Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Born into wealthy Polish aristocracy, Poniatowski arrived as a diplomat at the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1755 at the age of 22 and became intimately involved with the future empress Catherine the Great. With her aid, he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Sejm in September 1764 following the death of Augustus III. Contrary to expectations, Poniatowski attempted to reform and strengthen the large but ailing Commonwealth. His efforts were met with external opposition from neighbouring Prussia, Russia and Austria, all committed to keeping the Commonwealth weak. From within he was opposed by conservative interests, which saw the reforms as a threat to their traditional liberties and privileges granted centuries earlier.

The defining crisis of his early reign was the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772) that led to the First Partition of Poland (1772). The later part of his reign saw reforms wrought by the Diet (1788–1792) and the Constitution of 3 May 1791. These reforms were overthrown by the 1792 Targowica Confederation and by the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading directly to the Second Partition of Poland (1793), the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) and the final and Third Partition of Poland (1795), marking the end of the Commonwealth. Stripped of all meaningful power, Poniatowski abdicated in November 1795 and spent the last years of his life as a captive in Saint Petersburg's Marble Palace.

A controversial figure in Poland's history, he is viewed with ambivalence as a brave and skillful statesman by some and as an overly hesitant coward by others, and even as a traitor. He is criticized primarily for his failure to resolutely stand against opposing forces and prevent the partitions, which led to the destruction of the Polish state. On the other hand, he is remembered as a great patron of arts and sciences who laid the foundation for the Commission of National Education, the first institution of its kind in the world, the Great Sejm of 1788-1792, which led to the Constitution of 3 May 1791 and as a sponsor of many architectural landmarks. Historians tend to agree that, taking the circumstances into account, he was a skillful statesman, pointing out that passing the Constitution was a sign of bravery, although his unwillingness to organize a proper nationwide uprising afterward is seen as cowardice and the key reason for the Second Partition and the subsequent downfall of Poland.

Youth

Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski was born on 17 January 1732 in Wołczyn (then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and now Vowchyn, Belarus). He was one of eight surviving children, and the fourth son, of Princess Konstancja Czartoryska and of Count Stanisław Poniatowski, Ciołek coat of arms, Castellan of Kraków, who started as a Lithuanian domestic servant. His older brothers were Kazimierz Poniatowski (1721–1800), a Podkomorzy at Court, Franciszek Poniatowski (1723–1749), Canon of Wawel Cathedral who suffered from Epilepsy and Aleksander Poniatowski (1725–1744), an officer killed in the Rhineland-Palatinate during the War of the Austrian Succession. His younger brothers were, Andrzej Poniatowski (1734–1773), an Austrian Feldmarschall, Michał Jerzy Poniatowski (1736–94) who became Primate of Poland. His two older and married sisters were Ludwika Zamoyska (1728–1804) and Izabella Branicka (1730–1808). Among his nephews was Prince Józef Poniatowski (1763–1813), son of Andrzej. He was a great-grandson of poet and courtier  Jan Andrzej Morsztyn and through his great-grandmother, Catherine Gordon, lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, he was related to the House of Stuart and thereby connected to the leading families of Scotland, Spain and France. The Poniatowski family had achieved high status among the Polish nobility (szlachta) of the time.

He spent the first few years of his childhood in Gdańsk. He was temporarily kidnapped as a toddler, on the orders of Józef Potocki, Governor of Kiev, as a reprisal for his father's support for King Augustus III and held for some months in Kamieniec-Podolski. He was returned to his parents in Gdańsk. Later he moved with his family to Warsaw. He was initially educated by his mother, then by private tutors, including Russian ambassador Herman Karl von Keyserling. He had few friends in his teenage years and instead developed a fondness for books which continued throughout his life. He went on his first foreign trip in 1748, with elements of the Imperial Russian army as it advanced into the Rhineland to aid Maria Theresia's troops during the War of the Austrian Succession which ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). This enabled Poniatowski both to visit the city, also known as Aachen, and to venture into the Netherlands. On his return journey he stopped in Dresden.

Political career

The following year Poniatowski was apprenticed to the office of Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski, the then Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania. In 1750, he travelled to Berlin where he met a British diplomat, Charles Hanbury Williams, who became his mentor and friend. In 1751, Poniatowski was elected to the Treasury Tribunal in Radom, where he served as a commissioner. He spent most of January 1752 at the Austrian court in Vienna. Later that year, after serving at the Radom Tribunal and meeting King Augustus III of Poland, he was elected deputy of the Sejm (Polish parliament). While there his father secured for him the title of Starosta of Przemyśl. In March 1753, he travelled to Hungary and Vienna, where he again met with Williams. He returned to the Netherlands, where he met many key members of that country's political and economic sphere. By late August, he had arrived in Paris, where he moved among the elites. In February 1754, he travelled on to Britain, where he spent some months. There, he was befriended by Charles Yorke, the future Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. He returned to the Commonwealth later that year, however he eschewed the Sejm, as his parents wanted to keep him out of the political furore surrounding the Ostrogski family's land inheritance (see: fee tail – Ordynacja Ostrogska). The following year he received the title of Stolnik of Lithuania.

Poniatowski owed his rise and influence to his family connections with the powerful Czartoryski family and their political faction, known as the Familia, with whom he had grown close. It was the Familia who sent him in 1755 to Saint Petersburg in the service of Williams, who had been nominated British ambassador to Russia.

In Saint Petersburg, Williams introduced Poniatowski to the 26-year-old Catherine Alexeievna, the future empress Catherine the Great. The two became lovers. Whatever his feelings for Catherine, it is likely Poniatowski also saw an opportunity to use the relationship for his own benefit, using her influence to bolster his career.

Poniatowski had to leave St. Petersburg in July 1756 due to court intrigue. Through the combined influence of Catherine, of Russian empress Elizabeth and of chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Poniatowski was able to rejoin the Russian court now as ambassador of Saxony the following January. Still in St Petersburg, he appears to have been a source of intrigue between various European governments, some supporting his appointment, others demanding his withdrawal. He eventually left the Russian capital on 14 August 1758.

Poniatowski attended the Sejms of 1758, 1760, and 1762. He continued his involvement with the Familia, and supported a pro-Russian and anti-Prussian stance in Polish politics. His father died in 1762, leaving him a modest inheritance. In 1762, when Catherine ascended the Russian throne, she sent him several letters professing her support for his own ascension to the Polish throne, but asking him to stay away from St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Poniatowski hoped that Catherine would consider his offer of marriage, an idea seen as plausible by some international observers. He participated in the failed plot by the Familia to stage a coup d'état against King Augustus III. In August 1763, however, Catherine advised him and the Familia that she would not support a coup as long as King Augustus was alive.

Kingship

Years of hope

Upon the death of Poland's King Augustus III in October 1763, lobbying began for the election of the new king. Catherine threw her support behind Poniatowski. The Russians spent about 2.5m rubles in aid of his election. Poniatowski's supporters and opponents engaged in some military posturing and even minor clashes. In the end, the Russian army was deployed only a few kilometres from the election sejm, which met at Wola near Warsaw. In the event, there were no other serious contenders, and during the convocation sejm on 7 September 1764, 32-year-old Poniatowski was elected king, with 5,584 votes. He swore the pacta conventa on 13 November, and a formal coronation took place in Warsaw on 25 November. The new king's "uncles" in the Familia would have preferred another nephew on the throne, Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, characterized by one of his contemporaries as "débauché, si non dévoyé" (French: "debauched if not depraved"), but Czartoryski had declined to seek office.

"Stanisław August", as he now styled himself combining the names of his two immediate royal predecessors, began his rule with only mixed support within the nation. It was mainly the small nobility who favoured his election. In his first years on the throne he attempted to introduce a number of reforms. He founded the Knights School, and began to form a diplomatic service, with semi-permanent diplomatic representatives throughout Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. On 7 May 1765, Poniatowski established the Order of the Knights of Saint Stanislaus, in honour of Saint Stanislaus of Krakow, Bishop and Martyr, Poland's and his own patron saint, as the country's second order of chivalry, to reward Poles and others for noteworthy service to the King. Together with the Familia he tried to reform the ineffective system of government, by reducing the powers of the hetmans (Commonwealth's top military commanders) and treasurers, moving them to commissions elected by the Sejm and accountable to the King. In his memoirs, Poniatowski called this period the "years of hope." The Familia, which was interested in strengthening its own power base, was dissatisfied with his conciliatory attitude as he reached out to many former opponents of their policies. This uneasy alliance between Poniatowski and the Familia continued for most of the first decade of his rule. One of the points of contention between Poniatowski and the Familia concerned the rights of religious minorities in Poland. Whereas Poniatowski reluctantly supported a policy of religious tolerance, the Familia was opposed to it. The growing rift between Poniatowski and the Familia was exploited by the Russians, who used the issue as a pretext to intervene in the Commonwealth's internal politics and to destabilize the country. Catherine had no wish to see Poniatowski's reform succeed. She had supported his ascent to the throne to ensure the Commonwealth remained a virtual puppet state under Russian control, so his attempts to reform the Commonwealth's ailing government structures were a threat to the status quo.

The Bar Confederation and First Partition of Poland
Matters came to a head in 1766. During the Sejm in October of that year, Poniatowski attempted to push through a radical reform, restricting the disastrous liberum veto provision. He was opposed by conservatives such as Michał Wielhorski, who were supported by the Prussian and Russian ambassadors and who threatened war if the reform was passed. The dissidents, supported by the Russians, formed the Radom Confederation. Abandoned by the Familia, Poniatowski's reforms failed to pass at the Repnin Sejm, named after Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin, who promised to guarantee with all the might of the Russian Empire the Golden Liberties of the Polish nobility, enshrined in the Cardinal Laws.

