1.
1600s (decade)
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January 1 – Scotland adopts January 1 as New Years Day. January – Sebald de Weert makes the first definite sighting of the Falkland Islands, february 17 – Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake for heresy in Rome. February 19 – Huaynaputina volcano in Peru undergoes a catastrophic eruption, March 20 – Linköping Bloodbath, Public execution by decapitation of five Swedish nobles and de facto deposition of the Polish–Swedish King Sigismund III Vasa as ruler of Sweden. April 19 - First Dutch ship ever to arrive in Japan, the ship, called Liefde, anchored in Sashifu, in the Bungo area. July 2 – Battle of Nieuwpoort in the Eighty Years War between the Dutch and the Spanish. August 5 – The brothers Alexander Ruthven and John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, are killed during an attempt to kidnap or murder King James VI of Scotland at their home. October 21 – Battle of Sekigahara in Japan, granting Tokugawa Ieyasu nominal control over the whole country, December 31 – East India Company granted a Royal Charter in the Kingdom of England on trades in Asia Sumo wrestling becomes a professional sport in Japan. William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream is first performed and his play The Merchant of Venice is published, William Gilbert publishes De Magnete, which describes the Earths magnetic field and is the beginning of modern Geomagnetism. Fabritio Carosos Nobiltà de dame is published, Ulster chieftains, with the lead of Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, resist the English reconquest of Ireland. A Persian embassy arrives in Prague and meets with Rudolf II, Martin Möller is appointed chief pastor of Görlitz. The Lutheran orthodox campaign intensifies to reinforce the Book of Concord, thessaly Rebellion January 17 – Treaty of Lyon, France gains Bresse, Bugey and Gex from Savoy, ceding Saluzzo in exchange. February 8 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, longtime favorite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, rebels against the queen, february 25 – Robert Devereux is beheaded. Spring – Possible first performance of William Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet, December 24 – The Battle of Kinsale ends the siege of Kinsale, Ireland. Dutch troops attack the Portuguese in Malacca, the Jesuit Matteo Ricci becomes the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, during the Ming dynasty. A bad harvest occurs in the Tsardom of Russia, due to a rainy summer, Russian famine of 1601–03 killed about two million people By 1601 - Martin Möller is accused of Crypto-Calvinism. The Battle of Seaton is fought, february 2 – First known production of William Shakespeares comedy Twelfth Night, in London. March 20 – The United East India Company is established by the United Provinces States-General in Amsterdam, may 15 – English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European at Cape Cod. June – James Lancasters East India Company fleet arrives at Achin, having defeated Portugals ally, the ruler is happy to do business, and Lancaster seizes a large Portuguese galleon and loots it
2.
Kingdom of England
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In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period. The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
3.
Elizabethan era
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The Elizabethan era is the epoch in English history marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historians often depict it as the age in English history. In terms of the century, the historian John Guy argues that England was economically healthier, more expansive. This golden age represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, the era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of Englands past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home and it was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland. The Elizabethan Age may be viewed especially highly when considered in light of the failings of the periods preceding Elizabeths reign, the Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end under the weight of Spanish domination of the peninsula, France was embroiled in its own religious battles due to significant Spanish intervention, that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. The one great rival was Spain, which England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 and this drained both the English Exchequer and economy that had been so carefully restored under Elizabeths prudent guidance. English commercial and territorial expansion would be limited until the signing of the Treaty of London the year following Elizabeths death, economically, the country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade, persistent theft of Spanish treasure, and the African slave trade. The Victorian era and the early 20th century idealised the Elizabethan era, the Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that he long reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–1603, was Englands Golden Age. Merry England, in love with life, expressed itself in music and literature, in architecture and this idealising tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. In popular culture, the image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol Flynn, in response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have tended to take a more dispassionate view of the Tudor period. Elizabethan England was not particularly successful in a military sense during the period, having inherited a virtually bankrupt state from previous reigns, her frugal policies restored fiscal responsibility. Her fiscal restraint cleared the regime of debt by 1574, and this general peace and prosperity allowed the attractive developments that Golden Age advocates have stressed. The Elizabethan Age was also an age of plots and conspiracies, frequently political in nature, high officials in Madrid, Paris and Rome sought to kill Elizabeth, a Protestant, and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. That would be a prelude to the recovery of England for Catholicism. In 1570, the Ridolfi plot was thwarted, in 1584, the Throckmorton Plot was discovered, after Francis Throckmorton confessed his involvement in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the Catholic Church in England
4.
Jacobean era
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The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The practical if not formal unification of England and Scotland under one ruler was an important shift of order for both nations, and would shape their existence to the present day, in 1609 the Parliament of Scotland began the Plantation of Ulster. The most notorious event of James reign occurred on 5 November 1605, on that date, a group of English Catholics attempted to blow up the King and Parliament in the Palace of Westminster. However, the Gunpowder Plot was exposed and prevented, and the plotters were hanged, drawn. Frederick and Elizabeths election as King and Queen of Bohemia in 1619, before their Bohemian adventure, Elizabeth and Frederick were the focus of an outburst of romantic idealism. The Latin name Jacobus was transliterated from the Greek name Iakobos, in Hebrew, Jacob means Supplanter, and comes from the Hebrew verb aqab which means to take by the heel, assail, circumvent, or supplant. Political events and developments of the Jacobean era cannot be understood separately from the economic, James had inherited a debt of £350,000 from Queen Elizabeth, by 1608 the debt had risen to £1,400,000 and was increasing by £140,000 annually. The Jacobean era ended with an economic depression in 1620–1626. In literature, some of Shakespeares most prominent plays, including King Lear, Macbeth, Patronage came not just from James, but from James wife Anne of Denmark. Also during this period were powerful works by John Webster, Thomas Middleton, John Ford, Ben Jonson also contributed to some of the eras best poetry, together with the Cavalier poets and John Donne. In prose, the most representative works are found in those of Francis Bacon, the wildly popular tale of the Trojan War had until then been available to English readers only in Medieval epic retellings such as Caxtons Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Jonson was also an important innovator in the literary subgenre of the masque. His name is linked with that of Inigo Jones as co-developers of the literary, the fine arts were dominated by foreign talent in the Jacobean era, as was true of the Tudor and Stuart periods in general. Daniel Mytens was the most prominent portrait painter during the reign of James, some would also claim, as part of this trend, Cornelius Johnson, or Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen, born and trained in London and active through the first two Stuart reigns. The decorative arts — furniture, for example — became increasingly rich in color, detail, materials from other parts of the world, like mother-of-pearl, were now available by world-wide trade and were used as decoration. Even familiar materials, such as wood and silver, were worked more deeply in intricate, architecture in the Jacobean era was a continuation of the Elizabethan style with increasing emphasis on classical elements like columns. European influences include France, Flanders, and Italy, st Paul’s Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren in London. In the domain of customs, manners, and everyday life, James I published his A Counterblaste to Tobacco in 1604, but the book had no discernible effect, by 1612, London had 7000 tobacconists and smoking houses
5.
Stuart period
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The Stuart period of British history usually refers to the period between 1603 and 1714 and sometimes from 1731 in Scotland. This coincides with the rule of the House of Stuart, whose first monarch of Scotland was Robert II, the period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I from the House of Hanover. The Stuart period was plagued by internal and religious strife, the English Civil War took place during the reign of Charles I, the second Stuart monarch. The war ended in victory for the Parliamentarians, after this conflict, the line of Stuart monarchs was temporarily displaced by the Commonwealth of England. Their rule lasted from 1649 to 1660, oliver Cromwell ruled directly from 1653 to 1658. After Cromwells death the Commonwealth fell apart, the Convention Parliament welcomed Charles II, son of Charles I, to return from war and become king. This event was known as the English Restoration, Stuart England was consumed with internal affairs. During 1600-1650 the king made repeated efforts to colonize Guiana in South America and they all failed and the lands were ceded to the Dutch in 1667. James Is foreign policy placed much higher priority on European affairs, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping, religion was not a factor, since both sides were Protestant. The British in the first war had the advantage with larger numbers of more powerful ships of the line which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The British also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships, in the second war Dutch naval victories followed. This second war cost London ten times more than it had planned on, and it ended the fights over mercantilism Meanwhile, the French were building up fleets that threatened both the Netherlands and Great Britain. In third war, The British counted on a new alliance with France, the Dutch gained domination of sea trading routes until 1713. The British gained the colony of New Netherland, and renamed it New York. Historians have long regarded the overthrow of King James II in 1688 as a break in English history. Pincus argues that this revolution was the first modern revolution, it was violent, popular and he rejects older theories to the effect that it was an aristocratic coup or a Dutch invasion. Instead, Pincus argues it was a supported and decisive rejection of James II
6.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
7.
