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Tower Of London

Tower of London

The Tower of London is officially Her Majesty's Palace and Fortress, The Tower of London, although the last ruler to reside in it as a palace was King James I (1566-1625). The White Tower, the square building with turrets on each corner that gave it its name, is actually in the middle of a complex of several buildings along the River Thames in London, which have served as fortress, armoury, treasury, mint, palace, place of execution, public records office, observatory, refuge, and prison, particularly for upper class prisoners. This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" meaning "imprisoned." Elizabeth I was imprisoned for a time in the Tower during her sister Mary's reign; the last use of the Tower as a prison was during World War II, for Rudolf Hess.

History

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Hess Rudolf Hess The first known fortification on the site was a Roman fortress that Claudius built to protect the city of Londinium. In 1078 William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower to be built, as much to protect the Normans from the people of the City of London as to protect London from anyone else. Earlier forts there, including the Roman one, had primarily wooden buildings, but William ordered his tower to be of stone that he had specially imported from France. It was King Richard the Lionheart who had the moat dug around the surrounding wall and filled with water from the Thames. The moat was not very successful until Henry III employed a Dutch moat building technique. It was drained in 1830, and human bones were in the refuse found at its bottom. A Royal Menagerie was established at the Tower in the 13th century, possibly as early as 1204 in the reign of King John, and probably stocked with animals from an earlier menagerie started in 1125 by Henry I at his palace in Woodstock, near Oxford. Its year of origin is often stated as 1235, when Henry III received a wedding gift of three leopards (so recorded, although they may have been lions) from Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1264 it was moved to the Bulwark, which was duly renamed the Lion Tower, near the main western entrance. A lion skull was radiocarbon dated to between 1280 and 1385, making it the earliest Medieval big cat known in Britain. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4371908.stm] It was opened as an occasional public spectacle in the reign of Elizabeth I. By 1804 the menagerie was regularly open to the public. This was where William Blake saw the tiger that inspired his poem. The menagerie's last director, Alfred Cops, who took over in 1822, found the collection in a dismal state, but restocked it and issued an illustrated scientific catalogue. The menagerie was not to last because the new London Zoo was due to open in Regent's Park. Partly for commercial reasons and partly for animal welfare, the animals were moved to the zoo. The last of the animals left in 1835, and most of the Lion Tower was demolished soon after, although Lion Gate remains. Lower-class criminals were usually executed by hanging at one of the public execution sites outside the Tower. Several high-profile convicts, such as Thomas More, were publicly executed on Tower Hill. Nobles (especially ladies) were sometimes beheaded privately on Tower Green, inside the complex, and then buried in the "Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula" (Latin for "in chains," making him an appropriate patron saint for prisoners) next to the Green. Some of the nobles who were executed outside the Tower are also buried in that chapel. ([http://www.camelotintl.com/tower_site/tower/chapel.html External link to Chapel webpage]) Persons beheaded inside the Tower for treason:
- William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1483)
- Anne Boleyn (1536)
- Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)
- Catherine Howard (1542)
- Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (1542)
- Lady Jane Grey (1554)
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601) The Queen Anne Boleyn, beheaded in 1536 for treason against King Henry VIII, is said to be seen walking around the tower carrying her head under her arm. George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England, was executed (for treason) in the Tower in February 1478, but not by beheading (and probably not by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, despite what Shakespeare wrote). Edward IV's two sons, the Princes in the Tower, may also have died there after their uncle Richard III became king, but they were not executed for conviction of any crime, and what happened to them is still a mystery. Richard III] The military use of the Tower as a fortification, like that of other such castles, became obsolete with the introduction of artillery. However the Tower did serve as the headquarters of the Board of Ordnance until 1855, and the Tower was still occasionally used as a prison, even through both World Wars. In 1780, the Tower held its only American prisoner, former President of the Continental Congress, Henry Laurens. In World War I, 11 German spies were shot in the Tower. Irish patriot Roger Casement was imprisoned in the Tower during his trial on treason charges in 1916. Corporal Josef Jakobs became the last German spy to be shot on August 15, 1941 during World War II. In the following year, Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, was imprisoned for 4 days. Waterloo Barracks, the current location of the Crown Jewels, remained in use as a base for the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) into the 1950s; during 1952 the Kray twins were briefly held here for failing to report for national service, making them among the last prisoners of the Tower; the last British citizen held for any length of time was the traitorous Army officer Norman Baillie-Stewart from 1933-1937. Anne Askew is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the tower after being taken there in 1546. Although it is no longer occupied by the Royal Family, the Tower officially remains a royal residence, and as such, maintains a permanent Guard - this is found by the unit forming the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace. Two sentries are maintained during the hours that the Tower is open, with one stationed outside the Jewel House and one outside the Queen's House.

Description

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace The Tower today is principally a tourist attraction. Besides the buildings themselves, the British Crown Jewels, a fine armour collection from the Royal Armouries, and a remnant of the wall of the Roman fortress are on display. The tower is manned by the Yeomen Warders, who act as tour guides, provide discreet security and are something of a tourist attraction. Every evening, the warders participate in the Ceremony of the Keys, as the Tower is secured for the night. In deference to an ancient legend, a number of ravens are fed at the Tower at government expense; so long as the ravens remain at the Tower (which is ensured by trimming the flight feathers of the ravens) Britain is safe from invasion. The names of the eight ravens currently in the tower are Gwylum, Thor, Hugine, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, and Baldrick. The Tower includes the following towers, listed in alphabetic order:
- Beauchamp Tower
- Bell Tower
- Bloody Tower
- Bowyer Tower
- Brick Tower
- Broad Arrow Tower
- Byward Tower
- Constable Tower
- Cradle Tower
- Develin Tower
- Deveraux Tower
- Flint Tower
- Lanthorn Tower
- Martin Tower
- Middle Tower
- St Thomas's Tower
- Salt Tower
- Wakefield Tower
- Wardrobe Tower
- Well Tower
- White Tower

Location

Branwen] The Tower is located at the eastern boundary of the City of London financial district, adjacent to the River Thames and Tower Bridge. Between the river and the Tower is Tower Wharf, a freely accessible walkway with excellent views of the river, tower and bridge, together with HMS Belfast and London City Hall on the opposite bank. The nearest public transport locations are:
- Tower Hill tube station (London Underground District and Circle lines)
- Tower Gateway DLR station (Docklands Light Railway)
- Fenchurch Street railway station (National Rail)
- Tower Millennium Pier (river cruise boats)
- St Katherine's Dock (Thames Clipper commuter boats)

External links

- [http://www.tower-of-london.org.uk/webcode/tower_home.asp Tower-of-London.org.uk]
- [http://www.londonpass.com/ViewAttraction.asp?Id=48&CategoryId=2 London Pass: Tower of London]
- [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/13436 Authorised Guide to the Tower of London] by W. J. Loftie, circa 1904, from Project Gutenberg
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4098894.stm BBC item on ravens, dated 2005-08-25]
- [http://www.britishtours.com/360/tower.html Tower of London] Virtual Reality image of the Tower of London at Night
- [http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/tower_london.htm History of the Tower of London]

References

- Bennett, Edward Turner, The Tower Menagerie: Comprising the Natural History of the Animals Contained in that Establishment; with Anecdotes of their Characters and History, London, Robert Jennings, 1829
- A DVD box set of the excellent Channel 4 documentary series 'The Tower' was released in June 2005. Category:World Heritage Sites in England Category:Royal buildings in London Category:National government buildings in London London Category:Defunct prisons Category:British Royal Residences Category:Tower Hamlets Category:Visitor attractions in London Category:Prisons in London ja:ロンドン塔

James VI of Scotland

James VI of Scotland and James I of England and Ireland (occasionally known as King James the Vain) (Charles James) (19 June 1566–27 March 1625) was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 until his death, and, from the Union of the Crowns, in England and Ireland as James I from 24 March 1603 until his death. He was the first English monarch of the House of Stuart, succeeding the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, who died without children. James was a successful monarch in Scotland, but the same was not true in England. He was unable to deal with a hostile Parliament of England; the refusal on the part of the House of Commons to impose sufficiently high taxes crippled the royal finances. His taste for political absolutism, his mismanagement of the kingdom's funds and his cultivation of unpopular favourites established the foundation for the English Civil War, during which James' son and successor, Charles I, was tried and executed. During James' own life, however, the governments of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were relatively stable. Along with Alfred the Great, James is considered to have been one of the most intellectual and learned individuals ever to sit on the English or Scottish thrones. Under him, much of the cultural flourishing of Elizabethan England continued; science, literature and art, contributed by individuals such as Sir Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare grew by leaps and bounds during his reign. James himself was a talented scholar, writing works such as Daemonologie (1597), The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), Basilikon Doron (1599) and A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604).

Early life

James was the only child of Mary I, Queen of Scots and of her second husband, Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany, more commonly known as Lord Darnley. James was a direct descendant of Henry VII, through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. James' mother was an insecure ruler, as both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion of Protestant noblemen. Their marriage, furthermore, was a particularly difficult one. While Mary was pregnant with James, Lord Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and murdered the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, for he was the eldest son of the monarch and thus the heir-apparent. He received the name Charles James, the first name in honour of his godfather Charles IX of France, thus becoming the first future British monarch to have more than one forename. James' father was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o' Field, most likely to avenge Rizzio's death. Mary's marriage on 15 May of the same year to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering the Duke of Albany, made her even more unpopular. In June 1567, the Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle. Mary was forced to abdicate the throne on 24 July, giving it to James, then only thirteen months old.

Regencies

James was formally crowned King of Scotland at the Church of the Holyrood, Stirling, on 29 July 1567. In deference to the religious beliefs of most of the Scots ruling class, he was brought up as a member of the protestant, national Church of Scotland and educated by men with Presbyterian sympathies. During James VI's early reign, power was held by a series of regents, the first of whom was James Stuart, 1st Earl of Moray, his mother's illegitimate half-brother. Mary escaped from prison in 1568, leading to a brief period of violence. Lord Moray defeated Mary's troops at the Battle of Langside, forcing her to flee to England, where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I. Lord Moray was assassinated by one of Mary's supporters in 1570. He was succeeded by James' paternal grandfather, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, who suffered a similar fate in 1571. The next was James VI's guardian, John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar, who died in 1572. The last of the regents was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, who, during the two previous regencies, had been the most powerful Scottish nobleman, more so than the previous regents. Historian and poet George Buchanan was responsible for James' education. Lord Morton was successful in finally crushing the families who continued to support Mary. His fall was brought about not by Mary's supporters, but by the King's closest courtiers, who impressed upon the young monarch the extent of the royal powers, thereby encouraging him to take control himself. The courtiers accused Lord Morton of participating in the murder of James' father. Lord Morton was consequently tried, convicted and then executed in 1581; power was thenceforth held by the King himself, rather than by a regent. Nevertheless, James VI did not rule by himself, relying instead on the advice of his closest courtiers. One of the most important noblemen at the time was James VI's cousin, Esmé Stuart, Seigneur d'Aubigny, who had come from France in 1579, and who had been made Earl of Lennox. Another powerful courtier at the time was James Stuart, who was created Earl of Arran as a reward for his testimony against Lord Morton. As Lord Lennox was a Catholic, and Lord Arran leaned towards Episcopalianism, the Presbyterian Scottish Lords found the government distasteful. In the Raid of Ruthven (1582), some Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, captured James and held him captive for almost a year at Ruthven Castle, now known as Huntingtower Castle, in Perthshire. Lord Arran was also detained, and Lord Lennox was banished to France. The King and Lord Arran escaped in 1583; Lord Gowrie was executed, and the rebels forced to flee to England. The Parliament of Scotland, loyal to the King, passed the Black Acts, putting the Church of Scotland directly under royal control. These Acts were extremely unpopular; his clergy opposed and denounced him, attempting to keep his influence under control, lest he grow so powerful as to be bold enough to disestablish Presbyterianism.

English succession

James VI and Elizabeth I became allies under the Treaty of Berwick. James sought to remain in the favour of the unmarried Queen of England, as he was a potential successor to her Crown. Henry VIII had feared that the English Crown would go to a Scot: in his will, he excluded Margaret Tudor, James' grandmother, and her descendants from the line of succession. Although technically excluded by the will—which, under an Act of Parliament, had the force of law—both Mary, Queen of Scots and James were serious claimants to the English Crown, as they were Elizabeth I's closest relatives. Also in 1586, Mary was implicated in the Babington Plot, a scheme which sought to put her on the throne of England after murdering Elizabeth. Elizabeth had previously spared Mary's life after the Ridolfi Plot, but could no longer tolerate the danger she posed. Consequently, Mary was executed for her crimes in 1587; but for the will of Henry VIII, James was now the Heir Presumptive to the English Crown. Heir Presumptive Following her execution, Mary's Scottish supporters became weak; James managed to significantly reduce the influence of the Roman Catholic nobles in Scotland. He further endeared himself to Protestants by marrying Anne of Denmark—a princess from a Protestant country and daughter of Frederick II of Denmark—by proxy in 1589. Another marriage, this time with both parties personally present, occurred on 21 January 1590 at Krondborg during James' visit to Denmark. Soon after his return via Leith on 1 May, he attended the North Berwick Witch Trial, in which several people were convicted of having used witchcraft to create a storm in an attempt to sink the ship on which James and Anne had been travelling. This made him very concerned about the threat that witches and witchcraft were posing to himself and the country. During this period, he wrote the aforementioned treatise on demonology. As a result, hundreds of women were put to death for witchcraft; their bodies were later found in what was then called Nor Loch (now Princes Street Gardens). At first, James and his new queen were close, but gradually drifted apart. The couple produced eight children, three of whom survived infancy and one who was stillborn. They decided to live apart after the death of their daughter Sophia. James faced a Roman Catholic uprising in 1588, and was forced to reconcile with the Church of Scotland, at length agreeing to the repeal of the Black Acts in 1592. James, fearing that dealing too harshly with the Catholic rebels might anger many English Catholics, agreed to pardon some of his opponents, which angered the Protestant Church. In 1600, a conspiracy was formed by John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie (son of the Earl of Gowrie, executed in 1584). Upon the failure of the plot, Lord Gowrie and his associates were executed, and even Protestant nobles began to be repressed by the King. Upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the Crown technically should have passed (under the will of Henry VIII) to Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp; some argue that Lord Beauchamp was attainted from succeeding to the throne and therefore that the heir was Lady Anne Stanley. Nevertheless, James was the only serious claimant to the English Crown; no others, including Lord Beauchamp and Lady Anne, were powerful enough to defend their claims. Thus, an Accession Council met and proclaimed James King of England. He and his wife were crowned on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey. Scotland and England remained separate states (see Personal union); it was not until 1707 that the Acts of Union merged the two nations to create a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Early reign in England

James' chief advisor was Robert Cecil, 1st Baron Cecil of Essendon (the younger son of Elizabeth I's favoured minister, Lord Burghley), who was created Earl of Salisbury in 1605. James was an extravagant spender; only the skill of the Earl of Salisbury could avert financial disaster. He created numerous peerage dignities to reward his courtiers. In total, sixty-two individuals were raised to the English Peerage by James, contrasted to his predecessor, Elizabeth, who had only created eight new peers during her 45-year reign. James also embroiled himself in numerous conflicts with Parliament. Being accustomed to a timid Parliament of Scotland, he did not like working with its more aggressive English counterpart. Before his accession to the English throne, he had written The True Law of Free Monarchies, in which he argued that the divine right of kings was sanctioned by the apostolic succession, and which illustrates James' difficulty in sharing the power of his government. Upon his arrival in London, James was almost immediately faced by religious conflicts in England: he was presented with a petition requesting the tolerance of Puritans. In 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, James was unwilling to agree to their demands. He did, however, agree to fulfil one request by authorizing an official translation of the Bible, which came to be known as the King James Version. Also in 1604, he broadened Elizabeth's Witchcraft Act to bring the penalty of death without benefit of clergy to any one who invoked evil spirits or communed with familiar spirits. That same year, he ended England's involvement in the twenty year conflict known as the Anglo-Spanish War by signing the Treaty of London. Though James was careful to accept Catholics in his realm, his Protestant subjects ensured that they would not get equal rights. In the early years of his reign, many of his subjects did not know his policies—only that he had an extreme Protestant background—there were a number of plots to remove him from power, such as the Bye Plot and the Main Plot. In 1605, a group of Catholic extremists led by Robert Catesby developed a plan, known as the Gunpowder Plot, to cause an explosion in the chamber of the House of Lords, where the King and members of both Houses of Parliament would be gathered for the State Opening. The conspirators sought to replace James with his daughter, Elizabeth, whom, they hoped, could be forced to convert to Catholicism. One of the conspirators, however, leaked information regarding the plot, which was consequently foiled. Terrified, James refused to leave his residence for many days. Guy Fawkes, whose responsibility had been to execute the plot, was tortured until he revealed the identities of the other conspirators, all of whom were executed or killed during capture. Fawkes is still annually burned in effigy during Guy Fawkes Night, celebrated in the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, to commemorate the failed plot. James' care not to strongly enforce anti-Catholic doctrine thereafter ensured that there were no more plots after 1605.

Conflict with Parliament

New Zealand In 1605, Parliament voted four subsidies to the King, who still considered this to be inadequate revenue. He imposed customs duties without parliamentary consent, although no monarch had taken so bold a step since the reign of Richard II. The legality of such an action was challenged in 1606 by the merchant John Bates; the Court of Exchequer, however, ruled in the King's favour. The decision of the court was denounced by Parliament. Relations between James I and Parliament were also soured by the latter's refusal to pass the King's plan to allow free trade between England and Scotland. In the last session of the first Parliament of his reign (which began in 1610), Lord Salisbury proposed the Great Contract, which would have led to the Crown giving up feudal dues in return for an annual parliamentary subsidy. The plan, however, failed because of factionalism in Parliament. Frustrated by the members of the House of Commons and by the collapse of the Great Contract, James dissolved Parliament in 1611. With the Crown deep in debt, James blatantly sold honours and titles to raise funds. In 1611, he used letters patent to invent a completely new dignity: that of Baronet, which one could become upon the payment of £1,080. One could become a Baron for about £5,000, a Viscount for about £10,000, and an Earl for about £20,000. Lord Salisbury died in 1612; another of the King's closest advisors, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, was forced to leave office after being disgraced by the Overbury Scandal. Following the loss of these advisors, James began to involve himself in matters previously handled by his ministers. James' personal government was disastrous for his finances, and a new Parliament had to be called in 1614 in order to obtain the imposition of new taxes. This Parliament, the second of James' reign, was known as the Addled Parliament because it failed to pass any legislation or impose any taxes. James angrily dissolved Parliament shortly thereafter, when it became clear that no progress could be made.

Later years

Following the dissolution of the Addled Parliament, James ruled without a Parliament for seven years. Faced with financial difficulties due to the failure of Parliament to approve new taxes, James sought to enter into a profitable alliance with Spain by marrying his eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, to the daughter of the King of Spain. The proposed alliance with a Roman Catholic kingdom was not well-received in Protestant England. James' unpopularity, furthermore, was augmented by the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. In Scotland, James was despised for his insistence on the passage of the Five Articles of Perth, which were seen as attempts to introduce Roman Catholic and Anglican practices into Presbyterian Scotland. From 1618 onwards, the religious conflict known as the Thirty Years' War engulfed Europe. James was forced to become involved because his daughter, Elizabeth, was married to the Protestant Frederick V, Elector Palatine, one of the war's chief participants. During the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, James' attempt to ally himself with Catholic Spain fostered much distrust. Queen Anne died on 4 March 1619 at Hampton Court Palace and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Rumours were later spread that James was little moved by the death because he had romantic affections for George Villiers. The two met in 1614 and James is said to have nicknamed the young man "Steenie" and bestowed honour upon honour to him, culminating with creating Villiers the duke of Buckingham in 1623. George Villiers was the first commoner to be elevated to a dukedom in more than a century. 1623 (1621).]] The third and penultimate Parliament of James' reign was summoned in 1621. The House of Commons agreed to grant James a small subsidy to signify their loyalty, but then, to the displeasure of the King, moved on to personal matters directly involving the King. Villiers, by now James' primary advisor, was attacked for his plan to have the Prince of Wales marry the Spanish Infanta. The practice of selling monopolies and other privileges was also deprecated. The House of Commons sought to impeach Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, who was implicated in the sale of such privileges during his service as Lord Chancellor, on charges of corruption. The House of Lords convicted Bacon, who was duly removed from office. Although the impeachment was the first in centuries, James did not oppose it, believing that sacrificing Bacon could help deflect parliamentary opposition. In the end, James released Bacon from prison and granted him a full pardon. A new constitutional dispute arose shortly thereafter. James was eager to aid his son-in-law, the Elector-Palatine, and requested Parliament for a subsidy. The House of Commons, in turn, requested that the King abandon the alliance with Spain. When James declared that the lower House had overstepped its bounds by offering unsolicited advice, the House of Commons passed a protest claiming that it had the right to debate any matter relating to the welfare of the Kingdom. James ordered the protest torn out of the Commons Journal, and dissolved Parliament. In 1623, the Duke of Buckingham and Charles, the Prince of Wales, travelled to Madrid in an attempt to secure a marriage between the latter and the Infanta. They were snubbed, however, by the Spanish courtiers, who demanded that Charles convert to Roman Catholicism. They returned to England humiliated, and called for war with Spain. The Protestants backed them and James summoned Parliament, which granted some funding for the war. Parliament was prorogued, on the understanding that it would later return to grant more funds. Parliament, however, never actually met when scheduled. Charles had promised that even if he would marry a Roman Catholic, he would not repeal political restrictions that applied to Roman Catholics. When, however, he agreed to marry the Catholic French Princess, Henrietta Maria, he reneged on his earlier promise and undertook to abolish the same religious qualifications. Charles then ensured that Parliament did not actually meet, in order to avoid a confrontation over the diverging promises. James lapsed into senility during the last year of his reign. Real power passed to Charles and to the Duke of Buckingham, although James kept enough power to ensure that a new war with Spain did not occur while he was King. James died at Theobalds House in 1625 of 'tertian ague' (fever one day in every three), probably brought upon by kidney failure and stroke, and was buried in the Henry VII Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded him as Charles I. James had ruled in Scotland for almost sixty years; no English, Scottish or British monarch, with the exceptions of Victoria and George III, has surpassed his mark.

Love life

Historians have said, based upon an assortment of contemporary accounts, that the King had some male lovers throughout his life and was not much interested in his wife. Growing up, James did not have any parents, for his father, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was murdered and his mother, Mary I of Scotland was forced to flee when she married the suspected murderer, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. His grandfather was assassinated during his boyhood, and he had no siblings. At the age of thirteen, James made his formal entry into Edinburgh. Upon arriving, he met the thirty-seven year old, married, father of five children, French lord Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox who Sir James Melville described as "of nature, upright, just, and gentle." The two became extremely close and it was said by an English observer that "from the time he was fourteen years old and no more, that is, when the Lord Stewart came into Scotland… even then he began… to clasp some one in the embraces of his great love, above all others" and that James became "in such love with him as in the open sight of the people oftentimes he will clasp him about the neck with his arms and kiss him." The King first made Stewart a gentleman of the bedchamber, then a member of the Privy Council, an earl and finally duke of Lennox. In Presbyterian Scotland the thought of a Catholic duke irked many, and Lennox had to make a choice between loyalty to his Catholic faith and loyalty to James. Lennox chose James and the king taught him the doctrines of Calvinism. The Scottish Kirk remained suspicious of Lennox after his public conversion and took alarm when he had the earl of Morton tried and beheaded on charges of treason. The Scottish ministry was also warned that the duke sought to “draw the King to carnal lust.” In response, the Scottish nobles plotted to oust Lennox. They did so by luring James to Ruthven Castle as a guest but then kept him as prisoner for ten months. The Lord Enterprisers forced him to banish Lennox. The duke journeyed back to France and kept a secret correspondence with James. Lennox in these letters says he gave up his family "to dedicate myself entirely to you"; he prayed to die for James to prove "the faithfulness which is engraved within my heart, which will last forever." The former duke wrote, "Whatever might happen to me, I shall always be your faithful servant… you are alone in this world whom my heart is resolved to serve. And would to God that my breast might be split open so that it might be seen what is engraven therein." James was devastated by the loss of Lennox. On his return to France, Lennox was met with a frosty reception as an apostate Catholic. The Scottish nobles had thought that they would be proven right in their convictions that Lennox's conversion was artificial when he returned to France. Instead the former duke remained Presbyterian and died shortly after, leaving James his embalmed heart. James had repeatedly vouched for Lennox's religious sincerity and memorialized him in a poem called "Ane Tragedie of the Phoenix," which said he was like an exotic bird of unique beauty killed by envy. Following Lennox’s death James married Anne of Denmark in 1589 to produce heirs for the throne. The two had eight children with the last being born during 1607. By then James had lost interest in his wife and it was said that she led a sad, reclusive life, appearing at court functions on occasion. His behaviour with the late Lennox, and his distancing himself from his wife attracted wide attention. Francis Osborne noted in a memoir not published until many years later that “The love the King showed men was amorously conveyed as if he had mistaken their sex and thought them ladies, which I have seen Somerset and Buckingham labour to resemble in the effeminateness of their dressings; though in whorish looks and wanton gestures they exceeded any part of womankind my conversation did ever cope withal. Nor was his love, or whatever posterity will please to call it… carried on with a discretion sufficient to cover a less scandalous behaviour; for the king’s kissing them after so lascivious a mode in public, and upon the theatre, as it were, of the world, prompted many to imagine some things done in the tiring house that exceed my expressions no less than they do my experience, and therefore left them upon the waves of conjecture, which hath in my hearing tossed them from one side to another.” A diary entry by Sir Simonds D'Ewes after speaking with James said “I discoursed with him of the things that were secret, as of the sin of sodomy, how frequent it was in the wicked city (London), and if God did not provide some wonderful blessing against it, we could not but expect some horrible punishment for it; especially it being, as we had probable cause to fear, a sin in the prince as well as the people, which god is for the most part chastiser of himself, because no man else indeed dare reprove or tell them of their faults.” Responding to deflect the growing criticism over his sexuality James adopted a severe stance towards sodomy using English law. His book on kingship, Basilikon Doron, lists sodomy among those “horrible crimes which ye are bound in conscience never to forgive.” Jeremy Bentham in an unpublished manuscript denounced James as a hypocrite after his crackdown. King James also singled out sodomy in a letter to Lord Burleigh giving directives that Judges were to interpret the law broadly and not issue any pardons saying that “no more colour may be left to judges to work upon their wits in that point.” A few years later after the controversy over his relationship with Lennox faded away and he began a relation with Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. Carr was made a gentleman of the bedchamber and he was noted for his handsome appearance as well as his limited intelligence. His downfall came through Frances Howard, a beautiful young married woman. Upon Carr’s request James stacked a court of bishops that would allow her to divorce her husband in order to marry Carr. As a wedding present Carr was created Earl of Somerset. During the next two years the relationship between Carr and James became troubled as Carr increasingly preferred his wife. In a letter James complains that Carr had been “creeping back and withdrawing yourself from lying in my chamber, notwithstanding my many hundred times earnest soliciting you to the contrary” and that he rebuked James “more sharply and bitterly than ever my master Buchanan durst do.” At this point public scandal erupted when the underkeeper of the tower revealed that Carr’s new wife had poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury, his best friend who had opposed the marriage. James, angered over Carr’s attachment to his wife, exploited the opportunity and forcefully insisted that they face trial. His wife confessed to the deed and they were both sentenced to death. The King pardoned them both but held them in the tower for seven years. The last of James’ three male favourites was George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, whom James met at the same time that the situation with Carr was deteriorating. Buckingham was described as exceptionally handsome, intelligent and honest. In 1615 James knighted him and eight years later he became the first commoner in a century to be created a duke. Buckingham became good friends with James’ wife Anne, she addressed him in affectionate letters begging him to be “always true” to her husband. In a letter to James, Buckingham said “sir, all the way hither I entertained myself, your unworthy servant, with this dispute, whether you loved me now… better than at the time which I shall never forget at Farnham, where the bed’s head could not be found between the master and his dog.” James in some letters addressed him as his spouse saying that “I desire only to live in this world for your sake, and… I had rather live banished in any part of the earth with you than live a sorrowful widow’s life without you.” A few years later James died with Buckingham at his side.

Legacy

Almost immediately after James I's death, Charles I became embroiled in disputes with Parliament. The disputes escalated until the English Civil War began during the 1640s; the monarchy was overthrown, and a military dictatorship established. The Stuart dynasty, however, was later restored in 1660. Some historians blame James for the Civil War. However, the general view now is that Charles I was more responsible for the state of affairs in 1640 than his predecessor. In the Virginia Colony in the New World, the Jamestown Settlement, established in 1607, and the James River were named in his honour. Both names remain in common use almost 400 years later. In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale named his new promising "Citie of Henricus" (sic) in honour of his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died in 1612. Although Henricus was wiped out in the Indian Massacre of 1622, its naming survives as Henrico County, Virginia in modern times.

Style and arms

Formally, James was styled "James, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." (The claim to the Throne of France, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III, was merely nominal.) By a proclamation of 1604, James assumed the style "James, King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." for non-statutory use. James' English arms, whilst he was King of England and Scotland, were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). James also introduced the unicorn, a symbol of Scotland, as an heraldic supporter in his armorial achievement; the other supporter remained the English lion. In Scotland, his arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); II Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), with one of the unicorns of Scotland being replaced as a heraldic supporter by a lion.

Issue

References

- [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/james6.htm Chambers, Robert. (1856). Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. "James VI." London: Blackie and Son.]
- [http://www.richhillsoftware.com/dave/genealogy The Descendants of James VI & I of England & Scotland.]
- Fraser, Antonia. (1974). King James VI of Scotland and James I of England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- Lee, Maurice. (1990). England's Solomon: James VI and I in his Three Kingdoms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Stewart, Alan. (2003). The Cradle King. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Williamson, D. (1998). The Kings and Queens of England. New York: National Portrait Gallery.
- Willson, David Harris. (1956). King James VI & I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thames

:This article is about the River Thames in southern England. For other meanings of the word Thames, see Thames (disambiguation) The Thames (pronounced /temz/) is a river flowing through southern England and connecting London with the sea.

Name origin

The river's name appears always to have been pronounced with a simple "t" at the beginning; the middle Middle English spelling was typically Temese and Latin one Tamesis. The "th" lends an air of Greek to the name and was added during the Renaissance, possibly to reflect or support a belief that the name was derived from River Thyamis in the Epirus region of Greece, whence early Celtic tribes are thought to have migrated. However, most scholars now believe Temese and Tamesis come from Celtic (Brythonic) Tamesa, perhaps meaning "the dark one". But Rickett & Smith (The Place-Names of Roman Britain) reported that it is more probably based upon Indo-European ta- with a meaning “to flow”. This view was first postulated by Nacolaisen in 1957. There are a large number of river names commencing with this element, which can be divided into three groups: Names with Tam- Tamar (British Tamara or Tamaros, Roman Tamarus), Tame (British Tamos, Roman Tamus), Thames (British Tamessa, Roman Tamesis). Names with Tan- Tone, Tain, Tean Names with Tau- Taw (British Taua or Tauia, Roman Tavus), Tay (British Taua or Tauia, Roman Tava or Tavus).

Course

Brythonic The Thames has a length of 346 km (215 miles). Its source is about a mile north of the village of Kemble, near Cirencester in the Cotswolds; it then flows through Lechlade, Oxford (where it is called the River Isis, a truncation of Tamesis, its Latin name), Abingdon, Wallingford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames, Marlow, Maidenhead, Windsor, Eton, Staines and Weybridge, before entering the Greater London area. From the outskirts of Greater London, the river passes Syon House, Hampton Court, Kingston, Richmond (with the famous view of the Thames from Richmond Hill) and Kew before flowing through central London. In central London, the river forms one of the principal axes of the city, from the Palace of Westminster to the Tower of London. Once clear of central London, the river passes Greenwich and Dartford before entering the sea in a drowned estuary near Southend-on-Sea. In terms of counties, the Thames rises in Gloucestershire, traditionally forming the county boundary, firstly between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, between Berkshire on the south bank and Oxfordshire on the north, between Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, between Berkshire and Surrey, between Surrey and Middlesex, and between Essex and Kent. Before the 1974 boundary changes, the current boundary between Berkshire and Surrey was between Buckinghamshire and Surrey. The area to the west of London is normally called the Thames Valley, whilst east of Tower Bridge development agencies and Ministers have taken to using the term Thames Gateway.

Catchment area and discharge

The river's catchment area may be divided between the non-tidal and tidal (see below) sections:
- The non-tidal section:
- Here there are innumerable brooks, streams and rivers within an area of 9948 square km (3841 square miles), and combine to form 38 main tributaries feeding the Thames between its source and Teddington. These include the rivers Churn, Leach, Cole, Coln, Windrush, Evenlode, Cherwell, Ock, Thame, Pang, Kennet, Loddon, Colne, Wey and Mole.
- More than half the rain that falls on this catchment is lost to evaporation and plant growth. The remainder provides the water resource that has to be shared between river flows, to support the natural environment, and the community needs for water supplies to homes, industry and agriculture.
- The tidal section
- About 90 km from the sea, at Teddington, the river begins to exhibit tidal activity from the North Sea. London was reputedly made capital of Roman Britain at the spot where the tides reached in AD 43, but this spot has moved up river in the 2000 years since then. At London, the water is slightly brackish with sea salt. Below Teddington, the principal tributaries include the rivers Brent, Wandle, Effra, Westbourne, Fleet, Ravensbourne (the final part of which is called Deptford Creek), Lea, Darent and Ingrebourne. The whole of the River Thames drains a catchment area of some 12,935 square km (4994 square miles) (or 15,343 square km (5924 square miles) if the River Medway is included as a tributary). Between Maidenhead and Windsor, the Thames supports an artificial secondary channel, known as the Jubilee River, for flood relief purposes. The average discharge of the Thames grows up to approximately 66 m3/s (cumecs) at the end of its non-tidal section in London. Its discharge is exceeded by some other British rivers (e.g. the Severn and the Tay). See Rivers of Great Britain for a full list of tributaries.

History

Rivers of Great Britain]] Rivers of Great Britain] Rivers of Great Britain (183 metres, 600 feet, once called the NatWest Tower) while on the right is the interestingly shaped Swiss Re Tower (180 metres, 590 feet).
On the far right is the Tower of London]] Tower of London From over 600,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene ice age, until the Anglian glaciation around 475,000 years ago, the early River Thames flowed from Wales to Clacton-on-Sea, and crossed what is now the North Sea to become a tributary of the Rhine. The river followed a path through Buckinghamshire, the southern part of Hertfordshire and Essex, running from the area of modern Staines up the valley of the Colne to Hatfield and then eastward across Essex towards the primeval Rhine. It was later diverted by encroaching ice down the valley of the modern River Lea to its present estuary position. This path was then itself blocked by a mass of ice near Hatfield and a lake ponded up to the west of this around St Albans. Waters eventually overflowed near Staines to cut the path of the modern Thames through central London. When the ice retreated about 400,000 years ago the river bed along the new route followed the lower path and so the river remained on its present day course. The flow in the Colne valley then reversed, now flowing south as a tributary into the modern Thames. Superficial gravel deposits from the primordial Thames are found throughout the Vale of St. Albans. Numerous iron age hoards found in the lower Thames indicate the religious importance of the river. The skulls found near Hammersmith have been interpreted both as human sacrifices and as victims of Boudica's revolt. Within the human timescale, following the example of the local Celts, the Romans called the river Tamesis: Julius Caesar (De Bello Gallica), Cassius Dio (xl. 3) and Tacitus (Annals xiv. 32). Richard Coates has recently suggested that the river was called the Thames upriver where it was narrower, and Plowonida down river where it was too wide to ford. This gave the name to a settlement on its banks, which became known as Londinium from the original root Plowonida derived from pre-celtic Old European 'plew' and 'nejd,' meaning something like the flowing river or the wide flowing unfordable river. The Thames provided the major highway between London and Westminster in the 16th and 17th centuries. The clannish guild of watermen ferried Londoners from landing to landing, and tolerated no outside interference. A versifying waterman, John Taylor the Water Poet (1580—1654), described the river in a poem commemorating a voyage from Oxford to London, In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the period now referred to as the Little Ice Age, the Thames often froze over in the winter. This led to the first Frost Fair in 1607, complete with a tent city set up on the river itself and offering a number of amusements, including ice bowling. After temperatures began to rise again, starting in 1814, the river has never frozen over completely. The building of a new London Bridge in 1825 may also have been a factor; the new bridge had fewer pillars than the old and so allowed the river to flow more freely, thus preventing it from flowing slowly enough to freeze in cold winters. 1825 By the 18th century, the Thames was one of the world's busiest waterways, as London became the centre of the vast, mercantile British Empire. During this time one of the worst river disasters in England took place on 3 September 1878 on the Thames, when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collided with the Bywell Castle killing over 640. In the 'Great Stink' of 1858, pollution in the river became so bad that sittings at the House of Commons at Westminster had to be abandoned. A concerted effort to contain the city's sewage by constructing massive sewers on the north and south river embankments followed, under the supervision of engineer Joseph Bazalgette. The coming of rail and road transportation, and the decline of the Empire in the years following 1914, have reduced the prominence of the river. London itself is no longer a port of any note, and the Port of London has moved downstream to Tilbury. In return, the Thames has undergone a massive clean-up from the filthy days of the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries, and life has returned to its formerly dead waters. It is now the cleanest river in the world that flows through a city. In the early 1980s, a massive flood-control device, the Thames Barrier, was opened. It is closed several times a year to prevent water damage to London's low-lying areas upstream. In the late 1990s, the 12-km-long Jubilee River was built, which acts as a flood channel for the Thames around Maidenhead and Windsor. The Sex Pistols played a concert on the Queen Elizabeth Riverboat on June 7, 1977, the Queen's Silver Jubilee, while sailing down the river.

Literature

Many books refer to the Thames. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome describes a boat trip up the Thames, as does Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog. Somewhere near the Oxford stretch is where the Liddells were rowing in the poem at the start of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The river is mentioned in both The Wind in the Willows and the play Toad of Toad Hall. The utopian News from Nowhere is mainly the account of a journey through the Thames valley in a socialist future. In books set in London there is Sherlock Holmes looking for a boat in The Sign of Four; in Oliver Twist, Bill Sikes kills Nancy just near the river. Also, Dickens' late mystery novel Our Mutual Friend begins with a scavenger and his daughter pulling a dead man from the river, to legally salvage what the body might have in its pockets. Dickens opens the novel with this sketch of the river, and the people who work on it:

In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.

The Thames also features prominently in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, as a communications artery for the waterborne Gyptian people of Oxford and the Fens. In poetry, T.S. Eliot references the Thames at the beginning of The Fire Sermon, Section III of "The Wasteland".

Sport

The Wasteland Two important events in the English sporting calendar occur on the River Thames. The University Boat Race is rowed between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge on the tidal portion of the river from Putney to Mortlake in the west of London. The Henley Royal Regatta is another rowing event which takes place over a number of days at the upstream town of Henley-on-Thames; besides its sporting significance the regatta is an important date on the English social calendar alongside events like Royal Ascot and Wimbledon.

Navigation

Wimbledon The River Thames is navigable from the estuary as far as Halfpenny Bridge at Lechlade. Between the sea and Teddington Lock, the river forms part of the Port of London and navigation is administered by the Port of London Authority. From Teddington Lock to the head of navigation, the navigation authority is the Environment Agency. The river is navigable to large ocean-going ships as far as the Pool of London and London Bridge. Today little commercial traffic passes above the docks at Tilbury, and central London sees only the occasional visiting cruise ship or warship moored alongside HMS Belfast and a few smaller aggregate or refuse vessels operating from wharves in the west of London. Both the tidal river through London and the non-tidal river upstream are intensively used for leisure navigation. There are 45 locks on the River Thames. See Locks on the River Thames for a full list of all locks.

Crossings

Locks on the River Thames The River Thames is crossed by many bridges and tunnels. Famous crossings of the Thames include:
- Dartford Crossing
- Thames Barrier
- Blackwall Tunnel
- Rotherhithe Tunnel
- Thames Tunnel
- Tower Bridge
- London Bridge
- Millennium Bridge
- Hungerford Bridge
- Westminster Bridge
- Maidenhead Railway Bridge
- Marlow Bridge See Crossings of the River Thames for a full list of all crossings.

Islands

Famous islands in the Thames include:
- Isle of Sheppey
- Canvey Island
- Isle of Grain
- Eel Pie Island, Twickenham
- Magna Carta Island, Runnymede
- Fry's Island, Reading (sometimes known as De Montfort Island) See Islands in the River Thames for a full list of all islands.

Religion

When a Roman Catholic converts to Anglicanism, that person is said to have "swum the Thames". The reverse is referred to as "swimming the Tiber".

Notes

¹ Average discharge at Kingston upon Thames. Immediately downstream from Kingston upon Thames, the Thames becomes a tidal river, and average discharge is no longer calculated. If the Thames were not a tidal river, its average discharge in the centre of London would be somewhere between 80 and 100 m³/s, and the Thames would look like a small river, not the large river we can see today by Westminster, the Houses of Parliament or the City.

References

- Dot & Ian Hart (2001–5). [http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/thames.htm The River Thames — Its geology, geography and vital statistics from source to sea]. Retrieved November 1, 2005.
- Richard Bradley/K. Gordon. "Human skulls from the river Thames, their dating and significance." Antiquity. v.62, 1988, 503 ff.
- Culteral Heritage Resources (2005). [http://chr.org.uk/legends.htm Legendary Origins and the Origin of London's place name]. Retrieved November 1, 2005.
- Environment Agency (2005). [http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/recreation/345623/631029/346131/348128/349190/349293/?lang=_e&theme=®ion=&subject=&searchfor=Jubilee+River&any_all=all&choose_order=&exactphrase=&withoutwords=&exclude_itemtype=Station%2C&include_itemtype=Acrobat%20Document%2CAttached%20File_e%2CAttached%20File_w%2CHTML%20Page%2C Jubilee River]. Retrieved November 1, 2005.

External links

- [http://www.visitthames.co.uk/ The official guide to the non-tidal Thames — Boating, fishing and leisure]
- [http://archive.museophile.org/thames/ River Thames]
- [http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/thames.htm Article includes map of the River Thames catchment area]
- [http://www.rrm.co.uk/mus_thames.htm Thames Gallery] at the River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames
- [http://www.fellwalk.co.uk/thamespath.htm The Thames Path]
- [http://www.nationaltrails.gov.uk/thamespathlondon/ The Thames Path National Trail]
- [http://www.marketingreinforcements.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk The Thames from Hampton Court to Sunbury Lock]
- [http://arglist.com/photos/river_thames_london.html Photos of the Thames at central London]
- [http://www.thames-path.org.uk Walks along the Thames Path]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.637411,-1.939774&spn=0.164070,0.390015&hl=en Source of the Thames] from [http://maps.google.com Google Maps] — this map stops tracing the river at Ashton Keynes, south-west from Kemble
- [http://www.riverthames.co.nr/ Largest River Thames Pleasure Boat Gallery] Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River Thames, River als:Themse ja:テムズ川 simple:River Thames

London

London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. As Europe's richest city, London produces 17% of the UK's GDP, and is one of the world's major business and financial centres. The capital of the former global empire, London is a leader in culture, communications, politics, finance, entertainment and the arts and has considerable influence worldwide. arts]] arts] London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,500,000 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. London's population includes an extremely diverse range of peoples, cultures, and religions, making it one of the most cosmopolitan, vibrant and energetic cities on earth. A resident of London is referred to as a Londoner. Over 300 languages are spoken in London, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Initially it was a Roman city and known as Londinium and then as Lunnainn, Llundain and Londain in the Scottish, Welsh and Irish languages respectively. London is known by these names in other languages. London is the home of many global organisations, institutions and companies, and as such retains its leading role in global affairs. A city where cutting-edge meets tradition, London is a major tourist destination and transport hub. It has a great number of important buildings and iconic landmarks, including world-famous museums, theatres, concert halls, galleries, airports, sports stadia and palaces. London is one of the world's major global cities (along with New York City, Tokyo and Paris).

