A Tale of Two Opposites

He was a man of colorful metaphors; she was a woman of complex calculations. He was involved in numerous affairs and scandals; she was a faithful wife and mother. He was reckless and once famously dubbed "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." She was stable but with enough flair in her pursuit of mathematics to be called “The Enchantress of Numbers.” In many ways they were polar opposites, but they were also father and daughter.

Lord Byron was an accomplished poet and adventurer, a celebrity. No stranger to controversy, while in Parliament he supported the Luddites, a group violently opposed to the technological aspects of the Industrial Revolution. His political activism led him to help finance and join the Greek War of Independence. He would die in Greece, becoming for them a martyr and a national hero.

Augusta Ada Byron was only five weeks old when her mother Anna Isabella left Byron. Determined that her daughter would not grow up to repeat the “insanity” of her father, Anna Isabella immersed young Ada in math and science. Ada was an apt pupil, but the wild poetry of her father came out in the way she perceived numbers and applied scientific fact. This first became evident when she designed a flying machine at the age of thirteen. She grew up, married well, became the Countess of Lovelace, and mothered three children. Yet, the numbers kept calling her, and when her friend Charles Babbage produced the design for his Analytical Engine she was one of the few to see its true potential as what we would call these days a computer. She enthusiastically agreed to work on translating from French a memoir of the machine by the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, attaching a set of notes that demonstrated how Bernoulli numbers could be used with the engine. The result is what most historians agree was the first computer program.

Father and daughter: separated by geography and lifestyle, right-brained and left-brained, and yet both pursued their paths with imagination and passion. Each died young, at 36, weakened by the common practice of blood-letting by well-meaning physicians. At Ada’s request, the two “opposites,” the flamboyant father and the dreaming child he would never get to know, were buried side by side.

For further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html

The Little Lion

A Spanish Mastiff

History is made up of stories not only about people and events but also starring animals, even common ones like man’s best friend, the dog. One famous canine from the days of the Spanish conquest of the Americas was named Leoncico or “little lion” by his owner, Vasco Balboa. Son of another well-known dog, Bercerillo, Leoncico was named after his father’s owner, the famous explorer Ponce de Leon. Leoncico was a reddish cross between a mastiff and a greyhound and enters history as a stowaway. Because his master is deeply in debt after failing as a pig farmer on one of Spain’s island colonies, Leoncico soon finds himself hiding out in a barrel with Balboa on a boat bound for Panama. On discovering his two hitchhikers, Captain Enciso decides to maroon them, but eventually gives in to the pleadings from his compassionate crew and allows the duo to continue on the voyage.

We hear about Leoncico again after Balboa has made a name for himself and is leading an exploring party to “discover” the Pacific Ocean. Astonishingly, Leoncico is paid to come along, receiving what some reports have said to be a captain’s wages!

Leoncico was hardly a pet, though. The dogs of the conquistadors were used to protect their masters and attack enemy Indians. They were cruelly trained to hunt Indians for sport like deer, were fed human flesh, and were generally employed in terrorizing the native population.

No, Leoncico was no Lassie, but his role in history makes for one of the more fascinating of animal tales.

For further reading:

http://latinamericanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/balboa_discoverer_of_the_pacific

http://www.mariner.org/exploration/index.php?type=explorer&id=63

http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/dogshist.htm

A Holiday Whodunit

Valentine’s Day is most often associated with love, happiness, and, of course, CHOCOLATE. Candy hearts with cute, little sayings abound; elementary students rush home with handmade crafts for their moms and dads; shopkeepers smile deeper with every beep at the checkout stand; and if his creator was still alive and drawing, Charlie Brown would go another year without a valentine. Today will probably go down in the annals of time as another in a series of typical holidays, but February 14, 1929, was far from your ordinary Valentine’s Day.

(A smiling Al Capone...Was he responsible for the crime?)

On that evening in Chicago, one doctor and six notorious mobsters working for George “Bugs” Moran unfortunately became part of holiday history. The infamous Valentine’s Day Massacre, where seven men were executed in cold blood, has remained one of the unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Oh, there is little doubt as to how the crime was committed. Eyewitness reports from outside the S.M.C. Cartage Co. garage and detailed investigation by the police have led authorities to believe that the unlucky seven were somehow tricked into believing that they were being detained by two uniformed police officers. While lined up and facing the wall, two more men in plain clothes came in and mowed the seven down. The four killers then exited the garage with the fake policemen holding guns on their two accomplices, making those who had heard the shooting believe that the criminals had just been arrested. There is also a pretty good idea as to why the crime occurred. Al “Scarface” Capone, probably the most notorious bootlegger and gangster of the time period, was in direct competition with Moran. By having his men kill much of Bugs’ gang, Capone would be one step closer to taking out his rival. Yet despite knowing the means, the manner, and the probable motive for the murders, the police never had enough proof to arrest anyone.

So the mystery behind the Valentine’s Day Massacre remains unsolved, and probably will remain so, but the tale of that fateful February night has forever tarnished the history of the holiday.

For further reading:

http://www.mysterynet.com/vdaymassacre/

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valmassacre1.html

The Right of Kings

In America, every child in school learns the tale of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. In England, King Arthur and Robin Hood hold the imaginations of the young captive. In France, though, they have a different set of national heroes to inspire their youth. One of these heroes is Clovis, King of the Franks, and of the tales told of him none is perhaps more famous than that of the Soissons Vase.

