Biography.

Being the brother of King Eric VI who served as king of Denmark from 1286 til 1319, Christopher was a possible heir to the throne. As a young man with the title of Duke of Estonia, he supported the politics of his brother. Among other things he arrested Archbishop Jens Grand in 1294. But later on he joined the opposition and went into exile at the death of Eric in 1319.  The magnates wanted a weak royal power, and Christopher was elected as king in January 1320; in return he signed a contractual håndfæstning, the first time this kind of document was used as a coronation charter. He received a "bankrupt estate" in which entire regions of the kingdom were mortgaged to German and Danish magnates. The conditions of the charter were very hard, because they limited his ability to assess taxes, as well as demanded payments on the mortgages. Christopher could make no decision regarding the realm without the consent of the nobility and the bishops. The privileges of the nobility and the church were included in the charter and new ones were included. No bishop could be imprisoned, exiled, or fined without the pope's approval, no secular court could try any churchman, no church land or property could be taxed, the nobles could raise fees or rents on peasants, no noble could be forced to fight abroad or forced to pay to outfit soldiers to fight abroad, the king was required to ransom captured noblemen within a year, all taxes imposed since the reign of Valdemar Sejr on nobles or church were to be lifted, but the kingdom's debts were to be paid. This shift of power away from the king would last until 1660.  Despite signing the charter, King Christopher ruled as if it did not exist. Since he could not tax the church or Danish nobles he levied disastrous taxes on the German territories and peasants. During the following years Christopher tried to strengthen his position by reviving Erik’s policy of warfare against the duchies, counties, and cities of northern Germany. This resulted in new mortgages and taxes, and very soon he was in conflict with both the church and the magnates.  During a rebellion in 1326 he was overthrown by an alliance between Danish magnates and Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg and John I, Count of Holstein-Kiel, son of Adolf IV of Holstein). Christopher was forced into abdication and exile, while the 12-year-old Duke Valdemar of Southern Jutland was made king of Denmark, with Count Gerhard as regent. They forced Valdemar in his coronation charter to separate southern Jutland from Denmark so that never again would the King of Denmark rule there. Danish nobleman Knud Porse took Halland for himself for his services to Count Gerhard and Count Johann. The squabbling over who got which pieces of Denmark broke down the alliances which had forced Christopher out of the country. Until 1329 Christopher lived in exile, but a growing chaos in the "magnates’ republic" of Denmark gave him another chance. Frictions developed between Gerhard and his cousin Johan the mild, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein-Plön and Holstein-Kiel who was also Christopher’s half-brother through his widowed mother's marriage to Gerhard II, Count of Holstein-Plön. Suddenly, with the help of Henry of Mecklenburg, Christopher stood poised at Vordingborg with 2000 mounted German knights. Unfortunately for Christopher they allowed themselves to be surrounded and were forced to surrender. After a peasant uprising in Jutland which was crushed ruthlessly by Count Gerhard, the peasants in Skåne begged King Magnus IV of Sweden to rule them. He readily accepted and Denmark ceased to exist as a united kingdom. Christopher was restored as Danish king in 1329–1330 with the cooperation of Count Johan, but this time he was reduced to the position of a puppet from the start. Most of his country was mortgaged, and he had no chance of holding real royal power. Jutland for example was mortgaged for 100,000 silver marks which had to be "laid on the table all at once" or the mortgage was not redeemed. It was an enormous mortgage and impossible to pay. Count Gerhard took all of Jutland as his personal property. Count Johan did the same on Funen and Zealand. In 1331 Christopher attempted to exploit a conflict between Counts Gerhard and Johan by joining the latter, but it ended in a clear military defeat at Dannevirke. Under the terms of the settlement between the counts, Christopher was allowed to retain the title of king, but in reality had no power whatsoever. He was given a simple house at Sakskøbing on Lolland, but even that was burned by German mercenaries. Christopher was imprisoned at Ålholm Castle on Lolland where he died a ruined and broken man the next year. He was buried at Sorø Abbey.  Upon his death Denmark ceased being a formal kingdom, and for the next eight years it was subdued by various mortgagees to German military rule.

Legacy.

History's judgment of Christopher has been extremely hard, and he has often been regarded as a weak, unreliable and incapable tyrant— "the king who mortgaged Denmark to the Germans". He in many ways simply carried on the policy of his predecessor. The policy of mortgaging parts of Denmark was common practice by nobles and kings alike to raise money. It would be incorrect to call him a passive ruler; the power of the Danish and German high nobility and their co-operation with church establishment undermined his freedom of action.

Issue.

With his wife, Euphemia of Pomerania, whom he wed in 1300;  Illegitimate with? Lunge:

Christopher II (; 29 September 1276 – 2 August 1332) was king of Denmark from 1320 to 1326 and again from 1329 until his death. He was a younger son of Eric V. His name is connected with national disaster, as his rule ended in an almost total dissolution of the Danish state.


Overview.

The adult weevil is matte black with fused wing covers, and is unable to fly. It feeds at night on the outer edges of leaves, causing the leaves to have a notched margin. Broadleaved evergreen plants such as "Camellia", "Rhododendron", "Euonymus" and "Bergenia" are particularly prone to damage, although a wide range of different garden plants is susceptible to attack.  Female weevils have the ability to reproduce parthenogenetically with fertilisation of eggs required to produce males, though no males have been observed. This form of parthenogenesis is known as thelytoky. Grubs grow up to 1 cm in length, have a slightly curved, legless body, creamy-white in colour, with a tan-brown head. They live below the soil surface, and feed on roots and cambium at the base of the trunk. They cause most damage to herbaceous plants, particularly those growing in containers, where root growth is restricted. Severe infestations can result in complete root destruction and hence plant death.

Host plants.

The host plants include the following, listed by genus:

Controls.

The soil dwelling grubs can be difficult to control with chemical insecticides and products showing some efficacy, such as chlorpyrifos have been withdrawn from many markets: especially garden centres. Besides their environmental benefits, certain 'cruiser' entomopathogenic nematode species (also see below) have the additional capacity to search for their prey underground.  Adult weevils can be controlled by using sticky barriers on the trunks of affected plants, as the weevils return to the soil each day.  Adults can also be manually removed from plants at night when they can be found feeding on leaf edges. Use only a dim torch or candlelight to search by, as they will drop to the ground if startled by bright light.

Biological controls.

Larvae can be controlled using parasitic nematodes, for example "Steinernema kraussei" and "Heterorhabditis bacteriophora" (a 'cruiser' species), which can be bought from some garden centres and by mail order. They are simply mixed with water, and watered onto the soil.  Adults may also be controlled using products based on the fungi "Metarhizium brunneum" and "Beauveria bassiana".

Black vine weevil ("Otiorhynchus sulcatus") is an insect native to Europe but common in North America as well. It is a pest of many garden plants.


Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Crown Princess of Prussia

Life.

As the maternal niece of the king of Prussia and the paternal niece of the queen of Prussia, she was selected to marry her cousin Crown Prince Frederick William, by his uncle, the childless King, with the purpose of producing heirs to the Prussian throne.  The marriage ceremony between Elisabeth Christine and Crown Prince Frederick William was originally planned to take place at Charlottenburg Palace's Chapel, but in the end took place on 14 July 1765, on the family country estate Schloss Salzdahlum.

Crown Princess.

Elisabeth Christine was described as handsome to her appearance, engaging and graceful in manner, lively, high-spirited and impetuous in disposition, and was admired for the grace of her dancing. Her beauty, intelligence and spirited manner made her a favorite of her uncle the king, otherwise very seldom interested in women, who considered her to be witty and had very little sympathy for the adultery of her spouse.  Soon it became clear the couple was not happy with each other. King Frederick had hoped that the marriage would lead to the production of an heir, but instead noticed that Frederick William neglected his wife and was unfaithful to her on a daily basis with a series of dancers and actresses. When their first child proved to be a girl, Princess Frederica Charlotte, their relationship deteriorated.  This was described in "Vertraute Briefe" as: "Frederic William was now twenty-one years of age; his disposition was good, but his capacity was slender; he resembled the Bruns wicks in person, being six feet two in height, and proportionally stout. But he was unfortunately addicted to the grossest sensuality, and his time, when not occupied by his military duties, was spent with vile women and other loose companions. His young wife resented this conduct in the highest degree; wounded alike in her wifehood and her womanhood, she not only separated herself from the crown Prince, and haughtily refused him admission to her presence, but, alas! She sacrificed even virtue to revenge."  Wounded by her husband's neglect and infidelity, the Crown Princess began to have affairs with young officers of the Potsdam Guard. In a letter wrote to his sister (and Elisabeth Christine's mother) Philippine Charlotte, the concerned King says:

Divorce.

This scandal finally erupted when, as was noted by Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer, the Crown Princess became pregnant by her lover, a musician called Pietro. By late January 1769 they planned to escape to Italy, but she was betrayed. On a masked ball given by Prince Henry in celebration of the king's birthday on 24 January 1769, the crown prince was informed of her affairs by an anonymous person hidden behind a mask, which enraged him despite his own adultery, and made him demand a divorce.  King Frederick was initially unwilling to agree to a divorce, as his sympathy was greater for Elisabeth Christine than for Frederick William, but the crown prince insisted in his demand for a divorce, and urged in agreement with the King the annulment of his marriage on grounds to avoid claims of illegitimate offspring on the Prussian throne, to which the Brunswick court agreed. The musician Pietro was arrested and taken to Magdeburg, where he was reportedly beheaded. Elisabeth Christine terminated her pregnancy with drugs. Her brother, Prince William of Brunswick, was aware of her affairs, and his attempts to hide them and defend her exposed him to suspicions that he himself had been involved in them.  The divorce was officially pronounced on 18 April 1769. Frederick the Great forced his nephew to remarry only three months after the separation.

