General Luigi Cadorna: Italy's Controversial WW1 General
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
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Source/Further reading:
General biographies:
www.scribd.com/book/21989745
spartacus-educational.com/FWW...
www.esercito.difesa.it/en/Hist...
• Padre Pio salva il Gen...
www.firstworldwar.com/bio/cad...
Early years: www.scribd.com/book/21989745
Leadership in war and assessment of Cadorna:
www.scribd.com/book/445185855
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full...
www.jstor.org/stable/20081235...
www.jstor.org/stable/26306396
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1105...
www.airuniversity.af.edu/Port...
Disciplinary measures and use of summary executions:
www.museodellaguerra.it/wp-co...
Spring Offensive: encyclopedia.1914-1918-online...
Advance on Gorizia:
cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handl...
Defeat at Caporetto:
encyclopedia.1914-1918-online...
Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to keeps.com/biographics to get 50% off your first order of Keeps hair loss treatment.
Palanasa? Pallanza (doble L makes a stornger sound...z is more like TS sound)
same goes for Trieste (both e needs to be pronouced)
Simon how did you decide to embrace your baldness or did it all go at once? (Not pss taking)
We need something on Mary Anning, paleontologist that discovered Icthyosaur and got taken advantage of by scientists of her time
Too late for me too simon!. But at least we make bald look good!! Haha!
I know you are a busy man( your mug is everywhere on youtube) but I hope this suggestion finds it way to you. Have you ever heard of the normandie nieman? A group of french fighter pilots who ended up flying for the Soviets in world war two?? Unlikeliest of allies but hence the ancient arab proverb " the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Thanks again and hope all is well
Italian Army: So how many Battles of the Isonzo are you planning?
General Luigi Cadorna: Yes.
All the battles......all the battles..... they will flow into one.
11 battles of the Isonzo River by Cadorna
its over 9,000
@@lcupmustard6114 I love the sarcasm
Fans of the channel "The Great War" remember how many facepalms were done with this guy. How many battles of the Isonzo river?
Fourteen if I'm correct. Sometimes I here Indy Neidell in my thoughts.. "Today starts the ..th battle of the Isonzo River!!"🤣🤣
edit: It's twelve. Indy is not gonna be happy🤫
I honestly can't tell. I must have lost count. But I bet Indy Neidell would know the answer to that. He knows everything.
Oh yes indeed! The man's obstinacy killed more Italians than the AH Empire, in my view.
Its 12 battles of Isonzo river.. although I sarcastically would say,there were 13 battles of the Isonzo river...12 battle of the Isonzo being The huge Austro-German Offensive which crushed Two Italian Armies..and almost knocked Italy out of the War .. although one good thing happened Cadorna was fired by Victor Immanuel
Just saw your post after I made the same reference. Oh, yeah, bad.
"Cut and shaped from the hardest granite by a maestro whose vigor was greater than his artistic ability" said Gabrielle d annunzio
"It's a nice way to say I'm ugly" responsed Luigi cadorna
He is an old Roman simply molded in the Cast from Antiquity ... another way to say he was pretty ugly.
A General who seemed to hate his own troops more than the enemy. WTF
Sounds like behavior borne out of the Italian reunification campaigns of the 1800s.
@@dtice69 true, the Piedmontese had to deal with brigands in what was the former Kingdom of Naples, in the first years of the kingdom of Italy.
This wasn’t a rare trait. WW1 was covered in horrific reactions for field marshal generals wanting to play war, out dated line-infantry, and cavalry doctrines were almost immediately stopped into the ground and many generals kept trying to play the old’ tactics and punished the soldiers for being torn to shreds by artillery or mowed down with machine gun fire.
Austro-Hungary were so careless with their men that they sent 1 million men over a frozen alpine region in cardboard soled boots and no winter clothing. Only to loose 900 thousand to hypothermia… they did this twice.
The Ottomans stupid winter offensive in Armenia destroyed their army at the start of the war. The Russians sent their men to attack German positions in an "enemy at the gates" style where there was not enough rifles for all men, so if a comrade died then you would pick up his gun and continue the fight.
