In Australia, they have to wrestle a marsupial. It's trial by wombat.
I'll get my coat.
I'll get my coat.
Today I learned...
- Thread starter Louanne Learning
- Start date
Believe it or not, an entire family was held hostage by a vicious wombat before. Here's the article: MORTAL WOMBAT!!! (The Register, an online IT newsletter, 8 June 2020).
And now to England.
The role of the King's Champion in England was held as a hereditary right by the Dymoke family, to whom it had been given by William the Conqueror. At the banquet that followed each coronation, it was the champion's task to challenge anyone present to contest the right of the new sovereign to wear the crown.It was unheard of for anyone to take up the challenge, but oddly, at William III and Mary's coronation in 1689, the Champion's gauge (gauntlet) was picked up by an old lady on crutches. Champion Dymoke assumed it was a hoax and refused to accept battle to the death against the wizened old crone. Strictly speaking, therefore, the two monarchs were successfully challenged and should have forfeited their crowns.
Following the coronation of Charles I in 1625, the champion suffered a mishap, possibly occasioned by too much drink. He rode into the great hall, bellowed his challenge, threw down his gauntlet ... and promptly fell off his horse.
At the coronation of King George III in 1760, the King's Champion rode the horse that George II had ridden at the battle of Dettingen in 1743. This didn't reflect well on either the late king or his mount, since the animal had a predilection for retreating rather than advancing, and insisted on entering the banqueting hall backwards.
(From "Royal Blunders", by Geoffrey Regan)
No, no. Don't leave. I think I love you.
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