CuppaTea

What happened near the end of the thirteenth century? Resorting to Wikipedia again to make this a quick post! And it's a papal year!  Celestine V became pope, much to his own surprise apparently, after two years without a pope. ( Nicholas IV had died in 1292!) He issued an edict to the effect that a pope was allowed to abdicate, and then he did so on December 13, having worked without much effect as pope for only five months. He was succeeded by Boniface VIII, who became pope on Christmas Eve (seems to be a popular date for becoming pope!), and who worried that his predecessor might be set up as antipope, so he had him arrested and imprisoned! (Is this the pope everyone was referring to when Benedict XVI resigned earlier this year? Apparently not - Gregory XII resigned in 1415, but Celestine was the last one to resign voluntarily before Benedict XVI. ) Other international events: Kublai Khan died February 18. Mściwój II of Pomerania died December 25. I have no idea where ...

I noticed today that in the audience statistics there were four countries whose names started with the letter 'U'. Can you name four countries that start with the letter 'U'? Did you know that there are more than you might think, because we often use an abbreviation of the full name of a country when referring to that country? For example, did you know that Mexico actually starts with a 'U' (in its English form)? That the USA has as one of its neighbours the USM? The United States of Mexico? (By the way, Mexico was not one of the four countries! Although, I'd love to have someone in Mexico read my blog, and maybe even leave a nice comment in Spanish!) I believe that the letter 'U' is under-utilised. Too often it is neglected unless someone is deliberately using their creativity to uncover opportunities to urge it into prominence! If you are one of the wonderful people reading this blog from a country beginning with the letter 'U', I wou...

I had the brilliant opportunity to fly home for the weekend, so I did! And I loved every minute of it (except for travelling to airports at unreasonable dark hours of the morning).

Last night I once again tried to bake scones. I have tried to bake scones many times since I first moved out of home, and they have been pathetic failures every time. Until now. I'm not sure if it was the recipe or the fact that I know some of the things I did wrong the last few times, but they finally worked out to be not only edible, but delicious.

As many of you know, I am a little bit obsessed with Spain and all things Spanish. This weekend I spent many hours wading through a sociolinguistic journal article about the dictionary of Mexican Spanish. Written in Spanish. I haven't read much in Spanish for a few years now. Reading in Spanish is hard! But fascinating. And at least it is for an essay I'm writing. But it made me reflect once more on why I like languages, why I like learning languages, and why I hope to learn and use a few more yet in my lifetime. So I thought I'd share some of these thoughts with you all.

Will I ever be able to find anything helpful somewhere other than that bane of my existence?! I am determined not to refer to that website this time. And so, this is likely to be an extremely short post! History Orb lists two historical events: Pope Innocent IV issued "the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition." I'm not sure what 'ad exstirpanda' means... Apparently it is spelled incorrectly and should read 'extirpanda'. Thankfully I'm not resorting to that other site, hey? ( This may be a copy of a translation into English.) But over on the Iberian Peninsula (ie. Spain ) King Alfonso X "el Sabio" of Castile/Leon was crowned. In other news, gold came back into style! Apparently there had been a significant absence of gold coinage in Europe since it had gone out of fashion in the seventh century! European currency had, in the meantime, been based on silver . G...

I have tried a few new teas recently, but with working on assignments and readings I didn't have much time to write about them. But there are also a few other things I have found which I would like to share with you all.

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I drafted this a few days ago and found the entry interesting. Primarily because Wikipedia ordered this year according to events by geographical region! So here we go on a trip around the world in the year 1205AD! In Africa, Almohad domination is established over the eastern parts of Ifriqiya and enters Tripoli. In Asia, Theodore I Laskaris is proclaimed the Byzantine Emperor after defeating his two rivals and their attempted invasions into his domains, founding the Empire of Nicaea. Interestingly, Alexios V Doukas the emperor of Byzantine was executed in December... In Europe, Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans; the Bulgarians defeat the Latins at the Battle of Adrianople; Anjou is conquered bu Philip II of France; John of England requires every male over the age of 12 to enter an association "for the general defence of the realm and the preservation of peace" based on his fear of French invasion - fai...

It's been a while... but here is another history lesson. What has been recorded in the inestimable annals of Wikipedia for the year 1163AD ?  The Law of Succession is introduced in Norway in the middle of their civil war. Nothing like a war to help straighten out legal concerns - or to have laws introduced so that particular claimants are rendered illegal or illegitimate. This is likely to come up again in another war over succession soon...  Over to the affairs of the Church. The Albigensians are named and condemned as heretics at the Council of Tours under Pope Alexander III, who seems to take advantage of being in France to set the first stone of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral. Further east, Loccum Abbey is founded in Hanover as a Cistercian house. Beyond Europe, the Egyptian empire is resurrected for 10 days! That is all that Wikipedia says about it, but what an astonishing claim! My initial assumption was that this meant the ancient Egyptian empire, which would have ...

I am trying to think long term in my present requests, things which may be useful for years, things which may be easy to transport, and yet will add richness to my life rather than being boring or a burden. With this in mind, I'm pretty pleased with this year's birthday present. You may wonder why I am writing about it now, instead of six weeks ago when I first got it, but as with some things the initial excitement needs to develop into familiarity before it can properly be valued by myself and others.

And we are back to papal shenanigans! And another coronation on Christmas Day! After the death of Pope Honorius II on February 13 the 164th pope named on February 14 is Pope Innocent II. Thought this name sounded familiar, but the date is too early - it is Innocent III who was involved in some fascinating dramas in another hundred years or so. We'll see if he comes into these posts later! Back to the current papal drama: objections over the election of Innocent II sees the rise of an antipope, Anacletus II, who has enough powerful support that Innocent II flees to France. Anacletus names his main supporter Roger II King of Sicily, who is crowned on Christmas Day. Royal drama in Norway this year too. With the death of Sigurd the Crusader both his illegitimate son Magnus the Blind and his illegitimate brother Harald Gille claimed the throne. Joint kingship didn't last long before civil war started - the beginning of more than a hundred years of upheaval and rival claimants. ...

The sky is clear blue, and through the window I can see the green grass and bright afternoon sunshine and a splash of autumn yellow on one or two of the trees. Yesterday it rained most of the day, so everything seems a bit cleaner and clearer. There is not a breath of breeze to disturb the scene. But today has been a Taylor Swift day.

Having built this date up in previous posts, I'm wondering if you know why? And so I'll postpone mentioning what I consider the key event of the year until the end! No papal dramas this year! The drama seems to have been all blood related... Even for the church, with Bishop Johannes Scotus sacrificed to Radegast, one of the gods of the Slavic pantheon, claimed to have been the god of hospitality. Doesn't seem very hospitable to sacrifice a man, personally, but I don't know anything about Slavic mythology! Mind you, it was in the midst of a pagan rebellion against Christianity by the Wends. Across to China, and Sima Guang finished a large dictionary. Well done! The trading settlement of Hedeby was destroyed by the Slavic army and permanently abandoned. (See here for a map and more information about this unusually named site.) The sky demonstrated an astronomical feature this year, with Halley's Comet reaching perihelion, recorded in a tapestry! But back to ...