James VI and I
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James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, in 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617 and he was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonization of the Americas began, at 57 years and 246 days, Jamess reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. James himself was a scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies. He sponsored the translation of the Bible that would later be named after him, Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed the wisest fool in Christendom, an epithet associated with his character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise Jamess reputation and treat him as a serious, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, Marys rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and he was baptised Charles James or James Charles on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as a pocky priest, spit in the childs mouth, as was then the custom. The subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, Jamess father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzios death. James inherited his fathers titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross, Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought in the security of Stirling Castle
8.
Parliament of England
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The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Over the centuries, the English Parliament progressively limited the power of the English monarchy which arguably culminated in the English Civil War, the Act of Union 1707 merged the English Parliament with the Parliament of Scotland to form the Parliament of Great Britain. When the Parliament of Ireland was abolished in 1801, its members were merged into what was now called the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under a monarchical system of government, monarchs usually must consult, early kings of England had no standing army or police, and so depended on the support of powerful subjects. The monarchy had agents in every part of the country, however, under the feudal system that evolved in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the laws of the Crown could not have been upheld without the support of the nobility and the clergy. The former had economic and military bases of their own through major ownership of land. The Church was virtually a law unto itself in this period as it had its own system of law courts. In order to seek consultation and consent from the nobility and the clergy on major decisions. A typical Great Council would consist of archbishops, bishops, abbots, barons and earls, when this system of consultation and consent broke down, it often became impossible for government to function effectively. The most prominent instances of prior to the reign of Henry III are the disagreements between Thomas Becket and Henry II and between King John and the barons. Becket, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury between 1162 and 1170, was murdered following a long running dispute with Henry II over the jurisdiction of the Church. John, who was king from 1199 to 1216, aroused such hostility from many leading noblemen that they forced him to agree to Magna Carta in 1215, johns refusal to adhere to this charter led to civil war. The Great Council evolved into the Parliament of England, the term itself came into use during the early 13th century, deriving from the Latin and French words for discussion and speaking. The word first appears in documents in the 1230s. As a result of the work by historians G. O. Sayles and H. G. Richardson, during the 13th and 14th centuries, the kings began to call Knights of the Shire to meet when the monarch saw it as necessary. A notable example of this was in 1254 when sheriffs of counties were instructed to send Knights of the Shire to parliament to advise the king on finance, initially, parliaments were mostly summoned when the king needed to raise money through taxes. Following the Magna Carta this became a convention and this was due in no small part to the fact that King John died in 1216 and was succeeded by his young son Henry III. Leading peers and clergy governed on Henrys behalf until he came of age, among other things, they made sure that Magna Carta would be reaffirmed by the young king
9.
Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone
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Hugh ONeill, was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone and was later created The Ó Néill. ONeill came from a line of the ONeill dynasty - derbfine - that the English authorities recognized as the successors to the chieftainship of the ONeills. He was the son of Matthew ONeill, reputed illegitimate son of Conn. In the ensuing conflict for the succession Matthew was killed by the Ó Donnaile followers of Shane and Conn, placing his sons Brian and Hugh in a precarious situation. ONeill succeeded his brother, Brian, as baron of Dungannon, ONeill was brought up in London, but after the death of Shane he returned to Ulster in 1567 under the protection of Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland. In Tyrone, Hughs cousin, Turlough Luineach ONeill had succeeded Shane ONeill as The ONeill, or chieftain, the crown therefore supported Hugh ONeill as the rightful claimant and as an ally in Gaelic controlled Ulster. Hugh was subsequently inaugurated as The ONeill at Tullahogue in the style of the former Gaelic kings, in keeping with the practice common at the time, he bribed officials both in Ireland and at Elizabeths court in London. In the early 1590s, English government in Ulster took the form of a Provincial Presidency, to be headed by the colonist, after Mabels death, ONeill gradually fell into a barely concealed opposition to the crown and sought aid from Spain and Scotland. ONeill was instantly proclaimed a traitor at Dundalk, the war that followed is known as the Nine Years War. ONeill followed Shanes policy of arming the people, rather than relying as Turlough had done upon Scots mercenary soldiers and he and other clan chiefs then offered the crown of Ireland to Philip II of Spain who refused it. In April 1596, ONeill received promises of help from Spain and this policy was a success and, even though Sir John Norris sought to bring him to heel, ONeill managed to defer English attempts on his territory for more than two years. In 1598, a cessation of hostilities was arranged and a pardon granted to ONeill by Elizabeth. It was the greatest of all setbacks to English arms in Ireland, but Tyrone, who possessed but little generalship, procrastinated until the golden opportunity was lost. Eight months after the battle of the Yellow Ford, a new Lord Lieutenant, Essex found that ONeill had been waiting to see what might be attempted against him. At this point the controversial Jesuit, James Archer, was operating as his representative at the Spanish court. A large reward was offered for the capture, dead or alive. In October 1601, the aid from Spain appeared in the form of an army} under Don Juan de Aguila. They gained little support en route, at Bandon they joined together, and then blockaded the English army that was laying siege to the Spanish
10.
Nine Years' War (Ireland)
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The Nine Years War or Tyrones Rebellion took place in Ireland from 1594 to 1603. It was fought between the forces of Gaelic Irish chieftains Hugh ONeill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe ODonnell of Tír Chonaill and their allies, the war was fought in all parts of the country, but mainly in the northern province of Ulster. It ended in defeat for the Irish chieftains, which led to their exile in the Flight of the Earls, the war against ONeill and his allies was the largest conflict fought by England in the Elizabethan era. At the height of the more than 18,000 soldiers were fighting in the English army in Ireland. By contrast, the English army assisting the Dutch during the Eighty Years War was never more than 12,000 strong at any one time. The Nine Years War was caused by the clashes between the Gaelic Irish chieftain Hugh ONeill and the advance of the English state in Ireland, from control over the Pale to ruling the whole island. In resisting this advance, ONeill managed to rally other Irish septs who were dissatisfied with English government, Hugh ONeill came from the powerful Ó Néill clan of Tyrone, which dominated the centre of the northern province of Ulster3. His father, Matthew ONeill, Baron Dungannon, was the son of Conn ONeill the Lame. Matthew ONeill was killed, and Seán An Díomais Ó Néill banished the child Hugh ONeill from Ulster, the Hovenden family brought Hugh up in the Pale, and the English authorities sponsored him as a reliable lord. In 1587 Hugh ONeill persuaded Queen Elizabeth I to make him Earl of Tyrone, the English title his grandfather had held. However, the power in Ulster lay not in the legal title of Earl of Tyrone. This position commanded the obedience of all the ONeills and their dependents in central Ulster, in 1595, after much bloodshed, from Hugh Roe ODonnell, his ally, Hugh ONeill enlisted Scottish mercenaries. Within his own territories, ONeill was entitled to limited service from his sub-lords or uirithe. He also pressed his tenants and dependants into military service and tied the peasantry to the land to increase food production, in addition, he hired large contingents of Irish mercenaries under leaders such as Richard Tyrell. To arm his soldiers, ONeill bought muskets, ammunition and pikes from Scotland and England, from 1591, ODonnell, on ONeills behalf, had been in contact with Philip II of Spain, appealing for military aid against their common enemy and citing also their shared Catholicism. With the aid of Spain, ONeill could arm and feed over 8,000 men, unprecedented for a Gaelic lord, and so was well prepared to resist any further English attempts to govern Ulster. By the early 1590s, the north of Ireland was attracting the attention of Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, there was an outcry, with several sources alleging corruption against Fitzwilliam, but the same policy was soon applied in Longford and East Breifne. Any attempt to further the same in the ONeill and ODonnell territories was bound to be resisted by force of arms, the most significant difficulty for English forces in confronting ONeill lay in the natural defences that Ulster enjoyed
11.
