#First War of Independence

[illustratus]

The armoury of the nobleman Uboldo invaded by Milanese insurgents to obtain weapons on 19 March 1848

by Carlo Bossoli

[scotianostra]

On February 24th 1303 the Scots, under Simon Fraser and John Comyn beat an English force at The Battle of Roslin.

Now most of my history is self taught that I have picked up over the years, I was brought up near Roslin and my mum did take us there as bairns and told us all about the Chapel, the Apprentice Pillar and The Holy Grail, this was 30 years before Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code novel, so with all that you would think that I will have been told all about The Battle of Roslin?

Nope not a thing, I knew about Stirling Bridge, Bannockburn and Culloden, as well as other battles but I can't recall my mum ever telling me about Roslin, so what I know is all learned over the past 20 years or so.

Fought between the Scots and English during the Wars of Scottish Independence and was a Scottish victory, but it does not figure in many history books and few people up until lately have even heard of it, yet the figures involved, especially on the English side, make it one of the biggest battles ever on Scots soil.

This was during the Wars of Scottish Independence, according to the stories I have read it was more of a fight over the love of a woman rather than a pure Scotland v England "match".

Lady Margaret Ramsay of Dalhousie, who had become betrothed to the handsome Sir Henry St Clair, they of the Knights Templar folk. Enter your typical English arrogant guy in Sir John de Segrave, a seasoned campaigner in many a Scottish battle. Sir John is said to have fallen in love with oor Lady Margaret on may visits to Dalhousie Castle, on hearing of the impending marriage in a fit of jealousy decided he wanted the Lady for himself so sought out to sweep her off her feet and defeat the Scottish army all in one fell swoop.

It's a great tale and sounds like a Hollywood film, but there never was any Lady Margaret Ramsay and we know that Sinclair married one Alicia de Fenton. So that's the romance bit debunked.

What I have also read out about the battle is that Segrove split his army, of 30,000 troops, into three groups, to me this is more believable, well splitting the army, the numbers in my mind will have been a lot less. Anyone who knows the landscape of Roslin Glen will know that it lends itself to the theory that in battle on big force would find it difficult to gather there. The English army in three divisions was also common in armies at the time. The terrain in Roslin in the middle of winter would have made it very difficult for a large army to manouevre, so with that I am pretty sure the numbers have been exaggerated, put it this way, if 30,000 English were defeated at Roslin it would be bigger than Bannockburn.

This brings me to my third point about the battle, why are no accounts of it from people present at it? Well that is easily explained in the fact that one of the commanders of the Scots was John "The Red" Comyn. It's a well know fact that history favours the winners, and we all know that The Bruce and Comyn were bitter rivals so it would be natural for any records of the battle to have been erased by Bruce. Well that's my take on it.

A couple of other details often written about the battle is that William Wallace was present, Wallace by this time had given up the Guardianship and at some point was said to have been in France, when captured he was in possession of a "safe passage" letter from The King of France, so was he there? Again I refer to my local knowledge in that along the River Esk that runs through Roslin Glen, towards Hawthornden Castle is a cave we know as Wallace's Cave, so there is a connection somewhere down the ages with our favourite Scottish patriot.

One as wee story regarding The Battle of Roslin is about the Cistercian Prior Abernethy of Mount Lothian to the west of Balantradoch, the Templar headquarters in Scotland, it was about 5 miles from Roslin, Abernethy, the monk, had been a Templar, a warrior, who had off his armour and lay down his sword to spend the remainder of his life praising God. Now the warrior priest's blood rose again. The life of prayer, compilation of Gregorian chants was abandoned. God had called the Prior to the defence of Scotland. As men prepare for battle each pray to whatever God he knows "let us be victorious."

Monks on horseback were sent to raise the alarm and warn the Scots of the danger facing them, they would have said a prayer for the Scots troops before the battle, as was normal, but another legend is that as the Scottish Army grew tired during the third stage of the battle. Abernethy is said to have been crucial with his local knowledge of the Glen, he also directed the Monks to erect a huge St Andrews Cross on the Pentland Hills, as the Scots tired the Cross was set alight and the Abernethy pointed towards it, saying it was a sign from God, it rallied the troops and the Battle was won.

