St Lawrence railway station (Isle of Wight)

St Lawrence railway station is a former railway station in the village of St Lawrence on the Isle of Wight. It opened in 1897 and was the original terminus of the branch line from Merstone until the 1½ mile extension to Ventnor was completed in June 1900. From 1927 the station was downgraded to the status of an unstaffed halt.
Location.
The station was located between a steep cliff face and a public road. During the early years of the line's operation, rock falls were common. This problem was alleviated when the undergrowth took hold on the cliff face.
The short distance between the south portal of the St. Lawrence tunnel and the station was widely regarded as one of the finest views to be had on the island's railways.
Today the station building is a private residence. The trackbed has been filled in up to the level of the platform. The steep road bridge crossing at the eastern end of the station is still evident. The trackbed towards Ventnor is now covered by modern housing.
Other stations on the branch.
The other stations on the Ventnor West branch were:


Ferlito

Ferlito is an Italian family name, and may refer to:


Drohobych Oblast

Drohobych Oblast (, ; December 4, 1939May 21, 1959) was an oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. It had a territory of 9.6 thousands of km³ and, as of 1956, population of 853,000.
History.
Drohobych Oblast was one of six oblasts (the other five are Lviv Oblast, Rivne Oblast, Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) Oblast, Tarnopil (Ternopil) Oblast, and Volyn Oblast) established on the territory of West Ukraine following the 1939 invasion of Poland.
On November 27, 1939 eight powiats of Lwow voivodeship and two powiats of Stanislawow voivodeship were designated for the creation of Drohobych Oblast, establishment of which was confirmed on December 4, 1939.
On January 17, 1940 the oblast was split into 30 raions and five municipalities: Bircha (village), Boryslav (city), Vysotsko-Vyzhnie (village), Dobromyl (city), Drohobych (city), Dubliany (village), Zhydachiv (city), Zhuravno (village), Komarno (city), Krukenych (village), Lavochne (village), Lysko (city), Medenytsia (town), Medyka (village), Mostyska (city), Mykolaiv (city), Streliski Novi (town), Peremyshl (city), Pidbuzh (village), Rudky (city), Sambir (city), Skole (city), Staryi Sambir (city), Strilky (village), Stryi (city), Sudova Vyshnia (city), Turka (city), Ustryki Dolni (town), Khodoriv (city), Khyriv (town). Municipalities were Boryslav, Drohobych, Peremyshl, Sambir, Stryi. On August 15, 1940 Boryslav Raion was disestablished. On November 11, 1940, couple of raions were re-designated: Vysotsko-Vyzhnie to Borynia (village) and Lavochne-Slavsko (village).
After the oblast was retaken from German occupation on August 15, 1944, three raions were renamed: Zhydechuv to Zhydachiv, Streliski Novi to Novi Strelyshcha, and Ustryki Dolni to Nyzhnio Ustryki. In March 1945, Bircha Raion, Lisko Raion, and most of Peremyshl Raion (including the city of Przemyśl) were transferred to Poland. In place of the rest of former Peremyshl Raion, the Nyzhankovychy Raion (centered at a town of Nyzhankovychy) was created. On May 15, 1948 whole Medyka Raion was transferred to Poland as well. On July 15, 1951, the municipality of Truskavets was created. On December 10, 1951, Nyzhnio Ustryky Raion was followed along with another transferring process to Poland (see 1951 Polish-Soviet territorial exchange). In July 1957, Khyriv Raion was disestablished. Five more raions were liquidated on January 21, 1959: Dubliany, Zhuravno, Krukenych, Novi Strelyshcha, and Strilky. Sometime before May 1959, Pidbuzh Raion was liquidated, however Boryslav Raion was reinstated. On May 1, 1959, there were 19 raions and five municipalities. On May 21, 1959, Drohobych Oblast was merged with Lviv Oblast.
Governors.
Governors or chairmen of regional executive committee:


Hugo, Margrave of Hachberg-Sausenberg

Margrave Hugo of Hachberg-Sausenberg (died 1444) was the youngest son of Margrave William of Hachberg-Sausenberg and his wife, Elisabeth of Montfort-Bregenz. After his father died in 1441, he ruled jointly with his elder brother Rudolf IV.
Hugo died in 1444, after only three years as co-ruler. He did not have an heir; after his death, Rudolf IV ruled alone.


Torra di Seneca

The Tower of Seneca () is a ruined Genoese tower located in the commune of Luri in the Cap Corse region of the Corsica.
The tower was built in the 16th century. It was one of a series of defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates.
The tower now belongs to the commune. In 1840 it was added to the official list of the historical monuments of France.


Old Finland

Old Finland (; ; ) is a name used for the areas that Russia gained from Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700–1721) and in the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743). Old Finland was joined to the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland as Viipuri province in 1812.
The area corresponded largely with that of the medieval province subjugated to Viipuri castle.
The Russian ruler guaranteed religion, property rights, old Swedish laws, and some privileges to the inhabitants of these territories. However, a circumvention occurred, as the Russian administrators and Russian military were unfamiliar with the Swedish system. The Russians were used to a different system with its enslaved peasants, serfdom. As a result, the economy of the area was markedly different from that on the other side of the border.
The ruler's guarantee froze the situation. Thus legal developments in Sweden were not introduced to these areas: the Viipuri and Käkisalmi territory did not adopt the 1734 General Law of Sweden (though Hamina (Fredrikshamn), Lappeenranta (Villmanstrand), and Savonlinna (Nyslott), at the time still Swedish, of course did adopt it), and the new constitution of King Gustav III was not implemented in the entire area.
The territories enjoyed a sort of autonomy and much particularism, since the Russian rulers applied similar principles here as in the Baltic Provinces. The administration resembled a German principality, rather than a Russian province.
Under Russian rule the combined territories formed the Vyborg Governorate, or Government of Vyborg.
Ecclesiastically, the areas were administered as a diocese, but without a bishop. The church building in Viipuri and another in Hamina were assigned as cathedrals, with a diocesan chapter ("consistory"), led by the archdean.
The area was not forced to contribute men to the Russian Army until 1797. However, there were many non-Finnish troops in the area, especially after the 1788–90 war.
Scandinavian-style district courts continued in judicial function, each with a judge and lay members. However, the Russian estate owners and military often ignored these courts' decisions and imposed illegal punishments on the peasants.
Because of the absence of an evenly applied, up-to-date legal system in the area, apathy in some ways dominated among Old Finland's residents; and not many figures from the area have a prominent place in history. Two of these are Maximilian von Alopeus and his brother David Alopaeus, born into a Finnish family in Viipuri and both later serving many posts in Imperial administration, including ambassador in some Central European countries.
These areas, Government of Vyborg, were later referred to as "Old Finland"; and from the beginning of 1812, they were incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Finland, where the newly acquired provinces from Sweden were "New Finland". Basically, the population in these provinces came to receive the same legal system as the rest of the Grand Duchy, including its Constitution and General Law, although some privileges took time to implement. The so-called donated estates (owned by Russian noblemen) in Karelia were a headache resolved slowly by monetary compensation from the Grand Duchy's Treasury. This was a long lasting burden, as the last instance of compensation was not until the 1870s.


Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy

Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy (19 March 1730 – 13 May 1801) was a princess of the House of Savoy, the third daughter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his second wife, Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg.
Biography.
Born at the Royal Palace of Turin, she was the third daughter of Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. Her mother died in 1735 when she was just four years old. Her father married again in 1737 to Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, the youngest sister of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Charles Emmanuel III and Elisabeth Therese went on to have three children, including the Duke of Chablais.
Her maternal cousins included Victor Amadeus, Prince of Carignan and his younger sister the future "princesse de Lamballe", both of which were born at the court of Savoy. Her paternal cousins included Ferdinand VI of Spain, who was king of Spain at the time of her birth.
She never married. She was described as very religious. She founded, with Giovanni Battista Canaveri, a home in her native Turin for widows and destitute noble women "Convitto Principessa Maria Felicita di Savoia". Canaveri was the director. It was made possible due to an act she had her brother implement, "Convitto per donne nubili e vedove," for women in the Kingdom of Sardinia.
On 6 December 1798, the French First Republic declared war on Sardinia.
Her nephew Charles Emmanuel (then king) was forced to abdicate all his territories on the Italian mainland and to withdraw to the island of Sardinia. As Charles Emmanuel took little interest in the rule of what was left of his kingdom, he and Clotilde lived in Rome and then in Naples as guests of the wealthy Colonna family. Maria Felicita went with her nephew to live as fugitives in Italy.
She died in Rome and was buried at the Royal Basilica of Superga overlooking Turin, the traditional burial place of the House of Savoy. She outlived all her siblings except the Duke of Chablais.


Bentheim-Limburg

Bentheim-Limburg was a short-lived County of the Holy Roman Empire, created as a partition of Bentheim-Steinfurt in 1606. It was remerged to Bentheim-Steinfurt in 1632.


Richard Oswald (merchant)

Richard Oswald of Auchincruive (1705 – 6 November 1784) was a Scottish merchant, slave trader, and advisor to the British government on trade regulations and the conduct of the American War of Independence. He is best known as the British peace commissioner who in 1782 negotiated the Peace of Paris.
Early life.
Oswald was born to the Reverend George Oswald of Dunnet, and his wife Margaret Murray. At age 20 he was apprenticed to cousins who were merchants in Glasgow, the brothers Richard Oswald (1687–1763) of Scotstoun and Alexander Oswald (1694–1766), sons of the Rev. James Oswald (1654–1698). As a young man he worked for them as a factor, travelling in America and the Caribbean. In 1741 he became a partner in the Glasgow firm.
Merchant.
Doing good business during the War of the Austrian Succession, Oswald in 1746 established himself in mercantile business in London. He leased a counting-house at 17 Philpot Lane, where he initially devoted most of his time to the shipping and trading of tobacco. He took on a forage contract for the British Army, having in 1756 the merchant James Buchanan (1696–1758) as guarantor. He prospered also as a contractor during the Seven Years' War, particularly in the supply of bread in the German theatre, and was praised by Ferdinand of Brunswick.
Oswald bought the Cavens estate in Kirkcudbrightshire, and the Auchincruive estate in Ayrshire, in 1759. He made large additions of land to both estates, in the following decades. In British North America he had large land holdings and owned slaves in East Florida, and held estates in both Georgia and Virginia. He ran down these holdings during the American War of Independence. He also owned plantations in the Caribbean.
Influence.
Oswald was instrumental in directing British businessmen to promising locales in America for growing rice and indigo. Oswald directed British planter Francis Levett, who formerly worked for the Levant Company, to locations in the colony of East Florida for his plantations, and urged East Florida's Governor James Grant to make generous land grants to Levett, whom Oswald called his "worthy friend" to whom he owed "particular obligations."
Oswald put together deals with investors who had good connections, raising his own social standing. In his petitions to the Board of Trade and Plantations for the settlement of Nova Scotia plantations, for instance, he demonstrated an ability to bring together groups acceptable to the King. Those he put forward for Nova Scotia included: a former governor (Thomas Pownall); the cartographer John Mitchell; Member of Parliament Robert Jackson; MP and Paymaster for the Marines John Tucker; and a judge of the Marshalsea Court, and cousin of adventurer Sir Michael Herries, Levett Blackborne, who was himself stepbrother to Thomas Blackborne Thoroton, brother-in-law of the Marquess of Granby. This formula of connecting power-brokers was a key to his success.
Slave trader.
In 1748, a consortium of Alexander Grant and Oswald, with Augustus Boyd (1679–1765) and his son John Boyd, John Mill (1710–1771), and John Sargent (1714–1791), purchased Bance Island, on the Sierra Leone River. The Royal African Company had erected a fort there. Oswald and his associates gained control of other small islands through treaties, and established on Bance Island a trading station for factors in the trafficking of African people.
Oswald's extensive network of business connections served him well in building his slave-trading empire. The Company of Merchants Trading to Africa formed at this time had some close links to the Bance Island consortium, for example through Robert Scott and then George Aufrere.
Associations.
Oswald had a cadre of young merchants whom he trained. Among these was John Levett, brother of planter Francis, who was in Oswald's employ as a young man. Levett (1725–1807) was born in Turkey to an English merchant father, and later settled in India, where he became a free merchant and invested in shipping, as well as becoming the Mayor of Calcutta. As a former trader in the Levant, Levett was ready to help Indian silk merchants supplant the former Mediterranean silk trade, which had fallen off. The British merchants were sensitive to the vagaries of fashion. Each year merchant Richard Oswald sent wigs to Levett in Calcutta, for instance. At the same time, Oswald associates like John Levett in Calcutta kept an eye on local trends, and adjusted their schemes to fit them. Levett, for instance, who had previously managed some German bread interests for Oswald, now planted cornfields in Bengal.
When Oswald needed Chinese labourers, for his own estates, he approached John Levett in Calcutta, who employed Chinese labourers in his Bengal operations growing arrack for his distilleries. The relationships between the various associates in Oswald's extended trading empire grew: John Levett was corresponding with Oswald about the marble chimney-piece sculptures that his brother Francis Levett was purchasing on Oswald's behalf in Livorno, Italy, where Francis was then living as an British merchant. Oswald was particularly close to the Levett and Thoroton families, as well as to the Duke of Rutland.
In letters to British General and East Florida Governor James Grant, Oswald confided that at one dinner of investors in East Florida and Nova Scotia that "Oswald had been dining at the Duke's with Lord Granby, Mr. Thoroton, and others where jokes passed round the table about the many settlements that would be needed to satisfy Mr. Thoroton's nine children." (The humor was explained by the relationships between the various families).
Peace Commissioner.
In 1782, Oswald was selected by Lord Shelburne to open informal negotiations with the Americans, to be held in Paris. Because of his prior experience living in America and his knowledge of its geography and trade, he had been consulted frequently by the British Ministry about matters concerning the war. Lord Shelburne chose Oswald because he thought his selection would appeal to Benjamin Franklin. Oswald shared Franklin's free trade commercial views; he possessed a "philosophic disposition"; and he had previously had a limited correspondence with Franklin. Franklin was impressed with Oswald's negotiating skills and described him as a man with an "Air of great Simplicity and Honesty."
Treaty of Paris.
On 25 July 1782, official negotiations began. The preliminary articles were signed by Oswald for Great Britain, and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens for the United States on 30 November 1782. With almost no alterations, these articles were made into a treaty on 3 September 1783. Oswald was criticised in Britain for giving the Americans too much. The Duke of Richmond urged the recall of Oswald, charging that he "plead only the Cause of America, not of Britain." Oswald resigned his cabinet post and returned to his estate of Auchincruive in Ayrshire where he died on 6 November 1784.
Oswald was related to American soldier and journalist Eleazer Oswald.
After his death, his nephews and fellow slave traders John and Alexander Anderson, also with interests on Bance Island, were appointed executors of his estate.
Works and legacy.
Oswald's papers were among those relating to the peace negotiations acquired by William L. Clements, and then by the library of the University of Michigan.
Robert Scott Davis has identified Richard Oswald as "An American", the anonymous author of the encyclopaedic two volume "American Husbandry" (London, 1775).
Family.
Oswald married in 1750 Mary Ramsay (1719–1788), daughter of the merchant Alexander Ramsay (died 1738). She brought a dowry including property in Jamaica and British North America. She died in London, and her funeral cortege took her body for burial in Ayrshire, having the effect of depriving Robert Burns of his lodgings. He wrote a hostile poem on the event, published in 1789.
Richard Oswald had illegitimate children before his marriage, but no children with his wife. His Auchincruive estate passed to his nephew the tobacco merchant George Oswald, son of James Oswald (1703–1793), his elder brother, known as a minister and writer.


Martin Daunton

Martin James Daunton (born 14 February 1949) is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014.
Daunton is the son of Ronald James Daunton and Dorothy "née" Bellett. He was educated at Barry Grammar School before going to the University of Nottingham where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. He studied further at the University of Kent PhD 1974 and received the degree of LittD from the University of Cambridge in 2005.
In 1984, he married Claire Gobbi.


Spiteri

Spiteri is a common Maltese surname deriving from the Italian word Ospitalieri, meaning Hospitallers. It was sometimes given to illegitimate children left at the ruota during the rule of the Order of St. John. Notable people with the surname include:


Old House of Keys

The Old House of Keys () is the former meeting place of the House of Keys, the lower house of Tynwald, the Isle of Man's parliament. It is located across the street from Castle Rushen in Castletown, the former capital of the Isle of Man, in the south of the island. The building was used as the House of Keys from 1821 until 1874, when the parliament was moved to Douglas.
Prior to 1821, the House of Keys had no official home, but met first at Castle Rushen, and later at the Bishop of Sodor and Man's library in Castletown. After criticism from a Royal Commission, plans were drawn up for a new meeting house for the Keys in 1813, but after concerns about the cost, they were redrawn and approved in 1819. The building, designed by Thomas Brine, was completed in 1821. It housed the House of Keys until 1874, when the Keys followed the other primary functions of the island and moved to Douglas. After their move, the Old House became a branch of 's Bank, and later Parr's Bank. In 2000, Manx National Heritage acquired the building and began restoring the house to how it appeared in 1866. The building opened to the public as a museum in November 2001.
Background.
The parliament of the Isle of Man—Tynwald—is the oldest currently running parliament in the world. It is generally considered to have its origins in the 10th century, but could date back as far as the 8th century. Originally a 32-member Tynwald ruled over the Kingdom of the Isles, with half of its representatives coming from the Isle of Man. In the 12th century, this dropped to a 24-member Tynwald when the islands of Mull and Islay were lost to Argyll. By the 16th century, Tynwald consisted of an upper and a lower house; the lower house was known as the 24 Keys. At that time, the members met irregularly at Castle Rushen, when called upon by either the Lord of Mann or one of his Deemsters to help with legal and taxation issues. The Keys continued to meet at Castle Rushen until 1710, when they moved to Thomas Wilson's (the Bishop of Sodor and Man) library in Castletown. Late in the 18th century they still met in the library, of which a Royal Commission reported that "...the Keys assemble in a mean decayed building little more than sufficient to contain the number which they consist."
History.
Construction.
Over twenty years after the Royal Commission's damning report on the state of the library in which the Keys met, the Governor of the Isle of Man, John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl, instructed Thomas Brine, the Clerk of Works for public buildings, to cost and draw plans for a new House of Keys. These plans were rejected by the British Home Department and Treasury as too expensive, and despite repeated demands for a new meeting place, the proposal was put on hold. Brine carried out a survey of the library in 1817 at the request of the Keys, and condemned the building, resulting in the meetings of the Keys being held in a public house, the George Inn. Despite the comfort afforded by the building, it was criticised as being "...highly improper for any Court of Justice and particularly so, for one of such importance in this Island as the House of Keys", as recorded in the Journal of the Keys in October 1817.
Another design was requested of Brine, but this time for a smaller and less expensive building. In 1818, the Keys purchased the building in which they had formerly met, moving the library to the Grammar School. The new plans were agreed upon by all concerned, but there continued to be disagreements between the British Treasury department and the Keys over how to fund the project. The Treasury believed that the cost should be covered by Manx taxes, but the Keys argued that this tax would be excessive. The two parties eventually each agreed to pay some of the £1039-10-0d cost, and the project was approved on 31 May 1819, just under 30 years after the first discussions. The building was completed in less than two years, and the Keys started using the building in January 1821.
Operation.
Within a year of its completion, the House of Keys was heavily criticised in a letter to the "Rising Sun" newspaper. The external appearance of the building was described as bland and "more like that of a small country villa, or village jail, than a Senate House." The interior was similarly lambasted, with particular attention being paid to the small space provided for the Speaker's chair. During the Keys' time in the building, they underwent one of their most significant changes. Until 1866, the Keys were a self-elected body, but following pressure from the public, most notably "Isle of Man Times" editor James Brown, the House agreed to be elected by popular vote. During the 1860s, Douglas became more prominent; the Lieutenant Governor moved his residence there in 1861, the Law Courts moved the following year, and by 1869 Douglas had replaced Castletown as the capital of the island. The House of Keys building in Castletown was described as too small, and "dilapidated with the wallpaper hanging off the wall." In 1874, the House of Keys moved to the Court House in Douglas, and five years later, into their current home, the Old Bank of Mona building also in Douglas.
Later use.
After being vacated by the Keys, the building was purchased by 's Bank. Not long after acquiring the building, the bank removed the ceiling from the chamber, and added a large skylight to create a grand banking hall. The building was repainted in an expensive shade of blue which was fashionable at the time. In 1900, when 's Bank collapsed, the building was taken over by Parr's Bank. The render was stripped off the outside of the building sometime during the 1910s or 1920s, revealing the limestone underneath. In 1918, the bank became part of Westminster Bank. In the 1960s, the upper floor of the chamber was replaced. The building was presented to the Castletown Commissioners in 1973 by the National Westminster Bank on the condition that it serve the town. It was used as the Town Hall until the opening of the Town Hall and Civic Centre in 1989, and then as the Castletown Rural Library.
Manx National Heritage undertook the renovation of the building in 2000 and now runs it as a museum. The building has been restored to its appearance in 1866. That year was chosen as it was when the "House of Keys Election Bill" was passed, making the House of Keys a popularly elected body. In the absence of images depicting the interior, written descriptions were used, in conjunction with inventories.


St. Stephen Cathedral (Phoenix, Arizona)

The St. Stephen Cathedral is a Byzantine Catholic (Ruthenian) cathedral located in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is the cathedral for the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix.
History.
Byzantine Catholics moved to the western United States from the east and in Phoenix they began to plan for a church of their own as early as 1956. Ten years later they formally requested a parish from Bishop Nicholas Elko of Pittsburgh. Permission was granted to acquire the property of the former St. Thomas the Apostle Antiochene Orthodox Church in 1968. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Easter Sunday. The church was dedicated by Bishop Stephen Kocisko under the patronage of St. Stephen, the Proto-Martyr, on June 28, 1968. The Rev. Paul Bovankovich was appointed the parish's first pastor. A rectory and parish hall were built in 1974, and a columbarium was added in 1991.
The Northridge earthquake in 1994 damaged the chancery offices of the Eparchy of Van Nuys and the Cathedral of St. Mary. Bishop George Kuzma and his staff relocated to Phoenix and as a result St. Stephen's was named the pro-cathedral. In 2010 the Eparchy of Van Nuys was officially renamed the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix and St. Stephen's was elevated to a cathedral from its pro-cathedral status.
In 2016, Father Diodoro Mendoza was appointed rector and pastor of St. Stephen Cathedral. In 2016, Bishop John Stephen Pazak succeeded Bishop Gerald Nicholas Dino as the bishop. Bishop Dino remains Bishop Emeritus.


Democratic Union Party (Romania)

The Democratic Union Party ( or "", PDU) was a political group in Romania, one of the political forces which claimed to represent the ethnic Romanian community of Bukovina province. The PDU was active in the wake of World War I, between 1919 and 1923, having for its leader the historian and nationalist militant Ion Nistor. It was formed by Nistor and other activists who wrote for the regional periodical "Glasul Bucovinei", and, as a consequence, the party members were commonly referred to as "Glasiști" ("Glas-ists").
The PDU favored a centralist administration, pushed for Romanianization in public life, and was generally hostile to the centrifugal tendencies of other communities, primarily Ukrainians, Germans, Poles and Jews. These together formed a relative majority of Bukovina's population, and Nistor's agenda met with sustained opposition from all sides of the region's political spectrum, although the PDU was successful in rallying to its cause some individuals from all these communities. In addition, the PDU clashed with the moderate or autonomist Bukovinian Romanians, whose leaders were Aurel Onciul and Iancu Flondor.
Democratic Union politicians helped organize the administration of Bukovina, speeding its absorption into Greater Romania, and, in 1919, formed part of the government coalition backing Premier Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. The PDU was later allied to the dominant National Liberal Party (PNL), helping it return to power with a nationwide centralist agenda, consolidated by the adoption of a new Romanian Constitution, in 1923. The same year, Nistor merged his party into the PNL.
Origins.
Bukovina met World War I as an eastern province of Austria-Hungary, on the empire's border with the Kingdom of Romania. A Romanian traditional region, it had a Romanian plurality of 42 to 48% before 1918. Early in the war, a nationalist faction headed by Nistor refused to join the Austro-Hungarian Army and fled to Romania, where they organized a Committee of Bukovinian Refugees, nucleus of the future PDU groups and first publisher of "Glasul Bucovinei". Over the following years, Nistor and his men became conjectural allies of the PNL Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu, who declared war on Austria in 1916.
Bukovinians of all nationalities emancipated themselves as the Austro-Hungarian regime collapsed and, after war ended on all fronts, the region faced an uncertain future. Early on, the Romanians and the Ukrainians created rival representative bodies, which, in late October-early November 1918, voted each for its union project: Romanians for union with Romania, Ukrainians for merger into the West Ukrainian People's Republic. A partition agreement was mediated between Aurel Onciul of the Democratic Peasants' Party, who claimed to represent all Romanians, and Omelian Popovych of the Ukrainian movement. This allowed the Ukrainian Galician Army to organize incursions into Bukovina.
After the Austro-Hungarian administration had dissolved and the last governor (Josef Graf von Etzdorf) renounced power in favour of the Romanian and Ukrainian committees, the Ukrainian militias gained control of the province, and established a provisional government. The National Romanian Council reacted by demanding help from the Romanian Land Forces (General Iacob Zadig). The Romanian troops swiftly occupied the region, with little armed resistance from the Ukrainians, and installed martial law. Through a Congress of Nationalities held at Cernăuți, some of the various competing factions, who supported the preservation of integral Bukovina, came to an understanding. Bukovina's preservation and its union with Romania was sealed on November 28, 1918, although only the region's Romanians, Germans and Poles agreed that this should be unconditional. The Congress, which opened with a greeting to the Romanian Army, was boycotted by the Ukrainian and Jewish representatives. The Congress also renewed tensions between the two leaders of Bukovina's Romanian nationalist revival: Iancu Flondor, who supported regional autonomy and minority rights; and Nistor, who stood for ethnonationalism and welcomed centralized rule.
Creation.
On January 2, a hybrid and transitional regime was instituted in the region: Romanian King Ferdinand I was recognized as sovereign; a Ministry of Bukovina, with Ion Nistor and Iancu Flondor at its helm, took over the actual administration under a Brătianu premiership. Flondor resigned soon after, and, although Nistor took over his office in Cernăuți, the region experienced an acute political crisis. Flondor sent his complaints to the king in April 1919, implying that centralization was alienating everyone, including Romanians. The outgoing Minister-Delegate found a cautionary example in the neighboring Moldavian Democratic Republic, which had also been united with Romania a year before. He argued: "I have avoided fast and radical changes in the belief that [...] their consequences would be compromised, perhaps beyond repair, and that the same would go for the good cause of the people, as has happened in Bessarabia, haunted to this day by deep resentments versus the national ideal." By contrast, Nistor saw his government mission as being the Romanianization of the provincial administrative, judicial and schooling systems.
Over the next months, as the Romanian provisional military administration withdrew, Bukovina's civil society began expressing discontent. In June, General Nicolae Petala heard numerous groups expressing support for the autonomist option: Flondor's Romanian moderates and George Grigorovici of the Romanian Socialists; Ukrainian Kassian Bogatyrets; Germans Albert Kohlruss and Rudolf Gaidosch; Jews Mayer Ebner and Iacob Pistiner. Flondor, who regretted his earlier vote for unconditional union, threatened to call in international arbiters, and demanded that Romania cease its occupation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. He was by then conceiving of a Bukovinian autonomous region extending out of the former Austro-Hungarian province and into Botoșani, Dorohoi, Hotin and Suceava territories.
Meanwhile, the "Glasul Bucovinei" group alone stood by the governing authority. Nistor supported centralism on principle, as a legalist, and (in agreement with the Romanian central authorities) viewed Flondor's compromise option as unsound. As early a December 1918, Nistor had tied the cause of autonomism with the marginalization of Romanian Bukovinians; its aim, he argued, was: "to erase all traces of the past and to smother the national consciousness of the native population." In his view: "Provincial politics have vanished on the very day of union." The Glas-ists were thus supportive of the new electoral law. Passed in August 1919, it dissolved the Diet of Bukovina while giving the region 40 representatives in the Romanian Parliament, introduced universal male suffrage, and ended the proportional representation of ethnic groups.
In September 1919, Nistor and his supporters founded the PDU as the political instrument of Romanian centralists. Its leading militants were folklorist Dimitrie Marmeliuc, historian Vasile Grecu, schoolteacher George Tofan (d. 1920), and, before December 1919, linguist Sextil Pușcariu.
Nationalist clashes and 1919 elections.
The PDU was confrontational on the national issue, as noted in Nistor's letter to Pușcariu: "As soon as the external threats cease, internal political struggles will break out with unprecedented vehemence. [...] The new will triumph." Their position was initially supported by the Polish community, who, at 4.2% of Bukovina's population, did not take issue with Romanian nationalism ("see Polish–Romanian alliance"). By contrast, the PDU was in conflict with the more sizable minorities. The Ukrainians tended to view Romanian rule as accidental, and expected assistance from the Ukrainian People's Republic. They were therefore apathetic when it came to the electoral battle, and some of the leading Ukrainian nationalist militants (Hierotheus Pihuliak, Stepan Smal-Stotskyi, Volodymyr Zalozetsky-Sas) even left the region in protest. The Ukrainian, Jewish, German and socialist political groups boycotted the November 1919 legislative election. As a countering measure to this abstentionist bloc, the PDU suggested co-opting individual politicians from minority groups into alliances with the Romanian parties.
The PDU was especially critical of the National Jewish Council, a triumvirate of Jewish politicians in Bukovina: Ebner, Pistiner, Benno Straucher. When the Council, reacting against Romania's failure to emancipate its Jewish communities, called for international sanctions, "Glasul Bucovinei" resorted to antisemitic campaigning. In the 1919 suffrage, Nistor enlisted (or, according to Flondor's supporters, coerced) Jewish inspector Heini Teller into registering in as a traveling companion of the PDU, but Teller eventually withdrew from the race when faced with his coreligionists' indignant reaction. The PDU list of Senate candidates then included Jewish entrepreneur Jakob Hecht. Hecht spoke in favor of complete and unconditional union, in statements which, at the time, infuriated the Jewish Council. The Senate list was completed by another Jew, Iosif Vihovici of Coțmani.
There was a similar disagreement between the PDU and Bukovina's Germans. The Romanian party claimed that it had supported the creation of a German constituency, but that the Germans, being spread out between villages, were ungroupable. The National German Council, resentful of early Romanianization attempts, refused to sign for an alliance with Nistor. In this case as well, the PDU was able to enlist a dissident German, Norbert Kipper (Chiper), among its own candidates for the Assembly. The party was even able to affiliate two Ukrainians, Vasily Snyatynchuk of Orășeni (Coțmani) and the Mayor of Ocna. Stanisław (Stanislaus) Kwiatkowski, the first Bukovina Pole to serve in Parliament, was also close to Nistor and, after taking his seat, became a PDU member.
The PDU sent twenty Bukovinians, its leader included, to Parliament—Nistor himself was to be reelected for successive terms, until 1938. A Bukovinian telegram, published by the central and regional press on November 7, informed: "The candidates of the Democratic Union Party under Mr. Nistor's leadership have won seats everywhere, in Cernăuți as well as in the other parts of Bukovina. [...] The elections were carried out in the most profound peacefulness." All of the PDU's ethnic minority candidates had been elected to either Senate of Assembly, but the others' boycott was still effectively sending the message of Bukovinian disobedience.
1920 elections.
The 1919 legislature ratified the act of union and saw the signing of the Saint-Germain Treaty, which awarded it formal recognition. The PDU briefly parted with the PNL and supported the opposition. After negotiations, the PDU, the Democratic Nationalist Party and the Bessarabian Peasants' Party were included in the parliamentary bloc formed by the Peasants' Party and the Romanian National Party. The bloc held power, with Alexandru Vaida-Voevod as Prime Minister, but King Ferdinand's refusal to accept its land reform project brought down the cabinet.
Newly appointed Premier Alexandru Averescu dissolved Parliament on March 25, 1920. After April 5, 1920, a Unification Commission deposed all that remained of Bukovina's autonomous administration, and Nistor resigned from his Bukovina Minister post. However, in the 1920 election, the PDU, which ran together with its former electoral bloc colleagues, faced significant opposition from Averescu's People's Party (PP). The PP successfully signed up some prominent supporters of conditional union. Elected to Parliament as an ethnic German PP candidate, Kohlruss rekindled the campaign for cultural autonomy, and received virulent replies from the PDU, through "Glasul Bucovinei". The PDU's own ethnic minority candidate was Vihovici, elected to the Assembly in Coțmani. Overall, the PDU had three elected representatives in the Assembly.
By then, the PDU and it paper were primarily supporters of the centralist policy on education, and applauded the disestablishment of German, Jewish or other schools, noting that they overrepresented their respective minority groups. This, and the complete lack of Polish representation in the 1920 Parliament, created tensions between Nistor's supporters and the Polish community. In May 1920, the National Polish Council presented King Ferdinand with a memorandum. Although stating that the administration had been beyond reproach as far as the Poles were concerned, the document noted that the unwillingness to create a Polish constituency was an "injustice" on Nistor's part, "which may lead to Polish irredentism". Nistor issued a formal reply, arguing that the number of Poles was too small to validate the preservation of Austro-Hungarian electoral customs.
Around 1920, the party was taking an interest into various other problems specific to Bukovina's rural society. The PDU took a stance on the issue of logging rights, giving support to peasants who complained that the PP had been arbitrarily handing out major grants of forest terrain to its clientele. "Glasul Bucovinei" discussed the issue of worthless Austrian war bonds, which the peasants had bought in good faith during the 1910s, and issued warnings about the unexploded ordnance which posed threats on the lives of agricultural workers.
1922 elections and 1923 merger.
Before the 1922 election, Nistor and his party were committed partners of the PNL, Romania's main centralist movement. Shortly before the election date was set, the PDU was co-opted in Brătianu's new cabinet, created through an understanding with King Ferdinand. Nicolae Petala's government gazette "Cultura Poporului" gave positive coverage to the new governing alliance. Brătianu's platform, it argued, was one of "order, good governance, legality and justice." Reportedly, the National Liberals had tried to co-opt all unionist parties into this new cartel, but only Nistor and the Bessarabian Peasantists could be persuaded to join.
The PDU was part of a cartel with the PNL and the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, which faced three other alliances: the Citizens' Bloc of Democratic Nationalists and Conservative-Democrats; the Peasants' Party-Romanian National Party group; and the PP's common list with the Progressive Conservatives. The PDU's own Bukovina list of candidates featured three PNL members, all of them based outside the region—Brătianu for Rădăuți, Alexandru Constantinescu-Porcu for Vijnița, Artur Văitoianu for Zastavna. More controversially, Nistor adhered to the PNL's philosophy on elections, and in particular the notion that election results needed to be corrected in areas where the electorate was hostile or inexperienced.
By then, Nistor had come to a disagreement with the Democratic Nationalist leader Nicolae Iorga, who urged him not to align himself with Romania's traditional partisan politics, and especially not with Brătianu's men. The anti-Liberal nationalist Iorga was bitter about the PDU's political choices, and privately called Nistor "a nullity". From his new home in Transylvania, Sextil Pușcariu also watched with concern as Nistor became Brătianu's man of confidence; he was himself a supporter of Iorga. While its nationalist basis was threatened, the PDU was again able to list minority representatives as its candidates. This category includes Kipper and even the PDU's former rival Benno Straucher, who had since lost Jewish community backing.
Eventually, in January 1923, the PDU was absorbed into the PNL. In so doing, Brătianu's Bukovinian allies helped the PNL overcome a crisis of confidence: the National Liberal group was strengthened by arrivals from the PDU and the Bessarabian Peasantists. When the PNL-endorsed 1923 Constitution of Romania was finally adopted, Bukovina became an integral part of the Kingdom (or "Greater Romania"). As Minister of State for Bukovina (between 1924 and 1926), Nistor signed up to the PNL's Romanianization agenda. His term saw the closure of more minority schools, especially Jewish, German and Ukrainian ones.


Exarchate of Metsovo

The first available information about the ecclesiastical organization of Metsovo and its environs points to the fact that, in the 14th century, it was part of the Metropolis of Ioannina. Furthermore, there are accounts of the existence of monasteries during the same period in the area, as well as in the wider region of the central Pindos. The administrative inclusion of Metsovo in the Ottoman Sanjak of Trikala in the mid-15th century would require corresponding changes in the ecclesiastic administration, but this is not attested before the mid-17th century, when Metsovo was under the Metropolis of Stagoi.
According to Aravantinos, in the 16th century the Patriarchate of Constantinople transferred the exarchate supervising the Vlach villages in the area to the hegoumenos of the monastery of Voutsa. This testimony is evidence of the establishment of a distinct ecclesiastic Exarchate of Metsovo at the time, a development connected with the granting of privileges to Metsovo and the surrounding area. From then until 1795, Metsovo and six neighboring settlements constituted an autonomous church region, supervised directly by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In 1924, the patriarchal Exarchate of Metsovo was briefly revived as a Metropolis, in order to find posts for high-ranking clergymen from Asia Minor that had lost their sees in the aftermath of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. In 1929, the Metropolis was abolished without reinstating the exarchal status, and the area of the former Exarchate of Metsovo came under the Metropolis of Grevena until 1932, when Metsovo, Anilio, Votonosi and Derventista were separated and annexed lasagna again to the Metropolis of Ioannina.


Sammut

Sammut is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:


Bourscheid Castle

Bourscheid Castle (, , ) is located near the village of Bourscheid in north-eastern Luxembourg. The medieval castle stands on a site with archeological evidence of structures dating back to Roman times. Standing majestically some 150 metres (490 ft) above the River Sûre, it is enclosed by a circular wall with 11 watchtowers.
History.
Although first mentioned in records from 1095, the castle appears to have been built around the year 1000 on earlier foundations. It was extended on several occasions: the outer wall dates from 1350, the Stolzembourg house from 1384 and the courtyard from 1477. Behind the gateway from the end of the 15th century, a ditch protected by four towers barred access to the upper and lower castles. The southern and eastern towers are from 1498 and the artillery bastions were built in the 16th century.
The extension of the upper part of the castle took place in the 15th century while the great fireplace and tall chimney were completed about a hundred years later. Schenk von Schmidtburg, who acquired the castle at the end of the 18th century, undertook some repair work but was unable to prevent further degradation. In the 19th century, after the chapel collapsed, there was talk of demolishing the building. However, in 1936 it became a listed site and in 1972, with the encouragement of an association called the Friends of the Castle of Bourscheid, the State acquired the building and undertook extensive repairs. As a result of restoration work, the castle is now fully accessible to visitors, but remains a predominantly open-air ruin. An audio tour is available in Luxembourgish, German, French, Dutch, and English. Publication of the Bourscheid historical archives has provided details of the castle and its former inhabitants.
Visiting times.
The castle is open to visitors all the year round: 1 April to 15 October from 9.30 am to 6 pm and 16 October to 31 March from 11 am to 4 pm.
Full-price admission to the castle costs five euros, with discount prices available for adults, students, and children. Admission includes an audio-guide. Audio guides are not available for guests who arrive within 90 minutes of closing.


Henry Knight Storks

Lieutenant General Sir Henry Knight Storks (5 April 1811 – 6 September 1874) was a British soldier and colonial governor.
Military career.
Educated at Charterhouse School, he entered the Army on 10 January 1828 as an ensign of the 61st Regiment of Foot. He was promoted lieutenant on 2 March 1832, exchanged to the 14th Regiment of Foot on 23 March 1832 and was promoted captain on 30 October 1835. Exchanging to the 38th Regiment of Foot on 30 May 1836, he served with them in the Ionian Islands in 1840 and was promoted major on 7 August 1840.
He went on half pay from the regiment on 23 May 1845 and served in a variety of staff posts. He served as an Assistant Adjutant General during the seventh of the Cape Frontier Wars from 1846 to 1847, and was subsequently promoted to an unattached lieutenant colonelcy on 15 September 1848. From 1849 to 1854, he was Assistant Military Secretary at Mauritius, and was promoted colonel on 28 November 1854.
Promoted major-general, Storks superintended the British bases set up in Ottoman territory during the Crimean War, where he supported the nursing efforts of Florence Nightingale. After the war, he was awarded the KCB (2 January 1857) and employed from 1857 to 1859 by the War Office as Secretary for Military Correspondence.
He now began his career in colonial government, appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands on 2 February 1859. While serving there, he was created GCMG in 1860, and reorganized the judiciary of the islands before the end of the commissionership (by treaty) on 14 November 1863. He was made a GCB on 1 July 1864. Sent next to Malta, he was appointed Governor on 15 November 1864. However, he was called the next year to Jamaica to investigate the disturbances there, including the Morant Bay rebellion, and was appointed Governor of Jamaica on 12 December 1865. He held that post until 16 July 1866. Upon his return, he was created a Privy Councillor (10 November 1866). He resigned the Governorship of Malta on 15 May 1867.
Now back at the War Office, he was appointed Controller-in-Chief and Under-Secretary at the War Office on 19 December 1867. There, he was involved in the re-organization of Army logistics that took place after the Crimean War. He was appointed Surveyor-General of the Ordnance on 5 August 1870, the first to hold that post since the Crimean War. On 10 October 1870 he was appointed colonel of the 70th Regiment of Foot, an office he held for the remainder of his life.
Last years in politics.
Entering politics in 1870, Storks was endorsed as the Liberal candidate at a parliamentary by-election for the Borough of Newark that followed the death of the sitting Liberal MP. Unfortunately he was opposed by progressive liberal and colonial administrator Sir George Grey, who had previously been governor of South Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony, standing as an independent liberal. Grey's extremist views on the questions of the Colonial Empire, of emigration, of Home Rule for Ireland and the cause of the English poor were contrary to the interests of Gladstone's Liberal government. Determined that Grey should not be elected and seeing that splitting the liberal vote would result in both Grey and Storks losing to the Conservative candidate, the Liberal government engineered an arrangement where both would withdraw, leaving another Liberal candidate, Samuel Boteler Bristowe, to take the seat. Storks was rewarded with the newly revived post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance and Grey returned to New Zealand later that year.
The following year Storks was elected to parliament at the Ripon by-election. He was promoted lieutenant general on 25 October 1871. While in Parliament, he spoke in favor of the abolition of the purchase system for Army commissions. His stance on the Contagious Diseases Acts contributed to his defeat by the Earl de Grey in the 1874 general election. He died shortly after losing the election, on 6 September 1874. He was buried in the Western part of Highgate Cemetery.


Dinogetia (castra)

Dinogetia was a fort in the Roman province of Moesia.


Grubenhagen Castle (Einbeck)

Grubenhagen Castle () is a ruined medieval castle in North Germany dating to the 13th century. It is not far from the town of Einbeck in southern Lower Saxony.
Location.
The ruins are located in the district of Northeim on a hill summit on the Ahlsburg ridge, south-southwest of Einbeck and east of the Solling hills, between the basin of the River Ilme and the valley of the Leine. The castle may be reached via a narrow forest path from Rotenkirchen, a village south of Einbeck, which is on the northern edge of the ridge and below the castle ruins and not far to the northeast.
Architecture.
The hill castle of Grubenhagen was built in the 13th century. Only the round, bergfried remains today. Attached to its southeastern side is a building from the 19th/20th century. The raised plateau of the inner ward, with its relatively small area, is oval and slightly kidney-shaped. It is about 63 metres long and 32 metres wide. Below it is the outer ward. The site is surrounded on three sides by a double ditch. On the fourth side the terrain drops away steeply, rendering a ditch unnecessary. To the northeast and southwest the remains of the ringwall and revetments have been preserved. A Merian engraving around 1650 shows the castle still with a round keep and a roofless building in front of it with a gable. On the outer ramparts of the main ditch was a defensive wall with a chemin de ronde behind the battlements to the northwest. To the north and northwest the engraving depicts the remains of another defensive walkway with embrasures.
History.
The lords of Grubenhagen were the counts of Dassel and the Welfs. It is not clear exactly when the castle was built, but it probably appeared during the reign of Henry the Lion (1129 to 1195). The castle was first mentioned in the records in 1263. At that time the castellans ("Burgmannen") in possession of the castle were the ministerialis family of Grubo or Grube, later Grubenhagen. At the end of the 13th century the castle went back to the dukes of Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
The castle gave its name to the Welf Principality of Grubenhagen founded in 1291 by Henry the Admirable. It was however never really the residence of the principality. It first appears as a "house" of the dukes in the early 15th century. The dukes mainly resided at the castle of Heldenburg not far away and, later, in Herzberg am Harz. The name of the Principality of Grubenhagen first appeared around 1617, its previous name is unknown.
In 1448 Henry III of Brunswick-Grubenhagen had to fortify himself in the castle, after he exposed himself to attack by Landgrave Louis I of Hesse following a raid in the area of Hofgeismar. A siege army deployed in front of the castle with a heavy cannon. The castle could not be taken however. Instead the disappointed attackers devastated the villages of the neighbourhood: Altendorf, Reinsen, Bensen and Rotenkirchen. The last-mentioned was rebuilt in 1520 as a supply depot, residence and administrative seat for the dukes.
In the period that followed Grubenhagen Castle was rarely occupied. The Grubenhagen Line of the House of Welf died out in 1596 and it fell to other Welf lines, who did not use the castle for 200 years. In 1815/16 Duke Adolf Frederick of Cambridge took ownership of the castle from the desmesne of Rotenkirchen. As viceroy of the Kingdom of Hanover the duke had the timber-framed manor house in Rotenkirchen converted by master builder Laves into an elegant hunting lodge. He also had the stables built onto the existing castle tower. From 1861 to 1866 Rotenkirchen was the summer residence of the kings of Hanover.
The castle today.
Grubenhagen Castle was neglected in the years after the Second World War and fell into further ruin. Even the door to the tower was walled up so that it could no longer be ascended.
Since 1977 a citizens' group, the Grubenhagen Castle Society ("Burgverein Grubenhagen"), has looked after the castle site. The keep has been renovated with donations and grants and the old horse stable can be used for events. The site is once again a popular destination for day trippers. The tower can be climbed, but the key must be collected beforehand in the village from the castle tower keeper ("Burgturmwart").


Thomas Maitland (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General The Right Honourable Sir Thomas Maitland (10 March 1760 – 17 January 1824) was a British soldier and colonial governor. He also served as a Member of Parliament for Haddington from 1790 to 1796, 1802–06 and 1812–13. He was made a Privy Councillor on 23 November 1803. He was the second surviving son of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, and the younger brother of James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale. Maitland never married.
Early military career.
Maitland was commissioned into the Edinburgh Light Horse, shortly after his birth, but did not take up his commission until he joined the 78th Foot as a Captain in 1778. He transferred to the 72nd Foot, and then to the 62nd Foot as a Major in 1790. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1794 and Colonel and Brigadier-General in 1798.
Haitian Revolution.
In 1797, Maitland landed in Saint-Domingue, under orders to capture the French colony. Maitland realised that his forces were quickly dying in droves due to yellow fever, and he began to negotiate a retreat with the Haitian leader, Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Elkins and McKitrick write:
It was in fact Maitland and not the War Ministry who had determined that Britain's only sensible choice, rather than try to maintain any kind of presence at Jérémie and Môle-Saint-Nicolas, was to deal directly with Toussaint and negotiate a total evacuation of the island. Accordingly he and the black general concluded a secret agreement on August 31, 1798. Great Britain would desist from any further attack on St. Domingue and any interference with its internal affairs; Toussaint made a similar promise with regard to Jamaica; and Maitland would see that provisions were allowed to reach the ports of St. Domingue without interference from British cruisers.
Governor of Ceylon.
Maitland served as Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during 1805 to 1811.
While at Ceylon, Maitland was attracted to a place at "Galkissa" (Mount Lavinia) and decided to construct his palace there.
During this time, Maitland fell in love with a half-caste dancing-girl named Lovina, who had been born to Portuguese and Sinhalese parents. During the construction of the palace, Maitland gave instructions for the construction of a secret tunnel to Lovina's house, which was located close to the governor's palace. One end of the tunnel was inside the well of Lovina's house and the other end was in a wine cellar inside the governor's palace. When the governor came to reside there, he would often use the tunnel to meet Lovina.
The Sinhalese village that surrounded the Governor's mansion developed into a modern city named "Galkissa". Later the city was renamed "Mount Lavinia" in honour of Lovina. In 1920 the tunnel was sealed up.
The bicentenary celebration of the Mount Lavinia Hotel was held in 2005. Some of Sir Thomas Maitland's relatives living in the UK attended the ceremony.
Two roads in central Colombo in modern-day Sri Lanka, are named for him, Maitland Crescent and Maitland Place.
Peninsular War.
In early 1812, The 1st Earl of Wellington began the campaign that resulted in his victory at the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July. To prevent Marshal
Louis Gabriel Suchet from sending French reinforcements from the east coast of Spain, Wellington requested that Lord William Bentinck launch a diversionary operation using the British garrison of Sicily. At first Bentinck agreed to send 10,000 of his soldiers, but in March he reversed himself. After much persuasion, he allowed the operation to go forward and on 7 June he put 8,000 men aboard naval transports under the command of Maitland. The fickle Bentinck changed his mind again on 9 June, stopping the expedition. At last on 28 June Maitland sailed for Menorca. The fleet first picked up 6,000 Spanish troops at Menorca and landed on 31 July at Palamós, northeast of Barcelona. He wisely decided that Barcelona was too strong to attack, but he also refused to try to capture weakly held Tarragona. Maitland soon received news that Joseph O'Donnell's Army of Murcia had been routed at the Battle of Castalla on 21 July. Without the support of O'Donnell, Maitland decided he could not accomplish anything. He re-embarked his expeditionary force and sailed to Alicante instead, joining his troops with the garrison to form an army of 15,000 men. Because of the disaster at Salamanca, the French were forced to evacuate both Madrid in central Spain and Andalusia in the south. Their combined forces joined Suchet in the province of Valencia. In close proximity to 80,000 French soldiers, Maitland declined to move from Alicante. Maitland asked to be relieved in September 1812 due to illness.
Governor of Malta and of the Ionian Islands.
Maitland became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in May 1813 and was then appointed as Governor of Malta on 23 July, when the island became a crown colony instead of a protectorate. The plague had broken out in Malta in March 1813 and the disease began to spread especially in Valletta and the Grand Harbour area. Maitland arrived on the island on 3 October 1813 and took his oath of office on 5 October. Once in post, he enforced stricter quarantine measures. The plague spread to Gozo by the following January, but the islands were free of the disease by March 1814. Overall, 4486 people were killed which amounted to 4% of the total population. It is thought that the outbreak would have been worse without Maitland's strict actions.
After the eradication of the plague, Maitland made several reforms. He removed British troops from Lampedusa on 25 September 1814, ending the dispute that had started in 1800. On Malta, he was autocratic and he refused to form an advisory council made up of Maltese representatives, and so he was informally known as "King Tom". He formed the Malta Police Force in 1814, while the local Italian-speaking "Università" was dissolved in 1819. Various reforms were undertaken in taxation and the law courts as well. Maitland remained Governor until his death from apoplexy on 17 January 1824. He was attended on his death-bed by doctors Robert Grieves, Alexander Broadfoot and John Hennen.
While he was Governor of Malta, Maitland also served as Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands during 1815 to 1823, while the islands were a British protectorate. The seat of administration was at Corfu, where he was represented by Sir Frederick Hankey, his private secretary. The neoclassical Maitland Monument was built there in his honour in 1821.


Hans Fugger

Hans Fugger "von der Lilie", full name "Hans, Freiherr Fugger, Herr zu Kirchheim, Glött, Mickhausen, Stettenfels und Schmiechen", (4 September 1531 – 19 April 1598; buried in Kirchheim in Schwaben) was a German arts patron, businessman and politician of the Fugger family.
Life.
He was the second son of Anton Fugger (1493–1560) and Anna Rehlinger. As befitted the family's new standing, he and his brothers Marx (1529–1597), Hieronimus (1533–1573) and Jakob (1542–1598) received a cultural and philosophical education as well as a mercantile one. Throughout his life Hans served the family's commercial interests in different areas, ranging from the Netherlands to Spain to his native Augsburg.
After his father Anton's death in 1560 he and his brothers managed the now-substantial family estates and business together. In 1573 the brothers divided the business up between them, with Hans getting (among others) the lands in Kirchheim, Glött, Burg Stettenfels and Duttenstein. In 1583 Hans and his brothers had their lands made Imperial States in the Schwäbischen Reichsgrafenkollegium and raised to Kreisstand status in the Swabian Imperial Circle. On his brother Marx's death in 1597, Hans was elected head of the whole Fugger business.
Hans was a great patron of the arts, partly to impress his business clients, showing off his collections in his Burg Stettenfels, the Fuggerschloss Kirchheim and what are now known as the "Badstuben" in the Fuggerhäuser in Augsburg. His correspondence is also to be found in cartularys now in the Fuggerarchiv in Dillingen an der Donau - precises of these have recently been made available.


Death of Michael Leahy

Michael Leahy was a child who died by drowning in 1826 in Kerry, Ireland. Leahy was four years old at the time of his death. He was believed by some in his community to have been a changeling and the drowning was the result of an attempt to cure him.
Ann Roche was indicted for Leahy's murder and tried in Tralee. Roche was described by the "London Morning Post" as being “an old woman of very advanced age”. She claimed to have supernatural abilities and healing skills. She ordered two people to bathe the boy in the river Flesk every morning. The two bathed him for three mornings. On the third morning he was held under the water for longer than usual and died.
A changeling was a child left by fairies after they had stolen a healthy human child. The suspicion in Leahy's case resulted from his illness. He could neither speak nor stand. Under cross-examination a witness said that the drowning was not done with the intent of killing the child but to cure him - “to put the fairy out of it”.
The court, at the direction of the judge, found Roche not guilty of murder. The judge said that the jury “would not be safe in convicting the prisoner of murder, however strong their suspicion might be”. Author Robert Curran says that the verdict is suggestive of the depth of belief in changelings in the community. There were several similar cases in rural Ireland in the 19th century.
Hannah Kent's novel, "The Good People", takes inspiration from this case. Kent said that she could only find two primary source articles on the case after extensive research and many details about the case are unknown.


Hanoverian princess

This is a list of Hanoverian princesses from the accession of George III to the throne of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814. Individuals holding the title of princess will usually also be styled "Her Royal Highness" (HRH). Despite Hanover's annexation by Prussia in 1866, male-line descendants of George III continue to style themselves as a prince or princess of Hanover. The eldest daughter of George III, Charlotte, Princess Royal, is not included, as she was married before her father's accession to the throne.
The title Princess of Hanover and the use of the style "Royal Highness" has generally been restricted to the following persons:


Welsh Tract Baptist Church

Welsh Tract Old School Baptist Church is a historic Primitive Baptist church, located on Welsh Tract Road in Newark, New Castle County, Delaware. It was built by Welsh settlers in 1746 and is a simple rectangular brick building with a wood-shingled jerkinhead roof.
History.
The Baptist movement had gained significant ground in England and Wales during the religious turmoil that embroiled the British Isles through the 17th century. Although the Tolerance Act was passed by the English Parliament in 1689 in an attempt to end the religious strife, by the end of that century, new efforts were being made by the English Crown to reinforce the hegemony of the Anglican church over all "Dissenter" groups in the realm. In the spring of 1701, sixteen Baptists, in the counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen, South Wales, resolved to go to America. They formed themselves into a church, with Thomas Griffith, one of their number, as Pastor. They embarked at Milford Haven in June, 1701, arriving in Philadelphia September, 8th, the same year. Local Baptist leaders advised them to join an established congregation nearby along the Pennepeck Creek.
The immigrant group settled there for about a year and a half. During that time they kept together as a distinct church, held meetings at each other's residences, and observed the ordinances of Christ in a manner they had brought with them from Wales. In the two years, twenty-one persons were added to their number.
The ceremony of laying on of hands was the principal, if not sole, means of introducing singing, imposition of hands, church covenants, etc., among Welsh Baptists, and they maintained that practice in Pennsylvania. But not without some difficulty, as appears from the following history translated from the Welsh Tract book:
Because of the discomfort created with the other Baptists in Pennypack over the Welsh practice, the Welsh Baptists soon decided to seek a new home. In 1703, they purchased 30,000 acres in New Castle County, Delaware, near what is now known as Newark, Delaware, deeded by William Penn in the 1680s to three Baptists: David Evans, William Davis, and William Willis. Known as the Welsh Tract, it included Iron Hill and reached all the way to its northern slopes, now part of Interstate I-95. A small meeting-house was erected on the property, and the community became known as the "Emigrant Church", in part because of the then-unusual practices of laying of hands and singing of psalms. This church stood until it was replaced with a new edifice, built in 1746. Thomas Griffith served as the first pastor of the church until he died on July 25, 1725, aged eighty years.
Members of the church were dismissed to form other Baptist churches of like faith and order in Delaware and elsewhere, including the London Tract, Duck Creek, Wilmington, Cow Marsh, Mispillion, and Pedee (South Carolina) Baptist churches. Its practices became standard practice for Baptist churches throughout the Middle States. Paul Palmer, founder of the "Palmer" branch of the Free Will Baptists, attended Welsh Tract Baptist Church in the 1700s.
DIVISION BETWEEN OLD SCHOOL AND NEW SCHOOL BAPTISTS
Welsh Tract Baptist Church continued in union with the Philadelphia Baptist Association of which it was a co-founder church until the church was dismissed from the association to form the Delaware River Old School Baptist Association in 1836 under the pastorate of Elder Samuel Trott. The Old School Baptists separated themselves from the majority of Baptist churches in America who formed the Triennial Convention in 1814 due to what the Old School Baptists considered novel practices not found in the New Testament regarding mission societies, bible societies, Sunday Schools, ministerial education, revival meetings, and the like. This rift finally led to a full division in 1832 with the Black Rock Declaration of Principles.
Elder Trott, according to the Brief History of Old Welsh Tract Church published in 1903 is quoted as saying:
We receive Christ as our pattern, hence we do not walk in the observance of many things which have been introduced among the Baptists generally, and received as great importance in advancing the cause of religion, &c. We desire to keep in His footsteps, believing it to be the safest path. We rely on His wisdom and power to gather in His elect and extend the knowledge of His salvation.
The history goes on to say:
In the Circular Letter in 1832, he condemns missions, salaried ministries and Theological Seminaries. Elder Thomas Barton in 1832 writes: "We hope none of us are prepared to adopt the invitation of Jehu: "Come, see my zeal for the Lord of Hosts," but with humility would acknowledge our shortcomings; we know that the work of salvation is of God, and why He does not convert more sinners among us we leave to Him". In 1836 the association refused by vote to receive into fellowship persons baptized by those who are engaged in the new-fangled systems of the day. In 1856, for the first time, the association was called in the Minutes, "The Delaware Old School Baptist Association."
The church continues to have meetings every second Sunday of the month. Elder Chet Dirkes is the present pastor.
The church has no official website, but members and friends have websites that promote the doctrines and faith of the church.
The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.


Meic Stephens

Meic Stephens (23 July 1938 – 2 July 2018) was a Welsh literary editor, journalist, translator, and poet.
Birth and education.
Meic Stephens was born on 23 July 1938 in the village of Treforest, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan. He was educated at Pontypridd Boys' Grammar School and then studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1961, at the University of Rennes, Brittany, and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd.
Career.
From 1962–1966 he taught French at Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire. In Merthyr Tydfil he established the Triskel Press and in 1965 he began the periodical, "Poetry Wales". He learnt Welsh as an adult, and became a member of the Welsh Language Society () and of Plaid Cymru.
After working for the "Western Mail" for almost a year, from 1967–1990 Stephens was literature director of the Welsh Arts Council. Before retiring he was professor of Welsh Writing in English at the University of Glamorgan. He was also a visiting professor in the English department of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Stephens is credited as the first person to create the graffiti near Llanrhystyd, Ceredigion. This painted slogan has come to be regarded as an unofficial 'national landmark' commemorating Capel Celyn, a Welsh-speaking village near Bala, that was destroyed by the construction of the Llyn Celyn reservoir in the early 1960s.
Writings.
Stephens wrote many articles about literature in Wales for the "Western Mail", as well as obituaries of eminent Welsh people for "The Independent". He took a particular interest in the life and work of Rhys Davies, the novelist and short story writer, and founded and served as secretary of the Rhys Davies Trust, which promoted the writing of short fiction in Wales.
Stephens' works include:
Honours.
Stephens was honoured as a Fellow of Aberystwyth University in 2018.
Death.
Stephens died in Cardiff on 2 July 2018. He had four children, his son Huw Stephens is a radio presenter.


Marcianopolis

Marcianopolis or Parthenopolis was an ancient Greek, then Roman capital city and archbishopric in Moesia Inferior. It is located at the site of modern-day Devnya, Bulgaria. The ancient city has been partially excavated and is renowned for its museum collection of ancient mosaic floors from villas in the city.
History.
Roman Emperor Trajan renamed the ancient city of "Parthenopolis" after the Second Dacian War, which ended in 106. The city was renamed after Trajan's sister, Ulpia Marciana. An important strategic centre, the city was part of Roman Thrace until 187–193, and then belonged to Moesia inferior.
Marcianopolis's prosperity under the Severan Dynasty was ended by a Gothic raid in 248–249 and subsequent barbarian invasions from the north. The Romans repulsed another Gothic attack to this town in 267 (or 268), during the reign of Gallienus.
Under Emperor Diocletian Marcianopolis became the centre of the province Moesia Secunda of the Diocese of Thrace, and was rebuilt thoroughly in the late 3rd and early 4th century. It grew in importance at the expense of neighbouring Odessos (Varna) in the 4th century. The city was an important episcopal centre and a basilica from the period was excavated in the 20th century. During Emperor Valens' conflict with the Goths (366–369), Marcianopolis was a temporary capital of the empire and the largest city of Thrace according to a source from the period.
In 447, it was destroyed by the Huns under Attila, immediately after the bloody battle of the Utus river.
Emperor Justinian I restored and fortified it. In 587, it was sacked by the Avars but at once retaken by the Byzantines. The Byzantine army was quartered there in 596 before crossing the Danube to assault the Avars. Despite the regular barbarian attacks, Marcianopolis remained an important centre until an Avar raid finally destroyed it in 614–615, although it still continued to be mentioned on maps until much later.
As the Slavs settled in the Balkans in the 7th century, they called the ruins of the ancient city "Devina".
Sights.
Remains of the Roman city include the amphitheatre, some streets and many exquisite mosaics of the House of Antiope, a Roman villa of the late 3rd or early 4th century AD which are exhibited in the Museum of Mosaics, some "in situ".


Newport Roman Villa

Newport Roman Villa was a Romano-British farmhouse constructed in 280 AD. It is located near to Newport, Isle of Wight.
Discovery and excavation.
Newport Roman Villa was unearthed in 1926 when garage foundations were laid by a nearby homeowner. The site was excavated and the ground plan of the villa house was uncovered.
Thanks to public interest and the generosity of the developer, the site was preserved and protected by a cover building. It is now a scheduled ancient monument, giving it protected status.
History.
Newport Roman Villa was constructed in about 280 AD with local stone including flint, chalk, limestone and greensand with the walls remaining almost at their original height. The building was roofed with massive slabs of Bembridge limestone which needed large roof timbers to support them. Many of these roof slabs had a distinctive shape, pierced with a single hole to take a nail, were found on the site. It is likely the building was the centre of a wealthy estate.
The discovery of fragments of window glass on the site shows that the building had some glazed windows, and remains of painted wall plaster during excavation show that at least some of the rooms had brightly coloured interior walls.
It features a well-preserved Roman bath suite with hypocaust underfloor heating. The furnace for heating the bath suite was outside the back wall of the villa at the end of the bath wing, and a slave would have been responsible for providing it with fuel. The hot air from the furnace passed through an arch at the base of the villa's back wall and circulated under the raised floors of the three rooms.
It remains unknown when life at the villa ended. During excavation, the skull of a woman in her early thirties was found in the corner of one of the rooms. It has been suggested that she was killed during a raid in an abandoned building. However it is also viewed that the abandonment of the island's villas by the middle of the fourth century could be due to economic hardship rather than the threat of attacks by Anglo-saxon raiders.
Museum.
The villa has since been reconstructed based on archaeological evidence featuring a Roman kitchen and Roman garden. It is now open to the public usually from around April to October. The villa regularly has over 5,000 visitors per year, with a further 1,400 school children taking part in educational visits. It is located on Cypress Road in Newport on the Isle of Wight in the middle of a residential development.
For 2009 the villa underwent a roof replacement project, involving essential repairs and replacement of the cover-building roof structure to protect it from further weathering. The project has been joint-funded by the Isle of Wight Council and English Heritage, which grant-aided over £40,000 towards costs. The roof has been designed to improve environmental conditions, reducing moisture levels which have contributed to a build-up of algae on the mosaics below.


Governor-General of Malta

The Governor-General of Malta () was the official representative of Elizabeth II, Queen of Malta, in the State of Malta from 1964 to 1974. This office replaced that of the Governor, and it was replaced by that of President upon the proclamation of the Republic of Malta on 13 December 1974.
List of Governors-General (1964–1974).
Governors-General of Malta.
The Governor-General of Malta was the representative of the monarch in Malta and exercised most of the powers of the monarch. The Governor-General was appointed for an indefinite term, serving at the pleasure of the Monarch. After the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Governor-General was appointed solely on the advice of the Cabinet of Malta without the involvement of the British government. In the event of a vacancy, the Chief Justice served as Officer Administering the Government.


Battle of Curzola

Battle of Curzola (today Korčula, southern Dalmatia, now in Croatia) was a naval battle which was fought on September 9, 1298 between the Genoese and Venetian navies; it was a disaster for Venice, a major setback among many battles fought in the 13th and 14th centuries between Pisa, Genoa, and Venice in a long series of wars for the control of Mediterranean and Levantine trade.
Battle.
The battle took place in the channel between the island of Curzola (Korčula) and the mainland peninsula of Sabbioncello (Pelješac), and ashore, where Venetian men had been landed on the island's far side. The Venetians were led by Admiral Andrea Dandolo, son of Doge Giovanni Dandolo, and the Genoese by Lamba Doria, whose son was killed in the fighting: "Throw my son overboard into the deep sea," Doria was said to have ordered: "What better resting place can we give him?".
The fleets of the two states were apparently equal in number, but, after the Venetians ran their galleys aground while trying to capture the Genoese galleys, Doria exhibited superior strategy and managed to inflict a resounding defeat on his enemies. The disaster seemed almost complete for Venice: 83 of their 95 ships were destroyed and about 7,000 men were killed. The Genoese were victorious and Dandolo committed suicide in his first days of captivity. Venice suffered heavy losses, but she managed to immediately equip another 100 galleys and sought to obtain reasonable peace conditions that did not significantly hamper its power and prosperity.
According to a later tradition (16th Century) recorded by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Marco Polo was one of those among the Venetian prisoners and he dictated his famous book during the few months of his imprisonment; but whether he was actually caught at this battle or at a previous minor engagement near Laiazzo (Ayas) is unclear.


Idomenae

Idomenae or Idomenai (, possibly from Ἰδομενεύς - "Idomeneues"), also known as Idomene (Ἰδομένη), or Eidomenae or Eidomenai, or Idomenia, was a town of ancient Macedonia which the Tabular Itinerary places at 12 M. P. from Stena. Sitalces, on his route from Thrace to Macedonia, crossed Mount Cercine, leaving the Paeones on his right, and the Sinti and Maedi on his left, and descended upon the Axius at Idomenae. It is included by Ptolemy in Emathia, and was near Doberus, next to which it is named by Hierocles among the towns of Consular Macedonia under the Byzantine Empire. Idomenae is documented from the 5th century BCE.
It is now an archaeological site located near the village of Marvinci, near Valandovo, modern-day North Macedonia.
Archaeology.
At its beginning, Idomenae was about 5,000 km2 big. An acropolis with defensive walls was built, a pottery building was also built, and so were other buildings. The people in this town traded a lot with the Asia Minor, which is evidenced by the facts that much of the material found on pottery here was used in graves in Asia Minor. There are also many amphoras from the islands of Thassos and Rhodes.


J. Geraint Jenkins

John Geraint Jenkins (1929 – 15 August 2009), known as J. Geraint Jenkins, was a Welsh maritime historian and historian of rural crafts.
Career.
Jenkins was born in 1929 into a Welsh-speaking "seafaring" family based near Llangrannog in Ceredigion; he attended the village school and Cardigan Grammar School, before completing his university education at the University Colleges of Wales at Swansea and Aberystwyth.
He graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1950 with a degree in geography and anthropology, and then completed a master's degree there under E. G. Bowen and Alwyn J. Rees. He worked at a museum in Leicester from 1952 to 1953, when he was appointed Assistant Keeper at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, which came with a part-time lectureship at the University of Reading (which housed the museum). In 1960, he returned to Wales as Assistant Keeper of the Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagans, and nine years later he secured promotion as Keeper of Material Culture. He then moved in 1977 to the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum in Cardiff, to be closer to the sea and his interest in maritime history; he regarded the decade he spent there as the happiest of his career. In 1981, the University of Wales conferred on him a doctor of science degree. But his move back to St Fagans and the Folk Museum in 1987 to be its Curator was less happy, owing in part to clashes with management and what Jenkins regarded as English interference. He retired early in 1992, and moved to Penbryn. He was the High Sheriff of Dyfed in 1994–95 and joined Ceredigion County Council, serving as its Chairman in 2002–03.
Jenkins died on 15 August 2009, leaving a widow, Nansi, and two sons, David and Gareth; another son, Richard, had died in 2000. According to his obituary in "The Independent", "Geraint Jenkins played a leading role in the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of Wales. He published more than 50 books, many to do with the seafaring traditions of west Wales, and was an acknowledged authority on the subject. He also made expert studies of other aspects of Welsh folk life, including traditional farm implements, rural crafts, the woollen industry and Cardiff ship-owners."


Battle of Westbroek

The Battle of Westbroek was a battle that occurred on December 26, 1481 between the armies of the prince-bishopric of Utrecht and the county of Holland. It was one of the last battles of the Hook and Cod wars.
That war had already been decided in Holland in favour of the Cods and their Burgundian allies. But in Utrecht, they had lost the power, when Bishop David of Burgundy, who had ruled Utrecht since 1456, was chased there after the outbreak of the Second Utrecht Civil War.
On December 26, 1481, David sent an army of 4-5000 men from Holland in the direction of Utrecht. When they reached the village of Westbroek, they burnt the village to the ground and killed all the inhabitants.
When this news reached Utrecht, an armed mob headed towards Westbroek to take revenge. But when they saw the size of the army of the enemy, they fled back to the city. The Hollanders pursued them and killed everybody they could. No mercy was given and some 1500 Utrechters are said to have been slain.