Munster
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Munster is one of the provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a king of over-kings Irish, following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties, Munster has no official function for local government purposes. For the purposes of the ISO, the province is listed as one of the provincial sub-divisions of the State, geographically, Munster covers a total area of 24,675 km2 and has a population of 1,246,088 with the most populated city being Cork. Other significant urban centres in the province include Limerick and Waterford, in the early centuries AD, Munster was the domain of the Iverni peoples and the Clanna Dedad familial line, led by Cú Roí and to whom the king Conaire Mór also belonged. In the 5th century, Saint Patrick spent several years in the area and founded Christian churches, during the Early Middle Ages, most of the area was part of the Kingdom of Munster, ruled by the Eóganachta dynasty. Prior to this, the area was ruled by the Dáirine and Corcu Loígde overlords from the early 7th century onwards, later rulers from the Eóganachta who would dominate a greater part of Ireland were Cathal mac Finguine and Feidlimid mac Cremthanin. Notable regional kingdoms and lordships of Early Medieval Munster were Iarmuman, Osraige, Uí Liatháin, Uí Fidgenti, Éile, Múscraige, Ciarraige Luachra, Corcu Duibne, Corcu Baiscinn, around this period Ossory broke away from Munster. The 10th century saw the rise of the Dalcassian clan, who had earlier annexed Thomond and their leaders were the ancestors of the OBrien dynasty and spawned Brian Boru, perhaps the most noted High King of Ireland, and several of whose descendants were also High Kings. By 1118 Munster had fractured into the Kingdom of Thomond under the OBriens, the Kingdom of Desmond under the MacCarthy dynasty, the three crowns of the flag of Munster represent these three late kingdoms. The OBrien of Thomond and MacCarthy of Desmond surrendered and regranted sovereignty to the Tudors in 1543 and 1565, the impactful Desmond Rebellions, led by the FitzGeralds, soon followed. By the mid-19th century much of the area was hit hard in the Great Famine, the province was affected by events in the Irish War of Independence in the early 20th century, and there was a brief Munster Republic during the Irish Civil War. The Irish leaders Michael Collins and earlier Daniel OConnell came from families of the old Gaelic Munster gentry, noted for its traditions in Irish folk music, and with many ancient castles and monasteries in the province, Munster is a tourist destination. During the fifth century, St. Patrick spent seven years founding churches and ordaining priests in Munster, but a fifth century bishop named Ailbe is the patron saint of Munster. In Irish mythology, a number of goddesses are associated with the province including Anann, Áine, Grian, Clíodhna, Aimend, Mór Muman, Bébinn, Aibell. Each is historically associated with certain septs of the nobility, the druid-god of Munster is Mug Ruith. The province has long had trading and cultural links with continental Europe, the tribe of Corcu Loígde had a trading fleet active along the French Atlantic coast, as far south as Gascony, importing wine to Munster. The Eóganachta had ecclesiastical ties with Germany, which show in the architecture of their capital at the Rock of Cashel
12.
William Kempe
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Roles associated with his name may include the great comic creation, Falstaff, and his contemporaries considered him the successor to the great clown of the previous generation, Richard Tarlton. Despite his fame as a performer and subsequent intent to continue his career, he appears to have died unregarded and in poverty circa 1603. Sir Thomas Kempe did indeed have a son named William, however, leicesters nephew, Philip Sidney, sent letters home by way of a man he called Will, my Lord of Lesters jesting player and it is now generally accepted this was Kempe. Sidney complained in a letter to Francis Walsingham that Will had delivered the letters to Lady Leicester rather than Sidneys wife, Frances Walsingham. After a brief return to England, Kempe accompanied two other future Lord Chamberlains Men, George Bryan and Thomas Pope, to Elsinore where he entertained Frederick II of Denmark. Kempes whereabouts in the later 1580s are not known, but that his fame as a performer was growing during this period is indicated by Thomas Nashes An Almond for a Parrot, nashe dedicated this work to Kempe, calling him vicegerent general to the ghost of Dick Tarlton. Similarly, the title-page of the quarto of A Knack to Know a Knave advertises Kempes merriments, critics have generally viewed the scene in which Kempe performs as rather flat and it is assumed that the scene provided a framework within which Kempe could improvise. Entries in the Stationers Register indicate that three jigs perhaps written by Kempe were published between 1591 and 1595, by 1592 Kempe was one of Lord Stranges Men, listed in the Privy Council authorisation for that troupe to play seven miles out of London. After his departure from the Chamberlains Men in early 1599, Kempe continued to pursue his career as a performer, later that year he published a description of the event to prove to doubters that it was true. However, his activities after this famous stunt are as obscure as his origins, the last undoubted mention of him occurs in Henslowes diary in late 1602. Parish records record the death of Kempe, a man in St. Saviour, Southwark, while this is not necessarily the comedian, the record fits his departure from the documentary record. In his time, Kempe was as famous for his stage jigs as for his acting in regular drama, the jig, a kind of rustic cousin to commedia dellarte, featured as many as five performers in a partially improvised song-and-dance routine. Jigs had plots, often bawdy, but the emphasis was on dancing, two of Kempes jigs survive in English, and two more in German. Examples of the jigs may be seen in the collection of John Dowland. A famous 17th century jig called Kemps Jig was named after Will Kempe and was published in the first book of John Playfords The English Dancing Master of 1651, the tune has received a number of modern renditions, including those by Jan Akkerman and Gryphon. As an actor, Kempe is certainly associated with two roles, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Peter in Romeo and Juliet, Falstaff is a more ambiguous case. Though Falstaff presents some features of an Elizabethan dramatic clown, his character is higher in class, Kempe appears as a character in The Return from Parnassus, or The Scourge of Simony, possibly written during his lifetime or very shortly after his death. In it he praises Shakespeare for outdoing university-educated playwrights, in the 1978 TV series Will Shakespeare Kempe is portrayed by Derek Royle as an oafish alcoholic
13.
Morris dance
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Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers. In a small number of dances for one or two people, steps are near and across a pair of tobacco pipes laid one across the other on the floor. The earliest known and surviving English written mention of Morris dance is dated to 1448, there are around 150 Morris sides in the United States. English expatriates form a part of the Morris tradition in Australia, Canada, New Zealand. There are isolated groups in other countries The name is first recorded in the century as Morisk dance, moreys daunce, morisse daunce. The term entered English via Flemish mooriske danse, comparable terms in other languages are German Moriskentanz, French morisques, Croatian moreška, and moresco, moresca or morisca in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling Morris-dance first appears in the 17th century and it is unclear why the dance was so named, unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes, i. e. the deliberately exotic flavour of the performance. The English dance thus apparently arose as part of a wider 15th-century European fashion for supposedly Moorish spectacle, almost nothing is known about the folk dances of England prior to the mid-17th century. By the mid 17th century, the peasantry took part in Morris dances. The Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell, however, suppressed Whitsun Ales, when the crown was restored by Charles II, the springtime festivals were restored. In particular, Whitsun Ales came to be celebrated on Whitsunday, Morris dancing continued in popularity until the industrial revolution and its accompanying social changes. Four teams claim a lineage of tradition within their village or town, Abingdon, Bampton, Headington Quarry. However by the late 19th century, and in the West Country at least, d’Arcy Ferris, a Cheltenham based singer, music teacher and organiser of pageants, became intrigued by the tradition and sought to revive it. He first encountered Morris in Bidford and organised its revival, over the following years he took the side to several places in the West Country, from Malvern to Bicester and from Redditch to Moreton in Marsh. By 1910, he and Cecil Sharp were in correspondence on the subject, several English folklorists were responsible for recording and reviving the tradition in the early 20th century, often from a bare handful of surviving members of mid-19th-century village sides. Among these, the most notable are Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles, boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the starting point for the Morris revival. Cecil Sharp was visiting at a house in Headington, near Oxford
14.
Norwich
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Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in East Anglia and lies about 100 miles north-east of London. It is the administrative centre for East Anglia and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and it remained the capital of the most populous English county until the Industrial Revolution. The urban area of Norwich had a population of 213,166 according to the 2011 Census, the parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local-government districts. A total of 132,512 people live in the City of Norwich, Norwich is the fourth most densely populated local-government district in the East of England, with 3,480 people per square kilometre. In May 2012, Norwich was designated Englands first UNESCO City of Literature, the capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St. Edmund on the River Tas approximately 8 kilometres to the south of modern-day Norwich. Following an uprising led by Boudica around AD60 the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum, literally the market place of the Iceni. According to a rhyme, the demise of Venta Icenorum led to the development of Norwich, Caistor was a city when Norwich was none. There are two suggested models of development for Norwich, the ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, the word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan. The Vikings were a cultural influence in Norwich for 40–50 years at the end of the 9th century. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, the Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5, 000–10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich continued to be a centre for trade, the River Wensum being a convenient export route to the River Yare and Great Yarmouth. Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre and these date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral, the chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy
15.
Ben Jonson
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Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours, Ben Jonson said that his family originally came from the folk of the Anglo-Scottish border country, which genealogy is attested by the three spindles in the Jonson family coat of arms. One spindle is a heraldic device shared with the Border-country Johnstone family of Annandale. Jonsons clergyman father died two months before his birth, his mother married a master bricklayer two years later, Jonson attended school in St. Martins Lane. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School, on leaving Westminster School, Jonson was to have attended the University of Cambridge, to continue his book learning but did not, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Jonson at this time built a wall in Lincolns Inn. After having been a bricklayer, Ben Jonson went to the Netherlands. After his military activity on the Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor, as an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” in the play The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, the first revenge tragedy in English literature. Regarding his marriage Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as a shrew, concerning the family of Anne Lewis and Ben Jonson, the St. Martins Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Moreover,32 years later, a son, also named Benjamin Jonson. By summer 1597, Jonson had an engagement in the Admirals Men, then performing under Philip Henslowes management at The Rose. John Aubrey reports, on authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor, whatever his skills as an actor. By this time Jonson had begun to write plays for the Admirals Men. None of his early tragedies survive, however, an undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597 a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, was suppressed after causing great offence, arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth Is so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with Leude and mutynous behaviour, two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright, in 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Days Mirth
16.