You will have maybe heard other versions of The Battle of Roslin, a lot of this is my own take and by no means historical.

[spacealligator]

I just watched the movie bonds and shino single handedly destroyed like three warships, avenged the attack on Konoha and then he just he just walks out of the water like a goddamn bond girl in an episode of ex on the beach and i was like ???????? well i guess the movie ends here ?????????

after that I didn’t even wanna know what happened to naruto, i just enjoyed me some badass shino and sai, some mild badass shikamaru and some lazyass kakashi that did nothing the whole time, sasuke's and naruto's sexual tension was on the background after that

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

2nd April 1918: The Pokrovsky Nunnery in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Photograph taken by a German soldier during World War I and Ukraine's War of Independence.

[i-am-dulaman]

petition for that long rant on revolutions here, i really enjoyed the way you laid out your facts and explained the first rant and am not too good at reading theory myself (i am still trying tho) thanks!!

Okay okay so the problem with revolutions is they get messy. Real messy. You get counter-revolutionaries, moderates, extremists, loyalists, and everything in between. One revolution turns into 5, and even if your side wins, its almost guaranteed to have been tainted some way or another along the way.

Take the first french revolution. It started as civil unrest, the estates general initially called for reform of the french state into a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. Even king louis XVI was in support of this. But extremists wanting a republic and counter-revolutionaries wanting absolute monarchy clashed and things became more and more chaotic and violent. Eventually the extremists won, the jacobin reign of terror ensued, and 10s of thousands of people were executed. Now don't get me wrong, i am all for executing monarchs and feudal lords, but look what happened a few years later; Napoleon used the political instability to declare himself emperor, a few more years later his empire had crumbled, and the monarchy was back with Louis XVIII.

Or take the 1979 iranian revolution. It started as protests against pahlavi, who was an authoritarian head of state and an American pawn. As the protests turned into civil resistance and guerilla warfare it took on many different forms. There were secularists vs islamic extremists. There were democrats vs theocrats vs monarchists. Etc. Through all the chaos, Khomeini seized power, held a fake referendum, and declared himself supreme leader and enforced many strict laws, particularly on women who previously had close to equal rights. Many of the millions of women involved in the revolution later said they felt bettayed by the end result.

Or the Russian Revolution. It started as protests, military strikes, and civil unrest during WW1 directed at the tsar. He stepped down in 1917 and handed power over to the Duma, the russian parliament. This new provisionary government initially had the support of soviet councils, including socialist groups like the menshiviks. But they made the major mistake of deciding to continue the war. Lenins bolsheviks were originally a very tiny group on the fringes of russian politics, but they were the loudest supporters of peace, so they gained support and organised militias into an army and thus began the russian civil war. Lenin won and followed through on his promise to end the war against germany, but its a bit ironic that they fought a civil war, that killed about 10 million people, just to end another war.

Im not saying any of these results were either bad or good. They all have nuance and its all subjective. But the point i am trying to make is that they get messy. The initial goals will always be twisted.

France wanted a constitutional monarchy, they got an autocratic emporer.

Iran wanted democracy and an end to American influence, and well they ended american influence alright but also got a totalitarian theocrat.

Russia wanted an end to world war 1 and got one of the bloodiest civil wars in history.

I cant think of a single revolution in history that achieved the goals it set out to achieve.

But again, im not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just a warning against revolutionary rhetoric and criticisms of reformism. Sometimes revolution is the only option, when you're faced with an authoritarian government diametrically opposed to change, then a revolution may be worth the risk. But it is a risk.

But if you live in a democracy, claiming revolution is the only way is actively choosing both bloodshed and the risk of things going horribly wrong over the choice of peaceful reform.

So when i go online in some leftist spaces and see people claiming revolution in America or UK or wherever is the only way out of capitalism I cant help but feel angry.

