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#Families #Feuding #BattlegroundMap #DeadlyFeud

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#Rivers #HeroesJourney #HuckFinn’sJourney #GrangerfordandShepherdsonFeud

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Huckleberry Finn Map by ShylinEatsNutella

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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#GameOfThrones #TED-Ed #RealHistory

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A new video by TED-Ed, the education initiative of the ideas-driven nonprofit, situates the story of HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones" in its proper historical frame. George R.R. Martin, the author of the best-selling fantasy novels that inspired the television show, says that though his tale of medieval intrigue and war draws from a range of historical sources, it clings "closest" to England's 15th-century War of the Roses, a series of dynastic civil wars that lasted three decades.

[If "Game of Thrones" were in the Middle East]

The video charts the bloody, complicated feuding between two prominent royal houses - that of York, represented by a white rose, and Lancaster, represented by a red one (to this day, the historic counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire in northern England are associated with those colors). The dramatis personae includes no giant winged dragons or ice zombies but does feature rival claimants to the throne, a succession of weak or villainous monarchs, dashing princes whose lives were cut short before their time, scheming " protectors of the realm" and plotters across the "Narrow Sea."

Beyond the cast of characters, though, "Game of Thrones" draws upon another dominant theme in the War of the Roses: its sheer, inescapable brutality. The Battle of Towton in 1461, for example, is considered the bloodiest single clash to have taken place on British soil, with the hacked and smashed remains of forgotten men-at-arms still being exhumed by archaeologists.

Here's one historian's account of what followed after the Lancastrians - the eventual winners of the war - began to beat a panicked retreat at Towton. The imagery would be familiar to any viewer of "Game of Thrones."

With men dying in their thousands, the Lancastrian line dissolved by midafternoon, and the leaders took flight. Behind them, defeat became a devastating rout. On Edward's orders, no mercy was shown in victory. Skulls later found on the battlefield showed the most horrific injuries: faces split down the bone, heads cut in half, holes punched straight through foreheads. Some men died with more than 20 wounds to their head: the signs of frenzied slaughter by men whipped into a state of barbaric bloodlust. Some victims were mutilated: their noses and ears ripped off, fingers snipped from hands to remove rings and jewellery in the plunder of the dying. The field of Towton was known as the Bloody Meadow, and with good reason.

Related on WorldViews Was King Richard III a "bad guy"? How "Game of Thrones" explains the Middle East

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ted-ed; game of thrones; war of the roses;

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Watch: The real history behind 'Game of Thrones'

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A new video by TED-Ed, the education initiative of the ideas-driven nonprofit, situates the story of HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones" in its proper historical frame. George R.R.

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#shakesphere #classiclit
There is a commonality among many of Shakespeare’s plays and works of disputes between families or other factions in society. Feuds in England during Shakespeare’s time were very commonplace and influenced many of his works.

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#england#16thcentury
The story of Romeo and Juliet is possibly sparked by the Danvers-Long feud.

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A new source for Romeo and Juliet?

A. L. Rowse

Dr Johnson was 'always inclined to believe that Shakespeare has more allusions to particular facts and persons than his readers commonly suppose'. This was very perspicacious of him; and now that we know so much more about Shakespeare's life and times, we can use that knowledge to illuminate his plays. As a practical man of the theatre, with keen box-office sense, he was ready to respond to what was in the news at the time. This was true of him from beginning to end of his career. With Henry VI he was responding to popular interest in Essex's campaign in Normandy in 1591 - so successfully that he went on to make a trilogy of it. Towards the end, The Tempest was inspired by the shipwreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda, and the account of it that was sent back to Blackfriars - the tornado, total loss of the ship, not a life lost, etc. Similarly, a main theme of Ham- let is the question of the succession to the throne; that and the tragic career of Essex dominated the public mind in 1600-1.. All this is perfectly clear and well known, and yet the knowledge is rarely made use of by the Shakespeare Industry, conventional commentators on his work. Here is a new edition of Romeo and Juliet in the New Cambridge Shakespeare, edited by the leading textual scholar at Harvard, who writes to me regretting that

he had quite overlooked the circumstances that suggested to Shakespeare the theme of feud. Of course, he had ready to hand a literary source in the well-known Italian story englished by Arthur Brooke. What called Shakespeare's attention to it at that particular moment?

Quite clearly the sensation that was made by the feud between the Danvers family and the Longs in Wiltshire, which led to the killing of Henry Long, the son and heir of a leading family there, the pursuit of the two brothers responsible, Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers, to Henry of Navarre, now Henri IV, in France.

