title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Scout Jamboree is a gathering of Scouts and Venturers from across the US. It is usually held every four years, with some adjustment for special years such as the 2010 National Scout Jamboree that celebrated the BSA centennial. The first jamboree was held in 1937 at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. There were 27,232 Scouts and Leaders present at the first National Jamboree. In 1950, the Boy Scouts of America hosted their second National Jamboree at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The event was to commemorate the organization's 40th anniversary. Since then, jamborees have been held in varying locations. From 1981 until 2010, the jamboree was held at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. A permanent location owned by the BSA was sought in 2008 for future jamborees, high adventure programs and training. The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve near Beckley, West Virginia, is now the permanent site beginning with the 2013 National Scout Jamboree.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Boy Scouts of America operates several high-adventure bases at the national level. Each offers a wide range of programs and training; a typical core program may include sailing, wilderness canoeing or wilderness backpacking trips. These bases are administered by the High Adventure Division of the National Council.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Current high-adventure bases of the Boy Scouts of America include Philmont Scout Ranch, Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases, Florida National High Adventure Sea Base, and The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Boy Scouts of America have functioned as a licensor and distributor of official Boy Scout uniforms, camping gear, and other items since the 1920s. These include backpacks, pocket knives, belt knives, tents, sleeping bags, canteens, and mess gear.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The BSA offers a wide variety of mandatory and optional training programs in youth protection, outdoor skills and leadership.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Every adult leader must complete Youth Protection Training, and then is strongly encouraged to complete a general overview training called "This is Scouting", and a "Fast Start" training specific to his/her program level. Position-specific training is required for all direct-contact leaders. Upon completion of basic training, a leader may wear the Trained emblem on his/her BSA uniform.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Supplemental skill-specific training is also available to BSA volunteers to gain knowledge in outdoors skills including camping, hiking, first aid, Leave No Trace, swim safety, climbing safety, hazardous weather, and other skills.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The highest level of BSA training is Wood Badge, focused on helping participants develop leadership skills while participating in an outdoor program over five days. Some councils offer high-adventure training for adults using the Powder Horn program. Leaders can also take the Seabadge advanced leadership and management course.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Scout youth leaders may attend the unit-level Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops. Local councils offer the advanced National Youth Leadership Training and the National Council offers the National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience conducted at Philmont Training Center. The Boy Scouts of America also offers the NYLT Leadership Academy which trains youth staff members from across the country for council-level NYLT courses.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Venturers and Sea Scouts may attend the unit-level Introduction to Leadership Skills for Crews or Introduction to Leadership Skills for Ships. Crew officers can attend Crew Officer Orientation, and then a council-provided Kodiak leadership training program


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Order of the Arrow members may attend the National Leadership Seminar, run multiple times each year by each region.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Boy Scouts of America operates a National Camping School program which trains people how to run various departments or areas at the Scouts BSA summer camps. Some online training is offered, but most areas require an in-person week-long training program at one of the National Camping Schools. After successfully completing a week-long program, a person is entitled to wear the National Camping School patch. The regular-size patch may be worn on the right breast shirt pocket, in the temporary patch spot. National Camping School certification is valid for five years.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Scouts see nature as an adventurous place, and it is expected that when they get older the experience from their youth will make them nature lovers. Scouts envisage nature as a heritage.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Council is the corporate membership of the Boy Scouts of America and consists of volunteer Scouters who meet annually. The day-to-day operations of the National Council are administered by the Chief Scout Executive and other national professional staff. National Council members include volunteers who are elected national officers and executive board members, regional presidents, the local council representatives, members at large, and honorary members. The national headquarters has been in Irving, Texas since 1979.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Since the founding of the BSA in 1910, the President of the United States has served as the organization's honorary president during his term in office, former presidents serve as honorary vice presidents for their lifetimes.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The BSA National Executive Board governs the organization. The 2015 National Executive Board consisted of 79 members.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The board is led by the national president, a volunteer elected by the National Council. Board members included regular elected members, regional presidents, and up to five appointed youth members. The Chief Scout Executive is the board secretary and non-voting member. The National Executive Board has a number of standing committees that correspond to the professional staff organization of the National Council.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Present and past members of the National Executive Board include Utah Senator Mitt Romney, Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. Other members included Latter-day Saint Church President Thomas S. Monson.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Program Impact Division is responsible for developing the Scouting program and includes the volunteer committees and staff working on volunteer training, youth development, and other program impact needs. The All Markets membership emphasis includes focus groups and special committees working to improve outreach to youth and families in various underserved ethnic populations, with literature and marketing materials targeting Hispanic/Latino families, Asian-American families, and African-American families. The BSA also participates in the American Indian Scouting Association in partnership with the Girl Scouts.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Outdoor Adventure Division oversees four high adventure bases: Northern Tier (Minnesota, Manitoba, and Ontario), Philmont Scout Ranch (New Mexico), Sea Base (Florida, US Virgin Islands, and Bahamas), and Summit Bechtel Reserve (West Virginia), over one hundred separate camps and reservations specifically dedicated to scouts, and other special programs such as the Order of the Arrow.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Other divisions provides support for the world and national jamborees and International Scouting relations. The Membership Impact Division works to sustain marketing efforts and relationships with the national organizations that make up the predominant number of chartered organizations, such as Lions International, Rotary International, Kiwanis International, American Legion, Elks, VFW, and all religious denominations chartering BSA units.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Supply Group is responsible for developing and selling uniforms, apparel, insignia, literature, and equipment. It sells equipment and supplies through National Scout Shops, local council trading posts, authorized independent resellers, and online at ScoutShop.org. Supply Group also licenses trademarks for use by other commercial vendors. The Administrative Group provides internal administration service and support. It includes the Marketing and Communications Division responsible for marketing the BSA program, administering the national websites, and publishing "Scouting" for adult leaders and "Scout Life" (formerly "Boys' Life") for youth.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Scouting Museum is located at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. Exhibits include high adventure sections, hands-on learning experiences, interactive exhibits, and a historical collection tracing uniforms, themes, and documents from the beginning of the Scouting movement in America. Among the museum's artifacts are the Eagle Scout medal of Arthur Rose Eldred, the first Eagle Scout.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Court of Honor certifies the BSA's highest awards: lifesaving and meritorious action awards, distinguished service awards, Eagle Scout and the Quartermaster Award.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: For administrative purposes, the BSA is divided into 16 National Service Territories (NSTs) including international areas for scouts with parents serving outside the US. Each NST encompasses multiple states or portions of states/counties.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The BSA program is administered through local councils, with each council covering a geopolitical area that may vary from a single city to an entire state. Councils receive an annual charter from the National Council and are usually incorporated as a charitable organization.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The council level organization is similar to that of the National Council. The council executive board is headed by the council president and is made up of annually elected local community leaders. The board establishes the council program and carries out the resolutions, policies, and activities of the council. Board members serve without pay and some are volunteer Scouters working at the unit level. Youth members may be elected to the council executive board according to the council by-laws.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Scout executive manages council operations—including finance, property management, advancement and awards, registrations, and Scout Shop sales—with a staff of other professionals and para-professionals. Volunteer commissioners lead the unit service functions of the council, help maintain the standards of the BSA, and assure a healthy unit program.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The BSA charters two councils for American Scouts living overseas, largely on military bases in Europe and Asia. The Transatlantic Council, headquartered in Livorno, Italy, serves BSA units in much of Europe, and the Far East Council, headquartered in Japan, serves units in the western Pacific areas. The Direct Service branch makes the Scouting movement available to US citizens and their dependents living in countries outside these jurisdictions or in isolated areas. The Aloha Council in Hawaii also serves BSA units in the American territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and in the sovereign countries of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Greater New York Councils are unique in that they are divided into five boroughs with each led by a borough Scout executive and each borough then divided into districts.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Councils are divided into districts with leadership provided by the district executive, district chairman, and the district commissioner. Districts are directly responsible for the operation of Scouting units and, except for the district executive, are mostly staffed with volunteers. The voting members of each district consist of volunteer representatives from each chartered organization having at least one BSA unit, plus annually elected members-at-large who in turn elect the district chairman. Boroughs and districts are subdivisions of the local council and do not have a separate corporate status.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Boy Scouts of America partners with community organizations, such as religious congregations, fraternal groups, service clubs, and other community associations, to provide the Scouting program for the particular neighborhood or community in which the particular organization wishes to reach out to youth and families. These organizations hold charters issued by the BSA and are known then as chartered organizations. Each chartered organization provides the meeting place for BSA youth, oversees the volunteer leaders, and agrees to follow the basic BSA safety policies and values-based program, and the organization is considered the "owner" of its local program, much like a franchise.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Within each chartered organization, there may be one or more "units". A unit is a group of youth and adults which are collectively designated as a Cub Scout pack, Boy Scout troop, Venturing crew, or Sea Scout ship. Each chartered organization may charter as many units as it wishes, but usually only 3 or 4 (one unit for each program level). The BSA council provides the leader training, inter-unit activities, camping programs, volunteer and professional support, and insurance coverage. Units also create their own activities (such as monthly camping trips, outings, or service projects), and most meet weekly at the place of the chartered organization for youth to learn basic skill development and practice leadership in small groups known as dens and patrols.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first partner to sponsor Scouting in the United States. It adopted the program in 1913 as part of its Mutual Improvement Association program for young men, and it was the largest single sponsor of Scouting until it ceased sponsoring Scouting units at the end of 2019.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The BSA at its peak reportedly had 4.8 million members in the 1970s with its membership plunging to less than half across its 266 local councils; down from 2.9 million in 2006 to roughly 2.3 million youth members just over a decade later.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: All Scouting units above the Cub Scout pack (i.e. units serving adolescent Scouts), leadership of the unit comprises both adult leaders (Scouters) and youth leaders (Scouts). In fact, this is a critical component of the program. In order to learn leadership, the youth must actually serve in leadership roles. Adult leaders may be either men or women in all positions.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: A properly run Scouts BSA troop is run by the Senior Patrol Leader, who is elected by the troop, and their assistant, who may either be elected or appointed. These and the other youth leaders are advised and supported by the adult leaders. "Scouts are youth-led."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The National Council is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is funded from private donations, membership dues, corporate sponsors, and special events with total revenues of $237 million.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In addition to donations from individuals, the BSA receives extensive donations from major corporations. In 2010, their top corporate donors were, in order, Intel, Emerson, Verizon, 3M, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Pfizer, Valero, UPS, U.S. Bank, Eli Lilly, GE, and Monsanto.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Scouting and Boy Scouts are well known throughout American culture and approximately 110 million Americans have participated in BSA programs at some time in their lives. The term "Boy Scout" is used to generally describe someone who is earnest and honest, or who helps others cheerfully; it can also be used as a pejorative term for someone deemed to be overly idealistic.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Prominent Americans in diverse walks of life, from filmmaker Steven Spielberg (who helped launch a merit badge in cinematography) to adventurer Steve Fossett to U.S. presidents, were BSA members as youths. Over two-thirds of all astronauts have had some type of involvement in Scouting, and eleven of the twelve men to walk on the Moon were Scouts, including Eagle Scouts Neil Armstrong and Charlie Duke. The pinewood derby—a wood car racing event for Cub Scouts—has been declared "a celebrated rite of spring" and was named part of "America's 100 Best" by "Reader's Digest".


