The Church of St Mary-le-Bow () is a Church of England parish church in the City of London, England. Located on Cheapside, one of the city's oldest thoroughfares, the church was founded in 1080, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rebuilt several times over the ensuing centuries, the present church is the work of Sir Christopher Wren, following the Great Fire of London (1666). With its tall spire, it is still a landmark in the City of London, being the third highest of any Wren church, surpassed only by nearby St Paul's Cathedral and St Bride's, Fleet Street. At a cost of over £15,000, it was also his second most expensive, again only surpassed by St Paul's Cathedral.

St Mary-le-Bow is widely known for its bells, which also feature in the nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons'. According to legend, Dick Whittington heard the bells calling him back to the city in 1392, leading him to become Lord Mayor. Traditionally, anyone born within earshot of the bells was considered to be a true Londoner, or Cockney.

The church suffered severe damage by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War as part of the Blitz, like many churches in London. The interior was reduced to a shell and though the tower survived, fire damage made the bells crash to the floor. The church was sympathetically restored to its pre-war condition by Laurence King from 1956 to 1964. The church was awarded Grade I listed status, the highest possible rating, on the National Heritage List for England, whilst still a shell in 1950.

History

Foundation
Though archaeological excavations suggest an earlier Saxon building may have stood on the site prior to the Norman Conquest, the first confirmed church dedicated to St Mary on Cheapside was built by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1080. Lanfranc, who was William the Conqueror's archbishop brought over from Normandy, founded the church as part of the Norman policy of dominating London. Three major buildings were constructed as part of this policy; St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, and a church on Cheapside.

The church at Cheapside was dedicated to St Mary and was constructed from Caen stone from Normandy, the same stone used in the Tower of London. The architect for the Tower of London was Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, who may have also designed the first St Mary-le-Bow. This early church was built on two levels, with a lower undercroft partially below street level and the upper church, built above it. The lower church was constructed first and featured round stone arches, which were a novelty at the time. This led to the church being known as Sancta Maria de Arcubus (St Mary of the Arches), a name which eventually became St Mary-le-Bow, bow being an old name for arches.

11th and 12th centuries
The church was nearing completion in 1091 when it was destroyed by a violent tornado, amongst the most powerful ever to strike England. Roof rafters measuring  long were thrown up in the air and forced into the ground with such force that only their tips remained visible. The lower church survived, but the upper church was damaged beyond repair. The church was rebuilt, possibly in facsimile, but was destroyed again just a hundred years later, in a fire in 1196. The fire was caused by fugitive William Fitz Osbert hiding in the church tower, and to coax him out, supporters of the Archbishop of Canterbury set fire to the church. Osbert was fatally stabbed as he fled.

Late medieval period

The church was rebuilt again in the early 13th century following the 1196 fire, becoming a peculiar of the Archbishops of Canterbury and their London headquarters. It became home to the Court of Arches, to which the church gave its name. The Court of Arches, which still has its home at St Mary-le-Bow today, was the ecclesiastical court of appeal for the Province of Canterbury, founded in 1251. This allegiance to Canterbury made it the second most important church in London, after St Paul's Cathedral.

The tower partially collapsed in its south west corner in 1271, killing at least one civilian in Cheapside below, Laurence Ducket. The tower was not immediately repaired and was kept in use. From 1363 onwards, the tower's principal use was the housing of the city's curfew bell, rung at 9 pm every evening and being able to be heard as far away as Hackney Marshes.

Work to repair the tower was slow, with construction noted to take place in 1448, 1459 and 1479. The tower was finally completed in 1512, supporting a spectacular series of stone lanterns; four around the corners of the tower and one suspended in the centre by arches. These lanterns were designed to light the streets below.

Destruction during the Great Fire of London (1666)
Soon after midnight on Sunday, 2 September 1666, a fire started in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane,  to the southeast of St. Mary-le-Bow. During the course of the night, the easterly wind spread the fire through the city, consuming 300 houses in the first night alone. The fire continued to grow, becoming a firestorm on Monday and sweeping west towards St Paul's Cathedral.

St Mary-le-Bow was one of over fifty churches to catch fire during the firestorm, which was only extinguished on the Thursday. The church was nearly completely destroyed, except for the tower, which survived albeit with fire damage. Attempts were made to repair the tower, but they all ultimately failed: the tower was structurally compromised from the fire and was no longer strong enough to support the ringing of bells.

Wren rebuilding
Following Christopher Wren's appointment as the King's Surveyor of Works in 1669, Wren's office was contracted to rebuild the fifty one churches of the city consumed by the fire. The Rebuilding of London Act of 1670 provided the funds for this, as it included raising the tax on coal. Other than St Paul's Cathedral, St Mary-le-Bow was considered the most important church in the city, and thus, according to a document dated to 13 June 1670, at the head of the list to be rebuilt. The mason's contract for the rebuilding of St Mary-le-Bow was signed just under two months later, on 2 August.

