History Headscratchers / Blackadder

* In "The Archbishop", Edmund got himself out of the job of being Archbishop by getting himself excommunicated after being caught roughhousing in the nunnery while dressed in women's clothing, rendering him ineligible for the priesthood. But then in the following episode, "The Queen of Spain's Beard", he is used for political marriages. An excommunicate in unable to participate in any sacrament of the church, not just holding church office, and one of the sacraments recognized by the Catholic Church is marriage. Given that, how could Edmund be married to a foreign princess? Was he reconciled with the church between episodes? Did Richard have to arrange for more "accidents" with Edmund's successors before this happened?

*** Princess Leia would'd've been 14 when Edmund died, which given the time period meant that he could've fathered a child with her. Henry VII's mother, for example, was 13 when she gave birth to him.

** In the case of the Witchsmeller, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane. The implication is that ''he'' is the warlock or similar dabbler in dark magic, witchcraft and the supernatural who is responsible for all the trouble in the first place, and is hiding in plain sight as a witch-hunter in order to blight and curse the land. He's clearly very creepy, sinister and corrupt, and note how the King, whose malaise and madness was blamed on dark magic, strides out of his bedchamber happy and healthy as a lamb the very second the Witchsmeller has burned to a crisp. In the case of the gang's escape, NoodleIncident. They clearly do something very awesome to escape from their inescapable predicament, but the joke is that the audience never sees what it is and, despite the fact that none of them are in any way magical, it might as well have ''been'' magic.
*** The Witchsmeller *is* listed as the second witchiest character in the episode, after all.

** There were a lot of border skirmishes and minor wars between England and Scotland in the Middle Ages, and a lot of territory around the border changed hands quite frequently. Given how violent and warlike Richard IV was, it's possible that during his reign he either led an attack which was successful enough to capture Edinburgh or, given how friendly he was with [=MacAngus=], that he was successful enough to be declared King of Scotland as well. Then, when he died the Scots took the opportunity to take it back. Following which, the whole thing was airbrushed out of English history by Henry Tudor, along with the rest of Richard's reign; not wanting to admit to having recognised an English king as their overlord, the Scots were only too happy to go along with this pretence.
** It could simply be a title in pretence: he's not recognised as Duke of Edinburgh in Scotland, but the King of Scots can't stop him using the title in the English court. (Doubtless, Richard IV would similarly have styled himself as King of France, as all Kings of England did until 1808. No truth in the claim, but the real King of France wouldn't have been able to do anything about it).

* Assuming that Henry VII managed to erase the 13 year reign of Richard IV and the 13 second reign of Edmund I from the history books of Britain, how did he manage to erase the existence of Richard IV's Crusade? History doesn't record the existence of a Crusade against Turkey (or anyone else, really) in 1486, and you'd think that the Turks would have remembered a war in which a bearded madman slaughtered 10,000 men with a fruit knife - Henry didn't have the ability to subvert ''their'' historians.
** They were too embarrassed about their loss to one man to speak of it ever again.

* In the second series' episode "Head", they believe that they executed a man named Farrow, but accidentally executed another man named Ponsonby. Once they recover the head, Percy recognizes him and notices the error. But...wasn't Percy at the execution and so should have noticed ''then''? Blackadder is excused since he wasn't there and apparently doesn't know what either man looks like. Also, Percy also says that "Farrow's" last words were "my wife might have bloody well turned up!" in his deep booming voice, but Ponsonby is stated to have a horrible speech impediment. So, who said that quote?

** Also Blackadder, unlike George, is not a boorish sex-crazed oaf with the intelligence of a broken pencil point. I dare say a substantial amount of people probably were not fooled by the switch but since on the whole Blackadder was a trade-up in every possible way, they just decided SureLetsGoWithThat. One of the [=WMGs=] even goes so far as to suggest that Wellington realised that a switch had taken place, but decided that having Blackadder as Prince Regent was a vast improvement on the ''actual'' Prince Regent, and so shot the latter!

** There is a fan theory suggesting that Dougal MacAngus' father is descended from the MacAdder clan, linking Prince Edmund to the Blackadder line via his illegitimate parentage. Maybe Edmund's true parentage was more widely known than he thought, leading to Baldrick's suggestion?