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: President Gerald Ford said, "I can say without hesitation, because of Scouting principles, I know I was a better athlete, I was a better naval officer, I was a better congressman, and I was a better prepared President."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Famed American illustrator Norman Rockwell's works were closely associated with the Boy Scouts of America for much of the 20th century. Beginning in 1913, Rockwell began illustrating covers of "Boys' Life", the magazine for BSA youth. He also drew the organization's annual calendar illustrations between 1925 and 1976.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's 75th birthday, officials of and the Boy Scouts of America asked Rockwell to pose in "Beyond the Easel" for a calendar illustration. As part of the US Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Rockwell's Scouting paintings toured the nation and were viewed by 280,000 people. In 2008, a twelve-city US tour of Rockwell's works was scheduled.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Alvin Townley wrote in "Legacy of Honor" about the large positive impact of Eagle Scouts in America. Townley cited such examples as how Scouts, especially Eagle Scouts, were disproportionately represented among Hurricane Katrina's volunteer relief workers; just as they are disproportionately represented among members of the United States Senate. Former Governor Rick Perry of Texas is an Eagle Scout who defended BSA policies and restrictions against ACLU criticisms in his book, "On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For".


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Mark Mays, CEO of Clear Channel Communications, told a magazine interviewer in May 2008 that, "Particularly in the very impactful ages of youth 11 to 14 years old, when they can really go astray and you're taking the time to spend with them and focus on cultural core values like reverent, trustworthy, loyal, and helpful —all of those different things ... Scouting has a huge positive impact on boys and their lives, and that in turn positively impacts our communities and society as a whole."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Mayor of New York City and business tycoon Michael Bloomberg, said that the BSA's Scout Law required of all Boy Scouts—a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent—are "all the American values ... Americans have quaintly simplistic ways and direct ways of phrasing things ... I think it's one of the great strengths of this country."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Peter Applebome, an editor of "The New York Times", wrote in 2003 of his experience as an adult participating with his son in Scouting activities, "I feel lucky to have had this unexpected vehicle to share my son's youth, to shape it, and to be shaped by it as well." He concluded that, although Scouting is viewed by some as old-fashioned, "Scouting's core values ... are wonderful building blocks for a movement and a life. Scouting's genuinely egalitarian goals and instincts are more important now than they've ever been. It's one of the only things that kids do that's genuinely cooperative, not competitive."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: At the turn of the 20th century, Halloween had turned into a night of vandalism, with destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people. Around 1912, the BSA, Boys Clubs and other neighborhood organizations came together to encourage a safe celebration that would end the destruction that had become so common on this night.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: The Boy Scouts of America are quite particular about how and when the Scout uniforms and insignia may be used in film and other portrayals; and for that reason, most films and television productions made in the US utilize "ersatz" Scouting organizations. Examples of this include the "Order of the Straight Arrow", portrayed in the "King of the Hill" cartoon series, and the "Indian Guides" depicted in the 1995 Chevy Chase film, "Man of the House". One exception to this policy is the Walt Disney movie "Follow Me, Boys!" with Fred McMurray portraying a Scoutmaster of a rural troop. It was released to theaters in 1966 and re-released in 1976. Another is the final scene of "The Sopranos" television show, where Tony Soprano sits down to dinner in a restaurant. At another table, several Cub Scouts, in full uniform, are seated.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: From the inception of the Scouting movement, Scouts have been urged to "Do a Good Turn Daily", as it is the slogan for the Boy Scouts of America. The first national Good Turn was the promotion of a safe and sane Fourth of July in 1912. During World War I, "Every Scout to Save a Soldier" was a slogan used to motivate children involved in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to help sell War savings stamps. Scouting for Food is an ongoing annual program begun in 1986 that collects food for local food banks.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In 1997, the BSA developed Service to America with a commitment to provide 200 million hours of service by youth members by the end of the year 2000. As part of Service to America, the BSA provided service projects in conjunction with the National Park Service. In October 2003, the Department of the Interior expanded the program with the creation of Take Pride in America, opening service to all Americans. Service to America became Good Turn for America in 2004 and expanded to address the problems of hunger, homelessness, and inadequate housing and poor health in conjunction with the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and other organizations.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Scouting sex-abuse cases are situations where youth involved in Scouting programs have been sexually abused by someone who is also involved in the Scouting program. J.L. Tarr, a US Chief Scout Executive in the 1980s, was quoted in an article regarding sexual assault cases against Scout leaders across all 50 states: "That's been an issue since the Boy Scouts began." Several reports have surfaced over the years regarding incidents of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America to include incidents of repeat offenders. There have also been several high-profile court cases that resulted in convictions and settlements involving such incidents. On October 19, 2012, the Boy Scouts of America were forced by court order to release over 20,000 pages of documentation on 1200 alleged child sexual abuse cases within the organization from between 1965 and 1985. Legal claims against BSA for such matters continue to the present day. Following its bankruptcy in February 2020, over 92,000 sexual abuse claims were filed with the bankruptcy court before the November 16, 2020 deadline to receive claims.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In the 1980s BSA developed its Youth Protection program, to educate youth, leaders and parents about the problem as a whole, and to introduce barriers to sexual abuse of children using the Scout program to reach victims. "Two deep" leadership dictates that no adult member can be alone with any youth member (other than their own child). Shortly after joining, youth must discuss with their parents a pamphlet on sexual abuse. Prior to joining, adults must take a youth protection training course, which is must be renewed every two years. Since 2003, new adult members must pass a criminal background check (adults who were already members had to pass a background check by 2008). The Youth Protection Plan from the organization is linked to in a CDC report on such programs.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In recent decades, membership in the BSA and income have declined. In addition, lawsuits arising from sexual misconduct by BSA volunteers and employees dating back to the 1960s further diluted available funds; according to public filings, nearly $12 million was paid to the law firm Ogletree Deakins over a three-year period from 2015 just for litigation counsel alone. In its 2018 annual report, BSA officials stated that the organization's future financial situation will be predicated on the outcome of various litigation and the associated direct costs to the organization. The annual report states that the BSA may have "to pay damages out of its own funds to the extent the claims are not covered by insurance or if the insurance carriers are unable or unwilling to honor the claims."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Accordingly, the BSA hired a law firm in December 2018 to investigate filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Such a bankruptcy could stop litigation of at least 140 lawsuits and prevent further lawsuits. In October 2019, a substantial membership rate increase was announced related to increased operational expenses, especially substantial increases in insurance costs.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: On February 18, 2020, the organization filed for bankruptcy in the Bankruptcy court of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, listing liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million and assets of $1 billion to $10 billion. The bankruptcy filing came at a time when the organization faced hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits. As a result of the filing, all civil litigation against the organization was suspended. Local Councils and units remained largely unaffected as they are standalone units. BSA contends that it alone should be financially responsible for any settlements in the sex abuse case lawsuits. Plaintiffs have complained that BSA is hiding its assets through its affiliates. Critics of the filing derisively described the organization and its move as "bankrupt, but not because it's broke."


