Post by *Nastyhotshots* on Feb 20, 2014 12:30:49 GMT
Since I am frm Hartlepool I thought I would share with you all the legend of the Monkey Hanger.
The Napoleonic Wars were as driven by evil propaganda as any war of the modern age. Broadsides and popular pamphlets from cackhanded propagandists to the more rarefied likes of Gilray were used to portray Frenchmen as simian creatures - apes in ragged trousers and berets. To stoke men to the utmost level of ferocity in battle, it is commonplace to produce such material to convince your men that they are fighting subhumans.
So the scene was set on the Northumberland coast on a wind-lashed December night sometime during the Napoleonic wars. A chasse mareé - a type of 3-masted French trading vessel - was clearly in trouble out at sea. The fishermen of Hartlepool watched as the ship was blown ashore and dashed on the rocks.
There was but one survivor: a ship's mascot. A monkey, dressed in a sailor's uniform. Their experience of 'Frenchmen' being restricted to popular caricatures, the townsfolk took the hapless ape for a denizen of that country. After staging a 'trial on the beach, it became clear that the monkey couldn't account for his intentions and, in a time of war, the natural assumption that the creature was not only a Frenchman, but likely a spy to boot.
Refusing to co-operate with the 'court' sealed the monkey's fate, and he was hung on a makeshift gallows made from the mast of a small fishing vessel.
So the tale is told to this day, with most of the country sniggering at Hartlepudlians as "the monkey hangers". Whether the story is true or not is lostto the mists of time, but the town has come to revel in the notoriety - electing a mayor with the nom de plume H'Angus Monkey on three occasions. This name was itself taken from the mascot of Hartlepool F.C. who took the joshing of opposing sides over the legend and turned into a source of perverse pride.
The jocular nature of the legend is reflected in the lines of doggerel that accompany it.
In former times, when war and strife
The French invasion threaten'd life
An' all was armed to the knife
The Fisherman hung the monkey O !
The Fishermen with courage high,
Siezed on the monkey for a French spy;
"Hang him !" says one; "he's to die"
They did and they hung the monkey Oh!
They tried every means to make him speak
And tortured the monkey till loud he did speak;
Says yen "thats french" says another "its Greek"
For the fishermen had got druncky oh!
Suggestions have been made that the story may actually had a darker aspect. On warships of the time, young boys were pressed into service to load cannons. The name given to those boys? "Powder monkeys". Does the japery around the legend actually hide something sinister?
hots
Hartlepool Monkey Hanging
The Napoleonic Wars were as driven by evil propaganda as any war of the modern age. Broadsides and popular pamphlets from cackhanded propagandists to the more rarefied likes of Gilray were used to portray Frenchmen as simian creatures - apes in ragged trousers and berets. To stoke men to the utmost level of ferocity in battle, it is commonplace to produce such material to convince your men that they are fighting subhumans.
So the scene was set on the Northumberland coast on a wind-lashed December night sometime during the Napoleonic wars. A chasse mareé - a type of 3-masted French trading vessel - was clearly in trouble out at sea. The fishermen of Hartlepool watched as the ship was blown ashore and dashed on the rocks.
There was but one survivor: a ship's mascot. A monkey, dressed in a sailor's uniform. Their experience of 'Frenchmen' being restricted to popular caricatures, the townsfolk took the hapless ape for a denizen of that country. After staging a 'trial on the beach, it became clear that the monkey couldn't account for his intentions and, in a time of war, the natural assumption that the creature was not only a Frenchman, but likely a spy to boot.
Refusing to co-operate with the 'court' sealed the monkey's fate, and he was hung on a makeshift gallows made from the mast of a small fishing vessel.
So the tale is told to this day, with most of the country sniggering at Hartlepudlians as "the monkey hangers". Whether the story is true or not is lostto the mists of time, but the town has come to revel in the notoriety - electing a mayor with the nom de plume H'Angus Monkey on three occasions. This name was itself taken from the mascot of Hartlepool F.C. who took the joshing of opposing sides over the legend and turned into a source of perverse pride.
The jocular nature of the legend is reflected in the lines of doggerel that accompany it.
In former times, when war and strife
The French invasion threaten'd life
An' all was armed to the knife
The Fisherman hung the monkey O !
The Fishermen with courage high,
Siezed on the monkey for a French spy;
"Hang him !" says one; "he's to die"
They did and they hung the monkey Oh!
They tried every means to make him speak
And tortured the monkey till loud he did speak;
Says yen "thats french" says another "its Greek"
For the fishermen had got druncky oh!
Suggestions have been made that the story may actually had a darker aspect. On warships of the time, young boys were pressed into service to load cannons. The name given to those boys? "Powder monkeys". Does the japery around the legend actually hide something sinister?
hots