Defining London

Today, "London" usually refers to the conurbation known as Greater London, which is divided into thirty-two London Boroughs and the City of London and forms the London region of England. Historically, "London" referred to the square mile of the City of London at the conurbation's heart, from which the city grew. Between 1889 and 1965 it referred to the former County of London which covered the area now known as Inner London. There are other definitions of "London" which cover varying areas, such as the London postal district; the area covered by the telephone area code 020; the area accessible by public transport using a Transport for London Travelcard; the area delimited by the M25 orbital motorway; the Metropolitan Police district; and the London commuter belt. The coordinates of the centre of London (traditionally considered to be Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square, the Strand, Whitehall and the Mall) are approximately . The Romans marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone in the City.

Geography and climate

London Stone, with Green Park and St. James's Park to its right]] Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). London is a port on the Thames, a navigable river. The river has had a major influence on the development of the city. London was founded on the north bank of the Thames and there was only a single bridge, London Bridge, for many centuries. As a result, the main focus of the city was on the north side of the Thames. When more bridges were built in the 18th century, the city expanded in all directions as the mostly flat or gently rolling countryside around the Thames floodplain presented no obstacle to growth. There are some hills in London, examples being Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill, but these provided fine prospects of the city centre without significantly affecting the directions of the spread of the city and London is therefore roughly circular. The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river than it is today. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level and the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but in early-2005 it was suggested that a ten-mile-long barrier further downstream might be required to deal with the flood risk in the future [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4162905.stm]. London has a temperate climate, with warm but seldom hot summers, cool but rarely severe winters, and regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 33°C (91°F), though higher temperatures have become more common recently. The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1°C (100.6°F), measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003. Heavy snowfalls are almost unknown. In recent winters, snow has rarely settled to more than an inch (25 mm). London's average annual precipitation of less than 24 inches (600 mm) is lower than that of Rome or Sydney. London's large built-up area creates a microclimate, with heat stored by the city's buildings: sometimes temperatures are 5°C (9°F) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas.

History

microclimate bombings of London]] The name London is commonly thought to have come from the Latin name Londinium, as London was founded by the Romans during their reign over the land, around 43AD – although there is some slight evidence of pre-Roman settlement. The [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/england/rom_roman_invasion.shtml BBC History website], however, claims that the name Londinium is actually "Celtic, not Latin, and may originally have referred to a previous farmstead on the site"; the root is 'Lond' meaning 'wild' (i.e. overgrown or forested) place. This fortified Roman settlement was the capital of the province of Britannia. According to findings displayed in London Museum, the initial language of London was Latin with much Greek spoken due to the presence of Greek speaking Roman soldiers and businessmen. Another suggestion for where the name of the city comes from could be that of the mythical leader, King Lud. It was said that Lud laid out the first set of roads in the city. His statue can be seen hidden at the church of St Dunstan's In The West, Fleet Street. Around AD 61 the Iceni tribe of Celts lead by Queen Boudica stormed London and took the city from the Romans. The Celts burnt the relatively new Roman town to the ground, and archaeological digs have revealed a layer of red ash beneath the City of London, which is believed to be the burnt remains of the old Roman town. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Londinium was abandoned and a Saxon town named Lundenwic was established approximately one mile to the west in what is now Aldwych, in the 7th century. The old Roman city was then reoccupied during the late-9th or early-10th century. Westminster was once a distinct town, and has been the seat of the English royal court and government since the mediæval era. Eventually, Westminster and London grew together and formed the basis of London, becoming England's largest – though not capital – city (Winchester was the capital city of England until the 12th century). London has grown steadily over centuries, surrounding and making suburbs of neighbouring villages and towns, farmland, countryside, meadows and woodlands, spreading in every direction. From the 16th to the early-20th century, London flourished as the capital of the British Empire. In 1666, the Great Fire of London swept through and destroyed a large part of the City of London. Rebuilding took over 10 years, but London's growth accelerated in the 18th century, and, by the early-19th century, it was the largest city in the world. London's local government system struggled to cope with this rapid growth, especially in providing the city with adequate infrastructure. In 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works was created to provide London with infrastructure to cope with its growth. In 1889 the MBW was abolished, and the County of London was created which was administered by the London County Council, the first elected London-wide administrative body. Probably the most significant changes to London in the last 100 years were as a result of the Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe that took place during World War II. The bombing killed over 30,000 Londoners and flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of architectural styles and has resulted in a lack of unity in architecture that has become part of London's character. Until their 1997 ceasefire, London was regularly a target for IRA bombers seeking to pressurise the British government into negotiations with Sinn Féin on Northern Ireland. On 7 July 2005, there was a series of coordinated bomb attacks by Islamic extremist suicide bombers on three underground stations and a bus. The explosions came less than 24 hours after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics and as the G-8 summit was underway in Gleneagles, Scotland. A series of explosions also took place on 21 July 2005; however, in the latter incident, there were no fatalities.

Modern London

2005 Today Greater London comprises the City of London and the 32 London boroughs (including the City of Westminster). 12 of these boroughs are defined as Inner London, the remaining 20 defined as Outer London. The dominant centre of activity in London is the City of Westminster (including the West End) which is the main cultural, entertainment and shopping district, the location of most of London's major corporate headquarters outside of the financial services sector, and the centre of the UK's national government. The City of London (also known as the "Square Mile") is at the centre of international finance, and is Europe’s main business centre. The headquarters of more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies are all in London. The London foreign exchange market is the largest in the world, with an average daily turnover of $504 billion, more than the New York and Tokyo exchanges combined. While very busy during the working week, most parts of the City tend to be quiet at weekends, since it is primarily a non-residential area. London is one of the most visited cities on earth. Tourist attractions are located mainly in Central London, comprising the historic City of London; the West End with its many cinemas, bars, clubs, theatres, shops and restaurants; the City of Westminster with Westminster Abbey, the Royal palaces of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House etc., the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with its museums (the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum) and Hyde Park. Other important tourist attractions include St Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery; the South Bank and Bankside areas of Southwark with the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern; London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and the Tate Britain on the Embankment; and the British Museum in Bloomsbury. There are many other places of interest across the city.

Culture

:Main article: Culture of London. London is an international centre of culture in all its forms - music, theatre, arts, museums, festivals and much more.

London Districts

See also: Inner London, Outer London.

Central London

City of London

Outer London]] The City of London is the principal financial district of the United Kingdom, and is one of the most important in the world. It is governed by the Corporation of London, an ancient body headed by the Lord Mayor of London. The City also has its own police force, the City of London police. Once dominated by the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, it is now home to many skyscrapers, including Tower 42 (formerly, and popularly still, known as the NatWest Tower) and 30 St Mary Axe (popularly known as the "Gherkin", built in 2003). The City has only a small (c. 7,000) resident population, but a daytime working population of more than 300,000. Its primacy as the chief financial district has been directly challenged in recent years by Canary Wharf in East London.

The West End

Canary Wharf.]] The West End is the most popular shopping and entertainment district in London. Trafalgar Square is the most prominent landmark. Oxford Street is one of the best-known shopping streets in the world. Running from Charing Cross Road in the east to Marble Arch in the west, via Oxford Circus where it crosses Regent Street, it is home to many large department stores and shops (Selfridges, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer). Tottenham Court Road runs north from the eastern end of Oxford Street towards the north of the city centre, and is best known for its plethora of hi-fi, computer and electronics stores. West of the City, Covent Garden is home to the Avenue of Stars, London's version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. South of Oxford Street's eastern end is Soho, a network of small streets crowded with restaurants, pubs, clubs, smaller shops and boutiques, and theatres and cinemas, as well as media companies and film, advertising and post-production companies. Soho is also well known for its very lively club and bar scene, the notorious sex industry and as the major "gay quarter" of the city. Piccadilly is an elegant thoroughfare running from Piccadilly Circus in the east to Hyde Park Corner in the west. It is adjacent to Mayfair, and Green Park. Regent Street and Bond Street are important thoroughfares.

East London

East London saw much of London's early industrial development and much of it now is being extensively redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway. It was also key to London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and is now scheduled to undergo extensive regeneration in the run-up to the games. This is the second time in modern history that East London has seen large-scale rebuilding: it took the full force of the Blitz in World War Two, with post-war reconstruction leaving a legacy of bleak housing estates and tower blocks in several areas.

The East End

tower block The East End of London is closest to the original Port of London, and tended for that reason to be the area of the city where immigrants arriving into the port would settle first. Successive waves of immigrants include the French, the Huguenots, Belgians, Jews, Gujaratis, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and many other groups. The East End extends from the eastern side of the City of London and includes areas such as Whitechapel, Mile End, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Bow, Millwall and Poplar. The area has many places of interest including many of London's markets, (for example Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market, Petticoat Lane Market), and several museums, including the Geffrye Museum and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

Docklands

Bethnal Green]] The London Docklands, on the Isle of Dogs along the Thames in the East End, has developed enormously since the early-1980s. For a period in the early-1980s, many warehouse buildings in Wapping had been occupied and used as artists studios and low-cost loft living spaces. This inevitably drew the attention of property developers who gradually (and then not so gradually) moved in to take over. The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up in 1981 to accelerate the process, and the first phases of major development started to reshape the area, culminating in Canary Wharf, whose best-known feature is the 1 Canada Square office tower (which is often incorrectly called "Canary Wharf"), which has been the UK's tallest skyscraper since 1991. A massive-scale development within the last three or four years has added a great many more skyscrapers, and many large businesses (investment banks, law firms, etc.) have moved in. A new headquarters for HSBC and Barclays as well as the European headquarters of Citigroup, have now been completed, and are in use. Attracted by this growth, restaurants, bars and nightclubs have opened, there are three interconnected shopping malls beneath the Canary Wharf structure, and a cinema complex has opened in the area. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) serves the area, connecting to the London Underground at Bank, Shadwell, Canning Town and Stratford stations. There has also been a great deal of gentrification and residential development in the area: North of the Thames around Limehouse Basin and toward Wapping, as well as south of the Thames in Rotherhithe where former wharfs and the old docks have been converted into high-priced loft apartments for a community of bankers, software developers and others working in the financial service industries in and around Docklands. Further east in the London Borough of Newham are London City Airport and the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.

West London

West London includes many of the traditionally fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, made better known in 1999 by a film of the same name starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Within the district is the famous antique market at Portobello Road. Kensington and Chelsea are the most expensive places to live in the country. The area is also famous for the Kings Road, a distinguished and attractive shopping street and thoroughfare. Further to the west, at White City, near Shepherd's Bush, is the principal operating centre for the BBC, while in the extreme west, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, lies Heathrow Airport. Considered more south-west than West London on account of its being the only London borough to straddle the River Thames, Richmond upon Thames includes the attractive riverside districts of Richmond and Twickenham. This corner of London is home to Richmond Park, London's largest, and Twickenham, the home of English rugby union.

North London

North London includes suburbs such as Hampstead and Highgate, which retain a village atmosphere. North London is more hilly than the south, and many of the hills give excellent views across the city. Large parks include Hampstead Heath, which includes Parliament Hill, noted for its fine views over the city, and the Hampstead bathing ponds; and Alexandra Park, site of Alexandra Palace. Many areas have significant minority populations including Stamford Hill, home to a significant community of Orthodox Jews, the Green Lanes area of Harringay and the Finsbury Park area have large Turkish and Greek communities. Islington is considered one of the more affluent areas in London, due to large scale gentrification, although it is in fact one of the most deprived boroughs in the country; it is also home to Arsenal football club. North London's other world-famous football team, Tottenham Hotspur, play in nearby Tottenham.

South London

South London contains such diverse districts as Wimbledon (famous as the home of the major tennis Wimbledon Championships), Bermondsey, and Dulwich. Redevelopment of the Elephant and Castle, a road intersection and district close to the centre, is due to start in 2006. Greenwich is on the banks of the Thames where the river broadens into a wide meandering reach of muddy water. It is an historic neighbourhood and boasts a fine park and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. It is also has a popular market. Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham are home to many families (and their descendants) who immigrated to London from the West Indies during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, sometimes known as Afro-Caribbeans.

Demographics

Afro-Caribbeans London had about 860,000 people in 1801 (in comparison, Paris had about 670,000 in 1802), and the population of Edo (modern-day Tokyo, Japan), at the time the largest city in the world, has been estimated at 1 million to 1.25 million people. London was the most populous city in the world from 1825 until 1925, when it was overtaken by New York. Residents of London are known as Londoners. The city and the 32 boroughs (some 1,579 km² or 610 square miles) had an estimated 7,421,228 inhabitants in 2004, making London the most populous city in Europe alongside Moscow. Subsequent reviews suggested that the returns were understated, and that the population on Census Day was closer to 7.29 million. The official estimate of London's population in mid-2003 is 7,387,900 [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8561.xls] In the 2001 census, 76% of these seven million people classed their ethnic group as white (classified as British White, Irish White or "Other White" in the 2001 census), 10% as Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani, 5% as black African, 5% as black Caribbean, 3% as mixed race and 1% as Chinese. The largest religious groupings are Christian (58.2%) and No Religion (15.8%). 21.8% of inhabitants were born outside the European Union. The Irish are the largest foreign-born group in London (numbering approximately 200,000). European Union] Unlike many other countries, the UK does not provide national metropolitan area population figures based on commuter percentages and economic influence. This is left up to each individual city to define. This has created much confusion when comparing London's true metropolitan area region with others around the world. It is helped even less by confusion of the term "Greater London" with the political entity of the City of London, which is often confused with the metropolitan area. Without a specific national reference to London's metropolitan area, many different sources provide alternate definitions. One widely regarded definition describes the London metropolitan area (6,267 square miles, 16,043 km²) with a population of 13,945,000 — larger than the combined populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (External references: [http://www.demographia.com/dm-lonarea.htm], [http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/demography/census/london/london_boroughs_census2001.pdf]) If this definition is followed, then London is the largest metropolitan area of Europe, along with Moscow (whose metropolitan area has somewhere around 14 million people), and above Paris (11.5 million people in the metropolitan area in 2004). In 2004, the Greater London Authority defined a metropolitan region centred on London with a population of 18 million. This region extends to cover the commuter belt, and much of South East England and East of England, for example including the cities of Brighton and Oxford. (External references:[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_all.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_1.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/draft_london_plan/dlp_ch1.pdf])

Government

Greater London Authority meets here]] Greater London is divided into the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. The boroughs are the most important unit of local government in London, and are responsible for running most local services in their respective areas. The City of London is run not by a conventional local authority, but by the historical Corporation of London. The Greater London Authority (GLA) is the London-wide body responsible for co-ordinating the boroughs, strategic planning, and running some London-wide services such as policing, the fire service and transport. The GLA consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The mayor is elected by the Supplementary Vote system while the assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. The incumbent Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was elected as an independent candidate in the 2000 election. Despite opposition from all the main political parties and the press, his popularity with Londoners has remained high. Livingstone was expelled from the Labour Party when he opposed the official Labour candidate Frank Dobson in the 2000 Mayoral election. Readmitted by that party in 2004, he was re-elected as Mayor as an official Labour candidate in the election later that year. The GLA was created in 2000 as a replacement body for the former Greater London Council (GLC) which was created in 1965 and abolished in 1986 after political disputes between the GLC (then led by Ken Livingstone) and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Previous London wide administrative bodies were the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) from 1855 to 1889; the London County Council (LCC) from 1889 to 1965; and the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1965 to 1986. When the GLC was abolished, most of its functions were devolved to the London boroughs, while others were taken over by joint-boards or other unelected bodies. The boroughs thus enjoyed "unitary status" and a degree of autonomy when the GLC was abolished, and although losing some powers which have been repatriated to the GLA they still retain many areas they did not control under the GLC. London is represented in Parliament by 74 MPs. For a list of London constituencies see List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London. The territorial police force for the 32 London boroughs is the Metropolitan Police Service, more commonly referred to as the Metropolitan Police, or simply "the Met". The City of London has its own police force, the City of London Police. Health services in London are managed by the national government via the National Health Service (NHS). Greater London is divided into five Strategic Health Authorities [http://www.nhs.uk/england/authoritiestrusts/sha/MapSearch.aspx?rg=Y21].

Transport and infrastructure

For main article see Transport and infrastructure in London Transport and infrastructure in London Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor's financial control is limited. The executive agency which runs London's transport system is Transport for London (TfL). The public transport network is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues. The network is one of the most complex transit systems in the world with just over 1 billion journeys used every year on the underground alone. London is most famous for its AEC Routemaster buses which have been in service in the capital since 1956. Routemasters will be phased out of service from TfL's main bus routes, with the last routemaster service being operated on the 9 December 2005 on Route 159. Two 'heritage' routes are planned for service to maintain Routemasters on London's streets. 2005]] The networks for transport in London include: Underground (commonly known as the tube); Bus; River Services; Docklands Light Railway (DLR); Croydon Tramlink; National Rail; Thameslink. As of mid-2005, in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games a total of £7 billion ($12 billion) will be spent on refurbishment and expansion of city links, mainly on the London Underground. Although the main reason for this is because of the increased traffic flow that will be caused by the 2012 Olympics, the work would still be completed if London had not won the games. By 2013 a new service called Crossrail is due to be opened. Also in planning is the Cross River Tram (CRT). It will depart in the south suburbs, cross the River Thames, through to the City of London (the financial district), and continue its journey to the northern suburbs. It is speculated that it will be the world's longest tram. The main Olympic arenas will be sited close to Stratford International station, which is currently being constructed as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The new high-speed line, due to open in 2007, will be used by the regular 'Olympic Javelin' service with a journey time of 7 minutes between Stratford and St Pancras. This service was a key part of the Olympic bid and will provide access from northern areas of the UK via King's Cross and Euston.
Education
Main Article: Education in London London is home to a diverse number of universities, colleges and schools, and is a leading centre of research and development. This includes prominemnt universities such as Imperial College, London and the London School of Economics

Media

The British media is concentrated in London and is sometimes accused of having a "London bias". All the major television networks are headquartered in London including the BBC, which remains one of the world's most influential media organisations. Partly to counter complaints about London bias, the BBC announced in June 2004 that some departments (BBC Sport, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC Three and BBC Radio Five Live) are to be relocated to Manchester. Other major networks include ITV, Channel 4, Five and BSkyB - all based in London. Like the BBC, these produce some programmes elsewhere in the UK, but London is their main production centre. There is a huge choice of radio stations available in London. Local city-wide stations include music-based stations such as Capital FM, Heart 106.2 and Kiss 100 and popular news/talk stations include BBC London, LBC 97.3 and LBC News 1152. The London newspaper market is dominated by national newspapers, all of which are edited in London. Until the 1970s, most of the national newspapers were concentrated in Fleet Street, but in the 1980s they relocated to new premises with automated printing works. Most of these are in East London, most famously the News International plant at Wapping. The move was resisted strongly by the printing trade union SOGAT 82, and strike action at Wapping in 1986 led to violent skirmishes. The last major news agency in Fleet Street, Reuters, moved to Canary Wharf in 2005, but Fleet Street is still commonly used as a collective term for the national press. Regional Editions of most national newspapers are available, including editions for northern England, Scotland and Wales. London has three daily newspaper titles - the popular Evening Standard, plus two free titles, Metro and Standard Lite (published by the Evening Standard) which are distributed every morning at London tube and railway stations. The independent weekly listings guide Time Out Magazine has been providing concert, film, theatre and arts information since 1968. London is at the centre of British film and television production industries, with major studio facilities on the western fringes of the conurbation and a large post-production industry centred in Soho. London is one of the two leading centres of English-language publishing alongside New York. Globally important media companies based in London range from publishing group Pearson, to the information agency Reuters, to the world's number two advertising business WPP Group. There are a vast number of local newspapers in the London area, often covering a small section of the vast city.

Religion

local newspapers When Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to bring England into the Catholic fold in 597, it was intended that the envoy should become "Archbishop of London", as the city was remembered as the capital of Roman Britain. In the event, the saint received his most hospitable reception in the Kingdom of Kent, and the archiepiscopal see was founded at Canterbury. Nonetheless London has been at the centre of England's religious life for much of its history, and each Archbishop of Canterbury has traditionally spent much of his time in London, where he has an official residence at Lambeth Palace. London's two Anglican bishops are the Bishop of London, whose see is London north of the Thames, and whose throne is in London's grandest church, the baroque St Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren), and the Bishop of Southwark, who tends to Anglicans south of the river. Important national and royal ceremonies are divided between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey, a gothic church on the scale of a cathedral. As in the rest of the UK, religious attendance in London is low, and the Church of England has borne the brunt of this decline. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster is generally regarded as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Other traditional Protestant denominations whose headquarters are in London include the United Reformed Church and the Quakers. Many of London's immigrant groups have established denominations in the city, for example Greek Orthodoxy. In addition various evangelical churches exist. London is the most important centre of Islam in the United Kingdom. Two London boroughs contain the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK: Tower Hamlets and Newham. The London Central Mosque is a well-known landmark on the edge of Regent's Park, and there are many other mosques in the city. London also has the largest Hindu population outside of India. Southall, in West London is home to many Hindus. The Hindu temple at Neasden, Neasden Temple is the largest Hindu temple outside of India and a remarkable example of a modern building in a traditional style. Much of the enormously elaborate and intricate marble sculpture used in the building was carved in India. Over two-thirds of British Jews live in London, which ranks thirteenth in the world as a Jewish population centre [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html#10].

Sport

British Jews London hosts one of the world's largest mass-participation marathons, the London Marathon, and has hosted the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Games in 2012. London will be the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times. The most popular spectator sport in London is football, and London has several of England's leading football clubs. Historically the London clubs have not accumulated as many trophies as those from the North West of England, such as Liverpool and Manchester United, but at present Arsenal (founded at Woolwich Arsenal but moved to Highbury in 1913), and Chelsea (who play in Fulham) are regarded as two of the Premier League's "Big three" alongside Manchester United. In 2003-04 they became the first pair of London clubs to finish first and second in the top flight, with Arsenal winning. In 2004-05 they did so again, this time with Chelsea winning. London clubs are able to charge higher ticket prices than clubs in other parts of the country (particularly for corporate facilities), and this has swung English football's balance of power towards London. Before Chelsea's recent rise in fortunes the two highest profile London clubs were Arsenal and their long-standing North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, both of whom were considered to be members of English football's "Big five" for most of the post-war period. In 2005-06 there are six London clubs in the Premier League: Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea, plus Charlton Athletic, Fulham and West Ham United. There are also five London clubs in the fully professional Football League (the level below the Premiership), namely Brentford, Crystal Palace (who play in South Norwood), Leyton Orient, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers (QPR)—all of whom have previously played in the top division. In a controversial move, Wimbledon left London in 2003 to play in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, changing their name to Milton Keynes Dons; the newly formed AFC Wimbledon inherited most of their support, despite playing at a much lower level in the football pyramid. There are also numerous London clubs playing outside the top four divisions of English football, one or two of which are fully professional and many of which are part-time professional. Wembley Stadium in north-west London is the national football stadium, traditionally the home of the FA Cup Final as well as England national side's home matches. Currently, Wembley is being completely rebuilt, so Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has been the venue for recent FA Cup finals, while England play at various venues around the country. Wembley was one of the venues for the , and the 1996 European Championship, and hosted the final of both tournaments. It also was the venue for the European Cup final in 1968, 1978 and 1992. As well as football matches, Wembley has hosted many other sporting events, including the Rugby League Challenge Cup final. Rugby Union is also well established in London, especially in the middle-class suburbs to the north and west of the city. The 7 September, 1533 – 24 March, 1603) Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen (since she never married), Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty, having succeeded her half-sister, Mary I. She reigned during a period of turmoil in English history. Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the Elizabethan era or the Golden Age and was marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide. Playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson all flourished during this era. In addition, Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of North America took place under Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Like her father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organizations, including Trinity College, Dublin (1592) and the British East India Company (1600). The reign was marked by prudence in the granting of honours and dignities. Only eight peerage dignities, one earldom and seven baronies in the Peerage of England, and one barony in the Peerage of Ireland, were created during Elizabeth's reign. Elizabeth also reduced the number of Privy Counsellors from thirty-nine to nineteen, and later to fourteen. Virginia, an English colony in North America and afterwards a founding member of the United States, was named after Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen."

Early life

Elizabeth was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pembroke, a former lady-in-waiting of Henry's first wife Queen Catherine of Aragon and sister of Henry's mistress Lady Mary Boleyn. She was born in the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, on September 7, 1533. Henry certainly would have preferred a son to ensure the Tudor succession, but upon her birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. Her surviving paternal aunts included Margaret Tudor and Mary Tudor. Her maternal aunt was Lady Mary Boleyn. Her maternal uncle was George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford. Elizabeth was three years old when Henry had her mother executed on charges of treason (adultery against the King), incest with Elizabeth's uncle, and witchcraft, as a pretext to eliminate the wife who had failed to produce a male heir; he then married Anne's lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, who bore him Edward VI. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, losing the title of Princess Royal, and was thereafter addressed as Lady Elizabeth and lived in exile from her father while he married his succession of wives. Elizabeth's first governess was Lady Margaret Bryan, a baroness whom Elizabeth called "Muggie". At the age of four, Elizabeth had a new governess, Katherine Champernowne, who was often referred to as "Kat". Champernowne developed a close relationship with Elizabeth and remained her confidante and good friend for life. She had been appointed to Elizabeth's household before Anne Boleyn's execution. Matthew Parker, her mother's favorite priest, took a special interest in Elizabeth's well-being, particularly since a fearful Anne had entrusted her daughter's spiritual welfare to Parker before her death. Later, Parker would become the first Archbishop of Canterbury after Elizabeth became queen in 1558. One companion, to whom she referred with affection throughout her life, was the Irishman Thomas Butler, later 3rd Earl of Ormonde (ob.1615). In terms of personality, Elizabeth was far more like her mother than her father: glamorous, flirtatious, and charismatic. Elizabeth also inherited her mother's delicate bone structure, onyx black eyes, and petite figure. The few charcteristics she inherited from her father were her auburn hair and her passion and vigor for ruling the people of England. Henry's last wife Catherine Parr helped reconcile the King with Elizabeth, and under the Act of Succession 1544 she and her half-sister, Mary, daughter of Catharine of Aragon, were reinstated in the line of succession after Prince Edward. Henry VIII died in 1547 and was succeeded by Edward VI. Catherine Parr, newly widowed, married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Edward VI's uncle and brother of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England at the time, and took Elizabeth into her household. There, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham. She came to speak and read seven languages: her native English, as well as Scots, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin. She had an outstanding intellect, like her father and mother. Under the influence of Catherine Parr and Ascham, Elizabeth was raised a Protestant. Protestant] As long as her Protestant half-brother remained on the throne, Elizabeth's own position remained secure. In 1553, however, Edward died at the age of fifteen, after suffering ill health from birth and having left a will which purported to supersede his father's. Disregarding the Act of Succession 1544, it excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne and declared Lady Jane Grey, ward of Thomas Seymour, to be his heiress. The plot was formed by Seymour and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, whose son Guilford was married to Jane. Lady Jane ascended to the throne, but was deposed nine days later. Backed by popular support, Mary rode triumphantly into London, her half-sister Elizabeth at her side. Mary I contracted a marriage with King Philip II of Spain, seeking to strengthen the Catholic influence in England. Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 sought to prevent Mary from marrying Philip and, after its failure, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for her alleged involvement in it. There were demands for Elizabeth's execution, but Mary did not wish to put her sister to death - it would set a worrying precedent for regicide. Mary did attempt to remove Elizabeth from the line of succession, but Parliament would not allow it. After two months in the Tower, Elizabeth was released but kept under house arrest in the care of Sir Henry Bedingfield at Hatfield; by the end of that year, when Mary was falsely rumoured to be pregnant, Elizabeth was allowed to return to court at Philip's behest. If Mary died in childbirth, he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than Mary I of Scotland, who was next in line. Mary, Queen of Scotland was openly hostile to Spanish interests because she was of French descent, her mother being Mary of Guise. For the remainder of her reign, Mary Tudor, who was devotedly Catholic, persecuted Protestants whom she saw as heretics, and came to be known as "Bloody Mary" among her enemies. Mary urged Elizabeth to take up the Catholic faith, but the princess, instead of converting, kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions.

Early reign

Bloody Mary In 1558, upon Mary I's death, Elizabeth ascended to the throne. During her procession to the Tower of London, she was welcomed whole-heartedly by the common people, who perfomed plays and read poetry exclaiming her beauty and intelligence. She was crowned on 15 January 1559. There was no Archbishop of Canterbury at the time; Reginald Pole, the last Catholic holder of the office, had died only a few hours after Queen Mary. Because the senior bishops declined to participate in the coronation (since Elizabeth was illegitimate under both canon law and statute and since she was a Protestant), the relatively unimportant Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle crowned her. The communion was celebrated not by Oglethorpe, but by the Queen's personal chaplain, to avoid the usage of the Roman rites. Elizabeth I's coronation was the last one during which the Latin service was used; future coronations used the English service. She later persuaded her mother's chaplain, Matthew Parker, to become Archbishop. He only accepted out of loyalty to Anne Boleyn's memory, since he found working with Elizabeth difficult. One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth's early reign was religion; she relied primarily on Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghly, for advice on the matter. Her first act, the Act of Uniformity 1559 required the use of the Protestant Book of Common Prayer in church services. Papal control over the Church of England had been reinstated under Mary I, but was ended by Elizabeth. The Queen assumed the title "Supreme Governor of the Church of England," rather than "Supreme Head," primarily because several bishops and many members of the public felt that a woman could not be the head of the Church. The Act of Supremacy 1559 required public officials to take an oath acknowledging the Sovereign's control over the Church or face execution for treason. Many bishops were unwilling to conform to the Elizabethan religious policy. They were removed from the ecclesiastical bench and replaced by appointees who would submit to the Queen's policies. She also appointed a new Privy Council, removing many Catholic counsellors in the process. Under Elizabeth, factionalism in the Council and conflicts at court were greatly silenced. Elizabeth's chief advisors were Sir William Cecil, a Secretary of State, and Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Elizabeth also reduced Spanish influence in England. Though Philip II aided her in ending the Italian Wars with the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, Elizabeth remained independent in her diplomacy. She adopted a principle of "England for the English." Ireland, another country under England's rule, never benefited from such a philosophy. The enforcement of English customs in an effort to eradicate Catholicism from Ireland proved unpopular with its inhabitants, as did the Queen's religious policies. Soon after her accession, many questioned whom Elizabeth would marry. Her reasons for never marrying were many. It has been suggested she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of Henry VIII's wives, her mother's death always in her mind or perhaps psychologically scarred by her rumoured childhood relationship with Lord Thomas Seymour, while in his household. Contemporary gossip was that she had suffered from a physical defect that she was afraid to reveal, perhaps scarring from smallpox, although this seems unlikely as she did not contract smallpox until several years into her reign. There were also contemporary rumors that she would only marry one man, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was deeply in love, but with whom her council refused to sanction a marriage, partly due to his family's participation in the Lady Jane Grey matter, and partly due to what was viewed in some circles as the suspicious death of his first wife. A few historians have speculated that she was perhaps homosexual, but these have generally been dismissed. It is also possible that Elizabeth did not wish to share the power of the Crown with another, or given the unstable political situation, she feared an armed struggle among aristocratic factions, if she married someone not seen as equally favorable to all factions. Or, she could have remained unmarried and instead used the hint of marriage to her country's benefit when dealing with powerful suitors from Europe. Further, marrying anyone would have cost Elizabeth large amounts of money and independence, as all of the estates and incomes Elizabeth inherited from her father, Henry VIII, were only hers until she was married.

Conflict with France and Scotland

The Queen found a rival for her throne in her cousin, the Catholic Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and wife of the French King Francis II. In 1559, Mary had declared herself Queen of England with French support. In Scotland, Mary Stuart's mother, Mary of Guise, attempted to cement French influence by providing for army fortification against English aggression. A group of Scottish lords allied with Elizabeth deposed Mary of Guise and, under pressure from the English, Mary's representatives signed the Treaty of Edinburgh, which led to the withdrawal of French troops. Though Mary vehemently refused to ratify the treaty, it had the desired effect, and French influence was greatly reduced in Scotland. Upon the death of her husband Francis II, Mary Stuart had returned to Scotland. In France, meanwhile, conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenots led to the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion. Elizabeth secretly gave aid to the Huguenots. She made peace with France in 1564; she agreed to give up her claims to the last English possession on the French mainland, Calais, which her sister Mary Tudor had all but lost during her reign, after the defeat of an English expedition at Le Havre. She did not, however, give up her claim to the French Crown, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III during the period of the Hundred Years' War in the fourteenth century, and was not renounced until the reign of George III during the eighteenth century.

Plots and rebellions

At the end of 1562, Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox, but later recovered. In 1563, alarmed by the Queen's near-fatal illness, Parliament demanded that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent civil war upon her death. She refused to do either, and in April, she prorogued Parliament. Parliament did not reconvene until Elizabeth needed its assent to raise taxes in 1566. The House of Commons threatened to withhold funds until the Queen agreed to provide for the succession, but Elizabeth still refused. Different lines of succession were considered during Elizabeth's reign. One possible line was that of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's elder sister, which led to Mary I, Queen of Scots. The alternative line descended from Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk; the heir in this line would be the Lady Catherine Grey, Lady Jane Grey's sister. An even more distant possible successor was Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who could claim descent only from Edward III, who reigned during the fourteenth century. Each possible heir had his or her disadvantages: Mary of Scots was a Catholic, Lady Catherine Grey had married without the Queen's consent, and the Puritan Lord Huntingdon was unwilling to accept the Crown. Mary, Queen of Scots, had to suffer her own troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth had suggested that if she married the Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, then Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir." Mary Stuart refused, and in 1565 married a Catholic, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Lord Darnley was murdered in 1567, and Mary then married the alleged murderer of Lord Darnley, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. Scottish nobles then rebelled, imprisoning Mary and forcing her to abdicate in favour of her infant son, who consequently became James VI. The succession question was becoming a heated issue in Parliament and 30 MPs were assigned to a special committee to debate the matter. On 19 October, 1566, Sir Robert Bell boldly pursued Elizabeth for the royal answer despite her command to leave it alone; in her own words "Mr. Bell with his complices must needs prefer their speeches to the upper house to have you my lords, consent with them, whereby you were seduced, and of simplicity did assent unto it". Bell would revisit this matter in 1575, as Speaker of the House of Commons, where he humbly petitioned Elizabeth "to make the kingdom further happy in her marriage, so that they might hope for a continual succession of benefits in her posterity", this event having been preceded by the last viable English heir to the throne, Catherine Grey passing on in 1568. Catherine had left a son, but he was deemed illegitimate. Catherine's heiress was her sister, the Lady Mary Grey, a hunchbacked dwarf. Elizabeth was once again forced to consider a Scottish successor, from the line of her father's sister, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Mary I, however, was unpopular in Scotland, where she was imprisoned. She later escaped from her prison and fled to England, where she was captured by English forces. Elizabeth was faced with a conundrum: sending her back to the Scottish nobles would create political problems; sending her to France would put a powerful pawn in the hands of the French king; forcefully restoring her to the Scottish throne may have been seen as an heroic gesture, but would cause too much conflict with the Scots; and imprisoning her in England would allow her to participate in plots against the Queen. Elizabeth chose the last option: Mary was kept confined for eighteen years, much of it in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor in the custody of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his redoubtable wife Bess of Hardwick. In 1569, Elizabeth faced a major uprising, known as the Northern Rebellion, instigated by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland. Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth for apostasy and for her persecution of Catholics; he declared her deposed in a papal bull. The Bull of Deposition, Regnans in Excelsis, was only issued in 1570, arriving after the Rebellion had been put down. Elizabeth then found a new enemy in her brother-in-law, Philip II, King of Spain. After Philip had launched a surprise attack on the English privateers, Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins, in 1568, Elizabeth assented to the detention of a Spanish treasure ship in 1569. Philip was already involved in putting down a rebellion in the Netherlands, and could not afford to declare war on England. Philip II participated in some conspiracies to remove Elizabeth, albeit reluctantly. The 4th Duke of Norfolk was also involved in the first of these plots, the Ridolfi Plot of 1571. The Duke planned to wed Mary and overthrow Elizabeth. After the Catholic Ridolfi Plot was discovered (much to Elizabeth's shock) and foiled, the Duke of Norfolk was executed and Mary lost the little liberty she had remaining. Spain, which had been friendly to England since Philip's marriage to Elizabeth's predecessor, ceased to be on cordial terms. In 1571, Sir William Cecil was created Lord Burghley; a shrewd man, who always advised caution in international relations, he had been Elizabeth's chief advisor from the earliest days, and he remained so until his death in 1598. In 1572, Burghley was raised to the powerful position of Lord High Treasurer; his post as Secretary of State was taken up by the head of Elizabeth's spy network, Sir Francis Walsingham. Also in 1572, Elizabeth made an alliance with France. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, in which many French Protestants (Huguenots) were killed, strained the alliance but did not break it. Elizabeth even began marriage negotiations with Henry, Duke of Anjou (later King Henry III of France and of Poland), and afterwards with his younger brother François, Duke of Anjou and Alençon. During the latter's visit in 1581, it is said that Elizabeth "drew off a ring from her finger and put it upon the Duke of Anjou's upon certain conditions betwixt them two." The Spanish Ambassador reported that she actually declared that the Duke of Anjou would be her husband. However, Anjou, who is in any case said to have preferred men to women, returned to France and died in 1584 before he could be married.

Conflict with Spain and Ireland

In 1580, Pope Gregory XIII sent a force to aid the Desmond Rebellions in Ireland; but by 1583, the rebellion had been put down after a campaign waged by fire, sword and famine, in which a large part of the population of the western part of the province of Munster appears to have died; chilling, albeit approving, observations on the campaign are set out in A View of the Present State of Ireland by the poet, Edmund Spenser (first licensed for publication in 1633, four decades after it was written). In the same year Philip II of Spain and the Netherlands was crowned king of Portugal, thereby increasing his command of the high seas. After the assassination of the Dutch Stadholder William I, England began to side openly with the United Provinces of the Netherlands, who were at the time rebelling against Spanish rule. This, together with economic conflict with Spain and English piracy against Spanish colonies (which included an English alliance with Islamic Morocco), led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1585 and in 1586 the Spanish ambassador was expelled from England for his participation in conspiracies against Elizabeth. Fearing such conspiracies, Parliament had passed the Act of Association 1584, under which anyone associated with a plot to murder the Sovereign would be excluded from the line of succession. However, a further scheme against Elizabeth, the Babington Plot, was revealed by Sir Francis Walsingham, who headed the English spy network. Having put the court on full proof of the charge, Mary Stuart was convicted of complicity in the plot on production of evidence produced by one of the earliest non-trivial code-breaking endeavours. It is likely, however, that Mary was framed. When Mary's enemies realized that deciphering the code did not provide enough proof, the decipherer was instructed to add statements that were not in the original coded document. The result was the "proof" used to convict her. Because this "proof" and conviction were presented to Elizabeth, she had no choice but to allow Mary’s execution to proceed. It was therefore against Elizabeth's wishes that the execution occurred at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February, 1587. Elizabeth had stalled on the question of Mary's execution until this final, undeniable, evidence because she feared that establishing the principle that a monarch theoretically chosen by God could be tried—much less executed—for temporal crimes could lead to the end of the monarchy. In this she was to be proven correct and it was less than fifty years after her own death that Charles the First was executed by a parliament of "commoners". executed by a parliament of "commoners" In her will, Mary had left Philip her claim to the English Throne; under force of the threat from Elizabeth's policies in the Netherlands and the east Atlantic, Philip set out his plans for an invasion of England. In April 1587, Sir Francis Drake burned part of the Spanish fleet at Cádiz, delaying Philip's plans. In July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a grand fleet of 130 ships bearing over 30,000 men, set sail in the expectation of conveying a Spanish invasion force under the command of the Duke of Parma across the English Channel from the Netherlands. Elizabeth encouraged her troops with a notable speech, known as the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, in which she famously declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too." The Spanish attempt was defeated by the English fleet under Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake, aided by bad weather. The Armada was forced to return to Spain, with appalling losses on the north and west coasts of Scotland and Ireland; the victory tremendously increased Elizabeth's popularity. The battle, however, was not decisive, and the war continued in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Estates were seeking independence from Spain. The English government was also concerned with the conflict in France and the claim to the throne of a protestant heir, Henry (later Henry IV). Elizabeth sent 20,000 troops and subsidies of over £300,000 to Henry, and 8,000 troops and subsidies of over £1,000,000 to the Dutch. Emboldened by the defeat of the ominious Armada, a massive English expedition in 1589, the Drake-Norris Expedition, was repulsed by Spain, with great losses. English privateers continued to attack Spanish treasure ships from the Americas; the most famous privateers included Sir John Hawkins and Sir Martin Frobisher. In 1595 and 1596, a disastrous expedition on the Spanish Main led to the deaths of the aging Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake. Also in 1595, Spanish troops under the command of Don Carlos de Amesquita landed in Cornwall, where they routed a large English militia and burned several villages, before celebrating a mass and retiring in the face of a naval force led by Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1596, England finally withdrew from France, with Henry IV firmly in control. He had assumed the throne, commenting with double-edged irony that, "Paris is worth a mass;" the Holy League, which opposed him, had been demolished, and Elizabeth's diplomacy was beset with new problems. At the same time, the Spanish had landed a considerable force of tercios in Brittany, which had expelled the English forces that were present and presented a new front in the war, with an added threat of invasion across the channel. Elizabeth sent a further 2,000 troops to France after the Spanish took Calais. Then she authorised an attack on the Azores in 1597, but the attempt was a disastrous failure. Further battles continued until 1598, when France and Spain finally made peace. The Anglo-Spanish War, meanwhile, reached a stalemate after Philip II died later in the year. In part because of the war, Raleigh and Gilbert's overseas colonisation attempts came to nothing, and the English settlement of North America was stalled, until James I negotiated peace in the Treaty of London, 1604.

