[MR] Wikipedia: Founding of San Marino

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

One of the hazards of posting these stories for over eight or so years is
that I sometimes can't remember if I have commented on something before. I
know I've talked about San Marino's corps of crossbowmen several times, and
think I also covered the history of the nation at least once. If, I did,
that was a long time ago.

So today is the foundation day of San Marino. Starting as a monastic
community in 301 AD, the tiny nation claims to be both the oldest
continuous sovereign nation in the world, as well as the oldest
constitutional republic. Not bad for being a 24 square-mile micro state,
the fifth smallest nation in the world. While independent, San Marino is
completely surrounded by Italy.

You can read more about San Marino at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino .

The crossbow corps, La Federazione Balestrieri Sammarinesi, is arguably the
country's most important tourist draw. The Federazione has its own web
pages with some really cool costumes: http://www.federazionebalestrieri.sm
. For those of you who are into flags and such, take note of how their
banners are attached to the poles, especially the ties on the national flag
in the lead photo. (Yes, I know that flag is itself modern, and the flags
they throw and spin are sleeved to the poles for strength).

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