According to legend, the vase was stolen along with many other items from a church after the Battle of Soissons in 486. Evidently the vase was large, beautiful and highly prized, because the Bishop of Rheims sent a message to Clovis politely asking for it to be returned. The king agreed if the vase should happen to be included in his portion of the plunder when it was divided. Sure enough, once the stolen treasures were placed in a large pile to be distributed among the conquerors, Clovis spotted the vase and asked if it would be given to him in addition to his normal share. Everyone agreed. After all, who is going to argue that King Clovis shouldn’t get something extra? Then one warrior, to the shock of all those assembled, took his axe and shattered the vase, telling Clovis, in effect, that he should only get his fair share like everyone else.

Clovis took the pieces of the vase and returned them by messenger to the bishop. He didn’t even punish the soldier who had dared defy him, at least not then. Rather, Clovis waited a full year and until he was inspecting his troops again to take action. On recognizing the willful warrior who had defied him in the past, he berated him publicly for the sloppiness of his weaponry, knocking the man’s axe to the ground. As the soldier bent over to pick it up, the king raised his own axe and crushed the man’s head in, saying, “Thus didst thou to the vase at Soissons.”

As with most tales told to the young, this one has a teaching or two attached that, while hopefully different from our own views regarding justice, reflect some of the cultural values of the time period. The first is that a king is always right. The second is that a king never forgets.

For further reading:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregtours1.html

http://www.understandfrance.org/France/History.html

http://history-world.org/franks.htm

The Most Powerful Woman in the World

Her life had more drama and plot twists than any fictional tale Hollywood could ever dream up for her. During her lifetime she was quite possibly the most powerful woman in the world. She broke the gender boundaries of her generation and yet still managed to work within her culture to achieve her goals. Ruler of her own vast lands, she ended up becoming queen of first France and then later of its bitter rival, England. Not content to sit at home while the men went off to war, she went along with her husband on a crusade to free the Holy Land. She survived dangers, intrigues, a revolt that she possibly helped mastermind, and years as a prisoner. And if this was not enough, she fathered two of the most famous kings from English history and literature, Richard the Lion-hearted and his scheming brother, John. Although virtually unremembered today except by students of history, Eleanor of Aquitaine was truly a wonder in her time.

To read more about this fascinating figure from history, please follow the links below.

http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England/Angevin/Eleanor.html

http://www.historynet.com/magazines/british_heritage/3034121.html

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine2.html

Cousins in Crisis

Family squabbles are normal, but when you are royalty your fights can affect nations. Throughout history we have seen the armies of royal relatives duke it out over lands, crowns, and religions, with disastrous consequences for thousands. But one royal feud between cousins tops them all in casualties, a war that cost millions of lives and transformed the globe forever: World War I.

In all fairness, the cousins involved, George V of Britain, Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia (or Georgie, Willy, and Nicky as their family affectionately called them among themselves), would have had a hard time preventing war. Too many other factors such as jealousy over who had the better colonies, a complicated alliance system, nationalistic fervor, and an arms race between Britain and Germany had created such an atmosphere of tension in Europe that it only took one spark to set the world of 1914 ablaze. Still, the cousins did little to stop the war, either. (Nicky and Georgie are pictured.)

Probably one of the saddest chapters in the family saga was when Nicky and his family were ousted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and sought asylum in Britain. The family was all packed and relieved to be going, but at the last minute Georgie, fearing that taking in his cousins might destabilize his own country, refused to grant them refuge. The result was the murder of the Romanov family and the end of a dynasty.

To read more about on the subject, check out the following websites. The bottom two links give descriptions of two books on the ill-fated cousins.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/threekings.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V_of_the_United_Kingdom

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780802716231

http://www.dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780750933728

A Man For The People

He meant well, he really did, but he couldn’t quite pull it off. Even being Emperor has its limitations. Joseph II, heir to the Habsburg throne in Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, was the most “enlightened” of the “enlightened monarchs” during the 18th century. Joseph seemed to really care for his people, and would on occasion disguise himself so that he could walk among them unrecognized to learn the truth about how they lived. Once able to rule with a free hand after the death of his powerful mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, he set about trying to reform his lands at lightning speed.

In a whirlwind of activity, Joseph strove to better the lives of the peasantry by eliminating serfdom, allowing peasants to marry whom they chose, move from one place to another, etc. This basically broke the back of the old feudal system. Additionally, Joseph started orphanages, hospitals, and poorhouses. He made moves to reform education, abolished torture and the death penalty, and issued the Edict of Tolerance in 1781 which gave Protestants almost the same rights as Catholics. He even worked to help the Jews, a group that had been historically discriminated against throughout Europe.

Unfortunately, the result of giving the downtrodden more meant that the privileged had less, which didn’t set well with the nobility. His mother, a bit of a reformer herself, had known how to tread softly with the upper classes, but Joseph’s bullheaded approach merely angered them. Sensing that most of his efforts at change would be undermined after his death by the noble class that hated him, he instructed that his epitaph be written as follows: “Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook.”

For more on A Man For The People, follow the links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_II%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0826616.html

http://staff.gps.edu/mines/Age%20of%20Absol%20-%20Enlightend%20Despots.htm