Christmas Every Day

The birthday of two great musicians:

1904 George Formby

The first great British film comedian was born blind to the family of a successful music hall performer. He recovered his sight but never learned to read or write. He wished to follow his father on the stage but his family decreed that “one fool was enough” so he became an apprentice jockey, aided by his very small frame.After his father’s death in 1925, his mother allowed him to pursue a career in the footlights, which he did by imitating his father’s routines — not very successfully as he was often booed off the stage.

Two things changed his future: he took up playing the ukulele and married the very forceful Beryl Ingham, a clogdancer who became his manager. Under her guidance Formby became the premiere music hall act of his generation, making movies and records between his lucrative tours. His greatest hit was “When I’m Cleaning Windows”, a racy little number banned by the BBC. He died in 1961.

1940 Levon Helm

Raised in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, Levon Helm wanted to be a musician from an early age. By the time he was in high school his drumming was of professional caliber. He joined rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins in Canada where he was an important part of The Hawks with Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko. After leaving Hawkins, the group backed up Bob Dylan in his new electric phase and became known as The Band, famous for “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, “The Weight” and “Up on Cripple Creek”. After success in Hollywood, solo performances and tours, Helm lost his voice for time in 1990 after a bout with throat cancer but regained to resume his career. His died of cancer in 2012.

Here is a tribute to him by the great Marc Cohn:

1525

The execution of Thomas Müntzer

When Martin Luther stood before the Holy Roman Emperor in 1521, he asserted that one man’s conscience, formed by reading the Bible, could stand against the might of the Church and a thousand years of tradition. His Catholic opponents argued that individual interpretation of Scripture would lead to chaos and a multitude of opinions, many of them erroneous and heretical. And so it came to be. While Luther was fleeing into hiding after his trial, a host of wild men with wild ideas, sprang up across the German-speaking lands – some of them even entered into Wittenberg where Luther had taught. These were the “Zwickau Prophets” who claimed that Luther had not gone nearly far enough in his rejection of established religion, for what mattered was not Scripture but the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These “Spiritualists” argued that God came in the form of visions and dreams, not in the words of an old book, and they caused the chaos that the Catholics had predicted.

One such Spiritualist was Thomas Müntzer (1489-1525), a priest who was already deemed a radical even before he met, and studied with, Luther. As he wandered from town to town, looking for an audience that would respond to his views, Müntzer became convinced that that End Times were at hand. Christ’s Second Coming was not long off (a widely-held belief even professed by Luther) but that His coming must be preceded by a bloody cleansing of the earth wherein the enemies of Christ: priests, princes, nobles and those who did not follow this Spiritualist line, would be killed. Following the cleansing all would be equal and all property would be held in common.

Peasants in the 16^th century were seeing their traditional rights eroded: from hunting and fishing to representation at local diets. Peasants had long used biblical and religious justification to back their anti-feudal demands. For decades the Bundschuh (peasant legging and shoe) had served as the symbol of peasant resistance and striving in dozens of local rebellions. The Bundschuh was often linked with a religious slogan which implied that God’s laws were not being followed by their feudal overlords and so peasants knew how to exploit a cognate theological argument for spiritual freedom when they heard it in Lutheran sermons. When Luther in 1523 urged communities to pick their own pastors, peasant leaders claimed his approval for local political control as well. There was, therefore, mutual exploitation during these years: the Lutherans by the peasants, and the peasants by the Lutherans. Reformers sought to enlist the support of the peasants and portrayed farmer Hans with his plough as the ideal Christian, the sort of man that God intended: working with his hands, not puffed up with vain theological knowledge. Luther urged lords to treat their peasants as fellow Christians and not to exploit them lest they rise in rebellion but there was no way that mainstream reformers could sanction peasant rebels when fighting broke out in late 1524.

The first outbreak came in Stühlingen where, in the middle of the harvest, the countess demanded that the peasants stop taking off the crop and search for snail shells for her (she was going to wind yarn around them). The fighting spread in Switzerland and across much of Germany. The reasons for the rebellion were overwhelmingly economic and social but there was a religious element too and an involvement by reforming preachers. The “Twelve Articles” which became the peasant manifesto included the demand that local communities have the right to name their own pastors and vowed that they wanted no reform that was not according to Holy Scripture.