Later life.

Elisabeth Christine was firstly banished to Küstrin Fortress and later placed under house arrest as a Prisoner of state in the Ducal Castle of Stettin under the care of her cousin, Duke Augustus William of Brunswick-Bevern. She lost the title of Royal Highness and was given the title of Serene Highness.  At first, she lived in harsh circumstances. Being of an extrovert nature, she suffered from her isolation: reportedly, she sometimes placed all the chairs in a long row in her apartments, and dance "Anglaises" between them to ease her boredom. She did at one point attempt to escape, and made an agreement with an officer to help her escape to Venice, but the plan was never put in fruition as her accomplice suddenly disappeared. Eventually, King Frederick improved her living conditions, and in 1774, she was given a summer residence in the medieval cloister in Jasenitz.  After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, she received a visit from her former spouse, and during his reign, her conditions improved: she was given permission to entertain visitors, and to walk, and ride on horseback in the areas of the town. According to Mirabeau, she was offered her release, but declined, as she had by that time grown used to her lifestyle. An incident is known, when she slapped an officer who insisted upon opening a New Year's gift from her mother: when he sent a complaint to the king, he answered "no man could ever be insulted by a blow from the hand of so fair a lady."  Elisabeth Christine never saw her daughter or siblings again; during her later life, King Frederick William IV was the only one who visited her. When the French army occupied Stettin in 1806, the so-called "Elisabeth of Stettin" moved to a small country estate outside the city walls, which she called "Landhaus Friedrichsgnade" ('Villa Frederick's mercy').  Elisabeth Christine died at the age of 93. At her death, all the bells of the city rang. She had a mausoleum built for herself in her beloved park because she didn't want to be buried with her relatives in the Ducal Brunswick Crypt. When the park was handed to private hands, she was reburied in the Chapel of the Ducal Castle of Stettin on the night of 19 July 1849. Other sources, however, indicated that she was later reburied in the cathedral of Kraków.

Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Elisabeth Christine Ulrike; 8 November 1746 – 18 February 1840), was a Crown Princess of Prussia as the first wife of Crown Prince Frederick William, her cousin and the future king Frederick William II of Prussia.


Description.

Red-necked wallabies are distinguished by their black nose and paws, white stripe on the upper lip, and grizzled medium grey coat with a reddish wash across the shoulders. They can weigh and attain a head-body length of, although males are generally bigger than females. Red-necked wallabies are very similar in appearance to the Black-striped wallaby, the only difference being that Red-necked wallabies are larger, lack a black stripe down the back, and have softer fur. Red-necked wallabies may live up to 9 years.

Distribution and habitat.

Red-necked wallabies are found in coastal scrub and sclerophyll forest throughout coastal and highland eastern Australia, from Bundaberg, Queensland to the South Australian border; in Tasmania and on many of the Bass Strait islands. It is unclear which of the Tasmanian islands have native populations as opposed to introduced ones.  In Tasmania and coastal Queensland, their numbers have expanded over the past 30 years because of a reduction in hunting pressure and the partial clearing of forest to result in a mosaic of pastures where wallabies can feed at night, alongside bushland where they can shelter by day. For reasons not altogether clear, they are less common in Victoria.

Behaviour.

Red-necked wallabies are mainly solitary but will gather together when there is an abundance of resources such as food, water or shelter. When they do gather in groups, they have a social hierarchy similar to other wallaby species. A recent study has demonstrated that wallabies, as other social or gregarious mammals, are able to manage conflict via reconciliation, involving the post-conflict reunion, after a fight, of former opponents, which engage in affinitive contacts. Red-necked wallabies are mainly nocturnal. They spend most of the daytime resting.  A female's estrus lasts 33 days. During courting, the female first licks the male's neck. The male will then rub his cheek against the female's. Then the male and female will fight briefly, standing upright like two males. After that they finally mate. A couple will stay together for one day before separating. A female bears one offspring at a time; young stay in the pouch for about 280 days, after which females and their offspring stay together for only a month. However, females may stay in the home range of their mothers for life while males leave at the age of two. Also, red-necked wallabies engage in alloparental care, in which one individual may adopt the child of another. This is a common behavior seen in many other animal species like wolves, elephants, and fathead minnows.

Diet.

Red-necked wallabies diets consists of grasses, roots, tree leaves, and weeds.

Subspecies.

There are three subspecies.  The Tasmanian form, "Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus", usually known as Bennett's wallaby, is smaller (as island subspecies often are), has longer, darker, shaggier fur, and breeds in the late summer, mostly between February and April. They have adapted to living in proximity to humans and can be found grazing on lawns in the fringes of Hobart and other urban areas.  The mainland Australian form, "Macropus rufogriseus banksianus", usually known as the red-necked wallaby, breeds all year round. Captive animals maintain their breeding schedules; Tasmanian females that become pregnant out of their normal season delay birth until summer, which can be anywhere up to eight months later.

Introduction to other countries.

There are significant introduced populations in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. In 1870, several wallabies were transported from Tasmania to Christchurch, New Zealand. Two females and one male from this stock were later released about Te Waimate, the property of Waimate's first European settler Michael Studholme. The year 1874 saw them freed in the Hunters Hills, where over the years their population has dramatically increased. Wallabies are now resident on approximately 350,000 ha of terrain centred upon the Hunters Hills, including the Two Thumb Ranges, the Kirkliston Range and the Grampians. They have been declared an animal pest in the Canterbury region and land occupiers must contain the wallabies within specified areas. The wallaby is now widely regarded as a symbol of Waimate.  There are also colonies in England: in the Peak District, Derbyshire, and the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. These were established circa 1900. There are also other smaller groups frequently spotted in West Sussex and Hampshire.  There is a small colony of red-necked wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan, Loch Lomond in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. This was founded in 1975 with two pairs taken from the Whipsnade Zoo, and had risen to 26 individuals by 1993. There is also a large group of approximately 250 wallabies living wild on the Isle of Man, which are the descendants of a pair that escaped from a wildlife park on the island in the 1970s, as well as from subsequent escapes.  The Baring family, who owned Lambay Island (), off the east coast of Ireland introduced wallabies to the island in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s, the red-necked wallaby population at the Dublin Zoo was growing out of control. Unable to find another zoo to take them, and unwilling to euthanize them, zoo director Peter Wilson donated seven individuals to the Barings. The animals have thrived since then and the current population is estimated to be between 30–50.  In France, in the southern part of the Forest of Rambouillet, west from Paris, there is a wild group of around 50-100 Bennett's wallabies. This population has been present since the 1970s, when some individuals escaped from the zoological park of Émancé after a storm. In Germany, around 10 wallabies live as a wild population in the federated state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 2001.  In October 2014, three captive Bennett's wallabies escaped into the wild in northern Austria and one of them roamed the area for three months before being recaptured, surviving the harsh winter. The case attracted media attention, as it humorously defeated the popular slogan "There are no kangaroos in Austria."

The red-necked wallaby or Bennett's wallaby ("Macropus rufogriseus") is a medium-sized macropod marsupial (wallaby), common in the more temperate and fertile parts of eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Red-necked wallabies have been introduced to several other countries, including New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and the Isle of Man.


Origins and characteristics.

In Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, the original domesticated geese are derived from the greylag goose ("Anser anser"). In eastern Asia, the original domesticated geese are derived from the swan goose ("Anser cygnoides"); these are commonly known as Chinese geese. Both have been widely introduced in more recent times, and modern flocks in both areas (and elsewhere, such as Australia and North America) may consist of either species or hybrids between them. Chinese geese may be readily distinguished from European geese by the large knob at the base of the bill, though hybrids may exhibit every degree of variation between the two species.  The domestication, as Charles Darwin remarks ("The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication" i. 287), is of very ancient date; archaeological evidence for domesticated geese in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago. They have been selected for larger size, with domesticated breeds weighing up to, compared to the maximum of for the wild swan goose and for the wild greylag goose. This affects their body structure; whereas wild geese have a horizontal posture and slim rear end, domesticated geese lay down large fat deposits toward the tail end, giving a fat rear and forcing the bird into a more upright posture. Although their heavy weight affects their ability to fly, most breeds of domestic geese are capable of flight.  Geese have also been strongly selected for fecundity, with females laying up to 50 eggs per year, compared to 5–12 eggs for a wild goose.  As most domestic geese display little sexual dimorphism, sexing is based primarily on physical characteristics and behaviour. Males are typically taller and larger than females, and have longer necks. In addition, males can be distinguished by the protective behaviour they exhibit towards their mates and their offspring - the male will typically stand between his partner and any perceived threat.  Changes to the plumage are variable; many have been selected to lose dark brown tones of the wild bird. The result is an animal marked, or completely covered in white feathers. Others retain plumage close to the natural; some, such as the modern Toulouse goose look almost identical to the greylag in plumage, differing only in structure. White geese are often preferred as they look better plucked and dressed, with any small down feathers remaining being less conspicuous. From the time of the Romans, white geese have been held in great esteem.  Geese produce large edible eggs, weighing. They can be used in cooking just like chicken's eggs, though they have proportionally more yolk, and this cooks to a slightly denser consistency. The taste is much the same as that of a chicken egg, but gamier.  Like their wild ancestors, domestic geese are very protective of their offspring and other members of the flock. The gander will normally place himself between any perceived threat and his family. Owing to their highly aggressive nature, loud call and sensitivity to unusual movements, geese can contribute towards the security of a property. In late 1950s South Vietnam, the VNAF used flocks of geese to guard their parked aircraft at night due to the noise they would make at intruders.  Because domestic geese descended from the Greylag goose are effectively the same species as their wild ancestor (being a subspecies formed through domestication), escaped individuals readily breed with wild populations, resulting in the offspring sometimes resembling either one of their parents, or bearing mixed plumage with patterns of grey and white feathers and orange beaks.

