Ajaccio Cathedral

Ajaccio Cathedral, officially the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio (French: "Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Ajaccio") and also known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of Saint Mary (), is a Roman Catholic church located in Ajaccio, Corsica. The cathedral is the ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Ajaccio, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Marseille. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and is in the Baroque/Mannerist architectural style.
History.
The present cathedral was built between 1577 and 1593 and is attributed to Italian architect Giacomo della Porta. It was built to replace the former Cathedral of Saint-Croix, destroyed in 1553 in order to make room for developments in the city's defenses, as stated in the permit required by the Council of Ancients in 1559 to the Senate of Genoa and Pope Gregory XIII in order to build a new cathedral. The final stone was laid in 1593 by Jules Guistiniani, made bishop by Pope Sixtus V. It is where Napoleon Bonaparte was baptised on 21 July 1771 and he recited the following on his deathbed in Saint Helena in 1821: "If they forbid my corpse, as they have forbidden my body, deny me a small piece of land in which to be buried, I wish to be buried with my ancestors in Ajaccio Cathedral in Corsica."
The cathedral has been a monument historique (a national heritage site of France) since 30 October 1906.
According to legend, on 15 August 1769, Letizia Buonaparte felt sudden labour pains while in the cathedral. She rushed home to the Buonaparte's home, just steps away, and gave birth to Napoleon on a first floor sofa before she could reach her bedroom upstairs.
Architecture.
Exterior.
Ajaccio Cathedral is built in the style of the Counter-Reformation with an ocher Baroque façade.
Interior.
The present cathedral is smaller than its predecessor. The interior's Latin cross is delineated by the shallow and modestly-sized transept, which is covered by a dome. The central nave is very high and wide itself, but is short in length compared to the rest of the building. It is covered with barrel vault arches reminiscent of the Renaissance era. The building also has two aisles that depart from the front door and go up to the transept, separated in the middle by the seven chapels beside two rows of three columns.
Entering on the right is the marble baptismal font. It is a simple bowl engraved with Giustiniani's coat of arms, surmounted by a Tuscan bronze crown, below which there is a gold inscription, "Heic baptisatus Magnus Imperator" (Latin for "Here is baptised the Great Emperor").
The altar is in polychrome marble, and it was originally located at the Church of the Suffragio in Lucca but was given to the cathedral by Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister in 1809. It has an altarpiece composed of four twisted columns of black marble from Porto Venere. The Corinthian orders have a double pedestal with a collection of marble. The tabernacle dates from the time of the construction of the cathedral and originally stood at the baptismal font. It was then placed at the high altar and stands out for its unorthodox style.
Ajaccio Cathedral has seven side chapels, but the following three are the most prominent:
The cathedral also houses a large pipe organ built in 1849 by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and later restored and electrified by Joël Pétrique.


Timeline of Brighton

The following is a timeline of the history of Brighton, England.


Federgo

The Federgo, also Federitga, was an historic region, situated on the northwestern edge of East Frisia, by the Wadden Sea, which roughly covered the present-day parish of Krummhörn. Before the breach of the Leybucht bay the parish of Norden also belonged to Federgo. The gau probably derives its name from the conspicuous marsh plants growing there.
The Federgo is bordered in the east by the Brokmerland and in the south by the Emsigerland.


Council of Oxford

The Council of Oxford is a historical council where Henry II of England grants Cork and Limerick to English barons, provides for the administration of Leinster and makes his son, John, Lord of Ireland. It was established in the 1170s and lasted until when the Oxford Parliament (1258) known as "Mad Parliament" ended it during the reign of Henry III of England.


Ruth Nicholson

Ruth Nicholson FRCOG (2 December 1884 -18 July 1963) was an English obstetrician and gynaecologist who served as a surgeon in the Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, France during the First World War. For this work she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille d’Honneur des Épidémies by the French government. After the war she specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology as Clinical Lecturer and Gynaecological Surgeon at the University of Liverpool with consultant appointments at Liverpool hospitals. She was a founder member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929, being elevated to fellow of the College in 1931.
Early life.
Ruth Nicholson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the eldest daughter of Margaret Alison Nicholson (née White) and her husband, Rev. Ralph Nicholson (1856 - 1930). Her father, born in Burntisland in Fife, became a vicar in the Church of England initially as curate of St Mark's, Newcastle upon Tyne between 1884–92, vicar of St Stephen's, Low Elswick, between 1892 and 1901 and then as vicar of St. Stephen's, Newcastle upon Tyne. From 1901 to 1904, he was vicar of St John's Church, Stratford, London, then Vicar of St Luke's, Wallsend, 1908-1912.
After schooling at Newcastle Church High School, she studied medicine at the Durham University College of Medicine, Newcastle upon Tyne, graduating in 1909 as the only female student in her year.
Early career.
After graduating she worked in a local dispensary before moving to Edinburgh, her mother's birthplace, where she worked as assistant to Elsie Inglis, at the Edinburgh Hospital for Women and Children at Bruntsfield. The hospital had been established by the pioneer of medical education for women, Sophia Jex-Blake. Following this she worked in a mission hospital in Gaza, where she gained valuable surgical experience. At the outbreak of World War I her application to serve as a field surgeon was accepted by the War Office, but the chief medical officer of the unit she was to join refused to accept a woman surgeon. She applied to Elsie Inglis, who had founded the Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH) organisation, and Inglis happily accepted her former assistant as a surgeon in the SWH hospital unit at Royaumont near Paris, the first SWH unit to be set up. She became second-in-command of the unit under the chief medical officer Frances Ivens, with whom she shared the bulk of the major surgical workload. In May 1918 the bed complement at Royaumont was, at the request of the local French commanders increased to 600 beds. As a result, in July 1918 there were so many admissions that three theatres worked all day and two worked all night. Vera Collum wrote "I do not think the médecin-chef Frances Ivens or the second-in -command Miss Nicholson ever got more than three hours rest in the 24 during that strenuous fortnight."
For her service in treating French soldiers at Royaumont, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille d’Honneur des Épidémies by the French government.
Post war career.
Inspired by her chief Frances Ivens, she decided on a career in obstetrics and gynaecology. Working as a general practitioner in Birkenhead, she prepared for the necessary examinations and became a founder member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) in 1929. Following a recommendation from Frances Ivens she was promoted to Fellow of the College (FRCOG) in 1931. She was appointed Clinical Lecturer and Gynaecological Surgeon at the University of Liverpool in 1930 in succession to Frances Ivens and held consultant appointments at Liverpool hospitals in addition to her own private practice. She was the first woman president of the North of England Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Later life.
She retired to South Devon. Like many of her former colleagues at Royaumont she continued to attend Royaumont reunions until 1960. Towards the end of her life she was nursed by a former Royaumont sister. She died in Exeter in 1963 at the age of 77.


