Death Penalty

According to Wikipedia the death penalty at the height of the 'Bloody Code' was in force for some 220 different crimes.

Professional fouls

Does anyone know of a case in which a footballer has committed a blatant 'professional foul', such as picking up the ball illegally in order to prevent a certain goal, without any attempt to conceal the nature of the foul? Or does anyone know of a similar case in another sport?

Has any professional footballer (or other sportsman) ever been criticized for not committing a professional foul in such a situation (e.g. to prevent a certain goal)?

Trial by Combat

You can read here an interesting story from 2002:

A court has rejected a 60-year-old man’s attempt to invoke the ancient right to trial by combat, rather than pay a £25 fine for a minor motoring offence.

Leon Humphreys remained adamant yesterday that his right to fight a champion nominated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) was still valid under European human rights legislation. He said it would have been a “reasonable” way to settle the matter.

Magistrates sitting at Bury St Edmunds on Friday had disagreed and instead of accepting his offer to take on a clerk from Swansea with “samurai swords, Ghurka knives or heavy hammers”, fined him £200 with £100 costs.

Humphreys, an unemployed mechanic, was taken to court after refusing to pay the original £25 fixed penalty for failing to notify the DVLA that his Suzuki motorcycle was off the road.

After entering a not guilty plea, he threw down his unconventional challenge. Humphreys, from Bury St Edmunds, said: “I was willing to fight a champion put up by the DVLA, but it would have been a fight to the death.”

Tribe Members Wanted!

This site has this unusual story:

Mark James and Ben Keene, both 26, have set up www.tribewanted.com to invite people to join a tribe by registering for one of the 5000 places available. When the 5000th member joins the tribe will be formed and will start to make important decisions by voting through the tribewanted.com community on key issues including: What will the tribe be called? Who will be the 12 Chiefs that lead the tribe? What kind of infrastructure will be required on the Island?

The plan is to create the world’s first online and real life tribal community, providing an experience of a lifetime to its members whilst simultaneously helping local development projects in Fiji and without negatively impacting the environment!

Membership to the tribe will be sold on a first come first served basis on tribewanted.com. Membership begins not when a tribe member joins but on the day the tribe is formed, the day the 5000th member joins. Tribe members will be able to reserve their stay on the island when the tribe is formed.

There will be no more than 100 on the island at any one time. The joining fee will cover food and accommodation on the island for their period of stay, pick-up from the local airport in Fiji, and access to the tribewanted.com community throughout their membership.

Vexillology

If you are interested in vexillology, you may want to check out the Web site of the Flag Institute.

Permanent Link to Making History

Here is a permanent link for listening to the edition of Making History featuring my question concerning the last heir to the English throne to die in battle. The answer given was (again) Edward, Duke of Westminster.

Football teams with unique suffixes

Tom Ward alerted me to these interesting questions, posted by Rurkah_Blurk at the Sunderland AFC Forum:

1. that have an individual 2nd name, e.g. 'Sheffield WEDNESDAY'?

2. that have individual home colours?

3. and name all cities that have 2 or more league clubs?

Answers at the same place.

BBC Radio 4's Making History will be addressing the question of the last heir to the throne to die in battle on Tuesday 20 June 2006. Afterwards you should be able to listen again over the Web site. In the programme Professor John Childs will be answering my question; he will be defending the answer that it is Edward of Westminster that was the last heir to the throne to die in battle.

Coronation Oath

I have taken from this Web page part of the coronation oath:

Archbishop. Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon, and of your Possessions and the other Territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs?

One might wonder why Pakistan is mentioned but not India, and why South Africa is mentioned but not Kenya.

Wikipedia, as usual, has the answer:

The former Commonwealth realms, and the intervals in which they were realms, are as follows:

• Ceylon now Sri Lanka ¹ - 1948 to 1972
• Fiji ² - 1970 to 1987 (military coup)
• Gambia ³ - 1965 to 1970 (referendum)
• Ghana ³ - 1957 to 1960 (referendum)
• Guyana ¹ - 1966 to 1970 (constitutional amendment)
• India ³ - 1947 to 1950 (constitutional amendment)
• Ireland ⁴ - 1931 to 1936/1949
• Kenya ³ - 1963 to 1964 (new constitution)
• Malawi ³ - 1964 to 1966 (new constitution)
• Malta ² - 1964 to 1974
• Mauritius ² - 1968 to 1992
• Nigeria ¹ - 1960 to 1963 (constitutional amendment)
• Pakistan ¹ - 1947 to 1956 (new constitution)
• Sierra Leone ³ - 1961 to 1971
• South Africa ² - 1931 to 1961 (referendum)
• Tanganyika now Tanzania ¹ - 1961 to 1962
• Trinidad and Tobago ³ - 1962 to 1976
• Uganda ¹ - 1962 to 1963 (constitutional amendment)

1. Presidency is executive post.
2. Presidency originally ceremonial, now executive.
3. Presidency is ceremonial post.
4. Monarch removed from constitution and office of Governor-General abolished in 1936, Presidency created in 1937 by constitution adopted by plebiscite, but monarch retained external role until republic declared in 1949 by ordinary legislation. See Irish head of state from 1936-1949.

So South Africa, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) all passed resolutions removing the Queen as Head of State. One might think that this made the Queen break her oath, but I take it that the clause 'according to their respective laws and customs' meant that she didn't.

For a list of all the sixteen current realms that recognize HM Queen Elizabeth II as Queen click here.

An enclave in England

My friend David Ward also informed me about an interesting enclave in Britain: Shipston-on-Stour is a town in the Stratford-on-Avon district of southern Warwickshire, England. It is close to the borders with Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Historically, Shipston was part of an enclave of Worcestershire, where it formed part of the Oswaldslow Hundred. In 1931 it was merged for official purposes into Warwickshire, and until 1974 was the centre of the Shipston-on-Stour Rural District.

It lies within the Diocese of Worcester.

For further discussion of enclaves look at `Tangled territories' and Rolf Palmberg's site and Jan Krogh's site.

Derby Line

My good friend David Ward of The Guardian reminded me of the bizarre town of Derby Line, which straddles the Canada-US border, with the demarcation going through the library and opera house. Here is a link -- with pictures.

Do you want to be a king?

A very interesting article in The Times for Saturday June 3rd 2006 detailed the vacancy regarding the title of 'King of Piel'. This title is given to the landlord of the Ship Inn, Piel Island, off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness. Here is the advert on Barrow-in-Furness Council's Web site. If you want to be a king that's where to apply.