This was no mere local affair. The Danvers brothers were courtiers, friends of Essex and of Shakespeare's young patron, Southampton, their neighbour in the coun- try who helped them to make their get- away. The affair created any amount of trouble, and involved the highest person- ages. The State Papers are full of corres- pondence relating to it. The brothers were well received by Henri IV, and, both of them soldiers, good swordsmen, well con- nected and educated, served him in the field. It was over three years before they were pardoned; meanwhile, letters went to and fro, to Robert Cecil and the Queen, from visiting grandees and from the. King himself, interceding for them and putting their case. Perhaps in the end their mother,

Lady Danvers, made the most effective advocate - we shall see how.

The feud had been going on for some time and involved the retainers, in the usual way. There was no question but that the Longs' faction had killed a Danvers man, and then managed to get the culprit off at Assizes. Sir John Danvers, the head of his family, indicted one of the Longs' follow- ing for robbing a church. Sir Walter Long put up a man to indict 'Mr Danvers', a usual way of referring to a knight (as with `Mr W. H.'). It was generally held that Sir John was of a peaceable, 'even-tempered' disposition; but this was far from the case with his wife and two sons, who were bent on revenge.

On Friday 4 October 1594, the Danvers brothers gathered their following together and made for Corsham in Wiltshire. It may have been Justices' day, for there was a considerable party at dinner at Mr Cham- berlain's house: Sir Walter Long, Henry his son and heir, Anthony Mildmay and divers other J.P.'s and gentlemen. The Danvers party pressed into the house; there was a violent scene, and there must have been a scuffle - difficult to make out, naturally enough. Apparently Sir Charles, the elder brother, the shorter of the two, received a wound, for we hear of his saddle all bloody; then Sir Henry, the younger and taller, shot and killed Henry Long. John Aubrey, who was a Danvers

cousin, tells us that 'R. Wisdom and then lecturer and preached that day, and Henry Long expired in his arms.'

The brothers then made across country to Titchfield, to their friend, young South- ampton, for aid. He put them up at a lodge in his park from Saturday to Tuesday, while preparations were made by his ste- ward, Mr Dymoke, for their escape. A servant girl washed the brothers' shirts for them, one of them covered with blood; a stableman later gave evidence as to 'a maidenhair-coloured velvet saddle' all bloody. The brothers, with their atten- dants, were got over the water to Calshot Castle, while waiting for a boat to take them across the Channel to safety. Some years later, when Sir Charles was involved in Essex's rebellion, he deposed that he was persuaded into it by Southampton, to whom he had owed his life.

We need not go into the details of their escape, except for one very revealing piece of evidence. The hue and cry was up in all the country; when the Sheriff was passing over Itchen ferry in pursuit, 'one Florio an Italian, and one Drewell, a servant of the Earl of Southampton', threatened to throw the Sheriff overboard. Meanwhile, the young Earl had hurried off to London away from the scene. John Florio, later well known for his Italian dictionary and translations, was Southampton's tutor in the language and household servant - as such, well known to William Shakespeare, the Earl's poet.

It all made a shocking affair, the knights guilty of murder, and of treason for flying abroad, their property forfeited.

Their gentle old father died immediately after the disaster to his family - Aubrey tells us that 'his sons' sad accident brake his heart'. This was his wife's view too, though she was far from giving up - she took an active step to help her sons' cause. 'To obtain pardons for her sons she married Sir Edmund Carey, cousin-german to Queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meat.'

This is correct: Edmund Carey was a younger son of Lord Chamberlain Huns- don, patron of Shakespeare's Company and protector of Emilia Bassano, the Dark

Lady of the Company's actor-playwright. The more one knows of these things, the more they connect up, and the farther one sees into them. Young Carey had no provision for him from his father; marrying a rich widow offered a prospect for hum though for her - although she went te. Court to lay her suit before the Queen --It did not obtain results for some time.

She was herself a remarkable woman; daughter and co-heiress of the last 10u Latimer, with all the spirit of her famous Neville ancestors. Her sons got their fight' ing spirit from her, not from the father" Aubreycalls her 'an Italian'; he means that she had an Italian temperament (like Emi- lia Bassano!), `prodigous parts for . 3 woman . . she had Chaucer at her f111- gers' ends. A great politician [i.e. intri, guer]; great wit and spirit, but revengeful. We can see that from her letters to Robert Cecil, telling him not to begin the Henry Long's death, but to go back to til`" murder of Danvers' man, the open abuses to his chief officer, and the letters to her son Charles 'of such form as the heart of a man had rather die than endure'. Her husband had been killed with grief; so the Longs have had three lives for one, SI! John and two of his men.

