1.
Paris
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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, commerce, fashion, science, 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 also a rail, highway, 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, notably, 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 also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also 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
2.
Waddesdon Manor
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Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale,6.6 miles west of Aylesbury, the house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild as a weekend residence for grand entertaining. The last member of the Rothschild family to own Waddesdon was James de Rothschild and he bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust. It is now administered by a Rothschild charitable trust that is overseen by Jacob Rothschild and it is one of the National Trusts most visited properties, with around 335,000 visitors annually. Prior to the construction of Waddesdon Manor, no house existed on the site, Ferdinand de Rothschild wanted a house in the style of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley. The Baron, a member of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild banking dynasty, Destailleur was already experienced in working in this style, having overseen the restoration of many châteaux in that region, in particular that of the Château de Mouchy. Through Destailleurs vision, Waddesdon embodied an eclectic style based on the châteaux so admired by his patron, Baron Ferdinand. The towers at Waddesdon were based on those of the Château de Maintenon, however, following the theme of unparalleled luxury at Waddesdon, the windows of the towers at Waddesdon were glazed, unlike those of the staircase at Chambord. They are also far more ornate, the structural design of Waddesdon, however, was not all retrospective. The house also had hot and cold running water in its bathrooms, central heating, the building contractor was Edward Conder & Son. Works were acquired for their quality and fine provenance. One of the highlights of the collection is the extraordinary musical automaton elephant, dating from 1774, in the 1890s, Baron Ferdinand focused on the Renaissance collection for his small museum in the New Smoking Room. This collection was bequeathed to the British Museum and is now known as the Waddesdon Bequest, the interior of Waddesdon Manor was photographed in 1897 for Baron Ferdinands privately published The Red Book. Subsequent owners added noted collections of Limoges enamel, arms and armour, maiolica, medieval manuscripts, prints, extensive landscaping of the hill was carried out, including leveling the top. The gardens and landscape park were laid out by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé, an attempt was made to transplant full-grown trees by chloroforming their roots, to limit the shock. While this novel idea was unsuccessful, many large trees were successfully transplanted. The gardens were enhanced with statuary, pavilions and an aviary that is still in use, the Proserpina fountain was brought to the Manor at the end of the 19th century from the Palace of the Dukes of Parma in northern Italy, the Ducal Palace of Colorno. The gardens are listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks, Baron Ferdinand played host to many important guests including the future Edward VII
3.
Waddesdon Bequest
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In 1898, Baron Ferdinand Rothschild bequeathed to the British Museum as the Waddesdon Bequest the contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of a collection of almost 300 objets dart et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass. Earlier than most objects is the outstanding Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, here what most appealed to Ferdinand Rothschild were intricate, superbly executed, highly decorated and rather ostentatious works of the Late Gothic, Renaissance and Mannerist periods. Few of the objects could be said to rely on either simplicity or Baroque sculptural movement for their effect, though come from periods. A new display for the collection, which under the terms of the bequest must be kept and displayed together, the collection was started by Baron Ferdinands father, Baron Anselm von Rothschild, and may include some objects from earlier Rothschild collections. At least one of the now in the British Museum can be seen in a cabinet in the background of a family portrait from 1838. The period after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars offered tremendous opportunities for collectors of the arts of the medieval. These categories were valued very little by the art market in general and this golden age for collectors had passed by the time Ferdinand inherited his part of his fathers collection in 1874, which was also the year he bought the Waddesdon estate and began to build there. Ferdinand continued to expand the collection until his death in 1898, mostly using dealers, in particular Ferdinand expanded to around fifty the ten or so pieces of jewellery in his fathers collection. The New Smoking Room built to hold the collection was planned from 1891. Several objects, including the Casket of Saint Valerie, were on tables away from the walls, comfortable seating was plentiful, some upholstered with pieces from medieval vestments, and there were framed photographs and houseplants. The room is now refilled with objects from the same period though of different types. The segregation of the collection was part of the concept of what has called the neo-Kunstkammer. The Renaissance Room at what is now the Wallace Collection and the collection of Sir Julius Wernher were other examples formed in England over the same period, unlike those collections, contemporary and recent objects were not included. Baron Ferdinand was a restless and, by his own account, unhappy man, whose life was blighted by the death of his wife giving birth to their only child, who was stillborn. Thereafter he lived with his unmarried sister Alice, Ferdinand recognized and welcomed the drift of high quality art into public collections, which had begun in earnest during his time as a collector. He had already donated some significant objects to the museum in his lifetime, Baron Ferdinands bequest was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void. These terms are still observed, and until late 2014 the collection was shown in the small room 45
4.