But Falkenhayn was an idiot who refused to realize that frontal attacks against a well defended position is doomed to fail, even if you repeat the same mistake 2000 times over. And the result was the German bloodbath at Verdun. Douglas Haig is often called the biggest idiot General ever. And sure, he is one of the biggest idiot commanders in history. But he was a military genius compared to Hötzendorf, Cadorna and the French Generals in 1914 that made mass attacks with bayonets against well dug in German troops behind barbed wire with lots of machine guns. The average age among the many hundreds of French Generals in 1914 was around 70 or 80 if I remember correctly what John Keegan said. So it is not surprising that those old men had no idea how modern warfare did work. They were stuck in the old ways of the 1800's, with colorful uniforms, cavalry, bayonet charges, and troops walking in line formation to military music.
And when they time and time again saw their men get slaughtered, they refused to learn from their past mistakes and change tactics.
One can only hold the military leadership in World war 1 in total contempt. The worst generation of commanders in history.
@@ittositto6494 To be fair to those generals, they were trying to figure the new rules of warfare when the old ones were being torn to shreds. Each failure required lives, but to quite trying was to accept the destruction of your country: Three major empires disintegrated because they lost. What combinations of principles were still valid? which were not?
I'm not saying that some of them weren't stubborn and kill a lot of unnecessary people. But they were in a tough spot.
Though Cardona is a particularly stubborn general who fought the same battle with the same tactics repeatedly. Other generals were shaking things up, and while they were still getting men killed, it wasn't quite the same way each time. Cardona... not so much.
The WW1 Italian General that gave a new meaning to “Meat Grinder”. RIP to all those Italian soldiers who perished in the unnecessary frontal charges against modern weaponry in WW1
@Prussia How does it feel getting whooped by Napoleon
@Prussia Overall, a pretty pointless war that didn't really achieve much. Just a needless waste of lives that would also spread Influenza.
Italy wasted hundreds of thousands of lives, all because it thought it “deserved” the right to commit cultural genocide against the Austrians of South Tyrol. Pathetic. If the Italian political leaders hadn’t been treacherous turncoats and had maintained their alliance with Austria and Germany, WW I would likely have ended much sooner with a German victory, and Hitler and Lenin would almost certainly never have risen to power.
@@ajstevens1652 It also laid the groundwork for the Rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party and the beginning of the deadliest war in Human History
@@mebsrea bah,humbug.
Well, Simon, now you have to do one for Conrad von Hotzendorf, the other world famous military visionary of World War 1.
Sarcasm detected.
MASSIVE sarcasm detected. 😜
Classic conrad
I m an Indy nidell fan
Konrad was indys favorite. 🤣😂
Hotzendorf was the greatest strategic mastermind of his time!
@@wyatthill6252 Ufff. Thats a Statement 🤣
How to summon all of the Great War's fans at once.
We need Conrad von Hotzendorff and Osker Poteorik now ...that would make the most incompotent general of Great War
Yeppp
2:15 - Chapter 1 - Kidnapped !!!
4:15 - Chapter 2 - The disciplinarian
6:15 - Chapter 3 - Lead up to war
8:15 - Chapter 4 - Who are we fighting against ?
10:50 - Chapter 5 - (Un)friendly fire
13:15 - Chapter 6 - Something new on the alpine front
16:10 - Chapter 7 - Defeats & miracles
19:20 - Chapter 8 - Scapegoats
20:55 - Chapter 9 - A final assessment
The Legend Cadorna. The Master of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yet Italians managed to win the majority of Isonzo Battles
@@NoName-hg6cc at the cost of many Men. If you are a good general, you can win battles without losing too many Men.
@@Friedrich25-ph3wu So did the French and the English. How come they are considered good?
@@NoName-hg6cc They realize their mistakes unlike Cardona who had the guts to blame his troops.
@@Friedrich25-ph3wu Again, proofs?
Indy Neidell roasted him in the great war lol
Oh I love that channel. Indy, Spartacus and the Queen of f^*king everything
Time Ghost Army!!
You should see how much we roast him in Italy even today.
Hell, he kept at it even with WW2 channel. Everytime Italy's war (mis)fortunes came up, he had phone calls to afterlife to inform Cadorna of it. He ended one call by "well, you're now dead Luigi, so you don't have anything to worry about."