Thomas Müntzer had by 1525 become one of the leaders of the rebellion. He began to style himself “Destroyer of the Unbelievers” and to preach of the imminent end of the old era and the dawn of a new age of social justice. His appeal to German princes to lead his crusade having fallen on deaf ears, Müntzer turned to the poor to be the new Elect, a covenanted people of God. When the rebellion broke out he urged his poor followers on to violence and a liberating slaughter that would open the way to the new age of godliness and peace.

Luther began by urging peace and moderation – criticizing both the lords for their refusal to recognize the justice of some of the peasant demands and the peasants for using violence to further their ends. He personally mediated some disputes and pacified areas at the risk of his own life but in 1525 when news of peasant atrocities reached him he turned decisively against them. The title of his work Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants pretty much tells the tale. He urged the authorities to repress the rebels like mad dogs and to show no mercy until the rebellion had been crushed. By the time Luther’s book appeared the fighting was over. The critical battle took place at Frankenhausen where Müntzer was urging violence every bit as harsh as Luther. “On! On! On!”, he told the peasant soldiers, “Spare not. Pity not the godless when they cry. Remember the command of God to Moses to destroy utterly and show no mercy. The whole countryside is in commotion. Strike! Clang! Clang! On! On!” He told the peasants that he would precede them and catch their enemies’ bullets in his sleeves but in fact he ran away and was hiding in bed when he was captured by the forces of the triumphant princes. He was executed on this day in 1525.

1805 Napoleon crowns himself, again

Having already crowned himself Emperor of the French, Napoleon saw no reason to alter the ceremony in his conquered lands. On the 23^rd of May 1805, during the rite to create him King of Italy at Milan, he, with his own hands, placed the ancient iron crown of Lombardy on his head, saying, Dieu me la donne, gare à qui la touche — ‘God has given it to me, let him beware who would touch it’, a phrase used in the ancient coronation ceremony.

This celebrated crown is composed of a broad circle of gold, set with large rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, on a ground of blue and gold enamel. The small size of the regalia may be due to its missing two pieces in the centuries since its creation.

But the most important part of the iron crown, from which, indeed, it derives its name, is a narrow band of iron, about three-eighths of an inch broad, and one-tenth of an inch in thickness, attached to the inner circumference of the circlet. This inner band of sacred iron—perfectly visible in the above engraving —is said to have been made out of one of the nails used at the crucifixion, given by the Empress Helena, discover of the True Cross, to her son Constantine, as a miraculous protection from the dangers of the battlefield. Helena had found the other nails used in the crucifixion: she supposedly cast one nail into the sea to calm a storm, another was incorporated into a  diadem for Constantine’s helmet, another was fitted to the head of a statue of the Emperor, and a fourth was melted down and molded into a bit for Constantine’s horse. Since then, alleged pieces of the holy nails can be found in almost thirty European countries. (I, myself, saw one of these in the Patriarch of Constantinople’s church in Istanbul.)

The ecclesiastics who exhibit the crown point out as a ‘permanent miracle,’ that there is not a single speck of rust upon the iron, though it has now been exposed more than fifteen hundred years. Recent research has shown that the so-called iron band does not attract a magnet and is, in fact, silver; but a medieval manuscript suggests that a band of iron was used on the outside, not the inside of the crown. Scientific examination suggests that at least parts of the crown date back to c. 500.

Bonaparte, after his coronation at Milan, instituted a new order of knighthood for Italy, entitled the Iron Crown, on the same principles as that of the Legion of Honour for France. After his fall, the order was maintained by the Austrian emperors. The crown itself is preserved as a relic in Monza Cathedral.

1520

Massacre at a Mexican Festival

In 1519 the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes had succeeded in invading the Aztec empire of central Mexico and controlling the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, and the capital Tenochtitlan. Relations between the tiny Spanish contingent and the mass of Aztecs was tense and the deeds of this day in 1520 brought things to a boiling point.