Evelina de Rothschild
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Evelina Gertrude de Rothschild was an English socialite and a member of the Rothschild banking family of England. Evelina de Rothschild was the daughter of Baron Lionel de Rothschild and her mother was Charlotte von Rothschild, a cousin from the Naples branch of the family. On 7 June 1865 Evelina married her second cousin Ferdinand James von Rothschild of the Austrian branch of the family, following a lengthy honeymoon across Europe, Evelina and her husband settled into a home at 143 Piccadilly in London near her parents. She died on 4 December 1866 after giving birth to their first child and she is buried at the Rothschild Mausoleum in the Jewish Cemetery at West Ham. In her memory, her husband built, equipped, and endowed the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children in Southwark, one of the neglected and poorest districts of London. Her father Lionel assumed sponsorship of the first school for girls in Israel, which opened in Jerusalem in 1854 and her mother, Charlotte, inaugurated the Evelina Prize, awarded at Jewish elementary schools and Jews College
5.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
6.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
7.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
8.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
9.
Art collector
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A private collection is a privately owned collection of works, usually a collection of art. This source will usually be an art collector, although it could be a school, church organization, bank or other company, collectors of books, even if they collect for aesthetic reasons, are called bibliophiles, and their collections are referred to as libraries. The Royal collections of most countries were originally the grandest of private collections but are now mostly in public ownership, however the British Royal Collection remains under the care of the Crown, though distinguished from the private property of the British Royal Family. The cabinet of curiosities was an important mixed form of collection, including art and these were formed by royalty but smaller ones also by merchants and scholars. The tastes and habits of collectors have played an important part in determining what art was produced. Many types of objects, such as medals, engravings, small plaquettes, modern engraved gems, increasingly collectors tended to specialize in one or two types of work, although some, like George Salting, still had a very wide scope for their collections. The extension of serious collecting to art from all periods and places was an essentially 19th-century development, trecento paintings were little appreciated until about the 1830s, and Chinese ritual bronzes and jades until perhaps the 1920s. Collecting of African art was rare until after World War II, very famous collections that are now dispersed include the Borghese Collection and Farnese collection in Rome, and the Orleans Collection in Paris, mostly sold in London. When this happens, it can be a loss to those interested in art as the initial vision of the collector is lost. The works were displayed in the Liechtenstein Museum after nearly 60 years with most in storage. The important collection of the Thyssen family, mostly kept in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, only an exhibited part, the collection of Carmen Cervera, widow of the late Baron Thyssen, remains private but exhibited separately in the museum. Many collections were left to the public in some form, and are now museums, most museums are formed around one or more formerly private collection acquired as a whole. Other collections remain complete but are merged into larger collections in museums, many other bequests or purchased collections are split up within the museums collection. Sergei Shchukin, was an important Russian art collector, mainly of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and his collection is now divided between the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The Charles Lang Freer Collection became an important part of The Smithsonian—the Freer Gallery of Art, when the banker Robert Lehman died in 1969, his foundation donated 2,600 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Housed in the Robert Lehman Wing, the museum refers to the collection as one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States. Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a style or period of art, rather. Media related to Private collections at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Rothschild family
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During the 19th century, the Rothschild family possessed the largest private fortune in the world, as well as the largest private fortune in modern world history. The Rothschild family has frequently been the subject of conspiracy theories, the first member of the family who was known to use the name Rothschild was Izaak Elchanan Rothschild, born in 1577. The name is derived from the German zum rothen Schild, meaning with the red sign, the familys ascent to international prominence began in 1744, with the birth of Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was the son of Amschel Moses Rothschild, a money changer who had traded with the Prince of Hesse, the family motto appears below the shield, Concordia, Integritas, Industria. Paul Johnson writes he Rothschilds are elusive, there is no book about them that is both revealing and accurate. Libraries of nonsense have been written about them, a woman who planned to write a book entitled Lies about the Rothschilds abandoned it, saying, ‘It was relatively easy to spot the lies, but it proved impossible to find out the truth. Their assets were held in financial instruments, circulating through the world as stocks, bonds, changes made by the Rothschilds allowed them to insulate their property from local violence, Henceforth their real wealth was beyond the reach of the mob, almost beyond the reach of greedy monarchs. Another essential part of Mayer Rothschilds strategy for success was to control of their banks in family hands. By this means, Jewish financiers obtained a share of international finance during the middle. The head of the group was the Rothschild family. It also states, Of more recent years, non-Jewish financiers have learned the same method, and, on the whole. Mayer Rothschild successfully kept the fortune in the family with carefully arranged marriages, by the late 19th century, however, almost all Rothschilds had started to marry outside the family, usually into the aristocracy or other financial dynasties. The surname Rothschild is rare in Germany, the German surname Rothschild is not related to the Protestant surname Rothchilds from the United Kingdom. Another line, of the British branch of the family, was elevated by Queen Victoria, research conducted by GreatGameIndia Magazine has revealed that the Rothschild family was one of the controller families of the East India Company. The Rothschilds already possessed a significant fortune before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815 alone, the Rothschilds provided £9.8 million in subsidy loans to Britains continental allies. The brothers helped coordinate Rothschild activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, in one instance, the family network enabled Nathan to receive in London the news of Wellingtons victory at the Battle of Waterloo a full day ahead of the governments official messengers. It was then repeated in popular accounts, such as that of Morton. The basis for the Rothschilds most famously profitable move was made after the news of British victory had made public
11.
Liberal Party (UK)
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The Liberal Party was a liberal political party which was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite splitting over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory, by the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives main rival. The party went into decline and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections, apart from notable by-election victories, the partys fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, at the 1987 General Election, its vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989 and it was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals. Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II, and the early 19th century Radicals. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown, although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox and his disciple, after decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it brought about the Whigs demise. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name of Liberals, the leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, for a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston, and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s, a leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 and this was brought about by Palmerstons death in 1865 and Russells retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government Gladstone won a victory at the 1868 election. The establishment of the party as a membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. John Stuart Mill was a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868, for the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Ewart Gladstone served as prime minister four times, called the Grand Old Man later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the working class and to the lower middle class
12.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
13.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
14.
Rothschild banking family of Austria
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The Rothschild banking family of Austria was founded by banker Salomon Mayer von Rothschild in 1820 in Vienna in what was then the Austrian Empire. Salomon Mayer had been sent there from his home in Frankfurt, endogamy within the family was an essential part of the Rothschild strategy in order to ensure control of their wealth remained in family hands. Through their collaborative efforts, the Rothschilds rose to prominence in a variety of banking endeavours including loans, government bonds and trading in bullion. Salomon von Rothschild established S M von Rothschild a banking and investment entity that would be highly successful, in 1836, the bank invested in, and financed the building of, the Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn rail networks, Austrias first steam railway. As well, it financed various government undertakings where large amounts of capital had to be raised, in 1822 Salomon von Rothschild was made part of the Austrian nobility when he was awarded the hereditary title of Freiherr by Emperor Francis II. In 1929, the familys Creditanstalt was central to the collapse that rang in the Great Depression. While other Rothschilds had escaped the Nazis, Baron Louis was imprisoned for a year, after Louis was allowed to leave the country, in March 1939 the Nazis placed the firm of S M von Rothschild under compulsory administration. Nazi officers and senior staff from Austrian museums also emptied the Rothschild family estates of all their valuables, post war, some of the familys assets were restored to the survivors, but others were not. The documents are now part of the Rothschild Archive in London, the Austrian Rothschilds and members of the other branches in Europe were all major contributors to causes in aid of the Jewish people. However, many of their philanthropic efforts extended far beyond Jewish ethnic or religious communities and they built hospitals and shelters for the needy, supported cultural institutions and were patrons of individual artists. Their donation of works of art to various galleries has been the largest of any family in history, at present, a research project is underway by The Rothschild Archive in London to document the familys philanthropic involvements. Ferdinand James von Rothschild moved permanently to England to build Waddesdon Manor, atheneum Publishers ISBN 1-56836-220-X The Rothschilds, a Family of Fortune by Virginia Cowles. Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 0-394-48773-7 A History of the Jews by Paul M. Johnson HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 5-551-76858-9 Rothschild, The Wealth, scribner, London ISBN 0-684-19018-4 House of Rothschild, Moneys Prophets, 1798-1848 by Niall Ferguson. Viking Press ISBN 0-670-85768-8 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, czernin Verlag, Vienna ISBN 3-7076-0049-1 The Rothschild Archive - an international centre in London for research into the history of the Rothschild family. The Musical Associations of the Rothschild Family by Charlotte Henriette de Rothschild
15.
Anselm Salomon von Rothschild
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Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, baron was an Austrian banker, founder of the Creditanstalt, and a member of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family. He was born in the Imperial City of Frankfurt, the son of Freiherr Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, ancestor of the familys Austrian branch and he had a younger sister Betty, who married her French uncle James Mayer de Rothschild. According to the testament left by progenitor Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the children of the Rothschild family were obliged to enter into matrimony with their first and second cousins. In 1820 Anselm Salomons father Salomon Mayer had established a company at Vienna. He had been a confidant of Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich, Anselm himself gradually retired from the banking business in the 1860s and participated in the Austrian Southern Railway company. He rejected the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and refused to accommodate any side with money, as a philanthropist, he founded the Vienna Rothschild Hospital in 1869. He was also a prominent art collector, honorary citizen, and he began the art collection that his son Ferdinand bequeathed in 1898 to the British Museum as the Waddesdon Bequest, collecting mostly metalwork, especially of the Northern Renaissance. The Holy Thorn Reliquary was one of his purchases and his collection was catalogued and partly photographed by the art historian Franz Schestag in 1866 and 1872. The Rothschilds, a Family Portrait by Frederic Morton, atheneum Publishers ISBN 156836220X The Rothschilds, a Family of Fortune by Virginia Cowles. Alfred A. Knopf ISBN0394487737 Rothschild, The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty by Derek Wilson, scribner, London ISBN0684190184 House of Rothschild, Moneys Prophets, 1798-1848 by Niall Ferguson. Viking Press ISBN0670857688 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson
16.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
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Mayer Amschel Rothschild, written also Anschel, was a German Jewish banker and the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Referred to as the father of international finance, Rothschild was ranked seventh on the Forbes magazine list of The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen of All Time in 2005. Amschels father had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange and he was a personal supplier of coins to the Prince of Hesse. The family home above the shop had a front wall only 11 feet wide, with the help of relatives, Rothschild secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757. The grandson of Samuel Oppenheimer taught Rothschild useful knowledge in trade and currency exchange. He became a dealer in rare coins and won the patronage of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hesse, business expanded rapidly following the French Revolution when Rothschild handled payments from Britain for the hire of Hessian mercenaries. In 1806, Napoleon invaded Hesse in response to Wilhelms support for Prussia, the Landgrave went into exile in the Duchy of Holstein, but Rothschild was able to continue as his banker, investing funds in London. He also profited from importing goods in circumvention of Napoleons continental blockade, in 1798, third-born son Nathan Mayer Rothschild was sent to England to further the family interests in textile importing with £20,000 capital —the first foreign branch. Nathan became a citizen in 1804 and established a bank in the City of London. In 1810, Mayer entered into a partnership agreement with his three eldest sons. The youngest son Jacob was sent to Paris in 1811, enhancing the ability to operate across Europe. This enabled them to profit from the opportunity of financing Wellingtons armies in Portugal, Rothschild died on 19 September 1812 in Frankfurt am Main. He was buried at the old Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt, located next to the Judengasse, a park was named after him, and also a street. In 1817 he was ennobled by the emperor Francis I of Austria. His descendants furthered the family fortune across Europe—the five arrows of banking, eldest son Amschel Mayer took over the Frankfurt bank and Salomon moved to Vienna. Nathan turned the London branch into one of Europes most powerful banking institutions, Calmann set up a branch in Naples and Jacob opened de Rothschild Frères, founder, Meyer Amschel Rothschild and His Time. Meyer Amschel Rothschild, der Gründer des Rothschildschen Bankhauses
17.
Freiherr
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Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest titled rank within the nobility, above Ritter and Edler and below Graf and Herzog. The title superseded the earlier form, Edelherr. It corresponds to baron in rank, a Freiherr sometimes exercised hereditary administrative and judicial prerogatives over those resident in his barony instead of the liege lord, who might be the duke or count. The German-language title of Freiherr is rendered in English as Baron, even in German, a Freiherr is often styled and addressed as Baron in social circumstances, although not the official title. The original distinction from other barons was that a Freiherrs landed property was instead of a fief. Since the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Reichsfreiherren do not at present belong to the hierarchy of the realm. By a decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, their titles were officially recognised. From 1806 the now independent German monarchies, such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Lippe could create their own nobility, the inheritance of titles of nobility in most German-speaking areas was mostly not restricted by primogeniture as is the baronial title in Britain. The wife of a Freiherr is titled Freifrau, and the daughter of a Freiherr is called Freiin, both titles are translated in English as Baroness. In Prussia and some countries in northern Europe, the title of Freiherr was – as long as the monarchy existed – usually used preceding a persons given name. In Austria-Hungary and Bavaria, however, it would by contrast be inserted between the given and the family name, the Republic of Austria abolished hereditary noble titles for its citizens by the Adelsaufhebungsgesetz of 3 April 1919 and the corresponding decree of the state government. The public use of titles was and still is prohibited. Hans Freiherr von Schwarz, as an Austrian citizen, therefore lost his title of Freiherr von, in practice, however, former noble titles are still recognised in Austria, some people consider it a matter of courtesy to use them. The late Otto von Habsburg, in his childhood Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, in 2003, the Constitutional Court ruled that an Austrian woman having been adopted by a German carrying an aristocratic title as part of his name is not allowed to carry this title in her name. The German republic, under Article 109 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the former title thus became a part of the family name, and moved in front of the family name. Freiherr Hans von Schwarz, as a German citizen, therefore became Hans Freiherr von Schwarz. As dependent parts of the surnames they are ignored in alphabetical sorting of names, as is a possible nobiliary particle, such as von, and might or might not be used by those bearing them. Female forms of titles have been accepted as a variation in the surname after 1919 by a still valid decision of the former German High Court
18.
Austrian nobility
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The Austrian nobility is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. The nobles are still part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific privileges, austrias system of nobility was very similar to Germanys, as both countries were previously part of the Holy Roman Empire. Any noble living in the Habsburg-ruled lands, and who owed their allegiance to the dynasty and this applied to any member of the Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish, Croatian, and other nobilities in the Habsburg dominions. Attempting to differentiate between ethnicities can be difficult, especially for nobles during the eras of the Holy Roman Empire, a noble from Galicia, for instance, such as the Count Jordan-Rozwadowksi, could call himself a Polish noble, but he also rightfully belonged to the Austrian nobility. From 1453, the Archduke of Austria had the right to bestow titles and ranks upon non-nobles, as did the Archbishop of Salzburg, besides the Holy Roman Emperor, only a few territorial rulers within the Empire had this right. In an era of Absolutism, the nobility residing in the cities slowly turned itself into the court nobility, service at the court became the primary goal of the nobility. This in turn initiated an interest in education and the interests of the court, within the court, a close inner circle, called the 100 Familien, possessed enormous riches and lands. They also had influence at the court and thus played an important role in politics. Some of the noble families even obtained the right to be seated in the Herrenhaus, nobles from previously sovereign states such as those in northern Italy were also recognized by the authorities and were allowed to keep their titles and rights. On the former status of nobility in Burgenland, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1921, a few very wealthy Jewish families were ennobled after the Toleranzedikt vom 1782 decreed by Emperor Joseph II. Under this Edict, very wealthy Jewish bankers, and later entrepreneurs, Jews had been ennobled mostly with no title or lower-ranking titles, such as Freiherr or Ritter. The few Jewish families elevated into the nobility were not required to forswear their faith, Jews could not freely choose the place and duration of their stay and had to regularly ask for permission from the authorities. This placed a burden on Jewish families, if the head of the family died. The right to purchase real estate was forbidden to Jews, even if they belonged to the nobility and this regulation stayed in place until 1860, when it was abolished by Emperor Franz Joseph I and Jewish citizens were given equal rights. When the banker and protector of arts Raymund Karl Wetzlar von Plankenstern was created a Reichsfreiherr by Empress Maria Theresia and his mansion in Vienna was a center of the fine arts and he was a close friend of Mozart, as his son Alexander was of Ludwig van Beethoven. The elevation into the nobility of wealthy Jews also started the process of assimilation of Jewish families into the Austrian upper class. In other monarchies of Europe, Austrian noble families may use their titles as well as aristocratic particles such as von and zu in their names. This may sometimes be confusing, as descendants of nobles are sometimes referred to with noble names abroad, also, members of noble families often hold multiple citizenships, as was the case for Otto von Habsburg, who was also a citizen of Germany
19.
Lionel de Rothschild
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Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a British banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, the son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Hanna Barent Cohen, he was a member of the prominent Rothschild family. He was born in London, where his father had founded the British branch of the Europe-wide family, in his earlier years, he studied at the University of Göttingen, before embarking on an apprenticeship in the family business in London, Paris and Frankfurt. Lionel was admitted to the partnership in 1836 at a family gathering in Frankfurt. Like his father, he was a Freiherr of the Austrian Empire, in 1838, Queen Victoria authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Gladstone proposed to Queen Victoria that he be made a British peer, however, in 1885 the Queen did raise Rothschilds son Nathan to the peerage, he became the first Jewish member of the House of Lords. Rothschild was responsible for raising large sums for the government, especially in the Crimean war, on 1 January 1847, he founded the British Relief Association, alongside Stephen Spring Rice, John Abel Smith and other notable aristocrats. The Association went on to raise £500,000, and was the largest private provider of relief during the Irish Famine, in 1861, in protest at the suppression of the Polish uprisings, he refused to contract a loan to Russia. His most famous undertaking was financing the purchase of the Suez Canal shares from Egypt for £4 million. In 1847, Lionel de Rothschild was first elected to the British House of Commons as one of four Members of Parliament for the City of London constituency, in 1848, the bill was approved by the House of Commons but was twice rejected by the House of Lords. After being rejected again by the Upper House in 1849, Rothschild resigned his seat, in 1850, he entered the House of Commons to take his seat but refused to swear on a Christian Bible asking to use only the Old Testament. This was permitted but when omitting the words upon the faith of a Christian from the oath he was required to leave. In 1851, a new Jewish Disabilities Bill was defeated in the House of Lords, in the 1852 general election, Rothschild was again elected but the next year the bill was again defeated in the upper house. Finally, in 1858, the House of Lords agreed to a proposal to each house to decide its own oath. On 26 July 1858, Rothschild took the oath with covered head, substituting so help me, Jehovah for the form of oath. He was re-elected in general elections in 1859 and 1865, but defeated in 1868, he was returned unopposed in a by-election in 1869, a patron of thoroughbred horse racing, under the assumed name of Mr Acton, his colt Sir Bevys won the 1879 Epsom Derby. In 1836, Lionel de Rothschild married his first cousin Baroness Charlotte von Rothschild and they had the following children, Leonora Evelina Nathan Mayer Alfred Charles Leopold Lionel de Rothschild suffered from gout for more than 20 years. He suffered a seizure on 3 June 1879 and died the morning at his city home at 148 Piccadilly in London
20.
Evelina London Children's Hospital
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Evelina London Childrens Hospital is a specialist NHS hospital in London. It is administratively a part of Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and provides teaching facilities for London South Bank University. Formerly housed at Guys Hospital, it moved to a new building alongside St Thomas Hospital, the hospital was founded in 1869 by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, whose wife, Evelina, and their child had died in premature labour. It was established in a hospital in Southwark Bridge Road, Southwark. It was nationalised in 1948, becoming a branch of Guys Hospital, in 1976 the original hospital building was closed, and the childrens wards were moved to the newly built Guys Tower. In 1999 a decision was made to re-establish Evelina Childrens Hospital as a new specialist hospital for all services at Guy’s and St Thomas. An architectural design competition was managed by RIBA Competitions and won by Hopkins Architects, davis Langdon provided quantity surveying and employers agent services. Construction began in 2002, and the building was completed in 2004 and this is one of the few hospitals in the world to be built not around the doctors perspective, but around the patients. The building won the IStructE Award for Education or Healthcare Structures in 2006, South Thames Retrieval Service is a childrens acute transport service which specialises in the inter-hospital transfer of critically ill children in London. It operates from the intensive care unit of the Evelina London Childrens Hospital. With one phone call to the number, a clinician in a South Thames hospital, can source clinical advice, a PICU bed. STRS can then also coordinate specialist service input, Healthcare in London List of hospitals in England Guys & St Thomas Charity The Evelina Childrens Hospital Appeal Building design article relating to cooling problems
21.
Southwark
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Southwark is a district of Central London and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated 1.5 miles east of Charing Cross, it one of the oldest parts of London. It historically formed an ancient borough in the county of Surrey, made up of a number of parishes, as an inner district of London, Southwark experienced rapid depopulation during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. It is now at a stage of regeneration and is the county town of Greater London which is the location of the City Hall offices of the Greater London Authority. Southwark had a population of 30,119 in 2011, Southwark is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudweca. The name means southern defensive work and is formed from the Old English sūth, the southern location is in reference to the City of London to the north, Southwark being at the southern end of London Bridge. The ancient borough of Southwark was also simply as The Borough—or Borough—and this name. Southwark was also referred to as the Ward of Bridge Without when administered by the City. Southwark is on a marshy area south of the River Thames. Recent excavation has revealed prehistoric activity including evidence of ploughing, burial mounds. The area was originally a series of islands in the River Thames and this formed the best place to bridge the Thames and the area became an important part of Londinium owing its importance to its position as the endpoint of the Roman London Bridge. Two Roman roads, Stane Street and Watling Street, met at Southwark in what is now Borough High Street, archaeological work at Tabard Street in 2004 discovered a plaque with the earliest reference to London from the Roman period on it. Londinium was abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation in the fifth century. Archaeologically, evidence of settlement is replaced by a largely featureless soil called the Dark Earth which probably represents an urban area abandoned, Southwark appears to recover only during the time of King Alfred and his successors. Sometime about 886 AD, the burh of Southwark was created and it was probably fortified to defend the bridge and hence the re-emerging City of London to the north. He failed to force the bridge during the Norman conquest of England, Southwark appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held by several Surrey manors. Southwarks value to the King was £16, much of Southwark was originally owned by the church—the greatest reminder of monastic London is Southwark Cathedral, originally the priory of St Mary Overie. During the early Middle Ages, Southwark developed and was one of the four Surrey towns which returned Members of Parliament for the first commons assembly in 1295
22.
Waddesdon
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Waddesdon /ˈwɒdzdən/ is a village within the Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England,6 miles from Aylesbury on the A41 road. The centre of a parish, including the hamlets of Eythrope, Wormstone and Woodham, Waddesdon was an agricultural settlement with milling, silk weaving. The parish church of St Michael and All Angels dates from 1190 with medieval, between 1897 and 1936, Waddesdon had train services on the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway at Waddesdon Manor railway station, two miles from the village. There was also a halt on the Brill Tramway, in 1874, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bought a large estate in the area and built the mansion of Waddesdon Manor on a hill-top above the village. He transformed Waddesdon into a village, with new houses for employees and tenants, a school. Waddesdon Manor and grounds are now the property of the National Trust, and Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild retains the estate and a house at nearby Eythrope. Waddesdon Village Primary School is a mixed, community, primary school, the village is also home to Waddesdon Church of England School, a secondary school which holds over 1000 students. Alice Shalvi Waddesdon Manor Waddesdon Village Primary School website Waddesdon Policing Team
23.
Buckinghamshire
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Development in this region is restricted by the Metropolitan Green Belt. Other large settlements include the county town of Aylesbury, Marlow in the south near the Thames and Princes Risborough in the west near Oxford. Some areas without rail links to London, such as around the old county town of Buckingham. The largest town is Milton Keynes in the northeast, which with the area is administered as a unitary authority separately to the rest of Buckinghamshire. The remainder of the county is administered by Buckinghamshire County Council as a non-metropolitan county, in national elections, Buckinghamshire is considered a reliable supporter of the Conservative Party. A large part of the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, runs through the south of the county and attracts many walkers, in this area older buildings are often made from local flint and red brick. Chequers, an estate owned by the government, is the country retreat of the incumbent Prime Minister. To the north of the county lies rolling countryside in the Vale of Aylesbury, the Thames forms part of the county’s southwestern boundary. Notable service amenities in the county are Pinewood Film Studios, Dorney rowing lake, many national companies have offices in Milton Keynes. Heavy industry and quarrying is limited, with agriculture predominating after service industries, the name Buckinghamshire is Anglo-Saxon in origin and means The district of Buccas home. Buccas home refers to Buckingham in the north of the county, the county has been so named since about the 12th century, however, the county has existed since it was a subdivision of the kingdom of Mercia. Historically, the biggest change to the county came in the 19th century, Buckinghamshire is a popular home for London commuters, leading to greater local affluence, however, some pockets of relative deprivation remain. As a result, most county institutions are now based in the south of the county or Milton Keynes, the county can be split into two sections geographically. The county includes parts of two of the four longest rivers in England, the River Thames forms the southern boundary with Berkshire, which has crept over the border at Eton and Slough so that the river is no longer the sole boundary between the two counties. The River Great Ouse rises just outside the county in Northamptonshire and flows east through Buckingham, Milton Keynes, the main branch of the Grand Union Canal passes through the county as do its arms to Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover and Buckingham. The canal has been incorporated into the landscaping of Milton Keynes, the southern part of the county is dominated by the Chiltern Hills. The two highest points in Buckinghamshire are Haddington Hill in Wendover Woods at 267 metres above sea level, quarrying has taken place for chalk, clay for brickmaking and gravel and sand in the river valleys. Flint, also extracted from quarries, was used to build older local buildings
24.