Later years

Treaty of London, 1604 In 1598, Elizabeth's chief advisor, Lord Burghley, died. His political mantle was inherited by his son, Robert Cecil, who had been appointed Secretary of State in 1590. Elizabeth's popularity declined, partly because of her practice of granting royal monopolies, the abolition of which Parliament continued to demand. In her Golden Speech Elizabeth promised reforms, and shortly thereafter twelve royal monopolies were ended by royal proclamation; nevertheless, the reforms were superficial, and the granting of royal monopolies continued. During the Anglo-Spanish war Elizabeth also faced a rebellion in Ireland (the Nine Years War). The chief executor of Crown authority in the north of Ireland, Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, was declared a traitor in 1595, but Elizabeth was determined to minimise expenditure from her treasury and accordingly authorised a series of truces with the earl. At the same time, Spain attempted two further armada expeditions against northern Europe, although both failed owing to adverse weather conditions. In 1598, Tyrone offered a truce, while benefitting from Spanish aid in the form of arms and training; upon expiration of the truce, the English suffered their worst defeat in Ireland at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. In 1599, one of the queen's leading noblemen, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and given command of the largest army ever sent to Ireland, in an attempt to defeat the rebels. Essex's campaign was soon dissipated, and after a private parley with Tyrone—in which the latter sat on horseback in the middle of a river—it became clear that victory was out of reach. In 1600, Essex returned to England without the Queen's permission, an offence for which he was punished by the loss of all political offices and of the trade monopolies, his principal source of income. The succession to the throne had been the ultimate political concern in England since Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland in the 1560's, and by the end of the century there was only one question in the minds of Elizabeth's advisors: who next? It is in this context that the behaviour of Essex is best explained. In 1601, he led a revolt against the Queen, but popular support was curiously lacking, and the former darling of the masses was executed. Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy was sent to Ireland to replace Essex. With ruthless intent, Mountjoy attempted to blockade Tyrone's troops and starve his people into submission; the campaign effectively cast the English strategy of the earlier Desmond Rebellion (1580–83) into a larger theatre, with proportionately greater casualties. In 1601, the Spanish sent over 3,500 troops to aid the Irish, with the justification that their intervention countered Elizabeth's previous aid to the Dutch rebels in the campaign against Spanish rule. After a devastating winter siege, Mountjoy defeated both the Spanish and the Irish forces at the Battle of Kinsale; Tyrone surrendered a few days after Elizabeth's death in 1603, although the fact of her death was concealed from the supplicant rebel with great skill and irony on Mountjoy's part. During her last ailment, the Queen is reported to have declared that she had sent "wolves, not shepherds, to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing to govern over but ashes and carcasses" (The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1925) p.?). Elizabeth's successor promoted Mountjoy to the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office in which he showed skill and moderation, until his early death in 1605.

Death

Elizabeth I fell ill in February 1603, suffering from frailty and insomnia. After a period of distressing reflection, she died on March 24 at Richmond Palace, aged 69; at the time she was the oldest English Sovereign ever to have reigned. This mark was not surpassed until George II turned 70 in 1753; he would die in his seventy-seventh year in 1760. Elizabeth was buried in Westminster Abbey, immediately next to her sister Mary I. The Latin inscription on their tomb translates to "Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection." The will of Henry VIII declared that Elizabeth was to be succeeded by the descendants of his younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, rather than by the Scottish descendants of his elder sister, Margaret Tudor. Had the will been upheld, Elizabeth would have been succeeded by Lady Anne Stanley. Alternative successors included James VI, King of Scots, first in line by the rules of male primogeniture, and potential claimants such as Edward Seymour, Baron Beauchamp (the illegitimate son of the Lady Catherine Grey) and William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (Lady Anne Stanley's uncle). It is sometimes claimed that Elizabeth named James her heir on her deathbed. According to one story, when asked whom she would name her heir, she replied, "Who could that be but my cousin Scotland?" According to another, she said, "Who but a King could succeed a Queen?" Finally, a third legend suggests that she remained silent until her death. There is no evidence to prove any of these tales. In any event, none of the alternative heirs pressed their claims to the Throne. James VI was proclaimed King of England as James I a few hours after Elizabeth's death. James I's proclamation broke precedent because it was issued not by the new Sovereign himself, but by a Council of Accession, as James was in Scotland at the time. Accession Councils, rather than new Sovereigns, continue to issue proclamations in modern practice.

Legacy

Accession Council Elizabeth proved to be one of the most popular monarchs in English or British history. She placed seventh in the 100 Greatest Britons poll, which was conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2002, outranking all other British monarchs. In 2005, in the History Channel documentary Britain's Greatest Monarch, a group of historians and commentators analysed twelve British monarchs[http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/British_history/programme_2652.php] and gave them overall marks out of 60 for greatness (they were marked out of 10 in six categories, such as military prowess and legacy). Elizabeth I was the winner, with 48 points. She also ranked #94 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. Her achievements, however, were greatly magnified after her death. She was depicted in later years as a great defender of Protestantism in Europe. In reality, however, she often wavered before coming to the aid of her Protestant allies. As Sir Walter said in relation to her foreign policy, "Her Majesty did all by halves." But Elizabeth did help to steady the nation even after inheriting an enormous national debt from her sister Mary. Under her, England managed to avoid a crippling Spanish invasion. Elizabeth was also able to prevent the outbreak of a religious civil war on English soil despite inheriting probably the greatest potential for such a war in the country's history. In addition, all that she did was often done in the face of an all-male council and parliament which was often openly hostile to the idea of a female monarch. Many artists glorified Elizabeth I and masked her age in their portraits. Elizabeth was often painted in rich and stylised gowns. Elizabeth is often depicted with an ermine or holding a sieve, which are both symbols of virginity. Benjamin Britten wrote an opera, Gloriana, about the relationship between Elizabeth and Lord Essex, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Notable portrayals of Queen Elizabeth in film and television have been plentiful; in fact, she is the most filmed British monarch. Those who have made an impression in the role of Elizabeth in the last 100 years, have included:
- French actress Sarah Bernhardt in Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912),
- Florence Eldridge in Mary of Scotland (1936),
- Flora Robson in Fire Over England (1937) and The Lion Has Wings (1939),
- Bette Davis in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Virgin Queen (1955) and
- Jean Simmons in Young Bess (1953).
- Perhaps most importantly, Glenda Jackson's seminal portrayal of Elizabeth I in the Emmy-Award winning BBC mini-series Elizabeth R in 1971. Jackson's role as Elizabeth is considered by many to be the defining portrayal of the queen. In recent years, the story of Elizabeth has been filmed more than ever.
- In 1998, Australian actress Cate Blanchett made her big break and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her critically acclaimed performance in Elizabeth.
- Also in 1998 British actress Judi Dench won an Academy Award for her supporting performance as the Virgin Queen in the popular Shakespeare in Love, a performance of only eleven minutes.
- Miranda Richardson (in the 1986 classic BBC sitcom Blackadder — gave a comic interpretation of Elizabeth known fondly as Queenie), and in the event entered TV folklore.
- Helen Mirren gave a critically acclaimed performance in a Channel 4/HBO [http://www.mcdonaldrutter.com/Television/elizabethI/elizabethi.htm co-production] in 2005.
- The second installment for the film Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, is planned for 2006, with Blanchett, Hugh Dancy, Jeremy Irons as Leicester and Rush returning for the role of Walsingham.
- The English actress Anne-Marie Duff portrayed Elizabeth I in BBCs "The Virgin Queen" There have been many novels written about Elizabeth. They include: I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, The Virgin's Lover and The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory, Queen of This Realm by Jean Plaidy, and Virgin: Prelude to the Throne by Robin Maxwell. Elizabeth's story is spliced with her mother's in Maxwell's book The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. Maxwell also writes of a fictional child Elizabeth and Dudley had in The Queen's Bastard. Decades ago, Margaret Irwin produced a trilogy based on Elizabeth's youth: Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Lytton Strachey's "Elizabeth and Essex", is a reliable romantic reconstruction of the Queen's last political amour. Most fictional accounts of the reign "share too much" of the authors' private enthusiasms. In children's and young adults' fiction, Elizabeth's story is told in Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor, a book in the Royal Diaries series published by Scholastic, and also in Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer. The graphic novel Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman is set near the end of Elizabeth's reign.

Style and arms

Neil Gaiman Like her predecessors since Henry VIII, Elizabeth used the style "Majesty," as well as "Highness," and "Grace." "Majesty," which Henry VIII first used on a consistent basis, did not become exclusive until the reign of Elizabeth's successor, James I. Elizabeth I used the official style "Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Fidei defensor, etc." Whilst most of the style matched the styles of her predecessors, Elizabeth I was the first to use "etc." It was inserted into the style with a view to restoring the phrase "of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head," which had been added by Henry VIII but later removed by Mary I. The supremacy phrase was never actually restored, and "etc." remained in the style, to be removed only in 1801. She has been retroactively known as Queen Elizabeth I since the accession of Elizabeth II in 1952. Prior to that time she was referred to as Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth's arms were the same as those used by Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Whilst her Tudor predecessors had used a gold lion and a red dragon as heraldic supporters, Elizabeth used a gold lion and a gold dragon. Elizabeth also adopted one of her mother's mottos, Semper Eadem ("Always the Same").

References

- Eakins, Lara E. (2004) [http://tudorhistory.org/elizabeth/ Elizabeth I.]
- Haigh, Christopher (1988) Elizabeth I. London: Longman.
- Jokinen, Anniina (2004). [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm Elizabeth I (1533–1603).]
- Neale, J. E.. (1934). Queen Elizabeth I: A Biography London: Jonathan Cape.
- Perry, Maria. (1990). The Word of a Prince: A Life of Elizabeth I from Contemporary Documents Woodbirdge: Boydell Press.
- Ridley, Jasper Godwin (1987). Elizabeth I. London: Constable.
- Somerset, Anne (1991). Elizabeth I. London: Knopf. ISBN 0385721579.
- Starkey, David (2000). Elizabeth : The Struggle for the Throne. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
- Thomas, Heather (2004). [http://www.elizabethi.org/uk/ Elizabeth I.]
- Weir, Alison. (1998). The Life of Elizabeth I. (1st American edition) New York: Ballantine Books.
- The History of Parliament, House of commons 1558-1603, Sir Robert Bell, Hasler, P.W., p.421-424, HMSO 1981
- Mannings, Speakers, p.244 p. 1850, Sir Robert Bell
- Elizabeth I : Red Rose of the House of Tudor by Kathryn Lasky

External links

- [http://www.badley.info/history/Elizabeth-I-England.biog.html Elizabeth I World History Database]
- [http://www.tudor-portraits.com Buehler, Edward. (2004). "Tudor and Elizabethan Portraits".]
- [http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html Cody, Marilee. (2004). "Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I".]
- [http://www.archsoc.com/games/Mary.html Stevens, Garry. (2004). "Bloody Mary: Further Intrigue in the Tudor Court".]
- [http://members.optushome.com.au/peterpanandwendy/The%20birth%20of%20Elizabeth.htm Dunn, Wendy J. (2002) "Birth of Elizabeth"]
- [http://tudors.crispen.org/tudor_women/ Crispen (2002) "Life of Women in Tudor England]
- [http://48.1911encyclopedia.org/E/EL/ELIZABETH_QUEEN_OF_ENGLAND.htm Elizabeth I in 1911 EB] Category:1533 births Category:1603 deaths Category:Londoners Category:House of Tudor Category:Henry VIII's children Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:English monarchs Category:Queens regnant Category:British women ja:エリザベス1世 (イングランド女王) simple:Elizabeth I of England

Mary I of England

:For other people with this name, see Mary Tudor Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 6 July 1553 (de jure) or 19 July 1553 (de facto) until her death. Mary, the fourth and penultimate monarch of the Tudor dynasty, is remembered for her attempt to return England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. To this end, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed; as a consequence, she is often known as Bloody Mary. Her religious policies, however, were in many cases reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I. Mary Tudor is sometimes confused with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived at approximately the same time.

Early life

Mary was the second daughter and fifth child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. A stillborn sister, two short-lived brothers, and a stillborn brother had preceded her. She was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, on Monday 18 February 1516. She was baptised on the following Wednesday with Thomas Cardinal Wolsey standing as her godfather. The Princess Mary was a precocious but sickly child who had poor eyesight, sinus conditions and bad headaches. Her poor health has been theorised by some authors to be from congenital syphilis transferred to her from her mother, who presumably would have contracted the disease from Mary's father. Whether or not he had the disease is debated, however, as the story emerged long after his death. Henry gave the Princess Mary her own court at Ludlow Castle and many of the prerogatives normally only given to a Prince of Wales, sometimes leading to false assertions that she was created Princess of Wales, even though he was deeply disappointed that he (or, as he believed, his wife) had again failed to produce a healthy son; Catherine's sixth and last child was a stillborn daughter. The Princess Mary became an extremely well-educated child under the direction of her governess, the Countess of Salisbury. She learned to speak Latin, Spanish, French and Italian, as well as her native English. Other studies included Greek, science, and music. In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained some visitors with a performance on the virginals (a smaller harpsichord). A great part of the credit of her early education was undoubtedly due to her mother, who not only consulted the Spanish scholar Juan Luís Vives upon the subject, but was herself the Princess Mary's first teacher in Latin. Even when she was a young child, the Princess Mary's marital future was being negotiated by her father. When she was but two years old, she was promised to the Dauphin Francis, son of Francis I, King of France. After three years, the contract was repudiated; in 1522, the Princess Mary was instead contracted to her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by the Treaty of Windsor. Within a few years, however, the engagement was broken off. In 1526, the Princess Mary was sent to Wales to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. It was then suggested that the Princess Mary wed, not the Dauphin, but his father Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed; it provided that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis or his second son, Henry, Duke of Orléans. Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief advisor, managed to secure an alliance without a marriage. Meanwhile, the marriage of the Princess Mary's parents was in jeopardy. Queen Catherine had failed to provide Henry the male heir he desired; consequently, the King attempted to have his marriage to her annulled. In 1533, Henry secretly married another woman, Anne Boleyn. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage with Anne valid. Since the Pope had previously denied him the annullment, Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church. All appeals from the decisions of English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope were abolished, and the King was acknowledged as "Supreme Head" of the Church of England. Mary, meanwhile, was deemed illegitimate, as Henry's marriage to Catherine was officially null and void from the beginning. She lost the dignity of a Princess, becoming a mere "Lady". Her place in the line of succession was transferred to the Princess Elizabeth (daughter of Queen Anne). The Lady Mary was expelled from the Royal Court; her servants were dismissed from her service, and she was forced to serve as a lady-in-waiting under the Queen Anne's aunt, the Lady Shelton, to her own infant half-sister Elizabeth, then living in Hatfield. She was not permitted to see her mother Catherine, or attend her funeral in 1536. Her treatment and the hatred Queen Anne had for her was perceived as unjust; all Europe, furthermore, regarded her as the only true heir and daughter of Henry VIII, although she was illegitimate under English law. Mary confidently expected her troubles to end when Queen Anne lost royal favour and was beheaded in 1536. The Princess Elizabeth was also degraded to a Lady and removed from the line of succession. Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving birth to a son, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall. The Lady Mary's privy purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that Hatfield, Beaulieu or Newhall in Essex, Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence. Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall However, it quickly transpired that it had been Mary's father Henry, not Anne alone, who had been persecuting Mary. The only way he would grant her his favor was if she accepted humiliating attacks on her religion and royal position. The Lady Mary attempted to reconcile with her father by submitting to him as head of the Church of England under Jesus, thus repudiating Papal authority, and acknowledging that the marriage between her mother and father was unlawful, thus making her illegitimate. She also became godmother to her half-brother Edward and was chief mourner at Queen Jane's funeral. In turn, Henry agreed to grant her a household, and the Lady Mary was permitted to reside in royal palaces. Henry's sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, was able to bring the family closer together, again improving the Lady Mary's position. There were several attempts to marry her off to European princes, but none of them succeeded. In 1544, an Act of Parliament returned the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession (after their half-brother, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall). Both women, however, remained legally illegitimate. In 1547, Henry died, to be succeeded by Edward VI. Edward was England's first Protestant monarch; his Parliament's Act of Uniformity prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer. The Lady Mary, desirous of maintaining the old Roman Catholic form, asked to be allowed to worship in private in her own chapel. After she was ordered to stop her practices, she appealed to her cousin and former matrimonial prospect, the Emperor Charles V. Charles threatened war with England if the Lady Mary's religious liberty were infringed; consequently, the Protestants at court ceased to interfere with her private rituals.

Accession

Edward VI died in 1553 whilst Mary was staying at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. He did not desire that the Crown go to either the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth; consequently, he excluded them from the line of succession in his will, which was unlawful, because it contradicted an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 restoring the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession, and because it was made by a minor. Under the guidance of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Edward VI instead devised the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, and the Duke of Northumberland's daughter-in-law. Thus, after Edward died on 6 July 1553, the Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. Jane's accession was met with popular disapproval, which was suppressed by the use of force. A young boy so bold as to hail "Queen Mary" was punished by having his ears cut off. Still, the country remained devoted to Mary. On 19 July, Jane's accession proclamation was deemed to have been made under coercion and was revoked; instead, Mary was proclaimed Queen. All support for the Lady Jane vanished and Mary rode into London triumphantly and unchallenged, with her half-sister, the Lady Elizabeth, at her side, on 3 August. Since the Act of Succession passed in 1544 recognised only Mary as Edward's heir, and since Edward's will was never authorised by statute, Mary's de jure reign dates to 6 July 1553, the date of Edward's death. Her de facto reign, however, dates to 19 July 1553, when Jane was deposed. One of her first actions as monarch was to order the release of the Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London. Originally, Mary was inclined to exercise clemency, and initially set the Lady Jane Grey free, recognising that the young girl was forced to take the Crown by her father-in-law. The Lady Jane's father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was also released. The Duke of Northumberland was the only conspirator immediately executed for high treason, and even this was after some hesitation on the Queen's part. She was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put the Lady Jane Grey on the Throne. She could only rely on Stephen Gardiner, whom she appointed Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. Gardiner performed Mary's coronation on 1 October 1553 because Mary did not wish to be crowned by the senior ecclesiastics, who were all Protestants.

Reign

Mary's first Act of Parliament retroactively validated Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and legitimated the Queen. Now 37, Mary turned her attention to procuring a husband to father an heir in order to prevent her half-sister, the Lady Elizabeth, from succeeding to the Throne. She rejected Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon as a prospect when her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, suggested that she marry his only son, the Spanish prince Philip. The marriage, a purely political alliance for Philip, was extremely unpopular with the English. Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of Spain. The fear of dependency was due in large part to the inexperience of having a queen regnant. Insurrections broke out across the country when she refused. The Duke of Suffolk once again proclaimed that his daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, was Queen. The young Sir Thomas Wyatt led a force from Kent, and was not defeated until he had arrived at London's gates. After the rebellions were crushed, both the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Jane Grey were convicted of high treason and executed. Since the rebellion was designed to put her on the throne, the Lady Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was put under house arrest in Woodstock Palace after two months. Woodstock Palace Mary married Philip on 25 July 1554 at Winchester Cathedral. Under the terms of the marriage treaty, Philip was to be styled "King of England", all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. Philip's powers, however, were extremely limited; he and Mary were not true joint Sovereigns. Nonetheless, Philip was the only man to take the crown matrimonial upon his marriage to a reigning Queen of England; William III became jointly sovereign with his wife, Mary II, pursuant to Act of Parliament, rather than matrimonial right. Coins were to also show the head of both Mary and Philip. The marriage treaty further provided that England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip's father, the Holy Roman Emperor, in any war. Mary fell in love with Philip and, thinking she was pregnant, had thanksgiving services at the diocese of London in November 1554. But Philip found his queen, who was eleven years his senior, to be physically unattractive and after only fourteen months left for Spain under a false excuse. Mary suffered a phantom pregnancy; Philip released the Lady Elizabeth from house arrest so that he could be viewed favourably by her in case Mary died during childbirth. Mary then turned her attention to religious issues. She had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father. Her half-brother, Edward, had established Protestantism; Mary wished to revert to Roman Catholicism. England was reconciled with Rome, and Reginald Cardinal Pole, who would become an adviser Mary very heavily depended upon, became Archbishop of Canterbury, after Mary had his predecessor executed. Edward's religious laws were abolished by Mary's first Parliament and numerous Protestant leaders were executed in the so-called Marian Persecutions. The first to die was John Rogers (4 February 1555) and the next to be killed was John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester (9 February 1555). The persecution lasted uninterrupted for three and three-quarter years. She earned the epithet of Bloody Mary though her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth, more than balanced the number killed under Mary with Catholic persecution, in total, but not in frequency. (Elizabeth reigned seven times as long, and some of her executions were of actual traitors, under any definition). For frequency the persecution of Catholics under the short reign of her predecessor Edward VI is perhaps more comparable or possibly the persecution of Protestants in the early years of their father Henry VIII. Having inherited the Throne of Spain upon his father's abdication, Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to join with Spain in a war against France in the Italian Wars. Meanwhile, England was full of faction, and seditious pamphlets of Protestant origin inflamed the people with hatred against the Spaniards. But perhaps the strangest thing about the situation was that the Pope sided with France against Spain. English forces fared badly in the conflict and as a result the Kingdom lost Calais, its last remaining continental possession. Mary later lamented that when she lay dead the words "Philip" and "Calais" would be found inscribed on her heart. Mary persuaded parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Edward and Henry before her. But it took several years to persuade parliament to go all the way. And to get their agreement, she had to make a major concession: tens of thousands of acres of monastery lands confiscated under Henry were not returned to the monasteries. The new group of landowners that had been set up by this distribution remained very influential. Mary also set in motion currency reform to counteract the dramatic devaluation of the currency overseen by Thomas Gresham that characterized the last few years of Henry VIII's reign and the reign of Edward VI. These measures, however, were largely unsuccessful and it was only under Elizabeth that economic catastrophe was prevented. Mary's deep religious convictions also inspired her to institute social reforms, although these were unsuccessful as well. Under her reign, in another of the Plantations of Ireland, English colonists were settled in the Irish midlands to reduce the attacks on the Pale (the colony around Dublin). Two counties were created and, in her honour, were named Queens County and, for Phillip, Kings County. The county town of Queens County was called Maryborough.

Death

During her reign, Mary's weak health led her to suffer numerous phantom pregnancies. After such a delusion was suffered in 1558, Mary decreed in her will that her husband Philip should be the regent during the minority of her child. No child, however, was born, and Mary died at the age of forty-two of influenza, uterine cancer or ovarian cancer at St. James's Palace on 17 November 1558. It has been theorised that an ovarian cyst prevented her from becoming pregnant. She was succeeded by her half-sister, who became Elizabeth I. Mary is buried in Westminster Abbey immediately beside Elizabeth. The Latin inscription on their tomb translates to "Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection".

Legacy

Although Mary enjoyed tremendous popular support and sympathy for her mistreatment during the earliest parts of her reign, she lost almost all of it after marrying Philip. The English viewed the marriage as a breach of English independence; they felt that it would make England a mere dependency of Spain. The marriage treaty clearly specified that England was not to be drawn into any Spanish wars, but this guarantee proved meaningless. Philip spent most of his time governing his Spanish and European territories, and little of it with his wife in England. After Mary's death, Philip became a suitor for Elizabeth's hand, but Elizabeth refused. During the five-year long reign, 283 individuals were burnt at the stake, twice as many as had suffered the same fate during the previous century and a half of English history, and at a greater rate than under the contemporary Spanish Inquisition. Several notable clerics were executed; among them were the former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the former Bishop of London Nicholas Ridley and the reformist Hugh Latimer. John Foxe vilified her in a book entitled The Actes and Monuments of these latter and perilous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great Persecution and horrible Troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Romishe Prelates, Epeciallye in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande to the time now present, commonly called The Book of Martyrs. The persecution of Protestants earned Mary the appellation "Bloody Mary" and led the English people to revile her. It is said that the Spanish ambassadors were aghast at the jubilation and celebration of the people upon her death. Many historians believe, however, that Mary does not deserve all the blame that has been cast upon her. She was not solely responsible for the persecution of Protestants; others who participated included the Archbishop of Canterbury Reginald Cardinal Pole, who was appointed during her reign, the Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner and the Bishop of London Edmund Bonner ("Bloody Bonner", who had been deprived of his see until Mary's accession to the throne). One popular tradition traces the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary to Mary's attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells", for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns. Another tradition has it that the rhyme was based on the life of Mary's cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. There is however no proof that the rhyme was known before the 18th century: see its article for more information.

Portrayal

Mary has appeared several times in Tudor-related movies. Ann Tyrrell made a cameo appearance as Mary in the movie Young Bess (1953). Nicola Pagett played Mary in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days; Pagett's brief appearance was in a fictitious scene depicting Mary at Catherine of Aragon's deathbed. (Historically, Mary was not present at the time.) In 1971, the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast the six-part television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. In the first part, Catherine of Aragon, the young Princess Mary was portrayed by Verina Greenlaw. The character, played by Alison Frazer, reappeared in the third part, Jane Seymour, and in the sixth part, Catherine Parr. In the blockbuster sequel, Elizabeth R, the middle-aged Mary was played by Daphne Slater. The 1985 movie Lady Jane had Mary played by Jane Lapotaire. In 1998, Mary was portrayed by Kathy Burke in the lavish costume drama Elizabeth. In 2003, Lara Belmont played Mary in the British television drama Henry VIII. Mary is the subject of the novel, The Shadow of the Crown by Jean Plaidy. Mary also appears in Philippa Gregory's novel, The Queen's Fool and in Margaret Irwin's trilogy of Queen Elizabeth youth, Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. For younger readers, Mary's story is told in Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer.

Style and arms

Like Henry VIII and Edward VI, Mary used the style "Majesty", as well as "Highness" and "Grace". "Majesty", which Henry VIII first used on a consistent basis, did not become exclusive until the reign of Elizabeth I's successor, James I. When Mary ascended the Throne, she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI: "Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head". The "supremacy phrase" at the end of the style was repugnant to Mary's Catholic faith; from 1554 onwards, she omitted the phrase without statutory authority, which was not retroactively granted by Parliament until 1555. Under Mary's marriage treaty with Philip II of Spain, the couple were jointly styled King and Queen. The official joint style reflected not only Mary's but also Philip's dominions and claims; it was "Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol". This style, which had been in use since 1554, was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with "Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol". Mary I's arms were the same as those used by her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Sometimes, Mary's arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband.

References

- [http://tudorhistory.org/mary/ Eakins, L. E. (2004). "Mary I"]
- "Mary I". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09766a.htm "Mary Tudor" (1910). The Catholic Encyclopedia (Volume IX). New York: Robert Appleton Company.]
- Williamson, D. (1998). The Kings and Queens of England New York: National Portrait Gallery.

External link

- [http://www.archsoc.com/games/Mary.html Stevens, Garry. (2004). "Bloody Mary: Further Intrigue in the Tudor Court"] Category:1516 births Category:1558 deaths Category:English monarchs Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:Henry VIII's children Category:History of Catholicism in Britain Category:House of Tudor Category:Queens regnant Category:Roman Catholic monarchs Category:Londoners Category:British women ko:잉글랜드의 메리 1세 ja:メアリー1世 (イングランド女王)

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess should not be confused with another prominent Nazi, Rudolf Höß (also spelled Höss or Hoess.) Walter Richard Rudolf Hess (Heß in German) (April 26, 1894 – August 17, 1987) was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany as Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison. He has become a figure of veneration among neo-Nazis.

Early life

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Bavarian Lutheran importer/exporter who thought the school in their little German community was not strict enough, Rudolf was educated by private tutors. The family moved back to Germany in 1908 and he enrolled in boarding school there. Although Hess expressed interest in being an astrologer, his father convinced him to study business in Switzerland. At the onset of World War I he enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, became an infantryman and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. He transferred to the Imperial Air Corps (after being rejected once), took aeronautical training and served in an operational squadron at the rank of lieutenant.

Hitler's deputy

After the war he went to Munich and joined the Thule Society, assisting the Freikorps in their struggle against Communism. He enrolled in the University of Munich where he studied political science, history, economics, and geopolitics under Professor Karl Haushofer. After hearing Hitler speak in May 1920, he became completely devoted to his leadership. For commanding an SA battalion during the Beer Hall Putsch, he served seven and a half months in Landsberg prison. Acting as Hitler's private secretary, he edited Hitler's book Mein Kampf and eventually rose to deputy party leader and third in leadership of Germany, after Hitler and Hermann Göring. Hess had a privileged position as Hitler's deputy in the early years of the Nazi movement but was increasingly marginalized throughout the 1930s as Hitler and other Nazi leaders consolidated political power. Hitler biographer John Toland described Hess' political insight and abilities as somewhat limited and his alienation increased during the early years of the war as attention and glory were focused on the generals along with Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. Several historians have characterised Hess' personality as "neurotic."

Flight to Scotland

Like Joseph Goebbels, Hess was privately distressed by the declaration of war on Britain. According to William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Hess may have hoped to score a stunning diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the Reich and Britain. He flew to Britain in May 1941 to meet the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, parachuting from his Messerschmitt Bf 110 over Renfrewshire on May 10 and landing (which broke his ankle) at Floors Farm near Eaglesham, just south of Glasgow. He was quickly arrested, although the details of how this happened are somewhat unclear and remain controversial. The British government may still hold records pertaining to the incident and if so, their eventual release may help more fully explain it. Apparently, Hess believed Hamilton was an opponent of Winston Churchill, whom he held responsible for the outbreak of war. His proposal for peace was similar to the bargain Hitler had tried to make with Neville Chamberlain prior to the invasion of Poland: Very broadly put, Germany would help protect the British Empire so long as Britain did not oppose Germany in Europe. Hess's strange behavior and unilateral proposals quickly discredited him as a serious negotiator (especially after it became obvious he did not officially represent the German government) and he was briefly imprisoned by the British in the Tower of London. Taken by surprise, Hitler had Hess' staff arrested, then spread word throughout Germany that Hess had gone insane and acted of his own accord. Hearing this, Hess began claiming to his interrogators that as part of a pre-arranged diplomatic cover story, Hitler had agreed to announce to the German people that his deputy fuhrer was insane. Meanwhile Hitler granted Hess' wife a pension, Martin Bormann succeeded him as deputy under a newly created title and (very notably) turned that position into the second most powerful in Germany.

Trial and life imprisonment

Martin Bormann Hess was detained by the British for the duration of the war, then was a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials for crimes against peace and given a life sentence. His last words before the tribunal were, "I have no regrets." For decades he was addressed only as prisoner number seven. Following the 1966 releases of Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer he was the lone remaining inmate of Spandau Prison. Guards reportedly said he degenerated mentally and lost most of his memory. For two decades, his main companion was warden Eugene K. Bird with whom he formed a close relationship. Bird wrote a 1974 book titled The Loneliest Man in the World: The Inside Story of the 30-Year Imprisonment of Rudolf Hess about his relationship with Hess. Many historians and legal commentators have expressed opinions that his long imprisonment was an injustice. In 1950, Winston Churchill wrote, :"Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded." In 1977 Britain's chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Sir Hartley Shawcross, characterized Hess' continued imprisonment as a "scandal." On 17 August, 1987 he died under Four Power imprisonment at Spandau Prison in West Berlin. By all accounts he was found in a "summer house" in a garden located in a secure area of the prison with an electrical cord (an extension for a reading lamp) wrapped around his neck. His death was ruled a suicide by self-asphyxiation, accomplished by tying the cord to a window latch in the summer house. Hess had attempted suicide at least twice before, in 1941 at Mytchett Place and in 1977 by cutting his wrists with a table knife. He was buried in Wunsiedel, and Spandau was subsequently demolished to prevent its becoming a shrine. His son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess, an unapologetic Nazi and fervent believer in Adolf Hitler, maintained until his own death that his father was murdered by serving members of the British SAS.

Wunsiedel

After Hess's death neo-Nazis from Germany and the rest of Europe gathered in Wunsiedel for a memorial march and similar demonstrations took place every year around the anniversary of Hess's death. These gatherings were banned from 1991 to 2000 and neo-Nazis tried to assemble in other cities and countries (such as the Netherlands and Denmark). Demonstrations in Wunsiedel were again legalised in 2001. Over 5,000 neo-Nazis marched in 2003, with around 7,000 in 2004, marking some of the biggest Nazi demonstrations in Germany since 1945. After stricter German legislation regarding demonstations by neo-Nazis was enacted in March 2005 the demonstrations were banned again.

Speculation on his flight to Britain

Hess's journey to Britain was one of the odder events of World War II. In The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight (ISBN 0-631-13392-5) Anthony Masters claims it was a scheme conceived by British Intelligence officer Ian Fleming (who later gained fame as the creator of James Bond). According to Masters the trap was laid in 1940 after Fleming read about the Anglo-German organization The Link in the intelligence file of its founder Admiral Sir Barry Domvile. Through an agent, Fleming fed Hess disinformation that The Link had been driven underground and was in a position to overthrow Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and negotiate peace, with the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon prepared to be a negotiator. Masters also claimed Hess selected the date of his flight after astrologer Ernst Schulter-Strathaus informed him there would be a rare alignment of six planets in the astrological sign of Taurus during the full moon on May 11, 1941, one day after his landing in Scotland. Hess was born with the Sun in Taurus (Taurus being his Sun Sign, also called the Star Sign) and he apparently believed this system of prediction (called electional astrology) would somehow increase his chances for success. The Man Who Was M is the only known source of these claims, which also assert his astrologer may have been bribed by the British Intelligence. Related claims were made in The Queen's Lost Uncle, a television program produced by [http://www.rogerbolton.co.uk/flame.php Flame] broadcast in November 2003 and March 2005 on Britain's Channel 4. This program reported that according to unspecified "recently released" documents Hess flew to the UK to meet Prince George, Duke of Kent, who had to be rushed from the scene due to Hess's botched arrival. This was supposedly also part of a plot to fool the Nazis into thinking the prince was plotting with other senior figures to overthrow Winston Churchill. There is circumstantial evidence Hess was lured to Scotland by the British secret service. Violet Roberts, whose nephew, Walter Roberts was a close relative of the Duke of Hamilton and was working in the political intelligence and propaganda branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (SO1/PWE), was friends with Hess' mentor Karl Haushofer and wrote a letter to Haushofer, which Hess took great interest in prior to his flight. Haushofer replied to Violet Roberts, suggesting a post office box in Portugal for further correspondence. The letter was intercepted by a British mail censor (the original note by Roberts and a followup note by Haushofer are missing and only Haushofer's reply is extant). Certain documents Hess brought with him to Britain were sealed until 2017 but when the seal was broken in 1991-92 the documents were missing. Speculation from Edvard Benes, head of the Czech government in exile and his intelligence chief Frantisek Moravetz, who worked with SO1/PWE, was that British Intelligence used Haushofer's reply to Violet Roberts as a means to trap Hess (See Hess: the British Conspiracy, by McBlain and Trow, 2000).

Eye witness accounts of Hess' landing

Another version of events, shared by witnesses in the nearby suburb of Clarkston, is that Rudolf Hess' plane made a perfect landing in a field near Carnbooth House. They saw the gunners of the nearby heavy anti-aircraft artillery battery drag Rudolf Hess out of the aircraft causing the injury to Hess' leg. The following night a Luftwaffe aircraft circling the area above Carnbooth House, possibly in an attempt to locate Hess' plane or recover Hess, was shot down. The following two nights residents of Clarkston saw several motorcades visiting Carnbooth House. One resident claims to have seen Winston Churchill smoking a cigar in the back seat of one vehicle whilst another resident saw what they thought were aircraft components being transported on the back of a lorry. The witness accounts uncover some fascinating insights. The directions of the flight followed by Hess shows that he was looking for the home of Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, a large house on the River Cart. Hess in fact landed near Carnbooth House, the first large house on the River Cart located to the west of his intended destination. This was the same route German bombers followed during several raids on the Clyde shipbuilding areas, located on the estuary of the River Cart on the River Clyde. The newsreel footage of the Hess incident uncovers more information. Firstly, the farmer David McLean claims to have arrested Rudolf Hess with his pitchfork. It is obvious that the farmer is reading from cue cards. Also, the newsreel shows the remains of a Luftwaffe aircraft riddled with bullet holes. The wreckage is of a Messerschmitt Bf 110 which required a crew of three. Why certain facts surrounding Hess’ flight to Scotland have been withheld will remain a mystery until they are released. If, in fact, the plane Hess flew to Scotland was captured intact it would have been the first German aircraft to have been captured. It is now known that captured German aircraft were used to drop intelligence personnel and special forces behind enemy lines during the war.

Hess in popular culture

Various conspiracy theories have suggested the man imprisoned at Spandau was not Hess, but a double acting as a political decoy but these claims are generally discounted by serious historians. Richard Arnold-Baker, the MI6 officer who interrogated him, who was himself an aristocratic German (born Werner von Blumenthal) was astonished at how little Hess seemed to know about German society and places, but even so he did not doubt that this was indeed Hess. This doubt has been the theme of at least two novels. Spandau Phoenix by Greg Iles features this idea and The Separation by Christopher Priest considers an alternate history wherein Hess' peace mission was a success. The song Warsaw by the band Joy Division begins with "350125 Go!" and "31G" appears in the chorus. These numbers likely refer to Rudolf Hess' prisoner of war number 31G 350125. Around the time this song was written there was much public interest in how he had been kept in more or less solitary confinement at Spandau prison for several decades. In late 2005 twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede of Bakersfield, California, who have long performed under the name Prussian Blue, released an album including a song titled Sacrifice, a tribute to Rudolf Hess as a "man of peace." Since the girls were thirteen years old, several observers attributed these views to their widely documented white nationalist upbringing.

Quote

My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children.

References

- Hess: The Fuhrer's Disciple by Peter Padfield
- The Loneliest Man in the World: The inside story of the 30-year imprisonment of Rudolf Hess's' by Eugene K. Bird
- The Flight of Rudolf Hess: Myths and Reality by Roy Conyers Nesbit, Georges Van Acker
- Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace by G. Pile
- Double Standards: The Rudolf Hess Cover-Up by Lynn Picknett, et al
- The Murder of Rudolf Hess's' by W. Hugh Thomas (1979, ISBN 0060142510)
- Ten Days to Destiny: The Secret Story of the Hess Peace Initiative and British Efforts to Strike a Deal With Hitler (Ten Days to Destiny) by John Costello
- Farewell to Spandau by Tony Le Tissier
- Hess: A Biography by Roger Manvell
- H.I.D.: Hess Is Dead by Howard Brenton
- Hess: The Man and His Mission by Joseph Bernard Hutton
- The Crown and the Swastika: Hitler, Hess, and the Duke of Windsor by Peter Allen
- The Windsor Secret: New revelations of the Nazi connection by Peter Allen
- Motive for a Mission: The Story Behind Rudolf Hess's Flight to Britain by James Douglas-Hamilton
- Rudolf Hess: The British Conspiracy by John McBlain
- The Truth About Rudolf Hess's' by James Douglas-Hamilton
- The Mission by Jerome Tuccille, Philip S. Jacobs (Dutton Adult, 1991 novel, ISBN 1556111991)
- Hess: Flight for the Führer by Peter Padfield
- Rudolf Hess, the Last Nazi (A Zenith edition) by Wulf Schwarzwäller
- Ten Days That Saved the West by John Costello
- The Case of Rudolf Hess; A Problem in diagnosis and forensic psychiatry by John R. Rees, Henry Victor Dicks
- Rudolf Hess and Germany's Reluctant War, 1939-41 by Alfred Smith
- Selected speeches by Rudolf Hess
- Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer: A Psychological Study by David M. Moriarty
- Who Murdered my Father Rudolf Hess?: My father's mysterious death in Spandau by Wolf Rüdiger Hess
- Hess: The Missing Years 1941-1945 by David John Cawdell Irving
- The Uninvited Envoy by James Leasor
- The Behest of Hess's' by William Hobart Royce
- Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, (1991, ISBN 0130893013)

External links

- [http://heritage.scotsman.com/videos.cfm?vid=110 interview with eyewitness of Hess' crash-landing outside Glasgow]
- [http://www.defendingsteiner.com/pers/Hess.php Rudolf Hess' relationship to Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy] Hess, Rudolf Hess, Rudolf Hess, Rudolf Hess, Rudolf Hess, Rudolf Hess, Rudolf ja:ルドルフ・ヘス nb:Rudolf Hess

Roman Britain

:This article is about the Roman province called Britannia. For other uses, see Britannia (disambiguation). Britannia (disambiguation) Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between 43 and 410 CE. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia. Prior to their invasion, Iron Age Britain already had cultural and economic links with Continental Europe, but the invaders introduced new developments in agriculture, urbanisation, industry and architecture, leaving a legacy that is still apparent today. Historical records beyond the initial invasion are sparse, although many Roman historians mention the province in passing. Much of our knowledge of the period stems from archaeological investigations and especially epigraphic evidence.

The Roman invasion

The Roman invasion of Britain took place during the reign of Emperor Claudius, in 44 CE. Earlier expeditions, notably by Julius Caesar, had not formally absorbed Britain into ancient Roman territory (then the Roman Republic) and had been of variable success. Military remains from a pre-44 period suggest considerable Roman influence before the invasion took place. Roman soldiers landed at Richborough and defeated the southeastern British tribes under Caratacus, and captured his capital Camulodunum or Colchester. Caratacus refused to submit, and retreated deeper into unconquered Brythonic territory, coming to the domain of the Ordovices in 47. He incited this tribe to fight the Romans, and they lost the ensuing battle. Once again Caratacus fled, this time to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes. Cartimandua surrendered Caratacus to the Romans, who brought him in chains to Rome. Meanwhile the invasion continued westwards under Vespasian and north to Caledonia (Scotland) under Agricola.

Roman rule is established

For the first twenty years, the Roman rule was oppressive, and this treatment led Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, to revolt. The Trinovantes and Catuvellauni joined, and the alliance assaulted the Roman colony at Camulodunum, looting and burning the town as well as slaying every man, woman and child they found. The governor Suetonius Paullinus, upon reaching London from his campaigning in the western part of the province, found the town indefensible with the few troops he had. As a result, Paullinus was forced to abandon the city and took only those who could afford to leave in time to retreat with him, leaving some behind. The legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrix joined him at a battlefield of his choosing, and in the Battle of Watling Street the combined Roman forces crushed the revolt (it was in this occasion that XIV Gemina gained her Martia Victrix cognomen). Boudicca took her own life shortly afterwards. For much of the history of Roman Britain, there was a large number of soldiers garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a side-effect of this, a number of future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I. In the following years the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. The governor Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With XX Valeria Victrix, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in what is today northern Scotland. This marked the high tide mark of Roman territory in Britain; shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans retired to a more defensible line along the Forth-Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.

Occupation and retreat from southern Scotland

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth-Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged, although others appear to have been abandoned. Roman coins and pottery are found circulating at native settlement sites in what are now the Scottish lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Around 105, however, a serious setback appears to have happened at the hands of the indigenous Picts of Scotland; several Roman forts were destroyed by fire at this time with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (Newstead, Scottish Borders) indicating hostilities at least at that site. There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany and an unnamed British war from the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune on Cyrene. However, Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the natives rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway-Tyne isthmus around this time. A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign (117), a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought VI Victrix with him from Lower Germany. Legio VI replaced the famous IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable instability in Scotland during the first half of the second century AD, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context. In the reign of Antoninus Pius the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth-Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military re-occupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus. This northward extension of the empire was probably the result of attacks, maybe by the Selgovae of south-west Scotland, on the Roman buffer state of the Votadini who lived north of the Hadrianic frontier. The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155-157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch re-inforcements, the Romans moved their troops south and this rising was suppressed by the governor Cnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was re-occupied, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antonius' undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire as the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time however, as the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least c. 180. During the twenty year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall, Rome was concerned with continental issues primarily problems in the Danube provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver appears in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade and it is likely that the Romans were boosting treaty agreements with cash payments, a situation with comparators elsewhere in the empire at the time. In 175 a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men arrived in Britannia, probably to re-inforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. Certainly, in 180 Hadrian's Wall was breached and barbarians had killed the commanding officer or governor there in what Dio Cassius described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus' strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper emperor, he refused but Marcellus himself was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination, they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perrenis, a Praetorian Prefect whom they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perrenis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny. The future emperor, Pertinax was sent to Britannia to restore order and was initially successful in regaining control. A riot broke out amongst the troops however, in which Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and he asked to be recalled to Rome, briefly succeeding Commodus in 192.

