Chivalry

Chivalry (pronounced shiv-uhl-ree)

(1) The sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms; the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honour, justice and a readiness to help the weak.

(2) The rules and customs of medieval knighthood; Courtesy, respect and honourable conduct between opponents in wartime (often as a historical re-construction).

(3) The medieval system or institution of knighthood.

(4) Cavalry; horsemen armed for battle (historic use only).

(5) Collectively, knights, gallant warriors or gentlemen, fair ladies and noble chivalry (archaic).

(6) The ethical code(s) of the knight prevalent in Medieval Europe, having such primary virtues as mercy towards the poor and oppressed, humility, honour, sacrifice, fear of God, faithfulness, courage and courtesy to ladies.

(7) Courteous behaviour, especially of men towards women.

(8) In historic English law, a tenure of land granted by virtue of knightly service.

Circa 1300: From the Middle English chivalrie and the eleventh century Old French chevalerie (knighthood, chivalry, nobility, cavalry).  The early form was chevaler (knight) from the Medieval Latin caballarius (horseman), from the Latin caballus (nag, pack-horse).  The Medieval Latin caballaria (knighthood, status or fief of a knight) was the most familiar form by the twelfth century, the term chevaler long in use to describe "a knight or horseman".  The meaning (related to cavalier) "the nobility as one of the estates of the realm", dates from the fourteenth century whereas the more modern use "social and moral code of medieval feudalism" appears to be an eighteenth century historical revival.  Chivalry is a noun and chivalrous is an adjective; the noun plural is chivalries.

The Song of Roland

In Medieval Europe, there never was one universal code of chivalry.  The code was a moral construct which several authorities reduced to writing and, despite this disparate history, the concept was well understood in medieval times.  Although only parts of the codes were concerned with warfare, the texts formed the basis of the early rules of war and from here, can be traced the origins of much international law.  The epic-length poem The Song of Roland (written between 1098-1100) is a recount of the eighth century "Knights of the Dark Ages" and the wars fought by Charlemagne; it's essentially Charlemagne's Code of Chivalry but it is a literary work, a tale of betrayal and a normative text of what ought to be rather than a historical document of chivalrous warfare.  In summary, Charlemagne’s code can be reduced to:

To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the liege lord in valor and faith
To protect the weak and defenseless
To give succor to widows and orphans
To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
To live by honour and for glory
To despise pecuniary reward
To fight for the welfare of all
To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honour of fellow knights
To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
To respect the honour of women
Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
Never to turn the back upon a foe

The Duke of Burgundy’s Code

In the fourteenth century, the Duke of Burgundy reduced Charlemagne’s code to a list (printed on pigskin), which knights could carry in their Bibles: Faith, Charity, Justice, Sagacity, Prudence, Temperance, Resolution, Truth, Liberality, Diligence, Hope & Valor.  One can credit the Duke of Burgundy with the invention of the credo card.

The High Court of Chivalry

Lindsay Lohan usurping the escutcheon of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (digitally altered image).

In London, in December 1954, the High Court of Chivalry was summoned for the first time in two centuries to hear the case of a city council claiming their coat of arms had been usurped by a private company displaying it on their theatre.  Before substantive matters were introduced, the judge had to rule whether the ancient court still existed and if so, if it was the appropriate body to hear the case.  The judge found the court extant and with valid jurisdiction, his reasons a succinct sketch of the UK’s unwritten constitution in operation and a tale of how law and language interacted over several centuries.  The important principle established was to confirm, even in the modern era, there existed an enforceable law of arms and the law takes as much notice of bad heraldic manners as it does of more violent discourtesies, the judge disapproving of the “prevalent” notion that something cannot be unethical if it’s lawful.  That theme has of late been noted by royal commissioners though perhaps not politicians; in the judgement, the temptation to comment on whether chivalry was dead was resisted.

In Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd [1955] 1 All ER 387, the Manchester Corporation was successful and the court has not since sat but in 2012,  the council of the Welsh town of Aberystwyth issued a statement that they were prepared to lodge a writ against a Facebook page they alleged was usurping its coat of arms.  Before the council made clear whether they were intending to sue facebook.com or the author(s) of the page, the offending image had been removed.  As one of the findings in 1955 had been the High Court of Chivalry could be abolished only by an act of parliament, because New Labour’s judicial reforms didn’t do this, it appears the court would have to be convened in some form to hear similar matters although it's thought the marvellously flexible British constitution would allow a judge at an appropriate level to declare that their court was "sitting as the Court of Chivalry for the purposes of this case".

Usurp

Usurp (pronounced yoo-surp or you-zurp (US))

(1) Forcibly or illegally to seize and hold a throne, an office, institution or position. 

(2) To use without authority or right; wrongfully to employ.

(3) To encroach or infringe upon another’s rights.

(4) To make use of quotations (obsolete except for historic reference).

