Ignore That Cnut

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Today I am on a sunny roof terrace in Andalucia practicing alchemy on a chicken. I’m converting it into pure carbon using a Barbecue: Incidentally, the Carbon Footprint of a Chicken is 1.82kg CO2e, or a 9km drive in a car. Shut-up you say? I don’t drive

Today the UK is flooding and freezing with temperatures falling as low as -10°

Today Sky News is reporting on the flooding & freezing in a County of Merry Olde Englande that no longer exists: Wessex

 Wessex Whatever?

Yes here is a gratuitous photo unrelated to Wessex but this cheeky ironic pic illustrates what I want to talk about briefly

An understanding of the often misquoted and misunderstood story of King Canute or Cnut is necessary here

Nano History Lesson

Most of us may be familiar with the beginning of the story: King Canute, being an arrogant ruler, had his throne placed on the banks of the Thames, waiting for the tide to come in. As the tide rose, Canute stood and held out his hand, demanding that the waves recede.

 A country that loves a sign


“But the sea carried on rising as usual without any reverence for his person, and soaked his feet and legs. Then he moving away said: “All the inhabitants of the world should know that the power of kings is vain and trivial, and that none is worthy of the name of king but He whose command the heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws”.
(Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum)

 

And thus my educated chums, King Canute/Cnut learned something that day that all we should learn … but then

  

After King Canute/Cnut the Great’s conquest of 1016, Wessex became one of the great regional earldoms Canute created, and so it remained from 1020 to 1066. After 1066, the Normans dissolved the large English earldoms and Wessex was no more.

 

Until Today

 

No More Wessex Anymore

 

(Now … time to bin that chicken)