#bernard hamilton

[tobeahundred]

Physical copy finally came in!!

I swear this got lost in the mail at some point

[incorrect-koh-posts]

"He made good progress in his studies and as time passed he grew up full of hope and developed his natural abilities. He was a good-looking child for his age and more skilled than men who were older than himself in controlling horses and in riding them at a gallop. He had an excellent memory and he loved listening to stories. He was inclined to be thrifty, but he always remembered the good things that people had done for him, and the bad things as well. He was very like his father; not only did they look alike, but they were of similar build. They walked in the same kind of way and their speech patterns were similar. He had a quick understanding, but he had a stammer. Like his father he had a passion for hearing about history, and he paid attention to the good advice he was given."

- William of Tyre on the young Baldwin IV, quoted in Bernard Hamilton's The Leper King and His Heirs (p. 43)

[books0977]

The Light? A Romance. Bernard Hamilton. London: Hurst and Blackett Limited, 1898. Illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen. First edition. 

"Love melodrama and religious discussions, with a hint of reincarnation. Marginal fantasy."

[incorrect-koh-posts]

Hello dear! How are you? I hope that you and your loved ones are OK! Maybe a month ago I came across a video on TikTok that was about King Baldwin IV and I thought "cool mask, lemme watch the movie too." And that's how I got stuck and I got into this mess and I can't get out for about a month. While watching the film, I noticed something: Baldwin IV was always portrayed as tolerant of Jews and Muslims, and I wondered if this was actually true in history. Do you have any information regarding Baldwin's views on non-Christians in his kingdom?

Much love <3

Hello! I'm fine, how about you?

You’re asking an important question, but luckily it’s one I think I can answer satisfactorily. It’s one of the aspects in which Kingdom of Heaven is actually quite true to history, as Bernard Hamilton in The Leper King and His Heirs (2000) tells us the following about the Franks’ treatment of their non-Christian subjects:

“Most of the inhabitants of the Latin East were not Franks but Muslims or eastern-rite Christians [i.e. Byzantine Orthodox, Armenians, Syrian Orthodox, and Maronites]. There were also substantial Jewish communities as well as some smaller groups, such as the Samaritans. Despite the massacre of Jews and Muslims which had been perpetrated by the First Crusade at Jerusalem in 1099, once their rule had been established the Franks proved remarkably tolerant in their treatment of their non-Christian subjects. Muslims and Jews were required to pay a religious poll-tax, but there were no forced conversions and few attempts were made to proselytise the adherents of other faiths. Indeed, the Franks allowed complete religious freedom to all their subjects. Jewish synagogues and rabbinic schools existed in many of their towns; while recent research by Benjamin Kedar and his pupils has shown that Muslim villagers in the Nablus area enjoyed full rights to practise their own religion in the traditional way, which may even have included permission to make the haj. In some cities mosques were open for the use of visiting Muslim merchants.” (Hamilton, p.49)

So it was not only Baldwin IV who was tolerant towards people of other faiths, but most of the other Frankish rulers as well; much as I adore him, KoH has a tendency to deify him while making everybody else look a bit worse than they were.

I hope this clarifies things for you! Much love to you as well <3

[laprogressive]

LA Progressive has a new post on http://bit.ly/1RUK7lY

Another Poster Child For California's Dysfunctional Death Penalty

Andy Love: California’s death penalty system is so dysfunctional that even after 35 years, issues regarding the reliability of his conviction and the fairness of his death sentence have not been resolved. And now they never will be because Bernard Hamilton has died of “natural causes” at the age of 64.