San Fernando and the Jubilee

Who was San Fernando? Why he was King Ferdinand III of Castile and later, Leon. Why was he made a saint? Well because he was so pious and Christian of course. No wait... ummm he reconquered a lot of Al-Andalus from the Moors which of course the Catholic church liked. Well anyway, you can read more about him from the Catholic church's point of view here. My point in introducing him is that he was Royalty and he conquered so much land that he was apparently able to whisper in his son's ear on his death bed "you are rich in lands and in many good vassals — more so than any other king in Christendom". Wow! He managed to pass all that stuff he basically stole (robbed at knife point?) off to his son through primogeniture and nobody questioned it. Well, it did have it's place back then, unclear "successions" usually ended in wars and a lot of dead peasants (and Royalty!). Obviously if one son was a dud you could just have him murdered somehow and put his brother on the throne. Female monarchs came later.

Speaking of females, now we have our dear lovely Queen having her Jubilee this weekend. Jubilee is an interesting word. We think it means her 60th anniversary as Queen but it was actually from the ancient Jewish law of Jubilee that stipulated that all debts would be automatically cancelled "in the sabbath year (7th), and that all who languished in bondage owing to such debts would be released". Quite topical huh? Anyway, the funny thing is, even if she wanted to declare a proper Jubilee and cancel all non-business related debts, she couldn't. Sure she's wealthy but she's not all of the famous 1% we keep hearing about. She pays taxes and has to dole out properties to her feckless and not particularly clever children and grandchildren (I can talk, I know but bear with me). It's just not even legally possible for her to cancel anyone's debt. Can anyone do that now apart from the debt holders?

So compared to the all conquering hero King Ferdinand III anyone who sits on the throne of England is a bit of a joke. They can have tea with despots and allow people to call themselves Sir Jeremy and the like but that's pretty much all.

So whether you're a royalist or a republican, take heart that the Queen is still here and she's effectively just someone to salute for those in the armed forces Much nicer than having to salute the prime-minister though. Speaking of prime-ministers, isn't it great that we have a democracy where we can choose the brightest and best to represent us rather than having some fluffy golden retriever of a man making up the rules as he goes along? I mean it, I know they're mostly greedy psychopaths but, we could have worse without elections.

While we're still on the Queen, who is only where she is today because some past ancestor of hers managed (and this is even in doubt) to basically take something at sword point from someone else too weak to hold onto it and then grow a massive establishment base around themselves who would not question the ridiculous system of inherited wealth because they got to buy into it a little too. Why did I use San Fernando as my all conquering Royal example? Well the 30th of May is his "name day"or "saint's day" in the Catholic church and he was also my 23rd great grandfather (twice, ew!). I hope you feel completely ridiculous if you're a "royalist" and you got this far. I am a complete idiot, I have worked with and know some amazing people and I recoil in horror at the thought that I might somehow have been "above" them in some way because of who my grandparents were. This is complete and utter nonsense.

Happy Jubilee, enjoy.