1275–1325: Middle English, borrowed from the Old French usurper from the Latin ūsūrpāre (to take possession through use), the Latin origin of which is undocumented but thought to be a construct of ūsus (use) + rapere (to seize).  There forms such as nonusurping, unusurped, unusurping, usurpingly and nonusurpingly exist but are so rare as to be practically extinct.  The seemingly strange but inventive strange verb selfusurp (or self-usurp) seems to have picked up the modern meaning that it applies to things happening between one and one’s digital avatar.  Usurp is a verb, usurper & usurpation are nouns, usurpative & usurpatory are adjectives,  usurpatively is an adverb, usurped is a verb and usurping is a noun & verb; the noun plural forms usurpers & usurpations are both in use in historic documents and are sometimes used of those involved in a modern coup d'état.

Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd [1955] 1 All ER 387

Lindsay Lohan usurping the escutcheon of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (digitally altered image).

In London, in December 1954, the High Court of Chivalry was summoned for the first time in two centuries to hear the case of a city council claiming their coat of arms had been usurped by a private company displaying it on their theatre.  Before substantive matters were introduced, the judge had to rule whether the ancient court still existed and if so, if it was the appropriate body to hear the case.  The judge found the court extant and with valid jurisdiction, his reasons a succinct sketch of the UK’s unwritten constitution in operation and a tale of how law and language interacted over several centuries.  The important principle established was to confirm, even in the modern era, there existed an enforceable law of arms and the law takes as much notice of bad heraldic manners as it does of more violent discourtesies, the judge disapproving of the “prevalent” notion that something cannot be unethical if it’s lawful.  That theme has of late been noted by royal commissioners though perhaps not politicians; in the judgement, the temptation to comment on whether chivalry was dead was resisted.

The Manchester Corporation won and the court has not since sat but in 2012,  the council of the Welsh town of Aberystwyth issued a statement that they were prepared to lodge a writ against a Facebook page they alleged was usurping its coat of arms.  Before the council made clear whether they were intending to sue facebook.com or the author(s) of the page, the offending image had been removed.  As one of the findings in 1955 had been the High Court of Chivalry could be abolished only by an act of parliament, because New Labour’s judicial reforms didn’t do this, it appears the court would have to be convened in some form to hear similar matters although it's thought the marvellously flexible British constitution would allow a judge at an appropriate level to declare that their court was "sitting as the Court of Chivalry for the purposes of this case".

Freemason

Freemason (pronounced free-mey-suh n)

(1) A member of a secret society (Free and Accepted Masons, constituted in London in 1717), present in many countries which operates in a cult-like manner (initial upper case and often used in the clipped form “Mason”).

(2) Historically, one of a class of skilled stoneworkers of the medieval period (lasting into the early modern era), possessing passwords and both public & secret signs, used as devices by which they could identify one another.

(3) A member of a society composed of such workers, which also included honorary members (accepted masons) not connected with stone work.

1350-1400: From the Middle English fremason.  Free was from the Middle English free, fre & freo, from the Old English frēo (free), from the Proto-West Germanic frī, from the Proto-Germanic frijaz (beloved, not in bondage), from the primitive Indo-European priHós (dear, beloved), from preyH- (to love, please); it was related to the English friend.  The verb was from the Middle English freen & freoȝen, from the Old English frēon & frēoġan (to free; make free), from the Proto-West Germanic frijōn, from the Proto-Germanic frijōną, from the primitive Indo-European preyH-.  Mason was from the Middle English masoun & machun, from the Anglo-Norman machun & masson or the Old French maçon, from the Late Latin maciō (carpenter, bricklayer), from the Frankish makjō (maker, builder), a derivative of the Frankish makōn (to work, build, make), from the primitive Indo-European mag- (to knead, mix, make), conflated with the Proto-West Germanic mattjō (cutter), from the primitive Indo-European metn- & met- (to cut).  The “mason” element of the word is uncontested.  A mason was a bricklayer (1) one whose trade was the handling, and formation of structures in stone or brick or (2) one who prepares stone for building purposes.  It later (3) became the standard short-form for a member of the fraternity of Freemasons.  However, the origin of the “free” part is contested.  Some etymologists suggest it was a corruption of the French frère (brother), from frèremaçon (brother mason) while others believe it was a reference to the masons working on “free-standing” (ie large rocks they would cut shape into smaller pieces) stones.  Most however maintain it meant “free” in the sense of them being independent of the control of local guilds or lords.  The noun freemasonry was in use by the mid-fifteenth century.  Freemason, Freemasonism & freemasonry are nouns and freemasonic is an adjective; the noun plural is Freemasons.  Unfortunately, the adjective freemasonistic and the adverb freemasonistically appear not to exist.

The origin of the freemasons was in a travelling guild of masons who wandered England offering their services to those needing stonework.  Operating in opposition to the established guilds, the freemasons (ie free from the dictates of the guilds) had a closed system of passwords, symbols and secret signs (the origin of the famously mysterious Masonic handshake) so safely they could identify each-other and ensure intruders (presumably agents of the guild) couldn’t infiltrate their midst.  In the early seventeenth century, they began accepting as honorary members even those who were not stonemasons and by the early eighteenth century the structure had had developed into the secret fraternity of affiliated lodges known as Free and Accepted Masons (often as F&AM) and as an institution the F&AM were first registered in London in 1717.

Freemason T-shirts should not be confused with other "Free" campaign clothing. 

