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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday and Happy Christmas Eve to those who are celebrating.

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Speaker 1: We got an email from listener Allison last month which

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Speaker 1: was a request for an episode on King WinCE's Last

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Speaker 1: who most people may know more from a song that

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Speaker 1: is sung as a Christmas carol than from the history

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Speaker 1: of the man who inspired that song. This episode on

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Speaker 1: him is from prior hosts Sarah and de Blina, and

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Speaker 1: they released it on December one, so enjoy. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello, Welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy

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Speaker 1: and I'm Deblina Chuck Recording, and this is our very

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Speaker 1: special annual holiday episode. And one suggestion that we always

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Speaker 1: get around Christmas time is to do something on the

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Speaker 1: history behind carols. And for most traditional carols, that would

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Speaker 1: probab you mean biblical history. I mean that's what most

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Speaker 1: carols are going to be about, either that or some

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Speaker 1: kind of aspect of the composition. You know, where the

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Speaker 1: tune came from, who added the lyrics, when did Elvis

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Speaker 1: cover the song, you know, all that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: But Dablina had another famous carol pop up in a

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Speaker 1: recent article, and she was kind enough to remind me

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Speaker 1: of it. I did. Sarah was searching for a Christmas

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Speaker 1: idea she loves to do every year, and I was

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Speaker 1: editing ten Christmas myths, and in the course of just

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Speaker 1: researching ideas for that good King once the sluss came up.

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Speaker 1: And it just so happens that that is your favorite

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Speaker 1: Christmas carol, Isn't that right? It's up there. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of a tradition that my dad and I have to

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Speaker 1: perform Good King Winces list. So when when you told

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Speaker 1: me about that, and when you told me, yeah, once

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Speaker 1: this list was a guy, I was hooked. I had

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Speaker 1: to find out more about this. And just to give

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Speaker 1: you guys a little background on the carol if you're

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Speaker 1: not familiar with it already. I kind of like it

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Speaker 1: because it is sentimental. I mean, after all, the good

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Speaker 1: King is taking it upon himself to bring a poor

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Speaker 1: man flesh and wine and some pine logs, all in

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Speaker 1: the middle of this snow storm, and all with the

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Speaker 1: help of his trusty page. But it's never modeling either,

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Speaker 1: because it has this really clippy sort of tune. Christmas

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Speaker 1: songs can can get they can can cross over into

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Speaker 1: that territory pretty easily, but this one always is stirring. Almost.

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Speaker 1: Some of the lyrics are entertaining to me. Um, thither

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Speaker 1: is always one kind of gets me, making fuel into

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Speaker 1: three syllables, and then others are just comically dramatic. And

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the composition a little bit more.

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Speaker 1: But a great example of this is heat was in

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Speaker 1: the very sod which the saint had printed. What does

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Speaker 1: that mean? It means that once Sliss is walking in

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Speaker 1: the snow and melting it because he is so good. Um. Nevertheless, though,

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Speaker 1: while researching this episode, I found that a lot of

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Speaker 1: people had very intense reaction to to this Christmas carol.

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Speaker 1: You know. They said that it was deeply moving to them. Um,

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Speaker 1: it was something that made them tear up almost. And

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Speaker 1: I've always found it more of a fun carol. But

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Speaker 1: that reaction that people have come from it uh having

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Speaker 1: a strong message behind it, one of giving to others

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Speaker 1: who are less fortunate. Yeah, ye who now will bless

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Speaker 1: the poor? Shall yourselves find blessing exactly. You'd be mistaken, though,

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Speaker 1: if you thought that Wenceslass was someone cooked up for

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Speaker 1: a nice carol with a good moral, just an anonymous

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Speaker 1: king with an excess of pine lugs. As we said,

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Speaker 1: he was indeed a real person, but not exactly the

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Speaker 1: person that's represented in the song. He was a tenth

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Speaker 1: century Bohemian prince, one known for his generosity, but perhaps

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Speaker 1: more famous for his murderous can folk and not just

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Speaker 1: small spoiled a surprise for you, but also known for

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Speaker 1: his exhamation. And once I found out that too, I mean,

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Speaker 1: come on, that just makes it perfect for us. Exhumation.

