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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hello, welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sarah Downy and I'm to blinea Chalk recording And this

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Speaker 1: was our very special annual holiday episode. And one suggestion

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Speaker 1: that we always get around Christmas time is to do

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Speaker 1: something on the history behind carols. And for most traditional carols,

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Speaker 1: that would probably mean biblical history. I mean, that's what

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: Elvis 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 slast 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 WinCE's 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 the snowstorm, and all with the help

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

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

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Speaker 1: can can get they can cross over into that territory

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: and then others are just comically dramatic. And we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about the composition a little bit more. But

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

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Speaker 1: very sod which the Saint had printed. What does that mean?

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Speaker 1: It means that once Sliss is walking in the snow

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Speaker 1: 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 reactions 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, you who now will bless

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

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Speaker 1: though if you thought that once the Loss was someone

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Speaker 1: cooked up for a nice carol with a good moral,

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Speaker 1: just an anonymous king with an excessive pine lugs. As

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Speaker 1: we said, he was indeed a real person, but not

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

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Speaker 1: a tenth century Bohemian prince, one known for his generosity,

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Speaker 1: but perhaps more famous for his murderous can folk and

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Speaker 1: not just smoil spoiled a surprise for you, but also

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

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

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Speaker 1: Exhumation WinCE with Blistler was actually born Votslov in nine

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

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

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Speaker 1: Busting and Deblina already hinted at this. He was not

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Speaker 1: a king. Instead, he was a duke or a sovereign

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Speaker 1: prince in the House of Premisal. His grandfather, a prince

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Speaker 1: named boche Boy, had established this house, which lasted more

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Speaker 1: than five hundred years, and had married a princess named Ludmila,

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Speaker 1: and together this couple convert it to Christianity. They set

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Speaker 1: up Frog's first Christian church, and eventually Butchervoy was succeeded

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Speaker 1: by his son, who was once's father. And just to

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Speaker 1: get into a little interesting linguistic side note here, um,

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Speaker 1: butcher Voy's life is really really hazy. I mean, not

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Speaker 1: much seems to be known about him, except that he

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Speaker 1: started this house he converted to Christianity. Um. But it

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Speaker 1: is known who converted him, and it was a guy

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Speaker 1: named Saint Methodius, and along with his brother Cyril, Methodius

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Speaker 1: is called the Apostle of the Slavs and helped invent

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Speaker 1: the Slavic alphabet that eventually became the Thrillic alphabet. So

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

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Speaker 1: interested in the But back to Onceslaus'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 once Slass's father died. And that's

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Speaker 1: because once the Slas's mother, draw Amira the Arrogance was

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Speaker 1: her nickname, she proudly adhered to the pre Christian Southern

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Speaker 1: Slavic religious beliefs, and as regent was suddenly in a

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Speaker 1: really awkward position with her Christian mother in law. Either

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Speaker 1: that or she simply chose to align herself with the

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Speaker 1: faction of government that preferred the old beliefs and really

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Speaker 1: wanted Ludmila's Christian influence on the future sovereign to be

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Speaker 1: brought to an end. So ultimately, one Slass was removed

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Speaker 1: from his grandmother's care and Ludmila was strangled with her

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Speaker 1: own veil at a castle, likely on the orders of Drawmira.

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

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

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Speaker 1: a brutal and for Onzelas's grandmother. Uh. And then of

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

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Speaker 1: teenager by this point, back into the pre Sstian Slavic

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: vow of chastity, and he encouraged missionary work too in Bohemia,

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Speaker 1: German missionaries to come in and and uh convert his

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

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Speaker 1: people enthusiastic about Christianity, building these beautiful churches, kind of

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Speaker 1: following in his grandparents footsteps. They're holding feats. He also

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Speaker 1: decisively defeated his opponents in battle to become the definitive

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Speaker 1: ruler of Bohemia. I mean, there was no question anymore

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Speaker 1: who was who was the prince lesh duke uh. He

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Speaker 1: he expanded the kingdom and after that too. He banished

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Speaker 1: his mother and reversed her policies of persecuting Christians and

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

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

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Speaker 1: article by Steven Otinow he in Mental flowth he was

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Speaker 1: also said to have been very kind to children and

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Speaker 1: to the poor, which is all good carol material if

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

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Speaker 1: tensions still existent in Bohemia, though it was an alliance

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Speaker 1: that ultimately brought an end to once Slass reign in

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Speaker 1: he chose to pretty much align himself as a junior

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Speaker 1: partner with the German king, Henry the First the Fowler.

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Speaker 1: From once Alas's perspective, this was preferable to war with

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Speaker 1: Germany and an invasion, especially since Bohemia was still able

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Speaker 1: to maintain much of its independence. But to Bohemian nobles

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Speaker 1: this was just the last straw, so a contingent encouraged

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Speaker 1: onceeslast his younger brother Boloslav, who sees the princeton for himself,

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Speaker 1: and like much of the story, the details of what

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Speaker 1: happened next or kind of scanty. In one version, Once

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Speaker 1: Alas is invited by his brother to a religious festival

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Speaker 1: and Boloslaw murders him on the way to church. In

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Speaker 1: another version, Bolslough actually avoids murdering once as Loss himself

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Speaker 1: actually doing the deed and instead has once alass murdered,

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Speaker 1: but during mass by a henchman. Either way, though, once

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Speaker 1: the Sluss was murdered September, he was only twenty two

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Speaker 1: years old. And I think that's going to be our

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Speaker 1: carol myth busting number two, because even though the Carol

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Speaker 1: doesn't really spell it out, it just seems to hint

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Speaker 1: that good King WinCE the Less was an old jolly man.