Every Man out of His Humour
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Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlains Men. It is a sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour. It was much less successful on stage than its predecessor, though it was published in three times in 1600 alone, it was also performed at Court on 8 January 1605. The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 8 April 1600 by the bookseller William Holme, holmes issued a second quarto later that year, with the printing done by Peter Short. Yet a third quarto appeared in 1600, published by Nicholas Ling, W. W. Greg characterized Lings Q3 as A careless and ignorant reprint of Q1. This is one instance of Jonsons involvement in the War of the Theatres, scholars have found references to Sir Walter Raleigh and Gabriel Harvey. Another character suggests Sogliardo should use the motto, Not Without Mustard. ”When the play was reprinted in Jonsons folio collection of 1616, a cast list of the original 1599 production was included. From this, it is known that the players were Richard Burbage, John Heminges, Henry Condell, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope. Shakespeare was not part of the production, though he had played in Every Man in His Humour the year before,4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1923
17.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
18.
Royal charter
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A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as cities or universities, Charters should be distinguished from warrants and letters of appointment, as they have perpetual effect. Typically, a Royal Charter is produced as a high-quality work of calligraphy on vellum, the British monarchy has issued over 980 royal charters. Of these about 750 remain in existence, the earliest was to the town of Tain in 1066, making it the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland, followed by the University of Cambridge in 1231. Charters continue to be issued by the British Crown, a recent example being that awarded to the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to create cities. The date that such a charter is granted is considered to be when a city is founded, at one time, a royal charter was the sole means by which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means are generally used nowadays instead. In the period before 1958,32 higher education institutes had been created by royal charter and these were typically engineering or technical institutions rather than universities. Royal decrees can therefore no longer grant higher education status or university status. A Royal Charter is granted by Order in Council, either creating an incorporated body and this is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative, and, in Canada, there are hundreds of organisations under Royal Charters. Such organisations include charities, businesses, colleges, universities, today, it is mostly charities and professional institutions who receive Royal Charters. Application for a charter is a petition to the Queen-in-Council, however, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issuance of a Royal Charter. Companies, corporations, and societies in Canada founded under or augmented by a Royal Charter include, Royal Charter was issued in August 1826 to purchase and develop lands. Purchased the Crown Reserve of 1,384,413 acres, cities under Royal Charter are not subject to municipal Acts of Parliament applied generally to other municipalities, and instead are governed by legislation applicable to each city individually. The Royal Charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city, the Universitys Pontifical Charter was granted by Pope Leo XIII in 1889. Several Canadian private schools were founded or reconstituted under Royal Charter, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office was granted Royal Charter in 2005. The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club obtained Royal Charter in 1959 and it is one of the three banknote-issuing banks in Hong Kong. The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Chartered originally in 1847, disbanded 1859, the Institution of Engineers was incorporated by royal charter in 1935. A number of Irish institutions retain the Royal prefix, even though Republic of Ireland severed all remaining connections between the state and the British monarch in 1949, the University of South Africa received a Royal Charter in 1877
19.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
20.
Henry IV, Part 2
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Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1. Several scenes specifically parallel episodes in Part 1, the play picks up where Henry IV, Part One left off. Its focus is on Prince Hals journey toward kingship, and his rejection of Falstaff. However, unlike Part One, Hals and Falstaffs stories are almost entirely separate, the tone of much of the play is elegiac, focusing on Falstaffs age and his closeness to death, which parallels that of the increasingly sick king. Falstaff is still drinking and engaging in petty criminality in the London underworld and he first appears, followed by a new character, a young page whom Prince Hal has assigned him as a joke. Falstaff enquires what the doctor has said about the analysis of his urine, Falstaff delivers one of his most characteristic lines, I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. Falstaff promises to outfit the page in vile apparel and he then complains of his insolvency, blaming it on consumption of the purse. They go off, Falstaff vowing to find a wife in the stews, the Lord Chief Justice enters, looking for Falstaff. Falstaff at first feigns deafness in order to avoid conversing with him, as the Chief Justice attempts to question Falstaff about a recent robbery, Falstaff insists on turning the subject of the conversation to the nature of the illness afflicting the King. He then adopts the pretense of being a younger man than the Chief Justice. Finally, he asks the Chief Justice for one thousand pounds to help outfit a military expedition and he has a relationship with Doll Tearsheet, a prostitute, who gets into a fight with Ancient Pistol, Falstaffs ensign. After Falstaff ejects Pistol, Doll asks him about the Prince, Falstaff is embarrassed when his derogatory remarks are overheard by Hal, who is present disguised as a musician. Falstaff tries to talk his way out of it, but Hal is unconvinced, when news of a second rebellion arrives, Falstaff joins the army again, and goes to the country to raise forces. There he encounters an old friend, Justice Shallow. Shallow brings forward potential recruits for the loyalist army, Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, Shadow and Wart, Falstaff and his cronies accept bribes from two of them, Mouldy and Bullcalf, not to be conscripted. In the other storyline, Hal remains an acquaintance of London lowlife and his father, King Henry IV is again disappointed in the young prince because of that, despite reassurances from the court. Another rebellion is launched against Henry IV, but this time it is defeated, not by a battle, King Henry then sickens and appears to die
21.
Henry V (play)
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Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before, in the First Quarto text, it was entitled The Cronicle History of Henry the fift, which became The Life of Henry the Fifth in the First Folio text. The play is the part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1. In Henry V, the prince has become a mature man. Elizabethan stages did not use scenery, acknowledging the difficulty of conveying great battles and shifts of location on a bare stage, the Chorus calls for a Muse of fire so that the actor playing King Henry can ssume the port of Mars. He asks, Can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France, and encourages the audience to use their imaginary forces to overcome the stages limitations, Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts. The early scenes deal with the embarkation of Henrys fleet for France, when the Chorus reappears, he describes the countrys dedication to the war effort – They sell the pasture now to buy the horse. The chorus tells the audience, Well not offend one stomach with our play, at the siege of Harfleur, Henry utters one of Shakespeares best-known speeches, beginning Once more unto the breach, dear friends. He agonizes about the burden of being king, noting that a king is only a man. Before the battle, Henry rallies his troops with the famous St Crispins Day Speech, referring to we few, we happy few, following the victory at Agincourt, Henry attempts to woo the French princess, Catherine of Valois. This is difficult because neither speaks the language well. As with all of Shakespeares serious plays, also a number of comic characters appear whose activities contrast with. In this case, they are mostly common soldiers in Henrys army, and they include Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph from the Henry IV plays. The army also includes a Scot, an Irishman, and an Englishman, and Fluellen, the play also deals briefly with the death of Falstaff, Henrys estranged friend from the Henry IV plays, whom Henry had rejected at the end of Henry IV, Part 2. An earlier play, the Famous Victories of Henry V is also believed to have been a model for the work. On the basis of an apparent allusion to Essexs mission to quell Tyrones Rebellion, Q1 of Henry V is a bad quarto, a shortened version of the play that might be an infringing copy or reported text. A second quarto, a reprint of Q1, was published in 1602 by Pavier, another reprint was issued as Q3 in 1619, the superior text first was printed in the First Folio in 1623. Readers and audiences have interpreted the play’s attitude to warfare in several different ways, on the one hand, it seems to celebrate Henrys invasion of France and valorises military might
22.
The Merchant of Venice
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The Merchant of Venice is a 16th century play by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice must default on a large loan provided by an abused Jewish moneylender. It is believed to have written between 1596 and 1599. Also notable is Portias speech about the quality of mercy, critic Harold Bloom listed it among Shakespeares great comedies. Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful, having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a suitor. Bassanio approaches his friend Antonio, a merchant of Venice who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspoken antisemitism, and because Antonios habit of lending money without interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates, Shylock is at first reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonios hand. He finally agrees to lend the sum to Bassanio without interest upon one condition, if Bassanio is unable to repay it at the specified date, Shylock may take a pound of Antonios flesh. Bassanio does not want Antonio to accept such a condition, Antonio is surprised by what he sees as the moneylenders generosity. With money at hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, Gratiano is a likeable young man, but is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont, meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a will stipulating each of her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets – one each of gold, silver and lead, if he picks the right casket, he gets Portia. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its slogan, Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire, as referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Arragon, chooses the silver casket, both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath. The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, as Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portias household sing a song which says that fancy is engendred in the eyes, With gazing fed, Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portias hand. At Venice, Antonios ships are reported lost at sea so the merchant cannot repay the bond, Shylock has become more determined to exact revenge from Christians because his daughter Jessica eloped with the Christian Lorenzo and converted. She took an amount of Shylocks wealth with her, as well as a turquoise ring which Shylock had been given by his late wife. Shylock has Antonio brought before court, at Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portias handmaid Nerissa, Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonios life by offering the money to Shylock
23.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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A Midsummer Nights Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six actors who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeares most popular works for the stage and is performed across the world. The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father Egeus demand that she wed Demetrius, Helena meanwhile pines unrequitedly for Demetrius. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, Theseus offers her another choice, lifelong chastity while worshipping the goddess Artemis as a nun. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players, nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles, Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged. Quince ends the meeting with at the Dukes oak we meet, in a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus, Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his knight or henchman, since the childs mother was one of Titanias worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titanias disobedience, when the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, And ere I take this charm from off her sight, /As I can take it with another herb, Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping. Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetriuss love, tells Demetrius about the plan, Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her, observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having seen either before. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep, upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged, when Demetrius goes to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius eyes
24.
