Calliope back issues from April 2000:
FAMILY MATTERS.(King John, and the royal English family)
Apr 01, 2000; ... The Royal `Soap Opera' of King John Medieval rulers led lives that rival those of any of today's soap opera characters. A look at King John's family explains why this English monarch behaved in ways that sometimes helped his subjects and sometimes hurt them. As soap opera fans ...
Feudalism in King John's England.(structure of society)
Apr 01, 2000; ... During the Middle Ages, English society was organized into a system called feudalism. Feudalism was based on agreements made between lords and vassals (subjects). The order of lords and vassals resembled a ladder. On the top rung stood the king, who was seen as God's vassal. Below him were ...
Climbing the Feudal Ladder.(King John's England )
Apr 01, 2000; ... Advancing up the feudal order in King John's England was difficult, but not impossible. One Englishman who managed to do so was William Marshal, King John's closest advisor during the last years of his reign. The youngest son of a knight, Marshal set out into the world without ...
ELEANOR of Aquitaine.(wife of Henry II of England)
Apr 01, 2000; ... Women had few rights in the Middle Ages. They were expected to obey their fathers and, after they married, their husbands. Even wealthy noblewomen had little control over their own destinies. They were treated like pawns on a marital chessboard, to be handed--together with their ...
Runnymede.(signing of the Magna Carta in King John's England)
Apr 01, 2000; ... An Agreement Is Sealed King John rode with his supporters to the meadow on the south bank of the Thames River. There, amidst armor clanking, flags flying in the breeze, and horses whinnying, he was to meet the barons assembled on the north bank. The day was Monday, June 15, ...
The Magna Carta.(individual rights in King John's England)
Apr 01, 2000; ... The cross-shaped signatures on this Norman charter dating to between A.D. 1072 and 1076 include those of William the Conqueror, his queen Matilda, and he Archbishop of Rouen. A scribe wrote in their names. When the English nobility summoned King John to the fields of Runnymede ...
Time Line.(chronology, May 1199-October 1216: England)
Apr 01, 2000; ... A.D. May 27, 1199 John succeeds his brother, Richard I, and is crowned king of England. June 15, 1215 The barons present their list of articles to King John at ...
Rejection and Reissue.(King John attempts to reject the Magna Carta)
Apr 01, 2000; ... In his bold plan to reject the charter he had just sworn to uphold, King John faced one great obstacle: his own oath. In the Middle Ages, a man's oath was something sacred, a promise made to God and before God, a promise that even the most arrogant of kings could not ignore. So ...
Fun With Words.(origins of English words, such as 'cartel,' 'heckler,' and others)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2000 ... WORD ORIGINS CARTEL Cartel traces its roots directly to the Latin noun charta, meaning "paper." Originally it referred to a written challenge, as when one person challenged another to a duel. Then it came to mean a written agreement regarding an exchange of prisoners ...
THE FOUR SURVIVORS.(official copies of the Magna Carta)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2000; ... Four exemplifications in Latin of the Magna Carta have survived. Although each was originally sealed by King John, none of the seals remains. The documents are all a little different in shape and size. There are also some variations in the text. This may mean that some of the copies were ...
Spreading the News.(record keeping, and the Magna Carta, in King John's England)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2000; ... In the centuries before the Magna Carta, agreements were made and kept verbally. This policy began to change in the 1100s and 1200s. There were now more university-trained clerks and more scribes, professional writers who worked for the state. As a result, the written word became ...
Celebrating the Magna Carta.(Magna Carta Day)
Apr 01, 2000; ... Throughout the years, people in England have celebrated June 15 as Magna Carta Day. Imagine grand pageants with hundreds of costumed actors, and parades with horses and brass bands. Imagine dances and games, fancy feasts, face painting, and magic and puppet shows. Imagine ...
Magna Carta and Parliament: Enduring Legacies of the Thirteenth Century.(England)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2000; ... "Parliament" was a new term in thirteenth-century (1200s) England, and it became the buzzword for many types of meetings. These included talks between diplomats of different countries, business meetings of London craftsmen, and assemblies where the king and his barons discussed government ...
SIR EDWARD COKE: CHAMPION OF COMMON LAW.(interpretations of the Magna Carta influenced the writing of the United States Constitution)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2000; ... Sir Edward Coke, an English lawyer in the early 1600s, insisted that everyone obey the laws, including the king. Coke supported royal authority during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Under King James I, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice. When he began to speak against absolute royal ...
MAGNA CARTA TODAY.
Apr 01, 2000; ... The charter that English barons forced on their king nearly 800 years ago was no simple document. Rather, it has become a symbol of freedom for the whole world. Many parts of the charter applied only to thirteenth-century feudal society and are no longer relevant. Some of its ...
PAPER THAT LASTS CENTURIES.(parchment)
Apr 01, 2000 ... Tradition says that parchment, or "animal skins used as writing materials," was invented some 2,200 years ago in Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Animal skins had been used prior to this time, but the new method produced a much cleaner and finer material. At the time, ...
INTERVIEW.(paper conservator Nancy Turner)(Interview)
Apr 01, 2000 ... Nancy Turner has worked with the collection of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum since 1974. She received her B.A. in art history and anthropology in 1983 from Stanford University, and earned an M.A. in medieval history from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). She ...
A SCRIBE AT WORK.(medieval book publishing)
Apr 01, 2000 ... Preparing a book for publication In the Middle Ages required patience and time, and apprentices usually trained for seven years before they were considered scribes. Writing and copying was not a simple task of putting pen to paper or of pressing a key on a keyboard and having a machine ...
A SCRIBE AND HIS QUILL.(includes instructions for making and using a quill pen)
Apr 01, 2000 ... Among a scribe's most prized possessions were the quill pens he used to write and the small penknife he used to cut and shape the quill. How he cut, shaped, and angled the quill's point determined the look of every stroke he made. Today you choose a particular font for your computer to ...
BOOKS.(books on the Middle Ages)(Bibliography)
Apr 01, 2000 ... How Would You Survive in the Middle Ages? by David Salariya (Franklin Watts, 1995) uses a great variety of large and small color illustrations, accompanied by caption-like text, to introduce readers to the farming practices, food, clothes, city and town life, sports activities, laws, ...
RESOURCES.(Review)
Apr 01, 2000 ... Magna Carta, compiled and edited by John Langdon-Davies (Jackdaws Publications, reprinted 1992), contains a wealth of information that would be great for ...
ALSO RECOMMENDED.(books on William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary)(Bibliography)
Apr 01, 2000 ... All the World's A Stage (biography of William Shakespeare) by Michael Bender (Chronicle Books, 1999) Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I by Jane Resh Thomas (Clarion Books, 1998) Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer (Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace, 1999) ...
ENGLAND'S POTS.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2000; ... <Pre>In Trent Valley there is agroup of small factory towns.They are called "The Potteries."Here, objects useful if not beautiful are made.They are made very carefully.They are like the bright sun in the sky.Under the maker's fingers thesoft clay ...
THE CHARTER ON THE NET.(Web sites on the Magna Carta)
Apr 01, 2000; ... www.leftjustified.com/leftjust/lib/sc/ht/wtp/mcarta.html A good place to begin researching the Magna Carta, this site gives the full English translation of the charter, as well as links that will introduce you to the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of other countries, ...