Franco-Italian, had a curiously Germanic accent), but also…..wait for it….a PAPIST!
Now, yes, she DID interfere with politics and yes, she DID actively recruit Catholic aid for the King, apparently much to his annoyance. But what the movie suggested was that if she’d only checked her crackpot fanaticism at the door and left poor old Charles alone, why, there never would have been a Civil War, and Charlie and Ollie would have been the bestest of friends.
Yes, I found the caricature offensive.
So perhaps there’s hope for me yet.
November 7, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Christine
Will have to see Sir Alex in this role!
The caricature’s not just offensive, it’s simply wrong. The King and Cromwell were as different as chalk & cheese–High Anglican, and low Puritan. Cromwell would have found a way to get his grubby fingers on that throne one way or another, with or without Henrietta Maria’s meddling.