A tale for people of Stratford-upon-Avon who are 40 or over. Everybody else may carry on scrolling . . . When, in 1478, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury and 1st Earl of Warwick (he was a busy man) was found guilty of unnatural, loathly treason against his brother, King Edward IV, he was sentenced to death. The trial was an odd one, because the King acted as judge and prosecutor himself, and the defendant was not present. Having sealed his brothers fate in absentia, the King decided to show some compassion by allowing George to choose the manner of his own execution. The condemned aristocrat surprised everyone by declaring that he wished to be drowned in a butt of malmsey, in other words, a barrel of his favourite tipple; a fortified madiera wine.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 18:04:03 +0000
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