An honorable earl, a not so honorable king, and a larger-than-life Renaissance sculptor

I am a day late, but I can’t ignore the death of one of my favorite medievals, the honorable Robert of Gloucester, half-brother to the Empress Maude, who died on October 31st, 1147. Robert’s loss forced Maude to retreat back to Normandy, for he’d been her mainstay during her quest for the crown. One of my favorite scenes in Saints was when Robert’s iron control finally cracked and he shocked Maude by lashing out at her, claiming—quite truthfully—that he’d have been a better ruler than either Stephen or her. But he was barred from the throne by his illegitimate birth; interesting to speculate how different English history would have been had that not been true. Of course that would mean England would have been denied the Plantagenet dynasty, and that would have been a catastrophe for historical novelists!
November 1st, 1210, is another sad day in the history of medieval Jews, for John ordered the imprisonment and torture of the wealthier ones until they paid the tallage that he’d imposed upon them of 66,000 marks. According to the historian John Baldwin, Philippe Capet was then inspired to resume his own harassment of French Jews. While virtually all medieval Christians harbored some degree of anti-Semitism, a poison they breathed in from birth, John’s primary motivation here seems to have been financial; he needed the money. Philippe, however, was motivated both by bias and greed; in stark contrast to his father, Louis VII, who did what he could to protect the Jews in his realm, Philippe believed in the blood libel.
And on November 1st in 1500, the 16th century sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, was born. I mention him because he also penned an autobiography that is great fun to read, even if it does contain more fiction than fact. Benvenuto seems to have been the life of every party and his colorful accounts of his swaggering adventures (including murder) offers a fascinating view of life in Renaissance Europe.
Lastly, a belated Happy Halloween to one and all. And today is All Saints Day, an important date on the medieval calendar.