Wren's initial designs were for a simple three bay structure and short tower, the latter topped by a simple cupola. This was revised in the same year with a much taller tower and more intricate spire. The body of the church, inspired by the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome, was completed by 1673. The tower, however, would take a further seven years to finish, being finally completed in 1680. The total cost of the rebuilding was £15,421 (equivalent to more than £2.3 million in 2021), the second most expensive of any of Wren's churches, only surpassed by St Paul's. The tower was rebuilt in Portland stone, the rest of the church in brick. The tower became such a landmark that it was known as the "Cheapside pillar".

During the rebuilding, Wren moved the position of the tower to sit directly on Cheapside, whereas the Norman and Tudor towers had sat back from the road. Whilst building the foundations for the tower, Wren came across an old Roman causeway  below ground level and  deep, which provided a solid foundation. Wren also discovered the 11th century undercroft below the ruins, but he was uninterested, believing it to be Roman. He only provided a trapdoor and ladder into the undercroft, which became the crypt for the church above it.

18th – 20th centuries
In 1820, the upper part of the spire was rebuilt and repaired by architect George Gwilt. In 1850, the church finally ceased to be a 'peculiar', coming under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London, ending a practice started six hundred years earlier. The church continued, however, to be the home of the Court of Arches. Further alterations took place in the late 19th century, with the removal of galleries in 1867 and additional modifications from 1878-1879.

In 1914, a stone from the crypt of the church was placed in Trinity Church, New York, to mark the fact that William III granted the vestry of Trinity Church the same privileges as St Mary-le-Bow vestry.

Second World War
Beginning in 1940, the Luftwaffe began bombarding British cities from the air, a campaign known as the Blitz; London was struck especially heavily. Throughout most of the campaign, St Mary-le-Bow suffered only minor damage. However, on the final night of the Blitz, 10–11 May 1941, the church took several direct hits. A major fire started, destroying most of the building except the outer walls and the tower. The tower was not directly hit, but the fires from the church interior spread, burning out the tower floors and causing its bells to crash to the floor. The use of Portland stone in the tower, rather than the brick used in the body of the church, contributed to its survival.

From 1956 to 1964, the church was sympathetically rebuilt and restored by Laurence King to Wren's designs, at a cost of £63,000. The tower survived, mostly as Wren left it, but part of it required rebuilding due to fire damage weakening the walls. The church was reconsecrated in 1964, achieving Grade I listed status whilst still a ruin in 1950.

Architecture

Plan

The church building has a rectangular plan, with the tower situated on the northwest corner, separated from the main body of the church by a vestibule. The design of the church is such that the chancel occupies the eastern end of the nave, both with north and south aisles, which are noted to be extremely narrow. A vestry adjoins the vestibule to the north of the north aisle.

Unusually, due to the addition of the vestibule separating the tower and nave, the building has a greater length north to south than east to west; measuring  from east to west but  from the north wall of the tower to the south wall of the nave. The total area of the church building is , which according to the Church of England, makes it a "large" sized church building.

Exterior
The exterior of St Mary-le-Bow is mostly constructed from red brick with dressings of Portland stone, with the exception of the tower, which is built entirely from Portland stone. The three principle facades of the building (south, north and east) have gabled walls and pedimented centres, complete with triplets of round-headed windows. The most prominent aspect of the exterior is Wren's imposing tower, measuring  square externally and with a height of 221 feet 9 inches (67.6 m), it is the third highest of any Wren church.

The tower, constructed of Portland stone, is formed of four stages surmounted by an elaborate stone spire. The lowest stage has doorways in the north and west faces of the tower, set in substantial stone recess with added rustication. The recess has a round head and is flanked by Doric order columns, which support a moulded entablature above. The doorways inside these recesses are set between Tuscan order columns which support a Doric frieze. The second and third stages of the tower are more simple in construction, with two large square windows to the second stage, and a single round-headed window to the third. The fourth stage, housing the bell chamber, has a large round-headed opening in each wall, divided into three sections by thin mullions and filled with louvre boards. Framing the bell openings are pairs of Ionic order pilasters supporting an entablature, above which is the parapet. The parapet comprises an open balustrade between four corner pinnacles, formed of four ogee scrolls topped with small stone vases.

The spire above the tower is also formed of four stages. The lowest stage is a circular drum-shaped structure surrounded by twelve columns which have carved acanthus capitals. These twelve columns support a cornice with modillion decoration. Above the cornice is a second open balustrade, similar in design to that on the top of the tower. The second stage is formed of twelve curved flying buttresses which support a circular-shaped moulded cornice. The third stage stands on the base of the cornice, and is square in plan, with granite columns on the corners. These columns support the fourth and final stage of the spire, which takes the form of a tall, square, tapering pinnacle, surmounted by a ball and weathervane, the latter taking the shape of a winged dragon.

Interior
Only three bays make up the nave of the church, which is divided into small aisles by large round-headed arches. These arches are supported by compound piers with attached demi-columns that feature shorter pilasters for the openings and Corinthian capitals for the nave and aisles. The tunnel vault above the nave is covered in ornamental panelling that is painted blue and white and is penetrated by the clerestory windows.

The church windows are among the structure's most prominent elements following its 1964 restoration. They, along with the other furniture, vestments, etc., were created by John Hayward. All three of the east windows have rounded arches, although the central window is taller and wider than its neighbours, who have small round windows above them.

Linking the church and tower is a vestibule, featuring a tall groin-vaulted stone ceiling. The top of the vault is pierced by a removable circular trapdoor, opened to allow the bells to be lowered or raised from the tower.

Beneath the church, built on almost the same floorplan, is the 11th century crypt. The crypt, originally built as the undercroft for the church destroyed in the tornado in 1091, is three bays in length and features Norman-era round arches, some of which contain Roman bricks, and a groined vault. The crypt is now in use as the "Cafe Below".

Music

Organ

The earliest record of an organ at the church dates to 1802 when Hugh Russell of London built a small instrument formed of 13 stops and 2 manuals. This organ, like its successors, was situated on a gallery above the west doors. This organ lasted until 1867, when George Maydwell Holdich, also of London, rebuilt and enlarged the organ. He added a third manual, a pedalboard and 11 additional stops to make a total of 24.

In 1880, the organ was purchased by Walker & Sons at a cost of £255 and transferred to the Methodist Church at Thornton, Leicestershire. Walker & Sons constructed a new instrument for St Mary-le-Bow in the same year, at a cost of £1,108. This new instrument was much larger, formed of 33 stops and 3 manuals plus a pedalboard and was situated in the sanctuary at the eastern end of the church. This organ lasted unaltered until the Blitz, when following the first strike to hit the church, which only caused minor damage, it was removed for safekeeping by Rushworth and Draper.

Following the restoration of the church from 1956, the organ was remodelled in 1964. The organ was reduced in size by almost half, only 18 of the original 33 stops were reinstated and a new case designed and installed above the west door. This organ was considered by many to be a rather poor imitation of its pre-war condition but funds did not permit its replacement for 40 years.

In 2004, a project to replace the organ was launched by the church, with Kenneth Ticknell & Co chosen as builders. The project, which cost £380,000, was funded by corporate and personal donors. In January 2010, the old organ was removed, though the 1964 case, based on work by the Alsace Silbermann family, was kept. The organ was completed in August 2010 and the first recital was given by Thomas Trotter on 29 September. The new organ, which reuses the old case, has 34 stops and two manuals plus pedalboard.

The church also has a small chamber organ, formed of 1 manual and with 5 stops, made by an unknown builder. It is situated in the south nave aisle.

Bells

History

Early bells
The bells at St Mary-le-Bow are often considered to be the most famous peal in the world. According to legend, Richard (Dick) Whittington heard the bells in 1392 when he left the city, calling him back and leading him to become Lord Mayor. The earliest written record of bells at the church is in 1469, when the Common Council orders a curfew bell should be rung at St Mary-le-Bow at 9.00 each evening. In 1515, William Copland, one of Henry VIII's merchants, gave money for a "great bell" to be installed, with directions it should be rung to announce the curfew. With Copland's gift, the tower then contained five bells.

In the 1552 survey of church goods ordered by Edward VI, the tower is recorded as containing five bells with two additional "sanctus" bells. These five bells would later be augmented, when in 1635, six are recorded. In 1666, during the Great Fire of London, the bells and tower, along with the church, were damaged beyond repair.

Following the Great Fire and Wren's rebuilding of the church, the tenor bell of a proposed ring of eight was cast by Christopher Hodson of St Mary Cray in 1669, placed in a temporary structure in the churchyard until the tower was completed. The bell weighed approximately 52 long cwt (2,600 kg). In 1677, Hodson cast the remaining seven and hung all eight bells in the newly completed tower in a new oak frame.

18th and 19th centuries
No further work would take place to the bells until 1738 when the tenor bell was recast by Richard Phelps and Thomas Lester; Phelps had previously cast the hour bell at St Paul's Cathedral, called Great Tom, which still survives today. In 1762, Lester & Pack recast and rehung the other seven bells and added two more, to make a ring of ten, keeping the Hodson frame. The bells were rehung again in 1835 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel and then a third time by Mears & Stainbank in 1863.

In 1881, Mears & Stainbank cast two new bells to augment the ring to twelve, rehanging the 3rd and 4th bells concurrently. This gave London its 5th ring of twelve, following St Bride's, Fleet Street; St Michael Cornhill; St Paul's Cathedral; and St Giles Cripplegate. In 1902, the bells needed rehanging again, with work taking place to the heaviest three bells by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon. This was evidently not successful, for the bells needed rehanging just 5 years later, the work given to Mears & Stainbank of Whitechapel again.

Selfridge's ring

In January 1927, following the deterioration of the fittings and the condition of the tower, the bells were declared unringable in a report first published by The Times. Over the ensuing six years, much work was done to the tower and the church to restore it, but the bells remained unringable, to much public outcry. Finally, in 1933, Harry Gordon Selfridge offered to defray the cost of restoring the bells, an offer which was accepted by the church, who gave the contract to Gillett & Johnston, who Selfridge had worked with a few years previously on bells for his Oxford Street store.

The announcement that Gillett & Johnston intended to recast the tenor, which was believed to be cracked, caused so many objections that a meeting of the Province of Canterbury's ecclesiastical court was called; the decision of the court was eventually that the tenor should be recast. Gillett & Johnston found upon removing the bells to their works in Croydon that four more of the bells (6, 7, 8 and 10) were cracked, in addition to the tenor. All five cracked bells were recast in addition to the three lightest bells, leaving only the 4th, 5th, 9th and 11th from the previous ring to be retained; these four bells were retuned. The bells were rehung in their original frame with new cast iron headstocks, ball bearings and wrought iron clappers. The frame was substantially strengthened with a massive concrete and steel grillage weighing 3.5 long tonnes (3,556 kg). The bells were rededicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury on July 7, 1933.

Shortly after their installation, the BBC World Service recorded the bells for use as a time signal, which brought the attention of the bells to a global audience; the recording survives today. On the night of 10 May 1941, the church was struck by several incendiary bombs. Though the tower was spared a direct hit, the flames from the body of the church were fanned into the tower, which acted like a furnace, destroying all of the internal floors and the frame, causing the bells to crash over  to the ground, irrevocably damaging them.

Post-war restoration

The damaged bells were removed shortly after their destruction to Mears & Stainbank's foundry in Whitechapel, but they remained in storage for more than 10 years. In 1956, as the restoration of the church began, attention turned to the restoration of the tower and the recasting of the bells. Much of the cost of restoring the tower and bells was met by the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation and Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City. A new ring of twelve was cast by Mears & Stainbank in 1956, partially reusing metal salvaged from the 1933 ring. However, due to the condition of the tower, which required repairs, the bells were not hung until late 1961.

The bells were dedicated in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Robert Stopford, Bishop of London, on 21 December 1961. The tenor was tolled by Prince Philip at the beginning of the service. The bells were hung in a new frame, made of Javanese Jang (Dipterocarpus terminatus). Since then, the bells have been frequently rung, both by members of the Ancient Society of College Youths who reside in or near the city, and by visiting bands of ringers, who come from across the world to ring the bells.

All the bells are named and each bell has an inscription from Psalms, the first letter of each forming the acrostic 'D. Whittington'. The largest bell weighs 41 long cwt 3 qrs 21 lb (4,697 lb or 2,131 kg), the third heaviest tenor bell in London after St Paul's and Southwark Cathedral.

Specification

In popular culture
The bells, often considered amongst the most famous in the world, have typically been used to define whether or not one is a true Londoner or Cockney; anyone born within their earshot is considered such. With the urbanisation of the City of London in the 20th and 21st centuries, the increasing population, noise pollution and the soundproofing measures installed in the belfry, the range of the Bow bells is significantly smaller than at its peak.

In 1851, the bells could be heard across north and east London, as far as Hackney Marshes, Stratford and Limehouse, with reports they could also be heard south of the Thames in Southwark. An acoustic study taken in 2012 shows this range has shrunk substantially, now confined to the eastern parts of the Square Mile and Shoreditch. With no maternity hospitals within this range and only limited residential properties, arguably the modern chance of the birth of a 'true' cockney is now very low.

The bells of Bow are also featured in the nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons': "I do not know, says the Great Bell of Bow".

Ordinarily, distances by road from London are now measured from Charing Cross but, before the late 18th century, they were measured from the London Stone in Cannon Street, or the Standard in Cornhill. However, on the road from London to Lewes, the mileage is taken from the church door of St Mary-le-Bow. To note the reference point used, mileposts along the way are marked with the rebus in cast-iron of a bow and four bells.

Services
St Mary-le-Bow ministers to the financial industry and livery companies of the City of London. Consequently, services are held on weekdays rather than the more traditional Sunday morning. Services generally consist of two sessions of 15 minute prayer, one at 8.30 am and another at 5.45 pm on every weekday. These are supplemented by two more formal services of Eucharist, one on a Wednesday lunchtime at 1.05 pm and the second on a Thursday evening at 6.05pm.

References

Further reading
 Howard Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects
 Michael Byrne and George R. Bush (eds), St Mary-le-Bow: A History (Privately published, 2007).

External links

 360° panorama inside St Mary-le-Bow

Christopher Wren church buildings in London
Church of England church buildings in the City of London
Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom
Churches completed in 1680
17th-century Church of England church buildings
English Baroque church buildings
Mary-le-Bow
Diocese of London
Grade I listed churches in the City of London
1680 establishments in England

St Mary-le-Bow


Daude, Deude, Daurde, or Daudé de Pradas (fl. 1214–1282) was a troubadour from Prades-Salars in the Rouergue not far from Rodez. He lived to an old age and left behind seventeen to nineteen cansos, including twelve on courtly love, three about sexual conquest, one tenso, one planh (on the death of Uc Brunenc), and a religious song. Only one melody of his entire oeuvre has survived.

According to his vida, he was a canon of Maguelonne. A canon and magister of the name Deodatus de Pradas or Pratis appears in many documents from Rodez in the same time period. Some scholars believe it is not likely that Daude was a canon at all, while some presume him to have been a canon, not at Maguelonne, but Santa Maria in Rodez. Daude is often found in the company of the Counts and Bishops of Rodez and was named vicar general of Rodez by Pope Clement IV (1266).

According to his vida, Daude was reputed as a "wise man in letters, with natural wit and invention", but because he was not inspired by love, his songs were not popular and consequently not sung. Daude also possessed a keen knowledge of raptors, and wrote a treatise on falconry entitled Auzels Cassadors. He also stepped outside of the troubadour lyric to write a didactic poem (ensenhamen) on the four cardinal virtues.

Daude, in his love songs, expresses amor for a lady of higher rank in hope that Merces (mercy) will intercede for him. But when he finally encounters his Joi Novel (new joy) in her castle, her haughtiness is unbearable:

Daude, like many troubadours, turns to Bel Desir (fair desire) for assistance, but he sometimes employs the term bel desir to refer to the lady's desire as well as his own and sometimes possibly even to a male confidante when his lover becomes troublesome.

Daude's surviving music has some features in common with Gui d'Ussel, to whom he refers in his tenso, but it is less motivically varied than Gui's. It, too, however, is through-composed. It is possible that Daude also had contact with Peire Cardenal or Guiraut Riquier in Rodez.

Works

Ab lo douz temps que renovella
Anc mais hom tan ben non amet
Ben ay' Amors, quar anc me fes chauzir
De lai on son tug miei desir
Pois Merces no.m val ni m'ajuda
Puois amors vol e comanda
Si per amar ni per servir
Tan sen al cor un amoros desir
Trop ben m'estera si.s tolgues
El temps que.l rossignols s'esgau
En un sonet guay e leugier
No cugiey mais ses comjat far chanso
Qui finamen sap cossirar
Amors m'envida e-m somo
No.m puesc mudar que no-m ressit
Del bel dezir que Joys Novels m'adutz
Ben deu esser solatz marritz
Sitot m'ai pres un pauc de dan
Al temps d'estiu, qan s'alegron l'ausel
D'ome fol ni desconoisen

Sources

Melani, Silvio. Per sen de trobar. L'opera lirica di Daude de Pradas. Publications de l'association internationale d'études occitanes, XI. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2016. .
Aubrey, Elizabeth. The Music of the Troubadours. Indiana University Press, 1996. .
Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. The Vidas of the Troubadours. New York: Garland, 1984. .
Gaunt, Simon, and Kay, Sarah, edd. The Troubadours: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. .
Schutz, A. H. "A Note on the Localization of Daude de Pradas." Speculum, 15:4, (Oct., 1940), pp. 478–479.
Schutz, A. H. (Ed.) Poésies de Daude de Pradas. Toulouse and Paris: Bibliothèque méridionale 22, (1933)

Notes

External links
  Daude's complete works online at Trobar.org

13th-century French troubadours
People from Rodez
Year of death unknown
Year of birth unknown

Daude de Pradas


Alfred Jacques Makower (9 May 1876, in London – 1 February 1941) was electrical engineer and community activist. He was head of the Electrical Engineering Department of South-Western Polytechnic.

Alfred was the son of a German silk merchant. He attended University College School from 1884, the University College itself in 1894, then  Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1895. Here he took the Mathematical Tripos, before moving on to the Technical College, Charlottenburg, in 1898. Then in 1900 he was given a job by Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (UEG), a subsidiary of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. He then returned to England to work for British Thomson-Houston Company in 1902. In 1904 he was appointed head of the Electrical Engineering Department of South-Western Polytechnic. In 1913 he became a founding director Mossay and Co., a company established by Paul Mossay, along with A. Berkeley and Alfred Mays-Smith.

Alfred was chair of the Professional Committee of the German Jewish Aid Committee, in which capacity he helped several German engineer refugees with financial support and help in finding employment amongst his contacts in the engineering sector. He was vice-president of the Jewish Board of Guardians whose General Relief Committee he also chaired.

He had a son, Ernest S. Makower.

References

1876 births
1941 deaths
Electrical engineers

Alfred Makower


In sports, a prospect,  also known as a "minor leaguer" or "farmhand," is any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to surpass a threshold where they achieve rookie status (as defined by their respective league), or is not established with the team yet. Prospects can sometimes be assigned to farm teams, or loaned to lower ranked teams. They may also decide to go back to college to play.

Major-league professional sports teams also trade prospects, by themselves, with draft picks, or with current major-leaguers, in order to acquire another prospect or an established major league player.  Teams that trade away several of their star players for other teams' prospects are sometimes said to be having a fire sale.

Ice hockey

North America
A North American ice hockey prospect is typically a player who was drafted and/or signed by a National Hockey League team, and is assigned to a development farm team. These development leagues are the American Hockey League and the ECHL. Besides these minor leagues, draft picks may continue playing for the team that they were drafted from in the Canadian Hockey League (consisting of the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League), the NCAA, the United States Hockey League, various European leagues such as the Czech Extraliga, Finnish Liiga, German Deutsche Eishockey Liga, Russian Kontinental Hockey League, Slovak Extraliga, Swedish Hockey League, the Norwegian Fjordkraftligaen or Swiss National League.

See also
College recruiting

References

Sports terminology

Prospect (sports)


The 1850 Constitution of Prussia was an amended version of the 1848 Constitution. Unlike the earlier version that King Frederick William IV had unilaterally imposed on the Kingdom of Prussia on 5 December 1848, the 1850 revision was a cooperative effort between the new Prussian Parliament, the King and his ministers. The changes they made to the 1848 Constitution were mostly relatively minor. The king remained in a position of dominance over the three branches of government, and Parliament had no control over the military, but liberal elements such as the catalogue of fundamental rights, the introduction of jury courts and certain limitations on the monarch's power remained in place.

The 1850 Constitution, frequently modified, was the fundamental law of Prussia until the end of the German Empire in 1918.

Historical background

1848 revolution

In the 1840s, an economic depression and failed harvests led to widespread unrest across Germany and much of the rest of Europe. The news of the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe in Paris in February 1848 led to sympathetic revolutions across Germany, including in Prussia's capital, Berlin. In March, King Frederick William yielded to protesters' demands and promised parliamentary elections, freedom of the press and a constitution. On 18 March a large demonstration in Berlin turned into street battles that left hundreds dead. The King was shocked by the loss of life and promised to appoint a liberal ministry in response to the demonstrators' demands. Ten days later, he rode through Berlin wearing the black, red and gold armband of the revolution and authorized the convening of a national assembly.

On 11 April Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen, a moderate liberal who had been named minister president of Prussia on 29 March, called for elections to a Prussian National Assembly, with all males 25 and older able to vote. The Assembly met for the first time on 22 May. The King and his ministers presented a draft constitution in which the king retained many of his old rights. The Assembly responded with the "Charte Waldeck", named after the left-liberal Benedikt Waldeck. It included an expanded list of fundamental rights, a  ('people's guard') responsible to Parliament and restrictions on feudal rights. The King declared to Camphausen that "he would never accept [it] under any conditions". On 9 November the King adjourned the Assembly and had it moved to Brandenburg an der Havel, ostensibly for its own safety. The next day Prussian troops under General von Wrangel occupied Berlin, essentially putting an end to revolutionary activity in the city.

1848 Constitution

On 5 December 1848 King Frederick William unilaterally enacted a constitution for the Kingdom of Prussia. Given that the revolution had failed and the King was once more in control, the 1848 Constitution was remarkably close to the liberal Charte Waldeck. It introduced universal male suffrage and kept most of the catalogue fundamental rights, including jury trials, freedom of speech, the press and assembly. On the other hand, it created an upper house for the nobility and had ministers responsible to the king, not the Parliament. The king had veto power over legislation and could dissolve Parliament at any time, which left him firmly in a position of power in spite of the Constitution's liberal elements.

1850 revision
The final article of the 1848 Constitution stated that "The present Constitution shall be subjected to revision … immediately after the first session of the Chambers." When the new Parliament met for the first time on 26 February 1849, it formally accepted the Constitution imposed by Frederick William the preceding December and then began work on its revision. Following disagreements with the King on certain points, Parliament was dissolved and not reconvened until August. It then went through the 1848 Constitution one article at a time and submitted its revisions to the King in mid-December. He responded with requests for a number changes, which Parliament accepted. The King promulgated the revision, the 1850 Constitution, on 31 January 1850.

Differences between the constitutions of 1848 and 1850

The chambers and voting
While the 1848 Constitution stated only that the first chamber should consist of 180 elected members (Art. 62 and 63), the 1850 revision in Article 62 added unelected members of the nobility, including royal princes of legal age, heads of the formerly immediate imperial houses and members whom the king appointed for life. In addition there were 90 members elected by direct vote and thirty members elected by the municipal councils from the larger cities. Dissolution of the first chamber applied only to the elected members. An 1853 amendment changed the makeup to members appointed by the king, with either the right of hereditary transmission or only for life.

Article 71 of the 1850 Constitution (replacing Art. 68 of the 1848 version) introduced the Prussian three-class franchise for elections to the second (lower) chamber. The system weighted votes depending on the amount of taxes paid and thus gave considerably more power to the wealthy. In spite of calls for its repeal that increased over the years, the three-class franchise remained in effect in Prussia until the fall of the German Empire in 1918.

Other significant changes
Note: in the references to the constitutional articles below, the first number refers to the 1848 Constitution, the second to the 1850 version. There is not always an article in the1850 Constitution that corresponds to any in the first document.
 the right to emigrate could be restricted based on the requirements for military service (Art. 10 / 11)
 the introduction of censorship was explicitly forbidden (Art. 24 / 27)
 political associations could be subjected to restrictions and temporary prohibitions through legislation (Art. 28 / 30)
 in the event of war, the king could summon the Landsturm (the reserve of all males from the ages of 15 to 60 who were capable of military service) (Art. 35 / 35)
 if either house of Parliament was dissolved, new elections were to be held within 60 days (up from 40 in the 1848 Constitution) and the houses convened within 90 days (up from 60) (Art. 49 / 51)
 conditions for a regency in case the king was underage or incapacitated were expanded in Articles 56–58 (Article 54 in the 1848 Constitution)
 draft finance laws and state budgets were to be submitted first to the second chamber; state budgets were to be approved or rejected in their entirety by the first chamber (Art. 60 / 62)
 heads of the provinces, districts and counties, instead of being appointed by the state government, were appointed by the king (Art. 104 / 105)
 review of the legal validity of duly promulgated royal decrees was made the responsibility of Parliament rather than the authorities (Art. 105 / 106)
 to amend the Constitution, each chamber had to pass the amendment by majority vote twice (instead of just once), with at least 21 days between the two ballots (Art. 106 / 107)
 the army was prohibited from swearing an oath to the Constitution (Art. 107 / 108)

Later History

Both when Prussia became part of the North German Confederation after the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and part of the German Empire five years later, following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the Constitution of 1850 remained in place. It was, however, amended numerous times.

Following World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Free State of Prussia, a part of the Weimar Republic, enacted a new, democratic constitution in 1920.

References

External links
 English Text
 Text of the Constitution

Law of Prussia
Prussia
1850 in law
1850 in Prussia
Constitutions of Germany
Politics of Prussia
1850 in Germany

Constitution of Prussia (1850)


The following are lists in a series of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (RTHLs) arranged by county as designated by the Texas Historical Commission and local county historical commissions in Texas. Purchase and display of a historical marker is a required component of the RTHL designation process.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Anderson-Callahan), containing the counties of Anderson, Andrews, Angelina, Aransas, Archer, Armstrong, Atascosa, Austin, Bailey, Bandera, Bastrop, Baylor, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Borden, Bosque, Bowie, Brazoria, Brazos, Brewster, Briscoe, Brooks, Brown, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Calhoun, and Callahan.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Cameron-Duval), containing the counties of Cameron, Camp, Carson, Cass, Castro, Chambers, Cherokee, Childress, Clay, Cochran, Coke, Coleman, Collin, Collingsworth, Colorado, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Cooke, Coryell, Cottle, Crane, Crockett, Crosby, Culberson, Dallam, Dallas, Dawson, DeWitt, Deaf Smith, Delta, Denton, Dickens, Dimmit, Donley, and Duval.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Eastland-Gray), containing the counties of Eastland, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Fayette, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Fort Bend, Franklin, Freestone, Frio, Gaines, Galveston, Garza, Gillespie, Glasscock, Goliad, Gonzales, and Gray.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Grayson-Hudspeth), containing the counties of Grayson, Gregg, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hale, Hall, Hamilton, Hansford, Hardeman, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Hartley, Haskell, Hays, Hemphill, Henderson, Hidalgo, Hill, Hockley, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Howard, and Hudspeth.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Hunt-Martin), containing the counties of Hunt, Hutchinson, Irion, Jack, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Johnson, Jones, Karnes, Kaufman, Kendall, Kenedy, Kent, Kerr, Kimble, King, Kinney, Kleberg, Knox, La Salle, Lamar, Lamb, Lampasas, Lavaca, Lee, Leon, Liberty, Limestone, Lipscomb, Live Oak, Llano, Loving, Lubbock, Lynn, Madison, Marion, and Martin.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Mason-Rusk), containing the counties of Mason, Matagorda, Maverick, McCulloch, McLennan, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Milam, Mills, Mitchell, Montague, Montgomery, Moore, Morris, Motley, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Newton, Nolan, Nueces, Ochiltree, Oldham, Orange, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Parmer, Pecos, Polk, Potter, Presidio, Rains, Randall, Reagan, Real, Red River, Reeves, Refugio, Roberts, Robertson, Rockwall, Runnels, and Rusk.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Sabine-Travis), containing the counties of  Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, San Patricio, San Saba, Schleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Shelby, Sherman, Smith, Somervell, Starr, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Swisher, Tarrant, Taylor, Terrell, Terry, Throckmorton, Titus, Tom Green, and Travis.

List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Trinity-Zavala), containing the counties of Trinity, Tyler, Upshur, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Ward, Washington, Webb, Wharton, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, Willacy, Williamson, Wilson, Winkler, Wise, Wood, Yoakum, Young, Zapata, and Zavala.

Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
Historic sites in Texas
Texas Historic Landmarks
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks


The Italian protectorate over Albania was established by the Kingdom of Italy during World War I in an effort to secure a de jure independent Albania under Italian control. It existed from 23 June 1917 until the summer of 1920.

History

The Kingdom of Italy occupied the port of Vlorë in December 1914, but had to withdraw after the Austrian-Hungarian invasion in late 1915–early 1916, and the fall of Durrës on 27 February 1916. In May 1916, the Italian XVI Corps, some 100,000 men under the command of General Settimio Piacentini, returned and occupied part of southern Albania by the autumn 1916, while the French army occupied Korçë and its surrounding areas on 29 November 1916. The Italian forces (in Gjirokastër) and French forces (in Korçë), according mainly to the development of the Balkans theatre, entered the area of former Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus (controlled by the Greek minority) in autumn 1916, after approval of the Triple Entente.