Geese in fiction and myth.

When Aphrodite first came ashore she was welcomed by the Charites (Roman "Graces"), whose chariot was drawn by geese.  There are Mother Goose tales, such as a farmwife might have told; there is the proverbial goose that laid the golden eggs, warning about the perils of greed.  The geese in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill were said by Livy to have saved Rome from the Gauls around 390 BC when they were disturbed in a night attack. The story may be an attempt to explain the origin of the sacred flock of geese at Rome.  Liliane Bodson and Daniel Marcolungo, "L'oie de bon aloi: Aspects de l'histoire ancienne de l'oie domestique" [The goose in ancient life and folklore]. Vise (Musée Regional d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de Vise), 1994, discusses the image and lore of domestic geese in classical antiquity, with a separate chapter on the goose in folklore.  The 2019 video game Untitled Goose Game features a domestic goose as its protagonist.

Domestic geese ("Anser anser domesticus" or "Anser cygnoides domesticus") are domesticated grey geese (either greylag geese or swan geese) that are kept by humans as poultry for their meat, eggs and down feathers since ancient times. Approximately 700 million geese are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide.


Historical background.

The castle of Thorn (Toruń) was built by crusading German knights of the Teutonic Order, next to an existing Slavic town. In 1233 the town was granted Kulm law city rights. More settlers soon arrived with Franciscan and Dominican friars. In the 15th century, after becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the policy of the Order, citizens of the Order's monastic state organized themselves into the Prussian Confederation, and seceded in 1454 with the help of the Polish Crown. The resulting Thirteen Years' War ended in 1466 with the Second Peace of Thorn, in which the province of Royal Prussia was created and incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland.  After the secularization of the Teutonic Order, the newly formed Duchy of Prussia and the remaining Prussian territory adopted Lutheranism in 1525, the first state to do so. During the Protestant Reformation, the mostly German-populated Royal Prussia also adopted Protestantism in 1557, while the majority of the Kingdom of Poland remained Roman Catholic. During the tenure of mayor (Bürgermeister) Heinrich Stroband (1586–1609), the city became centralised and power passed into the hands of its city council.  At that time, Poland was largely tolerant in religious affairs. However, this gradually changed with the advent of the Counter-Reformation. In 1595, the Jesuits arrived to promote the Counter-Reformation, taking control of the Church of St. John. Protestant city officials tried to limit the influx of a Catholic population into the city, as Catholics (Jesuits and Dominicans) already controlled most churches, leaving only St. Mary to the Protestant citizens.  In the second half of the 17th century, tensions between Catholics and Protestants grew. In 1645, a "Colloquium Charitativum", a discussion between the leaders of the rival creeds, resulted in no agreement. Just as the religious tensions in the rest of Europe were settling down after the bloody Thirty Years' War and Peace of Westphalia, in the once very tolerant Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the situation was worsening. From 1682, St. Mary's Church had to be guarded by a Lutheran "Bürgerwehr" (militia) during the Feast of Corpus Christi processions, as the assembled Catholics might have occupied this church as well. Further violent conflicts occurred in 1688 and 1721.

1724 Events.

On 16 and 17 July 1724, when the Jesuits held another procession, fights between pupils of the Jesuits and Lutheran inhabitants occurred as Jesuit pupils accused the gathered Lutherans of showing disrespect to Holy Mary by not taking their hats off during the procession and not kneeling before her statue. In the following argument, a Catholic student named Stanisław Lisiecki was arrested by Lutheran militia. In response, pupils of the Jesuits dragged a pupil named Jan Nagórny of the Lutheran Gymnasium into their monastery, demanding that Lisiecki be released. After a crowd assembled in front of the monastery to demand Nagórny's release. Johann Gottfried Rösner, who in that year served as president of the town council, ordered the town militia to dissolve the angry mob, but the commander disobeyed, as did the "citizen guards". Only the "crown guards", loyal to the king, could eventually pacify the scene, yet only after the crowd had entered the Jesuit building, causing damage.  Several Jesuits were beaten, portraits of Catholic saints were defiled, and the main altar was partially destroyed. Afterwards many books and paintings were thrown out into a pile and set on fire. After this event, both Jesuits and Dominicans tried to persuade Rösner and ten other leading citizens, all of them German Protestants, to convert to Roman Catholicism. They refused and remained in the city despite the pressure applied when the Jesuits sued them at the royal supreme court in Warsaw. The court was held during the second monarchy of August II the Strong of Saxony in the era of the Silent Sejm, a time in which the Russian Empire dictated Polish internal policy. August, a former Lutheran who had been required to convert to Roman Catholicism in order to be elected to the Polish throne, regretted not being in a position to pardon the convicts.  Rösner and twelve other Lutherans were sentenced to death on 16 November. Prince Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski led a regiment of soldiers to the city to execute the verdict. Rösner and other officials were to be decapitated for "neglecting their duty and countenancing tumult", while two others, accused of profaning the Virgin, were to be quartered, and burned.  One of the convicts converted to Roman Catholicism and was spared, as was Rösner's predecessor and proxy, Jakob Heinrich Zerneke (1672–1741), a well-respected historian who had written the "Chronica Thornica" in 1711. He received amnesty on 12 December and emigrated to Danzig (Gdańsk).  The last remaining Protestant church, Saint Mary's, was made Catholic and given to Franciscan friars who celebrated a mass there on the day of the execution, 7 December 1724, a date which is now observed in remembrance of the Protestant martyrs. In addition, the majority of the town council was required to be Catholic from then on. A Protestant school, chapel, and printing press were required to be handed over to Catholic control.

Aftermath.

The event was used by what Karin Friedrich calls "Brandenburg-Prussia's efficient propaganda machine", as an example of Polish intolerance, even as states which protested most vocally engaged in religious persecution themselves. In large parts of Protestant Europe, the event damaged Poland's reputation for religious tolerance.  Over contemporary 165 publications and hundreds of newspapers reported on the alleged oppression of Protestants in Thorn. Decades later, during the Partitions of Poland, Voltaire recalled the sentencing of Protestants as an example "of the religious intolerance of the Poles" and glorified the Russian army.  In Polish history books, the event rarely found mention before 1979. Norman Davies states that it was the sole event for which the name of Copernicus's birthplace was remembered in Protestant Europe.

The Tumult of Thorn (Toruń), or Blood-Bath of Thorn (,, literally Bloody court of Thorn) refers to executions ordered in 1724 by the Polish supreme court under Augustus II the Strong of Saxony. During a religious conflict between Protestant townsfolk represented by mayor Johann Gottfried Rösner, and the Roman Catholic students of the Jesuit college in the city of Thorn (Toruń) in Royal Prussia, the college had been vandalised by a crowd of German Protestants. The mayor and nine other Lutheran officials were blamed for neglect of duty, sentenced to death, and executed on 7 December 1724.


Physical description.

The lesser horseshoe bat is one of the world's smallest bats, weighing only 5 to 9 grams, with a wingspan of 192–254 mm and a body length of 35–45 mm. It has strong feet that it uses to grasp rocks and branches, and can see well in spite of its small eyes. Like most bats, lesser horseshoe bats live in colonies and hunt their prey by echolocation, emitting ultrasound from specialized round pads in their mouth.  The base of its fur, which is soft and fluffy, is light grey in colour, with dorsal side fur smoky brown and the ventral side grey, with the exception of juvenile bats which are entirely dark grey. Ears and wing membranes are a light greyish brown.  When hunting they are quick and agile, often flying within five metres of the ground while avoiding contact with bushes and shrubs. The lesser horseshoe bat eats small insects, most of which are gleaned from stones and branches. Their favorite types of prey include flies, mosquitoes, butterflies, moths, and spiders. The average lifespan of "Rhinolophus hipposideros" is 3 years, although some individuals have been known to live far longer.

Mating.

Lesser horseshoe bats mate in the autumn. Females give birth to one pup, normally between mid-June and the beginning of July. Pups weigh around 1.8 grams at birth, opening their eyes after around 10 days and becoming independent at six to seven weeks of age. The bats hibernate during the winter months in dark caves, mines, old buildings, and sometimes in cellars.  Females become sexually mature within their first year, with a study in Czechoslovakia showing that about 15% of females give birth at one year of age. Animals have been seen to chase each other as a preliminary to mating, which is done with the male hanging himself behind and over the female.  Nurseries are often shared with other species, such as the greater mouse-eared bat, but there is no direct mixing with other species. The move to nurseries occurs from April onwards, with between 10 and 100 females present and between 2 and 20 males. Approximately two-thirds of females in a nursery roost give birth between mid-June and mid-July.

Habitat.

The lesser horseshoe bat lives in warmer regions in foothills and highland, in particular wooded areas or areas of limestone, where it roosts in caves. In summer its range has been recorded up to 1160 m above sea level, and up to 2000 m in the winter, with the highest known nursery roost at 950 m. The species is sedentary, with the average movement between summer and winter roosts between 5 and 10 kilometers, although the longest recorded distance is 153 kilometers.

Distribution.

The species can be found in western Ireland and south-west Britain, with some larger populations in parts of Germany and the Bavarian foothills of the Alps. "Rhinolophus hipposideros" is widely distributed in the Mediterranean area, occurring in North Africa and on most larger islands to Asia Minor and around the Black Sea. In Asia, it can be found in Kashmir, the Near East, Iran, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, as well as part of East Africa.

United Kingdom.

