I'm sure we all know the carol but it's interesting to read what the man is supposed to have done. He wasn't a king at all, apparently, but a duke only receiving the title of king posthumously.

It seems that legend has it that he distributed alms barefoot though why he would be barefoot is unclear. Some sort of penance, perhaps? I'm guessing that this was the inspiration for Neale's "Mark my footsteps well, my page" part of the carol.

Good King Wenceslas

Mortification of the flesh.

History is written by the winners.

I remember reading about this horrible guy. He beheaded a woman, married an underage girl and had a load of really skewed ideas on life. Apparently he inspirited this huge cult. I used to try and stay away from people like that in school. Trouble.

I seem to recall he liked pizza?

Honestly, the British education system is in tatters, it really is!

You were in school with Good King Wenceslas?
Yeah, whatever.

No... not who I was talking about.

I also said people "like" him.

Basically, wrong on two fronts bud.

Come on, who sings or used to sing "Good King Wenceless last looked out..." ?

Not guilty, but I DID sing "round John Virgin", as opposed to round yon virgin.

Priests on the pull?

Deep and crisp and even.

Now i want pizza

oh yah, I avoided all the famous cult leaders there were in school with all their sex and drugs and haribo. Most of all, I never drank the punch.
(ツ)

Not even the right punchline.

"Deep pan, crisp and even"

I bet John was no longer a virgin after you finished with him

I still pronounce it in my head as Good King Winkleless.

Where did you read this? I wonder if you're getting mixed up with his brother.

As for an 'underage girl', was there such a thing in those days? I believe that life expectancy was only about 30 years then.

Boleslaus the Cruel

Take it easy sorcha, (nice name that I think), had I been around back then, I'd have been ungodly and irreverent enough to take a crack at the Virgin Mary, but the guys could have slept soundly in their beds. :blush

Good King Wenceslas looked out
Of his bedroom window
Silly bugger he fell out
On a red hot cinder
Brightly shone his arse that night

and I've forgotten the rest .............

Brightly shone his arse that night
Though the frost was cru-el
Sliding down the banister
What a silly foo-OO-el

Classic.

I know
brightly shone his arse that night
and the pain was cru-ell
till the doctor came in sight
riding on a mew u ell (mule)

Look at what's happened to my brilliant thread!

Duke Wenceslas

Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruu-el
When a poor man came in sight
Playing with his too-oo-el

I was in Wenceslas Square in Prague

I thought the name Wenceslas didn't sound very English

Was there a Bad King Wenceslas? You never hear anyone say just "King Wenceslas", do you?