Cardona was the worst general in all of the Great War. And that's saying something.
Probably a tied first place with Conrad.
@@erikk4555 agreed.
Three way tie with him, Conrad and Haag?
@@reillyberg7761 Haag was slightly less bad. I'd day the Russian who failed to support the North front of the Brusilov Offensive. He caused thousands to needlessly die in outdated mass attacks and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
@@theoutlook55 I knew somebody was gonna mention Haig😂. There were so many bad commanders in WW1, it's shocking. The worst defeat most be lead by Oskar Potiorek.
Mussolini's face when he realized his mistake 21:13 .
I figured he was tripping on something.
Conrad von Hötzendorf gets a bad rap as the worst general of WWI, but hands down Cadorna takes the cake. He embodies all of the traits that made generals terrible in that war, blind arrogance, draconian treatment of his own troops, a total lack of accountability, and a style of conducing warfare completely divorced from the grounds of reality, stubbornly upheld in the face of a thousand harsh truths that anyone with open eyes could see.
What an asshole.
Conrad would have fared much better in the Imperial German Army than the Austro-Hungarian Army, as the German Army pretty much had the preparation and infrastructure that would have enabled Conrad's military strategies and doctrine to work. Not the case with Austria-Hungary, which was night and day by comparison.
I think Enver Pasha should be mentioned in the breath as Cadorna and von Hotzendorf.
Fouch, Joffre, Haig...
@@chrisvickers7928 Osker Poteorik must not be forgotten he bungled the invasion's of Serbia and The Great Austro-Hungarian Empire with its incompotent Generals , equipment and belief's was humiliated by a tiny Balkan nation
@@NoName-hg6cc Yes, those are some other generals from WWI, what's your point?
Cadorna: The executions will continue until moral improves.
Truly, no Soviet field marshal could've said it better.
@@bosmerfromcanada3878 Most of the Soviet senior officers their own lives weren't really safe. The executions of own troops and officers wasn't the idea of the army officers in the Soviet Union. The Party Commisars were responsible most of the times.
@@erikk4555 In Canada, we call them Liberal Ministers...or security guards in blue TSA-like uniforms. Same thing.
@@bosmerfromcanada3878 I don't know what that means and what you're talking about..
@@erikk4555 Thanks to Lavrenty "Pedo" Beria for executing most of soviet generals.
Now we just need a video on Franz Conrad Von Hotzendorff
Luigi Cardona is the only General that could lose to him.
@@Marinealver Best quote I saw about the pair of them: "The Stoppable force meets the Moveable object" XD
@@bdillon3747 or a case of "stormtrooper vs redshirt". Which is, that the stormtrooper misses every shot but the redshirt dies anyway.
Suggestion for a video related to WW1 character- Conrad von Hotzendorff, Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army Chief of Staff
Ahh, the man that invented the "Italy is incompetent" meme for us history memers to laugh at. Thanks Cardonna!
Its 'a me, Mussolini
Let's 'a go *invades Africa*
Oh 'a no *Switches sides*
You're welcome.
@@bundleofhumble3119 that's what happens when you join a war unprepared, due to some bald man, with dreams of remaking a new Roman empire.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 😁
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Mussolini?
He is the one of the main reasons for the crushing defeat of Caporetto, luckily he was replaced by Armando Diaz but the damage was already done
Good video.
Speaking of other major Italian militaristic figures of the time, you should do a video on Gabriele D'Annunzio: extravagant person, poet, politician, and fighter, who played a major, but not entirely direct role in the rise of fascism.
did someone say VOLO SV FIVME
OH YES THE VATE HIMSELF CHADD’ANNUNZIO
Luigi Cadorna is basically a real life Zap Brannigan.
As an italin, I have always believed he was low key bribed by Austro-Hungary. I have been in the Alps, and it is kinda hard there to not see a massive deployment of troops
If he got a brother, his name must be Mario...
Simon, if it wasn't for you, I'd have very little use for UA-cam lol
If it wasn't for Simon I would have another spare hour each day.
