Rick: What a pity Michael the Drunkard never got a chance to meet Selim the Sot (grandson, by the way, of Selim the Grim).

A pity, in fact, that we have stopped tagging rulers by their attributes. The older generation of English history teachers, just passing from the scene when I went to school, referred very casually and naturally to “William Rufus,” “Henry Beauclerc,” “John Lackland,” “Edward Longshanks,” and “Richard Crookback.” Over on the continent there were Charles the Fat, Henry the Fowler, Robert the Strong, Charles the Bald, and many others whose names brought them clearly into the mind’s eye.

The development of surnames, though of course a great boon to census-takers, lawyers, and bureaucrats everywhere, was, I think, on the whole, a backward step for the human race.