Just thought I'd share this with you. I've just read a fantastic book about an Old English Pirate who ended up attempting to start a revolution in Mexico to retsore land rights to the Indians and liberate the Negro slaves. His name was William Lamport and he was a bit of a genius (mathematically gifted and speaking 14 languages before he was 25). He was a protege of Spain's Count-Duke of Olivares and a friend of Felipe IV. The book gives a great insight into Spain during the golden age and is called "The Irish Zorro". You can find it on Amazon.Co.UK. It certainly brought Madrid alive for me on my visit, as many of the places he lived are still standing.
Please, can you you clarify something for me. If as you say, it is about "an old english pirate" why then is there a reference to an "Irish Zorro" ?? Why then is Zorro being refered to as "The Irish Zorro"??
In the movie, he was indeed an to all intents and purposes an englishman played by (Antony Hopkins, (who in reality is a welsh man) and his Prot�g� was Spanish (played by Antonio Banderas) or did I miss something??
I've never heard of an Irish Zorro, or an Anglo-Irish one either!!!
�Que curioso! �no?
Posts: 698 | Location: Santander | Registered: 11 August 2003
Okay then, brief history lesson. I kid you not, this stuff is true!
Old English is the term used to describe those English who settled in Ireland prior to the reformation and who were Catholics. New English refers to those who settled in the time of Elizabeth I and James I and who were Protestants.
Lamport was Old English. He was sent to London to be educated at the age of 13, but was arrested for treason having been caught distributing an anti-reformation pamphlet in Latin. He escaped and fled to sea, where he spent two years as a pirate before jumping ship and fleeing to Spain, where he became a protege of the Count_duke of Olivares and was given a scholarship to the prestigious Colegio Imperial. An affair with a noblewoman cost him his place at court and he was sent to Mexico as a spy. Here he became enraged at the caste system, slavery and artificial food shortages and tried to start a revolution aimed at abolishing slavery, introducing land reform, equality of opportunity and democratically elected government. He was arrested by the Inquisition and after 19 years in prison was finally burnt at the stake as a heretic. A romantic piece of fiction written by a mexican author is said to have inspired Johnston McCulley to create the character of Zorro, and while the connection is tenuous, it has led to Lampart being called "The Irish Zorro" hence the title of the book.
