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Authors: Robert Easton
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to the Devil he shall return.’
[D]
Peter of the Dagger see Peter the CEREMONIOUS
Abdul the Damned
Abdul Hamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1842–1918
No Ottoman sultan was more loathed than Abdul Hamid. Some condemned him as ‘Abdul the Damned’, a man destined for hell for such acts of callous cruelty as instigating a campaign of terror resulting in the execution of some 25,000 Armenian villagers, and having the head of his imprisoned grand vizier sent to him in a box labelled ‘Japanese Ivories’.
Abdul the Damned
Others despised ‘Bloody Abdul’ for his cowardice. Paranoid about assassination, he rarely ventured out of his palace-cum-fortress, which he kitted out with trapdoors, observation posts and powerful telescopes, and he never slept more than one night in the same room. Dour, doleful and universally despised, Abdul Hamid died not from an assassin’s bullet but in exile, deposed by a people that found such an abject and venomous ruler quite intolerable.
James the Dead Man Who Won a Fight
James Douglas, second earl of Douglas, c.1358–88
During the reign of Robert the STEWARD (see NOBLE PROFESSIONS ) there were several border clashes between the Douglases of Scotland and the Percy family of Northumberland. One confrontation in 1388, known as the battle of Otterburn, which was otherwise entirely forgettable, inspired a ballad in which James Douglas, who won the battle but lost his life, is made to say:
But I have dreamed a dreary dream
Beyond the Isle of Skye
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.
Doggerel drivel has thus bestowed celebrity status upon an episode and an earl of little consequence.
Edmund the Deed-Doer see Edmund the MAGNIFICENT
Aud the Deep-Minded
Aud, Norse queen, fl . 850s
When her son Thorstein the RED ( see COLOURFUL CHARACTERS ) was killed while fighting in Scotland, the thoughtful Aud set sail for Iceland to start a new life there, with a mission to marry off her many grandchildren. In this she was wholly successful, with two of them finding partners en route – one on the Orkneys and the other on the Faroe Islands. Once in Iceland Aud searched for a place to settle, and a number of places on the island are named after little things she did there –‘ Kambsnes’ or ‘Comb Headland’, for example, where she lost her comb, and ‘Dogurdarnes’ or ‘Breakfast Headland’ where presumably she ate, rather than lost, her breakfast.
Soon all her granddaughters had found husbands. Her youngest grandson, Olaf, however, had yet to meet a suitable partner and so the ever-considerate Aud held a party – a singles night with a difference. At the gathering Aud announced that she was leaving her inheritance entirely to Olaf, and then she encouraged her startled guests to drink up and have a great time since the festivities were also her funeral feast. With that, she took herself to bed. The next morning she was found leaning against her pillows, as dead as a doornail.
Henry the Defender of the Faith see BLUFF KING HAL
Louis the Desired see Louis the KING OF SLOPS
Demetrius the Devoted
Demetrius II, king of Georgia, 1269–89
Bastinado is a form of torture consisting of the beating of the victim’s soles with a stick, an ordeal which Demetrius underwent when he surrendered to the Mongol il-khan Arghun in order to save his people from invasion. But Arghun was not a man to keep his word. Although he had promised that his forces would not attack Georgia if their young king came to his court in Mughan and paid homage, he had Demetrius first tortured and then beheaded.
The Georgians bewailed the loss of their tall, fair-haired and generous king, and for his sacrifice they styled him ‘Tav-dadebuli’ –‘ the Devoted’ or ‘the Man Who Sacrificed His Head’. Sadly his sacrifice was in vain. With Demetrius headless so was Georgia, and without an effective monarch the kingdom sank into squabbling anarchy.
Charles A Discrowned Glutton see
[D]
Peter of the Dagger see Peter the CEREMONIOUS
Abdul the Damned
Abdul Hamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1842–1918
No Ottoman sultan was more loathed than Abdul Hamid. Some condemned him as ‘Abdul the Damned’, a man destined for hell for such acts of callous cruelty as instigating a campaign of terror resulting in the execution of some 25,000 Armenian villagers, and having the head of his imprisoned grand vizier sent to him in a box labelled ‘Japanese Ivories’.
Abdul the Damned
Others despised ‘Bloody Abdul’ for his cowardice. Paranoid about assassination, he rarely ventured out of his palace-cum-fortress, which he kitted out with trapdoors, observation posts and powerful telescopes, and he never slept more than one night in the same room. Dour, doleful and universally despised, Abdul Hamid died not from an assassin’s bullet but in exile, deposed by a people that found such an abject and venomous ruler quite intolerable.
James the Dead Man Who Won a Fight
James Douglas, second earl of Douglas, c.1358–88
During the reign of Robert the STEWARD (see NOBLE PROFESSIONS ) there were several border clashes between the Douglases of Scotland and the Percy family of Northumberland. One confrontation in 1388, known as the battle of Otterburn, which was otherwise entirely forgettable, inspired a ballad in which James Douglas, who won the battle but lost his life, is made to say:
But I have dreamed a dreary dream
Beyond the Isle of Skye
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.
Doggerel drivel has thus bestowed celebrity status upon an episode and an earl of little consequence.
Edmund the Deed-Doer see Edmund the MAGNIFICENT
Aud the Deep-Minded
Aud, Norse queen, fl . 850s
When her son Thorstein the RED ( see COLOURFUL CHARACTERS ) was killed while fighting in Scotland, the thoughtful Aud set sail for Iceland to start a new life there, with a mission to marry off her many grandchildren. In this she was wholly successful, with two of them finding partners en route – one on the Orkneys and the other on the Faroe Islands. Once in Iceland Aud searched for a place to settle, and a number of places on the island are named after little things she did there –‘ Kambsnes’ or ‘Comb Headland’, for example, where she lost her comb, and ‘Dogurdarnes’ or ‘Breakfast Headland’ where presumably she ate, rather than lost, her breakfast.
Soon all her granddaughters had found husbands. Her youngest grandson, Olaf, however, had yet to meet a suitable partner and so the ever-considerate Aud held a party – a singles night with a difference. At the gathering Aud announced that she was leaving her inheritance entirely to Olaf, and then she encouraged her startled guests to drink up and have a great time since the festivities were also her funeral feast. With that, she took herself to bed. The next morning she was found leaning against her pillows, as dead as a doornail.
Henry the Defender of the Faith see BLUFF KING HAL
Louis the Desired see Louis the KING OF SLOPS
Demetrius the Devoted
Demetrius II, king of Georgia, 1269–89
Bastinado is a form of torture consisting of the beating of the victim’s soles with a stick, an ordeal which Demetrius underwent when he surrendered to the Mongol il-khan Arghun in order to save his people from invasion. But Arghun was not a man to keep his word. Although he had promised that his forces would not attack Georgia if their young king came to his court in Mughan and paid homage, he had Demetrius first tortured and then beheaded.
The Georgians bewailed the loss of their tall, fair-haired and generous king, and for his sacrifice they styled him ‘Tav-dadebuli’ –‘ the Devoted’ or ‘the Man Who Sacrificed His Head’. Sadly his sacrifice was in vain. With Demetrius headless so was Georgia, and without an effective monarch the kingdom sank into squabbling anarchy.
Charles A Discrowned Glutton see
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