In mathematical modeling, a guess value is more commonly called a starting value or initial value. These are necessary for most optimization problems which use search algorithms, because those algorithms are mainly deterministic and iterative, and they need to start somewhere. One common type of application is  nonlinear regression.

Use
The quality of the initial values can have a considerable impact on the success or lack of such of the search algorithm. This is because the fitness function or objective function (in many cases a sum of squared errors (SSE)) can have difficult shapes. In some parts of the search region, the function may increase exponentially, in others quadratically, and there may be regions where the function asymptotes to a plateau. Starting values that fall in an exponential region can lead to algorithm failure because of arithmetic overflow. Starting values that fall in the asymptotic plateau region can lead to algorithm failure because of "dithering". Deterministic search algorithms may use a slope function to go to a minimum. If the slope is very small, then underflow errors can cause the algorithm to wander, seemingly aimlessly; this is dithering.

Finding value
Guess values can be determined a number of ways. Guessing is one of them. If one is familiar with the type of problem, then this is an educated guess or guesstimate. Other techniques include linearization, solving simultaneous equations, reducing dimensions, treating the problem as a time series, converting the problem to a (hopefully) linear differential equation, and using mean values. Further methods for determining starting values and optimal values in their own right come from stochastic methods, the most commonly known of these being evolutionary algorithms and particularly genetic algorithms.

Mathematical optimization
Regression analysis
Computational statistics

Guess value


The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album  was awarded from 1962 to 2011.  The award had several minor name changes:

From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical
In 1964 and 1977 it was awarded as Classical Album of the Year
In 1973 and from 1978 onward it was awarded as Best Classical Album

The award was discontinued in 2012 in a major overhaul of Grammy categories. From then on, recordings in this category fall under the Album of the Year category.

Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were presented, for works released in the previous year.

Winners and nominees

References

Classical Album
Classical Album
Album awards

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album


S. Ramachandran (9 September 1934 — 2016) was an Indian scientist responsible for the setting of the Department of Biotechnology under the Government of India. He became the first secretary to the department in 1986. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2011, the third highest civilian award given by the Government of India, for his contributions to Indian science. The DBT has initiated an annual S. Ramachandran Lecture series in homage to its founder. He has mentored many eminent scientists in various premier Indian institutes including Indian Institute of Science, Madurai Kamaraj University,  Jawaharlal Nehru University,  University of Pune, University of Delhi, University of Hyderabad, Anna University, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and Institute of Microbial Technology.

References

Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering
Indian scientists
1934 births
2016 deaths

S. Ramachandran (scientist)


"Warwick Avenue" is a song by Welsh singer Duffy from her debut album Rockferry (2008). The title refers to Warwick Avenue tube station in London. It was written by Jimmy Hogarth, Eg White, and Duffy and produced by Hogarth. It was released in May 2008 as the third single (second in North America) from the album, but had already charted by March and April due to download sales. It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart due to strong download and physical sales and has sold 249,165 copies in the UK to date. The B-side to the 7" single is "Loving You", and was written by Duffy, Richard J. Parfitt of the 60ft Dolls and Owen Powell of Catatonia.

This song was number forty-one on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.

Single promotion, performances and cultural use

The song has been used as background music to several British soap operas. It was used at the end of an episode of Hollyoaks which aired on 10 October 2008, and was used in the 11 March 2009 episode of Waterloo Road. It also appears in the Activision game Band Hero and was performed by Jenny Douglas on Over the Rainbow.

Duffy performed the song at the 2009 Brit Awards, where she won the awards for Breakthrough Artist, MasterCard British Album, and Best British Female, the most awards for a female artist in one night.

Music details
The song is played in the key of Bb Major at a tempo of 84bpm. The vocal range is G3-D5.

Critical reception

The song received mostly positive reviews from critics. Digital Spy called it "cooler than a polar bear's freezer," "probably the finest cut from her debut LP," and "a classy affair," whilst also awarding the song four stars out of five.

Awards and recognition

Chart performance
"Warwick Avenue" entered the UK Singles Chart at number eighty-three, more than two months before its release (because of digital downloads from Duffy's Rockferry release). It then began a gradual chart climb, before peaking at number three, and spending six weeks in the top ten. During its first chart run it managed to spend a very successful number thirty-two weeks on the chart, last seen at number ninety-eight. Due to her ongoing success and the popularity of the song, "Warwick Avenue" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number seventy-five, before rising to number seventy-four and falling to number eighty-seven the following week. This brought its total chart run in the United Kingdom to 35 weeks. On 28 December 2008, the UK Singles Chart landed this at number thirty-one for the year-end chart.

Music video
The music video for "Warwick Avenue" premiered on 23 April 2008, on Channel 4 and was directed by Daniel Wolfe. The video is almost entirely composed of a single shot; it starts with Duffy leaving Warwick Avenue tube station in the back of a black taxi, crying as she is singing the song. The video finishes with Duffy still in the car, wiping her tears, which had ruined her make-up. The taxi scene was only meant to be one scene from the whole video but the director felt that it was best to use this scene only when Duffy cried real tears. He continued to film it as the whole music video.

The video was later nominated for a MTV Video Music Award in 2008 in the Best UK Video category, but lost to "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by the Ting Tings.

Formats and track listings
UK CD single
"Warwick Avenue"
"Put It in Perspective"

UK 7" vinyl single
"Warwick Avenue"
"Loving You"

Australian digital download single
"Warwick Avenue"
"Put It in Perspective"
"Loving You"

German maxi single
"Warwick Avenue"
"Put It in Perspective"
"Loving You"
"Warwick Avenue Video"

iTunes B-side single
"Put It in Perspective"
"Loving You"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

2008 songs
2008 singles
Duffy (singer) songs
Songs about London
Songs written by Eg White
Songs written by Jimmy Hogarth
A&M Records singles
Mercury Records singles

Warwick Avenue (song)


A non-monotonic logic is a formal logic whose conclusion relation is not monotonic. In other words, non-monotonic logics are devised to capture and represent defeasible inferences (cf. defeasible reasoning), i.e., a kind of inference in which reasoners draw tentative conclusions, enabling reasoners to retract their conclusion(s) based on further evidence.
Most studied formal logics have a monotonic entailment relation, meaning that adding a formula to the hypotheses never produces a pruning of its set of conclusions. Intuitively, monotonicity indicates that learning a new piece of knowledge cannot reduce the set of what is known. Monotonic logics cannot handle various reasoning tasks such as reasoning by default (conclusions may be derived only because of lack of evidence of the contrary), abductive reasoning (conclusions are only deduced as most likely explanations), some important approaches  to reasoning about knowledge (the ignorance of a conclusion must be retracted when the conclusion becomes known), and similarly, belief revision (new  knowledge may contradict old beliefs).

Abductive reasoning

Abductive reasoning is the process of deriving a sufficient explanation of the known facts. An abductive logic should not be monotonic because the likely explanations are not necessarily correct. For example, the likely explanation for seeing wet grass is that it rained; however, this explanation has to be retracted when learning that the real cause of the grass being wet was a sprinkler. Since the old explanation (it rained) is retracted because of the addition of a piece of knowledge (a sprinkler was active), any logic that models explanations is non-monotonic.

Reasoning about knowledge

If a logic includes formulae that mean that something is not known, this logic should not be monotonic. Indeed, learning something that was previously not known leads to the removal of the formula specifying that this piece of knowledge is not known. This second change (a removal caused by an addition) violates the condition of monotonicity. A logic for reasoning about knowledge is the autoepistemic logic.

Belief revision

Belief revision is the process of changing beliefs to accommodate a new belief that might be inconsistent with the old ones. In the assumption that the new belief is correct, some of the old ones have to be retracted in order to maintain consistency. This retraction in response to an addition of a new belief makes any logic for belief revision non-monotonic. The belief revision approach is alternative to paraconsistent logics, which tolerate inconsistency rather than attempting to remove it.

Proof-theoretic versus model-theoretic formalizations of non-monotonic logics

Proof-theoretic formalization of a non-monotonic logic begins with adoption of certain non-monotonic rules of inference, and then prescribes contexts in which these non-monotonic rules may be applied in admissible deductions. This typically is accomplished by means of fixed-point equations that relate the sets of premises and the sets of their non-monotonic conclusions. Default logic and autoepistemic logic are the most common examples of non-monotonic logics that have been formalized that way.

Model-theoretic formalization of a non-monotonic logic begins with restriction of the semantics of a suitable monotonic logic to some special models, for instance, to minimal models, and then derives a set of non-monotonic rules of inference, possibly with some restrictions on which contexts these rules may be applied in, so that the resulting deductive system is sound and complete with respect to the restricted semantics. Unlike some proof-theoretic formalizations that suffered from well-known paradoxes and were often hard to evaluate with respect of their consistency with the intuitions they were supposed to capture, model-theoretic formalizations were paradox-free and left little, if any, room for confusion about what non-monotonic patterns of reasoning they covered. Examples of proof-theoretic formalizations of non-monotonic reasoning, which revealed some undesirable or paradoxical properties or did not capture the desired intuitive comprehensions, that have been successfully (consistent with respective intuitive comprehensions and with no paradoxical properties, that is) formalized by model-theoretic means include first-order circumscription, closed-world assumption, and autoepistemic logic.

See also

 Logic programming
 Negation as failure
 Stable model semantics
 Rational consequence relation

Notes

References

External links

Belief revision
Epistemic logic
Logic
Non-classical logic
Reasoning

Non-monotonic logic


Michael James McAlary (December 15, 1957 – December 25, 1998) was an American journalist and columnist who worked at the New York Daily News for 12 years, beginning with the police beat. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his columns exposing police brutality against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

He was sued for libel by a woman he had falsely accused of lying in her claim that she had been raped. He also wrote five books inspired by cases he had covered. McAlary died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 41.