** Regency Blackadder is a potent mixture of ruthless, bitter, cunning, competent and [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]]. Prince Edmund is ambitious, granted, but he's also incompetent; we take him less seriously and he's less of a threat to anyone, so conversely is less of a villain. He's also less evil than he maybe wants to be; notice how taken aback he is when his compatriots suggest murdering his family instead of exiling them in his final episode. Lord Edmund is ruthless and cunning, but while he kind of vaguely wants to marry Queenie and wouldn't mind being king, he's not that ambitious when you get down to it. As said above, he mainly just wants to live an easy life and, crucially, more or less can; when he's not dealing with the scrapes he gets into, he seems to have things pretty good, so there's no real need for him to plot against other people unless something provokes him to. And while Captain Blackadder has goals, they're a lot more sympathetic; he's not really scheming for power or wealth or to hurt someone else, he mainly just wants to not die in a pointless bloodbath in a war that pretty much everyone agrees wasn't really worth the misery it caused, which is something almost everyone can pretty much get behind. Furthermore, aside from the whole "First World War" issue Captain Blackadder otherwise seems fairly okay with his lot in life; he doesn't want to be king or anything, and seems fairly okay with the life of a career soldier. Regency Blackadder, however, is in reduced circumstances, is bitter about it, wants to get back on the top in some way, and certainly doesn't mind stepping over others for his own benefit. It's a more villainous combination.

** The Witchsmeller *is* listed as the second witchiest character in the episode, after all.

* does anyone feel George is completely right about conchies? Hard to feel sorry for these defeatists of the real WWI.

** The first series is basically Mr. Bean without the things that make people like Mr. Bean. Basically, it does a bunch of things decently, but it doesn't do anything well. The physical comedy is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it. The writing is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it (the few good lines are direct references to other works), and the biggest failing is that it has no idea what it wants to be. Some of the actors clearly think this is a physical comedy, some think it satirical, some think it is a genuine drama, and some think it will get canceled so they might as well not bother trying. (Keep in mind though that Black Adder was first televised in 1983, and Mr Bean in 1990. While the Mr Bean character roots go earlier as Rowan Atkinson developed the character, A lot of people watching Black Adder when it first appeared had no idea who Mr. Bean was. However there are definitely some character parallels.

** The first series is basically Mr. Bean without the things that make people like Mr. Bean. Basically, it does a bunch of things decently, but it doesn't do anything well. The physical comedy is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it. The writing is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it (the few good lines are direct references to other works), and the biggest failing is that it has no idea what it wants to be. Some of the actors clearly think this is a physical comedy, some think it satirical, some think it is a genuine drama, and some think it will get canceled so they might as well not bother trying. (Keep in mind though that Black Adder was first televised in 1983, and Mr Bean in 1990. While the Mr Bean character roots go earlier as Rowan Atkinson developed the character. A lot of people watching Black Adder when it first appeared had no idea who Mr. Bean was. However there are definitely some character parallels.

** The first series is basically Mr. Bean without the things that make people like Mr. Bean. Basically, it does a bunch of things decently, but it doesn't do anything well. The physical comedy is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it. The writing is good, but not as good as almost anything else contemporary to it (the few good lines are direct references to other works), and the biggest failing is that it has no idea what it wants to be. Some of the actors clearly think this is a physical comedy, some think it satirical, some think it is a genuine drama, and some think it will get canceled so they might as well not bother trying.

** Regency Blackadder is a potent mixture of ruthless, bitter, cunning, competent and [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]]. Prince Edmund is ambitious, granted, but he's also incompetent; we take him less seriously and he's less of a threat to anyone, so conversely is less of a villain. He's also less evil than he maybe wants to be; notice how taken aback he is when his compatriots suggest murdering his family instead of exiling them in his final episode. Lord Edmund is ruthless and cunning, but while he kind of vaguely wants to marry Queenie and wouldn't mind being king, he's not that ambitious when you get down to it. As said above, he mainly just wants to live an easy life and, crucially, more or less can; when he's not dealing with the scrapes he gets into, he seems to have things pretty good, so there's no real need for him to plot against other people unless something provokes him to. And while Captain Blackadder has goals, they're a lot more sympathetic; he's not really scheming for power or wealth or to hurt someone else, he mainly just wants to not die in a pointless bloodbath in a war that pretty much everyone agrees wasn't really worth the misery it caused, which is something almost everyone can pretty much get behind. Furthermore, aside from the whole "First World War" issue Captain Blackadder otherwise seems fairly okay with his lot in life; he doesn't want to be king or anything. Regency Blackadder, however, is in reduced circumstances, is bitter about it, wants to get back on the top in some way, and certainly doesn't mind stepping over others for his own benefit. It's a more villainous combination.