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Speaker 1: Wences Listler was actually born Votslov in nine oh seven,

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Speaker 1: near Prague and what was at the time Bohemia. Today

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Speaker 1: it's the Czech Republic, and our first Carol myth busting

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Speaker 1: and Deblina already hinted at this. He was not a king. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he was a duke or a sovereign prince in the

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Speaker 1: House of Premisal. His grandfather, a prince named Butchervoy, had

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Speaker 1: established this house, which lasted more than five hundred years,

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Speaker 1: and had married a princess named Ludmila, and together this

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Speaker 1: couple converted to Christianity. They set up Prague's first Christian church,

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Speaker 1: and eventually butcher Boy was succeeded by his son, who

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Speaker 1: was once Alice's father and just to get into a

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Speaker 1: little interesting linguistic side note here. Um, butcher boy's life

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Speaker 1: is really really hazy. I mean, not much seems to

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Speaker 1: be known about him except that he started this house.

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Speaker 1: He converted to Christianity. Um, but it is known who

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Speaker 1: converted him, and it was a guy named Saint Methodius,

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Speaker 1: and a along with his brother Cyril. Methodius is called

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Speaker 1: the Apostle of the Slavs and helped invent the Slavic

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Speaker 1: alphabet that eventually became the thrill like alphabet. So I

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Speaker 1: knew you guys who like language things would be interested

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Speaker 1: in that. But back to on Selass's life, Ludmila ended

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Speaker 1: up having a really important role in that. In fact,

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Speaker 1: she raised him, focusing mainly on his education, which was

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Speaker 1: something that was uncommon for nobles at this time. Apparently

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Speaker 1: a lot we were just illiterate. Yeah, and she also

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Speaker 1: focused a lot on his religious instruction, so he grew

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Speaker 1: up a practicing Christian and this proved to be a

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Speaker 1: pretty big problem when on Selass's father died. And that's

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Speaker 1: because once Selass's mother, draw Amira the Arrogant was her nickname,

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Speaker 1: she proudly adhered to the pre Christian Southern Slavic religious beliefs,

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Speaker 1: and as regent was suddenly in a really awkward position

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Speaker 1: with her Christian mother in law. Either that or she

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Speaker 1: simply chose to align herself with the faction of government

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Speaker 1: that preferred the old beliefs and really wanted Ludmila's Christian

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Speaker 1: influence on the future sovereign to be brought to an end.

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Speaker 1: So ultimately, once the slass was removed from his grandmother's

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Speaker 1: care and Ludmila was strangled with her own veil at

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Speaker 1: a castle, likely on the orders of draw Amira. According

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Speaker 1: to Encyclopedia Britannica. She was also later canonized, which is

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Speaker 1: going to run in the family too. Um so yes,

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Speaker 1: a brutal and for when Selass's grandmother uh And then,

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Speaker 1: of course attempts were made to bring him he was

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Speaker 1: a teenager by this point back into the pre Christian

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Speaker 1: Slavic religious fold. That didn't really work, though, you know,

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Speaker 1: his grandmother had had raised him with these beliefs. He

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Speaker 1: was considered very pious. He was said to have taken

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Speaker 1: a vow of chastity, and he encouraged missionary work too.

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Speaker 1: In Bohemia, German missionaries to come in and and uh

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Speaker 1: convert his his fellow people. Um. He especially tried to

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Speaker 1: make his people enthusiastic about Christianity, building these beautiful churches,

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Speaker 1: kind of following in his grandparents footsteps there holding feasts.