Life and career
Born in 1957, McAlary started his journalism career as a sportswriter in Boston. He moved to New York to fill a similar position with the New York Post. In 1985 he became a reporter for New York Newsday, the major newspaper on Long Island. He left that position to become a columnist for the New York Daily News. He also wrote columns for the Post, jumping frequently between it and the "Daily News".

In 1988, McAlary wrote a non-fiction book, Buddy Boys, about corrupt police in New York's 77th Precinct, in the Brooklyn North patrol borough. He also had a hand in writing the script for the movie Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro.

In 1990, McAlary wrote a piece referring to a gang leader named Lefty, who had a friend killed in city gang warfare.  Four years later, McAlary interviewed Lefty anew. By then the former gang leader was a decorated soldier, family man, and college student. He attributed his about-face to McAlary's 1990 article. McAlary ended his 1994 piece by writing, "I am humbled by his talent. Sure, as a columnist, you can get people indicted and even free the wrongly accused. That is what you do. But from now on, I know, at least once, I wrote a story that mattered."

For the Daily News McAlary exposed the torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, by New York City Police at a Brooklyn station in August 1997. Next year he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, based on his coverage of the story from August to October. He was also a finalist in the category Breaking News Reporting, re-classed as Commentary by the Board.

McAlary's most controversial story, for the Daily News in 1994, was about a woman who said she had been raped while walking home with groceries through Prospect Park, in Brooklyn. Unnamed police sources told McAlary that she made up the story, because she wanted to promote a rally about violence against lesbians. McAlary's police sources said there were inconsistencies in her story, and a lack of physical evidence. The police department later discovered DNA evidence, but no arrests were made at the time.

McAlary accepted the original police account of events, and wrote three columns about it, including one headlined, "Rape hoax the real crime." The woman sued McAlary for libel, but the case was dismissed because McAlary had been relying on information from the police.

In 2018, using advanced modern techniques, the New York police matched the DNA to James Edward Webb, who by then had been convicted of serial rape and was serving 75 years to life in prison for those other crimes. The statute of limitations had expired for prosecution of Webb for the 1994 Prospect Park case.  Both the newspaper and the New York City Police have formally apologized to the woman for "letting her down."

McAlary's idols were New York journalists Jimmy Breslin, Murray Kempton, and Pete Hamill. During his reporting of the Louima case, McAlary was being treated for colon cancer. He left a chemotherapy session after getting a tip about the assault. He died on Christmas Day 1998, at age 41, eight months after winning the Pulitzer. He was a resident of Bellport, New York, at the time of his death.

Representation in other media
In The Paper (1994), a film directed by Ron Howard, a columnist named McDougal and played by Randy Quaid may have been based on McAlary. The columnist also had a cameo role in the film.
Dan Klores wrote the play The Wood, based on McAlary's life, which premiered at Manhattan's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in August 2011.
Nora Ephron wrote the play Lucky Guy, also about McAlary, which opened on Broadway in a limited run on April 1, 2013, starring Tom Hanks, the playwright's longtime friend and film colleague.

Books by McAlary
Non-fiction:
 Buddy Boys: when good cops turn bad (1987)
 Cop Shot: the murder of Edward Byrne (1990)
 Good Cop, Bad Cop: Detective Joe Trimboli's heroic pursuit of NYPD Officer Michael Dowd (1994)

Novels:
 Cop Land: based on the screenplay by James Mangold (1997)
 Sore Loser: a Mickey Donovan mystery (1998)

References

External links

1957 births
1998 deaths
American male journalists
20th-century American journalists
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary winners
Deaths from colorectal cancer
New York Post people
Newsday people
New York Daily News people
People from Bellport, New York
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers

Mike McAlary


In 1988, the Professional Soil Classifiers Association of Mississippi selected Natchez silt loam soil to represent the soil resources of the State. These soils exist on 171,559 acres (0.56% of state) of landscape in Mississippi.

Mississippi state soil
The Natchez Silt Loam as the official state soil, designated by the Mississippi Legislature in 2003.

Description
The Natchez soils formed in very deep loess material under a woodland environment and a climate that was warm and humid. These soils have natural fertility and desirable tilth but usually occur on slopes that limit their use to trees. In areas where slopes are less, pasture and row crops are grown and the soil is very productive when good management is applied.

A typical Natchez soil profile consists of a 3 inch top soil of dark grayish brown silt loam and to 8 inches, a subsurface of brown silt loam, a yellowish brown and dark yellowish brown silt loam subsoil to 36 inches and a substratum that is yellowish brown, and dark yellowish brown silt loam down to 80 inches.

Soil family classification

Classified as coarse-silty, mixed, superactive, thermic typic eutrudepts:

Natchez soils are in the Inceptisols soil order. Inceptisols soils have developed in relatively young material that have an Ochric epipedon is rich in weatherable minerals. The term coarse-silty indicates that the subsoil has less than 18 percent clay with less than 15 percent sand coarser than very fine. The term mixed suggests that no one mineral is over 60 percent. Thermic refers to an average annual soil temperature between 15 and 22 degrees Celsius (59 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit) and differs more than 5 degrees Celsius (9 °F) between winter and summer at 50 cm (20 inches) below the surface.

Natchez soils are on strongly sloping to very steep hillsides in the highly dissected parts of the bluff hills that border the Mississippi Delta floodplains. They formed in silty loess material that ranges from strongly acid to neutral in the upper part and neutral to slightly alkaline in lower parts. Average annual precipitation is 52 inches. Average annual air temperature is 63 °F (17 °C). The soil has developed in the upper Pleistocene age material.

See also
List of U.S. state soils
Soil type

Sources
This article utilizes text taken verbatim from Natchez Silt Loam- Mississippi State Soil, a public domain publication of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Pedology
Soil in the United States
Geology of Mississippi
Symbols of Mississippi
Types of soil

Natchez silt loam


Théophile Poilpot (20 March 1848, Paris – 6 February 1915, Paris), also known as Théophile-François-Henri Poilpot, was a French panorama painter.

Biography
Théophile Poilpot was born and lived all his life in Paris. His father, who shared the same first name, was himself a famous painter. Théophile Poilpot was a student of Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Léon Gérôme at École des Beaux-Arts. Poilpot saw service in the Franco-Prussian War as a Sergeant of the First Volunteer Regiment of the Seine and in 1874 was retired as an officer of the reserves. He was a Mayor of Noisy-le-Grand (1887–1892) and had been an Alderman and a Cantonal Delegate. He was a noted military painter and became a Commandeur of the Legion of Honour in 1913. His paintings are prime examples of academic art of the time, particularly history painting. Among the societies to which he belonged were the Society of French Artists; the Committee of the Association of Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, and Engravers; the Artistic and Literary Association and the Military Circle of the Friends of the Louvre.

Painting career
Théophile Poilpot did not confine himself to French subjects, and his paintings are located in a number of countries. Several of his best known works are part of collections in the US, including ''Bull Run'', in Washington, D.C., and the ''Merrimac and Monitor''. Other major works by Poilpot include the ''Battle of Jena'', now in Paris, the ''Crowning of Emperor Alexander III'', in Moscow, the panorama of the ''Battle of Balaklava'', now in London, the ''Transatlantic Panorama'', which was shown at the Universal Exposition in 1889, the ''Algerian Panorama'', shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900, and the famous ''Panorama of the Revolution and the Empire'', now in Paris.

Awards and honors
Théophile Poilpot received many honors and decorations, including the Military Medal and the appointment as a Chevalier of the Order of St. Anna of Russia.

Works

Dioramas
Battle of Nights (1894)
The Paris of the century in 1892

Posters
Paris, National Library of France

Illustrations
Reichshoffen's Cuirassiers, historical record by Gustave Toudouze, illustrations by Th. Poilpot, Jacob and Paty.

Exhibitions
Salon of 1874: A terrible Child 8
Salon of 1875: The Tarabouk, memory of Algiers 9
Salon of 1876: The Gallo-Roman Sender and Sleigh 10
Salon of 1877: Death of Diogenes 11
Salon of 1878: The Prey 12
Universal Exhibition of 1889
Universal Exhibition of 1900

External links
 Figures contemporaines, tirées de l'album Mariani, 1901, (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
 Bibliothèque nationale de France (gallica.bnf.fr)
 Noisy le Grand, L'ACTUALITÉ
 Nos peintres et sculpteurs, graveurs, dessinateurs. Jules Martin. 1897. p.305
 Revue illustrée (Paris. 1885)
 Célébrités-France-19e siècle-Biographies
 Commandeur of the Legion of Honour since 1913 (gallica.bnf.fr)
 Salon de 1874
 Salon de 1875
 Salon de 1876
 Salon de 1877
 THEOPHILE POILPOT DEAD, The New York Times, February 7, 1915 (pdf)

1848 births
1915 deaths
19th-century French painters
French male painters
20th-century French painters
20th-century French male artists
École des Beaux-Arts alumni
Painters from Paris
French Realist painters
Academic art
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
19th-century painters of historical subjects
19th-century French male artists

Théophile Poilpot


The Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, nicknamed MAC/VAL, is a museum of contemporary art located in the Place de la Libération in Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, a suburb of Paris, France. It is open daily except Mondays; an admission fee is charged.

The museum opened in 2005, and is dedicated to works of art from the 1950s to the present. Its building, designed by architect Jacques Ripault, encompasses a total of 13,000 m² floor space (including 2600 m² for permanent exhibitions, 1350 m² for temporary shows, 480 m² for its research center, and 700 m² for storerooms and workshops). It also contains an auditorium and cinema of 150 seats, and is set within 10,000 m² of public garden.

