Cousin marriage
Cousin marriage is marriage between cousins. Opinions and practice vary widely across the world, in some cultures and communities, cousin marriage is considered ideal and actively encouraged, in others, it is subject to social stigma. Cousin marriage is common in the Middle East, for instance, in some countries outside that region, it is uncommon but still legal. In others, it is seen as incestuous and is prohibited, it is banned in China and Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea. Supporters of cousin marriage where it is banned may view the prohibition as discrimination, more than 10% of marriages are between first or second cousins. In the past, cousin marriage was practiced within indigenous cultures in Australia, North America, South America, various religions have ranged from prohibiting sixth cousins or closer from marrying, to freely allowing first-cousin marriage. Cousin marriage is an important topic in anthropology and alliance theory, children of more distantly related cousins have less risk of harmful genetic mutations.
In fact, a study of Icelandic records indicated that marriages between third or fourth cousins may be optimal, at least from the perspective of producing the most children and grandchildren. According to Professor Robin Fox of Rutgers University, 80% of all marriages in history may have been second cousins or closer. The founding population of Homo sapiens was small,700 to 10,000 individuals, proportions of first-cousin marriage in Western countries have declined since the 19th century. In the Middle East, cousin marriage is strongly favored. Cousin marriage was legal in all states before the Civil War, anthropologist Martin Ottenheimer argues that marriage prohibitions were introduced to maintain the social order, uphold religious morality, and safeguard the creation of fit offspring. Writers such as Noah Webster and ministers like Philip Milledoler and Joshua McIlvaine helped lay the groundwork for such viewpoints well before 1860 and this led to a gradual shift in concern from affinal unions, like those between a man and his deceased wifes sister, to consanguineous unions.
To many, Morgan included, cousin marriage, and more specifically parallel-cousin marriage, was a remnant of a primitive stage of human social organization. Morgan himself had married his cousin in 1853, in 1846, Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs appointed a commission to study idiots in the state, and this study implicated cousin marriage as responsible for idiocy. Within the next two decades, numerous reports appeared with similar conclusions, that cousin marriage sometimes resulted in deafness and idiocy. Despite being contradicted by other studies like those of George Darwin and Alan Huth in England and Robert Newman in New York and these developments led to 13 states and territories passing cousin marriage prohibitions by the 1880s. Though contemporaneous, the movement did not play much of a direct role in the bans
Bohemond I of Antioch
Bohemond I was the Prince of Taranto from 1089 to 1111 and the Prince of Antioch from 1098 to 1111. He was a leader of the First Crusade, which was governed by a committee of nobles, the Norman monarchy he founded in Antioch arguably outlasted those of England and of Sicily. Bohemond was the son of Robert Guiscard, Count of Apulia and Calabria and he was born between 1050 and 1058—in 1054 according to historian John Julius Norwich. He was baptised Mark, possibly because he was born at his fathers castle at San Marco Argentano in Calabria and he was nicknamed Bohemond after a legendary giant. His parents were related within the degree of kinship that made their marriage invalid under canon law, with the annulment of his parents marriage, Bohemond became a bastard. Before long, Alberada married Robert Guiscards nephew, Richard of Hauteville and she arranged for a knightly education for Bohemond. Robert Guiscard was taken ill in early 1073. Fearing that he was dying, Sikelgaita held an assembly in Bari, Roberts nephew, Abelard of Hauteville, was the only baron to protest, because he regarded himself Roberts lawful heir.
Bohemond fought in his fathers army during the rebellion of Jordan I of Capua, Geoffrey of Conversano and his father dispatched him at the head of an advance guard against the Byzantine Empire in early 1081 and he captured Valona. He sailed to Corfu, but did not invade the island since the local garrison outnumbered his army and he withdrew to Butrinto to await the arrival of his fathers forces. After Robert Guiscard arrived in the half of May, they laid siege to Durazzo. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos came to the rescue of the town but, on 18 October, Bohemond commanded the left flank, which defeated the Emperors largely Anglo-Saxon Varangian Guard. The Normans captured Durazzo on 21 February 1082 and they marched along the Via Egnatia as far as Kastoria, but Alexioss agents stirred up a rebellion in Southern Italy, forcing Robert Guiscard to return to his realm in April. He charged Bohemond with the command of his army in the Balkans, Bohemond defeated the Byzantines at Ioannina and at Arta, taking control of most of Macedonia and Thessaly, the six-month siege of Larissa was unsuccessful.
Supply and pay problems undermined the morale of the Norman army, during his absence, most of the Norman commanders deserted to the Byzantines and a Venetian fleet recaptured Durazzo and Corfu. Bohemond accompanied his father to the Byzantine Empire again in 1084, an epidemic decimated the Normans and Bohemond, who was taken seriously ill, was forced to return to Italy in December 1084. Robert Guiscard died at Cephalonia on 17 July 1085 and she persuaded the army to acclaim Roger Borsa his fathers successor and they hurried back to Southern Italy. Two months later, the assembly of the Norman barons confirmed the succession and he made an alliance with Jordan of Capua, and captured Oria and Otranto
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
It is extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights.