Much Ado About Nothing
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Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623, at the end, Benedick and Beatrice join forces to set things right, and the others join in a dance celebrating the marriages of the two couples. At Messina, a messenger brings news that Don Pedro, a prince from Aragon, will return that night from a successful battle, Beatrice, Leonatos niece, asks the messenger about Benedick and makes sarcastic remarks about his ineptitude as a soldier. Leonato explains that There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick, upon the arrival of the soldiers, Leonato welcomes Don Pedro and invites him to stay for a month, Benedick and Beatrice resume their merry war, and Pedros illegitimate brother Don John is introduced. Claudios feelings for Hero, Leonatos only daughter, are rekindled upon seeing her, Benedick, who openly despises marriage, tries to dissuade his friend but Don Pedro encourages the marriage. Benedick swears that he will never get married, Don Pedro laughs at him and tells him that when he has found the right person he shall get married. A masquerade ball is planned in celebration of the end of the war, Don John uses this situation to get revenge on his brother Don Pedro by telling young Claudio that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. A furious Claudio confronts Don Pedro, but the misunderstanding is quickly resolved, meanwhile, Benedick disguises himself and dances with Beatrice. Beatrice proceeds to tell this man that Benedick is the princes jester. Benedick, enraged by her words, swears he will have revenge, Don Pedro and his men, bored at the prospect of waiting a week for the wedding, harbour a plan to match-make between Benedick and Beatrice. They arrange for Benedick to overhear a conversation in which they declare that Beatrice is madly in love him but afraid to tell him. Meanwhile, Hero and her maid Ursula ensure Beatrice overhears them discuss Benedicks undying love for her, the tricks have the desired effect, both Benedick and Beatrice are delighted to think they are the object of unrequited love, and both accordingly resolve to mend their faults and reconcile. Meanwhile, Don Pedros brother Don John, the prince, plots to prevent the wedding, embarrass his brother and wreak misery on Leonato. He informs Don Pedro and Claudio that Hero is unfaithful, Claudio and Don Pedro are taken in, and Claudio vows to humiliate Hero publicly. At the wedding the day, Claudio denounces Hero before the stunned guests. Her humiliated father Leonato expresses the wish that she would die, the presiding friar intervenes, believing Hero to be innocent. He suggests the family fake Heros death in order to extract the truth, prompted by the days harrowing events, Benedick and Beatrice confess their love for each other. Beatrice then asks Benedick to slay Claudio as proof of his devotion, Benedick is horrified and at first, denies her request
25.
William Gilbert (astronomer)
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William Gilbert, also known as Gilberd, was an English physician, physicist and natural philosopher. He passionately rejected both the prevailing Aristotelian philosophy and the Scholastic method of university teaching and he is remembered today largely for his book De Magnete, and is credited as one of the originators of the term electricity. He is regarded by some as the father of electrical engineering or electricity, while today he is generally referred to as William Gilbert, he also went under the name of William Gilberd. A unit of force, also known as magnetic potential, was named the Gilbert in his honour. Gilbert was born in Colchester to Jerome Gilberd, a borough recorder and he was educated at St Johns College, Cambridge. After gaining his MD from Cambridge in 1569, and a spell as bursar of St Johns College, he left to practice medicine in London. In 1573, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1600 he was elected President of the College. He was Elizabeth Is own physician from 1601 until her death in 1603 and his primary scientific work—much inspired by earlier works of Robert Norman—was De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure published in 1600. In this work, he describes many of his experiments with his model Earth called the terrella, from these experiments, he concluded that the Earth was itself magnetic and that this was the reason compasses point north. He also posits that the stars are at remote variable distances rather than fixed to an imaginary sphere. The English word electricity was first used in 1646 by Sir Thomas Browne, derived from Gilberts 1600 New Latin electricus, the term had been in use since the 13th century, but Gilbert was the first to use it to mean like amber in its attractive properties. In his book, he also studied static electricity using amber, amber is called elektron in Greek and he invented the first electrical measuring instrument, the electroscope, in the form of a pivoted needle he called the versorium. Gilbert argued that electricity and magnetism were not the same thing, for evidence, he pointed out that, while electrical attraction disappeared with heat, magnetic attraction did not. Hans Christian Ørsted and James Clerk Maxwell showed that both effects were aspects of a force, electromagnetism. Maxwell surmised this in his A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism after much analysis, Gilberts magnetism was the invisible force that many other natural philosophers, such as Kepler, seized upon, incorrectly, as governing the motions that they observed. While not attributing magnetism to attraction among the stars, Gilbert pointed out the motion of the skies was due to earths rotation, Gilbert made the first attempt to map the surface markings on the Moon in the 1590s. His chart, made without the use of a telescope, showed outlines of dark, contrary to most of his contemporaries, Gilbert believed that the light spots on the Moon were water, and the dark spots land. John Robison, De Mundo consists of an attempt to establish a new system of natural philosophy upon the ruins of the Aristotelian doctrine
26.
De Magnete
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De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure is a scientific work published in 1600 by the English physician and scientist William Gilbert and his partner Aaron Dowling. A highly influential and successful book, it exerted an influence on many contemporary writers, including Francis Godwin. In his work, Gilbert described many of his experiments with his model Earth called the terrella, Gilbert also made the claim that gravity was due to the same force and he believed that this held the Moon in orbit around the Earth. Johannes Kepler accepted Gilberts theory and used it as a basis for his famous laws of planetary motion. In De Magnete, Gilbert also studied static electricity produced by amber, amber is called elektron in Greek, and electrum in Latin, so Gilbert decided to refer to the phenomenon by the adjective electricus, giving rise to the modern terms electric and electricity. Gilbert nevertheless acknowledged his debt to Peter of Maricourt and incorporated this 13th-century scientists experiments on magnetism into his own treatise, although Gilberts thinking was influenced by the mysticism of his time he is regarded as a pioneer of experimental science. In this chapter Gilbert argues in favor of the Copernican System and he states, How far away from the earth are those remotest of stars, they are beyond the reach of eye, or mans devices, or mans thought. What an absurdity is this motion, De Magnete consists of six books. Historical survey of magnetism and theory of Earths magnetism, the loadstone in antiquity from Plato onwards and the gradual identification of iron ores. The south pole of a loadstone points to the pole of the earth. An amber stick when rubbed affects a rotating needle made of any type of metal and attracts paper, leaves, but electricity is different from heat and to magnetism which only attracts iron-bearing materials. He shows the effects of cutting a spherical loadstone through the poles and equator, magnets act at a distance but the force has no permanent presence and is not hindered like light. Materials including gold, silver and diamonds are not affected by magnets and he proposes that the angle of the ecliptic and precession of the equinoxes are caused by magnetism. A loadstone cut out of rock and floated in water returns to the same direction, iron heated to white heat and cooled lying along a meridian also acquires magnetism. But stroking with other materials fails—he proved this with an experiment with 75 diamonds in front of witnesses, the best way to magnetize a compass. The compass does not always point to true north, using the terella he shows that variations in the height of the surface can lead to differences but insists that variation is a global issue. In the midst of the ocean or continent there is no variation and he shows how to measure variation and the sources of common errors. The angle of inclination of a compass to the horizon differs according to latitude and he shows how to construct a dip instrument
27.
Earth's magnetic field
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Its magnitude at the Earths surface ranges from 25 to 65 microteslas. The North geomagnetic pole, located near Greenland in the hemisphere, is actually the south pole of the Earths magnetic field. Unlike a bar magnet, Earths magnetic field changes over time because it is generated by a geodynamo, however, at irregular intervals averaging several hundred thousand years, the Earths field reverses and the North and South Magnetic Poles relatively abruptly switch places. These reversals of the geomagnetic poles leave a record in rocks that are of value to paleomagnetists in calculating geomagnetic fields in the past, such information in turn is helpful in studying the motions of continents and ocean floors in the process of plate tectonics. The magnetosphere is the region above the ionosphere that is defined by the extent of the Earths magnetic field in space. The Earths magnetic field serves to deflect most of the solar wind, one stripping mechanism is for gas to be caught in bubbles of magnetic field, which are ripped off by solar winds. The study of past magnetic field of the Earth is known as paleomagnetism, reversals also provide the basis for magnetostratigraphy, a way of dating rocks and sediments. The field also magnetizes the crust, and magnetic anomalies can be used to search for deposits of metal ores, humans have used compasses for direction finding since the 11th century A. D. and for navigation since the 12th century. Although the magnetic declination does shift with time, this wandering is slow enough that a simple compass remains useful for navigation, using magnetoception various other organisms, ranging from some types of bacteria to pigeons, use the Earths magnetic field for orientation and navigation. At any location, the Earths magnetic field can be represented by a three-dimensional vector, a typical procedure for measuring its direction is to use a compass to determine the direction of magnetic North. Its angle relative to true North is the declination or variation, facing magnetic North, the angle the field makes with the horizontal is the inclination or magnetic dip. The intensity of the field is proportional to the force it exerts on a magnet, another common representation is in X, Y and Z coordinates. The intensity of the field is measured in gauss, but is generally reported in nanoteslas. A nanotesla is also referred to as a gamma, the tesla is the SI unit of the Magnetic field, B. The Earths field ranges between approximately 25,000 and 65,000 nT, by comparison, a strong refrigerator magnet has a field of about 10,000,000 nanoteslas. A map of intensity contours is called an isodynamic chart, as the World Magnetic Model shows, the intensity tends to decrease from the poles to the equator. A minimum intensity occurs in the South Atlantic Anomaly over South America while there are maxima over northern Canada, Siberia, the inclination is given by an angle that can assume values between -90° to 90°. In the northern hemisphere, the field points downwards and it is straight down at the North Magnetic Pole and rotates upwards as the latitude decreases until it is horizontal at the magnetic equator
28.
Caister Castle
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Caister Castle is a 15th-century moated castle situated in the parish of West Caister, some 5 km north of the town of Great Yarmouth in the English county of Norfolk. The castle had a 100 ft high tower and was built between 1432 and 1446 by Sir John Fastolf, who was an inspiration for William Shakespeares Falstaff, the castle suffered severe damage in 1469 when it was besieged and captured by the Duke of Norfolk. The castle, other than the tower, fell into ruin after 1600 when a new house was built nearby, the castles tower is still intact and can be climbed by visitors. John Paston was a confidante and advisor to Sir John Fastolf. Sir John died childless, and intestate, the castle was one of many properties in his estate. John Paston, with justification, claimed to be his heir. As a result the castle was besieged in August 1469 by the Duke - in pursuit of his own claim of ownership - and defended by John Paston junior and approximately 30 men. The two-month defence was unsuccessful, resulting in the death of one of the Pastons longest serving servants by a crossbow wound, some years later, the castle was ultimately returned to the Paston familys ownership. The Caister Castle Motor Museum features a collection of veteran, vintage, classic, sports. The museum also displays bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, pedal cars, agriculture equipment, the exhibits are located in a purpose-built building. Admission to the castle includes the museum, castle tower and grounds
29.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
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Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup détat against the government and was executed for treason, Essex was born on 10 November 1565 at Netherwood near Bromyard, in Herefordshire, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. His maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn and he was brought up on his fathers estates at Chartley Castle, Staffordshire, and at Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, in Wales. His father died in 1576, and the new Earl of Essex became a ward of Lord Burghley, in 1577, he was admitted as a fellow-commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1579, he matriculated, and in 1581 he graduated as Master of Arts. On 21 September 1578, Essexs mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth Is long-standing favourite, Essex performed military service under his stepfather in the Netherlands, before making an impact at court and winning the Queens favour. In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney, by whom he was to have several children, Sidney, Leicesters nephew, died in 1586 at the Battle of Zutphen in which Essex also distinguished himself. In October 1591, Devereuxs mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to a son who survived into adulthood. Essex first came to court in 1584, and by 1587 had become a favourite of the Queen, in June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse. After Leicesters death in 1588, the Queen transferred the late Earls royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, in 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council. Essex underestimated the Queen, however, and his behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, in 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cadiz, so when the 3rd Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast almost undefended, and panic ensued. This further damaged the relationship between the Queen and Essex, even though he was given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later. Fortunately a storm dispersed the Spanish fleet, and though there were a few landings, Essexs greatest failure was as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a post which he talked himself into in 1599. The Nine Years War was in its stages, and no English commander had been successful. More military force was required to defeat the Irish chieftains, led by Hugh ONeill, Essex led the largest expeditionary force ever sent to Ireland—16,000 troops—with orders to put an end to the rebellion. Essex had declared to the Privy Council that he would confront ONeill in Ulster, rather than face ONeill in battle, Essex entered a truce that some considered humiliating to the Crown and to the detriment of English authority
30.
Tower Green
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Tower Green is a space within the Tower of London, a royal castle in London, where two English Queens consort and several other British nobles were executed by beheading. It was considered more dignified for nobility to be executed away from the gawping spectators, Queen Victoria asked for information on the exact location where the executions took place and had some granite paving laid to mark the spot. However, it is whether the location is indeed correct because other sources place it on the current parade ground between the White Tower and the entrance to the current Waterloo Barracks. Tower Green is a space located south of the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. Beheading in the privacy of the Tower Green was considered a privilege of rank, the executed were spared insults from jeering crowds, and the monarch was spared bad publicity. Other prisoners in the tower were executed in public on Tower Hill, just outside the fortress, or at Tyburn on the other side of the city. In the middle of the green is a square plot paved with granite. The granite paving was specially created by order of Queen Victoria, there is dispute that the memorial site is actually the scaffold site. Other sources describe Anne Boleyns final walk to the scaffold, at a location on the current parade ground, during the Middle Ages, the area was used as a burial ground. As a result of relaying the 19th century granite sett stones, historic plans of the Tower of London show a building at the site of the Tower Green. It was demolished in 1684, but was rebuilt in 1685 and it was removed once again soon thereafter. It appears that the building was used at the time as a guardhouse for the predecessors of the Yeomen Warders, the executions at the Tower Green were done inside this building to maintain the privacy of the nobles. The following nobles are known to have been executed on the Tower Green, William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, by order of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII,19 May 1536. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty on 27 May 1541, Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, by a bill of attainder on 13 February 1542. Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, by order of Henry VIII on 13 February 1542, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen, wife of Lord Guildford Dudley, by order of a special commission for High treason, on 12 February 1554. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex for treason on 25 February 1601, each of these individuals was beheaded with an axe except for Anne Boleyn who was beheaded with a sword. The bodies of all seven were buried in the Chapel of St. Peter, in addition to the seven listed above, three additional names are listed on the memorial at Tower Green, Farquhar Shaw and the brothers Samuel Macpherson and Malcolm Macpherson
31.
Tower of London
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The Tower of London, officially Her Majestys Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, a grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, the general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site. The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history and it was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a record office. From the early 14th century until the reign of Charles II, in the absence of the monarch, the Constable of the Tower is in charge of the castle. This was a powerful and trusted position in the medieval period, in the late 15th century, the castle was the prison of the Princes in the Tower. Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence and this use has led to the phrase sent to the Tower. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, in the latter half of the 19th century, institutions such as the Royal Mint moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. Anthony Salvin and John Taylor took the opportunity to restore the Tower to what was felt to be its medieval appearance, in the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired, today, the Tower of London is one of the countrys most popular tourist attractions. Under the ceremonial charge of the Constable of the Tower, it is cared for by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is protected as a World Heritage Site. The Tower was orientated with its strongest and most impressive defences overlooking Saxon London and it would have visually dominated the surrounding area and stood out to traffic on the River Thames. The castle is made up of three wards, or enclosures, the innermost ward contains the White Tower and is the earliest phase of the castle
32.
Hamlet
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies
33.
Siege of Kinsale
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Owing to Spanish involvement, and the strategic advantages to be gained, the battle also formed part of the Anglo-Spanish War, the wider conflict of Protestant England against Catholic Spain. Ireland had been claimed as a lordship by the English Crown since 1175, by the 1350s, the area under government control had shrunk to the Pale, the area around Dublin. The rest of the country was controlled by the Gaelic lordships, king Henry VIII initiated a policy of conquest and colonisation during the 1530s, pursued by his successors. In 1594, forces in Ulster under the previously loyal Earl of Tyrone, Aodh Mór Ó Néill, supported by Aodh Ruadh Ó Dónaill, a number of Irish victories seemed to place English control of Ireland in the balance. Following the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588 Philip II decided to take advantage of the Irish rebels in order to create a new front in the war against England. The 2nd Spanish Armada aimed at supporting the rebels however was smashed by storms off Cape Finisterre in October 1596, the ill Philip sent forth another armada the following year but this failed too due to storms, bad luck and ill planning. After Philip IIs death Philip III continued to direct support to the Irish rebels fighting England. In 1601 Philip sent Don Juan del Águila and Don Diego Brochero to Ireland with 6,000 men, bad weather separated the ships and nine of them, carrying the majority of veteran soldiers and gunpowder, had to turn back. The remaining 4000 men disembarked at Kinsale, just south of Cork on 2 October 1601, another force commanded by Alonso de Ocampo managed to land at Baltimore. The Spaniards rushed to fortify precarious fortifications to withstand the approaching English armies, while the Spanish army had secured the town of Kinsale, they failed to expand their base into the surrounding region and were vulnerable to becoming besieged by English forces. On hearing of the Spanish landing, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, however many of these were Irish levies and many were not suited to siege warfare especially in winter, many fell ill, leaving about 7,500 capable of fighting. At the same time, the Gaelic Earls Hugh ONeill and his ally ODonnell considered their positions and their difficulty was that the Spanish had landed on the south coast of Ireland far away from the areas under control of the Irish Chieftains. In order to bring aid to the Spanish troops they would have to lead their troops into regions where support for their cause was most doubtful and they hesitated for weeks as autumn turned into a particularly wet and stormy winter. The besieged Spanish garrison began to suffer privation and ONeill was forced to go to their aid and he fully understood that should this first Spanish force suffer defeat he would be unlikely to receive further military help. A large force would be necessary, larger than they could afford to lose and they set out on a 300-mile winter march - separately, to ease supply - with a total of 5,000 infantry and 700 cavalry. The combined armies of O’Neill, O’Donnell and Tyrrell came to 6,180 and this included 500 of Donal Cam OSullivan Beare’s men, and 200 of Ocampo’s Spaniards. Lord Mountjoys forces were incapable of surrounding the town of Kinsale and its surrounding area, the English navy under Admiral Richard Leveson arrived with a squadron of ten ships and cut off the town from the sea. The English cavalry rode through the surrounding countryside destroying livestock and crops, ONeill and ODonnell were hesitant about leaving Ulster open to attack by marching south, especially given the lack of supplies for their troops
34.
Elizabethan Poor Law (1601)
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The Poor Relief Act 1601 was an Act of the Parliament of England. The Old Poor Law was not one law but a collection of laws passed between the 16th and 18th centuries, the systems administrative unit was the parish. It was not a government policy but a law which made individual parishes responsible for Poor Law legislation. The 1601 act saw an away from the more obvious forms of punishing paupers under the Tudor system towards methods of correction. Several amending pieces of legislation can be considered part of the Old Poor Law, charity was gradually replaced with a compulsory land tax levied at parish level. The impotent poor were to be cared for in almshouse or a poorhouse, the law offered relief to people who were unable to work, mainly those who were lame, impotent, old, blind. The able-bodied poor were to be set to work in a House of Industry, materials were to be provided for the poor to be set to work. The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or even prison and this could come in the form of money, food or even clothing. As the cost of building the different workhouses was great, outdoor relief continued to be the form of relief in this period. Relief for those too ill or old to work, the impotent poor, was in the form of a payment or items of food or clothing also known as outdoor relief. Some aged people might be accommodated in parish alms houses, though these were usually private charitable institutions, meanwhile, able-bodied beggars who had refused work were often placed in Houses of Correction. However, provision for the many able-bodied poor in the workhouse, which provided accommodation at the time as work, was relatively unusual. The 1601 Law said that parents and children were responsible for each other – elderly parents would live with their children. The 1601 Poor Law could be described as parochial as the unit of the system was the parish. There were around 1,500 such parishes based upon the area around a parish church and this system allowed greater sensitivity towards paupers, but also made tyrannical behavior from overseers possible. Overseers of the Poor would know their paupers and so be able to differentiate between the deserving and undeserving poor, the act levied a poor rate on each parish which Overseers of the Poor were able to collect. Those who had to pay this rate were property owners, or rather, in most cases, the 1601 Act sought to deal with settled poor who had found themselves temporarily out of work – it was assumed they would accept indoor relief or outdoor relief. Neither method of relief was at time in history seen as harsh
35.
English Poor Laws
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The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws being codified in 1587–98. The Poor Law system was in existence until the emergence of the welfare state after the Second World War. The Poor Law system was not formally abolished until the National Assistance Act 1948, the earliest medieval Poor Law was the Ordinance of Labourers which was issued by King Edward III of England on 18 June 1349, and revised in 1350. The ordinance was issued in response to the 1348–1350 outbreak of the Black Death in England, the decline in population left surviving workers in great demand in the agricultural economy of Britain. Landowners had to face the choice of raising wages to compete for workers or letting their lands go unused, wages for labourers rose, and this forced up prices across the economy as goods became more expensive to produce. An attempt to rein in prices, the ordinance required that everyone who could work did, that wages were kept at pre-plague levels, workers saw these shortage conditions as an opportunity to flee employers and become freemen, so Edward III passed additional laws to punish escaped workers. In addition, the Statute of Cambridge was passed in 1388, early legislation was concerned with vagrants and making the able-bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death. Tudor attempts to tackle the problem originate during the reign of Henry VII, every beggar suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid. Moreover, no distinction was made between vagrants and the jobless, both were simply categorised as sturdy beggars, to be punished and moved on, generally, the licences to beg for the impotent poor were limited to the disabled, sick, and elderly. An impotent person begging out of his area was to be imprisoned for two days and nights in the stocks, on bread and water, and then sworn to return to the place in which he was authorized to beg. An able-bodied beggar was to be whipped, and sworn to return to the place where he was born, still no provision was made, though, for the healthy man simply unable to find work. All able-bodied unemployed were put into the same category and those unable to find work had a stark choice, starve or break the law. In 1535, a bill was drawn up calling for the creation of a system of works to deal with the problem of unemployment, to be funded by a tax on income. A law passed a year later allowed vagabonds to be whipped, in London, there was a great massing of the poor, and the Reformation threatened to eliminate some of the infrastructure used to provide for the poor. As a result, King Henry VIII consented to re-endow St. Bartholomews Hospital in 1544, for the able-bodied poor, life became even tougher during the reign of Edward VI. Justices of the Peace were reluctant to apply the full penalty, in 1552, Edward VI passed a poor act which designated a position of Collector of Alms in each parish and created a register of licensed poor. Under the assumption that parish collections would now relieve all poor, the government of Elizabeth I, Edward VIs successor after Mary I, was also inclined to severity. An Act passed in 1572 called for offenders to be burned through the ear for a first offence, however, the Act also made the first clear distinction between the professional beggar and those unemployed through no fault of their own
36.
Candlemas
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It falls on February 2, which is traditionally the 40th day of the Christmas-Epiphany season. While it is customary for Christians in some countries to remove their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night, on Candlemas, many Christians also bring their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year. The Feast of the Presentation is one of the oldest feasts of the Christian church, there are sermons on the Feast by the bishops Methodius of Patara, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory the Theologian, Amphilochius of Iconium, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom. It is also mentioned in the pilgrimage of Egeria, where she confirmed that the celebrations took place in honor of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, but certainly the Feast of the Purification is celebrated here with the greatest honour. On this day there is a procession to the Anastasis, all go in procession, and when all things have been celebrated in order as is customary, the sacrament is administered, and so the people are dismissed. Christmas was, in the West, celebrated on December 25 from at least the year AD354 when it was fixed by Pope Liberius, forty days after December 25 is February 2. In the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire, Roman consul Justin established the celebration of the Hypapante on February 2, Pope Gelasius I contributed to the spread of the celebration, but clearly did not invent it. But it appears that it became important around the time of the Plague of Justinian in 541, the ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia in mid-February, in honor of Lupercus, the god of fertility and shepherds. The celebration of Feralia occurred at the same time and this could be interpreted as evidence that he had limited influence on the Roman aristocracy. The custom of making pancakes is similar to the custom of the Vestal Virgins during Lupercalia, among the Celts, the pagan celebration of Imbolc occurred on the first of February. This was in honor of the goddess Brigid and was associated with purification, peasants would carry torches and cross the fields in procession, praying to the goddess to purify the ground before planting. In churches, the torches were replaced by blessed candles whose glow was supposed to take away evil and they would then take the candles to their homes to bring protection to their homes. In 1372 this celebration would also be associated with the purification of Mary at the Temple, crêpes with their round form and their golden color are reminiscent of the sun, an appropriate symbol during Candlemas, as this is the time of the year when the days get longer. It is also the time of year when the winter seeds begin to grow, the people therefore used left-over flour to make these crêpes, symbolizing prosperity for the coming year. The celebration took on a Marian character after the appearition of the Virgin of Candelaria on the island of Tenerife, in 1497 the conqueror of Tenerife, Alonso Fernández de Lugo, celebrated the first Candlemas dedicated to the Virgin Mary. From antiquity to the Middle Ages, bears were an object of cult, germans and Scandinavians and, to a lesser extent, the Celts celebrated the end of hibernation of the bears at the end of January and beginning of February. However January 24 was for most of Europe the date of the celebration and this was around the time when the bears would leave their dens and see if the weather was mild. This festival was characterized by bear costumes or disguises, and mock rapes, for a long time, the Catholic Church sought to eradicate these pagan practices
37.
Twelfth Night
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Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Nights entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck, Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with the Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man, the first recorded performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the years calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio, Illyria, the setting of Twelfth Night, is important to the plays romantic atmosphere. Illyria was an ancient region of the Western Balkans whose coast covered the coasts of modern-day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and it included the city state of the Republic of Ragusa which has been proposed as the setting. Illyria may have suggested by the Roman comedy Menaechmi, the plot of which also involves twins who are mistaken for each other. Illyria is also referred to as a site of pirates in Shakespeares earlier play, Henry VI, the names of most of the characters are Italian but some of the comic characters have English names. Oddly, the Illyrian lady Olivia has an English uncle, Sir Toby Belch and it has been noted that the plays setting also has other English allusions such as Violas use of Westward ho. Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and she comes ashore with the help of a captain and she loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes to be drowned. Disguising herself as a man under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino through the help of the sea captain who rescues her. Duke Orsino then uses Cesario as an intermediary to profess his love before Olivia. Olivia, however, forgetting about the seven years in his case, falls in love with Cesario, in the comic subplot, several characters conspire to make Olivias pompous steward, Malvolio, believe that Olivia has fallen for him. This involves Olivias uncle, Sir Toby Belch, another suitor, a silly squire named Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her servants Maria and Fabian. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew engage themselves in drinking and revelry, thus disturbing the peace of Olivias house until late into the night, Sir Toby famously retorts, Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria are urged to plan revenge on Malvolio and they convince Malvolio that Olivia is secretly in love with him by planting a love letter, written by Maria in Olivias handwriting. It asks Malvolio to wear yellow stockings cross-gartered, to be rude to the rest of the servants, Malvolio finds the letter and reacts in surprised delight. He starts acting out the contents of the letter to show Olivia his positive response, Olivia is shocked by the changes in Malvolio and leaves him to the contrivances of his tormentors. Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber, Feste visits him to mock his insanity, both disguised as a priest and as himself
38.
Middle Temple
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It is located in the wider Temple area of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. In the 13th century, the Inns of Court originated as hostels and schools for student lawyers, the Middle Temple is the western part of The Temple, the headquarters of the Knights Templar until they were dissolved in 1312. The Temple Church still stands as a church of the Inner. Most of the Inn is occupied by offices, known as chambers. One of the Middle Temples main functions now is to provide education, Middle Temple Hall is at the heart of the Inn, and the Inns student members are required to attend a minimum of 12 qualifying sessions there. Qualifying sessions, formerly known as dinners, combine collegiate and educational elements and will combine an dinner or reception with lectures, debates, mooting. Middle Temple Hall is also a venue for banqueting, weddings, receptions. In recent years, it has become a much-used film location—the cobbled streets, historic buildings, william Shakespeares Twelfth Night received its first recorded performance here, at the feast Candlemas in 1602. Middle Temple Library possesses Emery Molyneuxs terrestrial and celestial globes, which are of particular historical cartographical value, Middle Temple is also one of the few remaining liberties, an old name for a geographic division. It is an independent extra-parochial area, historically not governed by the City of London Corporation, the Middle Temples functions as a local council are set out in the Temples Order 1971. It geographically falls within the boundaries and liberties of the City, some of the Inns buildings lie just outside the liberty of the Middle Temple and the Citys boundary, and are actually situated in the City of Westminster. Quadrant House was acquired by the Middle Temple in 1999 and after five years of conversion is now a barristers chambers and this lies outside the liberty but is within the City of London. List of members of Middle Temple Outer Temple Pump Court Middle Temple website
39.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
40.
Bodleian Library
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The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 12 million items, it is the second largest library in Britain after the British Library, known to Oxford scholars as Bodley or the Bod, it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. They do, however, participate in OLIS, the Bodleian Libraries online union catalogue, much of the librarys archives were digitized and put online for public access in 2015. Since the 19th century a number of stores have been built. Before being granted access to the library, new readers are required to agree to a formal declaration and this declaration was traditionally an oral oath, but is now usually made by signing a letter to a similar effect. Ceremonies in which readers recite the declaration are still performed for those who wish to take them, external readers are still required to recite the declaration orally prior to admission. The Bodleian Admissions Office has amassed a collection of translations of the declaration allowing those who are not native English speakers to recite it in their first language. Whilst the Bodleian Library, in its current incarnation, has a history dating back to 1602. The first purpose-built library known to have existed in Oxford was founded in the century under the will of Thomas Cobham. This small collection of chained books was situated above the side of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin on the High Street. A suitable room was built above the Divinity School. This room continues to be known as Duke Humfreys Library, after 1488, the university stopped spending money on the librarys upkeep and acquisitions, and manuscripts began to go unreturned to the library. The late sixteenth century saw the library go through a period of decline, the furniture was sold. During the reign of Edward VI, there was a purge of superstitious manuscripts, six of the Oxford University dons were tasked with helping Bodley in refitting the library in March 1658. Duke Humfrey’s Library was refitted, and Bodley donated a number of his own books to furnish it, the library was formally re-opened on 8 November 1602 under the name “Bodleian Library”. There were around two thousand books in the library at this time, with an ornate Benefactors Register displayed prominently, in 1605, Francis Bacon gave the library a copy of The Advancement of Learning and described the Bodleian as an Ark to save learning from deluge. At this time, there were few books written in English held in the library, Thomas James suggested that Bodley should ask the Stationers Company to provide a copy of all books printed to the Bodleian. In 1610, Bodley made an agreement with the Stationers Company in London to put a copy of every book registered with them in the library, the Bodleian collection grew so fast that the building was expanded between 1610–1612, and again in 1634–1637
41.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
42.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
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The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously featured in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. It has been adapted for the opera on several occasions, the play is one of Shakespeares lesser-regarded works among literary critics. In all other respects, the play implies a contemporary setting of the Elizabethan era, Falstaff arrives in Windsor very short on money. He decides, to financial advantage, that he will court two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Falstaff decides to send the women identical love letters and asks his servants – Pistol, when they refuse, Falstaff sacks them, and, in revenge, the men tell Ford and Page of Falstaffs intentions. Page is not concerned, but the jealous Ford persuades the Host of the Garter Inn to introduce him to Falstaff as a Master Brook so that he can find out Falstaffs plans, meanwhile, three different men are trying to win the hand of Pages daughter, Anne Page. Mistress Page would like her daughter to marry Doctor Caius, a French physician, Anne herself is in love with Master Fenton, but Page had previously rejected Fenton as a suitor due to his having squandered his considerable fortune on high-class living. Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, tries to enlist the help of Mistress Quickly in wooing Anne for Slender, the Host of the Garter Inn prevents this duel by telling both men a different meeting place, causing much amusement for himself, Justice Shallow, Page and others. Evans and Caius decide to work together to be revenged on the Host, when the women receive the letters, each goes to tell the other, and they quickly find that the letters are almost identical. This all results in embarrassment for Falstaff. Mr. Ford poses as Mr. Brook and says he is in love with Mistress Ford and he offers to pay Falstaff to court her, saying that once she has lost her honour he will be able to tempt her himself. Falstaff cannot believe his luck, and tells Brook he has arranged to meet Mistress Ford while her husband is out. Falstaff leaves to keep his appointment and Ford soliloquises that he is right to suspect his wife, when Falstaff arrives to meet Mistress Ford, the merry wives trick him into hiding in a laundry basket full of filthy, smelly clothes awaiting laundering. When the jealous Ford returns to try and catch his wife with the knight, the wives have the basket taken away, although this affects Falstaffs pride, his ego is surprisingly resilient. He is convinced that the wives are just playing hard to get him, so he continues his pursuit of sexual advancement, with its attendant capital. Again Falstaff goes to meet the women but Mistress Page comes back and they try to think of ways to hide him other than the laundry basket which he refuses to get into again. They trick him again, this time into disguising himself as Mistress Fords maids obese aunt, Ford tries once again to catch his wife with the knight but ends up beating the old woman, whom he despises, and throwing her out of his house
1600s in England 
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