Champagne fairs

The Champagne fairs were an annual cycle of trade fairs which flourished in different towns of the County of Champagne in Northeastern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, originating in local agricultural and stock fairs. Each fair lasted about 2 to 3 weeks. The Champagne fairs, sited on ancient land routes and largely self-regulated through the development of the "Lex mercatoria" ("merchant law"), became an important engine in the reviving economic history of medieval Europe, "veritable nerve centers" serving as a premier market for textiles, leather, fur, and spices. At their height, in the late 12th and the 13th century, the fairs linked the cloth-producing cities of the Low Countries with the Italian dyeing and exporting centers, with Genoa in the lead, dominating the commercial and banking relations operating at the frontier region between the north and the Mediterranean. The Champagne fairs were one of the earliest manifestations of a linked European economy, a characteristic of the High Middle Ages.
The towns.
The towns in which the six fairs of the annual circuit were held had some features in common, but none that would have inexorably drawn the commerce of the fairs: each was situated at an intersection or former way-station of Roman roads and near a river, but only Lagny-sur-Marne had a navigable one. Troyes and Provins had been administrative centers in Charlemagne's empire that developed into the central towns of the County of Champagne and the "Brie Champenoise"; the fair at Bar-sur-Aube was held just outside the precincts of the Count's castle there, and that at Lagny in the grounds of a Benedictine monastery. The self-interest and the political will of the Counts of Champagne was the over-riding factor.
Organization.
The series of six fairs, each lasting more than six weeks, were spaced through the year's calendar: the fair of Lagny-sur-Marne began on 2 January: the fair at Bar-sur-Aube on the Tuesday before mid-Lent; the "May fair" of Provins on the Tuesday before Ascension; the "fair of St. John" or the "hot fair" of Troyes on the first Tuesday after the fortnight of St. John's Day (24 June); the fair of St. Ayoul of Provins on the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September);the "fair of St. Remi" or the "cold fair" of Troyes on the day following All Saint's Day (that is, on 2 November). Each fair began with the "entrée" of eight days during which merchants set up, followed by the days allotted for the cloth fair, the days of the leather fair, and the days for the sale of spices and other things sold by weight (avoirdupois). In the last four-day period of the fairs, accounts were settled.
In actual practice, arrivals and departures were more flexible and efficient, relying on flexibly formed and dissolved partnerships, which freed the "silent" partners from actually undertaking the arduous journey on each occasion, delegated agents ("certi missi") who could receive payment and undertake contracts, and factors, integrated with communications and transportation, and the extensive use of credit instruments in the trade.
The towns provided huge warehouses, still to be seen at Provins. Furs and skins traveled in both directions, from Spain, Sicily, and North Africa in the south via Marseilles, and the highly prized vair, rabbit, marten and other skins from the north. From the north also came woolens and linen cloth. From the south came silk, pepper and other spices, drugs, coinage and the new concepts of credit and bookkeeping. Goods converged from Spain, travelling along the well-established pilgrim route from Santiago de Compostela and from Germany. Once the cloth sales had been concluded, the reckoning of credit at the tables ("banche") of Italian money-changers effected compensatory payments for goods, established future payments on credit, made loans to princes and lords, and settled bills of exchange (which were generally worded to expire at one of the Champagne fairs). Even after trade routes had shifted away from the north-south axis that depended on the Champagne commodities fairs, the fairs continued to function as an international clearing house for paper debts and credits, as they had built up a system of commercial law, regulated by private judges separate from the feudal social order and the requirements of scrupulously maintaining a "good name", prior to the third-party enforcement of legal codes by the nation-state.
Reaching the Champagne fairs.
To cross the Alps, the caravans of pack mules made their way over the Mont Cenis Pass, a journey that took more than a month from Genoa to the fair cities, along one of the varied options of the Via Francigena. Sometime, professional freight-handlers made the trek while under contract to merchants. P. Huvelin documented the existence, by the second half of the thirteenth century, of a faster courier service that facilitated the transfer of letters and market information between north and south for the particular advantage of the "Arte di Calimala", the cloth-merchants' guild of Florence, the cities of Siena and Genoa, as well as the mercantile houses. R. D. Face noted that in early February, 1290, it took a courier no more than twenty days to make the journey from Lagny to Florence. Alternatively, north Italian goods were shipped to Aigues-Mortes then up or along the Rhone, Saône and Seine.
Dominance and decline.
The fairs were also important in the spread and exchange of cultural influences—the first appearance of Gothic architecture in Italy was the result of merchants from Siena rebuilding their houses in the Northern style. The phrase "not to know your Champagne fairs" meant not knowing what everyone else did.
It was in the interest of the Count of Champagne, virtually independent of his nominal suzerain, the King of France, to extend the liberties and prerogatives of the towns, which were founded in the increased security of the feudal settlement following the feudal disorders of the tenth century. The predominance of the Champagne fairs over those of other cities has been attributed to the personal role of the Counts in guaranteeing the security and property rights of merchants and trading organisations attending the fairs, and in ensuring that contracts signed at the fairs would be honoured throughout Western Christendom. The counts provided the fairs with a police force, the "Guards of the Fair", who heard complaints and enforced contracts, excluding defaulters from future participation; weights and measures were strictly regulated. Historian Jean Favier has written "the success of the Champagne fairs can be attributed solely to this intelligent policy of applying public order to business." The Counts' concern for protection of this profitable trade extended beyond their borders: Thibaut II negotiated a treaty in which the kings of France pledged themselves to take under royal protection all merchants passing through royal territory on their way to and from the Champagne fairs. Eventually even the king became involved; in 1209 Philip Augustus granted safe conduct within France to merchants traveling to and from the Champagne fairs, increasing their international importance.
Traditional historians have dated the decline of the Champagne fairs to the subordination of Champagne to the Royal Domain brought about by the marriage alliance of Philip the Fair in 1284. In 1285 Champagne became an integral part of France. "When the special motivation was removed in 1285", Janet Abu-Lughod observes, "the Champagne fairs lost their edge." The effect of the Little Ice Age and population-diminishing black plague took a toll also. Around the same time, a series of wars in Italy, most significantly the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, disrupted the overland trade routes that connected the Italian cities with France, and Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea trade with Flanders, diminishing the importance of the fairs. Fernand Braudel also saw the decline as due to the increasing sophistication of communications and distance credit, changing the medieval merchant from a person engaged in constant arduous travel to one who mostly controlled his affairs by correspondence.
As the Champagne fairs dwindled to insignificance, their place was assumed by the fairs of Bruges, to which the Genoese ships sailed, and Cologne, a Hansa town, of Frankfurt-am-Main, of Geneva and, more locally, of Lyon.


Praguerie

The Praguerie was a revolt of the French nobility against King Charles VII from February to July 1440.
It was so named because a similar rising had recently taken place in Prague, Bohemia, at that time closely associated with France through the House of Luxembourg, kings of Bohemia. Its causes lay in the reforms of Charles VII at the close of the Hundred Years' War, by which he sought to diminish the anarchy in France and its brigand-soldiery. The ordinances passed by the estates of "langue d'oïl" at Orléans in 1439 not only gave the king an aid of 100,000 francs (an act which was later used by the king as though it were a perpetual grant and so freed him from that parliamentary control of the purse so important in England), but demanded as well royal nominations to officerships in the army, marking a gain in the royal prerogative which the nobility resolved to challenge.
The main instigator was Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, who three years before had attempted a similar rising, and had been forced to ask pardon of the king. He and his bastard brother, John, were joined by the former favourite Georges de la Tremoille, John VI, duke of Brittany, who allied himself with the English, the duke of Alençon, the count of Vendôme, and mercenaries captains like Rodrigo de Villandrando, Antoine de Chabannes, or Jean de la Roche. The duke of Bourbon won over the "dauphin" Louis—afterwards Louis XI—then only sixteen years old, and proposed to set aside the king in his favour, making him regent.
Louis was readily induced to rebel; but the country was saved from a serious civil war by the energy of the king's officers and the solid loyalty of his "good cities". The constable de Richemont marched with the king's troops into Poitou, his old battleground with de la Tremoille, and in two months he had subdued the country. The royal artillery battered down the feudal strongholds. The dauphin and the duke of Alençon failed to bring about any sympathetic rising in Auvergne, and the Praguerie was over, except for some final pillaging and plundering in Saintonge and Poitou, which the royal army failed to prevent.
Charles then attempted to ensure the loyalty of the duke of Bourbon by the gift of a large pension, forgave all the rebellious gentry, and installed his son in Dauphiné. The ordinance of Orleans was enforced. The dauphin was forced to beg his father's forgiveness.