I leave it to othqrs to make any compare sons there may be with the play: til spirited and vengeful Lady Capulet, out t° revenge her nephew; the more easy-Ong head of the Montagues, more peaceablY inclined. Most perceptive people have seen that there is more than a suggestion 111 Mercutio of Marlowe, who was killed ontY. the year before. I will only say that re writers write out of real experiences an what is going on around them, and Shakespeare was close to these sensational happenings through his association With Southampton, the friend - and, I suspect' rather more - of handsome young Hell Danvers (who never married). Moreover' what is the point of yet another convention' al edition of a single Shakespeare Pig' when we already have scores of there, many of them quite good and more t11311 sufficient? Lady Danvers lies under one of the nWsi beautiful of all Nicholas Stone's effigies, at Stow-Nine-Churches in Northampton: shire; instead of a rigid figure, she lie' there in rare free-flowing form as if asleep' (When I went to see her there just after the war, an American soldier had been cli,se°, vered with a crow-bar in the church!) 0;f Danvers were evidently connoisseurs; Henry, later made Earl of Danby, , gave the famous Botanical Garden beside Magdalen Bridge to Oxford. There you can see Lial bearded head over the baroque Port ,. designed by Nicholas Stone. Only ti,,' other day, at the Charles I Exhibition, We could see those features in one of the grandest of all Vandyke's state portraits brought from Leningrad; for it was one of the pictures sold from Sir Robert W.aI, pole's collection at Houghton to Catherine the Great, by his fool of a grandson, to Horace Walpole's proper disgust.

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Shakespeare and the Danvers-Long Feud " 16 Feb 1985 " The Spectator Archive

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A new source for Romeo and Juliet? A. L. Rowse Dr Johnson was 'always inclined to believe that Shakespeare has more allusions to particular facts and persons than his readers commonly suppose'. This was very perspicacious of him; and now that we know so much more about Shakespeare's life and times, we can use that knowledge to illuminate his plays.

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The Grangerfield boys taking cover from the Sheperdsons

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The Grangerfield boys taking cover from the Sheperdsons

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#Fighting #Hatred #Feud #EventheYoung

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#Europeanhistory #extensivefeud
A detailed look at the happenings and chronology of the War of the Roses.

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The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1485 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The name Wars of the Roses (sometimes mistakenly referred to as War of the Roses) is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists.

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“ ‘There ain’t a coward amongst them Sheperdsons-not a one. And there ain’t no cowards amongst the Grangerfields, either.’ “ (110)

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#Inspiration #TedTalk #GameofThrones #WaroftheRoses

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The wars that inspired Game of Thrones - Alex Gendler

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Famous 5 way Family Feud in film History

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Famous 5 way Family Feud in film History

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#AmericanItalian #TeamCorleone

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“ ‘What was the trouble about, Buck?-land?’
'I reckon maybe-I don’t know’
'Well who done the shooting?-was it a Grangerfield or a Sherperdson?’
'Laws, how do i know? It was so long ago’
'Don’t anybody know?’ “ (109)

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“A feud is this way. A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him: then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in-and by-and-by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud” (109).

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A famous American feud, two backwoods families staged against one another with the strongest of hates. Intermarriage and family associations altogether confused the whole situation.

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A famous American feud, two backwoods families staged against one another with the strongest of hates. Intermarriage and family associations altogether confused the whole situation.

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#violence #familyfeud #confusingrelationship #backwoods

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“Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same”(110).

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#domesticfeud#crown
The English War of the Roses was a ongoing fight between noble families in Britain over the control of the British crown.

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Hello and welcome to Feature History, featuring the War of the Roses, a video that is certainly not early this month, and a fancy new intro. Helpful Family Tree http://imgur.com/gallery/U3z6g Patreon https://www.patreon.com/FeatureHistory Twitter https://twitter.com/Feature_History ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My new hire, me, did a great job on the writing, narration, art and animation.

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“ ‘Did you want to kill him, Buck?’
‘Well bet I did’
‘What did he do to you?’
‘Him? He never done nothing to me’
‘Well, then, why did you want to kill him for?’
‘Why nothing-only it’s on account of the feud’ (108)

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#ViolentFeuds #Historic
The Valentine’s Day massacre was allegedly fueled by a strong hate between Moran and Capone and facilitated by their asso

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Forget the Montagues and Capulets; history is littered with real-life family disputes that led to violence. These bloodline battles were waged both formally and informally, through both political means and vigilante justice. Often igniting cycles of violence, these bloody family feuds rarely had happy endings.

From ancient times until today, the bloodiest family feuds in history are filled with stories of honor, vengeance, politics, and kinship. Though that may sound romantic, it wasn't: family feuds often resulted in horrifying acts of barbarism and cruelty, like the Black Dinner Massacre. Some violent historical family feuds - like the one between the notorious Hatfields and McCoys - involved different families warring against one another. Others - like the extended family drama that was the War of the Roses - involved civil wars within a single family unit. But no matter how they began or who they involved, the result was always the same: factionalism, violence, and death.

The Montagues and Capulets may be one of the most infamous family feuds in literature, but these bloody family feuds in history reveal that truth is stranger than fiction.

The Campbells and the MacDonalds were two rival Highland clans in the late 17th century. Theirs was the worst kind of rivalry in Scotland: a cattle rivalry. MacDonalds stole Campbell cattle, and vice versa. Things came to a head in February 1692, when members from Clan Campbell participated in one of the most infamous events in British history: the Glencoe Massacre.