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: Due to reports surfacing in the 1970s and 1980s regarding a high level of bullying in the Boy Scouts, efforts were made to develop a no-tolerance bully policy within the Boy Scouts of America. In the 1990s, the Boy Scouts acknowledged that the organization had a problem with bullying, in particular due to a "boys will be boys" attitude within Scouting before the 1970s, when adult leaders tended to overlook younger or weaker Scouts who were "picked on" by older boys, such adult leaders feeling that bullying "toughened someone up", labeling boys as "snitches" and "tattletales" should bullying be reported to the adult leadership.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: One of the more widely published accounts of Boy Scout bullying occurred in July 1987 when a Boy Scout at the Goshen Scout Reservation was severely beaten in his sleep by several other Scouts. The incident resulted in the Goshen staff changing the layout of its campsites, to prevent having sites in extremely isolated areas, as well as assigning camp staff members to each visiting troop as "advisors" and also to watch for fights or other trouble resulting from conflicts developing at the various campsites.


title: Boy Scouts of America

text: In the 21st century, the Boy Scouts have adopted a "Bullying Awareness Program" which trains adults to recognize the signs of bullying, especially in isolated environments such as extended campouts in the wilderness or at summer camp. Parents are also advised on what to do, and whom to contact, should a Scout state they are being bullied by other Scouts. Dealing with the bullies themselves is also addressed, in particular those bullies who "game the system", pretending to be compassionate and apologetic to bully victims when adults confront them, only to return to such behaviors when the adults are no longer present.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is a meteorite impact crater about east of Flagstaff and west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Cañon Diablo. Because the United States Board on Geographic Names recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of "Meteor Crater" from the nearby post office named Meteor.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of above sea level. It is about in diameter, some deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with of rubble lying above crater bedrock. One of the interesting features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Despite historic attempts to make the crater a public landmark, the crater remains privately owned by the Barringer family to the present day through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be the "best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth". Since the crater is privately owned, it is not protected as a national monument, a status that would require federal ownership. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967.


title: Meteor Crater

text: The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch, when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper. The area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by mammoths and giant ground sloths.


title: Meteor Crater

text: The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about across. The speed of the impact has been a subject of some debate. Modeling initially suggested that the meteorite struck at up to , but more recent research suggests the impact was substantially slower, at . About half of the impactor's bulk is believed to have been vaporized during its descent through the atmosphere. Impact energy has been estimated at about 10 megatons TNT. The meteorite was mostly vaporized upon impact, leaving few remains in the crater.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Since the crater's formation, the rim is thought to have lost of height at the rim crest as a result of natural erosion. Similarly, the basin of the crater is thought to have roughly of additional postimpact sedimentation from lake sediments and alluvium. Very few remaining craters are visible on Earth, since many have been erased by erosive geological processes. The relatively young age of Meteor Crater, paired with the dry Arizona climate, has allowed this crater to remain comparatively unchanged since its formation. The lack of erosion that preserved the crater's shape greatly accelerated its groundbreaking recognition as an impact crater from a natural celestial body.


title: Meteor Crater

text: The crater came to the attention of scientists after American settlers encountered it in the 19th century. The crater was given several early names, including "Coon Mountain", "Coon Butte", "Crater Mountain", "Meteor Mountain", and "Meteor Crater". The Meteoritical Society refers to the crater as Barringer Meteorite Crater because Daniel M. Barringer was one of the first people to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact, and because the Barringer family filed mining claims on the crater and purchased the crater and its surroundings in the early 20th century. Meteorites from the area were called Canyon Diablo meteorites, after Canyon Diablo, Arizona, which was the closest community to the crater in the late 19th century. The canyon also crosses the strewn field, where meteorites from the crater-forming event were found. The crater had initially been ascribed to the actions of a volcanic steam explosion, because the San Francisco volcanic field lies only about to the west.


title: Meteor Crater

text: In 1891, mineralogist Albert E. Foote presented the first scientific paper about the meteorites of Northern Arizona. Several years earlier, Foote had received an iron rock for analysis from a railroad executive. Foote immediately recognized the rock as a meteorite and led an expedition to search and retrieve additional meteorite samples. The team collected samples ranging from small fragments to over . Foote identified several minerals in the meteorites, including diamond, albeit of little commercial value. His paper to the Association for the Advancement of Science provided the first geological description of the crater to a scientific community.


title: Meteor Crater

text: In November 1891, Grove Karl Gilbert, chief geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, investigated the crater and concluded that it was the result of a volcanic steam explosion. Gilbert had assumed that if it were an impact crater, then the volume of the crater, as well as meteoritic material, should exist in the rim. Gilbert also assumed a large portion of the meteorite should be buried in the crater and that this would generate a large magnetic anomaly. Gilbert's calculations showed that the volume of the crater and the debris on the rim were roughly equivalent, so that the mass of the hypothetical impactor was missing, nor were there any magnetic anomalies; he argued that the meteorite fragments found on the rim were coincidental. Gilbert publicized his conclusions in a series of lectures. In 1892, however, Gilbert would be among the first to propose that the Moon's craters were caused by impact rather than volcanism.


title: Meteor Crater

text: In 1903, mining engineer and businessman Daniel M. Barringer suggested that the crater had been produced by the impact of a large iron-metallic meteorite. Barringer's company, the Standard Iron Company, staked a mining claim to the land and received a land patent signed by Theodore Roosevelt for 640 acres (1 sq mi, 260 ha) around the center of the crater in 1903. The claim was divided into four quadrants coming from the center clockwise from north-west named Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In 1906, Roosevelt authorized the establishment of a newly named Meteor, Arizona, post office (the closest post office before was away in Winslow, Arizona). This new post office was located at Sunshine, a stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, 6 mi north of the crater.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Standard Iron Company conducted research on the crater's origins between 1903 and 1905. It concluded that the crater had indeed been caused by an impact. Barringer and his partner, mathematician and physicist Benjamin Chew Tilghman, documented evidence for the impact theory in papers presented to the U.S. Geological Survey in 1906 and published in the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences" in Philadelphia.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Barringer's arguments were met with skepticism, as a reluctance existed at the time to consider the role of meteorites in terrestrial geology. He persisted and sought to bolster his theory by locating the remains of the meteorite. At the time of discovery, the surrounding plains were covered with about 30 tons of large, oxidized iron meteorite fragments. This led Barringer to believe that the bulk of the impactor could still be found under the crater floor. Impact physics was poorly understood at the time, and Barringer was unaware that most of the meteorite vaporized on impact. He spent 27 years trying to locate a large deposit of meteoric iron, and drilled to a depth of , but no significant deposit was ever found.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Barringer, who in 1894 was one of the investors who made US$15 million in the Commonwealth silver mine in Pearce, Cochise County, Arizona, had ambitious plans for the iron ore. He estimated from the size of the crater that the meteorite had a mass of 100 million tons. Iron ore of the type found at the crater was valued at the time at US$125/ton, so Barringer was searching for a lode he believed to be worth more than a billion 1903 dollars. "By 1928, Barringer had sunk the majority of his fortune into the crater – $500,000, or roughly $7 million in [2017] dollars."


title: Meteor Crater

text: In 1929, astronomer F.R. Moulton was employed by the Barringer Crater Company to investigate the physics of the impact event. Moulton concluded that the impactor likely weighed as little as 300,000 tonnes, and that the impact of such a body would have generated enough heat to vaporize the impactor instantly. Daniel M. Barringer died just ten days after the publication of Moulton's second report.


title: Meteor Crater

text: By this time, "the great weight of scientific opinion had swung around to the accuracy of the impact hypothesis ... Apparently an idea, too radical and new for acceptance in 1905, no matter how logical, had gradually grown respectable during the intervening 20 years."