Although it had abandoned the cause of Poniatowski's reforms, the Familia did not receive the support it expected from the Russians who continued to press for the conservatives' rights. Meanwhile, other factions now rallied under the banner of the Bar Confederation, aimed against the conservatives, Poniatowski and the Russians. After an unsuccessful attempt to raise allies in Western Europe, France, Britain and Austria, Poniatowski and the Familia had no choice but to rely more heavily on the Russian Empire, which treated Poland as a protectorate. In the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772), Poniatowski supported the Russian army's repression of the Bar Confederation. In 1770, the Council of the Bar Confederation proclaimed him dethroned. The following year, he was kidnapped by Bar Confederates and was briefly held prisoner outside of Warsaw, but he managed to escape. In view of the continuing weakness of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Austria, Russia, and Prussia collaborated to threaten military intervention in exchange for substantial territorial concessions from the Commonwealth – a decision they made without consulting Poniatowski or any other Polish parties.

Although Poniatowski protested against the First Partition of the Commonwealth (1772), he was powerless to do anything about it. He considered abdication, but decided against it.

During the Partition Sejm of 1773–1775, in which Russia was represented by ambassador Otto von Stackelberg, with no allied assistance forthcoming from abroad and with the armies of the partitioning powers occupying Warsaw to compel the Sejm by force of arms, no alternative was available save submission to their will. Eventually Poniatowski and the Sejm acceded to the "partition treaty". At the same time, several other reforms were passed. The Cardinal Laws were confirmed and guaranteed by the partitioning powers. Royal prerogative was restricted, so that the King lost the power to confer titular roles, and military promotions, to appoint ministers and senators. Starostwo territories, and Crown lands would be awarded by auction. The Sejm also created two notable institutions: the Permanent Council, a government body in continuous operation, and the Commission of National Education. The partitioning powers intended the council to be easier to control than the unruly Sejms, and indeed it remained under the influence of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, it was a significant improvement on the earlier Commonwealth governance. The new legislation was guaranteed by the Russian Empire, giving it licence to interfere in Commonwealth politics when legislation it favoured was threatened.

The aftermath of the Partition Sejm saw the rise of a conservative faction opposed to the Permanent Council, seeing it as a threat to their Golden Freedoms. This faction was supported by the Czartoryski family, but not by Poniatowski, who proved to be quite adept at making the Council follow his wishes. This marked the formation of new anti-royal and pro-royal factions in Polish politics. The royal faction was made up primarily of people indebted to the King, who planned to build their careers on service to him. Few were privy to his plans for reforms, which were kept hidden from the conservative opposition and Russia. Poniatowski scored a political victory during the Sejm of 1776, which further strengthened the council. Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski was tasked with the codification of the Polish law, a project that became known as the Zamoyski Code. Russia supported some, but not all, of the 1776 reforms, and to prevent Poniatowski from growing too powerful, it supported the opposition during the Sejm of 1778. This marked the end of Poniatowski's reforms, as he found himself without sufficient support to carry them through.

The Great Sejm and the Constitution of 3 May 1791
In the 1780s, Catherine appeared to favour Poniatowski marginally over the opposition, but she did not support any of his plans for significant reform. Despite repeated attempts, Poniatowski failed to confederate the sejms, which would have made them immune to the liberum veto. Thus, although he had a majority in the Sejms, Poniatowski was unable to pass even the smallest reform. The Zamoyski Code was rejected by the Sejm of 1780, and opposition attacks on the King dominated the Sejms of 1782 and 1786.

Reforms became possible again in the late 1780s. In the context of the wars being waged against the Ottoman Empire by both the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire, Poniatowski tried to draw Poland into the Austro-Russian alliance, seeing a war with the Ottomans as an opportunity to strengthen the Commonwealth. Catherine gave permission for the next Sejm to be called, as she considered some form of limited military alliance with Poland against the Ottomans might be useful.

The Polish-Russian alliance was not implemented, as in the end the only acceptable compromise proved unattractive to both sides. However, in the ensuing Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92 (known as the Great Sejm), Poniatowski threw his lot in with the reformers associated with the Patriotic Party of Stanisław Małachowski, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, and co-authored the Constitution of 3 May 1791. The Constitution introduced sweeping reforms. According to Jacek Jędruch, the Constitution, despite its liberal provisions, "fell somewhere below the French, above the Canadian, and left the General State Laws for the Prussian States (in German: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten) far behind", but was "no match for the American Constitution".

George Sanford notes that the Constitution gave Poland "a constitutional monarchy close to the British model of the time." According to a contemporary account, Poniatowski himself described it, as "founded principally on those of England and the United States of America, but avoiding the faults and errors of both, and adapted as much as possible to the local and particular circumstances of the country." The Constitution of 3 May remained to the end a work in progress. A new civil and criminal code (provisionally called the "Stanisław Augustus Code") was among the proposals. Poniatowski also planned a reform to improve the situation of Polish Jews.

In foreign policy, spurned by Russia, Poland turned to another potential ally, the Triple Alliance, represented on the Polish diplomatic scene primarily by the Kingdom of Prussia, which led to the formation of the ultimately futile Polish–Prussian alliance. The pro-Prussian shift was not supported by Poniatowski, who nevertheless acceded to the decision of the majority of Sejm deputies. The passing of the Constitution of 3 May, although officially applauded by Frederick William II of Prussia, who sent a congratulatory note to Warsaw, caused further worry in Prussia. The contacts of Polish reformers with the revolutionary French National Assembly were seen by Poland's neighbours as evidence of a conspiracy and a threat to their absolute monarchies. Prussian statesman Ewald von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "The Poles have given the coup de grâce to the Prussian monarchy by voting in a constitution", elaborating that a strong Commonwealth would likely demand the return of the lands Prussia acquired in the First Partition; a similar sentiment was later expressed by Prussian Foreign Minister, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert. Russia's wars with the Ottomans and Sweden having ended, Catherine was furious over the adoption of the Constitution, which threatened Russian influence in Poland. One of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko, upon learning of the Constitution, commented that "the worst possible news have arrived from Warsaw: the Polish king has become almost sovereign."

War in Defence of the Constitution and fall of the Commonwealth

Shortly thereafter, conservative Polish nobility formed the Targowica Confederation to overthrow the Constitution, which they saw as a threat to the traditional freedoms and privileges they enjoyed. The confederates aligned themselves with Russia's Catherine the Great, and the Russian army entered Poland, marking the start of the Polish–Russian War of 1792, also known as the War in Defence of the Constitution. The Sejm voted to increase the Polish Army to 100,000 men, but due to insufficient time and funds this number was never achieved. Poniatowski and the reformers could field only a 37,000-man army, many of them untested recruits. This army, under the command of the King's nephew Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, managed to defeat the Russians or fight them to a draw on several occasions. Following the victorious Battle of Zieleńce, in which Polish forces were commanded by his nephew, the King founded a new order, the Order of Virtuti Militari, to reward Poles for exceptional military leadership and courage in combat.

Despite Polish requests, Prussia refused to honour its alliance obligations. In the end, the numerical superiority of the Russians was too great, and defeat looked inevitable. Poniatowski's attempts at negotiations with Russia proved futile. In July 1792, when Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the king came to believe that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat. Having received assurances from Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov that no territorial changes would occur, a cabinet of ministers called the Guard of Laws (or Guardians of Law, ) voted eight to four in favor of surrender. On 24 July 1792, Poniatowski joined the Targowica Confederation. The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile, although they hoped that Poniatowski would be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with the Russians, as he had done in the past. Poniatowski had not saved the Commonwealth, however. He and the reformers had lost much of their influence, both within the country and with Catherine. Neither were the Targowica Confederates victorious. To their surprise, there ensued the Second Partition of Poland. With the new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, the Grodno Sejm took place. On 23 November 1793, it annulled all acts of the Great Sejm, including the Constitution. Faced with his powerlessness, Poniatowski once again considered abdication; in the meantime he tried to salvage whatever reforms he could.

Final years

Poniatowski's plans had been ruined by the Kościuszko Uprising. The King had not encouraged it, but once it began he supported it, seeing no other honourable option. Its defeat marked the end of the Commonwealth. Poniatowski tried to govern the country in the brief period after the fall of the Uprising, but on 2 December 1794, Catherine demanded he leave Warsaw, a request to which he acceded on 7 January 1795, leaving the capital under Russian military escort and settling briefly in Grodno. On 24 October 1795, the Act of the final, Third Partition of Poland was signed. One month and one day later, on 25 November, Poniatowski signed his abdication.
Reportedly, his sister, Ludwika Maria Zamoyska and her daughter also his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska, who had been threatened with confiscation of their property, had contributed to persuading him to sign the abdication: they feared that his refusal would lead to a Russian confiscation of their properties and their ruin.

Catherine died on 17 November 1796, succeeded by her son, Paul I of Russia. On 15 February 1797, Poniatowski left for Saint Petersburg. He had hoped to be allowed to travel abroad, but was unable to secure permission to do so. A virtual prisoner in St. Petersburg's Marble Palace, he subsisted on a pension granted to him by Catherine. Despite financial troubles, he still supported some of his former allies, and continued to try to represent the Polish cause at the Russian court. He also worked on his memoirs.

Poniatowski died of a stroke on 12 February 1798. Paul I sponsored a royal state funeral, and on 3 March he was buried at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. In 1938, when the Soviet Union planned to demolish the Church, his remains were transferred to the Second Polish Republic and interred in a church at Wołczyn, his birthplace. This was done in secret and caused controversy in Poland when the matter became known. In 1990, due to the poor state of the Wołczyn church (then in the Byelorussian SSR), his body was once more exhumed and was brought to Poland, to St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw, where on 3 May 1791 he had celebrated the adoption of the Constitution that he had coauthored. A third funeral ceremony was held on 14 February 1995.

Legacy

Patron of culture

Stanisław August Poniatowski has been called the Polish Enlightenment's most important patron of the arts. His cultural projects were attuned to his socio-political aims of overthrowing the myth of the Golden Freedoms and the traditional ideology of Sarmatism. His weekly "Thursday Dinners" were considered the most scintillating social functions in the Polish capital.
He founded Warsaw's National Theatre, Poland's first public theatre, and sponsored an associated Ballet schoolsballet school. He remodeled Ujazdów Palace and the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and erected the elegant Łazienki (Royal Baths) Palace in Warsaw's Łazienki, Park. He involved himself deeply in the detail of his architectural projects, and his eclectic style has been dubbed the "Stanisław August style" by Polish art historian Władysław Tatarkiewicz. His chief architects included Domenico Merlini and Jan Kammsetzer.

He was also patron to numerous painters. They included Poles such as his protégée, Anna Rajecka and Franciszek Smuglewicz, Jan Bogumił Plersch, son of Jan Jerzy Plersch, Józef Wall, and Zygmunt Vogel, as well as foreign painters including, Marcello Bacciarelli, Bernardo Bellotto, Jean Pillement, Ludwik Marteau, and Per Krafft the Elder. His retinue of sculptors, headed by André-Jean Lebrun, included Giacomo Monaldi, Franz Pinck, and Tommaso Righi. Jan Filip Holzhaeusser was his court engraver and the designer of many commemorative medals. According to a 1795 inventory, Stanisław August's art collection, spread among numerous buildings, contained 2,889 pieces, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, and van Dyck. His plan to create a large gallery of paintings in Warsaw was disrupted by the dismemberment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of the paintings that he had ordered for it can now be seen in London's Dulwich Picture Gallery. Poniatowski also planned to found an Academy of Fine Arts, but this finally came about only after his abdication and departure from Warsaw.

Poniatowski accomplished much in the realm of education and literature. He established the School of Chivalry, also called the "Cadet Corps", which functioned from 1765 to 1794 and whose alumni included Tadeusz Kościuszko. He supported the creation of the Commission of National Education, considered to be the world's first Ministry of Education. In 1765 he helped found the Monitor, one of the first Polish newspapers and the leading periodical of the Polish Enlightenment. He sponsored many articles that appeared in the Monitor. Writers and poets who received his patronage included, Stanisław Trembecki, Franciszek Salezy Jezierski, Franciszek Bohomolec and Franciszek Zabłocki. He also supported publishers including, Piotr Świtkowski, and library owners such as Józef Lex.

He supported the development of the sciences, particularly cartography; he hired a personal cartographer, Karol de Perthees, even before he was elected king. A plan he initiated to map the entire territory of the Commonwealth, however, was never finished. At the Royal Castle in Warsaw, he organized an astronomical observatory and supported astronomers Jan Śniadecki and Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt. He also sponsored historical studies, including the collection, cataloging and copying of historical manuscripts. He encouraged publications of biographies of famous Polish historical figures, and sponsored paintings and sculptures of them.

For his contributions to the arts and sciences, Poniatowski was awarded in 1766 a royal Fellowship of the Royal Society, where he became the first royal Fellow outside British royalty. In 1778 he was awarded fellowship of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1791 of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

He also supported the development of industry and manufacturing, areas in which the Commonwealth lagged behind most of Western Europe. Among the endeavours in which he invested were the manufacture of cannons and firearms and the mining industry.

Poniatowski himself left several literary works: his memoirs, some political brochures and recorded speeches from the Sejm. He was considered a great orator and a skilled conversationalist.

Conflicting assessments

King Stanisław Augustus remains a controversial figure. In Polish historiography and in popular works, he has been criticized or marginalized by authors such as, Szymon Askenazy, Joachim Lelewel, Jerzy Łojek whom Andrzej Zahorski describes as Poniatowski's most vocal critic among modern historians, Tadeusz Korzon, Karol Zyszewski and Krystyna Zienkowska; whereas more neutral or positive views have been expressed by Paweł Jasienica, Walerian Kalinka, Władysław Konopczyński, Stanisław Mackiewicz, Emanuel Rostworowski and Stanisław Wasylewski.

When elected to the throne, he was seen by many as simply an "instrument for displacing the somnolent Saxons from the throne of Poland", yet as the British historian, Norman Davies notes, "he turned out to be an ardent patriot, and a convinced reformer." Still, according to many, his reforms did not go far enough, leading to accusations that he was being overly cautious, even indecisive, a fault to which he himself admitted. His decision to rely on Russia has been often criticized. Poniatowski saw Russia as a "lesser evil" – willing to support the notional "independence" of a weak Poland within the Russian sphere of influence. However, in the event Russia imposed the Partitions of Poland rather than choose to support internal reform. He was accused by others of weakness and subservience, even of treason, especially in the years following the Second Partition. During the Kościuszko Uprising, there were rumours that Polish Jacobins had been planning a coup d'état and Poniatowski's assassination. Another line of criticism alleged poor financial management on his part. Poniatowski actually had little personal wealth. Most of his income came from Crown Estates and monopolies. His lavish patronage of the arts and sciences was a major drain on the royal treasury. He also supported numerous public initiatives, and attempted to use the royal treasury to cover the state's expenses when tax revenues were insufficient. The Sejm promised several times to compensate his treasury to little practical effect. Nonetheless contemporary critics frequently accused him of being a spendthrift.

Andrzej Zahorski dedicated a book to a discussion of Poniatowski, The Dispute over Stanisław August (Spór o Stanisława Augusta, Warsaw, 1988). He notes that the discourse concerning Poniatowski is significantly coloured by the fact that he was the last King of Poland – the King who failed to save the country. This failure, and his prominent position, rendered him a convenient scapegoat for many. Zahorski argues that Poniatowski made the error of joining the Targowica Confederation. Although he wanted to preserve the integrity of the Polish state, it was far too late for that – he succeeded instead in cementing the damage to his own reputation for succeeding centuries.

Remembrance

Poniatowski has been the subject of numerous biographies and many works of art. Voltaire, who saw Poniatowski as a model reformist, based his character, King Teucer in the play Les Lois de Minos (1772) on Poniatowski. At least 58 contemporary poems were dedicated to him or praised him. Since then, he has been a major character in many works of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, in the Rok 1794 trilogy by Władysław Stanisław Reymont, in the novels of Tadeusz Łopalewski, and in the dramas of Ignacy Grabowski, Tadeusz Miciński, Roman Brandstaetter and Bogdan Śmigielski. He is discussed in Luise Mühlbach's novel Joseph II and His Court, and appears in Jane Porter's 1803 novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw.

On screen he has been played by Wieńczysław Gliński in the 1976 3 Maja directed by Grzegorz Królikiewicz. He appears in a Russian TV series.

Poniatowski is depicted in numerous portraits, medals and coins. He is prominent in Jan Matejko's work, especially in the 1891 painting, Constitution of 3 May 1791 and in another large canvas, Rejtan, and in his series of portraits of Polish monarchs. A bust of Poniatowski was unveiled in Łazienki Palace in 1992. A number of cities in Poland have streets named after him, including Kraków and Warsaw.

Family
Poniatowski never married. In his youth, he had loved his cousin Elżbieta Czartoryska, but her father August Aleksander Czartoryski disapproved because he did not think him influential or rich enough. When this was no longer an issue, she was already married. His pacta conventa specified that he should marry a Polish noblewoman, although he himself always hoped to marry into some royal family.

Upon his accession to the throne, he had hopes of marrying Catherine II, writing to her on 2 November 1763 in a moment of doubt, "If I desired the throne, it was because I saw you on it." When she made it clear through his envoy Rzewuski that she would not marry him, there were hopes of an Austrian archduchess, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (1743–1808).  A marriage to Princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden was suggested despite the religious differences, but this match was opposed by his sisters, Ludwika Maria Poniatowska and Izabella Poniatowska, and nothing came of it.  The ceremonial role of queen and hostess of his court was played by his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska.

A few historians believe that he later contracted a secret marriage with Elżbieta Szydłowska. However, according to Wirydianna Fiszerowa, a contemporary who knew them both, this rumour only spread after the death of Poniatowski, was generally disbelieved, and moreover, was circulated by Elżbieta herself, so the marriage is considered by most to be unlikely.
He had several notable lovers, including Elżbieta Branicka, who acted as his political adviser and financier,  and had children with two of them. With Magdalena Agnieszka Sapieżyna (1739–1780), he became the father of Konstancja Żwanowa (1768–1810) and Michał Cichocki (1770–1828). With Elżbieta Szydłowska (1748–1810), he became the father of Stanisław Konopnicy-Grabowski (1780–1845), Michał Grabowski (1773–1812), Kazimierz Grabowski (1770-?), Konstancja Grabowska and Izabela Grabowska (1776–1858).

Issue

Titles, honours and arms

The English translation of the Polish text of the 1791 Constitution gives his title as Stanisław August, by the grace of God and the will of the people, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Podlasie, Livonia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernihiv.

National
 : Order of the White Eagle (1756)
 : Order of Saint Stanislaus (1765)
 : Order of Virtuti Militari (1792)

Foreign
  Prussia: Order of the Black Eagle (5 April 1764)
 : Order of Saint Andrew (1764)

See also
 History of Poland (1569–1795)
 Poles in the United Kingdom
 Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning

Notes

a  Sources vary as to whether Konstancja Grabowska and Kazimierz Grabowski were Poniatowski's children. They are listed as such by several sources, including Jerzy Michalski's article on Stanisław August Poniatowski in the Polish Biographical Dictionary. However, Marek Jerzy Minakowski's website on descendants of Great Sejm participants lists neither Kazimierz Grabowski nor Konstancja Grabowska as Poniatowski's children; and for Elżbieta Szydłowska, it lists only Kazimierz Grabowski as Jan Jerzy Grabowski's child.

References

Further reading

Bibliography
 Marek Żukow-Karczewski, Stanisław August w Petersburgu (Stanisław August in Saint Petersburg), "Życie Literackie", No. 43, 1987, pp. 1, 6.

External links

 Biography at www.lazienki-krolewskie.pl (Official page of the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw)
 Poniatowski, in: The Historical Geography of the Ciołek clan AD 950–1950.
 Stanisław August w Gdańsku
 Poniatowski's memoirs
 Works by Stanisław August Poniatowski in digital library Polona

1732 births
1798 deaths
People from Kamyenyets District
People from Brest Litovsk Voivodeship
Stanislaw August Poniatowski
Stanislaw Poniatowski
18th-century Polish nobility
Polish Roman Catholics
Polish people of Scottish descent
Kings of Poland
Grand Dukes of Lithuania
Members of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Diplomats of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
18th-century diplomats
18th-century Polish monarchs
German diplomats
Fellows of the Royal Society
Stanislas II
18th-century philanthropists
Polish philanthropists
Lovers of Catherine the Great
Military personnel of the Russian Empire
Military personnel of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish writers in French
Polish educational theorists
Enlightenment philosophers
Polish political writers
18th-century Polish–Lithuanian landowners
People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent
Polish male writers
Museum founders
Polish art collectors
Polish memoirists
Polish bibliophiles
Polish book and manuscript collectors
People of the Polish–Russian War of 1792
Targowica confederates
Kościuszko insurgents
Polish prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of Russia
Polish exiles
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Recipients of the Virtuti Militari
Burials at St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
Royal reburials
Polish Enlightenment

Stanisław August Poniatowski


The Book of Obadiah is found in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible where it is the shortest book, only one chapter long. It is thought to have been written by a person named Obadiah, which means "servant (or worshipper) of the Lord". Obadiah probably wrote the book sometime between 850 and 550 B.C.

The message of Obadiah is given to Edom, a country which was made up of descendants of Esau, who was the twin brother of Jacob.  Jacob is also called Israel and is the ancestor of the Jewish people.  When foreign armies attacked Israel, the people of Edom did not come to their aid, but instead took many things that had belonged to them.  Obadiah said that God would destroy the Edomites because of this.  The Edomites lived in a city that was protected by mountains.  They also had other nations who were their allies in warfare.  They were proud of their wise leaders.  None of these things could protect them from defeat.  Obadiah said that God would give Israel back some lands including the land of the Edomites. Edom no longer exists as a country. Part of what was Edom is now in the kingdom of Jordan.  The ruins of their capitol city Petra is a tourist attraction.

Books of the Hebrew Bible
Old Testament books
6th-century BC books

Book of Obadiah


Adjectives and Adverbs can be comparative in English and some other languages. When people are talking about two or more nouns, they can compare them (say the differences between them). The word which explains how they compare is called the comparative. They can also compare actions using adverbs.

Examples: (The comparative is in bold).
 John is tall, but Mark is taller
 An hour is longer than a minute.

Many words can be made into a comparative by adding er to the end of the word.
cool - cooler
big - bigger
wet - wetter
dark - darker

Words that end with the letter 'Y' can still be made into a comparative, but people change the 'Y' to an 'I' and then add 'ER'.
happy - happier
fluffy - fluffier
angry - angrier
costly - costlier

Some words cannot be made into a comparative by adding 'ER' Instead we use the word more in front. Most of these words have three or more syllables, such as beautiful, reliable.

If people are not sure about a word, it is always acceptable to say "more" (something), such as "more beautiful", "more expensive".

Warning:  The 'ER' ending and the word "more" together cannot be used.
I am happier than you. - Correct.
 I am more happy than you. - Correct.
 I am more happier - WRONG. (Double comparative)

Related pages
 As
 Like

Grammar

Comparative


Arbigny is a commune. It is found in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the Ain department in the east of France. In 2009, 383 people lived in the commune. The inhabitants are the Arbignerons. The location was already populated in prehistory. The local economy is mainly based around agriculture. The most important monuments in the commune are the ruins of an old castle and a stele commemorating Royal Air Force landings during World War Two.

Communes in Ain

Arbigny


Glosa is a term that was often used by Spanish musicians in the 16th century to mean: a piece of music which was similar to a set of variations.  Composers at that time often wrote collections of glosas.  The term is related to the word "gloss".  They were comparing it to gloss (ornamentation) that a poet might put on his poem.  They were often on religious themes.

Antonio de Cabezón was an important composer of glosas.

Glosa was also used by Spanish musicians to mean: musical ornamentation.  This is the meaning in the title of a famous book of music for viola da gamba and harpsichord by Diego Ortiz called Trattado de glosas (1553).

Musical forms

Glosa


SEED is a block cipher developed by the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA). It is used broadly throughout South Korean industry, but seldom found elsewhere. It gained popularity in Korea because 40-bit encryption was not considered strong enough, so the Korea Information Security Agency developed its own standard. However, this decision has historically limited the competition of web browsers in Korea, as no major SSL libraries or web browsers supported the SEED algorithm, requiring users to use an ActiveX control in Internet Explorer for secure web sites.

On April 1, 2015 the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) announced its plan to remove the ActiveX dependency from at least 90 percent of the country's top 100 websites by 2017. Instead, HTML5-based technologies will be employed as they operate on many platforms, including mobile devices. Starting with the private sector, the ministry plans to expand this further to ultimately remove this dependency from public websites as well.

Design

SEED is a 16-round Feistel network with 128-bit blocks and a 128-bit key. It uses two 8 × 8 S-boxes which, like those of SAFER, are derived from discrete exponentiation (in this case, x247 and x251 – plus some "incompatible operations"). It also has some resemblance to MISTY1 in the recursiveness of its structure: the 128-bit full cipher is a Feistel network with an F-function operating on 64-bit halves, while the F-function itself is a Feistel network composed of a G-function operating on 32-bit halves. However the recursion does not extend further because the G-function is not a Feistel network. In the G-function, the 32-bit word is considered as four 8-bit bytes, each of which is passed through one or the other of the S-boxes, then combined in a moderately complex set of boolean functions such that each output bit depends on 3 of the 4 input bytes.

SEED has a fairly complex key schedule, generating its thirty-two 32-bit subkeys through application of its G-function on a series of rotations of the raw key, combined with round constants derived (as in TEA) from the Golden ratio.

Use and adoption

SEED has been adopted by several standard protocols: S/MIME (RFC 4010), TLS/SSL (RFC 4162), IPSec (RFC 4196), and ISO/IEC 18033-3:2010.

NSS software security library in Mozilla's Gecko platform has implemented support for SEED, and Mozilla Firefox as of 3.5.4 supports SEED as a TLS cipher; however, Mozilla decided to drop the support of SEED by default in Firefox 27 and above because support for SEED has not had any practical positive effect in terms of helping South Korea migrate away from ActiveX-based e-commerce, and other browsers are not offering any SEED-based cipher suites. NSS still supports SEED-based cipher suites.

The Linux kernel has supported SEED since 2007.

Bloombase supports SEED in their full suite of data cryptography solutions.

References

External links
 SEED - KISA (Official Site, in Korean)
 SEED official specification document  (English)
 : The SEED encryption algorithm (obsoletes )
 : Use of the SEED Encryption Algorithm in Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)
 : Addition of SEED Cipher Suites to Transport Layer Security (TLS)
 : The SEED Cipher Algorithm and Its Use with IPsec
 ISO/IEC 18033-3:2010

Feistel ciphers
Internet in South Korea
Standards of South Korea

SEED


Emphysema is a disease of the lungs.

It is one of the diseases that make up chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is a set of diseases where the flow of air in the lungs is obstructed. Emphysema is most often caused by smoking but can be caused by other diseases or have no known cause at all.

It occurs when the very small air sacs (called the alveoli) at the ends of the airways in the lungs start to break down from many sacs to form much bigger sacs. The alveoli are the areas of the lung where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged into and out of the blood. Emphysema makes it hard for people to blow air out of the lungs because air gets trapped inside the broken alveoli due to the collapse of the walls. The trapped air in the lungs creates the characteristic "barrel chest" of emphysema.

There is no cure for emphysema. Treatment includes stopping smoking and taking medicines ('broncho-dilators' and sometimes corticosteroids). Supplemental oxygen is recommended in those with low oxygen levels at rest. It decreases the risk of heart failure and death if used 15 hours per day, and may improve people's ability to exercise. In those with normal or mildly low oxygen levels, oxygen supplementation may improve shortness of breath. There is a risk of fires and little benefit when those on oxygen continue to smoke.

Associations
Emphysema is commonly associated with chronic bronchitis. As it is rather difficult to delineate "pure" cases of emphysema or chronic bronchitis they are classed together into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Other websites
 Global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease

Breathing problems
Pulmonology

Emphysema


In chemistry, valence electrons are the electrons in the outside or valence electron shell of an atom. They determine the valency of the atom which is important in how a chemical element reacts with other elements. Elements which have eight valence electrons (noble gases) are inert and they do not tend to create chemical reactions with other elements in the Periodic table group.

The number of valence electrons is also important for determining the group of an element in the Periodic table, because an element's number of valence electron is the same as the number of its group in the periodic table. To calculate the amount of valence electrons present in an element you have to find the last number of the electron configuration.

Physical chemistry

Valence electron


Elektra of Mycenae was the daughter of King Agamemnon of Mycenae and Klytaimnestra. She had a brother, Orestes, and two sisters, Iphigeneia and Chrysothemis.

After the Trojan War, Agamemnon was killed by Klytaimnestra and her lover Aegisthos because Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigeneia for good winds to sail. Elektra helped Orestes to kill their mother Klytaimnestra and her lover, to avenge their father's death.

People in Greek mythology

Elektra


The Congo rainforest in central Africa has one of the longest rivers in the world, the Congo River. The tropical rainforest covers most of the eastern part of the Congo. It is the second largest rainforest in the world (after the Amazon rainforest) and covers two million square kilometers (500 million acres).

This forest and its river were the subject of a famous book called The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Hunting and poaching has endangered many of the animals there, but the jungle itself is not being destroyed.

Plants
The basin of the Congo has 70% of Africa's plant cover. It makes up a large portion of Africa's biodiversity with over 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species.

