Robin Hood's first murder (the fog of genaeology, pt. 2)

pre-requisite: See my earlier post the fog of genaeology...

Today I learned my 14th c. ancestor, Roger La Zouche, had a grand-nephew (i.e. his brother Eudo's grandson, also named Roger) who committed one of the most notorious crimes in 14th century England when he slayed the powerful nobleman, Roger Bellere. The Ashby Folville Cross (see photo) still marks the site where La Zouche slayed Bellere in 1326.

Eustace Folville was blamed for the murder, but in fact Roger La Zouche had struck the fatal blow against no less a victim than Bellere, the baron of the exchequer, the founder of the chantry chapel at Kirby and the owner of nine estates. The murder of Bellere was a first-rate scandal and a warrant was issued for the immediate arrest of... not La Zouche but the better-known Eustace Folville. Folville was quickly concealed by locals, even as he himself concealed the guilt of La Zouche, a small land owner who ironically had to conceal his concealer.

Likeness to the mythical Robin Hood gains momentum here; the Folville Gang found themselves pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Eustace Folville and his brother took to their roles as fugitive outlaws and graduated to multiple murders, robberies, and kidnappings of nobles for huge ransomes. At one point, the brothers sought refuge among another notorious band of felons, the Cotterel Gang in the Peak District of Derbyshire. Agents of the king pursued them there, unsuccessfully. Written indictments from the period describe Eustace and his brothers as mercenaries acting on behalf of "the ostensibly law-abiding...to commit acts of violence on their behalf." Among the clientelle for the Folville Gang's mercenary services were a priory, an abbey, and on several occasions a wealthy nobleman.

In the decades following the lives of La Zouche and Folville, reports of their valor only swelled. They came to represent, not outlaws, but enforcers of a law more true than the King's own, perhaps more divine than man's law itself. In William Langland's epic poem, Piers Plowman, the "Folvyle lawes" are named among the treasures of God's own grace, an antidote to the assails of the "Antecrist." In this passage, Langland personifies Grace to describes the means of man's salavation through the varied provenance of God.

My very quick translation of the passage:

Says Grace, "before I go, I'll give you
treasure
and weapon to fight the Antecrist when he assails
you."
And gave each man a grace to give unto
himself
So that Idleness would not encumbre him, neither
Envy nor Pride.

To some are given wit and words to win their life's
lode.
[...]
And some are given to ride and recover what was won
unrightfully.
God wished them to win it back by strength of hand,
to fetch it from false men by Folvyles
lawes.

Forthi,' quod Grace, "er I go, I wol gyve yow
tresor,
And wepne to fighte with whan Antecrist yow assailleth.'
And
gaf ech man a grace to gye with hymselven,
That Ydelnesse encombre hym noght, ne Envye ne
Pride:
Divisiones graciarum sunt.
Some [wyes] he yaf wit, with wordes to
shewe--
Wit to wynne hir liflode with, as the world
asketh,
[...]
And some to ryde and to recovere that unrightfully was
wonne:
He wissed hem wynne it ayein thorugh wightnesse of
handes,

And fecchen it fro false men with Folvyles
lawes.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=text;idno=PPlLan;rgn=div1;node=PPlLan%3A20

Stretching across the centuries, another relative of Roger La Zouche would gain his own infamy in the Great Basin of Utah, Isaac Perry Decker. Subject of a future post.

Sun Ra still not heard

trade offers welcome
Monorails and Satellites vol. 2
Impressions of a Patch of Blue
Jazz in Transition
Out Beyond the Kingdom Of (Discipline 99)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (We Live to Be)
Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue
Song of the Stargazers
Sun Rise in Egypt vol. 1-3
Night in East Berlin
Bratislava Jazz days
Astral Planes & New Moonbeams

Tribute to Stuff Smith with Billy Bang
Stay Awake Compilation (pink elephants on parade track)

jargon to aid perception

SMELL
Acetic- "pricked" badly sour
Aroma- grapey smell of young wine
Bouquet- complex smell of mature wine
Corky- mouldy
Heady- attractively alcoholic
Lively- indefinable good sign, fresh, frank
Musty- rotten, mouldy prob bad barrel stave
Sappy- fr."seve" lively, forthright, esp burgundy
Sulphury- hot, nose-tickling, often cheap whites, blows off with exposure to air
Yeasty- means unstable, due to fermenting bottle

