Old Blockhouse

The Old Blockhouse, also known as the Dover Fort, is a 16th-century fortification on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. It was built between 1548 and 1551 by the government of Edward VI to protect the islands against French attack.
Overlooking Old Grimsby harbour and the anchorage of St Helen's Pool, the blockhouse would have housed a battery of two or three artillery pieces, positioned on a square gun platform on top of a rocky outcrop. An earthwork bank and a stone wall were built to protect it from attack from the beach and the landward sides respectively. A small room to provide living quarters for the garrison was later constructed on the side of the gun platform.
During the interregnum following the English Civil War, the Old Blockhouse was occupied by the Royalists and it was attacked by the Parliamentary forces of Sir Robert Blake in 1651. Blake's naval guns out-ranged those of the fort, and, after fierce fighting, the blockhouse was taken. A battery of guns was maintained at the blockhouse until at least the 1750s, but by the end of the 18th century the fortification was disused and in ruins.
After 1922 the blockhouse was placed into the guardianship of the state by the lessee of the island, Arthur Dorrien-Smith, and in the 21st century it is controlled by English Heritage and open to tourists. It is protected as a scheduled monument under UK law.
History.
16th century.
The Old Blockhouse was built between 1548 and 1551 to protect the Scilly Isles against French attack. Tensions with France had grown during the reign of Henry VIII and spilled over into war in 1538. Henry initially responded by fortifying the coasts of England, constructing new artillery forts designed to defend against the longer-range cannons that were becoming common in the 16th century. Henry's son, the nine-year-old Edward VI, inherited the throne in 1547, facing renewed war with France. Edward Seymour was made the Lord Protector to the King, and he appointed his brother, Thomas, as England's Lord Admiral. Thomas inspected the Scilly Isles personally and concluded that they were vulnerable to a French invasion.
As a result of the inspection, Sir Francis Flemming, the Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, was tasked in February 1558 to improve the defences on the islands, supported by a shipment of lead to help with construction, and money raised from the dissolution of the monasteries in England. The building work initially focused on the island of Tresco and was carried out under the direction of John Killigrew, the captain of Pendennis Castle in Falmouth. Tresco was in need of modern defences, but Killigrew also wanted to use the work programme to increase his political influence on the island.
The Old Blockhouse was built as part of this programme of work. The blockhouse was positioned on high ground to protect the Old Grimsby harbour, overlooking both the harbour and the nearby anchorage of St Helen's Pool. When complete, it would have held a battery of two to three guns, which could have fired on targets attempting to enter the harbour, or engaged ships approaching the Scilly Isles from the north-east.
Edward Seymour fell from power in 1549, and after his removal a new survey was carried out by Captain William Tyrell, in part to confirm that the new fortifications were suitably located across the islands. Building work across the Scilly Isles continued, expanding to include the neighbouring island of St Mary's, and at least 540 oak trees from South Wales were dispatched to the islands in early 1550, since the islands lacked suitable sources of timber of their own. Orders were given in 1551 to send bows, arrows and the ingredients required to make gunpowder to the islands, where construction teams were kept at work through to the end of 1552.
The Old Blockhouse appears to have been completed, but the Crown's resources had become badly stretched and the decision was taken at the end of 1552 to curtail further expenditure on the Scilly Isles. Between 1548 and 1552, a total of £3,123 had been spent on improving the fortifications on the islands; a 1579 survey suggested that, with the cost of the garrisons, the project had come to a total of £6,000. Edward's successor, Queen Mary I, intended to establish a garrison of 150 soldiers on the islands, but it is uncertain if these numbers were ever achieved.
17th century.
The Old Blockhouse saw military action in 1651 during the interregnum after the end of the English Civil War, making it one of the very few of England's coastal defences to have ever seen actual fighting.
The Scilly Isles were supporters of Charles I during the civil war, and after a short period in Parliamentary control rebelled in favour of Charles in 1648. Tresco formed a base for Royalists privateers and Parliament became concerned that the Dutch, then hostile to England, might counter the piracy by occupying the islands, gaining a foothold they could then use against England. In 1651 Parliament sent Sir Robert Blake in charge of a naval task force to retake the islands.
Blake arrived at St Helen's Pool in April 1651 and set about taking the island of Tresco, attacking the harbour of Old Grimsby and the blockhouse. Blake deployed a force of men in small boats, but they landed on the wrong island and had to be recalled to the ships. The next day the men landed on the beaches below the blockhouse; fighting ensued and the attackers were driven back. Blake's men made another landing which also saw fierce resistance, and the guns of the blockhouse were probably turned on the landing parties. Around 15 of the assault force were killed, but the guns of Blake's ships guns had a longer range than those of the blockhouse and Old Grimsby fell. Blake went on to use Tresco as a basis for taking St Mary's.
The blockhouse remained an important fortification after the invasion. Parliament invested £1,050 in the islands' defences and carried out a survey in 1652, calling the blockhouse the "Dover Fort. In 1660, Charles II was restored to the throne and Edward Sherburne was sent to the Scilly Isles to inspect the defences; he recommended that repairs be carried out to the Old Blockhouse.
18th-21st centuries.
The Crown, in the form of the Duchy of Cornwall, leased the islands in 1687 to the Godolphin family, followed by August Smith in 1831. The blockhouse was inspected by Christian Lilly in 1715, on the orders of the Duke of Marlborough; he reported that it was "very much decayed", with only the walls standing, but recommended that it be repaired at a cost of £28. The antiquary William Borlase noted during his 1752 visit that there was a battery of guns at the Old Blockhouse, guarding the harbour, but by the time that the writer John Troutbeck saw the site at the end of the century, the guns had been removed. The blockhouse walls remained in good condition, however, and Troutbeck considered that it would still have military utility if brought back into service.
In 1922, the lease passed to Arthur Dorrien-Smith, who agreed to pass several properties on Tresco, including the blockhouse, into the guardianship of the Ministry of Works. In the 21st century, the blockhouse is controlled by English Heritage, the successor to the ministry, and open to tourists. It is protected as a scheduled monument under UK law.
Architecture.
The Old Blockhouse comprises a paved, square gun platform, approximately by , with thick, low granite walls, which were probably somewhat taller when they were first built. It is built on top of a rocky outcrop, which forms part of the lower courses of the walls, and is reached by a flight of stairs. The platform originally had embrasures on the north-west and north-east corners, with the walls probably forming a parapet, although it is possible there may also have been a roof to the platform.
In the south-west corner of the platform is a lean-to, which may have been either a powder locker or a shelter for the blockhouse watch; a compartment in the south wall might have also been used to store ammunition. A small room, by , was added on to the west, after the construction of the main building, possibly during the English Civil War. This was equipped with windows and a fireplace, and would have formed living quarters for the troops.
An earthwork bank defends the landward side of the blockhouse, described variously as between around and high, similar to those found around forts of this period along the Thames River in England. There are also the remains of a defensive stone wall on the seaward side of the blockhouse, although much of the wall has been destroyed by coastal erosion.
The design of the blockhouse is conservative for the period, and echoes that of the forts built during the reign of Henry VIII. This is in contrast to the nearby fortification of Harry's Walls, built at the same time as the blockhouse, but which adopted a more contemporary design that employed bastions.


County of Wied

Wied was a County of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located on the river Wied where it meets the Rhine. Wied emerged as a County earlier than many other German states. From 1243–1462, Wied was united with an Isenburgian County as Isenburg-Wied. Wied was partitioned twice: between itself and Wied-Dierdorf in 1631, and between Wied-Neuwied and Wied-Runkel in 1698. Via William of Albania, the House of Wied ruled the Principality of Albania in 1914.
Counts of Wied (c. 860–1243).
"To Isenburg-Wied (1243–1462)"
Counts of Wied (1462–1698).
"Partitioned between Wied-Neuwied and Wied-Runkel"


Jordaanoproer

The Jordaanoproer, The Jordan riot, was a riot of mainly unemployed people in Amsterdam in July 1934. The riots were a protest against the economic conditions in the Netherlands in the aftermath of the Great Depression. According to the November 1934 report of Chief Commissioner Versteeg, five people were killed and 56 seriously injured, including eight police officers and one member of the military police. During disturbances in the same period in Rotterdam, one person was killed on 10 July.


SS Schiller

SS "Schiller" was a 3,421 ton German ocean liner, one of the largest vessels of her time. Launched in 1873, she plied her trade across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying passengers between New York and Hamburg for the German Transatlantic Steam Navigation Line. She became notorious on 7 May 1875, while operating on her normal route, when she hit the Retarrier Ledges in the Isles of Scilly, causing her to sink with the loss of most of her crew and passengers, totalling 335 fatalities.
Characteristics.
"Schiller" was built long with a beam in Glasgow in August 1873 for her German owners, and had plied the Atlantic routes for just two years without major incident. In addition to her load of 254 passengers, she was carrying 250 mail bags intended for Australia, highly valuable general cargo, and 300,000 $20 coins totalling £60,000 at contemporary value and over £6 million today.
The ship was engaged to sail from New York on 27 April 1875, and was to call at Plymouth and Cherbourg on her route homeward to Hamburg. She made excellent time with her combination of two masts and engines, and by 7 May was nearing her first port of call at Plymouth on the Devon coast.
Wreck.
Captain Thomas needed to slow due to poor visibility in thick sea fog as she entered the English Channel, and was able to calculate that his ship was in the region of the Isles of Scilly, and thus within range of the Bishop Rock lighthouse which would provide him with information about his position. To facilitate finding the islands and the reefs which surround them, volunteers from the passengers were brought on deck to try to find the light. These lookouts unfortunately failed to see the light, which they were expecting on the starboard quarter, when in fact it was well to port. This meant that the "Schiller" was sailing straight between the islands on the inside of the lighthouse, leaving the ship heading towards the Retarrier Ledges.
"Schiller" grounded on the reef at 10pm, sustained significant damage, but not enough in itself to sink the large ship. The captain attempted to reverse off the rocks, pulling the ship free but exposing it to the heavy seas which were brewing, which flung the liner onto the rocks by its broadside three times, staving in the hull and making the ship list dangerously as the lights died and pandemonium broke out on deck as passengers fought to get into the lifeboats.
It was at these boats that the real disaster began, as several were not seaworthy due to poor maintenance and others were destroyed, crushed by the ship's funnels which fell amongst the panicked passengers. The captain attempted to restore order with his pistol and sword, but as he did so, the only two serviceable lifeboats were launched, carrying 27 people, far less than their full capacity. These boats eventually made it to shore, carrying 26 men and one woman.
On board the ship the situation only became worse, as breakers washed completely over the wreck. All the women and children on board, over 50 people, were hurried into the deck house to escape the worst of the storm. It was there that the greatest tragedy happened, when before the eyes of the horrified crew and male passengers, a huge wave ripped off the deck house roof and swept the occupants into the sea, killing all inside.
The wreck continued to be pounded all night, and gradually those remaining on board were swept away or died from exposure to cold seas, wind and resulting hypothermia, until the morning light brought rescue for a handful of survivors.
Rescue operation.
The recognized manner of signaling disaster at sea was by the firing of minute guns, carried on all ships for signalling purposes. Unfortunately, it had become the custom for ships passing the islands to fire a minute gun as it passed safely through the area, and so the firing of the "Schiller's" guns failed to produce the hoped-for rescue. Such an operation at night and in the dark would have been nearly impossible because of the high seas, and thus it was not until the first light that rescue craft began arriving.
St Agnes pilot gig, the "O and M", was summoned to investigate multiple cannon shots. Her crew discovered the mast of the sinking "Schiller". The "O and M" rowed to pick up five survivors before returning to St Agnes for assistance. Steamers and ferries from as far away as Newlyn, Cornwall, assisted the rescue operation.
There were 37 survivors of the 254 passengers and 118 crew. The death toll, 335, was one of the worst in British maritime history.
Artifacts.
The signal cannon is preserved in the Museum of the Isles of Scilly.
Legacy.
In recognition of the assistance that the inhabitants of the Scilly Isles gave the German people on board, orders were given in the two World Wars to spare the Isles of Scilly from attacks by German forces.


Mangion

Mangion is a Maltese surname. Notable people with the surname include:


Liburnia

Liburnia () in ancient geography was the land of the Liburnians, a region along the northeastern Adriatic coast in Europe, in modern Croatia, whose borders shifted according to the extent of the Liburnian dominance at a given time between 11th and 1st century BC. Domination of the Liburnian thalassocracy in the Adriatic Sea was confirmed by several Antique writers, but the archeologists have defined a region of their material culture more precisely in northern Dalmatia, Kvarner and eastern Istria.
Classical Liburnia.
The Liburnian cultural group developed at the end of the Bronze Age after the Balkan-Pannonian migrations, and during the Iron Age in a region bordered by Raša, Zrmanja and Krka rivers ("Arsia", "Tedanius", "Titius"), including the nearby islands. This territory lay mostly at the coast and on the numerous islands. Its continental borders were marked by the rivers and mountains: Raša, Učka, Gorski Kotar, peaks of Velebit mountain ("Mons Baebius"), Zrmanja and Krka, with a small area northeast of Krka bordered by Butišnica, Krka, Kosovčica and Čikola, around the city "Promona" (modern Tepljuh near Drniš). Thus, it neighbored in the northwest with the Histri, in the north with the Iapodian and in the southeast with the Dalmatian cultural groups.
Liburnian culture had distinct features and differed considerably from those of its neighbors. Its isolation and special qualities resulted primarily from its geographical isolation from the hinterland and its seaward orientation, important for traffic circulation and territorial connection. Maritime focus shaped Liburnian ethnic development on the Indo-European basis with the transfer of Mediterranean cultural traditions into an independent ethnic community, separated from neighboring peoples, but having evident similarities and links with the wider Illyrian and Adriatic territories. The Liburnians' skillful seamanship allowed them to hold navigable routes along the eastern Adriatic coast with strategic points, such as the islands of Hvar and Lastovo in the central Adriatic and Corfu (8th century BC) in the Ionian Sea, while they already had colonies at the western Adriatic coast, especially in region of Picenum, from the beginning of the Iron Age. From the 9th to the 6th century there was certain koine - cultural unity in the Adriatic, with the general Liburninan seal, whose naval supremacy meant both political and economical authority in the Adriatic Sea through several centuries.
According to Strabo (VI, 269), the Liburnians were masters of the island "Korkyra" (Corfu), until 735 BC, when they left it, under pressure of Corinthian ruler Hersikrates, in a period of Corinthian expansion to South Italy, Sicily and Ionian Sea. However their position in the Adriatic Sea was still strong in the next few centuries. Historian Theopompus (377-320 BC) informed about the island groups in the Adriatic Sea: "Apsartides" (Cres and Lošinj), "Elektrides" (Krk), while all the others were the Liburnian islands - "Liburnides", from Zadar archipelago to "Ladesta" (Lastovo) in the south, including "Paros" (Hvar). Geographer Scymnus (4th century BC) noted that Greek island of Paros had a namesake in the Adriatic Sea, Liburnian island of "Paros" (Hvar); this name was later changed to "Pharos", according to Strabo (VII, 5). Scymnus specially noted the island group "Mentorides" ("Arba" - Rab and "Cissa" - (Pag). Old Greek sources never noted any Liburnian settlement in the northern coasts, possibly because the ancient mariners had been using only outer island channels for navigation towards the beginning of the Amber Road in the north of Adriatic, evading inner seas which were ruled by Liburnian thallasocracy. Alexandria's librarian Apollonius of Rhodes (295 – 215 BC) yet described the islands, "Issa" (Vis), "Diskelados" (Brač) and "Pitiea" (Hvar) as Liburnian. But by the 1st century AD Pliny the Elder includes in the island group "Liburnicae" only the archipelagos in Zadar and Šibenik aquatories, "Gissa" (Pag), "Sissa" (Sestrunj), "Scardagissa" (Škarda), "Lissa" (Ugljan and Pašman), "Colentum" (Murter), island groups "Celadussae" (Dugi Otok), "Crateae", and several other minor ones, though their municipalities occupied islands to the north, "Curycta" (Krk), "Arba" (Rab), "Crepsa" (Cres), "Apsorus" (Lošinj).
Archaeology has confirmed that the narrow region of the Liburnian ethnic nucleus was at the eastern Adriatic coast between Krka and Raša rivers, in "Classical Liburnia", especially between Krka and Zrmanja rivers, where the material remains of their culture and settlements were the most frequently distributed, while their cities were urbanized at certain degree even in pre-Roman ages. By the material remains it's obvious that they didn't settle the eastern Adriatic coast to the south-east of Krka river; their supremacy on the islands to the south of their ethnic region should not be understood necessarily as their ethnic dominion in the southern Adriatic archipelagos (Hvar, Brač, Vis, Lastovo, etc.), but rather as their organized military-naval region based on the island outposts, by which they maintained control of the navigable route to the south.
In the 6th century BC their domination of the Adriatic Sea coasts started to diminish. They lost their trade colonies in the Western Adriatic coast due to invasion of the Umbri and the Gauls, caused by expansion of the Etruscan union in the basin of Po river. The 5th century BC saw Greek colonization in the south Adriatic, and final Liburnian retreat to Liburnia was caused by military and political activities of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse in the 4th century BC. Liburnia was strongly held, but Greek colonization reached Liburnian strategic possessions in the central Adriatic," Issa" (on the island of Vis) and "Pharos" (Starigrad, Hvar), a colony of the Greeks from Paros. Celtic invasion from the west bypassed Liburnia in the 4th century BC, but their northern neighbors the Iapodes were under considerably more pressure. The Liburnians took the opportunity to spread their territory to the Kvarner archipelago and the eastern coast of Istria to the river Raša, previously held by Iapodes, thus making the Histri their new neighbors to the west. On the basis of ancient records, the Iapodes inhabited the coast between "Albona" (Labin) and "Lopsica" (Sv. Juraj, south from Senj) and island "Curycta" (Krk) to the end of the 4th century BC. Material remains from the Early Iron Age in that region have alternately shown Histrian provenance, not necessarily Liburnian, but often ascribed to the Liburnians from the 4th century BC to the age of Roman conquest. Although archaeology of the region has not strictly confirmed the earlier presence of Iapodian material culture the group's presence and strong influence on the region is evident. They surely broke to Kvarner in the 20s of the 3rd century BC and the border between Iapodia and Liburnia was the river "Telavius" (Žrnovnica, Velebit channel). It’s not certain how long they ruled these coasts (some propose until the 1st century BC) and when exactly they retreated to their main historical lands. Borders of Liburnia didn’t change until its conflict with Dalmatae in 51 BC, when the Liburnians lost their city "Promona" (Tepljuh, Drniš) in the south and probably some lands around Krka river. By that time the Romans were already engaged in centuries long wars against Liburnian neighbors, Histri, Dalmatae and other Illyrians.
Roman Liburnia.
When Roman force ended the independence of their naval force in 33 BC, the Liburnians lost their freedom and Liburnia became a part of the Roman province of Dalmatia, but marginal in a military sense. "Burnum" on the Krka river became a Roman military camp, while the frequently settled and already urbanized plains of Classical Liburnia, in the inland of "Iader" (Zadar), became easily accessible and controlled by the Roman rulers. However Liburnian seamanship tradition was never wiped out, but became primarily trade-oriented under the new circumstances, a shift which contributed to the economic and cultural flourishing of its ports and cities, as well as to those of the province in general. Despite the process of Romanization that especially affected some of the bigger cities, the Liburnians saved their traditions, cults, typical funeral monuments (Liburnian cipus), names etc., as attested by the archaeological material from those ages.
After the Roman conquest, the delineation of Liburnia as a region became more settled. Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) gave a detailed geography of Liburnia, noting their "tetradekapolis" political-regional organization, 14 Liburnian municipalities subject to "Scardona" (Skradin). Worth mention were "Lacinienses" (unknown), "Stulpinos" (unknown "Stulpi"), "Burnistas" ("Burnum"), "Olbonenses" (unknown), those who enjoyed Italic law ("Ius Italicum") were "Alutae" ("Alvona" - Labin), "Flanates" ("Flanona" – Plomin, the gulf of Kvarner was named by them - "sinus Flanaticus"), Lopsi (around the strategic pass of Vratnik and the town of "Lopsica" – Sv. Juraj, south from Senj), "Varvarini" ("Varvaria" – Bribir), tribute immunity was given to "Asseriates" ("Asseria" – Podgrađe near Benkovac) and to the islanders "Fertinates" (*"Fulfinates", "Fulfin(i)um" - Omišalj on Krk) and "Curictae" ("Curicum", Krk).
He listed the cities along the coast from north to the south: "Alvona" (Labin), "Flanona" (Plomin), "Tarsatica" (Trsat; in Rijeka), "Senia" (Senj), "Lopsica" (Sv. Juraj, south from Senj), "Ortoplinia" (probably Stinica, in Velebit), "Vegium" (Karlobag), "Argyruntum" (Starigrad), "Corinium" (Karin Donji), "Aenona" (Nin), "civitas Pasini" (in Ražanac – Vinjerac – Posedarje range), important island cities "Absortium" ("Apsorus" – Osor), "Arba" (Rab), "Crexi" (Cres), "Gissa" ("Cissa", Caska near Novalja, Pag), "Portunata" (Novalja, older was "Gissa portu nota" – Cissa known by its port Novalja), by the coast "colonia Iader" (Zadar with status of Roman colony), "Colentum insula" (Murter, city and island).
Liburnia was a part of the Roman Empire until its collapse in 476 AD. During the reign of Augustus, the border between the Liburnians and Histri was Arsia river in Istria. In 170 AD a part of north-western Liburnian periphery that included the city "Tarsatica" (Trsat) was cut off from Liburnia. The new border was by Vinodol’s synclinal not northern from modern Crikvenica.
From the middle of the 2nd century AD, the name "Liburnia" was used not only for the territory settled by the Liburnians, but also for previously "Iapodian" territory in official usage; the Iapodians were included with the Liburnians to the court jurisdiction county of "Scardona" (Skradin), one of the convent seats in the provinces of Dalmatia. By the end of 330s AD, Liburnia was administratively attached to Dalmatia. However, it was still treated and recognized as a special and different area.
Medieval Liburnia.
After the fall of the Roman Empire and probably already from 490 AD, Liburnia within Dalmatia passed to the rule of the Ostrogoths, which lasted for six decades. The region of Savia was administratively added to the Gothic province of Dalmatia; the capital city of the both provinces was Salona (Solin), a seat of the ruler ""comes Dalmatiarum et Saviae".
The Goths lost the most of Dalmatia and a part of Liburnia in the south-east around Skradin in 536 AD, in war against the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great who started it to reconquer the territories of the former Western Empire (see Gothic War), while a part of Liburnia in Ravni Kotari with Zadar surrendered to the Byzantines in 552 AD. However, northern Liburnia and the rest of Classical Liburnia remained in the Gothic hands until 555 AD; after Byzantine conquest of Savia (540 AD) and Istria (543 AD) it was organized to special administrative-territorial unit of the Gothic state, known as "Liburnia Tarsatica"", military province directly subject to "comes Gotharum" settled in Aquilea.
This "military-naval" region, protected by heavy fleet, became a barrier to the Byzantine army step to Lika and Gorski Kotar, keeping safe continental road route over "Tarsatica" to Aquileia and northern Italy. According to anonymous Cosmographer of Ravenna (6th or 7th century), "Liburnia Tarsatica" considered all coastal cities from "Albona" (Labin) to "Elona" ("Aenona", Nin) of Classical Liburnia and Iapodian settlements in the inland (Lika).
From 550 and 551 AD, the Slavs ("Sclabenoi") started to break into Illyria and Dalmatia, as recorded by Procopius; by some thinking it was beginning of Slavic colonization there, which lasted during the next few centuries. Initial ethnic nucleus under Croatian name originated in Liburnian inland from where it soon spread to all Liburnia and from there to the other regions of former Illyricum province. In the pre-Roman ages, the Liburnians had been organized in 14 municipalities ("tetradekapolis"), the Croats probably used existing Illyrian municipality structure and had 14 županijas, Old Croatian political-jurisdictional forms (municipalities), as reported by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, while many of twelve Old Croatian tribes were settled in Liburnia. In the next centuries Croatian language overlaid Dalmatian language spoken in Liburnia and Dalmatia and already by the end of the 9th century, in the islands of Zadar aquatory, more than 70% of toponyms were Slavic forms.
From the 6th to 9th century, names Liburnia and Dalmatia were continually used for separate specifics in the sources, not necessarily meaning that Liburnia was a separate political unit, but it was certainly used as for Classical Liburnia territorial range. At the end of the 8th century Charlemagne conquered Pannonia and Dacia, then Istria, Liburnia and Dalmatia, but the main littoral Liburnian and Dalmatian cites, however, remained under Byzantine control, organized to a Dalmatian archonty with "Jadera" (Zadar) in status of a provincial metropolis. The most of Liburnia was under direct Frankish rule (king, Friulian duke) and separated from Croatian Principality of Dalmatia until 820 AD. By some suppositions, Croatian prince Borna was a Frankish vassal sent from Liburnia to Dalmatia to organize it into a vassal state to the Frankish Empire; in 820 AD, Louis the Pious rewarded him for his merits and devotion, by giving also Liburnia to his jurisdiction. Borna enjoyed a title of "dux Dalmatiae atque Liburniae".
After Borna, Croatian rulers replaced "Liburnia" with "Croatia" in their titles and continually after reign of Držislav (969-997) they were the kings of "Dalmatia and Croatia"; thus geographical name Liburnia has disappeared from official use and has been further used only for a historical land.
Later usage of the name Liburnia.
In later phases of the Middle Ages, the name Liburnia was used periodically to refer to the eastern coast of Istria and northern Dalmatia around the plain of Zadar. In recent times this name has been replaced by the Italian "Quarnero" and the Croatian "Kvarner", names which refer to the northern Adriatic islands and the adjacent coast of Istria and Dalmatia. Currently, the name Liburnia persists only in poetic usage and to indicate hotels and ships in the Adriatic.


List of dukes of Gaeta

This is a list of the hypati, patricians, consuls, and dukes of Gaeta. Many of the dates are uncertain and sometimes the status of the rulership, with co-rulers and suzerain–vassal relations, is vague.
Lombard period (1032–1064).
In 1041, Guaimar gave direct control and his title to the count of Aversa. In 1058, Gaeta was made subject to the count of Aversa, by then prince of Capua.
Norman period (1064–1140).
These were vassals of the princes of Capua. Princes Richard I and his son Jordan I used the titles duke and consul from 1058 and 1062 respectively.
In 1140, Gaeta went directly to the king of Sicily, Roger II. Under the Hautevilles and the Hohenstaufen, sovereigns continued issuing coinage as rulers of Gaeta until 1229.
Victory title.
In the mid–19th century, the soldier, politician and diplomat Enrico Cialdini (1811–1892) was created "Duca di Gaeta" by the King of Italy as a victory title in recognition of his role during the Siege of Gaeta (1860).


Battle of the Alma

The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Egyptian forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20September 1854. The allies had made a surprise landing in Crimea on 14September. The allied commanders, Maréchal Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and Lord Raglan, then marched toward the strategically important port city of Sevastopol, away. Russian commander Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov rushed his available forces to the last natural defensive position before the city, the Alma Heights, south of the Alma River.
The allies made a series of disjointed attacks. The French turned the Russian left flank with an attack up cliffs that the Russians had considered unscalable. The British initially waited to see the outcome of the French attack, then twice unsuccessfully assaulted the Russians' main position on their right. Eventually, superior British rifle fire forced the Russians to retreat. With both flanks turned, the Russian position collapsed and they fled. The lack of cavalry meant that little pursuit occurred.
The battle cost the French roughly 1,600 casualties, the British 2,000, the Egyptians 503, and the Russians some 5,000.
Background.
The allied fleet of 400 ships left the Ottoman port of Varna on 7September 1854 with no clear objective or specified landing point. The allies had been planning to capture Sevastopol in a "coup de main", but decided instead to sail to Evpatoria, which a landing party captured on 13September. Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, commander of Russian forces in the Crimea, was taken by surprise. He had not thought the allies would attack so close to the onset of winter, and had failed to mobilize sufficient troops to defend Crimea. He had only 38,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors along the southwestern coast, and 12,000 more around Kerch and Theodosia.
Allied forces reached Kalamita Bay on the western coast of the Crimea, north of Sevastopol, and started disembarking on 14September. The French disembarked first, and by nightfall, Gen. François Canrobert's 1st Division, Gen. Pierre François Bosquet's 2nd Division and Prince Napoleon's 3rd Division were ashore with their artillery. The British landing took much longer to complete compared to the French, as the infantry was landed first, when the sea was calm, but by the time the British tried to get their cavalry ashore, the wind was up and the horses struggled in the heavy surf.
The Egyptian forces sent to Alma consisted of the 3rd Brigade commanded by Major General (Amirliwa) Suleiman Pasha Al Arnauti, the 3rd Brigade was made up of the 13th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Brigadier Mustafa Bek) and 14th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Brigadier Ali Bek)
The British troops and cavalry took 5 days to disembark. Many of the men were sick with cholera and had to be carried off the boats. No facilities for moving equipment overland existed, so parties had to be sent out to steal carts and wagons from the local Tatar farms. The only food or water for the men was the three days' rations they had been given at Varna. No tents or kitbags were offloaded from the ships, so the soldiers spent their first nights without shelter, unprotected from the heavy rain or the blistering heat.
Despite the plans for a surprise attack on Sevastopol being undermined by the delays, six days later on 19September, the army finally started to head south, with its fleets supporting them. The French were on the right of the allied line near the shore, with the Turks following them, and the British were on the left further inland. The march involved crossing five rivers: the Bulganak, the Alma, Kacha, Belbek, and Chernaya. By midday, the allied army reached the Bulganak and had its first sight of the Russians when a Cossack vanguard opened fire on the 13th Light Dragoons' scouting party. As the Light Brigade prepared to charge the Cossacks, Lord Raglan sent an order for it to retreat when a large Russian infantry force was discovered in a dip in the terrain ahead. The next morning, the Allied army marched down the valley to engage the Russians, whose forces were on the other side of the river, on the Alma heights.
At the Alma, Prince Menshikov, commander-in-chief of Russian forces in the Crimea, decided to make his stand on the high ground south of the river. Although the Russian Army was numerically inferior to the combined Franco-British force (35,000 Russian troops as opposed to 60,000 Anglo-French-Egyptian troops), the heights they occupied were a natural defensive position, indeed, the last natural barrier to the allied armies on their approach to Sevastopol. Furthermore, the Russians had more than one hundred field guns on the heights they could employ with devastating effect from the elevated position; however, none were on the cliffs facing the sea, which were considered too steep for the enemy to climb.
The allies bivouacked on the northern bank of the Bulganak, next day marching the to the north bank of the Alma, where the ground sloped gently down to the river. The precipitous cliffs running along the southern bank of the river were high and continued inland from the river's mouth for almost two mi (3 km), where they met a less steep, but equally high hill known as Telegraph Hill across the river from the village of Bourliouk. To its east lay Kourgane Hill, a natural strongpoint with fields of fire covering most approaches, and the key to the whole position. Two redoubts had been constructed to protect Kourgane Hill from infantry assault; the lesser redoubt on the eastern slope and the greater redoubt on the west. The road to Sevastopol ran between Telegraph and Kourgane Hills, covered by Russian batteries located on the hills and in the narrow valley between them.
Battle.
The French attack on the Russian left-flank.
By mid-morning, the allied army was assembling on the plain, the British on the left of the Sevastopol Road, the French and the Turks on the right, stretching out towards the coast. According to the plan that the allies had agreed upon the day before, the two armies were to advance simultaneously on a broad front and try to turn the enemy's flank on the left further inland. At the final moment, Raglan decided to delay the British advance until the French had broken through on the right; the troops were ordered to lie on the ground, within range of the Russian guns, in a position from which they could scramble to the river when the time was right. They lay there from 13:15 to 14:45, losing men as the Russian gunners found their range.
While the British were holding their advance, on the far right, Gen. Pierre Bosquet's 2nd Division arrived at the river's mouth and encountered steep cliffs rising 50 m above the river. The Russians considered the cliffs so steep that they deemed it unnecessary to defend the position with artillery. Leaving their kitbags on the riverbank, the Zouaves at the division's head started to swim across the river and rapidly climbed the cliffs using the trees to scale it. Once they had reached the plateau, they hid behind rocks and bushes to engage the defending forces of the Moscow Regiment and held the position until reinforcements could arrive. Following the Zouaves, more soldiers scaled the cliffs and carried 12 guns up a ravine. They arrived just in time to meet the extra infantry and artillery that Menshikov had transferred from the center in an attempt to organize the resistance and prevent the Russian Army from being outflanked on its left.
The Russian situation became hopeless. Before a counterattack could be made, the whole of Bosquet's division and many of the Turks had reached the plateau. The Russians had more guns28 to the French 12, but the French guns were of larger caliber and longer range, and Bosquet's riflemen kept the Russian gunners at a distance where only the heavier French guns could take effect. The guns of the allied fleet also started pounding the Russian positions on the cliffs, undermining the morale of their troops. By the time the first Russian battery of artillery arrived, it found the remnants of the Moscow Regiment already in retreat. Under heavy fire from the Zouaves, the Minsk Regiment also began to retreat.
Attack at the greater redoubt.
In the meantime on Bousquet's left, Gen. Canrobert's 1st Division and to Canrobert's left Prince Napoleon's 3rd division were unable to cross the river in the face of heavy fire coming from Telegraph Hill, and their advance stalled. Prince Napoleon sent word to Gen. George de Lacy Evans, 2nd Division's commander on his left, calling on the British to advance and take some pressure off the French. Raglan was still waiting for the French attack to succeed before committing British troops, and at first told Evans not to take orders from the French, but under pressure from Evans, he relented. At 14:45, he commanded the British Light, 1st and 2nd Divisions to advance, although without further orders. The British army was arrayed in two lines; the first consisted of the Light Division on the left led by Sir George Brown and Lacy Evans' 2nd Division on the right. Behind them was a second line - the 1st Division under Duke of Cambridge, consisting of the Highland and the Guards Brigades, which were deployed to support the first line's advance. The remaining British troops were held in reserve.
The Light Division had not extended itself far enough left and advanced at an angle. Soon, the troops on the right of the Light Division and the left of the 2nd Division began merging. The strategic formation of the British line was lost. Once they had crossed the river, all order was also lost. Companies and regiments became jumbled together, and where the lines had been two men deep, now just a crowd resulted. The Russians, seeing this, began to advance down the hill from either side of the great redoubt, firing on the British below. Mounted British officers galloped round their men, urging them to reform their lines, but were unsuccessful in persuading them to move from the shelter of the riverbank. Some sat down and took out their water cans; others began to eat. Aware of the danger of the situation and unable to reorganize, Maj. Gen. William John Codrington, commander of the Light Division's 1st Brigade, ordered his troops to fix bayonets and advance.
The densely packed Codrington's Brigade started to advance uphill in a thick crowd. Without time and unable to put the soldiers in formation, the officers gave up and urged them to charge toward the Russian guns in the redoubt. As Russian artillery opened fire, the British continued scrambling upward until some of the Light Division's advanced guard tumbled over the walls of the greater redoubt. As the Russians were trying to redeploy their cannons, soldiers clambered over the parapets and through the embrasures, capturing two guns in the confusion. However, realizing their lack of reinforcements, and as the Vladimirsky Regiment poured into the redoubt from the open higher ground, British buglers sounded the withdraw order. Russian infantry charged with fixed bayonets, driving out the British and firing at them as they retreated down the hill.
Retreat and second attack.
By now, the First Division had finally crossed the river and the Russians in the greater redoubt saw approaching them the Guards' Brigade, with the Grenadiers on the right, the Scots Fusiliers in the center, and the Coldstream on the left. Out of sight on the far left was the Highland Brigade, commanded by Sir Colin Campbell. Campbell was irritated by the Guards' delay and ordered an immediate advance. A firm believer in the charge with bayonets, Campbell told his men not to fire their rifles until they were "within a yard of the Russians".
The Scots Fusiliers, by then ahead of the rest of the division, started to move uphill immediately, repeating the Light Division's mistake, which at that moment was running down from the redoubt, pursued by Russian infantry. The Light Division crashed into the advancing Scots Fusiliers with such force that the line was broken in many places. The Scots faltered, but emerged on the other side with only half their numbers and continued towards the great redoubt in a chaotic state. When they were from the redoubt, the Russians mounted a massive volley. The Scots Fusiliers were forced to retreat, stopping only when they reached the river; they remained in the riverbank shelter for the rest of the battle, ignoring repeated orders to advance.
The two other guards' regiments filled the gap left by the Scots Fusiliers, but refused orders to charge with bayonets up the hill. Instead, the Grenadiers and the Coldstream formed into lines and started firing Minié volleys into the Russian advance parties. This stopped the Russians, and the Grenadiers and the Coldstream were soon able to close the gap between them; the Russians were again forced back into the redoubt.
Final stage.
Without entrenchments to protect its infantry and artillery, the Russian Army was unable to defend its position on the heights against the deadly Minié rifles. Soon, the fire of the Guards was joined by the 2nd Division under Evans, on the British right. Its 30th Regiment could clearly see the gunners of three Russian batteries from the riverbank and take them out with their Minié rifles before they could redeploy the guns. As the Russian infantry and artillery withdrew, the British slowly advanced uphill. By 16:00, the allies were converging on the Russian positions from all directions, with the Guards on the left overcoming the last Russian reserves on the Kurgan Hill, Codrington's men and the other Guards closing in on the great redoubt, and the 2nd Division pushing up the Sevastopol Road. With the French in command of the cliffs above the Alma, the battle clearly had been decided.
The Russians fled in all directions, running down into the valley and away from the enemy. Mounted officers tried in vain to stop the panicked flight, but the men had decided they had had enough. Most of the Russian soldiers retreated towards the Kacha River in small groups, without officers or any clear idea of what to do or where to go. Many were not be reunited with their regiments for several days. At the top of Telegraph Hill, the French captured the abandoned carriage of Menshikov. In it they found a field kitchen, letters from the Tsar, 50,000 francs, pornographic French novels, the general's boots, and some ladies' underwear. On the hill were abandoned picnics, parasols and field glasses, left behind by the spectators from Sevastopol.
Aftermath.
The battle cost the French 1,600 casualties, the British 2,000, the Egyptians 503, and the Russians some 5,000. The British took two days to clear the battlefield of their wounded. Without any medical supplies, they had to requisition the commissariat carts to remove the wounded from the battlefield. As the Russian army had to abandon its wounded on the battlefield, many of the injured limped back to Sevastopol over the course of the next days. Some 1600 wounded had to wait several days before they could sail to the Scutari hospital in Constantinople. The allied commanders had no idea of the heavy losses on the Russian side. The necessity of collecting equipment scattered though the battlefield delayed the pursuit, and the lack of cavalry ruled out any possibility of an immediate chase of the Russians.
The French commemorated the battle with the naming of the Pont de l'Alma in Paris. The British gave the name Alma to a small settlement in North Otago and to a river in Marlborough (both in New Zealand). In the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, The Parish of Alma was created surrounding the Village of Alma in 1856, commemorating the then-recent Battle of Alma. Alma, Nova Scotia, Alma, Ontario and Alma, Quebec are named after the battle.


Penhow Castle

Penhow Castle, Penhow, Newport dates from the early 12th century. Extended and reconstructed in almost every century since, it has been claimed to be the oldest continuously-inhabited castle in Wales. The castle is a Grade II* listed building.
History.
The manor of Penhow was held by Caradog ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwent at the time of the Norman invasion of Wales. The estate was seized by the Seymour family (anciently "de St. Maur") and by 1129, Sir Roger de St Maur had built a fortified manor at the site. The house was extended and further fortified in the 15th and 17th centuries. In the 16th century the manor passed to the Somersets. In 1674, it was purchased by the Lewis family of St Pierre. Viscount Rhondda, an industrialist and conservator of ancient buildings in Wales, bought the castle in 1914. By the mid-20th century, the castle was in a state of some dilapidation, until bought and restored by the film director Stephen Weeks. During his tenure the castle was open to the public, while also serving as Weeks’ residence. In 2002 it was sold and reverted to a private home. Penhow is frequently claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Wales.
Architecture and description.
The architectural historian John Newman, in his "Gwent/Monmouthshire" Pevsner, describes Penhow as "small and [un]convincingly defensive". It is constructed of local Old red sandstone rubble. The oldest portion of the castle is the west tower, which dates from the time of the Seymours. The two-storeyed hall range is later, of the 14th-15th centuries. Further large-scale remodelling took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the castle was refashioned as a comfortable country house. The Cadw listing records notes the "exceptionally fine Restoration period interiors”. The castle is listed Grade II*.
Two ranges of ancillary buildings contain some important agricultural structures, each with their own listings; the grouping immediately to the south-west of the castle includes a barn and a byre. The grouping farther from the castle to the south includes another barn, a further byre and a stable block.


Richard Oldham (bishop)

Richard Oldham (died 1485/86) was a pre-Reformation cleric who served as the Bishop of Sodor and Man in the second half of the 15th century.
He was elected Abbot of Chester in 1455 and appointed Bishop of Sodor and Man on 11 or 15 February 1478, holding both posts until his death. Contemporary records reveal some acrimony between Oldham and the townsfolk of Chester. In 1474 and 1478, the Exchequer of Chester guaranteed his safety and that of his monks, and in a later turnaround of events in 1480 he and twelve fellow monks were themselves bound over to keep the peace in the city.
He died in office either on 13 October 1485 or 19 September 1486 and was buried at Chester Abbey.
References.


Radom Confederation

Radom Confederation (, ) was a konfederacja of nobility ("szlachta") in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth formed in Radom on 23 June 1767 to prevent reforms and defend the "Golden Liberties". It was formed by Russian envoy to Poland Nicholas Repnin and backed by the Russian Imperial Army as a response of Catholic nobility to the earlier Protestant confederations of Slutzk and Toruń, approximately 74,000 nobles declared their support for Radom Confederation.
The marshal of the confederation was Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł, another leader was the primate of Poland, Gabriel Podoski, but in fact the real leader was Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin, who was also responsible for forming the Protestant and Orthodox confederations. On his insistence the Confederates had to make peace with Polish king, pro-Russian Stanisław August Poniatowski, and send an envoy to the Russian tsarina, Catherine the Great, asking her to protect the freedoms of the Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth). He stirred the internat unrest in Poland in order to increase Russian control over Poland. After the 1767 Repnin Sejm, where Repnin "de facto" dictated the legislation (Cardinal Laws) the Polish parliament (Sejm), Russian control over Poland became much stronger.


2004 Jersey by-elections

Senatorial by-election.
A by-election for Senator was held in 2004.
Results.
Candidate (1 Elected)


John Hobson Matthews

John Hobson Matthews (1858-1914) was a Roman Catholic Historian, Archivist and Solicitor.
He was born in Croydon to Emma Hobson from Great Grimsby and his father from St. Ives. He attended schools in Blackheath and Cambridge and worked in Malta for a short period with a shipping firm. Matthews joined the Roman Catholic church in 1877 and became a solicitor in 1889, subsequently working in Cardiff. As a keen linguist, he edited "Emynau Catholig" (English: 'Catholic Hymns'), translated "Ffordd y Groes" ('The way of the cross') and joined the Welsh Bardic Gorsedd. Matthews also edited the "Cardiff Records, being materials for a history of the County Borough from the earliest times" (1898-1911) and wrote a report on the Monmouthshire County Council records in 1905. He was involved in the transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists Society and, more significantly, the Catholic Record Society, being among the original members of this society.
Matthews understood Maltese, Cornish, Irish and Welsh. He married Alice Mary Gwyn-Hughes in 1892, who bore him four sons and two daughters.
He died on 30 January 1914 in Ealing.
Other Notable Works.
"A History of the parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towednack, and Zennor" (London, 1892) - published by Matthews
Martin Cock's "Guide to St. Ives" (St. Ives, 1906) - Edited by Mathews
"Yr Hen grefydd a'r grefydd newydd. Sef dadl … am yr Eglwys Gatholig … Wedi ei gyfieithu i'r Gymraeg gan … J. H. Jones" (Cardiff, 1889) - Prepared by Matthews
"The Life and Memorials of Saint Teilo" (Preston, 1893) - Prepared by Matthews
"The Vaughans of Courtfield: a study in Welsh genealogy" (London, 1912) - based on Matthews' findings


Battle of Adamclisi

The Battle of Adamclisi was a major battle in the Dacian Wars, fought in the winter of 101 to 102 between the Roman Empire and the Dacians near Adamclisi, in modern Romania.
Background.
After the victory of Second Battle of Tapae, Emperor Trajan decided to wait until spring to continue his offensive on Sarmizegetusa, the capital of Dacia. The Dacian king Decebalus benefited from this, and made out a plan along with the neighboring allied tribes of the Roxolans and Bastarnae, to attack south of the Danube, in the Roman province of Moesia, in an attempt to force the Romans to leave their positions in the mountains near Sarmizegetusa.
The battle.
The Dacian army, together with the Roxolani and the Bastarnae, crossed the frozen Danube but, because the weather was not cold enough, the ice broke under their weight, causing many to die in the frozen water.
Trajan moved his army from the mountains, following the Dacians into Moesia. A first battle was fought at night somewhere near the town of Nicopolis, a battle with few casualties on either side and with no crucial result. However, as the Romans received reinforcements, they were able to corner the Dacio-Sarmatian army.
The decisive battle was fought at Adamclisi, a difficult battle for both the Dacians and the Romans. Even though the outcome of the battle was a decisive Roman victory, both sides suffered very heavy casualties.
Aftermath.
After the battle, Trajan advanced to Sarmizegetusa, Decebalus requesting a truce. Trajan agreed to the peace offerings. This time the peace was favorable to the Roman Empire: Decebalus must yield the territories occupied by the Roman army, and he must give back to the Romans all the weapons and war machines received after 89, when the Romans under Domitian were forced to pay an annual gift to the Dacians.
Decebalus was obliged to reconsider his foreign policies, and “to have friends and enemies the friends and enemies of the Roman Empire”, as described by Dio Cassius.
After the conquest of Dacia following the 105-106 war, Trajan built the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamclisi in 109, in memory of the battle. On the Tropaeum Traiani monument was a frieze comprising 54 metopes.


Edinburgh Skating Club

The Edinburgh Skating Club is recognized as the first organized figure skating club. While some sources claim the club was established in 1642, most sources accept 1742 or 1744 as the date of its founding. The next-oldest skating club, in London, was not founded until 1830.
The claim to the 1642 founding date appears to derive from a small book published by the club council in 1865, "The Edinburgh Skating-Club with Diagrams of Figures and a List of the Members". As of that writing, the club's oldest extant records were dated January 1778, and the reference to 1642 appeared only in club records from long after that period.
There was an early contemporary reference to the Club in the second edition (1783) of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" that supports the 1742 or 1744 founding date:
From this description and others, it is apparent that the form of skating practiced by club members was indeed an early form of figure skating rather than speed skating. For admission to the club, candidates had to pass a skating test where they performed a complete circle on either foot (e.g., a figure eight), and then jumped over first one hat, then two and three, placed over each other on the ice.
The favorite meeting place of club members was Duddingston Loch, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The principal object of the club was the practice of a form of choreographed group skating. The club also held an annual dinner where the standard dish served was "sheeps-heads and trotters", perhaps in deference to the local Sheep Heid Inn in Duddingston.
Today the club is best known for its association with the painting The Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn, more formally titled "The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch".


Friedericke Buchegger

Friedericke Buchegger is an Austrian Righteous Among the Nations.
She was deeply involved in the rescue of the Czech Jew Walter Posiles and his brothers Hans and Ludwig shortly before they were deported to the concentration camp Theresienstadt.
Walter Posiles and the Viennese woman Edeltrud Becher had been reported because of miscegenation. Because of her connections to a member of the Vienna police, Friedericke Buchegger was able to obtain the destruction of the incriminating record. Nevertheless, the brothers had to stay underground.
In 1942, Friedericke took Walter's brother Ludwig in and hid him. In August 1942, Walter suffered greatly from pneumonia and pleurisy. Friedericke found the medical practitioner Dr. Ernst Pick, who was inclined to treat the critically ill Walter without sending him to hospital.


Free State of Coburg

The Free State of Coburg (German: "Freistaat Coburg") emerged from the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the end of the First World War. It existed from November 1918 until its union with the Free State of Bavaria on 1 July 1920.
History.
With the abdication of the reigning duke, Charles Edward, on 14 November 1918, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ended in the wake of the November Revolution. It split into two Free States – , from the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha in the north, and Coburg, from the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in the south. Both states kept their own diets and ministers, which they had inherited from the former monarchy. On 9 February 1919, elections were held for the eleven seats in the State Assembly of Coburg. The List I of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) received 58.6 percent, while the List II for the National Liberal Party, German Democratic Party (DDP) and the Coburger Farmers Party earned 41.4 percent. That meant the SPD would have seven seats, leaving the remaining four to the others. The President of the State Assembly would be a Social Democratic, Erhard Kirchner. The State Assembly passed on 10 March 1919 the "Temporary Law of the Legislation and Administration of the Free State of Coburg" ["Vorläufiges Gesetz über die Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung im Freistaate Coburg"], the Provisional Constitution of Coburg. The government would be run by the three-member State Council, consisting of Hermann Quarck (National Liberal, previously the leader of the Ministerial Cabinet of Coburg) as the Chairman and two SPD deputies, Franz Klingler and Reinhold Artmann. The separation of the two parts of the former Duchy was finally complete on 12 April 1919, when a state treaty covering the management of the common administration of the Free States of Coburg and Gotha was signed.
On 7 June 1919 Duke Charles Edward finalized the settlement with the Free State of Coburg over his properties and compensation. He received 1.5 million Marks as his compensation for his following properties – approximately 4,500 hectares (11,120 acres) of forests, numerous buildings and individual properties as well as the art treasures of the Veste Coburg, the Veste's courtyard garden museum, his personal library, the Ducal Theater, Schloss Rosenau and its estate, the Veste Coburg, the Schloss Ehrenburg, and the State Archives of Coburg. The art treasures of the Veste, the collections of the courtyard museums and the furnishing of Schloss Ehrenburg would be the property of the "Coburger Landesstiftung" (Coburg State Foundation), while the rest would go to the Free State. Schloss Callenberg, with its estate and gardens, Schloss Eichhof, and the "Schweizerei" Rosenau all remained the property of the duke with the total area of 533 hectares (1,317 acres).
The National Liberal Quarck, according to the Constitution of 10 March 1919, held the most senior position in the government and administration. He was both the Chairman of the State Government and the Head of the Department of State. After the SPD fraction, which had the majority in the State Assembly, named Reinhold Artmann to represent Coburg in the State Council of Thuringia (Board of Directors for the Law Enforcement), he rejoined Quarck in their offices on 2 July 1919. This was followed on 11 July 1919 by a constitutional amendment that abolished the personal union of the State Council and Assembly. Franz Klingler was then named as the new Chairman of the State Government and Hans Schack (DDP) became the newest member of the State Council of Coburg. The leadership of the Ministry was given to Ernst Fritsch, an administrative lawyer, with the official title of Secretary.
Since the political leaders did not consider the new Free State as economically viable, they sought a union with another state. It was therefore assumed in March and May 1919 that the conferences with other Thuringian states would create the state of Thuringia but, ultimately, they did not result in an agreement that would please all the sides. Along with these conferences, official negotiations for a possible merger began with Bavaria in the middle of June and with Prussia one month later. However, Prussia had already declined the proposed union as early as August. But Bavaria was receptive to the merger. Unlike the State of Thuringia, it was able to make many concessions, especially on the matter of the preservation of the cultural institutions of Coburg.
On 30 November 1919, the first democratic referendum in Germany was finally held to determine the future of the Coburger Land. With a turnout of about 70%, 88% of the population voted on the question, “"Soll Coburg dem Gemeinschaftsvertrag der thüringischen Staaten beitreten?" [Should Coburg join the Communal Treaty of the Thuringian States]?” with a No on the ballot and therefore for the merger with Bavaria. The reasons for this clear-cut result were manifold. On the one hand, the people had always seen themselves more strongly associated with Franconia than with Thuringia. On the other hand, they were influenced by the fact that, during the First World War, food had to be sent to Thuringia, as well as by their significantly stronger accommodation with the views of Bavaria.
With a new state treaty signed on 14 February 1920, the union of Coburg with Bavaria was set. In it, Coburg was given financial guarantees for its State Foundation, its agricultural and forestry trade associations, its Chamber of Commerce, from which the Chamber of Trades section became the new Chamber of Trades, the State Hospital and the "Landestheater Coburg". In addition, Coburg received as its compensation for the loss of the State Ministry the commitment for a new regional court of law. The Free State of Bavaria was, therefore, committing itself to undertake the maximum of 40% of the deficit of the "Landestheater Coburg" and 75% of the State Hospital.
Therefore, with the union of the Free States of Coburg and Bavaria on 1 July 1920, almost 600 years of political autonomy of the "Coburger Land" came to an end. According to the State Treaty, the Free State of Coburg would be assigned to the ("Kreis", now "Regierungsbezirk" [administrative district] of Upper Franconia ("Oberfranken"). The district of Königsberg with the town of Königsberg, as well as the communities of Altershausen, Dörflis, Erlsdorf, Hellingen, Kottenbrunn and Nassach, were sent to the district ("Bezirk", now "Landkreis") of Hofheim in Lower Franconia ("Unterfranken").
The Referendum of 1919 and the subsequent union with Bavaria had unexpected consequences in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. The territory of the former Free State of Coburg now became a part of the American Occupation Zone of Germany, while the Thuringian side stayed in the Soviet Occupation Zone and later East Germany until 1990.
Politics.
State Government.
In office from 10 March 1919 to 1 July 1920
Deputies of the State Assembly.
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP):
Other Parties and Independents:


Berthold I, Count of Tyrol

Berthold I (died 7 March 1180) was Count of Tyrol from about 1165 until his death.
He was a younger son of Count Albert II and his wife, Adelaide of Diessen-Andechs. The Tyrolean counts were able to strengthen their autonomy from Bavaria after the Welf duke Henry the Proud was deposed by King Conrad III of Germany in 1139. About 1165, Berthold succeeded his elder brother Albert III as sole Count of Tyrol.
Berthold I was married to his cousin Agnes (1149–1207), a daughter of Count Otto I of Ortenburg, who was himself a son of Count Albert I of Tyrol. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his sons Berthold II and Henry


La Seigneurie

La Seigneurie is the traditional residence of the Seigneur of Sark. The Seigneur is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands.
Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark, and his wife, Diana, moved from the Seigneurie to a smaller cottage on their estate when frail health triggered a need for a smaller residence that was better suited to aging residents. In 2009, Michael Beaumont agreed to allow David Synnott and his wife to live in the Seigneurie for ten years, in return for making some renovations.
Michael Beaumont died on 3 July 2016 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Major Christopher Beaumont.
Both the House and the gardens of the Seigneurie open to the public, as of 2018.


Master of the Stewards

The master of the stewards or master of the table (, , and ) was one of the high officials of the royal household in the Kingdom of Hungary. Masters of the steward were included among the "true barons" of the realm from around 1220.


Idariz


Heimburg

Heimburg is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Blankenburg am Harz.
On a hilltop above the village are the ruins of the old Heimburg Castle which, today, is a good viewing point. Heimburg also lies at the foot of the Ziegenberge, a chain of small hills that have been designated as a nature reserve and run as far as Benzingerode. There are good views from the crest over the Harz Foreland.


Berg Castle

Berg Castle (, ; ; ), also called Colmar-Berg, is the principal residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. It is situated in the town of Colmar-Berg, in central Luxembourg, near the confluence of the Alzette and the Attert, two of Luxembourg's most important rivers.
History.
The estate at Colmar-Berg first came into the possession of the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg in 1845. The Belgian Revolution had divided Luxembourg from the Netherlands, and also into two, undermining Dutch control of the fortress of Luxembourg City. Grand Duke William II sought to establish a suitable Grand Ducal residence in Luxembourg, hoping that a division of his time between The Hague and Luxembourg would placate the local, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, population. To this end, the Grand Duke bought Berg Castle from the Pasquier estate. In 1848, it was recognised as the exclusive home of the Grand Duke by the newly promulgated constitution.
In 1890, the Royal house of the Netherlands and the Grand Ducal house of Luxembourg diverged, and the new Grand Duke, Adolphe, purchased Berg Castle the following year, in order to maintain the Grand Ducal estate at Colmar-Berg. In 1906, William IV had the old castle demolished and a new one constructed in its place, designed by the Munich-based architect Max Ostenrieder and the local . Work on the new castle began in 1907, and was completed on the 9th of september 1911, after which it became the primary residence of the Grand Ducal family.
During the Great Depression, the Grand Ducal family fell upon hard times. Grand Duchess Charlotte sought an agreement with the government of Luxembourg under which the Grand Duchy might divest personal properties to the government, which would then allow the Grand Ducal family to use them as official residences. In 1934, such an arrangement was reached on Berg Castle, with the castle changing hands (along with much of the Grünewald forest). The two properties changed hands for 40m francs, of which 20m francs were denoted for the castle; this was viewed by the government as an undervaluation (as was the price of the Grünewald), as they had assessed the castle as being worth 22m francs. Berg is now one of two properties covered by similar agreements (the other being the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg City). The right of Grand Dukes to reside at these two residences is enshrined in Article 44 of the Constitution of Luxembourg.
During the Second World War, the castle was occupied by Nazi Germany. During this period, the most valuable works of art were stolen from the castle, and the building itself underwent major alterations to suit the Nazis' purpose of re-educating local girls. After the war, the restoration of the castle took several years, and it was only re-occupied by the Grand Ducal family in 1964, when Grand Duke Jean acceded to the throne. Until then, the Grand Duchess resided in Fischbach Castle, although this was mostly out of preference, rather than necessity.
Births.
Three of the past four monarchs of Luxembourg were born at Berg Castle:
The current Grand Duke, Henri, was born at Betzdorf Castle, in eastern Luxembourg.


GeSoLei

The GeSoLei () was the largest trade fair in Germany during the Weimar Republic. It attracted 7.5 million visitors. The name was constructed from an abbreviation of abbreviations of the German words for public health (Ge), social welfare (So), physical exercise (Lei).
Surviving features of the event include the Tonhalle which at the time of its completion was the largest planetarium in the world, built by Wilhelm Kreis


Marshal of Nobility (Estonia)

In the provinces of Estonia and Livonia of the Russian Empire, the title of the senior official was (Provincial) Marshal of Nobility () during 1783-1796, when regency for the provinces of Estonia and Livonia was introduced. Subsequently, Russian emperor Paul I restored the previous administrative organization for Estonia and Livonia.


Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe in the United Kingdom

After Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933 and enacted policies that would culminate in the Holocaust, Jews began to escape German-occupied Europe and the United Kingdom was one of the destinations. Some came on transit visas, which meant that they stayed in Britain temporarily, while waiting to be accepted by another country. Others entered the country by having obtained employment or a guarantor, or via Kindertransport. There were about 70,000 Jewish refugees who were accepted into Britain by the start of World War II on 1 September 1939, and an additional 10,000 people who made it to Britain during the war.
Background.
Hitler came into power in Germany in 1933, when there were about 523,000 German Jews or less than 1% of the country's population. Subject to threats and persecution, Jews began to emigrate from that point until the start of World War II. There were more than 117,000 Jews who left Austria and more than 300,000 who left Germany by the end of 1939. Most of them were trained in a field or college educated. Generally they were young. Key decision-making factors about whether Jews would emigrate were whether they owned businesses, which were subject to Nazi-sponsored boycotts; if they were among the civil servants who had lost their jobs; and the degree to which they were politically active.
Initially, Germany encouraged Jews to leave, then they restricted the amount of money they could take from German banks and imposed high emigrations taxes. The German government forbade emigration after October 1941. The German Jews who remained, about 163,000 in Germany and less than 57,000 from annexed Austria, were mostly elderly who were murdered in ghettos or taken to Nazi concentration camps, where most of them were killed. Although Jews could easily leave Germany initially, it was difficult to find countries in which they could live, particularly after accepting the initial wave of immigrants in Europe, Britain, and the United States.
Immigration policy.
Britain established the Aliens Act 1905 as a means of immigration control; it restricted the immigration of the poor, and Jews from eastern Europe. There was a steady decrease in alien admissions, partly because Jews chose other countries, like the United States: in addition, the law had the effect of deterring would-be immigrants. The Aliens Restriction Act 1914 allowed for deportation and had stricter immigration provisions.
Even more stringent, Great Britain's immigration laws of 1919 did not address or differentiate treatment based upon the circumstances of people who wished to immigrate to Britain. This meant that thousands of refugees fleeing Europe after Hitler assumed power were accepted under its tradition as a safe haven, but only temporarily. For instance, thousands of men came to Britain with transit visas, and stayed there while seeking acceptance from other countries. If it was clear that the person seeking entry was a visitor, they were generally limited to a one-month stay.
About 1937, as the rate of people looking to immigrate to Britain increased, the British government made stricter standards for those whom they would admit. One was that the refugees had to have £50 () deposited in an overseas bank, but in Germany it was against the law to have foreign currency. This requirement could be waived, depending on the individual's training or education.
Otto Schiff, the director of the newly formed Jewish Refugee Committee, and Leonard Montefiore and Neville Laski, chairmen of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, met with officials of the British government in April 1933 to develop a plan that would allow for the country to take in refugees. The Jewish community said that they would provide assistance to Jewish refugees and thus provided housing, education and job training, and money to thousands of people by the end of 1939, thereby eliminating any financial burden from the government to support the newcomers.
The government limited the number of immigrants in 1938 and 1939. For instance, after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany ("Anschluss", 12 March 1938), the British government restricted the number of Austrian Jews who could enter Britain through strictly controlled visas.
Realising a plan was needed to manage the large number of emigrants from Nazi Europe, 32 countries met in France at the Évian Conference (July 1938), but almost all of them would not loosen their immigration restrictions to take in more refugees.
Britain eased its policy for refugees after 9 November 1938, the German "Kristallnacht" (the Night of Broken Glass), although the numbers were limited. On that night, Jewish establishments in Germany and Austria were vandalised during protests, resulting in broken windows, damaged businesses, burned synagogues, many Jews were arrested and placed in concentration camps, and at least 31 Jews were murdered. By September 1939, 70,000 (another reference states "more than 80,000") Jewish refugees were accepted in Britain. Most of the people settled in North West London.
There were more than 500,000 case files, though, of Jews who were not admitted according to British Jewish associations. Louise London, author of "Whitehall And The Jews, 1933–1948", stated that "The (British immigration) process ... was designed to keep out large numbers of European Jews – perhaps 10 times as many as it let in."
When World War II was declared (1 September 1939), Britain no longer allowed immigration from Nazi-controlled countries. There were also no plans to manage the refugee crisis as the result of the Bermuda Conference of the Allies in April 1943, by which time it was known that the Nazi regime intended to exterminate all of the Jews in Europe (the plan known as the Final Solution). There were 10,000 Jewish refugees who "managed to find their way into Britain" throughout the war (1939–1945).
Britain did not allow Jews to immigrate to Palestine, which was under British control at that time. Even so, there were some Jews who illegally immigrated (Aliyah Bet) to Palestine.
Means of immigration.
Guarantees.
The Government created a scheme whereby a Guarantor bought a Guarantee for £50 to ensure the person for whom the guarantee was given would not become a financial burden for the British Government. This was a practice of the Jewish community to help Jews escape and Quakers saved an estimated 6,000 Jews with guarantees.
Self-supporting.
A guarantor was not needed if an individual was self-supporting, either because they were wealthy or because they had made arrangements for employment. There were certain categories of employment where there existed a known shortage of workers such as nursing, domestic help and butlers.
Kindertransport.
Following "Kristallnacht" in November 1938, Jewish and Quaker community leaders met with the British government to explore ways in which children could be saved from the actions of the Nazi regime. The British government allowed for the immigration without visas of Jewish children, but without their parents, through the Children's Transport program called Kindertransport. Between December 1938 and the start of World War II on Sept 1, 1939 when the program was forced to end, nearly 10,000 Kindertransport children had been rescued. and had arrived in England.
Because it was not safe for Jews to travel to Germany, six volunteers from the Friends Service Council traveled to Berlin. The gathering of the children, paperwork, and travel plans were coordinated between Quakers in Vienna and Berlin and Jewish organizations. Their care and travel was also coordinated in Britain by the group Movement for the Care of Children. Then, the children were placed in boarding schools, including Quaker schools, often due to scholarships offered by the schools; in foster homes; or in hostels.
Kitchener Camp.
Organised by the precursor of World Jewish Relief, around 4,000 mainly Austrian and German adult Jewish men received an arranged passage and were accepted for accommodation in the Kitchener Camp in Kent during 1939, on condition they would not be granted UK citizenship or work, and must emigrate to the US, Australia and elsewhere. At the start of the war, 887 volunteered for the Pioneer Corps. After the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940, public opinion turned against German-speaking refugees, who some suspected of being spies or saboteurs. Those not serving in the war effort were interned or deported to Australia and Canada and the camp was closed.
Assimilation.
It was difficult for Jewish refugees to find work, regardless of their education, except as domestic workers. This also meant that Jewish refugees who were physicians often could not find practice in medicine, even though there was a shortage of health care providers. Some of the concern was economic. During a period of high unemployment, many were concerned about losing job opportunities due to the influx of refugees. Many trades unions, such as the shoe and bootmakers, "cited the unemployment of their own members as the reason they opposed a loosening of immigration controls". Yet other unions, such as the National Union of Agricultural Workers, with similar numbers of unemployed union members, argued for an increase in the number of work permits.
Legislation was enacted in the 1930s which mandated that no more than 5% of the total students in any particular school were Jewish, limiting the rate at which Jewish children could be admitted to state schools. The press, which was generally not supportive of refugees, incorrectly reported that there were more Jews in Britain than had been in Germany in the summer of 1938. Kushner and Katharine Knox state in their book "Refugees In An Age Of Genocide", "Of all the groups in the 20th century, refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine', but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy."
Resources.
Bloomsbury House in London was a resource for the immigrants. Located there were Jewish organizations, like the Central British Fund for German Jewry and the Jewish Refugees Committee, and other organizations that supported Jewish refugees, who not only needed housing, schools for children, and other means of logistical support, but were also coping with the emotional and psychological issues of being a refugee.
In the late 1930s, there were about 20,000 Quakers and it is believed that nearly every one of them contributed in some way to easing the plight of the Jewish refugees. The Society of Friends offered assistance across Britain by supporting children at Quaker schools and boarding schools, by running agricultural training programs that included room and board, by assisting with job search efforts, and by running free or subsidised hostels. Besides making donations, members fostered children, served on their local refugee committees, and helped at local hostels. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1947 jointly to American and British Quakers for their role in assisting Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.
Mitigating the threat of German espionage.
With the beginning of the war, the British government preferred to avoid internment (but see section below), and needed to weigh the risk of the danger posed by foreigners that wished to harm the empire. The Secretary of State for the Home
Department, Sir John Anderson, developed plans for dealing with the threat, informed by the processes used during World War I. About 2,000 German refugees returned to Germany after the British issued a general request for the foreigners to return to their native country. There were repercussions for people who had lied to get passports or who had entered the country illegally. In accordance with the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939, the government initiated policies to control immigrants from hostile countries, including mandatory weekly check-ins with the police, requiring permits to travel more than five miles from their homes, and orders to give up maps, cameras, firearms, and bicycles. At first, these restrictions applied to males between 16 and 60, but were later extended to women, people over 60, and some children. It was common for refugees to be fined or imprisoned over these policies.
Internment.
Italians, Germans and Austrians, including Jewish refugees, were called "enemy aliens" and interned after mid-1940, when Northern and Western European countries were captured by Germany. There was fear that anyone with a German accent could be a spy. Jewish refugees were put into internment camps with other German and Austrian people, including those who were Nazi sympathizers. People were put into groups (A, B, C) by tribunals depending upon how dangerous that they might be (Class A was for the most dangerous and Class C was the least dangerous) and thus determined how long that they might be held and where they were located. The tribunals were initially most concerned about men, but by June 1940 they had become stricter about the guidelines for who would avoid internment.
Some Jews, about 8,000 people, were deported to Australia (such as on the HMT "Dunera") and Canada. Of those, not all of them made it to their destination, as they were killed while aboard ships, like the SS "Arandora Star", that were struck by German torpedoes.
There were about 30,000 Jewish refugees held in Britain in internment camps on the Isle of Man and in locations throughout England and Scotland. Later in the war, when there was no longer a threat of invasion, internees were released. Some of the people deported to Canada and Australia were allowed to return to Britain.
War service.
Several "Aliens Companies" were established in the Royal Pioneer Corps for refugees. There were also male and female refugees that served in other branches of the military, including German-speaking commando units. Serving in the military was especially dangerous because, in case of being taken captive, there was a high probability of being executed as a traitor by the Germans. Still, the number of German-born Jews joining the British forces was exceptionally high; by the end of the war, one in seven Jewish refugees (10,000 people) from Germany had volunteered to serve the British forces. Their knowledge of the German language and customs proved particularly useful. Refugees served with distinction and some died during the war.
There were also civilian positions, such as positions in civil defence and in munitions factories, that were performed by refugees. This was a difficult times for families that were separated due to the war and internment. In June 1941, the Association of Jewish Refugees was founded to provide such support.
After the war.
Accepted refugees.
Many refugees served in the administration of the British occupation army in Germany and Austria after the war.
With the war over, few of the refugees settled into British life, particularly in North West London; had families; became nationalized; and took British names. Venues for meeting with other refugees included the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) club, Cosmo Restaurant, the Dorice, and Club 1943. Organizations like the Leo Baeck Institute, Freud Museum, and Wiener Library were founded and became part of British culture.
Many people established successful careers in publishing, medicine, science, psychoanalysis, and other occupations. Notable scientists include Max Perutz, Rudolf Peierls, Francis Simon, Ernst Boris Chain, and Hans Adolf Krebs. Intellectuals include art historians Nikolaus Pevsner and Ernst Gombrich, sociologists Norbert Elias and Karl Mannheim, and philosophers Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Former refugees influenced the music scene, with the emergence of the Amadeus Quartet and Edinburgh Festival. Noted individuals of the arts include singer Richard Tauber, actor Anton Walbrook, and painter Lucian Freud. Writers who made their mark include Elias Canetti and Arthur Koestler.
In the 1950s, West Germany began to make restitution payments to the refugees.
Displaced persons.
Concerned about provoking anti-semitism, there was a decision by the cabinet not to allow Jewish Holocaust survivors to immigrate, but there was a large number of other refugees immediately following the end of the war.
There was little legal immigration to Palestine, but between 1945 and 1948 there were thousands of displaced Jewish people who attempted to enter illegally. Those who were caught were interned in detention camps in Cyprus.
British Mandate authorities gave up control of the Palestine region after Jews rebelled against policies that continued to prevent immigration by refugees or Holocaust survivors. In 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The State of Israel was created in May 1948 and many Jews then in immigrated into the new country.


Frydman

Frydman (, , , ) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łapsze Niżne, within Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately north of Łapsze Niżne, east of Nowy Targ, and south of the regional capital Kraków.
The village has a population of 1,600.
It is one of the 14 villages in the Polish part of the historical region of Spiš (Polish: "Spisz"). It was first mentioned in a written document in 1320 ("terram Fridmanvagasa").


Albion

Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: "Alba" in Scottish Gaelic, "Albain" (genitive "Alban") in Irish, "Nalbin" in Manx and "Alban" in Welsh and Cornish. These names were later Latinised as "Albania" and Anglicised as "Albany", which were once alternative names for Scotland.
"New Albion" and "Albionoria" ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation. Arthur Phillip, first leader of the colonisation of Australia, originally named Sydney Cove "New Albion", but later the colony acquired the name "Sydney". Sir Francis Drake gave the name New Albion to what is now California when he landed there in 1579.
Etymology.
The Common Brittonic name for the island, Hellenised as "Albíōn" () and Latinised as (genitive ), derives from the Proto-Celtic nasal stem * (oblique *) and survived in Old Irish as (genitive ). The name originally referred to Britain as a whole, but was later restricted to Caledonia (giving the modern Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland: ). The root "*albiyo-" is also found in Gaulish and Galatian 'world' and Welsh (Old Welsh 'earth, world, land, country, district'). It may be related to other European and Mediterranean toponyms such as "Alpes", "Albania" or the river god Alpheus (originally 'whitish'). It has two possible etymologies: either from the Proto-Indo-European word *"" 'white' (cf. Ancient Greek , Latin  ), or from *"alb-" 'hill'. The derivation from a word for 'white' is thought to be perhaps in reference to the white southern shores of the island – visible from mainland Europe and a landmark at the narrowest crossing point –, though Celtic linguist Xavier Delamarre argued that it originally meant 'the world above, the visible world', in opposition to 'the world below', i.e. the underworld.
Attestation.
Judging from Avienus' "Ora Maritima", for which it is considered to have served as a source, the "Massaliote Periplus" (originally written in the 6th century BC, translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century AD), does not use the name "Britannia"; instead it speaks of "nēsos Iernōn kai Albiōnōn" "the islands of the Iernians and the Albiones". Likewise, Pytheas (c. 320 BC), as directly or indirectly quoted in the surviving excerpts of his works in later writers, speaks of "Albiōn and Iernē" (Britain and Ireland). Pytheas's grasp of the ("nēsos Prettanikē", "Prettanic island") is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, including "Thule".
The name "Albion" was used by Isidore of Charax (1st century BC – 1st century AD) and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain. But this "enigmatic name for Britain, revived much later by Romantic poets like William Blake, did not remain popular among Greek writers. It was soon replaced by ("Prettanía") and ("Brettanía" 'Britain'), ("Brettanós" 'Briton'), and ("Brettanikós", meaning the adjective British). From these words the Romans derived the Latin forms Britannia, Britannus, and Britannicus respectively".
The Pseudo-Aristotelian text "On the Universe" (393b) has:
Pliny the Elder, in his "Natural History" (4.16.102) likewise has:
In his 2nd century "Geography", Ptolemy uses the name ("Alouiōn", "Albion") instead of the Roman name "Britannia", possibly following the commentaries of Marinus of Tyre. He calls both Albion and Ierne νῆσοι Βρεττανικαὶ ("nēsoi Brettanikai", "British Isles").
In 930, the English king Æthelstan used the title "Rex et primicerius totius Albionis regni" ("King and chief of the whole realm of Albion"). His nephew, Edgar the Peaceful, styled himself "Totius Albionis imperator augustus" "Augustus Emperor of all Albion" in 970.
The giants of Albion.
A legend exists in various forms that giants were either the original inhabitants, or the founders of the land named Albion.
Geoffrey of Monmouth.
According to the 12th-century "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("The History of The Kings of Britain") by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the exiled Brutus of Troy was told by the goddess Diana:
After many adventures, Brutus and his fellow Trojans escape from Gaul and "set sail with a fair wind towards the promised island".
"The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none but a few giants. Notwithstanding this, the pleasant situation of the places, the plenty of rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods, made Brutus and his company very desirous to fix their habitation in it." After dividing up the island between themselves "at last Brutus called the island after his own name Britain, and his companions Britons; for by these means he desired to perpetuate the memory of his name". Geoffrey goes on to recount how the last of the giants are defeated, the largest one called Goëmagot is flung over a cliff by Corineus.
Anglo-Norman Albina story.
Later, in the 14th century, a more elaborate tale was developed, claiming that Albina and her sisters founded Albion and procreated there a race of giants. The "Albina story" survives in several forms, including the octosyllabic Anglo-Norman poem "Des grantz geanz" dating to 1300–1334. According to the poem, in the 3970th year of the creation of the world, a king of Greece married his thirty daughters into royalty, but the haughty brides colluded to eliminate their husbands so they would be subservient to no one. The youngest would not be party to the crime and divulged the plot, so the other princesses were confined to an unsteerable rudderless ship and set adrift, and after three days reached an uninhabited land later to be known as "Britain". The eldest daughter Albina () was the first to step ashore and lay claim to the land, naming it after herself. At first, the women gathered acorns and fruits, but once they learned to hunt and obtain meat, it aroused their lecherous desires. As no other humans inhabited the land, they mated with evil spirits called "incubi", and subsequently with the sons they begot, engendering a race of giants. These giants are evidenced by huge bones which are unearthed. Brutus arrived 260 years after Albina, 1136 before the birth of Christ, but by then there were only 24 giants left, due to inner strife. As with Geoffrey of Monmouth's version, Brutus's band subsequently overtake the land, defeating Gogmagog in the process.
Manuscripts and forms.
The octosyllabic poem appears as a prologue to 16 out of 26 manuscripts of the Short Version of the Anglo-Norman prose "Brut", which derives from Wace. Octosyllabic is not the only form the Anglo-Norman "Des Grantz Geanz", there are five forms, the others being: the alexandrine, prose, short verse, and short prose versions. The Latin adaptation of the Albina story, "De Origine Gigantum", appeared soon later, in the 1330s. It has been edited by Carey & Crick (1995), and translated by Ruth Evans (1998).
Diocletian's daughters.
A variant tale occurs in the Middle English prose "Brut" (Brie ed., "The Brut or the Chronicles of England" 1906–1908) of the 14th century, an English rendition of the Anglo-Norman "Brut" deriving from Wace. In the Prolog of this chronicle, it was King "Dioclician" of "Surrey" (Syria), who had 33 daughters, the eldest being called "Albyne". The princesses are all banished to Albion after plotting to murder their husbands, where they couple with the local demons; their offspring became a race of giants. The chronicle asserts that during the voyage Albyne entrusted the fate of the sisters to "Appolyn," which was the god of their faith. The Syrian king who was her father sounds much like a Roman emperor, though Diocletian (3rd century) would be anachronistic, and Holinshed explains this as a bungling of the legend of Danaus and his fifty daughters who founded Argos.
Later treatment of the myth.
Because Geoffrey of Monmouth's work was regarded as fact until the late 17th century, the story appears in most early histories of Britain. Wace, Layamon, Raphael Holinshed, William Camden and John Milton repeat the legend and it appears in Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene".
William Blake's poems "Milton" and "Jerusalem" feature Albion as an archetypal giant representing humanity.
In 2010, artist Mark Sheeky donated the 2008 painting "Two Roman Legionaries Discovering The God-King Albion Turned Into Stone" to the Grosvenor Museum collection.


George Mason (bishop)

George Mason (1729 - 8 December 1783) was an Anglican bishop who served in the Church of England as the Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1780 to 1783.
Life.
Mason was nominated Bishop of Sodor and Man by Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl on 19 March 1780 and consecrated on 5 March 1780.
He died in office on 8 December 1783.
References.