Animals
Many unusual animals live in the Congo Basin. The two species of chimpanzee, for example, live only in the Congo rainforests. The large one is the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), and the smaller one is the bonobo (Pan paniscus). They live in different areas. Also, gorillas live in the rainforest of central Africa. The gorillas of the Congo rainforest are called "lowland gorillas".

The hippopotamus is another animal that can be found in the Congo rainforest, usually in the river. Elephants also live in the rainforest, but only the smaller African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Another interesting animal in the Congo rainforest is the okapi. The okapi is an interesting species. It is related to the giraffe, but looks more like a zebra. There are other endemic or notable mammals, such as Allen's swamp monkey, the dryas monkey, the aquatic genet, and there is also the Congo peafowl.

There are a variety of snakes, but snakes of the Congo basin are not so well known as those of the rest of Africa.

Geography
The Congolese forests cover southeastern Cameroon, eastern Gabon, the northern and central Republic of the Congo, the northern and central Democratic Republic of the Congo and portions of southern and southwestern Central African Republic.

Ecology
To the north and south, the forests transition to drier forest-savanna mosaic, a mosaic of drier forests, savannas, and grasslands. To the west, the Congolese forests transition to the coastal Lower Guinean forests, which extend from western Gabon and Cameroon into southern Nigeria and Benin; these forests zones share many similarities, and are sometimes known as the Lower Guinean-Congolese forests. To the east, the lowland Congolese forests transition to the highland Albertine Rift montane forests, which cover the Mountains lining the Albertine Rift, a branch of the East African Rift system. The Congolese Forests are a global 200 ecoregion.

The Congo Rainforest is the world's second largest tropical forest, spans six countries, and contains a quarter of the world's remaining tropical forest. With annual forest loss of 0.3% during the 2000s, the region has the lowest deforestation rate of any major tropical forest zone.

History
There were lots of important kingdoms in the Congo region before the Europeans came there. The Kongo Empire was one of these. The Kongo was a group of small states near the mouth of the Congo river ruled by a king. That nation gave the river its name.
The Portuguese came to the Kongo for the first time in the 1480s. Portugal was sailing farther and farther along the coast of Africa to reach India and China on the other side. At first they made friends with the Kongo nation. They sent missionaries and ambassadors. Unfortunately, the friendship did not last. The Portuguese were more interested in making money than making friends. The Portuguese treated the people of the Kongo badly. The king of Kongo became a Christian and took the name Afonso. He wanted to learn from the Europeans and teach his people, but the Portuguese only wanted to use their friendship with Afonso to gain slaves to sell. Many people were sold as slaves, and within 100 years the kingdom of Kongo was destroyed.

The Portuguese could not sail up the river because of the waterfalls about 120km from the mouth. Also, the hot and wet tropical region was uncomfortable for Europeans. So, the Congo area was not explored or claimed again by any European country for many years.

In the 1850s a reporter named Henry Stanley went to find one of the most famous missionary/explorers in history, Dr. David Livingstone, who had disappeared into the jungle. Stanley became the first man known to have followed the Congo river across Africa to its source. He proved that there were many miles of navigable river above the waterfalls. His discoveries interested King Leopold of Belgium. The king hired him to build a road around the waterfalls and trading posts along the river itself. In this way, the king gained control of the river basin. In 1885, Leopold used his control of the river to claim all of the Congo as his own private land.

The region was named the Congo Free State, but it was not free. King Leopold only cared about making money from the land. The people were treated cruelly. They were forced into slavery to build roads and gather rubber latex. When they did not do what their Belgian masters wanted, they were often killed. Missionaries in the Congo began to write letters and articles about the things that were happening.

Eventually the anger over what was happening forced the government of Belgium to take the land away from the king. It was renamed the Belgian Congo, but Belgium did not do very much to help the people. Catholic missionaries did set up schools, with the help from the government. But Europeans ran all the schools, businesses, army, large farms, and government.

Before World War II (1939-1945), almost all the countries of Africa were European colonies. After the war, these nations began to demand and receive their independence. Belgium did not want to give the Congo its independence, but after a fight in 1957, they made an agreement. The Congo became a free nation in June 1960.

References

Rainforests
Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Congolian rainforests


Modulation, in music, means that the music changes key.   A piece of music might, for example, be "in the key of C major" (meaning that it uses the notes of a C major scale, and the C sounds like the "home key" or "tonic" as it is called in music theory).  Then it could modulate to G major so that the G now feels like the home key and the notes of a G major scale are used (the Fs will be F sharps).

Modulations like the one above are very common, because G is closely related to C (it is the 5th note in a C major scale: the "dominant").  A modulation to the subdominant (4th note of the scale) is also common (e.g. from C major to Fmajor).  Music often modulates to the relative minor (e.g. C major to A minor).

A modulation that goes to a key whose tonic is not part of the original key is called a "chromatic modulation".  Modulating from C major to A flat major would be a chromatic modulation because A flat is not a note in the C major scale.

Most pieces of music will modulate, especially if they are long pieces.  It gives the music variety and helps to give it shape:  the farther away from the tonic it goes the more tension there is.  When the music eventually returns to the original key it feels like a homecoming.

Related pages
Tonality

Music theory

Modulation (music)


The British Rail Class 73 electro-diesel locomotives are very unusual in that they can operate from a 750 V DC third-rail supply but also have a diesel engine to allow them to operate on non-electrified routes. This makes them very versatile, although the diesel engine produces less power than is available from the third-rail supply so they rarely stray from the former Southern Region of British Rail. Following the withdrawal of the more powerful Class 74 electro-diesels in 1977, the Class 73 is now unique on the British rail system.

References

73

British Rail Class 73


A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band from a given album. The lead single does not have to be the first track on an album though. It does not have to be the first single either. Sometimes singles are released as part of promotions.

Songs

Lead single


Tatar Wikipedia is the Tatar language edition of Wikipedia. There are an estimated 5.2 million speakers of Kazan Tatar. Many live in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet republics. Most are concentrated in Tatarstan and in Bashkortostan. There are also Tatar speakers in the cities of Moscow, St.Petersburg and elsewhere in Russia. Tatar is the largest of the minority languages spoken in Russia.

The total number of articles written in this wikipedia edition is 69,865. The number of administrators in this wikipedia is 3. There are about 54 active users of this wikipedia out of a total number of 21,495 users.

References

Other websites
Tatar Wikipedia

Wikipedias

Tatar Wikipedia


An adulterant is a chemical substance that should not be present in other substances, like food, drinks or fuels. Adulterants are often added to more expensive substances to increase the visible quantity. The word is used when the addition is unwanted by the recipient of the product. Chemical substances that are added to food or drinks for a purpose are called food additives. When substances are added to (illegal) drugs, these are often called cutting agents.

Foods

Adulterant


American Dad! is an American adult animated sitcom. It is produced by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions for 20th Television.

The series was first made by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, as well as two  former Family Guy writers, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. The first episode aired in the United States on Fox on February 6, 2005, thirty minutes after the end of Super Bowl XXXIX. The regular series began May 1, 2005, after the season premiere of Family Guy.

The series follows the events of CIA agent Stan Smith and his family.  Stan Smith is a CIA agent who is very patriotic, as well as being part of the Christian right.  Stan tries to be in charge of the family, but often the things he does don't work out.  Stan has a wife, Francine, and two kids, Hayley and Steve.  Hayley (Haylee) is in college and is much more liberal than her father.  Steve is in high school and is always dreaming about girls.  Rounding out the family is Klaus, a talking fish with a German athlete's brain; and Roger Smith the Alien. The show moved to TBS in 2014.

Voice Cast
 Seth MacFarlane as Stan Smith, Roger Smith, Additional Voices
 Wendy Schaal as Francine Smith
 Rachael MacFarlane as Hayley Smith, Additional Voices
 Scott Grimes as Steve Smith
 Dee Bradley Baker as Klaus, Additional Voices
 Kevin Michael Richardson as Principal Luis Brown, Additional Voices
 Patrick Stewart as Avery Bullock
 Jeff Fischer as Jeff Fischer

2005 American television series debuts
2000s American animated television series
2010s American animated television series
Adult animated television series
Adult Swim
2020s American animated television series
2010s American sitcoms
Fox television series
English-language television programs

American Dad!


Rachmat Nadi Witoelar Kartaadipoetra or Rachmat Witoelar (born 2 June 1941 in Tasikmalaya, West Java) was the State Minister of Environment of Indonesia in 2004–2009.

Witoelar graduated with a degree in architecture from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1970. In 1971, he became a Member of Parliament representing the ruling party, Golkar. He was re-elected four times. In 2004, he became an active member of presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's campaign team. When Yudhoyono was elected president, Witoelar was appointed State Minister of Environment.

Rachmat has held various positions in the House of Representatives, including chairman of House Commission V and Commission VI. He was also Golkar Party secretary-general from 1988 to 1993. He served as Indonesian ambassador to Russia and Mongolia from 1993 to 1997.

Witoelar is married to Erna Witoelar. They have three sons. Witoelar was also elected as the president of Thirteenth United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC 2007) which was held in Bali, Indonesia.

External links
 Profile at TokohIndonesia

1941 births
Bandung Institute of Technology alumni
Living people
People from Tasikmalaya
Environment ministers of Indonesia
Sundanese people
Golkar politicians
Ambassadors of Indonesia to Russia
Ambassadors of Indonesia to Mongolia

Rachmat Witoelar


Krista Detor is a singer-songwriter and pianist from Indiana whose music has been featured on NPR and with Mike Harding on the BBC.

Musical career

Her second album, Mudshow, established Krista Detor on the world stage. Working with partner and producer, David Weber, she released the follow-up album, Cover Their Eyes, in 2007. She has reached No. 1 on the Euro-Americana chart, and her music has been featured at the Cannes Film Festival, on NPR, PBS, the BBC, and on many U.S. and European national, regional, and local radio shows. She has appeared on both U.S. and European television and collaborated on the CD and stage show Wilderness Plots.

In March 2009, she was chosen to be a part of the Darwin Songhouse, with seven other songwriters in Shrewsbury, England, writing for seven days songs to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in his hometown. The event, subsequent concert, and live CD release were covered extensively by the BBC.