After MacDonalds from Glencoe didn't sign a loyalty oath to the new King William and Queen Mary on time, the government sought to brutally punish the family for their impudence, and make an example of them for other Highland clans. The Campbells were all too eager to take part in the bloodshed.

So, an army of men - including, but limited to, Campbells - traveled to Glencoe and requested hospitality, claiming they needed to camp on MacDonald land. After the MacDonalds had given the group hospitality - they gave them food, drink, and entertainment - for nearly two weeks, the men turned on the clan, killing men, women, and children as they slept in their beds. Most of the MacDonalds who managed to flee the scene of frenzied murder ultimately died in the hills, as a result of the bitter February weather. To this day, some claim the Campbells are still cursed for breaking the laws of hospitality.

By the late 15th century, Florence was more or less Medici turf. The famous banking family was on the cusp of becoming a dynasty. The problem? The Pazzi, another wealthy Florentine family, didn't want that to happen.

So on April 26, 1478, members of the Pazzi attacked and attempted to assassinate the two most prominent members of the Medici clan at High Mass in the Duomo, the city's main cathedral that the Medici themselves had funded. The Pazzi assassins successfully murdered Giuliano de Medici, but his brother Lorenzo managed to escape.

The repercussions were swift: the conspirators were executed and the entire Pazzi family was banished from Florence. For proud Florentines in the 15th century, that was a fate worse than death.

The war between the Hatfields and McCoys is perhaps the most notorious family feud in American history. Lasting from roughly 1863 to 1891, the decades-long conflict between two proud, rough-hewn Appalachian families began over a hog, of all things. Randolph McCoy - the patriarch of the McCoy family - claimed that a Hatfield scoundrel had stolen one of his hogs. The trial - helped in no small part by the influence of William "Devil Anse" Hatfield - did not go in McCoy's favor. And so the bloodletting began: McCoys murdered and maimed Hatfields. Hatfields murdered and maimed McCoys. Young lovers were torn apart. Lives were extinguished before they began.

The feud came to a bloody climax in the New Year's Massacre of 1888. Hatfields surrounded the home of a sleeping Randolph McCoy in the middle of the night, and released a barrage of bullets. Two of McCoy's children died, though he escaped and his wife barely survived.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud had become so violent, the United States government actually got involved, and the case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually, eight Hatfields were sentenced to life in prison, and an allegedly mentally challenged member of the family was executed. After that, the feud fizzled out.

Two of Japan's most powerful clans in the 12th century were the Taira and the Minamoto. One, however, had more power than the other: the Taira basically ran the imperial government. Though the Minamoto had risen against the Taira, it didn't end well for them in 1160. Twenty years later, they gathered their forces again, this time with a vengeance.

War broke out between the two families, with the Minamoto successfully convincing other clans to join their cause. Battles grew and conflict escalated in size until they plagued the country. The war lasted five years. By the time the Genpei War (as we know it today) ended in 1185, tens of thousands of people lost their lives, and a new shogunate was established with the Minamoto in charge.

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The 15 Bloodiest, Most Violent Family Feuds In History

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Forget the Montagues and Capulets; history is littered with real-life family disputes that led to violence. These bloodline battles were waged both formally and informally, through both political means and vigilante justice. Often igniting cycles of violence, these bloody family feuds rarely had happy endings.

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#Civilfued#Resolution
“Friar Lawrence decides to marry Romeo and Juliet in the attempt to end the civil feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.”

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#bloodshead #death
When Mercutio is slain due to the Capulets and Montagues feud ha famously states “a plague on both your houses!” at the fact that his life was taken due to these families feud

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The movie that satirized Romeo and Juliet

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The movie that satirized Romeo and Juliet

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#Gnomes#RedvBlue

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Montague and Capulet family members from the film

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Montague and Capulet family members from the film

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#Romeo#Juliet

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Fun facts about the Hatfield and McCoy feud

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Fun facts about the Hatfield and McCoy feud

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#fact#Americanhistory

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It's America's most notorious family feud-the Hatfields versus the McCoys. For nearly 150 years, this legendary conflict has captured America's imagination, inspiring books, movies, cartoons and even a popular game show, all of which depict a bloody backwoods clash between the warring families. As we separate myth from reality, here are seven surprising facts about the Hatfields and McCoys.

1. Hollywood has always loved the Hatfields and McCoys.
The Hatfields and McCoys saga has been reflected in various forms of entertainment, including books, songs and Hollywood films. Some of the most memorable portrayals of the feud include a 1952 Abbot and Costello feature; a Hatfield- and McCoy-themed episode of the animated series "Scooby-Doo"; and Warner Bros.' 1950 "Merrie Melodies" cartoon "Hillbilly Hare," in which Bugs Bunny finds himself ensnared in a dispute between the rival Martin and Coy families.

