OXFORD UNION | Tony Schwartz, November 4, 2016, "The Truth about Trump"

Tony Schwartz (R) at the Oxford Union.

November 4, 2016–Four days before the U.S. Presidential election, Tony Schwartz tells the Oxford Union what he found out about Donald Trump while writing The Art of the Deal.

Schwartz was working for New York Magazine when he came up with the title for Trump's autobiography.

Tony Schwartz.

When Donald Trump heard the title, he asked Schwartz to write the book and paid him half the advance he got from a publisher.

Schwartz says he regrets having helped position Trump to win the nomination and is fearful of a future with Trump in the White House, should he win the election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxF_CDDJ0YI

WALES | The Power of Place

A Welsh estate and the family
that lived there.

Wales has always puzzled me. I used to go through it six times a year, on my way from Dublin to Yorkshire when I was at school at Ampleforth College in 1952-55.

It was difficult to figure out how to pronounce some of the place names, or how to remember their spelling. They seemed to belong to some medieval travel book.

As Thomas More said to Richard Rich in “A Man For All Seasons”: “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . but for Wales?”

I have been spending time with two recent books that have helped me focus on understanding the importance of Wales.

Nannau

The first book is by Philip Nanney Williams, about his family estate, Nannau, in Wales and the people who lived there. https://bit.ly/2CHO3Zc.

As I have read the book, and some other sources to fill in my huge ignorance about Wales, I begin to understand that Wales was never a consolidated nation like England, but rather a collection of Celts who fled to Wales after the Norman Conquest. They were somewhat protected by protected by the topology of the land, their language, and their decentralized structure.

One of my questions about Wales has been: Why is it not represented in the Union Jack? Scotland and then Ireland are woven into the St. George's Cross through the saltires of St Andrew (blue) and St Patrick (red).

My epiphany was learning that it was a Welshman, Henry VII, who conquered Richard III and founded the Tudor dynasty, taking in Henry VIII and Elizabeth I with a few more Tudors in between. These royals laid the foundation for modern Britain and Wales can take pride in that. At Oxford and Cambridge, the dividing line between the "old" and the "new" colleges is the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, 1603.

Welshman Henry VII brought together the Houses of Lancaster and York that had been warring with one another. Though proud to be a Welshman, he never looked back and became a strong English monarch. His son Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, his daughter Mary I became England's first queen, seeking to restore Catholicism, and Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth I in her long, tolerant reign shaped modern Britain.

Marians on the Mawddach

Paul Walton with his book.

The other book is by Paul Walton, Marians on the Mawddach, about his Welsh school, St. Mary's, named for Queen Mary I, the Counter-Reformation Catholic Queen.

The Marians are the students and alumni of St. Mary's.

TUDORS | What If Lady Jane Grey Had Stayed Queen?

Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554)

Lady Jane Grey was known as The Nine Days' Queen, although she might be given credit for some more days in 1553.

What would the effect have been if she had stayed in power?

It would probably have meant no Mary I, since Lady Jane's supporters were out to capture her during her brief reign.

There would have been no temporary revival of Roman Catholicism in England under Mary I's rule. Therefore the two Oxford colleges that were founded by two Catholic knights on the property of the dissolved Durham College would not have been created.

I tell this story here: http://www.ladyjanegrey.info/?p=14705.

The story is based on information collected for my new book, Oxford College Arms: https://amzn.to/2BKS5Rk.