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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303: The Extraordinary Story of the First Big Bank Raid in Historydi Paul Doherty
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. What first took me aback about this book was the size of it. It's only about 200 pages long and very light; for some reason I imagined the book would be longer. However, even at 200 pages it feels padded. There are long excerpts of translated witness statements and other tangentially related documents, without much discussion of whose translations they are (I assume the author's, but that is not explicitly mentioned) and the methodology involved in translating them. When it comes to incorporating texts from the period into a modern historical work, Peter Ackroyd handles it better in London: The Biography (which I have been reading concurrently), providing the tiniest of snippets in the original language and surrounding them with context. The long, translated excerpts become tiresome and I tended to skim over them. The book is also littered with comma splices and abbreviations such as "He paid £100's in damage" that make it feel more like a first draft than a finished product. A promising idea that did not quite pass muster in the execution. ( ) The author has obviously done his research into this surprisingly relatively obscure incident. However, I thought there was rather too much repetition and am not sure there was really a full length book in this, so it did get rather dull at times. Also, some minor annoyances like insisting on calling Edward's II favourite Peter (rather than Piers) Gaveston. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
In the reign of King Charles II (1660--1685), there was a famous attempt to steal the crown jewels by the memorably named Colonel Blood. However, Blood's conspiracy was not the first such plot, and it was certainly not the most successful. Three centuries earlier, in 1303, Edward I of England (of Braveheart fame) was north of the Scottish border attempting to crush William Wallace, secure in the knowledge that he had stashed his royal treasures safely behind iron-bound doors in Westminster Abbey -- a place of sanctity reputed to house Christ's body, and inhabited by pious Benedictine monks. Enter Richard Puddlicott: a former merchant and a charming, dissolute, rogue with a grudge against the king. He infiltrated the Abbey's inner circle (entertaining them on the proceeds of their own silver) and, before long, had managed to help himself to a good part of the treasure. The King's fury knew no bounds, but Puddlicott ran the King's men a merry dance before eventually being captured and sent -- along with forty monks -- to his death in Westminster. This exhilarating tale of cunning, deceit, lechery, monks, pimps and prostitutes tells the story of the first great bank raid in history. Until now -- with most of the evidence still in manuscripts, in Latin or Norman French -- very little has been written about it. With his usual verve, blending vivid narrative and historical analysis, Paul Doherty takes the lid off both the medieval underworld and the 'holy' monastic community. The result is historically enlightening and a gripping read. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)364.1620942Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Crimes of property Theft History, geographic treatment, biography Europe England & WalesClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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