2. The Hatfields and McCoys inspired a famous game show.
The conflict is believed to have been the primary inspiration for the popular game show "Family Feud," which premiered in 1976. In 1979 members of both families appeared on the show during a special Hatfields and McCoys theme week to battle it out for the usual cash rewards-with one unique twist. Also included in the prize package was a pig, symbolizing the origins of the feud. (It was the rumored theft of a valuable pig by a Hatfield ancestor that had served as a catalyst for the eruption of hostilities more than 100 years earlier.) The Hatfields won the contest.

3. The formerly feuding families were featured in Life magazine in the 1940s.
In May 1944, an issue of Life magazine revisited the Hatfields and McCoys nearly 50 years after violence among them rocked the Tug Valley area between Kentucky and West Virginia. The article was meant to show how the two "famous families now live together in peace," and interviewed a number of descendants about the rivalry and relations between the two families five decades after the conflict. Among the photographs was a shot of two young women, Shirley Hatfield and Frankie McCoy, working together in a local factory that produced military uniforms. It was meant to symbolize the unifying effect of America's war efforts at the height of World War II.

4. The feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1888 several Hatfields were arrested and stood trial for the murder of two of Randall McCoy's children. West Virginia sued for the men's release, arguing that they had been illegally extradited across state lines. The Supreme Court eventually became involved in the case, known as Mahon v. Justice. In its 7-2 decision, the court ruled in favor of Kentucky, allowing for the trials and subsequent convictions of all the Hatfield men. Seven of them received life sentences, and one, Ellison "Cotton Top" Mounts, was executed for his crimes.

5. A rare medical condition may be partly to blame for the violence of the notorious clash of clans.
In a 2007 study, a team of doctors and geneticists who had studied dozens of McCoy descendants noted an unusually high rate of Von Hippel-Lindau disease, a rare, inherited condition that produces tumors of the eyes, ears, pancreas and adrenal glands as well as high blood pressure, a racing heartbeat and increased "fight or flight" stress hormones. The researchers also collected numerous oral histories from family members detailing the combative and often violent nature of the McCoy family dating back to the feud's roots.

6. The Tug Valley witnessed another violent clash nearly 30 years after the Hatfields and McCoys feud.
On May 19, 1920, detectives working for the anti-union Baldwin-Felts Agency evicted the families of workers who had attempted to unionize the Stone Mountain Coal Company mines outside Matewan, West Virginia. After Sid Hatfield, the Matewan chief of police and a Hatfield descendant, intervened on the miners' behalf, a violent clash broke out that left seven detectives and four locals dead. The Matewan Massacre became a rallying cry for union activists across the country, with Sid Hatfield garnering fame for his defense of the miners. A year later, however, Hatfield was assassinated, purportedly by Baldwin-Felts agents. The events surrounding the Matewan Massacre and Sid Hatfield's murder were depicted in the acclaimed 1987 film "Matewan."

7. There are thousands of Hatfield and McCoy descendants-but not all of them are real.
Sid Hatfield is just one of many notable Hatfield and McCoy descendants. Others include Henry D. Hatfield, nephew of family patriarch Devil Anse, who served as a senator and governor of West Virginia; 1930s jazz musician Clyde McCoy; and basketball coach Mike D'Antoni. There have even been fictional descendants, including Leonard "Bones" McCoy from the television and film series "Star Trek," who was supposedly dozens of generations removed from his McCoy family roots.

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7 Things You Didn't Know About the Hatfields and McCoys

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It's America's most notorious family feud-the Hatfields versus the McCoys. For nearly 150 years, this legendary conflict has captured America's imagination, inspiring books, movies, cartoons and even a popular game show, all of which depict a bloody backwoods clash between the warring families.

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Video describing the Hatfield and McCoy feud

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Video describing the Hatfield and McCoy feud

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#WorldFamous

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The Hatfield and McCoy Feud in Living Color

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Video about the World Famous Hatfield and McCoy Feud.

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#definition#feud

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a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged or inveterate; especially : blood feud… See the full definition

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Hatfield McCoy background and information

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Hatfield McCoy background and information

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#causesandeffects

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The Hatfields and McCoys. Mere mention of their names stirs up visions of a lawless and unrelenting family feud. It evokes gun-toting vigilantes hell-bent on defending their kinfolk, igniting bitter grudges that would span generations. Yet many people familiar with these surnames may know little about the faded history of these two families and the legends they inspired. Who were the Hatfields and McCoys, and what was the source of this vicious and violent clash between the families?