The UK distribution of the lesser horseshoe bat can be found on the National Biodiversity Network website here, but they are mostly found in Wales and the Southwest of England. The species is threatened by a number of factors, including the disturbance or destruction of roosts, changes in agricultural practices (such as the increased use of insecticides, which reduce prey availability) and the loss of suitable foraging habitats.  However, the Bat Conservation Trust's Hibernation Survey shows numbers in the UK are increasing significantly - by an average of 4.5% yearly between 1999 and 2012, a 77.2% total increase during that period.

Ireland.

The lesser horseshoe bat has been recorded in the counties Galway, South Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Cork and Kerry.

Israel.

The lesser horseshoe bat is rare in Israel.

Balearic Islands.

In the Balearic Islands, "Rhinolophus hipposideros" lives on all three of the main islands: Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, as well as the smaller islands Cabrera and Formentera. Roosts containing up to 50 individuals have been found in caves such as the Cova de Ca Na Rea (Ibiza), though most groups tend to be smaller. In the Balearics, the lesser horseshoe bat travels only short distances, usually around 2 km, and is also the most common bat species on Ibiza.

Echolocation.

The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 93–111 kHz, have most energy at 110 kHz and have an average duration of 31.7 ms. Due to the frequency of their echolocation calls there are overlaps with those of the Mediterranean horseshoe bat and Mehely's horseshoe bat.

Conservation.

This species is protected in the European Union under the Habitats Directive. This species is also listed in the Berne Convention and is specifically targeted by the UNEP-EUROBATS convention. Several national legislation are also protecting this species and its habitats in many countries and regions.  In order to highlight the importance of protecting this species at the European scale, this species was selected as bat species of the Year 2018-2019 by the pan-European NGO BatLife Europe.

The lesser horseshoe bat ("Rhinolophus hipposideros") is a type of small European insectivorous bat, related to its larger cousin, the greater horseshoe bat. As with all horseshoe bats, the species gets its name from its distinctive horseshoe-shaped noseleaf.


Biography.

Bertrand was a professor at the École Polytechnique and Collège de France. He was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences and was its permanent secretary for twenty-six years. He was the son of physician Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand and the brother of archaeologist Alexandre Bertrand. His father died when Joseph was only nine years old, but that did not stand in his way of learning and understanding algebraic and elementary geometric concepts, and he also could speak Latin fluently, all when he was of the same age of nine. At eleven years old he attended the course of the École Polytechnique as an auditor (open courses). From age eleven to seventeen, he obtained two bachelor's degrees, a license and a PhD with a thesis on the mathematical theory of electricity and is admitted first to the 1839 entrance examination of the École Polytechnique.  He conjectured, in 1845, that there is at least one prime between "n" and 2"n" − 2 for every "n" > 3. Chebyshev proved this conjecture, now called Bertrand's postulate, in 1850. He was also famous for a paradox in the field of probability, now known as Bertrand's Paradox. There is another paradox in game theory that is named after him, called the Bertrand Paradox. In 1849, he was the first to define real numbers using what is now called a Dedekind cut.  Bertrand translated into French Carl Friedrich Gauss's work on the theory of errors and the method of least squares.  In the field of economics he reviewed the work on oligopoly theory, specifically the Cournot Competition Model (1838) of French mathematician Antoine Augustin Cournot. His Bertrand Competition Model (1883) argued that Cournot had reached a very misleading conclusion, and he reworked it using prices rather than quantities as the strategic variables, thus showing that the equilibrium price was simply the competitive price.  His book Thermodynamique points out in Chapter XII, that thermodynamic entropy and temperature are only defined for reversible processes. He was one of the first people to point this out.  In 1858 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Joseph Louis François Bertrand (11 March 1822 – 5 April 1900) was a French mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory, differential geometry, probability theory, economics and thermodynamics.


Biography.

Born in Turin into a Sicilian family, Amato grew up in Tuscany. He received a first degree in law from the University of Pisa in 1960, while attending the prestigious Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, and a master's degree in comparative law from Columbia Law School in 1963. After teaching at the Universities of Modena, Perugia and Florence, he worked as professor of Italian and Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Rome La Sapienza from 1975 to 1997.  Amato began his political career in 1958, when he joined the Italian Socialist Party. He was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1993. He was Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister's office from 1983 to 1987, Deputy Prime Minister from 1987 to 1988, and Minister for the Treasury from 1987 to 1989.  From June 1992 to April 1993, Amato served as Prime Minister. During those ten months, a series of corruption scandals rocked Italy and swept away almost an entire class of political leaders. Amato himself was never implicated, notwithstanding how close he was to Bettino Craxi, a central figure in the corruption system.  As Prime Minister, Amato responded effectively to two devaluations of the lira in the wake of currency speculation that led Italy to be expelled from the European Monetary System by cutting the budget deficit drastically, thus taking the first steps in the road that would bring Italy to adopt the Euro.  At a point, his government was harshly contested because of a decree that suddenly moved the competence for corruption investigations into the hands of the police, which, being controlled directly by the government, would have not been independent. Fearing that the new system would have effectively blocked investigations on political corruption, Italians took to the streets in massive, spontaneous rallies. President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro refused to sign the decree, deeming it blatantly unconstitutional. While his justice minister Giovanni Conso took the blame, it has been disputed whether Amato was a victim of circumstances or whether he really wanted to save the corruption-ridden system.  At the end of his period as Prime Minister, Amato gave a speech to the Parliament in which he solemnly promised that at end of his term he would retire from politics, stressing that his was a true commitment and that he would not break this promise as some politicians (whom he characterized as "mandarins") used to do. However, this promise was short-lived; Amato has regularly come under criticism for having made such a solemn commitment and failìng to keep it.  Amato was President of the Italian antitrust authority from November 1994 to December 1997, Minister for Institutional Reforms in Massimo D'Alema's first government from October 1998 to May 1999, and, once again, Treasury Minister in D'Alema's second government from December 1999 to April 2000. Amato was nearly nominated for the Presidency of the Republic and was a close contender to replace Michel Camdessus as head of the International Monetary Fund. Amato served as Prime Minister again from April 2000 to May 2001. He promoted economic competitiveness as well as social protection. In addition to economic reforms, he pushed ahead with political and institutional reforms, trying to deal with a weak executive and fragmented legislature.  In December 2001, European Union leaders at the European Council in Laeken appointed Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene to be Vice Presidents of the Convention on the Future of Europe to assist former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the drafting of the new European Constitution. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.  Amato was a Member of the Senate representing the constituency of Grosseto in Tuscany from 2001 to 2006. In 2006, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Olive Tree list, and he was named Minister of the Interior in Romano Prodi's centre-left government.  Since 2010, he also leads advanced seminar classes at the Master in International Public Affairs of the LUISS School of Government.  Amato is married to Ms Diana Amato, a professor of Family Law at the University of Rome. They have two children, Elisa and Lorenzo, and five grandchildren, Giulia, Marco, Simone, Elena and Irene.

World Justice Project.

Giuliano Amato serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

President of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.

In 2012 Giuliano Amato was appointed as President of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. As alumnus of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (attending the prestigious Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies), he guarded close contact with the university, previously heading "Sant'Anna Alumni Association".  He was appointed as President of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies on 21 February 2012 by the Academic Senate of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and by a Decree of the Minister Francesco Profumo of the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Italy). He resigned from his post at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies after being appointed to the Constitutional Court in September 2013.

Giuliano Amato (; born 13 May 1938) is an Italian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Italy, first from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2000 to 2001. Later, he was Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the European Constitution and headed the Amato Group. He is commonly nicknamed "dottor Sottile", (which means "Doctor Subtilis", the sobriquet of the Scottish Medieval philosopher John Duns Scotus, a reference to his political subtlety). From 2006 to 2008, he was the Minister of the Interior in Romano Prodi's government. On 12 September 2013, President Giorgio Napolitano appointed him to the Constitutional Court of Italy, where he has served since then.


Background.

Both Mali and Burkina Faso thought that the Agacher Strip contained substantial natural resources and hoped that these resources would help improve their dire economic situations.  Some observers believe that the dispute may have been deliberately provoked to divert attention from domestic problems brought on by the return of military rule in Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta) and the growing unpopularity of Moussa Traoré's military regime in Mali.

Early skirmishes.

The dispute between the two countries first erupted into an armed conflict on November 25, 1974. The conflict involved only a few border skirmishes with exchanges of small arms-fire in late November and mid-December 1974. Notably, there was a lack of military operations and significant fighting; casualties on both sides were minimal.  As tensions escalated, mediation efforts by President Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo and President Seyni Kountché of Niger to resolve the conflict proved unsuccessful. Sporadic clashes continued into early 1975 with numerous reprisals against Malians in Upper Volta, prompting the Organization of African Unity to create a commission to mediate the crisis. The organization recommended that a neutral technical commission be created to demarcate the boundary. Both countries accepted this proposal at a meeting held on June 18, 1975, in Lomé, Togo.  Beginning in 1977, Upper Volta and Mali engaged in political mediation through the "Non-Aggression and Defense Aid Agreement" (ANAD), a regional West African group.

Christmas War (1985).

