Horrible Histories Didn't Have William The Conqueror's Other Nickname.

[Marshwarble]

Answerbank won't allow me to use it either-William the ***. Evil to him to evil thinks. Hundreds of people are what they used to be called illegitimate, there should be no stigma.

[Mosaic]

Le Batard, as he's know to the French.
When I was a history teacher my pupils revelled in the naughtiness of being allowed to say that.

[Marshwarble]

Evil to him who evil thinks. Nor did they mention Sellar and Yeatman.

[bookbinder]

Hundreds of years ago, it was quite normal to use that word when referring to people whose parentage was called into question, but we're much more refined nowadays. Some say.

[stuey]

I shall file this information for future reference:)

[bookbinder]

Apparently, William was also fat, illiterate, and couldn't speak English. Stuey, I do hope that you are adding all this to your store of knowledge. Well, you never know when it might come in handy for that flat spot at a party.

[stuey]

Hi, bookbinder. I was referring to this:): http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/***+file

[stuey]

Well, that didn't seem to work did it?

[sandyRoe]

Being a *** is an accident of birth. Now if he'd been William the Dastard he'd have been a real cad.

[Marshwarble]

"William was also illiterate"

Only scribes could write in those days, famously King John didn't sign the Magna Carta, only seal it. This was a Good Thing.

[bookbinder]

Thanks for that, stuey. I also shall file that for future reference :-)

[jourdain2]

It was a bit different in those days when marriages were arranged for politics and gain. William's father gladly acknowledged him as his son and, I'm fairly sure (off the cuff), left him in charge of his estates when he went on crusade. Any one with 'Fitz-' prefix to their name was also un batard - or descended from an acknowledged one. Didn't I read that almost as many babies are born out of wedlock as in these days, so all of them are technically illegit.! :)

[jno]

William the Conqueror exploded after he was dead

[Marshwarble]

Jno, glad you learnt something. Now what other battle did William fight in 1066?

[EDDIE51]

what if we want to specify a type of file?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/***+file
That is' file' as a smoothing tool not on a computer. ;-)

[EDDIE51]

^^ The AB censor has zapped the 'barsteward' word in the link , now it does not work!
Ed, surely that is not right? you could have a genuine question that needs to use that word. It is the description of a type of file between 1st cut and smoothing!

[jno]

Eddie, get tinyurl.com to translate it for you.

http://tinyurl.com/pt2my78

Bit of a faff, I know.

[Marshwarble]

Yahoo News wouldn't let me say "Homo Sapiens"...

[EDDIE51]

'***' have always had a hard time, look at this link.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056076085
At one point a child born out of 'wedlock' could not be buried on consecrated ground or go to heaven!

[EDDIE51]

^^ now it has even zapped 'bar steward' as one word

[1ozzy]

A bit off topic, but since censorship has been raised, I tried to answer a crossword question a while ago concerning "*** shooting" which is a legitimate sport and got asterisks instead. Ha, how dumb is that ;-)