Trade and industry

By the time of the Roman occupation, Britain's tin exports to the Mediterranean had been largely eclipsed by the more convenient supply from Iberia. Gold, iron, lead, silver, jet, marble and pearls however were all exploited by the Romans in Britain along with more everyday commodities such as hunting dogs, animal skins, timber, wool, corn and slaves. Foreign investment created a vigorous domestic market and imports were often of exotic Continental items such as fine pottery, olive oil, lavastone querns, glassware, garum and fruit. Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine, the Wealden ironworking zone and the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Although mining had long been practised in Britain, the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued. Although Roman designs were most popular, rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Local pottery rarely attained the standards of the Gaulish industries although the Castor ware of the Nene Valley was able to withstand comparison with the imports. Most native pottery was unsophisticated however and intended only for local markets. By the third century, Britain's economy was diverse and well-established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north. The design of Hadrian's Wall especially catered to the need for customs inspections of merchants' goods.

The third century

The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the throne emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britain, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant to the purple. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus' support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised however, Severus turned on his ally in Britain—though it is likely that Albinus saw that he would be the next target, and was already preparing for war. Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195 where the provinces were also sympathetic to him and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196 and the ensuing battle was decisive. Although Albinus came close to victory, Severus' reinforcements won the day, and the British governor found it expedient to commit suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus' sympathisers, perhaps as well confiscating large tracts of land in Britain in punishment. Albinus demonstrated the two major political problems posed by Roman Britain. First, in order to maintain its security it had three legions stationed there. These would provide an ambitious man with weak loyalties a powerful base for rebellion, as it had for Albinus. Second, deploying the legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, with the result that Britain was defenceless to invaders. Traditionally, the view has been that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus' absence. Certainly Cassius Dio records that the new governor, Virius Lupus was obliged to buy peace from the fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae, however more recent work suggests that it is more likely that he left a reasonable force behind to protect the frontier and that the level of chaos was not as great as earlier thought. Even so, a succession of militarily distinguished governors were appointed to the province and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report back to Rome in 207 described barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking booty and creating destruction". Alfenus requested either re-inforcements or an Imperial expedition and Severus chose the latter option, despite now being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Alfenus had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it and Severus' arrival in Britain prompted the rebellious tribes to immediately sue for peace. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory however and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first hand experience of controlling and administering a barbarian province. An expedition led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops, moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the wall and passing through eastern Scotland in a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by guerrilla raids by the natives and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The campaign pushed northwards as far as the River Tay and peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians who seem to have suffered similar losses to the Romans. By 210, Severus had returned to York with the frontier set at Hadrian's Wall and assumed the title Britannicus. Almost immediately another northern tribe, the Maeatae rebelled. Caracella left with a punitive expedition but by the next year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim for the throne. As one of his last acts, Septimius Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the existing province into Upper Britain and Lower Britain. Although this kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century, it was not permanent. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period often called the Long Peace. Even so the number of hoards found in the period rises, suggesting unrest and a string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy, over the next hundred years they expanded in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts. During the middle of the third century the Roman empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, although increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259, a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire. In the late 270s a half-Brythonic usurper named Bononus rebelled to avoid the repercussions of letting his fleet be burnt by barbarians at Cologne. He was quickly crushed by Probus, but soon afterwards an unnamed governor in Britannia also attempted an uprising. Irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians were sent across the Channel by Probus to put down the uprising, perhaps in 278. The last of the string of rebellions to affect Britannia was that of Carausius and his successor Allectus. Carausius was a naval commander, probably in the English Channel. He was accused of keeping pirate booty for himself, and his execution was ordered by the Emperor Maximian. He then in 286 set himself up as emperor in Britain and northern Gaul, and remained in power whilst Maximian dealt with uprisings elsewhere. In 288, an invasion failed to unseat the usurper. An uneasy peace ensued, during which Carausius issued coins proclaiming his legitimacy and inviting official recognition. In 293 Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel's port at Boulogne and cutting it off from naval assistance. After the town fell, Constantius tackled Carausius' Frankish allies. Subsequently the usurper was murdered by his treasurer, Allectus. Allectus' brief reign was brought to an end when Asclepiodotus landed near Southampton and defeated him in a land battle. Constantius himself arrived in London to receive the victory and chose to divide the province further, into four provinces:
- Maxima Caesariensis (based on London): from Upper Britannia
- Britannia Prima: from Upper Britannia
- Flavia Caesariensis: from Lower Britannia
- Britannia Secunda: from Lower Britannia These four provinces were part of Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform in 293, Britannia became one of the four dioceses—governed by a vicarius—of the prætorian prefecture Galliae ('the Gauls', also comprising the provices of Gaul, Germania and Hispania), after the abolition of the imperial tetrarchs under the Western Emperor (in Rome itself, later Ravenna).

Government of Britannia

Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate but those like Britain that required permanent garrisons of troops were placed under the Emperor's control. On the ground however imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were former senators who had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops. To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus iuridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and in time of war probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services. Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections.

The fourth century

Constantius Chlorus returned to Britain in 306, aiming to invade northern Britain. The province's defences had been rebuilt in the preceding years and, although his health was poor, Constantius wished to penetrate far into enemy territory and win a further victory. Little is known of his campaigns and there is little archaeological evidence for them. From fragmentary historical sources it seems he reached the far north of Britain and won a great battle in early summer of that year before returning south to York. Constantius remained in Britain for the rest of the time he was part of the Tetrarchy, dying on 25th July 306. His son, Constantine I had managed to be by his side at that moment, and assumed his duties in Britain. Unlike the earlier usurper Albinus, he was able to successfully use his base in Britain as a starting point on his march to the imperial throne. For a few years, the British provinces were loyal to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following his death. Following his defeat and death in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paul "Catena" to Britain to hunt down Magnentius' supporters. Paul's investigations deteriorated into a witch hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paul instead suspected Martinus of treason, the vicarius found himself forced to physically attack Paul with a sword with the aim of assassinating him, but at the end committed suicide. In the 4th century, Britain also saw increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east, and the Irish in the west. A series of forts was built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when a general assault of Saxons, Irish and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate in 367. This crisis, sometimes called the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius with a string of military and civil reforms. Another usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt in Segontium in 383, and crossed the Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned at this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all of the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were struggling after the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in 378. Around 396, there were increasing barbarian incursions in Britain, and an expedition, possibly led by Stilicho, brought naval action against the raiders. It seems peace was restored by 399, although it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered, and indeed by 401 more troops were withdrawn to assist in the war against Alaric.

Town and country

A number of important settlements were founded by the Romans, during their occupation of Britain. Many of which still survive. Cities and towns which have Roman origins include: (with their Latin names in brackets)
- Alcester - (Aluana)
- Bath - (Aquae Sulis)
- Caerleon - (Isca Silurum)
- Caerwent - (Venta Silurum)
- Canterbury - (Durovernum)
- Carmarthen - (Moridunum)
- Colchester - (Camulodonum)
- Chichester - (Noviomagus)
- Chester - (Deva)
- Cirencester - (Corinium)
- Dover - (Portus Dubris)
- Dorchester - (Durnovaria)
- Exeter - (Isca Dumnoniorum)
- Gloucester - (Glevum)
- Leicester - (Ratae Coritanorum)
- London - (Londinium)
- Lincoln - (Lindum)
- Manchester - (Mamucium)
- Northwich - (Condate)
- St Albans - (Verulamium)
- Towcester - (Lactodorum)
- Winchester - (Venta Belgarum)
- York - (Eboracum) For a larger list, see list of Roman place names in Britain.

The end of Roman rule

list of Roman place names in Britain The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at this time. However, consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. The destruction of many sites is now believed to be much later than had earlier been thought. Many buildings changed use, but were not destroyed. There were growing barbarian attacks, but focused on vulnerable rural settlements rather than the towns. Some villas such as Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy, although many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the fifth century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. New buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the fifth and sixth centuries, surrounded by large farming estates. Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the fourth century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic stagnation, diminishing numbers of troops, and problems with the payment of soldiers and officials. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, although it never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, although minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were no new Roman coins going into circulation and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Pottery mass production probably ended a decade or two previously; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor probably adopted leather or wooden ones.

Religion

Religion in Roman Britain consisted originally of pagan worship. A common element was the conflation of Roman gods and local Iron Age deities such as Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham. The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain northern European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record but the differences in the votive offerings made at Bath before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the emperor himself is widely recorded, especially at military sites. Oriental cults such as Mithraism and Christianity grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The Temple of Mithras is one example of the popularity of mystery religions amongst the rich urban classes and by the fourth century there is archaeological evidence of Christian worship; small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early fourth century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. Amongst the ordinary Romano-Britons it is difficult to determine the adoption of Christianity although a large fourth century cemetery at Poundbury with its east-west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground. Such burial rites were becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period as well however. It is not clear when Christianity came to Britain, or how. Some ancient texts seem to suggest that Christianity came early though by no means achieved anything approaching religious supremacy until after the Roman conquest due in part to the continued influx of pagan influences from the continent. Early Roman writers, and pre-reformation scholars certainly believed that Celtic Britain may have been Christianized early. Quintus Septimus Florens Terullianus also known simply as Tertullian (AD 155-222) wrote in [http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-19.htm#P2021_691723 Adversus Judaeos] that Britain had already received and accepted the Gospel in his life time writing; :..all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons--inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ .. or in Latin; : ... Hispaniarum omnes termini et Galliarum diversae nationes et Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo ... According to archaeological record, Christianity seems to have been slower to spread in Britain than in some other parts of the Roman Empire, although there were British martyrs in the periods of persecution: St Alban of Verulamium and SS Aaron and Julius of Isca Silurum. By the fifth century, however, the new religion appears to have become established. The evidence for this process is complex, and described in Celtic Christianity. What evidence there is, is sketchy, however there is evidence to suggest that what Christian community that did exist in early Britain had already established some orthodoxy by 363 C.E. as evidenced by a letter found in Bath, Somerset from a Christian man, Vinisius, who writes from the Roman city of Wroxeter (near present-day Shrewsbury) to a Christian lady named Nigra, living in Bath. Vinisius warns Nigra of the arrival of one Bilonicus, whom he calls a "canem Arii", that is, a follower (dog) of the heretic Arios. The early Church in Roman Britain seems to have also developed the customary diocesan system as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul, 314.6 C.E. These contain the earliest references to bishops in Britain. Represented at the Council were bishops from thirty-five sees from North Africa, Gaul, Britain, Spain, Italy and Dalmatia. Signatories include three bishops from Britain. These were Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius.

Sub-Roman Britain

Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attack on all sides towards the end of the 4th century, and troops were too few to mount an effective defence. The army rebelled and, after elevating two disappointing usurpers, chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become Emperor in 407. He soon crossed to Gaul with an army, to be defeated by Theodosius I; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, nor whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons themselves, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. A later appeal for help by the British communities was rejected by the emperor Honorius in 410. This apparent contradiction has been explained by EA Thompson as a peasant revolt against the landowning classes, with the latter group asking for Roman help; an uprising certainly occurred in Gaul at the time. With the higher levels of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and small warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still aspiring to Roman ideals and conventions. By tradition, the pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts and Irish, though archaeology has suggested some official settlement as landed mercenaries as early as the third century. The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time many Britons fled to Brittany (whence its name). Similar orders were sent out in the 490s but met with no response. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the famous Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aëtius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446; another is the Battle of Dyrham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea. Most scholars reject the historicity of the later legends of King Arthur, which seem to be set in this period, but some such as John Morris see it as evidence behind which may lie a plausible grain of truth.

The legacy

During their occupation of Britain, the Romans built an extensive network of roads, many of which are still in use today. The Romans also built water and sewage systems. The prestige of the empire influenced Britons' views of themselves for generations to come. Britain is also noteworthy as having the largest European region of the former Roman Empire which currently speaks neither (as a majority language):
- A Romance language (for example, Romania, where territory was under Roman control about half as long as Britain), nor
- A language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants (such as Greek), though Welsh exists as a minority language, with many borrowings from Latin, such as llaeth ("milk"), ffenestr ("window"). For what is known of the process that introduced English to much of this former province, see the article Anglo-Saxons.

External links

- [http://www.roman-britain.org/overview.htm Roman Britain, by Kevan W. White]
- [http://www.morgue.demon.co.uk/ The Roman Army and Navy in Britain, by Peter Green]
- [http://www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk/ Roman Britain: Quentin de la Bedoyere]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/_Periods/Roman/home.html Roman Britain at LacusCurtius]
- [http://chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet.pdf Roman London - "In their own words"] (PDF) By Kevin Flude ja:ブリタンニア

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 1, 10 BC–October 13, 54), previously Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24 41 to his death in 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy. Claudius was considered a rather unlikely man to become emperor. He was reportedly afflicted with some type of disability, and his family had virtually excluded him from public office until his consulship with his nephew Caligula in 37. This infirmity may have saved him from the fate of many other Roman nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns. His very survival led to his being declared emperor after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult male of his family. Despite his lack of political experience, Claudius proved to be an able administrator and a great builder of public works. His reign saw an expansion of the empire, including the conquest of Britain. He took a personal interest in the law, presided at public trials, and issued up to 20 edicts a day. However, he was seen as vulnerable throughout his rule, particularly by the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position - resulting in the deaths of many senators and knights. He also suffered tragic setbacks in his personal life, one of which lead to his murder. These things negatively impacted his reputation among the ancient writers. More recent historians have revised this opinion.

Claudius' affliction and personality

The historian Suetonius describes the physical manifestations of Claudius' affliction in detail. His knees were weak and gave way under him and his head shook. He stammered and his speech was confused. He slobbered and his nose ran when excited. The Stoic Seneca states in his [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=40298 Apocolocyntosis] that Claudius' voice belonged to no land animal, and that his hands were weak as well. However, he showed no physical deformity, as Suetonius notes that when calm and seated he was a tall, well-built figure of dignitas. When angered or stressed, his symptoms became worse. Historians agree that this improved upon his accession to the throne. Claudius himself claimed that he had exaggerated his ailments to save his own life. The modern diagnosis has changed several times in the past century. Prior to World War II, infantile paralysis (or polio) was widely accepted as the cause. This is the diagnosis used in Robert Graves' Claudius novels, first published in the 1930s. Polio does not explain many of the comorbidities, however, and a more recent theory implicates cerebral palsy as the cause, as outlined by Ernestine Leon . On the personal front, the ancient historians describe Claudius as generous and lowbrow, a man who cracked lame jokes, laughed uncontrollably, and lunched with the plebs. They also paint him as bloodthirsty, cruel, and very quick to anger. To them he was also overly trusting, and easily manipulated by his wives and freedmen. But at the same time they portray him as paranoid and apathetic, dull and easily confused. The extant works of Claudius present a different view, painting a picture of an intelligent, well-read, conscientious administrator with an eye to detail and justice. Thus, Claudius becomes an enigma. Since the discovery of his "Letter to the Alexandrians" in the last century, much work has been done to rehabilitate Claudius and determine where the truth lies.

Family and early life

Claudius was born Tiberius Claudius Drusus on August 1, 10 BC in Lugdunum, Gaul, on the day of the dedication of an altar to Augustus. He was the third child of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, the two older children being Germanicus and Livilla. Antonia may have had two other children as well, but both died young. His maternal grandparents were Mark Antony and Octavia, Caesar Augustus' sister. His paternal grandparents were Livia, Augustus's third wife, and Tiberius Claudius Nero. During his reign, Claudius revived the rumor that his father Drusus was actually the illegitimate son of Augustus. In 9 BC, his father Drusus unexpectedly died, possibly from an injury. He was then left to be raised by his mother, who never remarried. When Claudius' afflictions became evident, the relationship with his family turned sour. His mother referred to him as a monster, and used him as a standard for stupidity. His grandmother Livia refused to be seen with him. He was put under the care of a "former mule-driver" to keep him disciplined, under the logic that his condition was due to laziness and a lack of will-power. However, by the time he reached his teenaged years his symptoms apparently waned and his family took some notice of his scholarly interests. In AD 7, Livy was hired in to tutor him in history, with the assistance of Sulpicius Flavus. He spent a lot of his time with the latter and the philosopher Athenodorus. Augustus, according to a letter, was surprised at the clarity of Claudius' oratory. Expectations were raised as to his future. AthenodorusIn the end, it was his work as a budding historian that destroyed his early career. According to Vincent Scramuzza and others, Claudius began work on a history of the civil wars that was either too truthful or too critical of Octavian. In either case, it was far too early for such an account, and may have only served to remind Augustus that Claudius was Antony's descendent. His mother and grandmother quickly put a stop to it, and it may have proved to them that Claudius was not fit for public office. He could not be trusted to toe the line. When he returned to the narrative later in life, Claudius skipped over the civil wars of the second triumvirate all together. But the damage was done, and his family pushed him to the background. When the Arch of Pavia was erected to honor the imperial clan in AD 8, Claudius' name (now Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus after his elevation to paterfamilias of Claudii Nerones on the adoption of his brother) was inscribed on the edge — past the deceased princes, Gaius and Lucius, and Germanicus' children. There is some speculation that the inscription was added by Claudius himself decades later, and he originally did not appear at all. When Augustus died in AD 14, Claudius — then 23 — appealed to his uncle Tiberius to allow him to begin the cursus honorum. Tiberius, the new emperor, responded by granting Claudius consular ornaments. Claudius requested office once more and was snubbed. Since the new emperor was not any more generous than the old, Claudius gave up hope of public office and retired to a scholarly, private life. Despite the disdain of the imperial family, it seems that from very early on the general public respected Claudius. At Augustus' death, the equites, or knights, chose Claudius to head their delegation. When his house burned down, the Senate demanded it be rebuilt at public expense. They also requested that Claudius be allowed to debate in the senate. Unfortunately, Tiberius turned down both motions, but the sentiment remained. During the period immediately after the death of Tiberius' son, Drusus, Claudius was pushed by some quarters as a potential heir. This again suggests the political nature of his exclusion from public life. However, as this was also the period during which the power and terror of the Praetorian Sejanus was at its peak, Claudius chose to downplay this possibility. After the death of Tiberius, the new emperor Caligula recognized Claudius to be of some use. He appointed Claudius his co-consul in 37 in order to emphasize the memory of Caligula's deceased father Germanicus. Despite this, Caligula relentlessly tormented his uncle: playing practical jokes, charging him enormous sums of money, humiliating him before the Senate, and the like. According to Cassius Dio, as well a possible surviving portrait, Claudius became very sickly and thin by the end of Caligula's reign — most likely due to the stresses.

Accession as emperor

On January 24, AD 41, Caligula was assassinated by a broad-based conspiracy (including praetorian commander Cassius Chaerea and several Senators). There is no evidence that Claudius had direct hand in either the assassination , although he probably knew about the plot — particularly since he left the scene of the crime shortly before the event. However, after the deaths of Caligula's wife and daughter, it became apparent that Cassius intended to go beyond the terms of the conspiracy and wipe out the imperial family. In the chaos following the murder, Claudius witnessed the German guard cut down several uninvolved noblemen, including friends of his. Concerned for his survival, he fled to the palace to hide himself. According to tradition, a praetorian named Gratus found him hiding behind a curtain and suddenly declared him imperator. Some part of the guard may have planned in advance to seek out Claudius, perhaps with his approval. They reassured him that they were not one of the battalions looking for revenge. He was absconded to the praetorian camp and put in their protection. The Senate quickly met and began debating a change of government, but this eventually devolved into an argument over which of them would be the new Princeps. When they heard of Praetorians' claim, they demanded that Claudius be delivered to them for approval, but he refused, rightly sensing the danger that would come with complying. Some historians, particularly Josephus, claim that Claudius was directed in his actions by the Judean King Herod Agrippa. However, an earlier version of events by the same ancient author downplays Agrippa's role — so it is not known how large a hand he had in things. Eventually the Senate was forced to give in, and, in return, Claudius pardoned nearly all the assassins. Claudius took several steps to legitimize his rule against potential usurpers, most of them emphasizing his place within the Julio-Claudian family. He adopted the name "Caesar" as a cognomen — the name still carried great weight with the populace. In order to do so, he dropped the cognomen "Nero" which he had adopted as paterfamilias of the Claudii Nerones when his brother Germanicus was adopted out. While he had never been adopted by Augustus or his successors, he was the grandson of Octavia, and so felt he had the right. He also adopted the name "Augustus" as the two previous emperors had done at their accessions. He kept the honorific "Germanicus" in order display the connection with his heroic brother. He deified his paternal grandmother Livia in order highlight her position as wife of the divine Augustus. Claudius frequently used the term "filius Drusi" (son of Drusus) in his titles, in order to remind the people of his legendary father and lay claim to his reputation. Because he was proclaimed emperor on the initiative of the Praetorian Guard instead of the Senate — the first emperor thus proclaimed — Claudius's repute suffered at the hands of commentators (such as Seneca). Moreover, he was the first Emperor who resorted to bribery as a means to secure army loyalty. This is not entirely how it seems. Tiberius and Augustus had both left gifts to the army and guard in the wills, and on the death of Caligula the same would have been expected, even if no will existed. Claudius remained grateful to the guard, however, issuing coins with tributes to the praetorians in the early part of his reign.

Expansion of the empire

Under Claudius, the empire underwent its first major expansion since the reign of Augustus. The provinces of Thrace, Mauretania, Noricum, Pamphylia, Lycia, and Judea were annexed during his term. The most important conquest was that of Britannia. In AD 43, Claudius sent Aulus Plautius with 4 legions to Britain after an appeal from an ousted tribal ally. Britain was an attractive target for Rome because of its material wealth — particularly mines and slaves. It was also a safe haven for Gallic rebels and the like, and so could not be left alone much longer. Claudius himself traveled to the island after the completion of initial offenses, bringing with him reinforcements and elephants. The latter must have made an impression on the Britons when they were used in the capture of Camulodunum. He left after 16 days, but remained in the provinces for some time. The Senate granted him a triumph for his efforts, as only members of the imperial family were allowed such honors. Claudius later lifted this restriction for some of his conquering generals. He was granted the honorific "Britannicus" but only accepted it on behalf of his son, never using the title himself. When the British general, Caractacus, was finally captured in 50, Claudius granted him clemency. Caractacus lived out his days on land provided by the Roman state, an unusual end for a enemy commander, but one that must have calmed the British opposition. Claudius conducted a census in AD 48 that found 5,984,072 Roman citizens, an increase of around a million since the census conducted at Augustus' death. He had helped increase this number through the foundation of Roman colonies that were granted blanket citizenship. These colonies were often made out of existing communities, especially those with elites who could rally the populace to the Roman cause. Several colonies were placed in new provinces or on the border of the empire in order to secure Roman holdings as quickly as possible.

Judicial and legislative affairs

Claudius personally judged many of the legal cases tried during his reign. Ancient historians have many complaints about this, stating that his judgements were variable and sometimes did not follow the law. He was also easily swayed. Nevertheless, Claudius paid detailed attention to the operation of the judicial system. He extended the summer court session, as well as the winter term, by shortening the traditional breaks. Claudius also made a law requiring plaintiffs to remain in the city while their cases were pending, as defendants had previously been required to do. These measures had the effect of clearing out the docket. The minimum age for jurors was also raised to 25 in order to ensure a more experienced jury pool. Claudius also settled disputes in the provinces. He freed the island of Rhodes from Roman rule for their good faith and exempted Troy from taxes. Early in his reign, the Greeks and Jews of Alexandria sent him two embassies at once after riots broke out between the two communities. This resulted in the famous "Letter to the Alexandrians," which reaffirmed Jewish rights in the city but also forbid them to move in more families en masse. According to Josephus, he then reaffirmed the rights and freedoms of all the Jews in the empire. An investigator of Claudius' discovered that many old Roman citizens based in the modern city of Trent were not in fact citizens. The emperor issued a declaration that they would be considered to hold citizenship from then on, since to strip them of their status would cause major problems. However, in individual cases, Claudius punished false assumption of citizenship harshly, making it a capital offense. Similarly, any freedmen found to be impersonating knights were sold back into slavery. Numerous edicts were issued throughout Claudius' reign. These were on a number of topics, everything from medical advice to moral judgements. Two famous medical examples are one promoting Yew juice as a cure for snakebite, and another promoting public flatulence for good health. One of the more famous edicts concerned the status of sick slaves. Masters had been abandoning ailing slaves at the temple of Aesculapius to die, and then reclaiming them if they lived. Claudius ruled that slaves who recovered after such treatment would be free. Furthermore, masters who chose to kill slaves rather than take the risk would be charged with murder.

Public works

AesculapiusClaudius embarked on many public works throughout his reign, both in the capital and in the provinces. He built two aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia, begun by Caligula, and the Anio Novus. These entered the city in AD 52 and met at the famous Porta Maggiore. He also restored a third, the Aqua Virgo. He paid special attention to transportation. Throughout Italy and the provinces he built roads and canals. Among these was a large canal leading from the Rhine to the sea, as well as a road from Italy to Germany — both begun by his father, Drusus. Closer to Rome, he built a navigable canal on the Tiber, leading to Portus, his new port just north of Ostia. This port was constructed in a semicircle with two moles and a lighthouse at its mouth. The construction also had the effect of reducing flooding in Rome. The port at Ostia was part of Claudius' solution to the constant grain shortages that occurred in winter, after the Roman shipping season. The other part of his solution was to insure the ships of grain merchants who were willing to risk traveling to Egypt in the off-season. He also granted their sailors special privileges, including citizenship and exemption from the Lex Papia-Poppaea, a law that regulated marriage. In addition, he repealed the taxes that Caligula had instituted on food, and further reduced taxes on communities suffering draught or famine. The last part of Claudius' plan was to increase the amount of arable land in Italy. This was to be achieved by draining the Fucine lake, which would have the added benefit of making the nearby river navigable year-round. A tunnel was dug through the lake bed, but the plan was a failure. The tunnel was not large enough to carry the water, and crooked, which caused it to back up when opened. The draining of the lake was not a bad idea, and many other emperors and potentates considered it, including the emperors Hadrian and Trajan, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the middle ages. It was finally achieved by the Prince Torlonia in the 19th century. He expanded the Claudian tunnel to three times its original size.

Claudius and the Senate

Because of the circumstances of his accession, Claudius took great pains to please the Senate. During regular sessions, the emperor sat amongst the Senate body, speaking in turn. When introducing a law, he sat on a bench between the consuls in his position as Tribune. He refused to accept all his predecessors' titles (including Imperator) at the beginning his reign, preferring to earn them in due course. He allowed the Senate to issue its own bronze coinage for the first time since Augustus. He also put the imperial provinces of Macedonia and Achaea back under senate control. At the same time, Claudius tried to remodel the Senate into a more efficient, representative body. He chided the senators about their reluctance to debate bills introduced by himself, as noted in the fragments of a surviving speech:

"If you accept these proposals, Conscript Fathers, say so at once and simply, in accordance with your convictions. If you do not accept them, find alternatives, but do so here and now; or if you wish to take time for consideration, take it, provided you do not forget that you must be ready to pronounce your opinion whenever you may be summoned to meet. It ill befits the dignity of the Senate that the consul designate should repeat the phrases of the consuls word for word as his opinion, and that every one else should merely say 'I approve', and that then, after leaving, the assembly should announce 'We debated'."

It is not known if this plea had any effect on discourse. In AD 47 he assumed the office of Censor with Lucius Vitellius, which had been allowed to lapse for some time. He struck the names of many senators and equities who no longer met qualifications, but showed respect by allowing them to resign in advance. At the same time, he sought to admit eligible men from the provinces. The Lyons Tablet preserves his speech on the admittance of Gallic senators, in which he addresses the Senate with reverence but also with criticism for their disdain of these men. He also increased the number of Patricians by adding new families to the dwindling number of noble lines. Here he followed the precedent of Lucius Junius Brutus and Julius Caesar. Julius CaesarDespite this, many in the Senate remained hostile to Claudius, and many plots were made on his life. This hostility carried over into the historical accounts. As a result, Claudius was forced to reduce the Senate's power for efficiency. The administration of Ostia was turned over to an imperial Procurator after construction of the port. Administration of many of the empire's financial concerns was turned over to imperial appointees and freedman. This led to further resentment and suggestions that these same freedmen were ruling the emperor. Several coup attempts were made during Claudius' reign, resulting in the deaths of many senators. Appius Silanus was executed early in Claudius' reign under questionable circumstances. Shortly after, a large rebellion was undertaken by the senator Vinicianus and Scribonianus, the governor of Dalmatia and gained quite a few senatorial supporters. It ultimately failed because of the reluctance of Scribonianus' troops, and the suicide of the main conspirators. Many other senators tried different conspiracies and were condemned. Claudius' son-in-law Pompeius Magnus was executed for his part in a conspiracy with his father Crassus Frugi. Another plot involved the consulars Lusiius Saturninus, Cornelius Lupus, and Pompeius Pedo. In 46, Asinius Gallus, the grandson of Asinius Pollio, and Statilius Corvinus were exiled for a plot hatched with several of Claudius' own freedmen. Valerius Asiaticus was executed without public trial for unknown reasons. The ancient sources say the charge was adultery, and that Claudius was tricked into issuing the punishment. However, Claudius singles out Asiaticus for special damnation in his speech on the Gauls, which dates over a year later, suggesting that the charge must have been much more serious. Asiaticus had been a claimant to the throne in the chaos following Caligula's death and a co-consul with the Statilius Corvinus mentioned above. Most of these conspiracies took place before Claudius' consulship, and may have induced him to overlook the Senatorial rolls. The conspiracy of Gaius Silius in the year after his consulship, AD 48, will be detailed further down. Suetonius states that a total of 35 senators and 300 knights were executed for offenses during Claudius' reign. Needless to say, the necessary responses to these conspiracies could not have helped Senate-emperor relations.

The Secretariat and centralization of powers

Claudius was hardly the first emperor to use freedmen to help with the day-to-day running of the empire. He was, however, forced to increase their role as the powers of the princeps became more centralized and the burden larger. This was partly due to the ongoing hostility of the senate, as mentioned above, but also due to his respect for the senators. Claudius did not want free-born magistrates to have to serve under him, as if they were not peers. The secretariat was divided into bureaus, with each being placed under the leadership of one freedmen. Narcissus was the secretary of correspondence. Pallas became the secretary of the treasury. Callistus became the equivalent of the U.S. Attorney General. There was a fourth bureau for miscellaneous issues, which was put under Polybius until his execution for treason. The freedmen could also officially speak for emperor, as when Narcissus addressed the troops in Claudius' stead before the conquest of Britain. Since these were important positions, the senators were aghast at their being placed in the hands of former slaves. If freedmen had total control of money, letters, and law, it seemed it would not be hard for them to manipulate the emperor. This is exactly the accusation put forth by the ancient sources. However, these same sources admit that the freedmen were loyal to Claudius to a man. He was similarly appreciative of them and gave them due credit for policies where he had used their advice. However, if they showed treasonous inclinations, the emperor did punish them with just force, as in the case of Polybius and Pallas' brother, Felix. There is no evidence that the character of Claudius' policies and edicts changed with the rise and fall of the various freedmen, suggesting that he was firmly in control throughout. Regardless of the extent of their political power, the freedmen did manage to amass wealth through their positions. Pliny the Elder notes that several of them were richer than Crassus, the richest man of the Republican era.

Religious reforms and games

Claudius, as the author of a treatise on Augustus' religious reforms, felt himself in a good position to institute some of his own. He had strong opinions about the proper form for state religion. He refused the request of Alexandrian Greeks to dedicate a temple to his divinity, saying that only gods may choose new gods. He restored lost days to festivals and got rid of many extraneous celebrations added by Caligula. He reinstituted old observances and archaic language. Claudius was concerned with the spread of eastern mysteries within the city and search for more Roman replacements. He emphasized the Eleusinian mysteries which had been practiced by so many in the republic. He expelled foreign astrologers, and at the same time rehabilitated the old Roman soothsayers (known as haruspices) as a replacement. He was especially hard on Druidism, because of its incompatibility with the Roman state religion and its proselytizing activities. He opposed proselytizing in any religion, even those where he allowed natives to worship freely. It was this reasoning that caused him to expel the early Christian missionaries from Rome. The results of all these efforts were recognized even by Seneca, who has an ancient Latin god defend Claudius in his satire. Claudius performed the Secular Games, marking the 800th anniversary of the founding of Rome. Augustus had performed the same games less than a century prior. Augustus' excuse was that the interval for the games was 110 years, not 100, but his date actually did not qualify under either reasoning. Claudius also presented naval battles to mark the attempted draining of the Fucine lake.

Marriages and personal life

Claudius married four times. His first marriage, to Plautia Urgulanilla occured after two failed betrothals, one of which ended with the bride's death. Urgulanilla was a relation of Livia's confidant Urgulania. During their marriage she gave birth to a son, Claudius Drusus. Unfortunately, Drusus died of asphyxiation in his early teens, shortly after becoming engaged to the daughter of Sejanus. Claudius later divorced Urgulanilla for adultery and on suspicion of murdering her sister-in-law Apronia. When Urgulanilla gave birth after the divorce, Claudius repudiated the baby girl, Claudia, as the father was one of his own freedmen. Soon after (possibly in 28), Claudius married Aelia Paetina, a relation of Sejanus. They had a daughter, Claudia Antonia. He later divorced her after the marriage became a political liability (although Leon (1948) suggests it may have been due to emotional and mental abuse by Aelia). Claudia AntoniaIn AD 38 or early 39, Claudius married Valeria Messalina, who was his first cousin once removed and closely allied with Caligula's circle. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a daughter Octavia. A son, first named Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, and later known as Britannicus, was born just after Claudius' accession. This marriage ended in tragedy. The ancient historians allege that Messalina regularly cuckolded Claudius — Tacitus states she went so far as to face-off with a prostitute — and manipulated his policies in order to amass wealth. In AD 48, Messalina married her lover Gaius Silius in a public ceremony while Claudius was at Ostia. Sources disagree as to whether or not she divorced the emperor first, and whether the intention was to usurp the throne. Scramuzza, in his biography, suggests that Silius may have convinced Messalina that Claudius was doomed, and the union was her only hope of retaining rank and protecting her children. The historian Tacitus suggests that Claudius' ongoing term as Censor may have prevented him from noticing the affair before it reached such a critical point. Whatever the case, the result was the death of Silius, Messalina, and most of her circle. Claudius made the Praetorians promise to kill him if he ever married again. TacitusDespite this declaration, Claudius did marry once more. The ancient sources tell that his freedmen pushed three candidates, Caligula's former wife Lollia Paulina, his second wife Aelia, and his niece Agrippina the younger. According to Suetonius, Agrippina won out through her feminine wiles. The truth is more political. The coup attempt by Silius probably made Claudius realize the weakness of his position as a member of the Claudian but not the Julian family. This weakness was compacted by the fact that he did not have an obvious adult heir, Britannicus being just a boy. Agrippina was one of the few remaining descendents of Augustus, and her son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (later known as Nero) was one of the last males of the imperial family. Future coup attempts could rally around the pair, and Agrippina was already showing such ambition. It has been suggested in recent times that Senate may have pushed for the marriage to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches. This feud dated back to Agrippina's mother's actions against Tiberius after the death of her husband Germanicus, actions which Tiberius had gladly punished. In any case, Claudius accepted Agrippina, and later adopted the newly mature Nero as his son. Nero was made joint heir with the underage Britannicus, married to Octavia and heavily promoted. This was not as unusual as it seems to people acquainted with modern hereditary monarchies. Barbara Levick notes that Augustus had named his grandson Postumus Agrippa and his stepson Tiberius joint heirs. Tiberius named his great-nephew Caligula joint heir with his grandson Tiberius Gemellus. Adoption of adults or near adults was an old tradition in Rome when a suitable natural adult heir was unavailable. This was the case during Britannicus' minority. S.V. Oost suggests that Claudius looked to adopt one of his sons-in-law to protect his own reign. Possible usurpers could note that there was no adult to replace him. Faustus Sulla, married to his daughter Antonia, was only descended from Octavia and Antony on one side — not close enough to the imperial family to prevent doubts (that didn't stop others from making him the object of a coup attempt against Nero a few years later). Besides which, he was the half brother of Messalina, and at this time those wounds were still fresh. Nero was more popular with the general public as the grandson of Germanicus and the direct descendent of Augustus.

Death, deification, and reputation

General consensus is that Claudius was murdered by poison — possibly contained in mushrooms — on October 13th, AD 54. There are various accounts, some of which implicate Halotus, his taster, and some Xenophon, his doctor. Some say he died immediately, and some have him recovering only to be poisoned again. All implicate his wife, Agrippina, as the instigator. Now that Britannicus was approaching the age of majority, there was no need for Nero to be heir in case of Claudius' death. There was now no chance of a minor ascending the throne and setting off civil war. Thus, Claudius began to talk of divorce. Agrippina most likely acted to ensure the succession of Nero before changes could be made. In modern times, some authors have cast doubt on whether Claudius was murdered or merely succumbed to illness or old age. Considering the longevity of his relatives who reached even middle age (his grandmother Livia died at 87, his uncle Tiberius reached age 79, and his mother Antonia committed suicide at 73) this seems unlikely. Claudius was deified by the Senate shortly after death. Those who regard this homage by Agrippina as cynical should note that, cynical or not, such a move would hardly have benefited those involved, had Claudius been "hated", as some commentators, both modern and historic, characterize him. Moreover, though Claudius's divinity was annulled by Nero, it was later restored by the "good" emperor Vespasian, who had been a general in the British conquest. Despite this, many of Claudius' less solid supporters quickly became Nero's men. His will was suppressed and never read. Claudius had changed it shortly before death to either recommend Nero and Britannicus jointly or perhaps just Britannicus, who would become a man in a few months. Agrippina had sent away Narcissus shortly before Claudius' death, and now murdered the freedman. The last act of this secretary of letters was to burn all of Claudius' correspondence - most likely so it could not be used against him and others in an already hostile new regime. Thus Claudius' private words about his own policies and motives were lost to history. Nero and his circle wasted no time in trashing his predecessor, even lambasting at his predecessor in his eulogy. Most of Claudius' laws and edicts were anulled, under the reasoning that he was too stupid and senile to have meant them. This opinion of Claudius, that he was indeed an old idiot, remained the official one for the duration of Nero's reign. Eventually Nero stopped referring to his deified adoptive father at all, and realigned with his birth family. The Flavians, who had risen to prominance under Claudius, took a different tack. They were in a position where they needed to shore up their legitimacy, but also justify the fall of the Julio-Claudians. They reached back to Claudius in constrast with Nero, to show that they were good associated with good. Claudius' temple was built over Nero's golden house. Commemorative coins were issued of Claudius and his natural son Britannicus - who had been a friend of the emperor Titus. However, as the Flavians became established, they needed to emphasize their own credentials more, and their references to Claudius ceased. Instead, he was put down with the other emperors of the fallen dynasty. As time passed, Claudius was mostly forgotten. His books were lost first, as their antiquarian subjects became unfashionable. In the second century, Pertinax, who shared his birthday, became emperor, overshadowing any commemoration of Claudius. In the third century, the emperor Claudius II Gothicus usurped his name. When Claudius Gothicus died, he was also deified, replacing Claudius in the Roman pantheon.

Scholarly works and their impact

Claudius wrote copiously throughout his life. Arnaldo Momigliano states that during the reign of Tiberius — which covers the peak Claudius' literary career — it became impolitic to speak of republican Rome. The trend among the young historians was to either write about the new empire or obscure antiquarian subjects. Claudius was the rare scholar who covered both. Besides the history of Augustus' reign that caused him so much grief, his major works included an Etruscan history and eight volumes on Carthaginian history, as well as an Etruscan Dictionary and a book on dice playing. Despite the general avoidance of the imperatorial era, he penned a defense of Cicero against the charges of Asinius Gallus. Modern historians have used this to determine both the nature of his politics and of the aborted chapters of his civil war history. He proposed a reform of the Latin alphabet by the addition of three new letters, two of which served the function of the modern letters W and Y. He officially instituted the change during his censorship, but they did not survive his reign. Finally, he wrote an eight-volume autobiography that Suetonius describes as lacking in taste. Since Claudius (like most of the members of his dynasty) heavily criticized his predecessors and relatives in surviving speeches, it is not hard to imagine the nature of Suetonius' charge. three new lettersUnfortunately, none of the actual works survive. They do live on as sources for the surviving histories of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Suetonius quotes Claudius' autobiography once, and must have used it as a source numerous times. Tacitus uses Claudius' own arguments for the orthographical innovations mentioned above, and may have used him for some of the more antiquarian passages in his annals. Claudius is the source for numerous passages of Pliny's Natural History. The influence of historical study on Claudius is obvious. In his speech on Gallic senators, he uses a version of the founding of Rome identical to that of Livy's. The detail of his speech borders on the pedantic, a common mark of all his extant works. This indicates a deep knowledge of a variety of historical subjects that he could not help but share. Many of the public works instituted in his reign were based on plans first suggested by Julius Caesar. Levick believes this emulation of Caesar may have spread to all aspects of his policies. His censorship seems to have been based on those of his ancestors, particularly Appius Claudius Caecus, and he used the office to put into place many policies based on those of Republican times. This is when many of his religious reforms took effect and his building efforts greatly increased during his tenure. In fact, his assumption of the office of Censor may have been motivated by a desire to see his academic labors bear fruit. For example, he knew his ancestor Appius Claudius Caecus has used to censorship to introduce the letter "R", and so used his own term to introduce his new letters.

Claudius in fiction

Appius Claudius Caecus The emperor Claudius was the protagonist of the books I, Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1935) by Robert Graves. The books are written from a first-person perspective, giving the impression of having been written by Claudius himself as his autobiography. Graves's fictive artifice that they were recently discovered translations of writings by Claudius extended even to the point of Claudius relating a visit to an oracle who predicted their discovery "nineteen hundred year or near" later. Graves's two books were the basis for a thirteen-part BBC series, shown on BBC2 in 1976 and later broadcast in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre in 1977, also titled I, Claudius. Derek Jacobi starred in the title role. In 1937 there had been an ill-fated attempt of picturization of I, Claudius by Josef von Sternberg, starring Charles Laughton as Claudius. Unfortunately the movie was never finished, after a near-fatal accident of the female lead actress, Merle Oberon. The surviving reels were finally shown in the documentary The Epic that never was in 1965 and uncovered some of Laughton's most accomplished pieces of acting.

