I have been in a bad place. It was not because tools like Gerard Ryle and his ICIJ are playing a presented game to misinform the people, to set a stage of abuse and deception. It was because things suddenly sounded very familiar. This had happened before, it happened before in Europe. In famine and in a stage of utter poverty. Yes, it had happened before and as my mind was taking the road from the past, I suddenly realised that I missed something on TV. Among the sully of reality TV (which I happily avoid), the setting of filtered information and the change of settings to take what is not theirs to take, only because the people who had the option were too cowardly and the US has seen 5 cowardly administrations, but they are not alone. The EU is in precisely the same place.
So what did I miss? Well, when I was young (in the age of B&W TV) players like the BBC had educational programs. And then it hit me, what I had written about in the past and now I see a new TV series. A sort of mini-series in 6-8 parts. Not drama but as real as it gets, as historically accurate as possible, whilst still pleasing the people. It will not be for all, but it will be for a lot more than too many could contemplate.
Auvergne
France was a different place in those days and change was coming, it wasn’t coming in a carriage, not on horseback. It was nothing less than a Tsunami that would change the landscape in under 100 years. 4 generations would change everything and close to entire Europe. It was 1095 and from the 17th to the 27th of November a meeting was held. Yes we know about the Crusades that followed, but it is not about the Crusades, it is about the meeting the created the Crusades. There were a significant amount of players who heeded the call of Pope Urban II. And there is a need. I grew up with a misplaced feeling of pride being a Catholic. We stopped the barbarians in the holy land and for decades I grew up with that lie, a lot of us did. And it is time to give the people the real deal. The meeting had amongst others:
Joannes, Cardinal Bishop of Porto
Dagobert, Archbishop of Pisa
Richard, Cardinal Priest and Abbot of S. Victor in Marseille
Teuzo, Cardinal Priest of SS. Joannis et Pauli
Albertus, O.S.B., Cardinal Priest of Santa Sabina
Joannes Gattellus, the Pope’s Chancellor
Gregory Papiensis, deacon
Hugo of Verdun, deacon
Hugues de Die, Archbishop of Lyon and Papal Legate
Amatus, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Papal Legate
Rainaldus, Archbishop of Reims
Bernard de Sedirac, Archbishop of Toledo and Legate in Spain
Geoffrey of Vendôme, cardinal-priest of the titular church of Santa Prisca on the Aventine
Ivo, Bishop of Chartres
Joannes, Bishop of Orléans
Roger, Bishop of Beauvais
As well as:
Fulcher of Chartres (optional spin off). He is important as he wrote ‘Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium’ (1101-1127) giving us a real rundown of the first Crusades. The series should focus on a few people, not all. 2-3 per episodes with Fulcher of Chartres as a red line through all the episodes. With a part of every episode around Joannes Gattellus and Pope Urban II.
A real rundown of what happened there and there is plenty of documentation. It strikes a chord as we see the games some are trying to play on us. There might be enough of a reason to give the people the interactions and the consequences of the acts by Alexios I Komnenos requesting assistance to fight the Seljuk Turks we should, but it is not essential.
And consider the setting, when was the last time we had the option to see a real history lesson on TV? Is that not weird?
Anyway, the BBC used to be a real power player there and I reckon that new players could pick this up. And when you consider that the Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium has not been published since 1913 makes one wonder why not. There is no conspiracy theory here, just the idea that one of the best and likely most accurate writings of the Crusades was taken from the publication shelf is a little weird, almost offensively so.
So whilst this is merely an idea consider to reject it, yet it came as I realised that I was lied to in primary school and secondary school, I and many others were educated with a false set of stories, in this, does the entire Pandora Paper situation start making sense? It has been done before and I am not stating that the documents are false, but the players have a different game in mind and the ICIJ and its connected journalists were all too eager to adhere to that play and claim some digital click bitch money in the surplus. And their game is not finished yet.

So consider the setting of Pope Urban II and a war that lasted for almost 2 centuries and took the life of 1,000,000 people and this was the lowest estimate. Yes, I agree in those days killing 1,000,000 people would solve poverty and famine. In a world that had roughly 325,000,000 million people at that stage. When we see a death count that high would it not make sense to take a long hard historic look at how we got there? There is a second voice in my mind to have two narrators, one with the story, one who give the dissenting views at the time (like the Gesta Francorum, an anonymous piece written in 1100-1101) and there are a few more, those views should not be ignored. But it is merely an idea, and it feels good to feed the creative side in me.