Hippolyte Destailleur
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Hippolyte Destailleur was a French architect, interior designer, and collector. Hippolyte studied with François-René Leclère at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, after which he worked with his father, in 1853 he became the head of the family practice and succeeded his father at the Ministère de la Justice. Hippolyte Destailleur became an architect, catering to rich and titled clients. He mimicked French styles of the 16th to 18th centuries, distinguishing himself from many of his contemporaries and he oversaw the designwork and restoration of the Château de Courances and Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte beginning in 1875. He designed the Hôtel de Béhague in Paris and the Château de Franconville in Oise for the Duc de Massa and his son Walter-André Destailleur was also an architect, who built the Château de Trévarez. 8, pp. 816–817, in The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, middleton, R. D. Destailleur, Hippolyte-Alexandre-Gabriel, vol. 1, pp. 567–568, in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects,4 volumes, catalogue de livres et estampes, relatifs aux beaux-arts, architecture, peinture, gravure, ornementation, etc. provenant de la bibliothèque de feu Hippolyte Destailleur
25.
Vanity Fair (UK magazine)
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The second Vanity Fair was a British weekly magazine published from 1868 to 1914. Subtitled A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares, it was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, the first issue appeared in London on 7 November 1868. It offered its readership articles on fashion, current events, the theatre, books, social events, Thomas Allinson bought the magazine in 1911 from Frank Harris, by which time it was failing financially. He failed to revive it and the issue of Vanity Fair appeared on 5 February 1914, after which it was merged into Hearth. A full-page, colour lithograph of a celebrity or dignitary appeared in most issues. Subjects included artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, soldiers, religious personalities, business people and scholars. More than two thousand of these images appeared, and they are considered the cultural legacy of the magazine
26.
St George (UK Parliament constituency)
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St George was a parliamentary constituency in what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was part of the Parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets and returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This was an area on the bank of the River Thames. Pelling comments that it had the largest proportion of immigrant Irishmen in the metropolis, the constituency was marginal between the Conservative and Liberal parties. Pelling suggests the Conservative MP, elected in 1885, owed his victory to generosity bordering on corruption, political issues important in the area were protectionism and the immigration of pauper aliens. The seat was abolished for the 1918 general election, the area was incorporated in a new seat of Stepney, Whitechapel and St Georges. The constituency comprised two parishes, St George in the East and Wapping. Although lying in Middlesex, the formed part of the East End of London. Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F. W. S, craig British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910, by Henry Pelling Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with S
27.
United Kingdom general election, 1885
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The 1885 United Kingdom general election was from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise, for the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies returned a single-member to Parliament. It saw the Liberals, led by William Ewart Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority
28.
Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency)
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1885-1918, The Sessional Divisions of Aylesbury, Chesham, and Linslade, and parts of the second Sessional Division of Desborough and the Sessional Division of Winslow. Political history The Conservative Party has held the seat since 1924, the result made the seat the 133rd safest of the Conservative Partys 331 seats by percentage of majority. The closest result since 1929 was in 1966 when the Labour Party candidate fell 7. 4% short of a majority, frontbenchers David Lidington, the current incumbent, is the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council in Theresa Mays cabinet. During the premiership of David Cameron he served as Minister for Europe, from 2007 to 2010 he had been his partys Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. MPs who have received honours Sir Stanley Reed edited The Times of India from 1907 until 1924, in all he lived in India for fifty years. He was respected in the United Kingdom as an expert on Indian current affairs and he devised the sobriquet for Jaipur, the Pink City of India. Aylesbury expanded significantly after World War II, in a way with a similar proportion of this recent development being social housing estates as private estates. The name was transferred to a new, larger, county division of Buckinghamshire, General Election 1939/40, Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The Times House of Commons 1929,1931,1935, the Times House of Commons 1945. The Times House of Commons 1950, the Times House of Commons 1955. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F. W. S, craig British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F. W. S
29.