* So how did the Blackadder line survive Henry VII's purges? Given that he went to the extremes of writing out an entire monarch, he seems a bit shoddy to allow his descendants to openly announce themeslves.

** The later Blackadders are not exactly open about their royal ancestry; yes, the Regency one does become Prince Regent (and later king, presumably), but that's as a result of impersonating the Prince and seizing the opportunity to make this permanent when the latter is killed, not because he wants to restore the Blackadder dynasty as the royal family.
** Given that no-one but Edmund himself ever used the Black Adder nickname, it's entirely possible Henry VII wouldn't have made the connection at all. Alternatively, Edmund ''had'' saved his life in the first episode so an illegitimate child might have been spared in recognition, and given the name (which Baldric knows) to cover up the real ancestry.

** To be completely fair to Baldrick on this one, he might have been asking the question in the context of "what around here is ''available'' for me to use" rather than "I don't know what objects are flammable". Blackadder just responded in the second way because, well, he has a pretty low opinion of Baldrick's overall intelligence.

** It's an issue of responsibility. Baldrick is only Blackadder's dogsbody, remember, so Blackadder is going to take the blame for anything he does wrong. Dr Johnson had left the dictionary at the Prince Regent's palace and Blackadder, as the head butler, was responsible for what happened to it.

** They did indeed tell Edmund of what they would do to whomever had burnt Dr Johnson's life's work. Coupled with the abovementioned Baldrick being Edmund's only dogsbody and its no wonder.

*** Not to mention that Dr Johnson would have had something crucial that Blackadder didn't: a secretary.

** See Baldrick's original suggestion regarding how Edmund could have posed as the prince to trick the Duke; add on the fact that Prince George was an idiotic layabout who is only recorded as going out to a few key gentlemens' clubs, and it wouldn't be impossible to assume that Blackadder got away with it by attending different clubs from his deceased master and aoiding spending too much time with anyone who knew the Prince that well.

** Also Blackadder, unlike George, is not a boorish sex-crazed oaf with the intelligence of a broken pencil point. I dare say a substantial amount of people probably were not fooled by the switch but since on the whole Blackadder was a trade-up in every possible way, they just decided SureLetsGoWithThat.

** Conventional wisdom has it that the addition of Creator/BenElton to the scriptwriting team improved the series immensely. I'd disagree with it, after all some of the lines in the first series are as good as anything as anything in the later series. ('So what you're telling me is that something you have never seen is slightly less blue than something else you have never seen', 'Curses are pretty much the same really. I brought this one for half an egg 'Dear Enemy, I curse you and hope that something quite unpleasant happens to you, like an onion falling on your head'"). But the big change is that Rowan Atkinson horribly overreacts and gurns in the first series...and turning him into a DeadPanSnarker improves him immensely.

** Despite Edmund's general ineptitude with women, it's quite possible he fathered at least one illegitimate child, and that child (or their descendants) later rediscovered their heritage and retook the Blackadder name.

* In ''The Black Adder'', Prince Edmund is the Duke of Edinburgh, implying that King Richard IV is the King of Scotland. Wasn't Scotland an entirely separate Kingdom from England at that time?

** There were a lot of border skirmishes and minor wars between England and Scotland in the Middle Ages, and a lot of territory around the border changed hands quite frequently. Given how violent and warlike Richard was, it's possible that during his kingdom he either led an attack which was successful enough to capture Edinburgh or, given how friendly he was with [=MacAngus=], that he was successful enough to be declared King of Scotland as well. Then, when he died the Scottish took the opportunity to take it back. And because Henry Tudor was busy rewriting history, everyone decided it would be prudent to pretend that that had never happened.