In 1983, military captain Thomas Sankara seized power in Burkina Faso in a coup and was tasked with resolving the country's many problems, including the Agacher Strip dispute. Negotiations between Sankara, Malian President Traoré, and the countries' top diplomats were strained. Additionally, under Sankara's rule, Burkina Faso expelled Drissa Keita, a Malian diplomat, further deteriorating bilateral relations. Some Burkina Faso newspapers accused Mali of preparing an invasion; Mali rejected the accusations and accused Burkina Faso of escalating tensions.  By 1985, both countries experienced several years of drought. Rainfall finally arrived in late 1985 but washed out the roads, hindering the distribution of food and medical supplies to the Agacher region. During this period, the Burkina Faso government organized a nationwide census. The census agents visited Fula camps in Mali, which sparked outrage from the Malian government, who saw it as a violation of their sovereignty. Reports about Burkina Faso ground troops present in the Agacher Strip also upset Mali because, although Burkina Faso believed they had sovereignty over the area, no formal deal had been made up to that point. Traoré publicly denounced the act and campaigned for African leaders to pressure Sankara. However, the Burkina Faso soldiers did not leave the area, escalating tensions further.  On December 25, 1985, the Malian military launched several ground attacks against Burkina Faso border posts and police stations. The Burkina Faso army responded by mobilizing soldiers in the region and launching counterattacks. However, the Malian army, which was better prepared and organized, conducted many successful assaults that captured several of the villages and outposts. The Libyan government attempted to negotiate a ceasefire on December 26, but negotiations failed. The war culminated in an airstrike by the Malian Air Force on a marketplace in Ouahigouya, in which a number of civilians were killed. A second ceasefire instigated by the governments of Nigeria and Libya on December 29 also failed. The countries agreed to a third ANAD-sponsored truce on December 30, finally ending what became known as the "Christmas War." Estimates of the total number of casualties from the war range from 59 to 300 people.

Post-war.

In mid-January 1986, at a "Non-Aggression and Defense Aid Agreement" summit in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, presidents Moussa Traoré of Mali and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso agreed to withdraw their troops to pre-war positions. Prisoners of War were exchanged in February and full diplomatic relations were restored in June. Despite this, the dispute remained unresolved. The case was taken to the International Court of Justice.  In the ICJ's judgement delivered on December 22, 1986, the court split the of disputed territory almost equally. Mali received the western portion and Burkina Faso the eastern. President Traoré called the settlement "very satisfying" and a victory for the "brother peoples" of Mali and Burkina Faso.

The Agacher Strip War was a war fought by Burkina Faso and Mali over a long strip of land located in the northern Burkina Faso province of Oudalan. The area, thought to contain considerable amounts of natural gas and mineral resources, was the center of a long-term border dispute between the two countries that erupted into an armed conflict on two occasions (in 1974 and 1985).


Life and career.

Reuter was born as Israel Beer Josaphat in Kassel, Germany.. His father, Samuel Levi Josaphat, was a rabbi. His mother was Betty Sanders. In Göttingen, Reuter met Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was experimenting with the transmission of electrical signals via wire.  On 29 October 1845, he moved to London, calling himself Julius Josaphat. On 16 November 1845, he converted to Christianity in a ceremony at St. George's German Lutheran Chapel in London, and changed his name to Paul Julius Reuter. One week later, in the same chapel, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus of Berlin, daughter of a German banker.  A former bank clerk, in 1847 he became a partner in Reuter and Stargardt, a Berlin book-publishing firm. The distribution of radical pamphlets by the firm at the beginning of the 1848 Revolution may have focused official scrutiny on Reuter. Later that year, he left for Paris and worked in Charles-Louis Havas' news agency, Agence Havas, the future Agence France Presse.  As telegraphy evolved, Reuter founded his own news agency in Aachen, transferring messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons and thus linking Berlin and Paris. Speedier than the post train, pigeons gave Reuter faster access to financial news from the Paris stock exchange. Eventually, pigeons were replaced by a direct telegraph link.  A telegraph line was under construction between Britain and Europe, and so Reuter moved to London, renting an office near the Stock Exchange. In 1863, he privately erected a telegraph link to Crookhaven, the farthest south-west point of Ireland. On nearing Crookhaven, ships from America threw canisters containing news into the sea. These were retrieved by Reuters and telegraphed directly to London, arriving long before the ships reached Cork.  In 1872, Nasir al-Din Shah, the Shah of Iran, signed an agreement with Reuter, a concession selling him all railroads, canals, most of the mines, all the government's forests, and all future industries of Iran. George Curzon called it "The most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that has ever been dreamed of". The Reuter concession was immediately denounced by all ranks of businessmen, clergy, and nationalists of Persia, and it was quickly forced into cancellation.  On 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalised as a British subject. On 7 September 1871, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha granted him the noble title of "Freiherr" (Baron). In November 1891, Queen Victoria granted him (and his subsequent male-line successors) the right to use that German title (listed as "Baron von Reuter") in Britain.

Marriage and children.

In 1845, Reuter married Ida Maria Magnus, daughter of Friedrich Martin Magnus, a German banker in Berlin. They had three sons: Herbert, who became the 2nd Baron (succeeded by his son Hubert as 3rd Baron), George and Alfred. Clementine Maria, one of his daughters, married Count Otto Stenbock, and after Stenbock's death, Sir Herbert Chermside, a governor of Queensland.  The 2nd Baron's brother George had two sons, Oliver (who became the 4th Baron) and Ronald. The last member of the family, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, widow of the 4th Baron and Paul Julius Reuter's granddaughter-in-law, died on 25 January 2009, at the age of 96.

Death and commemoration.

Reuter died in 1899 at Villa Reuter in Nice, France. He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery in south London.  Reuter was portrayed by Edward G. Robinson in the Warner Bros. biographical film "A Dispatch from Reuter's" (1941).  The Reuters News Agency commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of its founder by launching a university award (the Paul Julius Reuter Innovation Award) in Germany.

Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (Baron von Reuter; 21 July 1816 – 25 February 1899) was a German-born, British entrepreneur who was a pioneer of telegraphy and news reporting. He was a reporter and media owner, and the founder of Reuters News Agency, which became part of the Thomson Reuters conglomerate in 2008.


Life in the royal court.

Born in 1422, the daughter of Jean Soreau and Catherine de Maignelais, Sorel was 20 or 21 years old when she was first introduced to King Charles. At that time, she was holding a position in the household of Rene I of Naples, as a maid of honour to his consort Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. Sorel then went on to serve as the lady-in-waiting for Marie d'Anjou, Charles VII of France's wife and Isabella's sister in law. She would soon become his mistress. The King gave her the Château de Loches (where he had been persuaded by Joan of Arc to be crowned King of France) as her private residence.  Soon, her presence was felt at the royal court in Chinon where her company was alleged to have brought the king out of a protracted depression. She had a very strong influence on the king, and that, in addition to her extravagant tastes, earned her powerful enemies at court. Sorel would become the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king.  Sorel generated scandal at court, particularly for popularizing the fashion of low-cut gowns. This behavior was both imitated and scorned. Jean Juvénal des Ursins, the archbishop of Reims, counseled the king to correct such fashions as "front openings through which one sees the teats, nipples, and breasts of women" ("ouvertures de par devant, par lesquelles on voit les tetins, tettes et seing des femmes").

Children and death.

Agnès gave birth to four daughters fathered by the king:  While pregnant with their fourth child, she journeyed from Chinon in midwinter to join Charles on the campaign of 1450 in Jumièges, wanting to be with him as moral support. There, she suddenly became ill, and after giving birth, she and her daughter died on 9 February 1450. She was 28 years old. While the cause of death was originally thought to be dysentery, French forensic scientist Philippe Charlier suggested in 2005 that Agnès died of mercury poisoning. He offered no opinion about whether she was murdered. Mercury was sometimes used in cosmetic preparations or to treat worms, and such use might have brought about her death. She was interred in the Church of St. Ours, in Loches. Her heart was buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Jumièges.  Charles' son, the future King Louis XI, had been in open revolt against his father for the previous four years. It has been speculated that he had Agnès poisoned in order to remove what he may have considered her undue influence over the king. It was also speculated that French financier, noble and minister Jacques Cœur poisoned her, though that theory is widely discredited as having been an attempt to remove Coeur from the French court.  Her cousin Antoinette de Maignelais took her place as mistress to the king after her death.

Legacy.

Sorel plays a main part in Voltaire's "La Pucelle". Two Russian operas from the late 19th century also portray her, along with Charles VII: Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "The Maid of Orleans" and César Cui's "The Saracen". She is also a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece "The Dinner Party", being represented as one of the 999 names on the "Heritage Floor." Two garments use Sorel's name in their descriptors, Agnes Sorel bodice, Agnes Sorel corsage and a fashion style named after her as well, Agnes Sorel style, which is described as a "princess" style of dressing.

Agnès Sorel (1422 – 9 February 1450), known by the sobriquet "Dame de beauté" (Lady of Beauty), was a favourite, and chief mistress, of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore four daughters. She is considered the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king. She was the subject of several contemporary paintings and works of art, including Jean Fouquet's "Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels".


Islands of the Gironde.

Within the estuary between the Pointe de Grave at the seaward end and the Bec d'Ambès are a series of small islands.  The Île de Patiras is 200 ha in size with a lighthouse to aid navigation in the estuary. Vines and maize are grown there.  The Île Sans-Pain and Île Bouchaud are now virtually joined due to progressive silting and are referred to as the Ile Nouvelle. They total about 265 ha and are owned by the Conservatoire du Littoral and managed by the Department of the Gironde.  The Île Paté is about 13 ha and in 2006 was privately owned. The island has a historic fort built between 1685 and 1693 as part of the national fortification program masterminded by Vauban. The building is oval in shape, about 12 metres high and was originally equipped with about 30 cannon. Fort Paté, together with Fort Médoc and the ancient "citadelle" of Blaye, defended the estuary and Bordeaux. During the French Revolution the fort was used as a prison for priests.  In 2006, the Conseil General decided to make the island a ZPENS (zone de pre-emption espace naturel sensible). ZPENS status protects the island from development. If the owner wishes to sell the island then the Department has a pre-emptive right. After two months the Conservatoire National du Littoral has the next pre-emptive right and then after another 2 months the town of Blaye has a final pre-emptive right to acquire the island.  The Île Verte, Île du Nord and Île Cazeau comprise about 800 ha and because of their natural state provide a fine stopping off place for migrating birds.  The Île Margaux is 25 ha and in 2005 had 14 ha devoted to vines and is part of the world famous Médoc wine region.

