The 29th December is not a day of glad tidings. There is a rather sad mix of dreadful events, which the passage of time has failed to dissimulate. Perhaps gloss over would be a better term.
The first event goes back to the 12th century. On the 29th December 1170, four knights Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton arrived at Canterbury. According to accounts left by the monk Gervase of Canterbury and eyewitness Edward Grim, they placed their weapons under a tree outside the cathedral and hid their mail armour under cloaks before entering to challenge Archbishop Thomas Becket. The knights informed Becket he was to go to Winchester to give an account of his actions, but Becket refused. It was not until Becket refused their demands to submit to the king's will that they retrieved their weapons and rushed back inside for the killing. Becket, meanwhile, proceeded to the main hall for vespers. The four knights, wielding drawn swords, caught up with him in a spot near a door to the monastic cloister, the stairs into the crypt, and the stairs leading up into the quire of the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.
Several contemporary accounts of what happened exist; of particular note is that of Edward Grim, who was himself wounded in the attack. This is part of the account from Edward Grim:
“...The wicked knight leapt suddenly upon him, cutting off the top of the crown which the unction of sacred chrism had dedicated to God. Next he received a second blow on the head, but still he stood firm and immovable. At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living sacrifice, and saying in a low voice, 'For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.' But the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he lay prostrate. By this stroke, the crown of his head was separated from the head in such a way that the blood white with the brain, and the brain no less red from the blood, dyed the floor of the cathedral. The same clerk who had entered with the knights placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to relate, scattered the brains and blood about the pavements, crying to the others, 'Let us away, knights; this fellow will arise no more”
The events leading up to, and following on from, this day in 1170 have been researched and written about for 841 years. The various accounts have depicted human behaviour in all its facets, starting with a simple question, Why? It is usually a matter of whose point of view is being sought, but on the whole there is an attempt to explore the event rather than the personalities. That illumination evolves from the examination of the context of the event itself, through the intrigues and relationships of those perceived to be concerned with the event. Out of this we get a story which runs and runs.
The second event is another of those ridiculous treaties supposedly creating equanimity between an American Indian Nation and the United States. The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on 29th December, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party] The treaty was amended and ratified by the US Senate in March 1836, despite protests from the Cherokee National Council and its lacking the signature of the Principal Chief John Ross.
The treaty established terms under which the entire Cherokee Nation was expected to cede its territory in the Southeast and move west to the Indian Territory. Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council, it was ratified by the U.S. Senate and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from south-eastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory (eastern sections of the present-day state of Oklahoma). The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease and starvation en route to their destinations. Many died, including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee. Much has been written about these events as well yet the duplicity of various United States Governments never ceases to amaze. Have any apologies been forthcoming? Perhaps in some roundabout way. A number of prominent protesters, at the time, made known their disapproval of government behaviour, usually to no avail.
The third event is an apology. On the 29th December, 1998, the remaining leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologized for the 1970s genocide. By 1999, most members had surrendered or been captured. In December 1999, Ta Mok and the remaining leaders surrendered, and the Khmer Rouge effectively ceased to exist. Most of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders live in the Pailin area or are hidden in Phnom Penh. Again, much has been written of the killing fields of Cambodia, which claimed over 1 million lives.
There is another event involving the death of a language. On the 29th December, 2003 Marja Sergina – one of the last fluent native speakers of Akkala Sami – died. Akkala Sami is a Sami language that was spoken in the Sami villages of A´kkel and Ču´kksuâl, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Formerly erroneously regarded as a dialect of Kildin Sami, it has recently become recognized as an independent Sami language that is most closely related to its western neighbor Skolt Sami. Although there exists a description of Akkala Sami phonology and morphology, a few published texts, and archived audio recordings, the Akkala Sami language remains among the most poorly documented Sami languages. Effectively the language is no more. There is little written about this event.
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