title: Meteor Crater

text: Harvey Harlow Nininger was an American meteoriticist and educator, and although he was self-taught, he revived interest in scientific study of meteorites in the 1930s, and assembled the largest personal collection of meteorites up to that time. While based in Denver, Colorado, Nininger published the first edition of a pamphlet titled "A Comet Strikes the Earth", which described how Meteor Crater formed when an asteroid impacted the Earth. In 1942, Harvey Nininger moved his home and business from Denver to the Meteor Crater Observatory, located near the turn-off for Meteor Crater on Route 66. He renamed the building the "American Meteorite Museum" and published a number of meteorite and Meteor Crater-related books from the location. He also conducted a wide range of research at the crater, discovering impactite, iron-nickel spherules related to the impact and vaporization of the asteroid, and the presence of many features still unique to the crater, such as half-melted slugs of meteoric iron mixed with melted target rock. Nininger's discoveries were compiled and published in a seminal work, "Arizona's Meteorite Crater" (1956). Nininger's extensive sampling and fieldwork in the 1930s and 40s contributed significantly to the scientific community's acceptance of the idea that Meteor Crater formed by the impact of an asteroid.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Harvey Nininger believed that the crater should be nationalized as a public park, and in 1948, successfully petitioned the American Astronomical Society to pass a motion in support by giving the false claim that the Barringers were willing to sell it, when in fact they intended to continue mining there. Nininger was operating a private meteorite museum on the premises at the time, and perhaps he saw public ownership of the crater as an opportunity to move his museum to the rim, obtain a government salary, and possibly found a Federal institute of meteorite science. The Barringer family promptly terminated his exploration rights and ability to conduct further fieldwork at the crater.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Later research by Eugene Merle Shoemaker confirmed that the crater had formed due to a significant asteroid impact. A key discovery was the presence in the crater of the minerals coesite and stishovite, rare forms of silica found only where quartz-bearing rocks have been severely shocked by an instantaneous overpressure. It cannot be created by volcanic action; the only known mechanisms of creating it are naturally through an impact event, or artificially through a nuclear explosion. In 1960, Edward C. T. Chao and Shoemaker identified coesite at Meteor Crater, adding to the growing body of evidence that the crater was formed from an impact generating extremely high temperatures and pressures. The impact would have vaporized much of the main body of iron mass. The pieces of Canyon Diablo meteorite found scattered around the site would have broken away from the main body before impact.


title: Meteor Crater

text: Geologists used the nuclear detonation that created the Sedan crater, and other such craters from the era of atmospheric nuclear testing, to establish upper and lower limits on the kinetic energy of the meteor impactor.


title: Meteor Crater

text: The impact created an inverted stratigraphy, so that the layers immediately exterior to the rim are stacked in the reverse order to which they normally occur; the impact overturned and inverted the layers to a distance of 1–2 km outward from the crater's edge. Specifically, climbing the rim of the crater from outside, one finds:


title: Meteor Crater

text: Soils around the crater are brown, slightly to moderately alkaline, gravelly or stony loam of the Winona series; on the crater rim and in the crater itself, the Winona is mapped in a complex association with rock outcrop.


title: Meteor Crater

text: During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the Apollo missions to the Moon.


title: Meteor Crater

text: On August 8, 1964, two commercial pilots in a Cessna 150 flew low over the crater. After crossing the rim, they could not maintain level flight. The pilot attempted to circle in the crater to climb over the rim. During the attempted climb out, the aircraft stalled, crashed, and caught fire. The plane is commonly reported to have run out of fuel, but this is incorrect. Both occupants were severely injured, but survived. A small portion of the wreckage not removed from the crash site remains visible.


title: Meteor Crater

text: In 2006, a project called METCRAX (for METeor CRAter eXperiment) investigated "the diurnal buildup and breakdown of basin temperature inversions or cold-air pools and the associated physical and dynamical processes accounting for their evolving structure and morphology."


title: Meteor Crater

text: Meteor Crater is a popular tourist destination with roughly 270,000 visitors per year. The crater is owned by a family company, the Barringer Crater Company. Meteor Crater is an important educational and research site. It was used to train Apollo astronauts and continues to be an active training site for astronauts. The Meteor Crater Visitor Center sits on the north rim of the crater. It features interactive exhibits and displays about meteorites and asteroids, space, the Solar System, and comets including the American Astronaut Wall of Fame and such artifacts on display as an Apollo boilerplate command module (BP-29), a meteorite found in the area, and meteorite specimens from Meteor Crater that can be touched. Formerly known as the Museum of Astrogeology, the Visitor Center includes a Discovery Center & Space Museum, a movie theater, a gift shop, and observation areas with views inside the rim of the crater. Guided tours of the rim are offered daily, weather permitting.


title: Pretty Cure

text: , also known as and PC, is a Japanese magical girl anime franchise created by Izumi Todo and Bandai and produced by Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Asatsu-DK, Toei Animation and Bandai. Each series revolves around a group of magical girls known as Pretty Cures who battle against evil forces. Starting in February 2004 with "Futari wa Pretty Cure", the franchise has seen many anime series, spanning over 850 episodes to date, as well as spawning movies, manga, toys, and video games. Its most recent iteration, "Delicious Party Pretty Cure", began airing in February 2022 as part of TV Asahi's Sunday morning children's television block. As of January 2022, three series have received English adaptations.


title: Pretty Cure

text: Each series focuses on a group of teenage girls who are granted special items that allow them to transform into legendary warriors known as the "Pretty Cure." With the assistance of creatures known as fairies, the Pretty Cure use their magical powers and enhanced strength to fight against evil forces who create monsters to bring misery to the Earth. As the series progresses and stronger enemies appear, the Cures gain new magical items, new abilities, and sometimes new allies to help them in their fight against evil.


title: Pretty Cure

text: There are currently nineteen anime television series in the franchise, two of which are direct sequels to their previous series. To date, three of the series have received English adaptations. "Futari wa Pretty Cure" was dubbed into English by Ocean Productions and aired in Canada under the name "Pretty Cure". "Smile PreCure!" and "DokiDoki! PreCure" were adapted by Saban Brands and released on Netflix under the names "Glitter Force" and "Glitter Force Doki Doki", respectively. The series, "Kirakira Pretty Cure a la Mode", "Healin' Good Pretty Cure" and "Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure", began streaming in Crunchyroll on their respective territories. Each series has received a manga adaptation illustrated by Futago Kamikita, which is published in Kodansha's "Nakayoshi" shoujo magazine alongside the anime. Starting with "Fresh Pretty Cure!", each ending movie featured a dance choreography by each series' Pretty Cure members.


title: Pretty Cure

text: As of 2020, Toei Animation Inc. owns the international rights to the franchise while both the dubs of Smile and DokiDoki alongside the "Glitter Force" brand is currently owned by Hasbro and eOne.


title: Pretty Cure

text: Episode 13 of "Healin' Good Pretty Cure" was originally scheduled to air on April 26, 2020, but was postponed until June 28, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the series re-airing select episodes during that time.


title: Pretty Cure

text: Beginning with "Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart", each television series has received a theatrical animated film based on the series, with "Max Heart" receiving two films. Starting in March 2009, crossover films featuring characters from multiple series have been released annually, with 12 crossover films released to date. The eleventh crossover film, "," has been awarded the Guinness World Records title for "Most Magical Warriors in an Anime Film", with a total number of 55 Cures with speaking roles.


title: Pretty Cure

text: Live stage shows since "Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart" began in February 2005. They don't usually have special names like the movies or games, and they are performed in theatres, or live stages. These musicals are often made for children between the age of 5–9.


title: Pretty Cure

text: Several video games have been produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Bandai) for video game systems and educational consoles, as well as "Data Carddass" arcade machines.


title: Pretty Cure

text: A live-action series, , aired in Japan between April and June 2018, celebrating the franchise's 15th anniversary. The series follows a group of aspiring voice actresses and stars Haruka Fukuhara, who voiced Himari Arisugawa/Cure Custard in "Kirakira PreCure a la Mode".


title: Pretty Cure

text: The combination of transmedia text products, including anime series, films, live performances, theme stores, and toys, has been analyzed as a "system of consumption, knowledge and action [that] creates a lifestyle-text, a set of fictional media works that are synonymous with the lifestyle practices they promote."


title: Pretty Cure

text: The "Pretty Cure" films are the seventh highest-grossing anime film franchise. Bandai Namco's net income from "Pretty Cure" video game sales was () from April 2008 to March 2012, () from April 2012 to March 2013, () from April 2013 to March 2014, and () from April 2014 to December 2020, adding up to () net sales revenue for Bandai Namco.


title: Pretty Cure

text: "Pretty Cure" has had numerous licensed merchandise sold in Japan. By 2010, it became Japan's fifth highest-grossing franchise annually.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (born September 24, 1952) is an American businessman, Democratic politician, and a member of the Kennedy family. He is a son of former United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, and he is also a nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from the 8th congressional district of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1999. In 1979 he founded and, until he was elected to the U.S. House, led Citizens Energy Corporation, a non-profit energy company which provides heating oil to low-income and elderly families in Massachusetts. Since 1999, Kennedy has continued to lead Citizens Energy, which has now become a leader in green energy development.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Joseph Patrick Kennedy II also better known as Joe was born in St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in the Brighton section of Boston, Massachusetts, the second of 11 children of Ethel (Skakel) and Robert Francis Kennedy. He was named after his grandfather Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family. He had a troubled youth and was expelled from several private schools as a result of his quick temper. He regularly got into fights with his younger brothers and male cousins. He was 15 when his father was assassinated. A restless, impulsive teenager, he left Milton Academy, a private, college preparatory school, in Milton, Massachusetts, later graduating from the Manter Hall School—also a private, college-preparatory school—in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971. During his time at Milton, he was roommates with Thomas C. Wales.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Kennedy attended the University of California, Berkeley, in Berkeley, California, during 1972 but dropped out. After this he worked for several months as part of a federally funded program to combat and treat tuberculosis in the African American community in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto personally praised Kennedy's work in the community. Kennedy resigned from his position in the program and returned to Massachusetts in the summer of 1973.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: On February 22, 1972, Kennedy was on Lufthansa Flight 649 when it was hijacked. Shortly after the inflight movie began during the 747's flight from New Delhi to Athens, five gunmen seized the jet and forced it to land at Aden International Airport, where all hostages were released the following day.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In August 1973, a Jeep he was driving on Nantucket overturned, fracturing one of his brother David Kennedy's vertebrae and permanently paralyzing David's girlfriend, Pam Kelley. The police cited Kennedy with reckless driving and the judge temporarily suspended his driver's license. The Kennedy family paid for Kelley's initial medical treatment and minorly contributed to her continued care during the years following the accident. Kelley died on November 20, 2020, leaving behind among others, a 31-year-old daughter and two grandsons.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Kennedy returned to school after the accident and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In 1979 Kennedy founded Citizens Energy, a nonprofit organization, to provide discounted heating oil to low-income families. In 2010, Kennedy transformed the organization to become a leader in renewable energy generation while continuing to use profits to provide energy savings to low-income families. ("See Citizens Energy (since 1979) section below.")