Princess Eleonora of Savoy

Eleonora Maria Teresa of Savoy (28 February 1728 – 14 August 1781) was a Savoyard princess, the eldest daughter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. She died unmarried.
Biography.
"Eleonora" Maria Teresa di Savoia was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia and his second wife, the German Polyxena of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rotenburg. She was born at the Royal Palace of Turin, the city residence of the Savoyard royal family.
She received the forename of her maternal grandmother, Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort.
Her maternal cousins included Victor Amadeus II, Prince of Carignano and his younger sister the future princesse de Lamballe, both of which were born at the court of Savoy. Her paternal cousins included Ferdinand VI of Spain, who was king of Spain at the time of her birth.
She was born to a relatively happy marriage between her parents. Her paternal grandmother Anne Marie d'Orléans died in August 1728 when Eleonora was six months old.
Her mother died in 1735 when Eleonora was six. Thus she was the highest ranking female at the Savoyard court until the marriage of her brother, the future Victor Amadeus III to the Spanish Infanta Maria Antonietta in 1750.
Eleonora, and her sister Maria Luisa, were proposed as brides for Louis, "Dauphin of France", eldest son of Louis XV of France who was their first cousin. The marriage never materialised due to marriage negotiations with the Spanish which led to the dauphin marrying Maria Teresa, an older sister of Maria Antonietta in 1744.
Her two nieces, Princesses Maria Giuseppina and Maria Teresa would later marry two sons of Louis, Dauphin of France in 1771 and 1773 respectively.
The spinster princess died at the Castle of Moncalieri, Turin at the age of 53. She was buried in the Royal Basilica of Superga overlooking Turin. Her sister in law Maria Antonietta died at Moncalieri in 1785.


Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lotharingia

Ezzo ( – 21 March 1034), sometimes called Ehrenfried, a member of the Ezzonid dynasty, was Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1015 until his death. As brother-in-law of Emperor Otto III, father of Queen Richeza of Poland and several other illustrious children, he was one of the most important figures of the Rhenish history of his time.
Life.
Ezzo was the son of the Lotharingian count palatine Herman I (died 996) and his wife Heylwig of Dillingen. He was sent as a child to be educated by Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg (episcopate 923–973), a relative of his mother. Nothing is known about his youth.
Having married Matilda of Germany (died 1025), a daughter of Emperor Otto II and his consort Theophanu, Ezzo became prominent during the reign of his brother-in-law, Emperor Otto III. The marriage was expressly consented by the Dowager Empress Theophanu, probably to rally the powerful family of Ezzo to the throne. Matilda received as dowry out of Ottonian possessions lands in Thuringia and in the Duchy of Franconia (Orlamünde and the East Franconian territories of Coburg and Salz), while her husband gave her as dowry the family estate of Brauweiler near Cologne.
At the death of his father in 996, Herman's rich allodial property was shared between his sons. Ezzo received lands in Cochem on the Mosel river, in Maifeld, the Flamersheimer Wald and estates around Tomburg Castle near Rheinbach, as well as half the usufruct of Villewaldin. About the same time, he must have received the Palatinate and previous comital rights, as he is referred as count in the "Auelgau" in 1015 and as Count Palatine in the "Bonngau" in 1020. He also received the county of "Ruhrgau" with tutelage of Essen Abbey.
Unsuccessful candidate to the imperial throne upon the death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, his relation with the new Ottonian king Henry II was immediately very tensed. Henry disputed Ezzo's ownership of territories, that he defended as his wife's inheritance of late Otto III. The conflict dragged on for years and reached its peak in 1011. Facing disturbances in Lotharingia, and in need for Ezzo's military support, Henry was forced to come to terms. Ezzo's victory led the king to make concessions and to a complete transformation of its policy. He reconciled with Ezzo, recognized its rights of inheritance and gave him the royal territories of Kaiserswerth, Duisburg as well as Saalfeld in Thuringia for renouncing to the throne. He also associated the Ezzonid dynasty to his Eastern policies, and mediated the marriage of Ezzo's daughter Richeza with the heir to the Polish throne Mieszko II Lambert.
These huge territorial concessions made Ezzo one of the most powerful princes in the Empire. Ezzo's growing power and the increased prestige of his house were reflected in the founding of the family, Brauweiler Abbey, the place where his marriage had been celebrated and whose construction begun after a trip to Rome of the couple in 1024. The Benedictine monastery, which was consecrated in 1028 by Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne, was to be the grave and spiritual centre of the Ezzonid dynasty. The first member of the family buried there was Ezzo' wife Matilda, who died on 4 November 1025.
Very little is known about Ezzo's later life, but we are told that he died at a great age at Saalfeld on 21 March 1034, and was buried in Brauweiler.
Ezzo has been quite an impressive personality, even if the reporting on his life and offices, described by the glorifying author of "Fundatio monasterii Brunwilarensis" may be exaggerated. He was mostly active in political affairs when it came to his own interests and the standing of his house, and where he could increase his territories and authority. His dexterous management of the favours of Empress Theophano, Emperor Otto III and later Henry II, testify of his personal ambition and political dexterity.
Children.
Ezzo and Mathilda left three sons and seven daughters. The first two sons, Liudolf and Otto were aimed at perpetuating the dynasty while the third Hermann, was raised to enter the clergy. Of the seven daughters only Richeza was conspicuously married, while the others were placed in monasteries of which they all became abbesses.
After the death of his wife, Ezzo had another son named Henry (1055–1093), later Abbot of Gorze, with a concubine.