Footnotes

# Suet. Claud. 30. # Seneca Apocolo. 5, 6. # Suet. Claud. 30. # Suet. Claud. 31. # Leon (1948). # Suet. Claud. 5, 21, 40; Dio Rom. Hist. LX 2, 5, 12, 31. # Suet. Claud. 34, 38. # Suet. Claud. 29. Dio Rom. Hist. LX 2, 8. # Suet. Claud. 35, 36, 37, 39, 40. Dio Rom. Hist. LX 2, 3. # Suet. Claud. 2. Suet Claud. 4 indicates the reasons for choosing this tutor, as outlined in Leon (1948). # Suet. Claud. 4. # Scramuzza (1940) p. 39. # Stuart (1936). # Dio Rom. Hist. LX 2. Suhr (1955) suggests that this must refer to before Claudius came to power. # Josephus Antiquitates Iudiacae XIX. Dio Rom. Hist. LX 1. # Josephus Ant. Iud. XIX. # Josephus Bellum Iudiacum II, 204-233. # Suet. Claud. 15. Dio Rom. Hist. LXI 33. # Josephus Ant. Iud. XIX, 287. # English translation of Berlin papyrus by W.D. Hogarth, in Momigliano (1934). # Suet. Claud. 29. # Tac. Ann. XII 65. Seneca Ad Polybium. # Pliny Natural History 134. # Seneca Apocolo. 9. # Tac. Ann. XI 10. Also Dio Rom. Hist. LXI 31. # Scramuzza (1940) p. 90. Momigliano (1934) pp. 6-7. Levick (1990) p. 19. # Tac. Ann. XI. 25, 8. # Suet. Claud. 26. # Scramuzza (1940) pp. 91-92. See also Tac. Ann. XII 6, 7; Suet. Claud. 26. # Levick (1990) p. 70. See also Scramuzza (1940) p. 92. # Oost (1958). # Accounts of his death: Suet. Claud. 43, 44. Tac. Ann. XII 64, 66-67. Josephus Ant. Iud. XX 148, 151. Dio Rom. Hist. LX 34. Pliny Natural History II 92, XI 189, XXII 92. # Momigliano (1934) pp. 93-94. Levick (1990) pp. 76-77. # Momigliano (1934) pp. 4-6. # Suet. Claud. 41. # See Claudius' letter to the people of Trent (linked below), in which he refers to the "obstinate retirement" of Tiberius. See also Josephus Ant Iud. XIX, where an edict of Claudius refers to Caligula's "madness and lack of understanding." # See Momigliano (1934) Chap. 1, note 20 (p. 83). # Levick (1978).

References

- Levick, B.M., "Claudius: Antiquarian or Revolutionary?" American Journal of Philology, 99 (1978), 79-105.
- Levick, Barbara. Claudius. Yale University Press. New Haven, 1990.
- Leon, E.F., "The Imbecillitas of the Emperor Claudius", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 79 (1948), 79-86.
- McAlindon, D., "Claudius and the Senators", American Journal of Philology, 78 (1957), 279-286.
- Major, A., "Was He Pushed or Did He Leap? Claudius' Ascent to Power", Ancient History, 22 (1992), 25-31.
- Momigliano, Arnaldo. Claudius: the Emperor and His Achievement. Trans. W.D. Hogarth. W. Heffer and Sons. Cambridge, 1934.
- Oost, S.V., "The Career of M. Antonius Pallas", American Journal of Philology, 79 (1958). 113-139.
- Ryan, F.X. "Some Observations on the Censorship of Claudius and Vitellius, AD 47-48", American Journal of Philology, 114 (1993), 611-618.
- Scramuzza, Vincent. The Emperor Claudius. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, 1940.
- Stuart, M. "The Date of the Inscription of Claudius on the Arch of Ticinum." Am. J. Arch. 40 (1936). 314-322.
- Suhr, E.G., "A Portrait of Claudius." Am. J. Arch. 59 (1955). 319-322.

External links

Ancient Sources:
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius
- .html Life of Claudius] (Suetonius; English translation and Latin original)
- [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitus/TacitusAnnals11.html Tacitus on the second half of Claudius' reign, book 11]
- [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitus/TacitusAnnals12.html Tacitus on Claudius' last years, book 12]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/60
- .html Cassius Dio's account of Claudius' reign, part I]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/61
- .html Cassius Dio's account, part II]
- [http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/JOSEPHUS.HTM The works of Josephus]
- [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/apocolocyntosis.html The Apocolocyntosis of the Divine Claudius]
- [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/claualex.html Claudius' Letter to the Alexandrians]
- Extract from first half of the Lyons Tablet
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/48claudius.html Second half of the Lyons Tablet]
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-ann11a.html Tacitus' version of the Lyons Tablet speech]
- [http://www.personal.kent.edu/~bkharvey/roman/texts/citizen.htm Edict confirming the rights of the people of Trent] Modern Biographies:
- [http://www.roman-emperors.org/claudius.htm Biography from De Imperatoribus Romanis] Category:10 BC births Category:54 deaths Category:Roman emperors Category:Roman era historians Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty Category:Romans in Britain Category:Murdered Roman emperors Category:Adoptive parents Category:Deified Roman Emperors ko:클라우디우스 ja:クラウディウス

Londinium

Londinium may refer to:
- Places
- Londinium, the ancient Roman name for London (see History of London).
- See also: Roman Britain
- In the TV show Firefly, Londinium is one of the capital planets of the Alliance.
- Other definitions
- A movie starred Mike Binder and Mariel Hemingway (see Londinium (movie)).
- The name of a song by Welsh band Catatonia, taken from their third album Equally Cursed and Blessed.
- The name of a RPG on the Internet which is based around the ancient Roman town of Londinium. (see [http://www.londinivm.com])
- The name of an album released by trip-hop group Archive in 1996 Category:Firefly planets Category:History of London Category:Roman Britain Category:Roman sites in England

William I of England

William I (c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), was King of England from 1066 to 1087, and as Guillaume II was Duke of Normandy from 1035 to 1087. Known alternatively as William of Normandy (Fr. Guillaume de Normandie), William the Conqueror (Fr. Guillaume le Conquérant) and William the Bastard (Fr. Guillaume le Bâtard), he was the illegitimate and only son of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva, the daughter of Fulbert, a tanner. Born in Falaise, Normandy, now in France, William succeeded to the throne of England by right of conquest by winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and suppressing subsequent English revolts, in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. No authentic portrait of William has been found. He was described as a big burly man, strong in every sense of the word, balding in front, and of regal dignity.

Early life history

William was born the grandnephew of Queen Emma, wife of King Ethelred the Unready and later of King Canute. William succeeded to his father's Duchy of Normandy at the young age of 7 in 1035 and was known as Duke William I of Normandy (Fr. Guillaume II, duc de Normandie). He lost three guardians to plots to usurp his place. Count Alan of Brittany was a later guardian. King Henry I of France knighted him at the age of 15. By the time he turned 19 he was himself successfully dealing with threats of rebellion and invasion. With the assistance of King Henry, William finally secured control of Normandy by defeating the rebel Norman barons at Caen in the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047. He married his cousin Matilda of Flanders, against the wishes of the pope in 1053 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Eu, Eu, Normandy (now in Seine-Maritime). He was 26, she was 22. Their marriage produced four sons and six daughters (see list below). His half-brothers Odo of Bayeux and Robert, Count of Mortain played significant roles in his life. He also had a sister, Adelaide of Normandy.

Conquest of England

Upon the death of William's cousin King Edward the Confessor of England (January 1066), William claimed the throne of England, asserting that the childless and purportedly celibate Edward had named him his heir during a visit by William (probably in 1052) and that Harold Godwinson, England's foremost magnate, had reportedly pledged his support while shipwrecked in Normandy (c. 1064). Harold made this pledge while in captivity and was reportedly tricked into swearing on a saint's bones that he would give the throne to William. Even if this story is true, however, Harold made the promise under duress and so may have felt free to break it. The assembly of England's leading notables known as the Witenagemot approved Harold Godwinson’s coronation which took place on January 5, 1066 making him King Harold II of England. In order to pursue his own claim, William obtained the Pope's support for his cause. He assembled a Norman invasion fleet of around 600 ships and an army of 7000 men. He landed at Pevensey in Sussex on September 28, 1066 and assembled a prefabricated wooden castle near Hastings as a base. This was a direct provocation to Harold Godwinson as this area of Sussex was Harold's own personal estate, and William began immediately to lay waste to the land. It may have prompted Harold to respond immediately and in haste rather than await reinforcements in London. King Harold Godwinson was in the north of England and had just defeated another rival, King Hardrada of Norway supported by his own brother Tostig. He marched an army of similar size to William's 250 miles in 9 days to challenge him at the crucial battle of Senlac, which later became known as the Battle of Hastings. This took place on October 14, 1066. According to some accounts, perhaps based on an interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry commemorating the Norman victory, Harold was allegedly killed by an arrow through the eye, and the English forces fled giving William victory. This was the defining moment of what is now known as the Norman Conquest. The remaining Anglo-Saxon noblemen surrendered to William at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and he was acclaimed King of England there. William was then crowned on December 25 1066 in Westminster Abbey. Although the south of England submitted quickly to Norman rule, resistance continued, especially in the North for six more years until 1072. Harold's illegitimate sons attempted an invasion of the south-west peninsula. Uprisings occurred in the Welsh Marches and at Stafford. Separate attempts at invasion by the Danes and the Scots also occured. William's defeat of these led to what became known as The Harrying of the North (Sometimes called Harrowing) in which Northumbria was laid waste as revenge and to deny his enemies its resources. The last serious resistance came with the Revolt of the Earls in 1075. It is estimated that one fifth of the people of England were killed during these years by war, massacre, and starvation.

William's reign

William initiated many major changes. In 1085, in order to ascertain the extent of his new dominionans and maximize taxation, William commissioned the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of England's productive capacity similar to a modern census. He also ordered many castles, keeps, and mots, among them the Tower of London, to be built across England to ensure that the rebellions by the English people or his own followers would not succeed. His conquest also led to Norman replacing English as the language of the ruling classes, for nearly 300 years. English William is said to have deported some of the Anglo-Saxon landed classes into slavery through Bristol. Many of the latter ended up in Umayyad Spain and Moorish lands. Ownerships of nearly all land, and titles to religious and public offices in England were given to Normans. Many surviving Anglo-Saxon nobles emmigrated to other European kingdoms.

Death, burial, and succession

He died at the age of 60, at the Convent of St Gervais, near Rouen, France, on September 9, 1087 from abdominal injuries received from his saddle pommel when he fell off a horse at the Siege of Mantes. William was buried in the St. Peter's Church in Caen, Normandy. In a most unregal postmortem, his corpulent body would not fit in the stone sarcophagus, and burst after some unsuccessful prodding by the assembled bishops, filling the chapel with a foul smell and dispersing the mourners. [http://historyhouse.com/in_history/william/] William was succeeded in 1087 as King of England by his younger son William Rufus and as Duke of Normandy by his elder son Robert Curthose. This led to the Rebellion of 1088. His youngest son Henry also became King of England later, after William II died without a child to succeed him.

Children of William and Matilda

Some doubt exists over how many daughters there were. This list includes some entries which are obscure. #Robert Curthose (c. 1054–1134), Duke of Normandy, married Sybil of Conversano, daughter of Geoffrey of Conversano #Adeliza (or Alice) (c. 1055–?), reportedly betrothed to Harold II of England (Her existence is in some doubt.) #Cecilia (or Cecily) (c. 1056–1126), Abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen # William Rufus (1056–1100), King of England #Richard (1057-c. 1081), killed by a stag in New Forest #Adela (c. 1062–1138), married Stephen, Count of Blois #Agatha (c. 1064–c. 1080), betrothed to (1) Harold of Wessex, (2) Alfonso VI of Castile #Constance (c. 1066–1090), married Alan IV Fergent, Duke of Brittany; poisoned, possibly by her own servants #Matilda (very obscure, her existence is in some doubt) #Henry Beauclerc (1068–1135), King of England, married (1) Edith of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, (2) Adeliza of Louvain

Honours

William I was ranked #68 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

External links

- [http://www.badley.info/history/William-I-the-Conqueror-England.biog.html William the Conqueror Chronology World History Database]
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page18.asp History of William I's life and reign.] Official web site of the British Monarchy
- [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1066 William the Conqueror.] by E. A. Freeman (1823-1892). Ebook published via Gutenberg Project. Category:1027 births Category:1087 deaths Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:English monarchs Category:Dukes of Normandy Category:Unusual explosions ja:ウィリアム1世 (イングランド王) simple:William I of England

Normans

:This page discusses the people. For other uses, see Norman (disambiguation). The Normans (adapted from the name "Northmen" or "Norsemen") were a mixture of the indigenous people of France and the Viking invaders under the leadership of Rollo (Gange Rolf). Danish or Norwegian Vikings began to occupy the northern area of France now known as Normandy in the latter half of the 9th century. Under the leadership of Hrolf Ganger, who adopted the French name Rollo, they swore allegiance to the king of France (Charles the Simple) and received the small lower Seine area from him in 911. This area expanded over time to become the Duchy of Normandy. The Norman people adopted Christianity and the Gallo-Romance language and created a new cultural identity separate from that of their Scandinavian forebears and French neighbours. Norman culture, like that of many other migrant communities, was particularly enterprising and adaptable. For a time, it led them to occupy widely dispersed territories throughout Europe.

Norman characteristics

Normans should not be confused with other Viking groups, such as the Vikings known as Danes in England and the Vikings known as Varangians in Russia. Geoffrey Malaterra characterized the Normans as "specially marked by cunning, despising their own inheritance in the hope of winning a greater, eager after both gain and dominion, given to imitation of all kinds, holding a certain mean between lavishness and greediness, that is, perhaps uniting, as they certainly did, these two seemingly opposite qualities. Their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war." That quick adaptability Geoffrey mentions expressed itself in the shrewd Norman willingness to take on local men of talent, to marry the high-born local women; confidently illiterate Norman masters used the literate clerks of the church for their own purpose. Their success at assimilating was so thorough, few modern traces remain, whether in Palermo or Kiev. See also:
- Vikings
- Norsemen
- Varangians

Normans and Normandy

Geographically, Normandy was approximately the same region as the old church province of Rouen or Neustria. It had no natural frontiers and was previously merely an administrative unit. Its population was mostly Gallo-Roman with a small Frankish/Germanic admixture, plus Viking settlers, who had begun arriving in the 880s, and who were divided between a small colony in Upper (or eastern) Normandy and a larger one in Lower (or western) Normandy. In the course of the 10th century the initial destructive incursions of Norse war bands into the rivers of Gaul evolved into more permanent encampments that included women and chattel. The pagan culture was driven underground by the Christian faith and Gallo-Romance language of the local people. With the zeal of new converts they set forth in the 11th century from their solid base in Normandy. Characteristically it was younger sons, like William the Bastard who were largely dispossessed at home, that headed the adventurous raiding parties. In Normandy they adopted the growing feudal doctrines of France, and worked them, both in Normandy and in England, into a logical system. The Norman warrior class was new and different from the old French aristocracy, many of whom could trace their families back to Carolingian times, while the Normans could seldom cite ancestors before the beginning of the 11th century. Most knights remained poor and land-hungry; by 1066, Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation. Knighthood at this time held little social status, and simply indicated that a man was a professional warrior. The Norman language forged by the adoption of the indigenous oïl language by a Norse-speaking ruling class developed into the regional language which survives today. See also:
- Channel Islands

The Normans in England

Main articles: Norman Conquest; Anglo-Normans In 1066, the most famous Norman leader, Duke William II of Normandy, conquered England. The invading Normans and their descendants replaced the Anglo-Saxons as the ruling class of England. After an initial period of resentment and rebellion, the two populations largely intermarried and merged, combining languages and traditions. Normans began to identify themselves as Anglo-Norman; indeed, the Anglo-Norman language was considerably distinct from the "Parisian French", which was the subject of some humour by Geoffrey Chaucer. Eventually, even this distinction largely disappeared in the course of the Hundred Years war, with the Anglo-Norman aristocracy increasingly identifying themselves as English, and the Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon languages merging to form Middle English. See also:
- Norman Yoke
- Norman architecture

The Normans in Scotland

One of the claimants of the English throne opposing William the Conqueror, Edgar Atheling, eventually fled to Scotland. King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland married Edgar's sister Margaret, and came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding as far as the Firth of Tay where he met up with his fleet of ships. Malcolm submitted, paid homage to William, and surrendered his son Duncan as a hostage, beginning a series of arguments as to whether the Scottish Crown owed allegiance to the English King. Normans came into Scotland, building castles and founding noble families who would provide some future kings such as Robert the Bruce as well as founding some of the Scottish clans in the Highlands. The Norman feudal system was applied to the Scottish Lowlands, but the influence on Lowland Scots language was limited. See also History of Scotland History of Scotland, County Meath, Ireland.]]

The Normans in Ireland

:See Norman Ireland The Normans had a profound effect on Irish culture, history and ethnicity. While initially the Normans in the 12th century kept themselves as a distinct culture and ethnicity, they were quickly subsumed into Ireland, and it is often said that they became more Irish than the Irish themselves. The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland, later known as the Pale, and also built many fine castles and settlements, including Trim Castle and Dublin Castle. Both cultures intermixed, borrowing from each other's language, culture and outlook. See also: Castles in the Republic of Ireland, Hiberno-Norman

The Normans in Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean

See also Kingdom of Sicily Opportunistic bands of Normans successfully established a foothold far to the south of Normandy. Groups settled at Aversa and Capua, others [?] conquered Apulia and Calabria. From these bases, more organised principalities were eventually able to capture Sicily and Malta from the Saracens. Areas ruled by Normans eventually included Abruzzi, Apulia, Calabria, Campania, and Naples in Italy, Palermo in Sicily, and Thessaloníki in Greece. Normans were to become very influential in the affairs of Italy (especially Southern Italy). As a prime example, Robert Guiscard, a Norman leader, was the only support to be found for Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) in his conflict with Emperor Henry IV. This support was to lead to a fight, between the Normans and the Romans, in which a large part of Rome was burned down or sacked. See:
- Tancred of Hauteville
- Robert Guiscard
- Bohemund I of Antioch
- Roger I of Sicily
- Roger II of Sicily
- Roger III of Sicily
- William I of Sicily
- William II of Sicily
- Tancred of Sicily
- Constance of Sicily
- History of Palermo
- History of Naples

Sources

- Brown, Elizabeth (see Feudalism)
- Maitland, F.W., Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England (feudal Saxons)
- Muhlbergher, Stephen, Medieval England (Saxon social demotions)
- Reynolds, Susan (see Feudalism)
- Robertson, A.J., ed. and trans. Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. New York: AMS Press, 1974. (Mudrum fine)
- European Commission presentation of [http://www.mondes-normands.caen.fr/angleterre/index.htm The Normans] Norman Heritage, 10th-12th century. Category:Normans Category:Ethnic groups of Europe ja:ノルマン人

Fort

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs. The term is derived from the Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make"). Many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may class as fortresses, smaller ones formerly often bore the name of fortalices. The word "fortification" can also refer to the practice of improving an area's defense with defensive works. The art of laying out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally classes as castrametation, since the time of the Roman legions. The art/science of laying siege to a fortification and of destroying it has the popular name of siegecraft and the formal name of poliorcetics. In some texts this latter term also applies to the art of building a fortification. poliorcetics situation, Groningen (province), Netherlands]] Fortification is usually divided into two branches, namely permanent fortification and field fortification. Permanent fortifications are erected at leisure, with all the resources that a state can supply of constructive and mechanical skill, and are built of enduring materials. Field fortifications are extemporized by troops in the field, perhaps assisted by such local labor and tools as may be procurable, and with materials that do not require much preparation, such as earth, brushwood and light timber. There is also an intermediate branch known as semipermanent fortification. This is employed when in the course of a campaign it becomes desirable to protect some locality with the best imitation of permanent defences that can be made in a short time, ample resources and skilled civilian labor being available. Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons on the 14th century battlefield. Fortifications in the age of blackpowder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. This placed a heavy emphasis on the geometry of the fortification to allow defensive cannonry interlocking fields of fire to cover all approaches to the lower and thus more vulnerable walls. Fortifications also extended in depth, with protected batteries for defensive cannonry, to allow them to engage attacking cannon to keep them at a distance and prevent them bearing directly on the vulnerable walls. The result was star shaped fortifications with tier upon tier of hornworks and bastions, of which Bourtange illustrated above is an excellent example. There are also extensive fortifications from this era in the Nordic states and in Britain, the fortifications of Berwick on Tweed being a fine example. The arrival of explosive shells in the nineteenth centuary led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification. Star forts of the cannon era did not fare well against the effects of high explosive, and the intricate arrangements of bastions, flanking batteries and the carefully constructed lines of fire for the defending cannon could be rapidly disrupted by explosive shells. Worse, the large open ditches surrounding forts of this type were an integral part of the defensive scheme, as was the covered way at the edge of the counter scarp. The ditch was extremely vulnerable to bombardment with explosive shells. In response, military engineers evolved the polygonal style of fortification. The ditch became deep and vertically sided, cut directly into the native rock, layed out as a series of straight lines creating the central fortified area that gives this style of fortification its name. Wide enough to be an impassable barrier for attacking troops, but narrow enough to be a difficult target for enemy shellfire, the ditch was swept by fire from defensive blockhouses set in the ditch as well as firing positions cut into the outer face of the ditch itself. The profile of the fort became very low indeed, surrounded outside the ditch by a gently sloping open area so as to eliminate possible cover for enemy forces, while the fort itself provided a minimal target for enemy fire. The entrypoint became a sunken gatehouse in the inner face of the ditch, reached by a curving ramp that gave access to the gate via a rolling bridge that could be withdrawn into the gatehouse. Much of the fort moved underground, with deep passages to connect the blockhouses and firing points in the ditch to the fort proper, with magazines and machine rooms deep under the surface. The guns however were often mounted in open emplacements, simply protected by a parapet, both for a lower profile, and since experience with guns in closed casemates had seen them put out of action by rubble as their own casemates were collapsed around them. Steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries, however the advances in modern warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Only underground bunkers are still able to provide some protection in modern wars. Many historical fortifications were demolished during the modern age, but a considerable number survive as popular tourist destinations and prominent local landmarks today.

Examples

landmark (Rajasthan, India)]] India (~1780)]] India, India]]
- List of fortifications
- List of forts

External links

- [http://85.1911encyclopedia.org/F/FO/FORTIFICATION_AND_SIEGECRAFT.htm 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica on Fortifications and siegecraft]
- [http://www.tunnelrats.org.au Information on Australian World War 2 Fortifications]
- [http://www.educ.um.edu.mt/militarymalta A Military History of Malta (Fortifications)] Category:Fortification ja:%E8%A6%81%E5%A1%9E

Roman Empire

:For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation) The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word "imperium" is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world where Rome ruled. The expansion of this Roman territory beyond the borders of the initial city-state of Rome had started long before the state organisation turned into an Empire. One of the first historians to describe this expansion of the Roman territory was the Greek Polybius, writing in the Epoch of the Roman Republic. In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome had already accumulated a collection of tribute-states beyond the Italian Peninsula, including former Mediterranean competitors Syracuse and Carthage. In the late Republic Augustus (then still "Octavian") added Egypt definitively to the Imperium Romanum. The remainder of this article treats the Roman Empire as Imperial state (see Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic for development of the territory in earlier times). Augustus' reforms turning the Roman state into an Empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire. The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set in 476, when Odovacar deposed the last Emperor and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth he nominally ruled as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks. From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, military, and monumental architecture, as well as many other aspects of Western life remains inescapable. The Greeks adopted the Roman name in the Middle Ages and were known as Romans, a trend that survives until today in Greece, a result of their cultural position (see Names of the Greeks). Roman titles of power were adopted by successor states and other entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the first and second Bulgarian empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.
Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome
Because the empire of Rome lasted for such a long period of time (31 BC–1453), there are certain alternative names used by historians to distinguish various semantic periods or eras. Such names include Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire, which are used interchangeably throughout this article to mean the same as Roman Empire (or the Western or Eastern part thereof). For many years historians made a distinction between the Principate, the period from Augustus until the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Dominate, the period from Diocletian until the end of the Empire in the West. According to this theory, during the Principate (from the Latin word princeps, meaning "first citizen", the only title Augustus would permit himself) the realities of dictatorship were concealed behind Republican forms; while during the Dominate (from the word dominus, meaning "Master") imperial power showed its naked face, with golden crowns and ornate imperial ritual. More recently historians established that the situation was far more nuanced: certain historical forms continued until the Byzantine period, more than one thousand years after they were created, and displays of imperial majesty were common from the earliest days of the Empire.
Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments
Latin As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been in continuous crisis with periods of dictatorial rule since Sulla. The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome–the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic–now placidly accepted one man rule. Augustus' reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:
- Creation of an hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
- Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
- Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
- Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus' death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
- Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
- Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
- Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
- Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.
Cultural developments
:Main article: Roman culture The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.
Sources
The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus' reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:
- Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus' highly partisan autobiography,
- Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
- Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder. Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions. Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus' Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus' reign.
Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs
Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".
Tiberius (14–37)
The early years of Tiberius' reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched her treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.
Caligula (37–41)
At the time of Tiberius' death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus' son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius', Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.
Claudius (41–54)
Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather. On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.
Nero (54–69)
Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia, and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered by the rumour that he played the lyre and sang during the Great Fire of Rome, and hence "fiddled while Rome burned" (though the fiddle had yet to be invented). Nero is also remembered for his immense rebuilding of Rome following the fires. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.
Flavian Dynasty
The Flavians, although a relatively short lived dynasty, helped restore stability in an empire on its knees. Although there are criticism of all three, especially based on their more centralized style of rule, it was through the reforms and good rule of the three that helped create a stable empire that would last well into the 3rd Century. However, their backgrounds as a military dynasty led to further irrelevancy of the senate, and the move from princeps, or first citizen, to imperator, or emperor, was finalized during their reign.
Vespasian (69–79)
Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate. At the age of 60 and battle hardened he was hardly a charismatic emperor, but he turned out to be an excellent ruler none the less. Although Vespasian was considered quite the autocrat by the senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body that had been going since the reign of Tiberius. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. Another example was his assumption of the censorship in 73, giving him power over who exactly made up the senate. He used that power to expel dissident senators. At the same time, he increased the number of senators from 200, at that low level due to the actions of Nero and the year of crisis that followed, to 1000, most of the new senators coming not from Rome but from Italy and the urban centers within the western provinces. Vespasian was able to liberate Rome from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. To do this, he not only increased taxes, but created new forms of taxation. Also, through his power as censor he was able to carefully examine the fiscal status of every city and province, many paying taxes based upon information and structures more than a century old. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum; he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace. In addition, he alloted sizable subsidies to the arts, creating a chair of rhetoric at Rome. Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces in his decades of office, having posts all across the empire, both east and west. In the west he gave considerable favoritism to Spain in which he granted Latin rights to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanization throughout the western (i.e. formerly barbarian) provinces. Through the additions he made to the Senate he allowed greater influence of the provinces in the Senate, helping to promote unity in the empire. He also extended the borders of the empire on every front, most of which was done to help strengthen the frontier defenses, one of Vespasian's main goals. The crisis of 69 had wrought havoc on the army. One of the most marked problems had been the support lent by provincial legions to men who supposedly represented the best will of their province. This was mostly caused by the placement of native auxiliary units in the areas they were recruited in, a practice Vespasian stopped. He mixed auxiliary units with men from other areas of the empire or moved the units away from where they were recruited to help stop this. Also, to further reduce the chances of another military coup he broke up the legions, and instead of placing them in singular concentrations broke them up along the border. Perhaps the most important military reform he undertook was the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Italy to Gaul and Spain, in line with the Romanization of those areas.
Titus (79–81)
Titus, the eldest son of Vespasian, had been groomed to rule. He had served as an effective general under his father, helping to secure the east and eventually taking over the command of Roman armies in Syria and Palestine, quelling the significant Jewish revolt going on at the time. Throughout his father's reign he had been tailored for rule, sharing the consul for several years with his father and receiving the best tutelage. Although there was some trepidation when he took office due to his known dealings with some of the less respectable elements of Roman society, he quickly proved his merit, even recalling many exiled by his father as a show of good faith. However, his short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, and in 80, a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. Titus died in 81, at the age of 41 of what is presumed to be illness; it was rumored that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor, although these claims have little merit. Whatever the case, he was greatly mourned and missed.
Domitian (81–96)
The Flavians all had rather poor relations with the senate due to their more autocratic style, however Domitian was the only one who truly created significant problems. His continuous control as consul and censor throughout his rule, the former his father sharing in much the same way of his Julio-Claudian forerunners, the latter having difficulty even obtaining, were unheard of. In addition, he often appeared in full military regalia as an imperator, an affront to the idea of what the Principate-era emperor's power was based upon, the emperor as the princeps. His reputation in the Senate aside, he kept the people of Rome happy through various measures, including donations to every resident of Rome, wild spectacles in the newly finished Colosseum, and continuing the public works projects of his father and brother. He also apparently had the good fiscal sense of his father, because although he spent lavishly his successors came to power with a well endowed treasury. However, during the end of his reign Domitian became extremely paranoid which probably had its initial roots in the treatment he received by his father: although given significant responsibility, he was never trusted with anything important without supervision. This flowered into the severe and perhaps pathological repercussions following the short lived rebellion in 89 of Antonius Saturninus, a governor and commander in Germany. Domitian's paranoia led to a large number of arrests, executions, and seizure of property (which might help explain his ability to spend so lavishly). Eventually it got to the point where even his closest advisers and family members lived in fear, leading them to his murder in 96 orchestrated by his enemies in the Senate, Stephanus (the steward of the deceased Julia Flavia), members of the Pretorian Guard and empress Domitia Longina.
The Adoptive Emperors

"Five Good Emperors" (96–180)
180 The next century came to be known as the period of the "Five Good Emperors", in which the succession was peaceful though not dynastic and the Empire was prosperous. The emperors of the period were Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180), each being adopted by his predecessor as his successor during the latter's lifetime. While their respective choices of successor were based upon the merits of the individual men they selected, many argue the real reason for the lasting success of the adoptive scheme of succession lay more with the fact that none of them had a natural heir. Under Trajan, the Empire's borders briefly achieved their maximum extension with provinces created in Mesopotamia in 117. From 166, Roman embassies to China, first sent under the reign of Antonius Pius and probably traveling on the southern sea route, are recorded in Chinese historical sources such as the Later Han History.
Commodus (180–192)
192 world map, indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Trapobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (South-East Asian peninsula).]] The period of the "five good emperors" was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus from 180 to 192. Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had turned out so well. He was co-emperor with his father from 177. When he became sole emperor upon the death of his father in 180, it was at first seen as a hopeful sign by the people of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, as generous and magnanimous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite. Commodus is often thought to have been insane, and he was certainly given to excess. He began his reign by making an unfavorable peace treaty with the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius. Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. In 190, a part of the city of Rome burned, and Commodus took the opportunity to "re-found" the city of Rome in his own honor, as Colonia Commodiana. The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army. Commodus was strangled in his sleep in 192, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as a consul. Upon his death, the Senate passed damnatio memoriae on him and restored the proper name to the city of Rome and its institutions. The popular movies The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and Gladiator (2000) were loosely based on the career of the emperor Commodus, although they should not be taken as an accurate historical depictions of his life.
Severan dynasty (193–235)
The Severan dynasty includes the increasingly troubled reigns of Septimius Severus (193–211), Caracalla (211–217), Macrinus (217–218), Elagabalus (218–222), and Alexander Severus (222–235). The founder of the dynasty, Lucius Septimius Severus, belonged to a leading native family of Leptis Magna in Africa who allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. Their provincial background and cosmopolitan alliance, eventually giving rise to imperial rulers of Syrian background, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, testifies to the broad political franchise and economic development of the Roman empire that had been achieved under the Antonines. A generally successful ruler, Septimius Severus cultivated the army's support with substantial remuneration in return for total loyalty to the emperor and substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. In this way, he successfully broadened the power base of the imperial administration throughout the empire. Abolishing the regular standing jury courts of Republican times, Septimius Severus was likewise able to transfer additional power to the executive branch of the government, of which he was decidedly the chief representative. Septimius Severus' son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — nicknamed Caracalla — removed all legal and political distinction between Italians and provincials, enacting the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 which extended full Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla was also responsible for erecting the famous Baths of Caracalla in Rome, their design serving as an architectural model for many subsequent monumental public buildings. Increasingly unstable and autocratic, Caracalla was assassinated by the praetorian prefect Macrinus in 217, who succeeded him briefly as the first emperor not of senatorial rank. The imperial court, however, was dominated by formidable women who arranged the succession of Elagabalus in 218, and Alexander Severus, the last of the dynasty, in 222. In the last phase of the Severan principate, the power of the Senate was somewhat revived and a number of fiscal reforms were enacted. Despite early successes against the Sassanian Empire in the East, Alexander Severus' increasing inability to control the army led eventually to its mutiny and his assassination in 235. The death of Alexander Severus ushered in a subsequent period of soldier-emperors and almost a half-century of civil war and strife.
Crisis of the 3rd Century (235–284)
The Crisis of the 3rd Century is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284. During this period, Rome was ruled by more than 35 individuals, most of them prominent generals who assumed Imperial power over all or part of the empire, only to lose it by defeat in battle, murder, or death. After nearly 50 years of external invasion, internal civil wars and economic collapse, the Empire was on the verge of ending. A series of tough soldier-emperors saved the empire, but in the process fundamentally changed the Roman Empire. The transitions of this period mark the beginnings of Late Antiquity and the end of Classical Antiquity.
Tetrarchy (285–324)
324 sacked from a Byzantine palace in 1204, Treasury of St Mark's, Venice]] The transition from a single united empire to the later divided Western and Eastern empires was a gradual transformation. In July, 285, Diocletian defeated rival Emperor Carinus and briefly became sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Diocletian saw that the vast Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor in the face of internal pressures and military threats on two fronts. He therefore split the Empire in half along a north-west axis just east of Italy, and created two equal Emperors to rule under the title of Augustus. Diocletian was Augustus of the eastern half, and gave his long time friend Maximian the title of Augustus in the western half. In 293 authority was further divided as each Augustus took a Caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession; Galerius became the junior emperor of Diocletian and Constantius Chlorus the junior emperor of Maximian. This constituted what is called the Tetrarchy (in Greek: the leadership of four) by modern scholars. The system allowed the peaceful succession of the Augusti as the Caesar in each half rose up to replace the Augustus and proclaimed a new Caesar. On May 1, 305 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in favor of their Caesars. Galerius named the two new Caesars: his nephew Maximinus for himself and Flavius Valerius Severus for Constantius. The Tetrarchy would effectively collapse with the death of Constantius Chlorus on July 25 306. Constantius' troops in Eboracum immediately proclaimed his son Constantine an Augustus. In August, 306, Galerius promoted Severus to the position of Augustus. A revolt in Rome supported another claimant to the same title: Maxentius, son of Maximian, who was proclaimed Augustus on October 28, 306. His election was supported by the Praetorian Guard. This left the Empire with five rulers: four Augusti (Galerius, Constantine, Severus and Maxentius) and a Caesar (Maximinus). The year 307 saw the return of Maximian to the role of Augustus alongside his son Maxentius creating a total of six rulers of the Empire. Galerius and Severus campaigned against them in Italy. Severus was killed under command of Maxentius on September 16, 307. The two Augusti of Italy also managed to ally themselves with Constantine by having Constantine marry Fausta, the daughter of Maximian and sister of Maxentius. The end of 307 saw the Empire with four Augusti (Maximian, Galerius, Constantine and Maxentius) and a sole Caesar (Maximinus). The five were briefly joined by another Augustus in 308, Domitius Alexander, vicarius of the Roman province of Africa under Maxentius, proclaimed himself Augustus. Before long he was captured by Rufius Volusianus and Zenas. Alexander was executed in 311. The current situation of conflict between the various rivalrous Augusti was resolved in the Congress of Carnuntum with the participation of Diocletian, Maximian and Galerius. The final decisions were taken on November 11, 308:
- Galerius remained Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Maximinus remained Caesar of the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Maximian was forced to abdicate.
- Maxentius was still not recognized, his rule remained illegitimate.
- Constantine received official recognition but was demoted to Caesar of the Western Roman Empire.
- Licinius replaced Maximian as Augustus of the Western Roman Empire. Problems however continued. Maximinus demanded to be promoted to Augustus. He proclaimed himself to be one on May 1 310; Constantine followed suit shortly after. Maximian similarly proclaimed himself an Augustus for a third and final time. He was killed by his son-in-law Constantine in July, 310. The end of the year again found the Empire with four legitimate Augusti (Galerius, Maximinus, Constantine and Licinius) and one illegitimate one (Maxentius). Galerius died in May 311 leaving Maximinus sole ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire. Meanwhile Maxentius declared a war on Constantine under the pretext of avenging his executed father. He was among the casualties of the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28 312. This left the Empire in the hands of the three remaining Augusti, Maximinus, Constantine and Licinius. Licinius allied himself with Constantine, cementing the alliance by marriage to his younger half-sister Constantia in March 313 and joining open conflict with Maximinus. In August 313 Maximinus met his death at Tarsus in Cilicia. The two remaining Augusti divided the Empire again in the pattern established by Diocletian, Constantine becoming Augustus of the Western Roman Empire and Licinius Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire. This division lasted ten years until 324. A final war between the last two remaining Augusti ended with the deposition of Licinius and the elevation of Constantine to sole Emperor of the Roman Empire. Deciding that the empire needed a new capital, Constantine chose the site of Byzantium for the new city. He refounded it as Nova Roma, but it was popularly called Constantinople: Constantine's City.
Christian Empire (324–395)
395 The beginning of the Roman Empire as a Christian empire lies in 313, with the Edict of Milan. The edict was signed under the reigns of Constantine I and Licinius. The edict established tolerance for Christianity throughout the Empire, but did not yet make it the official state religion. After the Edict was proclaimed, however, the Christian Church rapidly became extremely influential amongst the ruling classes of the Empire, and the Bishops were established in positions of power and influence. Christianity became the single official religion of Rome under Theodosius I (r. 379–395). The emperor had a considerable degree of control over the church. While Christianity flourished, the Empire by no means became uniformly Christian; paganism remained significant. Theodosius massacred Thessalonica for rebelling against his new Christian policies condemning homosexuality, which was a common practice in both ancient Greece and Greece under Roman rule. Upon his return to Rome the Bishop Ambrose refused to let Theodosius enter the church until he made a public repentance. Theodosius did so, and from then on the church's powers grew. Eventually the church would gain enough power that it would outlast the empire in the west.
Late Antiquity in the West (395–476)
476.]] In popular history, the year 476 is generally accepted as the end of the Western Roman Empire. In that year, Odoacer disposed of his puppet Romulus Augustus (475–476), and for the first time did not bother to induct a successor, choosing instead to rule as a representative of the Eastern Emperor (although Julius Nepos, the emperor deposed by Romulus Augustulus, continued to rule Illyricum until his death in 480, at which point Odoacer annexed the remainder of the Western Empire to his Italian kingdom). The last Emperor who ruled from Rome, however, had been Theodosius, who removed the seat of power to Mediolanum (Milan). Edward Gibbon, in writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire knew not to end his narrative at 476. The great corpse continued to twitch, into the 6th century. On the other hand, in 409, with the Emperor of the West fled from Milan to Ravenna and all the provinces wavering in loyalties, the Goth Alaric I, in charge at Rome, came to terms with the senate, and with their consent set up a rival emperor and invested the prefect of the city, a Greek named Priscus Attalus, with the diadem and the purple robe. In the following year when the Goths rampaged in the City, local power was in the hands of the Bishop of Rome. The transfer of power to Christian pope and military dux had been effected: the Western Empire was effectively dead, though no contemporary knew it. The next seven decades played out as aftermath. Theodoric the Great as King of the Goths, couched his legitimacy in diplomatic terms as being the representative of the Emperor of the East. Consuls were appointed regularly through his reign: a formula for the consular appointment is provided in Cassiodorus' Book VI. The post of consul was last filled in the west by Theodoric's successor, Athalaric, until he died in 534. Ironically the Gothic War in Italy, which was meant as the reconquest of a lost province for the Emperor of the East and a re-establishment of the continuity of power, actually caused more damage and cut more ties of continuity with the Antique world than the attempts of Theodoric and his minister Cassiodorus to meld Roman and Gothic culture within a Roman form. In essence, the "fall" of the Roman Empire to a contemporary depended a great deal on where they were and their status in the world. On the great villas of the Italian Campagna, the seasons rolled on without a hitch. The local overseer may have been representing an Ostrogoth, then a Lombard duke, then a Christian bishop, but the rhythm of life and the horizons of the imagined world remained the same. Even in the decayed cities of Italy consuls were still elected. In Auvergne, at Clermont, the Gallo-Roman poet and diplomat Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, realized that the local "fall of Rome" came in 475, with the fall of the city to the Visigoth Euric. In the north of Gaul the Franks could not be taken for Roman, but in Hispania the last Arian Visigothic king Liuvigild considered himself the heir of Rome. In Alexandria, dreams of a "Christian Empire" with genuine continuity were shattered when a rampaging mob of Christians were encouraged to sack and destroy the Serapeum in 392. Hispania Baetica was still essentially Roman when the Moors came in 711, but in the northwest, the invasion of the Suevi broke the last frail links with Roman culture in 409. In Aquitania and Provence, cities like Arles were not abandoned, but Roman culture in Britain collapsed in waves of violence after the last legions evacuated: the final legionary probably left Britain in 409. In Athens the end came for some in 529, when the Emperor Justinian closed the Neoplatonic Academy and its remaining members fled east for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I; for other Greeks it had come long before, in 396, when Christian monks led Alaric I to vandalize the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
From Roman to Byzantine in the East

Under Constantine (330–337) and his sons (337–361)
Constantinople would serve as the capital of Constantine the Great from May 11, 330 to his death on May 22 337. The Empire was parted again among his three surviving sons.The Western Roman Empire was divided among the eldest son Constantine II and the youngest son Constans. The Eastern Roman Empire along with Constantinople were the share of middle son Constantius II. Constantine II was killed in conflict with his youngest brother in 340. Constans was himself killed in conflict with army proclaimed Augustus Magnentius on January 18 350. Magnentius was at first opposed in the city of Rome by self-proclaimed Augustus Nepotianus, a paternal first cousin of Constans. Nepotianus was killed alongside his mother Eutropia. His other first cousin Constantia convinced Vetriano to proclaim himself Caesar in opposition to Magnentius. Vetriano served a brief term from March 1 to December 25 350. He was then forced to abdicate by the legitimate Augustus Constantius. The usurper Magnentius would continue to rule the Western Roman Empire till 353 while in conflict with Constantius. His eventual defeat and suicide left Constantius as sole Emperor. Constantius' rule would however be opposed again in 360. He had named his paternal half-cousin and brother-in-law Julian as his Caesar of the Western Roman Empire in 355. During the following five years, Julian had a series of victories against invading Germanic tribes, including the Alamanni. This allowed him to secure the Rhine frontier. His victorious Gallic troops thus ceased campaigning. Constantius send orders for the troops to be transferred to the east as reinforcements for his own currently unsuccessful campaign against Shapur II of Persia. This order led the Gallic troops to an insurrection. They proclaimed their commanding officer Julian to be an Augustus. Both Augusti were not ready to lead their troops to another Roman Civil War. Constantius' timely demise on November 3, 361 prevented this war from ever occurring.
Under Julian & Jovian (361–364)
Julian would serve as the sole Emperor for two years. He had received his baptism as a Christian years before, but apparently no longer considered himself one. His reign would see the ending of restriction and persecution of paganism introduced by his uncle and father-in-law Constantine the Great and his cousins and brothers-in-law Constantine II, Constans and Constantius II. He instead placed similar restrictions and unofficial persecution of Christianity. His edict of toleration in 362 ordered the reopening of pagan temples and the reinstitution of alienated temple properties, and, more problematically for the Christian Church, the recalling of previously exiled Christian bishops. Returning Orthodox and Arian bishops resumed their conflicts, thus further weakening the Church as a whole. Julian himself was not a traditional pagan. His personal beliefs were largely influenced by Neoplatonism and Theurgy; he reputedly believed he was the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. He produced works of philosophy arguing his beliefs. His brief renaissance of paganism would, however, end with his death. Julian eventually resumed the war against Shapur II of Persia. He received a mortal wound in battle and died on June 26, 363. He was considered a hero by pagan sources of his time and a villain by Christian ones. Later historians have treated him as a controversial figure. Julian died childless and with no designated successor. The officers of his army elected the rather obscure officer Jovian emperor. He is remembered for signing an unfavorable peace treaty with Persia and restoring the privileges of Christianity. He is considered a Christian himself, though little is known of his beliefs. Jovian himself died on February 17, 364.
Valentinian Dynasty (364–392)
The role of choosing a new Augustus fell again to army officers. On February 28, 364, Pannonian officer Valentinian I was elected Augustus in Nicaea, Bithynia. However, the army had been left leaderless twice in less than a year, and the officers demanded Valentinian to choose a co-ruler. On March 28 Valentinian chose his own younger brother Valens and the two new Augusti parted the Empire in the pattern established by Diocletian: Valentinian would administer the Western Roman Empire, while Valens took control over the Eastern Roman Empire. Valens' election would soon be disputed. Procopius, a Cilician maternal cousin of Julian, had been considered a likely heir to his cousin but was never designated as such. He had been in hiding since the election of Jovian. In 365, while Valentinian was at Paris and then at Reims to direct the operations of his generals against the Alamanni, Procopius managed to bribe two legions assigned to Constantinople and take control of the Eastern Roman capital. He was proclaimed Augustus on September 28 and soon extended his control to both Thrace and Bithynia. War between the two rival Eastern Roman Emperors continued until Procopius was defeated. Valens had him executed on May 27, 366. On August 4 367, a 3rd Augustus was proclaimed by the other two. His father Valentini

