Scrapbook item (Spoilers)

[justcarol67]

I (Carol) wrote:
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> > The [bubbles are] one of three potion ingredients, the others
being toothpicks (or twigs or hair) and the egg shells in the rubbish
room. When you have all three, the sketch of the supposedly
Elizabethan nearly Headless Nick will appear--though how someone who
died in 1492 could be Elizabethan is beyond my feeble comprehension.
> > 
> > Carol
> 
Annemehr responded: 
> Well, there is a bit of uncertainty about the date of his death,
since in PS/SS he mentions not having eaten in 400 years. That would
put his demise in about 1592; is that Elizabethan? I suppose I ought
to have looked it up, but it seems that you may already know (I'm
being lazy).


Carol again:
I posted about this on the main site and mentioned the death date
discrepancy there. Yes, 1592 is Elizabethan: Elizabeth I reigned from
1558 to 1603. Her grandfather, Henry Tudor (aka Henry VII even though
his claim to the throne was exceedingly shaky) was king in 1492 and is
noted for refusing to fund Columbus's expedition and for executing a
large number of Yorkist heirs whose claims were better than his. He'd
be a likely candidate for the person ordering Sir Nick's execution if
JKR hadn't come up with a different (and quite silly) story that's
posted on her website as something the editor (quite rightly) thought
should be cut. Anyway, she calls him "Elizabethan" on her website,
suggesting that 400 years (1592) is the date she originally had in
mind, but that would spoil the 500th deathday party in CoS, which
requires a death date of 1492. 

According to a poster at HPFGU, the new Canadian edition of PS removes
the discrepancy by having Sir Nick state that he hasn't eaten in *500*
years. Whether that's the Canadian editor's doing or JKR is slowly
cleaning up the minor Flints, I don't know. But she still has Nick
wearing an Elizabethan-style ruff, which hadn't been invented yet in
1492. (Oh, dear, Maths! Oh, dear! History!)

Carol