St Nazaire Raid

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during the Second World War. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy (RN) and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as , sister ship of , to return to home waters by running the gauntlet of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy and other British forces, via the English Channel or the North Sea.
The obsolete destroyer , accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie dock gates. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.
A force of commandos landed to destroy machinery and other structures. German gunfire sank, set ablaze, or immobilized virtually all the small craft intended to transport the commandos back to England. The commandos fought their way through the town to escape overland but many surrendered when they ran out of ammunition or were surrounded by the Wehrmacht defending Saint-Nazaire.
Of the 612 men who undertook the raid, 228 returned to Britain, 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. German casualties included over 360 dead, some of whom were killed after the raid when "Campbeltown" exploded. To recognise their bravery, 89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. After the war, St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the commandos. The operation has been called "the greatest raid of all" in British military circles.
Background.
St Nazaire is on the north bank of the Loire, from the nearest British port. In 1942, it had a population of 50,000. The St Nazaire port has an outer harbour known as the Avant Port, formed by two piers jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. This leads to two lock gates before the Bassin de St Nazaire. These gates control the water level in the basin so that it is not affected by the tide.
Beyond the basin is the larger inner dock called the Bassin de Penhoët, which can accommodate ships up to 10,000 tons. There is also an old entrance to the Bassin de St Nazaire midway along the Bassin de St Nazaire. Immediately upstream of this lies the Normandie dry dock, between the Bassin de St Nazaire and the Loire, with its southern end giving on to the Loire and the northern end facing into the Bassin de Penhoët. Built to house the ocean liner , this dock was the largest dry dock in the world when it was completed in 1932. The "Old Mole" jetty juts into the Loire halfway between the southern pier of the Avant Port and the old entrance into the basin.
On 24 May 1941, the Battle of the Denmark Strait was fought between the German ships and and the British ships and . "Hood" was sunk and the damaged "Prince of Wales" was forced to retire. "Bismarck", also damaged, ordered her consort to proceed independently while she headed for the French port of St Nazaire, which was the only port on the Atlantic coast with a dry dock able to accommodate a ship of her size. She was intercepted by the British and sunk en route.
Britain's Naval Intelligence Division first proposed a commando raid on the dock in late 1941. When the was declared operational in January 1942, the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Air Force (RAF) were already drawing up plans to attack her. Planners from Combined Operations Headquarters were looking at potential scenarios if "Tirpitz" escaped the naval blockade and reached the Atlantic. They decided the only port able to accommodate her was St Nazaire, especially if, like "Bismarck", she was damaged en route and needed repairs. They came to the conclusion that if the dock at St Nazaire were unavailable, the Germans were unlikely to risk sending "Tirpitz" into the Atlantic.
Combined Operations examined several options while planning the destruction of the dock. At this stage of the war the British government still tried to avoid civilian casualties. This ruled out a bombing attack by the RAF, which at the time did not possess the accuracy needed to destroy the dock without serious loss of civilian life.
The Special Operations Executive were approached to see if its agents could destroy the dock gates. They decided that the mission was beyond their capabilities because the weight of explosives required would have needed too many agents to carry them. The Royal Navy was also unable to mount an operation, as St Nazaire is up the Loire estuary. Any naval ships large enough to cause sufficient damage would be detected well before they were within range.
The planners then examined whether a commando force could accomplish the task. An unusually high spring tide was due in March 1942 which would allow a light ship to pass over the sand banks in the estuary and approach the docks, bypassing the heavily defended dredged channel. The approach was too shallow for an infantry landing ship, but the planners believed if a destroyer could be lightened it might have a draft shallow enough to enable it to get through.
Plan.
The purpose of the raid was to destroy the Normandie dock, the old gates into the Bassin de St Nazaire with the water pumping machinery and other installations and any U-boats or other shipping in the area. The initial Combined Operations plan required one specially lightened destroyer to carry out the raid. It would be packed with explosives and rammed into the dock gates. Commandos on board would then disembark and use demolition charges to destroy nearby dock installations, searchlights and gun emplacements. The destroyer would then be blown up. At the same time the RAF would undertake diversionary air raids in the area.
When the plan was presented to the Admiralty they refused to support it. The certain loss of one or both destroyers to eliminate the dry dock was out of the question. They suggested they could provide an old Free French destroyer, , and a flotilla of small motor launches to transport the commandos and evacuate them afterwards. Approval for the mission, codenamed Operation Chariot, was given on 3 March 1942. Using a French ship would involve using the Free French forces and increase the number of people aware of the raid. Consequently, it was decided the navy would have to provide a ship of their own. The RAF complained that the raid would draw heavily on their resources and the number of aircraft assigned by RAF Bomber Command dwindled during the planning of the raid. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill further complicated matters when he ordered that bombing should only take place if targets were clearly identified.
Combined Operations Headquarters worked closely with several intelligence organisations to plan the raid. The Naval Intelligence Division compiled information from a variety of sources. A detailed plan of the town of St Nazaire was provided by the Secret Intelligence Service, and information on the coastal artillery nearby was sourced from the War Office's Military Intelligence branch. Intelligence about the dock itself came from pre-war technical journals. The Naval Operational Intelligence Centre selected the route and timing for the raid based on intelligence about the location of minefields and German recognition signals sourced from Enigma decryptions and knowledge of Luftwaffe patrols compiled by the Air Ministry's Air Intelligence Branch. When all the plans had been pulled together and the timing worked out, the main part of the raid was expected to last no longer than two hours. The commandos and crew from "Campbeltown" were to board the motor launches at the Old Mole jetty and then return to base.
Composition of the raiding force.
The revised Combined Operations plan required one destroyer to ram the dock gates and a number of smaller craft to transport the commandos. The Royal Navy would therefore provide the largest contingent for the raid, under the overall command of the senior naval officer, Commander Robert Ryder. The ship selected to ram into the dock gates was , commanded by Lieutenant Commander Stephen Halden Beattie. "Campbeltown" was a First World War destroyer and had previously been in the United States Navy. She had come into RN service in 1940 as one of 50 destroyers transferred to the United Kingdom under the destroyers-for-bases deal.
Converting "Campbeltown" for the raid took ten days. She had to be lightened to raise her draught to get over the sand banks in the estuary. This was achieved by completely stripping all her internal compartments. The dockyard removed her three guns, torpedoes and depth charges from the deck and replaced the forward gun with a light quick-firing 12-pounder gun. Eight 20 mm Oerlikons were installed on mountings raised above deck level. The bridge and wheelhouse were given extra armour-plate protection, and two rows of armour were fixed along the sides of the ship to protect the commandos on the open deck.
Two of her four funnels were removed, and the forward two were cut at an angle to resemble those of a German destroyer. The bow was packed with 4.5 tons of high explosives, which were set in concrete. It was decided that the explosive charge would be timed to detonate after the raiders had left the harbour. To prevent the Germans towing her away, the crew would open the ship's seacocks before abandoning the ship. Should she become disabled or sunk before getting to the dock, four motor launches had been detailed to take off the crew and put the commandos ashore. The charge would be reset to explode after the last boat had left.
Other naval units involved were two s, and , which would accompany the force to and from the French coast and remain out at sea during the raid. A motor gun boat (the Fairmile C type "MGB 314") was the headquarters ship for the raid, with Commander Ryder and the commanding officer of the commandos on board. A motor torpedo boat (a 70 ft Vosper, "MTB 74"), commanded by Sub-Lieutenant Michael Wynn, had two objectives: If the outer Normandie dock gates were open, she had to torpedo the inner dock gates. If the gates were closed she would instead torpedo the gates at the old entrance into the St Nazaire basin.
To assist in transporting the commandos, 12 Fairmile B Motor Launches (ML) were assigned from the 20th and 28th Motor Launch flotillas. These boats were re-armed with two Oerlikon 20 mm guns mounted forward and aft to complement their twin 0.303-in Lewis guns. At the last minute another four MLs were assigned from the 7th Motor Launch flotilla (see Footnotes for flotilla details). These four boats were also armed with two torpedoes each. Instead of transporting the commandos, these boats were to engage any German shipping found in the estuary. All the MLs had a auxiliary fuel tank fixed to the upper deck to increase their range. The S-class submarine would leave before the rest of the convoy and be in position to act as a navigational beacon to guide the convoy into the Loire estuary.
The man selected to lead the Commando force was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Newman; his No. 2 Commando would provide the largest commandos contingent, 173 men, for the raid. The Special Service Brigade headquarters used the raid to provide experience for their other units and 92 men were drawn from Nos 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 12 Commandos.
The commandos were divided into three groups: One and Two would travel in the 12 MLs, while Three would be in "Campbeltown". Under the command of Captain Hodgeson, Group One traveling in ML 447, 457, 307, 443, 306 and 446 had the objectives of securing the Old Mole and eliminating the anti-aircraft gun positions around the southern quays. They were then to move into the old town and blow up the power station, bridges and locks for the new entrance into the basin from the Avant port. The capture of the mole was a major objective, as it was to be the embarkation point for the evacuation after the mission.
Group Two, under the command of Captain Burn, in ML 192, 262, 267, 268, 156 and 177 would land at the old entrance to the St Nazaire basin. Its objectives were to destroy the anti-aircraft positions in the area and the German headquarters, to blow up the locks and bridges at the old entrance into the basin and then to guard against a counterattack from the submarine base. Group Three was under the command of Major William 'Bill' Copland, who was also the commandos' second in command. It was to secure the immediate area around "Campbeltown", destroy the dock's water-pumping and gate-opening machinery and the nearby underground fuel tanks. All three groups were subdivided into assault, demolition, and protection teams. The assault teams would clear the way for the other two. The demolition teams carrying the explosive charges only had sidearms for self-defence; the protection teams, armed with Thompson submachine guns, were to defend them while they completed their tasks.
The commandos were aided in their planning for the operation by Captain Bill Pritchard of the Royal Engineers, who had pre-war experience as an apprentice in the Great Western Railway dockyards and whose father was the dock master of Cardiff Docks. In 1940 while part of the British Expeditionary Force in France, his duties had included determining how to disable the French dockyards if they were captured. One of the dockyards he had studied was St Nazaire, and he had submitted a report detailing how to put the dock out of action.
German forces.
The Germans had around 5,000 troops in the immediate area of St Nazaire. The port was defended by the 280th Naval Artillery Battalion under the command of "Kapitän zur See" Edo Dieckmann. The battalion was composed of 28 guns of various calibres from 75 mm to 280 mm railway guns, all positioned to guard the coastal approaches. The heavy guns were supplemented by the guns and searchlights of the 22nd Naval Flak Brigade under the command of "Kapitän zur See" Karl-Konrad Mecke.
The brigade was equipped with 43 anti-aircraft guns ranging in calibre from 20 to 40 mm. These guns had a dual role as both anti-aircraft and coastal defence weapons. Many were in concrete emplacements on top of the submarine pens and other dockside installations of the St Nazaire submarine base.
The harbour defence companies were responsible for local defence and for the security of the ships and submarines moored in the harbour. These companies and the harbour defence boats used to patrol the river were under the command of Harbour Commander "Korvettenkapitän" Kellerman. The 333rd Infantry Division was the German Army unit responsible for the defence of the coast between St Nazaire and Lorient. The division had no troops based in the town, but some were garrisoned in villages nearby and would be able to respond to any attack on the port.
The "Kriegsmarine" (German navy) had at least three surface ships in the Loire estuary: a destroyer, an armed trawler and a "Sperrbrecher" ('minesweeper'), the last being the guard ship for the port. On the night of the raid there were also four harbour defence boats and ten ships from the 16th and 42nd Minesweeper flotillas berthed in the basin, while two tankers were berthed inside the Normandie dock. The 6th and 7th U-boat flotillas, commanded by "Kapitänleutnant" Georg-Wilhelm Schulz and "Korvettenkapitän" Herbert Sohler respectively, were permanently based in the port. It is not known how many submarines were present on the day of the raid. The submarine base had been inspected by the U-boat Commander in Chief, "Vizeadmiral" Karl Dönitz, the day before the raid. He asked what would they do if the base was subjected to an attack by British Commandos. Sohler replied that "an attack on the base would be hazardous and highly improbable."
The raid.
Outward journey.
The three destroyers and 16 small boats left Falmouth, Cornwall, at 14:00 on 26 March 1942. They formed into a convoy of three lanes, with the destroyers in the middle. On arrival at St Nazaire the portside MLs were to head for the Old Mole to disembark their commandos, while the starboard lane would make for the old entrance to the basin to disembark theirs. Not having the range to reach St Nazaire unaided, the MTB and MGB were taken under tow by "Campbeltown" and "Atherstone".
The convoy next encountered two French fishing trawlers. Both crews were taken off and the ships sunk for fear they might report the composition and location of the convoy. At 17:00 the convoy received a signal from Commander-in-Chief Plymouth that five German torpedo boats were in the area. Two hours later another signal informed them that another two Hunt-class destroyers, and , had been dispatched at full speed to join the convoy.
The convoy reached a position off St Nazaire at 21:00 and changed course toward the estuary, leaving "Atherstone" and "Tynedale" as a sea patrol. The convoy adopted a new formation with the MGB and two torpedo MLs in the lead, followed by "Campbeltown". The rest of the MLs formed two columns on either side and astern of the destroyer, with the MTB bringing up the rear. The first casualty of the raid was "ML 341", which had developed engine trouble and was abandoned. At 22:00 the submarine "Sturgeon" directed her navigation beacon out to sea to guide the convoy in. At about the same time "Campbeltown" raised the German naval ensign in an attempt to deceive any German lookouts into thinking she was a German destroyer.