Moat

Moats were deep and wide water-filled trenches, excavated to provide a barrier against attack upon castle ramparts or other fortifications. A moat made access to the walls difficult for siege weapons, such as a siege tower or battering ram, that needed to be brought up against a wall to be effective. A very important feature was that a water-filled moat made very difficult the practice of sapping or undermining, that is to say digging tunnels under the fortifications in order to effect a collapse of the defenses. The word was adapted in Middle English from the French motte "mound, hillock" and was first applied to the central mound on which a fortification was erected (see Motte and bailey), and then came to be applied to the excavated ring, a "dry moat". The term moat is also applied to natural formations reminiscent of the artificial structure. In the violent conditions of the 14th and 15th centuries in England, though defensive walling required a charter from the king, a moat round a manor house could deter all but the most determined intruders (illustration, right). See also Ightham Mote. Often streams were diverted in the Middle Ages to fill the ditch. Moats required upkeep. They had to be dredged for debris which could potentially form a traversable bridge from one side to another. Withdrawable bridges spanned moats in the Middle Ages. At first they were only simple wooden bridges that could easily be dismantled if an enemy was about to breach the fortifications. Later flying bridges and drawbridges were used for moat spans. drawbridge Moats sometimes had long wooden spikes in them, to prevent enemies from swimming across. While moats are commonly associated with European castles, they were also developed by North American Indians of the Mississippian culture as the outer defense of some fortified villages. The remains of a 16th-century moat are still visible at the Parkin Archeological State Park in eastern Arkansas. Moats rather than fences separate animals from spectators in many modern zoo installations. The structure, with a vertical outer retaining wall rising directly from the moat, is an extended usage of the haha of English landscape gardening. In 2004 plans were suggested for a two-mile moat across the southern border of the Gaza Strip to prevent tunnelling from Egyptian territory to the border town of Rafah [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1241836,00.html]. Category:Fortification ja:堀

Henry III of England

Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272) is one of the least-known British monarchs, considering the great length of his reign. He was also the first child monarch in English royal history (post-Conquest—1066). He was born in 1207 at Winchester Castle, the son of King John of England and Isabella of Angoulême. According to Nicholas Trevet, Henry was a thickset man of medium height, with a narrow forehead and a drooping left eyelid (inherited by his son, Edward I). Following John’s death in 1216, Henry, aged nine, was hastily crowned in Gloucester, as the barons who had been supporting the invasion of Prince Louis of France in order to ensure John's deposition quickly saw the young prince as a safer option. Henry's regents immediately declared their intention to rule by Magna Carta which they did during Henry’s minority. Magna Carta was reissued in 1217 as a sign of goodwill to the barons. The country was ruled by regents until 1227. When Henry reached maturity, however, he was keen to restore royal authority, looking towards the autocratic model of the French monarchy. Henry married Eleanor of Provence and he promoted many of his French relatives to power and wealth. For instance, one Poitevin, Peter des Riveaux, held the offices of treasurer of the household, keeper of the king's wardrobe, keeper of the privy seal, and the sheriffdoms of twenty-one English counties simultaneously. Henry's tendency to govern for long periods with no publicly appointed ministers who could be held accountable for their actions and decisions did not make matters any easier. Many English barons came to see his method of governing as foreign. Henry himself, on the other hand, was much taken with the cult of the Anglo-Saxon saint king Edward the Confessor who had been canonised in 1161. Told that St Edward dressed austerely, Henry took to doing the same and wearing only the simplest of robes. He had a mural of the saint painted in his bedchamber for inspiration before and after sleep, and, of course, he named his eldest son after him. Henry designated Westminster, where St Edward had founded the abbey, as the fixed seat of power in England and Westminster Hall duly became the greatest ceremonial space of the kingdom, where the council of nobles also met. Henry appointed French architects from Rheims for the renovation of Westminster Abbey in Gothic style, and work began at great expense in 1245. The centrepiece of Henry's renovated Westminster Abbey was to be a shrine to the confessor king, Edward. Henry was extremely pious, and his journeys were often delayed by his insistence on hearing Mass several times a day. He took so long to arrive on a visit to the French court that his brother-in-law, King Louis IX of France, banned priests from Henry's route. On one occasion, as related by Roger of Wendover, when King Henry met with papal prelates, he said, "If [the prelates] knew how much I, in my reverence of God, am afraid of them and how unwilling I am to offend them, they would trample on me as on an old and worn-out shoe." Henry's advancement of foreign favourites, notably his wife's Savoyard uncles and his own Lusignan half-siblings, was unpopular among his subjects and barons. He was also extravagant and avaricious; when his first child, Prince Edward was born, Henry demanded the Londoners bring him rich gifts to celebrate, and even sent back gifts that did not please him. Matthew Paris reports that some said, "God gave us this child, but the king sells him to us." Edward Henry's reign came to be marked by civil strife, as the English barons led by de Montfort demanded more say in the running of the kingdom. French-born Simon de Montfort had originally been one of the foreign upstarts so loathed by many as Henry's foreign councillors; after he married Henry’s sister Eleanor without consulting Henry, a feud developed between the two. Their relationship reached a crisis in the 1250s when de Montfort was brought up on spurious charges for actions he took as lieutenant of Gascony, the last remaining Plantagenet land across the English Channel. He was aquitted by the Peers of the realm, Much to the King's displeasure. Henry also became embroiled in funding a war in Sicily on behalf of the Pope in return for a title for his second son Edmund, a state of affairs which made many barons fearful that Henry was following in the footsteps of his father and needed to be kept in check, just as King John had. De Montfort became leader of those who wanted to reassert Magna Carta and force the king to surrender more power to the baronial council. In 1258 seven leading barons forced Henry to agree to the Provisions of Oxford which effectively abolished the absolutist Anglo-Norman monarchy, giving power to a council of fifteen barons to deal with the business of government and providing for a three yearly meeting of parliament to monitor their performance. Henry was forced to take part in the swearing of a collective oath to the Provisions of Oxford. In the following years, those supporting de Montfort and those supporting the king grew more and more polarised; Henry obtained a papal bull in 1261 exempting him from his oath and both sides began to raise armies, the Royalists under Edward Longshanks, Henry's eldest son. Civil War (known as the Second Barons' War) followed. The charismatic de Montfort and his forces had captured most of southeastern England by 1263 and at the Battle of Lewes on May 14 1264, Henry was defeated and taken prisoner by de Montfort's army. While Henry was reduced to a figurehead king, de Montfort broadened representation to include each county of England and many important towns – i.e. to groups beyond the nobility. Henry and Edward continued under house arrest. The short period which followed was the closest England was to come to complete abolition of the monarchy until the Commonwealth period of 1649-1660, and many of the barons who had initially supported de Montfort began to suspect that he had gone too far with his reforming zeal. Commonwealth But only fifteen months later Edward Longshanks had escaped captivity to lead the royalists into battle again, and turned the tables on de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Following this victory savage retribution was exacted on the rebels. Henry's shrine to Edward the Confessor was finally finished in 1269 and the saint's relics were installed. He died in 1272 and his body was lain temporarily in the tomb of the Confessor while his own sarcophagus was constructed in Westminster Abbey. Henry was succeeded by his son, Edward I of England. In the Divine Comedy Dante sees Henry ("the king of simple life") sitting outside the gates of Purgatory with other contemporary European rulers.

Marriage and children

Married on January 14, 1236, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England to Eleanor of Provence, with at least five children born: #Edward I (1239-1307) #Margaret (1240-1275), married King Alexander III of Scotland #Beatrice (1242-1275), married to John II, Duke of Brittany #Edmund Crouchback (1245-1296) #Katharine (1253-1257) Edmund Crouchback Note: there is reason to doubt the existence of several attributed children of Henry and Eleanor. Richard, John, and Henry are known only from a 14th century addition made to a manuscript of Flores historiarum, and are nowhere contemporaneously recorded. William is an error for the nephew of Henry's half-brother, William de Valence. Another daughter, Matilda, is found only in the Hayles abbey chronicle, alongside such other fictitious children as a son named William for King John, and a bastard son named John for King Edward I. Matilda's existence is doubtful, at best. For further details, see Margaret Howell's The Children of King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1992).

Sources

- Matthew Paris
- Roger of Wendover
- Nicholas Trevet Category:1207 births Category:1272 deaths Category:Natives of Hampshire Category:House of Anjou Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:English monarchs Category:Dukes of Normandy Category:Characters in the Divine Comedy ja:ヘンリー3世 (イングランド王)

Netherlands

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:dərlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. (Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, located in northwestern Europe. It borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. In many countries, the Netherlands is often referred to by the name Holland, and even within the Netherlands itself this name is occasionally used as an acceptable translation of the country's name. However widespread, this usage is technically incorrect, as "Holland" is actually a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands, divided into two provinces. Also, the English plural form 'the Netherlands' is a remnant from times when the country was not yet independent and united. See below under 'naming conventions'. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated and geographically low-lying countries in the world (its name literally means "low country") and is famous for its dikes, windmills, wooden shoes, tulips, bicycles and social tolerance. Its liberal policies (towards drugs and prostitution among other things) receive international attention. The country is host to the International Court of Justice. The English adjective and noun for "of or relating to the Netherlands" is "Dutch," which is also the name of the Dutch language. In the Netherlands, "Netherlands" is sometimes used as an adjective. The origin of this local usage may be that the Dutch word for "Dutch" is Nederlands and to avoid confusion with the words "Duits" (in Dutch) and "Deutsch" (in German) that refer to the country Germany and its language.

Capital

Amsterdam is the hoofdstad ("capital city"), where according to the constitution, the sovereign must be sworn in. The Hague is the Netherlands regeringszetel or residentie (seat of government, residence of the monarch). It is the seat of government, the home of the monarch, and the location of most foreign embassies.

History

:For more details on this topic, see History of the Netherlands and Dutch monarchy. Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, the region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also includes most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some land of France and Germany. In 1568 the Eighty Years' War started after the entire population had been condemned to death by the Holy See and confirmed by the king, and in 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared itself independent and formed the Union of Utrecht, which is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. Philip II, the son of Charles V, was not prepared to let them go that easily. It would not be until 1648 that Spain would recognize Dutch independence. After gaining formal independence from the Spanish Empire under King Philip IV, the Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. In the era, referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the globe. (See Dutch colonial empire) Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe it featured the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as such less benign phenomena as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636-1637, and according to Murray Sayle, the world's first bear raider - Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount ("Japan Goes Dutch", London Review of Books [April 5, 2001]: 3-7). After briefly being incorporated in the First French Empire under Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, consisting of the present day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In addition, the king of the Netherlands became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890 as a result of ascendancy laws which prevented Queen Wilhelmina from becoming Grand Duke. The Netherlands possessed several colonies, most notably the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Suriname (the latter was traded with the British for New Amsterdam, now known as New York). These 'colonies' were first administered by the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, both collective private enterprises. Three centuries later these companies got into financial trouble and the territories in which they operated were taken over by the Dutch government (in 1815 and 1791 respectively). Only then did they become official colonies. During the 19th century, The Netherlands was slow to industrialize compared to neighboring countries, mainly due to its unique infrastructure of waterways and reliance on wind power. After remaining neutral in World War I, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust of World War II, along with significant numbers of Dutch Roma (gypsies). After the war, the Dutch economy prospered again, being a member of the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and European Economic Community unions. The Netherlands was among the twelve founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and among the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the European Union.

Naming conventions

The name Holland is often used, incorrectly, for The Netherlands, especially in other languages. The origin of the misnomer lies in the fact that the region of Holland was the economic powerhouse during the time of the United Provinces (1581-1795). After the Napoleonic era, Holland became a mere province of the Kingdom and was split into North and South Holland in 1840. Many people, especially from the northern and southern provinces, object to the use of the name Holland for The Netherlands. But to avoid confusion when addressing other nationals, the Dutch themselves often use the name 'Holland'. The plural "Netherlands" is actually an archaic term, referring to the time when it was a collection of regions that were not yet fully united. In The Netherlands itself the country is called Nederland (literally meaning "low country"), the people are called Nederlanders ("Dutch" in English) and the language is called Nederlands (again, "Dutch" in English); the -s in Nederlands is not a plural ending, but rather is cognate to the English suffix -ish. The English word "Dutch" is akin to the German word Deutsch, which originally meant "(Language) of the (common) people" in contrast with the medieval elite who spoke Latin. An old term for the language of The Netherlands is Diets or Nederdietsch. All these terms derive from what in Latin was known as Theodisca, from Germanic
- Þeudiskaz.

Politics

The Netherlands has been a parliamentary democracy since 1848 and a constitutional monarchy since 1815; before that it had been a republic from 1581 to 1806 (it was occupied by France between 1806 and 1815). The pro forma head of state, since 1980, is Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau. The Dutch monarch has little political power, but serves mostly as a ceremonial figurehead to represent the nation. Dutch governments always consist of a coalition, as there is not (and has never been) a single political party large enough to get the majority vote. Formally, the queen appoints the members of the government. In practice, once the results of parliamentary elections are known, a coalition government is formed (in a process of negotiations that can take several months), after which the government formed in this way is officially appointed by the queen. The head of the government is the Prime Minister, in Dutch Minister President or Premier, a primus inter pares who is usually also the leader of the largest party in the coalition. The degree of influence the queen has on actual government decision making is a topic of ongoing speculation. The parliament consists of two houses. The 150 members of the Lower House (Tweede Kamer, or Second Chamber) are elected every four years in direct elections. The provincial parliaments are directly elected every 4 years as well. The members of the provincial parliaments vote (indirectly) for the less important Senate (Eerste Kamer, or First Chamber). Together, the First and Second Chamber are known as the Staten Generaal, the States General. Political scientists consider The Netherlands a classic example of a consociational state, at least in part caused by the necessity in the Netherlands since the middle ages for different cities to cooperate in order to fight the water (different cities were at the time like different countries by today's standards, and often at war). This necessity to reach an agreement despite differences is called the polder model in Dutch. Also, the Netherlands has long been a nation of traders and for international trade one has to be tolerant of the other person's culture. The Netherlands is a neutral country in most international affairs and thus managed to keep out of World War I (although this did not work in World War II). As a result, the Dutch have a 'friendly' reputation in other countries, to the point that bearers of a Dutch passport often have relatively little difficulty getting into other countries, for visits or even for emigration purposes. However, the early years of the 21st century have seen a political change with the right wing in politics gaining on the left. This is illustrated by the quick rise (and fall) of the LPF. Pim Fortuyn, its founder, held former cabinets responsible for the failing integration of immigrants. The present government is led by the cabinet Balkenende II. This cabinet got some critique about economic reforms and the immigration policies. On June 1 2005 the Dutch electorate voted in a referendum against the proposed EU Constitution by a majority of 61.6%, three days after the French had also voted against. See also: Prime Minister of the Netherlands, List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands

Provinces

List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called provinces, each under a Governor, who is called Commissaris van de Koningin (Commissionair of the Queen).
- Friesland - north west; capital Leeuwarden
- Groningen - north east; capital Groningen
- Drenthe - south of Groningen; capital Assen
- Overijssel - east central, south of Drenthe; capital Zwolle
- Flevoland - central, north of Utrecht; capital Lelystad
- Gelderland - east central, south of Overijssel; capital Arnhem
- Utrecht - central; capital Utrecht
- North Holland - (Noord-Holland) north west (including Amsterdam); capital Haarlem
- South Holland - (Zuid-Holland) west central, south of North Holland (including Rotterdam); capital The Hague (s-Gravenhage or Den Haag)
- Zeeland - south west; capital Middelburg
- North Brabant - (Noord-Brabant) south central; capital 's-Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch)
- Limburg - south east; capital Maastricht. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), together 467; see Municipalities in the Netherlands, and also List of cities in the Netherlands by province. The country is also subdivided in water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. As of 1 January 2005 there are twenty seven. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. In fact, the Dutch water boards are one of the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. See also: Ranked list of Dutch provinces.
Geography
Ranked list of Dutch provinces Ranked list of Dutch provinces A remarkable aspect of the Netherlands is the flatness of the country. About half of its surface area is less than 1 m above sea level, and large parts of it are actually below sea level (see [http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_ITEM=MBZ302750 map showing these areas]). An extensive range of dikes and dunes protect these areas from flooding. Numerous massive pumping stations keep the ground water level in check. The highest point, the Vaalserberg, in the south-eastern most point of the country, is 321 m above sea level. A substantial part of the Netherlands, for example, all of Flevoland and large parts of Holland, has been reclaimed from the sea. These areas are known as polders. This has led to the saying "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands." In years past, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably due to human intervention and natural disasters. Most notable in terms of land loss are the 1134 storm, which created the archipelago of Zeeland in the south west, and the 1287 storm, which killed 50,000 people and created the Zuyderzee (now dammed in and renamed the IJsselmeer - see below) in the northwest, giving Amsterdam direct access to the sea. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km² Biesbosch tidal floodplains in the southcentre. The most recent parts of Zeeland were flooded during the North Sea Flood of 1953 and 1,836 people were killed, after which the Delta Plan was executed. The disasters were partially man-made; the people drained relatively high lying swampland for use as farmland. This drainage caused the fertile peat to compress and the ground level to drop, locking the land users in a vicious circle whereby they would lower the water level to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to compress even more. The vicious circle is unsolvable and remains to this day. Up until the 19th century peat was dug up, dried, and used for fuel, further adding to the problem. To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called terps. Later these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called "waterschappen" (English "waterbodies") or "hoogheemraadschappen" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods. (The waterbodies are still around today performing the exact same function.) As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. In the 13th century, windmills came into use to pump water out of the areas by now below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk (English "Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former Zuyderzee (Southern Sea) off from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 1,650 km² were reclaimed from the sea. After the 1953 disaster, the Delta project, a vast construction effort designed to end the threat from the sea once and for all, was launched in 1958 and largely completed in 2002. The official goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in Holland to once per 10,000 years. (For the rest of the country, the protection-level is once per 4,000 years). This was achieved by raising 3,000 km of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km of inner, canal, and river dikes to "delta" height, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally incur additional Delta project work in the form of dike re-enforcements. The Delta project is the single largest construction effort in human history and is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Because of the high cost of maintaining the polders some have argued that maybe some of the deepest polders should be given up. Additionally, the Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climatic change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but also erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow. These flooded polders might then be used as water catchments to take part of the blow. The country is divided into two main parts by three rivers Rhine (Rijn), Waal, and Meuse (Maas). The south western part of the Netherlands is actually one big river delta of these rivers. These rivers not only function as a natural barrier, but also as a cultural divide, as is evident in the different dialects spoken north and south of these great rivers and the (previous) religious dominance of Catholics in the south and Calvinists in the north. The predominant wind direction in the Netherlands is south west, which causes a moderate maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters. See also: National parks (Netherlands).
Economy
The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy in which the government has reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing (for example Unilever and Heineken), chemicals (for example DSM), petroleum refining (for example Royal Dutch Shell), and electrical machinery (for example Philips). A highly mechanised agricultural sector employs no more than 4% of the labour force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with cooperative private enterprises such as the VOC), banking and transport (for example the Rotterdam harbour). The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. As a founding member of the Euro, the Netherlands replaced its former currency, the Gulden, on January 1 1999 along with the other adopters of the single European currency, with the actual Euro coins and banknotes following on January 1, 2002. However, in the first years of the third millennium, economic and employment growth came to a standstill, which the government tried to resolve by cutting into its expenses. In 2003 the economy shrunk 0.9%. In 2004, the recession was over and the economy began its slow recovery with a meager 1.3% growth. The CPB ("Centraal Plan Bureau", Central Planning Bureau), a think tank of leading Dutch economists linked with the government, expects a recovery of the economy in 2005, with a growth of 2.25%. In 2004, inflation was 1.2%, the lowest level since 1989.
- Economic data for the Netherlands: [http://statline.cbs.nl Dutch] [http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/start.asp?lp=Search/Search&LA=EN English]
- List of Dutch companies
Demographics
The Netherlands is the 15th most densely populated country in the world, with 393 inhabitants per square km (or 482/km² if only the land area is counted, 20% is water). Partly because of this it is also one of the most densely cabled countries in the world. Internet penetration [http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm] is at 66.2% the 7th highest in the world. According CBS Statline, the official statistics bureau of the Netherlands, the ethnic origins of the citizens are very diverse. The vast majority of the population however still remains Dutch. They were: 80.8% Dutch, 8.7% other European, 2.2% Turkish, 1.9% Moroccan, 6.4% other There are no cities with a population over 1 million in the Netherlands, but the 'four big cities' as they are called (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) can in many ways be regarded as one 'big city' agglomeration, the Randstad ('fringe city'), with an agricultural 'green heart' (het Groene Hart). This is illustrated by the idea to create a circular train network with a frequency and carriages similar to a metropolitan railway.
Languages
The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by practically all inhabitants. Another official language is Frisian, which is spoken in the northern province of Friesland and has a strong resemblance to English. Frisian is co-official only in the province of Friesland, although with a few restrictions. Several dialects of Plattdüütsch are spoken in much of the north and are recognised as regional languages, as protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. To the south, the Dutch language shifts into other varieties of Low Franconian and German, which may or may not be best classified as Dutch, most notably West Flemish. One of these, Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg has been recognised as a minority language since 1977.
Religion
According to the governmental statistics agency (CBS) 30% of the population consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant (predominantly Dutch Reformed) and 8% 'other denominations'. 42% consider themselves not to belong to any religious denomination. Church attendance however is much lower than these figures may suggest: some 70% of the population 'rarely or never' visit a house of worship (be it a church, mosque, synagogue or temple). The most protestants live in the northern provinces while the southern provinces (Noord-Brabant and Limburg) are mainly Roman Catholic. The largest part of the 'other denominations', at 920,000, are Muslim immigrant workers mainly living in the bigger cities, mostly from Morocco and Turkey, and their offspring. The other denominations also include some 200,000 (1.3%) Hindu, mostly descendants of indentured servants who migrated from India to the former Dutch colony of Surinam around 1900. Prior to the Holocaust about 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands, however the vast majority of [http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/communities/weurope/comm_netherlands.html Dutch Jewry] was murdered in the Holocaust. About 30,000 Dutch Jews now live in The Netherlands.
Culture
The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters" such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century are Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphics artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. A (in)famous Dutch master art forger is Han van Meegeren. The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza, and all of Descartes' major work was done there. Christiaan Huygens(1629-1695) is a famous astronomer and mathematician. He discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented an accurate clock. In the Dutch Golden Age, literature flowered as well, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the bad treatment of the natives in Dutch colonies. Important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard van het Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. The Diary of Anne Frank was also written in the Netherlands. See also: List of museums in The Netherlands, Sport in the Netherlands, Music of the Netherlands, List of Dutch people, Public holidays in the Netherlands Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese and Delftware pottery are among the numerous items associated with the Netherlands. Dutch policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are among the most liberal in the world.
Miscellaneous topics

- City rights in the Netherlands
- Communications in the Netherlands
- Drug policy of the Netherlands
- Dutch colonial empire
- Dutch people
- Dutch-Belgian War
- Education in the Netherlands
- Euthanasia in the Netherlands
- Foreign relations of the Netherlands
- General Intelligence and Security Office (AIVD)
- Income tax in the Netherlands
- List of football clubs in the Netherlands
- Military of the Netherlands
- Netherlands and weapons of mass destruction
- New Netherland
- Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of the Netherlands
- Prostitution in the Netherlands
- Public holidays in the Netherlands
- Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index 2004 — first place
- Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands
- Statistics Netherlands
- Telephone numbers in the Netherlands
- Television networks in the Netherlands
- Tourism in the Netherlands
- Transportation in the Netherlands
External links

-
- [http://www.statoids.com/unl.html Provinces of Netherlands]
- [http://www.amsterdam-netherlands.info/ Amsterdam / Netherlands info] - Information about the Netherlands, its provinces and Amsterdam.
- [http://www.haganum.nl Best School of The Netherlands- The Gymnasiun Haganum in the Hague]
- [http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/cijfers/default.htm CBS] - Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html CIA - The World Factbook -- Netherlands]
- Dutch news: [http://www.rnw.nl/ Radio Netherlands], [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=1 Expatica]
- [http://www.colonialvoyage.com Dutch Portuguese Colonial History] Dutch Colonial History in Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Brazil, India, Malacca (Malaysia), Bengal, Formosa(Taiwan), South Africa, New York, Caribbean, Indonesia. Language Heritage. Maps, chronologies, bibliographies.
- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572410/Netherlands.html Encarta entry on the Netherlands]
- [http://flagspot.net/flags/nl-index.html Flagspot.net - The Netherlands]- site about flags, but also with province maps showing municipalities, and some other info
- Foreign government info about the Netherlands and their relations with it:
[http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/netherlands/index.html Australia] | [http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canadaeuropa/country_net-en.asp Canada] | [http://meaindia.nic.in/foreignrelation/netherland.htm India] | [http://www.esteri.it/eng/3_22_40_214.asp Italy] | [http://www.mfat.govt.nz/foreign/regions/europe/countrypapers/netherlands.html New Zealand] | [http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/bilateral/netherlands.html South Africa] | [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394365&a=KCountryProfile&aid=1019061813313 UK] | [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3204.htm US]
- [http://www.government.nl Government.nl] - official Dutch government web site
- [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch] Dutch for English speakers (from Wikibooks)
- [http://www.skyscrapercity.info/200.php?id=4&country=NL&limit=0 List of ca. 1500 tall buildings in the Netherlands]
- [http://www.nlplanet.com/ NL Planet] - English language resources, background information and free forums
- [http://overheid.nl/guest/sites/ Overheid.nl] - official Dutch government portal (includes official publications from 1995; older ones are only available in some libraries, on paper or microfiche)
- [http://www.sdu.nl/staatscourant/gemeentes/gemprovin.htm Province maps showing subdivision in municipalities, and linking each municipality to its basic data page]
- [http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/index.jsp The Dutch Royal House]
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1104447749&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-160&srt=npan&col=aohdq Maps and data]
- [http://www.track.nl/ Track.nl] - An Internet search-engine that specialises in the Netherlands.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/netherlands World66 Guide to The Netherlands] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.deltaworks.org Deltaworks Online - Flood protection and watermanagement in the Netherlands] Category:European Union member states Category:Monarchies als:Niederlande zh-min-nan:Kē-tē-kok [[got:

Zoo

:For other uses of the term Zoo, see Zoo (disambiguation). A zoological garden, or zoo for short, is a place where animals are restricted within artificial environments and exhibited to the public. The first zoos were private menageries, usually belonging to kings. King Charles I started a zoo with a large python snake as the main attraction. The first public zoological garden was created in Vienna in 1752, when the Habsburg Emperors decided to grant public access to the former privately-owned Schönbrunn Palace menagerie, now called Tiergarten Schönbrunn. After the French Revolution, the Paris zoo was opened to the public. Over time, the mission of zoos has shifted from simply displaying animals for the wonderment of the public, to scientific study, and, later, to breeding them, and in particular maintaining populations of animals that are endangered or even extinct in the wild. The first scientific zoological garden in the modern world was founded in London in 1828 by the Zoological Society of London. It was opened to the public in the same year, as a way of funding its scientific work. Londoners soon shortened "zoological gardens" to "zoo." It was the Zoological Society of London, too, which was to be the first to create an open wild animal park, with the establishment of the Whipsnade Wild Animal Park on the Chiltern Hills in 1926. The famous naturalist Charles Darwin enjoyed visiting the London Zoo in order to observe the behaviour of its animals. The first live gorilla to be exhibited there created quite a sensation and reportedly influenced some of Darwin's thinking on evolution and on emotions and intelligence in non-human primates. Some highly developed zoos harbor research groups, which have extremely valuable initiatives in the preservation of endangered species, in the study and reproduction of rare animals (such as white tigers), in the discovery of new techniques for maintaining animals in captivity and feeding them, in veterinary medicine of exotic species, and so on. Most modern zoos keep animals in enclosures that attempt to replicate their natural habitats. Many zoos now have special buildings for nocturnal animals, with dim red lighting during the day, so the animals will be active when visitors are there, and bright lights at night to ensure that they sleep. Special climate conditions are created for animals living in radical environments, such as penguins. Special enclosures for birds, insects, fishes and other aquatic life forms have also been developed and are used in many zoos. A petting zoo (also called children's farms or children's zoos) features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. Petting zoos are extremely popular with small children. In order to ensure the animals' health, the food is supplied by the zoo, either from vending machines or a kiosk nearby. In addition to independent petting zoos , many general zoos contain one. Sometimes monkeys are not separated from the public, e.g. in the Apenheul Zoo in Apeldoorn. Peafowl are also frequently allowed to roam free in zoos. Most large cities in the world have zoos, though of drastically varying size and quality. Modern zoos are very dynamic, and are always breeding animals, promoting conservation, and building new exhibits. Major zoos are important tourist attractions, sufficiently so that governments may underwrite or subsidize the zoo's operating expenses. Public funding of zoos is also justified by their educational value, and they are a common destination for school field trips. Even so, many zoos have signs that provide little more information than an animal’s species, diet, and natural range. Most zoo funding primarily comes from donations and entrance fees. Zoos vary in size and quality—from drive-through parks to small roadside menageries with concrete slabs and iron bars. Birds’ wings may be clipped so that they cannot fly, and many animals who live in large herds or family groups in nature are kept alone or in small groups. Natural hunting and mating behaviors are virtually eliminated by regulated feeding and breeding regimens. More than 135 million people visit zoos in the United States and Canada every year, but most zoos operate at a loss and must find ways to cut costs or add gimmicks that will attract visitors. The Wall Street Journal reported that “nearly half of the country’s zoos are facing cutbacks this year … [a]ttendance, meanwhile, is down about 3% nationwide.”

External links

- [http://www.zoo-talk.com Zoo-talk] features zoo and animal news from all over the world Category:Landmarks Category:Zoology ja:動物園 simple:Zoo

John I of England

John (French: Jean) (December 24, c. 1166–October 18/19, 1216) reigned as King of England from April 6, 1199, until his death. He succeeded to the throne as the younger brother of King Richard I (known as "Richard the Lionheart"). John acquired the nicknames of "Lackland" ("Sans Terre" in French) and "Soft-sword." John's reign has been traditionally characterised as one of the most disastrous in English history: it began with defeats—he lost Normandy to Philippe Auguste of France in his first five years on the throne—and ended with England torn by civil war and himself on the verge of being forced out of power. In 1213, he made England a papal fief to resolve a conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, and his rebellious barons forced him to sign Magna Carta in 1215, the act for which he is best remembered. Some have argued, however, that John ruled no better or worse than his immediate predecessor or his successor. King John was also the subject of an early history play by William Shakespeare.

Early years

Born at Beaumont Palace, Oxford, John was the fifth son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. John was a younger maternal half-brother of Marie de Champagne and Alix of France. He was a younger brother of William, Count of Poitiers, Henry the Young King, Matilda of England, Richard I of England, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, Leonora of Aquitaine and Joan of England. While John was always his father's favourite son, as the youngest he could expect no inheritance (hence his nickname, "Lackland"). He was almost certainly born in 1166 instead of 1167, as is sometimes claimed. King Henry and Queen Eleanor were not together nine months prior to December 1167, but they were together in March 1166. Also, John was born at Oxford on or near Christmas, but Eleanor and Henry spent Christmas 1167 in Normandy. The canon of Laon, writing a century later, states John was named after Saint John the Apostle, on whose feast day (December 27) he was born. Ralph of Diceto also states that John was born in 1166, and that Queen Eleanor named him. His family life was tumultuous, with his older brothers all involved in rebellions against Henry. Eleanor was imprisoned in 1173, when John was a small boy. Gerald of Wales relates that King Henry had a curious painting in a chamber of Winchester Castle, depicting an eagle being attacked by three of its chicks, while a fourth chick crouched, waiting for its chance to strike. When asked the meaning of this picture, King Henry said: :"The four young ones of the eagle are my four sons, who will not cease persecuting me even unto death. And the youngest, whom I now embrace with such tender affection, will someday afflict me more grievously and perilously than all the others." In 1189, John was married to Avisa, daughter and heiress of William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester. (She is given several alternative names by history, including Isabella, Hawise, Joan, and Eleanor.) They had no children, and John had their marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity, some time before or shortly after his accession to the throne, which took place on April 6, 1199, and she was never acknowledged as queen. (She then married Geoffrey de Mandeville as her second husband and Hubert de Burgh as her third). Before his accession, John had already acquired a reputation for treachery, having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Geoffrey and Richard. In 1184, John and Richard both claimed that they were the rightful heir to the Aquitaine, one of many unfriendly encounters between the two. In 1185, John became the ruler of Ireland, whose people grew to despise him, causing John to leave after only eight months (see: John's first expedition to Ireland). During Richard's absence on the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1194, John attempted to overthrow his designated regent, despite having been forbidden by his brother to leave France. This was one reason the older legend of Hereward the Wake was updated to King Richard's reign, with "Prince John" as the ultimate villain and with the hero now called "Robin Hood". However, on his return to England in 1194, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir.

Reign

1194 After Richard's death, John did not gain immediate universal recognition as king. Some regarded his young nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the posthumous son of John's brother Geoffrey, as the rightful heir. Arthur vied with his uncle John for the throne, and enjoyed the support of King Philip II of France. The conflict between Arthur and King John had fatal consequences. The war upset the barons of Poitou enough for them to see redress from the King of France, who was King John's feudal overlord with respect to certain terrorities on the Continent. In 1202, King John was summoned to the French court to answer the charges. King John refused and, under feudal law, because of his failure of service to his lord, the French King claimed the lands and territories ruled by King John as Count of Poitou. The French promptly invaded Normady, King Philip II invested Arthur with all those fiefs King John once held (except for Normandy), and betrothed him to his daughter Mary. As part of the war, Arthur attempted to kidnap his own grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Mirebeau, but was defeated and captured by John's forces. Arthur was imprisoned first at Falaise and then at Rouen. No one is certain what happened to Arthur after that. According to the Margram Annals, on 3 April 1203: :"After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time in the castle of Rouen... when [John] was drunk and possessed by the devil he slew [Arthur] with his own hand and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine." However, the officer commanding the Rouen fortress, Hubert de Burgh, claimed to have delivered Arthur around Easter 1203 to agents of the King sent to castrate him and that Arthur had died of shock. Hubert later retracted his statement and claimed Arthur still lived, but no one ever saw Arthur alive again and the supposition that he was murdered caused Brittany and later Normandy to rebel against King John. Besides Arthur, John also captured his niece Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany. Eleanor remained a prisoner the rest of her life (which ended in 1241); through deeds such as these, John acquired a reputation for ruthlessness. In the meantime, John had remarried, on August 24, 1200, Isabelle of Angoulême, who was twenty years his junior. She was the daughter of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angouleme. John had kidnapped her from her fiancée, Hugh IX of Lusignan. Isabelle eventually produced five children, including two sons (Henry and Richard), and three daughters (Joan, Isabella and Eleanor). In 1205, John married off his illegitimate daughter, Joan, to the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great, building an alliance in the hope of keeping peace within England and Wales so that he could recover his French lands. The French king had declared most of these forfeit in 1204, leaving John only Gascony in the southwest. John is given a great talent for lechery by the chroniclers of his age, and even allowing some embellishment, he did have many illegitimate children. Matthew Paris accuses him of being envious of many of his barons and kinsfolk, and seducing their more attractive daughters and sisters. Roger of Wendover describes an incident that occurred when John became enamoured with Margaret, the wife of Eustace de Vesci and an illegitimate daughter of King William I of Scotland. Her husband substituted a prostitute in her place when the king came to Margaret's bed in the dark of night; the next morning, when John boasted to Vesci of how good his wife was in bed, Vesci confessed and fled. Besides Joan, the wife of Llywelyn Fawr, his illegitimate daughter by a woman named Clemence, John had a son named Richard Fitz Roy by his first cousin, a daughter of his uncle Hamelin de Warenne. By another mistress, Hawise, John had Oliver FitzRoy, who accompanied the papal legate Pelayo to Damietta in 1218, and never returned. By an unknown mistress (or mistresses) John fathered: Geoffrey FitzRoy, who went on expedition to Poitou in 1205 and died there; John FitzRoy, a clerk in 1201; Henry FitzRoy, who died in 1245; Osbert Gifford, who was given lands in Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex, and is last found alive in 1216; Eudes FitzRoy, who accompanied his half-brother Richard on Crusade and died in the Holy Land in 1241; Bartholomew FitzRoy, a member of the order of Friars Preachers; Maud FitzRoy, Abbess of Barking, who died in 1252; Isabel FitzRoy, wife of Richard Fitz Ives; and Philip FitzRoy, found living in 1263. As far as the administration of his kingdom went, John functioned as an efficient ruler, but he won the disapproval of the English barons by taxing them in ways that were outside those traditionally allowed by feudal overlords. The tax known as scutage, payment made instead of providing knights (as required by Feudal law), became particularly unpopular. John was a very fair-minded and well informed king, however, often acting as a Judge in the Royal Courts, and his justice was much sought after. Also, John's employment of an extremely able Chancellor and certain clerks resulted in the first proper set of records - the pipe rolls. John is also accredited with the founding of the modern Royal Navy. In 1203 he ordered all shipyards (including inland places such as Gloucester) in England to be responsible for at least one ship, with places such as the newly-built Portsmouth being responsible for several. He made Portsmouth the new home of the Navy (the Anglo-Saxon kings, such as Edward the Confessor, had had royal harbours at Sandwich, Kent.) By the end of 1204, he had 45 large galleys available to him, and from then on an average of 4 new ones every year. He also created an Admiralty of 4 Admirals, responsible for various parts of the new Navy. It was during John's reign that big improvements were made in ship design, including the addition of sails and removable forecastles. He also created the first big transport ships, called buisses. Everything known about this Navy comes from the pipe-rolls and is completely ignored by the chroniclers and pre-revisionist historians. When Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury died on 13 July 1205, John became involved in a dispute with Pope Innocent III. The monks of Christ Church chapter in Canterbury claimed the sole right to elect Hubert's successor, but both the English bishops and the King had an interest in the choice of successor to this powerful office. When their dispute could not be settled, the monks secretly elected one of their members as Archbishop and later a second election imposed by John resulted in another candidate. When they both appeared in Rome, Innocent disavowed both elections and his candidate, Stephen Langton, was elected over the objections of John's observers. Innocent thus disregarded the king's rights in selection of his own vassals. John was supported in his position by the English barons and many of the English bishops and refused to accept Langton. Stephen Langton John expelled the Canterbury monks in July 1207 and the Pope ordered an interdict against the kingdom. John immediately retaliated by seizure of church property for failure to provide feudal service, and the fight was on. The pious of England were theoretically left without the comforts of the church, but over a period they became used to it. The pope, meanwhile, realized that too long a period without church services could lead to loss of faith, and gave permission for some churches to hold Mass behind closed doors in 1209. In 1212, they allowed last rites to the dying. While the interdict was a burden to many, it did not result in rebellion against John. In November of 1209 John himself was excommunicated, and, in February 1213, Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted. The papal terms for submission were accepted; in addition, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of 1000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland. With this submission, John gained the valuable support of his papal overlord in his dispute with the English barons, some of whom rebelled against him after he was excommunicated. Having successfully put down the Welsh Uprising of 1211 and settling his dispute with the papacy, John turned his attentions back to his overseas interests. The European wars culminated in defeat at the Battle of Bouvines, which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France. This finally turned the barons against him, and he met their leaders at Runnymede, near London, on June 15, 1215, to sign the Great Charter called, in Latin, Magna Carta. Because he had signed under duress, however, John received approval from his overlord the Pope to break his word as soon as hostilities had ceased, provoking the First Barons' War.

Death

In 1216, John, retreating from an invasion by Prince Louis of France (whom the majority of the English barons had invited to replace John on the throne), crossed the marshy area known as The Wash in East Anglia and lost his most valuable treasures, including the Crown Jewels to the unexpected incoming tide. This dealt him a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind, and he succumbed to dysentery, dying on October 18 or 19, at Newark in Lincolnshire. Numerous, if fictitious, accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale or poisoned plums. He was buried in Worcester Cathedral in the city of Worcester. His nine-year-old son succeeded him and became King Henry III of England, and although Louis continued to claim the English throne, the barons switched their allegiance to the new king, forcing Louis to give up his claim and sign the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217.
- Footnote: Newark now lies within the County of Nottinghamshire, close to its long boundary with Lincolnshire.

Alleged illiteracy

For a long time, schoolchildren have learned that King John had to approve Magna Carta by attaching his seal to it because he could not sign it, lacking the ability to read or write (ignoring the fact that King John had a large library he treasured until the end of his life.) This textbook inaccuracy resembled that of textbooks which claimed that Christopher Columbus wanted to prove the earth was round. Whether the original authors of these errors knew better and oversimplified because they wrote for children, or whether they had been misinformed themselves, is unknown. As a result of these writings, generations of adults remembered mainly two things about "wicked King John," both of them wrong. (The other "fact" was that, if Robin Hood had not stepped in, Prince John would have embezzled the money raised to ransom King Richard. The fact is that John did embezzle the ransom money, by creating forged seals, and Robin Hood may or may not have actually existed. In any case, the real life source for the legend lived at least half a century before Richard was king. ) In fact, King John did sign the draft of the Charter that the negotiating parties hammered out in the tent on Charter Island at Runnymede on 15–18 June 1215, but it took the clerks and scribes working in the royal offices some time after everyone went home to prepare the final copies, which they then sealed and delivered to the appropriate officials. In those days, legal documents were sealed to make them official, not signed. (Even today, many legal documents are not considered effective without the seal of a notary public or corporate official, and printed legal forms such as deeds say "L.S." next to the signature lines. That stands for the Latin locus signilli ("place of the seal"), signifying that the signer has used a signature as a substitute for a seal.) When William the Conqueror (and his wife) signed the Accord of Winchester (Image) in 1072, for example, they and all the bishops signed with crosses, as illiterate people would later do, but they did so in accordance with current legal practice, not because the bishops could not write their own names. Henry II had at first intended that John would receive an education to go into the Church, which would have meant Henry did not have to give him any land. In 1171, however, Henry began negotiations to betroth John to the daughter of Count Humbert III of Savoy (who had no son yet and so wanted a son-in-law.) After that, talk of making John a clergyman ceased. John's parents had both received a good education—Henry spoke some half dozen languages, and Eleanor had attended lectures at what would soon become the University of Paris—in addition to what they had learned of law and government, religion, and literature. John himself had received one of the best educations of any king of England. Some of the books the records show he read included: De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei by Hugh of St. Victor, Sentences by Peter Lombard, The Treatise of Origen, and a history of England—potentially Wace's Roman de Brut, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

Notes

According to records of payment made to King John's bath attendant, William Aquarius, the king bathed on average about once every three weeks, which cost a considerable sum of 5d to 6d each, suggesting an elaborate and ceremonial affair. Although this may seem barbaric by modern standards, it was civilised compared to monks who were expected to bathe three times a year, with the right not to bathe at all if they so chose. By contrast, King John dressed very well in coats made of fur from sable and ermine and other exotic furs such as polar bear.