Antonio Folc de Cardona y Enriquez

Antonio Folc de Cardona y Enriquez, Viceroy of Sardinia, 1534 - 1549, deceased 1555, was a cadet son of Joan Ramon Folc de Cardona, 1st Duke of Cardona, a.k.a. Joan Ramon Folc IV de Cardona, (1446 - Arbeca, 1513), title awarded in 1482 by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, Marquis of Pallars since 1491, title awarded by the same Royal Couple, 5th Count of Cardona till 1482 and "Aldonza Enriquez y Fernandez de Quiñones", Lady of Elche and Crevillente, born 1450, married 1467, 9th child from the second marriage of Fadrique Enriquez, 2nd hereditary Admiral of Castile, deceased 23 September 1473, with "Teresa Fernandez de Quiñones y de Luna", 4 males/5 females.
He married "Ana Maria de Requesens y Enriquez", daughter of seafarer and naval commander Galceran de Requesens, 1st Count of Palamós, (1439 - Barcelona, 1505).
Their 7 children, 2 males/5 females, were:


Anastasios Michail

Anastasios Michail (, 17th century – 1722) was a member of Berlin's Academy of Sciences.
Michail was born in Naousa. He had his general studies in Ioannina with Georgios Sougdouris as his teacher of rhetoric and philosophy. In 1702 he met with distinguished German theologians in Constantinople. Later he went to Halle and was still later elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He produced enlightening work for Christians and Greeks in Moscow, where he was renowned for his theological and philosophical knowledge. He was well acquainted with the Greek and Hebrew languages. He died in Russia in 1722.


Derveni (Metsovo)

In various Turkish firmans, the area of Metsovo is referred to as "derbent" (, "passage") and its residents as derbendcis, meaning guards of the passage. Such passages ( "dervenia") constituted key aspects of the land and road organization system of the Ottoman state. Often, the responsibility for their security and maintenance was undertaken by the residents of a town or area, who in exchange enjoyed reduced taxation.
The passages.
The passages of Metsovo were of vital importance for the cohesion of the Ottoman state in this part of the Balkans, as well as for transportation/communication and trade purposes. Especially in the wintertime, the extreme weather conditions at the higher altitudes made it almost impossible to go through, stopping both ordinary travelers and entire military units alike and putting their lives at risk.
The Sultan’s decree.
A relevant Sultan firman of the time reads: “Because the people of Metsovo reside in Chora, through which many travelers pass at all times of the year, and in the wintertime they help travelers go through the passages under heavy snow, risking to die from the freezing cold, by wrapping cloths around the legs of the horses and carrying the people on their shoulders, while in the summertime they protect and safeguard the travelers against bandits; for these reasons special privileges and rights are established and ordered for them …”
The services.
The services provided by the people of Metsovo as derbentzis include not only the guarding of the passages but also the provision of services to travelers. Besides maintaining an armed band of guards paid by community funds, a network of inns is established along the passages that cross the area. The management and smooth operation of the inns was one of the major issues occupying local authorities.


William Mills (Lord Provost)

William Mills of Sandyford (1776–1857) was a 19th-century Scottish merchant and shipping owner who served as a Whig Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1834 to 1837.
Life.
He was born at Lessudden House near St. Boswells in Roxburghshire in 1776.
In the 1790s he appears to have travelled to the United States and established various cotton plantations there.
In earlier life he appears as a merchant at 127 Trongate House in the Clyde Buildings.
From 1819 he also began investing in steamships, at first travelling between Greenock on the River Clyde and River Mersey. His first ship was the SS Robert Bruce. He increased his fleet with the SS Superb, the SS Majestic and the SS City of Glasgow. It is unclear if the latter is the famous ship of that name, but it seems to predate it.
In 1826, in co-operation with others, built the larger SS United Kingdom, which traded between Edinburgh and London.
Later, still as a merchant, he had premises with his younger brother Thomas Mills at 107 Buchanan Street. Whilst Lord Provost he lived at Sandyford Place off Sauchiehall Street.
As a politician he first served as a Bailie representing the Gorbals then became a Bailie of Glasgow and Chief Magistrate. He was elected Lord Provost in 1834. In 1837 he was succeeded as Lord Provost by Henry Dunlop of Craigton in 1837.
He died at 7 Woodside Terrace in the Sandyford district of Glasgow on 8 November 1857.
He is buried in the family vault in the Glasgow Necropolis.
Family.
He was father to the Glasgow shipbuilder George Mills (1808-1881).
Artistic Recognition.
He was portrayed in office in the style of Henry Raeburn.