DESCRIPTION
Apples - Malic acid is common in young wine
Blackcurrants - smell and flavor in many reds
Earthy - common in Italian wines, sometimes +/- term
Flowery - forthcoming, attractive scent
Gun-flint - scent of flint present in whites e.e. Pouilly Fume
Honey - Associated particularly w/ "noble rot" in great sweet wines
Nuts - Nuttiness often present in well aged wines and good old sherry
Oak - should not be easily identified as oak
Peaches - esp in Loire wines
Raspberries - esp Bordeaux and Rhone valley
Smoke - many whites
Spice - pronounced in Gewurtztraminer
Stalks - green-wood, under-ripe
Truffles - most elusive of all scents, burgundy, barolo, hermitage
Vanilla - imparted by oak cask
Violets - elusive scent of some wines

GENERAL POSITIVE TERMS
Baked - results from very hot sun on grapes
Big - strong, round, satisfying
Body - "volume" due in part to alcoholic strength
Clean/Coarse - refrshing, perfect/crude
Complete - mature, balanced
Distinctive
Dry
Stiff/Dumb - too young or too cold
Elegant - indefinable
Fat - well-fleshed, not good in itself
Finish - aftertaste, long or short
Firm/Flat - young, decisive style/weak, unexceptional
Hard - tannic
Se'che' - dried up, too old red wine
Silky - texture found in good beaujolais
Supple - opposite of hard but not pejorative as "soft" would be
Unresolved - not old enough for components to have harmonized

Technique and process
Racking = draining the wine off its lees
Fining = adding egg whites that sink and remove particles from racked wine

"Let us not forget the hundreds of different ways Burgundy can be made. ...Permute zero to 100% stems, zero to 100% new wood, fermenting at 25^ all the way up to 35^C and above, cold soaking or no."

Batholiths of the Sierra Nevada

First, an aside:In 1902 Mt. Pelee on Martinique erupted with 4 deafening blasts, the pyroclastic flow killed all 30k people, only two people survived, one a murderer awaiting execution, protected by his dungeon.

=-=-=-=--reading notes on-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-"Geology of the Sierra Nevada" by Mary Hill-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Batholith" is deep rock, its individual masses are called "Plutons." separated from one another by metamorphic or igneous rock. The Sierra plutonic rocks formed as crystals solidifying within liquid (in a thick mush, overcrowded crystals form til there's no more liquid (due to cooling or total crystalzation)). Darker rock was first to crystallize, lighter last, and Quartz (pure silica)is thought to be the residue. Actual coarse-grained dark granite is absent in Sierra, spots of darker rock are more often igneous rock that escaped metamorphic melting.

The first 4 billion years of what became the Sierra is unknown, the oldest rocks today were laid down 500 million years ago (Ordovician). They show that the sea washed over the land for 400million years. All older rocks (called "bedrock" or "subjacent series") were marine in origin. Sea receeded over the next 100million years.

Two great groups of rock formed the gold belt, Paleozoic (250M) and Mesozoic (75M) in age. All the rocks are now metamorphosed, but are often referred to (where poss) by what their orig names would have been (limestone, shale, sandstone), confusing amateur geologists. The Paleozoic beds were once mainly limestone, siltstone, and mud (collectively called "hornfels", they are even, fine-grained). Paleo+Mesozoic outcrops are now seen in the w.sierran foothills and along the crest. Uplift of granite and erosion have exposed the underlying granite. Where viz together, Paleozoic beds tilt at a different angle than Mesozoic, called an "unconformity." In higher country, color also distinguishes them. Paleozoic are reddish brown on their exposed surfaces while Mesozoic turn gray. Mixed in may be shiney green Serpentine, brought up from earth's mantle (source of chrome, asbestos, and nephrite jade.)