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Speaker 1: My my Family's book of Christmas. Carol's even has an

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

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Speaker 1: with a large beard. Um. But yeah, he was only

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Speaker 1: twenty two and after he was dead, uh, bols Love

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Speaker 1: succeeded his brother and ultimately became known as the Cruel

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

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

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Speaker 1: more territory, and in his thirty eight years of power

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Speaker 1: to you he did not reverse Once the Less was

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Speaker 1: Christian agenda either. You know that it's sometimes set up

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Speaker 1: as that sort of story. It was his um pre

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Speaker 1: Christian brother trying to get back to the old ways.

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Speaker 1: But uh, he continued to allow missions. He didn't get

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Speaker 1: into the sort of religious persecution that had happened during

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Speaker 1: his mother's regency. Um though, it is interesting to note

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Speaker 1: that the royal house that had been started by by

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Speaker 1: these two fellows grandfather was particularly plagued by this sort

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Speaker 1: of family strife. It lasted until thirteen o six, you know, remarkable,

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Speaker 1: and it's five hundred years I think I mentioned earlier. Um,

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Speaker 1: but both Love's grandsons murdered each other, and other family

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

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

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Speaker 1: strict line of succession. You know. Sometimes it would just

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Speaker 1: be whoever in the family was oldest, and that might

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Speaker 1: be a younger brother. Sometimes it would be the the

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Speaker 1: duke slash prince's eldest son. All kinds of messy business.

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Speaker 1: So fratricide is rarely a good pr move. And for

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Speaker 1: bois Law, despite his political successes that Sarah just mentioned,

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Speaker 1: it meant that he was faced with a growing cult

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Speaker 1: around his dead brother. So reports of miracles near on

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Speaker 1: se Islas's grave started trickling in almost immediately, and unfortunately

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Speaker 1: weren't We weren't able to find examples of those exact miracles.

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Speaker 1: So I was trying to find specific examples of what

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Speaker 1: happened and what led to his sainthood, but I couldn't

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Speaker 1: find a single thing. I mean, I'm guessing we're just

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

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Speaker 1: miraculous sort of stuff for once Slift here. But what

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Speaker 1: we do know is that Bolas Law ultimately had once

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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 boloslaf went down in history as

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Speaker 1: the cruel While murdered Onceslaus became a Czech patron saint,

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Speaker 1: and even today his feast day, which is the number twenty,

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Speaker 1: the day that he was murdered, is a national holiday

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Speaker 1: and a statue stands proudly and once it's last square

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Speaker 1: in Prague. There's even a parody of the famous statue

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Speaker 1: that's really close to the original. It's by David Sarney

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Speaker 1: and it features once it's last riding on an upside

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Speaker 1: down dead horse. You'll see it a lot on some

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Speaker 1: of those strangest travel destination lists, and if some listeners

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

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Speaker 1: from you guys. I'm sure folks have visited it alright.

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Speaker 1: So once was less check national hero. He's a saint

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Speaker 1: murdered duke. But how did the Christmas carol end up happening? Uh? Finally,

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Speaker 1: an English Anglican warden picked up this story, I mean

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Speaker 1: we're talking hundreds of years later and decided that it

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Speaker 1: would actually be a pretty fitting reminder for teaching children

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Speaker 1: about the importance of charity. And we're talking about John

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Speaker 1: Mason Neil. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman,

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Speaker 1: and he self was destined for the clergy and was

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Speaker 1: ordained in eighteen forty two, but he was in very

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Speaker 1: poor health and couldn't actually go to work in a parish,

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Speaker 1: and so instead he got a job as the warden

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Speaker 1: of Sackville College. And you know that sounds like an

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Speaker 1: educational institute, but it was actually an alms house and

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Speaker 1: he took his job pretty seriously. There. His early career,

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Speaker 1: though is very shadowed by suspicions that he was a

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Speaker 1: crypto Catholic. He was. He was not popular among fellow Anglicans. Otanowski,

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Speaker 1: who I noted earlier, said that he was at one

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Speaker 1: point even attacked by a mob and uh received threats

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Speaker 1: against his home and his life. But he did develop

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Speaker 1: a pretty solid reputation as a historian and a novelist

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Speaker 1: and a translator of ancient and medieval works. And my

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Speaker 1: absolute favorite job description of him comes from Oxford University Press,

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Speaker 1: where they call him a hymnologist. And fortunately for us,

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Speaker 1: John Mason Neil not only love to translate hymns, but

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Speaker 1: he liked to write them as well. Yeah, so, of