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Speaker 1: He also decisively defeated his opponents in battle to become

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Speaker 1: the definitive ruler of Bohemia. I mean, there was no

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Speaker 1: question anymore who was who was the prince lesh duke

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Speaker 1: uh He He expanded the kingdom, and after that too

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Speaker 1: he banished his mother and reversed her policies of persecuting

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Speaker 1: Christians and really focused on education, something that ultimately contributed

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Speaker 1: to that good king sort of reputation he had. According

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Speaker 1: to an article by Steven Ott Finowski in Mental Floss,

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Speaker 1: he was also said to have been very kind to

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Speaker 1: children and to the poor, which is all good carol

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Speaker 1: material if you're thinking way far down the line. Despite

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Speaker 1: the religious tensions still existent in Bohemia, though it was

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Speaker 1: an alliance that ultimately brought an end to once Slass

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Speaker 1: reign in he chose to pretty much align himself as

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Speaker 1: a junior partner with the German King Henry the First,

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Speaker 1: the Fowler. From once a Slass's perspective, this was preferable

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Speaker 1: to war with Germany and an invasion, especially since Bohemia

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Speaker 1: was still able to maintain much of its independence. But

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Speaker 1: to Bohemian nobles this was just the last straw. So

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Speaker 1: a contingent encouraged on Selass's younger brother, Boloslav, who sees

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Speaker 1: the princeton for himself, and like much of the story,

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Speaker 1: the details of what happened next are kind of scanty.

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Speaker 1: In one version, once a Slass is invited by his

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Speaker 1: brother to a religious festival and Boloslav murders him on

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Speaker 1: the way to church. In another version, Bolislaf actually avoids

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Speaker 1: murdering once Aslass himself actually doing the deed, and instead

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Speaker 1: has once Alass murdered, but during mass by a henchman.

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Speaker 1: Either way, though one was murdered September, he was only

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Speaker 1: twenty two years old. And I think that's going to

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Speaker 1: be our carol myth bus Ding number two, because even

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Speaker 1: though the Carol doesn't really spell it out, it just

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Speaker 1: seems to hint that good King Wenceslas was an old

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Speaker 1: jolly man. My my Family's book of Christmas Carol's even

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Speaker 1: has an illustration of him, and he's clearly and an

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Speaker 1: elderly fellow with a large beard. Um. But yeah, he

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Speaker 1: was only twenty two, and after he was dead, Uh,

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Speaker 1: bols Love succeeded his brother and ultimately became known as

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Speaker 1: the cruel or the bad Um. Although he was actually

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Speaker 1: quite successful in his rule. He expanded Bohemia, added quite

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Speaker 1: a bit more territory, and in his thirty eight years

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Speaker 1: of power too, he did not reverse Wenceslus's Christian agenda either.

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Speaker 1: You know that it's sometimes set up as that sort

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Speaker 1: of story. It was his um pre Christian brother trying

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Speaker 1: to get back to the old ways. But uh, he

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Speaker 1: continued to allow missions. He didn't get into the sort

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Speaker 1: of religious persecution that had happened during his mother's regency. Um. Though,

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Speaker 1: it is interesting to note that the royal house that

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Speaker 1: had been started by by these two fellows grandfather was

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Speaker 1: particularly plagued by this sort of family strife. It lasted

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Speaker 1: until six, you know, remarkable five hundred years I think

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Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, Um, But both loves grandsons murdered each other,

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Speaker 1: and other family feuds and murders stretched into the eleventh century,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of the trouble came from there not

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Speaker 1: being a strict line of succession, you know, Sometimes it

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Speaker 1: would just be whoever in the family was oldest, and

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Speaker 1: that might be a younger brother. Sometimes it would be

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Speaker 1: the the duke slash prince's eldest son, all kinds of

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Speaker 1: messy business. So fratricide is rarely a good pr move.

