The Bard-Multitalented Entertainer

 

A Renaissance Bard prepares to perform to a new audience of villagers, who will hopefully give him room, board and coin of the realm for their entertainment. The travelling bard was a common and looked forward to visitor to any Renaissance village or town. These multitalented performers were a combined newsman, storyteller, musician and singer. They travelled from town to town entertaining the populous with the latest news, gossip, songs and stories. Once the crowds, and money, dwindled as the townsfolk were sedated with his work, the bard would move on to the next village on his route, taking with him the latest news and gossip gained from this town to entertain and inform the next. As it might be as much as a year before the same bard revisited the same town, he was always welcomed with an attentive audience.

Portraits Through the Centuries

Early 17th Century

Early 18th Century

Early 19th Century

                                                                    Early 20th Century

                                                                    Early 21st Century

                                                                                 2020

Gold-Gold-Gold Treasures of the Americas, Lure for the Europeans

Gold was a common artistic metal to the advanced civilizations of Pre-Columbian America.

Religious, purely decorative, status symbols or just works of art, master goldsmiths created them all.

The beauty of the works was lost on the vast majority of Europeans who saw only the monetary value of the gold items melted down into bullion, coins or jewelry more to European aesthetics.

The immense amount of gold (as well as silver and precious gems) available in the "New World" became a lure to countless European adventurers, explorers, conquistadors and the governments that encouraged them.

The untold wealth of the New World would lead to colonization, the destruction of the native civilizations and eventual Europeanization of the entire America's.

What little of the stunning gold art works that remain are but a small portion of the vast treasures that were destroyed and repurposed by the Europeans.

Little did the artisans of this golden beauty realize that their works of art would help to hasten the destruction of the world they knew.  The lure of gold-gold-gold would lead to many more mass movements of Europeans, but none would so change the world as did these wonders of the golden arts of the New World.

Pirate or Privateer

From the 16th to early 19th centuries "Privateers" were the mother countries legal pirates given "Letters of Marque" that allowed them to prey on the merchant shipping of "enemy" nations. Such commerce raiding was lucrative for both the privateers who provided their own ships and crews and for the navy that added to their commerce raiders at no expense to the naval budget.  

The object of a privateer was to capture their victims, man them with a "prize crew," and sell the ship and cargo at a friendly port. The government that granted the "Letters of Marque" most often received a percentage of this "prize money." Be they the "Seadogs" of England's Elizabeth I or American adventures of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, privateers were more often seen as legal pirates by the merchants they pounced upon on the high seas.

Wattle and Daub-Elizabethan Style

While not common, wattle and daub houses did not have to be whitewashed.

Wattle and daub were a fairly inexpensive way to build homes from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

The walls between the large timbers of a structure were made of wattle (sticks woven in a loose pattern) and daub (a mixture of mud, straw and animal manure that was packed onto the wattle) then covered in plaster.

The upper story of the house to the right is a traditional style while those to the left have more wood detailing for decorative rather than structural reasons.

The Elizabethan Era was the high design point for wattle and daub buildings as by the end of her reign brick became the favored building material in England.

The sagging is a common aspect of many two or more-story wattle and daub structures.

 

All these houses are in Ludlow, UK whose castle (to the left of the photo) was a major structure on the border with Wales and retained its importance until the late 17th century.

Renaissance Royal Kitchen

The First Tsar

First "Tsar of All the Russias"-Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Tsar-1547-1584), also known as "Ivan the Terrible."  Formally titled the Grand Prince of Moscow (Prince-1537-1547), Ivan created a new Imperial title "Caesar" or Tsar in Russian. His foreign policy led to the annexation of substantial lands to the East and Southeast as well as the importation of West European goods technologies (including the first printing press in Russia). The first Russian exploration and expansion into the vast lands of Siberia occurred during his reign.

His domestic policies revamped the government, created the Zemsky Sobor (a Feudal style parliament) and strengthened the hold of the lords over the Serfs.  He was responsible for the first "Modern " (for the 16th century that is) government in Russia.

He is often called "Ivan the Terrible" for his brutal actions against those that he believed were his enemies, both real and imagined.  He is blamed for countless massacres (the cities of Novgorod and Kazan experienced especially brutal treatment), enslavements, banishments and murders including killing his own son during a fit of temper. 

Ivan IV was a complex man, dangerous, often unpredictable, ruthless and always a ruler who understood power and how to use it to his best advantage.  By the time of his death Medieval Russia had also died and the foundation for the Russian Empire had been formed.

Conquistador's Warriors for Gold, God and Glory

Conquistador's, the Spanish warriors of the three "G's," "Gold, God and Glory."  Armed with the latest weapons and modern tactics (for the 16th century that is) infused with the task of both spreading the power of Spain and God's word, the Conquistadors were a true force to be reckoned with.  Sublimely confident in their strength and righteousness; they time and time again challenged enemies many times their own numbers while carving out the Spanish Empire in the New World and the far away Philippines. 

The three "G's" guaranteed ultimate success for true Conquistadors.  Their victories brought them fame and "Glory" throughout the European World (as well as envy); the conquered saw them quite differently.  In a time of religious intolerance, they were extremely intolerant of "false beliefs" as in name of "God" they brought the words of the Catholic Faith to all they conquered (all that survived the conquest that is).  Those Conquistador's that died believed they would be welcomed in Heaven for doing God's work (much like the Crusader and Jihadist of early centuries).  Victories over cultures rich in material wealth (especially gold and silver) and land brought them untold wealth.  "Gold" was their preferred form of payment but silver, jewels, land and slaves all enriched victorious Conquistador's.  Many a Conquistador gained wealth worth millions of dollars in Modern value, and just as fast wasted in a wild lavish lifestyle.

For the better part of the 1500's the Conquistador's carved out the World's most wide-ranging Empire on five continents (Europe, Africa, South America, North America and Asia) parts of which last until the 20th century.  Untold hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of wealth flowed into the coffers of the Spanish Empire and the economy of Europe for centuries from these conquests. Whole cultures were destroyed and the political as well as religious face of the planet changed forever by the Conquistador's, all in the name of "Gold, God and Glory."