France
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘France’
A faithful feline bides his time until two criminals are brought to justice.
It is usual to suppose that cats are not loyal like dogs, or especially concerned with what does not directly affect them. But Victorian cartoonist Charles Ross tells us about a French cat whose sense of justice was truly single-minded.
Richard I thought a veteran Crusader and conqueror of Saladin could handle a few French peasants.
Richard the ‘Lionheart’ is best remembered today as the King of England during the time of Robin Hood, an association made for us by Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Ivanhoe’. He was an inspiring general in the Third Crusade, courageous and ruthless, but his death was testimony to the caprices of Fortune.
Admiral Lord Howe battered a French fleet far out in the Atlantic, and helped prevent the spread of bloody revolution.
As soon as power had been secured after the Revolution of 1789, France’s new government began invading neighbouring countries in Europe, and seeking to evangelize the world with revolutionary fervour. Happily, the seed of republicanism fell on very stony ground on this side of the Channel.
The Nazi-collaborating Vichy government in France paid Rugby League the supreme compliment: they banned it.
In France, Rugby League is not perhaps the most fashionable code of Rugby. But it does have the proud distinction of having been banned by the Nazis’ French friends, making it a form of the game with special appeal to those who see themselves as a bit of a rebel.