Ten Things I asked about Valentines

Greetings, we all know February is that time of year you're going to see lots of love hearts, teddy bears and let's face it chocolate. Throughout history this celebration has also spanned, movies, books, music and more. The title of this article, I couldn't help but requote a romance movie that had to have Heath Ledger in it. This month I've dived into the recognised date of February 14th. Only to uncover, there's a lot more to it than just being all about love.

Valentine's Day starts with the patron St Valentine. Throughout history, historians have confirmed there have been several saints under the name of Valentines. According to the story, believe it was during the 3rd Century CE, that St Valentinus was a priest living in Rome at the time. Under the rule of Claudius II, marriages were banned. Due to his personal belief by doing so it would encourage more soldiers to be enforced into the armies. Many men wanted to return home to families and loved ones, as you can imagine this law did not go down well with the general public, it is believed Valentinus sought to retaliate, by wedding people in secret. However, this did not bode well and eventually he was caught.

Dying for love?

Needless to say, the punishment for breaking an emperor's direct law was death, and he was subsequently executed on February the 14th roughly in 269 CE. Legend has it, that whilst imprisoned there was a farewell note that he'd left to the jailer's daughter. The two had created a bond after he had healer her from blindness. The note ended with "From your Valentine". We can never say for certain how accurate this story is, some parts of history are always going to be left with unclear answers.

After reading about this I researched more into Claudius II even though many articles and statements refer to his links with St Valentine, there is no record, of their ever being such a ban on marriages. Due to his ruling as an emperor being a very short one after contracting an illness, this is likely why little information is given about it. Regardless, I decided to keep this hypothesis into the story. Throughout my years of researching history, I always find that when it comes to myths and legends such as these, you always find something that is true when it comes to the story. Just throughout time it continuously changes as it's told until you lose the original source!

The earliest card

Origins to the romance of Valentine's Day are not known. On February the 14th 496 CE, the feast of St Valentines was established. Yet much later in the 14th and 15th centuries, we find ourselves the earliest version of a Valentine's Day card. Now held in the British Library, a letter from the 15th century, written by The Duke of Orleans. A Frenchman, imprisoned after the battle of Agincourt. wrote to his wife in rough translation of "I am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine". To date this is the oldest record of valentine's being used in a romantic term ever recorded. We know that many playwrights have used love as a theme for their ideas. William Shakespeare included valentines into his work, in Hamlet Act 4 Scene 5 it reads "To-morrow is Saint Valentine's Day, All in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window. To be your Valentine." Going off a tangent here seeing as that quote is from Hamlet, I'll never forget Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder kicking Shakespeare in the foot saying, "That is for Ken Branagh's endless, uncut, four-hour version ofHamlet!"

Romance becomes more common

During and after the 17th century, romantic notes and gestures became common practice. In the early 1900s, you will see examples of printed cards becoming a popular item with the change of modern-day printing, helping along the distribution. Even now it is estimated 25 million cards in the UK are sold each year… I get about 10% of them. In conclusive, it's interesting to see that a worldwide celebrated even, the actual details behind it are very limited. Yet it was enough to inspire poets, film makers and others to make some of the best work literature that we have to date. Still frustrated at Shakespeare for making my English teacher rehearse sonnets from Romeo and Juliet though… Amor vincit omnia (Love conquers all). Todd A Phillips CE= Common Era References; https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2 https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/when-was-valentines-day-first-celebrated-cards-history-saint- http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quotes/valentinesday.html