I dream of a bald man talking to me
@@kieronparr3403 I'm bald... 😚😚😚😉 lol
There's Common Sense Skeptic, Thunderf00t, Real Engineering, Historia Civilis, Scholagladiatoria, Lindybeige, Shadiversity, Metatron, Numberphile and others.
those videos of people getting scared as well in a try not to laugh are fucking Hilarious
Please do Salazar of Portugal, I think it would be aa great one! Lots of interesting stories to tell.
Great video! This guy definitely was a character for sure. Would you please do an episode on Oswald Boelcke; Germany's first ace of WWI? He also has the distinction of being called the "Father of Air Fighting Tactics" for his innovative maneuvers that set the standard for military aviation. Also, among his 40 confirmed victories was Victor Chapman, the first American to be killed in air combat. I believe he was also was a mentor to the Red Baron if I'm not mistaken.
Other recommendations for WWI episodes:
- Paul von Hindenburg
- John J. Pershing
- Aleksei Brusilov
- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Great content, and delivery! I'm a fan of all of your channels. I was wondering if you would do a Biographics episode on Rafael Trujillo. He was one of the worst dictators of the 20th century and few people outside the Dominican Republic seem to know about him.
Excellent commentary. You sum it up very well: Another WW1 General
Love to see some more historic italian figures
Luigi "Bloody foam all the way to Rome" Cadorna
The Great War channel absolutely excoriated Cadorna. Recommended watching if interested in WW 1.
Baron Svetozar Borojević von Bojna was the only Croat to attain the rank of Feldmarschall during this period. He was praised, by both the Central Powers and by the Entente, as one of the best WWI generals when it came to the use of defensive tactics. Under his command, the Austro-Hungarian army actually outlived the empire itself, remaining under colours even after various parts of the Monarchy broke away. As a staunch Habsburg loyalist, when revolution broke out in Austria as the whole empire was disintegrating, he offered to the Emperor to march on Vienna and crush the revolt. The offer was rejected by the Austrian government (which at that point more or less turned their backs to the Emperor), and it was never made clear if the Emperor was even made aware of the offer in the first place (Borojević never bought that the Emperor was informed).
In just about every picture of Mussolini i have ever seen, he looks absolutely bat poop crazy. And Bio graphics did not disappoint.
The Italians were crushed so easily at Caporetto because they had virtually no experience with fighting mobile battles, while the Germans and Austro-Hungarians had plenty of experience fighting mobile battles in the east, such as infiltration tactics.
Mmm...no, it's mostly because of a series of factors, among which: tiredness, numerical inferiority on some salient points etc...etc...
As an italian I'm surprised to see the brits didn't translate Verona with some weird name like Verun
"I can totally take the Isonzo river"
- Someone who can TOTALLY take the isonzo river
Hey could you do one on Georgy Malenkov to round out the major post-Stalin players? Your Georgy Zhukov one was brilliant (as always).
Even if Malenkov doesn't meet the notability/influence level to get his own vid it'd get a lot of views, especially from those who've seen Jeffrey Tambor's performance of him in Death of Stalin.
Can you do a video on António Salazar the Portuguese dictator who ruled Portugal for 48 years.
Great video. Say, can we please have one about Anton Szandor LaVey?
You can't do Cadorna without also doing Hötzendorf, they're two sides of the same coin.
Not entirely, in tactical and strategical incompetence yes, but in things like like the use of decimation and capital punishment, Cadorna was way worse.
Cardona is a wannabe Frederick and Napoleon but ended miserably.
Do Tran Huag Dao. He defeated Kabuli Khan like it was nothing.
The Great War a BBC documentary series from the 60’s is unparalleled.
Though I thankfully have no use for 'Keeps', I do admire their logo.
I wonder who is more incompetent: him or Hotzendorf
Hotzendorf gets point for starting the war. Cadorna for being massively stubborn. A stalemate is called for here in the spirit of The Great War.
Well, Hotzendorf fought the South Tyrol offensive against Cadorna and Cadorna actually won
@@alviseossena3238 was that before or after his 3 failed offensives across the Carpathian Mountains in the winter to relieve Przsylm (ignore my spelling, it has several names for that fortress)
But, Cadorna has the 10 battles on the Isonzo
@@JonMI6 it's hard to fight in mountainous terrain,man, both sides even had to use artillery to shell enemy positions, in hopes of some avalanche making some casualties.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 ...using WW1 tactics and technology which failed
The War in the Alps in World War I. There had been a good Austrian Documentary to this called FRONT IN ICE AND SNOW ( FRONT IN EIS UND SCHNEE )
Also good reading matierial to this, the second novel of Erich Maria Remarque FARWELL TO ARMS playing in this scenario to the end of the War.