Today the museum contains over a thousand works of artists active in France, including Martine Aballéa, Arman, Valérie Belin, Daniel Buren, Claude Closky, Delphine Coindet, Eugène Dodeigne, Erró, Hans Hartung, Pierre Huyghe, Véronique Joumard, Valérie Jouve, Bertrand Lamarche, Julio Le Parc, Annette Messager, François Morellet, Marylène Negro, Orlan, Bruno Perramant, Dominique Petitgand, Françoise Pétrovitch, Philippe Ramette, Judit Reigl, Pierre Soulages, Jean Tinguely, and Jean-Luc Vilmouth.

See also
 List of museums in Paris

References

Other references
 ParisInfo description
 Paris, Petit Futé, 2007, page 132. .

External links
 Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne - official site
 Val-de-Marne Marketing Media

Art museums and galleries in Île-de-France
Contemporary art galleries in France
Art museums established in 2005
Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne
Museums in Val-de-Marne


Bowie: A Biography is a biography on the life and times of musician David Bowie, a twentieth century music and cultural icon. The book is written by Marc Spitz and was released on October 27, 2009, by the Crown Publishing Group.

Synopsis
Following Bowie's life from his start as David Jones, an R&B-loving kid from Bromley, England, to his rise to rock'n'roll stardom as David Bowie, Bowie recounts his career and also reveals how much his music has influenced other musicians. Along the way, Spitz reflects on how growing up with Bowie as his soundtrack and how writing this book on Bowie influenced him in ways he never expected.

Bowie takes a look at the culture of postwar England in which Bowie grew up, the mod and hippie scenes of swinging London in the sixties, the sex- and drug-fueled glitter scene of the early seventies when Bowie's alter-ego Ziggy Stardust was born, his rise to global stardom in the eighties and his status as an elder statesman of alternative culture.

The book explores Bowie's struggles to go from follower to leader, his tricky relationship with art and commerce and Buddhism and the occult, his family life, and his open romantic relationship. An evaluation of his recorded work, as well as his film, stage and video performances, is included.

The book is based on a hundred original interviews with those who knew him best and those familiar with his work, including ex-wife Angie Bowie, former Bowie manager Kenneth Pitt, Siouxsie Sioux, Camille Paglia, Dick Cavett, Todd Haynes, Ricky Gervais and Peter Frampton.

References
 Telegraph Review
 "PopMatters Review"

External links
 BOWIE: A Biography
 Bowie: A Biography at Crown Publishing Group

2009 non-fiction books
David Bowie
Biographies about musicians

Bowie: A Biography


Coleshill ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England, taking its name from the River Cole, on which it stands. It had a population of 6,897 in the 2021 Census, and is situated  east-northeast of Birmingham,  southeast of Sutton Coldfield,  south of Tamworth,  northwest of Coventry by road and 13 miles (21km) west of Nuneaton.

Geography
Coleshill is located on a ridge between the rivers Cole and Blythe which converge to the north with the River Tame. It is adjacent to the border with West Midlands county, and is just outside Birmingham.

History
Coleshill began life in the Iron Age, before the Roman conquest of 43AD at the Grimstock Hill Romano-British settlement, north of the River Cole.  Evidence of hut circles were found by archaeologists at the end of the 1970s.  These excavations showed that throughout the Roman period there was a Romano-Celtic temple on Grimstock Hill. It had developed over the earlier Iron Age huts and had gone through at least three phases of development. The area was at the junction of two powerful Celtic Tribes – the Coritanii to the east from Leicester, and to the west the Cornovii from Viroconium Cornoviorum. In the post Roman or Arthurian period (The Dark Ages), the nucleus of Coleshill moved about a kilometre to the south, to the top of the hill. Here the present church is set and the medieval town developed around it.

By 1066 the town was a Royal Manor held by King Edward the Confessor and is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as land held by William the Conqueror and the site of the court for the ancient hundred of Coleshill.  In 1284/5 John de Clinton, elder, was granted Coleshill Manor by King Henry II, and claimed by prescription within the lordship of Coleshill, Assize of bread and ale, gallows, pillory, tumbrell and court leet, infangthef and utfangthef, a market, fair, and free warren. He died in 1316. His heir was his 12-year-old grandson, John, who subsequently married a daughter of Sir Roger Hilary, and died in 1353 or 1354 leaving one daughter Joan. She had as her first husband Sir John of Montfort, illegitimate son of Sir Peter de Montfort of Beaudesert.

Coleshill Manor then passed to this branch of Sir Simon de Montford who moated the manor houses at Coleshill and Kingshurst. King Henry VII granted Coleshill Manor and its lands to Simon Digby in 1496 following the execution and forfeiture of Sir Simon de Montford for supporting the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck. The (Wingfield-Digby) family descendants still hold the titles. Coleshill village was granted a market charter by King John in 1207, alongside Liverpool, Leek and Great Yarmouth. During the era of stagecoach and the turnpike trusts, Coleshill became important as a major staging post on the coaching roads from London to Chester, Liverpool and Holyhead. At one point there were over twenty inns in the town. The Coleshill to Lichfield Turnpike dates from 1743.

Notable buildings

Many former coaching inns remain in Coleshill, mostly along the High Street and Coventry Road. One of the most notable buildings in the town is the parish's Church of St Peter and St Paul at the top of the Market Square. It has a 52-metre (170 ft) high steeple, one of the finest in Warwickshire, dating from the 13th century.  Inside there is a 12th-century font of Norman origin, which is one of the finest examples in the country. There are also medieval table tombs with effigies of knights, including John de Clinton. Just outside the south door are the preserved remains of a medieval cross.

Church Street is the location of the town's pillory and whipping post, which were last used in 1863. A bronze sculpture by Peter Walker in the High Street shows three themes of the town's origins: a stagecoach wheel, a visiting circus elephant and the creation of the Typhoo Tea brand by John Sumner.

Transport

The town is close to the M6, M6 Toll and M42 motorways. It is on Junction 4 of the M6, with Birmingham City Centre at Junction 6, Sutton Coldfield J5, Nuneaton, Bedworth and Coventry North at J3 and Coventry East at Junction 2. The town is connected to East Birmingham by the B4114 Road which subsequently creates a road connection into Birmingham City Centre. There is also a route to Coventry via the A446, which becomes the A452 just before the A45 road junction at Stonebridge. Upon reaching the Western edge of Coventry, it is necessary to follow the A4114 road which now takes you to the city centre ring road A4053 after the A45 was diverted to run south of Coventry acting as a bypass. Two regular bus routes serve the town, including one to Birmingham, the Number X13 Route which terminates in Chelmsley Wood operated by National Express West Midlands. The new railway station had an interchange serving a direct Sutton Coldfield – Coleshill - Birmingham Airport bus connection, but this was discontinued in 2022.

The town is served by Coleshill Parkway railway station, which reopened in 2007, on the site of the previous Coleshill station, which had closed in 1968. It is on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line and is served half hourly by CrossCountry as part of their service between Birmingham, Nuneaton, Leicester, Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport. Historically the town was also served by Maxstoke on the Stonebridge Railway which closed in 1917 and Coleshill railway station, originally named Forge Mills, which closed in 1968. As a result until 2007, the town's nearest railway station was at Water Orton, some  to the north-west.

Twin Town
Coleshill has been twinned with Chassieu near Lyons in France since 1983.

Education
The Coleshill School
Coleshill Church of England Primary School
St Edwards Roman Catholic Primary School
High Meadow Community School Primary School
Woodland Special School

Notable people from Coleshill
 Reverend George Lloyd (1820–1885), a curate and archaeologist
 Baron Plumb, farmer and politician
 John Wynne (1819–1893), cricketer

References

External links
Coleshill Town Council
Coleshill Community
Coleshill at British History Online
Coleshill archives at Our Warwickshire

Market towns in Warwickshire
Towns in Warwickshire
Burial sites of the FitzGerald dynasty

Coleshill, Warwickshire


Noah's Arc is an American cable television comedy-drama series that aired for two seasons on the Logo network from October 19, 2005 to October 4, 2006. The show centered on the lives of four African-American gay friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in Los Angeles.

After its cancellation, a film was produced entitled Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, which was released theatrically in 2008.

Series overview
Originally, the show focused around friends Noah Nicholson, Alex Kirby, Ricky Davis, and Chance Counter. Noah is a financially struggling screenwriter who eventually lands a job as a Hollywood film writer, a job that was originally belonged to his boyfriend Wade Robinson. Alex is a HIV counselor and the sassy friend of the group. Ricky is the owner of clothing boutique and the closest friend of Noah. Chance is a college professor. Wade who eventually becomes Noah's boyfriend struggles with his sexual identity as well as the acceptance by Noah's friends. The group endures many social issues throughout the series including same sex dating, same-sex marriage, same-sex parenthood, HIV and AIDS awareness, infidelity, promiscuity, homophobia, and gay bashing.

By season two, Noah and Wade's intimate relationship ends with Noah having a new boyfriend and moving into new home. Alex opens his own HIV clinic with the help of his friends. Ricky enters into a brief relationship with a doctor who is HIV positive but Ricky has his reservations about being intimate. Chance is now a married man who is adapting to married life.

Cast and characters

Darryl Stephens as Noah Nicholson, a screenwriter
Rodney Chester as Alex Kirby, an HIV/AIDS educator
Christian Vincent as Ricky Davis, a promiscuous boutique owner
Doug Spearman as Chance Counter, an economics professor
Jensen Atwood as Wade Robinson, a screenwriter who comes out after falling for Noah

Production

Development

The idea for Noah's Arc originated in 2003 when Patrik-Ian Polk attended a Los Angeles Black gay pride club event. The experience inspired Ian-Polk to write the series that was centered around the lives of Black gay men. The original one-hour pilot was produced independently and released as a web series in 2004, and to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series. After the web series was well received, the series was picked up by Logo TV as a half-hour series. During production of the pilot episode, Rodney Chester – who portrays Alex in the show – used his own truck as a makeshift hair, make-up and dressing room. After the pilot episode was well received at film festivals and independent screenings, the series was picked up by MTV-affiliated cable network Logo as a half-hour series. The pilot, "My One Temptation", was re-written and re-shot as a two-part premiere episode, and Noah's Arc became LOGO's first scripted series.

Executive producer Dave Mace served as the series' showrunner, with Patrik-Ian Polk and Carol Ann Shine as series' co-executive producers. Pamela Post, Noreen Halpern, Eileen Opatut, and John Morayniss also served as executive producers for the second season.

Casting
Casting for the lead characters of Noah's Arc occurred in early 2003. Pamela Azmi-Andrew was the casting director as Polk sat in on the auditions. For the title lead role, Noah Nicholson, actors Darryl Stephens and Christian Vincent were being considered. Stephens, who originally auditioned for the role of Ricky Davis, was cast as Noah Nicholson. Vincent was later recast as Noah's best friend Ricky Davis.

Rodney Chester was cast as Alex Kirby. Chester maintained a friendship with Polk when he appeared in Polk's independent film Punks, which adapts several elements into the television series. Doug Spearman and Jensen Atwood would later be cast for their respective roles. By mid-2003, a cast was put together for the filming of the pilot episode. Shortly after the release of the pilot episode, Polk wrote and directed another in-depth episode for the characters. Shaun T. Fitness, who was originally cast as Trey Iverson in the pilot episode, was replaced by Gregory Keith in the series. Carlos Tineco, who was originally cast as a random guy whom Ricky has sex with, was cast for the recurring role Junito. The character of Junito was originally a go-go dancer before being rewritten as a doctor and later recast with Wilson Cruz assuming the role in the series. Jurnee Crapps, who played the role of Kenya McEntire, was replaced by Sahara Davis in season two.

Filming
Season one was filmed in Los Angeles, while season two was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Reunion
On July 5, 2020, nearly fourteen years after the show ended, the cast reunited for Noah's Arc: The 'Rona Chronicles, an hour-long special aired on YouTube and Facebook. Produced during and based around the COVID-19 pandemic, The 'Rona Chronicles was produced as a virtual reunion, with the actors (and therefore their characters) interacting virtually via Skype. The reunion, which benefited charity, was followed by a live Q&A moderated by Queer Eyes Karamo Brown.

Legacy
Noah's Arc was the first scripted television series to center a group of black gay men.

Episodes

Season one consists of nine episodes, while season two has eight episodes. The unaired pilot is available on the season one DVD box set.

Release

Broadcast
Noah's Arc aired on Logo in the United States. The show became Logo's highest-rated show during its run. Despite the positive feedback from viewership, the show was not renewed for a third season and was later canceled. In the summer of 2008, BET's spin-off cable television channel BET J briefly broadcast the entire series in rotation. In October 2008, the movie Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom was released which picks up after series' cliffhanger finale.

Streaming
In March 2019, Logo TV began streaming the entire series on their YouTube channel. The episodes were removed from their YouTube channel in September 2019. The series streams on Apple TV (with a subscription). Outside of Logo platform, the series can be found on electronic sell-through platforms such as iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.

Soundtracks
Soundtrack albums for each of the first two seasons were released by Tommy Boy Records. The season one soundtrack was released on March 24, 2006, and features music by such artists as Joshua Radin, Gordon Chambers, Me'shell Ndegéocello, Patrik-Ian Polk, Mary Ann Tatum, and Adriana Evans.

The soundtrack for season two was released on December 15, 2007, featuring the likes of Anthony David, Bedroom Walls, Raz-B, Patrik-Ian Polk, Mike Anthony, and Solange Knowles.

See also
 Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

References

External links

2000s American comedy-drama television series
2000s American LGBT-related drama television series
2000s American black sitcoms
2005 American television series debuts
2006 American television series endings
English-language television shows
Gay-related television shows
HIV/AIDS in television
LGBT African-American culture
Logo TV original programming
Same-sex marriage in television
Television shows filmed in Vancouver

Noah's Arc (TV series)


French criminal law is "the set of legal rules that govern the State's response to offenses and offenders". It is one of the branches of the juridical system of the French Republic. The field of criminal law is defined as a sector of French law, and is a combination of public and private law, insofar as it punishes private behavior on behalf of society as a whole. Its function is to define, categorize, prevent, and punish criminal offenses committed by a person, whether a natural person () or a legal person (). In this sense it is of a punitive nature, as opposed to  which settles disputes between individuals, or administrative law which deals with issues between individuals and government.

Criminal offenses are divided into three categories, according to increasing severity:   and crimes. The latter two categories are determined by the legislature, while contraventions are the responsibility of the executive branch. This tripartite division is matched by the courts responsible for enforcing criminal law: the police tribunal for infractions; the Correctional court for ; the cour d'assises for . Criminal law is carried out within the rules of French criminal procedure which set the conditions under which   and  are carried out.

Like the legal systems of other liberal democracies, French criminal law is based on three guiding principles: the principle of legality in criminal law, an illegal act (actus reus), and intent (mens rea). It has been influenced by various legal, ethical, and scientific philosophical movements over the centuries. While most of these influences are national in origin, European courts (such as the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights) have also influenced French criminal law. French criminal law was first codified during the French Revolution, resulting in the French Penal Code of 1791. Under the First Empire, Napoleon enacted the Penal Code of 1810, replaced by the French penal code of 1994.

The  and his staff are responsible for the pursuit of legal proceedings and criminal prosecution, in collaboration with the police. To determine the offense, the judge must have a preexisting legal basis (), a  and a  The offense can only be charged if the perpetrator is mentally competent, and has consented to the commission of a criminal act (as perpetrator or accomplice) of their own free will. If the offense is attributed to a perpetrator, they are liable to , which may be aggravated or mitigated according to the circumstances. The judicial authority pronounces a sentence according to the severity of the acts: imprisonment or detention, fine, , , day-fine, and so on. The convicted person may appeal the decision to the court of appeal, and, ultimately, to the Court of Cassation.

Background

Dual systems

France has a dual system of law: one system deals with private relationships, and is sometimes called "private law" () or "ordinary law" (), and the other system which covers administrative officials, and is called "administrative law" (). This duality is not merely or mainly about covering different domains or legal topics, and in fact, the two systems overlap and deal with some of the same or similar topics. Rather, the duality is about the fact that the authorities which enforce them and which also develop their content are completely autonomous and independent of each other.

The two systems have entirely separate judges, courts, and bodies of written texts which support them, and are known in French as "orders": the "judiciary order" () for private law, and the "administrative order" () for public law. This separation came about during the French Revolution, when the justice system was established respecting a strict separation of powers in the law of 16–24 August 1790 in particular, article 13.

Administrative order

The administrative order has jurisdiction (compétence) over cases between the state and public organizations,as well as between individuals and the public organs of government, and thus stands apart from the criminal law system, which is part of the judiciary order.

Judiciary order

The judiciary system or order, is also known as "ordinary law" () and is further divided into two branches: civil law and criminal law.

The main function of criminal law is punishment for infractions, while the main function of civil law is compensation for damages. The main differences are that criminal law seeks to punish or penalize when an infraction against existing law is committed, and is "vertical" in the sense that it comes from the government down towards an individual or legal entity; whereas civil law establishes a horizontal framework among members of society, and seeks to facilitate reparation of damages caused by one member of society towards another.

Civil and criminal law come together in certain cases, such as civil procedures which involve a criminal aspect. Although the goal of civil law is to compensate a victim via the awarding of damages, damages can have occurred during the commission of a criminal offense. Article 2 of the French penal code addresses this situation, and offers victims the option of suing for damages via a civil action in the criminal courts.

The two branches, civil and criminal, are mirrored in the types of actions a person or official may take in an attempt to right wrongs, namely civil action () in the case of civil law, and public action () in the case of criminal law. In a civil matter, someone who feels they are a victim of another member of society may identify themselves as a victim to judicial authorities, and seek compensation from the perpetrator.
A criminal matter is dealt with by a public action () to punish the perpetrator. In particular, it is up to the public prosecutor to initiate this action on behalf of the public, and to seek punishment for the accused, rather than reparations.

History

The Republic of France has had three penal codes: the code of 1791, the code of 1810, and the code of 1994, still in effect as of 2022.

Precursors

The origins of criminal law go back to family justice, retribution for perceived offenses, and revenge. Private revenge was originally a way of maintaining a rough sort of social order among clans, with fear of revenge the deterrent factor. This created a certain respect for strangers and other clans, and when a settling of accounts was necessary, this could take place not only against a presumed perpetrator, but also against their family, the clan chief, or top clan members, so that criminal liability was originally collective and not individual.

With the Fall of the Roman Empire officials in charge of police disappeared. With the rise of feudalism in France, policing powers were dispersed among a multitude of seigneurs. Lords of their fiefs, they were all-powerful, including that of justice among the peasants they controlled.

As states evolved and gained power, private justice receded; the State was only involved insofar as procedural control of private revenge, to control excesses. France was influenced by the texts of Roman justice which were still available and studied, and by the thirteenth century, the state started to become more involved, and the previous system of private justice evolved into public justice, with the State assuming the power of suppression, targeting social wrongs rather than individual, private ones, in which private victims or plaintiffs became secondary to the state's role.

These private and public systems coexisted for a while. A crime could be seen as the failure of a monarch to keep the oath he took upon accession, to maintain peace in the kingdom, which justified the interest in public repression of crime, if the individuals concerned could not do so privately. By the sixteenth century, individuals sometimes had to seek permission from the monarch to engage in self-defense. This has further evolved today, to the point where self-defense is still permitted if one is in immediate danger, otherwise, it is allocated to the authorities. Revenge was no longer permitted to individuals, but appropriated by the monarch, based on their divine power.

Suspension of trial by ordeal

In medieval France and elsewhere in Europe, trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of an accused was determined, such as trial by battle, by fire, or water. The belief was that God determined the result, and presentation of evidence or witnesses played no part. This persisted for centuries, because people believed it worked, and there was no one (except the victim and the real perpetrator, who would remain silent) to say it did not. But by the 12th century belief in it began to weaken, led by opposing views from the Church. Opposition became widespread, and in 1215 the Church condemned trial by ordeal in the Fourth Lateran Council. This meant priests could no longer use trial by ordeal to determine guilt or innocence, and other means had to be found.

The Church already had one other method, which hitherto had been used only for cases of offenses against the clergy, and for cases of suspected heresy, namely they would organize a commission of inquiry headed by some trustworthy individual to find out the facts. The investigator would question suspects and witnesses and write up a report. The ruling on guilt or innocence would be based on the written dossier. This formal investigation, or "inquisition", is the basis of the inquisitorial system in France. England took a different approach, summoning a group of people to answer the question of guilt or innocence formerly assigned to God, and this became the origin of trial by jury and the accusatorial system.

Church

Development of the French criminal justice system has important roots in ecclesiastical law of the Roman Catholic Church. While England was moving towards the adversarial system of criminal justice, in France was laying the basis for the inquisitorial system. This goes back to the medieval church's efforts to investigate and eliminate heresies. In southern France of the 12th century for example, corruption and immoral behavior by clerics led to the establishment of various movements in response such as the Cathari, that the Church declared heretical, and authorized a Crusade against them at the Third Lateran Council. Despite this and much bloodshed, the movement grew. At the 1229 Council of Toulouse, Dominicans organized investigations into the heresy, attempting either to change their beliefs or stopping their proliferation; these were called inquisitions, and secular criminal procedure began to adapt the church methods into their own systems, and became the basis for the French inquisitorial system.

Maréchaussée

French criminal justice goes back to the Maréchaussée in the Middle Ages.
From that time, and to a lesser extent until the end of the Ancien Régime, the functions of the police and the justice system were closely intertwined.
Kings, lords and high dignitaries rendered justice. In that sense, justice in the armies was part of the remit of the Grand Constable of France, who succeeded the Seneschal in 1191 as head of the armies, and of the Marshals of France, who were his lieutenants. The Grand Constable and the marshals delegated their powers to their provosts.

These jurisdictions merged under Francis I under the name of the , with its seat in Paris.
The provosts also rendered justice to the armies in . The enforcement bodies were the company of the Constabulary and the companies of the Maréchaussée. The  originally roamed the countryside catching and sentencing evildoers from among the military, and after 1536, among the civilian population as well. They also had the power to sentence perpetrators they had caught. There was no central organization, but they adopted the collective name  ("marshalcy") because the detachments were assigned to army marshals.

The Constabulary was eliminated in 1626 by Louis XIII and the Constabulary and Marshalcy Tribunal was placed under the command of the Marshal of France. According to the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, certain crimes identified as "royal cases" were investigated by the  but judged by a chamber of the Parliament dealing with criminal matters, while the others, identified as "provost cases" (), were judged by the

A series of reforms in the 18th century were instituted to make the  more effective, reinforce its military character, and improve coverage in the countryside. The edict of 1720 accentuated its territorial nature and created a hierarchy under a provost court and a  detachment in each of the thirty-six governments or provinces, with a provost at the head of each one in the provincial capital. The provostships () were divided into lieutenancies with a lieutenant in each city heading up a presidial court. By 1778, on the eve of the Revolution, there was a corps of 4,000 men in the , which developed into the first national police force in France.

Late ancien régime

Criminal law in the 16th to 18th centuries was fairly static, and had a basis in the growing awareness of Roman law during the Renaissance. Rulings generally followed the Roman Digest, except when local customs or written tracts clearly dealt with a specific situation. Although French criminal lawyers were inspired by the Romans to write treatises on the law, the content was based more on local or feudal custom.

Criminal law was also influenced by Christianity, and by canon law. Ecclesiastical courts played an important role in the Middle Ages, and trials were held on any subject which the Church felt touched their domain (heresy, witchcraft, adultery, etc.), and cooperated with non-Church authorities in handing over the most serious offenders. The most original aspect of Church law was in the influence of sin and penitence; punishment was based in retribution. Where revenge was more about hurting individuals or groups based on a grievance, retribution was a sanction based on the moral responsibility of the offender, intended to expiate the wrong, and in proportion to the seriousness of the offense.

The age of the offender was taken into consideration in dispensing punishment, retaining the Roman distinction between infants, pre-pubescent, pubescent, and so on. If they were , they could be legally punished, including capital punishment for children of 11.

The guiding principle was retribution, not rehabilitation; the focus was on preserving the public order and the general population, while separating out and penalizing the bad portion. There was much regional variation in interpretation of criminal law, and also implementation of penalties, which tended to be harsh. Little was written, and the types of offenses and attendant penalties derived from custom; Roman texts were examined to determine what they were and how to proceed. The Criminal Ordinance of 1670 attempted to codify the customary practices, but it did not list specific offenses or their penalties, so it was unclear what activities were permitted, or the penalties if they were prosecuted. Judges retained arbitrary discretion to rule as they saw fit, including whether a defendant was guilty or not.  Since all power derived from the King, they had ultimate power to order an existing prosecution under the King's Seal to be quashed, or to circumvent the procedures and orders of judges and courts to convict and imprison an individual, even in the absence of guilt, or even commission of a crime; these orders were known as lettres de cachet.

French Revolution

One of the signal events of the French Revolution was the declaration by the National Constituent Assembly on 4 August 1789 abolishing the feudal system in France. In November, this included suspension of the judicial system of the Ancien regime and its 13 regional parlements, followed by abolition in 1790. This led directly to the first formal codification of French law, including civil law, and criminal law.

Codification

Code of 1791

The Penal Code of 1791 was adopted during the Revolution by the Constituent Assembly, between 25 September and 6 October 1791. It was France's first penal code, and was influenced by the Enlightenment thinking of Cesare Beccaria and Montesquieu.

Penal law in particular had been a source of great controversy during the French Revolution, during which the first Penal Code and numerous constitutions were produced. An important feature of the 1791 code, as well as the 1795 Code of Offences and Penalties, was fixed penalties to keep the role of judge strictly distributive, thereby eliminating the previous tradition of arbitrary sentencing.

Code of 1810

The Penal code of 1810 was a code of criminal laws created under Napoleon, replacing the French Penal Code of 1791. It replaced various laws adopted during the first ten years of the Revolution, incliuding the 1791 code and the 1795 code of Offenses. With the 1810 penal code, sentences were given a set range, allowing judges more latitude to decide on the severity of the punishment. The 1810 code was revised twice: a major change in 1832, the second, much more limited, in 1863.

Code of 1994

The current penal code () is the codification of French criminal law. It took effect 1 March 1994 and replaced the French Penal Code of 1810, which had been in effect until then. This in turn became known as the "old penal code" for the rare decisions that still needed to refer to it.

The Penal Code project began with the work of the Commission for Revision created in 1974 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The 1978 draft of Book I (General Provisions) was heavily criticized by the criminal justice community and rejected by the government in 1980. After government changed hands in 1981, Robert Badinter, a former criminal lawyer who had become Minister of Justice, took over the commission. In 1989, François Mitterrand prioritized the project during his second term as president. The new penal code was passed by Parliament on 22 July 1992, followed by an amendment in December, and corrections in February 1994. It came into force on 1 March 1994.

Initially known as the new penal code (), it was not so much a reform of the French Penal Code of 1810, but an original work with a new outline, new principles, a new formulation of the law, and even a new numbering system that is hierarchical instead of sequential.

It introduced a number of new concepts, such as the criminal responsibility of legal persons () (not including the State itself) in Article 121–2, and increased the sentencing for almost all  and .

Reforms

There have been numerous amendments and reforms since the 1994 code was promulgated.

In 2010, there was the law criminalizing psychological violence within intimate relationships, created by law 2010-769 of 9 July 2010.

A major reform of the criminal justice system was introduced in 2011, including reform of , penal reform for minors, and more participation of citizens in the criminal justice process.

The criminalization of clients of prostitution was passed in Law 444 of 2016, with the aim of combating human trafficking and the exploitation of sex workers.

Basic principles

French criminal law is governed by the principle of legality and its three corollaries, the principle of strict interpretation of the law, the application of criminal law in time, and the application of criminal law in space.

Principle of legality

The principle of legality () is one of the most fundamental principles of French law, and goes back to the Penal Code of 1791 adopted during the Revolution.

. French legal publisher Dalloz describes it this way:

This principle is enshrined in the first chapter of the penal code, General Principles, in article 111–3.

Division of authority

The legal framework established by the Revolution put Parliament in charge of all three severity levels of infractions, but this was changed later, and now there is a division of authority, with Parliament retaining control of the two most serious levels,  and , whereas  are now considered a regulatory matter, and are handled by the government, not Parliament. This is covered in the first chapter of the code, in article 111–2.

Application in time and space

The principle of criminal liability is defined in the constitution, and a fundamental corollary of it is the application of the criminal law in time (). This principle defines the non-retroactive nature of criminal sanctions, and is governed by article 112-1 of the penal code. The article defines the disposition in cases where acts were committed around the time a new law was taking effect.

Sources

Sources of the penal code come from national (French) sources, and international sources, and come from written and unwritten (judicial, praetorian) sources.  Written sources include the Constitution, the Preamble, and various penal codes, including some going back to the Revolution, or even for example the 1539 ordinance under Francois I mandating the use of the French language.
The main source of criminal law is the penal code: it "expresses a value system  allowing one to distinguish what is permitted from what is prohibited, and to measure the level of tolerance of a transgression of social norms".

Today, the  tend more and more to be international, under the influence of jurisprudence in European courts such as the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (CEDH).

Infractions

Definitions

Infraction

An  (offense) is conduct prohibited by the criminal law and punishable by a penalty specified in the law. It can be defined as an action or omission that disrupts the peace and exposes its perpetrator to a  or a penal sanction. The purpose of the  is to codify offenses, classified according to their level of severity in a tripartite division in the penal code: crimes,  and

Each type of offense has a court with jurisdiction () over it, and each type has a different  that applies to it; ten years for a , three years for a , and one year for a . Limitation periods are longer for offenses against minors.

Crime

 are the most serious offenses. Tried by the  with a , they carry a sentence of  for life.

Examples: rape; procuring; torture; inhumane working conditions; slavery; homicide; genocide; crimes against humanity; robbery with violence; receiving stolen goods; etc.

Before 1981, crimes were subject to the  The types of crimes most frequently tried in France are homicide, rape, and armed robbery.

Délit

 are an intermediate level which covers various categories of offenses. They fall under the jurisdiction of the Correctional court () and may be tried by a panel of judges or by a single judge. The minimum penalty is a 3750 Euro fine, The maximum penalty is ten years' imprisonment, which can be increased to twenty years in the event of , particularly in cases of organized crime. The most frequently prosecuted offenses are  and fraud, assault  and battery, property damage, drug trafficking, and traffic offenses (lack of a driver's license, Driving under the influence of alcohol). Other correctional penalties include the day-fine; citizenship training; and community service.

Examples: theft; sexual assault; embezzlement; witness tampering; contempt of court; influence peddling.

There is no agreement in English sources about how to refer to  in English. The tripartite division of infractions in French law does not line up well with concepts in common law, and translations of  into English vary. Some terms seen include: felony, major offense, intermediate offense, minor offense, minor crime, and misdemeanor. Many English sources describe the term on first appearance, and then just refer to it using the French term after that.

Contravention

A  is a non-criminal offense (such as a parking ticket) and is handled by the . They are mainly related to violations of  and low-grade violence. Contraventions are divided into five classes according to their severity. The majority of traffic offenses are handled administratively and automatically (suspension of  or adjustment of "points", in particular), but judges are sometimes required to issue fines themselves. The fine incurred does not exceed €3,000.

Examples: defamation, defacing or destruction of property; failure to respond to a summons; minor violence; trespassing on school property.

Components

An  () comprises three components:
 the legal basis () for pursuing a criminal case;
 the ; and
 the .

Legal basis

The first of the three components is the legal basis () for pursuing a criminal case. The public prosecutor or other investigating official must establish the legal basis for charging someone with an offense. This consists of describing the acts committed, and identifying the specific legal text purported to have been violated in the commission of these acts, as required by the principle of legality in French criminal law.

Material element

The second of three components required for a criminal case is the  (). This is the visible, external part of the offense, i.e., the actions involved in carrying out a criminal act. It can be an act, a gesture, something written, a spoken word, aiming to harm an interest protected by the law. It is known in some common law systems as the actus reus of an offense.

Moral element

The  () is one of the three components of an offense, and refers to the psychological attitude of the perpetrator towards the commission of the acts deemed to be punishable by criminal law. The perpetrator may have acted with intent, or through recklessness or negligence. The fault is said to be intentional or unintentional, and applies to  and . Without the moral element, there is no offense.  only require evidence of voluntary action by the perpetrator. Known in some common law systems as the mens rea of an offense.

Article 121-3 of the Criminal Code says:

Courts

Courts involved in adjudicating questions of French criminal law are organized in three tiers.

In the first instance, there are the police court, the correctional court, and the Cour d'assises. The Police court () hears  (minor infractions like parking tickets). The Criminal court (also known as Correctional court, ) hears , less serious felonies and misdemeanors. The Court of Assizes sits in each of the departments of France and is normally composed of three judges and six jurors, and has jurisdiction over more serious .

In the second instance : the Court of appeal, and the Appeal court of assizes.  When it sits as a court of appeal, the Court of Assizes is composed of three judges and nine jurors, or seven judges alone.

In the last resort: the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation (), located in Paris, is the highest level of appeal in France for criminal cases and hears appeals from the assize courts and the courts of appeal.

Procedure

Criminal procedure includes everything involved in the suppression of offenses, from discovery of a possible offense, investigation by police or investigating judge, apprehension of suspects, the roles of police, prosecutors, and judges, rights of the accused, what happens inside a police station, what happens in court, how a prosecution is carried out, and what happens when someone is found guilty and imprisoned. These procedures are codified in French law by the code of French criminal procedure.

Complaint

A complaint by a victim or a law enforcement official, or denunciation by a third party is the initial step in launching a criminal investigation.

Investigation

Criminal procedure starts with the investigation phase. The investigation has two parts: the preliminary police investigation () and the in-depth investigation () under the supervision of the court.

The preliminary police investigation takes place under supervision of the public prosecutor's office (). In this phase, the police make inquiries in order to determine if a crime has been committed, and attempt to find a suspect.

In the second phase, the in-depth investigation is carried out to see if there is enough evidence to warrant prosecution. The second part is normally carried out by the prosecutor (), or in some serious cases, by the investigating judge ().

Defendants in a criminal case cannot plead guilty. A defendant may confess to a crime, but this becomes one more piece of evidence that can be used against them. Plea bargaining does not exist.

Sanctions

Background
The concept of punishment for offenses has its origins in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, article 8. The Declaration is recognized in the Preamble to the French Constitution, and is invested with constitutional power, due to the 1971 Liberty of Association decision of the Constitutional Council, which said:

This principle, also known by its Latin name, , is common to democratic states and considered fundamental to the rule of law, and was elucidated by Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria in his 1764 On Crimes and Punishments.

Sentencing

Judges are given wide latitude to pronounce sentence on a defendant found guilty of a criminal offense, within the range provided by statutes covering each of the three categories of offense. Seriousness of the offense, quality of the evidence, attitude of the defendant, and other factors may be taken into account by the judge. The judge may assign probation, at their discretion, and a  () assigns someone to supervise the parolee. Probationary terms may be up to three years. All sentences may be appealed.

Alternative sentences may be imposed, such as performing  (). Other alternative sentences include a  (), a fine, or others. If the perpetrator admits guilt, prosecutors have the option of imposing a  such as a fine or community service, which goes on their criminal record but is not considered a conviction. Alternatives to incarceration arose initially from local initiatives, and have become a more mainstream path to clearing the prosecutorial docket. In 1994, only 10% of prosecutorial decisions resulted in an alternative sentence, but in 2000 they were one third, and by 2012 almost one half.

Penalties

The penalty, or criminal sanction, is the corollary of the offense. Since October, 2014, Article 130-1 of the Penal Code has defined the two main functions of criminal sanctions as: "to punish the perpetrator, and to promote their reform, reintegration, or rehabilitation."

Penal sanctions are based on the three crime categories, , , and , which are new categories created in the legal reform of 1994. There are also different courts of first instance to deal with each of them.

Contraventions, such as minor traffic offenses, minor assaults, noise problems, and other petty offenses are punished with fines.

 are more serious offenses, some of which carry a term of imprisonment, which may be from six months to ten years, and may be accompanied by fines. These include theft, manslaughter, assault, drug offenses, and serious traffic offenses such as driving while intoxicated.

The most serious are , punishable by a sentence of ten years to life imprisonment, such as murder, rape, robbery, or kidnapping.  Formerly, capital punishment was the most severe penalty, but it was abolished in 1981, and became unconstitutional in 2007.

Influence of politics

Attitudes toward criminal sanctions is a political issue in France, and laws and sentencing may be affected by the political winds, as laws established under one administration are later modified or undone by a later administration with different political objectives and other laws are established. Issues such as prison overcrowding, perspective of the victim, recidivism, non-custodial alternatives to incarceration, and being "tough on crime" are part of the public debate. These issues rose to the level of presidential politics in the election of 2012. Sentencing policies and related legislation ebb and flow with the party in power. For example, the 2014 law on the individualization of penalties was introduced in 2012 by newly elected Socialist Party president François Hollande to reform mandatory minimum sentences introduced earlier under right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy, under whose administration the prison population rose from 48,000 to 64,000. In response, a Consensus Commission () was established under the PS in 2012 in order to reduce recidivism. The commission's report was opposed by interior minister Manuel Valls who favored building more prisons and increasing incarceration, while justice minister Christiane Taubira favored greater use of alternative sentencing and sending fewer people to prison.

See also

 Classical school (criminology)
 Code of Offences and Penalties
 Codification (law)
 Cour d'appel (Appellate court), procedures in common law vs. French jurisdictions
 Court of Appeal (France) – differs considerably from common law appeal court procedures.
 Court of Cassation – general scope, does not discuss France specifically
 Criminal justice system of France
 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
 French penal code
 , magistrate, co-author of the penal code project
 Glossary of French criminal law
 International criminal law
 Law of France
 Napoleonic Code – civil, not criminal
 Nulla poena sine lege

References

Notes

Footnotes

Works cited

Further reading

  Lay version

External links
 France: Penal Code of 1810

Criminal codes

Government of France
Legal history of France

French criminal law


Jaffe and its variant spellings Jaffé and Yaffe  () are Hebrew-language surnames.

The surname was recorded in Prague in the 16th century. It was recorded in the United Kingdom in the 1881 census, mostly in London.

People
The Jaffe family (Hebrew: יפה) is a distinguished Ashkenazi Jewish Rabbinic family, members of which have produced numerous famous rabbis, court Jews, Talmudic scholars, scientists, businessmen, academics and politicians.

Other notable people with this surname include:
 Aaron Jaffe, American politician
 Allan Jaffe, American jazz musician
 Andrew Jaffe, American journalist
 Angelina Jaffe, Venezuelan lawyer and ambassador
 Aniela Jaffé, (1903–1991), Swiss analyst who was a co-worker of Carl Jung
 Arthur Jaffe, American mathematical physicist
 Ben Jaffe, American jazz musician
 Billy Jaffe (born 1969), color analyst for the Boston Bruins on NESN
 Chapelle Jaffe, Canadian actress
 Charles Jaffe (c. 1879–1941), Belarusian-American chess master
 Charles Jaffe (conductor) (c. 1917–2011), American conductor and musical director
 Daniel Jaffe, American astronomer
 David Jaffe, American video game designer and director
 David Yaffe, music critic
 David A. Jaffe, American composer of contemporary classical and electronic/computer music
 Deborah Yaffe, author
 Dov Yaffe (1928–2017), Lithuanian-born Israeli rabbi
 Elaine Jaffe, American pathologist, expert in hematopathology
 Eliezer Jaffe, Israeli professor
 Elisha Yaffe, comedian, actor and writer
 Eyal Yaffe (born 1960), Israeli basketball player
 Frederick S. Jaffe, (1925–1978), vice president of Planned Parenthood and founder of the Guttmacher Institute
 Herb Jaffe (1921–1991), American film producer
 Jerome H. Jaffe, psychiatrist
 Joseph Joffo, French writer
 Leib Yaffe, Hebrew poet, journalist and editor
 Leo Yaffe, Canadian nuclear chemistry scientist
 Louis Isaac Jaffe (1888-1950), American journalist
 Marielle Jaffe (born 1989), American model and actress
 Matt Jaffe (born 1995), American singer-songwriter
 Maurice Yaffé, British psychologist
 Max Jaffa, born Max Jaffe, British violinist and bandleader
 Michael Jaffé (1923–1997), British art historian and curator
 Michael Muir Jaffe (born 1945), American television producer
 Michael B. Yaffe, scientific editor
 Moe Jaffe (1901–1972), American songwriter and band leader
 Naomi Jaffe, activist
 Nat Jaffe, American jazz pianist
 Nicole Jaffe, American actress
 Noah Jaffe (born 2003), American Paralympic swimmer
 Norman Jaffe, American architect
 Sir Otto Jaffe (1846–1929), German-born British Jewish businessman, High Sheriff and Lord Mayor of Belfast
 Peter Jaffe (1913–1982), British sailor and Olympic silver medalist
 Philipp Jaffé (1819–1870), German historian and philologist
 Philip Jaffe (1895–1980), American left-wing editor and writer
 Richard Yaffe, Journalist
 Rivke Jaffe (born 1978), Dutch anthropologist and professor
 Robert Jaffe, American physicist and professor
 Robert Jaffe (stockbroker) (born 1944), American associate of Bernard Madoff
 Rona Jaffe (1931–2005), American author
 Sam Jaffe (actor) (1891–1984), American film actor
 Sam Jaffe (producer) (1901–2000), American film producer later in England
 Sarah Jaffe (born 1986), American singer-songwriter
 Scott Jaffe (born 1969), American freestyle swimmer
 Stanley R. Jaffe (born 1940), American film producer
 Stephen Jaffe, American composer
 Taliesin Jaffe, (born 1977), American voice actor
 Theodor Julius Jaffé (1823–1898), German actor
 Werner Jaffé (1914–2009), German chemist and university professor
 Yves Jouffa (1920-1999), French lawyer

See also
 Jaffee
 Joffe
Yoffe
Ioffe

References

Surnames of Jewish origin
Hebrew-language surnames
Yiddish-language surnames

Jaffe


The Mwea National Reserve is a nature reserve in Kenya.  Its altitude ranges between , dominated by the Acacia-Commiphora bushland on the north shore of Kamburu Reservoir, at the confluence of Tana and Thiba Rivers. The other vegetation is mixed among the scattered large trees (Acacia species and baobab trees), typical savannah ecosystem. Open grasslands are dominant along the main rivers, with occasional thick undergrowth, as well as a riparian or riverine woodland.

Wildlife
Game species range from African elephants, lesser kudus, Nile crocodiles, giraffes, Grant's zebras, buffalos, African leopards, common duikers, black-backed jackals, bushbucks, waterbucks, Sykes' monkeys, warthogs, rock hyraxes, bush pigs, impalas and hartebeests. Striped ground squirrels, Common Genet Cat and yellow baboons are also found in Mwea.

Bird watching
Renowned for its water birds and waders, over 200 species of birds have been recorded in the reserve. This warranted it being an Important Bird Area (IBA). The reserve is the only protected area in which the globally threatened and Kenya-endemic Hinde's babbler (Turdoides hindei) is known to occur. Mwea National Reserve also shelters two other rare species; the Pel's fishing owl (Scotopelia peli) and the white-backed night heron (Gorsachius leuconotus). The Malagasy pond heron (Ardeola idae) is also a common sighting.

Camps
The reserve has seven campsites: Mbogo, Silvester, Mavuria, Kyangosi, Hippo-Point, Kanyonga and Githechu.

Other attractions
These include game viewing, boat rides at Kamburu Dam, hippo sighting at Hippo Point, bird watching and walking (walking circuit).

References

External links

 kws.org
 magicalkenya.com

Wildlife sanctuaries of Kenya
Embu County
Important Bird Areas of Kenya
Protected areas of Kenya
Protected areas established in 1976
1976 establishments in Kenya

Mwea National Reserve


The Sultanate of Bacan (كسلطانن باچن) was a state in Maluku Islands, present-day Indonesia that arose with the expansion of the spice trade in late medieval times. It mainly consisted of the Bacan Islands (Bacan, Kasiruta, Mandioli, etc.) but had periodical influence in Ceram and the Papuan Islands. It fell under the colonial influence of Portugal in the 16th century and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) after 1609. Bacan was one of the four kingdoms of Maluku (Maloko Kië Raha) together with Ternate, Tidore and Jailolo, but tended to be overshadowed by Ternate. After the independence of Indonesia in 1949, the governing functions of the sultan were gradually replaced by a modern administrative structure. However, the sultanate has been revived as a cultural entity in present times.

Early history

According to a legend known from the 16th century, the kings of Bacan, the Papuan Islands, Banggai and Buton descended from a set of snake's eggs which had been found among some rocks by the Bacan seafarer Bikusigara. On account of this, Bacan could claim to be the origin-point of the Maluku political order. The myth also points at early relations with the Papuans. However, there are conflicting legends according to which Jailolo in Halmahera was the oldest kingdom of Maluku. A third legend departs from the Arab immigrant Jafar Sadik who came to Maluku, ostensibly in 1245, and married the heavenly nymph Nurus Safa. From this pair, four sons called Buka, Darajat, Sahajat and Mashur-ma-lamo were born, who became ancestors of the rulers of Bacan, Jailolo, Tidore, and Ternate. In this story, too, Bacan has a precedence position. The ruler was nevertheless known as Kolano ma-dehe, Ruler of the Far End (i.e. in relation to Ternate and Tidore).

According to the Dutch writer François Valentijn (1724), the Bacan kingdom was established in 1322. He mentions an early king of Bacan with a Muslim name, Sidang Hasan in about 1345 who suffered an invasion from Ternate. Later on, in 1465 a prince called Bakar expanded Bacan's influence on the north coast of Ceram and even in Hitu in Ambon. However, Valentijn claims that the first Muslim ruler was actually Sultan Zainal Abidin who allegedly flourished in 1512. In one version, his brother Jelman was acknowledged as Raja of Misool, one of the Papuan Islands. From early European accounts it appears that the kings in Maluku Islands began to accept Islam in about the 1460s or 1470s as the result of the increasing trade in cloves, that attracted merchants from the Muslim world.

The indigenous chronicles of Bacan are difficult to evaluate as their stories of persons and events do not fit with contemporary sources up to the late 16th century. They say that the Bacan Islands were originally governed by a plethora of chiefs or ambasaya. By the time, Said Muhammad Bakir alias Husin, who was one of the sons of the Arab newcomer Sidna Noh Jafar, took up residence in Makian north of Bacan, an important center for clove production. He subsequently became acknowledged as lord in Kasiruta in the Bacan Archipelago. Muhammad Bakir sired seven children of whom Zainal Abidin succeeded his father in Makian and Kasiruta. His six brothers and sisters ended up as rulers or consorts in Misool, Waigeo, Banggai, Loloda, Ceram and Bacan Island, which thereby became tied to the dynastic network of the sultanate. Zainal Abidin married a Ternate princess who gave birth to Bayan Sirrullah who was made sub-ruler in Makian; he later left it and instead inherited his father's throne in Kasiruta. After this, Makian was apparently lost to the Bacan kings. After a prosperous and peaceful reign Bayan Sirrullah died and was succeeded by Alauddin, known to have reigned in 1581-c. 1609. Contemporary European sources mention other names before 1581 (see below).

Early European impact

When the Portuguese appeared in Maluku from 1512, Bacan was a significant local realm with more men and ships than Ternate, Tidore or Jailolo. Linguistic research has shown that Bacan Malay is closer to Melaka Straits Malay than other Malay dialects in Maluku, pointing at early strong relations with traders from the Malay World. The royal seat was not in Bacan Island like in later times but rather in Kasiruta. The power of the sultan extended to Ceram which was economically vital due to trade in forest products, largely coming from the Papuan lands. Clove production was small compared to the other Malukan islands, though it grew rapidly up to the mid 16th century. Tomé Pires (c. 1515) says that the name of the ruler was Raja Yusuf, who was the half-brother of Bayan Sirrullah of Ternate. In 1521 the remnants of the Magellan expedition arrived to Tidore where the Spanish seafarers were approached by the sultans of Tidore, Jalolo and Bacan as potential allies against the Portuguese intruders. The ruler of Bacan at the time was married to a daughter of the pro-Portuguese Bayan Sirrullah, but had a fallout with his father-in-law who was promptly poisoned by the couple. The Bacanese moreover massacred a party of Portuguese who carelessly abused the wives of the locals and even the court ladies.

During the next decades Bacan played a subordinate role in relation to Ternate and Tidore. A sultan called Alauddin (I) appears in the 1520s and lived in a shifting state of alliance and hostility with the Portuguese. When he tried to keep aloof of the Europeans, a Portuguese expedition raided the capital in 1534 and even destroyed the royal graves. By the mid 16th century the sultanate produced as much cloves as Ternate. It was an important port of call for ships going from Ternate to other parts of the archipelago, and from Banda or Ambon to Ternate. Papuan chiefs sometimes visited Bacan with their vessels and had friendly ties with the sultan. Alauddin's son and successor was Hairun (1557-1577), not to be confused with his maternal uncle Hairun of Ternate. Islam was still confined to a thin layer of society while most inhabitants followed local religious practices. Hairun was on bad terms with his similarly-named uncle of Ternate. He therefore sought support with the Portuguese and converted to Catholicism, adopting the name Dom João. The conversion of the ruler and part of the inhabitants led to trouble after 1570. The new Ternatan ruler Babullah, a cousin and brother-in-law of Dom João, held a strongly Muslim and anti-Portuguese position and attacked Christianized areas of Maluku, including Bacan. While the Portuguese were expelled from Ternate in 1575, Dom João was forced to revert to Islam; nevertheless, Babullah sent emissaries who poisoned his cousin in 1577. Bacan was badly ravaged in the process and its history in the next decades is rather obscure. A son or brother of Dom João, Dom Henrique, was allowed by Ternate to fill the throne but soon started to collude with the Portuguese and was killed in battle in 1581. Christianity was largely suppressed, though a congregation remained in Labuha on Bacan Island under troubled conditions.

Of Bacanese royalty there remained a young son of Dom João called Alauddin II (1581-c. 1609) who, although a Muslim, strove to cast off the Ternatan yoke. The death of the powerful Babullah (1583) and the Spanish-Portuguese union (1581) made for opportunities, as the Spanish tried to master Maluku from their bases in the Philippines. Alauddin II assisted an Iberian invasion in 1603 where he was personally wounded, and again in 1606. On the last occasion the Spanish were entirely successful in defeating the Ternate Sultanate and rewarded Alauddin II with the islands Kayoa, Waidoba and Bayloro. However, the long series of conflicts had taken a heavy toll: the population of the sultanate had declined and the sultan only played a marginal role in the affairs in Maluku. The old residence in Kasiruta had been abandoned by the early 17th century and the palace was moved to Amassing on the south-west side of Bacan Island, close to Labuha. According to the Bacan Chronicle, Alauddin gave his daughter in marriage to Patra Samargalila, the Sangaji (chief) of Labuha. The Sangaji and his wife then persuaded Alauddin to move his seat to the vicinity of Labuha since it was a good land with a fine river. Dutch sources indicate that fear of the lethal raids carried out by Tidorese war fleets was decisive in the move.

Dutch overlordship

The Dutch seafarers began to approach Maluku in 1599 and fought a drawn-out struggle with the Spanish Empire while allying with Ternate. In 1609 the commander Simon Jansz Hoen and Sultan Mudafar Syah I of Ternate invaded Bacan and approached the Spanish fort at Labuha. Sultan Alauddin II chose to stay aloof from the fighting. The Spanish and the Christian inhabitants left Labuha and were later killed or captured. As representative of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Hoen made a contract with Alauddin who promised to follow the VOC monopoly of the spice trade, and to give back a few islands to Ternate. The Spanish fort was renamed Fort Barneveld (after the statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt) and manned with 50 men. At this time Bacan claimed to be the overlord of the Papuan islands Waigeo, Misool and Waigama. However, it is possible that the relation was a bond of commerce rather than political obedience. The pretensions to certain islands and villages in the Papuan lands were still upheld by the court at the time of François Valentijn (1724) but were obscure by that time. More persistent were the ambitions of Bacan to maintain suzerainty over part of Ceram's north coast. However, by the second half of the 17th century the Ceramese villages plainly refused to obey the commands of the sultan. The sultanate shrank further in 1682 when Sultan Alauddin III sold the Obi Islands to the VOC for 800 Reals, an act remembered in Bacan with great resentment.

The Bacan rulers after 1609 were involved in the struggle for Maluku, usually but not always on the side of the VOC. Alauddin II died soon after the 1609 contract and a regent, Kaicili Malito held power for a while. He was killed in a sea battle against the Spanish-affiliated Tidore in 1614. Alauddin's son Sultan Nurusalat (c. 1609-1649) was involved in a murky affair in 1627 when elements of the Christian population in Labuha conspired with the Spanish against the Dutch presence with the tacit knowledge of the sultan, who vainly tried to use the opportunity to bring the Labuha people under his direct rule. After his death, his son Muhammad Ali (1649-1655) had to sign a contract in 1653 where he agreed to extirpate the cloves in his kingdom to ensure VOC monopoly. Bacan was then involved in the Great Ambon War where rebels from north and central Maluku allied with the Makassarese to make an end of the Dutch tyranny. Bacan was briefly forced to side with the rebels, and the ruler was held by the rebels against his own will. He was mortally wounded in a fight at Manipa in 1655, and soon expired at the coast of Buru. His successor Alauddin III quickly made a contract with the VOC in January 1656, complemented by a more detailed contact in April 1667 that put Bacan under the thumb of the Dutch.

After the rebellions in the region had been defeated in the late 1650s, the Dutch kept Bacan under close surveillance for more than a century. Dutch observers found the Bacan elite to be stout and self-assured in spite of the shrunken state of the sultanate, as they tried to uphold obsolete claims to parts of Ceram and Papua. The low population density, aggravated by epidemics, and the abundance of sago and fish made the population self-sufficient in terms of foodstuff, and the Dutch complained about the perceived inertia of the locals. Piracy was a big problem for the vulnerable population far into the 19th century. In 1774 the ruler Muhammad Sahadin (1741-1779) entertained friendly contacts with the British sea captain Thomas Forrest and also with the independent Sultan of Maguindanao. The suspicious Dutch therefore deposed him in 1779. The next two sultans were likewise exiled. However, by now a rebel movement gained momentum in Maluku and Papua in the form of the Tidorese prince Nuku who persistently fought the Dutch with varying success. With British assistance, Nuku's forces conquered the Dutch fort in Bacan in 1797, before occupying Tidore itself. Prince Atiatun, who administered the kingdom at the time, in fact welcomed Nuku. The war nevertheless led to widespread destruction on the Bacan Islands with depopulation in many places.

The late colonial era

The British appointed a new sultan from a side-branch, Kamarullah (1797-1826), who was allowed to remain after the return of the Dutch to Maluku and became the ancestor of the later rulers. His son Muhammad Hayatuddin Kornabei (1826-1860) received the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who commented on the utterly sparse population, and the desire of the sultan to attract enterprising foreigners to the mineral-rich islands. A group of Chinese gold workers were in fact brought from West Borneo in the mid-19th century but were less than successful. Another attempt to develop the islands with the sultan's support was made by the merchant M.E.F. Elout van Soeterwoude who began to plant vanilla, coffee, tobacco and potatoes. The unsuitability of the soil and climate foiled his ambitions and he withdrew his efforts in 1900. In one respect Bacan stood out locally since its Christian community attained a high level of Western education. At the demise of Sultan Muhammad Sadik (1862-1889) a commission of grandees governed for many years for want of suitable heirs. Eventually his son Muhammad Usman (not to be confused with his contemporary Muhammad Usman of Ternate) signed a contract in 1899 that gave the Dutch colonial government the right of taxation. He was formally elevated as sultan in February 1900 and signed the so-called Short Declaration in 1910, instead of the longer contracts signed by previous rulers. This marked the full colonial subordination of indigenous rule.

Muhammad Usman's son Muhammad Muhsin (1935-1983) survived the Japanese occupation and the ensuing Indonesian Revolution. During the war years Bacan suffered from hardship and Allied bombings that also destroyed the sultan's palace. There was little republican agitation in North Maluku after 1945 and some aspect of the old "feudal" governance survived the Indonesian Independence in 1949. Muhammad Muhsin served as Resident of North Maluku in 1956-1959. However, the Malukan sultanates were increasingly incorporated in the new bureaucracy, and the last rights of the sultan to be represented in the formal administration were abolished in 1965. Towards the end of the 20th century the old sultanates of Maluku experienced a cultural revival, especially after the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998. Bacan was part of this "sultanism" with the enthronement of a son of the last ruler as titular sultan, although with a lower profile than Ternate.

Administration of the sultanate

The sultan governed with the help of two groups of officials. The Bobato dalem (inner grandees) assisted at the royal court and consisted of members with the military titles mayor, kapitan and lieutenant (ngofa or kie). Under them were various alfiris, sergeants and caretakers. The Bobato luar (outer grandees) were those who actually assisted the sultan in governing the realm. They were the jogugu (first minister), hukum (magistrate) and kimelaha sapanggala (errand) who held authority over the various local chiefs, such as ambasaya and datu. Apart from them there was a group of religious officials, Bobato akhirat. The highest official of the kingdom was however the Kapitan Laut (sea lord) who was a relative of the sultan and usually the heir to the throne. The sultan was only the headman over the ethnic Bacanese who were traditionally divided into genealogical units called  and paid contributions (ngasé) to the ruler. Foreigners stood under their own princes of Ternate, Tidore, etc. Labuha with its Christian population was directly ruled by the colonial government and was headed by a chief called Sangaji. Dutch rule was represented by a controleur after 1883, and the kingdom became increasingly governed by colonial officials that the old ruling elite had to listen to.

List of Sultans

Legendary rulers

Historical rulers

See also

 List of rulers of Maluku
 Sultanate of Jailolo
 Sultanate of Ternate
 Sultanate of Tidore
 Spice trade

References

Precolonial states of Indonesia
Former sultanates
Islamic states in Indonesia
Sultanates

Sultanate of Bacan