Given his sobriquet, you might imagine that this person was a contented denizen of a monastery, but he apparently studied the dark arts before becoming a religious. Later, he turned to a watery life of crime, though he was occasionally employed by a monarch with a bad historical and literary reputation. Who was this man, and on whose famous legend does his story seem to have had some influence?

queproblema

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum to Eustace the Monk. He lived around 1200 and served bad King John Lackland. Robin Hood's legend might owe him a farthing or two. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustace_the_Monk Jul 25 07, 5:14 PM

lanfranco

And a yo-ho-ho to you, qp, in return! I'd throw in a doubloon or two, except that doubloons didn't exist back there in the 12th and 13th centuries. Yep, that's the guy. Believe it or not, I ran into him while reading an article about medieval piracy. Jul 25 07, 5:43 PM

ckamz

Eustace the Monk. One question for you..."before becoming a religious" what? Jul 25 07, 6:13 PM

lanfranco

Ckamz, "religious" is often used as a noun when it comes to monks and nuns. Jul 25 07, 6:18 PM

queproblema

Oh, I ran into him in a Barbara Cartland novel. Just kidding, I never even heard of her till last February on here. There's quite a bit on King John's historical and literary reputation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_England#Depictions_in_fiction Jul 25 07, 7:22 PM