I know our democracy is flawed, and reform is slow and can even go backwards, but we owe it to all the people who would die in a revolution to try reform first.

I know socialist reform is especially hard in our flawed democracy where capitalists own the media, but if we can't convince enough people to vote for socialist reform what hope do we have of convincing enough people to join a socialist revolution. Socialism is supposed to be for the people, but how can you claim your revolution is for the people if you can't even get the support of the people?

So what I'm trying to say is; if youre one of those leftists that are sitting around waiting for the glorious revolution, doing nothing but posting rhetoric online - at least try doing something else while you wait. Join your labour union, recruit your coworkers, get involved in your local socialist parties, call your local representatives (city council, senator, governor, member of parliament, whatever) and make your opinions known, push them further left, and keep pushing.

[the-broken-ear]

(Pt. 2) Here’s the rest of the photos

The second last photo is Roddy Scott. The last photo shows the unit marching once in Ingushetia. It was the last photo taken by Scott. Soon afterwards the group was ambushed by Russian forces resulting in Scott being killed alongside numerous rebels.

Second Chechen war, ca. 2002

[bantarleton]

Another new Troiani piece, featuring an American Loyalist and a Native ally with Joseph Brant, the Mohawk leader who lead Crown operations on the New York frontier during the American Revolution.

Brant fought in the 7 Years War, and in 1775 was received in London, where he met King George III and was inducted as a Freemason. He was also given a number of rifles as a gift, one of which he employed on his return voyage to America when his ship encountered a rebel privateer.

He commanded Loyalist and Native forces along the frontier throughout the Revolutionary War, and was blamed for a series of massacres, though at least one was exaggerated and another was due to the indiscretions of Loyalist commander Walter Butler.

After the war he and his Iroquois were granted land in Canada. They settled in Ontario and Brant continued to lead them until his death in 1807. He was one of the most well-known Native Americans of the eighteenth century among English-speaking peoples.

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

I recently found out that Native People in the American continent have their own name for it, which is Abya Yala.

Anyway, wouldn't it be nice if we started to support their right for self determination and freedom from the oppression of colonial rule? Wouldn't it be nice if we support the complete and immediate abolition of all colonizer countries, which are *checks notes* every single country in the American continent plus the island ones? Wouldn't it be nice if we started telling all the settlers, conquistadors and immigrants to Go Back To Where They Came From? Wouldn't it be nice if we started chanting in the streets and online for the cleansing of the continent from all non-Native people? Wait, that sounds kind of extreme, doesn't it? But what if it rhymed? Everyone knows that if it rhymes it's true and justified right? So maybe the American continent should be free, you know, maybe from shore to shore... no, no. From sea to sea, that's it! What a great cause! And great causes are worth fighting for by all means, right? Obviously, I do not support violence at all, but like wouldn't it be justified if Native People were to become violent in their fight for freedom? I mean, think of the history for a moment, what brought them to this moment? And could you blame them? After all, shouldn't freedom be fought for by all means necessary? Wouldn't you support their claim?

Anyway.

From Sea To Shiny Sea Abya Yala Will Be Free.

[raccoonramblings]

Woo. First post.

This is where I'm just gonna dump stuff I find that's weird or interesting that wouldn't fit on my kaiju/Godzilla blog. Gonna be a lot of comic book screenshots and other nerd shit. Like this, look at how they drew Usagi in this panel from War of the Independents:

Truly breathtaking.

[hegodamask]

Something I think about a lot: how tf did Syril end up on Morlana One? You’d think with him being born on Coruscant there’d be more opportunities to get recruited by the ISB if he stayed there.

Like, did he choose Morlana One? Was he assigned there? Did he not have a choice if the job was indeed a handout from Uncle Harlo? Was it purely about getting away from Eedy? Much to think about.

[aiteanngaelach]

SCREAM

[ynwa-chiesa]

Oh my god i just saw a comment that pointed out that the first square on the croatian nt kit is white im going to lose it i didnt even notice that

[scotianostra]

On 29th March 1298 William Wallace was knighted and officially made "Guardian of Scotland".