During the most heated years of the feud, each family was ruled by a well-known patriarch. William Anderson Hatfield, known as "Devil Anse," had the appearance of a backwoods, rough-hewn mountain dweller. By the 1870s Devil Anse was an increasingly successful timber merchant who employed dozens of men, including some McCoys. On the other side of the feud stood Randolph "Old Ranel" McCoy. Though not as prosperous as Devil Anse, Randolph owned some land and livestock. Both families lived along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, which snaked along the boundary between Kentucky and West Virginia, and both families had complex kinship and social networks. Family loyalty was often determined not only by blood but by employment and proximity. The families even intermarried and sometimes switched family loyalties, even once the feud had started.

The first event in the decades-long feud was the 1865 murder of Randolph's brother, Asa Harmon McCoy, by the Logan Wildcats, a local militia group that counted Devil Anse and other Hatfields among its members. Many people-even members of his own family-regarded Asa Harmon, who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, as a traitor. While some have surmised that his murder set the stage for the feud, most historians now see this incident as a standalone event.

Relations between the two families continued to sour over the next decade before flaring again over a seemingly small matter: a dispute over a single hog. In 1878 Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield, a cousin of Devil Anse, of stealing one of his pigs, a valuable commodity in the poor region. Floyd Hatfields's trial took place in McCoy territory but was presided over by a cousin of Devil Anse. It hinged on the testimony of star witness Bill Staton, a McCoy relative married to a Hatfield. Staton testified in Floyd Hatfield's favor, and the McCoys were infuriated when Floyd was cleared of the charges against him. Two years later, Staton was violently killed in a fracas with Sam and Paris McCoy, nephews of Randolph. Sam stood trial for the murder but was acquitted for self-defense reasons.

Within months of Staton's murder, a heated affair of a different sort was set ablaze. At a local election day gathering in 1880, Johnse Hatfield, the 18-year-old son of Devil Anse, encountered Roseanna McCoy, Randolph's daughter. According to accounts, Johnse and Roseanna hit it off, disappearing together for hours. Supposedly fearing retaliation from her family for mingling with the Hatfields, Roseanna stayed at the Hatfield residence for a period of time, drawing the ire of the McCoys.

Although they certainly shared a romance, it rapidly became clear that Johnse was not about to settle down with Roseanna. Several months later he abandoned the pregnant Roseanna and quickly moved on. In May 1881 he married Nancy McCoy, Roseanna's cousin. According to the romanticized legend, Roseanna was heartbroken by these events and never recovered emotionally.

The real turning point in the feud, according to most historical accounts, occurred on another local election day in August 1882. Three of Randolph McCoy's sons ended up in a violent dispute with two brothers of Devil Anse. The fight soon snowballed into chaos as one of the McCoy brothers stabbed Ellison Hatfield multiple times and then shot him in the back. Authorities soon apprehended the McCoys, but the Hatfields interceded, spiriting the men to Hatfield territory. After receiving word that Ellison had died, they bound the McCoys to some pawpaw bushes. Within minutes, they fired more than 50 shots, killing all three brothers.

Though the Hatfields might have felt their revenge was warranted, the law felt otherwise, quickly returning indictments against 20 men, including Devil Anse and his sons. Despite the charges, the Hatfields eluded arrest, leaving the McCoys boiling with anger about the murders and outraged that the Hatfields walked free. Their cause was taken up by Perry Cline, an attorney who was married to Martha McCoy, the widow of Randolph's brother Asa Harmon. Years earlier Cline had lost a lawsuit against Devil Anse over the deed for thousands of acres of land, and many historians believe this left him looking for his own form of revenge. Using his political connections, Cline had the charges against the Hatfields reinstated. He announced rewards for the arrest of the Hatfields, including Devil Anse.

With the pressure cooker gathering steam, the media started to report on the feud in 1887. In their accounts, the Hatfields were often portrayed as violent backwoods hillbillies who roamed the mountains stirring up violence. The sensationalist coverage planted the seed for the rivalry to become cemented in the American imagination. What had been a local story was becoming a national legend.

The Hatfields may or may not have been paying attention to these stories, but they were certainly paying attention to the bounty on their heads. In an effort to end the commotion once and for all, a group of the Hatfields and their supporters hatched a plan to attack Randolph McCoy and his family. Led by Devil Anse's son Cap and ally Jim Vance, a group of Hatfield men ambushed the McCoys' home on New Year's Day in 1888. Randolph fled, escaping into the woods. His son Calvin and daughter Alifair were killed in the crossfire; his wife Sarah was left badly beaten by the Hatfields, suffering a crushed skull.

A few days after what became known as the New Year's massacre, bounty hunter Frank Phillips chased down Jim Vance and Cap Hatfield, killing Vance. Phillips rounded up nine Hatfield family members and supporters and hauled them off to jail. Years of legal permutations unfolded as a series of courts judged the legal merits of the Hatfield case. Eventually, the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that the Hatfields being held in custody could be tried.

