#genera

Hooooooooboy

the reason for THAT is that a lot of scientists still think species are a real thing that need a real descriptor

also, that's how we've named pretty much every organism. if we got rid of it, suddenly we don't know how to talk about them

like, most of the linnaean groups were assigned to clades, its just certain ones - like bird or fish - didn't fit well anymore. Mammal was pretty easy to assign, same with animal or plant.

So, ideally, species would just be the smallest independent evolutionary unit. They're not, right now, because everyone has their own version of species. But that would be the ideal.

Types of bats!

Alexander Leslie, the Earl of Leven died April 4th 1661.

Leslie’s birthdate is unknown, he was born circa 1580  illegitimate, the son of a Captain at Blair Castle and a mother sometimes described as “a wench in Rannoch"  At an early age, Alexander was fostered out to the Campbells of Glenorchy. The fosterage bond was strong and still written about by Leslie into the 1640s. Indeed, it was this link that brought Leslie into the orbit of the House of Argyll as Lord Lorne, the son of the marquis of Argyll was also a Glenorchy fosterling. This relationship perhaps explains the presence of Campbells in the same regiments as Leslie in Sweden, most notably Captain Charles Campbell (Karl Kammel), whose portrait hangs to this day in the beautiful  Skokloster Castle on  Lake Mälaren. 

Leslie was a soldier who plied his trade very well serving in the Dutch Army before being offered a captaincy in the Swedish Army by King Gustavus Adolphus and in 1622 he raised the Vermlands Regiment for the King. He spent 30 years in Sweden, rising to the rank of Field Marshal before retiring in 1638.

But he was not finished with soldiering, in 1639 he was made Lord General of the Army of the Covenant, approaching 60 he was no spring chicken in those days. He faced Charles I at Duns (this is the origin of the rhyme ‘There was a Crooked Man’ see below), where a price of £500 was put on his head. To me his greatest  victory was when captured Edinburgh Castle with a thousand men, not losing a single soldier.  He went on to march into England in 1640 and defeated the King’s soldiers at the Battle of Newburn. They held  Newcastle, obtaining a stranglehold on London’s coal supply. Charles I had no choice but to agree to a truce, under which the Scottish army in northern England would be paid daily expenses, pending a final treaty of peace. 

To raise the necessary funds Charles had to call the Long Parliament, thus setting in motion a process that would lead to the outbreak of the English Civil War two years later. In 1644 another victory came when he commanded combined armies of  Scottish and English at what is said to be the largest battle fought on the British Isles. Leslie’s reputation, guile and discretion were frequently noted and he was much admired.  

His army held Charles I  as a prisoner for a time before handing the king to his Presbyterian allies unaware that these would soon lose power to the Independents.  He stood his ground though occupying the north of England with his Scottish soldiers refusing to hand over control until all his men had been given the back pay they were due.  The final instalment of this came in January 1647 after which Leven marched his army back across the Scottish border. 

General Alexander retired after this and took no part in the battles that saw Cromwell’s army invade Scotland. During these times Cromwell had him arrested and held in the Tower of London for some time, until he was released on providing a bond of £20,000. He was again arrested in London but Christina, Queen of Sweden negotiated his release. 

Sir Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven died in 1661 at Balgonie Castle, Fife in his late 70’s a good age at any time, let alone in the 17th century. 

When you look back at all of our Military men through the centuries Alexander Leslie is certainly a man who can stand proud with them all, he’s often overlooked due to the circumstances surrounding the wars of the Three Kingdoms and the way Charles I was executed after Leslie handed him over to the English. 

Edit, sorry forgot to add the poem……..

There was a Crooked Man.

The content of "There was a crooked man” poem have a basis in history. The origin of this poem originates from the English Stuart history of King Charles 1. The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie. The General signed a Covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The 'crooked stile’ referred to in “There was a crooked man” being the border between England and Scotland. 'They all lived together in a little crooked house’ refers to the fact that the English and Scots had at last come to an agreement. The words reflect the times when there was great animosity between the English and the Scots. The word crooked is pronounced as 'crookED’ the emphasis being placed upon the 'ED’ in the word. This was common in olde England and many references can be found in this type of pronunciation in the works of Shakespeare.  

“They all lived together in a little crooked house” refers to the fact that the English and Scots had at last come to an agreement, despite the continuing great animosity between the two peoples, who nonetheless had to live with each other due to their common border.

The great recoinage around 1696 led to sixpence coins that were made of very thin silver and were easily bent, becoming “crooked”.