At 23:30 on 27 March, five RAF squadrons (comprising 35 Whitleys and 27 Wellingtons) started their bombing runs. The bombers had to stay above and were supposed to remain over the port for 60 minutes to divert attention toward themselves and away from the sea. They had orders to only bomb clearly identified military targets and to drop only one bomb at a time. As it turned out, poor weather with full cloud cover over the port meant that only four aircraft bombed targets in St Nazaire. Six aircraft managed to bomb other nearby targets.
At around 02:00, the convoy was sighted by the , which dived and later reported the British ships as moving westward, further complicating the German understanding of the raid.
The unusual behaviour of the bombers concerned "Kapitän zur See" Mecke. At 00:00 on 28 March, he issued a warning that there might be a parachute landing in progress. At 01:00 on 28 March, he followed up by ordering all guns to cease firing and searchlights to be extinguished in case the bombers were using them to locate the port. Everyone was placed on a heightened state of alert. The harbour defence companies and ships' crews were ordered out of the air raid shelters. During all this a lookout reported seeing some activity out at sea, so Mecke began suspecting some type of landing and ordered extra attention to be paid to the approaches to the harbour.
Ramming the dry dock.
At 00:30 hours on 28 March the convoy crossed over the shoals at the mouth of the Loire estuary, with "Campbeltown" scraping the bottom twice. Each time she pulled free, and the group proceeded toward the harbour in darkness. They had come within about eight minutes' passage from the dock gates when, at 01:22, the entire convoy was illuminated by searchlights on both banks of the estuary. A naval signal light demanded their identification.
"MGB 314" replied in a coded response obtained from a German trawler boarded during the Vågsøy raid. A few bursts were fired from a shore battery and both "Campbeltown" and "MGB 314" replied: "Ship being fired upon by friendly forces". The deception gave them a little more time before every German gun in the bay opened fire. At 01:28, with the convoy from the dock gates, Beattie ordered the German flag lowered and the White Ensign raised. The intensity of the German fire seemed to increase. The guard ship opened fire and was quickly silenced when the ships in the convoy responded, shooting into her as they passed.
By now all the ships in the convoy were within range to engage targets ashore and were firing at the gun emplacements and searchlights. "Campbeltown" was hit several times and increased her speed to . The helmsman on her bridge was killed, and his replacement was wounded and replaced as well. Blinded by the searchlights, Beattie knew they were close to their objective. Still under heavy fire, the MGB turned into the estuary as "Campbeltown" cleared the end of the Old Mole, cut through anti-torpedo netting strung across the entrance and rammed the dock gates, striking home at 01:34, three minutes later than scheduled. The force of the impact drove the ship onto the gates.
Disembarkation from "Campbeltown" and the MLs.
The commandos on "Campbeltown" now disembarked. These comprised two assault teams, five demolition teams with their protectors and a mortar group. Three demolition teams were tasked with destroying the dock pumping machinery and other installations associated with the dry dock. The kilt-wearing Captain Donald William Roy – 'The Laird' – and his 14-man assault troop were tasked with knocking out two pump-house roof-top gun emplacements high above the quayside and securing a bridge to provide a route for the raiding parties to exit the dock area. Roy and Sgt Don Randall used scaling ladders and grenades to accomplish the former, and a head-on rush to secure the bridge and form a bridgehead that enabled Captain Bob Montgomery and Lt Corran Purdon and their demolition teams to exit the area.
They lost four men in this action. The fifth team also succeeded in completing all their objectives, but almost half their men were killed. The other two commando groups were not as successful. The MLs transporting Groups One and Two had almost all been destroyed on their approach. "ML 457" was the only boat to land its commandos on the Old Mole and only "ML 177" had managed to reach the gates at the old entrance to the basin. That team succeeded in planting charges on two tugboats moored in the basin.
There were only two other MLs in the vicinity: "ML 160" had continued past the dock and was engaging targets upriver, "ML 269" appeared to be out of control and was running in circles.
Lt Col Newman aboard the MGB need not have landed, but he was one of the first ashore. One of his first actions was to direct mortar fire onto a gun position on top of the submarine pens that was causing heavy casualties among the commandos. He next directed machine-gun fire onto an armed trawler, which was forced to withdraw upriver. Newman organised a defence that succeeded in keeping the increasing numbers of German reinforcements at bay until the demolition parties had completed their tasks.
Some 100 commandos were still ashore when Newman realised that evacuation by sea was no longer possible. He gathered the survivors and issued three orders:
Newman and Copland led the charge from the old town across a bridge raked by machine gun fire and advanced into the new town. The commandos attempted to get through the narrow streets of the town and into the surrounding countryside, but were eventually surrounded. When their ammunition was expended, they surrendered. Not all the commandos were captured, as five men reached neutral Spain and eventually returned to England.
Small ships.
Most of the MLs had been destroyed on the run in and were burning. The first ML in the starboard column was the first boat to catch fire. Her captain managed to beach her at the end of the Old Mole. Some starboard boats managed to reach their objective and disembark their commandos. "ML 443", the leading boat in the port column, got to within of the mole in the face of heavy direct fire and hand grenades before being set on fire. The crew were rescued by "ML 160", one of the torpedo MLs which had been looking for targets of opportunity such as the two large tankers reported to be in the harbour. The commanders of "ML 160" and "ML 443", Lieutenants T Boyd and T D L Platt, were awarded the Distinguished Service Order for their bravery. The rest of the port column had been destroyed or disabled before reaching the mole. "ML 192" and "ML 262" were set on fire, and all but six of their men were killed. "ML 268" was blown up, with one survivor.
Thomas O'Leary, the wireless operator for "ML 446", said:"One commando was remarking how pretty the tracer fire, red and green, was. A moment later one blew the back of his head out. I was down below with my tin hat because by now the bullets were going through (the boat) and out the other side. If I wanted to get about I had to crawl on my hands and knees and I was lucky nothing came through at my level. We couldn't get in (to the objective) and all of a sudden the wounded started coming down. By then all our guns had jammed and most of the other ships were on fire." "ML 177", the launch that had successfully taken off some of the crew from "Campbeltown", was sunk on her way out of the estuary. "ML 269", another torpedo-armed boat, moved up and down the river at high speed to draw German fire away from the landings. Soon after passing "Campbeltown" it was hit and its steering damaged. It took ten minutes to repair the steering. The boat turned and started in the other direction, opening fire on an armed trawler in passing. Return fire from the trawler set the boat's engine on fire.
"ML 306" also came under heavy fire when it arrived near the port. Sergeant Thomas Durrant of No. 1 Commando, manning the aft Lewis gun, engaged gun and searchlight positions on the run in. He was wounded but stayed with his gun. The ML reached the open sea but was attacked at short range by the German torpedo boat "Jaguar". Durrant returned fire, aiming for the torpedo boat's bridge. He was wounded again but remained at his gun even after the German commander asked for their surrender. He fired many drums of ammunition until the ML was boarded. Durrant died of his wounds and, on the recommendation of "Jaguar"s commander, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
After the commando headquarters group had landed, Commander Ryder went to check for himself that "Campbeltown" was firmly stuck in the dock. Some of her surviving crewmen were being taken on board the MGB. Ryder returned to the boat and ordered the MTB to carry out its alternative task and torpedo the lock gates at the old entrance to the basin. After a successful torpedo attack, Ryder ordered the MTB to leave. On their way out of the estuary they stopped to collect survivors from a sinking ML and were hit and set on fire. Back at the docks the MGB had positioned itself in mid-river to engage enemy gun emplacements. The forward 2 pounder was manned by Able Seaman William Alfred Savage. Commander Ryder reported that "The rate of supporting fire had evidently been felt, and the commandos in the area of the Tirpitz dock had undoubtedly overcome the resistance in that area. There was an appreciable slackening in the enemy's fire."
Ryder could see no ships other than seven or eight burning MLs. He then realised that the landing places at the Old Mole and the entrance to the basin had both been recaptured by the Germans. There was nothing more they could do for the commandos, so they headed out to sea. On their way they were continuously illuminated by German searchlights and were hit at least six times by the German guns. Passing "ML 270", they ordered her to follow and made smoke to hide both boats.
When they reached the open sea the smaller calibre guns were out of range and stopped firing but the heavier artillery continued to engage them. The boats were about off-shore when the last German salvo straddled them and killed Savage, who was still at his gun. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his exploits. His citation recognised both Savage and the bravery of "many others, unnamed, in Motor Launches, Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats who gallantly carried out their duties in entirely exposed positions against Enemy fire at very close range."
Return journey.
At 06:30 the five German torpedo boats that the convoy had evaded the previous day were sighted by HMS "Atherstone" and "Tynedale". The destroyers turned toward them and opened fire at a range of . After ten minutes the German boats turned away, making smoke. The destroyers sighted the MGB and two accompanying MLs soon after and transferred their casualties to "Atherstone". Not expecting any more boats to arrive, they headed for home. Just after 09:00 the Hunt-class escort destroyers "Brocklesby" and "Cleveland" arrived, sent by Commander-in-Chief Plymouth. Shortly after this the ships were spotted by a Heinkel 115 floatplane of the "Luftwaffe".
The next German aircraft on the scene, a Junkers 88, was engaged by a RAF Bristol Beaufighter which had appeared in the area earlier. Both machines crashed into the sea. Other German planes arrived but were driven off by Beaufighters and Hudsons from Coastal Command. The Atlantic weather conditions deteriorated. Amid concerns about the growing German threat and the realisation that the damaged small ships would not be able to keep up, Commander Sayer ordered the crews off the smaller boats and had them sunk.
"ML 160", "ML 307" and "ML 443" reached the rendezvous and waited until 10:00 for the destroyers to appear. Having already been attacked once, they moved further out into the Atlantic to try to avoid the "Luftwaffe" but a Junkers 88 appeared overhead at 07:30 and approached them at low level for a closer look. The ships opened fire, hit the Junkers in the cockpit and the aircraft crashed into the sea. The next aircraft to appear was a Blohm & Voss seaplane which attempted to bomb the ships but left after being damaged by machine-gun fire. The MLs eventually reached England unaided the following day.
"Campbeltown" explodes.
The explosive charges in HMS "Campbeltown" detonated at noon on 28 March 1942, and the dry dock was destroyed. Reports vary on the fate of the two tankers that were in the dock; they were either swept away by the wall of water and sunk, or swept to the far end of the dock, but not sunk.
A party of 40 senior German officers and civilians who were on a tour of "Campbeltown" were killed. In total, the explosion killed about 360 men. The wreck of "Campbeltown" could still be seen inside the dry dock months later when RAF photo reconnaissance planes were sent to photograph the port.
According to Captain Robert Montgomery (Royal Engineers, attached to No. 2 Commando), "Campbeltown" was meant to have detonated at 04:30, the delay caused, he believes, by some of the acid in the pencil detonators being distilled away. As the morning progressed, more and more captured comrades joined him in the German HQ.
The day after the explosion, "Organisation Todt" workers were assigned to clean up the debris and wreckage. On 30 March at 16:30 the torpedoes from "MTB 74", which were on a delayed fuse setting, exploded at the old entrance into the basin. This raised alarms among the Germans. The "Organisation Todt" workers ran away from the dock area. German guards, mistaking their khaki uniforms for British uniforms, opened fire, killing some of them. The Germans also thought that some commandos were still hiding in the town, and made a street by street search, during which some townspeople were also killed.
Aftermath.
The explosion put the dry dock out of commission for the remainder of the war. The St Nazaire raid had been a success, but at a cost – of the 612 men of the Royal Navy and commandos who took part in the raid, only 228 men returned to England.
Five commandos escaped via neutral Spain and Gibraltar with the help of French citizens and took a ship to England; 169 men were killed (105 RN and 64 commandos) and another 215 became prisoners of war (106 RN and 109 commandos). They were first taken to La Baule and then sent to Stalag 133 at Rennes. The fallen British raiders were buried at the La Baule-Escoublac cemetery, west of St Nazaire, with military honours.
To recognise their achievement, 89 decorations were awarded for the raid, including Victoria Crosses awarded to Lieutenant Commander Beattie, Lieutenant Colonel Newman and Commander Ryder and posthumously to Sergeant Durrant and Able Seaman Savage. Distinguished Service Orders were awarded to Major William Copland, Captain Donald Roy, Lieutenant T Boyd and Lieutenant T D L Platt. Other decorations awarded were four Conspicuous Gallantry Medals, five Distinguished Conduct Medals, 17 Distinguished Service Crosses, 11 Military Crosses, 24 Distinguished Service Medals and 15 Military Medals. Four men were awarded the Croix de guerre by France and another 51 were mentioned in dispatches.
Adolf Hitler was furious that the British had been able to sail a flotilla of ships up the Loire unhindered and he sacked "Generaloberst" Carl Hilpert, chief-of-staff to the OB West (Commander in Chief West). The raid refocused German attention on the Atlantic Wall and special attention was given to ports to prevent any repeat of the raid. By June 1942, the Germans began using concrete to fortify gun emplacements and bunkers in quantities previously only used in U-boat pens. Hitler laid out new plans in a meeting with Armaments Minister Albert Speer in August 1942, calling for the construction of 15,000 bunkers by May 1943 to defend the Atlantic coast from Norway to Spain. The battleship "Tirpitz" never entered the Atlantic. She remained in Norwegian fjords to threaten Allied shipping until she was destroyed by the RAF in Operation Catechism on 12 November 1944.
Legacy.
St Nazaire was one of the 38 battle honours presented to the commandos after the war. The survivors formed their own association, the St Nazaire Society, which is a registered charity in the United Kingdom.
A memorial to the raid erected in Falmouth bears the following inscription:
A new , a Type 22 frigate, was launched on 7 October 1987. She carried the ship's bell from the first "Campbeltown", which had been rescued during the raid and been presented to the town of Campbelltown, Pennsylvania, at the end of the Second World War. In 1988 the people of Campbelltown voted to lend the bell to the new ship for as long as she remained in Royal Navy service.
The bell was returned to the town on 21 June 2011 when HMS "Campbeltown" was decommissioned.
On 4 September 2002, a tree and seat at the National Memorial Arboretum were dedicated to the men of the raid. The seat bears the inscription:"In memory of the Royal Navy Sailors and Army Commandos killed in the raid on St Nazaire on 28 March 1942" A new Type 31 HMS Campbeltown has been announced as part of the new "Inspiration" class of frigates for the royal navy, announced on the 19 May 2021


Anthony Hart

Sir Anthony Hart ( 1754 – 1831) was a British lawyer, who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1827-30.
Life.
He was born into a slaveowning family about 1754 in the island of Saint Kitts, West Indies, fourth son of William Hart and Sarah Johnson. He said to have been educated at Tonbridge School and to have been a unitarian preacher at Norwich for a short time. He was admitted as a student of the Middle Temple in 1776 and was called to the bar in 1781.
He confined himself exclusively to equity work, and after practising twenty-six years at the outer bar was in 1807 appointed a king's counsel, and in the same year was elected a Bencher of his Inn.
In 1816, he was made Solicitor-General to Queen Charlotte. Having been appointed vice-chancellor of the High Court of England in the place of Sir John Leach, he was appointed a privy Counsellor and knighted in 1827. He took his seat in the vice-chancellor's court in the following month.
Following the resignation of Lord Liverpool's ministry in March 1827 Lord Manners resigned as Irish Chancellor. His natural successor would have been Lord Plunket but George IV disapproved of Plunket's support for Catholic Emancipation. Instead, Manners remained in post whilst a successor was found. Eventually, in October 1827, to the surprise of the Irish Bar, Lord Goderich offered Hart the post of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
On accepting this office, Hart expressly stipulated ‘that he was to have no politics, general, local, or religious; and that of Papists and Orangemen he was to know nothing.’ He was sworn in at Dublin on 5 November 1827, and took his seat in the Court of Chancery on the following day, when he immediately became involved in a serious misunderstanding with Sir William MacMahon, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, in reference to the right of the latter to appoint a secretary.
Hart did his best to shorten equity pleadings, which he considered were ‘too prolix in Ireland’. While he was lord chancellor, a singular case affecting the rights of the Irish bar arose, a full account of which will be found in O'Flanagan's "Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland".
Upon the formation of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey's administration towards the close of 1830, Lord Plunket was appointed in Hart's place. Hart sat as lord chancellor for the last time on 22 December 1830, and was addressed in a farewell speech by the veteran lawyer William Saurin, the former Attorney General for Ireland, on behalf of the Irish bar. It is stated ‘as a fact without precedent that not a single decision of his was ever varied or reversed’.
He died in Cumberland Street, Portman Square, London, on 6 December 1831. By his wife Martha Jefferson he had one daughter, who was his sole heiress. An engraving taken from a portrait of Hart, sketched by Cahill, forms the frontispiece to the first volume of the ‘Irish Law Recorder.’


Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet

Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet, 1585 to 18 September 1644, was an English politician and Puritan activist who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1644. In the early stages of the First English Civil War, he helped establish the Eastern Association, one of the most effective elements of the Parliamentarian army.
Personal details.
Thomas Barrington was born in 1585, eldest son of Sir Francis Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex (1560-1628) and Joan Cromwell (c.1568-1641), aunt to the future Parliamentarian leaders Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden. One of nine surviving children, he had three brothers; Robert (?-1642), Francis (?-before 1628) and John (?-1631), who died in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years War.
Of his five sisters, Elizabeth was married to Sir William Masham, and Mary to Sir Gilbert Gerard, Winifred to Sir William Meux. All three of his brothers-in-law were MPs, as were his father and brother Thomas, making the Barrington family part of a network of Puritan activists.
In 1611, he married Frances Gobert (died 1623); they had three surviving children, Lucy, John (1615-1683) and Gobert (before 1623-c.1695). He married again in 1624, this time to Judith Lytton (c.1592-1657); they had no children before his death in 1644.
Career.
One of the wealthiest members of the Essex gentry, Sir Francis and his wife Joan were devout Puritans, as was Barrington himself. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge in 1601; as legal training was then considered an essential part of education, he studied law at Gray's Inn in 1602.
who dominated the [[Parliament of England|Parliamentary opposition
was the son of [[Sir Francis Barrington, 1st Baronet]] and his wife Joan Cromwell, eldest daughter of Sir [[Henry Williams (alias Cromwell)|Henry Cromwell]]. He was knighted at about 1621. In 1621 Barrington was elected [[Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Newtown (UK Parliament constituency)|Newtown]]. He was re-elected for the constituency in 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. In 1628, he succeeded to the [[Barrington baronets|baronetcy]] on the death of his father.
Barrington has been identified as part of the so-called "Middle Group" within Parliament, led by Pym until his death in December 1643, then by [[Oliver St John]]. Unlike the "War" or "Peace" factions, these MPs did not vote consistently, but they were prominent in persuading Parliament to approve the [[Solemn League and Covenant]], an alliance with the Scots [[Covenanters]].
Sources.

