Category: History

Knights Templar Not Heritics, Vatican Says Paperwork Misfiled

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Really, I’m not joking about the last part. The Vatican will be publishing the minutes of the trials of the order of the Knights Templar (limited edition, 799 numbered copies and costing €5900 each), and the lost paperwork is no joke:

The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip’s attempts to eliminate them.

Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip’s agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.

The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was “misplaced” in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.

And I thought that my desk was messy….700 years.

Some Things Never Change

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One of these things is that you will never find a more useless, self-centered, inbred, addle brained royal family than the House of Habsburg.

That being said, why the hell did this guy, get this back in the first place? Its a national treasure, not a plaything for the idle wealthy.

The estate is a duty to those who choose to serve their land in word and deed as nobility, not a toy to be discarded when bored.

Heir puts ‘Dracula’s Castle’ for sale

By ALEXANDRU ALEXE, Associated Press WriterMon Jul 2, 2:18 PM ET

A Habsburg heir is hoping someone will take a bite of his offer Monday to sell “Dracula’s Castle” in Transylvania.

The medieval Bran Castle, perched on a cliff near Brasov in mountainous central Romania, is a top tourist attraction because of its ties to Prince Vlad the Impaler, the warlord whose cruelty inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula.”

Legend has it that the ruthless Vlad — who earned his nickname because of the way he tortured his enemies — spent one night in the 1400s at the castle.

The Habsburgs formally put the Bran Castle on the market Monday, a U.S.-based investment company said. No selling price was announced.

Bran Castle was built in the 14th century to serve as a fortress to protect against the invading Ottoman Turks. The royal family moved into the castle in the 1920s, living there until the communist regime confiscated it from Princess Ileana in 1948.

After being restored in the late 1980s and following the end of communist rule in Romania, it gained popularity as a tourist attraction known as “Dracula’s Castle.”

In May 2006, the castle was returned to Princess Ileana’s son, New York architect Archduke Dominic Habsburg. He pledged to keep it open as a museum until 2009.

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Opposition lawmakers have claimed the government’s decision to return the castle to Habsburg was illegal because of procedural errors.

Warplane nose art Done in by PC RAF

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Another grand tradition lost.

PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets – in case they offend women and Muslims

In killer heels and little else, they have a definite deadly charm.

But the risque images of women that have decorated warplanes since the First World War have been scrubbed out.

The Ministry of Defence has decreed they could offend the RAF’s female personnel.

Officials admitted they had no record of any complaints from the 5,400 women in the RAF.

But commanders are erring firmly on the side of caution and “nose art”, as it is known, has been consigned to the history books.

Harrier jump jet bombers currently launching daily airstrikes against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan have been scrubbed clean to comply with the orders.

Critics said the MoD should be focusing on more important issues – such as the quality and quantity of equipment available to British forces sent off to war.

Nose art first appeared on warplanes during the First World War and enjoyed a golden age during the Second World War when thousands of American fighters and bombers were decorated with pictures of glamorous women.

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