The “accepted” refers to persons admitted to the society but not belonging to the craft and in time this became the nature of the Freemason, long removed from the actual trade of stone-working.  As an institution, the Freemasons (especially by their enemies and detractors) are often spoken of as if something monolithic but the only truly common thread is the name although most do (at least officially) subscribe to a creed of “brotherly love, faith, and charity”.  Structurally, they’re nothing like the Roman Catholic Church with its headquarters and single figure of ultimate authority and are a looser affiliation even than the “worldwide Anglican community” where the spiritual “authority” of the Archbishop of Canterbury is now wholly symbolic.  The Freemasons are more schismatic still and can’t even be compared to the loosest of confederations because their basic organizational units, the lodges, operate with such autonomy that one might not be on speaking terms with one in the next suburb and each may even deny that the other is legitimately Masonic.

Despite that, the conspiracy theorists have often been interested in the Masons because they can be treated as if they are monolithic and it is true that as recently as the second half of the twentieth century there were many entities (notably police forces) where there was an unusual preponderance of Masons in prominent positions and in one force, for decades, by mutual consent, the position of commissioner alternated between a Roman Catholic and a Freemason.  In Europe, it wasn’t uncommon for the Masons to be grouped with the Jews as the source of all that was corrupt in society and some satirists made a troupe of “the Freemasons and the Jews” being at the bottom of every evil scheme, cooked up either at lodge or synagogue.  One who needed no convincing was Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) who perceived a  Masonic plot be behind the overthrow of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) in 1943.

Reinhard Heydrich (second from left, back to camera) conducting a tour of the SS Freemasonry Museum, Berlin, 1935.

The Nazis enjoyed curiously diverse interactions with the Freemasons.  During his trial in Nuremberg in 1945-1946 Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) told the International Military Tribunal (IMT) that it was only an accident of history he was in the dock because in 1922 he was on his way “…to join the Freemasons when I was distracted by a toothy blonde.”  Had he joined the brotherhood he claimed, he’d never have been able to join the Nazi Party because it proscribed Freemasonry.  During the same proceedings, Hjalmar Schacht (1877–1970; President of the German Central Bank (Reichsbank) 1933–1939 and Nazi Minister of Economics 1934–1937) said that even while serving the Third Reich he never deviated from his belief in the principles of “international Freemasonry”.  Upon coming to power, the Nazis certainly took that proscription seriously but the suppression of Freemasonry was not unique, the party looking to stamp out all institutions which could be an alternative source of people’s allegiances or sources of ideas.  This included youth organizations, trade unions and other associations, their attitude something like that of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the Falun Gong and the two authoritarian parties were similarly pragmatic in dealing with the mainstream churches which were regulated and controlled, it being realized their support was such that eradication would have to wait.  By 1935, the Nazis considered the “Freemason problem” solved and the SS even created a “Freemason Museum” on Berlin’s Prinz-Albrecht-Palais (conveniently close to Gestapo headquarters) to exhibit the relics of the “vanished cult”.  SS-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant-General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) originally included the Freemasons on his list of archenemies of National Socialism which, like Bolshevism, he considered an internationalist, anti-fascist Zweckorganisation (expedient organization) of Jewry.  According to Heydrich, Masonic lodges were under Jewish control and while appearing to organize social life “…in a seemingly harmless way, were actually instrumentalizing people for the purposes of Jewry”.

One institution which has for almost three centuries proscribed Freemasonry is the Roman Catholic Church although that official position has run in parallel with a notable Catholic membership in many lodges.  The ban was both explicit and often expressed up until the pontificate of Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) but after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II; 1962-1965), the winds of change seemed to blow in other directions and in recent years from Rome, there’s been barely a mention of Freemasonry, the feeling probably that issues like secularism, abortion, homosexuality, radical Islam and such were thought more immediate threats.  It was thus a surprise to many when on 13 November 2023 the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (the DDF, the latest name for the Inquisition) reaffirmed the Church's teachings that laity or clerics participating in Freemasonry are in "a state of grave sin."  The DDF didn’t repeat the words of Clement XII (1652–1740; pope 1730-1740) who in 1738 called Masonry “depraved and perverted” but did say: “On the doctrinal level, it should be remembered that active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry", citing Declaration on Masonic Associations (1983) by Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was head of the DDF (then called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)).  Continuing in a way which recalled the ways of the Inquisition, ominously the DDF added: “Therefore, those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges and have embraced Masonic principles fall under the provisions in the above-mentioned Declaration. These measures also apply to any clerics enrolled in Freemasonry.”