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In 1986 incumbent Democrat and Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr., who had held 8th Congressional district of Massachusetts seat since 1953, announced his retirement. Kennedy decided to run for the seat, which his uncle, former president John F. Kennedy, had held from 1947 to 1953. The Democratic nomination was contested by a number of well-known Democrats including state senator George Bachrach and state representative Mel King. However, Kennedy garnered endorsements from "The Boston Globe" and the retiring O'Neill. Kennedy won the primary with 53%. He won the general election with 72% of the vote. He won re-election in 1988 (80%), 1990 (72%), 1992 (83%), 1994 (99%), and 1996 (84%).


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In 1991 Kennedy boycotted a speech to the U.S. Congress by the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II "in protest to the British occupation in Northern Ireland".


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In March 1998, following a year of family troubles that included the skiing death of his brother Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, he announced that he planned to retire from the U.S. House, citing "a new recognition of our own vulnerabilities and the vagaries of life." An editorial in "The Boston Globe" observed that "Kennedy has remained steadfast in his political life to issues and constituencies no poll would have led him to: the poor, the homeless, disadvantaged children, and others swamped in the current tide of prosperity." He served in the U.S. House for six terms, until January 1999. In his final speech on the U.S. House floor, Kennedy delivered "an impassioned plea for unity and forgiveness" in the midst of Congressional debate regarding the proposed articles of impeachment of President Bill Clinton.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Throughout his career in the U.S. House, Kennedy served on the House Banking Committee, where he played an active role in the federal saving-and-loan bailout, credit-reporting reform, the overhaul of The Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 and financial modernization. Kennedy also served on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, passing legislation to strengthen the veterans' health-care system, to investigate the causes of Gulf War syndrome, and to provide medical treatment for veterans of the Persian Gulf War.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: After leaving the U.S. House, Kennedy returned to Citizens Energy. (During Kennedy's terms in the U.S. House, it had been run by his brother Michael.) Citizens Energy pursues commercial ventures aimed at generating revenues that, in turn, are used to generate funds that could assist those in need in the U.S. and abroad. It grew to encompass seven separate companies, including one of the largest energy-conservation firms in the U.S. Citizens Energy became one of the U.S.'s first energy firms to move large volumes of natural gas to more than thirty states. As a precursor to market changes under electricity deregulation in the late 1990s, Citizens Energy was a pioneer in moving and marketing electrical power over the power grid. In recent years, Kennedy has led the company into the renewable-energy industry, building solar farms along the East Coast and transmission lines to support charitable programs like one giving free solar panels to low-income families in California. In 2019, Citizens Energy announced the completion of one of the largest Low-Income Community Shared Solar projects in the country, funded by its investment in the Sunrise PowerLink Transmission line. Totaling 30 megawatts, the record-breaking California project will provide $500 in energy savings to 12,000 low-income families each year.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Since 1979, Citizens Energy has provided affordable heating oil to low-income families in Massachusetts and other cold-weather states. These charitable efforts were funded largely from profitable commercial ventures and donations.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Since returning to Citizens Energy, Kennedy also has sought to influence energy-related public policy, challenging the Bush administration to invest in energy conservation and efficiency and renewable energy, encouraging Congress to fully fund federal heating assistance programs, proposing that oil-consuming countries work together to balance oil prices against Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) manipulation, and calling for the federal government and major oil companies to use portions of royalties from oil and gas extracted from federal lands and waters to help low-income families with the high price of energy. Kennedy has been criticized for the salaries paid to himself and his wife. In 2012, as CEO of Citizens Energy and related organizations, Kennedy was paid a total of $796,000 in compensation, and his wife was paid an additional $344,000 as Director of Marketing.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Beginning in 2005, Citgo Petroleum Company (Citgo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)—the Venezuelan state-owned oil company—has been the primary donor of heating oil to Citizens Energy. "The Wall Street Journal" and others criticized Citizens Energy for continuing its relationship with the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, a harsh critic of the United States. In response, Kennedy and others have argued that it is hypocritical to criticize a non-profit organization for accepting oil from Venezuela while numerous other American businesses are profiting from robust trade with Venezuela and at a time when the U.S. government has cut low-income fuel assistance.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Although Citgo donations reportedly dried up in 2015 owing to Venezuela's economic turmoil, the company was reported in 2009 to have donated 83 million gallons of oil over the two previous years, which was used to provide heating assistance to an estimated 200,000 families a year in 23 states.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Kennedy has since turned into a critic of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the handpicked successor of Chávez, accusing him of "stealing democracy from the people" and calling for Maduro's removal.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In 1993 a "Boston Globe" poll showed Kennedy within one percentage point of popular incumbent William Weld in a hypothetical gubernatorial match-up, prompting prominent state Democrats to try and recruit him for the race. Though no other Democrat was polling near Weld, Kennedy decided to forgo the race and remain in Congress. Mark Roosevelt won the nomination and lost to Governor Weld by over 40 points.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Kennedy was considered the front runner for the governorship of Massachusetts in 1998, but revelations about his personal life led to a tumultuous fall in public opinion polling, and he decided against running.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: Kennedy explained in a VFW hall in a working-class corner of Boston that he believed he would never be able to focus his candidacy on issues: "The race will focus on personal or family questions. It is not fair to my family, it is not fair to the people of Massachusetts and it is not the right thing to do."


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: With the death of his uncle U.S. senator Ted Kennedy on August 25, 2009, Kennedy's name had been mentioned as a possible candidate for his uncle's seat representing Massachusetts in the United States Senate. In an Associated Press article, Democratic strategist Dan Payne said, "He wouldn't be human and he wouldn't be a Kennedy if he didn't give serious consideration to running for what is known as the 'Kennedy seat' in Massachusetts." However, Kennedy released a statement on September 7 explaining that he would not pursue the seat. The seat eventually went by appointment to Paul G. Kirk and later by election to Republican Scott Brown.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: On February 3, 1979, Kennedy married Sheila Brewster Rauch (born March 22, 1949), a daughter of banker Rudolph Stewart "Stew" Rauch Jr., president then chairman of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, and Frances Stuart Brewster. On October 4, 1980, the couple had fraternal twin sons, Matthew Rauch "Matt" Kennedy and Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy III. They were legally divorced in 1991.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: His older son (by eight minutes), Matthew, and his wife Katherine became parents to a daughter, Lily Frances Kennedy in 2013; Matthew and Katherine then welcomed their second child, Charlotte Ethel Kennedy, in


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: 2016. His younger son, Joseph III, and wife Lauren became parents to a daughter, Eleanor Anne Kennedy, in 2015, and a son in 2017, James Matthew Kennedy.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: In 1993 Kennedy asked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for an annulment of the marriage, claiming he was mentally incapable of entering into marriage at the time of his wedding. An annulment would have rendered the marriage void sacramentally (a church annulment does not change the legal legitimacy of a marriage) and allow Kennedy to marry Anne Elizabeth "Beth" Kelly (born April 3, 1957), a former staff member of his, in a Roman Catholic ceremony, as well as allow him to participate in other sacraments of the church, such as Holy Communion, not available to a divorced person who remarries. Rauch refused to agree to the annulment, and Kennedy married Beth in a non-Catholic civil ceremony on October 23, 1993.


title: Joseph P. Kennedy II

text: The Boston Archdiocese initially granted Kennedy the annulment, which was discovered by Rauch only after the decision in 1996. Sheila, who is an Episcopalian, wrote a book "Shattered Faith: A Woman's Struggle to Stop the Catholic Church from Annulling Her Marriage", explaining that she was opposed to the concept of annulment because it meant in Roman Catholic theology that the marriage had never actually existed, and claiming that the Kennedy family influence made it possible to unilaterally "cancel" a 12-year marriage. A tribunal decision in favor of annulment is automatically appealed, and the decision is not effective until a second, conforming, sentence is granted. Instead of allowing the appeal to take place in the United States, Rauch appealed directly to the Holy See. The original decision was overturned by the highest appellate tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Rota, in 2005. Rauch was not informed of the decision by the Boston Archdiocese until 2007. As the first decision was never confirmed, there was no time at which the Church declared the marriage to be null or gave Kennedy permission to remarry. Because the Rota was sitting as a second-instance appellate court, Kennedy could appeal against the decision to another Rotal panel.


title: Robert Wahlberg

text: Robert George Wahlberg (born December 18, 1967) is an American actor who has appeared in films such as "Southie", "Mystic River" and "The Departed".


title: Robert Wahlberg

text: Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Robert is the brother of Arthur, Jim, Paul, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died 2003), and actors/musicians Mark and Donnie Wahlberg. He also has three half-siblings from his father's first marriage: Donna, Scott, and Buddy. His mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, Donald Edmond Wahlberg, Sr., was a teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982. His father, a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, died on February 14, 2008.


title: Robert Wahlberg

text: His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, while his maternal ancestry is Irish, French-Canadian, and English.


title: Robert Wahlberg

text: Wahlberg has appeared in films such as "Southie", "Orphan", "Scenes of the Crime", "Moonlight Mile", "Mystic River", "The Departed", "Gone Baby Gone", "Don McKay" and "The Equalizer".