The previous September Wallace and Andrew de Moray achieved a stunning victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The English left with 5,000 dead on the field, including their despised treasurer, Hugh Cressingham, whose flayed skin was said to have been taken as a trophy of victory and to make a belt for Wallace's sword. The Scots suffered one significant casualty,

Andrew de Moray , who was badly wounded and died two months later.

A lot of the detail of this has been lost i time but it is said that the ceremony took place in front of gathered nobles and clergy in the Kirk o’ the Forest, in Selkirk. Wallace was named "Commander of the Army of the Kingdom of Scotland", knighted and made Guardian of Scotland in Balliol's name at the forest kirk, at either Selkirk or Carluke.

Balliol had been humiliated in 1296 when he signed the first treaty of alliance with the French, Edward I had torn the Royal insignia from his clothing earning him the cruel nickname Tomb Tabard, meaning empty coat, but many, Wallace included, still saw him as the rightful King.

It was a remarkable achievement for a mere knight to hold power over the nobles of Scotland. In a medieval world obsessed with hierarchy, Wallace's extraordinary military success catapulted him to the top of the social ladder.

He now guided Scottish policy. Letters were dispatched to Europe proclaiming Scotland's renewed independence and he managed to obtain from the Papacy the appointment of the patriotic Bishop Lamberton to the vacant Bishopric of St Andrews.

Militarily he took the war into the north of England, raiding around Newcastle and wreaking havoc across the north. Contemporary English chroniclers accused him of atrocities, some no doubt warranted, however, in Wallace's eyes the war, since its beginning, by the English, had been marked by brutality and butchery.

The English nobility had been on the edge of civil war with Edward I. They were disgruntled over his wars in France and Scotland, however, faced with the humiliating defeat by the Scots at Stirling Bridge, they united behind him in time for the Battle of Falkirk.

Unfortunately Wallace's army at Falkirk was soundly beaten that July and Scotland fell under Longshanks rule, Sir William Wallace resigned as Guardian and was now the most wanted man in Scotland.

The site where Wallace was made Guardian has long gone, but a geophysics study in 2016 carried out within the ruins of the 18th century Auld Kirk was expected to show traces of its 16th century predecessor. Instead, it revealed the remains of a medieval chapel, pinpointing the spot where Wallace was honoured.

The first pic is from a 1935 pageant at Selkirk reenacting the event, the second is a plaque at Kirk O' The Forest, for all those from the U.S in the Murray aisle of the present building, lie the maternal ancestors of Franklin D Roosevelt the 32nd President

[dutybcrne]

Kaeya is definitely the sort of parent who prefers to sleep in the same bed as his baby.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1921 – The Clonmult Ambush | Twelve IRA volunteers were killed in Clonmult, near Midleton, Co Cork by British soldiers and Auxiliaries.

Irish Republican Army volunteers occupying a farmhouse in Clonmult, Co Cork were surrounded by a force of British Army, Royal Irish Constabulary and Auxiliaries. In the action that followed, twelve IRA volunteers were killed, four wounded and four captured. A total of 22 people died in the ambush and subsequent executions – 14 IRA members, 2 Black and Tans and 6 suspected informers. The 4th…

[scratching92]

Okay I'm having more thoughts about Andor episode 7.

During this episode Mon Mothma makes reference in a conversation with an old friend that she's been attending Separatist Coalition meetings. Was Mon Mothma a Separatist? Palpatine's entire rise to power was precipitated upon the Separatist Crisis and the resulting Clone Wars, but from the way it sounds, it doesn't seem like the Separatist Coalition was an illegal organization so much as an organization to be infiltrated and monitored.

I'm fascinated by this. I've always been intrigued by Separatist ideology in Star Wars and curious about its roots and development (beyond Dooku's speeches). Maybe there were separate (ha!) schools of Separatist thought, and Dooku's was merely the largest and most influential. I'm curious if we'll get more on this in the rest of the episodes (especially since we already have the... weirdness of the Separatist-ship-that's-actually-a-Republic-ship in Cassian's backstory in the first three episodes).