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St. Stephen’s Day
The first feast day after Christmas is December 26, St. Stephen’s Day. This is usually a quiet day spent with family and friends, probably because everyone is so wiped out after all the Christmas feasting. In some countries, it is a day of parties and families go from house to house visiting friends. In Finland everyone rides down the street on horse drawn sleighs with festive bells for “the ride of St. Stephen”. In Catalonia, part of Spain, there is a large festive meal with canelons, which are stuffed with meat from the previous day’s Christmas feast. In Ireland, it is called “Day of the Wren”. In some parts of…
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Merry Medieval Christmas
The first recorded use of the word Christmas was in an Anglos Saxon book in 1038 referring to “Cristes Maesse”. It took a backseat in significance to March 25, the Annunciation, and Easter, but was still an important holiday. The forty days prior to Christmas, people prepared for Christmas by fasting for Advent. This time of preparation and penance, traditionally began on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours. The faithful were expected to fast, pray and abstain from weddings, love making, games and unnecessary travel. Fasting did not mean abstaining from all food. A good Christian would abstain from meat, cheese, fat, wine, ale and honey…
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Mary, Queen of Scots Part 2- A match made in hell
On paper it was a glittering match. She was a beautiful queen, and he was a handsome lord. They were both descendants of Henry VII, and combined the Catholic claim to the throne of England into one claim. However, the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley turned into a disaster. Mary was eighteen years old when she arrived in Scotland for the first time since she was five years old. She was the Queen, but her mother Marie of Guise had held the fort as Regent so to speak. Mary was raised a pampered and doted on Princess of France. Eventually she became France’s Queen,…
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Acadiens
The New World was full of possibility and all the European powers who were anybody were founding colonies as fast as they could. After Columbus’ journey, Pope Alexander, formerly Rodrigo Borgia, divided the New World between Spain and France. He left all other European countries out of the loop. This probably would have annoyed the English, but they didn’t listen to the Pope anyway so they kept on doing what they were doing. However, France was mightily miffed. So they had spent a lot of gold to back Borgia’s rival for the papacy? Was that any reason to leave them out of the colonial gold rush? According to Borgia, apparently…
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Mary, Queen of Scots- Part I
The rift between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots had been around before the Treaty of Edinburgh, but it certainly brought it into sharper focus. Many Catholics regarded Mary as the rightful Queen of England as she was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister. This made her a legitimate relative of Henry, whereas Elizabeth was illegitimate because his marriage to Anne Boleyn was not recognized by the Catholic Church. The terms of the marriage contract between Mary and the dauphin said the crowns of France and Scotland would be united for any children of the marriage, strengthening the Auld Alliance. If Mary could claim the throne of…