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself "King of France" (Latin: "rex Francie"). The son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed "Dieudonné" (God-given) because he was a first son and born late in his father's life. Philip was given the epithet "Augustus" by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably.


title: Philip II of France

text: After decades of conflicts with the House of Plantagenet, Philip succeeded in putting an end to the Angevin Empire by defeating a coalition of his rivals at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. This victory would have a lasting impact on western European politics: the authority of the French king became unchallenged, while the English King John was forced by his barons to assent to Magna Carta and deal with a rebellion against him aided by Philip's son Louis, the First Barons' War. The military actions surrounding the Albigensian Crusade helped prepare the expansion of France southward. Philip did not participate directly in these actions, but he allowed his vassals and knights to help carry them out.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip transformed France into the most prosperous and powerful country in Europe. He checked the power of the nobles and helped the towns free themselves from seigneurial authority, granting privileges and liberties to the emergent bourgeoisie. He built a great wall around Paris ("the Wall of Philip II Augustus"), re-organized the French government, and brought financial stability to his country.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165, the son of Louis VII and Adela of Champagne. He was nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given) since he was the first born son, arriving late in his father's life.


title: Philip II of France

text: Louis intended to make Philip co-ruler with him as soon as possible, in accordance with the traditions of the House of Capet, but these plans were delayed when Philip became ill after a hunting trip. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philip's recovery and was told that his son had indeed recovered. However, on his way back to Paris, the king suffered a stroke.


title: Philip II of France

text: In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Reims on 1 November 1179 by Archbishop William of the White Hands. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabella of Hainault, the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Isabella brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From the time of his coronation, all real power was transferred to Philip, as his father's health slowly declined. The great nobles were discontented with Philip's advantageous marriage. His mother and four uncles, all of whom exercised enormous influence over Louis, were extremely unhappy with his attainment of the throne, since Philip had taken the royal seal from his father. Louis died on 18 September 1180.


title: Philip II of France

text: The royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, but had slightly diminished under Louis VII. The first major increase to the royal demesne came in 1185, when Philip acquired the County of Amiens. He purchased the County of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in 1218, and following the death of Robert I, Count of Alençon in 1219, Philip obtained the city and county of Alençon. Philip's eldest son, Louis, inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when Queen Isabella died.


title: Philip II of France

text: The main source of funding for Philip's army was from the royal demesne. In times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights, 250 horse sergeants, 100 mounted crossbowmen, 133 crossbowmen on foot, 2,000-foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights, 9,000 sergeants, 6,000 urban militiamen, and thousands of foot sergeants. Using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men. Within two years, his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones.


title: Philip II of France

text: Reversing his father's toleration and protection of Jews, Philip in 1180 ordered French Jews to be stripped of their valuables, ransomed and converted to Christianity on pain of further taxation. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, he expelled all Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods. Philip expelled them from the royal demesne in July 1182 and had Jewish houses in Paris demolished to make way for the Les Halles market. The measures were profitable in the short-term, the ransoms alone bringing in 15,000 marks and enriching Christians at the expense of Jews. Ninety-nine Jews were burned alive in Brie-Comte-Robert. In 1198 Philip allowed Jews to return.


title: Philip II of France

text: In 1181, a conflict arose between Philip and Count Philip I of Flanders over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wife's dowry. Finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin. Notified of Philip's approach with 2,000 knights, he headed back to Flanders. Philip chased him, and the two armies confronted each other near Amiens. By this stage, Philip had managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Duke Henry I of Brabant and the Archbishop of Cologne, Philipp von Heinsberg. This, together with an uncertain outcome were he to engage the French in battle, forced the Count to conclude a peace. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves left the disputed territory partitioned, with Amiénois, Artois, and numerous other places passing to the king, and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, left provisionally to the Count of Flanders. It was during this time that Philip II was nicknamed "Augustus" by the monk Rigord for augmenting French lands.


title: Philip II of France

text: Meanwhile, in 1184, Stephen I, Count of Sancerre and his Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.


title: Philip II of France

text: A disagreement arose between Philip and King Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France. The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, in June 1183, began a dispute over the dowry of Philip's widowed sister Margaret. Philip insisted that the dowry should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, per the betrothal agreement. The two kings would hold conferences at the foot of an elm tree near Gisors, which was so positioned that it would overshadow each monarch's territory, but to no avail. Philip pushed the case further when King Béla III of Hungary asked for the widow's hand in marriage, and thus her dowry had to be returned, to which Henry finally agreed.


title: Philip II of France

text: The death of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, began a new round of disputes, as Henry insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the issue of his other sister, Alys, Countess of Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Henry's son Richard I of England, nicknamed Richard the Lionheart.


title: Philip II of France

text: With these grievances, two years of combat followed (1186–1188), but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons Richard the Lionheart and John, who were in rebellion against their father. Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187, but by June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in Philip's hands while also granting him Fréteval in Vendômois. Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188. He skillfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonsmoulins in November 1188.


title: Philip II of France

text: In 1189, as Henry's health was failing, Richard openly joined forces with Philip to drive him into submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, losing Tours in the process, before forcing him to acknowledge Richard as his heir. Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau (4 July 1189), Henry was forced to renew his own homage, confirm the cession of Issoudun to Philip (along with Graçay), and renounce his claim to suzerainty over Auvergne. Henry died two days later. His death, and the news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.


title: Philip II of France

text: The Angevin kings of England (the line of rulers to which Henry II belonged), were Philip's most powerful and dangerous vassals as Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine and Counts of Anjou. Philip made it his life's work to destroy Angevin power in France. One of his most effective tools was to befriend all of Henry's sons and use them to foment rebellion against their father. He maintained friendships with Henry the Young King and Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany until their deaths. Indeed, at Geoffrey's funeral, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave. He broke off his friendships with Henry's other sons Richard and John as each ascended to the English throne.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip travelled to the Holy Land to participate in the Third Crusade of 1189–1192 with King Richard I of England and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, leaving Vézelay with his army on 4 July 1190. At first, the French and English crusaders travelled together, but the armies split at Lyon after Richard decided to go by sea from Marseille, whereas Philip took the overland route through the Alps to Genoa. The French and English armies were reunited in Messina, where they wintered together. On 30 March 1191, the French set sail for the Holy Land and on 20 April Philip arrived at Acre, which was already under siege by a lesser contingent of crusaders, and he started to construct siege equipment before Richard arrived on 8 June. By the time Acre surrendered on 12 July, Philip was severely ill with dysentery, which reduced his zeal. Ties with Richard were further strained after the latter acted in a haughty manner after Acre fell to the crusaders.


title: Philip II of France

text: More importantly, the siege of Acre resulted in the death of Philip, Count of Flanders, who held the county of Vermandois proper. His death threatened to derail the Treaty of Gisors that Philip had orchestrated to isolate the powerful Blois-Champagne faction. Philip decided to return to France to settle the issue of succession in Flanders, a decision that displeased Richard, who said, "It is a shame and a disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him hither. But still, if he finds himself in bad health, or is afraid lest he should die here, his will be done." On 31 July 1191, the French army of 10,000 men (along with 5,000 silver marks to pay the soldiers) remained in Outremer under the command of Duke Hugh III of Burgundy. Philip and his cousin Peter of Courtenay, Count of Nevers, made their way to Rome, where Philip protested to Pope Celestine III (to no avail) of Richard's abusive manner, and from there returned to France. The decision to return was also fuelled by the realisation that with Richard campaigning in the Holy Land, English possessions in northern France would be open to attack. After Richard's delayed return home, war between England and France would ensue over possession of English-controlled territories.


