RIP, Sanjulian 1941-2026

Salvete Omnes,

The family of Manuel Perez Clemente aka Sanjulian made an announcement that this great Spanish artist passed away today. 

@ Heritage  Auction

Pacem Aeternam, Maestro Sanjulian

Sanjulian at Heritage Auctions 

RIP

Valete 

Columbus Day, Conquest & return of Horses to the Americas

 Salvete Omnes,

today, as every  Monday close to October 12, we celebrate the national holiday known as Columbus Day to commemorate the day when the 12th of October but in 1492 the small Spanish armada, of three ships, commanded by the royal admiral Colon (Columbus) having crossed the Atlantic landed their boats in the Bahama Islands. 

Technically or more precisely, the horses arrived in the Americas a year later, during the second voyage of Columbus, in December 1493. 

Long live the Spanish horses of the Americas  and all other American horses that came after 1493.

For the indigenous peoples of the Americas the Age of Conquista (Conquest) has begun an continues to this day.. with the African and Eurasian diseases, alcoholism, death, destruction and loss of culture, language and identity. One could say that they received horses, Christianity, Western civilisational Progress,  and the final end to their cannibalism - all in return for their Americas.

Like the cowering woman before Columbus  in the sculpture below

.

Valete

Beautiful kilij sabre from Swedish Collections

 Salvete Omnes,

Perusing the Swedish Museums collections on  Wiki Commons I came across some fine photos of one of the most splendidly appointed sabres from the 17th century Ottoman & Transylvanian/Hungarian milieu.

This kilij (Ottoman) sword with its sheath was part of the large gift from Transylvanian prince Gabor Bethlen, arch-enemy of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to Gustavus Adolphus, his brother-in-law & king of Sweden. 

The museum's weapon researchers determined that the sword kilij-style blade was made by a sword-smith whom they called Hassan al-Misri. The hilt was finished much later, by some Ottoman or Hungarian jeweler/goldsmith. 

The sabre's gold covered, enameled hilt is also expansively  decorated with precious stones, the sabre's scabbard as well - in total  70 rubies and 31 turquoises.

.

Valete

Death of Tecumseh, war chief of the Shawnee and Indian Nations of the North Oct 5, 1813

 Salvete Omnes,

yesterday it was 213th anniversary of the battle of the Thames. The American forces, 3,000 strong, commanded by William Harrison and  col. Richard Mentor Johnson defeated the allied forces of Tecumseh's Indians (500 strong) and general Henry Procter's British troops (450 regualrs). 

Tecumseh,  Panther in the Sky, led the remainders of his once promising Confederacy of the Nations of the North (Harrison defeated the allied native army, when Tecumseh was in the South,  in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811). They allied themselves with the British and hence that part of the war of 1812 was also known as the Tecumseh's war. 

The charge of one battalion of the Kentucky mounted riflemen under col. James Johnson, screening Remember River Raisin, broke the British contingent, with Procter running away and his troops taken almost all prisoners. 

The native warriors, taking advantage of the swamp and woodland, skillfully continued to resist the advancing Shemanese (Long Knives) under their chief sachem Tecumseh and lesser chiefs and principal warriors of Shawnee, leading from the front and by example.

Another  battalion of the Kentucky mounted rifles  under col. Richard M. Johnson advanced and Johnson charged his 'dragoon' cavalry, with about 20 mounted men in van, the Tecumseh's position, drawing the sagamore and his retinue (comitatus) to a hand to hand melee, with sabers, pistols, rifle buts,  tomahawks and knives etc. 

.

Johnson mortally wounded or killed sachem Tecumseh, but his command's attack was checked and repulsed by the Indian warriors, with Johnson wounded. Gen. Harrison ordered his 1000 strong infantry under Shelby  to attack the thin native warrior lines, and after a rather short firefight the confederate warrior bands, facing overwhelming numbers of their Shemanese enemies,  withdrew, taking the body of Tecumseh and some of other fallen warrior with them (the abandoned  fallen warriors' bodies were scalped and    mutilated in a true frontier fashion of the times ).  The Tecumseh's dream died there with him, albeit there were more battles between the former Tecumseh's confederates and the American forces in the Old Northwest.
John Sugden wrote a fine account of Tecumseh's heroic death titled -  Tecumseh's Last Stand (1985), followed by Tecumseh: A Life (1997).

Pacem aeternam to the great American heroes of that battle

Valete

On the eve of ending of Cecora campaign 1620AD

 Salvete Omnes, 

426 years ago, on the morning of October 6, 1620 Crown Grand Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski and his army completed their 8 night of fighting retreat (see this post for more detailed description).  The entire Crown army was confined to a wagenburg or large wagon train (6 rows of 100 wagons armed with hook guns & small cannon defended by 5,000 soldiers on foot, cavalry horses were led in front of the wagon-train). The troops, their  camp servants and horses marched, with wounded in the wagons, for more than 160 km (100 miles). They were about 10 km from the Dniester River, the border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 

They had been marching from the war camp at Cecora, on the Prut River in Moldavia. There, 17-19th of October they fought a pitched battle against Iskander Pasha's army, berlerbey of Silistra, the Ottoman force composed mostly out of the Crimean Tatars and various other Tatar hordes under Khan Temir (Bloody Sword), and some Moldavian & Transylvanian Turkish vassals. 

On that morning of October 6, 1620 there was no clear sign that by midnight of that night 6-7th of October the whole army would be disintegrated and all order vanished and hope gone. 

Tyche of Fortuna, Goddess of Luck, can be very capricious.

Valete

Polish America - 1608-2026

 Salvete Omnes,

Marker - first Poles in Jamestown, Virginia

I am part of Polish-American diaspora - and yesterday we celebrated the arrival of first Polish settlers  in Virginia. 

Smith's History of Virginia 

It was captain John Smith who made our first Polish colonists' voyage possible from northern Poland to Jamestown Virginia. To their credit they did save the Virginia colony in return. 

Polish Jew and amazing artist Artur Szyk created this image for the New York World Exhibition in 1938. 

A Libre book - our Polish American Congress published  History of Poles landing in Jamestown - 350th anniversary publication. 
S. H. Uminski's book you can to borrow from the Archive - Polish pioneers in Virginia. 

Vivat

Valete