Village Idiots
TIM RICHARDSON discovers Gotham, a medieval village whose inhabitants pretended to be mad to avoid taxes – and got away with it.
Acting mad can get you out of all sorts of scrapes, whether it’s multiple homicides or family gatherings. However, it takes good organisation for a whole community to present a picture of craziness to the rest of the world. One such place is Gotham (pronounced Goatham) in Nottinghamshire. In about 1200, during ye olde reign of King John, the story goes, the residents realised the implications of the King’s visit to Nottingham. He would pass through the village, this making it a King’s Highway, thus making the villagers liable to new taxes. Since madness was considered contagious, the idea of a whole village of lunatics was perfectly feasible, so the villagers acted like idiots when the King’s messengers arrived ahead of the royal party. The ploy worked.
This was just the start. Gotham’s national reputation for stupidity grew to such an extent that in 1540 an enterprising publisher put together a chap book of old stories and called it The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham. It was a big hit. Among the crazy antics the Gothamites got up to were trying to hedge a cuckoo in a wood, smashing up a watch they found, thinking it contained spirits, throwing the church bell in the sea to hide it from invaders and marking it’s position with a notch on the side of the boat, and allowing cheeses to roll themselves to Nottingham market after one accidentally fell out of a bag.
After it’s first edition, the book was re-titled The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham, and this has led some to describe the Gothamites as idiots savant. But this theory does not hold water. What is savant about thinking a load of cheeses can go all the way to market all on their own, and then, get this, going to Nottingham market, finding the cheeses are not there, concluding that they misheard you and went to York market instead, and so going off to York to search for them? The Gothamites are just a bunch of jerks. The title change must be an early example of extreme sarcasm.
Batman’s Gotham City is related to the Nottinghamshire Gotham because Washington Irving appropriated the name as a satirical alter ego for the crazy city of New York. It was subsequently picked up by the comic people. How fitting that Batman’s big enemy is the Joker.
Other cultures also have villages of fools: Phrysia in Asia Minor. Abde’ra in Thrace, Boeo’tia in Ancient Grece, Sabia in Germany. In Israel, Nazareth was the home of fools, which gave Jesus’s nickname, Nazarine, a certain piquancy.
TIM RICHARDSON discovers Gotham, a medieval village whose inhabitants pretended to be mad to avoid taxes – and got away with it.
Acting mad can get you out of all sorts of scrapes, whether it’s multiple homicides or family gatherings. However, it takes good organisation for a whole community to present a picture of craziness to the rest of the world. One such place is Gotham (pronounced Goatham) in Nottinghamshire. In about 1200, during ye olde reign of King John, the story goes, the residents realised the implications of the King’s visit to Nottingham. He would pass through the village, this making it a King’s Highway, thus making the villagers liable to new taxes. Since madness was considered contagious, the idea of a whole village of lunatics was perfectly feasible, so the villagers acted like idiots when the King’s messengers arrived ahead of the royal party. The ploy worked.
This was just the start. Gotham’s national reputation for stupidity grew to such an extent that in 1540 an enterprising publisher put together a chap book of old stories and called it The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham. It was a big hit. Among the crazy antics the Gothamites got up to were trying to hedge a cuckoo in a wood, smashing up a watch they found, thinking it contained spirits, throwing the church bell in the sea to hide it from invaders and marking it’s position with a notch on the side of the boat, and allowing cheeses to roll themselves to Nottingham market after one accidentally fell out of a bag.
After it’s first edition, the book was re-titled The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham, and this has led some to describe the Gothamites as idiots savant. But this theory does not hold water. What is savant about thinking a load of cheeses can go all the way to market all on their own, and then, get this, going to Nottingham market, finding the cheeses are not there, concluding that they misheard you and went to York market instead, and so going off to York to search for them? The Gothamites are just a bunch of jerks. The title change must be an early example of extreme sarcasm.
Batman’s Gotham City is related to the Nottinghamshire Gotham because Washington Irving appropriated the name as a satirical alter ego for the crazy city of New York. It was subsequently picked up by the comic people. How fitting that Batman’s big enemy is the Joker.
Other cultures also have villages of fools: Phrysia in Asia Minor. Abde’ra in Thrace, Boeo’tia in Ancient Grece, Sabia in Germany. In Israel, Nazareth was the home of fools, which gave Jesus’s nickname, Nazarine, a certain piquancy.
"All pubs are terrible places now. I mean you wouldn't have known a decent pub at your age, I shouldn't think. They didn't have fucking music. They didn't have cigarette machines. They didn't sell the chemical beer. They were for proper drinkers, not for fucking yobs, hooligans. I want to go into a pub and meet interesting people, not to look at a lot of people sitting on the floor drinking out of tins. I can't stand it. Mostly people in your age group. Ruin pubs."