title: Philip II of France

text: The immediate cause of Philip's conflict with Richard the Lionheart stemmed from Richard's decision to break his betrothal with Philip's sister Alys at Messina in 1191. Some of Alys's dowry that had been given over to Richard during their engagement was part of the territory of Vexin. This should have reverted to Philip upon the end of the betrothal, but Philip, to prevent the collapse of the Crusade, agreed that this territory was to remain in Richard's hands and would be inherited by his male descendants. Should Richard die without an heir, the territory would return to Philip, and if Philip died without an heir, those lands would be considered a part of Normandy.


title: Philip II of France

text: Returning to France in late 1191, Philip began plotting to find a way to have those territories restored to him. He was in a difficult situation, as he had taken an oath not to attack Richard's lands while he was away on crusade. The Third Crusade ordained territory was under the protection of the Church in any event. Philip was unsuccessful in requesting a release from his oath from Pope Celestine III, so he was forced to build his own casus belli.


title: Philip II of France

text: On 20 January 1192, Philip met with William FitzRalph, Richard's seneschal for Normandy. Presenting some documents purporting to be from Richard, Philip claimed that the English king had agreed at Messina to hand disputed lands over to France. Not having heard anything directly from their sovereign, FitzRalph and the Norman barons rejected Philip's claim to Vexin. Philip at this time also began spreading rumors about Richard's action in the east to discredit the English king in the eyes of his subjects. Among the stories Philip invented included Richard involved in treacherous communication with Saladin, alleging he had conspired to cause the fall of Gaza, Jaffa, and Ashkelon, and that he had participated in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat. Finally, Philip made contact with John, Richard's brother, whom he convinced to join the conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate king of England.


title: Philip II of France

text: At the start of 1193, John visited Philip in Paris, where he paid homage for Richard's continental lands. When word reached Philip that Richard had finished crusading and had been captured on his way back from the Holy Land, he promptly invaded Vexin. His first target was the fortress of Gisors, commanded by Gilbert de Vascoeuil, which surrendered without putting up a struggle. Philip then penetrated deep into Normandy, reaching as far as Dieppe. To keep the duplicitous John on his side, Philip entrusted him with the defence of the town of Évreux. Meanwhile, Philip was joined by Count Baldwin IX of Flanders, and together they laid siege to Rouen, the ducal capital of Normandy. Here, Philip's advance was halted by a defense led by the Earl of Leicester. Unable to penetrate this defense, Philip moved on.


title: Philip II of France

text: At Mantes on 9 July 1193, Philip came to terms with Richard's ministers, who agreed that Philip could keep his gains and would be given some extra territories if he ceased all further aggressive actions in Normandy, along with the condition that Philip would hand back the captured territory if Richard would pay homage. To prevent Richard from spoiling their plans, Philip and John attempted to bribe Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in order to keep the English king captive for a little while longer. Henry refused, and Richard was released from captivity on 4 February 1194. By 13 March Richard had returned to England, and by 12 May he had set sail for Normandy with some 300 ships, eager to engage Philip in war.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip had spent this time consolidating his territorial gains and by now controlled much of Normandy east of the Seine, while remaining within striking distance of Rouen. His next objective was the castle of Verneuil, which had withstood an earlier siege. Once Richard arrived at Barfleur, he soon marched towards Verneuil. As his forces neared the castle, Philip, who had been unable to break through, decided to strike camp. Leaving a large force behind to prosecute the siege, he moved off towards Évreux, which John had handed over to his brother to prove his loyalty. Philip retook the town and sacked it, but during this time, his forces at Verneuil abandoned the siege, and Richard entered the castle unopposed on 30 May. Throughout June, while Philip's campaign ground to a halt in the north, Richard was taking a number of important fortresses to the south. Philip, eager to relieve the pressure off his allies in the south, marched to confront Richard's forces at Vendôme. Refusing to risk everything in a major battle, Philip retreated, only to have his rear guard caught at Fréteval on 3 July. This Battle of Fréteval turned into a general encounter in which Philip barely managed to avoid capture as his army was put to flight. Fleeing back to Normandy, Philip avenged himself on the English by attacking the forces of John and the Earl of Arundel, seizing their baggage train. By now both sides were tiring, and they agreed to the temporary Truce of Tillières.


title: Philip II of France

text: The war resumed in 1195 when Philip once again besieged Verneuil. He continued the siege in secret as Richard arrived to negotiate in person; when Richard found out, he swore revenge and left. Philip now pressed his advantage in northeastern Normandy, where he conducted a raid at Dieppe, burning the English ships in the harbor while repulsing an attack by Richard at the same time. Philip now marched southward into the Berry region. His primary objective was the fortress of Issoudun, which had just been captured by Richard's mercenary commander, Mercadier. The French king took the town and was besieging the castle when Richard stormed through French lines and made his way in to reinforce the garrison, while at the same time another army was approaching Philip's supply lines. Philip called off his attack, and another truce was agreed.


title: Philip II of France

text: The war slowly turned against Philip over the course of the next three years. Political and military conditions seemed promising at the start of 1196 when Richard's nephew Arthur I, Duke of Brittany ended up in Philip's hands, and he won the Siege of Aumale, but Philip's good fortune did not last. Richard won over a key ally, Baldwin of Flanders, in 1197. The same year, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI died and was succeeded by Otto IV, Richard's nephew, who put additional pressure on Philip. Finally, many Norman lords were switching sides and returning to Richard's camp. This was the state of affairs when Philip launched his campaign of 1198 with an attack on Vexin that was pushed back and then compounded by the Flemish invasion of Artois.


title: Philip II of France

text: On 27 September, Richard entered Vexin, taking Courcelles-sur-Seine and Boury-en-Vexin before returning to Dangu. Philip, believing that Courcelles was still holding out, went to its relief. Discovering what was happening, Richard decided to attack the French king's forces, catching Philip by surprise. Philip's forces fled and attempted to reach the fortress of Gisors. Bunched together, the French knights with king Philip attempted to cross the Epte River on a bridge that promptly collapsed under their weight, almost drowning Philip in the process. He was dragged out of the river and shut himself up in Gisors.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip soon planned a new offensive, launching raids into Normandy and again targeting Évreux. Richard countered Philip's thrust with a counterattack in Vexin, while Mercadier led a raid on Abbeville. By autumn 1198, Richard had regained almost all that had been lost in 1193. In desperate circumstances, Philip offered a truce so that discussions could begin towards a more permanent peace, with the offer that he would return all of the territories except for Gisors.


title: Philip II of France

text: In mid-January 1199, the two kings met for a final meeting, Richard standing on the deck of a boat, Philip standing on the banks of the Seine River. Shouting terms at each other, they could not reach agreement on the terms of a permanent truce, but they did agree to further mediation, which resulted in a five-year truce that held. Later in 1199, Richard was killed during a siege involving one of his vassals.


title: Philip II of France

text: In May 1200, Philip signed the Treaty of Le Goulet with Richard's successor King John. The treaty was meant to bring peace to Normandy by settling the issue of its much-reduced boundaries. The terms of John's vassalage were not only for Normandy, but also for Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. John agreed to heavy terms, including the abandonment of all the English possessions in Berry and 20,000 marks of silver, while Philip in turn recognised John as king of England, formally abandoning Arthur of Brittany's candidacy, whom he had hitherto supported, recognising instead John's suzerainty over the Duchy of Brittany. To seal the treaty, a marriage between Blanche of Castile, John's niece, and Louis the Lion, Philip's son, was contracted.


title: Philip II of France

text: This agreement did not bring warfare to an end in France, however, since John's mismanagement of Aquitaine led the province to later rebel in 1200, a disturbance that Philip secretly encouraged. To disguise his ambitions, Philip invited John to a conference at Andely and then entertained him at Paris, and both times he committed to complying with the treaty. In 1202, disaffected patrons petitioned the French king to summon John to answer their charges in his capacity as John's feudal lord in France. John refused to appear, so Philip again took up Arthur of Brittany's claims to the English throne as well as betrothing him to his six-year-old daughter Marie. In retaliation John crossed over into Normandy and his forces soon captured Arthur. In 1203, Arthur disappeared, with most people believing that John had had him murdered. The outcry over Arthur's fate saw an increase in local opposition to John, which Philip used to his advantage. He took to the offensive and, apart from a five-month siege of Andely, swept all before him. After Andely surrendered, John fled to England. By the end of 1204, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine, had fallen into Philip's hands.


title: Philip II of France

text: What Philip had gained through victory in war, he sought to confirm by legal means. Philip, again acting as John's liege lord over his French lands, summoned him to appear before the Court of the Twelve Peers of France to answer for Arthur's murder. John requested safe conduct, but Philip only agreed to allow him to come in peace, while providing for his return only if it were allowed after the judgment of his peers. Not willing to risk his life on such a guarantee, John refused to appear, so Philip summarily dispossessed the English of all lands. Pushed by his barons, John eventually launched an invasion of northern France in 1206, disembarking with his army at La Rochelle during one of Philip's absences, but the campaign ended up a disaster. After backing out of a conference that he himself had demanded, John eventually bargained at Thouars for a two-year truce, the price of which was his agreement to the chief provisions of the judgment of the Court of Peers, including a loss of his patrimony.


