Suffer not the old King: for we know the breed.
Sometimes I get tired, and just want to flop down on the sofa and read some book*.
Currently on the Kindle: 1215 And All That. No, I don't remember how I ended up at the author's web site. Must have followed a chain of links somewhence**.
Anyway: I'm about halfway through. It gives the history of the Plantagenets*** in rather a casual format. They come out sounding as trailer-trashy as our own contemporary ruling class, but with ways of dealing with people who annoyed them that would make Colombian narcoterrorists wince.
On a scale of zero to Lance and torch and tumult, steel and grey-goose wing? We're distressingly far along. We're not, yet, at the point where politicians and clerics play poker with inconvenient journalists and pundits, but the urge to silence them by force is there, and not well (if at all) concealed. And the contempt of the rulers for the ruled is there for all to see.
Don't you hate it when history keeps falling into familiar ruts?
* If watching some television is a thing, then so is reading some book.
** This is totally an English word, even if it isn't in the dictionary.
*** My spelling checker doesn't approve of the plural. Apparently one Plantagenet is enough.
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