[[Category:1585 births]]
[[Category:1644 deaths]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of England]]
[[Category:English MPs 1621–1622]]
[[Category:English MPs 1624–1625]]
[[Category:English MPs 1625]]
[[Category:English MPs 1626]]
[[Category:English MPs 1628–1629]]
[[Category:English MPs 1640 (April)]]
[[Category:English MPs 1640–1648]]
[[Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Essex]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Lay members of the Westminster Assembly]]
[[Category:Roundheads]]
[[Category:Members of Gray's Inn]]


Environmental racism in Turkey


Thomas Coventry, 2nd Baron Coventry

Thomas Coventry, 2nd Baron Coventry (1606 – 27 October 1661) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1625 and 1629 and was subsequently a member of the House of Lords. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Coventry was the son of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry and his first wife Sarah Seabright, daughter of John Seabright. In 1625, he was elected Member of Parliament for Droitwich, and was re-elected the following year. In 1628 he was elected MP for Worcestershire and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.
Coventry was appointed one of the Council of Wales and the Marches on 2 May 1633. He became a Compensation Commissioner for the Avon on 9 March 1637. On 14 January 1640, he succeeded to the title Baron Coventry on the death of his father. He was joint Commissioner of Array in Worcestershire in 1642, and signed the Engagement with the King at York. In 1642 he defended Worcester against the Parliamentary army, but was defeated by Colonel Sandys. He submitted to Parliament in October 1642, and in May 1643 was given permission to go abroad on health grounds. He was back in England the following year. On 15 January 1644, the East India Company were ordered to freeze the money and goods he had in the Company. On 15 April, he was assessed at £3,000 and on 20 September he was assessed at £1,500 by the House of Lords. On 11 April 1645 all his goods and chattels in his house at Westminster were to be seized, inventoried and sold in order to pay off the fine of £1,500.
He was suspected of having Royalist sympathies in 1651, and for supporting Charles II. He was cleared of the charges, but was imprisoned for a time in 1655.
Coventry died from gangrene in his toes at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 27 October 1661, at the age of about 54. He was buried at Croome d’Abitot church. In his will, dated 31 August 1657, he left £500 in charity to the poor of Evesham.
Coventry married Mary Craven, daughter of Sir William Craven, former Lord Mayor of London, on 2 April 1627. His younger son Thomas was created Earl of Coventry in 1697.


Jacques Judah Lyons

Jacques Judah Lyons (August 25, 1814 - August 12, 1877) was a Surinamese-born American rabbi. He was a co-founder of the Mount Sinai) Hospital.
Biography.
Lyons was a son of Judah and Mary Lyons, and born in Surinam on August 25, 1814. He received his education in Suriname, and was rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation there, Neveh Shalom, for five years. He left Surinam in 1837 and went to Richmond, Va., where for two years he was rabbi of the Congregation Beth Schalom. In 1839 he was elected rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel, New York City, in succession to Isaac Seixas, and served the congregation thirty-eight years, successfully combating every movement to change the form of worship in his congregation.
Lyons was among those who founded The Jews' (now Mount Sinai) Hospital; he was actively concerned in founding the Jewish Board of Delegates and Hebrew Free Schools and was superintendent of the Polonies Talmud Torah School, in connection with his own congregation. For many years he was president of the Hebra Hased ve-Emet and of the Sampson Simpson Theological Fund. Lyons was an ardent student and collected a library that is now in possession of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1857, in connection with the Rabbi Dr. Abraham de Sola of Montreal, he prepared and published a Hebrew calendar covering fifty years, together with an essay on the Jewish calendar system.
Lyons died in New York City on August 12, 1877.


Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves

The Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, also known as the Birmingham and West Bromwich Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, was founded in Birmingham, England, on 8 April 1825. It was the first anti-slavery society for women, and sometimes referred to as the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Lucy Townsend and Mary Lloyd were the first joint secretaries, while other founding members included Elizabeth Heyrick, Sophia Sturge and Sarah Wedgwood.
The society was supported by the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (Anti-Slavery Society).
Around 1830, it became the Female Society for Birmingham. By 1831 there were over seventy similar anti-slavery organisations.


Dud Dudley

Dudd (Dud) Dudley (1600–1684) was an English metallurgist, who fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War as a soldier, military engineer, and supplier of munitions. He was one of the first Englishmen to smelt iron ore using coke.
Background and early life.
Dudley was the illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley of Dudley Castle. Dudd was the fourth of Lord Dudley's eleven children by his 'concubine' Elizabeth, the daughter of William Tomlinson (she died 3 July 1629). Strictly, he was called Dudd Dudley otherwise Tomlinson. His eldest brother was Robert Dudley of Netherton Hall. Dudd married Eleanor Heaton, (1606–1675), on 12 October 1626, at St. Helen's Church, Worcester.
Lord Dudley (though he had a legitimate son, and a granddaughter by him, as well as four legitimate daughters and numerous grandchildren) seemed to have attended to the up-bringing of his natural children by Elizabeth Tomlinson; he educated and provided for them. On the other hand, he failed to support his wife and legitimate children, even after he was imprisoned and ordered to do so by the Privy Council in 1597. Dudd was raised at Himley Hall. As a youth, he began his study on the various processes of iron manufacturing at his father's iron works near Dudley. His speculations in the improvement of iron production were encouraged by his father, who gave him an education intended to enhance his practical abilities.
Ironmaster.
In 1618, at the age of 20, Dud left Balliol College, Oxford, to take charge of his father's furnace and forges on Pensnett Chase. Later he referred to 'wood and charcoal growing then scant and pit-coles ... abounding', and so began to use the latter. He turned the coal into coke, a hard, foam-like mass of almost pure carbon made from bituminous coal, and later claimed to have perfected the use of coal instead of charcoal for iron production.
Dudley probably modified his furnace to accommodate the new process, but the quantity of iron initially produced was reduced to about three tons a week from a furnace. Dudd wrote to his father, then in London, informing him of his success, desiring him to immediately seek a patent from King James. Dudley's patent, dated 22 February 1622, was taken out by (and in the name of) his father Edward, Lord Dudley.
Dudley proceeded with the manufacture of iron at Pensnett, and Cradley in Staffordshire, and a year after the patent was granted he was able to send a considerable quantity of the new iron for trial to the Tower of London. Under the King's command, many experiments were made with it: its qualities were fairly tested, and it was pronounced "good merchantable iron".
The Black Country, including Dudley, was already a major centre of iron manufacture in England ("Within ten miles of Dudley Castle there were 20,000 smiths of all sorts and many iron works at that time within that circle decayed for want of wood"). With such an obvious abundance of coal, some places being found in seams up to ten feet thick, and ironstone four feet in depth immediately under the coal, and with limestone adjacent to both, the ability to make iron with coal (coke) held out the prospect of great profits, but Dudd Dudley failed to obtain them. As water power was the main means of driving bellows for furnaces, as well as drop hammers, rolling and sharpening mills, iron production and working in Staffordshire and Worcestershire was concentrated along the small rivers: the Worcestershire Stour, its main tributary, the River Smestow, and many smaller streams in their catchment.
The Great Mayday Flood.
The new works had been in successful operation little more than a year, when a flood swept away Dudley's principal works at Cradley, and otherwise caused considerable damage downstream.
"At the market town called Stourbridge," according to Dudd, "although the author sent with speed to preserve the people from drowning, and one resolute man was carried from the bridge there in the day time, the nether part of the town was so deep in water that the people had much ado to preserve their lives in the uppermost rooms of their houses".
Dudd, undaunted and with a passion, set to work repairing his furnaces and forges at some great cost; and in a short time was again back in full production. However, the "charcoal ironmasters ... did him much prejudice, not only by detaining his stock, but disparaging the iron".
In order to ascertain the quality of the product by testing it on a large scale, the King commanded Dudd to send to the Tower of London quantities of all the various sorts of bar iron made by him, fit for the "making of muskets, carbines, and iron for great bolts for shipping; which iron", records Dudd, "being so tried by artists and smiths, the iron masters and iron-mongers were all silenced until the 21st year of King James's reign".
Later Furnaces.
However, this favourable report on his iron did not prevent him being "outed of his works and inventions ... by the Iron-masters and others wrongfully". This certainly applies to his second furnace, at Himley, which his father let this to Richard Foley in 1625, and may well apply to Cradley, which was later in Foley's hands.
Afterwards he built a new furnace, Hasco or Hascod Furnace, near what is now Askew Bridge at Gornal.
Dudley was economical with the truth. Hasco furnace was built in 1626, but in November 1627 he let it to Roger Hill, who assigned it to Foley. After Foley had used it for nine months he heard that Lord Dudley was claiming it and "durst not bring any stock" there, but continued to pay the rent. Dudd and Foley had an oral agreement for the supply of ironstone, but Lord Dudley discharged the workmen from the mines, and stopped Foley's horses carrying the ironstone until Foley paid for it (again) to Lord Dudley. Ultimately, his father 'entered' the furnace in 1631, and cut the dam. The bellows were probably cut without Lord Dudley's approval, but his re-entry to forfeit the lease was lawful and thus not a riot.
After ironmaking.
Dudley "claimed" the manor of Himley, because his father had at one point put this in his name, probably to avoid it being seized by his creditors. This led to Chancery proceedings, which he lost, spending a time in prison for contempt of court.
He obtained a new patent in 1638 for smelting metals with pitcoal, but was probably unable to exploit it. Of this period, he wrote:
Civil War.
He served as an army officer in the Bishops War and on the Royalist side throughout the English Civil War. He served as a colonel in the Royalist Army and was general of the ordnance to Prince Maurice, and then Lord Astley. He may have supervised the modernisation of the Worcester City defences in time for the aborted siege of 1643, and was taken prisoner at the end of the Siege of Worcester in 1646. In 1648, he and others were captured by Andrew Yarranton (a Parliamentary captain) in "Bosco Bello" (Boscobel) woods, while they were planning a Royalist rising to seize Dawley Castle. He was sent to London and tried for treason. He and his fellow conspirators were condemned to death, but escaped during "sermon time" from the Gatehouse, the prison at Westminster where they were held.
He escaped to Bristol and lived in hiding as "Dr Hunt", a medical doctor. In 1651, shortly before the 1638 patent was due to expire, he set up lead smelting works in partnership with connections of a medical patient, using an "old belhouse for the bloomery" at Clifton, Bristol. This was probably a reverberatory furnace and the first known use of such for this purpose. This did not work out, but it is possible that he was associated with a later venture at Stockley Slade (now Nightingale Valley) on the other side of the Avon.
"Metallum Martis".
After the Restoration, Dudd's lands reverted to him, having been sold by "usurping powers" in about 1652.
His book "Metallum Martis" (1665—quoted above) is Dudd Dudley's personal view of his discovery, after he had unsuccessfully petitioned King Charles II, to restore his public offices and patents.
Metallum Martis may be regarded as a prospectus, seeking investors to exploit his invention of coke smelting. This appears to have been successful as a furnace was built at Dudley (whose existence is recalled by the street name "Furnace Road". In subsequent litigation, Sir Clement Clerke (one of the partners) stated, Dud Dudley did heretofore build a furnace for making iron or melting ironstone to be blown or set on work by the strength of men and horses without the help of water. This melted down "ironstone with charcoal made of wood and pitcoal". Such a horsemill-powered blast furnace is almost certainly unique, and only operated for a few years.
Dudley's last years are obscure. He probably lived in Friar Street, Worcester, where he had a house derived from his first wife's family. He may have practised as a doctor there. He married again and had a son in his old age. He died in 1684, at age 85. He was buried in the parish church St. Helen's, Worcester (25 October 1684), where he had erected a monument to his first wife, bearing the following Latin inscription (see illustration):
The date of Dudley's death does not appear on the monument.
Posterity.
The existence of "Metallum Martis" meant that many historians have noted his achievements. Dud has been seen as the forerunner of later success by Abraham Darby and others in smelting iron with coke in the 18th century. However it remains unclear to what extent he was its technological ancestor rather than a mere precursor. For example, in the 1950s it was shown by chemical analysis that the coal that Dud Dudley used was not suitable as a raw material for coke while the coal used by Abraham Darby was suitable, leading Richard Kirby to state in 1990 that "The consensus among experts is that Dudley was a wishful thinker ... and that he never did what he set out in his youth to do".
In "Metallum Martis", Dudley named a relative of his first wife to whom he would leave his knowledge, but nothing came of that. However, there are two possible linkages to later developments:


Sir William Codrington, 2nd Baronet

Sir William Codrington, 2nd Baronet (1719-1792) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1747 and 1792.
Codrington was the eldest son of Sir William Codrington, 1st Baronet of Dodington Park and his wife Elizabeth Bethall and was born on 26 October 1719. He was educated at Westminster School and University College, Oxford. He married Anne Acton of Fulham, Middlesex on 22 February 1736. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1738 and inherited large plantations in the West Indies at Barbuda and Betty's Hope.
Codrington was elected Member of Parliament for Beverley in 1747 and was re-elected in 1755. In 1761 he stood as MP for Tewkesbury, and was re-elected in the elections of 1768, 1774, 1780 1784 and 1790. He is only recorded as speaking in Parliament once which was on the game bill on 29 March 1762.
Codrington died on 11 March 1792 and was succeeded by his son Sir William Codrington, 3rd Baronet. However he disinherited his son, Sir William and bequeathed his estates to his nephew Christopher Bethell-Codrington.


2008 Macedonian parliamentary election

Early parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia on 1 June 2008, after the Assembly voted to dissolve itself on 12 April 2008. The result was a victory for the VMRO-DPMNE-led alliance, which won 63 of the 120 seats in the Assembly.
Background.
The early elections were proposed by the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) after Greece vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO at the 2008 Bucharest summit over the Macedonia naming dispute. The DUI's request was supported by the ruling coalition of VMRO–DPMNE and the Democratic Party of Albanians. Although the opposition Social Democratic Union and Liberal Democratic Party boycotted the vote, 70 of the 120 MPs voted in favour of the motion, with all others absent from the vote.
Elections had not been due until 2010, and these were the first early elections since independence in 1991.
Campaign.
The two major parties formed coalitions before the elections. VMRO-DPMNE formed a coalition called "For a Better Macedonia", whilst the SDSM formed the eight-party "Sun – Coalition for Europe" alliance.
For a Better Macedonia.
The For a Better Macedonia coalition included VMRO-DPMNE, the Socialist Party of Macedonia, the Democratic Union, Democratic Renewal of Macedonia, the Democratic Party of Turks, the Democratic Party of Serbs, the Union of Roma in Macedonia, VMRO-Macedonia, the United Party for Emancipation, the Party of Justice, the Party of Democratic Action of Macedonia, the Party of Vlachs of Macedonia, the Party for Roma Integration, the People's Movement of Macedonia, the Democratic Party of the Bosniaks, the Party of the Greens, the Democratic Union of the Roma, the Workers' Agricultural Party of the Republic of Macedonia, and the Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia.
Sun – Coalition for Europe.
Sun – Coalition for Europe included the SDSM, the New Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party of Macedonia, the New Alternative, the Green Party of Macedonia, the Party of Pensioners of the Republic of Macedonia and the Democratic Union of Vlachs in Macedonia.
Opinion polls.
According to a poll of 1,108 citizens taken between 11 April and 15 April 2008, VMRO-DPMNE had a 29% rating, followed by SDSM with 11% and DUI with 10%. A poll from 24 April and 25 April 2008 gave VMRO-DPMNE 26%, SDSM 12%, DUI 11% and DPA 7%.
Other polls saw For a Better Macedonia lead with 37% to Sun's 18%, followed by DUI with 11% and DPA with 6%.
Conduct.
The tense elections involved episodes of violence, mostly between rival ethnic Albanian parties, the DUI and DPA. Shootings were reported in the Albanian-populated North-West of the country. A gunman opened fire on a Macedonian police unit patrolling the village of Aračinovo, north of the capital Skopje. One person was killed and several were wounded.
The situation appeared to have calmed down by the time polls closed at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT).
There were also reports of ballot stuffing and allegations of fraud in villages around Skopje during the early hours of voting.
Due to violence on the polling day, polling had to be repeated in parts of three election districts (193 polling stations out of 2,976) on 15 June 2008; about 170,000 voters were eligible to vote in the rerun, and the results determined which of the two main Albanian parties will join VMRO–DPMNE in government.
Aftermath.
The Party for Democratic Prosperity announced after the election on 3 June 2008 that it would merge with the DPA, effectively making the DPA the larger of the two main Albanian parties and increasing its chances in the repeated elections.


Gustav Badin

Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert Badin né "Couchi", known as Badin (1747 or 1750 – 1822) was a Swedish court servant (Kammermohr) and diarist. Originally a slave, he was the foster son and servant of Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden and a servant to his foster sister Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden. His original name was Couchi, but he was commonly known as "Badin" ('mischief-maker' or 'trickster').
Early life.
Badin was born either in Africa or in the Danish island Saint Croix. He himself said that the only thing he remembered about his past was his parents' hut burning, but it is not known whether this happened in Africa or in Saint Croix. It is known that he lived in Saint Croix during his childhood.
He was taken to Europe, probably on a Danish East Indies ship, from where he was bought by a Danish captain, who gave him to statesman Anders von Resier, who, in turn, gave him as a present to the Queen of Sweden, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, in 1757.
The date of his birth is not really known. 1747 is a traditional year of his birth, but within the court and the Timmerman Order, the year was registered as 1750, and this is considered more correct by modern historians.
Upbringing at court.
The queen decided to make him an experiment in upbringing; she was interested in science and had founded a science academy, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, where, among other topics, the origin of man and civilisation was discussed, such as the nature of "savages", the noble savage and the natural human, and in Badin, she saw an opportunity to test the theories of Rousseau and Linné. She instructed him in Christianity and taught him to read and write, but after this, he was allowed to live entirely according to his own will and judgement.
He grew up as a playmate of the children in the royal family, who were brought up in a much more restricted way than he was, and was allowed to speak to them in a natural way and even fight and tease them, which was considered scandalous. He knew all the secret passages within the royal castles and, as it was said, all the secrets within its walls. Contemporary diaries describe how he climbed on the chairs of the king and queen, called everyone "you" instead of using their titles, talked rudely to the nobility and ridiculed religion when interrogated about the bible by Countess Brahe, which made everyone laugh; he was very witty and verbal.
The relationship with his royal foster-siblings was in general described as good, no matter that he called King Gustav "Gustav the Willen" and Duke Charles "Mr Tobacco". He was close to his foster-sister, Sophia Albertina, and wrote a poem for her on her birthday (1764):
"I, one of the Black PeopleUnfamiliar with this country's customsMake a wish from my heartTo our Princess too."
Court life in adulthood.
On 11 December 1768, he was baptised in the chapel of Drottningholm Palace with the entire royal family, except Prince Charles, as his godparents.
He was described as an intelligent and reliable person with self-confidence, and though he was informed about many of the secrets of the royal family and the court, he never revealed anything, and was very loyal to the royal house throughout his entire life.
Badin sometimes helped the court poet Bellman to compose verses for special occasions, and some of them were published in his name. Badin participated in plays at the French Theatre in Bollhuset; he is listed as a dancer in a ballet in the 1769–70 season and played the main part in "Arlequin Sauvage" in the 1770–71 season, a play in which a "savage" meets civilization, and an erotic play by Marivaux.
In 1782, when the queen lay on her death-bed in her country residence, she sent Badin to Stockholm with the key to her files. After her death, Badin acquired the files and handed them in the custody of prince Fredrick Adolf and princess Sophia Albertina, who burnt them The young king, Gustav III of Sweden, became enraged. They had an argument and the king said; "Do you not know, you black person, that such things may cost your head?" He replied: "My head is in the power of your Majesty, but I could not act in a different way."
Private life.
The social position of Badin is not quite clear. When his foster mother queen dowager Louisa Ulrika in 1782, he and his foster sister princess Sophia Albertina were no longer the wards of the queen dowager and her household, but now under the responsibility of the king, Gustav III himself. After the death of Queen Lovisa Ulrika, Badin was given three farmhouses outside Stockholm by the Swedish king, which gave him an income and some financial security. He was also given several honorary titles such as chamberlain, court secretary, ballet master and Assessor (a judge's or magistrate's assistant). Despite having the honorary title "Assessor", which gave him the right to refer to himself as an official, he refused and replied to the king: "Have you ever seen a black assessor?". Instead preferred to call himself farmer, referring to the two farms he owned.
Badin was married twice but died childless. The rumors that he was the father of the alleged secret daughter of Sophia Albertina have never been confirmed. He married the grocer's daughter Elisabet Swart (d. 1798) in 1782, and the ship carpenter's daughter Magdalena Eleonora Norell (1779-c. 1840) in 1799. He did have a child with his first wife, but the child died in infancy in 1784, and no other children are noted. He and his second wife are however noted to have had a foster daughter named Christina living with them.
He was elected to the orders of Par Bricole, Svea Orden, Timmermansorden and the Freemasons.
During his later life, he was reportedly supported financially by princess Sophia Albertina. His home is described as neither rich nor poor but comfortable, and him and his wife are noted to have been generous and often having guests, notably his wife's relatives, living with them. They shared their time between their home in Stockholm and their two farms in Uppland, when Badin gradually spent less and less time at court.
Badin collected an extensive library consisting of some 900 volumes, mostly in French. It was sold in Stockholm in the year of his death 1822 with a printed catalogue. This makes him one of the first recorded book collectors of African origin.
Context.
Badin was not the only African brought to Sweden during the 18th century; in the churches of Stockholm, other "morians" (which was a name for black people) were baptised, such as Johannes in 1757, Adolf Ulrik in 1759 and Zamore (also a court servant) in 1772, Vulcain in the Royal Chapel in Stockholm in 1776 and a woman, Daphne, in Småland in 1783. Duke Charles bought "the most beautiful morian Sweden have ever seen" according to Gjörwell in 1771, and in 1802, a black teenager of the Duke, Figaro, was involved in a love affair at court. Also, non-black converts are recorded, such as Pluto from India in 1785 and Native Americans in the presence of nobility and a large gathering of the people.
Legacy.
Badin is a character in the novel "Morianen" by Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe in 1838, where he was described as the participator in all the secrets and greater events of the royal family, from the revolution of 1772 to the deposition of 1809. Though this was exaggerated, it was nevertheless a more-or-less true image of him.
His diaries, written in French, are preserved in the library of the Uppsala University.


Astryna

Astryna () or Ostrino (in ; in ) is a town in Grodno Region in Belarus. In 2015, its population is 1,847 inhabitants.
Géographie.
The village is located 19 km north-east of Chtchoutchyn and 47 km east of Grodno.
History.
First mentioned in 1450. In 1921, its population of 1572 included 1067 Jews.<br>During World War II, the city is occupied by German troops from June 1941 till July 1944. An open ghetto was established in October 1941. There were also Jews from others villages, including Vassilichki or Dembrovo. Shortly after October 12, 1941, about 80 Jews from the ghetto were executed at the Jewish cemetery. In Ostrino, there were frequent, isolated shootings of Jews, also in the Jewish cemetery At the end of October 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and the Jews transported to a transit camp in Kolbassino, south of Grodno. Initially jailed in the Kolbassino camp for about a month, with about 22 000 to 28 000 Jews from nearby communities, the Ostrino Jews were sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp at the end of November 1942. Bodies at the Jewish cemetery were exhumed a few years ago during the construction of a gas pipe.


Jules de Polignac

Jules Auguste Armand Marie de Polignac, Count of Polignac (; 14 May 17802 March 1847), then Prince of Polignac, and briefly 3rd Duke of Polignac in 1847, was a French statesman and ultra-royalist politician after the Revolution. He served as prime minister under Charles X, just before the July Revolution in 1830 that overthrew the senior line of the House of Bourbon.
Early life.
Born in Versailles, Jules was the younger son of Jules, 1st Duke of Polignac, and Gabrielle de Polastron, a confidante and favourite of Queen Marie-Antoinette. Due to his mother's privileged position, the young Jules was raised in the environment of the court of Versailles, where his family occupied a luxurious suite of thirteen rooms. His sister, Aglaé, was married to the duc de Guîche at a young age, helping to cement the Polignac family's position as one of the leaders of high society at Versailles.
With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Jules's mother and her circle were forced to flee abroad due to threats against their lives. She had been one of the most consistent supporters of absolutism, and she bequeathed these political sympathies to her son following her death in 1793.
Marriages and issue.
Jules married twice. He was married firstly, in 1816, at London to Barbara Campbell (Ardneaves House, Islay 22 Aug. 1788 – Saint-Mandé 23 May 1819), a young Scotswoman, who later returned with him to France, with whom he had two children:
After his first wife's death in 1819, he married in London, on 3 June 1824, Charlotte, comtesse de Choiseul, widow of comte Cesar de Choiseul (d. 1821), "née" the Honourable (Maria) Charlotte Parkyns (St. Marylebone, 6 Jan. 1792 – 1/2 Sep. 1864). She was the youngest child (of six children) of Thomas Parkyns, 1st Baron Rancliffe (created 1795) and his wife Elizabeth Anne James, and sister of George Augustus Anne Parkyns, Lord Rancliffe and Henrietta, Lady Rumbold (1789–1833), wife of Sir William Rumbold, 3rd Bt. He had met her while she was renewing her passport at the London embassy, where he was the Ambassador (1823–1829). They had five children, two of whom were born while their father was (comfortably) in prison:
The couple's marriage was annulled by the French Chamber of Peers, but Jules and Charlotte went to England after his release in 1836, and they renewed their vows before the French consul in 1837.
Career.
Returning to France, which was then ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, Jules continued in his zealous loyalty to the exiled Royal Family. In 1804, a year after his sister's death, Jules was implicated in the conspiracy of Cadoudal and Pichegru to assassinate Bonaparte, and was imprisoned until 1813. After the restoration of the Bourbons, he was rewarded with various honours and positions. He held various offices, received from the pope his title of "Prince," in 1820, and in 1823, King Louis XVIII made him ambassador to Great Britain. A year later, his mother's former friend ascended the throne as King Charles X. Polignac's political sympathies did not alter, and he was one of the most conspicuous ultra-royalists during the Restoration era.
At the time, it was rumoured that Polignac supported ultra-royalist policies because he thought he was receiving inspiration from the Virgin Mary. There is little historical evidence for this story, however. There is no mention of such motivation in Polignac's personal memoirs or in the memoirs of the Restoration court.
On 8 August 1829, Charles X appointed him to the ministry of foreign affairs and in the following November, Polignac became president of the council, effectively the most powerful politician in France. His appointment was considered a step towards overthrowing the constitution and Polignac, with other ministers, was held responsible for the decision to issue the Four Ordinances, which were the immediate cause of the revolution of July 1830.
Upon the outbreak of revolt, he fled, wandering for some time among the wilds of Normandy before he was arrested at Granville. At his trial before the Chamber of Peers, he was condemned and sentenced to 'perpetual' imprisonment at the château in Ham. But he benefited by the amnesty of 1836, when his sentence was commuted to exile. During his captivity, he wrote "Considerations politiques" (1832). Afterwards, he spent several years in exile in England before being permitted to re-enter France, on condition that he never again take up his abode in Paris.
According to the "Legacies of British Slave-Ownership" at the University College London, de Polignac was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £ in ) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). de Polignac was associated with three different claims, he owned 628 slaves in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and received a £15,765 payment at the time (worth £ in ). Although a "foreigner", de Polignac had connections in the British Empire due to his Scottish wife, Barbara Campbell (1788–1819), daughter of Duncan Campbell of Ardnave.
From his second marriage to Maria-Charlotte, Jules de Polignac had fathered seven children, including Prince Ludovic de Polignac (1827–1904), a lieutenant-colonel in the French Army who participated in the colonization of Algeria; Prince Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac (1832–1913), a major-general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War; and Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834–1901), a composer, musical theorist and proponent of the octatonic scale.
Jules died at St. Germain in 1847 from the effects of his imprisonment. About one month prior, he had assumed the title of duc de Polignac upon the death of his older brother, Armand, who had died without children.
Comte Pierre de Polignac, later Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois (father of Rainier III of Monaco and therefore an ancestor of the entire current princely family) is descended from a different and cadet branch of the Polignac family, which has the comital rank only. Pierre was the youngest son, descended from the youngest son of the first Duke of Polignac.


William Cage (Roundhead)

William Cage (died 4 November 1645) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1614 and 1645. He supported the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War.
Cage was the eldest son of Edward Cage of Ipswich (d. 1607) and his wife Beatrix (d. 1631), previously the wife of Thomas Wood. He was a portman of Ipswich and seven times bailiff of the town.
Cage was elected Member of Parliament for Ipswich in 1614, 1621, 1624, 1625 and 1626.
Elected again in 1628, he held the seat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule for eleven years without parliament. He was then re-elected for the Short Parliament in April 1640 and the Long Parliament in November 1640, holding the seat until his death.
Cage had a country house at Burstall, Suffolk with an estate considered at about £300 per annum. He was "reputed a wise man". He died in 1645 and was buried in the church at Burstall.
Cage's daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Blosse and their son Thomas inherited the estate at Burstall.


