1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
English Civil War
–
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists over, principally, the manner of Englands government. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, the monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The term English Civil War appears most often in the singular form, the war in all these countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Unlike other civil wars in England, which focused on who should rule, this war was more concerned with the manner in which the kingdoms of England, Scotland, the two sides had their geographical strongholds, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. The strongholds of the royalty included the countryside, the shires, on the other hand, all the cathedral cities sided with Parliament. All the industrial centers, the ports, and the advanced regions of southern and eastern England typically were parliamentary strongholds. Lacey Baldwin Smith says, the words populist, rich, at times there would be two groups of three lines allowing one group to reload while the other group arranged themselves and fired. Mixed in among the musketeers were pikemen carrying pikes that were between 12 feet and 18 feet long, whose purpose was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. The Royalist cavaliers skill and speed on horseback led to early victories. While the Parliamentarian cavalry were slower than the cavaliers, they were better disciplined. The Royalists had a tendency to chase down individual targets after the initial charge leaving their forces scattered and tired, Cromwells cavalry, on the other hand, trained to operate as a single unit, which led to many decisive victories. The English Civil War broke out fewer than forty years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, in spite of this, James personal extravagance meant he was perennially short of money and had to resort to extra-Parliamentary sources of income. Charles hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a new single kingdom, many English Parliamentarians had suspicions regarding such a move because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy. As Charles shared his fathers position on the power of the crown, at the time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, Parliament functioned as an advisory committee and was summoned only if. Once summoned, a continued existence was at the kings pleasure. Yet in spite of this role, Parliament had, over the preceding centuries. Without question, for a monarch, Parliaments most indispensable power was its ability to tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crowns disposal
3.
Devizes
–
Devizes /dᵻˈvaɪzᵻz/ is a market town and civil parish in the heart of Wiltshire, England. Standing on a hill at the east edge of the Vale of Pewsey, Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops and has an open market place where a market is held once a week. It has nearly five hundred listed buildings, some churches, a Town Hall. Its development has grown around the 11th century Norman castle, Devizes Castle was built by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury in 1080, but the town is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. Because the castle was on the boundaries of the manors of Rowde, Bishops Cannings and Potterne it became known as the castrum ad divisas, on John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the towns name is recorded as The Devyses. The first castle on the site was of the motte and bailey form and was made of wood and earth. A new castle was built in stone by Roger of Salisbury, Devizes received its first charter in 1141 permitting regular markets. The castle changed several times during the civil war between Stephen of Blois and Matilda in the 12th century. The castle held important prisoners, including Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, the town has had churches since the 12th century and today has four Church of England parish churches. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the town of Devizes developed outside the castle with craftsmen, the first known market in Devizes was in 1228. The original market was in the space outside St Mary’s Church, rather than in the current Market Place. The chief products in the 16th and early 17th centuries were wheat, wool and yarn, with cheese, bacon, in 1643, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller besieged Royalist forces under Sir Ralph Hopton in Devizes. However the siege was lifted by a force from Oxford under Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender, the castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, a process known as slighting, and today little remains of it. From the 16th century Devizes became known for its textiles, initially white woollen broadcloth but later the manufacture of serge, drugget, felt and cassimere or Zephyr cloth. In the early 18th century Devizes held the largest corn market in the West Country of England and also traded hops, cattle, horses and various types of cloth. Before the Corn Exchange was built in 1857, the trade in wheat and barley was conducted in the open, with sacks piled around the market cross. Todays cross displays the salutary tale of Ruth Pierce, accused of cheating some buyers at the market, The coroner, John Clare, wool merchants were able to build prosperous town houses in St. Johns and Long Street and around the market place
4.
Wiltshire
–
Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
5.
Parliament of England
–
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
6.
Cavalier
–
It was later adopted by the Royalists themselves. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles Is cavalry, is considered to be an archetypal Cavalier. Cavalier derives from the same Latin root as the French word chevalier, Cavalier is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil War. Charles, in the Answer to the Petition 13 June 1642 speaks of Cavaliers as a word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour, Cavalier was not understood at the time as primarily a term describing a style of dress, but a whole political and social attitude. Most Parliamentarian generals wore their hair at much the length as their Royalist counterparts. The best patrons in the nobility of Charles Is court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, probably the most famous image identified as of a cavalier, Frans Hals Laughing Cavalier, shows a gentleman from the strongly Calvinist Dutch town of Haarlem, and is dated 1624. These derogatory terms also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side – capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large. Although they did not share the same outlook on how to worship God as the English Independents of the New Model Army, if I forget Thee, do not forget me. However, the word was coined by the Roundheads as a propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man. It is this image which has survived and many Royalists, for example Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, fitted this description to a tee. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he so much excelled and this sense has developed into the modern English use of cavalier to describe a recklessly nonchalant attitude, although still with a suggestion of stylishness. Likewise during Exclusion Bill crisis the term Roundhead was replaced with Whig, an example of the Cavalier style can be seen in the painting Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles by Anthony van Dyck. The mascot of Cavalier has been commonly used in the sports world. Most prominently it has been that of the professional Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA since 1970 and it has also been adopted by smaller organizations such as Johnson County Community College, Kankakee Community College, St. Gregorys University, and the University of Virginias College at Wise. Cavaliers have been represented as a class and subclass of role-playing character since 1983 in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Cavalier Generals, King Charles I and His Commanders in the English Civil War, 1642–46. Going to the Wars, The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Goring, George Goring, Lord. Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of, the history of the rebellion and civil wars in England. The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution 1688, the Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660
7.
William Waller
–
Sir William Waller was an English Parliamentary general during the English Civil War. He received his education at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and served in the Venetian army and he received a knighthood in 1622 after taking part in Veres expedition to the Electorate of the Palatinate. William Waller was born in Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, the son of Sir Thomas Waller and his wife Margaret Lennard and his father was a descendant of the Waller family of Groombridge Place, Kent, constable of Dover Castle and member of parliament for Dover. His cousin was the Parliamentarian and regicide Hardress Waller, William Waller attended Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not graduate. He succeeded to the estates of his father in 1613 and was knighted on 30 June 1622, as from 1636 Waller owned a quarter-share in the Providence Island Company. In 1640 Waller was elected Member of Parliament for Andover in the Short Parliament and he was elected MP for Andover for the Long Parliament on 3 May 1642. As a strict Presbyterian by religion, and a member of the opposition in politics, at the beginning of 1643 Waller was promoted to major-general and placed in charge of operations in the region of Gloucester and Bristol. He concluded his first campaign in this theatre with a victory at Highnam, however, Hopton and a relieving force from Oxford inflicted a crushing defeat upon Wallers army at the Battle of Roundway Down. God in his good time send us the blessing of peace and we are both upon the stage and must act such parts as are assigned us in this tragedy, let us do it in a way of honour and without personal animosities. The destruction of his army at Roundway scarcely affected Wallers military reputation, many reproaching Essex, the Londoners, who had called him William the Conqueror, recognised his skill and energy so far as willingly to raise a new army for him in London and the south-eastern counties. From 7th to 9th of August 1643, there were popular demonstrations at Westminster. An anti-war demonstration by London women turned violent, and was suppressed by Wallers regiment of horse, many women were beaten and some even killed in the melee. Wallers career became one of gradual disillusionment and his new forces were distinctively local, and, like other local troops on both sides, resented long marches and hard work far from their own counties. Only at moments of imminent danger could they be trusted to do their duty. Waller himself, a general of the highest skill — the best shifter and chooser of ground on either side - was, like Turenne, at his best at the head of a small, in these circumstances affairs went from bad to worse. His last expeditions were made into the west for the relief of Taunton, by this time the confusion in all the armed forces of the parliament had reached such a height that reforms were at last taken in hand. Simultaneously with the New Model came the Self-denying Ordinance, which required all members of parliament to lay down their military commands, as he had already requested to be relieved, Waller did so gladly and his active military career came to an end. But the events of 1643 -1644 had done more than embitter him and he was several times imprisoned between 1648 and 1659
8.
Arthur Haselrig
–
Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1659. He was one of the Five Members of Parliament whom King Charles I tried to arrest in 1642, an event which led to the start of the English Civil War. Haselrig was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Hesilrige, 1st Baronet, of Noseley Hall, Noseley, Leicestershire, from an early age he imbibed strong puritanical principles and showed a special antagonism towards Archbishop Laud. In April 1640, Haselrig was elected Member of Parliament for Leicestershire in the Short Parliament He was re-elected MP for Leicestershire for the Long Parliament in November 1640. He was heavily involved in the Act of Attainder against Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, the Root and Branch Bill, Charles I tried to arrest him for treason on 3 January 1642, along with John Hampden, Denzil Holles, John Pym and William Strode. However the so-called Five Members, together with the peer Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester who was due to be arrested, were tipped off by Robert Devereux. The king marched with his guards into the chamber of the House of Commons chamber only to find that the Five Members had fled, Haselrig was very active in the First English Civil War on the Parliamentarian side. He raised a troop of horse for the Earl of Essex and he was a commander in the West under William Waller, being nicknamed his fidus Achates, and led his cuirassiers, who were known as the London lobsters. He and his troops distinguished themselves at the Battle of Lansdowne on 5 July 1643 where his men defeated Sir Beville Grenvilles Pikemen and they lost at the Battle of Roundway Down on 13 July to Lord Wilmot. At both of these battles he was wounded, at the Battle of Cheriton, his men defeated Sir Henry Bards cavalry charge, seriously weakening Hoptons army in the west. This battle was a point in the war and the kings secretary Sir Edward Walker said that after Cheriton. Haselrig supported Oliver Cromwell in his dispute with the Earl of Manchester, when the Self-denying Ordinance was approved by Parliament he gave up his commission and became one of the leaders of the Independent party in Parliament. On 30 December 1647 he was appointed governor of Newcastle, which he defended, besides defeating the Royalists on 2 July 1648. In October he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and gave him support in the Scottish expedition in 1650. Haselrig approved of the execution but declined to act as a judge at his trial. He was one of the men in the Commonwealth, but he was antagonised by Cromwells expulsion of the Rump Parliament. Haselrig considered Cromwell to be a traitor to the cause after this as he was a staunch republican, edmund Ludlow, one of his opponents admitted to do him justice. I must acknowledge that I am under no manner of doubt concerning the rectitude, for he made it his buseness to prevent arbitrary power wherever he knew it to be affected, and to keep the sword subserviant to the civil magistrate
9.
Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton
–
Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton DL was a Royalist commander in the English Civil War, appointed lieutenant-general under the Marquess of Hertford in the west at the beginning of the conflict. Hopton was the son of Robert Hopton of Witham Somerset and he was apparently educated at Lincoln College, Oxford and served in the army of Frederick V, Elector Palatine in the early campaigns of the Thirty Years War. In 1624, he was lieutenant-colonel of a regiment raised in England to serve in Mansfelds army, king Charles I, at his coronation, made Hopton a Knight of the Bath. Next, he carried the war into Devon, in May 1643, he defeated the Parliamentarian forces in the West Country at Stratton, enabling him to overrun Devon and link up with reinforcements under Prince Maurice. On 5 July, their forces clashed indecisively with Sir William Waller at Lansdowne. Hopton was severely wounded there by the explosion of a powder-wagon, soon afterwards, he was besieged in Devizes by Waller, he defended himself until he was relieved by the Royalist victory at Roundway Down on 13 July. He was soon made Baron Hopton of Stratton and these successes in the west enabled the Royalists to expand their control across southern England as far as the western fringes of Sussex in late 1643. But a counter-attack led by Waller forced Hopton back to Winchester, Hopton was reinforced by a force under the Earl of Forth. But on 29 March 1644 he was defeated by Waller at Cheriton, after this, he served in the western campaign under Charles own command, and towards the end of the war, after Goring had left England, he succeeded to the command of the royal army. Hopton was defeated at Torrington on 16 February 1646 and surrendered to Thomas Fairfax, subsequently, he accompanied the Prince of Wales in his attempts to prolong the war in the Isles of Scilly and the Channel Islands. He died in exile at Bruges in September 1652 and his title was extinguished with his death. F. T. R. Edgar, Sir Ralph Hopton, the Kings Man in the West. A Study in Character and Command, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1968, ISBN 0-19-821372-7 Biography of Sir Ralph Hopton. British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website
10.
Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester
–
In 1621, Charles had been created an Irish peer as Viscount Wilmot. Wilmot was born in 1612 as the son of Charles. Wilmot had five years experience in the Dutch army, and was wounded at the siege of Breda. In 1640, Wilmot was elected to the Long Parliament to represent Tamworth and it was during this period that he became involved as a member of a set of young MPs and officers around Queen Henrietta Maria. As part of this set he took a part in the Army Plot of 1641 against Parliament. He was committed to the Tower of London and expelled from the House of Commons, as soon as the First English Civil War started Wilmot joined King Charles I at York. By 5 August 1642 he raised a regiment of horse for the Kings army and he also commanded the expeditionary force that stormed and captured Marlborough on 5 December. On 5 December Wilmot commanded the force which stormed Marlborough. Whatever their source, he repaid them in July, when he led a large section of the cavalry under his command to assist the western royalist army. At the Battle of Roundway Down, on 13 July, he routed the forces of Sir William Waller, opening the way for the royalist conquest of most of the west. In 1644 when Rupert took over a command in the North, Wilmot stepped into his shoes as commander of all the Royalist cavalry. On 29 June at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge he participated in defeating Waller for the second time, when his father died Wilmot inherited the title of Viscount Wilmot of Athlone and much of his fathers political standing in Ireland. He drank hard, and had a power over all who did so. This popularity and his position in the army command, allowed him to start to exert political influence. Charles, who had no affection for Wilmot, dismissed the strategy and kept Digby. With the failure of his first scheme, Wilmot made a contact with the Earl of Essex who was the parliamentarian commander-in-chief. The king was persuaded by Digby and Culpeper that Wilmots actions were treasonable. Wilmot was arrested on 8 August 1644, stripped of all his offices, Wilmot went to France, to join the exiled court of his old patron Queen Henrietta Maria