Depictions in fiction

- King John was the subject of a Shakespearean play of the same name. See King John.
- Philip José Farmer, a science fiction author, featured King John as one of several historical figures in his Riverworld Saga.
- John and one of his Justices of Eyre, the Sheriff of Nottingham, are portrayed as the evil king and henchman in the Robin Hood legends. Perhaps the most well-known version of this character is featured in the 1973 animated movie Robin Hood, in which John is an anthropomorphic lion who sucks his thumb and cries out for his "mommy" whenever Robin Hood (a fox) steals his gold.
- John was impersonated by Kamelion in a plot by The Master in the 1983 episode of the British science fiction series, Doctor Who.
- John is a character in William Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which dramatises Henry II's struggles with his wife and sons over the rule of his empire. He is portrayed as a spoiled, simpleminded pawn in the machinations of his brothers and Philip II.

References

King John, by W.L. Warren ISBN 0520036433 The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 by Frank Barlow ISBN 0582495040

External link

Henry I of England

Henry I of England (c.1068 – 1 December 1135), called Henry Beauclerc because of his scholarly interests, was the fourth son of William the Conqueror. He reigned as King of England from 1100 to 1135, succeeding his brother, William II Rufus. Henry also was known by the nickname "Lion of Justice", due to the refinements which he brought about in the rudimentary administrative and legislative machinery of the time. He seized power after the death of William II, which occurred (conveniently) during the absence of his older brother Robert Curthose on the Crusades. His reign is noted for his opportunistic political skills, the aforementioned improvements in the machinery of government, the integration of the divided Anglo-Saxon and Normans within his kingdom, his reuniting of the dominions of his father, and his controversial (although well-founded) decision to name his daughter as his heir.

Early life

Henry was born between May 1068 and May 1069, probably in Selby, Yorkshire in England. His mother, Queen Matilda of Flanders, named him after her uncle, King Henry I of France. As the youngest son of the family, he was most likely expected to become a bishop and was given extensive schooling for a young nobleman of that time period. William of Malmesbury asserts that Henry once remarked that an illiterate king was a crowned ass. He was probably the first Norman ruler to be fluent in the English language. His father William, upon his death in 1087, bequeathed his dominions to his three remaining sons (third son Richard having died previously) in the following manner:
- Robert received the Duchy of Normandy
- William received the Kingdom of England
- Henry received 5,000 pounds of silver Orderic Vitalis reports that King William declared to Henry: "You in your own time will have all the dominions I have acquired and be greater than both your brothers in wealth and power." Henry played his brothers off against each other. Eventually, wary of his devious manouevering, they acted together and signed an accession treaty which effectively barred Henry from both thrones, stipulating that if either died without an heir, the two dominions of their father would be reunited under the surviving brother.

Seizing the throne of England

When William II was killed by an arrow whilst hunting on 2 August 1100, Robert was returning from the First Crusade. His absence, along with his poor reputation among the Norman nobles, allowed Henry to seize the keys of the royal hoard at Winchester. He was accepted as king by the leading barons and was crowned three days later on 5 August at Westminster. He secured his position among the nobles by an act of political appeasement, issuing the Charter of Liberties, which is considered a forerunner of the Magna Carta.

First marriage

On 11 November 1100 Henry married Edith, daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland. Since Edith was also the niece of Edgar Atheling, the marriage united the Norman line with old English line of kings. The marriage greatly displeased the Norman barons, however, and as a concession to their sensibilities Edith changed her name to Matilda upon becoming queen. The other side of this coin, however, was that Henry, by dint of his marriage, became far more acceptable to the Anglo-Saxon populace. William of Malmesbury describes Henry thus: "He was of middle stature, greater than the small, but exceeded by the very tall; his hair was black and set back upon the forehead; his eyes mildly bright; his chest brawny; his body fleshy."

Conquest of Normandy

In 1101, the following year, Robert Curthose attempted to seize the crown by invading England. In the Treaty of Alton, Robert agreed to recognize Henry as King of England and return peacefully to Normandy, upon receipt of an annual sum of 2000 marks, which Henry proceeded to pay. In 1105, to eliminate the continuing threat from Robert and to obviate the drain on his fiscal resources, Henry led an expeditionary force across the English Channel. In 1106, he defeated his brother's Norman army decisively at Tinchebray in Normandy. He imprisoned his brother, initially in the Tower of London, subsequently at Devizes Castle and later at Cardiff. Henry appropriated the Duchy of Normandy as a possession of England, and reunited his father's dominions. He attempted to reduce difficulties in Normandy by marrying his eldest son, William, to the daughter of Fulk V, Count of Anjou, then a serious enemy. Eight years later, after William's untimely death, a much more momentous union was made between Henry's daughter Matilda and Fulk's son Geoffrey Plantagenet, which eventually resulted in the union of the two realms under the Plantagenet kings.

Activities as a King

Plantagenet Henry's need for finance to consolidate his position led to an increase in the activities of centralized government. As king, Henry carried out social and judicial reforms, including:
- issuing the Charter of Liberties
- restoring laws of King Edward the Confessor. Henry was also known for some brutal acts. He once threw a traitorous burgher named Conan Pilatus from the tower of Rouen; the tower was known from then on as "Conan's Leap". In another instance that took place in 1119, King Henry's son-in-law, Eustace de Pacy, and Ralph Harnec, the constable of Ivry, exchanged their children as hostages. When Eustace blinded Harnec's son, Harnec demanded vengeance. King Henry allowed Harnec to blind and mutiliate Eustace's two daughters, who were also Henry's own grandchildren. Eustace and his wife, Juliane, were outraged and threatened to rebel. Henry arranged to meet his daughter at a parlay at Breteuil, only for Juliane to draw a crossbow and attempt to assassinate her father. She was captured and confined to the castle, but escaped by leaping from a window into the moat below. Some years later Henry was reconciled with his daughter and son-in-law.

Legitimate children

He had two children by Edith-Matilda, who died in 1118:
- Matilda, born February 1102, and
- William Adelin, born November 1103. Disaster struck when William, his only legitimate son, perished in the wreck of the White Ship on 25 November 1120 off the coast of Normandy. Also among the dead were two of Henry's illegitimate children, as well as a niece, Lucia-Mahaut de Blois. Henry's grieving was intense, and the succession was in crisis.

Second marriage

On 29 January 1121, he married Adeliza, daughter of Godfrey I of Leuven, Duke of Lower Lotharingia and Landgrave of Brabant, but there were no children from this marriage. Left without male heirs, Henry took the unprecedented step of making his barons swear to accept his daughter Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, as his heir.

Death and legacy

Henry visited Normandy in 1135 to see his young grandsons, the children of Matilda and Geoffrey. He took great delight in his grandchildren, but soon quarreled with his daughter and son-in-law and these disputes led him to tarry in Normandy far longer than he originally planned. Henry died of food poisoning from eating foul lampreys in December 1135 at St. Denis le Fermont in Normandy and was buried at Reading Abbey, which he had founded 14 years before. Although Henry's barons had sworn allegiance to his daughter as their queen, her sex and her remarriage into the House of Anjou, an enemy of the Normans, allowed Henry's nephew Stephen of Blois to come to England and claim the throne with popular support. The struggle between the Empress and Stephen resulted in a long civil war known as the Anarchy. The dispute was eventually settled by Stephen's naming of Matilda's son, Henry, as his heir in 1153.

Illegitimate Children

King Henry is famed for holding the record for the largest number of acknowledged illegitimate children born to any English king, with the number being around 20 or 25. He had many mistresses, and identifying which mistress is the mother of which child is difficult. His illegitimate offspring for whom there is documentation are: # Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. His mother was probably a member of the Gai family. # Maud FitzRoy, married Conan III, Duke of Brittany # Constance FitzRoy, married Roscelin de Beaumont # Mabel FitzRoy, married William III Gouet # Aline FitzRoy, married Matthieu I of Montmorency # Matilda FitzRoy, abbess of Montvilliers. Her mother was Isabel de Beaumont, sister of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester. # William de Tracy, died shortly after King Henry. # Gilbert FitzRoy, died after 1142. His mother may have been a sister of Walter de Gand. # Emma, born circa 1138; married Gui de Laval, Lord Laval. # Eustacie, born circa 1084. Married William Gouet II, Lord Montmirial.

With Edith

# Matilda du Perche, married Count Rotrou II of Perche, perished in the wreck of the White Ship.

With Ansfride

Ansfride was born circa 1070. She was married Sir Anskill of Abingdon Abbey. # Juliane de Fontevrault, married Eustace de Pacy. She tried to shoot her father with a crossbow after King Henry allowed her two young daughters to be blinded. # Fulk FitzRoy, a monk at Abingdon. # Richard of Lincoln, perished in the wreck of the White Ship.

With Sibyl Corbet

Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester was born in 1077 in Alcester, Warwickshire, England. She married Herbert FitzHerbert, son of Herbert "the Chamberlain" of Winchester and Emma de Blois. She died after 1157 and was also known as Adela (or Lucia) Corbet. Sybil was definitely mother of Sybil and Rainald, possibly also of William and Rohese. Some sources suggest that there was another daughter by this relationship, Gundred, but it appears that she was thought as such because she was a sister of Reginald de Dunstanville but it appears that that was another person of that name who was not related to this family. # Sybilla of England, married King Alexander I of Scotland. # William Constable, born before 1105. Married Alice (Constable); died after 1187. # Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall. # Gundred of England (1114 – 1146), married 1130 Henry de la Pomeroy, son of Joscelin de la Pomerai. # Rohese of England, born 1114; married Henry de la Pomeroy.

With Edith FitzForne

# Robert FitzEdith, Lord Okehampton, (1093 – 1172) married Dame Maud d'Avranches du Sap. # Adeliza FitzEdith. Appears in charters with her brother Robert.

With Princess Nest

Nesta verch Rhys of Deheubarth was born circa 1073 of Dynevor, Llandyfeisant, Carmarthenshire, Wales. She was married first time Stephen of Cardigan, Constable of Cardigan. She was married second time Geraldus FitzOther de Windsor, son of Walter FitzOther of Windsor, Keeper of the Forest and Gwladys verch Rhywallon, in 1095. She died circa 1114. # Henry FitzRoy, died 1157.

With Isabel de Beaumont

Isabel (Elizabeth) de Beaumont (after 1102 – after 1172), daughter of Robert de Beaumont. She was married Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke, in 1130. She was also known as Isabella de Meulan. # Isabel Hedwig of England, born circa 1120.

References

- Cross, Arthur Lyon. A History of England and Greater Britain. (New York: Macmillan, 1917).
- Hollister, Warren C. Henry I (Yale Monarchs Series)
- Thompson, K. Affairs of State: the illegitimate children of Henry I, 2003.

External links

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_i_king.shtml BBC site on Henry I]
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page54.asp Royal British site on Henry I]
- [http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon24.html Brittania site on Henry I]
- [http://www.swuklink.com/BAAAGCBL.php Henry I (c.1068-1135), King of England (1100-1135), Duke of Normandy (1106-1135)]
- [http://www.swuklink.com/BAAAGBAG.php The Sinking of the White Ship (1120)]
- [http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal01391 A listing of Henry's descendants] Category:1068 births Category:1135 deaths Category:English monarchs Category:Dukes of Normandy ja:ヘンリー1世 (イングランド王) simple:Henry I of England

Oxford

: This article is about the city of Oxford in England. For other cities and other meanings, see Oxford (disambiguation). Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). It is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of the university buildings. The Oxford suburb of Cowley has a long history of carmaking, and still produces Minis. Oxford is twinned with Bonn in Germany, Grenoble in France, León in Nicaragua, Leiden in the Netherlands, and Perm in Russia. All of these are university towns.

History

Oxford was first occupied in Saxon times, and was initially known as "Oxenaforda". It began with the foundations of St Frideswide's nunnery in the 8th century, and was first mentioned in written records in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 912. In the 10th century Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes. St Frideswide is the patron saint of both the city and university. The University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th century records. Oxford's earliest colleges were University College (1249), Balliol (1263) and Merton (1264). Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford is unique as a college chapel and cathedral in one foundation. Originally the Priory Church of St Frideswide, the building was extended and incorporated into the structure of the Cardinal's College shortly before its refounding as Christ Church in 1546, since which time it has functioned as the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford. The relationship between "town and gown" has often been uneasy—several university students were killed in the St Scholastica Day Riot of 1355. During the English Civil War, Oxford housed the court of Charles I in 1642, after the king was expelled from London, although there was strong support in the town for the Parliamentarian cause. The town yielded to Parliamentarian forces under General Fairfax in 1646. In 1790 the Oxford Canal connected the city with Coventry. The Duke's Cut was completed by the Duke of Marlborough in 1789 to link the new canal with the River Thames; and in 1796 the Oxford Canal company built their own link to the Thames, at Isis Lock. In the 1840s the Great Western Railway and London and North Western Railway linked Oxford with London. London and North Western Railway: Fortis est veritas
(Latin: "Truth is strong")]] Latin In the 19th century the controversy surrounding the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church drew attention to the city as a focus of theological thought. Oxford's Town Hall was built by Henry T. Hare, the foundation stone was laid on 6 July 1893 and opened by the future King Edward VII on 12 May 1897. The site has been the seat of local government since the Guild Hall of 1292 and though Oxford is a city and a Lord Mayoralty, it is still called by its traditional name of "Town Hall". Town Hall By the early 20th century Oxford was experiencing rapid industrial and population growth, with the printing and publishing industries becoming well established by the 1920s. Also during that decade the economy and society of Oxford underwent a huge transformation as William Morris established the Morris Motor Company to mass produce cars in Cowley, on the south-eastern edge of the city. By the early 1970s over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the huge Morris Motors and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. By this time Oxford was a city of two halves: the university city to the west of Magdalen Bridge and the car town to the east. This led to the witticism that "Oxford is the left bank of Cowley". Cowley suffered major job losses in the 1980s and 1990s during the decline of British Leyland, but is now producing the successful New MINI for BMW. The influx of migrant labour to the car plants, recent immigration from south-east Asia, and a large student population, have given Oxford a notable cosmopolitan character, especially in the Headington, Jericho and Cowley Road areas with their many bars, cafes, restaurants, clubs, ethnic shops and fast food outlets. On 6 May 1954 Roger Bannister, as a 25 year old medical student, ran the first authenticated sub-four minute mile at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford. Oxford's "other" university, Oxford Brookes University, formerly Oxford Polytechnic, based at Headington, was given its charter in 1991.

Transport

Oxford is located some 50 miles (80 km) north west of London; the cities are linked by the M40 motorway, which also links northwards to Birmingham. Rail connections include services to London (Paddington), Bournemouth, Worcester (via the Cotswold Line), and Bicester. The city also has regular train services northwards to Birmingham, Coventry and the north. The railway service connecting Oxford and Cambridge, known as the Varsity Line, was discontinued in 1968. The Oxford Canal connects to the River Thames at Oxford. Oxford Airport at Kidlington offers business and general aviation services.

Tourist attractions

Oxford has numerous major tourist attractions, many belonging to the university and colleges. As well as several famous institutions, the town centre is home to Carfax Tower and a historical themed ride, The Oxford Story. In the summer, punting on the Thames (sometimes called the Isis as it flows through Oxford) and the Cherwell is popular. Cherwell Other notable attractions include:

Religious sites

- Christ Church Cathedral
- The Church of St Mary the Virgin (the University Church)
- Martyrs' Memorial

Churches in central Oxford

- Blackfriars (Roman Catholic) Dominican Priory, 64 St Giles
- Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican), St Aldates
- German Lutheran at St Mary the Virgin, High Street
- New Road Baptist Church, Bonn Square
- Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annuciation, 1 Canterbury Road (off Banbury Road)
- Oxford Unitarians at Harris Manchester College Chapel, Mansfield Road
- Religious Society of Friends (Quaker)
- Roman Catholic chaplaincy, Rose Place, St Aldate's
- St Aldate's (Anglican)
- St Aloysius (Roman Catholic), Woodstock Road
- St Columba's United Reformed Church, Alfred Street
- St Cross (Anglican)
- St Ebbe's (Anglican), Pennyfarthing Place, off St Ebbe's
- St Giles' (Anglican), St Giles'
- St Mary Magdalen (Anglican) Magdalen Street
- St Mary the Virgin University Church
- St Michael-at-the-Northgate (Anglican)
- The Salvation Army, Oxford Citadel, Albion Place
- Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, New Inn Hall Street

Museums and galleries

University of Oxford:
- Ashmolean Museum, Britain's oldest museum
- Pitt Rivers Museum
- Museum of Natural History, home of (the remains of) the Oxford Dodo
- Museum of the History of Science, in Britain's oldest purpose-built museum building Others:
- Museum of Oxford
- Museum of Modern Art
- Science Oxford

University buildings

(Other than the colleges)
- The Bodleian Library
- The Clarendon Building (often used as a set for film and television)
- The Radcliffe Camera (one of several institutions named after John Radcliffe)
- The Sheldonian Theatre
- The Oxford University Press
- University Offices (administration), Wellington Square

Open spaces

Oxford University Press The floodplains for Oxford's two rivers reach right into the heart of the city, providing a wealth of green spaces.
- The University Parks
- The University Botanic Garden
- Christ Church Meadow
- Port Meadow
- Mesopotamia
- Angel & Greyhound Meadow
- Cutteslowe Park
- Florence Park

Commercial areas

- Cornmarket Street, Oxford
- Turl Street, Oxford
- Little Clarendon Street
- Oxford Covered Market

Theatres and cinemas

- Oxford Playhouse
- New Theatre, George Street
- Ultimate Picture Palace, Cowley Road
- Phoenix Picturehouse, Walton Street
- The Odeon Cinema, George Street
- The Odeon Cinema, Magdalen Street

Traditional and historic pubs

- The Eagle and Child
- The Turf Tavern
- The Lamb and Flag
- The Bear

Media and press

As well as the BBC national radio stations, Oxford and the surrounding area has several local stations, including BBC Radio Oxford, Fox FM, Passion 107.9 [http://www.passion1079.com/], and Oxide: Oxford Student Radio [http://www.oxfordstudentradio.com/] (which went on terrestrial radio at 87.7 MHz FM in late May 2005). A local TV station, Six TV: The Oxford Channel is also available. Popular local papers include the Oxford Mail, the Oxford Times, and the Oxford Star. Recently (2003) DIY grassroots non-corporate media has began to spread [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/]. Independent and community newspapers include the Jericho Echo [http://www.jerichoecho.org.uk] and Oxford Prospect [http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk].

Literature in Oxford

Well-known Oxford-based authors include:
- Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson), Fellow of Christ Church.
- Colin Dexter who wrote and set his Inspector Morse mystery novels in Oxford.
- Michael Innes (J. I. M. Stewart), of Christ Church.
- C. S. Lewis, Fellow of Magdalen.
- Iris Murdoch, Fellow of St Anne's
- Philip Pullman who was an undergraduate at Exeter.
- J. R. R. Tolkien, Professor of English at Merton, and undergraduate at Exeter. Many English novels have been set partly or wholly in Oxford. They include:
- Jude the Obscure (1895) by Thomas Hardy (in which Oxford is thinly disguised as "Christminster").
- Zuleika Dobson (1911) by Max Beerbohm (Merton).
- Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Sayers (Somerville).
- Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh (Hertford). See also the Literature section in the University of Oxford article.

Geography

Oxford's latitude and longitude are 51°45'07" N and 1°15'28" W (at Carfax Tower, which is usually considered the centre).

Wards, neighbourhoods, and suburbs

Carfax Tower]]
- Blackbird Leys
- Botley, Oxfordshire
- Cowley
- East Oxford
- Headington — home to the Oxford shark.
- Littlemore
- Jericho
- Marston
- North Oxford
- Osney
- Risinghurst
- Summertown
- Temple Cowley
- Wolvercote

Politics in Oxford

Wolvercote constituency]] Despite stereotypes of Oxford being a conservative city, there are no Conservatives on the city council. Since the local election in mid-2004, the council has been in minority administration by councillors from the Labour Party, with the Liberal Democrats being the official opposition. At 7 city councillors and 5 county councillors, Oxford is one of the UK cities with highest Green Party representation. The Independent Working Class Association also has councillors, mainly from wards with many housing estates in the southeast, such as Blackbird Leys. The two MPs are Andrew Smith from the Oxford East constituency, erstwhile employment minister in the Labour government; and Dr Evan Harris from the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, sometime Liberal Democrat spokesperson on health. At the 2005 general election, Oxford East became a marginal seat with a Labour majority over the Liberal Democrats of just 963. Oxford West & Abingdon, on the other hand, is a safe Lib Dem seat with Dr Harris enjoying a majority of just under 8,000. There is also a large and vibrant alternative political culture mostly situated in East Oxford. Some examples are:
- Oxford BOP Samba
- Oxford Student Activist Network [http://osan.org.uk/|OSAN]
- Undercurrents
- OCSET
- Campaign to Close Campsfield [http://www.closecampsfield.org.uk/]
- Corporate Watch [http://www.corpwatch.org/]
- ETC Group
- Oxford Indymedia [http://oxford.indymedia.org.uk/]

Parishes

Unusually for a compact urban district, Oxford has four civil parishes with parish councils - these are Blackbird Leys, Littlemore, Old Marston and Risinghurst and Sandhills.

Images of Oxford

Image:TownHallOxford20040124CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg|The Oxford Town Hall Image:UniChurchOxford20040124CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg|University Church of St Mary the Virgin (Anglican) Image:StMichaelNorthgate20040124CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg|The Saxon Tower at the church of St Michael-at-the-Northgate. The tower is one of the oldest surviving structures in the city. Image:Oxfordmap.png|A map of central Oxford

External links

- [http://www.oxford.gov.uk/ Oxford City Council official website]
- [http://www.oxford.gov.uk/tourism/index.cfm Oxford City Council official tourism website]
- [http://www.oxfordcityguide.com/ Oxford City Guide — Comprehensive Guide]
- [http://www.oxford-guide.com/ Oxford web site]
- [http://www.seeoxford.com/ Virtual Tour of Oxford]
- [http://archive.museophile.org/ox/ Oxford Information]
- [http://archive.museophile.org/ox/guide/ The Aliens' Guide to Oxford]
- [http://www.mushroompublishing.com/maps/oxford.html Mushroom Guide to Oxford]
- [http://oxford.openguides.org/ The Oxford Guide: an Open Guide to Oxford]
- [http://www.oxox.co.uk OxOx:community-driven events and reviews site]
- [http://www.headington.org.uk/history/misc/shark.htm The Oxford shark]
- [http://www.bocc.co.uk/weather/ Oxford weather]
- [http://webcam.oii.ox.ac.uk Live Webcam in Oxford City ]
- [http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/sheet/pdf/central_ox_map.pdf General Detailed Map of Central Oxford] Category:Cities in England
- Category:Local government in Oxfordshire Category:English county towns Category:University towns Category:Shire districts ja:オックスフォード simple:Oxford

Henry III of England

Marriage and children

Sources

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II (December 26, 1194 – December 13, 1250), Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212, unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 until his death in 1250. He was also King of Sicily, from 1198 to 1250, where he was raised and lived most of his life (his mother, Constance of Sicily, was the daughter of Roger II of Sicily). He is also referred to as Frederick I of Sicily. His empire was frequently at war with the Papal States, so it is not surprising that he was excommunicated twice. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him the anti-Christ. After his death the idea of his second coming where he would rule a 1000-year reich took hold, possibly in part because of this. Said to speak nine languages and be literate in seven [Armstrong 2001, p. 415] (at a time when many monarchs and nobles were not literate at all), Frederick was a very modern ruler for his times, being a patron of science and learning, and having fairly advanced views on economics. He abolished state monopolies, internal tolls, and import regulations within his empire. He was patron of the Sicilian School of poetry, where in his royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, we witness the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school predates the use of the Tuscan idiom as the preferred lingua franca of the Italian peninsula by at least a century. The school and its poetry was well known to Dante and his peers and had a significant influence on the literary form of what was eventually to become the modern Italian. He was known in his own time as the Stupor mundi ("wonder of the world"). Frederick wrote, or rewrote, a manual on the art of falconry, De arte venandi cum avibus ("On the art of hunting with birds"), of which many illustrated copies survive from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Life

Early years

Born in Jesi, near Ancona, Frederick was the son of the emperor Henry VI. Some old chronicles account he was born in a public square of the city of Jesi, in northern Italy, while is father was entering triumphantly into Palermo. Frederick was baptised in Assisi. In 1196 at Frankfurt am Main the child Frederick had already been elected to become King of the Germans. At the death of his father in 1197, the three-year-old Frederick was in Italy in voyage towards Germany, and when the bad news reached his guardian Conrad of Spoleto, he was hastily brought back to Palermo to Constance. It was a good move, as Henry's empire dissolved, and its monarchy was disputed by Henry's brother Philip of Swabia and Otto IV. His mother, Constance, had been in her own right queen of Sicily; she had Frederick crowned King of Sicily and established herself as regent. In Frederick's name she dissolved Sicily's ties to the Empire sending home his German counsellors (notably Markward of Anweiler and Gualtiero da Pagliara), renouncing to his claims to the German kingship and empire. Upon Constance's death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeded as Frederick's guardian until he was of age: he was crowned King of Sicily on May 17, 1198, being only four years of age, and received some of his early formal education in Rome. He was to remember forever, however, the time spent in his early years in the court of Palermo, where Arab, German, Latin, Byzantine, Norman, Provencal and even Jewish influences mixed. Jewish See also Personality

Emperor

Otto of Brunswick had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in 1209. In September 1211 at the Diet of Nuremberg Frederick was elected in absentia as German King by a rebellious faction backed by Innocent, who had fallen out with Otto and excommunicated him; he was again elected in 1212 and crowned December 9, 1212 in Mainz; yet another coronation ceremony took place in 1215. Being King of the Germans had been the traditional precursor step for emperorship. However, until the debacle at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, Frederick's authority was quite tenuous and he was recognized only in southern Germany: in northern Germany, the center of Guelph power, Otto continued to hold the reins of royal and imperial power despite excommunication. Otto's decisive military loss at Bouvines lost him the practical means to hold onto kingship and emperorship, and he withdrew to the Guelph hereditary lands to die, virtually without supporters, in 1218. (See also Guelphs and Ghibellines). The German princes, supported by Innocent III, again elected Frederick king of Germany in 1215, and the pope crowned him king in Aachen on July 23, 1215. It was not until another five years had passed, and only after further negotiations between Frederick, Innocent III, and Honorius III—who succeeded to the papacy after Innocent's death in 1216—that Frederick was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Honorius III on November 22, 1220. At the same time his oldest son Henry took the title of King of the Romans. See also Personality Unlike most Holy Roman emperors, Frederick spent little of his life in Germany. After his coronation in 1220, he remained either in the Kingdom of Sicily or on Crusade until 1236, when he made his last journey to Germany. (At this time, the Kingdom of Sicily, with its capital at Palermo, extended onto the Italian mainland to include most of southern Italy.) He returned to Italy in 1237 and stayed there for the remaining 13 years of his life, represented in Germany by his son Conrad. In the Kingdom of Sicily, he built on the reform of the laws begun at the Assizes of Ariano in 1146 by his grandfather Roger II. His initiative in this direction was visible as early as the Assizes of Capua (1220) but came to fruition in his promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolutist monarchy, the first centralized state in Europe to emerge from feudalism; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 created the University of Naples: now called Università Federico II, it remained the sole atheneum of Southern Italy for centuries. In 1226, by means of the Golden Bull of Rimini he confirmed the legitimacy of rule by the Teutonic Knights under their headmaster Hermann von Salza over the Prussian lands east of the Vistula, the Chelmno Land.

The Crusade

At the time he was crowned Emperor, Frederick had promised to go on crusade. In preparation for his crusade, Frederick had, in 1225, married Yolande of Jerusalem, heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and immediately taken steps to take control of the Kingdom from his new father-in-law, John of Brienne. However, he continued to take his time in setting off, and in 1227, Frederick was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for failing to honor his crusading pledge - perhaps unfairly, at this point, as his plans had been delayed by an epidemic. He eventually embarked on the crusade the following year (1228), which was seen on by the pope as a rude provocation, since the church could not take any part in the honor for the crusade, resulting in a second excommunication. Frederick did not attempt to take Jerusalem by force of arms. Instead, he negotiated restitution of Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem to the Kingdom with sultan Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid ruler of the region, who was nervous about possible war with his relatives who ruled Syria and Mesopotamia and wished to avoid further trouble from the Christians. The crusade ended in a truce and in Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem on March 18, 1229 — although this was technically improper, as Frederick's wife Yolande, the heiress, had died in the meantime, leaving their infant son Conrad as rightful heir to the kingdom. Frederick's further attempts to rule over the Kingdom of Jerusalem were met by resistance on the part of the barons, led by John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut. By the mid-1230s, Frederick's viceroy had been forced to leave Acre, the capital, and by 1244, Jerusalem itself had been lost again to a new Muslim offensive. However, Frederick's seeming bloodless victory in recovering Jerusalem for the cross brought him great prestige in Europe, and in 1231 the pope rescinded Frederick's excommunication; this event is known as the Peace of San Germano.

The war against the Pope and the Italian Guelphs

While he may have temporarily made his peace with the pope, the lesser German princes were another matter. In 1231, Frederick's son Henry claimed the crown for himself and allied with the Lombard League. The rebellion failed, though not utterly; Henry was imprisoned in 1235, and replaced in his royal title by his brother Conrad, already the King of Jerusalem; Frederick won a decisive battle in Cortenuova over the Lombard League in 1237. Frederick celebrated it with a triumph in Cremona, in the manner of an ancient Roman emperor, with the captured carroccio (later sent to the commune of Rome) and an elephant. He rejected any suit for peace, even from Milan which had sent a great sum of money. This demand of total surrender spurred further resistance from Milan, Brescia, Bologna and Piacenza, and in October 1238 he was forced to raise the siege of Brescia, in the course of which his enemies had tried unsuccessfully to capture him. Frederick received the news of his excommunication by Gregory IX in the first months of 1239, while his court was in Padova. The emperor replied expelling the Minorites and the preachers from Lombardy, and electing his son Enzio as Imperial vicar for Northern Italy. Enzio soon annexed the Romagna, Marche and the Duchy of Spoleto, nominally part of the Papal States. The father announced he was to destroy the Republic of Venice, which had sent some ships against Sicily. In December of that year Frederick marched over Toscana, entered triumphantly into Foligno and then in Viterbo, whence he aimed to finally conquer Rome, in order to restore the ancient splendours of the Empire. The siege, however, was vain, and Frederick returned to Southern Italy, sacking Benevento (a papal possession). Peace negotiations came to nothing. In the meantime the Ghibelline city of Ferrara had fallen, and Frederick swept his way northwards capturing Ravenna and, after another long siege, Faenza. The people of Forlì (which kept its Ghibelline stance even after the collapse of Hohenstaufen power) offered their loyal support during the capture of the rival city: as a sign of gratitude, they were granted an augmentation of the communal coat-of-arms with the Hohenstaufen eagle, together with other privileges. This episode shows how the independent cities used the rivalry between Empire and Pope as a mean to obtain the maximum advantage for themselves. The Pope had called a council, but Ghibelline Pisa thwarted it, capturing cardinals and prelates on a ship sailing from Genoa to Rome. Frederick thought that this time the way into Rome was opened, and again directed his forces against the Pope, trailing behind him a ruined and burning Umbria. Frederick destroyed Grottaferrata preparing to invade Rome. But on August 22, 1240, Gregory died. Frederick, showing that his war was not directed against the Church of Rome but against the Pope, drew back his troops and freed two cardinals from the jail of Capua. Nothing changed, however, in the relationship between Papacy and Empire, as Roman troops assaulted the Imperial garrison in Tivoli and the Emperor soon reached Rome. This back-and-forth situation repeated again in 1242 and 1243. Though unfruitful, these expeditions around Rome permitted Frederick to capture treasures from the church of the cities he passed through, and gave him the opportunity to enjoy the pleasant nature of hills, lakes and woods of the Latium.

His last and fiercest opponent, Innocent IV

A new pope, Innocent, was elected on June 25, 1243. He was a member of a noble Imperial family and had some relatives in Frederick's camp, so the Emperor was initially happy with his election. Innocent instead was to become his fiercest enemy. Negotiations began in the summer of 1243, but the situation changed as Viterbo rebelled, instigated by the intriguing Cardinal Ranieri of Viterbo. Frederick could not lose his main stronghold near Rome, and besieged the city. Many authorities state that the Emperor's star began its descent with this move. Innocent convinced him to withdraw his troops, but Ranieri nonetheless had the Imperial garrison slaughtered on November 13. Frederick was full of powerless rage. The new Pope was a master diplomat, and Frederick signed a peace treaty, which was soon broken. Innocent showed his true Guelph face, and, together with most of the Cardinals, fled via Genoese galleys to the Ligurian republic, arriving on July 7. His aim was to reach Lyon, where a new coucil was held beginning June 24, 1245. One month later, Innocent IV declared Frederick to be deposed as emperor: he was characterized as a "friend of Babylon's sultan", "of Saracen customs", "provided with a harem guarded by eunuchs" like the schismatic emperor of Byzantium and, in sum, a "heretic". The Pope backed Heinrich Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia as his rival for the imperial crown, and set in motion a plot to kill Frederick and Enzio, with the support of his (the pope's) brother-in-law Orlando de Rossi, who was a friend of Frederick's as well. The conjurers, however, were unmasked by the count of Caserta. The vengeance was terrible: the city of Altavilla, where they had found shelter, was razed, and the guilty were blinded, mutilated and burnt alive or hung. An attempt to invade the Kingdom of Sicily, under the command of Ranieri, was halted at Spello by Marino of Eboli, Imperial vicar of Spoleto. Spello] Innocent also sent a flow of money to Germany to cut off Frederick's power at its source. The archbishops of Köln and Mainz also declared Frederick deposed, and in May 1246 a new king was chosen in the person of Heinrich Raspe. On August 5 Heinrich, thanks to the Pope's money, managed to defeat an army of Conrad son of Frederick near Frankfurt. But Frederick strenghtened his position in Southern Germany acquiring the Duchy of Austria, whose titular had died without heirs, and one year later Heinrich died as well. The new anti-king was William II, Count of Holland. Between February and March 1247 Frederick settled the situation in Italy with the diet of Terni, naming his relatives of friends as vicars of the various lands. Marrying his son Manfred to the daughter of Amedeo di Savoia and, gaining the submission of the marquis of Monferrato, he also gained of control of the passages of the Eastern Alps, clearing the route to Lyon, where he hoped finally to settle the long-standing dispute with the Pope. Innocent asked protection from the King of France, Louis IX, but his position was not so secure, as the king was a friend of the Emperor and knew the peaceful aims of the latter. A papal army under the command of Ottaviano degli Ubaldini never reached Lombardy, and the Emperor, accompanied by a massive army, held the next diet in Turin. Turin

The Battle of Parma and the end

An unexpected event was to change the situation dramatically. In June 1247 the important Lombard city of Parma expelled the Imperial functionaries and sided with the Guelphs. Enzio was not in the city and could do nothing more than ask for help from his father, who came back to lay siege to the rebels, together with his friend Ezzelino da Romano, tyrant of Verona. The besieged languished, as the Emperor waited the besieged surrendered of starvation. He had a true wooden city built around the walls, pompously called Vittoria ("Victory"). Here Frederick kept the treasure with the harem and the menagerie, and from its pavillions he could attend his favourite hunting expeditions. On February 18, 1248, during one of these absences the camp was suddenly assaulted and conquered, and in the ensuing Battle of Parma the Imperial side was routed. Frederick lost the Imperial treasure and, with it, any hope to keep up his struggle against the rebellious communes, as well as the triumphant Pope, who began plans for a crusade against Sicily. Though he soon recovered and rebuilt an army, this defeat spurred the rebellious feeling of many cities that could no longer bear his fiscal and monarchic regime: Romagna, Marche and Spoleto were lost. On February 1249 Frederick, who had just lost his other faithful minister Taddeo of Suessa, fired his advisor and prime minister, the famous jurist and poet Pier delle Vigne. The charge was speculation and embezzlement. Some historians, however, maintain instead that Pier was planning to betray the Emperor: according to Matthew of Paris, he cried when he discovered the betrayal. Pier, blinded and in chains, died in Pisa, presumably by suicide (a presumption that placed him in the Seventh Circle of Dante's Hell in Canto XII of the Inferno). Even more shocking for Frederick was the capture of his son Enzio by the Bolognese at the Battle of Fossalta, in the May of the same year. Only 23 at the time, he was thrown into a jail cell in which he was to spend the rest of his life, dying in 1272. The place of the king of Sardinia was taken over by the marquis Palavicino, a skilled but cruel man, not different from his ill-famed contemporary Ezzelino. In this period Frederick lost another son, Richard of Chieti. But the struggle continued: the Empire lost Como and Modena, but regained Ravenna and another army sent to invade the Kingdom of Sicily, under the command of Cardinal Pietro Capocci, was crushed in the Marche, at the Battle of Cingoli in 1250. In the first month of that year the indomitable Ranieri of Viterbo died and the Imperial condottieri again reconquered Romagna, Marche and Spoleto, and Conrad, King of the Romans scored several victories in Germany against William of Holland. Frederick did not take part of any of these campaigns. He had been ill and probably felt himself tired. Despite the betrayals and the ill happenings he had faced in his last years, Frederick died peacefully on December 13, 1250 in Castel Fiorentino near Lucera, in Puglia, after an attack of dysentery: in his last moment he wore the habit of a Cistercian monk. At the time of his death, his preeminent position in Europe was challenged but not lost: his testament left his legitimate son Conrad IV the Imperial and Sicilian crowns. Manfred received the principate of Taranto and the government of the Kingdom, Henry the Kingdom of Arles or that of Jerusalem, while the son of Henry VII was entrusted the Duchy of Austria and the Marquisate of Styria. His will was that all the lands he had taken from the Church were to be returned to it, all the prisoners freed, and the taxes reduced, provided this not damaged the Empire's pride. However, upon Conrad's death a mere four years later, the Hohenstaufen dynasty fell from power and an interregnum began, lasting until 1273, one year after the last Hohenstaufen, Enzio, had died in his prison. During this time, a legend developed that Frederick was not truly dead, but merely slept in the Kyffhaeuser Mountains and would one day awaken to reestablish his empire. Over time, this legend largely transferred itself to his grandfather, Frederick I, also known as Barbarossa ("Redbeard"). His sarcophagus (made of red porphyry) lies in the cathedral of Palermo, beside those of his parents (Henry VI and Constance) as well as his grandfather, the Norman king Roger II of Sicily. A bust of Frederick sits in the Walhalla temple built by Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Heirs

Ludwig I of Bavaria All the heirs of Frederick met unlucky fates.
- Frederick's son Henry, sometimes styled Henry VII, especially during his period of rebellion in alliance with the Lombard League — not to be confused with Henry VII of the House of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor 1275-1313 — was born 1211 in Sicily, son of Frederick's first wife Constance of Aragon, whom he had married in the August of 1209. King of the Germans (or, equivalently, "King of the Romans"), King of Sicily, claimant to the imperial title. After quarrelling with his father and forming an alliance with the Lombard League, he was captured by Frederick's forces and imprisoned from 1236; he died in Martirano in 1242, probably of the consequences of an attempted suicide.
- Frederick's son Conrad IV, son of his second wife Yolande de Brienne, Queen of Jerusalem, was born April 25, 1228 in Andria, Apulia. He became King of Jerusalem at birth (his mother having died in childbirth), and was elected German king and future emperor 1237 in Vienna, although no coronation took place. In 1250, he succeeded his father as King of Sicily, as well. Conrad died May 21, 1254 of malaria in an army camp in Lavello.
- Frederick's illegitimate son Manfred, King of Sicily, was born in 1231 of Bianca, the daughter of Count Bonifacio Lancia. According to some accounts, Frederick married Bianca on his deathbed, in order to make Manfred's birth legitimate, but there is no consensus on this. Manfred, initially as regent for Conrad's young son Conradin, and, after 1258 as King of Sicily, continued—after initial attempts at reconciliation—Frederick's conflict with the Pope and was also placed under papal interdict. Manfred died February 26, 1266 in battle near Benevento against Charles of Anjou, brother to the French King, who had been entrusted with the Kingdom of Sicily by the Pope. Still under excommunication, he was buried in unhallowed ground in the rocky valley of Verde. His wife Helena, and also their sons Frederick, Henry, and Enzio died in prison, the sons having been held in lifelong solitary confinement, like animals, never even learning human speech.
- Enzio (or Enzo) in particular seemed to be the father's favourite, as he received the titles of King of Sardinia and that of Imperial vicar in Northern Italy. These nominations have been seen as a Frederick's attempt to create a centralized state also in Northern and Central Italy: but this failed after the Battle of Parma and the subsequent imprisonment of Enzio in Bologna in 1249. Enzio became a popular character for his pitiful fate, as he spent all the rest of his life in prison, dying in 1272.
- The last legitimate male heir of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was Frederick's grandson Conradin, son of Conrad IV. The grandson, born March 25, 1252 at Burg Wolfstein near Landshut, held the titles of Duke of Swabia, King of Jerusalem and Sicily. He invaded Italy in 1268 to reclaim his Kingdom from Charles of Anjou, but was defeated and captured by Charles at the Battle of Tagliacozzo and publicly executed at age 16 on October 29, 1268 in Naples. In 1284 Frederick's ghost resurfaced in the form of a very convincing false Frederick, the impostor Tile Kolup, who impersonated the emperor with such expert knowledge and an amazing similarity that many of those who had known the true Frederick fell for him. Kolup was captured and executed, but rumors persist to this day that Kolup had been another illegitimate son of Frederick II.