Cortes had departed Tenochtitlan to head for the coast where he expected to battle some other Spaniards with orders to arrest him. He had left in charge his unstable deputy Pedro de Alvarado (shown above). During the absence of Cortes, Alvarado was approached by high-ranking Aztecs who wished to hold a festival and sought his permission lest he think they were gathering with hostile intent. Alvarado agreed, provided there would be no human sacrifice involved (a ritual that marked many Aztec festivals). When Alvarado learned that the celebrations would, in fact, include a human sacrifice he acted to halt it and massacred the participants.

That was the Spanish story. Here is the Aztec account:

Here it is told how the Spaniards killed, they murdered the Mexicans who were celebrating the Fiesta of Huitzilopochtli in the place they called The Patio of the Gods

At this time, when everyone was enjoying the celebration, when everyone was already dancing, when everyone was already singing, when song was linked to song and the songs roared like waves, in that precise moment the Spaniards determined to kill people. They came into the patio, armed for battle. They came to close the exits, the steps, the entrances [to the patio]: The Gate of the Eagle in the smallest palace, The Gate of the Canestalk and the Gate of the Snake of Mirrors. And when they had closed them, no one could get out anywhere.

Once they had done this, they entered the Sacred Patio to kill people. They came on foot, carrying swords and wooden and metal shields. Immediately, they surrounded those who danced, then rushed to the place where the drums were played. They attacked the man who was drumming and cut off both his arms. Then they cut off his head [with such a force] that it flew off, falling far away. At that moment, they then attacked all the people, stabbing them, spearing them, wounding them with their swords. They struck some from behind, who fell instantly to the ground with their entrails hanging out [of their bodies]. They cut off the heads of some and smashed the heads of others into little pieces.

They struck others in the shoulders and tore their arms from their bodies. They struck some in the thighs and some in the calves. They slashed others in the abdomen and their entrails fell to the earth. There were some who even ran in vain, but their bowels spilled as they ran; they seemed to get their feet entangled with their own entrails. Eager to flee, they found nowhere to go. Some tried to escape, but the Spaniards murdered them at the gates while they laughed. Others climbed the walls, but they could not save themselves. Others entered the communal house, where they were safe for a while. Others lay down among the victims and pretended to be dead. But if they stood up again they [the Spaniards] would see them and kill them.

The blood of the warriors ran like water as they ran, forming pools, which widened, as the smell of blood and entrails fouled the air. And the Spaniards walked everywhere, searching the communal houses to kill those who were hiding. They ran everywhere, they searched every place.

When [people] outside [the Sacred Patio learned of the massacre], shouting began, “Captains, Mexicas, come here quickly! Come here with all arms, spears, and shields! Our captains have been murdered! Our warriors have been slain! Oh Mexica captains, [our warriors] have been annihilated!”

Then a roar was heard, screams, people wailed, as they beat their palms against their lips. Quickly the captains assembled, as if planned in advance, and carried their spears and shields. Then the battle began. [The Mexicas] attacked them with arrows and even javelins, including small javelins used for hunting birds. They furiously hurled their javelins [at the Spaniards]. It was as if a layer of yellow canes spread over the Spaniards.

This massacre led to a complete breakdown of trust between the Spanish and the Aztec rulers. Rebellion against Cortes broke out and horrible deeds ensued.

1812

The assassination of Prime Minister Perceval

The English-speaking world has a mixed record when it comes to political assassinations. Unlike the more excitable Latin nations who off their leaders with depressing regularity, the Anglosphere is slower on the assassination trigger but even so, there are distinctions to be made. American politicians have a high mortality rate (hello, Presidents Lincoln, Garfield,  Mckinley, and Kennedy; Governors Huey Long, Charles Bent, William Goebel, and Frank Steunenburg; and a host of judges, congressmen, and state officials) and the situation in India and Pakistan is even worse. Only one minor politician has bit the dust in Canada; Australia records only one victim and New Zealand has no assassinated rulers on its watch. Clearly the difference is the presidential system — if you have a constitutional monarchy with an elected prime minister, you are pretty safe. With one exception.

In 1812 John Bellingham (1769-1812), a failed businessman who believed that the British government had not recompensed him for bad treatment at the hands of Russians, shot Prime Minister Spencer Perceval (1762-1812). At his trial he made the following speech in his defence:

“Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval’s pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman.

Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties?

I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted.

Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice.”

Bellingham was found guilty and hanged three days later.