The trial began in 1889, and in the end, eight of the Hatfields and their supporters were sentenced to life in prison. Ellison Mounts, who was believed to be the son of Ellison Hatfield, was sentenced to death. Nicknamed Cottontop, Mounts was known to be mentally challenged, and many viewed him as a scapegoat even though he had confessed his guilt. Although public executions were against the law in Kentucky, thousands of spectators gathered to witness the hanging of Ellison Mounts on February 18, 1890. Reports claim that his last words were: "They made me do it! The Hatfields made me do it!"

As the feud faded, both family leaders attempted to recede into relative obscurity. Randolph McCoy became a ferry operator. In 1914 he died at the age of 88 from burns suffered in an accidental fire. By all accounts, he continued to be haunted by the deaths of his children. Devil Anse Hatfield, who had long proclaimed his skepticism about religion, was born again later in life when he was baptized for the first time at age 73. Although the conflict subsided generations ago, the names Hatfield and McCoy continue to loom large in the American imagination.

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The Hatfields and McCoys. Mere mention of their names stirs up visions of a lawless and unrelenting family feud. It evokes gun-toting vigilantes hell-bent on defending their kinfolk, igniting bitter grudges that would span generations. Yet many people familiar with these surnames may know little about the faded history of these two families and the legends they inspired.

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4 famous feuds throughout American History

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4 famous feuds throughout American History

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#neildegrassetyson

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If you have a disagreement with your neighbor today, you might head to small-claims court to settle the dispute. But in rural parts of 19th-century America, such disagreements were often solved with the business end of a gun. Here are four bloody family feuds that could have used some mediation.

1. Grahams-Tewksburys: The Pleasant Valley War

Before their feud started in the 1880s, the Grahams and Tewksburys, both livestock ranchers in Pleasant Valley, Arizona, were actually friends and business partners. Granted, their business was stealing cattle from another rancher. So neither family was a pillar of the community from the start. Their falling out occurred around 1882, probably over the stolen cattle, though the over-grazing of land by the Tewksburys' sheep was also a point of contention. At the time, the feud resulted in the occasional fistfight or bout of name-calling, but little more.

Things got more violent in February 1887, when Thomas Graham shot a Tewksbury hired hand who had been herding sheep on contested grazing land. In retaliation, Graham was shot by Ed Tewksbury, who immediately went on the lam. Shortly after, the Grahams and their sympathizers laid siege to the Tewksbury cabin, engaging in a shootout that lasted for hours. The only cease fire was granted to Mrs. Tewksbury-so she could dig shallow graves for her son, John, and his friend, William Jacobs, who had been killed in the melee.

Over the next few years, between 20 and 50 men from both sides were killed, often by bands of masked men, which made arrests a rarity. However, the feud finally came to an end in 1892, when Tom Graham, Jr., the last surviving member of his family, was shot and killed in Tempe by the fugitive Ed Tewksbury, the last of his clan. Tewksbury was tried and convicted, but due to a legal technicality, his case was dismissed in 1895. Tewksbury died of natural causes in 1904 as the sole survivor of The Pleasant Valley War.

It wasn't just the two families that were affected by the feud. For many years before the War started, Arizona had been vying for statehood. But since the feud remained unresolved for so long, many legislators in Washington saw it as proof that Arizona was not yet civilized enough to be a part of the Union. Some historians believe the War might have set back Arizona statehood for decades.

2. Turks-Joneses: The Slicker War of the Ozarks

The feud between the Turks and the Joneses, both of Benton County, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountain region, started like so many others at the time - on Election Day. Most men were given the day off from work so they could visit the polls, which meant they also spent a lot of time in the local saloon after casting their votes. A combination of whiskey and politics inevitably resulted in fistfights, such as the one in 1840 when Andy Jones and Jim Turk got into a scuffle that was soon joined by other members of their clans.

Later, a bounty hunter came into the region looking for a relative of the Joneses named James Morton. The County Sheriff wasn't willing to help, but the Turks saw an opportunity to get back at their rivals, so they nabbed Morton and turned him over. Because of their actions, patriarch Hiram Turk was arrested for kidnapping, but the charges were later dropped. Feeling they'd been wronged, the Jones family got their revenge when Andy Jones allegedly shot and killed Hiram on July 17, 1841. Jones went to trial, but he was acquitted.

Feeling the justice system had failed them, the Turks publicly announced their intention to form a vigilante group to rid the area of counterfeiters, robbers, and murderers. Under the guise of public welfare, they rounded up people from the community, and went after these unwanted elements, which naturally included their enemies, the Joneses and their allies.

The group soon earned the nickname "Slickers," based upon their usual mode of punishment, called "slicking", which involved tying a person to a tree and whipping them with a hickory switch. In retaliation, the Joneses started "The Anti-Slickers," who guarded their allies, and occasionally went after Slickers as well. The battle raged until the Slickers mistakenly went after an innocent farmer and nearly killed him, after which the Missouri government charged 38 of the Slickers with the crime. The arrests diminished the Slicker numbers significantly and led to the feud dissolving over the next few years.

