posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 10:01pm on 11/03/2009
RI spent six months of his entire reign in England, bankrupted the country, left it without a stable succession, and engaged in a series of unnecessary and devastating wars. He's still used as a boogey-man figure in the Middle East to scare Arab children, who are told that Malik Ric will come and eat them up if they don't behave.

Yeah, I liked him as a kid, too. :(
 
posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 10:03pm on 11/03/2009
Your point? *grin*
 
posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 10:08pm on 11/03/2009
I'm a Roman social historian. I tend to rate "success" as "raised the average quality of life for citizens/subjects." :)
 
posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 10:51pm on 11/03/2009
I don't know, I think spawning the entire Robin Hood opus by your persistent failure to govern should get you some literature credits.
 
posted by [identity profile] ladybird97.livejournal.com at 10:59pm on 11/03/2009
Actually, he can't even be credited for that!

The earliest Robin Hood stories date from the early 14th century, and mention a King Edward. (Which makes it difficult to date them, because around the year 1300 there were three Edwards in quick succession :) Also, one of the earliest members of Robin Hood's group is Friar Tuck, and there weren't any friars until several decades after R1's death.

It was Sir Walter Scott who put Robin Hood during the reign of R1, in Ivanhoe. Which I like because the awesomest character in it is named Rebecca, but otherwise, not historically accurate At All.

I'm still a fan of R1, though - I kinda have to be, since he made up such a large part of my dissertation! And any historical figure who's got that many myths around him is an awesome resource for a medievalist who works on discourse and representation :)
 
posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 11:07pm on 11/03/2009
Well, yes, but you can be a fan without thinking he's a successful monarch. I mean, I think the Emperor Domitian threw really neat parties. :)
 
posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 12:55am on 12/03/2009
See, I told you I should have stayed out of this thread on grounds of ignorance. :) Of course, all of my knowledge of the whole story comes from Robin McKinley's The Outlaws of Sherwood, so I blame her.
 
posted by [identity profile] ladybird97.livejournal.com at 01:07am on 12/03/2009
Sorry! Robin Hood just happens to be a pet thing of mine. And I was thinking of staying out of this thread on grounds of 'it's my job' :)

But all is good in exchanging random trivia among friends!
 
posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 03:54am on 12/03/2009
It is so not your job to make judgments about the average success of eponymous English monarchs. :)
 
posted by [identity profile] ladybird97.livejournal.com at 11:58am on 12/03/2009
Thppppppt! You know what I mean! :)

Although my job would be a heck of a lot easier if it were. "Good King!" "Bad King!" "Tenure!" Wheeeee!
 
posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 03:22pm on 12/03/2009
Especially if you could chop the heads off of their paper dolls or something during the committee meetings. :)
 
posted by [identity profile] ellinor.livejournal.com at 04:19pm on 12/03/2009
Is it wrong that I see this as a viable conference paper idea? I mean, it would take some tweaking.
 
posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 05:14pm on 12/03/2009
Chopping the heads off of English monarch paper dolls? I mean, I'm all for multimedia and interactivity, but that might be pushing the envelope a little. :)

There are some possible interesting arguments that later monarchs try to deliberately emulate their namesakes as role models, a la Edward the Confessor. I don't have enough data to make an argument there. (Also, Not My Era.)
 
posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 08:24pm on 12/03/2009
Hmmm, I wonder if this could work for me. "After a great deal of thought I have found that this is a Good Differential Equation (TM)." Plz to have tenure now, thx!

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