asciilifeform: 'the murdrum fine did not extend to any Englishman who was murdered. The law was explicitly introduced to help deter the English from murdering their Norman French conquerors and to punish the English community when they did so. If a Norman lord could prove that the person murdered was English he would avoid paying the fine. This became known as the ‘Presentment of Englishry’ and was not abolished until the late fourteenth centur
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: it was in a linked video from hunters
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: why not houses on stilts, as in vietnam ??
asciilifeform: when we know what the 'great things' are -- reddit ?
asciilifeform: i actually find orwell quite considerably less outrageous than linked d00d. in the time of o it was at least possible to imagine the commoners whom, if, e.g., churchill, had not eaten, might have 'done great things'. but today ?
asciilifeform: more typical yet, https://thewildpeak.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/dont-sit-like-melvyn-bragg >> 'I for one have the utmost respect for Churchill as a war leader, but what about Churchill as an aristocrat? What about his wealthy and privileged background? Where did the wealth to build Blenheim Palace come from? What had his ancestor John Churchill, The Duke of Marlborough, done to deserve it? Who were his victims?'
asciilifeform: y expected the common soldiers, their ‘men’, to be slaughtered without mercy, they expected that if they themselves were facing defeat they would be able to ‘yield’, to be taken prisoner, to be treated honourably while awaiting the collection of a huge ransom paid for their release. The ransom money of course had to be ground out of their ever-suffering tenants and serfs back at home.' << lulzy
asciilifeform: 'This is what nobles do. The Duke of This or the Baron of That, the King of France or the Holy Roman Emperor, they called themselves warriors but actually they were just armed and heavily armoured thugs. If they weren’t leading their men up the hill to their death, they were leading them in the slaughter of the enemy. Sometimes in these battles the nobles died too. But in the middle-ages, in the so-called Age of Chivalry, while the
