Anti-Semitism, hostility to the Jews (Semites), has long been actively exhibited in severities and attacks of various kinds. A movement of the late 19th century manifested in various countries, especially Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Romania, and France. It may have been attributed to different motives in different countries, but on the whole owed its origin less to the fact of the Jews being a 'peculiar people' by race and religion, than to the comparatively high position won by them in the financial and political worlds.
In Western Russia there was a great outburst against the Jews in 1881, in which men, women, and children were slaughtered. The Russian government, by its anti-Jewish policy, may be said to have sanctioned this murderous outbreak, which was followed by harsh laws and actual persecutions, though afterwards there was a mitigation of the severity shown towards the Jews. Yet in 1903 the world was startled by a terrible massacre of Jews at Kishinef, in Bessarabia, connived at by the authorities on the spot; and towards the end of 1905, in connection with the Russian revolutionary movement, there were dreadful massacres of Jews in Odessa, Kishinef, and other towns, the authorities being similarly involved. In Russia, hatred of the Jews was party due to the position they occupied throughout the country as money-lenders.
In Rumania their position resembled what it was elsewhere in mediaeval times, and was less favourable than it was even under the Turks. In Germany, even before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party the movement was worked chiefly by politicians for their own ends, though the racial and religious question also had some influence; and among the ignorant the .belief that the Jews murder Christian children for ritual purposes was revived, as also in Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary the movement was partly political, partly social and economic, partly religious.
In France anti-Semitism was employed chiefly as a weapon by monarchists and clericals as against republicanism, and by the socialists as against capitalism, racial antipathy having also its influence in the movements. In Britain, anti-Semitism was much less severe, owing to there having been a very large influx of Jews from the Continent, forming part of Britian's immigration policy.
Anti-Semitism hit a climax in the 1930's with Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party with the wholesale slaughter of Jews throughout Europe, which provided an excuse for other world powers to oppose Germany's expansion through war - though economic reasons seem much more likely - and culminated in the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, subsequently named Israel, following the end of the Second World War. Research Anti-Semitism
There have been many dates dubbed 'Black Monday', but the first was EasterMonday, 14th April 1360, 'so full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold that many men died on their horsebacks with the cold.' The day on which a number of English were slaughtered at a village near Dublin in 1209. The day of panic in 1745 when the Scottish rebels were reported to have arrived at Derby, and the Bank of England paid in sixpences. Research Black Monday
Cawnpore is a town in India, on the right bank of the Ganges. In 1857 the native regiments stationed here mutinied and marched off, placing themselves under the command of the Rajah of Bithoor, the notorious Nana Sahib. General Wheeler, the commander of the European forces, defended his position for some days with great gallantry, but, pressed by famine and loss of men, was at length induced to surrender to the rebels on condition of his party being allowed to quit the place uninjured. This was agreed to but after the European troops, with the women and children, had been embarked in boats on the Ganges, they were treacherously fired on by the rebels; many were killed, and the remainder conveyed back to the city, where the men were massacred and the women and children placed in confinement. The approach of General Havelock to Cawnpore roused the brutal instincts of the Nana, and he ordered his hapless prisoners to be slaughtered, and their bodies to be thrown into a well. The following day he was obliged, by the victorious progress of Havelock, to retreat to Bithoor. Research Cawnpore Mutiny
Chivalry is a term which indicates strictly the organization of knighthood as it existed in the middle agea, and in a general sense the spirit and aims which distinguished the knights of those times. The chief characteristics of the chivalric ages were a warlike spirit, a lofty devotion to the female sex, a love of adventure, and an undefinable thirst for glory. The Crusades gave for a time a religious turn to the spirit of chivalry, and various religious orders of knighthood arose, such as the Knights of St John, the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, etc.
The education of a knight in the days of chivalry was as follows: In his twelfth year he was sent to the court of some baron or noble knight, where he spent his time chiefly in attending on the ladies, and acquiring skill in the use of arms, in riding, etc. When advancing age and experience in the use of arms had qualified the page for war, he became an esquire, or squire. This word is from the Latinscutum, a shield, it being among other offices the squire's business to carry the shield of the knight whom he served. The third and highest rank of chivalry was that of knighthood, which was not conferred before the twenty-first year, except in the case of distinguished birth or great achievements. The individual prepared himself by confessing, fasting, etc; religious rites were performed; and then, after promising to be faithful, to protect ladies and orphans, never to lie nor utter slander, to live in harmony with his equals, etc, he received the accolade, a slight blow on the neck with the flat of the sword from the person who dubbed him a knight. This was often done on the eve of battle, to stimulate the new knight to deeds of valour; or after the combat, to reward signal bravery.
The rules of chivalry only applied to the nobility. While knights on the battle field and in combat enjoyed rules of engagement and a degree of mutual respect - with the notable exception of the Battle of Agincourt where the captured French knights were murdered at the order of king Henry V - peasants, or the ordinary common folk, were slaughtered and raped by knights as though they were not human at all, and certainly not treated in a chivalrous fashion. Research Chivalry
Martinmas was the feast of St Martin, held on November the 11th. The feast was celebrated by great debauchery and boozing, the revellers becoming very drunk. The feast of Martinmas originated from the Anglo-Saxon slaughtering time, when the sheep and pigs were slaughtered and the meat salted for winter. Research Martinmas
The 'Tamworth Two' was a name given to two juvenile Tamworth pigs which escaped from Newman's Abattoir on Monday the 6th of January 1998 and went on the run. The pair, a brother and sister, belonged to a road cleaner, Armaldo Diiulio, who had intended to sell them for 40 pounds each to the abattoir to be slaughtered and butchered. The escaping pigs swam across the River Avon and hid in a thicket on a wooded hillside near MalmesburyAbbey. The story was reported by Wendy Best of the 'Western Daily Press', a local newspaper, and then the national newspapers heard about the story and the 'Daily Mail' dispatched a freelance reporter to find the pigs, who they christened 'Butch' and 'Sundance', and rescue them. The story gripped public attention for a week while the search for the pair continued until they were caught, and bought by the 'Daily Mail' for an alleged sum of 15,000 pounds. The newspaper then housed the two pigs at a Rare Breeds Centre in Kent where they were cared for and six years later were still living, fully
grown by then and very content. Research Tamworth Two
The Algonquin (Algonkin) were scattered small groups of American Indians speaking Algonkian languages and living in forest regions around the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada. Most were slaughtered by the Iroquois or died of European diseases although about 2000 still survive. Research Algonquin
Abbreviations
Research Anti-Semitism
