The 16th Century, Or Thereabouts
The university trail continued today with the first Scottish History lecture of the second semester, which was titled "What Happened to the Sixteenth Century?" Um, I can take a guess...
Actually, most of the lecture seemed to be nothing but a rant about how the politics of 16th-century Scotland were equal, or sometimes superior, to those of England and that this had been distorted by the manipulative, Anglocentric storytelling of history. Lob on some generalised mutterings about how they both generally saw themselves as a hierarchical society ordained by God. Moan a little about the misnomer that is 'feudalism'. Make brief mention of the culture's reliance on continuity rather than change. Try and pass off the fact that the Stewarts inherited the throne rather than usurped it, so the Scots lineage was viewed as being bestowed with ancient gravitas (and try not to smirk at that).
Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't already know.
Like that the parliamentary legislation regarding the Reformation was sorted out in three weeks in Scotland compared to seven years in England. Sheesh. And we thought the smoking ban was efficient.
Oh, and the tallies of the old football "friendlies" between the two? England won 44, Scotland won 40 and 24 were drawn. Huh.
Actually, most of the lecture seemed to be nothing but a rant about how the politics of 16th-century Scotland were equal, or sometimes superior, to those of England and that this had been distorted by the manipulative, Anglocentric storytelling of history. Lob on some generalised mutterings about how they both generally saw themselves as a hierarchical society ordained by God. Moan a little about the misnomer that is 'feudalism'. Make brief mention of the culture's reliance on continuity rather than change. Try and pass off the fact that the Stewarts inherited the throne rather than usurped it, so the Scots lineage was viewed as being bestowed with ancient gravitas (and try not to smirk at that).
Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't already know.
Like that the parliamentary legislation regarding the Reformation was sorted out in three weeks in Scotland compared to seven years in England. Sheesh. And we thought the smoking ban was efficient.
Oh, and the tallies of the old football "friendlies" between the two? England won 44, Scotland won 40 and 24 were drawn. Huh.
posted by Thed at 19:35
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home