History of Scandinavia

The history of Scandinavia is the history of the geographical region of Scandinavia and its peoples. The region is in northern Europe, and consists of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are at times, especially in English-speaking contexts, considered part of Scandinavia.
Pre-historic age.
Little evidence remains in Scandinavia of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, or the Iron Age except limited numbers of tools created from stone, bronze, and iron, some jewelry and ornaments, and stone burial cairns. One important collection that exists, however, is a widespread and rich collection of stone drawings known as petroglyphs.
Stone Age.
During the Weichselian glaciation, almost all of Scandinavia was buried beneath a thick permanent sheet of ice and the Stone Age was delayed in this region. Some valleys close to the watershed were indeed ice-free around 30 000 years B.P. Coastal areas were ice-free several times between 75 000 and 30 000 years B.P. and the final expansion towards the late Weichselian maximum took place after 28 000 years B.P.
As the climate slowly warmed up at the end of the ice age and deglaciation took place, nomadic hunters from central Europe sporadically visited the region, but it was not until around 12,000 BCE before permanent, but nomadic, habitation took root.
Upper Paleolithic.
As the ice receded, reindeer grazed on the flat lands of Denmark and southernmost Sweden. This was the land of the Ahrensburg culture, tribes who hunted over vast territories and lived in lavvus on the tundra. There was little forest in this region except for arctic white birch and rowan, but the taiga slowly appeared.
Mesolithic.
From c. 9,000 to 6,000 B.P. (Middle to Late Mesolithic), Scandinavia was populated by mobile or semi-sedentary groups about whom little is known. They subsisted by hunting, fishing and gathering. Approximately 200 burial sites have been investigated in the region from this period of 3,000 years.
In the 7th millennium BC, when the reindeer and their hunters had moved for northern Scandinavia, forests had been established in the land. The Maglemosian culture lived in Denmark and southern Sweden. To the north, in Norway and most of southern Sweden, lived the Fosna-Hensbacka culture, who lived mostly along the edge of the forest. The northern hunter/gatherers followed the herds and the salmon runs, moving south during the winters, moving north again during the summers. These early peoples followed cultural traditions similar to those practised throughout other regions in the far north – areas including modern Finland, Russia, and across the Bering Strait into the northernmost strip of North America.
During the 6th millennium BC, southern Scandinavia was covered in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. Fauna included aurochs, wisent, moose and red deer. The Kongemose culture was dominant in this time period. They hunted seals and fished in the rich waters. North of the Kongemose people lived other hunter-gatherers in most of southern Norway and Sweden called the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures, descendants of the Fosna and Hensbacka cultures. Near the end of the 6th millennium BC, the Kongemose culture was replaced by the Ertebølle culture in the south.
Neolithic.
During the 5th millennium BC, the Ertebølle people learned pottery from neighbouring tribes in the south, who had begun to cultivate the land and keep animals. They too started to cultivate the land, and by 3000 BC they became part of the megalithic Funnelbeaker culture. During the 4th millennium BC, these Funnelbeaker tribes expanded into Sweden up to Uppland. The Nøstvet and Lihult tribes learnt new technology from the advancing farmers (but not agriculture) and became the Pitted Ware cultures towards the end of the 4th millennium BC. These Pitted Ware tribes halted the advance of the farmers and pushed them south into southwestern Sweden, but some say that the farmers were not killed or chased away, but that they voluntarily joined the Pitted Ware culture and became part of them. At least one settlement appears to be mixed, the Alvastra pile-dwelling.
It is not known what language these early Scandinavians spoke, but towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, they were overrun by new tribes who many scholars think spoke Proto-Indo-European, the Battle-Axe culture. This new people advanced up to Uppland and the Oslofjord, and they probably provided the language that was the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages. They were cattle herders, and with them most of southern Scandinavia entered the Neolithic.
Nordic Bronze Age.
Even though Scandinavians joined the European Bronze Age cultures fairly late through trade, Scandinavian sites present rich and well-preserved objects made of wool, wood and imported Central European bronze and gold. During this period Scandinavia gave rise to the first known advanced civilization in this area following the Nordic Stone Age. The Scandinavians adopted many central European and Mediterranean symbols at the same time that they created new styles and objects. Mycenaean Greece, the Villanovan Culture, Phoenicia and Ancient Egypt have all been identified as possible sources of influence in Scandinavian artwork from this period. The foreign influence is believed to originate with amber trade, and amber found in Mycenaean graves from this period originates from the Baltic Sea. Several petroglyphs depict ships, and the large stone formations known as stone ships indicate that shipping played an important role in the culture. Several petroglyphs depict ships which could possibly be Mediterranean.
From this period there are many mounds and fields of petroglyphs, but their signification is long since lost. There are also numerous artifacts of bronze and gold. The rather crude appearance of the petroglyphs compared to the bronze works have given rise to the theory that they were produced by different cultures or different social groups. No written language existed in the Nordic countries during the Bronze Age.
The Nordic Bronze Age was characterized by a warm climate (which is compared to that of the Mediterranean), which permitted a relatively dense population, but it ended with a climate change consisting of deteriorating, wetter and colder climate (sometimes believed to have given rise to the legend of the Fimbulwinter) and it seems very likely that the climate pushed the Germanic tribes southwards into continental Europe. During this time there was Scandinavian influence in Eastern Europe. A thousand years later, the numerous East Germanic tribes that claimed Scandinavian origins (Burgundians, Goths and Heruls), as did the Lombards, rendered Scandinavia (Scandza) the name "womb of nations" in Jordanes' "Getica".
Pre-Roman Iron Age.
The Nordic Bronze Age ended with a deteriorating, colder and wetter climate. This period is known for being poor in archaeological finds.
This is also the period when the Germanic tribes became known to the Mediterranean world and the Romans. In 113–101 BC two Germanic tribes originating from Jutland, in modern-day Denmark, attacked the Roman Republic in what is today known as the Cimbrian War. These two tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons, initially inflicted the heaviest losses that Rome had suffered since the Second Punic War. The Cimbri and the Teutons were eventually defeated by the Roman legions.
Initially iron was valuable and was used for decoration. The oldest objects were needles, but swords and sickles are found as well. Bronze continued to be used during the whole period but was mostly used for decoration. The traditions were a continuity from the Nordic Bronze Age, but there were strong influences from the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. They continued with the Urnfield culture tradition of burning corpses and placing the remains in urns. During the last centuries, influences from the Central European La Tène culture spread to Scandinavia from northwestern Germany, and there are finds from this period from all the provinces of southern Scandinavia. From this time archaeologists have found swords, shieldbosses, spearheads, scissors, sickles, pincers, knives, needles, buckles, kettles, etc. Bronze continued to be used for torques and kettles, the style of which were a continuity from the Bronze Age. One of the most prominent finds is the Dejbjerg wagon from Jutland, a four-wheeled wagon of wood with bronze parts.
Roman Iron Age.
While many Germanic tribes sustained continued contact with the culture and military presence of the Roman Empire, much of Scandinavia existed on the most extreme periphery of the Latin world. With the exception of the passing references to the Swedes (Suiones) and the Geats (Gautoi), much of Scandinavia remained unrecorded by Roman authors.
In Scandinavia, there was a great import of goods, such as coins (more than 7,000), vessels, bronze images, glass beakers, enameled buckles, weapons, etc. Moreover, the style of metal objects and clay vessels was markedly Roman. Some objects appeared for the first time, such as shears and pawns.
There are also many bog bodies from this time in Denmark, Schleswig and southern Sweden. Together with the bodies, there are weapons, household wares and clothes of wool. Great ships made for rowing have been found from the 4th century in Nydam mosse in Schleswig. Many were buried without burning, but the burning tradition later regained its popularity.
Through the 5th century and 6th century, gold and silver became more common. Much of this can be attributed to the ransacking of the Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, from which many Scandinavians returned with gold and silver.
Germanic Iron Age.
The period succeeding the fall of the Roman Empire is known as the Germanic Iron Age, and it is divided into the early Germanic Iron and the late Germanic Iron Age, which in Sweden is known as the Vendel Age, with rich burials in the basin of Lake Mälaren. The early Germanic Iron Age is the period when the Danes appear in history, and according to Jordanes, they were of the same stock as the Swedes ("suehans", "suetidi") and had replaced the Heruls.
During the fall of the Roman empire, there was an abundance of gold that flowed into Scandinavia, and there are excellent works in gold from this period. Gold was used to make scabbard mountings and bracteates; notable examples are the Golden horns of Gallehus.
After the Roman Empire had disappeared, gold became scarce and Scandinavians began to make objects of gilded bronze, with decorations of interlacing animals in Scandinavian style. The early Germanic Iron Age decorations show animals that are rather faithful anatomically, but in the late Germanic Iron Age they evolve into intricate shapes with interlacing and interwoven limbs that are well known from the Viking Age.
In February 2020, Secrets of the Ice Program researchers discovered a 1,500-year-old Viking arrowhead  dating back to the Germanic Iron age and locked in a glacier in southern Norway caused by the climate change in the Jotunheimen Mountains. The arrowhead made of iron was revealed with its cracked wooden shaft and a feather, is 17 cm long and weighs just 28 grams.
Sami peoples.
Since prehistoric times, the Sami people of Arctic Europe have lived and worked in an area that stretches over the northern parts of the regions now known as Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. They have inhabited the northern arctic and sub-arctic regions of Fenno-Scandinavia and Russia for at least 5,000 years. The Sami are counted among the Arctic peoples and are members of circumpolar groups such as the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat.
Petroglyphs and archeological findings such as settlements dating from about 10,000 B.C. can be found in the traditional lands of the Sami. These hunters and gatherers of the late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic were named Komsa by the researchers as what they identified themselves as is unknown.
The Sami have been recognized as an indigenous people in Norway since 1990 according to ILO convention 169, and hence, according to international law, the Sami people in Norway are entitled special protection and rights.
Viking Age.
During the Viking Age, the Vikings (Scandinavian warriors and traders) raided, colonized and explored large parts of Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, as far west as Newfoundland.
The beginning of the Viking Age is commonly given as 793, when Vikings pillaged the important British island monastery of Lindisfarne, and its end is marked by the unsuccessful invasion of England attempted by Harald Hårdråde in 1066 and the Norman conquest.
Age of settlement.
The age of settlement began around 800 AD . The Vikings invaded and eventually settled in Scotland , England, Greenland , the Faroe Islands , Iceland , Ireland , Livonia , Normandy , the Shetland Islands, Sicily, Rus' and Vinland, on what is now known as the Island of Newfoundland . Swedish settlers were mostly present in Rus, Livonia, and other eastern regions while the Norwegians and the Danish were primarily concentrated in western and northern Europe . These eastern-traveling Scandinavian migrants were eventually known as Varangians ("væringjar", meaning "sworn men"),and according to the oldest Slavic sources , these varangians founded Kievan Rus, the major East European state prior to the Mongol invasions. The western-led warriors, eventually known as Vikings, left great cultural marks on regions such as French Normandy, England, and Ireland, where the city of Dublin was founded by Viking invaders. Iceland first became colonized in the late 9th century .
Relation with the Baltic Slavs.
Before and during this age, the Norsemen significantly intermixed with the Slavs. The Slavic and Viking cultures influenced each other: Slavic and Viking tribes were "closely linked, fighting one another, intermixing and trading". In the Middle Ages, a significant amount of ware was transferred from Slavic areas to Scandinavia, and Denmark was "a melting pot of Slavic and Scandinavian elements". The presence of Slavs in Scandinavia is "more significant than previously thought" although "the Slavs and their interaction with Scandinavia have not been adequately investigated". A grave of a warrior-woman dating to the 10th century in Denmark was long thought to belong to a Viking. However, new analyses revealed that the woman was a Slav from present-day Poland. The first king of the Swedes, Eric, was married to Gunhild, of the Polish House of Piast. Likewise, his son, Olof, fell in love with Edla, a Slavic woman, and took her as his "" (concubine). She bore him a son and a daughter: Emund the Old, King of Sweden, and Astrid, Queen of Norway. Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, England and Norway, was the son of a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland, possibly the former Polish queen of Sweden, wife of Eric.
Christianization.
Viking religious beliefs were heavily connected to Norse mythology. Vikings placed heavy emphasis on battle, honor and focused on the idea of Valhalla, a mythical home with the gods for fallen warriors.
Christianity in Scandinavia came later than most parts of Europe. In Denmark Harald Bluetooth Christianized the country around 980. The process of Christianization began in Norway during the reigns of Olaf Tryggvason (reigned 995 AD–c.1000 AD) and Olaf II Haraldsson (reigned 1015 AD–1030 AD). Olaf and Olaf II had been baptized voluntarily outside of Norway. Olaf II managed to bring English clergy to his country. Norway's conversion from the Norse religion to Christianity was mostly the result of English missionaries. As a result of the adoption of Christianity by the monarchy and eventually the entirety of the country, traditional shamanistic practices were marginalized and eventually persecuted. Völvas, practitioners of seid, a Scandinavian pre-Christian tradition, were executed or exiled under newly Christianized governments in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The Icelandic Commonwealth adopted Christianity in 1000 AD, after pressure from Norway. The "Goði"-chieftain Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði was instrumental in bringing this about.
Sweden required a little more time to transition to Christianity, with indigenous religious practices commonly held in localized communities well until the end of the eleventh century. A brief Swedish civil war ensued in 1066 primarily reflecting the divisions between practitioners of indigenous religions and advocates of Christianity; by the mid-twelfth century, the Christian faction appeared to have triumphed; the once resistant center of Uppsala became the seat of the Swedish Archbishop in 1164. The Christianization of Scandinavia occurred nearly simultaneously with the end of the Viking era. The adoption of Christianity is believed to have aided in the absorption of Viking communities into the greater religious and cultural framework of the European continent.
Middle Ages (1100–1600).
Union.
The Kalmar Union (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish: "Kalmarunionen") was a series of personal unions (1397–1520) that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden under a single monarch. The countries had given up their sovereignty but not their independence, and diverging interests (especially Swedish dissatisfaction over the Danish and Holsteinish dominance) gave rise to a conflict that would hamper it from the 1430s until its final dissolution in 1523.
The Kalmar War in 1611–1613 was the last serious (although possibly unrealistic) attempt by a Danish King (Christian IV) to re-create the Kalmar Union by force. However, The Kalmar War ended with a minor Danish victory and not the total defeat of the Swedes. No more Danish attempts would be made to re-create the Kalmar Union following this war.
Reformation.
The Protestant Reformation came to Scandinavia in the 1530s, and Scandinavia soon became one of the heartlands of Lutheranism. Catholicism almost completely vanished in Scandinavia, except for a small population in Denmark.
17th century.
Thirty Years War.
The Thirty Years' War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the Central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire but also involving most of the major continental powers. Although it was from its outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the self-preservation of the Habsburg dynasty was also a central motive. The Danes and then Swedes intervened at various points to protect their interests.
The Danish intervention began when Christian IV (1577–1648) the King of Denmark-Norway, himself a Lutheran, helped the German Protestants by leading an army against the Holy Roman Empire, fearing that Denmark's sovereignty as a Protestant nation was being threatened. The period began in 1625 and lasted till 1629. Christian IV had profited greatly from his policies in northern Germany (Hamburg had been forced to accept Danish sovereignty in 1621, and in 1623 the Danish heir apparent was made Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Verden. In 1635 he became Administrator of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen too.) As an administrator, Christian IV had done remarkably well, obtaining for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe, paid for by the Øresund toll and extensive war reparations from Sweden. It also helped that the French regent Cardinal Richelieu was willing to pay for a Danish incursion into Germany. Christian IV invaded at the head of a mercenary army of 20,000 men, but the Danish forces were severely beaten, and Christian IV had to sign an ignominious defeat, the first in a series of military setbacks to weaken his kingdom.
The Swedish intervention began in 1630 and lasted until 1635. Some within Ferdinand II's court believed that Wallenstein wanted to take control of the German princes and thus gain influence over the emperor. Ferdinand II dismissed Wallenstein in 1630. He later recalled him after Gustavus Adolphus attacked the empire and prevailed in a number of significant battles.
Gustavus Adolphus, like Christian IV before him, came to aid the German Lutherans to forestall Catholic aggression against their homeland and to obtain economic influence in the German states around the Baltic Sea. Also like Christian IV, Gustavus Adolphus was subsidized by Richelieu, the Chief Minister of King Louis XIII of France, and by the Dutch. From 1630–1634, they drove the Catholic forces back and regained much of the occupied Protestant lands.
Rise of Sweden and the Swedish Empire.
The Swedish rise to power began under the rule of Charles IX. During the Ingrian War Sweden expanded its territories eastward. Several other wars with Poland, Denmark-Norway, and German countries enabled further Swedish expansion, although there were some setbacks such as the Kalmar War. Sweden began consolidating its empire. Several other wars followed soon after including the Northern Wars and the Scanian War. Denmark suffered many defeats during this period. Finally under the rule of Charles XI the empire was consolidated under a semi-absolute monarchy.
18th century.
Great Northern War.
The Great Northern War was fought between a coalition of Russia, Denmark-Norway and Saxony-Poland (from 1715 also Prussia and Hanover) on one side and Sweden on the other side from 1700 to 1721. It started by a coordinated attack on Sweden by the coalition in 1700 and ended 1721 with the conclusion of the Treaty of Nystad and the Stockholm treaties. As a result of the war, Russia supplanted Sweden as the dominant power on the Baltic Sea and became a major player in European politics.
Colonialism.
Both Sweden and Denmark-Norway maintained a number of colonies outside Scandinavia starting in the 17th century lasting until the 20th century. Greenland, Iceland and The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic were Norwegian dependencies that were incorporated into the united kingdom of Denmark-Norway. In the Caribbean, Denmark started a colony on St Thomas in 1671, St John in 1718, and purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. Denmark also maintained colonies in India, Tranquebar and Frederiksnagore. The Danish East India Company operated out of Tranquebar. Sweden also chartered a Swedish East India Company. During its heyday, the Danish and Swedish East India Companies imported more tea than the British East India Company – and smuggled 90% of it into Britain where it could be sold at a huge profit. Both East India Companies folded over the course of the Napoleonic Wars. Sweden had the short lived colony New Sweden in Delaware in North America during the 1630s and later acquired the islands of Saint-Barthélemy (1785–1878) and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
19th century.
Napoleonic Wars.
Scandinavia was divided during the Napoleonic Wars. Denmark-Norway tried to remain neutral but became involved in the conflict after British demands to turn over the navy. Britain thereafter attacked the Danish fleet at the battle of Copenhagen (1801) and bombarded the city during the second battle of Copenhagen (1807). Most of the Danish fleet was captured following the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. The bombardment of Copenhagen led to an alliance with France and outright war with Britain, whose navy blockaded Denmark-Norway and severely impeded communication between the two kingdoms and caused a famine in Norway. Sweden, allied with Britain at the time, seized the opportunity to invade Norway in 1807 but was beaten back. The war with Britain was fought at sea in a series of battles, Battle of Zealand Point, Battle of Lyngør, and Battle of Anholt, by the remnants of the Danish fleet in the ensuing years, as the Danes tried to break the British blockade, in what became known as the Gunboat War. After the war, Denmark was forced to cede Heligoland to Britain.
Sweden joined the Third Coalition against Napoleon in 1805, but the coalition fell apart after the peace at Tilsit in 1807, forcing Russia to become the ally of France. Russia invaded Finland in 1808 and forced Sweden to cede that province at the peace of Fredrikshamn in 1809. The inept government of King Gustav IV Adolf led to his deposition and banishment. A new constitution was introduced, and his uncle Charles XIII was enthroned. Since he was childless, Sweden chose as his successor the commander in chief of the Norwegian army, Prince Christian August of Augustenborg. However, his sudden death in 1810 forced the Swedes to look for another candidate, and once more they chose an enemy officer. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, would be named the next king. Baron Karl Otto Mörner, an obscure member of the Diet, was the one who initially extended the offer of the Swedish crown to the young soldier. Bernadotte was originally one of Napoleon's eighteen Marshals.
Sweden decided to join the alliance against France in 1813 and was promised Norway as a reward. After the battle of Leipzig in October 1813, Bernadotte abandoned the pursuit of Napoleon and marched against Denmark, where he forced the king of Denmark-Norway to conclude the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January 1814. Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden, but Denmark retained the Norwegian Atlantic possessions of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. However, the treaty of Kiel never came into force. Norway declared its independence, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected Prince Christian Frederik as king. After a short war with Sweden, Norway had to concede to a personal union with Sweden at the Convention of Moss. King Christian Frederik abdicated and left for Denmark in October, and the Norwegian Storting (parliament) elected the Swedish king as King of Norway, after having enacted such amendments to the constitution as were necessary to allow for the union with Sweden.
Sweden and Norway.
On 14 January 1814, at the Treaty of Kiel, the king of Denmark-Norway ceded Norway to the king of Sweden. The terms of the treaty provoked widespread opposition in Norway. The Norwegian vice-roy and heir to the throne of Denmark-Norway, Christian Frederik took the lead in a national uprising, assumed the title of regent, and convened a constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll. On 17 May 1814 the Constitution of Norway was signed by the assembly, and Christian Frederik was elected as king of independent Norway.
The Swedish king rejected the premise of an independent Norway and launched a military campaign on 27 July 1814, with an attack on the Hvaler islands and the city of Fredrikstad. The Swedish army was superior in numbers, was better equipped and trained, and was led by one of Napoleon's foremost generals, the newly elected Swedish crown prince, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Battles were short and decisively won by the Swedes. Armistice negotiations concluded on 14 August 1814.
In the peace negotiations, Christian Frederik agreed to relinquish claims to the Norwegian crown and return to Denmark if Sweden would accept the democratic Norwegian constitution and a loose personal union. On 4 November 1814, the Norwegian Parliament adopted the constitutional amendments required to enter a union with Sweden, and elected king Charles XIII as king of Norway.
Following growing dissatisfaction with the union in Norway, the parliament unanimously declared its dissolution on 7 June 1905. This unilateral action met with Swedish threats of war. A plebiscite on 13 August confirmed the parliamentary decision. Negotiations in Karlstad led to agreement with Sweden on 23 September and mutual demobilization. Both parliaments revoked the Act of Union 16 October, and the deposed king Oscar II of Sweden renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne and recognized Norway as an independent kingdom on 26 October. The Norwegian parliament offered the vacant throne to Prince Carl of Denmark, who accepted after another plebiscite had confirmed the monarchy. He arrived in Norway on 25 November 1905, taking the name Haakon VII.
Finnish War.
The Finnish War was fought between Sweden and Russia from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, Finland which formed the eastern third of Sweden proper became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within Imperial Russia. Finland remained as a part of Russian Empire until 1917 at which point it became independent. Another notable effect was the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and a new royal house, that of Bernadotte.
Industrialization.
Industrialization began in the mid 19th century in Scandinavia. In Denmark industrialization began in, and was confined to, Copenhagen until the 1890s, after which smaller towns began to grow rapidly. Denmark remained primarily agricultural until well into the 20th century, but agricultural processes were modernized and processing of dairy and meats became more important than the export of raw agricultural products.
Industrialization of Sweden experienced a boom during the First World War. The construction of a railway connecting southern Sweden and the northern mines was of primary importance.
Scandinavism.
The modern use of the term Scandinavia rises from the Scandinavist political movement, which was active in the middle of the 19th century, chiefly between the First war of Schleswig (1848–1850), in which Sweden and Norway contributed with considerable military force, and the Second war of Schleswig (1864) when the Riksdag of the Estates denounced the King's promises of military support for Denmark.
Immigration.
Many Scandinavians emigrated to Canada, the United States, Australia, Africa, and New Zealand during the later nineteenth century. The main wave of Scandinavian emigration occurred in the 1860s lasting until the 1880s, although substantial emigration continued until the 1930s. The vast majority of emigrants left from the countryside in search of better farming and economic opportunities. Together with Finland and Iceland, almost a third of the population left in the eighty years after 1850. Part of the reason for the large exodus was the increasing population caused by falling death rates, which increased unemployment. Norway had the largest percentage of emigrants and Denmark the least.
Between 1820 and 1920 just over two million Scandinavians settled in the United States. One million came from Sweden, 300,000 from Denmark, and 730,000 from Norway. The figure for Norway represents almost 80% of the national population in 1800. The most popular destinations in North America were Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Michigan, the Canadian prairies and Ontario.
Monetary Union.
The Scandinavian Monetary Union was a monetary union formed by Sweden and Denmark on 5 May 1873, by fixing their currencies against the gold standard at par to each other. Norway, which was in union with Sweden entered the union two years later, in 1875 by pegging its currency to gold at the same level as Denmark and Sweden (.403 grams ). The monetary union was one of the few tangible results of the Scandinavian political movement of the 19th century.
The union provided fixed exchange rates and stability in monetary terms, but the member countries continued to issue their own separate currencies. Even if it was not initially foreseen, the perceived security led to a situation where the formally separate currencies were accepted on a basis of "as good as" the legal tender virtually throughout the entire area.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought an end to the monetary union. Sweden abandoned the tie to gold on 2 August 1914, and without a fixed exchange rate the free circulation came to an end.
20th century.
First World War.
All three Scandinavian countries remained neutral throughout the First World War. The war did have a significant impact on the economy of the area, primarily as a result of the British blockade of Germany. However, they were able to work around that with trade agreement with Britain. Norway's large merchant marine delivered vital supplies to Britain but suffered huge losses in ships and sailors because of indiscriminate attack by the German navy. Denmark called up much of its military, but Germany still violated Danish sovereignty to some extent, for example by mining the Øresund. A relatively large number of ethnic Danes from southern Jutland fought in the German army.
Development of the welfare state.
All three countries developed social welfare states in the early to mid-20th century. This came about partially because of the domination of the social-democrats in Sweden and Denmark, and the Labour party in Norway.
Second World War.
Near the beginning of World War II in late 1939, both the Allies and the Axis Powers feared their enemies gaining power in Scandinavia. Britain believed Germany was planning to invade and made counter plans for its own invasion. At the same time, Germany feared that Britain could gain bases in the area and claimed they suspected an outright invasion. In addition, Germany highly valued the Swedish iron ore they received through Norway and could not afford to lose it. They also desired Norway for its ice-free ports. This made it a primary target, with Denmark a secondary goal mainly needed for facilitating the Norwegian invasion. After planning for months, Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway the same day, 9 April 1940, days before Britain planned to invade.
The nations reacted quite differently. Denmark surrendered two hours after invasion, having lost just sixteen men. They sought to avoid civilian casualties and receive favourable treatment from Germany. Norway however, refused to give in and fought valiantly and with the full strength of her limited and badly prepared forces. The Western allies sent military assistance, but the campaign was not effectively run. By 10 June 1940, Norway's official military had surrendered to the attackers, while King Haakon VII and his legal government fled to exile in Britain.
Denmark's strategy proved the more beneficial in the short run. It was one of the factors that led Germany to grant the Danes a high degree of autonomy. Another reason was that they had no real agenda in Denmark. After invading, they simply did not want to relinquish it, seeing it as a permanent part of their empire. Also, Danes were considered fellow Nordics and Aryans by Nazi ideologues, which further helped the country. For all these reasons, Denmark was able to retain their parliament, king, and much of their normal domestic function. However, bitterness towards Germany grew, and small sabotages directed against Germany became commonplace. Germany eventually reacted by eliminating Denmark's representative government and imposing martial law.
Norway was treated much more harshly throughout their occupation. Opposition parties were eliminated and "Nasjonal Samling" ("National Unity"), the Norwegian fascist political party, appointed all government officials. Vidkun Quisling was installed as Minister-President, a puppet to Berlin's High Command. Labor unions could only exist if they accepted Nazi control. These repressive measures ensured that the cooperation was small. About ten percent supported the Nazi party. Nevertheless, there was a hostile relationship, with an occupation force of almost one German for every ten Norwegians.
Denmark and Norway were also unlike in their cooperation with Germany's genocidal policy. Norwegian police, controlled by the Quisling government, aided in the capture of Norwegian Jews in 1942. However, brave Norwegians managed to save over half of the Jewish population from Nazi death camps and help them to escape to safety in Sweden, even though they ran the risk of being severely punished for aiding Jews. The Danish Jews avoided German persecution until 1943, and Denmark was thus better prepared when the Germans struck. Danes were notable for their devoted efforts to protect Danish Jews. More than 96% of the Jewish population was boated to safety in Sweden, while others found refuge with Christian Danish families and organizations.
Alone out of the three Scandinavian countries, Sweden was not invaded and remained nominally neutral during the war. They successfully cultivated peace with the Germans, supplying them with needed raw materials. The Swedish government was very careful to avoid inflaming the Nazis, going so far as to persuade newspaper editors to censor articles, and letting the Nazis move supplies through Sweden and into Norway all the way up to 1943. However, they would occasionally aid the Allies. They granted the Jews that escaped from Denmark asylum and gave notable aid to Finland during the Winter War.
Post-war.
After the war, all of the Scandinavian countries agreed that some form of mutual defense policy was necessary. They began to discuss a Scandinavian defence union. The three Scandinavian countries would, if they had entered into an alliance, have remained separate sovereign countries but acted as a single bloc in foreign policy and security issues. The proposed union was being discussed by a joint Scandinavian committee during the winter of 1948–1949, but the Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, and preparations for a western alliance that would result in the North Atlantic Treaty overshadowed the effort. When it became known that the western alliance would not be able to supply the Scandinavian countries with armaments before meeting their own pressing needs, this issue ultimately proved to be the turning point for Norway, which resigned from the talks. Denmark was still willing to enter into an alliance with Sweden, but the Swedes saw few advantages in this and the proposal fell. Norway and Denmark subsequently became signatory parties of the North Atlantic Treaty and members of NATO. Sweden remained neutral after a heated debate.
European integration.
The Nordic countries established the Nordic Council in 1952 and the Nordic passport union two years later.
After a 1972 referendum, Denmark became the first Scandinavian member of the European Economic Community, which later paved the way for the EU, in 1973. Sweden joined the EU in 1995; after the fall of the Soviet Union, Sweden felt it could do so without being provocative. Norway remains outside the European Union to this day after referendums on membership in 1972 and 1994, although it is a signatory of the Schengen treaty and a member of the European Economic Area. None of the Scandinavian countries (except Finland) have joined the Euro, membership being rejected by referendum in both Denmark and Sweden. Denmark voted no to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, but reversed the decision after negotiating opt-outs.


Christian Quix

Christian Quix (8 October 1773, Hoensbroek – 13 January 1844, Aachen) was a Roman Catholic priest, heimatforscher and from 1833 the director of the Stadtbibliothek Aachen, the city library of Aachen.
Life.
The son of a typical tenant farming family from the Dutch province of Limburg, after his abitur he pursued a theological career. He entered the Carmelite order in 1792 and was ordained priest in 1795. However, the abolition of the monasteries in the French department of Roer cut his employment prospects and he left the order to work as a private tutor. From 1806 until early retirement due to deafness in 1823 he was appointed to what is now the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium in Aachen, teaching ancient languages, history and natural history and developing his own knowledge of these topics. After 1823 he devoted himself to research on local history, gathering documents and archival materials from various monasteries and offices, evaluating them and writing works on them.


Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria

Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria (Linz, 14 June 1529 – 24 January 1595, Innsbruck) was ruler of Further Austria and since 1564 Imperial count of Tirol. The son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, he was married to Philippine Welser in his first marriage. In his second marriage to Anna Juliana Gonzaga, he was the father of Anna of Tyrol, future Holy Roman Empress.
Life account.
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was the second son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. He was a younger brother of Emperor Maximilian II. At the behest of his father, he was put in charge of the administration of Bohemia in 1547. He also led the campaign against the Turks in Hungary in 1556.
In 1557 he was secretly married to Philippine Welser, daughter of a patrician from Augsburg, with whom he had several children. The marriage was only accepted by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1559 under the condition of secrecy. The children were to receive the name "of Austria" but would only be entitled to inherit if the House of Habsburg became totally extinct in the male line, and thus the marriage had many qualities of a morganatic marriage. The sons born of this marriage received the title Margrave of Burgau, an ancient Habsburg possession in Further Austria. The younger of the sons, who survived their father, later received the princely title of "Fürst zu Burgau".
After his father's death in 1564, Ferdinand became the ruler of Tirol and other Further Austrian possessions under his father's will. However, he remained governor of Bohemia in Prague until 1567 according to the wishes of his brother Maximilian II.
In his own lands, Ferdinand made sure that the Catholic counter-reformation would prevail. He also was instrumental in promoting the Renaissance in central Europe and was an avid collector of art. He accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, making Ambras Castle Innsbruck the oldest museum in the world, and as the only Renaissance Kunstkammer of its kind to have been preserved at its original location, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle Innsbruck represents an unrivalled cultural monument. The collection was started during Ferdinand's time in Bohemia and he subsequently moved it to Tyrol. In particular, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities, the gallery of portraits, and the collection of armor were very expensive, leading Ferdinand to incurred a high level of debt. Part of collections remained in Innsbruck, and part ultimately was moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
After the death of his wife Philippine in 1580, he married Anna Caterina Gonzaga, a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, in 1582.
Archduke Ferdinand died on 24 January 1595. Since his sons from the first marriage were not entitled to the inheritance, and the second produced only surviving daughters, Tirol was reunified with the other Habsburg lands. His daughter from the Mantuan marriage to Anna Caterina (later Anna Juliana) became Holy Roman Empress Anna, consort of Emperor Mathias, who received his Further Austrian inheritance.
Children.
He and his first wife Philippine Welser were parents of four children:
On 14 May 1582, Ferdinand married his niece Anna Caterina Gonzaga. She was a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, and Eleonora of Austria, younger sister of Ferdinand. They were parents to three daughters:
He had at least two illegitimate children:
With Anna von Obrizon:
With Johanna Lydl von Mayenburg:


Castle and Barony of Robertland

The Castle and Barony of Robertland (NS 4428 4693) is located near Stewarton, off the B769 road, in the old district of Cunninghame, Parish of Stewarton, and now part of East Ayrshire, Scotland.
History.
Robertland castle and barony.
Robertland Castle, in the barony of that name, was held by a cadet branch of the Cunninghames and is now a ruin with a few stone features visible. Timothy Pont records the name as 'Over Robertland' in the 17th century and states that the castle is "entirely removed." In 1800 the remaining stones from this tower were used to build the walls of the walled garden at Robertland House, across the Swinzie Burn. This feature still exists (2009).
The old castle had been a massive square structure six storeys high. Cattle and horses were accommodated on the ground floor, the servants on the second, and the family occupied the upper storeys. This defensive keep was surrounded by a moat which could be easily flooded by the nearby Swinsey Burn.
The Montgomeries are believed to have burnt the castle down following the murder of the 4th Earl of Eglinton at Stewarton in 1586.
In 1962 the RCAHMS visited and recorded that the castle and its courtyard remnants stood on the steep, natural, South bank of the Swinzie Burn, with steep slopes on all sides. The whole length of the retaining South wall was discernible, about 1.6m wide. The castle interior was thought to be divided into two compartments by an earth-and-stone bank 3.0m wide and 0.7m high. A low bank to the west, 2.0m wide and 0.3m high, may have been the course of the West wall of the castle. The retaining East wall of the courtyard was entire and stood approximately 0.5m in height and 1.6m thick. Ditches on the South and West sides of the castle were considered to be natural.
Many carved stones have been recovered from the moat and are preserved in the wall surrounding the garden. These stones include a Gargoyle, a rounded projectile of sandstone, and also a stone with a mason's mark. The garden wall has a stone with the date 1597 and the Latin sentence, "Vita post fine eraverit" (There will be life after the end).
In the gable of the home farm are the letters D.M.C. and apparently the date 1018. A dovecot was a feature of the mansion house outbuildings. The estate had been enclosed with hedges and ditches in about 1764.
In 1607 Over, Nether Castleton and Fulshaw were part of the estate of Robertland, being held by David Cunninghame, his son Sir David, and in 1628 his son, also David Cunninghame. Over Lochrig (sic) near Stewarton was at one time a part of the estate. In 1628 Waterland in the Parish of Dunlop was part of the estate.
In 1770 the lands and Barony were sold, including the Superiority of Halket, Hazelbank and Water-Land.
Robertland house and estate.
Alexander Kerr, a Stewartonian tobacco entrepreneur, purchased Robertland in around 1813, built the present house in 1820 and after his death his son John James inherited and leased Robertland to a series of tenants.
Robertson records that in 1823 "the remarkably lofty house of six stories has lately been demolished". Sir William Cunninghame of Fairlie is at this time designated as of 'Fairlie and Robertland'.
Pigot gives Alexander Kerr Esq. or Moorpark, merchant in Glasgow, as resident at Robertland in 1837, having purchased Robertland and Haysmuir Farm in around 1813. A native of Stewarton, Kerr had spent some years in America, and he was one of the wealthy and influential 'Tobacco Lords.' He was married to Diana Barr (born 31 January 1786 & died 9 June 1868, aged 65) and he lived from 22 March 1775 to 5 May 1847, dying at the age of 73 and buried at the Laigh Kirk in Stewarton.
The dates and descriptions suggest that the 'lofty house of six storeys' was built on the north side of the Swinzie Burn after the old castle on the south side was demolished, and it was in turn demolished when the present house of circa 1820 was built.
The present-day Robertland House (2009) was designed in 1820 by David Hamilton, who also designed Dunlop House. Hamilton's acted as architect to the estate owner, Alexander Kerr. It has a pediment, pilaster terminated windows in an otherwise standard facade.
Alexander Kerr was succeeded by his son, Mr John James Kerr, in 1847. Others to occupy the house after him were: Mr John Mcintyre, iron merchant of Glasgow; Mr Thomas Mcintyre MP of Sorn Castle; Mr Wallace Fairweather JP, DL of Mearns Castle and Mr Service of Glasgow. They were tenants of the house until Mr George Muir, JP of Howard Street, Kilmarnock purchased the estate from the Trustees of Mr J.J. Kerr after the mansion had been damaged by fire in 1914. It was totally renovated, and modernised, resulting in the house as it is today.
The estate was put up for sale in 1913, consisting of , with as woodland and as moss, 26 farms were present, and shooting rights were held for Glenouther Moor. Nether Robertland, Fulshaw, Clonherb, Broadmoss, Cauldhame, Braehead, Hairshaw, Lintbrae, Overhill, Burnfoot, Pokelly (East & West), Clunch (High & Low), Derclabboch and others were part of the Robertland Estate at the time of the sale.
One of the better known occupants of the house was Dr John Cunningham, who enjoyed the annual visits of the townspeople to the estate. It was Cunningham's descendants who gifted the Cunningham-Watt Park to Stewarton.
Robertland was owned by Alan Burns Williamson, Baron Robertland in 2004. Sir Edward Hunter-Blair, 8th Baronet "married" Jonet Clemency Wilson Reid of Robertland daughter of David Wilson Reid of Robertland, Baron of Robertland and Archivist of Glasgow University and his wife Diana Rosamond Angell secretary of the Baronetage of Scotland (1973–1997). The present owner from February 2005 has been Brian Douglas Parsons of Robertland, Baron of Ormiston and of Robertland.
Access.
An old road also crossed the Annick Water on a bridge near the site called the 'castle' in the Templehouse/Darlington area of Stewarton here and ran up to Robertland Castle and Nether Robertland on the East side of the river; John Thomson's map of 1832 is the last to show this road and the lack of a driveway down from the Old Glasgow Road. The access on the East side of the river no longer exists and the driveway runs down from a gatehouse on the Old Glasgow Road, and over the Annick Water by the Robertland Bridge.
Robertland and the suffragettes.
On Friday, 12 March 1914 as the house was empty and awaiting a buyer, two suffragettes broke in through a conservatory window and set the building alight. The Fire Brigade had much trouble obtaining water and the front was burnt out. The rear wing and outbuildings were saved and the front was rebuilt.
The suffragettes left two postcards indicating that this was done as revenge for acts carried out against Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and to help force the church to act independently against the state on this issue of votes for women (Milligan). The footprints were followed through the snow towards Fulshaw where they had parked a car and made good their escape towards Glasgow. The event caught the national press at the time.
The lairds of Robertland.
David Cunninghame of Bartonholme was the ancestor of this branch of the Cunninghame family. He was the only son of the second marriage in 1499 (to Dame Marion of Auchinleck), of William Cunninghame of Craigends.
In 1526 James V gave Robertland to Henry Kempt, a favourite, however the lands were in the ownership of Lord Semple by 1556.
David Cunninghame of Robertland, married to Margaret Cunninghame, took part in the slaying of Hugh, Earl of Eglinton at the Annick Ford and was exiled to Denmark. He was pardoned on the occasion of the marriage of King James VI and Anne of Denmark, a stone in the garden over the doorway bears the Royal Arms of Scotland and commemorates this wedding. The lady of Lainshaw who was central to the assassination, Margaret Cunninghame, was originally from the Cunninghame stronghold of Aiket Castle; David Cunninghame of Robertland was married to one of her sisters.
The son of this David, also a David Cunninghame of Robertland, was Master of the king's Works in Scotland after the death of William Schaw. He may have been an architect and followed the court of James VI to England, having first been knighted in 1604 and then made Surveyor to the Works in England between 1604 and 1606. Sir James Murray of Kilbaberton replaced him in 1607. Sir David Cunninghame was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1630 and his son was a Commissioner of Supply. Diana Cunninghame was an only daughter of another Sir David. She married Thomas Cochrane of Polkelly in the mid 17th century and much of the estate was sold at around this time.
In 1672 Alexander Cunninghame inherited Robertland; he married the heiress of John Cunninghame of Kilmarnock, fourth son of the 7th Earl of Glencairn. Alexander had three children, David, Alexander and Jean (married Alexander Forrester). Sir William Cunninghame of Auchinskeith (now Dallars) acquired the property through marriage to Margaret Fairlie of Fairlie in the 18th century.
In July 1616 William, Lord Kilmaurs, conveyed "the lands of Coktress, the manorplace of Kilmaurs, the Waird, Quhatfauld, Bathe, Jakisthorn, etc.," to David Cunninghame of Robertland. and the property was in use by William Logan, the Robertland Estate Factor, when a series of letters were written here from May 1774 to 1784.
The lairds of Robertland, like their fellow lairds at Caldwell, Giffordland, Lyne and elsewhere, kept a town house in Irvine.
Robert Burns at Robertland.
Robertland was the Ayrshire home of Sir James Hunter Blair, who was the son of an Ayr merchant, and changed his name, adding 'Blair' upon his marriage. He was Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1784–1786 and entertained Robert Burns at his Edinburgh home and gave him assistance. Burns refers to him in his poem, "Elegy on the death of Sir James Hunter Blair."
Burns also visited Robertland and is said to have revealed the identity of Tam O'Shanter as being Douglas Graham during a visit to the house, saying "Tam! It was none else than the guid man of Shanter". John Smith of Swindridgemuir relates in a letter of 1829 that he was present at a social occasion at Robertland, hosted by Sir William Cunningham at which Robert Burns was present and a discussion took place about the identity of Tam o'Shanter during which the poet revealed that one Douglas Grahame was the individual upon whom Tam was modelled. Sir William Cunninghame of Auchinskeith (now Dallars) acquired the property through marriage to Margaret Fairlie of Fairlie and he also invited Robert Burns to Robertland. The Lady 'C', referred to in letter of 3 April 1786 to Robert Aitken in Ayr, may have been Lady Cunninghame. Burns wrote to Sir William at Robertland in 1789.
Burns was researching the origin of the song 'The Lass of Peaty's Mill' and during a visit to Robertland Sir William Cunninghame of Robertland told the story that the Earl of Loudoun was out walking with his son and the poet Allan Ramsay, at a place called 'Patie's Mill', when they were all taken by the beauty of a young country girl who was working the hay. The earl commented to his companions that 'she would be a fine theme for a song' and Allan Ramsay quickly composed this song in memory of the event.
It is thought that Robert Burnes, Uncle to the poet and latterly a resident in Stewarton, was the Robertland estate Land Steward.
The murder of the 4th Earl of Eglinton.
George Robertson gives a 'traditional' version of the death of the earl, in which Cunninghame of Clonbeith Castle is stated as being an accessory, caught and killed in Hamilton. The earl is said to have been on his way to a visit to the laird of Robertland Castle, but stops first for refreshment at Lainshaw Castle. The Laird of Lainshaw, a Montgomerie, tries to dissuade him from continuing his journey, but to no avail and on his way back from Robertland he is met and murdered by Cunninghame of Aiket Castle at a place called the Windy-path in Stewarton. He was shot and although dying he was able to stay in the saddle until he reached the Annick Ford where he fell from his horse and expired immediately. The Windy-path has been called the 'Mourning or weeping-path' since that day and is marked as such on the OS maps.
Natural history.
James Forrest of Mid Lambroughton was a noted botanist and he recorded the rare Adder's tongue Fern in the Swinzie Burn glen at Robertland in the 1920s.
The Stewarton Flower, so named due to its local abundance and recorded as such by the Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers, is otherwise known as Pink Purslane ("Claytonia sibirica"), found in damp areas. The plant was introduced from its native North America, quite possibly at the Robertland Estate.
Micro-history.
The origins of the name are not known, however the spelling is consistent and it may be simply 'Robert's Lands'. The name Swinzie and Sinzie may relate; the latter being Scots for a feature that cuts between two others, as does the burn, cutting a glen through the hillside.
In 1670 Sir Alexander Cunninghame had some of his horses seized for payment of a debt and brought to Irvine cross to be sold. Sir Alexander had complained to the Earl of Eglinton who was Bailie of Cunninghame without success, so he got together a party of twenty men, well mounted, with swords, pistols, and plate sleeves and went to Irvine to recover his property. Alexander Kennedy had threatened some of the crowd with his gun and was knocked off his horse by the townsfolk. John Reid, a towns officer emerged from the tolbooth with his halbert and attacked Kennedy, who died nine days later. Several shots were fired before Robertland's party rode off. John Reid was not punished for his actions.
In the Stewarton Laigh Kirk graveyard is an extraordinary tombstone memorial to Jane Watt, the spouse of Andrew Picken of Robertland, who died in 1857. The tombstone is horizontal, at least by and made of cast-iron.
A Nether Robertland mill existed in Stewarton and a Robertland Brewery in Kilmarnock.
The Queen Victoria Jubilee was celebrated in a field at Robertland, with school children walking up to take part in games and foot races.
Aiton recorded in 1808 that Sir William Cunningham of Robertland found three seams of workable coal on his lands.


The Chain Tower

The Chain Tower (1384) (French:La tour de la Chaîne) along with the Lantern tower and the Saint Nicolas Tower, is one of the three medieval towers guarding the port in La Rochelle, France. It is called the Chain tower because an actual chain was stretched across the port entrance from this building. In 1879 the French government classified it as a Monument historique (MH).
History.
This tower along with the Saint Nicolas Tower stood at the entryway to the Port of La Rochelle. The way this tower got its name: at times throughout history a chain was stretched between the two buildings to stop ships from entering. Throughout history the building was also used to store gunpowder. The tower has not changed much since the 14th century.


Zisis Karademos

Zisis Karademos () was a Greek armatolos who led an uprising in Naousa in western Macedonia in 1705.
In 1705, a commissar of the Ottoman Sultan named Ahmet Çelebi came to Naousa to select fifty male children for the devşirme conscription, to be raised as Janissaries. His arrival sparked a revolt in the town led by Zisis Karademos, his two sons and his band of "armatoloi". Ahmet Çelebi and his entourage were slain. Karademos and about one hundred of his followers were subsequently attacked by a Turkish force led by the Bolukbashi Recep Aga near the river Arapitsa in the vicinity of Naousa. The rebels retreated towards the top of Mt Vermion and fled when Zisis Karademos was killed. Six of his followers, amongst them his two sons, were taken prisoner and were later hanged after a trial in Veria. Family members of the rebels were arrested (40 men and 29 women) and were imprisoned in Thessaloniki. Putting down the rebellion cost the Ottoman purse 74,387 golden coins, according to a Turkish source.


Ahmet Emin Yalman

Ahmet Emin Yalman (1888 Selanik – 19 December 1972) was a Turkish journalist, author and professor. Yalman was a liberal and opposed the spread of the Nazi ideology in his home country.
Early life and education.
Ahmet Emin Yalman was born into a Crypto Jewish family in 1888 in Selanik (present-day Thessaloniki), which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire. His early education was diverse and he attended several schools in Selanik amongst them a primary school with Sabbatean influences, then the military middle school where his father Osman Tefviq Bey was the teacher of calligraphy and following some difficulties he ran into with his teachers, his father decided to enroll him into the German school in Selanik. In 1903, as his father was employed in Ottoman Press directorate in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), he attended the German school in Beyoğlu where he learned German and English. Following his graduation began to work as a translator for the newspaper Sabah as well as the Ottoman Government. He also attempted to study law at the Darülfünun in Istanbul, but wasn't able to finish. From 1911 onwards he studied political sciences at the Columbia University, from where he earned a Ph.D in 1914.
Professional career.
After he returned to Istanbul he worked with Ziya Gökalp at the Darülfünun, and was a journalist for the newspaper "Tanin". For "Tanin" he covered the World War I from the various battle fronts in which the German Empire was involved in. Following his return to Istanbul, he established the "Vakit" in October 1917.
In 1919, due to his opposition to the government of Damat Ferid Pasha was exiled for three months to Kutahia, by the order of the Sultan Mehmet VI. In 1920 he was exiled again, this time as a supporter of the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) by the British Occupation forces. He was released in 1921 and joined the forces of the Ankara Government around Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk sent him to cover the several battle fronts in Turkish War of independence. In 1923, he founded the newspaper Vatan and following he was a fierce critic of Kemalist Government, specially as prime minister Ismet Inönü demanded the imposition of the Law for the restoration of Order during the Sheikh Said rebellion. Due to this opposition, he had to stand trial in front of the Independence Tribunals and was banned from journalistic activities until 1936. In 1940 he was able to re-publish the "Vatan." In 1952, a nationalist student attempted to murder him, but the assault failed and the student was sentenced to twenty years in prison. In the end of the Menderes era, he was imprisoned and condemned to over 1 year imprisonment, but was released after the military coup of 1960. He died on the 19 December 1972 in Istanbul.
Work and awards.
Yalman was the founder, and for many years the editor, of the influential Turkish nationalist newspaper Vatan. He was also one of the founders of the Liberal International in 1947 and the International Press Institute in 1950.
He published three books in English, one in German, and more than ten in Turkish, including his autobiography in four volumes. Titles include "The Development of Modern Turkey as Measured by Its Press" (1914), "An Experiment in Clean Journalism" (1950), "Turkey In My Time" (1956) and "Turkey in the World War" (1930).
Awards he received included the Golden Pen of Freedom of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers in 1961 and The Gold Medal of the British Institute of Journalists.


Hypogeum of Torre del Ram

The Hypogeum of Torre del Ram is an archaeological site in Cala en Blanes, Ciutadella de Menorca. It is a Bronze Age funerary hypogeum, which was used as a collective tomb by a family or a small community. Even though it was emptied in later centuries to be reused as a cattle shelter, causing the loss of all information regarding the interred population, grave goods and chronology, its resemblance with other prehistoric tombs of Menorca dates it to between 1700 and 1400 BC.
A stepped corridor leads to the tomb's rectangular chamber, which has a stone bench that surrounds its internal perimeter. Part of the stone gallery, which used to cover the corridor and the entrance, is still preserved; this was built using the cyclopean technique.
The corridor is 2.60 m long, while the dimensions of the chamber are: 8.80 m long, 2.50 m wide, and 1.95 m high.
The walls of the internal chamber present several engravings representing three sailing ships and other undetermined figures. Some authors claim the importance of these elements, since they can date them back to the Bronze Age. However, the date of these engraving has not been determined and could have been made in any other subsequent period.


Baptist Levinz

Baptist Levinz, sometimes Baptiste or Baptist Levinge, (1644 - 31 January 1693) was an Anglican churchman. He is known as a bishop and also for the part he played in the dramatic election at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Life.
He was born at Evenley, Northamptonshire, the youngest son of William Levinz, brother of the judge Creswell Levinz and academic William Levinz, and nephew of the Royalist Robert Levinz. He matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford on 11 April 1660, and was elected demy of Magdalen College on 29 July 1663, and probationer fellow on 1 August 1664. He graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1663, Oxford Master of Arts (MA Oxon) in 1666, Bachelor of Divinity (BD) in 1677, and Doctor of Divinity (DD) in 1683.
In his academic career, he became junior dean in 1675, senior dean of arts in 1676, senior proctor on 5 April 1678, bursar in 1677, founder's chaplain in 1678, and dean of divinity in 1679. He was Whyte's professor of moral philosophy in the university from 27 March 1677 until 1682. As a churchman, he was made prebendary of Wells on 8 December 1675, curate of Horspath, Oxfordshire in 1680, and rector of Christian Malford, Wiltshire in 1682. He was nominated Bishop of Sodor and Man by William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby on 28 October 1684 and consecrated on 15 March 1685.
In 1687 he was a likely candidate for election as president of Magdalen College, instead of John Hough, at a time when James II was exerting influence on the college's choice. On the advice probably of his brother Creswell Levinz, he withdrew his candidature before the election; the manner of his action was criticised as not honourable. In the account of John Rouse Bloxam, the Vice-President and Fellows of Magdalen wrote on 31 March to Peter Mews, as Bishop of Winchester the college's Visitor; he replied the next day commending Levinz, and advising the fellowship to stick closely to the statutes. Levinz initially accepted and said he would resist the "mandamus" of 5 April, by which James sought to impose his candidate Anthony Farmer. But Levinz then withdrew, and later in April the college elected Hough.
On 3 August 1691 he was chosen prebendary of Winchester. He died of fever at Winchester on 31 January 1693, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. By his marriage, on 3 July 1680, to Mary (1663–1730), daughter of James Hyde, principal of Magdalen Hall, he was father of a son and daughter.
Sources.


List of museums in the Isle of Man

This is a list of museums in Isle of Man.
Manx National Heritage runs the following museums:


Nareste

Nareste was an ancient settlement on the territory of the Illyrian Delmatae. The contemporary location is probably the village of Jesenice, near Omiš, in Croatia.


Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania

Pen Argyl (; Pennsylvania Dutch: "Kleiberg") is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, north of Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. It is part of Pennsylvania's Slate Belt.
History.
In 1853, Joseph Kellow discovered slate in the surrounding area, coining what is now known as the Slate Belt community. The name Pen Argyl originated from the Cornish name meaning "head" and the Anglo-Saxon name of Slate Rock, meaning "argylite". With the surge of quarrymen from Cornwall and England, the town expanded. Today, there is still one slate quarry in operation. Pen Argyl was once home to Lehigh & New England Railroad’s main freight yard and maintenance complex. The railroad’s roundhouse and shop building still stand just west of town along Pennsylvania Ave.
Population.
In 1900, 2,784 people lived in Pen Argyl, and in 1910, 3,967 people lived here. The population was 3,595 at the 2010 census.
Geography.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , of which 0.71% is water.
Demographics.
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,615 people, 1,427 households, and 1,003 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,603.9 people per square mile (1,004.1/km2). There were 1,506 housing units at an average density of 1,084.8 per square mile (418.3/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 99.81% White, 0.07% African American, 0.01% Native American, 0.05% Asian, 0.05% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.22% of the population.
There were 1,427 households, out of which 36.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.7% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.7% were non-families. 24.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.01.
In the borough the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 91.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.9 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $40,066, and the median income for a family was $47,935. Males had a median income of $32,596 versus $23,239 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $18,145. About 4.3% of families and 5.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.7% of those under age 18 and 8.9% of those age 65 or over.
Public education.
The borough is served by the Pen Argyl Area School District.
Notable locations and events.
Pen Argyl is the burial place of actress Jayne Mansfield, whose family requested to have her body buried in Fairview Cemetery, located on the borough's outskirts. Her heart-shaped gravestone is visible from the road.
Pen Argyl is also home to the Weona Park Dentzel carousel, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Pen Argyl's Fire Company, Lookout Fire Company #1, also holds an annual Labor Day parade and carnival.
Pen Argyl is also home to Real English Foods, Inc, the company behind Mr. Pastie.


List of historical monuments in South Corsica

This table shows the list of all historical monuments classified or listed in South Corsica.


Battle of Catana (397 BC)

The Battle of Catana took place in the summer of 397 BC. The Greek fleet under Leptines, the brother of Dionysius I of Syracuse, engaged the Carthaginian fleet under Mago near the city of Catana in Sicily. While the Greek army under Dionysius was present near the city of Catana during the battle, the Carthaginian army under Himilco was away in the interior of Sicily, making a detour around the erupting Mount Etna. The Carthaginian fleet crushed the Greek fleet in the battle, leading to the Carthaginian siege of Syracuse later in 397 BC.
Background.
Carthage had invaded Sicily in 406 BC in retaliation of Greek raids on Phoenician lands. The expedition, first commanded by Hannibal Mago, and, after the battle of Akragas, by his kinsman Himilco, had managed to capture and sack the cities of Akragas, Gela and Camarina by the summer of 405. These defeats had caused political turmoil in Syracuse, and had ultimately brought Dionysius I of Syracuse to power as tyrant. Himilco and Dionysius signed a peace treaty to end the conflict in 405 BC, which had left Carthage in direct or indirect control of 3/5th of Sicily. The Sicels and the cities of Messina and Leontini were left independent while Dionysius was acknowledged as the ruler of Syracuse by Carthage.
Dionysius in charge.
Between 405 BC and 398 BC, Dionysius set about securing his political position and increasing the military might of Syracuse. He broke the treaty in 404 BC by starting a war with the Sicels. While Carthage did nothing, Dionysius was put in a difficult position by a revolt in his army, which managed to besiege Dionysius in Syracuse. Fortune and incompetence of his enemies had helped Dionysius to ultimately emerge triumphant from this crisis. Dionysius then enlarged his territory by conquering and sacking the cities of Naxos and Catana, and annexing Leontini. He hired mercenaries and enlarged his fleet building 200 new ships. The city of Syracuse was fortified, with Dionysius making the island of Ortygia (where the original city of Syracuse stood) into a fortress and encompassing the whole of Epipolae Platue by massive walls. He hired workmen to create new weapons like the Catapult and new ships like the quinquereme. In 398 BC, Dionysius attacked the Phoenician city of Motya in Western Sicily with an army of 80,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, along with a fleet of 200 warships and 500 transports carrying his supplies and war machines.
The Sicilian Greeks and Sikans under Carthaginian dominion took this opportunity to rebel, and by the time Dionysius besieged Motya, only five cities remained in league (Segesta, Entella, Panormus and Solus among them) with Carthage. Lacking a standing army, Carthage could only send a fleet of 100 triremes under Himilco to Sicily. The city of Motya stands on an island in the middle of a lagoon, so Dionysius had to build a mole to reach the city walls. While the Greeks were thus occupied, Himilco managed to surprise the Greek fleet and trap them on the lagoon north of Motya. Most of the Greek ships were beached, and Himilco had destroyed the transports at anchor near Lilybaeum before sailing to Motya. Dionysius managed to hold the Carthaginian fleet off by catapult fire, while his men built a wooden road of planks on the isthmus north of Motya and dragged 80 triremes to the open sea. Himilco, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, was compelled to sail away. Dionysius then assaulted Motya after the mole was finished, the city fell after fierce resistance, and was thoroughly sacked. After garrisoning the city, Dionysius left 120 ships under his brother Leptines at Eryx, put Segesta under siege and retired to Syracuse for the winter.
Road to Catana.
Himilco, elected king by the Carthaginians, led the army raised by Carthage, probably 50,000 men along with 400 triremes and 600 transports to Sicily. The Greek fleet under Leptines of Syracuse failed to stop the Punic armada, only managing to sink 50 transports. The Carthaginians landed at Panormus, then made their way to Eryx, which was occupied through treachery. Himilco next stormed Motya, where the mostly Sicel garrison under Biton was easily overcome. The Carthaginians then lifted the siege of Segesta, and Dionysius retired to Syracuse instead of offering battle in Western Sicily against a superior army. Himilco returned to Panormus, garrisoned the Carthaginian territories, and then sailed to Lipara with 300 warships and 300 transports. After collecting 30 talents of silver as tribute from Lipara, Himilco sailed to Cape Pelorum and landed his army. The army of Messene marched north from the city to the cape to confront the Carthaginians. Himilco sent 200 ships filled with picked soldiers and rowers to Messene, which was easily captured and sacked. The Greeks then dispersed to the fortresses in the countryside. Himilco spent some time trying to reduce the forts, but gave up the time-consuming endeavor.
Prelude to Catana.
Himilco chose not to set up base at Messene, which would have given him control over the strait and a harbor that could house his entire fleet, and also put him in a position to hinder naval traffic between Italy and Sicily. Himilco probably was not confident about holding the city this far away from Carthage. Furthermore, the majority of the Greeks of Messana were holed up in the hill fortresses nearby, and reducing them required time, which in turn would enable Dionysius to strengthen himself for the coming battle. The ultimate Carthaginian goal was the defeat of Syracuse, Messana was just a sideshow. Bringing reinforcements from Carthage would be time-consuming as Carthage had no standing army and would need time to raise fresh mercenaries, while dividing the field army to guard Messana would decrease his striking power against Dionysius. Himilco on the other hand could not entirely ignore the hostile Greek fortresses in his rear, as they might cause problems once he left the site. His solution was simple and ingenious at the same time, something that is termed indirect approach.
Tauromenium founded.
Himilco marched south and chose to plant a city at Mt. Taurus, where some Sicels had already settled, and populated it with allied Sicels and fortified the place, and in doing so killed several birds with a single stone. The city was near enough to block any Greek movements from Messana but was far enough away not to fall victim to a surprise attack, and it could serve as a future base of operations. Furthermore, all the Sicels hated Dionysius and, except those from Assorus, they now abandoned the Greeks and either joined Himilco or went to their respective homes, decreasing the strength of Dionysius without the Carthaginians striking a single blow. Epaminondas in 370 BC used the same strategy when he rebuilt Messene and founded Megalopolis in Spartan territory after failing to take Sparta by force, and decreased their territory and manpower successfully.
Himilco had managed to detach allies away from Dionysius, and at the same time gained allies to block any activity by the still hostile Greeks of Messese in his rear. The Carthaginians resumed marching south along the coast, while the Punic fleet sailed alongside. A severe eruption of Mt. Etna made the path north of Naxos impassable, so Himilco had to risk dividing his forces. While the army under Himilco marched to detour around Mt. Etna, Mago with the fleet sailed on to Catana along the coast, where he was to meet up with Carthaginian army.
While Himilco was capturing Messene and building Tauromenium, Dionysius was busy strengthening his forces. He freed all the slaves in Syracuse to man 60 additional ships, provisioned the fortresses at Syracuse and Leontini with soldiers and supplies, and hired 1,000 mercenaries from Greece. His next move was to persuade the Campanian mercenaries at Catana to move to Aetna. When he received news that Himilco had been forced to march inland due to the eruption of Mt. Etna, and the Punic fleet was sailing for Catana, he took his army and fleet to Catana to defeat the Carthaginians in detail. The Greek army numbered 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse, while the fleet had 180 ships, mostly made of quinqueremes.
Opposing forces.
Himilco had led the Carthaginian force of 50,000 men along with 400 triremes and 600 transports to Sicily in 397 BC. The Carthaginians were joined by 30,000 Sicilians (Sicels, Sikans and Elymians), but it is not known what forces Himilco left behind to guard Western Sicily when he sailed to Lipara with 300 triremes and 300 transports. After the Carthaginian forces split up, Mago took command of 200 triremes and 300 transports as the Punic fleet sailed to Catana.
Dionysius had mustered an army of 40,000 foot and 3,000 horsemen, from both citizens and mercenaries (at least 10,000, if not more) for attacking Motya in 398 BC, perhaps along with 40,000 Greek, Sicel and Sikan volunteers. At Catana in 397 BC Dionysius commanded 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse, which included Sicels and Sicilian Greek contingents, while part of the army was guarding Syracuse and Leontini. Leptines commanded the fleet, which was made of 180 Quinqueremes and triremes.
Punic navy.
Carthaginians favoured light, maneuverable crafts and they carried an extra sail for speed but fewer soldiers than their Greek counterparts. Carthaginian forces had encountered Syracusan quinqueremes at Motya and are credited with inventing the quadrireme, but it is not known if these ship types were present at Catana in 397 BC. Mago, the Carthaginian admiral, had installed rams on his transports to augment the striking power of his fleet.
Greek navy.
Dionysius had launched a massive building program between 404–398 BC. Syracuse built 200 new ships and refitted 110 old ones, many being quadrireme and quinqueremes. Leptines had commanded a fleet of 200 warships and 500 transports to Motya in 398 BC, while the Carthaginians had destroyed a large number of ships at Syracuse and Motya. The Greek fleet had shrunk below 150 warships by 397 BC from attrition and battle losses, and Dionysius, short of cash, had to free slaves to man 60 additional ships, bringing the fleet up to 180 ships at Catana. Dionysius preferred larger and heavier ships, and with the fleet mainly being composed of quinqueremes, they carried more missile troops and marines than their Carthaginian counterparts.
Battle of Catana.
The Carthaginian fleet was sailing at a slow pace to give Himilco more time to catch up. The Carthaginian fleet at this time contained 300 triremes and 200 transports. To maximize the fighting potential of the fleet, the Carthaginians had armed the transports, (which were slower than the warships) with rams. The Punic fleet arrived at Catana, aware that without their army present, they were vulnerable to the Greek army when they beached their ships at night. If the fleet anchored at sea, they would be vulnerable to bad weather.
When the Greeks arrived at Catana, Leptines, the admiral, marshaled his ships and advanced on the Carthaginians. Although the Greek fleet was outnumbered, their ships were larger and heavier, and carried more soldiers and missile troops on board. Dionysius, planning to make full use of his heavier ships and larger missile troop contingent, had ordered Leptines to keep his ships in close order when engaging the Carthaginians. Seeing the Greeks deploy for action, Mago ordered his fleet to sea and started to form up the battle line.
Leptines selected 30 of his best ships and charged headlong into the Carthaginian line, while the rest of his fleet struggled to catch up with him. At first Leptines carried all before him in his sudden sally, disabling/sinking many Punic ships in a wild melee. The Carthaginians began to use their advantage in numbers, grappling the Greek ships so they could not maneuver, then boarding them. The battle turned against Leptines, and left without any reinforcements, he had to break combat and escape to the open sea with the survivors of his contingent, leaving the Greek fleet leaderless in the coming battle.
As the rest of the Greek fleet came in disorder into the battle scene, the Carthaginians, formed up and ready, turned on them en masse. A fierce battle ensued, with ships exchanging darts, maneuvering to ram their counterparts and grapple each other for boarding. The Greeks were ultimately overwhelmed, their heavier ships and superior missile troops being of little use partly because of their disordered formation. The Carthaginians sent out boats to capture/kill the Greek sailors swimming in the water. Over 20,000 soldiers/rowers and 100 ships were lost before the surviving Greek ships could flee.
Aftermath.
The defeat of the Greeks put Dionysius in a difficult position. With the Greek fleet beaten, Mago had gained the option of making a dash at Syracuse itself, repeating the feat the Carthaginians had pulled off at Messene on Syracuse. On the other hand, if Dionysius could now attack and defeat the army of Himilco, Mago would be compelled to fall back to a secure base. Dionysius also had to keep in mind the possibility of political trouble in Syracuse while deciding his strategy. The Greek army was opposed to facing a siege, and at first Dionysius was inclined to seek the Carthaginian army out and measure swords with Himilco. His advisers pointed out the threat of Mago and his fleet capturing Syracuse, and Dionysius decided to break camp, leave Catana and march south to Syracuse.
At this juncture, worsening weather forced Mago to beach his ships, thus making the Punic fleet vulnerable to the Greek army attacks. Dionysius commenced his retreat prior to this, with the remnant of his fleet sailing parallel along the coast. This decision to face a siege proved so unpopular among the Sicilian Greek allies that they deserted the army and made for their respective cities. Once there, they manned the countryside castles and awaited the Carthaginians.
Himilco arrived at Catana two days after the battle with the Carthaginian army, his presence ensuring security of the Punic fleet. Both the Punic army and the navy were accorded a few days rest, during which time Mago repaired his damaged ships and refitted the captured Greek ships. Himilco took the time to negotiate with the Campanians at Aetna, offering them to switch sides. They had given Dionysius hostages and their best troops were still serving with the Greek army, so they chose to stay loyal to the Greek tyrant. The victory at Catana enabled the Carthaginians to proceed and lay siege to Syracuse in 397 BC. It not only reduced the naval power of Syracuse, but it also decreased the strength of the Greek's army by causing other Sicilian Greeks to desert Dionysius.


