Shambles

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  History: What Really Happened?

  1. The Butcher’s Tale:

  or

  The White Ship Disaster

  Preface

  In the Middle Ages and for the amusement of their fellow travellers, pilgrims on their way to Canterbury used to take it in turns to tell a story. So claimed Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote down some of these stories, e.g. The Nun’s Tale, the Millers Tale, The Wagtail etc., etc. You have probably been forced to read them at school. These unlikely stories have been cleaned up and translated into modern English of course, thus removing much of the fun. The butcher’s account of the White Ship Disaster was unknown to Chaucer and so he omitted it. Don’t ask me where I found it for I will not tell you. You might go looking in the same place. Like those of journalists and historians, my sources are never revealed until the guilty cannot be caught.