Oh, what happened? Did Sam get chronic diarrhea and die? - No, don't even joke about Sam's death. We're gonna die at the same exact time. Even if we're miles apart, our hearts will just know.
DETROITERS ( 2017-2018 )
Sam Richardson as Sam Duvet
Tim Robinson as Tim Cramblin
i feel like we don't talk enough about the County-Palatinate of Durham
like
i feel like at some point in general english history education people should at least touch on the theocratic city-state where the bishops had rights otherwise unique to the monarch UNTIL 1836????
WE HAD OUR OWN MINI-VATICAN SITUATION IN ENGLAND LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOBODY OUTSIDE COUNTY DURHAM EVER SEEMS TO KNOW THAT.
like they weren't TAXED they were sitting in the middle of the wool trade (up until the bottom fell out of the english wool trade in the 16th century) and the coal trade and they were EXEMPT FROM NATIONAL TAX COLLECTIONS
they had their own courts! they had their own judges! they had their own militias to call up independent of the Crown! they had their own maritime court as well, so they had their own naval and port authority! they had their own customs and excise!
i need everyone to understand how fucking wild the county-palatinate of durham is as a concept this just EXISTED for hundreds of years and nobody seems to know about it
last unhinged county-palatinate post of the night i swear but
this, on reflection, makes it both way weirder and slightly more explicable that 90% of england straight-up does not know county durham exists, or goes "oh, is that in ireland?"
it also kind of makes sense of why county durham is like. the only english county with that "county [name]" structure? because it's only been county durham since it ceased being the county-palatinate of durham. and was never included in the shire system because it was busy being basically a vassal kingdom.
#county durham#I have to wonder how much of this was that some tax collector took one look at that hill and that insane river#(which is actually very shallow but that's not obvious)#and decided “fuck that#leave them to it“
OH NO YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD i know this is a joke but also i do actually know why the county-palatine started
and it's not about the geography but it is very much "fuck that, leave them to it"
TIME FOR AN EVEN MORE UNHINGED HISTORY RAMBLE
the County-Palatinate of Durham was actually a liberty (i.e. a region with special governance privileges) before it was English - it started as the terrritory of St Cuthbert in 684, under the Kingdom of Northumbria. now, at that point, it wasn't actually in Durham. it was in Lindisfarne, which is a lot less of a geographic block and a lot more difficult to administrate (on account of being an island half of the time), and it was developed as a liberty for a few reasons:
it was a crucial meeting-point for convocations between the Celtic and Roman churches, as well as for various British churches;
it was out of the way, and had few natural resources, so it was a good way to appease the church without actually costing much;
Saint (then Bishop) Cuthbert was scary.
the first time Northumbria fell apart, the Community of St Cuthbert saw an opportunity and majorly increased its territories. at this point it was not basically independent, it was independent - it was a theocratic polity in a region where a whole bunch of polities were fighting over scraps.
when the Danes finally reunified Northumbria, there was a big ethnic split between the Anglian north (in modern terms, roughly Northumberland and Cumbria) and Danish York. they were all officially in the Danelaw (i.e. under Danish/"Viking" rule), but there were big regional beefs going on. King Guthred of Northumbria sees an opportunity to bring the Community of St Cuthbert to his side and simultaneously create a peaceful buffer between the Angles and the Danes, so he grants the land between the Tyne and Wear to the Bishops of Lindisfarne as a patrimony. governance looks very different at this point in time, it's not a liberty yet, but County Durham basically comes into existence then (around the mid 9th century) and already know they are Important.
(now, as anyone raised in the region was definitely told at primary school, is when the Viking raids on Lindisfarne drive the Community of St Cuthbert inland, first to Chester-le-Street and then to Durham. the corpse of st cuthbert is dug up and found to be fresh as a daisy. a seasick monk accidentally drops 1/4 of the most beautiful and celebrated illuminated gospels overboard on the way over, they start building a cool cathedral, etc and so forth. The abbey at Lindisfarne remains part of the Patrimony of St Cuthbert for now, but the administrative centre moves to mainland Durham.)
FAST FORWARD ANOTHER 200 YEARS. northumbria has lost a lot of power, and is now an earldom rather than a kingdom, largely autonomous but answerable to the saxon kings at winchester. the earl of northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, who happens to be the cousin of the king of england, makes the worst decision in the history of all the bad decisions in northumbria. he calls up the king of norway and is like "hey do you want england? you can have england if we can have northumbria's independence back." said king, one Harald Hardrada, is like "hell yeah i love trying to claim thrones unsuccessfully, it didn't work when i did it to Denmark but it'll work now!" and marches northumbrian troops down to stanford bridge where he gets his shit absolutely rocked by Harold Godwinson, who then has to quick-march to the english channel to get his shit rocked at Hastings (largely because his entire army was exhausted from rushing 185 miles to try and catch William of Normandy when he landed)
so what i'm saying is: norman conquest happened!