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Speaker 1: course Good King Winceslaus was part of Neil's canon of hymns,

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Speaker 1: and Carol's specifically one meant for children. As Sarah kind

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Speaker 1: of indicated earlier. According to BBC History Magazine, he took

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Speaker 1: the tune from a Scandinavian song that he found in

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Speaker 1: a medieval book sent to him by a British ambassador

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Speaker 1: in Stockholm. And interestingly, it's a springtime song tempest a

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Speaker 1: dust floridam, and he chose the wencee Islast story for

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Speaker 1: the legends associated with the saint and went with Wenceslaus

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Speaker 1: instead of vas Law for rhythm, which was a good choice,

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah. And he published it in eighteen fifty

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Speaker 1: three and it tops his fairly considerable list of Christmas hits,

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Speaker 1: including Ocum Ocum Manual and Good Christian Men Rejoice. So,

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Speaker 1: of course, though, and this is something we couldn't go

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Speaker 1: without mentioning, Good King winceslast isn't really a Christmas carol.

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Speaker 1: So you know, we've already said it's not about a king,

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Speaker 1: but it's not really a Christmas carol either. It's about St.

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Speaker 1: Stephen's Day, and that's pretty evident from the first line.

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Speaker 1: Good King Wincesliss looked out on the Feast of Stephen

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Speaker 1: and um as Stephen St Stephen was associated with alms

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Speaker 1: for the poor, so too with St Stephen's Day. And

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Speaker 1: according to Claire Setteth in Time magazine, December twenty six

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Speaker 1: was when the English poor traditionally received most charity. Uh

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Speaker 1: So this is another reason why it kind of makes

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Speaker 1: sense for John Mason Neil writing a song meant to

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Speaker 1: encourage charity. Um, But why this was why December twenty

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Speaker 1: six was the day um might be because Anglican churches

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Speaker 1: would have a collection box out during during all of

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Speaker 1: Advent collect donations for the poor this Boxing Day, or

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Speaker 1: because the aristocracy or employees would give out gifts or

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

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Speaker 1: course their servants might be working on Christmas Day. Boxing

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Speaker 1: Day today is still a national holiday in England and

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Speaker 1: Wales and Canada. In Ireland it's still called St. Stephen's Day.

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Speaker 1: Reminded me a little bit of the Halloween ups that

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Speaker 1: I did with Kristen, because I kept on finding all

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Speaker 1: these different traditions people have in various countries to celebrate

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Speaker 1: this holiday. And in Ireland they actually kids will attach

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Speaker 1: a wren to a pole and parade it through town

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Speaker 1: to celebrate St. Stephen's Day. Apparently, though in England and

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Speaker 1: Canada it hasn't become so much a day of charitable

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Speaker 1: giving as a day of intense shopping, kind of like uh,

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Speaker 1: the Black Friday day after Thanksgiving sales we have here

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Speaker 1: in the States. Interesting, so very cool to learn some

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Speaker 1: of the history behind one of the coolest carols out there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: did it change your perspective on the carol at all?

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Speaker 1: Have you shared any of these details with your father. Yeah,

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

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Speaker 1: a story I will be relating over over are 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 perform good King Wentz list on the podcasts, but

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

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Speaker 1: perception change I'm going to have to make is good

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Speaker 1: King Wentz this list as a twenty two year old. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's true. I too picture cards an old guy. I know. Well,

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Speaker 1: I'll work on that. In the meantime, though, we'll be

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Speaker 1: thinking up other topics for the new year, and wish

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Speaker 1: all of you a very happy holiday, a merry Christmas,

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Speaker 1: happy Hanukkah, no, any whatever you celebrate Saturnalia, christ Tide.

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Speaker 1: We've covered a lot of unusual holidays on our on

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Speaker 1: our podcasts in the past. We have, and we're always

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Speaker 1: open to more. So if you have any other sort

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Speaker 1: of holiday suggestions, we may not be able to do

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Speaker 1: them right now, but we'll definitely keep them on our

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Speaker 1: to do list for next year, so you can suggest

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Speaker 1: those to us by writing to us. Where History podcast

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Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com and you can also find us

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Speaker 1: on Facebook and on Twitter at my history And if

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Speaker 1: you want to learn a little bit more about went

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Speaker 1: left de Blena? You do have your your article coming out,

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Speaker 1: don't I do? Unfortunately we don't have a WinCE is

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Speaker 1: Lost entry in there and we didn't make the look,

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Speaker 1: but we do have one about boxing Day? Did you

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Speaker 1: know that apparently a lot of people think that boxing

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Speaker 1: Day is a day for boxing up all the presents

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Speaker 1: you didn't want and taking them back to the store. Oh,

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Speaker 1: that's just sad. That totally is the opposite. You already

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Speaker 1: busted that myth on this podcast. But if you want

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Speaker 1: to know a few more myths, nine more to be exact,

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Speaker 1: and they're I guess they're they're true versions, um the

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Speaker 1: truth about them. You can find out all about that

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Speaker 1: by searching on our homepage for ten months about Christmas,

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Speaker 1: and you can and find us by looking up www

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Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com for more on this

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Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com? M