Can you do one on General Pershing
Always love your videos on historical war figures
Though do you think one day you could do a video on Alexander Suvorov? He’s one of the few generals in history to have never lost a battle
Some further recommendations: General William Slim and Orde Wingate, both WWII heroes in Burma. But more notably, Major Robert Henry Cain (VC).. Who was a complete superhuman during the battle of Arnhem. All the above would make for some awesome biographics.
Can you do a video about Field marshal Douglas Haig?
Caro ragazzo hai fatto un ottima descrizione della storia Italiana in guerra ti faccio i miei complimenti
"If you beat your head against the wall, it is your head that breaks and not the wall"
- Antonio Gramsci
Thank you
Simon would be great if you did a biographics on Toto Reina
"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene" I actually despise Shakespeare except for Tempest but I remembered that and decided to post it.
I'd like to see a video about Saint Pio
In a similar vein, I hear there was also a General Melchett... who happened to look surprisingly like Stephen Fry
Hi can you make a video on Desmond T Doss the first conscientious objector to win the medal of honour and on which the movie Hacksaw Ridge by Mel Gibson is based on. Thank you.
New infantry tactics such as fighting 10 plus battles of the isonzo?
Speaking about WWI soldiers. Could you make video about Milan Rastislav Stefanik? Thanks
Hey Simon. What about covering Grace Hopper. She's a BADASS
Simon, can we get one on Albert Kesselring, Karl Donitz and Friedrich Paulus
Simon should do a video on Anton Lavey.
Lions led by donkeys podcast does an awesome episode on Luigi as well. Its Luigi cadorna redux, episode 132
Do one about Khalid ibn al-Walid
the best "Keeps" ad is the Simon Whistler promotion LOL. Simon lost the genetic lottery for our cheap laughs :P
How about an episode on Admiral Richard E. Byrd?
Simon please post more videos about
-Presocratic philosophers
-Islamic golden age philosophers
Please could you cover Richard ‘Peg Leg’ Lonergan the man who shook Alfonse Capone to his Bones. Thanks.
General Luigi: Soldiers, listen to me, this time I've made the most perfect plan you'll ever hear.
You know that we attack the enemy 11 times, right?
we will attack again
As a fan of Biographics and the Great War channel, this is a must!
Please do a video on Richard Feynman
Could you do a video on Charles XII of Sweden?
Woodrow Wilson Next!
As the WW1 president, he keeps showing up in many of your other Biographics.
Hey Simon do you think you could do one on Robert Smalls? He is an absolute legend that not many people know about, please!?
And he was put in a tough spot. War is hell.
The Great War channel viewers: "Luigi Cadorna? (*ashes cigarette*) I haven't heard that name in years..."
Please do A video on Leopold Lojka!
A great video about a lesser known general. Always love those. Too bad for using Italian names for places that are and have long been Slovenian though.
Gotta love it when I’m on my way to work and Simon is like “guess what!”(im not driving tldr)
@El Bicho Sauceballs xD I hope your just saying that lol you got me tho xD
Please do biographics vid on Tadeusz Kościuszko!!!
Can u do a biographics on Gen. Antonio Luna ? That would be nice
Please do an episode on the life and death of the man in black, Johnny Cash.
Our Roman ancestors just watching from heaven shaking their heads 😂😂
Nah. Italy won
@@NoName-hg6cc but at a high cost
@@thebender7458 Yes, but still...Italy won
@@NoName-hg6cc Romans would have been disgraced on such a victory..The Roman ancestors would say ..much better to die in battle rather than achieve such a humiliation
@@rathinmajumder441 No, my Romans ancestors would have been delighted by such victory, Italy "delenda" Austria-Hungary. Your ancestors wouldn't know, steppe people never have something like "victory" to boast about
Don't forget Konrad!!
Please do Erich Von Falkenhayn.