Frisian Way

The Frisian Way () was a medieval trade route and imperial road in the northwest of Germany. It had a length of about 220 km and linked the town of Norden in East Frisia with Münster in Westphalia.
Course.
The Frisian Way ran from Norden to Emden roughly along the line of the present day federal roads, the B 72 and B 210. From Emden it ran approximately along the route of the B 31 to Leer. In Leer it crossed the Ems and then ran southwards roughly parallel to the Ems on its left bank to Münster. It followed the approximate course of the B 436 (Leer - Weener), the L 31 (Weener - Rhede), K 155 (Rhede - Heede) and 156 (Heede), L 48 (Heede - Altenlingen), K 34 (Nordlohne - Schepsdorf), L 40 (Elbergen - Emsbüren), K 327 (Emsbüren - Salzbergen), L 39 (Salzbergen - Lower Saxony/North Rhine-Westphalia state border) and 501 (state border - Rheine), the federal roads of the B 481 (Rheine - Emsdetten) and B 219 (Sprakel - Münster).
Junctions with other roads.
From Leer there was an eastern road to Oldenburg that continued to Bremen. In Weener a road branched off west to Winschoten and from there to Groningen. From Rhede there was a junction with an easterly road to Aschendorf which continued via the geest ridges of the Hümmling to Haselünne to the Flemish Way (Lübeck - Brügge). South of Heede another road from Winschoten to the trade route of the Hümmling crossed the Frisian Way. West of Meppen another road branches off to Haselünne. Southwest of Lingen the Flemish Way crosses the Frisian Way. In Rheine there were other roads running to Osnabrück and Enschede. In Münster there were links to Cologne (the Cologne Way), Coesfeld (the Coesfeld Way), Gronau (Horstmar Land Way) and via Warendorf to Paderborn (Hesse Way).
Towns along the Frisian Way.
Norden - Emden - Leer - Weener - Haren - Meppen - Lingen - Rheine - Emsdetten - Greven - Münster
See also.
"Altstraße"


Fort Rinella

Rinella Battery () is a Victorian battery in Kalkara, Malta. It is commonly referred to as Fort Rinella (), although it was never classified as a fort while in use. It contains one of two surviving Armstrong 100-ton guns.
History.
The British built the battery between 1878 and 1886 above the shore east of the mouth of Grand Harbour, between Fort Ricasoli and Fort St. Rocco.
The battery was built to contain a single Armstrong 100-ton gun: a 450 mm rifled muzzle-loading (RML) gun made by Elswick Ordnance Company, the armaments division of the British manufacturing company Armstrong Whitworth. The battery is one of a pair; however, the gun on the paired Cambridge Battery near Tigné Point, west of Grand Harbour, no longer exists. The British installed a second pair of 100-ton guns to defend Gibraltar, mounting one each in Victoria Battery (1879) and Napier of Magdala Battery (1883), which did not have Rinella's self-defence capabilities. Only two 100-ton guns survive; one at Rinella Battery, and one at Napier of Magdala Battery.
The British felt the need for such large guns as a response to the Italians having, in 1873, built the battleships "Duilio" and "Dandolo" with 22 inches of steel armour and four 100-ton Armstrong guns per vessel. By arming both Gibraltar and Malta, the British were seeking to ensure the vital route to India through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, which had opened to traffic in 1869.
The fort is modest in size as it was designed to operate and protect the single large gun, with its associated gun crew, magazines, bunkers, support machinery and the detachment of troops stationed within the fort to defend the installation.
The gun was mounted "en barbette" on a wrought-iron sliding carriage and gun fired over the top of the parapet of the emplacement. This enabled the gun-crew to handle and fire the gun without exposing themselves to enemy fire. The fort was designed to engage enemy warships at ranges up to 7,000 yards. The low profile of the fort and the deeply buried machinery rooms and magazines were intended to enable it to survive counterfire from capital warships.
The fort has no secondary armament; its fortifications - simply ditches, caponiers, a counter-scarp gallery and firing points - were intended mostly for small arms fire and grenades.
The massive gun is far too heavy to be laid by hand, and the fort therefore contained a steam powered hydraulic system that traversed, elevated and depressed the gun, operated a pair of hydraulic powered loading and washing systems, and powered the shell lifts that moved the 2,000-pound shells and 450-pound black-powder charges from the magazines into the loading chambers.
The gun was intended to operate at a rate of fire of a single shell every six minutes. The firing cycle was for the gun to be traversed and depressed until it aligned with one of loading the casemates, with the barrel pushing aside an iron plate that normally closed the aperture in the casemate. The gun was then flushed with water to cool it, clean any debris and deposit from the barrel, and douse any remaining embers from the previous cartridge. The ramming mechanism then inserted and tamped a silk cartridge containing the propellant charge, which was followed by one of the range of shells the gun was adapted to fire. The loaded gun was then traversed and elevated using the hydraulic system, and fired by an electrical firing mechanism. The gun then slewed to the other casemate to repeat the loading process, while the first casemate was recharged from the deeper magazine.
The two separate loading casemates, each fed by an independent magazine, and the provision of man-powered backup pumps for the hydraulic system, such that a team of 40 men could maintain the hydraulic pressure to operate the gun, would have allowed the fort to continue firing even if substantially damaged.
Originally the inner faces of the emplacement were revetted with masonry. Subsequent review of the fort's defences after its completion identified this as a weakness, and the stone revetting was removed from most of the emplacement and replaced with plain earthworks, presumably to better absorb the energy of incoming shellfire. The revetting was retained around the loading casemates.
The 100-ton gun arrived in Malta from Woolwich on 10 September 1882. There it sat at the dockyards for some months before it was ferried to Rinella Bay. One hundred men from the Royal Artillery manhandled it to the fort in a process that took some three months. The gun was finally in position and ready for use in January 1884.
Because a single shell cost as much as the daily wage of 2600 soldiers, practice firing of the gun was limited to one shot every 3 months. It was fired for the last time on 5 May 1905, and was withdrawn from active service in 1906. The gun was in active service for only 20 years, without ever firing a shot in anger.
After the Armstrong gun was retired from service, Fort Rinella was used as an observation post for the guns of Fort Ricasoli, and unfortunately at some point the now obsolete steam engine and hydraulic system were removed. During World War II, the Navy used the Fort to store supplies, and it received seven bomb hits. The fort was ideal because from a plane's view it blends into the fields as it was covered in moss and grass. The Navy gave up the site in 1965.
In the 1970s, the battery was used as a location in the films "Zeppelin" (1971), "Young Winston" (1972) and "Shout at the Devil" (1976).
Present day.
In 1991, Rinella Battery passed into the care of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, the Malta Heritage Trust. It was restored and was opened to the public as an open-air museum in 1996. The gun too was restored. It was fired for the first time in a hundred years on 21 November 2005 by Peter Caruana, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, who is of Maltese descent.
Unfortunately, the steam engine and hydraulic machinery have not yet been restored. The gun is now fired once every year using only black powder by a crew of volunteers to keep it active and attract more visitors.
Throughout the year, between Monday and Saturday (10.00 - 17.00hrs) historical re-enactors dressed as 19th Century British soldiers provide regular guided tours along with a full-scale military re-enactment combining the live-firing of historic artillery and cavalry. The fort also has its audio-visual, audio guides in 14 languages and is fully interpreted. Members of the public are offered the opportunity of firing a cannon or a period musket or to sponsor a cavalry horse. This includes the firing, without shot, of a Victorian-era muzzle-loading fieldpiece.
In 2015, the battery was shortlisted as a possible site for the campus of the proposed American University of Malta. It was not chosen, and the campus is to be split up between Dock No. 1 in Cospicua and Żonqor Point in Marsaskala.
Philately.
In 2010 Malta and Gibraltar jointly issued a four-stamp set of stamps featuring the two jurisdictions' 100-ton guns. Two stamps show the gun at Fort Rinella, and two the gun at Napier of Magdala Battery. One of each pair is a view from 1882, and the other is a view from 2010. The stamps from Malta bear a denomination of €0.75, while those from Gibraltar bear a denomination of 75p.


Siege of Castelnuovo

The siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 at the walled town of Castelnuovo, present-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Castelnuovo had been conquered by elements of various Spanish tercios the year before during the failed campaign of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Mediterranean waters. The walled town was besieged by land and sea by a powerful Ottoman army under Hayreddin Barbarossa, who offered an honourable surrender to the defenders. These terms were rejected by the Spanish commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento and his captains even though they knew that the Holy League's fleet, defeated at the Battle of Preveza, could not relieve them. During the siege, Barbarossa's army suffered heavy losses due to the stubborn resistance of Sarmiento's men. However, Castelnuovo eventually fell into Ottoman hands and almost all the Spanish defenders, including Sarmiento, were killed. The loss of the town ended the Christian attempt to regain control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The courage displayed by the Old Tercio of Naples during this last stand, however, was praised and admired throughout Europe and was the subject of numerous poems and songs. Even the Venetian refused the promised naval link to Castelnuovo with the supplies and reinforcements; after a general troop parliament, the Capitan Francisco de Sarmiento answer to the Barbarossa surrender question was: "Que viniesen cuando quisiesen" (come when you want).
Background.
In 1538 the main danger to Christianity in Europe was the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. The armies of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had been stopped at Vienna in 1529. In the Mediterranean, a Christian offensive attempted to eliminate the danger of the great Turkish fleet in 1535, when a strong armada under Don Álvaro de Bazán and Andrea Doria captured the port of Tunis, expelling Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa from the waters of the Western Mediterranean. The Ottoman admiral was then required to return to Constantinople, where he was appointed commander of a great fleet to conduct a campaign against the Republic of Venice's possessions in the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Barbarossa captured the islands of Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos, Naxos, and besieged Corfu. The Italian cities of Otranto and Ugento and the fortress of Castro, in the province of Lecce, were also looted.
The Republic of Venice, frightened by the loss of their possessions and the ruin of their trade, conducted a vigorous campaign for the creation of a "Holy League" to recover the lost territories and expel the Ottomans from the sea. In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in creating a league which united the Papacy itself, the Republic of Venice, the Empire of Charles V, the Archduchy of Austria, and the Knights of Malta. The Allied fleet for the campaign was supposed to consist of 200 galleys and another 100 auxiliary ships, and the army of about 50,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry. But only 130 galleys and an army of around 15,000 infantry, mostly Spaniards, were all that could be gathered. The command of the fleet was given nominally to the Genoese Andrea Doria, but Vincenzo Capello and Marco Grimaldi, commanding officers of the Venetian and Papal fleets respectively, had almost twice as many ships as Doria. The commander of the army was unquestionably Hernando Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily.
Differences among the commanders of the fleet diminished its effectiveness against an experienced opponent like Barbarossa. This was seen in the Battle of Preveza, fought in the Gulf of Arta. But the Holy League fleet provided support to the land forces that landed on the Dalmatian coast and captured the town of Castelnuovo. This small town was a strategic fortress between the Venetian possessions of Cattaro and Ragusa in the area known as Venetian Albania. Venice therefore claimed ownership of the city, but Charles V refused to cede it. This was the beginning of the end of the Holy League.
The town of Castelnuovo was garrisoned with approximately 4,000 men. The main force was a tercio of Spanish veteran soldiers numbering about 3,500 men under the experienced "Maestro de Campo" Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza y Manuel. This tercio, named Tercio of Castelnuovo, was formed by 15 flags (companies) belonging to other tercios, among them the Old Tercio of Lombardy, dissolved the year before after a mutiny for lack of pay. The 15 captains in charge of the flags were Machín de Munguía, Álvaro de Mendoza, Pedro de Sotomayor, Juan Vizcaíno, Luis Cerón, Jaime de Masquefá, Luis de Haro, Sancho de Frías, Olivera, Silva, Cambrana, Alcocer, Cusán, Borgoñón, and Lázaro de Coron. The garrison also included 150 light cavalry soldiers, a small contingent of Greek soldiers and knights under Ándres Escrápula, and some artillery pieces managed by 15 gunners under captain Juan de Urrés. The chaplain of Andrea Doria, named Jeremías, also remained in Castelnuovo along with 40 clerics and traders and was appointed bishop of the town.
The reason for the garrison's large size was that Castelnuovo was projected to be the beachhead for a great offensive against the heart of the Ottoman Empire. However, the fate of the troops who were in the fortress depended entirely on the support of the fleet, and this had been defeated by Barbarossa at Preveza before the capture of Castelnuovo. Moreover, in a short time Venice withdrew from the Holy League after accepting a disadvantageous agreement with the Ottomans. Without Venetian ships, the Allied fleet had no chance to defeat the Ottoman fleet commanded by Barbarossa, who was by this time supported by another experienced officer, Turgut Reis.