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Speaker 1: And for bulis Law, despite his political successes that Sarah

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Speaker 1: just mentioned, it meant that he was faced with a

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Speaker 1: growing cult around his dead brother. So reports of miracles

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Speaker 1: near once Islas's grave started trickling in almost immediately, and

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Speaker 1: unfortunately weren't We weren't able to find examples of those

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Speaker 1: exact miracles. I was trying to find specific examples of

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Speaker 1: what happened and what led to his stood, but I

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Speaker 1: couldn't find a single thing. I mean, I'm guessing we're

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Speaker 1: just going to have to imagine some of the standard

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Speaker 1: miracle miraculous sort of stuff forces here. But what we

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Speaker 1: do know is that Bolus Laugh ultimately had once a

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Speaker 1: Slus exhumed and reburied in the Church of St. Vitus

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Speaker 1: and Prague, which became a prime pilgrim's destination a few

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Speaker 1: hundred years later, and Bolos Laugh went down in history

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Speaker 1: as the cruel while murdered once Slus became a Czech

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Speaker 1: patron saint, and even today his feast day, which is

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Speaker 1: September twenty eight, the day that he was murdered, is

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Speaker 1: a national holiday, and his statue stands proudly in one

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Speaker 1: Slas Square in Prague. There's even a parody of the

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Speaker 1: famous statue that's really close to the original. It's by

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Speaker 1: David Sarney and it features once a Sluss riding on

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Speaker 1: an upside down dead horse. You'll see it a lot

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Speaker 1: on some of those strangest traveled destination lists, and if

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Speaker 1: some listeners hopefully will be able to post pictures, I

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Speaker 1: expect pictures from you guys. I'm sure folks have visited it,

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Speaker 1: all right, So whence this list check national hero? He's

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Speaker 1: a saint murdered duke. But how did the Christmas carol

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Speaker 1: end up happening? Uh? Finally, an English Anglican warden picked

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Speaker 1: up this story, I mean we're talking hundreds of years

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Speaker 1: later and decided that it would actually be a pretty

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Speaker 1: fitting reminder for teaching children about the importance of charity.

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Speaker 1: And we're talking about John Mason Neal. He was the

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Speaker 1: son of an Anglican clergyman, and he himself was destined

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Speaker 1: for the clergy and was ordained in eighteen forty two,

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Speaker 1: but he was in very poor health and couldn't actually

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Speaker 1: go to work in a parish, and so instead he

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Speaker 1: got a job as the warden of Sackville College. And

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Speaker 1: you know that sounds like an educational institute, but it

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Speaker 1: was actually an almshouse, and he took his job pretty

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Speaker 1: seriously there. His early career, though, is very shadowed by

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Speaker 1: suspicions that he was a crypto Catholic. He was. He

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Speaker 1: was not popular among fellow Anglicans. Otfanowski, who I noted earlier,

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Speaker 1: said that he was at one point even attacked by

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Speaker 1: a mob, and uh received threats against his home and

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Speaker 1: his life. But he did develop a pretty solid reputation

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Speaker 1: as a historian and a novelist and a translator of

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Speaker 1: ancient and medieval works. And my absolute favorite job description

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Speaker 1: of him comes from Oxford University Press, where they call

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Speaker 1: him a hymnologist. And fortunately for us, John Mason Neil

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Speaker 1: not only love to translate hymns, but he liked to

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Speaker 1: write them as well. Yeah, so, of course, good King once.

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Speaker 1: This last was part of Neil's canon of hymns and carols.

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Speaker 1: Specifically one meant for children, as Sarah kind Of indicated earlier.

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Speaker 1: According to BBC History Magazine, he took the tune from

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Speaker 1: a Scandinavia and song that he found in a medieval

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Speaker 1: book sent to him by a British ambassador in Stockholm.

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Speaker 1: And interestingly it's a springtime song tempest a dust Floridam.

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Speaker 1: And he chose the wenzelas story for the legends associated

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Speaker 1: with the saint and went with Wenceslaus instead of vas

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Speaker 1: Law for rhythm, which was a good choice, I think, yeah.

