Geoffrey Chaucer or Agincourt?

If I disappear for a while again, it is because my computer curse continues. Last night the new backup, Lionheart, stopped working after just three days, is going back to Best Buy this morning. And an hour ago, Melusine froze up and took half an hour to unfreeze, the second time this has happened in the two weeks since I got her back. You do not want to hear what I think about all this.

Today’s Facebook Note.

Some very interesting events occurred on October 25th. Here we go.
On October 25, 1102, William Clito, Count of Flanders, was born. He was the son of Robert, the Duke of Normandy, and thus nephew to Henry I. Henry was not a loving uncle, though, and after he captured Robert in 1106, he made several attempts to get William Clito into his hands; luckily for William, he did not succeed. But William’s fortunes changed dramatically with the sinking of the White Ship, for many then saw him as the obvious male heir and preferred him to Henry’s daughter Maude. It is hard to say what may have happened had William not been wounded in July 1128 at the siege of Aalst. Gangrene set in and he died at only twenty-five, thus making it easier for Henry to force Maude upon his reluctant barons. His father, Robert, survived him by six years, dying in 1134 after over 28 years as Henry’s prisoner.
On October 25, 1147, the Seljuk Turks decimated the army of the German king Conrad at Dorylaeum, which definitely got the fiasco known as the Second Crusade off to a terrible start.
On October 25, 1154, Henry II’s Angevin luck continued to hold. Stephen died on that date, thus allowing Henry to claim the English crown at the age of 21. It probably would have been very difficult for the impatient Henry to have to wait around if Stephen had lived another decade or so after the peace pact that named him as Stephen’s heir.
On October 25, 1400, the great poet and story teller, Geoffrey Chaucer, died. As a writer, I admit I find this the most interesting happening on October 25th. But there was one more event, admittedly better known.
The battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415, one of the great battles of the MA. Henry V was the victor, of course, and the French suffered a calamitous defeat. I highly recommend Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt for a dramatic account of this battle.