Spider King

Lately, I have been thinking about the influence of the French. I know the the whole 'Surrender Monkey' mind-set has pretty much infected US opinion since that whole "conservative, Bushie, Freedom Fries" thing came up when the French decided not to join us in our attempt to 'bring freedom and Democracy' to the Iraqi people. I was going to start with Chuck the Great (I was so disappointed when I found out what the beautiful name translated as) but somehow I dredged up a name from my early childhood; the Spider King. I do not remember much about the book other than the name (and DW had never heard of him and she knows everything)

He was also Louis XI,
France developed out of the Frankish kingdoms, and more directly, out of the declining Carolingian Empire. Opinions vary as to who the 'first' French king was, and the following list includes all of the transitional monarchs, including Louis I. Although Louis wasn't king of the modern entity we call France, all the later French Louis' (culminating with Louis XVIII in 1824) were numbered sequentially, using him as the starting point.

This is a chronological list of the people who have ruled France; the dates given are the periods of said rule.

Prior to the Carolingian Transition there was no primogeniture, Frankish kings were elected but Pepin and his sons Charles (Charlemagne)and Carloman were anointed by Pope Stephen III who demanded that they were never to choose a king from any other family. In 768 Pepin, partitioned his dominions between his 2 sons. In 771 his brother died and Charles manipulated Frankish inheritance laws to unite 'Frankland'. The next 40 years was taken up with warring throughout Europe, including the abortive attempt to take Spain from the Moors (giving us the Song of Roland) up to his being crowned 'emperor' of Holy Roman Empire. He died in 814.

Later Carolingian Transition
814 - 840 Louis I (not a king of 'France')
840 - 877 Charles II (the Bald)
877 - 879 Louis II (the Stammerer)
879 - 882 Louis III (joint with Carloman below)
879 - 884 Carloman (joint with Louis III above, until 882)
884 - 888 Charles the Fat
888 - 898 Eudes (also Odo) of Paris (non-Carolingian)
898 - 922 Charles III (the Simple)
922 - 923 Robert I (non-Carolingian)
923 - 936 Raoul (also Rudolf, non-Carolingian)
936 - 954 Louis IV (d'Outremer or The Foreigner)
954 - 986 Lothar (also Lothaire)
986 - 987 Louis V (the Do-Nothing)
Capetian Dynasty
987 - 996 Hugh Capet
996 - 1031 Robert II (the Pious)
1031 - 1060 Henry I
1060 - 1108 Philip I
1108 - 1137 Louis VI (the Fat)
1137 - 1180 Louis VII (the Young)
1180 - 1223 Philip II Augustus
1223 - 1226 Louis VIII (the Lion)
1226 - 1270 Louis IX (St. Louis)
1270 - 1285 Philip III (the Bold)
1285 - 1314 Philip IV (the Fair)
1314 - 1316 Louis X (the Stubborn)
1316  John I
1316 - 1322 Philip V (the Tall)
1322 - 1328 Charles IV (the Fair)
Valois Dynasty
1328 - 1350 Philip VI
1350 - 1364 John II (the Good)
1364 - 1380 Charles V (the Wise)
1380 - 1422 Charles VI (the Mad, Well-Beloved, or Foolish)
1422 - 1461 Charles VII (the Well-Served or Victorious)
1461 - 1483 Louis XI (the Spider)
1483 - 1498 Charles VIII (Father of his People)
1498 - 1515 Louis XII
1515 - 1547 Francis I
1547 - 1559 Henry II
1559 - 1560 Francis II
1560 - 1574 Charles IX
1574 - 1589 Henry III
Bourbon Dynasty
1589 - 1610 Henry IV
1610 - 1643 Louis XIII
1643 - 1715 Louis XIV (the Sun King)
1715 - 1774 Louis XV
1774 - 1792 Louis XVI

Not sure what to start with...

I remember when I was a youth, just getting out from a Boy Scout meeting - they were not pleased with me. I was running across the gym floor and one of the kids caught up with me so I grabbed his elbows really tight, digging my thumbs into the inside of the joint. I squeezed and he dropped to his knees screaming in pain. I let him go and backed off when the rest arrived. I got the crap beat out of me but I took 2 more down. I never really understood what set them off but i never got past tenderfoot in the boy scouts.

I did not like to fight, on the other hand, my brother took up boxing at the gym. His trainer was an ex-boxer who was strict - no fighting on the streets unless they started it. So my brother would stand on the corner with a pink ribbon in his hair. I must have been around 8-10 yo so he was about 10-12; we grew up in Montana so you can imagine how other boys his age responded to the pink ribbon in his hair. He got a lot of practice street fighting w/o violating the gym 'code of conduct'. Sometimes, the kids would gang up on him and beat the crap out of him but that stopped after he hunted them down one by one. When things started to get out of hand, a kid named Gail Maroney (sp?) showed up - Gail was huge, at age 11 was already a strong horseman used to working fenceline in mid-winters. The 2 were made for each other - Gerry had speed, strength and skill while Gail had size, strength and a 'berzerker' mentality.