The establishment of the Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë was done on 10 December 1916, by French authorities with a protocol, according to which an autonomous province would be established on the territories of Korçë, Bilishti, Kolonja, Opar and Gora in eastern Albania.

On 12 December 1916, Italy asked for explanations from the Quai d'Orsay, through its ambassador, because the establishment of the Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë violated the Treaty of London. Austria-Hungary used French precedent in Korçë to justify the proclamation of independence of Albania under its protectorate on 3 January 1917, in Shkodra.

The Kingdom of Italy did the same when proclaiming independence of Albania under its protectorate on 23 June 1917, in Gjirokastra. General Giacinto Ferrero proclaimed on that day the Italian Protectorate and the next weeks occupied Ioannina in Epirus. Neither Great Britain nor France had been consulted beforehand, and they did not give any official recognition to the Italian Protectorate.

This Albanian republic under the leadership of Turhan Përmeti, protected by 100,000 soldiers of the Italian Army, adopted officially a red flag with a black eagle in the middle, but raised a storm of protests even in the Italian Parliament.

In autumn 1918, the Italians expanded their Protectorate (without adding anything officially to Albania) to areas of northern Greece (around Kastoria) and western Macedonia (around Bitola), conquered from the Bulgarians and Ottomans. On 25 September the Italian 35 Division reached and occupied Krusevo deep inside western Macedonia.

In October 1918, the Italian XVI Corpo d' Armata (nearly four divisions, with 2 Albanian volunteers battalions) conquered all north-central Albania from the Austrians: on 14 October Durrës, the next day Tirana and on 31 October Scutari; finally on 3 November Ulcinj and Bar in coastal Montenegro were taken.

In November 1918, when World War I finished, nearly all what is now contemporary Albania was under the Italian Protectorate. A Regency government was announced following the end of the war. The French expedition withdrew from Korçë in May 1920, resulting in the area being ceded to the Regency.

Since then and for nearly two years until summer 1920 the Italian Protectorate over Albania was administered by the Italian government: in a country that lacked nearly everything after centuries of Ottoman rule, were built  of new roads,  of new railroads,  of telegraph lines, 9 teleferics, a few hospitals and some modern administrative buildings.

After World War I

A delegation sent by a postwar Albanian National Assembly that met at Durrës in December 1918 defended Albanian interests at the Paris Peace Conference, but the conference denied Albania official representation. The National Assembly, anxious to keep Albania intact, expressed willingness to accept Italian protection and even an Italian prince as a ruler so long as it would mean Albania did not lose territory.

But in January 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, negotiators from France, Britain, Italy and Greece agreed to divide Albania among Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece as a diplomatic expedient aimed at finding a compromise solution to the territorial conflict between Italy and Yugoslavia. The deal gave the Valona territory and areas of south-central Albania to Italy.

This deal created huge anti-Italian resentment between many Albanians and in May 1920 the Italians (even because of demobilisation of their troops after World War I ended) withdrew to some important cities (Durazzo, Scutari, Tirane, Valona, Tepelani and Clisura) and their surrounding areas: subsequently they were forced to fight the Vlora War. The revolutionary movements  in Italy made the presence of the last 20,000 soldiers of the Italian Army in Albania basically impossible.

On August 2, 1920, the Albanian-Italian protocol was signed, upon which Italy retreated from Albania (maintaining only the island of Saseno). This put an end to Italian claims for Vlora and for a mandate over Albania, rescuing the territory of the Albanian state from further partition.

The desire to compensate for this retreat would be one of Benito Mussolini's main motives in invading Albania in 1939.

See also
 Albania during World War I
 Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë
 History of Albania
 Principality of Albania
 Italian invasion of Albania
 Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus

References

Bibliography
 Biagini, Antonello. Storia dell'Albania contemporanea. Bompiani editore. Milano, 2005
 Borgogni, Massimo. Tra continuità e incertezza. Italia e Albania (1914-1939). La strategia politico-militare dell'Italia in Albania fino all'Operazione "Oltre Mare Tirana" . 2007 Franco Angeli
 Bucciol, Eugenio. Albania: fronte dimenticato della Grande guerra. Nuova Dimensione Edizioni. Portogruaro, 2001
 Bushkoff, Leonard. Albania, history of. Collier's Encyclopedia. vol. 1. NY: P.F. Collier, L.P, 1996.
 Nigel, Thomas. Armies in the Balkans 1914-18. Osprey Publishing. Oxford, 2001
 Pearson, Owens. Albania in the twentieth century: a history (Volume 3). Publisher I.B.Tauris. London, 2004
 Steiner, Zara. The lights that failed: European international history, 1919-1933. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2005.
 Stickney, Edith. Southern Albania. Stanford University Press. Stanford, 1929

External links
 Italian Army in Albania in 1916 & 1917
 Italian Army in Albania in 1918

1910s in Italy
1910s in Albania
Albania–Italy relations
Former protectorates
States and territories established in 1917
States and territories disestablished in 1920
Former countries of the interwar period

Italian protectorate over Albania