Siege.
First maneuvers.
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent ordered Barbarossa to reorganize and rearm his fleet during the winter months to have it ready for the battle in the spring of 1539. 10,000 infantry soldiers and 4,000 Janissaries were embarked aboard the warships to reinforce the troops of the galleys. According to the orders received, Barbarossa's army, numbering about 200 ships with 20,000 fighting men aboard, would blockade Castelnuevo by sea while the forces of the Ottoman governor of Bosnia, a Persian named Ulamen, would besiege the fortress by land in command of 30,000 soldiers. Sarmiento, meanwhile, used the peaceful months prior to the siege to improve the defenses of the town, repairing walls and bastions and building new fortifications. In the event he could not do much due to a lack of available means, as there was no plan to fortify the town since it was supposed to function as a beachhead. Captain Alcocer was sent to Spain with instructions to call for help; Pedro de Sotomayor was sent to Sicily and Captain Zambrana to Brindisi, all in vain. Andrea Doria, who was in Otranto with 47 Imperial and 4 Maltese galleys, received news of Castelnuovo's situation, but given the inferiority of his fleet he sent a message to Sarmiento recommending him to surrender.
In June Barbarossa sent 30 galleys to block the entrance of the Gulf of Cattaro. The vessels reached Castelnuovo on 12 June and disembarked a thousand soldiers with the aim of finding water and capturing Spanish soldiers or local civilians to gain information. Once the Spanish were warned of their enemy's presence, Sarmiento dispatched three companies under Captain Machín de Munguía and the cavalry under Lázaro de Corón to attack them before lunchtime. After a fierce fight the Ottoman landing party was forced to re-embark, although it returned in the afternoon. Then it was beaten by Francisco de Sarmiento in person, who was waiting for a new attempt together with Captains Álvaro de Mendoza, Olivera, and Juan Vizcaíno, and 600 soldiers. Three hundred Ottomans were killed during the battle, and another 30 captured. The remainder escaped to their ships.
On 18 July Barbarossa arrived with the main force and immediately began to land troops and artillery while waiting for the arrival of Ulamen, who came along with his army a few days later. The Ottoman pioneers spent five days digging trenches and building ramparts for 44 heavy siege guns carried aboard Barbarossa's fleet or by Ulamen's troops, and even smoothed the fields around Castelnuovo to facilitate maneuvers. Castelnuovo was also bombarded by sea, as ten pieces had been previously embarked aboard the galleys. The Spanish, meanwhile, undertook several sorties to obstruct the siege works. These raids inflicted many casualties, among them Agi, one of Barbarossa's favorite captains. Another sortie by a Spanish force of 800 men surprised several units of Janissaries who were attempting to storm the walls of Castlenuovo, killing most of them and leaving the field strewn with corpses. When Barbarossa was informed about the setback, he severely reprimanded his officers, as the losses of the Ottoman elite corps were difficult to replace. He gave orders forbidding skirmishes to avoid a repeat of the defeat.
Great assault.
By 23 July, Barbarossa's army was ready to begin a general assault and his artillery prepared to break down the walls of Castelnuovo. Enjoying a vast numerical superiority over the Spanish garrison, which was completely isolated and unable to receive support or supplies, Barbarossa offered an honorable surrender to the Spanish. Sarmiento and his men would be granted a safe passage to Italy, the soldiers retaining their weapons and flags. Barbarossa added to his offer the incentive of giving each soldier 20 ducats. His only demand to Sarmiento was the abandonment of his artillery and gunpowder. Two squad corporals of Captain Vizcaino's company, Juan Alcaraz and Francisco de Tapia, managed to return to Naples and write their version of events many years later. They recorded the answer given to Barbarossa that ""the "Maestro de Campo" consulted with all the captains, and the captains with his officers, and they decided that they preferred to die in service of God and His Majesty.""
The great assault on the city was launched shortly after, and lasted all day. It was costly in lives, as the Ottomans employed both infantry and artillery at the same time to assault and bombard Castelnuovo, resulting in heavy casualties among the Ottomans themselves due to both friendly fire and Spanish defending. During the night the Spanish improved their defenses and plugged the gaps opened in the walls. When the attack was resumed the next morning, Saint James Day, Bishop Jeremías remained with the soldiers, encouraging them and confessing those who were mortally wounded along the attacked perimeter. About 1,500 Ottoman soldiers were killed in the bloody assault, while the Spanish suffered only 500 killed; although the number of men who died from their wounds was probably large.
Encouraged by the successful defense, several Spanish soldiers decided to conduct a surprise raid on the Ottoman camp with the approval of Sarmiento. Thus, one morning, 600 men took the unprepared besiegers by surprise. In some places the assault could not be stopped, and panic spread among the Ottomans. Many troops broke and ran, including some Janissaries who fled throughout their own camp breaking down the tents, including that of Barbarossa. The Admiral's personal guard feared for the safety of its lord, and, ignoring his protests, took him to the galleys along with the standard of the Sultan.
