During lockdown, we’ve all had to find new ways to keep ourselves amused and entertained. I have to admit that the daily commute between bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and lounge started to lose its appeal after about three days though it’s a relief knowing I can leave the bar (in the lounge) without fear of encountering Mr Plod on my commute home having had a few (and that for some unknown reason has not lost its appeal – the having a few I mean).
Anyway, it was between one of these several times a day commutes, that my daughter told me of a series she’d been enjoying on Netflix, about the English monarchy. Given that Netflix (unlike normal television) gives an option to choose what you want to watch, I have to concede I was bewildered as to why she might have an interest in, of all things, the English monarchy, but each to their own.
So she told me a little about Henry the First, fourth son of William the Conqueror (who even I’d heard of) and of his life and times, neither of which I knew anything at all about though I did wonder how the fourth son became king instead of the first. I’m sure there’s a good reason why numbers one, two and three missed out on their successions – perhaps a bit like the current Prince of Wales, just not quite fit for purpose. Actually no, more to do with a hunting accident in which one brother was killed and then family squabbles and intrigue, but I digress.
Henry I died on 1 December 1135 in Saint-Denis-en-Lyons, Normandy, and therein lies another story about the history of England but has nothing to do with Henry I or the fish.
Wikipedia reports
“He fell ill – according to the chronicler ‘Henry of Huntingdon’, he ate too many (“a surfeit of”) lampreys against his physician’s advice – and his condition worsened over the course of a week.
If you watched Game of Thrones or are knowledgeable about royal eating habits, you may well be aware that lamprey is a “royal delicacy” still enjoyed today; however, in North America it’s very much a pest – albeit a pest with history beyond its years.
nzgeo.com reports
“Each year, the US and Canadian Governments spend between US$10 million and US$15 million on sea lamprey control, after the bloodsuckers took advantage of newly opened shipping canals in 1835 to infest the Great Lakes There, they stand accused of the extinction of at least three species of freshwater fish and the persecution of prized sports fish salmon, trout, walleye—and the threatened lake sturgeon.
By the turn of last century, lampreys had already purged Lake Champlain of its last salmon and lake trout.”
But now to the history part
“Look at a lamprey and you’re peering back at least 360 million years, into the farthest dimmists of the Devonian. (They may be older still, because lampreys were made then, as they still are today, mostly from cartilage, which fossilises poorly. Maybe we just haven’t found their remains.)”
“Lampreys once swam upstream past herds of drinking dinosaurs, and have prevailed over at least four mass extinctions.”
Fascinating.
Were it not for COVID-19, I certainly wouldn’t have known any of this. How about you?
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