title: Philip II of France

text: In 1208, Philip of Swabia, the successful candidate to become Holy Roman Emperor, was assassinated. As a result, the imperial crown was given to his rival Otto IV, the nephew of King John. Otto, prior to his accession, had promised to help John recover his lost possessions in France, but circumstances prevented him from making good on his promise. By 1212, both John and Otto were engaged in power struggles against Pope Innocent III: John over his refusal to accept the papal nomination for the archbishop of Canterbury, and Otto over his attempt to strip King Frederick II of Germany of the Kingdom of Sicily. Philip decided to take advantage of this situation, first in Germany, where he aided German noble rebellion in support of the young Frederick. John immediately threw England's weight behind Otto, and Philip now saw his chance to launch a successful invasion of England.


title: Philip II of France

text: In order to secure the cooperation of all his vassals in his plans for the invasion, Philip denounced John as an enemy of the Church, thereby justifying his attack as motivated solely by religious scruples. He summoned an assembly of French barons at Soissons, which was well attended. The only exception was Count Ferdinand of Flanders, who refused out of anger over the loss of the towns of Aire and Saint-Omer that had been captured by Philip's son Louis the Lion. He would not participate in any campaign until he was restored to his ancient lands.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip was eager to prove his loyalty to Rome and thus secure papal support for his planned invasion, announced at Soissons a reconciliation with his estranged wife Ingeborg of Denmark, which the popes had been promoting. The barons fully supported his plan, and they all gathered their forces and prepared to join with Philip at the agreed rendezvous. Through all of this, Philip remained in constant communication with Pandulf Verraccio, the papal legate, who was encouraging Philip to pursue his objective. Verraccio however was also holding secret discussions with King John. Advising the English king of his precarious predicament, he persuaded John to abandon his opposition to papal investiture and agreed to accept the papal legate's decision in any ecclesiastical disputes as final. In return, the pope agreed to accept the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland as papal fiefs, which John would rule as the pope's vassal, and for which John would do homage to the pope.


title: Philip II of France

text: No sooner had the treaty between John and the pope been ratified in May 1213 than Verraccio announced to Philip that he would have to abandon his expedition against John, since to attack a faithful vassal of the Holy See would be a mortal sin. Philip argued in vain that his plans had been drawn up with the consent of Rome, that his expedition was in support of papal authority that he only undertook on the understanding that he would gain a plenary indulgence; he had spent a fortune preparing for the expedition. The papal legate remained unmoved, but Verraccio did suggest an alternative. The Count of Flanders had denied Philip's right to declare war on England while King John was still excommunicated, and that his disobedience needed to be punished. Philip eagerly accepted the advice, and quickly marched at the head of his troops into the territory of Flanders.


title: Philip II of France

text: The French fleet proceeded first to Gravelines and then to the port of Damme. Meanwhile, the army marched by Cassel, Ypres, and Bruges before laying siege to Ghent. Hardly had the siege begun when Philip learned that the English fleet had captured a number of his ships at Damme and that the rest were so closely blockaded in its harbor that it was impossible for them to escape. He ordered the fleet to be burned to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.


title: Philip II of France

text: The destruction of the French fleet had once again raised John's hopes, so he began preparing for an invasion of France and a reconquest of his lost provinces. The English barons were initially unenthusiastic about the expedition, which delayed his departure, so it was not until February 1214 that he disembarked at La Rochelle. John was to advance from the Loire, while his ally Otto IV made a simultaneous attack from Flanders, together with the Count of Flanders. The three armies did not coordinate their efforts effectively. It was not until John had been disappointed in his hope for an easy victory after being driven from Roche-au-Moine and had retreated to his transports that the Imperial Army, with Otto at its head, assembled in the Low Countries.


title: Philip II of France

text: On 27 July 1214, the opposing armies suddenly discovered that they were in close proximity to one another, on the banks of a little tributary of the River Lys, near the bridge at Bouvines. It being a Sunday, Philip did not expect the allied army to attack, as it was considered unholy to fight on the Sabbath. Philip's army numbered some 7,000, while the allied forces possessed around 9,000 troops. The armies clashed at what became known as the Battle of Bouvines. Philip was unhorsed by the Flemish pikemen in the heat of battle, and were it not for his mail armor he would have probably been killed. When Otto was carried off the field by his wounded and terrified horse, and the Count of Flanders was severely wounded and taken prisoner, the Flemish and Imperial troops saw that the battle was lost, turned, and fled the field. The French did not pursue.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip returned to Paris triumphant, marching his captive prisoners behind him in a long procession, as his grateful subjects came out to greet the victorious king. In the aftermath of the battle, Otto retreated to his castle of Harzburg and was soon overthrown as Holy Roman Emperor, to be replaced by Frederick II. Count Ferdinand remained imprisoned following his defeat, while King John's attempt to rebuild the Angevin Empire ended in complete failure.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip's decisive victory was crucial in shaping Western European politics in both England and France. In England, the defeated John was so weakened that he was soon required to submit to the demands of his barons and sign Magna Carta, which limited the power of the crown and established the basis for common law. The Battle of Bouvines marked the end of the Angevin Empire.


title: Philip II of France

text: After the early death of Isabella of Hainaut in childbirth in 1190, Philip decided to marry again. On 15 August 1193, he married Ingeborg, daughter of King Valdemar I of Denmark, receiving 10,000 marks of silver as a dowry. Philip met her at Amiens on 14 August 1193 and they were married that same day. At the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, Archbishop Guillaume of Reims crowned both Philip and Ingeborg. During the ceremony, Philip was pale, nervous, and could not wait for the ceremony to end. Following the ceremony, he had Ingeborg sent to the convent of Saint-Maur-des-Fosses and asked Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation. Philip had not reckoned with Ingeborg, however; she insisted that the marriage had been consummated, and that she was his wife and the rightful queen of France. The Franco-Danish churchman William of Æbelholt intervened on Ingeborg's side, drawing up a genealogy of the Danish kings to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity.


title: Philip II of France

text: In the meantime, Philip had sought a new bride. Initial agreement had been reached for him to marry Margaret, daughter of Count William I of Geneva, but the young bride's journey to Paris was interrupted by Thomas, Count of Savoy, who kidnapped Philip's intended new wife and married her instead, claiming that Philip was already bound in marriage. Philip finally achieved a third marriage in June 1196, when he was married to Agnes of Merania from Dalmatia. Their children were Marie and Philip, Count of Clermont.


title: Philip II of France

text: Pope Innocent III declared Philip Augustus' marriage to Agnes of Merania null and void, as he was still married to Ingeborg. He ordered the king to part from Agnes, and when he did not, the pope placed France under an interdict in 1199. This continued until 7 September 1200. Due to pressure from the pope, Ingeborg's brother King Valdemar II of Denmark and ultimately Agnes' death in 1201, Philip finally took Ingeborg back as his wife, but it would not be until 1213 that she would be recognized at court as queen.


title: Philip II of France

text: The only known description of Philip describes him as "a handsome, strapping fellow, bald but with a cheerful face of ruddy complexion, and a temperament much inclined towards good-living, wine, and women. He was generous to his friends, stingy towards those who displeased him, well-versed in the art of stratagem, orthodox in belief, prudent and stubborn in his resolves. He made judgements with great speed and exactitude. Fortune's favorite, fearful for his life, easily excited and easily placated, he was very tough with powerful men who resisted him, and took pleasure in provoking discord among them. Never, however, did he cause an adversary to die in prison. He liked to employ humble men, to be the subduer of the proud, the defender of the Church, and feeder of the poor".


title: Philip II of France

text: When Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against the "Albigensians," or Cathars, in Languedoc in 1208, Philip did nothing to support it, though he did not stop his nobles from joining in. The war against the Cathars did not end until 1244, when their last strongholds were finally captured. The fruits of the victory, the submission of the south of France to the crown, were to be reaped by Philip's son Louis VIII and grandson Louis IX. From 1216 to 1222, Philip also arbitrated in the War of the Succession of Champagne and finally helped the military efforts of Duke Odo III of Burgundy and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II to bring it to an end.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip II Augustus played a significant role in one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and education in France. With Paris as his capital, he had the main thoroughfares paved, built a central market, Les Halles, continued the construction begun in 1163 of Notre-Dame de Paris, constructed the first incarnation of the Louvre as a fortress, and gave a charter to the University of Paris in 1200. Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of teachers the medieval world knew. In 1224, the French poet Henry d'Andeli wrote of the great wine tasting competition that Philip II Augustus commissioned, the Battle of the Wines.


title: Philip II of France

text: Philip II fell ill in September 1222 and had a will made, but carried on with his itinerary. Hot weather the next summer worsened his fever, but a brief remission prompted him to travel to Paris on 13 July 1223, against the advice of his physician. He died en route the next day, in Mantes-la-Jolie, at the age of 58. His body was carried to Paris on a bier. He was interred in the Basilica of St Denis in the presence of his son and successor, Louis VIII, as well as his illegitimate son Philip I, Count of Boulogne and John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem.