The Investiture Controversy we talked about mostly this week was between King Henry of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor) and Pope Gregory. They both wanted to appoint their own bishops. Henry wanted to have this power so that he could put men who would obey him in the church position, therefore giving Henry slightly more power over his kingdom. The pope wanted this power, obviously, because he was the head of the church. When Henry disagreed with the pope, the pope responded by kicking him out of the church. Because Henry was now excommunicated, he was deposed as King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. Henry apologized, and he was brought back into the church. As is natural, Henry wanted his throne back, so he invaded Rome, his object being to find a new pope. The pope got the Normans to help him fend of Henry, and succeeded, but then the Normans decided to sack Rome, and they did, carrying off many valuables. The Investiture Controversies continued throughout the middle ages, carried on by new popes and Kings, fighting to see who would control the church.
English 7 #55: Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories
A Novel is a longer book with a much more complex storyline, while a Short Story is (as the name suggests) a much shorter story than a Novel, mostly focusing on character development with a fast-pased storyline. A Novelette is in between a Short Story and a Novel, being medium length and featuring two or three main events. It is still based on a simpler storyline than a novel.
Personally, my favorite type of literature is the Novel, simply because I like to binge-read books, and you cannot really do that with a shorter work of literature, because it simply does not take much time to absorb the information.
A few example of my favorite Novels are Tom Swift, Lad, and Buff. An example of a Novelette I like is Call of the Wild. And because I don’t really read short stories, I’m not going to put any examples here.
A Knight of the White Cross pt1: English Lesson #45
âš ï¸ SPOILER ALERT âš ï¸
Today we are going to talk about two of the literary analysis points in A Knight of the White Cross. We will be discussing the setting and the style of A Knight of the White Cross by G.A. Henty.
The setting of A Knight of the White Cross is based almost entirely upon the fortress that sits upon the island of Rhodes, which, today, is one of the islands that the country of Greece controls. At the time that the book was written, it was a palace for the Grand Master of the Knights of the White Cross. It was where the Grand Master lived, but it was also the largest fortress for that Order. The main character, Gervaise, also travels in the galleys a lot, and so the setting changes depending on where he is located.
In this particular instance, the style in which G.A. Henty has chosen to write this book is more of an external perspective. In this book, G.A. Henty makes it as if you are watching what plays out through a hidden camera, whereas is some stories like White Fang by Jack London, it seems like you are looking at the event through the character’s eyes, and you can (sort of) read their thoughts as well. (for a little bit more about White Fang, click here). In A Knight of the White Cross we are not exactly in the minds of the characters as we are in some other books.
I liked this book because it was interesting, and Gervaise (the protagonist) was quite adventurous, and I like books that have adventure in them.
History 7 #45: Feudalism & Manorialism
Feudalism
The Feudalism System was a system that decentralized the government of England. The King was the top of the system, with his appointed lords governing certain pieces of land. Beneath the lords were appointed knights. The knights oversaw the peasants (freemen) and serfs, who worked the land.
The King obviously lived in the palace and made most of the national decisions, like war and monopolies, etc. The lords either lived in the court, or in the castles on their land. The knights might have had manors or lived with “their” lord. The peasants were the “common people”. Their labor was paid for by giving them food and housing on the knight or lord’s land. The peasants could move wherever they wanted. The serfs were like the peasants; however, they could not leave the property, and if the property was sold or inherited, the serf had to stay on the property.
In war, the king would normally lead the charge. The lords would have a “wing” of the army, and each portion of a wing was commanded by a knight. The main foot soldiers themselves were the peasants in most cases.
Manorialism
Manorialism was the foundation that feudalism was built upon. Manorialism was a system in which a knight or a lesser lord (probably governed by an earl or higher ranking lord and then the king) would have a manor. This manor could be a castle, or just a big house. Freemen or Serfs would live on the land and work the fields in exchange for a place to live and security by the lord or knight. The manor was usually pretty self sustaining. It could produce almost everything it needed without importing it from the rest of the country or world. The peasant that lived on the manor would usually work two fields. They would work the common field and the manor field. The common field was where the peasants could raise food for themselves. The manor field was where they raised food for the lord or the knight.
The Conquest of England by the Normans: History Lesson #40
The Conquest of England was a turning point in English history. The Normans, led by William the Conqueror, began the Conquest of England at the battle of Hastings in 1066. The English army was weary from putting down a rebellion in the north, and less in numbers because the levies duty time had expired, and so, though they fought bravely, the Saxons lost the battle. William proceeded to take over all of England and the King of England and Duke of Normandy became one.
The Conquest of England by the Normans had been expected by the English for a long time. Harold Godwinson, the English monarch at the time, had put all of his forces on defense, ready for when William the Conqueror might arrive. The problem was this: there was a maximum time that the king could force the levies to stay with his army, and that time was reached before William arrived. Because of this, Harold lost a large portion of his army. Not only that, but the Danes from the north had forced Harold’s Earls to surrender, and the Danes continued marching south. So Harold had to rally his troops and march them quickly to the north border of England where the Danes were invading, leaving the south coast, where William would be landing, unguarded. Harold’s troops quickly dealt with the rebellion of the Earls and the marching of the Danes only to receive word that William’s ships had been spotted on the horizon. He marched his weary army to attempt to defend England, but his troops were now very, very weary. They arrived just in time to get the high ground. The battle raged all day. The weary Saxons were outnumbered. Although the Normans had to climb a hill, (normally a great advantage in battle, and it was no different here), the Saxon army was weary, outnumbered, and hungry. It is a miracle they were able to hold William off all day before an arrow wounded Harold. William finally overcame the Saxons, and the Conquest of England had begun, and the Battle of Hastings was lost.
Because most of the English army had been crushed at Hastings, there wasn’t a lot of resistance to William. The Sheriff of London put up a fight, but ultimately lost to William. William traveled north, conquering city after city, squashing rebellion after rebellion, until all of England was lost. William crowned himself the King of England on Christmas Day, 1066. The King of England and the Duke of Normandy had become one Monarch over two kingdoms.
England and France had an interesting link for many years. All of the English Royalty were now French Nobles. Because the court spoke French, a lot of French words became part of the English language. The Normans also introduced new kinds of castles as strongholds against rebellions. England was ruled by the Normans for many many years. Eventually, England broke free of French rule, but only after at least three hundred years of it.
Different Types Of Steering and Wheels: Science Lesson #40
Differential Steering
Differential steering is when you have two wheels and they move independently. To go forward and backwards, you make both of the wheels move the same speed. To turn left and right, you either have one wheel stop while the other still moves, or you make one of the wheels move slower than the other. The advantages of this type of steering include being able to turn without moving forward. The downside is that it is harder to balance, as well as the motors always have to be going the same speed, which can be slightly harder to achieve than other types of steering.
Car Type Steering
Car type steering has the back wheels provide power and the two wheels in front steer, although they could all be powered. Advantages include more power and better balance, while disadvantages include having to be moving forward to turn around.
Three Wheel Steering
Three wheel steering is like car type, but instead of two wheels in the front there is one, and front wheel is almost never powered. Its disadvantages and advantages are the same as car type steering, but it does not have the advantage of balance as much as car type.
Omnidirectional Steering
Omnidirectional steering is where we have a shape (I’m using a triangle) with three wheels on it. The two red ones are the front, and the blue one is the back.
The front wheels are what move it forward while the back sits idle, and one of the front wheels along with the back can pull it in another direction. To turn around, all the wheels move in one direction. An advantage of this type is being able to turn very precisely and accurately. Disadvantages include only being able to move in three directions (with this particular setup of three wheels) and the idle wheel on the back causing friction which can slow the robot down.
Canute the Great: History Lesson #35
Canute the Great was a Norwegian Prince. When both his father the king and his brother the crown prince died, Canute became king of Norway. Then he conquered England and Denmark. When he conquered England he fought Edmund, who was a brave English King. He made a treaty with Edmund that when Edmund died Canute would have the throne. Edmund died three weeks later. Canute gave both England and Denmark a prosperous golden age and he was on great terms with the church. He is remembered for internal peace and prosperity within the countries he ruled, rather than military strength or territory size like other empires and kingdoms. When Canute died, rather than a successor to both England and Denmark, England became ruled by the English and Denmark ruled by Danes once more.
The Theme of Treasure Island: English Lesson #35
A theme is a message one tries to portray with a book. In Treasure Island, I would say that the theme is not relying on random people. The reason I say this is because Long John Silver, while appearing loyal and trustworthy on the outside, really causes the many hardships Jim and his group face. He hires the pirates and joins them in causing a mutiny, so they reach the island, Jim’s folks are left on land and the pirates take control of the ship. When the pirates go against Long John, he re-joins Jim’s group, and between the few men left alive after the story, they barely manage to make it from Treasure Island to South America, where they hire a new crew and go home to England. Long John Silver abandons them in South America, which is for the better, but the point is that he cannot be relied on. Therefore, I would say the theme of Treasure Island is not to rely on everyone you meet.
Saxon Culture: English Lesson 30
The majority of the Saxons were either a part of the common class or a part of the working class. Everybody else in the Kingdom was either a thane, an earl, or royalty. The working class worked the land of the thanes by farming it and raising livestock. The working class also formed the levy group, which was the part of the army that was not constantly employed. The people common class were basically slaves. They were paid for their work by getting a place to live, but, unlike the working class who could move from place to place, the common class folks were bound to the piece of land that they worked on. There were also the house carls, which were the full time army. These people were full-time workers for the thanes, or the landowners. The thanes made sure that everything was always running smoothly on their particular lands. The Thanes were also the lowest class of people that made up the royal court, other than their pages. The thanes were governed by the earls, who ruled much larger “Earldoms”, for an example, the Earldom of Wessex. The Earls had only one superior, and that was the King. The King would call together all the Earls when the kingdom was in times of war, and then the Earls, in turn, would call on their thanes, and then the thanes would call upon the house carls and the levies that were on duty at the time to come to the war front.
Charles Martel and the Battle of Ambleve: History Lesson 30
During the time of the Merovingian Kings in France, the Kings had got lazy, so they appointed a “mayor of the palace” which was basically the man who would lead the army into battle and govern the empire, while the King in name was mostly a figure head.
Charles Martel was the Illegitimate (the father was not married to the mother) son of Pepin, who was a Mayor of the Palace. Charles’ first battle was when he was appointed to lead the army of the Franks against the Muslims trying to move into France from the Iberian peninsula. This was the only battle he lost in his career. He arrived on the field with his army and saw that the Muslims outnumbered his army greatly so he retreated for the time being.
The next battle against the Muslims was an attack made by Charles, during a Muslim victory march in the middle of the day. He ambushed the Muslims, fanned a retreat, and then slaughtered the enemy while they pursued him. This victory halted the conquest of the Muslims, and gave Charles his title, Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer.
When Pepin died, Charles became Mayor of the Palace, and never lost another battle for the rest of his life. His son, Pepin the Short, would be the father of one of the most famous rulers of France and the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne.