History of Portsmouth

Portsmouth is an island port city situated on Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire, England. Its history has been influenced by its association with the sea, and its proximity to London, and mainland Europe.
Roman.
Portus Adurni which later became known as Portchester Castle, was one of the Saxon Shore forts and was a major base of the Classis Britannica and possibly its Headquarters.
Pre-Norman.
Although there have been settlements in the area since before Roman times, mostly being offshoots of Portchester, Portsmouth is commonly regarded as having been founded in 1180 by John of Gisors (Jean de Gisors). Most early records of Portsmouth are thought to have been destroyed by Norman invaders following the Norman Conquest. The earliest detailed references to Portsmouth can be found in the Southwick Cartularies.
However, the Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names gives the Anglo-Saxon name "Portesmūða" as late as the 9th century, meaning "mouth [of the harbour called] Portus" (from Latin). In Anglo-Saxon times a folk etymology "[harbour] mouth belonging to a man called Port" arose, which caused a statement in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" that in 501 AD "Port and his 2 sons, Bieda and Mægla, came with 2 ships to Britain at the place which is called Portsmouth". It has been suggested that this is more likely to refer to the area around Portchester.
Medieval.
Norman.
In the Domesday Book there is no mention of Portsmouth. However, settlements that later went on to form part of Portsmouth are listed. These are Buckland, Copnor, Fratton on Portsea Island and Cosham, Wymering and Drayton on the mainland. At this time it is estimated the Portsmouth area had a population not greater than two or three hundred.
While in the primary diocese of Portsea there was a small church prior to 1166 (now St Mary's in Fratton) Portsmouth's first real church came into being in 1181 when John of Gisors granted an acre (4,000 m2) of land to Augustinian monks at the Southwick Priory to build a chapel dedicated to Thomas Becket. This chapel continued to be run by the monks of Southwick Priory until the Reformation after which its possession was transferred to Winchester College. The modern Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral is built on the original location of the chapel. The original grant referred to the area as Sudewde however a later grant a few years later used the name Portsmouth.
Growth of the city.
In 1194, after he returned from being held captive by Duke Leopold V of Austria, King Richard I (The Lionheart) set about summoning a fleet and an army to Portsmouth, which he had taken over from John of Gisors. On 2 May 1194 the king gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter granting permission for the city to hold a fifteen-day annual fair (which became known as the Free Market Fair), weekly markets (on Thursdays), to set up a local court to deal with minor matters, and exemption from paying the annual tax ("farm") of £18 a year—instead the money would be used for local matters. The actual physical charter was handed over by the Bishop of Ely William de Longchamps. The present location of the charter is currently unknown but its text survives, as when later royal charters were granted to the city reaffirming and extending its privileges large parts of the original charter were quoted verbatim.
As a crescent and an eight-point star (as appear on the city's coat of arms) were to be found on both the seals of King Richard and William de Longchamps it is commonly thought that this may have been the source of them, although there is no known documentary evidence for this.
King Richard later went on to build a number of houses and a hall in Portsmouth. The hall is thought to have been at the current location of the Clarence Barracks (the area was previously known as Kingshall Green).
In 1200 King John issued another charter to Portsmouth reaffirming the rights and privileges awarded by King Richard. Acquiring this second charter cost Portsmouth ten marks and a type of riding horse known as a Palfrey. King John's desire to invade Normandy resulted in the establishment of Portsmouth as a permanent naval base.
In 1212 William of Wrotham (Archdeacon of Taunton, Keeper of the King's Ships) started constructing the first docks of Portsmouth. At about the same time Pierre des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, founded "Domus Dei" (Hospital of St Nicholas) which performed its duties as an almshouse and hospice until 1540 when like other religious buildings it was seized by King Henry VIII.
During the 13th century, Portsmouth was commonly used by King Henry III and Edward I as a base for attacks against France.
In 1265, the city was on the receiving end of a serious raid by the Barons of the Cinque Ports. After scattering the defenders, they seized various ships and cargo and burned the town.
By the 14th century, commercial interests had grown considerably, despite rivalry with the dockyard of nearby Southampton. Common imports included wool, grain, wheat, woad, wax and iron, however the port's largest trade was in wine from Bayonne and Bordeaux.
14th century.
In 1313, the town received a charter from Edward II. This is the oldest of the city's charters that is known to have survived
In 1338, a French fleet led by Nicholas Béhuchet arrived at Portsmouth docks flying English flags before anyone realised that they were a hostile force. The French burned down most of the buildings in the town; only the local church and Domus Dei survived. The population was subjected to rape and slaughter. As a result of this, King Edward III gave the remaining townsfolk exemption from national taxes so that they could afford to rebuild the town.
Only ten years after this devastation, the town for the first time was struck by the plague known as the Black Death. In order to prevent the regrowth of Portsmouth as a threat, the French again sacked the city in 1369, 1377 and 1380.
15th century.
In 1418, King Henry V ordered a wooden Round Tower be built at the mouth of the harbour, which was completed in 1426.
In 1450, Adam Moleyns Bishop of Chichester was murdered while in Portsmouth.
Tudor period.
Through the Tudor period, Portsmouth's fortification's were subject to almost continuous reworking. Under King Henry VIII the Round Tower was rebuilt out of stone and a Square Tower was raised. It was at this time that Robert Brygandine and Sir Reginald Bray, with the support of the king, commenced the building in Portsmouth of the country's first dry dock. In 1527 with some of the money obtained from the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII built the fort which became known as Southsea Castle. In 1545, he saw his vice-flagship "Mary Rose" founder off Southsea Castle, with a loss of about 500 lives, while going into action against the French fleet. It was during the Tudor period that the town gained its first military governor. The role of managing military operations in Portsmouth had previously been the duty of the constable of Portchester Castle.
In 1563, the city was struck by a plague that killed around 300 people.
It was also in the Tudor period that two mills were built at the end of the creek just above the town. The creek later developed into the body of water known as the mill pond.
Stuart period.
During the English civil war, the city was initially held by the royalist faction before falling to parliament after the Siege of Portsmouth in September 1642.
In 1665, Charles II of England ordered Bernard de Gomme to begin the reconstruction of Portsmouth's fortifications a process which was to take many years.
Portsmouth's overland links to London started to be improved with an early turnpike trust being set up to improve the road where it passed Butser Hill.
In 1714, the crown purchased the two mills at the entrance to the millpond.
18th century.
The first local newspaper in the city was the "Portsmouth and Gosport Gazette". First published in 1745 it continued to publish until around 1790. There was then a 3-year gap before foundation of "The Portsmouth Gazette and Weekly Advertiser". The final newspaper to begin publication in the 18th century was the "Portsmouth Telegraph; or, Mottley's Naval and Military Journal" which was first published in 1799.
In 1774, the two mills at the entrance to the millpond were rebuilt as one mill known as the Kings's mill.
On 13 May 1787 the First Fleet of ships left Portsmouth Harbour bound for Australia, taking the first British settlers there. They would arrive in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. A memorial, officially unveiled by HM The Queen on 11 July 1980, commemorates the First Fleet, with a similar memorial in Sydney, New South Wales.
Modern.
19th century.
Naval.
Admiral Nelson left Portsmouth for the final time in 1805 to command the fleet that would defeat the larger Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar. The Royal Navy's reliance on Portsmouth led to the city becoming the most fortified in Europe, with a network of forts circling the city.
From 1808, the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, who were tasked to stop the slave trade, operated out of Portsmouth.
The King's mill burned down in 1868 and over the next decade land was reclaimed from the millpond until it ceased to exist.
Transport.
New transport links were constructed during this century. In 1823, the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, along with the Wey and Arun Canal, provided an inland waterway route to London. This did not last long, with parts of the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal being closed after just four years. Portsmouth gained its first railway link in 1847, with a direct route to London arriving in 1859.
Media.
In 1802, "The Portsmouth Gazette and Weekly Advertiser" was purchased by the "Portsmouth Telegraph" and ceased publication. The "Portsmouth Telegraph" then went through three rapid name changes, before settling on the "Hampshire Telegraph" and "Sussex Chronicle". In 1850, the "Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette" (often known simply as the "Portsmouth Times") began publication. The "Evening News" began publication in 1877 and came under common ownership with the "Hampshire Telegraph" in 1883. In 1884, the "Portsmouth Times" gained a sister paper called the "Evening Mail", which was later renamed the "Southern Daily Mail".
Education and science.
On 21 December 1872, a major scientific expedition, the Challenger Expedition, was launched from Portsmouth.
While an extensive number of subscription libraries were formed in Portsmouth in the early part of the 19th century, Portsmouth trailed many other cities in the provision of public libraries, with the first not being opened until 1884.
20th century.
The city in the form of Portsmouth Corporation Transport purchased the private horse-drawn tram lines in 1901. The Stanhope Road drill hall was opened by Lord Northbrook in March 1901.
In 1904, the boundaries of Portsmouth were extended to finally include the whole of Portsea Island. The boundaries were further extended in 1920 and 1932, taking in areas of the mainland.
In 1916, the city experienced its first aerial bombardment when a Zeppelin airship bombed it during the First World War.
Council housing was built on a large scale from the 1920s onwards, with families from inner city slums being rehoused on new estates including Paulsgrove, mostly in the north of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth was elevated from Town to City status on 21 April 1926.
As a major Naval Base and Dockyard the city was bombed extensively during the Second World War. Nazi German Luftwaffe night-time air raids began on 24 August 1940 when 1,320 high explosive bombs and 38,000 incendiary devices were dropped on the city, damaging the Guildhall, 30 churches, 8 schools, 1 hospital and over 80,000 homes. 930 people were killed and 1,216 people were injured. The extensive bombing of housing in Portsmouth resulted in even greater need for new private and council housing in the city. While most of the city has since been rebuilt, to this day developers still occasionally find unexploded bombs.
Southsea beach and Portsmouth Harbour were military embarkation points for the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. Southwick House, just to the north of Portsmouth, had been chosen as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Commander, US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, during D-Day.
On 4 July 1968, an estimated 250,000 people witnessed the return of Alec Rose, a greengrocer in Osborne Road, after he completed his single-handed circumnavigation in "Lively Lady"; he was immediately knighted and made a Freeman of the city. 400 motor-boats, yachts, catamarans and canoes welcomed him into harbour.
The University of Portsmouth gained university status in 1992, having held polytechnic status since 1969.
21st century.
In 2003 erection was started of a 552 feet high Spinnaker Tower sited at Portsmouth Harbour, and celebrating the city's maritime tradition. Completed in 2005, the tower has twin concrete legs meeting at half height to form a single column from which steel sails are mounted; an observation deck at the top provides a view of the city and harbour for tourists.
In late 2004, the Tricorn Centre, dubbed "The ugliest building in the UK" was finally demolished after years of delay and wrangling over the cost of doing so, and controversy as to whether it was worth preserving as an example of 1960s Brutalist architecture.
In 2005, Portsmouth was a focus for "Sea Britain", a series of events to mark the 200th anniversary (bicentenary) of Lord Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. In particular, in June, there was the massive "Fleet Review", by HM Queen Elizabeth II and a mock battle (son et lumière) that evening, after dark.
Chronology.
The full timeline to Portsmouth's rich maritime history.


Kalsa

Kalsa or Mandamento Tribunali is a historical quarter of the Italian city of Palermo in Sicily. It is sometimes referred to as la Kalsa or the Kalsa.
Names.
The common name of the quarter, Kalsa, derives from the district's historic Arabic name, "Al-Khalesa" (), meaning "the chosen." The formal name of the quarter, Mandamento Tribunali, meaning "district of courts," derives from the presence of Inquisition courts at the Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri.
History.
Ancient history.
In ancient times, most of the area now known as the Kalsa was underwater. Hamilcar and Hannibal used to dock their ships there as they prepared their attacks on the Greek city of Himera. The walls of a Punic city occupied by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians once extended to the confluence of the Papyrus and Kemonia rivers, near what is now the intersection of Via Roma and Via Vittorio Emanuele.
Middle Ages.
Built in the ninth century, Al-Khalesa was one of the first planned Arab settlements in Europe. It was the administrative center of the city of Bal'harm (Palermo), which was under Arab rule until it was conquered by the Normans in 1072. Around 937, the Arabs moved their base from Al-Kasr (today the Cassaro, or castle district) to Al-Khalesa and built a fortified palace near the port.
In the 970s, Palermo expanded into a major Muslim city comparable to Cairo or Córdoba. In addition to housing the emir and his court, Al-Khalesa contained the arsenal and prison, baths, a mosque, and government offices. There were no shops or markets in the area. It was surrounded by a stone wall with four gates, the best known being the Bab al-bahr or Marine Gate, on the shore.
The center of Al-Khalesa was located near what is now Piazza Kalsa. Much of the square's current "Arabesque" architecture, such as the Greek Gate, is the product of 16th-century Spanish Moorish revival movements and cannot be traced directly to the emirate of Bal'harm. The area still has narrow, winding streets, as it did in the 11th century.
After the Normans captured Palermo, they preferred to move their headquarters to higher ground, back to the Cassaro. The Kalsa became an Arab neighborhood with markets and mosques.
World War II and later.
The Kalsa district was heavily bombed during World War II, and was abandoned for decades. It attracted poor squatters, many of whom lived in the bombed-out ruins. Sicilian-American novelist Dodici Azpadu describes it as an "Arab ghetto." The area has since been revitalized and is home to art galleries, restored churches and palaces, and other tourist attractions.
Geography.
Kalsa is delimited by:
Culture.
On summer evenings, Kals'art, an arts festival, is held in the streets of Kalsa.


Ottoman Greece

Most of the areas which today are within modern Greece's borders were at some point in the past part of the Ottoman Empire. This period of Ottoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greek War of Independence that broke out in 1821 and the proclamation of the First Hellenic Republic in 1822 (preceded by the creation of the autonomous Septinsular Republic in 1800), is known in Greek as "Tourkokratia" (, "Turkish rule"; ). Some regions, however, like the Ionian islands, various temporary Venetian possessions of the Stato da Mar, or Mani peninsula in Peloponnese did not become part of the Ottoman administration, although the latter was under Ottoman suzerainty.
The Eastern Roman Empire, the remnant of the ancient Roman Empire which ruled most of the Greek-speaking world for over 1100 years, had been fatally weakened since the sacking of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204.
The Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by victory over the Serbs to its north. First, the Ottomans won the Battle of Maritsa in 1371. The Serb forces were then led by the King Vukašin of Serbia, the father of Prince Marko and the co-ruler of the last emperor from the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty. This was followed by another Ottoman draw in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.
With no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans besieged and took Constantinople in 1453 and then advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458. The Greeks held out in the Peloponnese until 1460, and the Venetians and Genoese clung to some of the islands, but by the early 16th century all of mainland Greece and most of the Aegean islands were in Ottoman hands, excluding several port cities still held by the Venetians (Nafplio, Monemvasia, Parga and Methone the most important of them). The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage in guerrilla warfare.
The Cyclades islands, in the middle of the Aegean, were officially annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they were under vassal status since the 1530s. Cyprus fell in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1669. The Ionian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception of Kefalonia (from 1479 to 1481 and from 1485 to 1500), and remained under the rule of the Republic of Venice. It was in the Ionian Islands where modern Greek statehood was born, with the creation of the Republic of the Seven Islands in 1800.
Ottoman Greece was a multiethnic society. However, the Ottoman system of "millets" did not correspond to the modern Western notion of multiculturalism. The Greeks were given some privileges and freedom, but they were also suffering from the malpractices of its administrative personnel over which the central government had only remote and incomplete control. Despite losing their political independence, the Greeks remained dominant in the fields of commerce and business. The consolidation of Ottoman power in the 15th and 16th centuries rendered the Mediterranean safe for Greek shipping, and Greek shipowners became the maritime carriers of the Empire, making tremendous profits. After the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto however, Greek ships often became the target of vicious attacks by Catholic (especially Spanish and Maltese) pirates.
This period of Ottoman rule had a profound impact in Greek society, as new elites emerged. The Greek land-owning aristocracy that traditionally dominated the Byzantine Empire suffered a tragic fate, and was almost completely destroyed. The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were the "prokritoi" (πρόκριτοι in Greek) called "kocabaşis" by the Ottomans. The prokritoi were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors, and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism. On the other hand, the Phanariots became prominent in the imperial capital of Constantinople as businessmen and diplomats, and the Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarch rose to great power under the Sultan's protection, gaining religious control over the entire Orthodox population of the Empire, Greek, Albanian-speaking, Latin-speaking and Slavic.
Ottoman expansion.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Despotate of the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, it fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the conquest of mainland Greece.
While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped Ottoman rule was the Ionian Islands, which remained Venetian until 1797. Corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537, 1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans.
Other areas that remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr include Nafplio and Monemvasia until 1540, the Duchy of the Archipelago, centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros until 1579, Sifnos until 1617 and Tinos until 1715.
Ottoman rule.
The consolidation of Ottoman rule was followed by two distinct trends of Greek migration. The first entailed Greek intellectuals, such as Basilios Bessarion, Georgius Plethon Gemistos and Marcos Mousouros, migrating to other parts of Western Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance (though the large scale migration of Greeks to other parts of Europe, most notably Italian university cities, began far earlier, following the Crusader capture of Constantinople). This trend had also effect on the creation of the modern Greek diaspora.
The second entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains, where the rugged landscape made it hard for the Ottomans to establish either military or administrative presence.
Administration.
The Sultan sat at the apex of the government of the Ottoman Empire. Although he had the trappings of an absolute ruler, he was actually bound by tradition and convention. These restrictions imposed by tradition were mainly of a religious nature. Indeed, the Qur'an was the main restriction on absolute rule by the sultan and in this way, the Qur'an served as a "constitution."
Ottoman rule of the provinces was characterized by two main functions. The local administrators within the provinces were to maintain a military establishment and to collect taxes. The military establishment was feudal in character. The Sultan's cavalry were allotted land, either large allotments or small allotments based on the rank of the individual cavalryman. All non-Muslims were forbidden to ride a horse which made traveling more difficult. The Ottomans divided Greece into six "sanjaks", each ruled by a "Sanjakbey" accountable to the Sultan, who established his capital in Constantinople in 1453.
The conquered land was parceled out to Ottoman soldiers, who held it as feudal fiefs ("timars" and "ziamets") directly under the Sultan's authority. This land could not be sold or inherited, but reverted to the Sultan's possession when the fief-holder (timariot) died. During their life-times they served as cavalrymen in the Sultan's army, living well on the proceeds of their estates with the land being tilled largely by peasants. Many Ottoman timariots were descended from the pre-Ottoman Christian nobility, and shifted their allegiance to the Ottomans following the conquest of the Balkans. Conversion to Islam was not a requirement, and as late as the fifteenth century many timariots were known to be Christian, although their numbers gradually decreased over time.
The Ottomans basically installed this feudal system right over the top of the existing system of peasant tenure. The peasantry remained in possession of their own land and their tenure over their plot of land remained hereditary and inalienable. Nor was any military service ever imposed on the peasant by the Ottoman government. All non-Muslims were in theory forbidden from carrying arms, but this was ignored. Indeed, in regions such as Crete, almost every man carried arms.
Greek Christian families were, however, subject to a system of brutal forced conscription known as the devshirme. The Ottomans required that male children from Christian peasant villages be conscripted and enrolled in the corps of Janissaries for military training in the Sultan's army. Such recruitment was sporadic, and the proportion of children conscripted varied from region to region. The practice largely came to an end by the middle of the seventeenth century.
Under the Ottoman system of government, Greek society was at the same time fostered and restricted. With one hand the Turkish regime gave privileges and freedom to its subject people; with the other it imposed a tyranny deriving from the malpractices of its administrative personnel over which it exercised only remote and incomplete control. In fact the “rayahs” were downtrodden and exposed to the vagaries of Turkish administration and sometimes to the Greek landlords. The term rayah came to denote an underprivileged, tax-ridden and socially inferior population.
Economy.

The economic situation of the majority of Greece deteriorated heavily during the Ottoman era of the country. Life became ruralized and militarized. Heavy burdens of taxation were placed on the Christian population, and many Greeks were reduced to subsistence farming whereas during prior eras the region had been heavily developed and urbanized. The exception to this rule was in Constantinople and the Venetian-held Ionian islands, where many Greeks lived in prosperity.
After about 1600, the Ottomans resorted to military rule in parts of Greece, which provoked further resistance, and also led to economic dislocation and accelerated population decline. Ottoman landholdings, previously fiefs held directly from the Sultan, became hereditary estates ("chifliks"), which could be sold or bequeathed to heirs. The new class of Ottoman landlords reduced the hitherto free Greek farmers to serfdom, leading to depopulation of the plains, and to the flight of many people to the mountains, in order to escape poverty.
Religion.
The Sultan regarded the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church as the leader of all Orthodox, Greeks or not, within the empire. The Patriarch was accountable to the Sultan for the good behavior of the Orthodox population, and in exchange he was given wide powers over the Orthodox communities, including the non-Greek Slavic peoples. The Patriarch controlled the courts and the schools, as well as the Church, throughout the Greek communities of the empire. This made Orthodox priests, together with the local magnates, called Prokritoi or Dimogerontes, the effective rulers of Greek towns and cities. Some Greek towns, such as Athens and Rhodes, retained municipal self-government, while others were put under Ottoman governors. Several areas, such as the Mani Peninsula in the Peloponnese, and parts of Crete (Sfakia) and Epirus, remained virtually independent.
During the frequent Ottoman–Venetian Wars, the Greeks sided with the Venetians against the Ottomans, with a few exceptions. The Patriarchate of Constantinople in general remained loyal to the Ottomans against the western threats (as for example during the Dionysios Skylosophos revolt, etc). The Orthodox Church assisted greatly in the preservation of the Greek heritage, and adherence to the Greek Orthodox faith became increasingly a mark of Greek nationality.
As a rule, the Ottomans did not require the Greeks to become Muslims, although many did so on a superficial level in order to avert the socioeconomic hardships of Ottoman rule or because of the alleged corruption of the Greek clergy. The regions of Greece which had the largest concentrations of Ottoman Greek Muslims were Macedonia, notably the Vallaades, neighboring Epirus, and Crete (see Cretan Muslims). Under the millet logic, Greek Muslims, despite often retaining elements of their Greek culture and language, were classified simply as "Muslim", although most Greek Orthodox Christians deemed them to have "turned-Turk" and therefore saw them as traitors to their original ethno-religious communities.
Some Greeks either became New Martyrs, such as Saint Efraim the Neo-Martyr or Saint Demetrios the Neo-martyr while others became Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith) in order to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their secret ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. Crypto-Christians officially ran the risk of being killed if they were caught practicing a non-Muslim religion once they converted to Islam. There were also instances of Greeks from theocratic or Byzantine nobility embracing Islam such as John Tzelepes Komnenos and Misac Palaeologos Pasha.
Treatment of Christian subjects varied greatly under the rule of the Ottoman Sultans. Bayezid I, according to a Byzantine historian, freely admitted Christians into his society while trying to grow his empire, in the early Ottoman period. Later, although the Turkish ruler attempted to pacify the local population with a restoration of peacetime rule of law, the Christian population also became subject to special taxes and the tribute of Christian children to the Ottoman state to feed the ranks of the Janissary corps. Violent persecutions of Christians did nevertheless take place under the reign of Selim I (1512-1520), known as Selim the Grim, who attempted to stamp out Christianity from the Ottoman Empire. Selim ordered the confiscation of all Christian churches, and while this order was later rescinded, Christians were heavily persecuted during his era.
Taxation and the "tribute of children".
Greeks paid a land tax and a heavy tax on trade, the latter taking advantage of the wealthy Greeks to fill the state coffers. Greeks, like other Christians, were also made to pay the "jizya", or Islamic poll-tax which all non-Muslims in the empire were forced to pay instead of the Zakat that Muslims must pay as part of the 5 pillars of Islam. Failure to pay the jizya could result in the pledge of protection of the Christian's life and property becoming void, facing the alternatives of conversion, enslavement, or death.
Like in the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Greeks had to carry a receipt certifying their payment of jizya at all times or be subject to imprisonment. Most Greeks did not have to serve in the Sultan's army, but the young boys that were taken away and converted to Islam were made to serve in the Ottoman military. In addition, girls were taken in order to serve as odalisques in harems.
These practices are called the "tribute of children" ("devshirmeh") (in Greek "παιδομάζωμα" "paidomazoma", meaning "child gathering"), whereby every Christian community was required to give one son in five to be raised as a Muslim and enrolled in the corps of Janissaries, elite units of the Ottoman army. There was much resistance to this. For example, Greek folklore tells of mothers crippling their sons to avoid their abduction. Nevertheless, entrance into the corps (accompanied by conversion to Islam) offered Greek boys the opportunity to advance as high as governor or even Grand Vizier.
Opposition of the Greek populace to taxing or "paidomazoma" resulted in grave consequences. For example, in 1705 an Ottoman official was sent from Naoussa in Macedonia to search and conscript new Janissaries and was killed by Greek rebels who resisted the burden of the devshirmeh. The rebels were subsequently beheaded and their severed heads were displayed in the city of Thessaloniki. In some cases, it was greatly feared as Greek families would often have to relinquish their own sons who would convert and return later as their oppressors. In other cases, the families bribed the officers to ensure that their children got a better life as a government officer.
Influence to tradition.
After the 16th century, many Greek folk songs ("dimotika") were produced and inspired from the way of life of the Greek people, brigands and the armed conflicts during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Klephtic songs (Greek: Κλέφτικα τραγούδια), or ballads, are a subgenre of the Greek folk music genre and are thematically oriented on the life of the klephts. Prominent conflicts were immortalised in several folk tales and songs, such as the epic ballad "To tragoudi tou Daskalogianni" of 1786, about the resistance warfare under Daskalogiannis.
Emergence of Greek nationalism.
Over the course of the eighteenth century Ottoman landholdings, previously fiefs held directly from the Sultan, became hereditary estates ("chifliks"), which could be sold or bequeathed to heirs. The new class of Ottoman landlords reduced the hitherto free Greek peasants to serfdom, leading to further poverty and depopulation in the plains.
On the other hand, the position of educated and privileged Greeks within the Ottoman Empire improved greatly in the 17th and 18th centuries. From the late 1600s Greeks began to fill some of the highest and most important offices of the Ottoman state. The Phanariotes, a class of wealthy Greeks who lived in the Phanar district of Constantinople, became increasingly powerful. Their travels to Western Europe as merchants or diplomats brought them into contact with advanced ideas of liberalism and nationalism, and it was among the Phanariotes that the modern Greek nationalist movement was born. Many Greek merchants and travelers were influenced by the ideas of the French revolution and a new Age of Greek Enlightenment was initiated at the beginning of the 19th century in many Ottoman-ruled Greek cities and towns.
Greek nationalism was also stimulated by agents of Catherine the Great, the Orthodox ruler of the Russian Empire, who hoped to acquire Ottoman territory, including Constantinople itself, by inciting a Christian rebellion against the Ottomans. However, during the Russian-Ottoman War which broke out in 1768, the Greeks did not rebel, disillusioning their Russian patrons. The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) gave Russia the right to make "representations" to the Sultan in defense of his Orthodox subjects, and the Russians began to interfere regularly in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire. This, combined with the new ideas let loose by the French Revolution of 1789, began to reconnect the Greeks with the outside world and led to the development of an active nationalist movement, one of the most progressive of the time.
Greece was peripherally involved in the Napoleonic Wars, but one episode had important consequences. When the French under Napoleon Bonaparte seized Venice in 1797, they also acquired the Ionian Islands, thus ending the four hundredth year of Venetian rule over the Ionian Islands. The islands were elevated to the status of a French dependency called the Septinsular Republic, which possessed local autonomy. This was the first time Greeks had governed themselves since the fall of Trebizond in 1461.
Among those who held office in the islands was John Capodistria, destined to become independent Greece's first head of state. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Greece had re-emerged from its centuries of isolation. British and French writers and artists began to visit the country, and wealthy Europeans began to collect Greek antiquities. These "philhellenes" were to play an important role in mobilizing support for Greek independence.
Uprisings before 1821.
Greeks in various places of the Greek peninsula would at times rise up against Ottoman rule, mainly while taking advantage of wars the Ottoman Empire would engage in. Those uprisings were of mixed scale and impact. During the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479), the Maniot Kladas brothers, Krokodelos and Epifani, were leading bands of stratioti on behalf of Venice against the Turks in Southern Peloponnese. They put Vardounia and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor.
Before and after the victory of the Holy League in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto a series of conflicts broke out in the peninsula such as in Epirus, Phocis (recorded in the "Chronicle of Galaxeidi") and the Peloponnese, led by the Melissinos brothers and others. They were crushed by the following year. Short-term revolts of local level occurred throughout the region such as the ones led by metropolitan bishop Dionysius the Philosopher in Thessaly (1600) and Epirus (1611).
During the Cretan War (1645–1669), the Maniots would aid Francesco Morosini and the Venetians in the Peloponnese. Greek irregulars also aided the Venetians through the Morean War in their operations on the Ionian Sea and Peloponnese.
A major uprising during that period was the Orlov Revolt (Greek: Ορλωφικά) which took place during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) and triggered armed unrest in both the Greek mainland and the islands. In 1778, a Greek fleet of seventy vessels assembled by Lambros Katsonis which harassed the Turkish squadrons in the Aegean sea, captured the island of Kastelorizo and engaged the Turkish fleet in naval battles until 1790.
Greek War of Independence.
A secret Greek nationalist organization called the "Friendly Society" or "Company of Friends" ("Filiki Eteria") was formed in Odessa in 1814. The members of the organization planned a rebellion with the support of wealthy Greek exile communities in Britain and the United States. They also gained support from sympathizers in Western Europe, as well as covert assistance from Russia. The organization secured Capodistria, who became Russian Foreign Minister after leaving the Ionian Islands, as the leader of the planned revolt. On March 25 (now Greek Independence Day) 1821, the Orthodox Bishop Germanos of Patras proclaimed a national uprising. The Ottomans, in retaliation orchestrated the Constantinople massacre of 1821 and similar pogroms in Smyrna.
Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including in Macedonia, Crete, and Cyprus. With the initial advantage of surprise, aided by Ottoman inefficiency and the Ottomans' fight against Ali Pasha of Tepelen, the Greeks succeeded in capturing the Peloponnese and some other areas. Some of the first Greek actions were taken against unarmed Ottoman settlements, with about 40% of Turkish and Albanian Muslim residents of the Peloponnese killed outright, and the rest fleeing the area or being deported.
The Ottomans recovered, and retaliated in turn with savagery, massacring the Greek population of Chios and other towns. This worked to their disadvantage by provoking further sympathy for the Greeks in Britain and France. The Greeks were unable to establish a strong government in the areas they controlled, and fell to fighting amongst themselves. Inconclusive fighting between Greeks and Ottomans continued until 1825 when the Sultan sent a powerful fleet and army who were mainly Bedouin and some Sudanese from Egypt under Ibrahim Pasha to suppress the revolution, promising to him the rule of Peloponnese, however they were eventually defeated in the Battle of Navarino in 1827.
The atrocities that accompanied this expedition, together with sympathy aroused by the death of the poet and leading philhellene Lord Byron at Messolongi in 1824, eventually led the Great Powers to intervene. In October 1827, the British, French and Russian fleets, on the initiative of local commanders, but with the tacit approval of their governments, destroyed the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Navarino. This was the decisive moment in the war of independence.
In October 1828, the French landed troops in the Peloponnese to evacuate it from Ibrahim's army, while Russia was since April at war against the Ottomans. Under their protection, the Greeks were able to reorganize, form a new government and defeat the Ottomans in the Battle of Petra, the final battle of the war. They then advanced to seize as much territory as possible before the Western powers imposed a ceasefire.
A conference in London in 1830 proposed a fully independent Greek state (and not autonomous as previously proposed). The final borders were defined during the London Conference of 1832 with northern frontier running from Arta to Volos, and including only Euboia and the Cyclades among the islands. The Greeks were disappointed at these restricted frontiers, but were in no position to resist the will of Britain, France and Russia, who had contributed mightily to Greek independence. By the Convention of May 11, 1832, Greece was finally recognized as a sovereign state.
Capodistria, who had been Greece's governor since 1828, had been assassinated by the Mavromichalis family in October 1831. To prevent further experiments with republican government, the Great Powers, especially Russia, insisted that Greece should be a monarchy, and the Bavarian Prince Otto, was chosen to be its first King.


Dubova Colonorum

Dubova Colonorum is a volunteer camp aiming to restore the ruins of a medieval church dedicated to Sts. Cosmas and Damian, near Sedliacka Dubová in Orava region of Slovakia. Project started in 1998 as a sister project of Katarínka and. Since then hundreds of young people mostly from Slovakia and also from other countries participated.
Camp has a specific style: volunteers live in medieval atmosphere, isolated from civilisation (they don't use watches, cell phones etc.) and live in tent. They are members of order inspired by Franciscan spirituality and wear habit of burlap. Part of the day is spent at work on the ruins.


Chris Williams (academic)

Career.
Professor Chris Williams FLSW FRHS is a Welsh academic, best known for his work on editing the diaries of Richard Burton. Since 1 September 2017, Williams has been Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, and Professor of History at University College Cork, Ireland.
Williams is a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, and obtained his doctorate from Cardiff University before becoming a lecturer there. He subsequently worked at the University of Glamorgan and in 2005 became Professor of Welsh History and Director of the Research Institute for Arts and Humanities at Swansea University. He is a former Royal Commissioner with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and was Chairman of the Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative. In 2013 he took up his appointment at Cardiff University.
Williams was appointed Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences in 2017 at UCC.
Research.
Williams' edition of the Burton diaries was published by Yale University Press. The diaries were donated to Swansea University by Burton's widow, Sally Burton, in 2006.
He has written extensively on the history of the South Wales coalfield and on modern Welsh history and most recently on the history of political cartoons and caricature in Britain from the 18th century to the Second World War.
Personal life.
Williams was born on 9 March 1963. He spent the first three years of his life in Newport but after his Dad got a job his family had to move. He grew up mostly in Swindon and did his O-Levels and A-Levels, spending a year in the army before going to Oxford. His first job was at Cardiff when he was 25, a young age to become a lecturer. He showed promising signs and earned his way up the job ladder and moved into management in 2013.
He has lectured on mountaineering around the world and in Wales. A keen walker, he has climbed La Breche De Rolland in the French Pyrenees, Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Pen-y-Fan.


Braunschweig (region)

Braunschweig (German Regierungsbezirk Braunschweig) was one of the eight former administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke) of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was located in the southeast of the state.
The region covers roughly the area of the former state of Brunswick-Lüneburg. It was founded in 1978 out of 'Verwaltungsbezirk Braunschweig'. At the end of 2004, all Regierungsbezirke of Lower Saxony were dissolved.
The other seven were Regierungsbezirk Aurich, Regierungsbezirk Hannover, Regierungsbezirk Hildesheim, Regierungsbezirk Lüneburg, Regierungsbezirk Osnabrück, Regierungsbezirk Stade and Regierungsbezirk Weser-Ems. 'Verwaltungsbezirk Oldenburg' was dissolved in June 1977 and became part of Regierungsbezirk Weser-Ems.
The region of Braunschweig was (2005/6) the most R&D-intensive area in the whole European Economic Area investing 7.1% of its GDP for research & technology.


Church of Saint Anthony Abbot

The Church of Saint Anthony Abbot (French: "Église de Sainte Antoine Abbé") is a Roman Catholic parish church in Aregno, Corsica. The church is about 827 feet (252 meters) above sea level. Some of its inventory (the pulpit and two paintings) was declared a monument historique on February 9, 1995. It is a Baroque-style building and is dedicated to Saint Anthony of Egypt.
Architecture.
The church was inspired by the Church of the Gesù in Rome, visible on the church's façade. The church is two floors and is decorated with scattered pilasters and cornices. The entrance is surmounted by a curved pediment, as opposed to a triangular one, which is common in Corsica.
The church is decorated with two paintings on canvas:


David Rowlands (surgeon)

Dr. David D. Rowlands, M.D., F.R.S., F.A.S. (1778–1846) was a Welsh naval surgeon, who became the Inspector of H.M. Hospital and Fleets for the Royal Navy. He had the distinction of being the Surgeon for the Royal Navy at Halifax when he treated the wounded of , including Captain Philip Broke, after the renown Capture of USS "Chesapeake" during the War of 1812. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society. He also supported the Governesses' Benevolent Institution in London (1844).
Career.
Rowland was born in Llanfihangel Penbedw. On 18 July 1795, Rowlands was assigned to be a surgeon. He was the surgeon on ship Royal William before being posted to Halifax. He became Hospital Surgeon at Halifax on 11 March 1812.
He was the surgeon at Halifax when the wounded arrived from the capture of by on 1 June 1813. Captain Broke received a deep cut to his scalp from a sabre. On 6 June "Shannon" arrived in Halifax and the following day the surgeon of "Shannon", Alexander Jack, recorded that Broke was cared for at the house of the Commissioner the Hon. Philip Wodehouse and the care fell upon Dr. Rowland, the Surgeon, Royal Naval Hospital. (He reports that Rowland was assisted by Duncan Clarke.) Rowlands reported:
Three weeks later at Halifax, 26 June 1813, Broke wrote his wife,
In 1819, after Halifax, he was posted to the Chatham Dockyard on January 1820 to 1838 and the Sheerness Dockyard (1831).
On 23 November 1841 he was assigned Inspector of H.R. Hospitals and Fleets. He lived at No. 28 Grosvenor Place until 1845.
Rowlands died at his home No. 57 Wimpole Street, London, and was buried in the tomb of his parents at St. Mary’s Church (1846). He also has a tablet to his memory in the church.
Family.
He married Esther Hassel at Llanfihangel Penbedw, near Cardigan on 2 May 1812. He then returned with her to Halifax, where he was the Surgeon of the Naval Hospital.
She died five years later and he purchased a monument for his wife Esther in the St. Paul's Church (Halifax). He married two more times.
He purchased a silver plate for his sister that is in St Llwchaiarn's Church, Llanllwchaiarn (1832).
He was later recorded as a "pluralist", holding two or more pensions or offices, which led to him being recorded in The Black Book Or Corruption Unmasked.


Ralph A. Griffiths

Ralph A. Griffiths is a historian and an emeritus professor at Swansea University.
Life.
Griffiths was born and brought up in a mining valley between Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. He attended "one of Wales' good grammar schools and was well taught in most subjects". He is a graduate of the University of Bristol and was appointed to a research post, and then promoted to higher academic positions, at Swansea in 1964.
Griffiths was a member, and later chair, of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, sat on the Advisory Council on Public Records, and on the Council of the Royal Historical Society. In 2001 he delivered the British Academy's Sir John Rhŷs Memorial Lecture. In 2004, Griffiths was appointed general editor of the "Gwent County History", published in five volumes between 2004 and 2013.


Mary Elizabeth Phillips (physician)

Mary Elizabeth Phillips (1875–1956) also known as Mary Eppynt Phillips, was the first woman from Cardiff University to qualify as a medical doctor. While she was sometimes called the "first woman doctor in Wales," she herself disputed that designation.
Early life and education.
Mary Elizabeth Phillips was from Merthyr Cynog in Breconshire. Her father William Phillips was a farmer. She qualified as a medical doctor in 1900, after four years of study at Cardiff University (1894–1898) and practical training at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Career.
Phillips spent her early career practicing in English hospitals, especially at the Leeds Maternity Hospital, where she was an honorary medical officer from 1905 to 1914.
During World War I, Phillips was invited to join the Scottish Women's Hospitals personnel at Calais, where she began serving at Christmas in 1914. She ran a typhoid hospital there, briefly, then transferred with Elsie Inglis to the Scottish Women's Hospitals operation in Serbia, where she held the rank of senior physician. She returned to Great Britain to recover her health in 1915, then gave lectures in Wales about her experiences to raise funds for the war work of the Scottish Women's Hospital. Welsh audiences were especially interested in her stories of Welsh soldiers she encountered in her work. She resumed her own hospital work in 1916, in Ajaccio, Corsica, where she would stay as Chief Medical Officer until mid-1917. Her work at Ajaccio was with women war refugees, and in May 1917 she posed proudly for a photograph with the Serbian mothers and babies she cared for during her year there.
After the war, Mary Phillips continued to practice medicine. In 1940 she published (with Lucy Ellen Cox) "Teach Yourself Biology", number ten in the long-running Teach Yourself series of self-educational books. She died in 1956, and her remains were buried in the parish churchyard in the Welsh hamlet of Merthyr Cynog.


Welsh hook

A Welsh hook is a type of polearm, a halberd-like weapon with a hook on the back, and gained its name due to its prevalence among the Welsh soldiers during the medieval wars against the English. It appears to have been derived from an agricultural implement known as a forest-bill (or a long hedging-bill) with the addition of a hook on the back and a spike on the front.


Battle of Athos

The Battle of Athos (also known as the Battle of Monte Sancto or the Battle of Lemnos) took place on 1–2 July 1807 as a part of the Napoleonic Wars during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812.
Background.
In December 1806, Ottoman Sultan Selim III felt threatened by Russian activities associated with the Napoleonic War. The Sultan closed the Turkish Straits to Russian shipping and declared war on the Russian Empire. On 22 May 1807, the Russian navy and the Ottoman navy engaged in a short sea battle in the Aegean Sea near the Dardanelles.
After the Battle of the Dardanelles in May, the Russian navy continued to blockade the strait during the month of June. Although the blockade served an important military purpose in and of itself by impeding the flow of food and materials to Constantinople, the Russian navy in the Aegean Sea sought primarily to draw the Ottoman navy out of the strait for a decisive engagement on the open sea. Although the Ottoman navy had numerical superiority, the Turks attempted to avoid a direct confrontation with the Russian fleet. As a result, the Ottoman navy sheltered in the strait and ventured out to attack the Russian naval base on Tenedos only when conditions were favorable.
Maneuvers before the battle.
To lure the Ottoman navy into the Aegean Sea, the Russian Vice-Admiral, Dmitry Senyavin, undertook numerous maneuvers with his fleet often reducing the number of ships that he had positioned in the vicinity of the entrance to the Dardanelles. On 5 June, Senyavin sent Rear-Admiral Greig in command of four battleships to the island of Lemnos, approximately 41 miles west of the Dardanelles. Greig and his squadron was then brought back quickly when Senyavin falsely suspected that the Ottoman navy was entering the Aegean Sea. On 13 June, Greig was sent back to Lemnos this time with his full force of five battleships. Russian marines were temporarily landed on Lemnos, but by 18 June Greig and his squadron had returned to Tenedos.
Finally on 22 June, Seyid Ali, the Kapudan Pasha or Grand Admiral of the Ottoman navy, left the Dardanelles with a taskforce of 16 ships including 8 battleships and 5 frigates. After tacking into the wind all day Seyid Ali anchored his fleet near Imbros, approximately 12 miles North-Northwest of the Dardanelles. Over the course of the following days, Senyavin and his Russian fleet attempted to work their way up to the Turks but were prevented in doing so by light winds and a strong adverse current. The Ottoman fleet also kept underway during this time always keeping an escape route back to the Dardanelles open. On 24 June, Seyid Ali’s task force was joined by four additional ships, 2 battleships and 2 frigates.
On 27 June, Senyavin decided to try and approach the Ottoman fleet by sailing to the west side Lemnos where there was less current. When Senyavin made that move, Seyid Ali and his entire taskforce bore down on Tenedos, bombarding the fortifications and a brig in the harbor. A failed attempt was also made to put a land force on the north side of island. After four hours of bombardment, the Ottoman fleet disengaged and drew off to a position between Tenedos and the Asiatic shore. Over the course of the next two days the Ottoman fleet returned to Tenedos two times to bombard the fortifications and land their marines. At 8 am on 29 June, Seyid Ali’s taskforce sighted Senyavin and the Russian fleet approaching from the north. The Turks ceased their bombardment of Tenedos and took their only course of escape fleeing west toward Lemnos.
Upon reaching Tenedos, Senyavin used the next two days to reprovision his fleet and to hunt down and destroy Turkish small craft remaining in the vicinity. Aware that the Ottoman task force had taken a western course when it sailed from Tenedos, Senyavin and the Russian fleet of 10 battleships departed their naval base on 30 June in a northerly direction continuing to block the access to the Dardanelles. At the end of the day, the Russian fleet had reached a point six miles north of Lemnos. Early the next morning, Senyavin sighted Seyid Ali’s taskforce to the west of Lemnos and immediately moved to attack.
Battle.
When Senyavin caught up with the Ottoman taskforce between 8 am and 9 am on the morning of 1 July, the Turks had their battleships aligned in a straight row heading north. Senyavin arranged his battleships in two parallel rows of five ships each and approached the Turks in a perpendicular manner from the east, striking the Turkish flagships in the middle of the column. The Ottoman immediately opened fire and badly damaged a lead Russian ship, the "Rafail". The remaining Russian battleships paired up and turned to the north to engage the Turks in a broadside manner. Senyavin sailed to the head of the column with two battleships and quickly put a leading Turkish frigate out of action. This caused the battleship following the frigate and the entire Turkish column to heave to and slow. The two fleets then engaged in battle until 10 am when the Turks began to break away with the Russians in pursuit.
At noon the winds died down and Senyavin broke off the engagement. The Ottoman taskforce began to gather east of the Mount Athos peninsula while the Russians maintained their position to the east of the Turkish fleet. Later that evening, a light breeze came up and the Ottoman taskforce continued on a northerly course toward the island of Thasos. During that time, the Turkish frigate "Sadd al-bahr" fell behind and was captured by the Russians without additional fighting.
On the morning of 2 July, most of the Ottoman taskforce was near Thasos. Two Ottoman battleships and a sloop were seen straggling behind the fleet and were quickly set upon by the Russians. The Russians drove the three ships up the gulf west of Mount Athos and forced the Turks to run the ships aground and set them on fire. Two days later on 4 July, the Turks were seen setting two badly damaged ships on fire near Thasos.
During this time, the Russian fleet concentrated near Lemnos and then made its way back to their beleaguered naval base on Tenedos where they helped defeat the Turkish marines who had been attempting to capture the base without success for nine days. The Ottoman fleet meanwhile made its way back to the safety of the Dardanelles losing two additional ships near Samothrace in the process.
Aftermath.
Of the 20 Turkish ships involved in the battle, only 12 returned to the Dardanelles. Lost were 3 battleships, 3 frigates, and 2 sloops. The total number of casualties is not known but was estimated to be heavy. The Russians did not lose a single ship but suffered casualties of 79 killed and 189 wounded.
There were no further naval battles between the Russians and the Turks with respect to the Dardanelles during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812 as the Treaties of Tilsit signed on 7 July between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander of Russia provided that Senyavin’s fleet be sent back to the Baltic Sea. At that time, the British also began to negotiate a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and supported their position by a show of force, bringing their own navy into the Aegean Sea.


Roman Catholic Diocese of Sarsina

The Catholic diocese of Sarsina ("Sassina, Saxena, Bobium") was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, seated in Sarsina, in the province of Forlì, some 32 km south-southwest of Cesena. The diocese was founded in the 5th century, and was suffragan (subordinate) to the archbishop of Ravenna. The diocese existed until 1986, when it was united with the diocese of Cesena.
History.
The patron of the city is Saint Vicinius, believed to have been bishop about the year 300.
In the bull "Dominici Gregis", of 1 September 1824, Pope Leo XII states that the diocese of Sarsina had existed since the 5th century.
In the tenth century the bishops obtained the temporal sovereignty of the city of Sarsina and the surrounding district. They were styled Counts of Bobio. From 1327 till 1400 it was disputed by the Ordelaffi of Forlì, the popes, and the bishops.
The archives of the diocese used to be kept in the castle of Ceola, but they were heavily damaged in the 16th century. Bishop Angelo Peruzzi (1581–1600) had the castle decorated with effigies of his predecessors, to each of which was affixed a short verse, giving no dates and generally vague as to episcopal accomplishments. The verses are nonetheless used as historical source material.
Bishop Giovanni Battista Braschi (1699–1718) reported in his "Relatio" of 1704 that the cathedral had once had a Chapter with three dignities (the Provost, the Archdeacon, and the Archpriest), but that the Archdeaconry survived. There had once been two "Canones supernumerarii", but they too had lapsed. In 1749, there was one dignity, the Archdeacon, and fourteen Canons, though the population of Sarsina was about 600 persons.
In 1807 Napoleon, who was President of the Cisalpine Republic, suppressed the diocese, in accordance with policies originally established by the French Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The arrangement was ratified by Pope Pius VII on 16 September 1803. The diocese was re-established in 1817.
In 1824, the diocese was so poor that it was not able to support the bishop in proper style, and therefore it had to be united to the diocese of Bertinoro, with the bishop of Bertinoro acting as administrator of the diocese of Sarsina, whose episcopal throne was left vacant. The diocese of Sarsina was provided with a bishop by Pope Pius IX in 1872, ending the administratorship.
The diocese was suffragan of the archdiocese of Ravenna.
Consolidation of dioceses.
The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), in order to ensure that all Catholics received proper spiritual attention, decreed the reorganization of the diocesan structure of Italy and the consolidation of small and struggling dioceses. These considerations applied to Cesena and Sarsina. In 1980, Cesena had estimated Catholic population of 152,000, with 201 priests. Sarsina, in 1980 had 13,200 Catholics, and 34 priests.
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of "Normae" was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, "aeque personaliter", was abolished. Bishop Luigi Amaducci had governed both Cesena and Sarsina since 1977.
Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Cesena and Sarsina be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title "Dioecesis Caesenatensis-Sarsinatensis ". The seat of the diocese was to be in Cesena, and the cathedral of Cesena was to serve as the cathedral of the merged dioceses. The cathedral in Sarsina was to become a co-cathedral, and the cathedral Chapter was to be a "Capitulum Concathedralis". There was to be one diocesan Tribunal, in Cesena, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former diocese of Sarsina.


HMS Carysfort (R25)

HMS "Carysfort" was a destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1941, originally under the name HMS "Pique".
Her name was changed to conform with the initials "Ca" to her seven sister ships. She is named after John Proby, a politician who was also a Lord of the Admiralty in 1750. In 1752 he was created Baron Carysfort. His son, William Proby, Lord Proby, and his grandson, Granville Proby, 3rd Earl of Carysfort, were both naval officers, the latter eventually became an Admiral. She was the fifth Royal Navy warship to carry the name "Carysfort". She was built and engined by J. Samuel White & Co. The keel was to be laid down on 4 May 1943 but was delayed until 12 May 1943 because of German bombing raids. She was launched on 25 July 1944 and completed on 20 February 1945. Her original pennant number was R25 changing to D25 after the Second World War.
Operational service.
Following commissioning, "Carysfort" worked up at Scapa Flow before joining the 6th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. on 4 March 1945, she took part in Operation "Judgement", forming part of the escort of the escort carriers , and as their aircraft attacked shipping off the coast of Norway and at Kilbotn harbour near Narvik, sinking the submarine , the depot ship "Black Watch" and a trawler. From June to October 1945, "Caryfort" was refitted at Devonport, having the ship's planned Director Control Tower fitted. She was then ordered to join the East Indies Fleet, where she took part in operations against Indonesian nationalist forces in the Dutch East Indies.
After returning to Britain early in 1946, "Carysfort" was placed in reserve at Portsmouth, briefly recommissioning in 1947 for a training cruise to the Mediterranean before returning to reserve. She was modernised by Yarrows at their Scotstoun shipyard between 23 January 1954 and 14 December 1956, and then re-entered service as part of the 6th Destroyer Squadron. "Carysfort" served two commissions with the 6th Squadron, with the flotilla alternating between home waters and the Mediterranean. From 1956 to 1958 R J Trowbridge captained her in the Mediterranean. In 1959 "Carysfort" was part of the Home Fleet and took part in 'Navy Days' in Portsmouth during that year. In September 1959, "Carysfort" transferred to the 8th Destroyer Squadron as a replacement for , arriving at the Squadron's base at Singapore in November that year. She subsequently served in the Far East during the Indonesian Confrontation.
Between November 1962 and May 1964 she underwent a refit at Gibraltar and then joined the 27th Escort Squadron and spent two deployments in the Mediterranean and Far East. In June 1966, "Carysfort" was ordered to the Seychelles when labour disputes brought the threat of violence. While no intervention by the destroyer was needed in the end, the ship's crew suffered an outbreak of dysentery while at the Seychelles, forcing the temporary introduction of quarantine measures aboard the ship to control the outbreak. Her last deployment was to the Far East between 20 November 1967 and 14 November 1968.
She remained in the Active Fleet until February 1969 when she was placed in Reserve. After being placed on the Disposal List she was sold on 20 October 1970 to BISCO for demolition by J Cashmore. She arrived in tow at the breakers yard in Newport on 15 November that year.


Battle of Cape Cherchell

The Battle of Cape Cherchell was a naval battle between the Nationalist heavy cruiser and the Spanish Republican Navy light cruisers and in the Spanish Civil War, several miles north of the Algerian city of Cherchell. In the early morning hours of 7 September 1937, "Baleares" unexpectedly met a Republican convoy consisting of two merchant ships escorted by Republican cruisers and destroyers. "Baleares" was beaten off and badly damaged in the engagement, but the merchantmen were lost when they tried to slip away along the Algerine shoreline.
The biggest danger for the convoy was not "Baleares" itself, but Nationalist shore-based aircraft that might have appeared when the Nationalist cruiser had radioed the convoy's location. Because of this, the four destroyers quickly broke off the engagement and continued to escort the merchant convoy.
While these ships steamed ahead, Republican cruisers "Libertad" and "Méndez Núñez" engaged "Baleares". A crashing volley from "Libertad" smashed "Baleares"' electronics, temporarily disabling the cruiser's main guns. But the Nationalists repaired the damage and "Baleares" renewed her pursuit.
The warships met again in the afternoon, "Libertad" scoring two more hits on critical areas of "Baleares". "Baleares" then limped off to wait for her sister ship . The retreating Republican ships were later attacked, ineffectively, by several Nationalist warplanes, most of them Italian bombers from the "Aviación Legionaria", a squadron of the Regia Aeronautica which fought in Spain under Franco's orders.
During the engagement the captains of the two freighters escorted by the Republican fleet had panicked and changed course to the south to seek shelter in Algerine waters. One of the steamers ran aground in Cherchell, while the remaining ship eventually reached Bona, where she was interned by French authorities.
The Republican fleet commander Miguel Buiza was demoted after this battle.


Sardinian lira

The lira (plural "lire") was the currency of the Kingdom of Sardinia between August 6, 1816 and March 17, 1861. It was subdivided into 100 "centesimi" (singular "centesimo") and was equal in value to the French franc (4.5 grams of silver), which had replaced the Piedmontese shield by 1801. Being no more than the Savoyard version of the franc, it could circulate also in France, as the French coins could circulate in Piedmont. It was replaced at par by the Italian lira. As the great part of the 19th century currencies, it was not affected by significant episodes of inflation during all its existence.
Coins.
In 1816, King Victor Emmanuel I issued silver 5 lire and gold 20 lire coins. Before his abdication in 1821, he also produced a new golden 80 lire coin.
King Charles Felix followed in 1821 and 1822 minting gold 40 and 80 lire, respectively. He also expanded the new currency in Sardinia which, not having been conquered by Napoleon, had retained its Sardinian shields. Silver 50 centesimi, 1 and 2 lire were added in 1823, followed by copper 1, 3 and 5 centesimi in 1826, and silver 25 centesimi in 1829.
Finally, King Charles Albert added new gold 10, 50 and 100 lire in 1832, while King Victor Emmanuel II continued his father's coinage.
On each coin, the ruling monarch was styled in Latin as "King of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem by the Grace of God" on the front side, and "Duke of Savoy, Genoa and Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont et cetera" on the back side.


Lordship of Anholt

The Lordship of Anholt was a small state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an imperial estate and a member of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle.
Geography.
The state consisted only of the City of Anholt in the present-day District of Borken in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia. It had received town privileges in 1347 and finally was incorporated into the City of Isselburg in 1975. The Lordship bordered three larger states: the Duchy of Guelders, the Bishopric of Münster, and the Duchy of Cleves.
History.
The Lords of Anholt, originally liegemen of the Utrecht bishops, reached independence as "Freiherren" by the early 14th century. In 1402, their territory fell to the Lords of Bronckhorst through marriage. These acquired a comital title and in 1431 had Anholt recognized by King Sigismund of Luxembourg as an imperial estate with a seat in the Reichstag.
In 1512 the forces of Guelders under Duke Charles of Egmond occupied Anholt, as the Bronckhorst counts had sided with his rival Philip I of Castile, and could not be induced to release it until in 1537 they were paid a significant ransom. The counts stayed loyal to the House of Habsburg, therefore their lordship had to suffer in the Eighty Years' War, when it was attacked by the Geuzen of the Utrecht Union, as well as in the Thirty Years' War.
In 1641, again by marriage, Anholt was acquired by the princes of Salm, and passed to the Salm-Salm division of Salm. When Salm-Salm was annexed by France in 1793, Anholt became the seat and main possession of the princes of Salm-Salm. In 1802, the princes of Salm-Salm, together with their relatives, the princes of Salm-Kyrburg, received the newly created Principality of Salm as a compensation for their losses from the Empire; this much larger new Principality was adjacent to Anholt and eventually incorporated it.


Stollberg (district)

Stollberg is a former district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It was bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the district-free city Chemnitz, and the districts Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis, Annaberg, Aue-Schwarzenberg, Zwickauer Land and Chemnitzer Land.
History.
The district dates back to the "Amtshauptmannschaft Stollberg", which was established in 1910. In 1939 it was renamed to "Landkreis". In 1950 the district was dissolved and its municipalities were assigned to the neighboring districts Aue, Chemnitz and Zwickau. However two years later in another reform the district was recreated, only with a slightly different layout. In the communal reform of 1994 the district was enlarged by some municipalities from the district Chemnitz, and the city Zwönitz from the district Aue. On 1 August 2008 it was merged into the new district Erzgebirgskreis.
Geography.
The district was located on the northwestern slope of the Ore Mountains.
Partnerships.
Since 1990 the district had a partnership with the district Fürth in Bavaria.


Princess Wilhelmine of Baden

Princess Wilhelmine of Baden (21 September 1788 – 27 January 1836), was by birth Princess of Baden and by marriage Grand Duchess consort of Hesse and the Rhine.
She was the youngest daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Life.
In Karlsruhe on 19 June 1804, Wilhelmine married the then Hereditary Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt. The union proved to be unhappy due to Louis' affairs, and they separated after the birth of their three older children.
In 1820 she acquired the Heiligenberg Castle, where she met her chamberlain Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, with whom she maintained a longtime affair; her last four children, including Alexander and Marie, were believed to have been fathered by Senarclens de Grancy, although they were recognized by Grand Duke Louis II as his own. In 1830, following her father-in-law's death, she became Grand Duchess consort of Hesse and the Rhine.
Issue.
Her descendants included both Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, both of whom were Princess Wilhelmine's great-grandchildren, as well as Tsar Alexander III of Russia (grandson), Queen Ena of Spain, also known as Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, (great-granddaughter), King Juan Carlos I of Spain (great-great-great grandson), King Felipe VI of Spain (great-great-great-great grandson), Queen Louise of Sweden, also known as Princess Louise of Battenberg (great-granddaughter), Lord Louis Mountbatten (great-grandson), Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (great-great grandson), and Charles, Prince of Wales (great-great-great grandson).


Sudergoa

Together with Westergoa and Eastergoa Sudergoa was one of the three goaën of the Dutch provence of Friesland during the Middle Ages.
From the 13th century on Sudergoa became a part of Westergoa.
Stavoren has been the centre of Sudergoa.


Eastern Galicia

Eastern Galicia, or Eastern Halychyna (, , ) is a geographical region in Western Ukraine (present day oblasts of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil), having also essential historic importance in Poland. Galicia was formed within the Austrian Empire during the years 1772–1918. Eastern Galicia now includes all of the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts (regions) of Ukraine as well as Ternopil Oblast, with its northern strip bordering the former Kremenets, Shumsk and Lanivtsi Raions and the northern part of Zbarazh Raion. The area of Eastern Galicia is about 46,800 km2 (18,100 sq miles).
History.
In 1918, Western Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, which absorbed part of the Lemko region. The local Ukrainian population declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the "West Ukrainian People's Republic". The predominantly-Polish population of Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg) resisted, which led to the Polish-Ukrainian War during which the Poles took control of all of Galicia. In a pact with Poland, Herman Petyura ceded Eastern Galicia in exchange for help against the Soviets. During the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921), the Soviets tried to establish the puppet state, the Galician Soviet Socialist Republic, in East Galicia, but its government was removed in about two months.
The fate of Galicia was settled by the Peace of Riga, on March 18, 1921, which assigned Galicia to the Second Polish Republic. Although never accepted as legitimate by some Ukrainians, the decision was internationally recognized on May 15, 1923.
The Ukrainians of the former Eastern Galicia and the neighbouring province of Volhynia made up about 12% of the population of the Second Polish Republic and were its largest minority. As the Polish government's policies were unfriendly towards minorities, tensions between the Polish government and the Ukrainian population grew, which eventually gave the rise to the militant underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
Etymology.
The name "Gallic" or "Halchyna" in Ukrainian is derived from the city of Halych (Latin name: Galic) which was the first capital of Galician principality. The name Galic itself derives from the Ukrainian word "halka" which means "crow", which is reflected by the crow at the center of its coat of arms.
Many also believe that the name Halych - Galic (and from it Halychyna - Galizia) is derived from the Greek word ἅλς ("hals"), meaning "salt". The Byzantines and the Greeks had a strong influence on these lands and it was from the Greeks that Galicia and Kievan Rus' were converted to Christianity. In fact the Greek word for salt pit is "Alyki" (αλυκή), which makes a strong argument that Halych could be an alteration of that. Halych was rich in salt, which was mined in the region. During the early medieval period, salt was Halych's main export. Today, however, there is no more salt mining in Halych.


Egbert II, Margrave of Meissen

Egbert II () (c. 1060 – 3 July 1090) was Count of Brunswick and Margrave of Meissen. He was the eldest son of the Margrave Egbert I of the Brunonen family.
Still a minor, he succeeded his father on the latter's death 11 January 1068 in Brunswick and Meissen. He was married to Oda, daughter of Count Otto of Meissen-Orlamünde, whose lands he inherited, including the castle of Wanderslebener Gleichen.
In 1073, the Saxons, led by Duke Magnus and Otto of Nordheim, rebelled against King Henry IV. The insurrection was crushed by Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia in the First Battle of Langensalza on 9 June 1075. Whether Egbert had participated in the Saxon rebellion remains unclear based on extant sources, but since he had nonetheless proved himself an opponent of the king, he was deprived of Meissen, which was given to Vratislaus. However, Egbert drove Vratislaus from Meissen the next year and was condemned. A Frisian county then in his possession was confiscated and given to the Bishop of Utrecht.
Egbert originally supported anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfeld, but eventually he and many other Saxon nobles withdrew their support and remained neutral. After the death of Otto of Nordheim in 1083, Egbert was the most important, but also inconsistent, Saxon opponent of Henry IV. In 1085, the two were briefly reconciled and Egbert entertained Henry in Saxony in July. In September, the conflict was resumed, but in 1087, Egbert and Henry made peace.
Some sources report that after the death of anti-king Herman of Salm, bishops Hartwig of Magdeburg and Burchard of Halberstadt persuaded Egbert to turn against the king and himself aim for the crown. Whatever the case, Egbert soon broke with his new allies, probably because of unkept promises. Bishop Hartwig's submission to the king isolated Egbert completely.
In 1088, Egbert was besieged in his castle of Gleichen for four months by Henry, but on Christmas Eve he managed to escape, during the confusion of battle, with a relief army. He was outlawed and deprived of Meissen and his Frisian possessions by a court of princes in Quedlinburg, and later again at Ratisbon in the same year. The fleeing Egbert, undefeated but isolated, fell in combat in 1090.
His remaining possessions fell to his sister Gertrude and her husband Henry the Fat, Margrave of Frisia, whose daughter Richenza married Lothair of Supplinburg, the later Duke and Emperor.


Gerald Creasy

Sir Gerald Hallen Creasy (1 November 1897 – 9 June 1983) was a British colonial administrator. He served as Governor of the Gold Coast and Malta.
The "Christiansborg cross-roads shooting incident" that led to the 1948 Accra Riots occurred while Creasy was Governor in Gold Coast.
Gold Coast.
Creasy was appointed governor on 12 January 1948. He succeeded Sir Alan Burns. He is however most remembered in Ghana for the "Christiansborg cross-roads shooting incident" on 28 February 1948, about six weeks into his job. Three unarmed former World War II veterans were killed and 60 wounded that day while demonstrating about end of service benefits. The protests had followed the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM) boycotts in Accra. This played into the hands of the local political leadership, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
Led by the Big Six, they sent a cable on the same day to the Secretary of State in London.
"...unless Colonial Government is changed and a new Government of the people and their Chiefs installed at the centre immediately, the conduct of masses now completely out of control with strikes threatened in Police quarters, and rank and file Police indifferent to orders of Officers, will continue and result in worse violent and irresponsible acts by uncontrolled people.
They also blamed "Crazy Creasy" for all the unrests. The Riot Act was read the next day, 1 March 1948 and the Big Six were arrested and detained. The Watson commission of enquiry chaired by Mr. Aiken Watson, was set up to look into the riots. He was replaced in an acting capacity by Sir Robert Scott as governor of the Gold Coast on 15 February 1949.
Malta.
Creasy succeeded Sir Francis Campbell Ross Douglas as Governor of Malta on 16 September 1949. He was succeeded by Sir Robert Laycock on 3 August 1954.


Barony of Bedford

Barony of England, Bedford, England.
First creation.
Extinct? Merged?
Merged to Duke of Bedford in 1138, 1366 or 1414


Agatha (wife of Edward the Exile)

Agatha (before 1030 – after 1070) was married to Edward the Exile, a candidate for the throne of England, and mother of Edgar Ætheling, Saint Margaret of Scotland and Cristina. Her antecedents are unclear and the subject of much speculation.
Life.
Nothing is known of Agatha's early life, and what speculation has appeared is inextricably linked to the contentious issue of Agatha's paternity, one of the unresolved questions of medieval genealogy. As the birth of her children is speculatively placed at around the year 1045, her own birth was probably before about 1030. She came to England with her husband and children in 1057, but was widowed shortly after her arrival. Following the Norman conquest of England, in 1067 she fled with her children to Scotland, finding refuge under her future son-in-law Malcolm III. Simeon of Durham carries what appears to be the last reference to her in 1070.
Origin.
Medieval sources.
Agatha's origin is alluded to in numerous surviving medieval sources, but the information they provide is sometimes imprecise, often contradictory, and occasionally demonstrably false. The earliest surviving source, the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", along with John of Worcester's "Chronicon ex chronicis" and its associated genealogical tables (sometimes named separately as "Regalis prosapia Anglorum"), Symeon of Durham ("thaes ceseres maga") and Ailred of Rievaulx describe Agatha as a kinswoman of "Emperor Henry", the latter explicitly making her daughter of his brother ("filia germani imperatoris Henrici"). It is not clear whether the "Henry" mentioned was Henry II or Henry III, although John of Worcester in "Regalis prosapia Anglorum" specifies Henry III.
Later sources of dubious credibility such as the "Chronicle of Melrose" call her daughter of Henry, while Matthew of Paris calls her the emperor's sister ("soror Henrici imperatoris Romani"). Geoffrey Gaimar in "Lestoire des Engles" states that she was daughter of the Hungarian king and queen ("Li reis sa fille"), although he places the marriage at a time when Edward is thought still to have been in Kiev, while Orderic Vitalis in "Historiae Ecclesiasticae" is more specific, naming her father as king Solomon ("filiam Salomonis Regis Hunorum"), even though he was actually a contemporary of Agatha's children. William of Malmesbury in "De Gestis Regis Anglorum" states that Agatha's sister was a Queen of Hungary ("reginae sororem") and is echoed in this by Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, while, less precisely, Ailred says of Margaret that she was derived from English and Hungarian royal blood ("de semine regio Anglorum et Hungariorum extitit oriunda").
Finally, Roger of Howden and the anonymous "Leges Edwardi Confessoris" indicate that while Edward was a guest of Kievan "king Malesclodus" he married a woman of noble birth ("nobili progenio"), "Leges" adding that the mother of St Margaret was of Rus royal blood ("ex genere et sanguine regum Rugorum").
Onomastics.
Onomastic analysis has also been brought to bear on the question. The name Agatha itself is rare in western Europe at this time. Likewise, those of her children and grandchildren are either drawn from the pool of Anglo-Saxon names to be expected given her husband's membership of the royal family of Wessex, or else are names not typical of western Europe. There is speculation that the latter derive from Agatha's eastern European ancestry. Specifically, her own name, the names of her daughters Cristina and Margaret, and those of her grandchildren Alexander, David, and Mary, have been used as possible indicators of her origins.
German and Hungarian theories.
While various sources repeat the claims that Agatha was daughter or sister of either Emperor Henry, it seems unlikely that such a sibling or daughter would have been ignored by the German chroniclers.
The description of Agatha as a blood relative of "Emperor Henry" may be applicable to a niece of either Henry II or Henry III, emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (although John of Worcester in "Regalis prosapia Anglorum" specifies Henry III). Early attempts at reconstructing the relationship focused on the former. Georgio Pray (1764, "Annales Regum Hungariae"), P.F. Suhm (1777, "Geschichte Dänmarks, Norwegen und Holsteins") and Istvan Katona (1779, "Historia Critica Regum Hungariae") each suggested that Agatha was the daughter of Henry II's brother Bruno of Augsburg (an ecclesiastic described as "beatae memoriae", with no known issue), while Daniel Cornides (1778, "Regum Hungariae") tried to harmonise the German and Hungarian claims, making Agatha daughter of Henry II's sister Giselle of Bavaria, wife of Stephen I of Hungary. This solution remained popular among scholars through a good part of the twentieth century.
As tempting as it may be to thus view St. Margaret as a granddaughter of another famous saint, Stephen of Hungary, this popular solution fails to explain why Stephen's death triggered a dynastic crisis in Hungary, or at least that Agatha's family failed to play a role in that strife. If St. Stephen and Giselle were indeed Agatha's parents, her offspring would have had a strong claim to the Hungarian crown. Actually, there is no indication in Hungarian sources that any of Stephen's children outlived him. Likewise, all of the solutions involving Henry II would seem to make Agatha much older than her husband, and prohibitively old at the time of the birth of her last child, Edgar.
Based on a more strict translation of the Latin description used by John of Worcester and others as well as the supposition that Henry III was the Emperor designated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, genealogist Szabolcs de Vajay popularised another idea first suggested in 1939. In that year, Jozsef Herzog published an analysis suggesting that Agatha was daughter of one of Henry's half-brothers, born to his mother Gisela of Swabia by her earlier marriages to Ernest I of Swabia and Bruno of Brunswick, probably the former based on more favourable chronology. De Vajay reevaluated the chronology of the marriages and children of Gisela and concluded that Agatha was the daughter of Henry III's elder (uterine) half-brother, Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia. This theory saw broad acceptance for thirty years until René Jetté resurrected a Kievan solution to the problem, since which time opinion has been divided among several competing possibilities.
Kievan theory.
Jetté pointed out that William of Malmesbury in "De Gestis Regis Anglorum" and several later chronicles unambiguously state that Agatha's sister was a Queen of Hungary. From what is known about the biography of Edward the Exile, he apparently was in the political faction of Andrew I of Hungary, following him from Kiev to Hungary in 1046 and staying at his court for many years. Andrew's wife and queen was Anastasia, a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd of Sweden. Following Jetté's logic, Edward's wife was another daughter of Yaroslav. In so doing, he mirrored a solution to Agatha's paternity put forward in 1894 by William Ferrand Felch, who had been led to examine the question upon learning that Elias Reusner, writing in 1592 had placed her as daughter of Cnut the Great, a derivation also given Agatha without further explanation in 1634 by .
This Felch/Jetté theory accords with the seemingly incongruous statements of Geoffrey Gaimar and Roger of Howden that, while living in Kiev, Edward took a native-born wife "of noble parentage" or that his father-in-law was a "Rus king".
Eduard Hlawitschka also identifies Agatha as a daughter of Yaroslav, pointing out that Adam of Bremen, who was well-informed on North-European affairs, noted around 1074 that Edward was exiled in Russia ("E[d]mund, vir bellicosus, in gratiam victoris sublatus est; filii eius in Ruzziam exilio dampnat"i) and that the author of "Leges Edwardi confessoris", who had strong ties with Agatha's children, Queen Margaret of Scotland and her sister Cristina, and could thus reasonably be expected to be aware of their descent, recorded around 1120 that Edward went to the land of the Rus and that there he married a noble woman.
Onomastics have been seen as supporting Jetté's and Hlawitschka's theory. Among medieval royalty, Agatha's rare Greek name is first recorded in the Macedonian dynasty of Byzantium; it was also one of the most frequent feminine names in the Kievan Rurikid dynasty. After Anna of Byzantium married Yaroslav's father, he took the Christian name of the reigning emperor, Basil II, while some members of his family were named after other members of the imperial dynasty. Agatha could have been one of these.
The names of Agatha's immediate descendants — Margaret, Cristina, David and Alexander — likewise extraordinary for Britain at that time, have likewise been suggested as clues. The names Margaret and Cristina are today associated with Sweden, the native country of Yaroslav's wife Ingigerd. The name of Margaret's son, David, mirrors that of David of Hungary, like his elder brother Solomon a son of Andrew I of Hungary and Anastasia of Kiev. Furthermore, the first saint of the Rus (canonized ca. 1073) was Yaroslav's brother Gleb, whose Christian name was David.
The name of Margaret's other son, Alexander, may point to a variety of traditions, both occidental and oriental: the biography of Alexander the Great was one of the most popular books in eleventh-century Kiev, and it was a common name in the Greek-influenced Orthodox tradition. Humphreys would review the two main types of hypotheses, which he called the Salian and the Slavic theories, and pointed out that the critical evidence in weighing them is whether one accepts the testimony of John of Worcester (Salian) or William of Malmesbury (Slavic) as representing the earliest, most accurate version of her ancestry. He would later point out the occurrence of the name Maria in the next generation of the Kievan dynasty, and suggested that Agatha could instead have been sister of the Byzantine wife of Vsevolod I of Kiev, that the tradition of imperial connections had confused which Empire was involved. However, he subsequently studied the sources and particularly the chronology of this dynasty in more detail and concluded that this solution was unlikely, though he did favor a reconstruction making Yaroslav the son, rather than the step-son, of the Byzantine princess Anna Porphyrogeneta.
One inference from the Kievan theory is that Edgar Ætheling and St. Margaret would have been, through their mother, first cousins of Philip I of France. The connection seems too notable to be omitted from contemporary sources, yet there is no indication that medieval chroniclers were aware of it. An "argumentum ex silentio" regarding this relationship has been a factor leading critics of the Kievan theory to search for alternative explanations.
Bulgarian theory.
In response to the recent flurry of activity on the subject, Ian Mladjov reevaluated the question and presented an alternative Bulgarian origin for Agatha. He dismissed each of the prior theories in turn as insufficiently grounded and incompatible given the historical record, and further argued that many of the proposed solutions would have meant that later documented marriages would have fallen within the prohibited degree of kinship, yet there is no record the issue of consanguinity was ever raised with regard to these marriages. He argued that the documentary testimony of Agatha's origins is tainted or late, and concurred with Humphreys' evaluation that the names of the children and grandchildren of Agatha, so central to prior reevaluations, may have had non-family origins (for example, Pope Alexander II, having played a critical role in the marriage of Malcolm and Margaret, may have inspired their use of that name). However, he then focused in on the name of Agatha as being critical to determining her origin. He concluded that of the few contemporaries named Agatha, only Agatha Chryselia, married to Samuel of Bulgaria could possibly have been an ancestor of Edward the Exile's spouse. Some of the other names associated with Agatha and used to corroborate theories based in onomastics were present within the Bulgarian ruling family at the time, including Mary and several Davids. Mladjov initially inferred that Agatha was granddaughter of Agatha Cryselia, daughter of Gavril Radomir, Tsar of Bulgaria by his short-lived first marriage to a Hungarian princess thought to have been the daughter of Duke Géza of Hungary. This hypothesis had Agatha born in Hungary after her parents divorced, her mother being pregnant when she left Bulgaria, yet would entail her mother naming her after the mother of the Bulgarian prince who had just rejected her. Traditional dates of this divorce would seem to preclude the suggested relationship, but the article re-examined some long-standing assumptions about the chronology of Gavril Radomir's marriage to the Hungarian princess, and concludes that its dating to the late 980s is unsupportable, and that its dissolution belongs in c. 1009-1014. The argument was based almost exclusively on the onomastic precedent but is said to vindicate the intimate connection between Agatha and Hungary attested in the Medieval sources. Mladjov speculated further that the medieval testimony could largely be harmonized were one to posit that Agatha's mother was the same Hungarian princess who married Samuel Aba of Hungary, his family fleeing to Kiev after his downfall, thereby allowing a Russian marriage for Agatha. He subsequently revised his hypothesis, suggesting that Agatha was instead daughter of Hungarian king Samuel Aba, whom he in turn hypothesized was son of Gavril and his Hungarian wife. This would conflict with the "Gesta Hungarorum", which derives Samuel Aba from two Cuman chiefs.
This solution fails to conform with any of the relationships appearing in the primary record. It is inferred that the relative familiarity with Germany and unfamiliarity with Hungary partly distorted the depiction of Agatha in the English sources; by this reconstruction she would have been niece of the King of Hungary (Stephen I), who was himself the brother-in-law of the Holy Roman Emperor (Henry II, and therefore kinsman of Henry III).
Other theories.
In 2002, in an article meant not only to refute the Kievan hypothesis, but also to broaden the field of possible alternatives beyond the competing German Imperial and Kievan reconstructions, John Carmi Parsons presented a novel possibility. He pointed out that the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" represents the earliest surviving testimony, and argues that it was contemporary with Agatha and was very probably well informed in reporting an Imperial kinship. Parsons stresses that the sources claiming Russian parentage for Agatha, and her kinship with a Hungarian queen, are of much later date, and consequently likely to be less reliable than a source contemporary with her. Purely in an attempt to show that not all avenues have been fully pursued in the effort to identify Agatha, Parsons pointed to the documented existence of a German Count Cristinus, whose given name might explain the name Christina for Agatha's daughter. Count Cristinus married a Saxon noblewoman, Oda of Haldensleben, who is hypothesized to have been maternally a granddaughter of Vladimir I of Kiev by a German kinswoman of Emperor Henry III. Parsons also noted that Edward could have married twice, with the contradictory primary record in part reflecting confusion between distinct wives.
Recently, a Polish hypothesis has appeared. John P. Ravilious has proposed that Agatha was daughter of Mieszko II Lambert of Poland by his German wife, making her kinswoman of both Emperors Henry, as well as sister of a Hungarian queen, who was married to Béla I. Ravilious and MichaelAnne Guido subsequently published an article setting forth further evidence concerning the hypothesized Polish parentage of Agatha, including the derivation of the name Agatha (and of her putative sister Gertrude of Poland) from the names of saints associated with the abbey of Nivelles. This argument is further supported by the replacement by Andrew I of Hungary (husband of Anastasia of Kiev) of his brother Bela as his heir apparent with his young son Salomon in 1057. If Agatha had been Andrew's sister-in-law, and aunt of Salomon, this act by King Andrew would have strengthened her bonds and those of her husband Edward to Hungary's future: however, if Agatha was a sister-in-law to Bela (husband of Richeza of Poland) she and Edward would most likely have been inclined to leave Hungary in 1057 at the time of Bela's rebellion.


Attard (surname)

Attard is a Maltese surname which has origins in the neighboring island of Sicily. The name might mean Atha which means "noble" and Hardu which means "strong". Another possibility is that it comes from the village of Atti, Italy. Notable people with the surname include:


Linnich

Linnich is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the River Rur (Roer river), approx. 10 km north-west of Jülich.
Economy.
Linnich is the home of SIG Combibloc the specialist for aseptic carton packaging.
On the same Industrial site Gascogne Laminates Germany is producing laminates packaging for the pharmaceutical industry
Town twinnings.
Since 1974, Linnich is twinned with the French town of Lesquin in the Nord département.
Transportation.
Linnich has no direct connections the German Autobahns, but the exits Erkelenz-Süd of the BAB 46, Titz, Jülich-Koslar or Aldenhoven of the BAB 44 can be used.
Linnich is connected to the Rurtalbahn since 2002, and has one station near the SIG-factory and one in the suburb Tetz.