During the following days most of the artillery concentrated its fire on a fort in the upper town. Barbarossa thought that it was the key point of Castelnuovo's fortifications and proposed to capture it. The remaining cannons, meantime, continued firing at the fragile walls of the town. On 4 August, Barbarossa ordered an assault against the ruins of the fort, which was now completely shattered, with its casemates ruined. As a major point of the defense, Sarmiento had reinforced the garrison and removed the wounded in the preceding days. The assault began at dawn and the battle lasted all day. Captain Machín of Munguía distinguished himself in the fight, leading the defenders with great courage. By nightfall the remnants of the Spanish garrison retreated to the walls of the town with their wounded, leaving the ruined castle in Barbarossa's hands. The day was very costly in lives. Of the Spanish officers defending the castle only Captains Masquefá, Munguía, Haro, and a corporal surnamed Galaz survived. The remainder had been killed in the battle. Among the very few survivors that the Ottomans captured, they found three deserters. These were immediately brought to Barbarossa and encouraged the admiral to continue with the assaults, reporting that the Spanish had suffered heavy casualties, lacked gunpowder and shot, and were mostly injured and exhausted.
Ottoman capture.
On 5 August a new attack was launched against the walls. Barbarossa, after the report of the Spanish deserters, was sure that he could soon capture Castelnuevo. All the Janissaries took part in the action, and the cavalry was ordered to dismount to join the general assault. Despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Ottoman troops, the Spanish defense was successful, as no more than a tower of the wall fell to the besiegers that day. Sarmiento ordered his sappers to prepare a mine to destroy the tower, but the attempt failed when an unexpected burst of the gunpowder killed the soldiers who were working in the mine. At dawn on the following day a heavy downpour ruined the matchlocks of the harquebuses, the few remaining pieces of artillery, and the last gunpowder. The fight was therefore sustained only with swords, pikes, and knives, and the wounded Spanish soldiers were forced to take up arms and help defend the walls. Only the dying men remained in the hospital. Surprisingly, the few surviving Spanish managed to repel the assault.
The last and definitive attack took place the next morning. Francisco de Sarmiento, on horseback, was wounded in the face by three arrows, but he continued to encourage his men. Demolished by heavy gunfire, the ruins of the walls became indefensible. Sarmiento then ordered the 600 Spanish survivors to retreat. His idea consisted of defending a castle in the lower city where the civilian population of Castelnuovo had taken refuge. Although the withdrawal was made in perfect order and discipline, Sarmiento and his men found that the doors of the castle were walled at their arrival. Sarmiento was offered a rope to raise him to the walls, but refused and responded "Never God wants that I was saved and my companions were lost without me". After that he joined Machín de Munguía, Juan Vizcaíno, and Sancho Frias to lead the last stand. Surrounded by the Ottoman army, the last Spanish soldiers fought back to back until none were able to fight. At the end of day, Castelnuovo was in Ottoman hands.
Aftermath.
Almost all of the Janissaries and many from the other Ottoman units were killed in the assault. Ottoman losses were no less than 8,000. Of the Spanish troops only 200 survived, most of them wounded. One of the prisoners was the Biscayan Captain Machín de Munguía. Barbarossa, upon learning this, offered Munguía freedom and a place in his army. The admiral greatly admired him for his actions in the battle of Preveza, where the Spaniard had successfully defended a sinking Venetian carrack against several Ottoman warships. Munguía refused to accept and was therefore beheaded on the spur of the admiral's galley. Half of the prisoners and all the clerics were also slaughtered to satisfy the Ottoman soldiers, who were angry at the great losses which they had suffered in capturing the city. The few survivors were taken as slaves to Constantinople. Twenty-five of them managed to escape from prison six years later and sailed to the port of Messina.
Despite the failure of Sarmiento to retain the fortress, Castelnuovo's defense was sung by numerous contemporaneous poets and praised all over Christian Europe. The Spanish soldiers who participated in the unequal engagement were compared with mythological and classical history heroes, being considered immortal due to the magnitude of their feat. Only the enemies of Charles V, such as the Paduan humanist Sperone Speroni, rejoiced at the annihilation of the Tercio of Castelnuovo.
The siege of Castelnuovo ended the failed campaign of the Holy League against the power of the Ottoman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean. Charles V began negotiations with Barbarossa to attract him to the imperial ranks but in vain, and turned all his efforts in a great expedition against Algiers to destroy the Ottoman sea power. This expedition, known as the Journey of Algiers, ended in a disaster as a storm scattered the fleet and the army had to be reembarked having suffered heavy losses. A truce between Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent was signed in 1543. Castelnuovo remained in Ottoman hands for almost 150 years. It was recovered in 1687, during the Morean War, by the Venetian Captain-General at sea Girolamo Cornaro, who in alliance with Montenegrins under Vuceta Bogdanovic, won a great victory over the Ottomans near the town and put the fortress under Venetian rule.


Pomerania-Stolp

Pomerania-Stolp (, ) was one of the partitions of the Duchy of Pomerania (). Centered in Słupsk, it was created from another partition of the Duchy of Pomerania, Pomerania-Wolgast, to satisfy Bogislaw V, Duke of Pomerania in 1368, and existed until 1459, when it was inherited by Eric II of Pomerania-Wolgast. In 1474, it was merged to the partition of Bogislaw X, Duke of Pomerania, who four years later became the sole duke of Pomerania.
Background.
The Duchy of Pomerania was partitioned several times to satisfy the claims of the male members of the ruling House of Pomerania dynasty. The partitions were named after the ducal residences: Pomerania-Barth, -Demmin, -Rügenwalde, -Stettin, -Stolp, and -Wolgast. None of the partitions had a hereditary character, the members of the House of Pomerania inherited the duchy in common. The duchy thus continued to exist as a whole despite its division.
Creation: Partition of 1368/72.
After the death of Barnim IV of Pomerania-Wolgast in 1366, an armed conflict arose when Barnim's brother Bogislaw V refused to share his power with Barnim's sons, Wartislaw VI and Bogislaw VI, and his other brother, Wartislaw V, who in turn allied with Mecklenburg to enforce their claims. On May 25, 1368, a compromise was negotiated in Anklam, which was made a formal treaty on June 8, 1372 in Stargard, and resulted in a partition of Pomerania-Wolgast.
Bogislaw V received most of the Farther Pomeranian parts. Excepted was the land of Neustettin, which was to be ruled by his brother Wartislaw V, and was integrated into Bogislaw's part-duchy only after his death in 1390. This eastern partition became known as Pomerania-Stolp.
History.
The situation of the descendants of Bogislaw V, who ruled Pomerania-Stolp, differed somewhat from the situation of their western counterparts. The area was more sparsely settled and dominated by powerful noble families, so not much income could be derived by the dukes. On the other hand, the Stolpian branch of the House of Pomerania had relatives among the royal houses of Denmark and Poland. Casimir IV and Elisabeth, the children of Bogislaw V and his first wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Casimir III of Poland, where both raised at the Polish court in Kraków. Elisabeth would become Holy Roman Empress after her marriage with Charles IV, and Casimir was adopted by and designated heir of his grandfather. Yet, his ambitions were thwarted when Ludwig of Hungary overruled the testament of Casimir of Poland in 1370, Casimir of Pomerania-Stolp only for a short time took the land of Dobrin as a fief.
Treaty of Pyzdry.
During the Polish–Teutonic wars, the Pomeranian dukes changed sides between Poland and the knights very frequently. Wartislaw VII and Barnim V allied with the Teutonic Order. In 1390 however, after Jogaila (Władysław Jagiełło) had promised to hand part of the heritage of Casimir IV, Wartislaw VII's stepbrother, over to Wartislaw, the latter concluded an alliance with Poland and received the Polish castellany of Naklo (Nakel) and probably some adjacent areas as a fief in return, declaring himself a vassal of Jagiełło III in Pyzdry.
Scholars offer somewhat different interpretations of the treaty of Pyzdry. According to scholars such as Juliusz Bardach, Władysław Czapliński, Fenrych (1961), Marceli Kosman, Tadeusz Ładogórski, Andrzej Nowakowski, Michał Sczaniecki and Kazimierz Ślaski, Wartislaw's oath was for all territory held by him and meant that Pomerania-Stolp itself become a Polish fief. Other descriptions of the treaty included an oath of vassalage of Wartislaw VII to Jagiello without specifying a territory: Gòrski (1947), Labuda (1948),; Mitkowski (1946) and Zientara (1969) wrote the oath was for the territory Waritislaw received as fiefs from Jagiełło (especially Naklo/Nakel); Mielcarz (1976) said the oath was binding only Wartislaw himself, as a person, to Jagiello; and Gumowski (1951) said the document shows Wartislaw giving a general solemn promise of service. Czacharowski (2001) says it was an alliance and refers to Naklo being held as a Polish fief.
With respect to the discourse in Polish historiography, Branig and Buchholz (1997) say that however the treaty is interpreted, it did not have any significance for the future. The vassalage was short-lived; Wartislaw's brothers Barnim V and Bogislaw VIII however took on a friendly attitude towards the Teutonic Order, and Naklo returned to the Polish Crown after Wartislaw's death.
After early 1390s.
Eric of Pomerania, grand-grandchild of Danish king Valdemar IV in contrast became king of the Kalmar Union in 1397. Eric however failed in his most ambitious plan, to make Bogislaw IX Of Pomerania-Stolp king of both the Kalmar Union and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Eric had to leave Denmark in 1449 and ruled Pomerania-Rügenwalde, a small partition of Pomerania-Stolp, until his death in 1459.
Pomerania-Stolp was a crucial point in the knights' land supply route. Bogislaw VIII of Pomerania-Stolp allied with both the Teutonic Knights and Poland, but supported the latter after the war had started in 1409 by blocking his lands for the knights' troops and allowing his nobles to kidnap those who were travelling his lands. For his aid, he was granted the Lauenburg (now Lębork) and Bütow (now Bytów) areas (Lauenburg and Bütow Land) and others, but those were lost in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411.
Gain of Lauenburg and Bütow Land (1455–1467).
Eric II of Pomerania-(Wolgast)-Stolp allied with the Polish king Casimir IV in his Thirteen Years' War against the Teutonic Knights. On January 3, 1455, he in turn was granted the Lauenburg and Bütow Land at the Pomerelian frontier. When Lauenburg was retaken by the knights in 1459, the Polish king was upset and ravaged the Stolp area. Eric reconciled with the king on August 21, 1466, and bought the town from the knights on October 11, six days before the Second Peace of Thorn, that was signed by Eric in 1467.
Bogislaw X becomes sole ruler of the duchy of Pomerania (1478).
Pomerania-Wolgast was reunited following the death of both Barnim VII and Barnim VIII in 1451. Both dukes died of the Black Death. The same disease caused the death of Joachim of Pomerania-Stettin (also in 1451), Ertmar and Swantibor, children of Wartislaw X, and Otto III of Pomerania-Stettin (all in 1464). Thus, the line of Pomerania-Stettin had died out.
The extinction of the House of Pomerania-Stettin triggered a conflict about inheritance with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In the Treaty of Soldin of 1466, a compromise was negotiated: Wartislaw X and Eric II, the dukes of Pomerania, took over Pomerania-Stettin as a Brandenburgian fief. This was disputed already during the same year by the emperor, who intervened against the Brandenburgian overlordship of Pomerania. This led to a series of further warfare and truces, that were ended by the Treaty of Prenzlau of 1472, basically confirming the ruling of the Soldin treaty, but settling on a border north of Gartz (Oder) resembling Brandenburg's recent gains. This treaty was accepted by the emperor.
In 1474, Eric II died of the Black Death, and his son Bogislaw X inherited Pomerania-Stolp. Bogislaw's brothers had died the same year. After the death of his uncle Wartislaw X in 1478, he became the first sole ruler in the Duchy of Pomerania since almost 200 years.
Eric II had left Pomerania in tense conflicts with Brandenburg and Mecklenburg. Bogislaw managed to resolve these conflicts by both diplomatic and military means. He married his sister, Sophia, to Magnus II, Duke of Mecklenburg, and his other sister, Magarete, was married to Magnus's brother Balthasar. Bogislaw himself married Magarete, daughter of Brandenburg's Prince-elector Frederick II. Also, in 1478, Bogislaw regained areas lost to Brandenburg by his father, most notably the town of Gartz and other small towns and castles north of the Brandenburgian Uckermark. During the confirmation of the Peace of Prenzlau in 1479, the border was finally settled north of Strasburg and Bogislaw had to take his possessions as a fief from Brandenburg.