Obnovlenie

Obnovlenie (Cyrillic: ; Russian for "Renewal"), officially the Republican Party "Obnovlenie", is a political party in the unrecognized state of Transnistria. It has been the parliamentary majority in the Supreme Council since 2005.
History.
The party was founded as a political non-governmental organization in 2000. Then in the legislative elections of 10 December 2000, it won 7 out of 43 seats.
In the 27 March 2005 local council elections, the party campaigned under the current name above, and won the majority of the seats for the first time in its five-year history. It improved on 11 December 2005 to win 23 of those 43 seats (with another 6 seats going to allies). Since the legislative elections of 2005, it is the majority party in the Supreme Council. The party's leaders in parliament during 2005 were Mikhail Burla and Yevgeny Shevchuk. The latter was elected speaker (chairman) of parliament following the party's sweeping December 2005 win.
It was officially registered as a full political party in June 2006.
There was a debate regarding the position of Obnovlenie in regards to Transnistrian president Igor Smirnov. Most analysts pointed to the party's opposition status, noting that it was not allied with Smirnov, whose party, Respublika, lost several seats to Obnovlenie in the 2005 parliamentary election. However, others claim that the interests of the "Smirnov faction" are represented in all political movements of Transnistria, including Obnovlenie.
Obnovlenie strengthened their majority in the 2010 elections to 25 seats. In the 2011 presidential election, deputy party chairman Anatoliy Kaminski ran against incumbent Smirnov and Shevchuk, who ran as an independent. Shevchuk defeated Kaminski in the run-off.
During Shevchuk's presidency, Obnovlenie held a majority in the Supreme Council of Transnistria and was mildly opposed to his policies. On 25 December 2012, the Supreme Council voted against a new state budget proposed by the government. Thus Transnistria is currently functioning without adopted state budget for the first time in its history. In spite of attempts to find compromise and formation of the joint commission to resolve conflict, these attempts did not lead to any results. Between 2012 and 2013, members of the Supreme Council from Obnovlenie voted against a number of important bills proposed by President Shevchuk and Prime Minister Pyotr Stepanov, including bills aimed to reform the Internal Revenue Code and introduce value-added taxation in Transnistria.
In the 2015 legislative elections, Obnovlenie strengthened their majority by winning 10 more seats in the Supreme Council. Their candidate for the 2016 presidential election, Vadim Krasnoselsky, was also victorious, defeating the incumbent Shevchuk with 62.3% of the vote.


Kyrgyz community in Turkey

The Kyrgyz people in Turkey arrived in Turkey in small groups as a result of invasion of Central Asia by Russian Empire during the 20th century.
History.
The Kyrgyz community that lives in Ulupamirköy of Erciş ilçe (district) in Van Province have paid particular attention to protect their language. As these people have been living here since 1980s, they sometimes are called as Kyrgyz of Van. There are approximately 5,000 people in this community. The historical background of these people is related to the Pamir region of Afghanistan. There is another Kyrgyz community living in Turkey. Another group of Kyrgyz people in Turkey moved either to Istanbul city or returned to the Pamir region in Afghanistan. Interesing fact from Bob Dylan.
In his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kirghiz and her family originated from the Kağızman district of Kars Province in northeastern Turkey.
Tribes.
Although most of the Kyrgyz tribes (boy in Turkish) in Istanbul city, Turkey, Ulupamir village is significantly important in terms of density of Kyrgyz people that live here. There are many similarities between these people and Kyrgyz people of Kyrgyzstan in terms of their culture. Despite the fact, Kyrgyz community of Turkey has been also affected by the local population of Turkey so that their language is slightly different from the language of Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan.
Association.
The largest association of Kyrgyz people in Turkey is Kyrgyz Turks Culture and Solidarity Association.
References.
https://archive.org/details/chronicles00bobd/mode/2up


Sir Adam Browne, 2nd Baronet

Sir Adam Browne, 2nd Baronet (c. 1626 – 1690) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1661 and 1689. He fought in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.
Browne was the son of Sir Ambrose Browne, 1st Baronet of Betchworth Castle, Surrey and his wife Elizabeth Adam, daughter of William Adam of Saffron Waldon. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and although his father, as MP for Surrey, had supported the Parliamentary side, Browne supported the Royalist army in the Civil War. He was a colonel of the horse in the Royalist Army until 1646 and took part in the Surrey uprising in 1648.
In 1660 Browne was ineligible to stand in the Convention Parliament. However he became a J.P. for Surrey in March 1660, a major in the regiment of Sir Ashley Cooper from July to November 1660 and a Deputy Lieutenant and commissioner for assessment in August 1660. In 1661 he was elected Member of Parliament for Surrey in the Cavalier Parliament and succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father later in the same year. He held the seat until 1679. He was re-elected for Surrey in 1685 and held the seat until 1689. He was a staunch opponent of religious toleration and was temporarily deprived of local offices at the end the reign of James II.
Browne married Philippa Cooper, daughter of Sir John Cooper, 1st Baronet of Rockbourne and Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. His son Ambrose Browne who was MP for Bletchingley predeceased him and the baronetcy became extinct.
Browne died in 1690 and was buried at Dorking on 3 November.


Mora witch trial

The Mora witch trial, which took place in Mora, Sweden, in 1669, is the most internationally famous Swedish witch trial. Reports of the trial spread throughout Europe, and a provocative German illustration of the execution is considered to have had some influence on the Salem witch trials. It was the first mass execution during the great Swedish witch hunt of 1668–1676.
Background.
After the trial against Märet Jonsdotter in Härjedalen in 1668, rumours began to spread throughout Sweden that witches abducted children to the Witches' Sabbath of Satan in Blockula. This caused an hysteria among parents and a series of witch trials around the country, where children pointed out adults for having abducted them to take to Satan riding on cattle taken from the barns of wealthy farmers.
In Älvdalen, thirty people were put on trial and eighteen sentenced to death. The national court revoked eleven death sentences and executed six women and one man 19 May 1669. These people were executed on the testimonies of children, which was to be common during this witch hunt.
The trial.
In March 1669, the hysteria reached Mora. The bailiff informed the governor: "In Älvdalen and Mora, children and teenagers are being seduced by old witches unto the Devil". In June, distressed parents forced the governor to send a list of 35 children, claimed to have been abducted to Satan, to the capital with an appeal to send a commission to Mora to deal with the problem, because if: "the old is not dealt with as it should, there is a risk that will become much worse than anyone can imagine". In May 1669, King Charles XI created a commission with instructions to use prayer to redeem the accused, rather than torture or imprisonment.
The commission, half of whose members consisted of priests, arrived at Mora on August 12, 1669 and, in front of three thousand spectators, convened a hearing on August 13. Over five days, 60 accused adults and numerous children were interrogated. The suffering children were examined and questioned one by one apart and it is said they all gave the same story. The witches claimed a devil called Locyta stopped them from confessing, but he left and allowed the witches to confess.
The witches confessed to many things and declared they used Enchanted Tools. When the judges asked to see some of their tricks, the witches could no longer do any magic. The judges declared that since the witches had confessed they could no longer practice witchcraft. The witches said the Devil was threatening them with an iron fork, and was going to throw them into a burning pit if they continued with their confessions. The official responsible for recording their statements openly admitted he did not bother writing down many of them, as they were all so similar. There were so many accused that the trials were conducted at two different locations in the village.
The evidence fell against the accused fell into three categories:
Based only on this testimony from children, on August 23 the commission identified seventy adult witches, twenty-three of whom confessed and were executed on August 25 with the remaining forty-seven sent to Falun for later execution. In addition, fifteen children were executed with fifty six children sentenced to various other corporal punishments such as "running the gauntlet" or being lashed with rods. The number of seduced children was about 300.
The condemned at the Mora witch trial.
Six other death sentences were suspended because of unclarity, a good reputation and the hope of improvement—among them also a man, Sven Maas from Selja.
The execution.
The execution took place on 24 August 1669. The condemned were to be decapitated, after which their corpses were to be burnt at the stake. The report of the execution describes the event: "The sinners walked quickly, except the two last ones, who began to sigh and moan, although not such as to delay the procession". The stakes had been built opposite the church on a sandy peninsula on the other side of the river. On the place of execution, the fourteen women and the man were decapitated with an axe, and their corpses were lifted up unto the stakes: "first seven on the first stake, five at the second and three at the third, a terrifying spectacle", and burnt.
A boy was sentenced to running the gauntlet between the other village boys and 148 children were whipped. Thereafter, the commission left Mora. Additionally six women were subsequently executed.
Aftermath.
The vicar continued to send complaints to the governor about witches. In December 1669, another 60 stood accused of sorcery in Mora, but the local authorities were no longer willing to conduct any witch trials: "the harder you conduct these things, the more dangerous it becomes", wrote the governor, "and the more difficult it seems to me to be able to separate the guilty from the innocent". Therefore, no one was sentenced harsher than to a whipping.
In February 1670, the governor complained that there was suddenly talk of witches everywhere, and that this hysteria was spreading as fire in dry grass. Vicars were constantly writing to him asking for more witch trials, but he refused and advised them to preach to the suspected witches instead.
The government gave the order that a special prayer, the witch prayer, was to be held in the churches of the kingdom: that prayer was said from 1670 to 1677.
The Mora witch trial was the first mass witch trial in the great Swedish witch hunt and, in the following years, it grew until it reached its peak in the Torsåker witch trials of 1675, and stopped after the execution of Malin Matsdotter in the capital. Descriptions of the trials appeared in Balthasar Bekker's "De Betoverde Weereld" (1691) (translated into English as "The World Bewitched", (1695)) as well as Joseph Glanvill's Saducismus Triumphatus (1683). The famous German illustration of the execution depicts the event incorrectly, as it depicts the condemned being executed by burning alive, as they were in Germany, rather than decapitated, as they were in Sweden.