Krista Detor released her fourth album, Chocolate Paper Suites, in March 2010, followed by a tour throughout northern Europe and the United Kingdom. The album consists of a series of five three-song suites, each connected by theme and/or imagery, inspired by the works of Federico García Lorca, Dylan Thomas, and Darwin, among other thinkers, artists and experiences.

Touring the U.S. and Europe consistently, Detor has shared stages with Joan Armatrading, Suzanne Vega, Aaron Neville, Loudon Wainwright, Sam Phillips, Colin Linden, Karine Polwart, Rachael McShane, Emily Smith, Chris Wood, Luka Bloom, Slaid Cleaves, Peter Mulvey, The Wailing Jennys, Jakob Dylan, Jez Lowe, Carrie Newcomer, Lucy Kaplansky, and John Gorka, among others, and travels with her partner and producer, David Weber.

Detor's solo albums have reached national and international prominence, including number one on the Euro-AmericanaChart, and placement within the top 10 of the U.S. Folk and Independent Music charts. She has performed with artists Suzanne Vega, Joan Armatrading, The Neville Brothers, Loudon Wainwright, Sam Phillips, and John Gorka, among others. Her choral works have been commissioned by the Ashland Women's Choir, the Shrewsbury Community Choir, the Cincinnati Women's Choir, and others. Krista continues to tour the U.S., Canada and Northern Europe, as a songwriter, performer, and seeker of inspiration wherever and whenever she can find it.

Detor has worked with Carrie Newcomer and Tim Grimm on the collaborative stage show and CD Wilderness Plots, which is based on the book of the same name by Scott Sanders.

She now tours the U.S. and Europe consistently and performed in the Darwin Song Project at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2009 as part of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday celebration.

Critical acclaim
Of Detor's work, Rolling Stone says it's "a small miracle." MusicDish magazine states: "Call Mudshow a novel like Richard Wright's Manchild in the Promised Land or the musical equivalent of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams: a collection of short pieces – stories or short films of dreams – that taken together, form a whole, more than the sum of its parts."  The Boston Herald says simply, "All singer-songwriters should be this good."

Discography
 A Dream in a Cornfield (2004)
 Mudshow (2006)
 Cover Their Eyes (2007)
 Robert Johnson Has Left Mississippi (2008) (EP)
 The Silver Wood: Wintersongs (2008)
 Chocolate Paper Suites (2010)
 Flat Earth Diary (2013)
 Barely (2015)
 Chaos, Collisions and Clocks (2019)

References

External links

Folk Radio UK Interview – March 2011

American women singer-songwriters
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women
Singer-songwriters from Indiana

Krista Detor


Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu (2 July 1610 – 2 November 1682) was the eldest son of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu and Jane Sackville, the daughter of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset.

He succeeded his father on 23 October 1629. His seat was the family home at Cowdray House and the estate included Easebourne Priory and Verdley. A plan of these commissioned by Browne, executed by cartographer Nicholas Lane in February 1635, is now held in the West Sussex Record Office. Browne also inherited the substantial park estate of Battle Abbey.

Browne married Lady Elizabeth Somerset (1618–1684), daughter of Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester by licence on 6 July 1637. Julia Roundell, however, claimed that they were married prior to Francis succeeding the title and a first son, Anthony, was baptised at Battle Abbey in August 1629. Some sources claim that Anthony did not marry and predeceased his father without issue, but Roundell recounts another version, that Anthony argued with his father, moved to The Hague, returned at the outbreak of the English Civil War, married Bridgit Maskell of York, fought and was wounded at the Siege of York February 1644, had several children whose line later, unsuccessfully, lay claim to the title. Browne's other sons, Francis (1638 – April 1708) and Henry (c. 1640–1717), both succeeded in turn to become the 4th and 5th Viscounts Montagu, respectively. Their daughter, Elizabeth Browne (d. after 1686), married Christopher Roper, 5th Baron Teynham.

During the Civil War, Browne remained a staunch royalist and Catholic and had both land and possessions sequestrated as a result. Deprived of wealth and income, he was forced to divide and let out some of the estate at Battle.

Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu, died on 2 November 1682 aged 72.

References

1610 births
1682 deaths
17th-century English nobility
Cavaliers
Francis
3
People from Fernhurst

Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu


"Swagger Jagger" is the first single by British singer Cher Lloyd, from her debut studio album, Sticks and Stones (2011). The song was released as the lead single from the album on July 31, 2011. The song was written by two production teams - The Runners and The Monarch - along with Lloyd, Autumn Rowe, Marcus Lomax and Clarence Coffee Jr. It was produced by The Runners and The Monarch. The music video was released on June 26, 2011. It was also used in the movie Identity Thief with Melissa McCarthy.

The song received mixed reviews from music critics. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and at number two in Ireland.

2011 songs
Hip hop songs
Pop songs

Swagger Jagger


Blighty Valley Cemetery is a World War I cemetery located about 4 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert, Somme in northern France.  It contains 1,027 burials and commemorations of Commonwealth soldiers who died in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.  Most of the burials are of soldiers who died on 1 July 1916, which was the first day of the Battle of Albert.

Location
The Cemetery is situated in a valley between the villages of Authuille and Aveluy on the D151.  The Cemetery is located about 250 metres to the east of the road, with access by way of a grass pathway.

Historical Information
Blighty Valley was the name given by the Army to the lower part of the deep valley running down south-westwards through Authuille Wood to join the river between Authuille and Aveluy; a railway was carried along it soon after July, 1916, and it was for some time an important (though inevitably a dangerous) route. The upper part of the valley was called Nab Valley. Blighty Valley Cemetery is almost at the mouth of the valley, a little way up its northern bank. It is partly in either commune.

Blighty Valley Cemetery was begun early in July 1916, at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, and used until the following November. At the Armistice it contained 212 graves but was then greatly enlarged when 784 graves were brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries to the east. Most of these concentrated graves were of men who died on 1 July 1916.

The cemetery now contains 1,027 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 536 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 24 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to five others buried by the Germans in Becourt German Cemetery in the spring of 1918, whose graves could not be found on concentration.

References
 Commonwealth War Grave Commission Details for Blighty Valley Cemetery
 WW1 Cemeteries.com – the cemeteries and memorials of the Great War

External links

World War I cemeteries in France
Battle of the Somme
Monuments and memorials in Somme (department)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in France
British military memorials and cemeteries

Blighty Valley Cemetery


Alderaan is a fictional planet found in the Star Wars series of movies created by George Lucas. It is the home of the characters Princess Leia Organa and Senator Bail Organa. The surface of Alderaan is only seen for a short time at the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). The entire planet is destroyed in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) when the Death Star fires a laser beam at the planet, which then explodes, killing everyone on it.

Star Wars planets

Alderaan


The Four Sons of Aymon (, , ), sometimes also referred to as Renaud de Montauban (after its main character) is a medieval tale spun around the four sons of Duke Aymon: the knight Renaud de Montauban (also spelled Renaut, Renault, , ), his brothers Guichard, Allard and Richardet, their magical horse Bayard (), their adventures and revolt against the emperor Charlemagne. The story had a European success and echoes of the story are still found today in certain folklore traditions.

Medieval and Renaissance texts

French versions
The oldest extant version of the tale is an anonymous Old French chanson de geste, Quatre Fils Aymon, which dates from the late 12th century and comprises 18,489 alexandrine (12-syllable) verses grouped in assonanced and rhymed laisses (the first 12,120 verses use assonance; critics suggest that the rhymed laisses derive from a different poet). It is one of the longest of all the chansons de geste. Other, later versions of the chanson range from 14,300 to 28,000 verses. Of the dozen extant versions of the chanson, all are anonymous except for one, Histoire des quatre fils Aymon, attributed to , a 13th-century trouvère. The Renaud chansons de geste were transformed into prose romances in the 14th and 15th centuries, and, judging from the number of editions, the prose Quatre Fils Aymon was the most popular romance of chivalry in the late 15th century and first half of the 16th century in France.

The tale is generally included in the Doon de Mayence "cycle" of chansons.

Plot
Renaud and his three brothers were sons of Aymon de Dordone (a fictional location in the Ardennes, though the name seems to be related to Dordogne near Montauban). At the Pentecostal feast, Aymon brought them to Paris to be presented to the emperor Charlemagne and Renaud proved himself a worthy combatant in the royal tournament and won the emperor's favor. In most versions of the chanson, the emperor awarded him with the magical horse Bayard (in two versions, it is the fairy Oriande who gives it to him). Unfortunately, Renaud kills one of Charlemagne's nephews (Bertolai) in a brawl over a chess game and the brothers flee, aided by Bayard who can carry all the brothers on its back and leap across valleys.

The brothers decide to hide in the Ardennes where their cousin, the sorcerer Maugis, can help them. Maugis constructs a castle for them called Montessor on a peak overlooking the Meuse. The brothers are, however, forced to flee from Montessor, and eventually they proceed to Gascony to aid the King Yvon in his battles against the Emir Begès. Renaud, thanks to his sword "Froberge" (given to him by Maugis), wins a victory, and as thanks, the king gives Renaud the castle at Montauban and his sister in marriage.

After a series of adventures, Charlemagne is eventually prevailed upon by the noble paladin Roland to make terms with the brothers: the four brothers are pardoned on condition that Renaud go to the Holy Land on Crusade, and that their magical horse Bayard be surrendered to Charlemagne. Charlemagne orders that the magic horse be drowned by chaining it to a stone and throwing it in a river, but the horse escapes and lives forevermore in the woods (in some versions the horse is killed). Renaud, upon his return from the Crusades, discovers his wife has died. Sending his sons to be raised at the court of the emperor, he abandons his home and goes to Cologne, where he becomes a builder on a church. In the end, he is murdered by resentful workers, but his body is miraculously saved from the river and makes its way magically in a cart back to his brothers.