Cynllibiwg

Cynllibiwg (or some variation) was evidently a place name in early medieval Wales.
The earliest surviving reference to it is in the "Historia Brittonum", which describes a marvelous spring in the "regione" of "Cinlipiuc" that has an abundance of fish despite not being fed by a stream. John Edward Lloyd notes that this "Cinlipiuc" appears to be one of the various district names created by adding the element "-wg" to a personal name, in this case an unknown Cunalipi or Cynllib. The "Domesday Book" refers to a place called "Calcebuef", which rendered ten shillings; one editor suggests this is a corruption of Cynllibiwg and that it derives ultimately from the name of Saint Cynllo. However, Lloyd connects this name instead to the cantref of Buellt. The Red Book of the Exchequer, a mainly 13th-century compilation, mentions a region of seven cantrefs between the Severn and the Wye that had been known as "Kenthlebiac" during the time of Rhys ab Owain of Deheubarth (died 1078). This would place Cynllibiwg in the region later known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, but reveals nothing about its extent and nature. The editor suggests that seven cantrefs should be amended to three, perhaps Arwystli, Maelienydd, and Elfael; these are mentioned earlier in the list as part of Powys in the time of 'Meic Menbis', but no longer such.
It has been postulated as an early kingdom, but is not mentioned by the great majority of historians.


Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway

The Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway is the head of the judicial system of the sheriffdom of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway, one of the six sheriffdoms covering the whole of Scotland. The sheriffdom employs a number of legally qualified sheriffs who are responsible for the hearing of cases in five Sheriffs Court based in Airdrie, Ayr, Dumfries, Hamilton, Lanark and Stranraer. The current sheriffdoms were created in 1975 when the previous arrangement of 12 sheriffdoms was discontinued.
The Sheriff Principal, usually a Queen's Counsel (QC), is appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the First Minister, who receives recommendations from the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland. He or she must have been qualified as an advocate or solicitor for at least ten years and is responsible for the administrative oversight of the judicial system within the sheriffdom. The Sheriff Principal will also hear appeals against the judgement of his sheriffs, hear certain cases himself and occasionally conduct major fatal accident inquiries.


Abela

Abela is a surname.
Notable people with the surname include:
The Abela family, which is a branch of the royal family of Spain, is originally from Catalonia from where some of its members moved to Valence and then to Sicilia and to Malta. Ávila (called Abela by the Romans) is the capital of the Ávila province (where Saint Teresa, Doctor of the Church, is born), part of Castile and León, the largest autonomous community of Spain.
The Abela family is a noble family of Malta. George Abela was unanimously elected President of the Republic of Malta by the Maltese Parliament in 2009, for the first time since the country gained its independence from the United Kingdom. His term ended in 2014. His son, Robert Abela, is the current Prime minister of Malta (since 2020). Wistin Abela was Malta’s finance minister, minister for development, minister of energy, ports and telecommunications and deputy prime minister. Carmelo Abela, Malta’s current minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, was Malta’s minister for Home Affairs and National Security and the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives of Malta.
In the 18th century, Giacomo (Jacomo) Abela and his son Tommaso Abela left Malta to settle in Saint John of Acre to do trading with Malta. Elias Abela (the son of Tommaso Abela) and his sons Francis (who went to Egypt), Tommaso (Thomas) – who had a son, Habib Abela (who went to India, China and Sudan) and who died in Lebanon – and Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela are born in Saint John of Acre.
The history of the Abela family in Lebanon starts in the early 19th century when Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela moved to Tyr (where he married) and then to Saida (where he settled). Because of the Maltese roots of the Abela family, Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela obtained for him and his descends, i.e. all the members of the Abela family in Lebanon, the British citizenship.
The Abela family is a reputable family of Lebanon.
During the 20th century, Dr. Habib Abela was a very famous medical doctor in ophthalmology and in otolaryngology who cured several heads of State and Government of Middle East countries.
“Abela Frères” was established in 1927 by Nicolas Abela, François Abela, Basile Abela and William Abela as a family owned firm importing and distributing pharmaceutical products in Lebanon and the Middle East. They also created “Droguerie de l’Union”. The members of the Abela family have always been known for their integrity and their loyalty to the cause they defend. In that matter, Dr. Michel Abela, (Doctor in Pharmacy) who was appointed as President of the Lebanese Pharmacists Order in 1998 and who developed an ethical system for this order decided to resign after only one year of presidency due to foreign & local political pressures that wanted him to accept and validate rules and regulations that were against his ethics and believes.
In 1941, Robert Abela founded in Lebanon the Syndicate of Press Editors (“Syndicat des rédacteurs de presse”) and became its first president. He also acquired the papers “Al-Zaman” and “Al-Bachir” (which was then offered to Bachir Gemayel and is now owned by the Bachir Gemayel Foundation).
In 1948, along with his brothers Joe Abela and Edwin Abela, Albert Abela founded in Lebanon a major-league catering international group including various forms of catering, from life support services and food processing to transportation: supplying in-flight meals but also catered in airports (such as the airports of Beirut, Dubai, Heathrow, Gatwick, Athens, Sharjah, Bucharest and Sofia), in hospitals, in nursing homes, in hotels (in France Monaco, London and Egypt), in organizations (such as the United Nations United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, ESCWA, in Lebanon), in schools, in universities, in onshore and offshore oilfields and in event and hospitality catering. The group has also invested worldwide in the field of high-end leisure: acquisitions of several four- and five-star hotels in Egypt, the United Kingdom, France (Gray d’Albion in Cannes), and Monaco (L’Abela Hotel in Monaco now known as Hôtel Colombus). It also owns a significant stake of Casino du Liban, one of the largest state-owned enterprises in Lebanon and has been operating and managing it. The group has also opened, owned and managed supermarkets in Lebanon (later re-branded Monoprix after it has been rented and managed by the Lebanese operator of the brands of the Galeries Lafayette group) and in the Gulf. Operations in 40 countries (including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, India and the United Kingdom), over 15 million meals a year including meals served to air passengers of 165 airlines, 34,000 employed people, and annual turnover of $1.3 billion. In 2001, the world largest catering organization, Sodexho Alliance (today known as Sodexo), acquired two companies of the group (also one of the world largest catering organization): in France, Sogeres (60% owned by the group and 40% owned by Paribas Affaires Industrielles, BNP Paribas), a company running the catering at the Roland Garros tennis championships in Paris and holding catering contracts with French commercial television channel TF1 and the American Hospital of Paris; and, in the United States, Wood Dining Services (100% owned by the group), a company operating in 21 states and having among its clients the National Security Agency, elderly care group ManorCare and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The group was the first to handle catering on offshore drilling rigs in the North Sea. Moreover, in 1974, in joint venture with the Maltese government, the group set up Medserv Limited. In 1997, the group bought out the Maltese government stake. In 2001, AD Holdings Limited (later renamed Medserv plc) was granted options by the group to purchase the entire equity of Medserv Limited (later renamed Medserv Operations Limited), a transaction that was completed in 2003. Medserv has exclusive rights to a 200-metre-long, deep water quay at the Malta Freeport, with an additional 5,000 square metres of adjacent land area and laydown facilities extending to 50,000 square metres within the Malta Freeport confines. Medserv offers a variety of services to oil and gas offshore operators, with the company’s main focus being on industry activity within North Africa and the Mediterranean basin. Aside from its Malta base, Medserv also has operations in Cyprus, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iraq and Libya.
William Abela has created “Abela Consulting & Management” (AC&M), one of the leading consultancy and management companies in the hospitality industry in the Middle East, executing various projects in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Europe was gratified in 1998 and elected “hotelier of the year” in recognition of his accomplishments. He also developed “Abela Delices”, an upscale catering company in Lebanon that caters from A to Z, for up to 2,000 meals a day, for private dinners, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, cocktails, parties and other multiple functions including the supply of equipment, staff, utensils and all materials needed for various events including for corporations. Up to 2,000 meals a day.
“Abela Delices” was the appointed caterer of prestigious clubs such as the Golf Club of Lebanon as well as international companies & cafeterias that wanted to give to their executives high en food services. William Abela has also been known for his engagement defending associative and humanitarian causes and has always given a major part of his time to defend child and elder people interests and rights.
Béchara Nammour and his wife Henriette Abela have invested in Albergo Hotel in Lebanon, Hôtel Daniel in Paris, and in Sheraton Hotel in Texas as well as in other hotels in the United States; but also in La Mie Dorée, Balthazar and Paul restaurants in Lebanon and in J. Paul’s (the restaurant founded by Paul J. Cohn) in Washington as well as in other restaurants in the United States and in France.
Since 1995, Gilbert Abela has opened several restaurants in Beirut, Lebanon such as Julia’s (at Monnot street and then at Sursock street, with Albertino Abela), Claudia’s (at Abdel Wahab el-Inglizi street), Way’s Café (at Place Sassine, with André Fayad), “Restaurant-Diner” (former “Le Coffee”, at Monnot street), Bar Tabac (former “French Café”, at Sodeco area) and, Casa del Gelato (at Independence street, with André Fayad).
In 2001, Marlon Abela founded in Mayfair, London a group which owns and operates a worldwide portfolio across London and the east coast of the United States including the two-Michelin-starred Greenhouse, Mayfair, the two-Michelin-starred Umu, Mayfair and the two-Michelin-starred The Square, Mayfair; Morton’s Private Members’ Club, Mayfair; Green’s Restaurant, St James’s; O. W. Loeb Wine Merchants (known for specialising in Burgundy, Rhône and German wines), Tower Bridge; MARC Fine Wines (120,000 bottles of fine wine in stock), Mayfair; MARC Patisserie & Bakery, Perivale; A Voce, Madison Square Park, New York; A Voce, Time Warner Center, Colombus Circus, New York; Morello Bistro (formerly Gaia), Greenwich, Connecticut; Bistro du Midi, Boston, Massachusetts; and, Cassis Bistro, South Kensington, London.


Sabina, Duchess of Bavaria

Sabina, Duchess of Bavaria (1528–1578) was the daughter of John II, Count Palatine of Simmern and Beatrix of Baden.
Marriage.
In 1544 she married Lamoral, Count of Egmont with whom she had twelve children. When her husband was arrested and accused of treason in 1567, she wrote king Philip II, the king of Spain, a letter to plead for his release. It was to no avail and he was decapitated in the following year.
Widowhood.
After her death in 1578, she was buried next to her husband in Zottegem.