Subject: History's Mysteries
Posted by: Cymruambyth
Date: Feb 19 09
There are many unresolved mysteries in history. For instance, who really killed the princes in the Tower (my money is on Henry VII)? What happened to the Roanoke settlers? Where exactly did Judge Crater get to? What would you like to see resolved?
Posted by: Cymruambyth
Date: Feb 19 09
There are many unresolved mysteries in history. For instance, who really killed the princes in the Tower (my money is on Henry VII)? What happened to the Roanoke settlers? Where exactly did Judge Crater get to? What would you like to see resolved?
136 replies. On page 7 of 7 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
sherry75 
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I think that in the late 16th century, everywhere in England had mud streets and was in the middle of nowhere..lol Stratford had been an important town since the 12th century. Reply #121. Aug 26 09, 1:57 PM |
C30
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Modern place then.! signed citizen Camuloduneum Reply #122. Aug 26 09, 2:57 PM |
Cymruambyth
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Sheesh, daver, what have you got against Stratford upon Avon? Reply #123. Aug 26 09, 11:19 PM |
| sherry75
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It's in England... lol Reply #124. Aug 27 09, 3:00 AM |
mjws1968
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Apart from it being permanently packed with tourists and very expensive, Stratford is lovely. It is where Shakespeare was born, lived until his twenties and returned for the last three years of his life, but if you want the Shakespeare connection, he wrote most of his plays in London and the Globe theatre (reconstructed) is where most of them were performed. Without the Shakespeare connection Stratford would be just another pretty mediaeval town, so they milk it, and people get forced through the buildings associated with him in great numbers like cattle, what fun lol. If you want some peace in Stratford, head to the Butterfly Farm across the canal, it is always empty and the heating makes it bearable even on a cold and rainy day. Reply #125. Aug 28 09, 11:23 PM |
daver852
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I have no idea where people pick up such strange ideas. Yes, Stratford was market town. But it wasn't a rich or well-to-do place. Here is what Professor Hardin Craig of Stanford University has to say in his preface to his book on Shakespeare: "At any rate, it is worthwhile to consider the Stratford of Shakespeare's day, which was a little market town of 1500 people with narrow, crooked streets and timbered houses, picturesque but unsanitary . . . It was a town without the domination of clergy, aristocracy, or great wealth where simple, honest people plied their trades." A survey of England published in 1590 devotes two sentences to it. It was, as I said, the English equivalent Podunk, an insignificant little wide spot in the road populated by ignorant, illiterate people. I wish it were othewise, but that's how it was. Hardly the sort of place to to spawn the greatest writer the English language has ever known. Reply #126. Aug 29 09, 1:05 AM |
| mjws1968
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Stratford was one of the largest towns in the Midlands during the Middle Ages. There was an important Saxon monastery on the site of the Holy Trinity Church, Richard the Lionheart chartered a market there to sell agricultural produce in 1196, it was a centre of the wool trade that created a whole new mercantile class during the Mediaeval period and the place had Guilds, which only happened in towns of some status. The fact that it has not grown massively in size during the Industrial Revolution whilst places like Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry have grown into huge urban expanses is a matter of circumstance and local resources rather than anything else. But the place is now just a nasty tourist trap I give you that, but it was no different to any other medium sized mediaeval town in the sense of random urban planning, shoddy buildings and (lack of) cleanliness. Reply #127. Aug 29 09, 12:57 PM |
| daver852
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Whatever it was, Stratford was not one of the largest towns of the Midlands in the Elizabethan period. But here is a link to an article that, for me at least, provides irrefutable proof that Marlowe was the true author of Shakespeare's plays: http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/epitaph.htm Reply #128. Sep 02 09, 10:18 PM |
tnrees
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The second largest city in England had a population of 17000 so Stratfords 1500-2000 is not that small - 300,000 to 500,000 by comparison to the modern USA. Reply #129. Sep 03 09, 5:53 AM |
| daver852
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tnrees, one cannot extrapolate data like that in any meaningful way. One reason it is difficult to find out much about Stratford in Elizabethan times is because it was such an out-of-the-way, obscure place - basically a town where local farmers brought their sheep to be sheared and slaughtered. Michael Drayton, in his Poly-Olbion, published in 1613, doesn't even include Stratford in his map of Warwickshire. And Drayton was born in Warwickshire! We do know that David Garrick went to Stratford in 1769; he described it as "the most dirty, unseemingly, ill-paved, and wretched-looking [town] in all Britain." Modern Stratford is a charming place; Shakespeare's Stratford wasn't. http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/problem.htm Reply #130. Sep 04 09, 10:40 AM |
bandgeek17
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I love the Roanoke story.. There was the name of an island written into a tree... does any one know if anyone ever checked the island? did they find anything? One of the theories my friend came up with durring an activity at school was that they were eaten by rabid chinchillas.. hahaha. Reply #131. Sep 05 09, 7:25 AM |
Pejikr
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Who was Jack the Ripper? Reply #132. Sep 10 09, 7:03 PM |
collect
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Roanoke is not much of a mystery -- the name carved was that of a local Indian tribe -- and as the proipr garrison had been burned down by the Indians (the English were apparently not good neighbors), it is hardly surprising the newer settlers were unwelcome. The Croatan (Hatteras) tribe was relatively friendly, and the Lumbee tribe of Pembroke, NC has apparently a tradition of being from Roanoke. With modern DNA tests, we likely could find out for sure, I suppose. Dave Reply #133. Sep 11 09, 5:15 AM |
| tnrees
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You can extrapolate enough to show that 1500 today is insignificant but in Shakespears day it was not. Garick was writing when when wool had lost its great importance so Stratford had probably declined relative to many other places so what he says is not evidence of Stratfords status in Shakespears day. Reply #134. Sep 13 09, 9:07 PM |
KirkSpinner
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Stratford-on-Avon is lovely, i've been there once. Reply #135. Feb 28 19, 3:05 AM |
Mixamatosis
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daver, Almost everywhere could be classified as 'out of the way' in Elizabethan times. There were few significant urban areas and a much smaller population with a primitive transport systems - Roman roads were probably still the best ones then . However if you see Stratford on Avon and travel round Warwickshire you can see from the many medieval buildings everywhere in the county and its towns, that that age was a sort of economic boom time there, and a time when it prospered and flowered. Sheep were a great source of wealth in those times, and that area profited from them. English wool was very sought after in England and on the continent. Reply #136. Feb 28 19, 3:55 AM |
136 replies. On page 7 of 7 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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