Unfortunately, the Slickers' form of justice caught on with the people of Missouri, as more Slicker groups sprang up that had nothing to do with the Turk-Jones feud. Much like the Turks' Slickers, these groups were easily influenced by leaders with less-than-honest intentions, so many innocent people were accused, beaten, and even killed for crimes they did not commit.

3. The Lee-Peacock Feud

In August 1861, Bob Lee joined the Ninth Texas Cavalry of the Confederate Army, leaving behind his family in northeast Texas. While he was away, the Union League, a civil group created to promote loyalty to the Union and to protect blacks and Union sympathizers, set up a local chapter headed by Lewis Peacock. After the War, Lee returned home to find the League using their political weight to force the area to adopt what the community saw as unfair Reconstruction initiatives. Many of Lee's neighbors looked to him-a former Confederate-as the leader in the push back against this new form of Northern oppression.

To quash his new rival, Peacock rounded up his men and arrested Lee on trumped up charges of war crimes. Knowing he would be exonerated in court, Lee and his brother, who acted as a chaperone, went peacefully. But instead of taking Lee to the authorities, Peacock's men took the brothers into the wilderness and robbed them. They also forced both Lee brothers to sign a $2000 promissory note before setting them free. Alive but angry, Lee and his brother sued the leaders of the Union League and won. But instead of settling the matter, the 1867 judgment only escalated the bitterness between the two sides. When a relative of Peacock's later shot and wounded Lee, the first blood had been spilled in what would become a small-scale Civil War in Texas.

In the summer of 1868, after a year of ambushes and shootouts that resulted in the death of about 50 men, Peacock requested help from the Federal Government. Peacock's political allies arranged for a $1000 reward to be posted for Bob Lee-Dead or Alive. However, Lee had friends and family who helped him move safely about the countryside, allowing him to fight for another year before the Fourth United States Cavalry was sent in to settle the feud. With the pressure on, Lee decided to run to Mexico, but was shot and killed en route by the military. Lee's plan was betrayed by a former supporter, Henry Boren, who met his maker the next day at the hands of his own nephew, who saw his uncle as a traitor.

Even though Lee was dead, the battle wasn't over. His men scattered, but they continued to come back into the area for years to take shots at Peacock and his men. In fact, it was June 1871 before Lee sympathizers killed Peacock, finally ending the feud once and for all.

4. The Hatfields and The McCoys

While the most famous family feud, between the McCoys of Kentucky and the Hatfields of West Virginia, dates back to 1865, the feud's most deadly era began on Election Day in 1882. Three McCoy men killed Ellison Hatfield, stabbing him 26 times before finishing him off with a bullet to the chest. The next day, as the three young men were escorted to Pikeville, Kentucky, for arraignment, the Hatfield clan intercepted them, tied them up, and shot them in cold blood.

Twenty arrest warrants were issued for Hatfields, but no law enforcement bothered to serve them. Oddly, the McCoys didn't seek immediate revenge, as it was understood that, in terms of social justice, the three boys got what they deserved. Still, animosity ran high, and minor skirmishes occurred in the ensuing years, showing that the feud was quiet, but not dead.

However, when business investors balked at putting money into a community that had a reputation for vendetta violence, the government decided it was time to step in. The State of Kentucky began serving the 20 outstanding Hatfield warrants, arresting two men within a matter of weeks. In order to stop the arrests, a small faction of the Hatfields decided to kill the head of the opposing family, Old Ranel McCoy, so that he couldn't testify in court against them.

So, early on the morning of January 1, 1888, nine members of the Hatfields set fire to Ranel McCoy's cabin. As he and his family fled the flames, shots rang out, killing two adult McCoy children. When Mrs. McCoy ran to check on them, she was severely beaten, but survived. The Hatfields' target, Ranel, escaped harm entirely by hiding in a pigpen. The attack was condemned by most members of the Hatfield clan, and, although there were two more deaths and the occasional scuffles for years to come, the majority of the feud fighters had decided that enough was enough.

In all, around a dozen people died during the feud. However, the two families eventually put aside their differences and now see their shared family history with a sense of humor. For example, in 1979, both clans made a week-long appearance on the nightly gameshow, Family Feud, where both sides took shots at each other with pistols loaded with blanks. In this feud, the McCoys were declared the winners, three games out of five.

In 2000, the clans shared the first of what has become an annual joint family reunion, now called the Hatfield and McCoy Reunion Festival, in a weekend full of events that take place in both Kentucky and West Virginia.

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4 Bloody Family Feuds in American History

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If you have a disagreement with your neighbor today, you might head to small-claims court to settle the dispute. But in rural parts of 19th-century America, such disagreements were often solved with the business end of a gun. Here are four bloody family feuds that could have used some mediation.

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The Hatfield and McCoy feud inspired the tv show

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The Hatfield and McCoy feud inspired the tv show

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#familyfeud#steveharvey