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Speaker 1: And he published it in eighteen fifty three and it

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Speaker 1: tops his fairly considerable list of Christmas hits, including Ocome,

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Speaker 1: Ocome Manual and Good Christian Men Rejoice. So, of course, though,

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Speaker 1: and this is something we couldn't go without mentioning, Good

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Speaker 1: King wences List isn't really a Christmas carol, so you know,

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Speaker 1: we've already said it's not about a king, but it's

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Speaker 1: not really a Christmas carol either. It's about St. Stephen's day,

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Speaker 1: and that's pretty evident from the first line. Good King

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Speaker 1: Wenceslass looked out on the Feast of Stephen and um

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Speaker 1: as Stephen. St Stephen was associated with Alms for the poor,

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Speaker 1: so too is St Stephen's Day. And according to Claire

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Speaker 1: Settith in Time magazine, December twenty six was when the

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Speaker 1: English poor traditionally received most charity. UM. So this is

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Speaker 1: another reason why it kind of makes sense for John

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Speaker 1: Mason Neil writing a song meant to encourage charity. UM.

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Speaker 1: But why this was why December twenty six was the

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Speaker 1: day um? Might be because Anglican churches would have a

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Speaker 1: collection box out during during all of Advent collect donations

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Speaker 1: for the poor this Boxing Day, or because the aristocracy

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Speaker 1: or employees would give out gifts or boxes to their

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Speaker 1: servants the day after Christmas, because of course their servants

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Speaker 1: might be working on Christmas Day. Boxing Day today is

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Speaker 1: still a national holiday in England and Wales and Canada.

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Speaker 1: In Ireland it's still called St Stephen's Day. Reminded me

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Speaker 1: a little bit of the Halloween episode I did with Kristen,

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Speaker 1: because I kept on finding all these different traditions people

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Speaker 1: have in various countries to celebrate this holiday. And in

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Speaker 1: Ireland they actually uh kids will attach a wren to

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Speaker 1: a pole and parade it through town to celebrate St

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Speaker 1: Stephen's Day. Apparently, though in England, and Canada. It hasn't

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Speaker 1: become so much a day of charitable giving as a

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Speaker 1: day of intense shopping, kind of like the Black Friday

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Speaker 1: day after Thanksgiving sales we have here in the States. Interesting,

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Speaker 1: so very cool to learn some of the history behind

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Speaker 1: one of the coolest carols out there. Yeah, did it

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Speaker 1: change your perspective on the carol at all? Have you

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Speaker 1: shared any of these details with your father? Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: haven't yet, but I'm sure that this will be a

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Speaker 1: story I will be relating over over our Christmas holidays.

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of stuck on the idea of you and

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Speaker 1: your dad performing this. I feel like we should have

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Speaker 1: invited your dad to the studio to hear a performance.

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Speaker 1: I bet he would do it. I'm not totally sure

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Speaker 1: i'd I'd perform Good King once with podcasts, but that

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Speaker 1: he'd be game. Um. Yeah, I'm thinking the biggest perception

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Speaker 1: change I'm going to have to make is Good King

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Speaker 1: wences list as a twenty two year old. Yeah, that's true,

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Speaker 1: I too pictured hard as an old guy. I know. Well,

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Speaker 1: I'll work on that. Thany so much for joining us

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Speaker 1: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive.

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Speaker 1: If you heard an email address or a Facebook U

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Speaker 1: r L or something similar over the course of the

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Speaker 1: show that could be obsolete now. Our current email address

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Speaker 1: is History podcast at i heart radio dot com. Our

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Speaker 1: old health stuff works email address no longer works, and

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Speaker 1: you can find us all over social media at missed

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Speaker 1: in History. And you can subscribe to our show on

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, the I heart Radio app, and

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Speaker 1: wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in

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Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. M h m hm