Found in “The Story of Edinburgh Castle” (1913), by Louis Wierter, this is Munro S. Orr’s rendering of the Black Dinner. Things in the picture that did not happen: the dinner; the black bull’s head; the weeping child King James II; the 16 year old Earl of Douglas valiantly, though ineffectively, fighting off the King’s soldiers. Sorry. But it’s a great illustration of the thing that didn’t happen!
In 1440, King James of Scotland was 10 years old, and the power struggles around the throne were deadly. The Douglases weren’t, at the moment, as powerful as they had been, but would be stronger any minute, as the 16 year old 6th Earl of Douglas would indeed be getting older. Unless somebody murdered him first! There’s an idea! Were the 6th Earl and his little brother invited to Edinburgh, given a mock trial and beheaded? Yes. Yes, they were. Was there a dinner first, at which their upcoming deaths were announced by a black bull’s head being slammed on the table? No, and no. Was the child king there, sobbing and begging for their lives? Nope. Did George R.R. Martin know this famous story, and did it influence his Red Wedding? Yes. But that still doesn’t make it true.
Dante, accompanied by Virgil, attempts to talk to one of the traitors frozen in the ice of the third level of the 9th circle of hell, where the sinners who were traitors to guests or hosts hang out. This is Gustave Doré’s illustration of the frozen lake, from the expensive folio volume of the Inferno that Doré published in 1861.
As far as we can figure out, the only reason that anybody knows anything about Fra Alberigo, who murdered a couple of kinsmen at a banquet in 1285 in Faenza, is that Dante stuck him in the traitors’ level of hell in the Inferno. Horrible crime! Violation of the ancient laws of hospitality! But he didn’t get arrested, he didn’t go to trial, he just ended up in Hell before he actually died, because Dante tweaked theology, and so now he lives on. Forever. In footnotes to the Inferno. We discuss the Jovial Friars, the 9th circle of hell, and medieval lasagne. Indeed, if you go over to the Show Notes, we’re including a recipe. Oh, and also the Maryland State Flag, but you have to listen to the podcast to find out why. Update: He was fined, and he had to leave town. So there’s that.
Special! Extra illustration! This map of Dante’s Inferno was created by Botticelli, in a manuscript commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici in the last part of the 15th century. We would have used Botticelli’s illustration of the frozen lake, if it existed, but his illustration of the traitors doesn’t include the hospitality sinners. In this map, they are WAY down at the bottom of the map, just before you get to Satan.
