Bring the Kids

Good news for the cattle haters among you.  A bullfighting firm in Seville is planning on giving free tickets to children under the age of eight.  This, announced the firm, will allow children to steep themselves in the rich tradition of the nation while the matador in the middle is steeping himself in something else.  Naturally this excellent means of handing down tradition from father to deeply traumatised son has met with opposition from critics who claim it could psychologically damage young children.  I would hope so!  If the sight of someone apparently dressed like a runner up in Rupaul's Drag Race pirouetting around a sandy arena hacking at a large domestic animal with a sword doesn't psychologically damage an eight year old then they must be pretty badly screwed up already.

I don't think we should worry too much about the psychological damage to the children.  No doubt it will be profound but let's face it, everything psychologically damages children.  It's called growing up.  Children come out of the womb fresh, unblemished and without a care in the world.  They are then promptly subjected to a barrage of abuse which ends, hopefully, many decades later when the gibbering wreck they have become finally falls into what must by now be a much longed for grave.  But what are we to do about that?  Keep children in a state of sensory deprivation until they reach maturity?  Now that would psychologically damage them to say nothing of rendering the hoped for achievement of maturity less likely.  Maturity is basically defined as "functional despite the damage".

But back to the bullfighting.  I have to admit there must be more efficient ways of traumatising children.  Whereas you or I if we wanted to introduce our offspring to gratuitous animal slaughter would simply provide them with a chainsaw and send them to the local petting zoo the Spanish feel the need to arrange free tickets to the bullfighting thus presumably reducing the number of tickets available to paying customers. Here is where tradition rears its ugly head.  If something is old, stupid, at least potentially violent and largely unnecessary the chances are that it is traditional.  Although to be fair that's a pretty good definition of me.  Possibly I am traditional.  It's difficult to find another reason for keeping me around.

Maintaining tradition is generally considered a good thing.  I'm not entirely sure why.  The greatest thing about the past in my opinion it its healthy distance from where we are right now.  Tradition is also subjective.  One person's cherished tradition it another person's atrocity.  To prove that let me demonstrate with that most harmless and sweet of traditions; Father Christmas.  St Nick circles the world bringing presents to all good boys and girls, what could be sweeter?  Now tell me exactly how many of you would actually be comfortable with the idea of an ageing man sneaking into your house to groom your children with presents?

Bullfighting is as Spanish as bullfighting.  Free tickets for the kiddies may encourage them to learn more about their proud nation's rich history and vibrant culture (or possibly vibrant history and rich culture) or it may just turn them into mini psychopaths.  For those of us without a culture of bullfighting we're just going to have to install CCTV in the abattoirs.

Marcher Historical Event #1

 Today marks a significant day in the history of the Marcher Lords or at least it was significant in the opinion of those involved which is surely what matters.  The population of Poland probably couldn't care less.  

For those less steeped in English historical romances than my mother the Welsh Marches were a series of border territories set up along the English/Welsh border by William the Conqueror.  The Welsh had a history of raiding across said border (insofar as it actually existed).  Additionally various of the Welsh princes had frequently had alliances or at least good relationships with some of the Saxon lords in England which made them less than sympathetic when William turned up from Normandy and conquered the place an event which was terrible for the Saxon nobility (although very convenient for Varangian recruitment officers).

Having better things to do (he said) than spend the rest of his life in low level border warfare William selected some of the more obnoxiously violent of his vassals (which to be fair was most of them) and gave them territories along the border along with certain rights that the kings normally kept to themselves.  Thus empowered these "Marcher Lords" were expected to beat in the heads of any Welsh that showed themselves across the border.  If the Welsh didn't cross the border the Marcher Lords were empowered to export the head beating to Wales.

In the fullness of time a fair chunk of Wales wound up under the control of said Marcher Lords although as with the Saxons before them they sometimes discovered advantages in making common cause with their technical enemy (the Welsh) when their technical overlord (the King) got a little too keen about enforcing his authority.  

A typical example of this attitude can be found in the case of one William de Braose who was executed on this day in 1230 AD.  William was a Marcher Lord who had been captured in battle against Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and had to pay a huge ransom to secure his release.  Subsequent to that he entered into an alliance with said Llywelyn which was sealed with a marriage between William's daughter and Llywelyn's son.  What the English king might have thought about one of his vassals forming a marriage alliance with one of his most powerful enemies in Wales went unrecorded.

As it so happened the English King didn't need to worry.  Celebration of the upcoming nuptials was brought to a halt when Llywelyn found William in bed with his wife.  Llywelyn had William dragged out to a nearby tree and hanged him.  The marriage still went ahead though, absent one prominent guest.  This is what passed for politics in the thirteenth century.  I think we can all agree that we are fortunate we live in more civilised and better organised times.