*deep breath* speed round
Tostig died at Stamford Bridge, so the earldom's vacant! William taps a Northumbrian lord who has accepted his rule, hey, new earl. new earl immediately gets murdered by his brother, who rises up against the Normans. he gets ousted by the Normans and replaced by a new new pro-Norman earl. new new earl immediately rises up against the Normans. William puts down the rebellion, puts a Norman earl in Northumbria. within a year, the new new new earl gets murdered and Northumbria rises up again. William says "fuck this, time for a mass slaughter". hey! it's the Harrying of the North! we have killed allegedly 100,000 people! this is a Norman area now!
1075: William sells the earldom to the Bishop of Durham (Bishop Walcher), unifying the temporal powers of the earldom with the religious powers of the Patrimony of St Cuthbert. Most people consider Walcher to be the first true Prince-Bishop of Durham.
1080: Bishop Walcher gets murdered by a bunch of native Northumbrians. chaos ensues.
now, obviously Walcher didn't have legitimate offspring. he was a bishop and the Reformation hadn't happened yet. so the Earldom he had bought from William just kind of... the only natural inheritor is the next Bishop of Durham?
Technically, this does not happen. Technically, the Earldom is abolished, William gives up on the whole project of incorporating Northumbria as a whole, and he divides it into (roughly) the current counties.
at this point, County Durham does not exist yet, it's officially part of Northumberland. but you cannot tell this to the Bishops of Durham. for about 200 years there's this standoff where they just dispute the authority of the sheriffs of Northumberland at every turn. because, like, they bought that title. it's not just that they're good noble churchmen and you should respect their authority: the Bishops of Durham (in the person of Bishop Walcher) paid a lot of money for the Earldom of Northumbria, and they didn't do anything to piss off the King (in fact they sided with him despite him being responsible for another sacking of Church lands in the area), and he can't just take away the title without a reason. so they think they're in charge, northumberland thinks it's in charge, and the Kings of England are tired of dealing with the whole mess north of York so they're not touching that shit
so it goes until the late 12th century, when the bishops make another big purchase and buy Sadberge (the area around Stockton, Coniscliffe, and Gainford - Barnard Castle is on the edge of Sadberge, which I think is why it stayed disputed?), which was already a liberty because of OTHER complicated reasons involving Scotland taking it, giving it special rights, and then losing it back to England. so now the church in Durham has two titles which they will argue give them control in the region. but also officially they're still under Northumberland.
our last stop is at 1293, at which point there is an incident where the justices of Northumberland call the Bishop of Durham to court, and he just fully refuses to go. he holes up in Durham and like. what are you going to do? storm a cathedral and arrest the bishop? have another thomas beckett situation? hell no. the justices escalate the issue to Parliament (which exists now) and the Crown. the Bishop of Durham rocks up to Parliament and is like "hey everyone knows this is OUR jurisdiction tell these justices to fuck off."
(actually, he says that "from time immemorial it had been widely known that the sheriff of Northumberland was not sheriff of Durham nor entered within that liberty as sheriff", which is a bold claim when the sheriff of Northumberland had only existed for like 200 years which is not that immemorial ANYWAY)
and Parliament seems to have just shrugged and gone "you know what, sure". and that's how you end up with the full-blown County-Palatine enshrined in law by the start of the 14th century.
so
uh
basically i think it really is just like "oh my god if we give you the special rights and privileges will you all chill the fuck out?", and, to be fair: it does seem to have worked.
A big problem with sustainability and ethics when it comes to food is that so few people actually know where their food comes from. Like it's so sad how many people eat Macaronian cheese and can't even point out Macaronia on a map.
I'm pretty sure that Noah Webster and George Merriam never met in real life, and also, there's a 45 year age gap. But what if ... ? If we allow for some minor historical inaccuracies, we could really get this ball rolling.
to those asking: welcome to restaurant%, where you help ganondorf rebuild his life as a humble restaurant owner by building a restaurant around him as fast as possible without getting murked
I saw this video the other day! If it’s not immediately obvious, the “booth” is made out of indestructible parts, and enclosing Ganon in them breaks his AI so he no longer attacks.
fun thing about herding and/or generally neurotic breeds: they are really good at following rules you have instituted, but they will also make their own Dog Rules they will follow stringently whether or not you like it
despite never being reprimanded for getting sick if my dog throws up she will ‘tattle’ on herself and run over to me, show me the throw up, then hide and start shaking uncontrollably. nobody taught her to do this. she has decided that throwing up is a punishable offense until the end of time
my dog has decided that it’s solely on her shoulders to ensure there is peace in my house…if the cats fight she stands between them to ‘break it up’ and/or herds them away, if my rats have an argument she goes to the cage door and barks until they stop. not sure why she has decided she must carry the weight of the world but she has
Nile: You would not believe how long term you have to mismanage agriculture on my banks to start experiencing soil depletion. I will always be here for you Egypt.
Huang He: *kicks in the door* FUCK YOUR DYNASTY IT'S FAMINE TIME!!!
snowghoul
baratheonpilled
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
titsay