Second World War.

In December 1942, during the Second World War, Operation Frankton took place with the goal of destroying ships moored at the docks in Bordeaux.  The plan was for six kayaks (called "canoes" by the British) to be taken to the area of the Gironde estuary by submarine. Twelve men would then paddle by night to Bordeaux. On arrival they would attack the docked cargo ships with limpet mines and then escape overland to Spain.  The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), part of Combined Operations, led by Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler. They succeeded in slipping into the harbour unnoticed and sank one ship and severely damaged four others. Only two of the men returned to the UK alive, but they did enough damage to greatly disrupt the use of the harbour for the following months.

The Gironde (,, ; ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Garonne just downstream of the centre of Bordeaux. Covering around, it is the largest estuary in western Europe.


Biography.

Charles was born in Beaugency-sur-Loire in 1746. He married Julie Françoise Bouchaud des Hérettes (1784–1817), a creole woman 37 years younger than himself. Reportedly the poet Alphonse de Lamartine also fell in love with her, and she was the inspiration for "Elvire" in his 1820 autobiographical "Poetic Meditation" "Le Lac" ("The Lake"), which describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. Charles outlived her and died in Paris on April 7, 1823.

Hydrogen balloon flights.

First hydrogen balloon.

Charles conceived the idea that hydrogen would be a suitable lifting agent for balloons having studied the work of Robert Boyle's "Boyle's Law" which was published 100 years earlier in 1662, and of his contemporaries Henry Cavendish, Joseph Black and Tiberius Cavallo. He designed the craft and then worked in conjunction with the Robert brothers, Anne-Jean and Nicolas-Louis, to build it in their workshop at the "Place des Victoires" in Paris. The brothers invented the methodology for the lightweight, airtight gas bag by dissolving rubber in a solution of turpentine and varnished the sheets of silk that were stitched together to make the main envelope. They used alternate strips of red and white silk, but the discolouration of the varnishing/rubberising process left a red and yellow result.  Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first hydrogen filled balloon on August 27, 1783, from the Champ de Mars, (now the site of the Eiffel Tower) where Ben Franklin was among the crowd of onlookers. The balloon was comparatively small, a 35 cubic metre sphere of rubberised silk, and only capable of lifting about 9 kg (20 lb). It was filled with hydrogen that had been made by pouring nearly a quarter of a tonne of sulphuric acid onto a half a tonne of scrap iron. The hydrogen gas was fed into the balloon via lead pipes; but as it was not passed through cold water, great difficulty was experienced in filling the balloon completely (the gas was hot when produced, but as it cooled in the balloon, it contracted). Daily progress bulletins were issued on the inflation; and the crowd was so great that on the 26th the balloon was moved secretly by night to the Champ de Mars, a distance of 4 kilometres.  The balloon flew northwards for 45 minutes, pursued by chasers on horseback, and landed 21 kilometers away in the village of Gonesse where the reportedly terrified local peasants destroyed it with pitchforks or knives. The project was funded by a subscription organised by Barthelemy Faujas de Saint-Fond.

First manned hydrogen balloon flight.

At 13:45 (or 1:45 PM) on December 1, 1783 Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers launched a new manned balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. Jacques Charles was accompanied by Nicolas-Louis Robert as co-pilot of the 380-cubic-metre, hydrogen-filled balloon. The envelope was fitted with a hydrogen release valve and was covered with a net from which the basket was suspended. Sand ballast was used to control altitude. They ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) and landed at sunset in Nesles-la-Vallée after a 2-hour 5 minute flight covering 36 km. The chasers on horseback, who were led by the Duc de Chartres, held down the craft while both Charles and Nicolas-Louis alighted.  Jacques Charles then decided to ascend again, but alone this time because the balloon had lost some of its hydrogen. This time it ascended rapidly to an altitude of about 3,000 metres, where he saw the sun again. He began suffering from aching pain in his ears so he "valved" to release gas, and descended to land gently about 3 km away at. Unlike the Robert brothers, Charles never flew again, although a hydrogen balloon came to be called a "Charlière" in his honour.  It is reported that 400,000 spectators witnessed the launch, and that hundreds had paid one crown each to help finance the construction and receive access to a "special enclosure" for a "close-up view" of the take-off. Among the "special enclosure" crowd was Benjamin Franklin, the diplomatic representative of the United States of America. Also present was Joseph Montgolfier, whom Charles honoured by asking him to release the small, bright green, pilot balloon to assess the wind and weather conditions.  This event took place ten days after the world's first manned balloon flight by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier using a Montgolfier brothers hot air balloon. Simon Schama wrote in "":

Further ballooning activities.

The next project of Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers was to build an elongated, steerable craft that followed Jean Baptiste Meusnier's proposals (1783–85) for a dirigible balloon. The design incorporated Meusnier's internal "ballonnet" (air cells), a rudder and a method of propulsion.  Jacques Charles chose never to fly in this craft, but on July 15, 1784 the brothers flew for 45 minutes from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres in "La Caroline". It was fitted with oars for propulsion and direction, but they proved useless. The absence of a 'gas release valve' meant that the duke had to slash the 'ballonnet' to prevent rupture when they reached an altitude of circa.  On September 19, 1784 the Robert brothers and M. Collin-Hullin flew for 6 hours 40 minutes, covering 186 km from Paris to Beuvry near Béthune. This was the first flight over 100 km.

Inventions.

Charles developed several useful inventions, including a valve to let hydrogen out of the balloon and other devices, such as the hydrometer and reflecting goniometer, and improved the Gravesand heliostat and Fahrenheit's aerometer. In addition he confirmed Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments.

Charles's law.

Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes), describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was first published by natural philosopher Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he credited it to unpublished work by Jacques Charles, and named the law in his honour.  Around 1787 Charles did an experiment where he filled 5 balloons to the same volume with different gases. He then raised the temperature of the balloons to 80 °C and noticed that they all increased in volume by the same amount. This experiment was referenced by Gay-Lussac in 1802 when he published a paper on the precise relationship between the volume and temperature of a gas. Charles' law states that under constant pressure, an ideal gas' volume is proportional to its absolute temperature. The volume of a gas at constant pressure increases linearly with the absolute temperature of the gas. The formula he created was "V"/"T" = "V"/"T".

Career.

Jacques Charles was elected to the Académie des Sciences, in 1795, and subsequently became professor of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.

Commemoration.

A stele at Nesles-la-Vallée marks the Charles-Robert flight of 1 December 1783. Image of commemorative stele  The "Coupe Charles et Robert" was an international ballooning event that was run in 1983 in parallel with the Gordon Bennett Cup.

Jacques Alexandre César Charles (November 12, 1746 – April 7, 1823) was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due to mistaking him with another Jacques Charles, also a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, entering on May 12, 1785. He was sometimes called Charles the Geometer. (See J. B. Gough, Charles the Obscure, Isis 70, #254, pgs 576-579) Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first unmanned hydrogen-filled gas balloon in August 1783; then in December 1783, Charles and his co-pilot Nicolas-Louis Robert ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) in a manned gas balloon. Their pioneering use of hydrogen for lift led to this type of balloon being named a "Charlière" (as opposed to a Montgolfière which used hot air).


Family and early life.

Louise of Savoy was born at Pont-d'Ain, the eldest daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and his first wife, Margaret of Bourbon. Her brother, Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, succeeded her father as ruler of the duchy and head of the House of Savoy. He was, in turn, succeeded by their half-brother Charles III, Duke of Savoy.  Because her mother died when she was only seven, she was brought up by Anne de Beaujeu,who was regent of France for her brother Charles VIII. At Amboise she met Margaret of Austria, who was betrothed to the young king and with whom Louise would negotiate peace several decades later.

Marriage.

At age eleven, Louise married Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, on 16 February 1488 in Paris. She only began living with him when she was fifteen, though. Despite her husband having two mistresses, the marriage was not unhappy and they shared a love for books.  The household of Charles was presided over by his châtelaine Antoinette de Polignac, Dame de Combronde, by whom he had two illegitimate daughters, Jeanne of Angoulême and Madeleine. Antoinette became Louise's lady-in-waiting and confidante. Her children were raised alongside Louise's own. Charles had another illegitimate daughter, Souveraine, by Jeanne le Conte, who also lived in the Angoulême chateau. She would later arrange marriages for her husband's illegitimate children.  Their first child, Marguerite, was born on 11 April 1492; their second child, Francis, was born on 12 September 1494.  When her husband fell ill after going out riding in the winter of 1495, she nursed him and suffered much grief when he died on 1 January 1496.

Widowed and motherhood.

When she was widowed at the young age of 19, Louise deftly maneuvered her children into a position that would secure for each of them a promising future. Though they remained in Cognac for two years, she moved her family to court at the ascension of King Louis XII, her husband's cousin.  Louise had a keen awareness for the intricacies of politics and diplomacy, and was deeply interested in the advances of arts and sciences in Renaissance Italy. She made certain that her children were educated in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, also helped by her Italian confessor, Cristoforo Numai from Forlì. She commissioned books specifically for them and she taught Francis Italian and Spanish.  When Louis XII became ill in 1505, he determined that Francis should succeed him and both Louise and his wife Anne of Brittany should be part of the regency council. He recovered and Francis became a favourite of the king, who eventually gave him his daughter Claude of France in marriage on 8 May 1514. Following the marriage, Louis XII designated Francis as his heir.

