pickAnother great, smart ass history by Ed West. I love his writing style and the fact that he doesn‘t take himself too seriously. He‘s clearly done his research, but he still has fun with it. I honestly believe students would like history if it was taught in the same manner that West writes his books. This is history as it should be.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory
So much going on here with this, @Texreader. I think I had to read this 4 or 5 times to take it all in. No wonder I sucked at spelling as a kid.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #spelling #notmyfault
What were you doing when you were 8?! lol
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #startingyoung #youngwidow
🤣😂🤣 I just love how not like Shakespeare‘s kings some of these guys really were. 🤣😂🤣
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #shakespeare #shakespeareskings
Not only is chivalry dead, it‘s BEEN dead since the War of the Roses.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #chivalry #chivalryisdead
The problem with naming people after where they live. 🤣😂🤣
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory
Just in case you‘re looking for somewhere to visit in England. 🤣😂🤣
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #visitengland #visitludlow
In the 1470s, William Caxton had a profound effect on the English language standardizing words across regions, but leading to the most unusual results we question today. This is the best (most fascinating) chapter of the book by far.
494 days and two months is a LONG time.
At least the French were happy to see the English troops after so long.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #england #france #franceitslikeanotherplanet #interestinghistoricaltidbit
“Nothing says national unity more than mutilating anyone who questions it.”
Good thing Trump isn‘t a reader.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #truestory #badgovernance
Now, if we want to talk about a psycho, I think this guy has to factor into the discussion.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #GillesDeRais #serialkiller #psycho #medievalserialkillers
Medieval armour basically turned everyone into a turtle.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #medieval #armour #turtle #oopsydaisey
Alcohol makes everything better. It‘s not so much a civil war as it is a party that for out of hand.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #france #burgundians #armagnacs #thepartygotoutofhand
Okay, so maybe that one psychotic hour was enough.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #france #kingcharles
One little psychotic break and everyone thinks your reign is over. Sheesh. One hour doesn‘t define your entire life‘s work, does it?
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #france #kingcharles
Turns out Hal was not the party animal we were all led to believe he was. Actually, it seems he was not well in the head at all. He even committed numerous war crimes. Hal was a sick, sick man. I‘m going to save all of the great Hal quotes for when #shakespearereadalong reads the “merry version” of Hal‘s life. You‘re welcome.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #shakespeare #shakespeareskings #henryv
See Hank, the supernatural will get you when you do unnatural things. 😏
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #henryiv #shakespearskings #haunted #richardii
France and Scotland have all the jokes. See #shakespearereadalong, I‘m not the only one who really didn‘t like Hank. 🤣😂🤣
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #henrvi #shakespeare #shakespeareskings
🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Did you guess this one, @Texreader ?
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #beingkingishard #notoriouslyhardjobs
Just a heads up. Murder laws still apply.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #wales #scotland #england #strangelaws
This is a case of kissing cousins and it‘s not helpful at all to us now. Just remember, this is probably where Prince Charles‘s massive ears came from and be glad neither of his sons married to close to home (hell, one crossed a bloody ocean).
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory
This might be part of the confusion @Texreader just remember that HenRichEdward did it and move on.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #henry #richard #edward #notcreativebabynamers
They do say that football/soccer is a gentlemen‘s game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligan‘s game played by gentlemen.
#soccer #rugby #gentlemen #hooligans #EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory
Not all that surprising. There is actually part of the royal family website that will tell you the exact relation between Queen Elizabeth and all of Shakespeare‘s Kings. No lie. Richard II is her some large number cousin. This is legit.
#shakespearereadalong #shakespeareskings #EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #QueenElizabeth #cousins (hopefully not kissing)
Doesn‘t seem so delirious now, does he?!
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #RichardII #heknewwhatwasup
There are some good little tidbits for the #shakespearereadalong in the intro to this one.
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory #WilliamShakespeare #ShakespearesKings
Now to take on this gem. I do enjoy a good history. I do enjoy a good dose of snark. This author tends to do both together, so what‘s not to love. Here goes nothing, @Texreader
#EdWest #MyKingdomForAHorse #history #englishhistory #snarkyhistory
Oh those feared Scots: the Scottish army was more terrifying to the English than Attila‘s Huns. It probably helped that the Huns never reached England
This author can be entertaining but his tendency to try to name every person who has turned up in history, without context, makes his books tiresome to read. This is his first and only mention of this Joan; who is she and how in the heck does her “idiocy” have any bearing on Ralph‘s sons becoming barons? And who is Ralph? I‘ve started skipping this nonsense to try to get back to the history. Probably my last Ed West book for this reason.
Again, Charles‘s fear may not have been misplaced:
“He had strange fears, so that on top of his terror of entering a house in case it collapsed on him, he would never cross a wooden bridge (again, wooden bridges at the time probably did collapse quite a lot).”
The 1400s was not a good time to be alive, one finding oneself more often dead than not. I think we all might have been a bit neurotic for it.
“The younger Charles was, although not mad, highly neurotic and had a terrible fear that if he walked into a house it would fall down on him, after such a horror did happen in La Rochelle (it was much easier to be neurotic at a time when utterly horrific things actually did occur more often).”
On the complexities of describing the War of the Roses:
“the families involved had such a heavy death toll that one aristocrat would be killed and then his son or brother—often with the same title—would die in a battle a couple of years later, leaving the reader to wonder if he hadn‘t just been killed on the previous page.”
This one is next up in my nonfiction reading but I wanted some levity this time. Sure enough the intro starts out with this beauty:
“It ended when Henry Tudor, distantly related and with an extremely dubious claim, was able to take the throne as Henry VII, largely on account of still breathing.”
Get it? “largely on account of still breathing”? 🤣
Have you read it yet @GingerAntics ?
@Texreader game on!!! This time I‘m going to read one book at a time so I can actually finish this gem in a timely fashion. Ed West is certainly becoming a favourite historian.
If you liked England in the Age of Chivalry then here‘s another Ed West book on sale about the War of the Roses. I didn‘t think twice, I spent the $2. @GingerAntics
My Kingdom for a Horse: The War of the Roses | 
