The Reimagined Zombie Apocalypse Tag: Medieval History Version

I’m not the biggest fan of zombies, and since this blog is now medieval based, I thought, what’s a better way to reimagine this tag than to make it White-Ship-Disaster based rather than zombie-based! (If you’re curious about the White Ship Disaster, check out my short post on it here!) Plus, I’m using actual historical figures in this tag, so expect a lot of medieval chaos!

The Rules

~Acknowledge and link back to whoever tagged you or who you snurched the tag from, if you can possibly remember who it actually was. (Thank you Journey and I’m So Unpopular for the tags! )

~Choose 5 books

~Randomly set up your books in order

~Flip to a random page in the book and write down the first two names you see. (I’m going to flip the book two separate times for different characters, since I’d have a bigger chance of getting a more variety of historical figures this way.)

~Put the names in the categories listed below in the order you saw them (or any order you please)

~Cry at how doomed you are (I don’t know, I’ve got kind of high hopes for this, but we’ll see what happens, haha!)

The Five Books

We’re going in order of time period here, so:

The White Ship – Charles Spencer (Great book and yes, it’s the same White Ship as mentioned above! Check out my review on Goodreads here.)

The Restless Kings – Nick Barratt (Haven’t read this one yet though!)

The Plantagenets – Dan Jones (also haven’t read yet)

Summer of Blood – Dan Jones (an awesome read, by the way; you can read my review of it here!)

The Wars of the Roses – Dan Jones (You can see who my favorite historian to read is!)

The First Person to Drown:

Taking my first character from Charles Spencer’s The White Ship, we have…

Henry I.

Like, one of the only people historically NOT to drown on the White Ship. (Forgive me as I laugh, here. Like, of all the people I could’ve gotten for this question. I got him.) I guess he can join his son? And all the other nobles.

The fun fact is, he did almost drown in a separate storm at sea later on. But didn’t. I guess in this tag, he wasn’t as lucky. Oh well. Not someone I would have liked to lose on the first question but… I’ve still got a lot of capable historical figures I can potentially add to my lifeboat!

The First Person You Trip To Reach the Lifeboat First:

Using Nick Barrett’s The Restless Kings, I have…

Henry II.

Yeeeahhh, so far this isn’t going good. Henry II would be someone I would’ve WANTED on my lifeboat–he was probably the most skillful and powerful medieval king of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, etc, etc (there’s a reason the Angevin empire is called an empire). But who knows, maybe I’m working with his wife Eleanor and sons to overthrow him, like what happened multiple times throughout his life. If that’s the case, I guess I don’t mind working with Eleanor.

The Person Who Trips You to Reach the Lifeboat First:

Flipping through Dan Jones’s The Plantagenets (which I so need to read), I have…

Henry III.

Okay, first of all, what’s with all the Henry’s? I’ve got one, two, and three all in a row here. (I promise I did not plan this!) Secondly, of ALL the Plantagenets I could have gotten, why did I get the singular one who would be most likely not to trip someone to save his life?

Henry III was a very religious, devout man–honestly, probably the most Christian of all the medieval kings. This guy was super laid back (but still a strong leader, albeit somewhat simple) liked to have fun, and was a huge family guy. Very loyal to his wife, too. I find it really hard to believe he’d trip me to reach the lifeboat first, but… okay.

The First Person to Almost Capsize the Lifeboat:

From Dan Jones’s Summer of Blood, we have…

Sir John Gildesburgh.

Okay, our first non-major historical figure. I guess this guy was a knight of the shire in Essex, and a speaker in the House of Commons in 1380. He was also one of the three tax collectors to… kind of, sort of unintentionally start off the Peasants Rebellion of 1381. So yeah, he’d definitely be the one to almost capsize our lifeboat.

The Team Idiot:

Finally, we have reached my main crew, and our first member shall be taken from the pages of Dan Jones’s masterpiece, The Wars of the Roses! For our team idiot we have…

…Richard III

Pardon me as I go laugh into a pillow. I mean, as far as my crew goes, if Richard III is the team idiot, we must have some really intelligent people coming on, because Richard III was no fool. Paranoid a bit, sure. But not a fool. If you want to read a little more about him, check out my post here, where I ranked him alongside seven other Wars of the Roses figures!

But as far as this tag goes, I feel like, thus far, we’ve got a pretty good chance of survival!