Fossils - Cenezoic to Teritary Period (50-65M yrs ago) plants, winged seeds, laurels, figs, oaks, magnolia, witch hazel, small palms, cycads, hiclkorys and persimmon but no conifers. Not many fossils, no birds or bugs but near Knight's Ferry close to Tuolumne Table Mtn, two little horses (Nannipus and Hipparion), two camels, a pronghorn antelope and one tooth of a mastadon were found. (Yes there were n.american horses, but they vanished along with n.american zebras, tapirs, and camels in the ice age.)

Volcanoes are of three types: Basalt, Andesite, Rhyolite. Unlike Hawaiian basaltic lava flows that are calm, the initial Sierran Tertiary eruptions were rhyolitic, an explosion of steam from liquid lava that hurls dust, sand, blocks, and "bombs". Just as Krakatoa spewed its rhyolitic ash 7x around the planet (the sound was heard for 3k miles,) the Sierran Tertiary blasts 40M yrs ago left beds of ash 450' thick in gold country and 1200' thick near mountain the crest, north and northeast of Yosemite Natl Park. Other andesitic volcanoes erupted 20M yrs ago. These were hot mud flows (called "lahars" from the Indonesian term) cascading down streams and mtns inundating all but high country crests and some greenstone in the foothills. They carried masses of rock, boulders of granite and metmorphic rocks, torn and shattered trees.

Sierran passes are andesitic terrain, sparesely populated with bushes and digger pine for miles. Carson Spur on Hwy88 is an example, a mudlow perched above hundreds of feet of granite thru which the American River has carved its path. Weather has carved the volcanic cliff face into battlements and towers resembling a derelict fortress. Near Knight's Ferry on Tuolumne Table Mtn, the streaming lava flow through what was Stanislaus Rivery (Tertiary Period) hardened more than the surrounding hills which eroded away leaving a high, sinuous ridge (formerly a river valley!)

During the ice age, a third sierran volcanic era began (just 1M yrs ago) in the Mono Lake area vents near 11k foot Glass Mtn. An avalanche of fire poured 2100' down and flowed 10miles, moving at 100MPH out burying 350M sq mi under 500' of 1200-2400F degree rhyolitic ash, erasing whole hills and canyons. Later, a basaltic flow issued from Mammoth Lakes basin west into Middle Fork Vly. Devils Postpile's 60' columns resulted from this 600k yr old basaltic flow that was 900' long by 200' high. Recent basaltic cones have formed 3mi south of Devils Postpile, steam can be seen in winter on Mammoth volcano.

Mammoth volcano is part of a string of obisian glass and pumice domes called Mono Craters which have pushed 9000' above sea level, but remain dwarfed by the Sierra west of them. Still active as hot springs attest. An 1890 eruption releasing sulfur fumes and boiling the normally cold waters of Mono Lake is the most recent known activity. Oddly, Mono Lake has fresh spgs in the depths of its caustic, alkaline waters.


Basic mineral families=
Quartz (won't scratch, white, often clear, sometimes milky)

Feldspar (marked by lines, less glassy than quartz)

Mica (soft, flaky, thin sheets, glimmers (foolsgold))

Amphibole (dk green/black, lacquered, breaks obliquely)

Pyrozene (close to Amphibole but breaks at right angles, short stubby square)

Calcite (Pearly, Glassy, breaks obliq, knife scratches)

Iron - only small deposits, but the high slopes of the Minarets may falsely deflect your compass needle.

Gold (shiney, soft) In 1854 a 160 pound chunk came from Carson Hill mine near Melones. Great rips in earth during Jurassic (150M yrs) allowed mineralizing solutions to rise from the depths. Those faults "healed" with quartz, etc including gold and silver in sheets ("veins") and holes ("vugs") 10k feet+ deep filled with ore-bearing minerals and metal shot thru the rock on either side. Gold bearing quartz was usually last to form, esp where veins turned or split. Miners believe milkier quartz was more likely "live" with gold. 25M yrs of erosion during Cretaceous period removed 9 vrical miles of rock (.5-1.5 feet per 1k years) to expose gold bearing quartz veins. 1860s gold miners using huge hydraulic hoses eroded 1555M cubic yds (8x the panama canal) out of the sierra and into farmlands, the fastest erosion in history til an 1884 court injunction halted it.

