Scilly Isles and Cornwall

[Boreades]

The Normans in Italy is the missing link in The Six Nations rugby.

England (Saxons need only apply)
France (Gaul/Normans etc)
Wales
Ireland
Scotland
and Italy

How else did they get into the competition?

[TisILeclerc]

The Scottish clans were defeated on many occasions but eventually by the Campbells, a highland clan, who all became lawyers and moved to Edinburgh where they made Macdonalds illegal. And let's face it once in court you are guilty.

The clans were merely an accumulation of people who swore allegiance to a chief who promised to protect them. It was voluntary unlike feudal England. Or as the Scottish kings realised, import Normans and impose feudalism and the rest is money and untold riches.

The highland clans at one time were on the side of the English but eventually they were outsmarted by Edinburgh.

More people once lived in the highlands than the rest of Scotland, so I once heard in a pub in Stornoway, or maybe Portree.

The clans were destroyed by their own clan chieftains who were living it up in Nice and other exotic places and wanted more rent from the tenants to pay their gambling debts.

That's how empires are destroyed.

[Mick Harper]

By the way, wasn't the universal clan system a myth?

The clan was later romanticised but I believe it to be real enough as an effective military sytem in areas too poor to support the more usual regional tribal unit.

As in, the Romans were a dab hand at playing one clan off against another?

The Romans played off tribal units against one another -- since they are large enough to have foreign relations, diplomacy and so forth. Clans tend to come together willy-nilly against foreigners.

And the same issue was the downfall of Scots resistance against the Sassanachs (from both Edinburgh and England)

The English (that is the London-English, not the English-speaking Scottish lowlanders) never really played off the clans, they simply supported the largest of them (the Campbells) and bludgeoned the rest. Or didn't bother.

[TisILeclerc]

The Campbells weren't large. Just crafty.

Twisted Mouth is what Campbell means. Not that I'm biased.

Cameron means Twisted Nose just to show there's no malice aforethought.

[Boreades]

You were doing fine up until..

The English (that is the London-English, not the English-speaking Scottish lowlanders) never really played off the clans, they simply supported the largest of them (the Campbells) and bludgeoned the rest. Or didn't bother.

The Campbells were never the largest, they were merely the clan that intrigued its way to the heart of Lowland Scots politics, and siding with the invaders.

I cannot offer an opinion on the suggestion that the name Campbells is derived from "Camp Bells" - so named for their reputation as being imitators of Gay English Morris dancing.

[Boreades]

Hey Tisi - snap! :-)

[TisILeclerc]

Don't knock Gay Morris Dancing. It's next on Milliband's proposal for the next parliament. Shhh don't ask how I know.

The Campbells were only fighting their neighbours but instead of sorting it out amongst themselves they went to the fuzz. And eventually to the Dutch in the shape of the Orange William.

Very canny the whole bunch of them. I believe Tony Blair of that ilk had a Campbell at his beck and call.

Before that I believe the Stuarts sailed around the north and got the highland clan chiefs and gave them a message.

The outcome was the same whoever delivered it.

[Mick Harper]

Largest, craftiest, cleverest, who gives a monkey. The English plus the Campbells were sufficient.

[TisILeclerc]

The Dutch, the Germans, and the English I think you mean

Along with a large smattering of Scottish lowlanders, and a smattering of Scottish highlanders.

Every clan sent one for the king, one for the Prince and one to stay at home.

They're not really stupid you know. Well, until they cleared the lands of their people they weren't.

[Boreades]

Aye, Campbell rhymes with Weasel for more than one reason.