One should not garner historical fact from the works of Voltaire. The man was a fantasist, albeit a talented one. For nigh on a quarter of a century I have studied medieval history, and not once have I encountered any law to support the appropriating of a lady's chasteness. The terms you refer to mean little more than rape. Having said that, a lowly serf or indebted vassal may have offered his daughter as payment or bribe to his lord, and the added bonus of virginity may have made this proposition more attractive to the beneficiary. However, the subsequent physical act is still to be regarded as rape in modern terms. Whether this can be applied to arranged marriages between noble families is still disputed, for the daughter would have been informed of her 'duty' well in advance of the coupling. But does this make it right?
Well that's a new one on me. Now I'm gonna have to have to charge rent to my two Swedish tenants that live in my shed- thanks a **king bundle. You see that is why Hollywood should do their homework better. I suppose olav will be pleased tho.
Ponders summed it up for me on the first page. I like the Scots (apart from when the national teams play) like having them as part of the UK, and would have voted no if asked. BUT, had they voted yes, I'd have expected them to pick up the entire bill for doing so, and for any ongoing problems that would probably have turned up in the future. We don't have to pay Portugal, Greece or Estonia to be independent states (Greece and Portugal being very bad examples) and if the Scots wanted out that badly, they should obviously have paid for it. As it is, thanks to Cameron, Clegg and Milliband panicking in the closing days, we've now got a new mess to sort out, as the devolution of finances and powers should, if the BBC are to believed , involve less subsidies from England, and specifically from London and the south east. It'll be fun to see how Alec Salmond reacts when he see's that panning out, and less so for the Scots who voted on the back of a Westminster bribe that may cost them money. I blame Mel Gibson.
The Unions (sorry labour members) have made a terrible error and backed the wrong brother, Labour would be 10 points ahead in the polls with the other brother
The Unions did ballot their members, and the result was Mr Ed. The Tories are far more ruthless- as soon as they realised that IDS was useless they got rid.
