James and the Giant Orange

James and the Giant Peach was a fantasy movie filmed in the twentieth century.
James and the Giant Orange, in contrast, was a reality TV show, popular in the seventeenth century.

The story goes like this.   James was an important guy who decided to be Catholic.   William, who came from a giant Orange as a duke, was not as an important a guy but he fixed that problem by marrying Mary, James half sister.   Mary, who was not particularly thrilled by being a political pawn or being married off to a rather ugly guy (William), cried through the entire wedding.   Thereafter, she composed herself and stayed married to William, but never had any children (put two and two together there).  

Even married, the protestants William and Mary weren't as powerful as James, so they crafted a plan to kick James off his throne.   They had a few battles over the whole affair, committed a few murders, and did a few underhanded things... all in the name of religion.   The fact that both Catholics and Protestants are Christian and fundamentally believe the same thing (that around two thousand years ago,  Jesus Christ came aboard on planet Earth to be savior of the world) had escaped almost everyone's attention at the time.  So the Catholics and the Protestants fought with each other and a Glorious Revolution ensued.  

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the poor Irish once again backed the wrong guy... James, the Catholic.   When William and Mary's political and military ploys trumped those of James, James ran to France to avoid the prospect of his head becoming a separate entity from his body.  At the time, France was a rather Catholic-friendly nation (just ask Louis XIV), so this worked out all right for James. Unfortunately, the Irish could not just pick up their Ireland and move to France so they continued to take the hit for William and Mary's ongoing campaign, revolution, and "victory".   One of the many ugly battles to "subdue" the Irish (which most have figured out by now is an impossible feat) happened at Charles Fort, which we visited today:

Charles Fort is a star shaped fort, in line with Advanced Fortress Engineering of the 17th and 18th century that had to contend with the fact that massive artillery bombarding a fortress wall was a totally different animal than weapons and strategies of the previous centuries.   Even redesigned, however, the many hills around the fort created a problem, and the British and their buddy William overcame the defenses of the opposing armies, causing Ireland once again to fall under a rule that didn't suit anything about who the Irish truly were as a people.  

The moral of today's story.
History repeats itself... again, and again, and again.

And, watch out for oranges and marrying unattractive men.  You never know where they may lead.