One of the joys of the internet is that in times of boredom, you can mindlessly scroll through and get some outstanding useless bits of information. Here are my top 3.
I’m diverting off from my usual quick reads to fill your head with a bit of ‘out of the square’ history.
Enjoy!!
1 No doubt you’ve heard about the witches of Salem. Well, according to some, they supposedly conspired with the devil. The story goes that in 1692 a couple of young girls (related to a minister) began having violent fits, including uncontrollable screaming. The doctor diagnosed that the girls had been bewitched. Guess what happened next. More girls began exhibiting similar symptoms. And so began the witch hunt.
More than 200 were accused, 19 were executed by hanging, one poor chap was pressed to death, and at least a further five died in jail.
The sad part is that science explains the bewitching as probably caused by the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat etc.). Toxicologists say this can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.
2 Queen Elizabeth 1 was thought to be a man. I’m on the fence about this one, but here’s what I dug up.
When the young princess was ten years old, she was sent away from London to the town of Bisley to escape the Bubonic Plague. Unfortunately, she supposedly got sick anyway and died. Apparently, Elizabeth’s nurse panicked a bit because Henry VIII was on his way to visit his daughter. No-done wanted to get on the wrong side of that dude!!!
So she came up with a plan to find a local girl who had a resemblance to Elizabeth and show her to the King.
Didn’t go quite as she thought because there were no girls. But, aha! An effeminate lad with red hair looked pretty darn close, so the switch was made.
Some historians believe this to be true mainly because of a variety of facts.
- Elizabeth never married.
- The letters she wrote before and after being in Bisley were vastly different.
- She always wore wigs.
- Only very carefully selected doctors could see her.
- It was understood that she would never bear children.
- Elizabeth made it clear she was not to have an autopsy after her death.
- And finally, in the 1800s a skeleton of a young girl wearing typical upper-class clothing was found in Bisley.
I am erring on the side of disbelief because I’m sure someone would have leaked the secret (they usually do). Also, according to the Queen’s laundress, Elizabeth menstruated normally.
3 I’m sure you’ve heard of the Illuminati. Yes, it was a real society of intellectual thinkers around more than two centuries ago in Germany. They supposedly orchestrated the French Revolution along with other uprisings.
It was founded in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt in 1776. He was a professor who had a bit of a falling out with the Jesuit priests who held power in those days. Weishaupt was all about promoting enlightenment as well as moral progress. However, by 1785 the Illuminati were then really over stepping the line and so were outlawed and dissolved by Prince Karl Theodor. Sure, it could have continued underground, but there is no real evidence of this, which brings me to the modern version. So many people are accused of being part of the Illuminati. From the Pope to the Queen and Presidents to those running Silicon Valley. In other words, if you’re wealthy and powerful, you must be part of this secret society. But is that right?
Well, in 1965, a group of people founded the Discordian movement. A couple of schoolmates Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley, self-printed a book called Principia Discordia. It promoted the theory that chaos is as necessary as order. Thus Discordianism became popular through the 60s and 70s with the two guys actively trying to cause mischief. Enter the American writer Robert Wilson and his mate Robert Shea. These two decided to write a novel, throw all the great conspiracy theories into the plot, and call it Illuminatus. They had so much fun with this they turned it into a trilogy.
Wilson and Shea used this prank to spread chaos and misinformation about the Illuminati through writing letters to the mainstream press and the letters section of popular magazines. They also wrote letters from imaginary readers, either believing or not believing that the Illuminati existed.
Even though the trilogy conspiracy theories are imaginary, they are blended with enough truth to make them seem plausible.
This is a book on my must-read list; I just haven’t found one yet.
And as an aside.
The book was made into a marathon 8-hour stage play in Liverpool, launching the careers of Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent.
The original idea of the Discordian movement was about creating chaos to begin dialogue and discovery. Therefore, it’s not down to a shadowy elite whether you choose to believe in the Illuminati conspiracy theory (or any theories) or not; it’s up to you.
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