Personality

In Frederick II we encounter one of the most remarkable personalities in world history. His contemporaries called him stupor mundi, the "wonder" — or, more precisely, the "astonishment" — "of the world"; the majority of his contemporaries, subscribing to medieval religious orthodoxy, under which the doctrines promulgated by the Church were supposed to be uniform and universal, were, indeed astonished — not seldom repelled — by the highly developed individual consciousness of the Hohenstaufen emperor, his temperamental stubbornness and his unorthodox, nearly unstoppable thirst for knowledge. Frederick II was a religious sceptic. He is said to have denounced Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as all being frauds and deceivers of mankind. He delighted in uttering blasphemies and making mocking remarks directed toward Christian sacraments and beliefs. Frederick's religious scepticism was most unusual for the era in which he lived, and to his contemporaries, highly shocking and scandalous. In his period in Jerusalem, this behaviour was much to the dislike of the Muslims too, who grew mistrustful of a Christian which was not a Christian. Muslims Even his birth was remarkable. According to chronicles from the era, in order to stanch any doubt about his origin, the already 40-year old Constance gave birth to the child publicly in a marketplace. After Henry VI, his father, died at 31, Frederick came under the guardianship of the pope, which the latter, however, neglected him on the basis of power-politics. In Palermo, where the three-year-old boy was brought after his mother's death, he grew up like a street youth. On his own, he roamed a city which swarmed with adventurers and pirates, beggars and jugglers, Arab and Jewish merchants. The only benefit from Innocent III was that at 14 years of age he married a 25-year-old widow named Constance, the daughter of the king of Aragon in what is now Spain. As it happened, both seemed reasonably happy with the arrangement, and Constance soon bore a son, Henry. Later, it appeared opportune to Innocent III to support Frederick as a legitimate king, in order to counter the Emperor Otto — whom up to that time the pope had supported. In 1212 he brought him to Rome, gave him a round of instruction in things political, and sent him, provided with a bull of excommunication against the Guelph Otto, in the direction of Germany. The voyage seemed difficult, as the sea was roamed by the ships of Pisa, as usual faithful to the official emperor, and the road north to Rome were commanded by imperial garrisons. But in that period of his life a kind of mystic and prophetical luck seemed to illuminate every step made by the young king. Frederick managed to reach Liguria with ships sent by the fiercest rival of Pisa, Genova, where he stayed for three months. He crossed the Alps using the most difficult passes, as the Brenner Pass was occupied by the enemy troops of the duchies of Merano and Bavaria, and then he came to Konstanz in territory of the archbishop of Chur. The city was in fact preparing to receive the emperor, and would not allow the new aspirant to the imperial title to remain in the city. However, after a solemn reading of the pope's Bull of Excommunication, the gates of the city were opened for him. Otto, who meanwhile had waited in Überlingen for the ferry, came three weeks later before the city gates and was turned away. Frederick conquered the realm by means of generous promises and donations, without spilling a drop of blood. Otto, crushed in the Battle of Bouvines by the French, died some years later, a lonely man in the Harzburg, while Frederick would be crowned Emperor in Rome by the pope. In his coronation, too, he showed how unusual he was. At his coronation he carried a brand-new, red coronation robe with a strange ornamentation at the edge. In reality it was an Arabic inscription, which indicated that this robe dated from the year 528, not by the Christian but by Muslim calendar! About this was an Arab benediction: "May the Emperor be received well, may he enjoy vast prosperity, great generosity and high splendor, fame and magnificent endowments, and the fulfillment of his wishes and hopes. May his days and nights go in pleasure without end or change". This coronation robe can be found today in the Schatzkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This was typical of him: while he was being crowned by the Pope to be the highest defender of the Christian faith, his coat referred to the history of Islam. And not only that. He did not exterminate the Saracens of Sicily with fire and sword; on the contrary, he allowed them to settle on the mainland and even to build mosques. Not least, he enlisted them in his - Christian - army and even into his personal bodyguards. As these were Muslim soldiers, they were immune from papal excommunication. A further example of how much he differed from his contemporaries was his Crusade in the Holy Land. Outside Jerusalem, with the power to take it, he parlayed five months with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil about the surrender of the city. The Sultan summoned him into Jerusalem and entertained him in the most lavish fashion. When the muezzin, out of consideration for Frederick, failed to make the morning call to prayer, the emperor declared: "I stayed overnight in Jerusalem, in order to overhear the prayer call of the Muslims and their worthy God". The Saracens had a good opinion of him, so it was no surprise that after five months Jerusalem was handed over to him, taking advantage of the war difficulties of al-Kamil. The fact that this was regarded in the Arab as in the Christian world as high treason did not matter to him one whit. As the Patriarch of Jerusalem refused to crown him king, he set the crown on his own head. Besides his great tolerance (which, however, did not apply to Christian heretics), he had an unlimited thirst for knowledge and learning. To the horror of his contemporaries, he simply did not believe things that could not be explained by reason. So he forbade trials by ordeal on the firm conviction that in a duel the stronger would always win, whether he was guilty or not. Also, it can be forgotten amidst the general enthusiasm over his book on falconry releases frequently that he also wrote a scientific book about birds or that many of his laws continue to affect life down to the present day, such as the prohibition on physicians acting as their own pharmacists. This was a blow at the charlatanism under which physicians diagnosed dubious maladies and also at the same time in order to sell a useless, even dangerous "cure". Frederick's greatest passion were animals, and falcons in particular. He inherited his love for falconry from his Norman ancestors. According to a source, Frederick replied to a letter in which the Mongol khan invited him to sumbit that he was keen to do it, provided he was permitted to become the khan's hawker. He mantained up to 50 hawkers a time for his court, and in his letters he requested the acquiring of Arctic gerfalcons from Lübeck and even from Greenland. He commissioned the translation of the treaty De arte venandi cum avibus, by the Arab Moamyn, to his Syrian astrologer Theodor, but he corrected or rewrote it during the endless siege of Faenza. This implies that the Emperor knew the Arab language very well. Frederick picked up information from many of the philosphers then known, and mainly from the De Animalibus by Aristotle, creating a really noteworthy scientific work for the time it was written. One of the two existing versions was modified by his son Manfred, also a keen adherent of falconry. Frederick loved exotic animals in general: his mobile zoo, with which he used to impress the cold cities of Northern Italy and Europe, included hounds, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, lynxs, leopards and exotic birds. In 1232 he sent the Egyptian sultan a rare white bear, in exchange for a planetary worth 20,000 marks: Frederick was in fact attracted by stars, and his court was full of astrologers and astronomers. He often issued letters to the main scholars of the time (not only in Europe) asking for solutions to questions of science, mathematics and physics. A Damascene chronicler, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, leaves a physical description of Frederick based on the testimony of those who had seen the emperor in person in Jerusalem. "The Emperor was covered with red hair, was bald and myopic. Had he been a slave, he would not have fetched 200 dirhams at market." His eyes were described variously as blue, or "green like those of a serpent".

Law Reforms

His 1241 Edict of Salerno (sometimes called "Constitution of Salerno") made the first legally fixed separation of the occupations of physician and apothecary. Physicians were forbidden to double as pharmacists and the prices of various medicinal remedies were fixed. This became a model for regulation of the practice of pharmacy throughout Europe. He was not able to extend his legal reforms beyond Sicily to the Empire. In 1232, he was forced by the German princes to promulgate the Statutum in favorem principum ("statute in favor of princes"). It was a charter of aristocratic liberties for German princes at the expense of the lesser nobility and commoners. The princes gained whole power of jurisdiction, and the power to strike their own coins. The emperor lost his right to establish new cities, castles and mints over their territories. The Statutum extremely weakened central authority in Germany for ages. From 1232 the vassals of the emperor had a veto over imperial legislative decisions. Every new law established by the emperor had to be approved by the princes.

Summary

Frederick II was considered singular among the European Christian monarchs of the Middle Ages. This was observed even in his own time, although many of his contemporaries, because of his lifelong interest in Islam saw in him "the Hammer of Christianity", or at the very least a dissenter from Christendom. Many modern medievalists view this as false, and hold that Frederick understood himself as a Christian monarch in the sense of a Byzantine emperor, thus as God's Viceroy on earth. Other scholars view him as holding all religion in contempt, citing his rationalism and penchant for blasphemy. Whatever his personal feelings toward religion were, certainly submission to the pope did not enter into the matter. This was in line with the Hohenstaufen Kaiseridee: the ideology, claiming the Holy Roman Emperor to be the legitimate successor to the Roman emperors. Modern treatments of Frederick vary from sober evaluation (Stürner) to hero worship (Ernst Kantorowicz). However, all in all, agreement prevails over the special significance of Frederick II as Holy Roman Emperor, even if some of his actions (such as his politics with respect to Germany) remain quite dubious.

Parentage and children

- Parents
- Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (son of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and Beatrix of Burgundy)
- Constance of Sicily (daughter of Roger II of Sicily and Beatrice of Rethel)
- Children
- With Constance of Aragon:
- Henry (VII) of Germany
- With Yolande of Jerusalem:
- unnamed daughter, died young
- Conrad IV of Germany:
- With Isabella of England
- Margaret of Sicily, margravine of Meissen
- Henry Charlote of Sicily
- Frederick of Sicily
- Carl Otto of Sicily
- With Bianca Lancia:
- Manfred of Sicily
- Constance (Anna) of Sicily, married John III Ducas Vatatzes
- Violante of Sicily, married Riccardo di Caserta
- With Adelheid Enzio:
- Enzio of Sardinia
- With Richina of Wolfs'oden:
- Margaret of Swabia
- With Matilda of Antioch:
- Frederich of Antioch
- With unknown:
- Selvaggia
- Conrad of Antioch
- Richard of Theate
- Catarina of Marano
- Blanchefleur
- Gerhard
- Frederick of Pettorana

References

- Claudio Rendina, Federico II di Svevia - Lo specchio del mondo, Newton Compton, Rome, 1995, ISBN 8879839578.
- David Abulafia, Frederick II. A Medieval Emperor, Allen Lane the Penguin Press, 1988, ISBN 8806131974 (Italian edition)
- Georgina Masson, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1957, ISBN 8845291073 (Italian edition)
- Karen Armstrong, Holy War - The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World, Anchor Books, second edition, December 2001, ISBN 0385721404.
- R.H.C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe, Longman Group UK Limited, Second edition, 1988, ISBN 0582014042
- Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Shocken, 1989, ISBN 0805208984 In addition, this article uses material from the corresponding article in the German-language Wikipedia, which, in turn, gives the following references; the notes are theirs.
- Klaus van Eickels: Friedrich II., in: Bernd Schneidmüller/Stefan Weinfurter (editors): Die deutschen Herrscher des Mittelalters, Historische Porträts von Heinrich I. bis Maximilian I., Munich 2003, p. 293-314 and p. 585 (Bibliography). An outstanding short biography. Van Eickels also edited a volume of source materials on Frederick II.
- Ernst Kantorowicz: Kaiser Friedrich II., 2. volumes, Stuttgart 1985-86 (Nachdruck der Ausgabe aus den 20er Jahren), Beautifully written, but very romanticized, so to be read with caution. The author, a late-emigrated Jew, was close to the circle of Stefan George.
- Wolfgang Stürner: Friedrich II. (Gestalten des Mittelalters und der Renaissance), 2 volumes, Darmstadt 1992-2000. The best and most recent biography of Frederick II. Sober and objective, with an extensive guide to other literature on its subject.
- Gunther Wolf (editor).: Stupor mundi. Zur Geschichte Friedrichs II. von Hohenstaufen (Wege der Forschung 101), 2. veränderte Aufl., Darmstadt 1982. An important collection of essays on Frederick II.

External links

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06255a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Frederick II]
- [http://www.bartleby.com/65/fr/Fred2HRE.html Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor and German king. The Columbia Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9035231 Frederick II -- Encyclopædia Britannica] Category:1194 births Category:1250 deaths Category:Holy Roman emperors Category:German Kings Category:Kings of Sicily Category:Kings of Burgundy Category:Kings of Jerusalem Category:Dukes of Swabia Category:Hohenstaufen Dynasty Category:Polyglots Category:House of Anjou Category:History of Sicily Category:People of Sicilian heritage ja:フリードリヒ2世 (神聖ローマ皇帝)

William Blake

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker.

Early life

Blake was born at 28a Broad Street, Golden Square, London into a middle-class family. His father was a hosier. They are believed to have belonged to a radical religious sect called Dissenters. The Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and would remain a crucial source of inspiration throughout his life. At the age of four he had his first major vision, in which he saw God "put his head to the window." His visions continued throughout his early life: at ten, in Peckham Rye, London, he saw a tree filled with angels "bespangling every bough like stars." He began engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities, a practice that was then preferred to real-life drawing. His parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school but was instead enrolled in drawing classes. He read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. Four years later he became apprenticed to an engraver, James Basire. After two years Basire sent him to copy art from the Gothic churches in London. It was Blake's experiences in Westminster Abbey in particular that informed his artistic ideas & style. During the many long afternoons Blake spent sketching in the cathedral,he was occasionally interrupted by the boys of Westminster School, one of whom "tormented" Blake so much one afternoon that he knocked the boy off a scaffold to the ground, "upon which he fell with terrific Violence." At the age of twenty-one Blake finished his apprenticeship and set up as a professional engraver. church In 1779, he became a student at the Royal Academy, where he rebelled against what he regarded as the unfinished style of fashionable painters such as Rubens. He preferred the Classical exactness of Michelangelo and Raphael. In July, 1780, he was at the head of a rampaging mob that stormed Newgate Prison in London. The mob were wearing blue cockades (ribbons) on their caps, to symbolise solidarity with the insurrection in the American colonies. This disturbance, later known as the Gordon riots, provoked a flurry of paranoid legislation from the government of George III, as well as the creation of the first police force. In 1782 Blake met John Flaxman, who was to become his patron. In the same year he married a poor, illiterate girl named Catherine Boucher, who was five years his junior. Catherine signed her wedding contract with an X. Blake taught her to read and write and even trained her as an engraver. At that time, George Cumberland, one of the founders of the National Gallery, became an admirer of Blake's work. Blake's first collection of poems, Poetical Sketches, was published circa 1783. After his father's death, William and brother Robert opened a print shop in 1784 and began working with radical publisher Joseph Johnson. At Johnson's house he met some of the leading intellectual dissidents of the time in England, including Joseph Priestley, scientist; Richard Price, philosopher; John Henry Fuseli, painter whom he became friends with; Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist; and Thomas Paine, American revolutionary. Along with William Wordsworth and William Godwin, Blake had great hopes for the American and French revolution and wore a red liberty cap in solidarity with the French revolutionaries, but despaired with the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in the French revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft became a close friend, and Blake illustrated her Original Stories from Real Life (1788). They shared similar views on sexual equality and the institution of marriage. In the Visions of the Daughters of Albion in 1793 Blake condemned the cruel absurdity of enforced chastity and marriage without love and defended the right of women to complete self-fulfillment. In 1788, at the age of thirty-one, Blake began to experiment with relief etching, which was the method used to produce most of his books of poems. The process is also referred to as illuminated printing, and final products as illuminated books or prints. Illuminated printing involved writing the text of the poems on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. Illustrations could appear alongside words in the manner of earlier illuminated manuscripts. He then etched the plates in acid in order to dissolve away the untreated copper and leave the design standing. The pages printed from these plates then had to be hand-colored in water colors and stitched together to make up a volume. Blake used illuminated printing for four of his works: the Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem.

Later life and career

Jerusalem Blake's marriage to Catherine remained a close and devoted one until his death. There were early problems, however, such as Catherine's illiteracy and the couple's failure to produce children. At one point, in accordance with the beliefs of the Swedenborgian Society, Blake suggested bringing in a concubine. Catherine was distressed at the idea, and he dropped it. Later in his life Blake sold a great number of works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to Thomas Butts, a patron who saw Blake more as a friend in need than an artist. About 1800 Blake moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex (now West Sussex) to take up a job illustrating the works of William Hayley, a mediocre poet. It was in this cottage that Blake wrote Milton: a Poem (which was published later between 1805 and 1808). 1808 Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality. Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resort to cloaking social idealism and political statements in protestant mystical allegory. Blake rejected all forms of imposed authority; indeed, he was charged with assault and uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the King in 1803 but was cleared in the Chichester assizes of the charges. Blake's views on what he saw as oppression and restriction of rightful freedom extended to the Church. Blake was himself a follower of Unitarian philosophy. This was continued in the publication of his Songs of Experience (in 1794), in which Blake showed his own distinction between the Old Testament God, whose restrictions he rejected, and the New Testament God (Jesus Christ), whom he saw as a positive influence. Blake returned to London in 1802 and began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-1820). He was introduced by George Cumberland to a young artist named John Linnell. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer, who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the Shoreham Ancients. This group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. At the age of sixty-five Blake began work on illustrations for the Book of Job. These works were later admired by John Ruskin, who compared Blake favourably to Rembrandt. William Blake died in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Bunhill Fields, London. In recent years, a proper memorial was erected for him and his wife. Perhaps his life is summed up by his statement that "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself." Blake is also recognized as a Saint in Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. The Blake Prize for Religious Art was established in his honor in Australia in 1949.

Bibliography

Illuminated Books
- c.1788: All Religions are One
- There is No Natural Religion
- 1789: Songs of Innocence
- The Book of Thel
- 1790-1793: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
- 1793: Visions of the Daughters of Albion
- America: a Prophecy
- 1794: Europe: a Prophecy
- The First Book of Urizen
- Songs of Experience (The sequel to Songs of Innocence, with many of its poems intended as counterpoints from the Fallen world to those in the first book, this was Blake's only Illuminated book to achieve even limited success in his lifetime. It includes the poems The Tyger and The Sick Rose)
- 1795: The Book of Los
- The Song of Los
- The Book of Ahania
- c.1804-c.1811: Milton: a Poem
- 1804-1820: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion Non-Illuminated Material
- Never seek to tell thy love Illustrated by Blake
- 1788: Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life
- 1797: Edward Young, Night Thoughts
- 1805-1808: Robert Blair, The Grave
- 1808: John Milton, Paradise Lost
- 1819-1820: John Varley, Visionary Heads
- 1821: R.J. Thornton, Virgil
- 1823-1826: The Book of Job
- 1825-1827: Dante, The Divine Comedy (Blake died in 1827 with these watercolours still unfinished) On Blake
- Jacob Bronowski (1972). William Blake and the Age of Revolution. Routledge and K. Paul. ISBN 0-710-07277-5 (hardcover) ISBN 0-710-07278-3 (pbk.)
- Jacob Bronowski (1967). William Blake, 1757-1827; a man without a mask. Haskell House Publishers.
- S. Foster Damon (1979). A Blake Dictionary. Shambhala. ISBN 0-394-73688-5.
- Northrop Frye (1947). Fearful Symmetry. Princeton Univ Press. ISBN 0-691-06165-3.
- Peter Ackroyd (1995). Blake. Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 1-85619-278-4.
- E.P. Thompson (1993). Witness against the Beast. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22515-9.
- Victor N. Paananen (1996). William Blake. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7053-4.
- George Anthony Rosso Jr. (1993). Blake's Prophetic Workshop: A Study of The Four Zoas. Associated University Presses. ISBN 0-8387-5240-3.
- G.E. Bentley Jr. (2001). The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of William Blake. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08939-2.
- David V. Erdman (1977). Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-486-26719-9.
- James King (1991). William Blake: His Life. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-07572-3.
- W.J.T. Mitchell (1978). Blake's Composite Art: A Study of the Illuminated Poetry. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-691-01402-7.
- Peter Marshall (1988). William Blake: Visionary Anarchist ISBN 090038477
- Dr. Malkin, A Father's Memories of his Child, (1806)
- Gilchrist, Life and Works of William Blake, (second edition, London, 1880)
- Swinburne, William Blake: A Critical Essay, (London, 1868)
- W. M. Rosetti (editor), Poetical Works of William Blake, (London, 1874)
- Basil de Sélincourt, William Blake, (London, 1909)
- A. G. B. Russell, Engravings of William Blake, (1912)
- W. B. Yeats, Ideas of Good and Evil, (1903), contains essays.
- Joseph Viscomi, Blake and the Idea of the Book, (Princeton UP, 1993). ISBN 069106962X. Inspired by Blake
- The Fugs put Ah, Sunflower and other Blake poems to music. Also used a Blake painting as part of the cover to the bootleg record, Virgin Fugs.
- [http://www.tangerinedream.org/mod.php?mod=gallery&op=media&media_id=56 Tyger], an album by electronic music artists Tangerine Dream, features a number of William Blake poems set to music.
- Tiger (ca. 1928), a tone-cluster piano piece by Henry Cowell
- Red Dragon, a novel by Thomas Harris, whose title refers to Blake's painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun, the original of which is eaten by the novel's antihero.
- The 1981 film The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Raimi, also contains Blake's painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun, this time as a page in the Book of the Dead.
- Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, an album by the Norwegian musical group Ulver from 1998, utilizes the complete text of the Blake poem lyrically.
- The Songs of Innocence and Experience have been set to music by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, and more recently by William Bolcom. Albums using them as lyrics include Greg Brown's "Songs of Innocence and Experience" and Jah Wobble's "The Inspiration of William Blake". Allen Ginsberg also released an album of Blake songs.
- A series of poems and texts chosen by Peter Pears from Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, Auguries of Innocence, and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was made into the song cycle, Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, by Benjamin Britten in 1965.
- The Sick Rose from Songs of Experience is one of the poems by several authors set to music by Benjamin Britten in Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
- Spring, by Finn Coren
- The World of Tiers books by Philip José Farmer
- Quotations from Blake form the climax of Jerry Springer - The Opera
- Dead Man, a film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, features a character named William Blake and includes many references to Blake's work.
- Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!, a novel by Kenzaburo Oe
- [http://brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/torso181.html Love's Secret Domain], an electronic album by Coil, quotes Blake numerous times in the lyrics. The title track is also a reinterpretation of The Sick Rose. Various other albums by Coil carry many Blake references and allusions.
- The book The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley draws its title from a line in Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The title of Huxley's book, in turn, inspired the naming of the rock band The Doors who turned Blake's "Auguries of Innocence"(106-108) into their "End of the Night".
- The Amber Spyglass, the third book from the collection His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman, has several quotations from Blake's works.
- The Chemical Wedding album by Bruce Dickinson.
- Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, album by David Axelrod
- The character Blake Williams in the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson is named after William Blake.
- William Blake is the secondary identity of the character Taleswapper in the Tales of Alvin Maker fantasy book series by Orson Scott Card.
- Grendel, by John Gardner, quotes a verse from Blake's "The Mental Traveller" before the book begins. It also has many references to Blake throughout the novel.
- Peter Doherty, formerly of The Libertines and now of Babyshambles wrote the poem (song) Albion and the album Down In Albion. Which features Blakes influence. References
-
- William Blake: Visionary Anarchist Peter Marshall (1988) ISBN 090038477
See also

- Blaketashi Darwishes
External links

- [http://www.williamblake.com/ William Blake - Cybersongs of Innocence]
- [http://www.blakearchive.org/ The William Blake Archive]
- http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/blake/ (archive of an exhibit of his work at the National Gallery of Victoria)
- http://www.elp.it/bygothic/Gallery/Blake/index.html - Gallery of Paintings
-
- [http://virtual.park.uga.edu/~wblake/home.html Blake Digital Text Project]
- [http://www.quotesandpoem.com/poems/PoetsAndPoems/Blake Vast Collection of Poems and Quotes by Blake]
- [http://www.the3graces.info/random_blake.htm Introduction to The Drawings and Engravings of William Blake, by Laurence Binyon]
- [http://www.cosmoetica.com/TOP69-DES66.htm Essay on Blake’s Auguries of Innocence]
- [http://www.neonalley.com/blake.html Blue Neon Alley - Directory and Poems]
- [http://www.sanjeev.net/poetry/blake-william/index.html Poetry Archive: 170 poems of William Blake]
- [http://librivox.org/voice-of-the-ancient-bard-by-william-blake/ Free audiobook (The Voice of the Ancient Bard)] from [http://librivox.org LibriVox]
- A sixth form English perspective at-http://www.whscms.org.uk/index.php?category_id=242 Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William Blake, William
- ja:ウィリアム・ブレイク

Tiger

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus. A group of tigers is called an "ambush" or a "streak". They are predatory carnivores and the largest of all living cats.
Most tigers live in forests and grasslands (for which their camouflage is ideally suited). Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers, and tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes and rivers. Tigers hunt alone and eat primarily medium-sized herbivores such as deer, wild pigs, and buffalo. However, they will also take larger or smaller prey on occasion. Humans are the tiger's only serious predator but often kill tigers illegally for their fur or penises, which are used as aphrodisiacs in Chinese Medicine rather than for food. Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations and it has been placed on the endangered species list.

Physical characteristics

Although different subspecies of tiger have different characteristics, in general male tigers weigh between 150 and 310 kg (330 lbs and 680 lbs) and females between 100 and 160 kg (220 lbs and 350 lbs). The males are between 2.6 and 3.3 metres (8 ft 6 in and 10 ft 9 in) in length, and the females are between 2.3 and 2.75 metres (7 ft 6 in and 9 ft) in length. Of the more common subspecies, Corbetts Tigers are the smallest and Amur Tigers the largest. metre The ground of the coat may be any colour from yellow to orange-red, with white areas on the chest, neck, and the inside of the legs. A common recessive variant is the white tiger, which may occur with the correct combination of parents; they are not albinos. Black or melanistic tigers have been reported, but no live specimen has ever been captured or photographed. Another variant, the golden tabby tiger (also called the "golden tiger" or "tabby tiger"), has a golden hue, much lighter than the colouration of normal tigers, and brown stripes. This form is very rare and only a handful of golden tabby tigers are known to exist, all in captivity. There are also old texts referring to 'blue'or 'Maltese' tigers, actually a silvery-grey tone, though no reliable evidence has been found. The stripes of most tigers vary from brown or grey to pure black, although white tigers have far fewer apparent stripes. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies, but most tigers have in excess of 100 stripes. The now extinct Javan Tiger may have had far more than this. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way as fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the purpose of stripes is camouflage, serving to hide these animals from their prey (few large animals have colour vision as capable as that of humans, so the colour is not so great a problem as one might suppose). The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin and were you to shave one, you would find that its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved.

Method of killing

camouflage Tigers use their strength and body size to knock their prey off balance. Tigers overpower their prey from almost any angle, usually from ambush, and bite the neck, often breaking the prey's spinal column or windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or carotid artery, much as the domestic cat does to far-smaller prey. Powerful swimmers, tigers are known to kill prey while swimming. Some tigers have even ambushed boats for the fishermen on board or their catch of fish.

Subspecies

There are nine subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct and one of which is almost certain to become so in the near future. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Russia, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China and southeast Asia, including the Indonesian islands. These are the surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population: Indonesian islands
- The Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian or North China tiger, is confined almost totally to a very restricted part of eastern Russia where it is now protected. There are less than 400 of these tigers in the wild, and many populations are likely to no longer be genetically viable, subject to potentially catastrophic inbreeding. By far the largest subspecies, with males exceeding lengths of 12 feet (3.7 m) and weights of 850 pounds (390 kg), the Siberian Tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and a smaller number of stripes. The Siberian tiger is the most powerful of all living cats. [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/tiger.htm]
- The South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger, and will almost certainly become extinct. It seems likely that the last known wild South Chinese tiger was shot and killed in 1994, and no live tigers have been seen in their natural habitat for the last 20 years. In 1959, Mao Zedong declared the tiger to be a pest, and numbers quickly fell from about 4,000 to approximately 200 in 1976. In 1977 the Chinese government reversed the law, and banned the killing of wild tigers, but this appears to have been too late to save the subspecies. There are currently 59 known captive Chinese tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only 6 animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies no longer exists, making its eventual extinction very likely.
- Indochinese Tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Estimates of its population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, but it seems likely that the number is in the lower part of the range. The largest current population is in Malaysia, where illegal poaching is strictly controlled, but all existing populations are at extreme risk from habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Also the tigers are seen by poor natives as a resource through which they can ease poverty. poverty
- The Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500 animals, occurring predominantly in the island’s five national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species, if it is not made extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran Tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. Habitat destruction is the main threat to the existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), but 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000—nearly 20% of the total population. Habitat destruction
- The Bengal Tiger or the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is largely found in the Sundarbans, a national forest of Bangladesh and of West Bengal, India. According to recent counts in a joint effort of the Bangladesh and Indian governments, there are about 800 tigers in this area. The Bengal Tiger is also found in Nepal and Bhutan. It is the national animal of both Bangladesh and India. Even though this is the most 'common' tiger, these tigers are under severe pressure from both habitat reduction and from poaching. However there is a debate that there aren't as many tigers in the sunderbans, but are more sparsley populated over India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
- The Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern (Malaysian) part of the Malay Peninsula, which until 2004 wasn't considered a subspecies in its own right. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study, part of the National Cancer Institute, US. Recent counts showed there are 600-800 tigers in the wild, making it the largest tiger population other than the Bengal Tiger. The Malayan Tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions such as Maybank.

Recently Extinct

:Tigers are uncommon in the fossil record. The distinct fossils of tigers were discovered from Pleistocene deposits—mostly in Asia. Nevertheless remains of described tiger fossils 100,000 years old in Alaska. Possibly because of a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the ice ages, this Alaskan tiger might be a North American population of Siberian tiger. In addition scientists discover similarities between tiger bones and those of the American lion: an extinct big cat that dominated much of North America as recently as 10,000 years ago. This controversial observations may lead to the assumption that the American lion was a New World tiger species. Tiger fossils have also turned up in Japan. These fossils prove that the Japanese tiger was no bigger than the island subspecies of tigers of recent ages. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body is related to environmental space, or in the case of a large predator like a tiger, availability of prey.
- The Balinese Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) has always been limited to the island of Bali. These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese Tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September, 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese Tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hindu religion.
- The Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies was made extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last specimen was sighted in 1979.
- The Caspian Tiger or Persian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) appears to have become extinct in the late 1960s, with the last reliable sighting in 1968. Historically it ranged through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union and Turkey. It was said, such a tiger was last shot dead in the south-eastern-most Turkey in 1970.

Traditional Asian Medicine

Tiger parts are still used in traditional Asian medicine. Many people in Asia still believe myths surrounding tiger parts. Here are some of the myths associated with the tiger’s body parts:
- The tail of the tiger is sometimes ground and mixed with soap to create an ointment for use in treating skin cancer. The bones found from the tip of the tiger’s tail are said to ward off evil spirits.
- Crushed tiger bones added to wine serves as a Taiwanese general tonic.
- Tiger’s skin is said to cure a fever caused by ghosts. In order to use it effectively the user must sit on the tiger’s skin, but beware if too much time is spent on the tiger’s skin the user will become a tiger.
- Adding honey to the gallstones and applying the combination to the hands and feet is said to effectively treat abscesses.
- Burnt tiger hair can drive away centipedes.
- Mixing the brain of a tiger with oil and rubbing the mixture on your body is a cure for both laziness and acne.
- Rolling the eyeballs into pills is a definite remedy for convulsions.
- If whiskers are kept as a charm you will not only be protected against bullets but also have increased courage.
- You will posses courage and shall be protected from sudden fright if you wear a tiger’s claw as a piece of jewelry or carry one in your pocket.
- Strength, cunning, as well as courage can be obtained by consuming a tiger’s heart.
- Floating ribs of a tiger should always be carried as a good luck talisman.
- The tiger’s penis is a most effective aphrodisiac.
- Small bones in a tiger’s feet tied to a child’s wrists are said to be a sure cure convulsions. [http://www.bigcatrescue.org/tiger.htm#]

Tigers in literature and popular culture

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake, "The Tyger", Songs of Experience

The word tiger is borrowed from Greek tigris, itself borrowed from Persian ([http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=t&p=11]). American English Tigress first recorded 1611. Tiger's-eye "yellowish-brown quartz" is recorded from 1891. The tiger has certainly managed to appeal to man's imagination. Both Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Books and William Blake in his Songs of Experience depict him as a ferocious, fearful animal. In The Jungle Books, the tiger Shere Khan is the biggest and most dangerous enemy of Mowgli, the uncrowned king of the jungle. Even in the Bill Watterson comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, Hobbes the tiger sometimes escapes his role of cuddly animal. At the other end of the scale there is Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, who is always happy and never induces fear. In the award winning A Tiger for Malgudi, a Yogi befriends a tiger. Rajah, a pet of the characters Aladdin and Jasmine of Disney's animated feature film Aladdin, is uncharacteristically dog-like in its behavior, but even more oddly Tony the Tiger is renowned for his Frosted Flakes and may be the only cat, real or fictional, who thrives on a vegetarian diet. A stylized tiger was a mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games of Seoul. Humble Oil, a division of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Jersey Standard), used a stylized tiger to promote gasoline and the slogan "Put a Tiger in your Tank". Jersey Standard adopted the use of a real tiger in its advertising when it took the Exxon name company-wide in 1972, and the brand kept the tiger mascot as a part of ExxonMobil when they merged in 1999. Most recently, Yann Martel won the Man Booker Prize in 2002 with his novel Life of Pi about an Indian boy castaway on the Pacific Ocean with a Royal Bengal Tiger. In the Chinese novel Water Margin, tigers appeared numerous times as attacking travellers. In the Wu Song story he became famous when slaying a tiger with his barehands who been terrorizing the local towns nearly a decade. In reality, wild tigers, being dwellers of the jungle, have rarely been found in larger human cities in China, where the idea of a tiger on the street can act as a symbol of paranoia or unfounded fear, giving rise to such idioms as three men make a tiger.

References

- Jim Corbett, Man-eaters of Kumaon, Oxford University Press, 1946

External links

- [http://www.rareearthexplorations.com/wildindia/tiger/saving.htm Sierra Club (A Tiger Conservation project)]
- [http://tadoba.blogspot.com The Tadoba Tiger Forest (India) Experiences Blog]
- [http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger Tiger Territory]
- [http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/tiger/ Enchanted Learning Software - All About Tigers]
- [http://www.thecatsjungle.com/ The Cats Jungle - Information About Cats]
- [http://www.exoticcatz.com/sptiger.html/ Exoticcatz.com - Info on tigers in captivity]
- [http://www.treesfortigers.org/index.html Trees for Tigers] ko:호랑이 ms:Harimau ja:トラ simple:Tiger th:เสือ

London Zoo

London Zoo was the world's first scientific zoo. It was opened in 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study, it was eventually made open to the public in 1847. Today it houses a collection of more than 650 different species of animals. It is managed under the auspices of the Zoological Society of London, and is situated at the northern end of Regent's Park, London (the Regent's Canal runs through it). The Society also has a more spacious site at Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire and the larger animals such as elephants and rhinos have been moved there. As well as being the first scientific zoo, London Zoo also opened the first Reptile House (1849), first public Aquarium (1853), first insect house (1881) and the first children's zoo in 1938. The zoo is currently undergoing a massive renovation project aimed at replacing cages with enclosures which recreate the animals' natural environments, giving a better lifestyle to the animals, and a more realistic experience to visitors. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4693027.stm BBC News story].

Architecture

Since its earliest days, the zoo has prided itself on appointing leading architects to design its buildings. These include:
- the Clock Tower (1828, originally built to house llamas) and the Giraffe House (1836-1837) by Decimus Burton (both Grade II listed buildings)
- the Mappin Terraces (1913-1914) by Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell and John James Joass (listed Grade II).
- the Penguin Pool (1934).
- the Round House (built 1932-1933 to house the zoo's gorillas) and
- the North Gate Kiosk (1936) - all by Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton firm, with inputs on the Penguin Pool from leading structural engineer Ove Arup (the first two structures are now listed Grade I, kiosk Grade II). The Penguin Pool is no longer considered suitable for penguins, so the birds have been moved to a pool elsewhere in the zoo. As of summer 2005, Lubetkin's structure was home to two African porcupines, and the zoo was considering options for its long-term use.
- the Snowdon aviary (1962-1964) by Lord Snowdon, Cedric Price and Frank Newby
- the Elephant and Rhino House (1962-1965) designed by Sir Hugh Casson and Neville Conder. (Now no longer considered suitable for these large creatures.)

Filming at London Zoo

Many films and television programmes have been filmed at London Zoo, the most famous being the reptile house scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. (Note the corresponding scene from the original novel couldn't have taken place in the London Zoo, because later on it was stated that Harry had never been to London.)

Famous Animals

- London Zoo was home to the only living quagga ever to be photographed and the only living thylacine ever to be filmed. Both species are now extinct.
- Winnie the Pooh : In 1914 the Zoo was given an American Black Bear by a Canadian Lieutenant. The famous author A.A. Milne visited with his son Christopher Robin, the boy was so enamoured with the bear Milne wrote the famous series of books for him.
- Obaysch : When 'Obaysch' arrived at London Zoo it became the first hippo to be seen in Europe since the Roman Empire.
- Goldie, a golden eagle, became a national celebrity when he escaped for two weeks in 1965.
- Jumbo : in 1880 the largest elephant known at the time. His name has become an epithet for anything of large size.

Unusual Animals on Exhibit

- Human beings, Homo sapiens sapiens. A four-day exhibit entitled the "Human Zoo" ran in late August 2005, with people put on display in such garments as fig leaves. (see zoo website, [http://www.zsl.org/london-zoo/whats-on/the-human-zoo,94,EV.html])

External link

- [http://www.londonzoo.co.uk/ London Zoo Website]
- [http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/londonzoo.htm London Zoo in the 19th C.] Category:Cultural and educational buildings in London Category:Zoos in the United Kingdom Category:Visitor attractions in London ja:ロンドン動物園

Capricornus constellation

Capricornus (20px or 20px), a name meaning "Horned Goat" or "That which has horns like a goat's" in Latin, is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is commonly called Capricorn, especially in astrology. It is commonly called the sea-goat, as it is in an area of the sky known as the Sea. Capricornus is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy. Under its modern boundaries it is bordered by Aquila, Sagittarius, Microscopium, Piscis Austrinus and Aquarius.

Notable features

This constellation is the dimmest in the zodiac besides Cancer. Its brighter stars are found on a triangle whose vertices are α Cap (Giedi), δ Cap (Deneb Algiedi), and ω Cap.

History

This constellation is one of the oldest to have been identified, possibly the oldest, despite its dimness. Since it falls in an area of the sky known as the sea, it became considered a sea-goat (in the same sense as a sea-maiden). Depictions of a goat or goat-fish have been found on Babylonian tablets dating back three thousand years. The constellation may owe its antiquity to the fact that at that time, the northern hemisphere's Winter Solstice occurred while the sun was in Capricorn. The concern for the sun's rebirth might have rendered astronomical and astrological observation of this region of space very important. For the same reason, the sun's most southerly position, which is attained at the northern hemisphere's winter solstice, is now called the Tropic of Capricorn, a term which also applies to the line on earth where the sun is directly overhead at noon on that solstice. Due to early Greek beliefs that sin accumulated throughout the year, causing the darkness to increase, together with the sun's descent and pause at the Solstice, the ancient Greeks referred to this area of sky as the Augean Stable, where they considered the sun stabled during the year. The cause of the association with the location or name of Augeas is not currently known. However, during the classical period of Greek history, this name gradually fell out of use. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the December solstice no longer takes place while the sun is in Capricorn, but the astrological period called Capricorn begins at approximately the same time as the solstice. The planet Neptune was discovered in this constellation by German astronomer Johann Galle, near Deneb Algedi (δ Capricorni) on September 23, 1846, which is reasonable as Capricornus can be seen best at 9:00 in September.

Mythology

This constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother Rhea saved him from being devoured by his father Cronos in Greek mythology. The goat's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty. Some ancient sources claim that this derives from the sun "taking nourishment" while in the constellation, in preparation for its climb back northward. However, the constellation is often depicted as a sea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail. One myth that deals with this says that when the goat-god Pan was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish. In Sumeria, the constellation was associated with the god Ea or Enki, who brought culture out of the sea to humankind. The constellation, together with its early greek name, associated ideas about sin, and the constellation of Aquarius, who was said to have poured out a river, may represent the origin of the myth of the Augean Stable, which forms one of The Twelve Labours of Herakles. The constellation is located in an area of sky called the Sea or Water, consisting of many watery constellations such as Aquarius, Pisces, and Eridanus.

Astrology

The Western astrological sign Capricorn of the tropical zodiac (December 22 - January 19) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac (January 19 - February 15). In some cosmologies, Capricorn is associated with the classical element Earth, and thus called an Earth Sign (with Taurus and Virgo). It is also one of the four Cardinal signs (along with Aries, Cancer, and Libra). It is the domicile of Saturn and the exaltation of Mars. Its polar opposite is Cancer. Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Capricorn rules the knees, bones, and skin. The ancient symbol of this sign is the sea monster, which harks back to the time in antiquity when Capricorn was considered a water sign and not an earth sign. The symbol for this eventually changed to that of a seagoat, which is a mythological creature that has the head and upper body of a goat and the lower body of a fish, and this was an attempt to meld the watery qualities that this sign originally possessed with the earthly qualities that astrologers wanted it to acquire. In modern times the symbolism for this sign has evolved once again, with astrologers doing away with the figure of the seagoat altogether in favour of the mountain goat, which has almost eradicated the watery themes that once encompassed this sign.

Stars

:Stars with proper names: :
- (α Cap) Algedi [Al Giedi, Giedi, Algiedi, Gredi] :
- : < الجديّ al-jadiyy The billy goat ::
- Algedi Prima [Prima Giedi] (5/α¹ Cap) 4.24 ::
- Algedi Secunda [Secunda Giedi] (6/α² Cap) 3.56 :
- (β Cap) Dabih :
- : < سعد الذابح sa^{c^{d að-ðābiħ}} Luck of the slaughterer/sacrificer ::
- Dabih Major (9/β Cap) 3.05 ::
- Dabih Minor (β² Cap) 6.09 :
- (40/γ Cap) 3.68 Nashira :
- : < السعد الناشرة as-sa^cd an-nāšira[h] The bringer of good news :
- (49/δ Cap) 2.87 Deneb Algiedi [Deneb Algedi], Scheddi [Sheddi] :
- : < ذنب الجدي ðanab[u] al-jadiyy Tail of the goat :
- (39/ε Cap) 4.51 Kastra :
- (22/η Cap) 4.82 Arm :
- (8/ν Cap) Alshat :
- : < الشاة aš-šā[t] The (she) camel :
- (10/π Cap) 5.08 Okul :Stars with Bayer designations: :: 34/ζ Cap 3.77; 23/θ Cap 4.08; 32/ι Cap 4.28; 43/κ Cap 4.72; 48/λ Cap 5.57; 51/μ Cap 5.08; 2/ξ Cap 5.84; 1/ξ² Cap 6.34; 12/ο Cap — double 5.94, 6.74; 11/ρ Cap 4.77; 7/σ Cap 5.28; 14/τ Cap 5.24; 13/τ¹ Cap 6.76; 15/υ Cap 5.15; 25/χ Cap 5.30; 28/φ Cap 5.17; 16/ψ Cap 4.13; 18/ω Cap 4.12; 36/b Cap 4.50; 46/c Cap 5.10; 24/A Cap 4.49 :Stars with Flamsteed designations: ::3 Cap 6.30; 4 Cap 5.86; 17 Cap 5.91; 19 Cap 5.78; 20 Cap 6.26; 27 Cap 6.25; 29 Cap 5.31; 30 Cap 5.40; 31 Cap 7.18; 33 Cap 5.38; 35 Cap 5.78; 37 Cap 5.70; 41 Cap 5.24; 42 Cap 5.16; 44 Cap 5.88; 45 Cap 5.96; 47 Cap 6.00

Planets

- HD 202206 b & c

External links

- [http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/capricornus/ The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Capricornus]
- [http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/general/dailyoverview/capricorn Capricorn Links on Yahoo.com]
- [http://www.astrology.com/ssc/capricorn.html?ice=ast,scopes,mssc Capricorn Links on Astrology.com]
- [http://www.doublesign.com/astro/western/signs.php?signid=capricorn Capricorn Links on DoubleSign.com] Category:Astrological signs ko:염소자리 ja:やぎ座 th:กลุ่มดาวแพะทะเล

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