Charlemagne is portrayed as vengeful and treacherous in these stories; the sympathy of the storyteller is clearly with the four brothers, but ultimately feudal authority is upheld.

Dutch version

Historie van den Vier Heemskinderen, the Dutch translation, dated 1508 and held at the University of Munich gives the following version:

Duke Aymon, King of Pierlepont, thinks that Charles, his liege Lord, has not shown him gratitude enough when he gets only Dordogne (Dordoen) with the capital of Albi for his help in many of Charles' wars. He is even angrier about the fact that his warrior-friend Hugh (Huon) de Narbonne gets nothing at all and decides to become renegade until Charlemagne gives him a suitable reward. In the end Charles adds Aymons weight in gold and his sister Aye. Still Aymon is not truly satisfied and swears that he will kill any child born out of his union with the king's sister, a truly curious resolution.

Aye rears her four sons (Richard, Writsaert, Adelhaert and Renout in this version) in secret at Pierlepont until the day that Aymon tells her how he regrets the fact that they have no offspring. She shows him his sons and Aymon is very impressed with Renaud who is of great height, feisty and strong. He gives Renaud the horse Bayard. The horse is so big that it can carry the four brothers on its back. When the four brothers are presented at Charles' court in Paris, Renaud kills Charles' son Louis. He and his brothers flee to the court of King Loup de Gascogne who betrays them to Charles. Nonetheless, they escape their pursuers with the help of King Son of Aquitaine, who gives his daughter Claire or Clarisse to Renaud to wife and the castle of Montauban.

Charles attacks the castle and after months of siege Renaud has to surrender. The cost of their survival is the drowning of his horse Bayard. Charles urges Renaud to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem. When Renaud comes back he helps to build the shrine of St. Peter in Cologne. Envious men kill him and throw his body in the River Rhine.

German versions
Ein schöne und lüstige Histori von den vier Heymonskindern appeared at Cologne in 1604. It was largely an adaptation of the then current Dutch version and based on a French original. A previous German adaptation of 1535 was based directly on the prose romance Les quatre fils Aymon. Ludwig Tieck edited and published the story, but seems to have taken it from a different source.

English version
The story was known in England by the first half of the 13th century. and William Caxton published a prose translation under the name "The Right Pleasant and Goodly Historie of the Foure Sonnes of Aymon". The translation was repeatedly reprinted, as well as dramatised, in the 16th and early 17th centuries, and its popular story was referred to (and used) by figures such as Thomas Nashe and Samuel Rowlands—though by 1673 Francis Kirkman would call the text a rarity.

Italian version
A prose and a verse version of the story called Rinaldo existed in Italian in the 14th century.

Sequels and related texts
From the 13th century on, other texts concerning separate elements of the extended Renaud de Montauban story were created. Together with the original, these are termed the "Renaud de Montauban cycle". These poems are: Maugis d'Aigremont (story of the youth of Maugis), Mort de Maugis (story of the death of Maugis), Vivien de Monbranc (story of the brother of Maugis), Beuve d'Aigremont (story of the father of Maugis, Beuve d'Aigremont, brother to Girart de Roussillon and Doon de Nanteuil).

Renaud, as Rinaldo, also became an important character in Italian Renaissance epics, including Morgante by Luigi Pulci, Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. (For more info on the character and his appearance in other texts, see Renaud de Montauban.)

In other media

Literature
Proust briefly makes use of this tale in "Swann in Love" by describing chemical workers of France toiling among sculptures of this tale's characters.

Visual arts
Jacques Laudy illustrated a comic book version of the tale for the weekly Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin from 1946 to 1947 (including several covers).

Music and performing arts
Franz Joseph Glæser, a Czech/Danish composer, wrote a work called Die vier Haimonskinder (1809).

Les quatre fils Aymon (1844) is an opera by Michael William Balfe, written for the Opéra-Comique (also popular in German-speaking countries for many years as Die Vier Haimonskinder).

During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, the story of Les Quatre Fils Aymon was made into a play that was banned by the German authorities, because of the sympathy it displayed for resisting authority; the play was performed underground and became quite popular.

La Légende des fils Aymon, a stage work by Frédéric Kiesel, was created in 1967 in Habay-la-Neuve.

Les Quatre Fils Aymon is a ballet by Maurice Béjart and Janine Charrat from 1961.

Sculpture
The four brothers—usually represented all together seated on their horse Bayard—have inspired many sculptures:
 The oldest extant statue is found on a tomb in Portugal (dated to the first half of the 12th century).
 A bronze statue (Ros Beyaert) depicting the four sons of Aymon (Reinout, Adelaert, Ritsaert and Writsaert) on their horse Beyaert (Bayard), was erected on the central approach avenue to the Exposition universelle et internationale (1913) held in Ghent, Belgium. This statue was created by Aloïs de Beule and Domien Ingels.
 One of the most famous representations was created by Olivier Strebelle for the Expo 58. Situated by the Meuse in Namur, Belgium, the horse appears to want to carry its riders across the river with a leap.
 Another statue created by Albert Poncin and showing the four brothers standing beside their horse can be found at Bogny-sur-Meuse, France.
 Dendermonde, Belgium, is home to several statues representing the brothers.
 The statue Vier Heemskinderen (1976) by Gerard Adriaan Overeem was placed in the "Torenstraat" of Nijkerk, Netherlands.
 In Köln, Germany, since 1969, a bronze sculpture by Heinz Klein-Arendt depicts them.

Folklore

Locations and place names
While the Ardennes region (divided today between France, Belgium and Luxembourg) only plays a partial role in the medieval tale, the myth of the four brothers has been very present there.

Joseph Bédier considered the Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy as the origin of the legend of the four brothers, but this has since been disproved.

A study by the University of Liège in 1976 found a dozen sites in the Ardennes that claimed to be the fortress Montessor (or Montfort) constructed for the brothers by Maugis. The château of Amblève is one of these. Dhuy (near Éghezée) possesses an old castle called "Bayard" in 1770, that was also called "Montessor des fils Aymon".

In Cubzac-les-Ponts in the Dordogne region, is a castle named after the four brothers.

Bertem, near Louvain, claimed to possess the relics of one of the sons, Saint Aalard (or Alard), for 600 years.

Bogny-sur-Meuse has a number of sites referencing the four brothers: four rocky crags on a mountain peak near the town are said to symbolize the four brothers on the back on Bayard, and the castle of Château-Regnault has been suggested as a possible site of Montfort/Montessor. The Castle of the fairies at Le Waridon in the commune of Montcy-Notre-Dame has also been suggested.

According to a tale told by (among others) Claude Seignolle, the village of Francheval owes its name to a legend of the brothers: "Bayard, having shown great bravery to help Renaud and one of his brothers, the latter said to him 'Tu es un brave, Bayard, franc cheval!' ('You are a brave one, Bayard, noble horse!'), and at this site the village of Francheval was established". A similar legend relates to the creation of the village of Balan: as the brothers, on Bayard, were being pursued, the horse made a huge leap and fell to the ground; Renaud cried out to his brothers, "Balan!", ("Get back in the saddle!"), and the village was thus named.

In Dinant there exists the "Bayard Rock" (Rocher Bayard) that was said to have been split by the giant hoof of Bayard while carrying the four sons of Aymon on their legendary flight from Charlemagne through the Ardennes.

The ancient County of La Marche was the fief of the lords of La Roche-Aymon who claimed to have descended from the four brothers.

Processions and festivals
The sons of Aymon are included among the "giants of the north" in Belgian folk festivals.

A procession in Namur has been attested in 1518. Taking place on each July 2, the procession of "giants" represents Charlemagne, the nine worthy peers, the four sons of Aymon upon their horse, and their cousin Maugis.

Attested before 1461 in Dendermonde, the "Ommegang of Dendermonde" is a procession concerning the four brothers and their horse, who is said to have drowned where the Scheldt meets the Dender.

References

Sources

Further reading
 Reigniez, Pascal (2009). Cubzac et le chateau des 4 Fils Aymon. Paris: éd. Les Indes Savantes. . 406 pp and col ill maps .

 Caxton's 1489 translation of Quatre Fils Aymon

12th-century books
Belgian folklore
Chansons de geste
Chivalric sagas
Cultural depictions of Charlemagne
Epic poems in French
French folklore
French poems

The Four Sons of Aymon


A doughnut (spelled donut in various marketing sectors) is a type of deep fried dessert food made out of dough or batter.

How they are made

Round ringed doughnuts are made by joining the ends of a long, thin piece of dough into a ring or by using a doughnut cutter, which perfectly cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a doughnut-shaped piece of dough and a doughnut hole from dough removed from the center. This smaller piece of dough can be cooked or re-added to the batch to make more doughnuts. A disk-shaped doughnut can also be stretched and molded into a torus until the center breaks to form a hole. Or, a doughnut depositor can be used to place a circle of liquid dough (batter) into the deep fryer. Doughnuts can be made from a yeast-based dough for more puffy doughnuts or a special type of cake batter. Yeast-raised doughnuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake doughnuts' oil content is around 20%, but they have extra fat in the batter before frying. Cake doughnuts are fried for about 90 seconds at about 190 °C to 198 °C, turning once. Yeast-raised doughnuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at 182 °C to 190 °C. Cake doughnuts normally weigh between 24 g and 28 g, whereas yeast-raised doughnuts normally are 38 g and are mostly larger when finished. Some types of cake doughnuts are also baked,  as opposed to fried, which greatly reduces the fat content.

Types

The two most common types of doughnut are ring doughnuts, which are shaped like rings, and filled doughnuts, which are round and have jam, jelly, custard, whipped cream, or chocolate inside them. There are also "doughnut holes" or "munchkins" which come in the shape of small balls. Most doughnuts have an icing (also called a "frosting") made with icing sugar, water, and flavourings (such as chocolate). Some doughnuts are rolled in sweet foods such as sugar or shredded coconut.