Other Sierran minerals of note:
Tungsten - (used to harden steel) world's largest mine up Pine Creek (near Bishop).

Garnet (not gem quality, used as an abrasive) pale reddish brown.

Diamond - hard to distinguish from Quartz, miners took several hundred, probly ignored many more.

Plutonic Igneous Rock families=
Granite typically shows white quartz, black biotite mica, and feldspar. Salt n pepper, or sometimes pink.

Diorite is mostly feldspar, darker than granite with little or no quartz

Gabbro is dk gray to black, equal parts feldspar (plagioclase variety) and dark minerals. No quartz.

Peridotite = grainy dark green/black minerals, no quartz or feldspar. Most in Sierra has wholly or partly metamorphosed to serpentine.

Porphyry= granite with lumpy chunks of feldspar crystals as large as several inches diameter. See rhyolite dike west of convict creek and Mr. Morrison quadrangle.

fog of genaeology

a detail of Decker genealogy

The English King, Henry II (top photo) has an illegitimate son, William Longespee (Longspear) (second photo) either by Rosamond de Clifford (poisoned by Eleanor of Aquitaine) OR more probably Ida, Countess of Norfolk but either way, his father is undisputedly Henry II and Longespee is made 3rd Earl of Salisbury. Subsequently, he's the first person buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

It's possible to discover upstream that Henry II descends from Charles Martel, Pipin the Short, and Charlemagne as well as Henry I and the Dukes of Burgundy. Just what that may mean is a fog of one's own making (excuse the pun). Even so, personal genaeology offers a vector along which we wander the thicker fog of total human history. Selecting an ancestor as attentional clue, it's possible to focus on particular paths through history. Memory being an active, rather than passive faculty, remembering subjects are willing to assert relevance, if only by literal sequence of events, to ourselves. We let ourselves into labyrinths infested with minotaur.


In this instance, one vector through the genetic rhizome of Decker lineage extends to Edward II and his illegitimate son William Longespee, 3rd Earl of Salisbury.

William Longespee's grandaughter Ela (Isabella) marries Roger LaZouche (1267) (see Robin Hood's 1st murder)
whose grandaughter Ela (Helene/Elena) LaZouche marries Alan Charlton (1317)
...six generations of Charlton boys before one has a daughter, Anne...
Anne Charlton marries Randall Grosvenor (1500)
their daughter Elizabeth Grosvenor marries Edward Bulkeley (1566)
their daughter Frances Bulkeley marries Richard Welby (4 Jun 1596) and immigrate to Chelmsford, MA
their daughter Olive Welby marries Henry Farwell (16 Apr 1629)
whose greatgrandaughter Mary Farwell marries Edmund Hovey (8 Feb 1727)
their grandaughter Olive Hovey marries Elijah Freeman (27 Dec 1781)
their daughter Olive Hovey Freeman (photo) marries Winslow Farr (5 Dec 1816) and comes to Utah
whose grandaughter Tirzah Farr (photo) marries John Franklin Gay (19 Jan 1869)
their daughter, my great grandmother, Nancy Pearl Gay (photo) marries Feramorz (Fera) Decker (24 Feb 1892)

===some details on the details===

King Henry II has illegit son named William de Longespie "Longsword" 3rd Earl of Salisbury with Mistres Rosamond "the fair" de Clifford (posioned by Eleanor of Aquitain). Their romance is set in A Man for all Seasons in Woodstock royal forest 8mi NW of Oxford)

William Longespie marries Ela (or Isabella) Devereux (d. 1261, descended from Dukes of Burgundy via Robert, Archbishop of Rouen 989-1037) son of Richard I {Duke of Normandy}) According to Britannica 1955 v.8 p.934 "first family of Counts of Evereaux descended from an illegit son of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Became extinct with death of Count William in 1118. Countship passed in right of Agnes, William's sister, wife of Simon Demontfort (d.1087) to the house of the Lords of Montfort l'Amaury. Amoury III of Montfort ceded the peerage in 1200 to King Philip Augustus. Philip the Fair presented it (1307) to his brother Louie for whose benefit Philip the Long raised the countship of Evreux into a peerage of France (1317)

Ela (Isabella) is the daughter of William Longespie and Ela Devereux's 3rd son Stephen Longeseppe (Earl of Ulster)

reading notes - History of God

"Enuma Elish" - Marduk and Tiamet influences Canaan myth of Baal.