The Brains of the Group:

Returning to Charles Spencer’s The White Ship, we have for our brains of the group…

Count Theobald of Blois-Chartres.

Okay, okay, not bad. Kind of an average, middle of the road pick. Count Theobald of Blois-Chartres was the older brother of the more famous Stephan of Blois, aka King Stephen who usurped the throne from everyone’s favorite Empress Matilda. But he must’ve had some brains, as he was given the county of Blois over his older brother (who was given the moniker William the Simple) so okay, I’ll take him. (Also ironically, Theobald was also not present on the historical White Ship (though his sister was and drowned), so yet another amusing choice from that perspective.)

The Team Medic:

Once more from Nick Barrett’s The Restless Kings, our medic shall be…

…our first really rotten person. Why couldn’t I have tripped him instead and taken Henry II? At least Henry II would’ve been useful.

Okay, fine, I’ll list him here. It’s the guy everyone loves to hate, King John. Yeah, the Magna Carta guy. The guy that, the best thing he ever did for England, was to die.

I guess as long as nobody gets hurt, we’ll be okay. Because I can’t see the guy who liked to murder people in creative ways being a great medic.

The Weapons Expert:

From amongst our Plantagenet fellows in Dan Jones’s The Plantagenets, for our weapons expert, we have…

John of Gaunt!

John of Gaunt was one of Edward III’s sons and Henry IV’s father (and the father of the Lancastrian line and technically the Tudor line since he was the father of the Beauforts, through whom Henry Tudor received his wiry claim to the throne). He was also the richest man in England at the time he was alive, and was a fan of Wycliffe’s teachings, so I do like him. He also had a lot of experience running England and mediating between the tyrant-king Richard II and his own son, Henry IV, as well as in battle, so I bet he’d be a pretty decent weapon’s expert!

The Brawler:

An apt book to pick the character for this role, we once more return to Dan Jones’s Summer of Blood for our brawler…

And find ourselves with some common dude named John Shirley.

Apparently this guy muttered some drunken words of complaint and got himself killed for them? … fitting for a brawler, I suppose. If we must have one, I suppose this guy is as harmless as we’ll get, as I’d hate to see what a professionally trained knight’s brawl would look like.

The Team Leader:

And last but not least, from the pages of Dan Jones’s The Wars of the Roses, we pick our team leader…

John, Duke of Bedford!

YES, we shall survive this. (I was terrified I’d get Edward IV or Henry VI, haha!) John, Duke of Bedford was Henry V’s most capable brother and basically succeeded in holding onto British power in France during Henry VI’s minority years. This guy was the undisputed boss while Henry VI was just a baby, and actually managed to put down what was truly the birthing pains of the Wars of the Roses, a conflict between his younger brother Humphrey and their cousin, Cardinal Beaufort. If anyone was a brilliant leader, Bedford was, so I’m very glad to have him as our team leader!

The Results:

The First Person To Drown: Henry I
The First Person You Trip To Reach the Lifeboat First: Henry II
The Person Who Trips You To Reach the Lifeboat First: Henry III
The First Person To Almost Capsize the Lifeboat: Sir John Gildesburgh
The Team Idiot: Richard III
The Brains of the Group: Count Theobald of Blois-Chartres
The Team Medic: King John
The Weapons Expert: John of Gaunt
The Brawler: John Shirley
The Team Leader: John, Duke of Bedford

---

Unlike many of the other versions of this tag I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure we’d survive this scenario! …as long as nobody became in need of a medic, at least. Which, since we’re on a lifeboat, doesn’t seem too likely, so yay! But also RIP Henry I and II. You shall be missed.

Le Tags:

Since I have no clue who has or has not been tagged at this point, forgive me if I am double tagging you, or you have already done this tag. I shall choose:

Kayti, Rissy, and Jaidie @ Sisters Three Press

Isabelle and Victoria @ Bookworm Hollow

And if anyone wants to steal this tag, go right ahead!

---

I had quite fun doing this tag, especially with actual historical characters! Some of the random choices were quite amusing, I must admit. I suppose if I get tagged again, I wouldn’t mind doing this a second time around, maybe with my own characters that time? Oh well, we’ll see if I get tagged again someday!

What did you think about my crew and answers? What are your thoughts on these historical figures? Will you do this tag with historical figures? Let me know in the comments below! God bless! ~ Kay Adelin