Serving
Doughnuts are often eaten in the morning, along with a cup of hot coffee. Doughnuts are sold at doughnut shops, bakeries, or grocery stores. People also eat doughnuts as a dessert, or as a snack.

Pictures

Related pages

Pastry
Cake
Dough

References

Cakes
Breakfast foods
Sweet breads

Doughnut


Gurkhas (Gorkhas) are North  Indian or Nepali citizens of Khas origin recruited into the British Army, and now also recruited into the modern Nepali and Indian Armies. They come from the mountains of India and are best known for their courage, honesty, and loyalty.

The Brigade of Gurkhas are a part of the British Army. They have fought with the British for the past 200 years. The Gurkha unit in the British army has won 26 Victoria Cross medals and many other medals. The Gurkhas also work in the security forces of Brunei, Singapore, India and other countries.

Their symbol is the kukri or khukuri, the curved knife which they use as a weapon and a tool.

Nepalese military people

Gurkha


The Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) is the regulating body for high school interscholastic activities in Alaska and is Alaska's member to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

History
The Alaska High School Activities Association was founded in 1957 by the territorial board of education, when the need arose for a regulating body in local and regional basketball tournaments. By 1973, separate regions were formed for basketball competition.  By 1987, ASAA became fully independent from state government control or oversight. Currently, ASAA serves as the organizing body for over 190 schools, with a combined enrollment of over 35,000 students. The current executive director is Billy Strickland.

The organization is headquartered in the "U-Med District" of Anchorage.

ASAA classifications

March Madness - boys and girls basketball tournament
ASAA's March Madness state basketball tournament is one of the largest yearly prep sports events in Alaska, mainly because of basketball's unrivaled popularity in rural and urban areas alike. The tournament showcases the eight best teams (selected by region-wide divisional tournaments) from 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A classifications in standard, separate, two tiered brackets that accommodate 5th place, 3rd place, and championship games.

The tournament, hence the name, takes place usually during the last half of the month of March, and has, at times in the past, taken place during the Anchorage School District's spring break.

During this event, thousands of people from all over the state of Alaska pour into Anchorage to cheer their respective local teams on, or to simply take in the basketball action.  Previously, before the 2006 basketball season, the frenzied tournament action spanned across as many as three different venues in Anchorage over the course of four days with games played from as early as 8 a.m. AKST to late into the evening (sometimes with the final game of the day ending after midnight). However, beginning with the 2006 season and beyond, the tournament format was altered to accommodate week-long, early Monday through late Saturday play with the majority of games at all classifications played at Sullivan Arena.  Sullivan Arena, primarily a hockey venue, was reconfigured to contain two full-sized basketball courts for the tournament week. Beginning in 2015, the tournament was moved into the Alaska Airlines Center, which is located on the campus of the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

High school football
The ASAA sanctions high school football at the Division I, Division II and Division III levels.

Each year Alaska holds the first high school game in the nation, held usually around mid-August during summer vacation. Because of this, and the relatively short eight-game season, ASAA state championship football games are played earlier than elsewhere as well, with tournament games taking place in mid-to-late October. The championship games are entitled the First National Bowl.

Currently, 10 teams play at the Division I level in the Cook Inlet and Chugak conferences, while 8 teams play at the DII classification.  There are 10 teams playing in the Division III classification.

The Whalers of Barrow High School are the northernmost high school football team in the United States.

First National Bowl
The culminating state tournament football games, sponsored by First National Bank Alaska, take place at the Anchorage Football Stadium over the course of two weeks.

Activities
ASAA regulates the following interscholastic activities:
 All-State Art Festival
 All-State Honor Music Festival
 Baseball
 Basketball
 Cheerleading
 Cross-country
 Drama, debate, and forensics (serves as the statewide organizing body for the National Forensic League)
 Football
 Hockey
 Nordic skiing
 Soccer
 Softball
 Solo and Ensemble Music Festival
 Swimming and Diving
 Tennis
 Track and Field
 Volleyball
 World language
 Wrestling

ASAA also regulates the statewide student government association, the Alaska Association for Student Government (AASG). This child organization includes about 150 member high schools all across Alaska. Collectively, local AASG programs serve over 25,000 young people in their home schools and statewide. The statewide organization is led by a 17-seat executive board composed of students selected for either one or two-year terms.

See also
 List of high schools in Alaska
 List of school districts in Alaska
 NFHS

References

External links

1957 establishments in Alaska
High school sports associations in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in Anchorage, Alaska
Organizations based in Anchorage, Alaska
Sports organizations established in 1957

Alaska School Activities Association


Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software is a German company that develops and publishes video games. It is in Heusenstamm, Germany. It was founded in 1993 by Adi Boiko and Wilhelm Hamrozi. Boiko is now president of the company and Hamrozi is chief executive officer (CEO). The company is known for the Anno series (also by Max Design), Knights of Honor (by Black Sea Studios) and ParaWorld (by SEK).

List of games

The following is a list of games that have been created or published by Sunflowers:

Anno 1503: The New World
Anno 1503: Treasures, Monsters and Pirates
Anno 1602: By Royal Command
Anno 1602: Creation of a New World
Anno 1602: New Islands, New Adventures
Anno 1701
Knights of Honor
ParaWorld
TechnoMage: The Return of Eternity
Holiday Island

Other websites
Official Sunflowers website

Video game companies of Germany
1993 establishments in Europe


The Bourbon Restoration was the return of the House of Bourbon to France after the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. It began in 1814 after Napoleon was defeated and exiled to Elba island off the coast of Italy. Louis XVIII of France, the younger brother of Louis XVI of France, was named king in 1814 by the Congress of Vienna.

After being removed by Napoleon during the Hundred Days, Louis XVIII was returned to power in 1815 and died in 1824. Louis XVIII was succeeded by his younger brother Charles X of France who ruled until he was removed in 1830 by the July Revolution.

House of Bourbon
1810s in France
1814 establishments
1830 disestablishments
1810s establishments in France
Disestablishments in France
19th-century disestablishments in Europe

Bourbon Restoration in France


The October Country is a 1955 collection of nineteen macabre short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. It reprints fifteen of the twenty-seven stories of his 1947 collection Dark Carnival, and adds four more of his stories previously published elsewhere.

The collection was published in numerous editions by Ballantine Books. The 1955 hardcover and 1956 and 1962 softcover versions featured artwork by Joseph Mugnaini that was replaced in 1971 by an entirely different Bob Pepper illustration. It was again published in 1996, by Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books; the illustrations within were drawn by Mugnaini. In this edition there was a foreword written by Bradbury himself, called "May I Die Before My Voices", in Los Angeles, California, on April 24, 1996.

The October Country was published in the United Kingdom by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. in 1956, and reissued in 1976 by Grafton, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The 1976 UK paperback edition includes "The Traveler", originally from the aforementioned Dark Carnival, and omits "The Next In Line", "The Lake", "The Small Assassin", "The Crowd", "Jack-In-The-Box", "The Man Upstairs" and "The Cistern".

In 1999, The October Country was published by Avon Books, Inc. with a new cover illustration by Joseph Mugnaini, and a new introduction by Bradbury called "Homesteading the October Country".

Contents
"The Dwarf" The proprietor of a Mirror Maze and the proprietor of a hoop circus at the same carnival observe a dwarf who uses one of the mirrors to make himself appear taller.

"The Next in Line" A couple staying in a small Mexican town comes across a cemetery which holds a shocking policy regarding the interred whose families cannot pay.

"The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" A thoroughly dull man becomes the new avant garde craze precisely because he is boring.

"Skeleton" A man becomes convinced his skeleton is out to ruin him, and consults an unorthodox specialist.

"The Jar" A poor farmer buys a jar with something floating in it for twelve dollars and it soon becomes the conversation piece of the town. However his wife begins to realize that she cannot stand the jar or him.

"The Lake" A man revisits his childhood home and recalls a friend who drowned in a lake during childhood.

"The Emissary" A sick boy who cannot go outside has only two connections to the world, his dog and a woman who lives in the neighborhood. However the neighbor dies and the dog inexplicably runs off.

"Touched With Fire" Two old men make it their mission to push fulfillment on unhappy people. They unsuccessfully try to do so with a woman whose story ends bloodily. It was first published under the title "Shopping for Death".

"The Small Assassin" A woman becomes convinced her newborn baby is out to kill her.

"The Crowd" A man discovers something odd about the crowds that form around accidents.

"Jack-in-the-Box" A boy lives with his mother in a vast secluded mansion. She raises him to be God after telling him his father, the original God, was killed by beasts outside.

"The Scythe" A man comes into possession of a powerful scythe and a wheat field. He discovers that the task of reaping is more than meets the eye.

"Uncle Einar" One of two stories in this collection to feature members of the Elliott family, a collection of movie monsters and immortal beings. This story focuses on a character named Uncle Einar, who tries to find a way into the skies after damaging his biological radar.

"The Wind" A former travel writer becomes mortally afraid that the winds he has defied around the world are gathering to kill him.

"The Man Upstairs" A young boy suspects the man renting the upper room of his house to be more than a man.

"There Was an Old Woman" There was an old woman who defied death for years. Death tricked her one-day and stole her body but she wasn't going to let that stop her.

"The Cistern" A woman describes to her sister how magical the land beneath the sewer must be, where lovers are reunited in death, torture and anguish.

"Homecoming" The main story concerning the supernatural Elliott family. It chronicles their return to the ancestral home in Illinois for a gathering, and is seen through the eyes of Timothy, a mortal child left on their doorstep and who longs to be like them. Einar from "Uncle Einar" figures prominently. The story later formed the basis for the 2001 novel From the Dust Returned, which also incorporated the "Uncle Einar" story in its narrative.

"The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone" Fans track down a writer who chose to withdraw into seclusion and cease writing, and get his story from him.

Citations

General and cited sources

 Bradbury, Ray. (1999). The October Country. New York: Avon Books, Inc. .

External links

1955 short story collections
Ballantine Books books
Fantasy short story collections
Horror short story collections
Short story collections by Ray Bradbury

The October Country