Please do a video on Philippe Petain! War Hero turns collaborator and dictator after the government he tried to warn collapses against the Nazis.
Do one video about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Do a video on Francesco Baracca
M2H is making an FPS about Isonzo, this was some great backstory.
Already done by Indy Neidell
I’m still hoping they will do Philippe Pétain or Woodrow Wilson, but Italy so overlooked in World War II and World War I this’ll be interesting as always! This story remains me of Paths of glory By Stanley Kubrick.
A video on Garibaldi is needed.
he already did it
Another thing: Italy destroyed AH army BEFORE the dissolution, which was caused, among others things, by the military defeat
Could we get a video on Wendell Berry the American author?
Now do a Biographic of the Three Stooges!!!
So many Italian soldiers died needlessly because of his stubbornness and incompetence.
and Austro Hungarians endured the same under their general's command.
General Stewie Griffin (to General Cadorna): IF BANZAI CHARGING INTO TRENCHES RIDDLED WITH MACHINE GUNS DIDN'T WORK THE FIRST TIME, WHAT THE HELL MADE YOU THINK IT WOULD WORK THE NEXT TEN TIMES???
When Simon counted out all the Generals flaws I kinda thought that those fit almost all of the Generals of the war. If Simon had a Biography of Douglas Haig every word would have worked just as well for instance, he can just copy and paste for several episodes there.
It sadly proves that just because you were a good soldier 20 years ago or more does not mean you understand modern warfare since technology change and never in history has warfare changed more then from 1900 to WW1. Airplanes, tanks and a whole lot of other weapons had made the older kinds of warfare obsolete and the people on the ground knew that but not the ones in charge and they weren't interested in listening.
Haig is kind of the opposite of Cadorna. Haig was incredibly popular throughout the war among the general population and the soldiery with his unpopularity being more of a product of post WW2 revisionism. Current academic thought has returned to the more traditional view that he was a more than capable commander.
@@edwardaugustus9680 I dunno, he was known as "the butcher" among many of the soldiers under him and I honestly don't think any of the generals understood how technology had changed warfare at the time.
First you spend a week firing with all artillery you gathered on a specific part of the front. Then you stop shooting and slowly march your soldiers toward the enemy trenches with rather heavy load. Once one side had run out of steam the other side start a similarly costly counter attack and so on.
I certainly don't point out Haig as particularly bad but just like everyone else he expected a fast moving war with cavalry playing a huge role and he thought pretty long that airplanes were just fancy toys. That is similar to almost all generals, it wasn't until Hindenburg rethought things in early 1918 and used his tactics of stormtroopers that someone even consider doing things differently and there are certainly things to discuss even about that.
But sure, Haig was popular among officers and civilians, so Joseph Joffre probably are more similar to Cadorna then Haig.
@@edwardaugustus9680 Haig was no different from Cadorna
@@loke6664 Haig, Cadorna, the Austrian generals,the Russians, Churchill, the Germans...all though similarly
@@NoName-hg6cc Well, Churchill actually had some different ideas. His plan of a Naval invasion of Constantinople was very different but he forgot a little but still very dangerous weapon: Mines. With 4 wooden fishing ships as minesweepers and Turkish cannons who posed little dangers to a dreadnought but made his minesweepers a target he decided to make a land attack on Gallipoli instead which were about as brilliant as the rest of the tactical geniuses of the time.
As a Naval minister he should been aware of the threat of mines but to be fair is the super modern US Navy actually pretty vulnerable to them today, torpedoes and missiles they have rather good systems against but not so much against mines so we probably shouldn't be too smug against ol' Winston, even modern tacticians tend to forget some details.
All the military Generals of the time was sure the war would be won soon, even in 1916 when the front more or less had been static over a year with no end in sight. I think that say something about them, they were all sure the "walk forward into the machine gun fire" would work the next time. At least on the Western front and in Italy, the eastern front moved a bit more butt that was mainly due to the Tsar's military incompetence (and to be fair, Hindenburgh were placed there and he was likely the best of the generals of the time, not brilliant by any means but at least better).
Do one on Rollo The Walker! My ancestry leads back to him!!
Do the Claremont killer surely
Cadorna? I went to his Textile House once- it was full of thieves. :)