In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
Gertrude of Saxony
Gertrude of Saxony, known as Gertrude Billung, was a countess consort of Holland, and a countess consort of Flanders by marriage. She was regent of Holland during the minority of her son and she was the daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and Eilika of Schweinfurt. She married Floris I, Count of Holland c,1050, and upon his death, her son Dirk V became Count of Holland. Since he was young, she became regent. When Dirk V came into power, William I, Bishop of Utrecht, took advantage of the situation and her son withdrew to the islands of Frisia, leaving William to occupy the disputed lands. In 1063 Gertrude married Robert of Flanders, the son of Baldwin V of Flanders. This act gave Dirk the Imperial Flanders as an appanage – including the islands of Frisia west of the Frisian Scheldt and she and her husband acted as co-regents for the young count. She had a total of seven children with Floris I, Dirk V. Peter, a canon in Liége. Bertha, who married Philip I of France in 1072, matilda Adela, who married Count Baudouin I of Guînes.
From her second marriage to Robert I she had five children, who first married king Canute IV of Denmark, and was the mother of Charles the Good, count of Flanders. She married Roger Borsa, duke of Apulia, who married Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine, and was the mother of Thierry of Alsace, later count of Flanders. Philip of Loo, whose illegitimate son William of Ypres was a claimant to the county of Flanders, genealogy A-Z Medieval Lands Project on Gertrude of Saxony
Fulk IV, Count of Anjou
Fulk IV, called le Réchin, was the Count of Anjou from 1068 until his death. The nickname by which he is usually referred has no certain translation, philologists have made numerous very different suggestions, including quarreler, sullen and heroic. He was noted to be a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, born 1043, was the younger son of Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais, and Ermengarde of Anjou. Ermengarde was a daughter of Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, when Geoffrey Martel died without direct heirs he left Anjou to his nephew Geoffrey III of Anjou, Fulk le Réchins older brother. Fulk fought with his brother, whose rule was deemed incompetent, under pressure from the Church he released Geoffrey. The two brothers fell to fighting again, and the next year Geoffrey was again imprisoned by Fulk. Substantial territory was lost to Angevin control due to the difficulties resulting from Geoffreys poor rule, saintonge was lost, and Fulk had to give the Gâtinais to Philip I of France to placate the king.
Much of Fulks rule was devoted to regaining control over the Angevin baronage, in 1096 Fulk wrote an incomplete history of Anjou and its rulers titled Fragmentum historiae Andegavensis or History of Anjou. The authorship and authenticity of this work is disputed, only the first part of the history, describing Fulks ancestry, is extant. The second part, supposedly describing Fulks own rule, has not been recovered, if he did write it, it is one of the first medieval works of history written by a layman. He died in 1109 leaving the restoration of the countship, as it was under Geoffrey Martel, Fulk may have married as many as five times, there is some doubt regarding the exact number or how many he repudiated. His first wife was Hildegarde of Beaugency, together they had a daughter, who married to Alan IV, Duke of Brittany. After her death, before or by 1070, he married Ermengarde de Bourbon, together they had a son before Fulk repudiated her in 1075, possibly on grounds of consanguinity, Geoffrey IV Martel, ruled jointly with him for some time, but died in 1106.
Around 1076 he married Orengarde de Châtellailon and he repudiated her in 1080, possibly on grounds of consanguinity. He married a daughter of Walter I of Brienne by 1080. This marriage ended in divorce, in 1087, lastly, in 1089, he married Bertrade de Montfort, who was apparently abducted by King Philip I of France in or around 1092. They had a son, Fulk V le Jeune, Count of Anjou and King of Jerusalem
Dirk II, Count of Holland
Dirk II or Theoderic II was Count in Frisia and Holland. He was the son of Count Dirk I and Geva, Count Dirk II built a fortress near Vlaardingen, which was the site of a battle between his grandson Dirk III and an Imperial army under Godfrey II, Duke of Lower Lorraine. Dirk II rebuilt Egmond Abbey and its church in stone to house the relics of Saint Adalbert. Adalbert was not well known at time, but he was said to have preached Christianity in the immediate surroundings two centuries earlier. The abbey was given to a community of Benedictine monks from Ghent and his daughter Erlint, Erlinde or Herlinde, who was abbess at the time, was made abbess of the newly founded Bennebroek Abbey instead. Dirk married Hildegarde, and had three known children and his son Arnulf became Count of Holland and Frisia after Dirks death. The younger son Egbert became Archbishop of Trier in 977 and his daughter Erlinde was abbess of Egmond Abbey, until that institution was changed by her father from a nunnery into a monastery, after which she became abbess of Bennebroek.