Further Austria

Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (, formerly "die Vorlande" (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg.
While the territories of Further Austria west of the Rhine and south of Lake Constance (except Konstanz itself) were gradually lost to France and the Swiss Confederacy, those in Swabia and Vorarlberg remained under Habsburg control until the Napoleonic Era.
Geography.
Further Austria mainly comprised the Alsatian County of Ferrette in the Sundgau, including the town of Belfort, and the adjacent Breisgau region east of the Rhine, including Freiburg im Breisgau after 1368. Also ruled from the Habsburg residence in Ensisheim near Mühlhausen were numerous scattered territories stretching from Upper Swabia to the Allgäu region in the east, the largest being the margravate of Burgau between the cities of Augsburg and Ulm. During the Habsburg Monarchy they were humorously called "tail feathers of the Imperial Eagle". Some estates in Vorarlberg possessed by the Habsburgs were also considered part of Further Austria, though they were temporarily directly administered from Tyrol.
History.
The original home territories of the Habsburgs, the Aargau with Habsburg Castle and much of the other original possessions south of the High Rhine and Lake Constance were already lost in the 14th century to the expanding Swiss Confederacy after the battles of Morgarten (1315) and Sempach (1386). These territories were never considered part of Further Austria – except for the Fricktal region around Rheinfelden and Laufenburg, which remained a Habsburg possession until 1797.
From 1406 until 1490 Further Austria together with the Habsburg County of Tyrol was included in the definition of "Upper Austria" ("Oberösterreich", not to be confused with the modern Austrian state of Upper Austria). From 1469 to 1474 Archduke Sigismund gave large parts in pawn to the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold.
At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Sundgau became part of France. After the Ottoman wars many inhabitants of Further Austria were encouraged to emigrate and settle in the newly acquired Transylvania region, people that later were referred as Danube Swabians. In the 18th century, the Habsburgs acquired a few minor new Swabian territories, such as Tettnang in 1780.
In the reorganization of the Holy Roman Empire in the course of the French Revolutionary Wars, much of Further Austria, including the Breisgau, was by the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville granted as compensation to Ercole III d'Este, former duke of Modena and Reggio, who however died two years later. His heir as his son-in-law was Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este, the uncle of Emperor Francis II.
After the Austrian defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz and the Peace of Pressburg in 1805, Further Austria was entirely dissolved and the former Habsburg territories were assigned to the Grand Duchy of Baden (Breisgau), the Kingdom of Württemberg (Rottenburg and Horb) and the Kingdom of Bavaria (Weitnau Günzburg, Weißenhorn), as rewards for their alliance with Napoleonic France. Minor estates passed to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Fricktal had already become a French protectorate in 1799 and part of the Helvetic Republic in 1802, incorporated into the Swiss canton of Aargau the next year.
After the defeat of Napoleon, there was some discussion at the Congress of Vienna of returning part of all of the "Vorlande" to Austria, but in the end only Vorarlberg returned to Austrian control, as Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich did not want to offend the rulers of the South German states and hoped that removing Austria from its advanced position on the Rhine would reduce tensions with France.
Administrative division.
As of 1790 Further Austria was subdivided into ten districts ("Oberämter"):
Habsburg rulers.
Politically, the Further Austrian territories were held by the Habsburg (Arch-)Dukes of Austria from 1278 onwards. Upon the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, they together with Carinthia, Styria, Carniola and Tyrol fell to the Leopoldian line:
Further divided into Inner Austria proper (Styria, Carinthia and Carniola) and Upper Austria (Tyrol and Further Austria), ruled by:
In 1490 all Habsburg possessions were re-unified under the rule of Frederick V, Holy Roman Emperor since 1452. Upon the death of Emperor Ferdinand I of Habsburg in 1564, Further Austria and Tyrol was inherited by his second son:
In 1619 the Habsburg hereditary lands were re-unified under the rule of Emperor Ferdinand II. He gave Further Austria to his younger brother:
In 1665 the Habsburg lands were finally re-unified under the rule of Emperor Leopold I.


Sigismund, Archduke of Austria

Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.
Life.
Sigismund (or "Siegmund", sometimes also spelled "Sigmund") was born at the Tyrolean court in Innsbruck; his parents were the Further Austrian duke Frederick IV of Austria and his second wife , a daughter of the Welf duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A minor upon his father's death in 1439, the Inner Austrian duke Frederick V, Sigismund's first cousin, acted as regent until 1446. Frederick, elected King of the Romans (as "Frederick IV") in February 1440, exploited all opportunities to extend his influence over the Further Austrian lands. He also interfered in the Old Zürich War in order to regain the former Habsburg territories lost to the Swiss Confederacy, while the Tyrolean nobles urged him to cede the rule to Sigismund.
The mines of Tyrol remained an important source of revenue for Frederick and not until 1446, upon the end of his regency, Sigismund could accede to rulership over the Further Austrian ("Vorderösterreich") possessions, which also included the Swabian territories of the Sundgau in southern Alsace, the Breisgau, and numerous smaller estates. His cousin had planned to marry him off to the French princess Radegonde, a daughter of King Charles VII the Victorious, however, she died in 1444 and Sigismund married Princess Eleanor of Scotland, the daughter of the Stewart king James I, in 1449.
Sigismund was able to acquire large parts of the former County of Bregenz (in present-day Vorarlberg) in 1451 and further estates in the Großwalsertal and Kleinwalsertal. Nevertheless, he had to cope with claims raised by Frederick's brother, Archduke Albert VI of Austria, and temporarily had to cede the rule over several Further Austrian territories to him. For much of his reign, he was engaged in disputes with Nicholas of Cusa, then Prince-bishop of Brixen and raised to Cardinal in 1449, for the control of the Tyrolean Eisack, Puster and Inn valleys. Sigismund sided with Nicholas' opponent Gregory of Heimburg and in 1460, when he marched against the bishop's residence at Bruneck Castle, he was excommunicated by Pope Pius II. Nicholas fled to Todi in the Papal States, but fell ill and died in 1464, before the archduke surrendered in order to receive the papal pardon.
In 1469, Sigismund sold several of his Swabian lands on the Rhine river, including the Alsace landgraviate, the County of Pfirt ("Ferrette"), the Breisgau and further cities, to the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold. Sources are unclear, whether he sold them due to his debts he had accumulated owing to his luxurious lifestyle, or just "rented" them because he wanted to have them protected better against the expansion of the Swiss Confederacy. In turn, he extended his Vorarlberg possessions, purchasing the County of Sonnenberg in 1474 and, together with the Swiss (with whom he had concluded a peace treaty in Konstanz) and the Alsatian cities, he sided against Duke Charles of Burgundy in the Battle of Héricourt.
In 1477, his cousin Frederick, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1452, elevated him to Archduke. Three years later, Princess Eleanor died, and 1484, Sigismund married the 16-year-old Catherine of Saxony, daughter of the Wettin duke Albert III of Saxony. He had no offspring from either marriage.
In the later years of the 1470s and early 1480s Sigismund issued a decree that instituted a radical coinage reformation that eventually led up to the creation of the world's first really large and heavy silver coin in nearly a millennium, the guldengroschen, which the Habsburgs in Bohemia developed later into the thaler. This coin was the ancestor of many of the major European coin denominations to come later and also of the US dollar. Using new mining methods and technology, the largely quiescent silver mines in Tirol were brought back into production and soon numerous surrounding states were re-opening old mines and minting similar coins. This production of large coinage exploded as silver from Spain's colonies in the Americas flooded the European economy. It is from these reforms in part that Sigismund acquired the nickname of "der Münzreiche", or "rich in coin".
Sigismund was easily swayed by the bad advice of his council and in March 1487 entered into a pointless war with the Republic of Venice, sometimes called the War of Rovereto. Tyrolean forces quickly seized silver mines in the Valsugana valley owned by Venice, and in April 1487 Sigismund outraged Venice further when he imprisoned 130 Venetian merchants traveling to the fair at Bozen (modern Bolzano) and confiscated their goods. Tyrol stormed the Pass of Calliano and later besieged the castle at Rovereto using a massive bombard, one of the earliest times such a large piece had been used in warfare. The war continued through summer but ended with no decisive victory for either side. One notable casualty of the conflict was the condottiero Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona.
By 1490 the opposition of Tyrolean nobles compelled Sigismund to hand over the rulership to Frederick's son Archduke Maximilian I, who later succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor. Whether Sigismund voluntarily handed over power to Maximilian or was strongly coerced by the latter is not clear. With Sigismund's death in 1496, the Tyrolean branch of the Habsburg Leopoldian line became extinct, leaving Archduke Maximilian as sole heir to all the dynasty's possessions.
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Wilhelm Greiffenhagen

Thomas Wilhelm Greiffenhagen (19 November 1821 – 28 December 1890) was a Baltic German journalist and politician who was the mayor of Reval (now Tallinn) from June 1883 to August 1885.
The son of Germans from Schleswig and East Prussia, he studied jurisprudence at what is now the University of Tartu in Dorpat (modern-day Tartu), as well as in Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin. He was one of the editors of the German-language magazine Revalsche Zeitung, Estonia's first political newspaper, and was its editor-in-chief from 1864 to 1867. He was the mayor of Reval from June 1883 to August 1885, being disposed of by the governor of the Governorate of Estonia, , after refusing to use the Russian language in official correspondence. He called for greater political participation of the Estonian peasants in the political decision-making process and thus opposed the influential circles of the Estonian Knighthood. He was succeeded by Viktor von Maydell. One of his sons, , was a prominent historian, archivist and music critic.


Act abolishing the kingship

The act abolishing the kingship was an Act of the Rump Parliament that abolished the monarchy in England in the aftermath of the Second English Civil War.
In the days following the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649, Parliament debated the form that any future government should take. On 7 February, Parliament voted down the idea of continuing the monarchy and the act to abolish the office of King was formally passed on 17 March.
On 8 May 1660, the Convention Parliament proclaimed Charles II to have been lawful king of England since his father's death, leading to the restoration of the monarchy.
Notably, there is a lack of kingship in parliamentary records. This has caused some historians to speculate its lack of importance. On the other hand, Eric Porter, a lecturer of RMIT university speculates that this may have occurred due to vying interests at the time.


Ajman Castle

Ajman Castle (, 'Ehrenau Castle') is a 17th-century manor located near the settlement of Sveti Duh in the Municipality of Škofja Loka, Slovenia.
The late-renaissance castle was built (as Ehrenau Castle) in 1679 by the governor of the Škofja Loka lordship, Franc Matija the noble Lampfrizhaimb. Successive owners included the noble families of Angerburg, Widmannsstätten, Dietrich, Zanetti, Flachenfeld, and Dienzl.
The manorial chapel of the Holy Virgin was built in 1733 and contains an altar-wall mural by Franc Jelovšek, one of the more prominent Slovene painters of the eighteenth century. Commissioned between 1739 and 1746 by its owner Kristof Laurenz von Flachenfeld, the painting features the Virgin flanked by St. John Nepomuk and St. Francis Xavier.
In 1746 the manor was sold to Adam Dinzl Angerburg. In the late 18th century it obtained its current name, "Ajman Castle", after another owner named Heimann. In 1918 it passed into the hands of Marija Guzelj (née Detela), and then to the Demšar family, which held it until World War II. On 30 April 1944 the Partisans burned the manor down. It was thoroughly renovated some decades later. Today it houses an Ursuline monastery.


Peter van Kessel (historian)

Petrus Josephus "Peter" van Kessel (born 25 December 1933) is a Dutch historian. He spent his career at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, ultimately becoming vice director.
Van Kessel was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. He obtained a degree from the Radboud University Nijmegen in 1961. Van Kessel became an intern at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome in 1962. He obtained his PhD in 1963 with a thesis titled: "Duitse studenten in Padua rond 1600 en de controverse Rome-Venetië". Shortly afterwards he was appointed as secretary of the institute. Van Kessel would work at the institute until 1994, ultimately becoming vice director.
He was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.