Apparently, the DDF issued the document in response to concerns raised by a bishop in the Philippines who reported a growing interest in the secret society in his country.  That was interesting in that cultural anthropologists have noted the form of Catholic worship in the Philippines was in some ways a hybrid which merged the Western tradition with the local rituals the Spanish priests who accompanied the colonists found were hard to suppress.  It proved a happy compromise and the faith flourished but one of the Vatican’s objections to Freemasonry has long been that the society swears oaths of secrecy, fellowship and fraternity among members and has accumulated a vast catalogue of rituals, ceremonial attire and secret signals.  It has always made the church uneasy that these aesthetic affectations often use Christian imagery despite being used for non-Christian rituals.  Indeed, it’s not a requirement of membership that one be a Christian or even to affirm a belief in the God of Christianity or Jesus Christ as the savior or mankind and the secret nature of so much Masonic ritualism has given rise to the suspicion of the worship of false idols.  Of relevance too is the existence of the complex hierarchy of titles within Masonism which could be interpreted as a kind or parallel priesthood.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) is fighting a war which he hopes will set the course of the church for the next generation.  Before it could commence in anger he had to wait for the death of Benedict but the battle is now on and it’s against a cabal of recalcitrant cardinals and theologians (“the finest minds of the thirteenth century” he’s rumored to call them) who are appalled at any deviation from established orthodoxy in doctrine, ritual or form, regarding such (at least between themselves), as heresy.  Quite where the DDF’s re-statement of the 300 year old policy of prohibition of Freemasonry fits into that internecine squabble isn’t clear and it may be the interest aroused surprised even the DDF which may simply have been issuing a routine authoritative clarification in response to a bishop’s request.  Certainly nothing appears to have changed in terms of the consequences and the interpretation by some that the revisions to canon law made some years were in some way substantive in this matter appear to have been wrong.

Escutcheons of the Holy See (left) and the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (right).

Interestingly, the DDF (nor any other iteration of the Inquisition) has never moved to proscribe the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (The Golden Keys; the international association of hotel concierges.  This is despite the organization being structurally remarkably similar to the Freemasons and the similarities between their escutcheon and that of the Holy See are quite striking.  According to the DDF, the crossed keys are a symbol of the Papacy's authority and power, the keys representing the "keys of heaven" that were in the New Testament passed from Jesus Christ to Saint Peter.  In Roman Catholic tradition, Peter was appointed by Jesus as the first Pope and given the keys to symbolize his authority to forgive sins and to make decisions binding on behalf of the Church (this the theological basis of what in canon law was codified in the nineteenth century as papal infallibility).  The two keys thus symbolize the pope's two powers: (1) spiritual power (represented by the silver key) and (2) temporal power (represented by the gold key).  The latter power manifested in a most temporal manner during the thousand-odd years (between the eighth & nineteenth centuries) when the authority of the papal absolute theocracy extended to rule and govern the Papal States (which were interpolated into the modern state of Italy upon Italian unification (1859-1870).  Claiming (officially) only temporal dominion, the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d'Or logo depicts both their keys in gold, one said to symbolize the concierge's role in unlocking the doors to the world for their guests, the other their ability to unlock the secrets of their destination and provide insider knowledge and recommendations (restaurant bookings, airport transfers, personal service workers of all types etc).  However, neither the Vatican nor the Les Clefs d’Or have ever denied intelligence-sharing, covert operations, common rituals or other links.

In an indication they'll stop at nothing, the Freemasons have even stalked Lindsay Lohan.  In 2011, Ms Lohan was granted a two-year restraining order against alleged stalker David Cocordan, the order issued some days after she filed complaint with police who, after investigation by their Threat Management Department, advised the court Mr Cocordan (who at the time had been using at least five aliases) “suffered from schizophrenia”, was “off his medication” and had a "significant psychiatric history of acting on his delusional beliefs.”  That was worrying enough but Ms Lohan may have revealed her real concerns in an earlier post on twitter in which she included a picture of David Cocordan, claiming he was "the freemason stalker that has been threatening to kill me- while he is TRESPASSING!"  Being stalked by a schizophrenic is bad enough but the thought of being hunted by a schizophrenic Freemason is truly frightening.  Apparently an unexplored matter in the annals of psychiatry, it seems the question of just how schizophrenia might particularly manifest in Freemasons awaits research so there may be a PhD there for someone.

The problem Ms Lohan identified has long been known.  In the US, between 1828-1838 there was an Anti-Mason political party which is remembered now as one of the first of the “third parties” which over the decades have often briefly flourished before either fading away or being absorbed into one side or the other of what has for centuries tended towards two-party stability.  Its initial strength was that it was obsessively a single-issue party which enabled it rapidly to gather support but that proved ultimately it’s weakness because it never adequately developed the broader policy platform which would have attracted a wider membership.  The party was formed in reaction to the disappearance (and presumed murder) of a former Mason who had turned dissident and become a most acerbic critic and the suspicion arose that the Masonic establishment had arranged his killing to silence his voice.  They attracted much support, including from many church leaders who had long been suspicious of Freemasonry and were not convinced the organization was anything but anti-Christian.  Because the Masons were secretive and conducted their meetings in private, their opponents tended to invent stories about the rituals and ceremonies (stuff with goats often mentioned) and the myths grew.  The myths were clearly enough to secure some electoral success and the Anti-Masons even ran William Wirt (1772-1834 and still the nation’s longest-serving attorney-general (1817-1829)) as their candidate in the 1832 presidential election where he won 7.8% of the popular vote and carried Vermont, a reasonable achievement for a third-party candidate.  Ultimately though, that proved the electoral high-water mark and most of its members thereafter were absorbed by the embryonic Whig Party.

Pale

Pale (pronounced peyl)

(1) Light-colored or lacking in color.

(2) Someone lacking their usual intensity of color due to fear, illness, stress etc.

(3) Not bright or brilliant; dim.