Baal-Habad cannot be saved by father El disguised in sackcloth w cheeks gashed, from underworld of Mot (god of death and sterility) he must be saved by Anat (cf. Inana, Ishtar, Isis) his lover and sister. Death of a god, quest of the goddess, triumphant rturn to divine sphere.

Pindar describes olympians as aspiring to fulfill their partially divine nature.

2000BCE Abraham left Ur and event. Settled in Canaan (near mediterranean sea). Along with wandering chieftains like Abiru, Apiru and Habiru, Abraham (m. Sarah) at end of 3rd millenium BCE migrated from mesopotamia toward mediteranean and served as mercenary of king Sodom. His wife Sarah dies and he buys land in Hebron. His grandson Jacob bears sons who become the 12 tribes and flee to egypt during famine then forced their way back into Canaan allying themselves w the Hebrews there and became known as the people of Israel, a confederation of various ethnic groups loyal to the god of Moses, Yah-weh.

First written in the 800BCE, the five books known as the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) were collated in 500BCE. 19th c scholars devised a critical method for discerning 4 sources which explain duplicate and contradictory stories in the pentateuch. Source J refers to Yahweh, source E refers to Elohim, both prob wrote during 8thcBCE. but source D (Deuteronmy) and source P (Priestly accounts and Genesis) wrote in the 7th and 6th c BCE. The P texts were written after the exile of the jews, it interprets events in J and E and adds 2 books: Numbers and Leviticus and draws on Enuma Elish in his account of Genesis {P argues that humans can't perceive God, only the afterglow of divine glory. Moses hides himself in a crevice and glimpses yahweh only as he departs.}

It is difficult anywhere in the Pentateuch to find a single monotheistic statement, in fact it seems to take the existance of other gods for granted, but asks for sole importance of Yahweh above all others. The agreement to do so is called the "covenant" btw god and man. The Ark of the Covenant is the portable altar the Israelites had with them during years in wilderness.

Man= adam, dust= adamah

Almost certainly Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed in Marduk, Baal and Anat. Unlike these gods though (and instead like ancient greek dieties of the Iliad) the Canaanite high god El speaks to Abraham directly and personably introducing himself as 'El Shaddai' (el of the mtn), a trad. title of the canaan god El. Elsewhere called El Elyon (most high) and El Bethel and preserved in such Hebrew names as Isra-El or Ishma-El. The E source however describes god speaking to abraham through angels, not directly.

Dieties in pagan belief had regional bounds to their power, it was always wise to worship local dieties but when Jacob sleeps with a rock as his pillow and dreams of a ladder where El promises to be with him in a strange land it's clear that the idea of a universal diety has begun. Jacob upends his stone pillow and pours a libation of oil on it renaming the place Beth-El (House of El). Standing stones were common featues of Canaanite fertility cults. Jacob decides that El's far ranging protection will make him El-ohim or the only god who counted.

Years later jacob wrestles all night with an angel and at daybreak refuses to release him til he learns his name. The angel asks "Why do you ask my name?" and blesses him there. Jacob names the place Peni-El [El's Face] "Because I have seen El face to face and I have survived."

Abraham's faith in god is more like trust than belief or orthodoxy. The promises made by El are ridiculous like abraham being father to multitudes when Sarah is past menopause. In fact when their first born comes they name him "laughter" (Isaac) and Abraham must further show trust by being willing to sacrifice isaac back to god.

