[HPforGrownups] Re: Titled characters (aka Sir Nick)

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 86146

Jadeau xxx

> So? It doesn't mean there aren't any. I mean, write that story in a muggle
world, set in a muggle boarding school and with the muggle government. In
the government there are no lords - also there are none in the MOM.
Presumably Sir Nicholas was knighted by King Ethelred or whoever was king at
the time in England when he was alive (sorry I can't remember) for doing
something muggleishy worthy, then they guessed he was a 'witch' (was
witch-burning aorund then? I thought it was Christian-burning) and cut his
head off? Or is this out of date thinking about it?
>
> Surely beheading people didn't start this early on? Hanging was popular I
suppose but as far as I know if the Saxons wanted you dead the would ...
wait hang on, sorry about that.
>
> You could be: stoned, beheaded, hung, burnt, drowned or have your neck
broken for being any of the following: a traitor, an outlaw, a witch, a
wizard or a theif.
>
> So if Nick was one of these and a Knight? So he did something good and
then some magic, or what? Please can someone enlighten me on the answer.
>
> >
K

Well for a start you've moved the poor guy nearly 500 years back in time!
1492 is Henry VII and 7 years after the end of the Wars of the Roses, not
anything to do with Saxons at all. We didn't really have large-scale witch
burning in this country anyway and I'm fairly certain that what there was
was confined to peasants not Knights of the realm. He could well have
received a knighthood for services to the crown in the Wars of the Roses or
maybe just for coming to the King's attention in some other way. Beheading
was the traditional punishment for anyone of any importance anyway so Sir
Nick would have likely been beheaded regardless of his 'crime'. Botched
beheading wasn't at all uncommon either btw. As a Knight he would most
likely have been beheaded for some kind of treason - but since treason can
be roughly translated as 'annoying the reigning monarch in some way' that
doesn't help much either.

K