Mother of the King.

With the death of Louis XII on 1 January 1515, Francis became king of France. On 4 February 1515, Louise was named Duchess of Angoulême, and on 15 April 1524, Duchess of Anjou.

The Bourbon inheritance.

Her mother having been one of the sisters of the last dukes of the main branch of Bourbon, after the death of Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon, in 1521, Louise, on basis of proximity of blood, advanced claims to the Duchy of Auvergne and other possessions of the Bourbons. This led her (supported by her son) in rivalry against Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Suzanne's widower, whom she proposed to marry in order to settle the Bourbon inheritance issue. When her suit was insultingly rejected by Charles, Louise instigated efforts to undermine him. This led to Charles' exile and his attempt to regain his lost status by waging war against the King. He died in 1527 having failed to regain his lost lands and titles. Louise recovered Auvergne from confiscations and became duchess in the name of her son.

Regent.

Louise of Savoy remained politically active on behalf of her son in the early years of his reign especially. During his absences, she acted as regent on his behalf. Louise served as the Regent of France in 1515, during the king's war in Italy, and again from 1525 to 1526, when the king was at war and during his time as prisoner in Spain.  In 1524, she sent one of her servants, Jean-Joachim de Passano, to London to open unofficial negotiations with Cardinal Wolsey for a peace treaty; the negotiations were not a success, although they may have prepared the ground for the Treaty of the More the following year. She initiated friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire by sending a mission to Suleiman the Magnificent requesting assistance, but the mission was lost on its way in Bosnia. In December 1525, a second mission was sent, led by John Frangipani, which managed to reach Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, with secret letters asking for the deliverance of King Francis I and an attack on the Habsburg. Frangipani returned with a positive answer from Suleiman, on 6 February 1526, initiating the first steps of a Franco-Ottoman alliance.  She was the principal negotiator for the Treaty of Cambrai between France and the Holy Roman Empire, concluded on 3 August 1529. That treaty, called "the Ladies' Peace", put an end to the second Italian war between the head of the Valois dynasty, Francis I of France, and the head of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Treaty temporarily confirmed Habsburg hegemony in Italy. The treaty was signed by Louise of Savoy for France and her sister-in-law, Margaret of Austria, for the Holy Roman Empire.

Death.

Louise of Savoy died on 22 September 1531, in Grez-sur-Loing. Her remains were entombed at Saint-Denis in Paris. After her death her lands, including Auvergne, merged in the crown. Through her daughter Marguerite (Queen of Navarre) and her granddaughter Jeanne d'Albret, she is the ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, as her great-grandson, Henry of Navarre, succeeded as Henry IV of France.

Louise of Savoy (11 September 1476 – 22 September 1531) was a French noble and regent, Duchess "suo jure" of Auvergne and Bourbon, Duchess of Nemours, and the mother of King Francis I. She was politically active and served as the regent of France in 1515, in 1525–1526 and in 1529.


Biography.

Massimo D'Alema was born in Rome on 20 April 1949, the son of Giuseppe D'Alema, a communist politician. He is married to Linda Giuva, a professor at the University of Siena, and has two children, Giulia and Francesco. He later became a notable member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), part of which in 1991 gave origin to the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), and in 1998 to the Democrats of the Left (DS). In 1998, succeeding Romano Prodi, he became Prime Minister, as the leader of The Olive Tree centre-left coalition. He was the first former Communist to become prime minister of a NATO country and the first Prime Minister of Italy born after Italy became a Republic in 1946.  While D'Alema was Prime Minister, Italy took part in the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. The attack was supported by Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right opposition, but the far left strongly contested it.  In the internal life of his party, mostly during its transition from PCI to PDS, D'Alema stressed that its roots in Marxism should be renovated, with the aim to create a modern Western European social-democratic party. He has been the director of "L'Unità", formerly the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, which subsequently became the newspaper of the Democrats of the Left.  D'Alema was Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the Democrats of the Left, part of the Party of European Socialists group, and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and its Committee on Foreign Affairs, until he stood down following his election to the Italian Chamber of Deputies.  Following Romano Prodi's win in the April 2006 election, D'Alema was initially tipped to become President of the Italian Republic once the Chamber of Deputies reconvened, but D'Alema himself stepped back, endorsing the official candidate of the centre-left coalition, Giorgio Napolitano, who was elected. Immediately following the April 2006 election, he was proposed as the future President of the Chamber of Deputies. The Communist Refoundation Party, however, strongly pushed for Fausto Bertinotti to become the next President. After a couple of days of heated debate, D'Alema stepped back to prevent a fracture between political parties, an act applauded by his allies. The same month, he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new Prodi government. He served in those posts until 2008, when Prodi's government fell and Berlusconi's right-wing coalition prevailed in the election that followed in April 2008. D'Alema was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies in this election as part of the recently formed Democratic Party.

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

While Italian Foreign Minister in the 2006–2008 Romano Prodi center-left government, Massimo D'Alema took a very pro-active diplomatic stance during the 2006 Lebanon War. Italy led negotiations with the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and was proposed by Israel to head the multinational peacekeeping mission Unifil, although the dangers of the mission for Italian troops sparked warnings from the center-right opposition that it could prove a "kamikaze" mission, with the peacekeepers sandwiched between Israel and the well-armed Hezbollah. D’Alema pledged Italy’s willingness to enforce the United Nations resolution on Lebanon and urged other European Union member states to do the same because the stability of the Middle East should be a chief concern for Europeans.

On the European scene.

D'Alema was briefly a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006. Since 2003 he has been member of the scientific committee of Michel Rocard and Dominique Strauss-Kahn's association "A gauche en Europe". He still figures on the European scene; he signed the Soros letter ('As concerned Europeans') and has called for a stronger European integration.  Three year after the peace-keeping role in the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war, D'Alema became one of the favourite candidates for the charges of president of the European Council, high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, or secretary-general for the Council Secretariat, without being appointed.  Since 30 June 2010 he has been the president of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), the political foundation of the Party of European Socialists.  D'Alema has been a friend of the Italian banker and Freemason Vincenzo De Bustis.

Career.

Awards.

"See also:" 2004 European Parliament election in Italy

Books.

Massimo D'Alema published eight books, half of which with Mondadori, which is controlled by Fininvest, the family holding company of Silvio Berlusconi.

Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician who was the 53rd Prime Minister from 1998 to 2000. Later he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. He is also a journalist and served for a time as national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). Sometimes media refers to him as "Leader Maximo", due to his first name Massimo, but also for his dominant position in the left-wing coalitions during the Second Republic. Earlier in his career he was a member of the Italian Communist Party, and he was the first former communist to become prime minister of a NATO country and yet the only former communist prime minister of Italy.


Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois

Birth and adoption.

Born Charlotte Louise Juliette de Monaco in Constantine, French Algeria, she was the illegitimate daughter of Marie Juliette Louvet, a cabaret singer, and Louis, Hereditary Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois, son and heir of Monaco's reigning monarch, Prince Albert I. Louis had no legitimate children or siblings, so even before he succeeded his father as Prince Louis II, the principality sought to forestall a succession crisis, anticipating that its neighbour, the French Republic, might take it amiss if the throne fell someday to Louis's legal next of kin. That heir was his cousin, Wilhelm, 2nd Duke of Urach, who, although born and raised in Monte Carlo as the son of Princess Florestine of Monaco, was a German subject, property owner and patrilineal relative of the kings of Württemberg. On 15 May 1911 a law was passed recognising Charlotte as Louis's daughter, and declaring her to be a dynastic member of the sovereign family. Though this act was later held to be invalid under the 1882 statutes, an Ordinance of 30 October 1918 was passed to allow her to be adopted into the dynasty instead. Louis adopted Charlotte in Paris on 16 May 1919, thereby entitling her to the surname Grimaldi, while her grandfather bestowed upon her the traditional title of the Principality's heir, Duchess of Valentinois, for life. Charlotte became heir presumptive to the throne as Hereditary Princess when her grandfather died and her father inherited the princely crown in 1922.

Legality of adoption.

A shadow of doubt existed over the legality of this adoption. The Monegasque Civil Code (Articles 240 and 243) required that the adopting party be at least of age fifty and the adoptee twenty-one. The 1918 Ordinance changed the age limit to eighteen (Charlotte was twenty at the time) but not the other age limit; Louis was then only 48.

Marriage.

In Monaco civilly on 18 March and religiously on 19 March 1920, Louis arranged Charlotte's marriage to the then Count Pierre de Polignac of Hennebont, Morbihan, Brittany, France, who, by the Prince's ordinance, took the surname Grimaldi and became a Prince of the Monegasque Royal Family. The couple had two children:  Their marriage was not, however, a happy one; they separated on 20 March 1930 due to his homosexuality, and Charlotte left him to live with her doctor and Italian lover, Dalmazzo. The couple were divorced on 18 February 1933 by ordinance of Prince Louis II.

Late life.

On 30 May 1944, the day before her son's 21st birthday and in full agreement with her father, Charlotte renounced and ceded her rights to the throne to her son Rainier, subject to the stipulation that he did not predecease her. From this date she was no longer Hereditary Princess of Monaco, though she retained the title Princess Charlotte of Monaco.  Late in life she went to college, obtaining a degree in social work. After her son assumed the throne (in 1949), Princess Charlotte moved to live at Château de Marchais, the Grimaldi estate outside Paris. Despite the objections of her children who feared for her safety, she turned the estate into a rehabilitation centre for ex-convicts. She lived at the estate with her lover, a noted French former jewel thief named René Girier and nicknamed "René la Canne" (René the Cane).  She died in 1977 in Paris.