(4) Faint or feeble; lacking vigor (mostly archaic).

(5) To seem less important, significant, remarkable etc, especially when compared with something or someone else.

(6) A stake or picket, as of a fence.

(7) An enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure; a district or region within designated bounds; to encircle or encompass.

(8) Limits; bounds (now rare except if used figuratively in the phrase “beyond the pale”).

(9) In heraldry, an ordinary (band) in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the centre of an escutcheon.

(10) In shipbuilding, a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.

(11) In some of the dialectical English spoken in southern Africa, a euphemism for white.

1375-1400: From the Middle French Palle, from the twelfth century Old French paile & paleir (pale, light-colored (pâle in the Modern French)), from the Latin pallidus (pale, pallid, wan, colorless), from pallēre (be pale, grow pale) from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (pale) of which pallid is a doublet.  Pel was a significant root in many languages and productive, forming all or part of appall; falcon; fallow (in its adjectival sense), pallid, pallor, palomino, Peloponnesus, polio & poliomyelitis.  The linkages were many including the Sanskrit palitah (gray) & panduh (whitish, pale), the Greek pelios (livid, dark) & polios (gray (of hair, wolves, waves)), the Latin pallere (to be pale) & pallidus, the Old Church Slavonic plavu, the Lithuanian palvas (sallow), the Welsh llwyd (gray) and the Old English fealo & fealu (dull-colored, yellow, brown).  Pel also forms the root of words for "pigeon" in Greek (peleia), Latin (palumbes) and Old Prussian (poalis).

As an adjectival descriptor of color, it seems first, from the early fourteenth century to have been applied to human skin-tone and complexion to convey the sense of “whitish appearance, bloodless, pallid".  From the mid-fourteenth century it began to be used as a modifier to nuance the tones of colors in the sense of “lacking chromatic intensity, approaching white".  Late in the century, use was extended to non-human objects or substances (such as ales and other liquors) at which time it became also a frequent figurative form.  Paleface, is said to be a translation of a Native American word form noted in several dialects meaning "European"; attested from 1822 in American English, there are suggestions the tale may be apocryphal and a creation of the palefaces themselves.

The noun paling (stake, pole, stake for vines) was an early thirteenth century adoption of the circa 1200 Anglo Latin from the Old French pal and directly from the Latin palus (stake, prop, wooden post), source also of the Spanish and Italian palo, from the primitive Indo-European pakslo-, a suffixed form of the root pag- (to fasten) and a doublet of pole.  By the 1550s, the adjective form existed to refer to a fence made from palings, formed by connecting the pointed vertical stakes by horizontal rails above and below.

Romanian Vlad the Impaler postage stamp, 1976.

Paling is a word still used in fencing and impale is related.  In the 1520s, impale meant "to enclose with stakes, fence in", from the French empaler or directly from the Medieval Latin impalare (to push onto a stake).  The now better remembered sense "pierce with a pointed stake" (as torture or capital punishment) dates from circa 1610-1630.  In the popular imagination it’s associated especially with the Romanian Vlad the Impaler (Vlad III, circa 1430-circa 1477, thrice Voivode of Wallachia, 1448-Circa 1477).  One of his favorite methods of torture and execution (there’s often a bit of overlap in these matters) was said to be impalement but some of the more lurid tales of his cruelty may be from the imagination of the medieval mind though his rule is thought to have been severe.  Regardless, he remains a Romanian folk hero.

From the late fourteenth century paling came to refer to the constructed boundary as well as the components, understood generally to describe a "fence of pointed stakes", Paler as a surname meaning "fence-builder" being recorded from late twelfth century.  Another Middle English form of the word in the sense of "fence, paling, wall of an enclosure" sense, based on the plural, was the late fourteenth century pales or palis, the surname Paliser attested from early in the century.  Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) used the variant Palliser in his “parliamentary novels” (1864-1879) as the name for the repressed protagonist; Trollope took care with the selection of his character’s names.

Palisade (a fence of strong stakes), is attested from circa 1600 and was from the fifteenth century French palisade, from the Provençal palissada, from palissa (a stake or paling), from the Gallo-Roman palicea, from the Latin palus (stake) from the primitive Indo-European pakslo-.  The earlier Italian form was palisade, noted since the 1580s.  Palisades entered military jargon circa 1690 and described "close rows of strong pointed wooden stakes fixed in the ground as a defensive fortification", a use which remains a standard part of costal defenses against seaborn invasion.  The trap-rock precipices along the Hudson River opposite New York City were named The Palisades in 1823.  The word remains popular with property developers searching for a word with connotations of elevation and luxury.

Three images of a pale Lindsay Lohan.

In English, pale, pallid and wan imply an absence or faintness of color, especially when used to describe the human countenance.  Pale suggests a faintness or absence of color, which may be natural when applied to objects but when used to descript a human face usually means an unnatural and often temporary absence of color, as arising from sickness or sudden emotion.  Pallid, used almost exclusively to describe the human countenance, implies an excessive paleness induced by intense emotion, disease or death.  Wan implies a sickly paleness, usually as a consequence of illness.

The figurative sense of "limit, boundary, restriction" dates from circa 1400 and referenced the notion of "an enclosed space," hence "district or region within determined bounds" and later it meant "territory held by power of a nation or people".  The more modern idiomatic use, referring to the behavior of a person as “beyond the bounds of morality or social acceptability”, is not without critics but now so common it’s doubtless now the assumed meaning.  Using the phrase in the modern sense, in 2009, during one of their many squabbles, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson (b 1941) said of his Liverpool counterpart, Rafael Benitez (b 1960), "…he's beyond the pale”.  It’s said they’ve not since made up.

The English Pale in Medieval Ireland (1450).

Catherine the Great (Catherine II, 1729–1796; reigning empress of Russia 1762-1796) created the cherta (postaoyannoy yewreskoy) osedlosti (Pale of Settlement) in Russia in 1791. This was the name given to the western border region of the country (modern-day Belarus & Moldova and parts of the Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and western Russia) in which Jews were allowed to live, the motive being to restrict trade between Jews and native Russians.  In a process something like COVID-19 travel exemptions, some Jews were allowed, as a concession, to live “beyond the pale”.  Pales had been enforced in other European countries for similar political reasons.  During the late Medieval period, the Pale (An Pháil in the Irish), often described as the English Pale (An Pháil Shasanach or An Ghalltacht), was that part of Ireland administered directly the English government and the Pale of Calais was formed by the French as early as 1360.

The first printed instance of the phrase is in John Harington's (1560-1612) lyric poem The History of Polindor and Flostella (1657).  In the verse Ortheris withdraws with his beloved to a country lodge for “quiet, calm and ease” but later they’re tempted to wander:

"Both Dove-like roved forth beyond the pale to planted Myrtle-walk".

Clearly it was conveyed no good comes from venturing beyond the pale for soon the lovers are set upon by attacked by armed robbers with “many a dire killing thrust”.

Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred (pronounced thur-oh-bred, thur-uh-bred, thuhr-uh-bred)

(1) Of pure or unmixed breed, stock, or lineage, as a horse or other animal; bred from the purest and best blood; a pedigree animal; purebred.

(2) By analogy, a person having good breeding or education.

One of a breed of horses, to which all racehorses belong, originally developed in England by crossing three Arabian stallions with European mares (always initial upper case)

(3) By analogy, a machine built to exacting standards with mostly bespoke parts rather than something assembled from parts or components from other manufacturers.

1701: The construct wass thorough +‎ bred.  Through is traced to circa 1300, from Middle English thoruȝ & þoruȝ, an adjectival use of the Old English þuruh (from end to end, from side to side, a stressed variant of the adverb þurh), a byform of Old English þurh, from which English gained through.  The word developed a syllabic form in cases where the word was fully stressed: when it was used as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and less commonly when used as a preposition.  Bred is the past tense of breed.  Breed is from the Middle English breden, from the Old English brēdan (bring (young) to birth, procreate (also "cherish, keep warm), from the West Germanic brodjan (source also of the Old High German bruoten, & German brüten (to brood, hatch)) & the Proto-Germanic brōdijaną (to brood), from brod- (fetus, hatchling), from the primitive Indo-European bhreu (warm; to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn).  It was cognate with the Scots brede & breid, the Saterland Frisian briede, the West Frisian briede, the Dutch broeden, the German Low German bröden & the German brüten.  The etymological notion is incubation, warming to hatch.  The intransitive sense "come into being" is from circa 1200; that of "beget or bear offspring" from the mid-thirteenth century.  As applied to livestock, the meaning "procure by the mating of parents and rear for use" was standardised by the mid-fourteenth century.  The sense of "grow up, be reared" (in a family; clan etc.) is from the late 1300s, extended to mean "form by education" a few decades later.  Thoroughbreed (also as thorough-breed) is a now rarely used alternative form.  Thoroughbred & thoroughbredness are nouns; the noun plural is thoroughbreds.

Among the thoroughbreds:  Lindsay Lohan visiting Flemington Racecourse for the Spring Carnival, Melbourne, Australia, November 2019.  Melbourne Cup Day (left) and Derby Day (right).

The noun breed "race, lineage, stock from the same parentage" (originally of animals) dates from the 1550s, derived from the verb but wasn’t applied to people until the 1590s; the scientific use to define a “"kind or species" began to be used in the 1580s.  The noun half-breed (person of mixed race) is attested from 1760 and was used first as an adjective in 1762; now though offensive it appears to have been replaced by “mixed-race”  but even this is not recommend for use unless being applied self-referentially.  The verb cross-breed appeared in 1670, used in relation to dogs, livestock and plants and, surprisingly, appears not to have been a noun until 1774.  Underbred (of inferior breeding, vulgar) from the 1640s was an adjective which didn’t survive; it was applied to animals "not pure bred" after 1890.

Thoroughbred the adjective dates from 1701 in the sense of persons "thoroughly accomplished" and wasn’t used for horses until the concept was created in 1796; the noun is first recorded 1842 but it’s hard to believe if wasn’t earlier in use in the horse-racing business; the noun is first recorded in 1842.  Use to refer to racehorses soon became definitive and all other applications are now analogous.

Needs a trained eye.  Thoroughbred (Indy King by Mr Prospector out of Queena) on the left, Standardbred to the right.

Sometimes casually used to refer to any purebred horse, it’s correct to use the word only with the Thoroughbred breed.  If used with a lower-case "t", it technically may be applied to just about any object when appropriate but never with other horse breeds.  It can cause confusion or worse. 

The Thoroughbred was bred in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England when several dozen native mares were crossbred with three imported Oriental stallions, Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian; all Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to these three.  Between the 1730s and the late nineteenth-century, the breed spread throughout the world, first arriving in Australia in 1802.  Bred mainly for (gallop but not trotting or pacing) racing, they are also used for show jumping, combined training, dressage, polo, and fox hunting.  Thoroughbreds born in the Northern Hemisphere are officially considered a year older on the 1 January each year; those from the Southern Hemisphere having their birthday on 1 August.  These artificial dates enable the synchronization of northern and southern competitions for horses within their age groups.  Thoroughbreds are bred for speed, and depending on their intended career, for endurance over distances less than a mile (1600m) or as long as four (6400m).  They have a reputation for being highly-strung, sometimes deserved, sometimes not.

A horse cannot be registered as a Thoroughbred unless conceived by natural means; any form of artificial insemination is banned.  The industry maintains there are all sorts of reasons for this but it’s really a restraint of trade designed to limit supply and maintain high prices.  One charming second career for a Thoroughbred stallion which has proven too slow to race is that of a teaser.  A teaser’s job is to be placed close to a mare, usually behind a fence, to see if she’s in the mood to mate.  If she proves receptive, the teaser is led (unwillingly one supposes) away and replaced with a fast stallion.  Nature is then allowed to take its course.

The Maserati 5000 GT (Typo 103, 1959-1966)

1957 Maserati 450S.

It’s never taken much to induce advertising agencies to describe a car as a “thoroughbred”.  Some have been more convincing than others but few have been as deserving of the appellation as the Maserati 5000 GT (Typo 103).  With coachwork fabricated by eight different Italian coach-building houses, all of the thirty-four built used a slightly tamed 4.9 litre (300 cubic inch) variant of the 4.5 litre (273 cubic inch) V8 last seen in the Maserati 450S with which the factory’s racing team contested the World Sports Car Championship.  It really was end of the era stuff, a shift to unitary construction soon dooming most of the specialist coachbuilders while increasingly interventionist governments were in the throes of passing a myriad of laws which would outlaw barely disguised racing cars being used on the road.

1959 Maserati 5000 GT (Shah of Iran) by Touring.

In keeping with the pedigree of its illustrious engine, the 5000 GT enjoyed a blueblood connection in its very origin.  Before the Ayatollahs ran Iran, it was ruled by the Shah (king) and he got a lot more fun out of life than his clerical successors, noted especially as a connoisseur and of fast, exotic and expensive cars, his collection including multiple models from Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Maserati among others.  In 1958 he’d driven Maserati’s then popular 3500 GT but thought it lacking in power and, because hundreds a year were sold to the (rich) public, a bit common.  Accordingly, after receiving material advertising both the 3500 GT and the remaining 450S race cars the factory wished to dispose of after withdrawing from racing, the shah decided he wanted a combination of the two, the race engine in the road car.  To have it created, essentially he sent Maserati a blank cheque and asked them to call when it was ready.

1962 Maserati 5000 GT by Allemano.

It wasn’t as simple as it sounded for the 450S V8 was not some adaption from a production car but a genuine racing engine designed for use nowhere but the circuits and only in the hands of skilled racing drivers. Robust and powerful it certainly was but it was also raucous, inclined to roughness at low speeds and not all that well behaved except when at racing speed when it was more raucous still, if a little smoother.  Taming such a beast for the road was a challenge but, with the shah’s buckets of money and some Italian ingenuity, remarkably, a relatively quiet and tractable engine (compared with that of a race car) was concocted.  The bore-stroke relationship was changed, the camshaft profiles softened and the porting was altered, which, combined with a lower compression ratio, improved torque and delivered the still ferocious power over a more usable range.

1959 Maserati 5000 GT by Allemano.

Italian house Carrozzeria Touring designed one of their signature superleggera (their clever technique of lightweight construction) frames, onto which they attached a hand-made skin of aluminum to create a strikingly modernist two-seater coupé, its lines and interior appointments influenced by Persian Baroque architecture.  Delivered to the shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, 1919-1980) in 1959, it was almost a secret but when a second, commissioned by a South African customer,  was displayed at the 1959 Turin Motor show, it generated such interest that Maserati were soon fielding enquiries from rich commoners wanting what royalty had.  Priced stratospherically however, there weren’t enough rich folk on the planet to make it a viable option for their production lines so it entered the catalogue as a bespoke item, Maserati modifying the 3500 chassis which, frankly had been a bit over-taxed by the big V8 and tweaking the engine still further, slightly increasing the capacity but in a way that rendered it more docile, yet still a howler when stirred.  The chassis appeared in the list and buyers could choose their own coachbuilder and eventually eight produced their own interpretations, the most numerous being by Carrozzeria Allemano which, over the years, finished twenty-two, the Allemano cars thought also the most alluring.

1963 Maserati 5000 GT by Fura.

It was capable in some of the configurations in which it was supplied of 170mph (275 km/h), the fastest road car of its day, almost matching the 183 mph (295 km/h) achieved years earlier by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut” coupé, which was little more than a Formula One car with a bigger engine and number plates.  The 5000 GT was quite something and even if the early versions weren't exactly suited to urban use, they were never anything less than exciting.  All the 34 built still exist, most percolating between private collections, high-end auction houses and the odd appearance at an appropriately exclusive Concours d'Elegance.

The Gordon-Keeble GK-1 (1964-1967)

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

Although elegant and capable, the Gordon-Keeble was no thoroughbred.  Using a square-tube space-frame purchased as part of the assets of a bankrupt company, it was clothed not in hand-formed aluminum but with the much cheaper fibreglass.  Using various bits and pieces taken from the parts-bins of many manufacturers, it was powered by a 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) Chevrolet V8, essentially the same motor found in everything from Corvettes to pick-up trucks and while it may have lacked a pedigree, the purchase and the running costs were appreciably less than Maserati 5000 GT, one able to buy one for a fraction of the cost and, if the worst came to the worst, replace the engine and gearbox for less than the cost of an Italian cylinder head.

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

All but one of the one-hundred Gordon-Keeble GK-1s were built in England between 1964- 1967 by engineers once associated with the Peerless company, one of quite a few briefly to flourish during the 1950s producing low-volume runs of swoopy-looking fibreglass bodies atop custom frames, using a variety of power-plants.  It was a simpler time.  The genesis of the GK-1 was a request in 1959 from a US Air Force (USAF) pilot then stationed in England to fit a Peerless with a 283 cubic inch (4.6 litre) Chevrolet Corvette V8.  The concept, essentially the same as that Carol Shelby (1923-2012) famously and historically would pursue by mating the AC Ace with the Ford V8 to create the Cobra (1962-1967), so impressed the engineers they took a V8 Peerless to Carrozzeria Bertone in Turin, Italy where a steel body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro was built, appearing on Bertone’s stand at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show where it was well received.

1964 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

After long delays related to securing contractual relationships with external component suppliers, the show car was finished to a point close to the standard required for regular production and, after testing which convinced the engineers it was a commercially viable proposition, sent to Detroit as a proof-of-concept for General Motors to evaluate.  Suitably impressed, Chevrolet agreed to supply the Corvette engines and gearboxes for the first production run.  Visually, the GK-1 differed little from the prototype, but structurally and mechanically, there were changes.  Most obvious was the switch of the body construction from steel to fibreglass, the engineers’ preference for aluminum prohibitively expensive and the Corvette engine was the newer 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) unit introduced in 1962.  Mechanically, the GK1 was ready and reliable and, with its space-frame, De Dion rear axle, four wheel disk brakes, twin fuel tanks and a host of internal fittings hinting at a connection with aviation, the specification was tempting.  Released in 1964, the critical response was overwhelmingly positive (although nobody had a good word for the steering) and demand seemed initially strong.

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

However, the back-shed curse, which afflicting many small-scale British manufacturers in the era, struck.  Under-capitalized, the company was unable to successfully to link its cash flow with the demands of external suppliers upon which production depended and, whatever the engineering prowess available, the accounting skills required successfully to operate as a trading organization were lacking; a retail price under Stg£3,000 was unrealistically low and inadequate to support the actual cost of production and development.  By 1965, with ninety GK1s having been sold, the company was perilously close to insolvent and was sold but the new owners proved no more adept than the old.  After struggling to complete another nine cars (one more was added to the total in 1971, assembled the previous year from the residual spare parts when the factory was liquidated), operations finally closed, hopes of a US-based revival proving abortive.

Clan Gordon emblem.

One quirky footnote in the Gordon-Keeble story was the creature on the marque’s badge: a tortoise.  That may seem a curious choice for a vehicle designed for high-speed but the beast ended up on the badge because of a boardroom dispute.  Bertone’s prototype at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show had featured a badge with a stag's head, the emblem of the Scottish Clan Gordon to which belonged one of the founders of Gordon-Keeble.  Because the clan’s motto was Bydand (abiding or remaining) which, in modern parlance translates as something like “durable, immortal, steadfast & everlasting”, it was thought appropriate for the GK-1, which did live up to the motto better than most, some ninety-two of the one-hundred said either to be in running condition or undergoing restoration.

Gordon-Keeble corporate logo.

However, because of the long delays before production began, it was necessary to seek bridging finance and this brought the inevitable managerial disputes and as a result, Mr Gordon left, contractually obliged to allow the project to continue using his name but he withdrew the right to use the clan emblem.  With everything else going on, that wasn’t given much thought until late 1963 when, with a debut finally close, a photo-shoot was arranged so brochures and other promotional material could be prepared.  At just the moment the absence was noticed, a tortoise happened to be wandering in the garden chosen as the backdrop and the meandering Testudinidae, unaware of the minor role it was about to play in UK corporate history, was picked up and placed on the hood (bonnet), everyone amused at the juxtaposition of one of nature’s slowest creations adorning one of mankind’s fastest.  The tortoise was returned to the flower-beds and adopted as the emblem, appearing on the escutcheon of every Gordon-Keeble.