Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was Queen consort of Great Britain as the wife of King George II. Her father, Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, belonged to a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and was the ruler of a small German state, the Principality of Ansbach. Caroline was orphaned at a young age and moved to the enlightened court of her guardians, King Frederick I and Queen Sophia Charlotte of Prussia. At the Prussian court, her limited education was widened, she adopted the liberal outlook possessed by Sophia Charlotte, who became her good friend and whose views influenced Caroline all her life; as a young woman, Caroline was much sought-after as a bride. After rejecting the suit of the nominal King of Spain, Archduke Charles of Austria, she married George Augustus, the third-in-line to the British throne and heir apparent to the Electorate of Hanover, they had eight children. Caroline moved permanently to Britain in 1714; as Princess of Wales, she joined her husband in rallying political opposition to his father King George I.
In 1717, her husband was expelled from court after a family row. Caroline came to be associated with Robert Walpole, an opposition politician, a former government minister. Walpole rejoined the government in 1720, Caroline's husband and King George I reconciled publicly, on Walpole's advice. Over the next few years, Walpole rose to become the leading minister. Caroline became queen and electress consort upon her husband's accession in 1727, her eldest son, became Prince of Wales. He was a focus for the opposition, like his father before him, Caroline's relationship with him was strained; as princess and as queen, Caroline was known for her political influence, which she exercised through and for Walpole. Her tenure included four regencies during her husband's stays in Hanover, she is credited with strengthening the House of Hanover's place in Britain during a period of political instability. Caroline was mourned following her death in 1737, not only by the public but by the King, who refused to remarry.
Caroline was born on 1 March 1683 at Ansbach, the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father was the ruler of one of the smallest German states. Caroline and her only full sibling, her younger brother Margrave William Frederick, left Ansbach with their mother, who returned to her native Eisenach. In 1692, Caroline's widowed mother was pushed into an unhappy marriage with the Elector of Saxony, she and her two children moved to the Saxon court at Dresden. Eleonore Erdmuthe was widowed again two years after her unfaithful husband contracted smallpox from his mistress. Eleonore remained in Saxony for another two years, until her death in 1696; the orphaned Caroline and William Frederick returned to Ansbach to stay with their elder half-brother, Margrave George Frederick II. George Frederick was a youth with little interest in parenting a girl, so Caroline soon moved to Lützenburg outside Berlin, where she entered into the care of her new guardians, Elector of Brandenburg, his wife, Sophia Charlotte, a friend of Eleonore Erdmuthe.
Frederick and Sophia Charlotte became king and queen of Prussia in 1701. The queen was the daughter of Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover, the sister of George, Elector of Hanover, she was renowned for her intelligence and strong character, her uncensored and liberal court attracted a great many scholars, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Caroline was exposed to a lively intellectual environment quite different from anything she had experienced previously. Before she began her education under Sophia Charlotte's care, Caroline had received little formal education. With her lively mind, Caroline developed into a scholar of considerable ability, she and Sophia Charlotte developed a strong relationship in which Caroline was treated as a surrogate daughter. An intelligent and attractive woman, Caroline was much sought-after as a bride. Dowager Electress Sophia called her "the most agreeable Princess in Germany", she was considered for the hand of Archduke Charles of Austria, a candidate for the throne of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor.
Charles made official overtures to her in 1703, the match was encouraged by King Frederick of Prussia. After some consideration, Caroline refused in 1704, as she would not convert from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Early in the following year, Queen Sophia Charlotte died on a visit to her native Hanover. Caroline was devastated, writing to Leibniz, "The calamity has overwhelmed me with grief and sickness, it is only the hope that I may soon follow her that consoles me."In June 1705, Queen Sophia Charlotte's nephew, Prince George Augustus of Hanover, visited the Ansbach court incognito, to inspect Caroline, as his father the Elector did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he himself had. The nephew of three childless uncles, George Augustus was under pressure to marry and father an heir to prevent endangering the Hanoverian succession, he had heard reports of Caroline's "incomparable beauty and mental attributes". He took a liking to her "good character" and the British envoy reported that George Augustus "would not think of anybody else after her".
For her part, Caroline was not fooled by the prince's disguise, found her suitor attractive. He was th
Thomas Charles John Bain was a South African road engineer. As a prolific road building pioneer, Bain was responsible for the planning and construction of more than 900 km of roads and mountain passes, many of them still in use today, over a career spanning from 1848 until 1888; these passes through the mountain ranges between the thin coastal plain and the interior of the former Cape Colony in South Africa, played a major role in opening up the vast hinterland of South Africa. Bain was born in 1830 at Graaff Reinet, at that stage a frontier town in the Cape Colony in Southern Africa, his father, Andrew Geddes Bain, was born in Scotland and settled in the Cape Colony in 1816 at the age of 19. Bain and his six brothers and six sisters were educated at home like most settlers' children of that period; the children's education was interrupted by the outbreak of the War of the Axe in 1846, one of several frontier wars that raged during that era. Thomas served as a volunteer in the war and helped to guard women and children who sheltered in the church of the frontier town of Fort Beaufort.
He married Johanna Hermina de Smidt in 1854. They enjoyed a long and happy marriage. Johanna was the ninth child of the Secretary of the Central Road Board. Georgina Bain, one of his daughters, married the Conservator of Forests, Joseph Storr Lister (1 October 1852 Cape Town - 27 February 1927, wrote Reminiscences of Georgina Lister. In order to cross the coastal mountain ranges of the former Cape Colony, Charles Michell and John Montagu introduced an ambitious road building program, their goal was achieved by the father-and-son combination of Andrew and Thomas Bain, whose civil engineering prowess effected a quantum leap in the quality and range of the road network of the 19th-century Cape Colony. Thomas served his apprenticeship from 1848 to 1854 as his father's assistant in the capacity of Assistant Inspector of Roads. In this capacity he was involved in the construction of Michell's Pass near Ceres and Bainskloof pass near Wellington. After passing first in the Government examinations in 1854, he was promoted to Roads Inspector for the Western Province.
Thomas and his father's careers as road builders continued to be intertwined until Andrew's death in 1864. Bain passes in the second half of the 1800s, his father built eight during the first half of the same century. One of the few passes in South Africa not built by a Bain during that period was Montagu Pass from George to Oudtshoorn, built in 1843–47 by Henry Fancourt White, a road engineer from Australia. Bain's first road construction project as newly promoted Roads Inspector was Grey's Pass, completed in 1858, that opened up the Olifantsriver valley to the Swartland and the Cape Town market. One of Bain's major achievements was the construction of the road on the coastal plain between George and the forestry town of Knysna; the project took 15 years to complete. This road linked Knysna to the more developed areas towards Cape Town and replaced the dreaded river crossing at Kaaimansgat which early travelers described with trepidation; this project was followed by a series of passes across the Outeniqua mountain ranges.
These passes include the Robinson, Tradouw and Burgers Passes as well as the Kogmanskloof road. Followed the 185 km Tsitsikama road, linking the western and eastern portions of the Cape Colony through the indigenous forests of the coastal plain; this road involved the crossing of major ravines, including the Grootriver, Bobbejaansriver and Stormsriver gorges. In March 1873 Bain was appointed as district engineer in the Railway Department. Due to a lack of a suitable candidate to fill the position in the Road Department that he vacated, he rejoined the Road Department after 18 months. In 1877 he became an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Bain's crowning achievement was the Swartberg Pass that connects Oudtshoorn, the largest town in the Little Karoo, with Prince Albert beyond the Swartberg mountains in the open plains of the Great Karoo. Construction on the scenic 24 km long Swartberg pass started in 1884 and was completed in 1887. Bain was assisted by another road engineer, John Tassie, who built the last 6 km of the road leading out of the mountain pass into Prince Albert.
At the same time, Bain was in charge of the construction of the Schoemanspoort pass that connects the Swartberg pass with Oudtshoorn. Bain's last road building project was the construction of Victoria road in 1887 that connects Cape Town with Camps Bay across the neck between Table Mountain and Signal Hill. In 1888 Bain resigned from the Road Department and accepted the position of Irrigation and Geological Surveyor of the Colony, his prolific career with the Road Department resulted in a remarkable heritage of some of the most scenic and impressive mountain passes in South Africa. He continued his prolific work tempo in his new capacity until his death. During his tenure he designed and completed a large reservoir, the Verkeerdevlei reservoir, amongst other projects. Meiring's Poort, 16 km long 1854–58 Grey's Pass near Citrusdal, 11 km long 1857–58 Tulbagh Kloof, 5 km long 1859–60 Seweweekspoort from Laingsburg through Swartberg, 17 km long 1859–62 Prince Alfred's Pass from Knysna to Uniondale, 70
Atâ-Malek Juvayni, in full, Ala al-Din Ata-ullah, was a Persian historian who wrote an account of the Mongol Empire entitled Tarīkh-i Jahān-gushā. He was born in a city in Khorasan in eastern Persia. Both his grandfather and his father, Baha al-Din, had held the post of sahib-divan or Minister of Finance for Muhammad Jalal al-Din and Ögedei Khan respectively. Baha al-Din acted as deputy c. 1246 for his immediate superior, the emir Arghun, in which role he oversaw a large area including Kingdom of Georgia. Juvayni too became an important official of the empire, he visited the Mongol capital of Karakorum twice, beginning his history of the Mongols conquests on one such visit. He was with Ilkhan Hulagu in 1256 at the taking of Alamut and was responsible for saving part of its celebrated library, he had accompanied Hulagu during the sack of Baghdad in 1258, the next year was appointed governor of Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia, Khuzistan. Around 1282, Juvayni attended a Mongol quriltai, or assembly, held in the Ala-Taq pastures northeast of Lake Van.
He died the following year in Arran in Azerbaijan. Juvayni's brother was the powerful Shams al-Din Mohammad Sahib-Divan, who had served as Minister of Finance under Hulagu and Abaqa Khan. A skillful leader in his own right, Shams al-Din had influential in-laws: his wife Khoshak was the daughter of Avag Mkhargrdzeli, Lord High Constable of Georgia, Gvantsa, a noblewoman who went on to become queen of Georgia. Juvayni's own position at court and his family connections made him privy to information unavailable to other historians. For unknown reasons Juvayni's history terminates more than twenty years before his death; the standard edition of Juvayni's history is published under the title Tarīkh-i Jahān-gushā, ed. Mirza Muhammad Qazwini, 3 vol, Gibb Memorial Series 16. An English translation by John Andrew Boyle The History of the World-Conqueror was republished in 1997. Biran, Michal. "JOVAYNI, ṢĀḤEB DIVĀN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 1. Pp. 71–74. Rajabzadeh, Hashem. "JOVAYNI FAMILY". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc.
1. Pp. 61–63. Ashraf, Ahmad. "Iranian identity iii. Medieval Islamic period". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5. Pp. 507–522. History of the World Conqueror by Ala Ad Din Ata Malik Juvaini, translated by John Andrew Boyle, Harvard University Press 1958, on the Internet Archive ʻAlāʼ al-Dīn ʻAṭā Malik Juvaynī. Genghis Khan: the history of the world conqueror. Manchester University Press ND. p. 763. ISBN 0-7190-5145-2. Retrieved March 21, 2012