Epiphany occurrences

I hope all my Facebook friends and readers came through the storms okay; this weekend, most of us in the US were at ground zero, with flooding on the West Coast, snow and flooding in the South, and snow and blizzards in the mid-Atlantic states and New England. We got eight inches of snow here, but it could have been much worse. The Weather Channel says 49 of the 50 states had snow on the ground—and no, it is not the one you’d expect; the snowless state is Florida, not Hawaii, which had snow capping its mountains on the Big Island. Now to continue catching up on my historical posts. Oh, yes, and go, Green Bay!

January 6th was Epiphany, an important medieval holiday, and a busy day, historically speaking.

On this date in 1066, Harold Godwinson was crowned King of England. His reign would be a brief one, cut short by William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings. Helen Hollick has written an interesting novel about Harold, which was published in the UK as Harold the King, but was published in the US under the title, I am the Chosen King. Maybe the publisher worried that American readers wouldn’t know there was a King Harold?

January 1169. Henry II and Thomas Becket met at Montmiral in an attempt to reconcile their differences, at the urgings of the French king, Louis. It did not go well, for once again Becket qualified his submission by adding “saving the Honour of God.” Since Henry was convinced that whenever Becket did not agree with a royal act, he’d declare it contrary to the Honour of God, this was not acceptable to him. He was eloquent enough to convince their audience, even the French king, who asked Becket, in unwitting irony, if he wished to be more than a saint. See page 392 of Time and Chance for this scene.

On January 6th, 1205, Philip of Swabia (the only good Hohenstaufen), youngest brother of Richard’s nemesis, Heinrich von Hohenstaufen, was crowned King of the Romans for the second time. He’d originally been crowned in 1198, but the Germans were split between him and Richard’s nephew Otto, who’d also been elected. Philip would eventually prevail over Otto, only to be tragically assassinated in 1208. Philip seems to have been an admirable individual, the anti-Heinrich, if you will, and if only I spoke German, I’d have loved to give him a book of his own.

Another ruler was crowned on January 6th, this time in 1286, but he could not be more unlike the upstanding, sympathetic Philip--Philippe le Bel, or Philippe IV, King of France. Philippe was a nasty piece of work, persecuting the Jews and Lombards and bringing about the destruction of the Templars.

On January 6th, 1367, Richard II was born. He became king at age 10, and his reign was neither happy nor successful. Sadly for him, his finest moment occurred at age 14 during the Peasant’s Revolt; from there, it was all downhill.

On January 6th, 1412, Joan of Arc was born—maybe.

And of course it is time for the Tudors to crash the party again. On this date in 1540, Henry VIII wed wife #4, Anne of Cleves. I think we can safely say that neither bride nor groom enjoyed their wedding night. My sympathies are naturally with Anne.

Lastly, this was not medieval, but another important wedding took place on this date in 1759, beginning a marriage that was much happier than Henry and Anne’s, when George Washington wed the wealthy young widow, Martha Custis.