Yahweh Sabaoth (God of Armies) is partisan and bloodthirsty and pragmatic. When Moses is made his first prophet to speak to Pharoah and the children of Israel he protests that he isn't able to speak well, but Yahweh made allowances for this allowing Moses' brother Aaron to speak in his stead. Pharoah resists gods demand to release slaves til ten plagues are sent and angel death takes all firstborn sons of egyptians while sparing the sons of hebrew slaves. Pharoah relents then pursues the hebrew slaves and his army is drowned in parting of the Reed Sea. This mapping of divine deeds onto real geographic spaces some suggest corresponded to a contemporary peasants revolt and as such had great power as a myth and inspire more conceptions of vengeful theology.

Eli-jah (yahweh is my god) wandered kingdom of King Ahab (a yahwist married to jezebel, a pagan blvr in Baal and Asherah) wearing a hairy shirt and leather loincloth and challenged Ahab to a contest on Mt. Carmel btw Yahweh and Baal to be witnessed by 450 prophets of Baal. Two bulls were placed on altars and each god summoned to take it w fire. Fire fell on Elijah's bull and he ordered all 450 prophets to be slaughtered. A hard rain afterwards proved yahweh could also rule fertility, thought to be the domain of Baal.

Paganism had essentially been a tolerant faith, provided they weren't threatened there was always room for a new deity. Hinduism and Buddhism encouraged people to go beyond the gods yet the prophets of israel were unable to take this calmer view. In jewish scriptures "idolatry" became a sin and worship of "false" gods inspired nausea similar to the revulsion some would come to feel toward sexuality. Of course, most Israelites belived implicitly in pagan deities and at the same time must have been aware that their own conception of Yahweh was similar to pagan idolatry. Yahweh was gradually supplanting functions of fertility gods like Baal bul it was obviously difficult for the irredeemably masculine Yahweh to usurp the function of a goddess like Asherah, Ishtar, or Anat who still had a great following among Israelites. The "Axial Age" saw a decline in the status of women who were sometimes held in higher esteem than men. The rise of cities meant more masc qualities of martial, phys strength were exalted. The democratic ideal of Athens for example did not extend to women whereas women like Deborah had led armies into battle. Heroic women like Judith and Ester would continue to be celebrated by Israelites but the monotheism of yahweh would come to be managed almost entirely by men.

The ascendance of yahweh did not catch as easily to israelites as buddhism or hinduism to the people of the subcontinent. It involved strain and violent confrontation. God would bring his elect to prosperity but if they deserted him "you will be torn from the land...scattered from one end of the earth to another." The book of Joshua destroys the Canaanites, wiping out the Anakim from Hebron, Debir, and Anoth. No Anakim left except in Gaza, Gath and Ashod. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings were revised acc to the new ideology. A god that justifies hatred and scapegoats outsiders is easier to swallow than the God of prophets Amos or Isiaih who demands ruthless self-criticism.

332BCE Alexander of Macedonia defeats DariusIII of Persia and Greek rationalism comes to middle east. Jews of Palestine and diaspora deeply influenced by greek culture and translate their own scriptures into Greek producing the version known as the Septuagint. Some Greeks came to worship Iao (Yahweh) alongside Zeus and Dionysus. But by 2nd c BCE the relat. Is char. by hostility.

Irreconcilable diff between Aristotelian God who is scarcely aware the workld exists and Biblical god who involves himself intimately in human affairs. Greeks think God is discovered by human reason whereas biblical God makes himself known by means of revelation.
Mitzvot= 613 commandments

Roman Empire establishes itself in middle east in 1st c BCE and allies more with Jews than Greeks.

the corpse of Constantine

Constantine died with his heir far from the throne and so his corpse continued to rule for nearly one year with messengers reading aloud to his ashes, courtesans seeking audience with it, etc. This period demonstrates how the throne had become the seat of power by divine right. A consistency of law and of faith inher to the throne and the culture, though any man could become emperor since the right to revolt was codified as part of that law. Emperors included former butcher, peasant, common sentry, even Justinians uncle had arrived in Constantinople barefoot. One third of 66 Byzantine emperors were usurpers.

To survive usurpation, emperors began to realize the efficacy of form and spectacle. Power as depicted in mosaics of justinian and his empress at Ravenna was enhanced by stiffness and splendor, unmoved mover pantocrator and symbol of god's will.

Religios disputation weakened christianty just when Mohammad lived in Saudi Arabia (died 632 AD).