Princess Charlotte of Monaco, Duchess of Valentinois (Charlotte Louise Juliette Grimaldi; 30 September 1898 – 16 November 1977), was the daughter of Louis II, Prince of Monaco, and the mother of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. From 1922 until 1944, she was the Hereditary Princess of Monaco, heir presumptive to the throne.


Biography.

Alexander Siloti was born on his father's estate near Kharkiv, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia). He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Zverev from 1871, then from 1875 under Nikolai Rubinstein, brother of the more famous Anton Rubinstein; from that year he also studied counterpoint under Sergei Taneyev, harmony under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and theory under Nikolai Hubert. He graduated with the Gold Medal in Piano in 1881. Siloti went to Weimar, Germany to further his studies with Franz Liszt, co-founding the Liszt-Verein in Leipzig, and making his professional debut on 19 November 1883. Returning to Russia in 1887, Siloti taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included Alexander Goldenweiser, Leonid Maximov, and his first cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff. During this period he also began work as editor for Tchaikovsky, particularly on the First and Second piano concertos.  Siloti married Vera Tretyakova, herself a pianist and the daughter of wealthy industrialist and art collector Pavel Tretyakov. He left his post at the Conservatory in May 1891, and from 1892-1900 lived and toured in Europe with his wife and young children. He also toured New York City, Boston, Cincinnati and Chicago in 1898. As a conductor Siloti gave the world premiere of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the composer as soloist in 1901. From 1901–1903, he led the Moscow Philharmonic; from 1903–1917, he organized, financed, and conducted the influential Siloti Concerts in St Petersburg, collaborating with the critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky. He presented Leopold Auer, Pablo Casals, Feodor Chaliapin, George Enescu, Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, Willem Mengelberg, Felix Mottl, Arthur Nikisch, Arnold Schoenberg and Felix Weingartner, and local and world premieres by Debussy, Elgar, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Sibelius, Stravinsky and others. Ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev first heard Stravinsky's music at one of the Siloti Concerts.  In the generation prior to 1917, Siloti was one of Russia's most important artists, with music by Arensky, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky dedicated to him. In 1918, Siloti was appointed Intendant of the Mariinsky Theatre, but late the following year fled what had become Soviet Russia for England, finally settling in New York City in December 1921. From 1925-1942 he taught at the Juilliard School, performing occasionally in recital, and in November 1930 gave a legendary all-Liszt concert with Arturo Toscanini. His many students included Bertha Melnik, Marc Blitzstein, Gladys Ewart, and Eugene Istomin.  Siloti, who was one of the great practitioners of the art of transcription, wrote over 200 of these arrangements, as well as orchestral editions of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Possibly his most famous transcription is the Prelude in B minor, based on a keyboard prelude by J. S. Bach. As a pianist Siloti made 8 piano rolls and 26 minutes of home-recorded discs. Carl Fischer has published a large anthology of his piano transcriptions, and Rowman and Littlefield has published the first full-scale Alexander Siloti biography. In 2014, the Alexander Siloti Archive at Stanford University was donated by author and alumnus Charles Barber. In six linear feet, it contains all of the correspondence, documentation, music and manuscripts acquired for the writing of the Siloti biography called "Lost in the Stars", and for publication of the 'Alexander Siloti Collection' of piano music.  Alexander Siloti is buried at the Russian Orthodox Convent Novo-Diveevo Cemetery, Nanuet, New York.

Alexander Ilyich Siloti (also Ziloti,, "Aleksandr Iljič Ziloti", ; 9 October 1863 – 8 December 1945) was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. His daughter, Kyriena Siloti, was also a noted pianist and teacher in New York and Boston until her death in 1989, aged 94.


History.

The first mention of a place called Mielec occurs in the thirteenth century in the 1229 bull of Pope Gregory IX. In the second half of the fourteenth century, "Mielecka" was mentioned in a list of parishes. The city of Mielec, part of Sandomierz Voivodeship, was founded on 17 March 1457, when King Casimir IV granted a charter to John Mielecki for the establishment of a city under the name of Nowy Targ. For unknown reasons John Mielecki did not go on to found the city; it was eventually established by his two sons, John and Bernard, by an Act of 18 December 1470. The Mielecki family owned the town of Mielec until the last of the Mieleckis died in 1771. Under their rule, there was intensive development of craft industries. In 1522, the first guild was founded. This was the blacksmiths' guild. It was followed by guilds of tailors, cobblers, potters, spinners, and weavers. The next owners of Mielec were the Ossolinski and Morsztyn families. In 1775, Anna Ossilinska married John Pieniazek, bringing as a dowry her share of part of the city. The next owner was Ignatius Suchorzewski, who married Pieniazek's daughter Paulina. Suchorzewski sold Mielec's property to Louis Starzenski in 1847, who then disposed of it ten years later to a Jewish family named Gross. The last owner of Mielec was the Oborski family in 1891.  In 1853, the county town of Mielec governed an area in which there were 106 settlements and 91 castral municipalities. In 1892, on Kosciuszko Street a new City Council building and police barracks were built. The development of the county town was interrupted by a huge fire, which destroyed three quarters of the city. This catastrophe caused the city to apply for a state loan of 12 crowns, the receipt of which led to the rapid development of the city. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the market place in Mielec was surrounded by brick houses, and in 1902, a courthouse was built. In 1912, a gymnasium (or academic high school) and the office of County Council were established and buildings constructed to house them.  World War I caused much damage to the infrastructure and economy of city of Mielec and the county. In the interwar years many streets were paved with cobbles. In addition, a private power plant, various craft workshops, and retail businesses were established. In 1934, the Mielec region suffered a huge flood that destroyed more than 11,000 households.  Mielec's economy has been based for the last 70 years around a single industrial enterprise, which transformed the city and increased its population sixfold. This process began in the 1930s, when Poland launched a significant expansion of its armaments industry, focused on building factories in the newly created Central Industrial Region (Polish: Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy, abbreviated COP). In 1936, a state-owned factory making airplane chassis was established (State Aviation Works - Airframe Fakcory No. 2) on the outskirts of the town, an area then known as Cyranka. The factory started to build a new bomber, the PZL P-37 or "Łoś" (English: "Moose"). In addition in the years 1937-1939 a large aviation factory belonging to the PZL company was set up. This new manufacturing industry necessitated the development of residential housing for factory workers and management personnel. After the outbreak of World War II, the city and the airplane company fell into the hands of the German invaders. The period of German occupation lasted from 9 September 1939 to 6 August 1944 in Mielec. In the years of 1939–1944, the factory produced German bombers, and from 1943 also manufactured the fighter plane He–297. The Nazis staffed much of the factory with slave labour. Initially, Jews from Mielec were enslaved in this forced labor camp. In 1942, the Jewish population of Mielec was deported to death camps, except for a few who remained as slave labour at the factory. Before the war, the Jewish population of Mielec was 2,800 out of a total population of 5,500. During the deportation, the factory hangars were the site of a mass murder of several hundred of Mielec's Jews, who were buried there. Subsequently, the factory used slave labour composed of Jews from other regions, prisoners of war, political prisoners, etc. Mielec Gestapo used Jewish informants, the so called "V-leute" in region to penetrate underground resistance and denounce hiding Jews;special barracks were set up in labour camp near Mielec for Jewish informers and their families, who were granted special privileges. These informants operated between 1942 and 1943 when they were finally executed by Gestapo themselves.After the war, a monument was placed at the factory with a vague inscription typical of holocaust memorials during the Communist era: "To those employees of the Factory and the inhabitants from the area of both Polish and Jewish nationality murdered during World War II: A tribute from Mielec's Youth." Another mass grave of Jews with a monument may be found in one corner of the Mielec Catholic cemetery, where the victims of a 1941 Nazi atrocity were buried. During the German occupation, all of Mielec's Jewish institutions and the Jewish cemetery were destroyed, and also many of the Jewish homes.  After 1945, the factory became the largest aviation factory in Poland under the name WSK-Mielec "Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego" (English: "Transport Equipment Manufacturing Centre"). This plant was the main source of employment for people in Mielec and surrounding communities. At first, the factory produced Soviet-designed planes under license. Thus, it was the primary production site of the widely used An-2 transport plane. It also manufactured Polish versions of the MiG-15 and MiG-17fighters. The factory also built planes designed in Poland such as the trainer plane TS-11 Iskra used by Poland and India. It produced over 16,000 aircraft, which were mainly licensed for export to the USSR.  After 1989 and the economic changes due to the fall of communism, factory orders declined and the plant encountered serious financial difficulties. It continued to produce successful aircraft types, but at much lower volumes than during the Cold War. Self-government of Mielec Township was established in 1990.  The situation changed in 1995, due to the establishment of Poland's first Special Economic Zone EURO-PARK Mielec. In 1998 the aviation plant changed its name to PZL-Mielec "Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze" (English: "Polish Aviation Works"). In 2007 the factory was acquired by Sikorsky (in 2015 Sikorsky was acquired by Lockheed Martin), and was planned to be the main production site of the export version UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Also Mielec has been the production site of sports-luxury car Leopard 6 Litre Roadster. Other products manufactured in the city:  In 2020 Mielec is close to enlarging the zone of SEZ EURO-PARK MIELEC

Economy.

From the beginning of Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy, Mielec is commonly associated with PZL Mielec aviation factory.  The first Special Economic Zone in Poland, SEZ EURO-PARK MIELEC, has been founded in Mielec in 1995 and has a positive impact on economy of Mielec.

Education.

Elementary schools Junior High Schools  High Schools and Vo-Tech Schools  Colleges and universities

International relations.

Twin Towns - Sister Cities.

Mielec is twinned with:

Mielec () is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie).