Robin Hood I do not know, but I have read Magna Carta - all - All but a handful of the Magna Carta provisions benefit the nobles, and ALL THE REST benefit the merchants. The common people are left without a forest to relieve themselves in.....literally. And should one of the nobles avail himself of the King's lands

Initiate Joined: Jun 20, 2007 Posts: 430

The Saxons of England were defeated by Normans and other Europeans led by William “the Conqueror” in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Saxon army, led by King Harold, had just defeated an army of invading Norwegian Vikings, so they were somewhat understrength. Harold had dismissed his small navy, which was a strategic blunder. When William invaded, Harold gathered some 7,000 troops and rode to confront him. Another mistake, as his troops were weary, and he was far from reliable supply lines.

Nevertheless, the Saxon Army held high ground on Hastings Hill, and put it to good use, hurling stones from their height onto the Normans. The advantage of stones as ammunition is that there is a nearly unlimited supply.

The Saxon Army was homogeneous, just infantry. The only specialization was that some soldiers had become proficient in the use of the Danish battle axe, which turned out to be effective against mounted cavalry.

The Normans were arrayed with archers in front, followed by infantry, and backed up by cavalry, who were supposed to charge once the first ranks hand worn down the opponent’s infantry.

However, the Saxons were able to use their shields to deflect arrows, and a cavalry charge was ineffective due to the slope of the hill and the effect of the battle axes.

It began to look like William’s army would lose. At this point his left column, composed of Bretons, began to retreat in disorder. The Saxons charged, and during fierce fighting, William’s horse was killed. A shout went up that William had been killed, and a rout of his troops began. However, William stood up, took off his helmet, and showed that he was alive. He gathered his best soldiers and began a counterattack.

When they had charged the Normans, the Saxons surrendered the advantage of high ground. Worse that that, they lost the advantage of unit cohesion—the ability to stand shoulder to shoulder and protect each other with shields. Now that their advantages were gone, the Saxons began taking heavy losses, and eventually retreated up the hill.

William had learned his lesson. He ordered his forces to feint attacks, and when the Saxons advanced, his archers cut them down. He also ordered archers to fire over the top of the men with shields, attacking the commanders in the rear. This would be the equivalent of using light mortars in modern warfare, to shoot over armor and over hills.

The numbers of Saxons grew less and less, and their defenses became porous. An arrow mortally wounded King Harold, and his remaining troops retreated to London.

After William conquered England, he took 25% of the lands for himself, and gave another 25% to the Church of Rome in exchange for the Pope’s blessing of his invasion. Privations and abuses continued under William II, but finally in 1100, Henry I was crowned King, and he proclaimed the Charter of Liberties, which is the predecessor of the Magna Carta.

* * *

The legends of Robin Hood arose in England some 50 years after the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215. As a side note, the Magna Carta provided one of the first guarantees of the right to habeus corpus, a right that has been stolen from us by Bush and his sycophants in Congress. The Magna Carta was forced on the King by the nobles, and they were able to do this because they maintained their own militias.

John was not a popular king. The war he waged in France was costly, and to raise funds he raised the price of tribute (like taxes) again and again. He also proclaimed the Forest Law, that established reserves for royalty only, something like the United Nations “Biospheres” of the present day. Penalties were severe for hunting in the Royal preserves.

Simony—the practice of selling Church positions—was prevalent at this time.

Now, with that preface, I give you Robin Hood’s speech, from the series, “Robin of Sherwood”:

Quote:

You were sleeping. You slept too long. We all have. It’s time we awoke.

Time we stopped running. Nobody ran at Hastings.

(Others): No, they stood and died, by the thousands.

But at least they died fighting

That’s an old battle to bring up. A long time ago.

And what’s happened to the English since then, Will? I mean, where are they?

“Stay away from trouble. Do as you’re told and they’ll leave you alone.” Is this the spirit of England?

Villages destroyed so that princes can hunt unhindered. The people bled white to pay for foreign wars. No voice. No justice. No England!

Well it’s time to fight back!

Newbie Joined: Oct 20, 2007 Posts: 11 Location: Marseilles

All but a handful of the Magna Carta provisions benefit the nobles, and ALL THE REST benefit the merchants. The common people are left without a forest to relieve themselves in.....literally. And should one of the nobles avail himself of the King's lands in this way or in any other way (such as hunting), he would shortly find himself in debt through royal fines, to the King. In the event (as nobody really had money), the noble borrowed the amount of the fine from the King's Jew, licensed for the purpose. Eventually, the King kicked out the Jews. I hope you'll pardon my less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the William Wallace syndrome - "they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom". Hopefully, there is a better way than being killed in order to secure our homes from illegal entry by these entitlement-laden PIECES OF SHIT whom the irnorant sheeple call "law enforcement heroes", and other travestieds such as arrests-without-warrant-or-evidence, traffic pullovers and walkups on the flimsiest pretexts, or no pretext at all, etc. .......I think you'll find that the average citizen in Britain and the West saw very little progress towards real common civil righst until that historic backroom deal was done between England's Protestant lords in the House and William III of the House of Orange in Holland ('You give me the use of the Royal Navy against an invasion by Louis XIV, and I ascend the English throne and grant you civil rights' - something like that).........DAMNED RIGHT. Some of you shouldn't be so anxious to get saddled with felony arrests with provocative acts which come off to some us as buffoonery. There are plenty of other developments taking place now to which your righteous indignation may be matched................JL