Friday, May 23, 2014

Fun fact: If Prince William becomes king, his regnal name will be William V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Provided that either of those states still exist by that point. If Northern Ireland goes back to Ireland and Scottish independence ends the United Kingdom, then he would just be William V of England.

Or maybe William the Bald
would be more appropriate?

(via Wikipedia)
If Prince Harry somehow, someway were to become king, his name would be Henry IX and would be the first King Henry since 1547!

Hopefully he'll avoid the
relationship issues of his predecessor
.
(via Wikipedia)
William's son, George, would be known as George VII.

Prince Charles, meanwhile, would be Charles III. Hopefully, he won't be like Charles I, who ended up losing his head - literally - over a change in management, nor Charles II, who was partly responsible for his successor, James VI being overthrown in the Glorious Revolution by...William III.

Let's be real though,
this guy is going to be senile or dead by then
.
(via Wikipedia)
And what of the Duchess of Cambridge? If her husband were to ascend the throne, she would be known as Katherine, Queen Consort.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Weapons: Baker rifle

(via Wikimedia)
A counterpart to the Brown Bess musket used by British infantry, the Baker rifle was used by rifle regiments, who in turn were deployed as skirmishers and marksmen during battles. While the Baker had a much longer range and better accuracy than the Bess, the rifles had a longer loading time than the former. Supposedly, a soldier could fire off four shots with a Bess compared to the two of a Baker. Still, it was a fine weapon and was even used once to kill a French general (Auguste-Marie-François Colbert during the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic Wars at a range of 600 yards! Behind impressive considering that the rifle's nominal range was like 200 yards, so shout out to Thomas Plunket for that feat. He repeated the feat by shooting a drum major who was trying to help General Colbert, just to prove that it wasn't a fluke. The rifle also came with a 24 inch sword bayonet, which is the just awesome as all hell. A two foot long sword attached to a rifle? Damn, son.

I tried looking for more pictures, especially outside of Wikipedia, but the only sites that had any were ones selling like replicas.