Friday, March 23

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday, March 23.

     It's the birthday in 1430 of Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI of England. Margaret was born into French royalty and was married off at age 15 to the mentally unstable Henry who was eight years older than her. This took place during a truce in the Hundred Years war between France and England. All the way back since 1066, England had either been a colony of France or ruler over large parts of France depending on the fortunes of war.
     Henry's father Henry V was a great warrior and had extended England's power in France to it's greatest extent. The son, however, was more interested in religion and study. He built churches and founded colleges. Margaret on the other hand loved politics. Historians think Henry was unable to father children due to his insanity, but he and Margaret did have one child, possibly not Henry's.
     Margaret fought to maintain the English crown for her son. This fighting was part of the War of the Roses. What was that all about? It's complicated. Let's just say the Lancastrians fought it out with the Yorkists, killing each other off, until the Tudors ended up with the crown. Margaret was on the Lancastrian side. At the Battle of Tewkesbury, Margaret's son was killed and Margaret was captured. King Henry was deposed and  locked up in the Tower of London where he died "of melancholy." Foul play is suspected. Margaret was eventually ransomed by her cousin the King of France. She returned to France as a poor relation, where she died at age 52.

Margaret's coat of arms is as complex as her life.

    It's also the birthday, in 1929, of Roger Bannister in Harrow, England. On May 6, 1954, Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Bannister was a runner in school and was attending medical school in London when he broke the record at a track in Oxford.
    There's a myth that people thought a sub-four minute mile could never be run, but actually runners were cutting their times closer and closer to four minutes when Bannister finally ran the mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. Bannister's record was broken by a full second just 46 days later. The current record is 3:43.13.
   Bannister retired from running later that year and went to a 40 year career in neurology,   He later said he was prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research than he was of his four minute mile. He died this past March 3 at age 88.

  Today's poem is by W.B. Yeats

Running to Paradise

As I came over Windy Gap
They threw a halfpenny into my cap.
For I am running to paradise;
And all that I need do is to wish
And somebody puts his hand in the dish
To throw me a bit of salted fish:
And there the king is but as the beggar.

My brother Mourteen is worn out
With skelping his big brawling lout,
And I am running to paradise;
A poor life, do what he can,
And though he keep a dog and a gun,
A serving-maid and a serving-man:
And there the king is but as the beggar.

Poor men have grown to be rich men,
And rich men grown to be poor again,
And I am running to paradise;
And many a darling wit's grown dull
That tossed a bare heel when at school,
Now it has filled a old sock full:
And there the king is but as the beggar.

The wind is old and still at play
While I must hurty upon my way.
For I am running to paradise;
Yet never have I lit on a friend
To take my fancy like the wind
That nobody can buy or bind:
                     And there the king is but as the beggar.