ද ප්‍රින්සස් ඩයරීස් මෙග් කැබට් විසින් ලියන ලද යෞවන ග්‍රන්ථ මාලාවක් වන අතර එය  2000 වර්ෂයේ ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ පළමු ග්‍රන්ථයේ තේමාවද වේ.

මෙග් කැබට් මේ කථා මාලාවට  පෙළඹීම ලෙස ඇගේ වෙබ් අඩවියේ සඳහන් කලේ "මේ කථාව ලිවීමට මගේ පෙළඹවීම උනේ, මගේ පියාගේ මරණයෙන් පසු මගේ මව මගේ ගුරුවරයෙකු සමඟ යහලු වී පසුව ඔහු  සමඟ විවාහ උනා හරියට පොතේ Mia ගේ මව වගේ. මට කුමාරිකවන් පිළිබඳ හැම වෙලේම කැමැත්තක් තිබුනා.(මමම කුඩා කාලයේදී මගේ දෙමව්පියන් රජ පවුලක යැයි හා ඔවුන් කවදා හෝ මා රැගෙන යාමට එන බැවින් මට හොඳින් සලකන ලෙස පැවසූ බව කියමින් මගේ දෙමව්පියන් මට විහිළු කලා). අන්න ඒ විදිහට තමයි ද ප්‍රින්සස් ඩයරීස් බිහි උනේ""

The books are noted for containing many popular culture references, which include singers, movies, and fads in modern culture. Many critics have taken unkindly to this form of storytelling. In response, Cabot added an English teacher in the book, Princess in Training, who criticizes Mia's writing, telling her that it relies too much on "slick pop culture references." By the final novel, this has allowed Mia to progress and grow as a person.

The series ended with its tenth book, when Mia turns 18. Meg Cabot, however, has said that she may "drop in" on her [Mia] from time-to-time in the future.

Series description

Plot Summaries have been moved to their individual volume pages.

The story of Mia Thermopolis' adolescent turmoil as an average teenager and a princess of royal descent is chronicled in her on-going journal, where she explores topics of teenage angst, love, and betrayal through a very opinionated eye.

Setting

The series is set in Manhattan. Some books take place in Genovia, a fictive European country. The Genovia depicted in the films differs significantly from the Genovia described in the books. In the books, Genovia is referred to as a principality between France and Italy that is ruled by Mia's father, Prince Philippe Renaldo. In the movies, Genovia is located between France and Spain and is a full monarchy ruled by Mia's grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi.

Characters

Mia Thermopolis

Mia is the protagonist.  Her official name is Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo.

She is the daughter of Helen Thermopolis and Philippe Renaldo, and the princess and sole heir to the throne of Genovia, a small country in Europe located between France and Italy. Having lived most of her life in Greenwich Village, Mia attends Albert Einstein High School with her few close friends (including her best friends, Lilly Moscovitz and Tina Hakim-Baba). Her special talent is writing, and she chronicles the main aspects of her life in various personal diaries. She prefers being called Mia.

She is the super-obsessive and over-protective sister of Rocky Thermopolis-Gianini, causing her best friend Lilly Moscovitz to refer to her as a BL (Baby Licker), POG (Princess Of Genovia), or PIT (Princess In Training). Mia seems to hate all of these nicknames, but doesn't object to them. Mia is known for her sarcastic and un-girly personality, her flat-chest, 5 ft. 9 in. height, weird hair, and extremely large feet. She also has a tendency to over-analyze things and worry too much. Mia develops an interest for writing during the series, making donations to Greenpeace, with the money her father pays her to visit her grandmother.

During the final book of the series, Forever Princess, Mia writes and publishes her own novel called Ransom My Heart, a historical romance set in England in the year 1291.

She has been in love with Michael Moscovitz, Lilly's older brother, since she was in 1st grade and he was in 4th, when he brought a school project of Lilly's to their classroom. Lilly knows but doesn't really know how to respond, Mia admits her feelings to Michael in Princess in Love and to her delight, he reciprocates. Due to their age difference, however, their relationship becomes a bit strained.

In book eight, Princess on the Brink, Mia finds out Michael is moving to Japan to develop his prototype for a robot arm that would allow doctors to perform open heart surgery, an invention he later reveals was spurred by his desire to prove he was "worthy of dating a princess". In an attempt to keep him in the city, Mia proposes sex but is upset to find out that Michael already lost his virginity to Judith Gershner, a former classmate. Mia, behaving immaturely as she is angry and heartbroken, flings back the snowflake necklace that Michael gave her on her fifteenth birthday in Princess In Pink, signifying that their relationship is over. Mia, however, quickly regrets the decision. Michael is also quite heart-broken about it.

Also in book eight, Lilly is dumped by her boyfriend J.P., who quickly makes a play for Mia. Mia accidentally kisses J.P., which was witnessed by Lilly and Michael, which left him even more heart broken. As a result, Lilly refused to speak Mia and they stopped being friends despite Mia's repeated attempts to get back in Lilly's good graces. The two finally make up in Forever Princess.

In the ninth book, Princess Mia, Mia confides in her psychologist, Dr. Knutz, about feeling inferior to Michael, whom she expected to dump her for someone better and admits that she overreacted about Judith in order to dump Michael first. She attempts to salvage her romantic relationship with Michael; he refuses, but they become friends again. Michael is hinted to have been abstinent during his tenure in Japan and later returns to New York as a multi-millionaire in Forever Princess.

Despite the fact that she has a boyfriend, Mia remains in love with Michael and toward the end of the final book, Forever Princess, Michael kisses Mia and tells her that he never stopped loving her. Mia breaks up with J.P., who was only using her to get attention from the media to further his playwriting career. Michael and Mia finally reunite and it is hinted that he becomes her royal consort in the future.

Mia is now currently at Sarah Lawrence College and is done with high school. Mia is very happy with Michael, and is friends with all her "true friends" by the end of the series.

Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Renaldo
Clarisse Marie was formally known as the Dowager Princess Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Renaldo.

Clarisse is the dowager princess of Genovia and Mia's paternal grandmother. Mia refers to her as "Grand-mère" (French for "Grandmother"). As a young woman, she married Prince Rupert Renaldo and had two sons. She habitually omits Mia's mother's surname "Thermopolis" from her granddaughter's lengthy list of names and titles, much to Mia's annoyance. She speaks French most of the time, but she can also speak English. She is almost always accompanied by her miniature poodle, Rommel, who is notable for having a severe case of OCD that causes him to lick his own fur off. She smokes often and enjoys drinking sidecars. She is not hesitant about lying or manipulating others in order to get her own way.

She and Mia  don't see eye to eye: Clarisse is concerned with attracting publicity to Genovia and ensuring Mia does not embarrass her country while Mia prefers to focus on politics. Though she and Mia butt heads often, she does care for her granddaughter and gives her advice about love and relationships that Mia takes with a grain of salt due to her grandmother's cold nature. For example, when Clarisse was married to the king of Genovia, she led him to believe that she was only interested in his status and money and never once said "I love you", in order to keep her husband on his toes. Mia also mentions that her father is terrified of his mother because she would lock him in the palace dungeons whenever he misbehaved (although when she informs him that he gives the appearance of being a little bit scared of Clarisse in Princess in the Spotlight, her father replies that he is not scared of his mother and that she really isn't as bad as Mia thinks; in his view, Clarisse "just needs proper handling").

While in New York to give Mia her princess lessons, the dowager princess resided in the Plaza Hotel, and was dissatisfied with other quality luxury hotels she was placed in during Princess On the Brink, when the Plaza was being remodeled.

Lilly Moscovitz

Mia's best friend since kindergarten, Lilly is a highly intelligent and opinionated person who has her own public-access television show, titled Lilly Tells It Like It Is, in which she discusses political and social issues. By the end of the series, her TV show is picked up by a network and is apparently very popular in South Korea.

Mia admires Lilly's bravery and unwillingness to be pushed around by others though Lilly knows her insensitivity and forceful personality can cause her to be disliked. Mia and Lilly often enjoy discussing popular culture but Lilly's strong stances, however, cause her and Mia to clash, especially when Mia feels Lilly is becoming too critical of her. Yet, Lilly's blunt attitude is what often keeps Mia from over-analyzing things, such as her relationship with Michael, Lilly's older brother. Mia was initially afraid to share her crush on Michael with Lilly, but in fact, Lilly was one of the conspirators who helped Mia and Michael get together in Princess in Love.

Lilly is not considered to be very pretty; Mia often describes her face as being "squashed in like a pug's". Lilly does however have a well-developed figure which earns her several romantic suitors including Boris Pelkowski, Mia's cousin Hank, Jangbu, J.P. Reynolds, and Kenny Showalter.

Boris Pelkowski was Lilly's first boyfriend but the relationship ended when she cheated on him in Princess in Pink with an immigrant busboy Jangbu. In Party Princess, Lilly hooks up with J.P. Reynolds but in Princess On the Brink, Lilly is dumped by him because he never loved her. Lilly becomes angry at Mia when she finds out that Mia kissed J.P. and refuses to speak to her any more, even starting a website called ihatemiathermopolis.com. Lilly is cold to Mia's attempts to make up but when she finds out that Mia is planning to lose her virginity to J.P., Lilly interferes and tells her that she and J.P. had sex (J.P. had lied about being a virgin to Mia) and his plans to use Mia's fame to his own advantage. Lilly also helps indirectly in the patching up of Mia and her brother Michael's relationship. The girls make up and become best friends again.

Michael Moscovitz
Mia's main love interest throughout the series.

Mia initially thinks she is in love with popular jock Josh Richter, but by the second book, she acknowledges her feelings and states that she's been in love with Michael Moscovitz since the day he came over to give Lilly a school project when they were in the first grade and he was in the fourth. From the end of the first book to the third, Mia has an unrequited crush on Michael, feelings which he finally returns in Princess in Love. Their relationship continues through Mia's sophomore year and Michael's first years at Columbia University but their relationship becomes slightly strained when Michael tells Mia he would like to have sex while Mia would prefer to wait until her prom night. Michael respects Mia's wishes but when Michael gets an offer to move to Japan, he believe it would be easier for their relationship as he is "tired of taking cold showers". Mia proposes sex in order to keep him from leaving but is upset to find out that he slept with Judith Gershner before discovering her love for him and the two break up. Michael believes Mia is overreacting and attempts to reconcile with her before leaving for Japan but is hurt to find her sharing a kiss with J.P.. Mia attempts to get back together and work it out long distance but Michael decides that it's best they stay "just friends" and he still sends Mia emails regularly. When Michael returns from Japan after being gone for almost two years, he flirts with Mia during her interview for the school paper. Mia notices that Michael still looks incredibly hot. The two eventually kiss, despite Mia having a boyfriend, and Michael declares that he still loves Mia and will wait for her. The two get back together on Mia's prom night and they finally have sex together.

Michael has brown eyes and thick, dark hair and is tall. He is extremely handsome, nice, funny, smart, and manly, despite staying cooped up writing songs or on his computer the whole day. Michael is romantic and talented. Though he often clashes with his younger sister, Michael and Lilly are in fact close siblings and friends. He used to have his own webzine called Crackhead but had to disband it after an editorial that stated the merits of Linux over Windows, which caused a loss in advertisers and funds. Shortly after this, Michael decided to start a band called Skinner Box (name suggested by Mia), which refers to an experiment by the behavioural psychologist B. F. Skinner into proving the existence of a 'conditioned response', with the use of a specially designed box that held animals (such as rats and monkeys, in the experiment) until release, which could only be activated by pressing a lever. He started it with a few friends, including Boris Pelkowski.

Mia insists that it's common knowledge that he's the third best-looking guy at AEHS after Josh Richter and Justin Baxendale and described his nose as aquiline, mouth as "eminently kissable" and neck as aromatic due to an intoxicating blend of Tide from his shirt collar, his Gillette shaving foam and Ivory soap. Michael loves Mia just as she is, though her neurotic behavior and insecurity can be frustrating. In fact, Michael is the one who often feels insecure in their relationship because he knows Clarisse Marie Renaldo does not think he is an appropriate consort and all the gossip magazines would much rather prefer to see Mia date a fellow royal or celebrity like James Franco or as Mia's other grandmother, Mamaw suggests Zac Efron from High School Musical. Due to this, Michael believes moving to Japan and developing his robotic arm would finally prove to the world that he is, in fact, worthy of dating a princess. Michael returns to New York a multi-millionaire and the president/owner of his own robotics company, Pavlov, named after his dog.  Michael donates a robot arm to Genovia from his company for free even though the waiting list is long, helping Mia's father win the election. Mia realizes that she is still in love with Michael, but tries to convince herself otherwise. When she and Michael kiss on a coach ride, however, she writes, "I can't do this to J.P. I just can't. Oh my God, though, I love Michael so much." When J.P. and Mia split due to J.P using her and lying to her, she and Michael get back together and they spend the night together.

Secondary characters

 Lars van der Hooten: Mia's very protective bodyguard. He voices his mind in a way that is annoying when he thinks Mia is being particularly ridiculous, but goes along with her schemes anyway. He also turns a blind eye to Mia and Michael when they make out, for which Mia is grateful. He gets on very well with Michael (especially in the first book when Lars seems to know that Michael likes Mia), never offers any opinion on Lilly, and becomes friends with Tina's bodyguard, Wahim. Lars also likes Mia's French teacher Mademoiselle Klein. He is known to be a 'big softie' deep down inside.

 Tina Hakim Baba: A current student at Albert Einstein, Tina is the daughter of a Saudi Arabian oil sheik and a British former supermodel. She is referred to as a freak by the other students. Because of her father's status, she has to have the protection of a bodyguard, Wahim, who isolates her from the other students until Mia sits with her after a fight with Lilly in the first novel. All three girls quickly develop a solid friendship, and Tina eventually uses her generous weekly allowance to support Lilly's Public-access television show. She first goes out with Dave Farouq-El-Abar from another school, 'Trinity', and, after Dave breaks up with her, later dates Boris Pelkowski after Lilly breaks his heart. After Mia and Lilly's estrangement at the end of the eighth novel, Mia comes to see Tina as her best friend. Tina constantly reads romance novels, making Mia consider her an expert in romance. Though prone to imaginative flights of fancy and often seen as a little silly, Tina can be extremely acute about both academic and social matters. Tina is very loyal to Mia, who consults her for sensitive advice rather than the harsher Lilly. Tina also believes that she must remain pure because she dreams that one day she will marry Prince William of Wales and to do so she must remain a virgin. Despite this, she confesses to having sex with Boris in Forever Princess.

 Helen Thermopolis: Mia's mother. She has a career as an artist and spends most of her time in her studio, and becomes pregnant with Frank's son and Mia's half brother Rocky in the second book. According to Mia, she is very pretty and her neck smells of Dove (soap), turpentine and coffee, but according to Mia's dad her neck smells of freesias . She clearly wants the best for her daughter and is very carefree.

 Frank Gianini: Mia's algebra and homeroom teacher. He dates her mother, Helen, and marries her when she becomes pregnant with Mia's half-brother, Rocky. He plays the drums, which annoys the neighbors. He is unfazed by his stepdaughter's fame, and treats her the same as every other student during class, and also "has a thing about cell-phone usage during class time" (as Lana finds out the hard way in Princess in Waiting). Mia appreciates his after-school algebra review sessions. Though their relationship begins awkwardly, Mia and Mr. G seem to get on well after the seventh installment.

 John Paul "J.P." Reynolds Abernathy IV: Formerly known as "The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In the Chili," J.P. meets Mia via the school musical written by Grandmère. Mia asks him to sit with the rest of her friends in "Party Princess." Surprisingly cute and talented, he becomes one of Mia's friends. In the seventh book, Lilly and J.P. become a couple. J.P. is first described as having "broad shoulders, floppy brown hair, and surprisingly blue eyes," though the eighth and ninth novels state that Mia and J.P. look good together because they are both so "tall and blond." J.P. is Mia's chemistry partner in book eight. In book nine, J.P and Mia go to watch Beauty and the Beast on Broadway after the fateful events of the previous few days, and they both promise to forget both of the Moscovitzes, at least for the duration of the musical. They go to the musical as friends but that soon changes when J.P. eventually confesses his love for Mia and they become a couple. They break up in the last book when Mia finds out about the lies he had told her and the true reason he went out with her, but they attempt to remain friends, even though J.P. is revealed as a jerk. Also, Mia realized that she still has feelings for Michael despite her dating J.P. Right after they break up J.P. decides to go out with another girl named Stacey Cheeseman, when Mia tells him she thinks Stacey has a crush on J.P.

 Boris Pelkowski: A Russian violin virtuoso, and Lilly's boyfriend until book five. His habits include tucking his sweater into his pants, breathing through his mouth, and playing the violin in Gifted and Talented Class/program, when everyone else wants him to be quiet. After Lilly dumps him, he starts dating Tina Hakim Baba. During the summer before their sophomore year, he lifts weights, gets laser eye surgery and becomes (by Mia's standards) a hottie. Boris is a "say it like it is or say nothing at all" sort of guy. In the ninth installment, it appears that Boris is in contact with Michael (they were in a band together and became friends), as Boris implores Mia to respond to Michael's emails so that he won't think she's "forgotten" about him.

 Josh Richter: Lana Weinberger's boyfriend till the fifth book. He is on the crew team and is co-valedictorian. Mia once described him as the most attractive boy in school; he is very tall and muscular and has "electric" blue eyes. At the end of the first book, Josh Richter takes Mia to the "Cultural Diversity Dance", where he kisses her on the entrance steps of her school. Realizing that he used her to enter the media spotlight, Mia dislikes him afterwards and tries to avoid him, even though this is difficult because of their adjacent lockers.

 Lana Weinberger: A popular junior cheerleader with long blonde hair, a peaches-and-cream complexion, baby blue eyes and a voluptuous figure. She dates Josh Richter from the start of the series until the summer break between the fifth and sixth books when they split up due to the four-mile distance between them and his departure for college. Lana's younger sister, Gretchen, starts at AEHS in volume eight and has a very similar personality.  Lana is very spiteful towards Mia until a major shift in the ninth novel, when Lana offers the olive branch because Lilly is no longer a part of Mia's social circle. Lana and Mia become good friends, with Mia noting that Lana is actually a nice but misunderstood person, although there is still some awkwardness between them. At the start, Lana is consistently teasing Mia and making her angry which makes her stomp on Lana's phone in the third book. Mia also rips out Lana's clip-on braid in the sixth book after Lana makes a mean remark to new student Perin Thomas in book six. Lana likes calling Mia a geek even though they are now good friends.

 Shameeka Taylor: One of Mia's friends, she has an overprotective father. After she joins the cheerleading team, Lana claims that the African American Shameeka was put on the team to "fill our freak quota". Nevertheless, Shameeka becomes quite popular, apparently leaving Mia's group in books seven and eight while remaining on friendly terms, but returns in book nine when Lana and Trisha become friends with them. She is athletic and the most attractive of Mia's friends, and, according to Mia, is so tall she can wrap both ankles round her head. She is elegant yet sensible, and quite headstrong, as she joins the cheerleaders because she is tired of letting the pretty cheerleader, Lana Weinberger, push her around. She also knows a lot about make-up.

 Ling Su Wong: An Asian American artist friend of Mia's with illegible "artist handwriting" which is very similar to "doctor handwriting" . Mia thinks she is very pretty; in the first book, she is apparently asked out seven times. In book seven, she is the treasurer for Mia's school government until they go broke. She concentrates more on academic matters rather than things such as prom and dating. It's clearly stated in the book that Mia likes her despite all her nerdiness. In the tenth book, instead of going to the prom with a boy, she goes with another girl, Perin. It is implied that they are a couple by the end of the tenth book. She admires Mia's mother Helen, mainly because they are both talented artists.

 Prince René of Italy: First seen in the fourth novel, René is Mia's distant cousin. Clarisse tries to fix them up, but fails because of their mutual lack of interest. He is described as devilishly handsome; Mia notes that he has a "impressing" six-pack, accentuated by the really tiny speedos he enjoys wearing on the beach. His exploits include playing strip-tennis with a government official's wife, playing strip bowling with Lilly and the other royals, entertaining topless sunbathers in the pool house, disappearing with a prime minister's eighteen-year-old daughter, and photo-copying his nether-region in the palace administration office. After being deposed from his ancestral palace, which is bought by a shoe designer, Rene resides at the Palais de Genovia. In the ninth installment, René impregnates Contessa Trevanni's niece, Bella, and they are suddenly married; although the circumstances sound unfavorable, their marriage seems happy. In the tenth book, Prince René runs against Mia's dad for Prime Minister of Genovia, but loses.

 "Mamaw" Shirley Thermopolis and "Papaw" Thermopolis: Helen's mother and father from Indiana whom she constantly feuds with. Nevertheless, they keep in touch, and are seen in the second novel as perfect stereotypes of the "small-town" American lifestyle. Helen tries to contact them as little as possible, due to their disapproval of her decision to keep Mia and her liberal upbringing. The Thermopolis parents keep a hardware store in Versailles, Indiana.

 Hank Thermopolis: Mia's cousin, son of Helen's sister Marie (whom Helen also doesn't get along with due to Marie being a Republican), who spent most of his life in Indiana with his grandparents. When they come to visit Helen and Mia in Manhattan, the apparently quite good looking Hank (which Mia never noticed as he is her cousin) disappears with Lilly Moscovitz. Mia thinks they are in love, but he merely confesses to Lilly his secret desire to become a model and Lilly helps him sign up with Elite Model Agency and land a contract with Calvin Klein. His Hoosier drawl then disappears. From then on, he stays in New York and becomes a famous underwear model.

 Kenneth "Kenny" Showalter: Mia's first boyfriend. Kenny is good at biology and chemistry, and a fan of anime. He wants to discover a cure for cancer when he becomes older. It is hinted at that his feelings for Mia are still romantic even after they break up. In book six, he pretends to have a "perfect" girlfriend named Heather, but later admits that he invented her to make Mia jealous. Kenny later forms a much more requited and equal relationship with Lilly, who is more similar to him than Mia is. Kenny is, like Mia, tall, blond and skinny, and Mia thinks he is pretty cute, but finds the idea of kissing him revolting.

 Perin Thomas: A student at AEHS. At first, Mia can't figure out whether Perin is a boy or a girl. She turns out to be a girl and becomes friends with Mia. She is again mistaken for a boy in Grandmère's musical, in which she is given a male role. Perin is a very nice person, as she asked if Mia was alright after Michael announces he is moving to Japan, and, though shocked by Mia's new haircut in book eight, says nothing about it. She is also surprisingly strong and well-mannered. In book ten, it is continually implied that Perin and Ling Su are romantically involved with each other, though this is not confirmed.

 Trisha Hayes: Introduced in the sixth book and also known as Trish; one of Lana's cronies who helps terrorize Mia, but later befriends her at Lana's whim. Trisha is, like Lana, a pretty, popular girl, and is mean to lots of other students, but Mr Harding, a Geometry teacher, once made her cry over her triangles.

 Judith Gershner: A friend of Michael, whom Mia suspects of having romantic feelings for Michael. She later becomes the object of Mia and Michael's breakup at the end of book eight because she had sex with Michael in the third book but he did not tell Mia about it. She is also well known for being able to clone fruit flies.

 Karen Martinez: An overly critical English teacher who continually demands more from Mia's writing, though this may be an excuse to personally pick on Mia. Tina thinks she is very pretty, compares her to Maggie Gyllenhaal, and often comments on her clothes, but turns against her after her B in English. Mia and J.P. decide that it is simply because she didn't like their writing style.

 Rocky Thermopolis-Gianini: Mia's half-brother; the son of her mother, Helen, and her algebra teacher, Mr. Gianini. Mia is incredibly over-protective of him, so much that Helen seems to be irritated that Mia thinks her mother is incapable of raising her second child.  Lilly has also expressed that she thinks Mia is over-protective of him, repeatedly calling her a baby-licker in book six. Rocky is very cute but slightly overweight.

 Sebastiano Grimaldi: Mia's second cousin, second in line to the throne of Genovia. He is an up-and-coming fashion designer who designs some of Mia's gowns, and often has trouble pronouncing the ends of words (example: "butt" instead of "butter"). He once took photos of Mia trying on dresses, but apologises by making her a nice dress for the Non-denominational Winter Dance, which turns out to be the best night of Mia's life. In the tenth book, it was revealed that he became a famous fashion designer and even had a line of jeans in Walmart.

 Ruth and Morty Moscovitz: Michael and Lilly's parents. They are both psychoanalysts. They separate in book seven, but begin to rekindle their relationship in book eight. As shown in the seventh installment, they tend to focus too much on their own lives and concerns. When they do broach sensitive subjects with their children, they usually psychoanalyze them as well, a habit that has a very bad effect on Lilly. Michael, who is more perceptive, avoids their attention by keeping more to himself. Lilly has inherited her intelligence and hobby of analyzing people from them.

Volumes

The Princess Diaries, October 2000
The Princess Diaries, Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight, June 2001 - AKA - Take 2
The Princess Diaries, Volume III: Princess in Love, March 2002 - AKA - Third Time Lucky
The Princess Diaries, Volume IV: Princess in Waiting, April 2003 - AKA - Mia goes Fourth
 The Princess Diaries, Volume IV and 1/4: Valentine Princess, published December 2006, but chronologically fits here, being presented as an old journal Mia finds of her Freshman Valentine's Day two years after the fact.
The Princess Diaries, Volume IV and 1/2: Project Princess, August 2003
The Princess Diaries, Volume V: Princess in Pink, March 2004 - AKA - Give me Five
The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training, March 2005 - AKA - Sixsational
The Princess Diaries, Volume VI and 1/2: The Princess Present, October 2005
The Princess Diaries, Volume VII: Party Princess, March 2006 - AKA - Seventh Heaven
 The Princess Diaries, Volume VII and 1/2: Sweet Sixteen Princess, May 2006
The Princess Diaries, Volume VIII: Princess on the Brink, January 2007 - AKA - After Eight
The Princess Diaries, Volume IX: Princess Mia, December 26, 2007 - AKA - To the Nines
The Princess Diaries, Volume X: Forever Princess, January 2009 - AKA - Ten out of Ten

In a post in her blog, Cabot revealed that two new installments were set to be released on 2015, one of them being told from the point of view of Mia's long lost sister, Olivia Grace.

Illustrated by Chelsey McLaren:
 Princess Lessons, March 2003
 Perfect Princess, March 2004
 Holiday Princess, November 2005

Errata

On April 6, 2006,  Cabot announced a mistake on the back cover of her new book, Party Princess. In New Zealand and Australia, the picture on the back features Georgia Byng instead of Cabot.  She said, "Don't worry. The copies of Princess Diaries 7 with Georgia Byng's picture on the back were pulled from shops, and swapped for copies of the book with the correct author's photo (mine) on the back."

In December 2006, Cabot announced that a mistake had been made in the front cover summary of Valentine Princess. Since the book chronicles Mia glancing at her old diaries, the characters Boris and Tina were not dating, rather Boris and Lilly. On the book flap, however, it says Boris and Tina are a couple. Cabot has announced that this has been fixed by the publishing company. Tina was dating Dave Farouq El-Abar at the time of books one and two.

In the tenth book (Forever Princess) Mia is writing a novel for her senior project, though she keeps it a secret from everyone but Michael, until the end of the book. At the end however she reveals this to Tina and J.P. Tina reads it instantly and thinks it is about Mia and Michael; J.P. doesn't read it and this upsets Mia, which is part of the reason they break up. At the end of the book, Mia receives an offer to get it published. (When Mia shares this news with Michael, they celebrate and this leads to a kiss, which proves that they are still in love.) Meg Cabot published "Mia's" book Ransom My Heart that can be bought in bookstores under the author name Princess of Genovia Mia Thermopolis.

Awards and nominations

 2001 American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
 2001 American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
 2001 New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
 2002 International Reading Association/Children's Book Council Young Adults' Choice
 2002–2003 Volunteer State Book Award (Tennessee)
 2003 Evergreen Young Adult Book Award (Washington)

Adaptations

In 2001 and 2004 respectively, the series was brought to the big screen by Walt Disney Pictures as The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Cabot has thanked the movies many times in interviews and on her website because she believes that they helped boost her book sales, as well as making her the success that she is today.

In May 2006, The Harvard Crimson released reports that 19-year-old author Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarised passages from Cabot's Princess Diaries series, and other books, to place in her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Viswanathan's novels were subsequently pulled from the shelves.

Meta-References

 Mia makes many references to "the movie", which in the book is supposed to be a movie made about her life. She refers to things that relate to the real movie, for example: her dead dad, Grandmere being NICE, and breaking up with Michael in the sequel (which she thought would never happen). Lilly complains that in the movie, the portrayal of her is mean and untrue, and Tina Hakim Baba was not allowed to be in it as her overprotective father forbade it for security reasons.
 Mia also makes references to the other Princess books: in the fourth book, Mia says that there are already three or four unofficial biographies out there, and that one made the bestseller list once.  The original The Princess Diaries novel did make the bestseller list.
 The eighth novel mentions Samantha Madison and Jessica Mastriani, two heroines from other Meg Cabot books (All-American Girl and 1-800-Where-R-You, respectively).

See also

Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (1898–1977): the illegitimate daughter of Louis II, Prince of Monaco, later legitimized as his legal heiress; mother of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
Jazmin Grace Grimaldi (1992–present): the illegitimate daughter of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, born and living in the U.S.
Republic of Genoa: a historical republic bearing geographical and cultural similarities to the fictional modern Genovia.
Ruritanian romance: the general genre of story.

References

 Cabot, Meg (2001). The Princess Diaries. New York, New York. HarperTrophy. ISBN 0-380-81402-1.
 Cabot, Meg (2006). The Princess Diaries, Volume VII: Party Princess. New York, New York. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-072453-6.

Footnotes

External links
 Official site of Meg Cabot
 Official site of Mia Thermopolis

American young adult novels
Young adult novel series
Fictional diaries
Novels by Meg Cabot
HarperCollins books

ද ප්‍රින්සස් ඩයරීස්


Dolomedes scriptus is a fishing spider found in the United States and Canada, known as the striped fishing spider. Female spiders can grow to be over 6 cm in legspan. The spider is a pale brown colour with lighter stripes around its legs and a stripe down each side of the body. It is similar to D. tenebrosus.

References

Further reading
Dolomedes scriptus, The Nearctic Spider Database, GBIF
Bishop, S. C. 1924. A revision of the Pisauridae of the United States. New York St. Mus. Bull. 252: 1-140.
Carico, J. E. 1973. The Nearctic species of the genus Dolomedes (Araneae: Pisauridae). Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv. 144: 435-488.
Carico, J. E. & P. C. Holt. 1964. A comparative study of the female copulatory apparatus of certain species in the spider genus Dolomedes (Pisauridae: Araneae). Tech. Bull. agric. Exp. Stat. Blacksburg Virg. 172: 1-27.
Comstock, J. H. 1940. The spider book, revised and edited by W. J. Gertsch. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, xi + 727 pp.
Comstock, J. H. 1912. The spider book; a manual for the study of the spiders and their near relatives, the scorpions, pseudoscorpions, whipscorpions, harvestmen and other members of the class Arachnida, found in America north of Mexico, with analytical keys for their classification and popular accounts of their habits. Garden City, New York, pp. 1–721
Dondale, C. D. & J. H. Redner. 1990. The insects and arachnids of Canada, Part 17. The wolf spiders, nurseryweb spiders, and lynx spiders of Canada and Alaska, Araneae: Lycosidae, Pisauridae, and Oxyopidae. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Publ. 1856: 1-383.
Emerton, J. H. 1902. The common spiders of the United States. Boston, pp. 1–225.
Emerton, J. H. 1885. New England Lycosidae. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts Sci. 6: 481-505.
Hentz, N. M. 1845. Descriptions and figures of the araneides of the United States. Boston J. nat. Hist. 5: 189-202.
Kaston, B. J. 1948. Spiders of Connecticut. Bull. Conn. St. geol. nat. Hist. Surv. 70: 1-874.
Montgomery, T. H. 1904. Descriptions of North American Araneae of the families Lycosidae and Pisauridae. Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad. 56: 261-325.
Muma, M. H. 1943. Common spiders of Maryland. Natural History Society of Maryland, Baltimore, 179 pp.
Paquin, P. & N. Dupérré. 2003. Guide d'identification des araignées du Québec. Fabreries, Suppl. 11 1-251.
Sierwald, P. 1989. Morphology and ontogeny of female copulatory organs in American Pisauridae, with special reference to homologous features (Arachnida: Araneae). Smithson. Contrib. Zool. 484: 1-24.

scriptus
Spiders of North America
Spiders described in 1845

Dolomedes scriptus


The thorax is a part of an animal's body that is between the head and the abdomen.

In mammals, the parts that make up the thorax are the sternum, the thoracic vertebrae and the ribs. It starts from the neck and stops at the diaphragm.

In insects and crustaceans, it is the middle of the three main body sections. The walking legs are usually on the thorax.

Related pages

 Chest

Animal anatomy

Thorax


se yon vil Etazini. Li sitye nan leta Iowa.
Chèf-lye li se ? .

Istwa
Istwa

referans

Kèk lyen

Atlantic is a city in Cass County, Iowa, United States, along the East Nishnabotna River.  The population was 7,257 at the 2000 census.

Geography
Atlantic is located at  (41.401404, -95.010867).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.2 square miles (21.2 km²), of which, 8.1 square miles (21.1 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.37%) is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,257 people, 3,126 households, and 1,969 families residing in the city. The population density was 890.4 people per square mile (343.8/km²). There were 3,354 housing units at an average density of 411.5/sq mi (158.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.65% White, 0.25% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.41% from other races, and 0.29% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.79% of the population.

There were 3,126 households out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.0% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.81.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 23.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,370, and the median income for a family was $41,168. Males had a median income of $30,691 versus $20,271 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,832. About 6.3% of families and 12.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.5% of those under age 18 and 10.6% of those age 65 or over.

Atlantic, Iowa is one of the smallest communities in Iowa to have a daily newspaper - The Atlantic News Telegraph.

Atlantic is also home to three radio stations.

96.5 KSOM which features country music, Paul Harvey, Farm Reports, Local News, Iowa State Sports and Nascar.
KSWI 95.7 which features classic rock and Atlantic high school sports.
KJAN 1220AM which features an adult contemporary format.

History

Atlantic was founded in October 1868 by Franklin H. Whitney, B.F. Allen, John P. Cook, Connie F. Beemer, and others. While historians cannot agree how Atlantic got its name, local legend tells that the founding fathers estimated that the town was about halfway between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, so it lead them to flip a coin and, clearly, Atlantic won.  The nearby Rock Island Railroad was important in deciding the actual location of the town, and to this day, the old depot sits at the north end of Chestnut Street. Today, the old depot serves as the offices of the Chamber of Commerce.

Another story told about Atlantic is the way main street was located. Someone asked Whitney where it should be placed. He marked the center at current day 6th and Chestnut and then plowed two furrows a  apart all the way up to the railroad, just north of Second Street.

References

External links
Chamber of Commerce
Local daily newspaper Web site

Vil nan Iowa
Vil nan Etazini
Jewografi
Cass County, Iowa
Cities in Iowa
County seats in Iowa

Atlantic, Iowa


Adrienne Cecile Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She received credit for bringing attention to the oppression of women and lesbians. She wrote many fiction and non-fiction books and many poetry. Her most controversial work was Of Woman Born: Motherhood and Institution in 1976. In 1986 Rich's 1980 essay Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence against heterosexuality forced by society was published. In 1974 she won National Book Award.

Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She died from rheumatoid arthritis in Santa Cruz, California at age eighty-two. At the time Rich lived with her partner Michelle Cliff.

References

1929 births
2012 deaths
American feminists
American poets
Jewish American LGBT people
Jewish American writers
Jewish feminists
Lesbian feminists
Lesbian Jews
American LGBT writers
Writers from Baltimore

Adrienne Rich


Created on December 15, 1791, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that establishes the right of citizens to possess firearms for lawful purposes. It says, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Background
During the time that America was being colonized by European countries, firearms were very important to colonists. When Europeans came to America, they brought with them the idea of land ownership by an individual. They received this right from their king through land grants. This was completely foreign to Native Americans who considered a particular territory belonged to the tribe. Colonists defended their claims against Native Americans and other Europeans whose kings may have granted them the same lands. They also needed firearms for hunting. In many towns and villages, men were required to own firearms for the defense of the community. Most colonists coming to America in the 17th century had no experience as soldiers. The British kept few soldiers in the colonies, and colonists soon found they needed to establish militias.

Colonies had militia laws that required every able-bodied white man to be available for militia duty and to provide his own arms. In 1774 and 1775, the British government, which now had a larger presence, attempted to disarm American colonists. This caused the colonists to form private militias, independent of any control by the governors appointed by the British government. The Minutemen who fought the British Army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord were an independent militia.

After the American Revolutionary War, the framers of the Constitution, like most Americans of the time, distrusted standing (permanent) armies and trusted militias. After the Revolutionary War, Americans trusted state militias to defend the country. The Articles of Confederation, the new nation's first constitution, called for each state to maintain a well-armed militia. Congress could call up the militias to defend the country against any foreign power.  However, Congress could only form a standing army if nine of the thirteen states approved. This was one of the weaknesses that led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and a new constitution.

In the 18th century, the word "army" meant mercenaries. Americans distrusted standing armies and were afraid they could be used to take over the country. People still remembered Oliver Cromwell and his military dictatorship in England.

State constitutions
Virginia was one of the first colonies to adopt a state constitution. They included the words: "a well regulated Militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free State." Other states followed with similar wording in their own constitutions. Pennsylvania declared: "the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."

In 1781 the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation. This recognized that the thirteen original states had the power to govern themselves. They acted collectively to have a congress, but did not provide any money to run it. There was no president and no court system. This confederation of states proved to be a very poor form of central government.

Philadelphia Convention of 1787
The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from May 25 to September 17, 1787. The purpose of the Convention was to revise the Articles of Confederation. But it became clear that many of its members, including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, wanted to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention. They eventually agreed on agreed on Madison's Virginia Plan and began to make changes. The result was the Constitution of the United States and the present form of government.

Bill of Rights
The constitution debate at Philadelphia caused two groups to form: the Federalists and the Anti-federalists. The federalists wanted a strong central government. The anti-federalists wanted the state governments to have more power. The vote on the new Constitution was passed on a promise by federalists to support a Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution.

Originally, Congress suggested 12 amendments to the states. However, the states only ratified ten. The Bill of Rights, as the first 10 amendments came to be called, originally applied to the national government rather than to states. Many states already had their own Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was ratified and went into effect in 1791.

Different interpretations
The Second Amendment was a result of several proposals being combined and simplified into just 27 words.  This simplification has caused many debates over gun ownership and individual rights. Historians, judges and others have repeatedly looked for the intended meaning by the 18th century writers of this amendment.  Different interpretations of the Second Amendment still cause public debates about firearm regulations and gun control.

Capitalization and punctuation
In 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard a case called Heller v. District of Columbia.  At the time, it was illegal for regular Americans to have a gun in Washington, D.C. To decide whether this was against the Second Amendment, the court looked very closely at capitalization and punctuation in the Amendment to try to figure out exactly what the framers meant.

Judge Laurence H. Silberman wrote the Court's decision. It made the ban on guns by the District of Columbia invalid. The decision was based on the second comma (after the word "state") as proof that the Second Amendment allows individuals the right to carry a gun. This is in addition to state's rights to maintain militias.

The Second Amendment ratified by the States and approved by the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, said:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".

The version passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington (but never ratified by the States) said:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
On June 25, 2008, the Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals' decision.  (In the Supreme Court, the case was called District of Columbia v. Heller.)

Landmark decisions
 In 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark decision in United States v. Miller (307 U.S. 174 (1939)). The Court determined that Congress could keep people from having certain weapons (in this case, a sawed-off shotgun) because the shotgun would not help maintain a well regulated militia. The Court said the Second Amendment's purpose was to ensure the effectiveness of the military.
 The case District of Columbia v. Heller (554 U.S. 570 (2008)), was another landmark case. It was the first time in almost 70 years that the Supreme Court applied the Second Amendment to a review of gun control laws. The Supreme Court of the United States held in a 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution applied to the Federal district and protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes. This struck down the D.C. handgun ban because it violated citizens' Second Amendment rights. The decision also called United States v. Miller an exception to the general rule that Americans may possess firearms. The Court said:
 People who obey the law cannot possibly use sawed-off shotguns for any legal purpose
 Laws about similar weapons that cannot be used for any legal purposes would not violate the Second Amendment
 Laws that would keep criminals and the mentally ill from having guns would not violate the Second Amendment.
 In McDonald v. Chicago (561 U.S. 742 (2010)), the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 decision that the city of Chicago could not make it illegal for citizens to own handguns. The Court ruled that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" protected by the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court held that it applies to the states.

Notes

References

Other websites

 High Court's Gun Ruling Cites Intent of 14th Amendment
 Benjamin Netanyahu just made the single best argument EVER for the Second Amendment
 Should guns be banned in America?

United States Bill of Rights
02


Si Sung Jae-gi(Korea:성재기,成在基, inianak September 11, 1967 – July 26, 2013) sakey na Human right aktivis tan Civil aktivis, liberalisme filsuf, politiko so Baybay na Korea.

Ofisial
 South Korean channel films suicide (English)
 Activist's 'suicide' causes huge stir Koreatimes 2013.07.26 (English)
 Police continue search for missing men's rights activist yonhapnews 2013.07.27 (English)
 [http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2013072913348 Suicide performance and journalist ethics] News Dongah (English)
 Body of Sung Jae-gi found in Han River Koreaherald 2013.07.29 (English)
 Seoul 'Bridge of Life' Attracts More Suicide Attempts korearealtime 2013.11.08 (English)
 [Opinion] Now Showing Suicidal Performance! WHAT?! - humanrights moniter Southkorea
 MHRA Sung Jae-gi dead A-Voice of Man (English)

Internet
Sung Jae-gi

Sung Jae-gi


The French Crown Jewels () and Regalia comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal or Imperial power between 752 and 1870. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emperor Napoleon. The set was finally broken up, with most of it sold off in 1885 by the Third Republic. The surviving French Crown Jewels, principally a set of historic crowns, diadems and parures, are mainly on display in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace, together with the Regent Diamond, the Sancy Diamond and the  Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel, carved into the form of a dragon.  In addition, some gemstones and jewels (including the Emerald of Saint Louis, the Ruspoli sapphire and the diamond pins of Queen Marie Antoinette) are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the National Museum of Natural History.

Use of the French crown jewels

The Crown jewels comprise the instruments of the coronation, called the Regalia, and the jewels of the ruling family.

Since Pepin the Short in 752, the accession of the King of France was legitimated by a coronation ceremony called a sacre, since the emphasis was on the unction with the chrism of the Holy Ampulla, performed for the first time at Notre-Dame de Reims in 816 for Louis the Pious, then with the Crown of Charlemagne. From 888 to 922, then 1027, all monarchs were crowned until the French Revolution, in the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral (apart from Louis VI and Henry IV, who were crowned in Orléans and Chartres). After the revolution, only Emperor Napoleon, Empress Joséphine and King Charles X were crowned. Though not always used, a set of expensive crown jewels did exist and was augmented by various monarchs.

The Crown Jewels or Diamants de la Couronne de France, consisting of gemstones and jewellery, became unalienable by decision of Francis I on June 15, 1530. The Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel was then among the 8 main jewels. They suffered important loss by the Catholic League in 1590 but were reconstituted by Henry IV and greatly enhanced by Louis XIV, notably with the gift of the 18 Mazarin diamonds and the purchase of the 'Royal French Blue' and 'Ruspoli' sapphire, later followed in 1717 with the Regent Diamond. Under Louis XV, they were kept in the Garde Meuble de la Couronne (Royal Treasury) in one of the pavilions of the Place de la Concorde, where they suffered a theft in 1792 and a sale in 1795 after their partial recovery. In 1814, Napoleon had restored the crown jewels to 65,072 stones and pearls, not including the personal jewels of both Empress Joséphine and Empress Marie Louise. Enhanced during the Restoration and again during the Second Empire, they counted 77,662 stones and pearls, comprising 51,403 brilliant cut diamonds, 21,119 rose cut diamonds, 2962 pearls, 507 rubies, 136 sapphires, 250 emeralds, 528 turquoises, 22 opals, 235 amethysts and 500 other stones, when they were sold in 1885 by the Third Republic. Nevertheless, as in 1793, an important set of stones and pearls was sent to the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle and some of the most important jewels were bought back since 1953, which makes the collection still number more than 11,000 stones and pearls.

The Regalia, much lightly hit in 1590, were originally kept in the treasure of the Basilica of Saint Denis from where they were removed in 1793 during the French Revolution. Some few pieces of the treasure, considered to present an artistic value, were preserved and sent to the Louvre, which sold 9 of them in 1798, the National Library, the Natural History Museum, and the archbishops of Rouen (5 items) and Paris. The others, were sold in 1793 like the chalice and two cruets of Saint Denis, or dismantled and melted down in April 1794, like the Crown of Charlemagne and the ones of Saint Louis and the Queens, with the rest of the basilica treasure including the cross of Saint Eligius, the screen of Charlemagne, the gilded altar of Charles the Bald or the large reliquaries. The liturgical instruments kept in Reims suffered the same policy. The Regalia were restored or recreated for the coronation of Napoleon, which at their turn suffered again partial destruction in 1819, and finally completed for the coronation of Charles X in 1825.

Regalia and jewels at the Louvre

Crown of Louis XV

Of about 20 documented royal crowns of the Ancien Régime, the only surviving one from the destructions of 1590 and 1793 is the crown of Louis XV. The king had the Regent Diamond set in the lower part of the fleur-de-lis in the front of his crown, while eight of the famous Mazarin diamonds that the cardinal had bequeathed to the French Crown are set in the other seven fleur-de-lis and in the circlet of the crown.  Diamonds and colored gemstones are set between two rows of pearls on the circlet and are also set into the four arches that rise behind the fleur-de-lis and the eight ornamental points between the fleur-de-lis.  At the junction of these four arches is a small pedestal surrounded by two rows of small diamonds on either side of a row of small pearls.  Eight larger diamonds set between this pedestal and the arches give the effect of a sunburst when the crown is viewed from above.  On the pedestal rises a double fleur-de-lis formed of nine large diamonds, including the Sancy Diamond which forms the central upper petal of this double fleur-de-lis.  The gold brocade cap which lines the crown is also ornamented with large diamonds.

Since the Middle Ages, and previous to the making of this crown, the crowns of French kings were adorned with gemstones like on the crown of Charlemagne or the crown of Saint Louis, sometimes called the Sainte Couronne. But some of the most valuable precious stones could be removed from them, since it was traditional for a French king to bequeath his crown to the treasury of the Abbey, now Basilica of St Denis, on their deaths.  This crown was also bequeathed to Saint Denis on the death of Louis XV, but not before the diamonds had been replaced with crystals, and it is on display presently in the Louvre, similarly set with crystals.

Crown of Napoleon I
The crown of Napoleon was made by the jeweller Martin-Guillaume Biennais with antique cameos for the coronation of the Emperor in 1804. His gilded crown of laurels was destroyed in 1819 by Louis XVIII with the one of Empress Josephine, the orb and the eagle sceptre. His coronation throne is at the Louvre and the coronation ring of Empress Josephine at the Château de Malmaison.

Crown of Empress Eugénie

The crown of Empress Eugénie was created in 1855 by Gabriel Lemonnier for the World's fair, like the one of the Emperor which was destroyed in 1887. But Napoleon III finally chose not to be crowned. Her diadem by the same jeweller is as well presented in the Louvre with a large diamond brooch by Alfred Bapst bearing two big Mazarin stones, as well as a large corsage diamond knot and a pearl and diamond shoulder brooch, both by François Kramer.

Coronation sword

The sword used during the coronation of the kings of France is displayed at the Louvre museum with its 13th-century scabbard, apart from the crown jewels. In the first part of the celebration, the king received the insignia of knighthood, consisting of spurs and the sword. Throughout the rest of the ceremony, the sword was entrusted to the "Connétable", who held it with the blade pointing upwards. The treasury of Saint-Denis possessed several medieval swords including the one of Saint Louis.  According to legend the coronation sword is "Joyeuse",  Charlemagne's sword.  Its unusual build and ornamentation makes it difficult to date, but the parts probably date back from the 10th to 13th centuries.  Some believe it might be much older, even manufactured before Charlemagne's reign.

The coronation swords of Napoleon I and Charles X also were preserved in the Louvre museum, although the first was transferred to the Palace of Fontainebleau with most of the preserved liturgical instruments and robes of the imperial ceremony and the latter stolen in 1976.

Coronation spurs
Some elements of the 12th to 16th centuries spurs were partially replaced for the coronation of Napoleon I.

Sceptre of Charles V

One of the few surviving pieces of the medieval French crown jewels is the sceptre that Charles V had made for the future coronation of his son, Charles VI, currently on display in the Louvre.  It is over five feet long, and at the top is a lily supporting a small statuette of Charlemagne. This evocation of Charlemagne may also explain why this sceptre was included in the imperial regalia of Napoleon I.

The sceptre of Dagobert I was stolen in 1795 during the Revolution.

Main de Justice (Hand of Justice)

A typically French type of sceptre is the Main de Justice (Hand of Justice), which has as its finial an ivory Hand of God in a blessing gesture was recreated in 1804 for Napoleon I . The addition of cameos and other medieval gemstones, like the 12th-century ring of Saint Denis which surrounds the junction of the finial and the replaced rod, represents a deliberate 19th-century anachronism.

Another sceptre, the Baton of Guillaume de Roquemont, and the ring of Saint Louis are at the Louvre.

Brooch of Saint Louis
The collection keeps as well the 14th-century brooch or fermail said of Saint Louis, a large diamond shaped fibula bearing a fleur-de-lis in precious stones, which was used to hold the coronation's robe.

Serpentine paten

The serpentine paten said to be of Abbot Suger of the 1st century BC or AD, associated with the Cup of the Ptolemies, was used at the coronation of queens and keeps its gem-studded gold Carolingian mountings of Charles the Bald.

Famous diamonds

Among the most famous diamonds preserved in the collection and now kept in the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre are the Sancy Diamond, which once had been part of the pre-Commonwealth Crown Jewels of England, the Hortensia pink diamond cut in 1678 for Louis XIV and above all the Regent Diamond. The treatment of the Regent Diamond epitomised the attitude of the French Royal Family to the Crown Jewels. While the Regent Diamond was the centrepiece of the King Louis XV crown, and worn by him at his coronation in February 1723, Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, wore it in a black velvet hat. The Royal French Blue was transformed into the Hope Diamond now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C..

With two remaining jewels of the Renaissance, the Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel and the Dragon perle, a pin shaped into the form of a delphin,  the crown jewels collection contains as well among others, the emerald set and pearl earrings of Empress Josephine, the micromosaic and the emerald and diamond sets of Empress Marie Louise, the pair of bracelets of rubies and the emerald diadem of the Duchess of Angoulême, the sapphire set of Queen Marie Amélie, a diamond cross of the Order of the Holy Spirit and a diamond portrait box of Louis XIV.

Gemstones in the Natural History Museum and École des Mines
Some gemstones and jewels are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. They include the  Emerald of Saint Louis, the  'Ruspoli' sapphire the Topaze (28.10 carats) and great Emerald (17 carats) of Louis XIV, the diamond pins of Queen Marie Antoinette, the Diamond-portrait (9.10 carats) and the Amethyst of Empress Marie Louise, the great Opal of Louis XVIII, the bicolor Sapphire (19.67 carats), the Jonquille diamond (9.75 carats) and more than 800 pearls and stones. Furthermore, a set of 1 044 stones and pearls is kept at the École des Mines in Paris.

Regalia in the National Library of France

The Throne of Dagobert coming from Saint Denis can now be seen on the Richelieu site of the National Library of France. The Cup of the Ptolemies was used by the queens to take ablution after holy communion. This masterpieces among hardstone carvings or engraved gems of Antiquity,  was carved with Dionysiac vignettes and emblems, probably in Alexandria during the 1st century BC or the 1st century AD. It was stolen in 1804, and recovered without its Carolingian gem-studded gold mountings. Its serpentine paten is at the Louvre.

Charles X regalia in Saint Denis

Some of the sovereign's robes of the coronation of Charles X and regalia specially made by Feuchère for this event including the gilt-bronze Crown of Charles X (his coronation crown was destroyed by the Third Republic) and the Crown of Queen Marie Thérèse of Savoy are displayed in one of the chapels of the nave of the Basilica of Saint Denis with the funerary Regalia of king Louis XVIII (sceptre, hand of justice and copy of the sword and scabbard of Charlemagne). The Crown of the Dauphin Louis Antoine Duke of Angoulême which subsists as well counts too among the six only surviving French crowns.

Liturgical instruments and robes in Reims

The Holy Ampulla reconstituted with some recovered fragments of the original chrism for the coronation of Charles X in 1825, which was originally kept in the Abbey of Saint Remi, is now presented in the Palace of Tau next to the cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims with the coronation Chalice as well as several preserved sovereign's robes and gowns of kings of the Ancien Régime and the liturgical instruments made for the coronation of Charles X. They are displayed with the few remaining pieces of the medieval treasure of the cathedral and the Talisman of Charlemagne, a large sapphire said to have been given by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid which was found in the Emperor's grave in 1804 and later offered by Empress Eugenie. Since 1906, the content of the Holy Ampulla is kept in Reims archbishopric.

Theft of the crown jewels during the Revolution

The Crown Jewels were stolen in 1792 when the Garde Meuble (Royal Treasury) was stormed by rioters. Most, though not all, of the Crown Jewels were recovered eventually. Sancy Diamond was found in Russia at Vasily Rudanovsky collection. The Royal French Blue is believed to have been recut, and it is now known as the Hope Diamond.

The Hope is famously alleged to have been surrounded by bad luck.  Marie Antoinette who supposedly wore it was beheaded (in fact, it was actually worn by her husband, Louis XVI, although he too was beheaded).  Other owners and their families experienced suicides, marriage break-ups, bankruptcy, deaths in car crashes, falls off cliffs, revolutions, mental breakdowns, and deaths through drug overdoses.  It was even tangentially associated with the case of the murdered Lindbergh baby, when its then owner, silver heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, pawned it to raise money that she ended up paying to a con-man unconnected with the actual kidnapping.  Most modern historians view the tales of a curse on the Hope to be spurious; the first mention of such tales is documented to 1908.  Pierre Cartier, the Parisian jeweler, is widely credited with publicizing the stories of a curse on the diamond in hopes of increasing its saleability. Since 1958, it has been in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it is the single most-viewed object in the Smithsonian's collection.

The Crown Jewels were augmented by jewels added by Napoleon I and Napoleon III.

Last coronation
The last French coronation occurred in 1825 when King Charles X was crowned at Reims. The scale of the coronation was seen by critics to indicate a return to the absolutism of the Ancien Régime that had been ended by the Revolution of 1789. Some historians suggest that the very grandeur of the ceremony marked the beginning of the end for the Bourbon monarchy, with Charles's image as an old style monarch falling out of favour with the French public, who had much preferred the low-key monarchy of his brother, Louis XVIII. Louis Philippe I, the last French king, was not crowned, and neither was Napoleon III, the last Emperor. Napoleon III's consort, Eugénie de Montijo, did have a crown made for her, though it was never used in an official coronation.

Break-up and sale of the French crown jewels

During the late 18th and 19th centuries the jewels survived the French First Republic, the Directorate, the First Empire, the Restoration, the July Monarchy, the French Second Republic and the Second Empire. However, the decision of Henri, Comte de Chambord not to accept the French Crown in the early 1870s ended not just the prospect of a royal restoration. It also led to the break-up and partial sale of the Crown Jewels. The Brazilian beauty Aimée de Heeren, WW2 secret service agent for President Getúlio Vargas was known for being the largest private owner of the French Crown jewels, along with other important jewelry. The jewels were presents from Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster who bought whatever he could find between the years 1939 and 1953.

In 1875, the French Third Republic came into being with the passage of a series of Constitutional Laws. The interim presidency was replaced by a full "President of the Republic".

While few expected a royal restoration, certainly after the failure of the Seize Mai attempted royalist coup by the Marshal Patrice de MacMahon, sitting President of the French Republic, the continuing agitation of extreme right-wing royalists, and the fear of a royalist coup d'état, led radical deputies to propose the sale of the Crown Jewels, in the hope that their dispersal would undermine the royalist cause: "Without a crown, no need for a king" in the words of one member of the National Assembly. This controversial decision was implemented. All the jewels from the Crown Jewels were removed and sold in 1887, as were many of the crowns, diadems, rings and other items. Only a few of the crowns were kept for historic reasons, but with their original diamonds and gems replaced by colored glass. Some historic or unusual gems went to French museums, including the Regent Diamond, the Hortensia diamond, and the corsage brooch containing some of the 'Mazarin diamonds', all of which now reside in the Louvre; and the 'Ruspoli' sapphire, which is now in the French Natural History Museum (curators took advantage of its unusual rhombohedral faceted shape and asked for it to be exempted from the sale, falsely claiming that it was a natural, uncut crystal).

See also
 Treasury of Saint-Denis
 Regalia

References

External links

!
Crown jewels
Crowns (headgear)
Crown jewels
History of Paris

French Crown Jewels


Antônio Conselheiro, in English "Anthony the Counselor", real name Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel (March 13, 1830 – September 22, 1897), was a Brazilian religious leader, preacher and founder of the village of Canudos, the scene of the War of Canudos (1896–1897), a civil rebellion against the central government which was brutally stamped out with the loss of more than 25,000 lives.

Biography

Early life

Born in Quixeramobim, Antônio Maciel was the son of Maria Joaquina de Jesus and Vicente Mendes Maciel, a rugged family of cattle breeders in the sertão  ("backlands"), the semi-arid zone of the Brazilian Northeast. His infancy was marked by a bloody feud with the powerful family of the Araújos, causing many deaths in both families, following the tragic cycle of vengeance and honour which were so common in these regions. After the death of his mother in 1834, his father married again, and Antônio and his two sisters suffered with the father's alcoholism and maltreatment by their stepmother. Antônio went to study with his grandfather, Manoel Antônio Ferreira Nobre, who was a teacher in Quixeramobim. He developed well as a serious, quiet and hard-working pupil, studying Latin, French, Portuguese, mathematics, geography and history. In 1855 his father died and he assumed the family's business, striving to get his sisters married. In 1857, Antônio himself married Brasilina Laurentina de Lima and began working as a salesman, teacher and lay counselor (poorman's lawyer). Already with two children, he was cheated on by his wife in 1861, and disillusioned and depressed, he separated from them and retired to a farm, working as a rural teacher, and devoting himself more and more to Christian mysticism. Moving again to Santa Quitéria, Ceará, he had a third child, a son named Joaquim Aprígio, after a brief affair with a local artist named Joana Imaginária. He was restless, however, and started to wander around the country, from 1865 to 1869, and then from 1871 and afterwards.

The counsellor

He was tall and thin, with long black hair and beard, always dressed in a rough blue tunic, a straw hat and leather sandals, carrying a necklace with a wooden cross, Antônio Maciel cut an impressive figure, reminding people of Jesus Christ. Gradually he became a pilgrim, an itinerant benefactor and counsellor of the poor, as well a pious preacher and religious leader. He was called alternatively by the simple people of the region as Antônio Conselheiro, Santo Antônio dos Mares, Santo Antônio Aparecido or Bom Jesus Conselheiro, and began to attract not only admirers, but fanatical followers, who started travelling with him.

Trouble with law and Church

In 1874, Antônio Conselheiro began to attract the attention of authorities and the Catholic Church, due to his preaching to the oppressed and poor peasants and common folk of small villages and farms. In 1876 he was arrested by the police in Itapicuru, Bahia, under the suspicion of being a wanted criminal. After being identified, he was sent by ship to Fortaleza. He was severely beaten, his hair and beard were cut and he was sent back for trial to his city of origin, Quixeramobim. The local judge, however, released Antônio Conselheiro due to the absence of any criminal charges against him. Antônio returned immediately to Bahia and restarted his wandering and preaching. He vowed to construct 21 churches and proceeded to do so in 12 cities in the backlands of the provinces of Bahia and Sergipe, as well as cemeteries and small dams.

In 1877, one of the periodical catastrophic droughts began in the Northeast. It would last two years killing more than 300,000 peasants by hunger and thirst, creating havoc with the predominantly semi-arid agrarian economy of the region. Many villages were entirely abandoned and instances of cannibalism even occurred. Antônio Conselheiro and his followers did what they could to diminish the extreme suffering of the poor people, adding more and more admirers and followers to his group. The sense of an impending end of the world and that the only salvation could come through religion were strong incentives to the surge of religious fanaticism. Conselheiro was widely regarded as a saint and a Messiah. Due to his increasing criticism of the official Church, and his open preachings in the small churches of the backlands, in 1882 the Archbishop of Bahia issued an order forbidding priests to allow him access to the flocks and characterising Antônio Conselheiro as an apostate and as a madman.

The abolition of slavery and the proclamation of the Republic

In 1888 and 1889, Brazil went through the most revolutionary and far-reaching social, economic and political changes of its history since Europeans settled in 1500. On May 13, 1888, slavery was abolished by the ruling Emperor, Dom Pedro II, by an act signed by his daughter, Princess Isabel. More than five million black people were suddenly free, and they abandoned the farms and swelled enormously the rural and urban ranks of extremely poor inhabitants. Tens of thousands of farmers went bankrupt and agriculture almost stopped for a while, particularly for cash crops which required intensive labor, such as coffee, cotton, tobacco and sugarcane, the mainstays of the Brazilian economy at the time. On November 15, 1889, the Emperor was deposed by a military coup and the Republic was proclaimed, further adding instability and strife to the already torn-up country.

All this was important to the make-up of Canudos. Antônio Conselheiro was strongly against slavery, and had preached and written about it, incurring the wrath of farmers and authorities. The number of his flocks increased dramatically, and it is estimated that over 80% were former slaves. In addition, he considered that monarchy was a grant of God, and that the Republic, with its separation between Church and State, was morally wrong and would wreck the country and family, a kind of new antichrist.  Again he stepped up public criticism and rallied the social movement around these flags. General nervousness of farmers, priests and government increased to hysterical fear.

Finally, in 1893, violence erupted. Protesting against taxes levied by the new Republican government in Masseté, state of Bahia, "Conselhistas" (as Antônio Conselheiro's organized following was named) were attacked by a small police force and retaliated.

Canudos

Antônio Conselheiro decided then to retreat and to establish in 1893 a permanent place for his growing band of now quasi-insurrectionaries. Near the city of Monte Santo, in the Northeast tip of Bahia, he founded the village of Bello Monte (Fair Hill), in an area named Canudos. It was set in an abandoned farm amid several mountain ranges, near the Vaza-Barris River.

In Canudos, Antônio Conselheiro, aided by a local government by committee, composed by 12 "apostles", or elders, established a communitarian society, with division of labour and produce, common property, abolition of civil marriage and of the official currency, prohibition of taverns, liquor and prostitution, rigid control over crimes and mandatory religious activities. He also gave a measure of personal freedom from injustice and oppression by landlords and governmental authorities. The fame of Canudos spread rapidly throughout the Northeast, as being a promised land of "milk and honey".  Former black slaves, uprooted indigenous people and impoverished and landless mestizos started to come in droves to Canudos. By one year later, Canudos already had 8,000 new residents; by 1895 its population had grown to more than 30,000 and more than 5,000 dwellings. Two churches and one school were also built and commerce and agriculture became more organised.

The massive presence of such kinds of people started to cause much fear and trouble in the region, since many of the new residents were not-so-peaceful "jagunços" (hired armed men who worked for farmers), leading to appeals to the government for repression and control. Fearing an invasion of the city of Juazeiro by the "Conselhistas", who had a dispute with a lumber merchant, its mayor appealed hysterically to the provincial government.  A visit by two Capuchin friars to Canudos was insufficient to calm the population and one of them mistakenly accused Antônio Conselheiro of trying to raise a monarchist sedition.

All was set for the start of military aggression against the largely peaceful settlement.

Death

During the heavy military siege that followed, Antônio Conselheiro spent his time praying and fasting troubled by the death, hunger and suffering of his followers. Due to this severe fasting, he died on September 22, 1897, at the age 67. The cause of death was probably dysentery. His death was the beginning of Canudos' defeat, which eventually brought about the brutal death of more than 50% of the city's inhabitants during the military operations and ensuing atrocities committed by the army against the civilian population.

His body was found and identified by military surgeons. His head was cut off and sent to Salvador as proof of his death and displayed as a trophy. It was examined by forensic expert, Dr. Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, and placed in permanent exhibition at the museum of the Escola Bahiana de Medicina (Medical School of Bahia), where it was destroyed in a fire in May 1905.

Literature

Besides his written preachings, Antônio Conselheiro left only one religious treatise, written in May 1895 and titled Apontamentos dos Preceitos da Divina Lei de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, para a Salvação dos Homens ("Annotations on the Precepts of Our Lord Jesus Christ's Divine Law for the Salvation of Men").

The story of Antônio Conselheiro and the War of Canudos has been dramatized in Euclides da Cunha's Rebellion in the Backlands (Os Sertões). He is also portrayed in The War of the End of the World, a novel in Spanish by the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. The story of Antônio Maciel, and the founding of, and war on, Canudos is also told in the novel The First Garment, by Georgian writer Guram Dochanashvili.  The Scottish author R. B. Cunninghame Graham wrote A Brazilian Mystic: Being the Life and Miracles of Antonio Conselheiro.

Quotation

"...a thousand flocks shall run from the seacoast to the backlands; and then the backlands will turn into seacoast and the seacoast into backlands."  ("...há de vir rebanhos mil correndo do centro da Praia para o sertão então o sertão virará Praia e a Praia virará sertão.")

References

External links

1830 births
1897 deaths
Brazilian abolitionists
Brazilian Roman Catholics
Brazilian monarchists
Deaths from dysentery
Theocrats
Self-declared messiahs
People from Ceará
Brazilian anti-capitalists
People from Quixeramobim

Antônio Conselheiro


The History of Poland is the history of rather different territories during the past millennium. At one time, in the 16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second largest state in Europe, after Russia. At other times there was no separate Polish state at all. Poland got back its independence in 1918, after more than a century of rule by nearby empires, but its borders shifted again after the Second World War.

Formation and early history
Poland began to form into a country around the middle of the 10th century in the Piast dynasty. In 966, Prince Mieszko I got himself and the whole Polish nation christened.

In the 12th century Poland broke into some smaller states, which were later attacked by Mongol armies in 1241. In 1320 Władysław I became the King of the repaired Poland. His son Casimir III repaired the Polish economy, built new castles and won the war against the Ruthenian dukedom.
The Black Death, which affected many parts of Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not come to Poland.

Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila, the Jagiellon dynasty (1385–1569) formed the Polish-Lithuanian Union. The partnership proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who played a dominant role in one of the most powerful empires in Europe for the next three centuries. The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the Monarch to the Sejm. This event marked the beginning of the period known as "Nobility Commonwealth" when the State was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. The Lublin Union of 1569, established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and a vital cultural entity.

Conflict with neighbors
In the 17th century Sweden attacked all of Poland (this was called "the Deluge"). Many wars against the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Cossacks, Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. During the following 80 years, the government and natione were weaker, making Poland dependent on Russia. Russian tsars took advantage of this by offering money to traitors, who would block new ideas and solutions. Russia, Prussia, and Austria broke Poland into three pieces in 1772, 1793 and 1795, which dissolved the country. Polish people did not like the new kings, and often rebelled.

Constitutional state
In 1791, in an attempt of reform the Sejm of Poland and Lithuania accepted the Constitution of May 3 which was the first modern constitution in Europe and the second (after the United States) on Earth. But that did not help against the partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795.

Post-Napoleonic period
Napoleon made another Polish state, "the Duchy of Warsaw". After the Napoleonic wars, Prussia, Russia, and Austria again split Poland among themselves at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar.

World War II
See also: Polish victims of The Holocaust

During World War I all Western Allies agreed to save Poland. Soon after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland became the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). It got its freedom after several military conflicts; the largest was in 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland, and the Soviet Union attacked on September 17. Warsaw was defeated on September 28, and was split up into two pieces, one owned by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. The eastern part of the German zone was turned into the German Government area.

The war resumed with Operation Barbarossa.  During the war, about 5.6 million citizens of Poland died, half of them Polish Jews.  Poland also gave the most troops, after the US, the British and the Soviets, to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany. At the war's end, Poland's borders were moved west, pushing the east border to the Curzon line. The west border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland became 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometers (29,900 sq mi). The shift forced millions of people to move: Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.
After these events, Poland became, for the first time, a real country. There are still many Polish people in the neighboring countries Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries. Most Poles outside of Poland are in the United States, especially in Chicago.

Soviet era
After the Second World War, the Soviet Union put a Communist government in Poland, and the country was named the People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 Solidarity - a political group led by Lech Wałęsa - helped defeat the communist government in Poland.

Post-communist and the EU
During the early 1990s the country turned its economy into one of the most solid in Central Europe. There were many improvements in human rights, such as free speech, democracy, etc. In 1991 Poland became a member of the Visegrad Group and joined NATO in 1999 also with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish voters then voted to join the European Union in a vote in June 2003. The country joined the EU on May 1, 2004.

Other websites

 A History of East Central Europe by Oscar Halecki
 History of Poland, in paintings
 History of Poland on Historycy.org forum

History of Poland


American Automobile Association v. United States, 367 U.S. 687 (1961), was an income tax case before the United States Supreme Court.

Background

Facts
For the taxable years 1952 and 1953, the American Automobile Association, an accrual-basis taxpayer, followed a method of accounting whereby annual membership dues collected in any month were treated as income 1/24 for the month received, 1/12 for each of the next 11 months, and 1/24 for the following month, a method which was in accord with generally accepted commercial accounting principles and which was consistent with the Association's over-all cost experience.

Tax return
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue determined not to accept the taxpayer's accounting system, and adjustments were made so as to reflect as gross income for each year the entire amount of membership dues actually received during the year. The Association paid the tax deficiencies resulting from the adjustments, and, after a timely claim for refund was denied, instituted suit to recover in the Court of Claims.

Court of claims
The court of claims sustained the Commissioner, finding that the national automobile club had failed to apply members' prepaid dues as taxable income in the calendar year of their actual receipt.

Certiorari
Petitioner claimed its accrual method of accounting was not artificial. The court granted certiorari to decide in what year its prepaid membership dues were taxable income.

Opinion of the Court
The Supreme Court affirmed by Clark in a 5–4 decision.

It was held that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue did not abuse his discretion in determining that the prepaid dues were taxable as income in the year in which they were actually received and in rejecting the taxpayer's method of accounting.

It found that the accounting method employed by petitioner was in accord with generally accepted commercial accounting principles and practices, but could be rejected by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in the exercise of his discretion under 26 U.S.C. § 41. In particular, petitioner's practice of accounting for expected future service expenses in advance could have been found purely artificial by the Commissioner. Furthermore, Congress had specifically authorized petitioner's desired method of accounting only in the instance of prepaid subscription income and had refused to enlarge 26 U.S.C. § 455 to include prepaid membership dues.

Thus, the exercise of the taxing authority in rejecting petitioner's accounting system was not unsound, in light of the discretion granted to the taxing authority by Congress. Moreover, Congress had refused to enlarge the use of petitioner's method of accounting beyond the area of prepaid subscription income in the field of publishing.

Dissents
Stewart dissented on the ground that the taxpayer was entitled to follow the accounting method adopted by it upon proof that its average costs of service in future periods reasonably matched dues allocated to such periods.

See also
 Schlude v. Commissioner
 Artnell Company v. Commissioner

References

External links

United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court
United States taxation and revenue case law
1961 in United States case law
American Automobile Association

American Automobile Ass'n v. United States


Jan Ladislav Dussek (b. Ĉáslav, Bohemia, 12 Feb.1760; d.Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 20 March 1812) was a Bohemian composer of the Classical period.  He travelled a lot, living in Holland, Lithuania, Italy, France and England.  He lived nearly twelve years in London where he was a fashionable teacher and famous composer.  He is best remembered now for his piano music.

1760 births
1812 deaths
Dussek, Jan Ladislav
Czech composers

Jan Ladislav Dussek


Gan Or (, lit. Garden of Light) was an Israeli settlement located in the Gush Katif settlement bloc and evacuated in Israel's disengagement of 2005. On the day of its evacuation 52 families, over 320 people, lived there.

History
Gan Or was founded in 1980 as an Orthodox moshav by a group of former members of the Bnei Akiva Mizrahi youth group and the Hesder yeshiva program at Netzarim and moved to its current location in 1983. Prior to evacuation the community had built a synagogue and adjacent events hall. The Tohar Girls College there, which was founded in 2000 and offered combined religious studies and academic courses at the Open University and at Bar-Ilan University's campus at nearby Ashkelon, has been relocated.

Unilateral disengagement
Gan Or was officially evacuated on August 18, 2005 by the Israeli Army and Israeli Police, though most of the residents had left earlier. A majority of the families moved to the temporary refuge of Nitzan to which several hundred evacuated families from Gush Katif were relocated.

References

Former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip
Populated places established in 1983
Former moshavim
Religious Israeli settlements
Villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict
1983 establishments in the Palestinian territories

Gan Or


Bengt Robert Holmström (born 18 April 1949) is a Finnish economist who is currently Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Together with Oliver Hart, he received the Central Bank of Sweden Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016.

Early life and education
Holmström was born in Helsinki, Finland on 18 April 1949, and belongs to the Swedish speaking minority of Finland. He received his B.S. in mathematics and science from the University of Helsinki in 1972. He also received a Master of Science degree in Operations Research from Stanford University in 1975.

He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford in 1978. He moved to the United States in 1976.

Career
He worked as a corporate planner from 1972 until 1974, then was an assistant professor at the Hanken School of Economics from 1978 until 1979. He served as an associate professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University (1979–1983) and as the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Management at Yale University's School of Management (1983–1994). Holmström was elected Alumnus of The Year by the University of Helsinki Alumni Association in 2010.

He has been on the faculty of M.I.T. since 1994, when he was appointed professor of economics and management at the department of economics and Sloan School of Management.

Holmström is particularly well known for his work on principal-agent theory. His work made seminal advances in understanding contracting in the presence of uncertainty. More generally, he has worked on the theory of contracting and incentives especially as applied to the theory of the firm, to corporate governance and to liquidity problems in financial crises. He praised the taxpayer-backed bailouts by the US government during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and emphasizes the benefits of opacity in the money market.

Holmström was elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1992 and an honorary member of the same society in 2016. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association and the American Finance Association, and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2011, he served as President of the Econometric Society. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, the University of Vaasa and the Hanken School of Economics in Finland.

Holmström was a member of Nokia's board of directors from 1999 until 2012. He was a member of the Board of the Aalto University from 2008 until 2017.

Accolades
He was awarded the 2012 Banque de France-TSE Senior Prize in Monetary Economics and Finance, the 2013 Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics and the 2013 Chicago Mercantile Exchange – MSRI Prize for Innovative Quantitative Applications.

In 2016, Holmström won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel together with Oliver Hart "for their contributions to contract theory".

Personal life
He is married to Anneli Holmström and they have one son.

Publications
Holmström, Bengt, 1972. "En icke-linear lösningsmetod för allokationsproblem". University of Helsinki.
Holmström, Bengt, 1979. "Moral Hazard and Observability," Bell Journal of Economics, 10(1), pp. 74–91.
 Holmstrom, Bengt. "Moral hazard in teams." The Bell Journal of Economics (1982): 324–340.
 Holmstrom, Bengt. "Equilibrium long-term labor contracts." The Quarterly Journal of Economics (1983): 23–54. 23
 Holmström, B., 1999. Managerial incentive problems: A dynamic perspective. The Review of Economic Studies, 66(1), pp. 169–182.169–182
 Holmström, Bengt, and Paul Milgrom, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 7, 24–52.
 Holmstrom, B. and Milgrom, P., 1994. The firm as an incentive system. The American Economic Review, pp. 972–991. 972–991.
 Holmström, Bengt, and John Roberts, 1998. "The Boundaries of the Firm Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(4), pp. 73–94
  Holmström, Bengt, and Jean Tirole, 1998. "Private and Public Supply of Liquidity," Journal of Political Economy, 106(1), pp. 1–40.

References

External links

  including the Prize Lecture 8 December 2016 Pay for Performance and Beyond

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1949 births
Living people
Finnish business theorists
20th-century Finnish economists
Finnish Nobel laureates
Game theorists
Information economists
Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni
Stanford University alumni
MIT Sloan School of Management faculty
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Presidents of the Econometric Society
Swedish-speaking Finns
Nokia people
Finnish expatriates in the United States
Nobel laureates in Economics
21st-century Finnish economists
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty
Fellows of the European Economic Association

Bengt Holmström


Belmont-Luthézieu is a former commune. It is found in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the Ain department in the east of France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune of Valromey-sur-Séran. In 2009, 502 people lived in the commune. The inhabitants are the Belmontais. The local economy is mostly based around agriculture and wine. The most important monuments in the commune are the Luthézieu church, listed as a monument historique, the Château d'Hostel, a renaissance castle, and the ruins of the Château de Belmont. Famous people from Belmont-Luthézieu include Gabriel Taborin , a religious man from the 19th century. Tony Desjardins, an architect, died in this commune.

References

Former communes in Ain

Belmont-Luthézieu