Dirk died in 988 and was buried in the church at Egmond Abbey. Hildegard died two years and was buried there. Geerts. com, History of Holland Cawley, Medieval Lands Project and Frisia, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Hugh, Count of Champagne
Hugh was the Count of Champagne from 1093 until his death. Hugh was the son of Theobald III, Count of Blois and Adele of Valois. His older brother Odo V, Count of Troyes, died in 1093, leaving him master of Troyes, where he centred his court and his first recorded act, a monastic gift in 1094, became the oldest document of the comital archive. Hughs charter makes over to the new foundation Clairvaux and its dependencies, meadows, woods, instead, he transferred his titles to his nephew, who became Theobald II of Champagne. Odos two sons, Odo II of Champlitte and William of Champlitte were important figures in the fourth crusade, hugh married first Constance, daughter of King Philip I of France and Bertha of Holland. Their only child, a son called Manasses, died young and he married second Isabella, daughter of Stephen I, Count of Burgundy, and niece of Pope Callixtus II. Hugh was the patron of the abbeys of Montieramey Abbey and of Molesme, making grants from his castle of Isle-Aumont. In a surviving letter to him from Ivo of Chartres, the Bishop of Chartres reminds him of his obligations of marriage, perhaps to deter him from making vows of continence
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, fashion and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is a rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang.
Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
Sigfried, Count of the Ardennes
Sigfried was count of the Ardennes and the first person to rule Luxembourg. He was an advocate of the abbeys of Saint-Maximin de Trêves and he may have been the son of Count Palatine Wigeric of Lotharingia and Cunigunda. He was the founder of the House of Luxembourg, a branch of the House of Ardennes, Siegfried held possessions from his father in Upper Lorraine. Although his title of count is not disputed, the extent of the lands he possessed remains unclear, from 958, he sought to acquire the territories of Count Warner in the region of Bodeux near the Benedictine Abbey of Stavelot. However, the Abbot of Stavelot, reluctant to have an ambitious landowner as his neighbor, in 963 Siegfried built a stronghold, a castellum Lucilinburhuc, around which a town started to grow. The structure may have been a refurbishment of an existing building, Siegfried gradually extended his territory towards the west, avoiding the Abbeys lands and those of the emperor. Though Siegfried used the title of count, the count of Luxembourg was only applied to William some 150 years later.
Siegfried remained a servant of the Holy Roman Emperors. At the death of Otto II in 983, Siegfried fought at the side of the widowed Empress consort, around 950, he married Hedwig of Nordgau, daughter of Eberhard IV of Nordgau. Histoire du Luxembourg, des origines à nos jours
Vlaardingen
Vlaardingen is a city in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality administers an area of 26.69 km2, of which 23.64 km2 is land, the city is divided into a northern and a southern part by the A20 motorway. On the east the city is separated from Schiedam by the A4 motorway, other places nearby are Maassluis to the west and Delft to the north and Rotterdam to the east and Spijkenisse in the south-west, on the other side of the Nieuwe Maas. The A20 connects Rotterdam to Hoek van Holland, the Beneluxtunnel connects the A20 to the A15. The centre of the town is on the west side of the old harbour, the area around Vlaardingen was already settled by about 2900 to 2600 BC. In 1990, a skeleton dated at about 1300 BC was dug up in the periphery of Vlaardingen, some human nuclear DNA was identified, in 726 or 727 the area is again mentioned as In Pagio Marsum, where a little church was established, around which Vlaardingen formed.
The church is mentioned on a list of churches Willibrord, the Apostle to the Frisians, in 1018 Vlaardingen was a stronghold of Dirk III, who levied an illegal toll on ships on the Meuse river. An army sent by German Emperor Henry II in order to stop this practice was defeated by Dirk III in the Battle of Vlaardingen, in 1047, his successor Dirk IV repelled another such attack. The flood disaster of December 21,1163, ended the growth of Vlaardingen, the Counts of Holland moved away and its development stagnated. It is known that in 1273 Vlaardingen was granted city rights by Floris V, older city rights are possible, but not provable. In 1574, during the Eighty Years War of Dutch independence, Vlaardingen became a shipbuilding area and a significant harbour for the herring fishing industry. The fishing boats ceased to use Vlaardingen in the years after World War II, because of the industrialization in and close to Vlaardingen, the city suffered from heavy air pollution and sometimes sick making smog during the 1970s.
One day, a school had to be closed because of the smog. Many environmental groups arose in and around Vlaardingen and the it was seen as one of the most dirty cities of the country, there are still some ship repair business in Eastern Vlaardingen beside the Nieuwe Maas River. The Vulcaanhaven was for years the largest privately owned artificial harbour in the world. The last major herring factory, Warmelo & Van Der Drift, left Vlaardingen in the middle of 2012 to relocate to Katwijk aan Zee, there are still some ferry terminals. Historical buildings in the include the Grote Kerk, the Waag next to the church and the old town hall, all on the Markt, the former marketplace, the Visbank at the harbour
Dirk III, Count of Holland
Dirk III was Count of Holland from 993 to 27 May 1039, until 1005 under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, the area over which Dirk ruled was called Holland for the first time only in 1101 and was known as West Friesland at this time. The actual title of Count Dirk III was Count in Friesland, western Frisia was very different from the area of today. Most of the territory was boggy and subject to constant flooding, the main areas of habitation were in the dunes at the coast and on heightened areas near the rivers. Count Dirk was a member of the house of Holland, an important family within Germany at that time and his mother, Luitgard of Luxemburg, was regent in the county while Dirk was still a minor, from 993-1005. She was the sister-in-law of Emperor Henry II, and with his help, after Dirk assumed the government of the county, she still used her family connections to acquire imperial assistance, in one instance an imperial army helped Dirk suppress a Frisian revolt.
Prior to 1018, Count Dirk III was a vassal of Henry II, but the bishops of Trier and Cologne all contested the ownership of Dirks fiefdom, the German kings and emperors were frequently resident in Utrecht and the nearby estate of Nijmegen. Another trade route ran through Dirks territory was from the city of Tiel to England. It was along this route that Count Dirk built a stronghold at Vlaardingen. He was not permitted to levy tolls or hinder trade in any way, working together with the Frisians now living in the area, he stopped passing ships, demanding payment of tolls. Merchants from the town of Tiel sent alarmed messages to the king, Emperor Henry decided to end Dirk IIIs reign and awarded his lands to Bishop Adelbold. A large imperial army, made up of troops supplied by the bishops of region, under the command of Godfrey II, Duke of Lower Lorraine. The ensuing Battle of Vlaardingen was a disaster for the imperial army, following this victory, Dirk III was permitted to keep his lands and he continued levying tolls.
Later on, Dirk managed to acquire more lands east of his previous domains at the expense of the Bishop of Utrecht, after the death of Emperor Henry II in 1024, Dirk supported Conrad II for the succession to the kingship. After Count Dirk IIIs death in 1039, imperial armies were sent on a few more occasions seeking to reclaim the lands held by the Frisian counts. The powerful Robert I, Count of Flanders helped Dirk V, grandson of Dirk III and his own stepson, Dirk III married Othelindis, perhaps daughter of Bernard, Margrave of the Nordmark. After Dirks death on 27 May 1039, his widow went back to Saxony, Dirk was buried at Egmond Abbey
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede, indeed William may well have been the most learned man in twelfth-century Western Europe. William was born about 1095 or 1096 in Wiltshire and his father was Norman and his mother English. He spent his life in England and his adult life as a monk at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. Though the education William received at Malmesbury Abbey included a smattering of logic and physics, moral philosophy, the evidence shows that Malmesbury had first-hand knowledge of at least four hundred works by two hundred-odd authors. Williams obvious respect for Bede is apparent even within the preface of his Gesta Regum Anglorum, in fulfilment of this idea, William completed in 1125 his Gesta Regum Anglorum, consciously patterned on Bede, which spanned from AD 449–1120. He edited and expanded it up to the year 1127, releasing a dedicated to Robert. This second edition of the Gesta Regum, disclosing in his thoughts the mellowing of age, is now considered one of the great histories of England.
His anxiety for money is the thing on which he can deservedly be blamed. I have here no excuse whatever to offer, unless it be, as one has said, that of necessity he must fear many, Williams first edition of the book was followed by the Gesta Pontificum Anglorum in 1125. He stayed at Glastonbury Abbey for a time, composing On the Antiquity of the Glastonbury Church for his friend, around this time, William formed an acquaintance with Bishop Roger of Salisbury, who had a castle at Malmesbury. It is possible that this acquaintance, coupled with the reception of his Gesta Regum earned him the offered position of Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey in 1140. William, preferred his duties as librarian and scholar and his one public appearance was made at the council of Winchester in 1141, in which the clergy declared for the Empress Matilda. This work breaks off in 1142, with a promise that it would be continued. Presumably William died before he could redeem his pledge, William wrote a history of his abbey and several saints lives.
William is considered by many, including John Milton, to be one of the best English historians of his time, a strong Latin stylist, he shows literary and historiographical instincts which are, for his time, remarkably sound. He is an authority of considerable value from 1066 onwards, many telling anecdotes and shrewd judgments on persons, some scholars criticise him for his atypical annalistic form, calling his chronology less than satisfactory and his arrangement of material careless. Much of Williams work on Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, is thought to derive from an account from Coleman