Joseph Chamberlain
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He split both major British parties in the course of his career. Chamberlain made his career in Birmingham, first as a manufacturer of screws and he was a radical Liberal Party member and an opponent of the Elementary Education Act 1870. As a self-made businessman, he had never attended university and had contempt for the aristocracy and he entered the House of Commons at 39 years of age, relatively late in life compared to politicians from more privileged backgrounds. Rising to power through his influence with the Liberal grassroots organisation, Chamberlain resigned from Gladstones Third Government in 1886 in opposition to Irish Home Rule. He helped to engineer a Liberal Party split and became a Liberal Unionist, from the 1895 general election the Liberal Unionists were in coalition with the Conservative Party, under Chamberlains former opponent Lord Salisbury. In that government Chamberlain promoted the Workmens Compensation Act 1897 and he served as Secretary of State for the Colonies, promoting a variety of schemes to build up the Empire in Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. He had major responsibility for causing the Second Boer War in South Africa and was the government minister most responsible for the war effort and he became a dominant figure in the Unionist Governments re-election at the Khaki Election in 1900. In 1903, he resigned from the Cabinet to campaign for tariff reform and he obtained the support of most Unionist MPs for this stance, but the Unionists suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 general election. Shortly after public celebrations of his 70th birthday in Birmingham, he was disabled by a stroke, despite never becoming Prime Minister, he was one of the most important British politicians of his day, as well as a renowned orator and municipal reformer. Historian David Nicholls notes that his personality was not attractive, he was arrogant and ruthless and he never succeeded in his grand ambitions. However, he was a highly proficient grassroots organizer of democratic instincts and he is most famous for setting the agenda of British colonial, foreign, tariff and municipal policies, and for deeply splitting both major political parties. Chamberlain was born in Camberwell, then in Surrey to a shoe manufacturer also named Joseph. His younger brother was Richard Chamberlain, later also a Liberal politician and he was educated at University College School 1850–1852, excelling academically and gaining prizes in French and mathematics. At 18 he joined his uncles screw-making business, Nettlefolds of Birmingham, the company became known as Nettlefold and Chamberlain when Chamberlain became a partner with Joseph Nettlefold. During the businesss most prosperous period, it produced two-thirds of all metal screws made in England, Chamberlain married Harriet Kenrick, the daughter of Archibald Kenrick, in July 1861. Their daughter Beatrice Mary Chamberlain was born in May 1862, Harriet, who had had a premonition that she would die in childbirth, became ill two days after the birth of their son Joseph Austen in October 1863, and died three days later. Chamberlain devoted himself to business, while bringing up Beatrice and Austen with the Kenrick parents-in-law, in 1868, Chamberlain married for the second time, to Harriets cousin, Florence Kenrick, daughter of Timothy Kenrick. Chamberlain and Florence had four children, Arthur Neville in 1869, Ida in 1870, Hilda in 1871, on 13 February 1875, Florence gave birth to their fifth child, but she and the child died within a day
30.
Arthur Balfour
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Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, a brilliant debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902 he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister and he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Fishers naval innovations. He secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold and he cautiously embraced the imperial preference championed by Joseph Chamberlain, but resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the stages of the Boer war. He resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905 and the month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election. He resigned as party leader later in 1911, Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquiths Coalition Government. In December 1916 he became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd Georges coalition and he was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in positions throughout the 1920s, and died on 19 March 1930 aged 81. Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland and his godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers, Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Eton College, where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory. He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College and his younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Margot Tennant wished to marry him, but Balfour said, No, I rather think of having a career of my own. His household was maintained by his sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss, in 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1885. In spring 1878, Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle and he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters, Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits
31.
Lord Randolph Churchill
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Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill was a British statesman. Churchill was a genuine Tory radical, who coined the term Tory Democracy and his most acerbic critics resided in his own party among his closest friends, but his disloyalty to Lord Salisbury was the beginning of the end of what should have been a glittering career. His devoted son, Winston, who knew his father in life. Born at 3 Wilton Terrace, Belgravia, London, Randolph Spencer was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Lady Frances Vane. He was at first privately educated, and later attended Tabors Preparatory School, Cheam, in January 1863 he travelled the short distance by private train to Eton College, where he remained until July 1865. He did not stand out either at work or sport while at Eton, his contemporaries describe him as a vivacious. Among lifelong friendships made at school were Edward Hamilton and Archibald Primrose, in October 1867 he matriculated and was admitted at Merton College, Oxford. At Oxford, Primrose, now Lord Dalmeny, joined him at the parties as members of the Bullingdon Club. Randolph was frequently in trouble with the university authorities for drunkenness, smoking in academic dress and his rowdy behavior was infectious, rubbing off on friends and contemporaries, he gained a reputation as an enfant terrible. He had a liking for sport, but was a reader, playing hard. Churchill experienced none of the early doubts but made many mistakes and he never regretted being an early friend and admirer of the Disraelis. It was however the cause of dissension that emerged in his relations with a colder more aloof, disciplinarian Salisbury. Churchills youthful exuberance did not prevent him gaining a degree in jurisprudence. A year later Churchill and his brother, George, were initiated into the rites of Freemasonry. His maiden speech, delivered in his first session, prompted compliments from Harcourt and Disraeli, Lord Randolph Churchill married a New Yorker, Jennie Jerome, daughter of Leonard Jerome, on 15 April 1874. According to Frank Harris, the editor of Fortnightly Magazine, who published the allegation in his scandalous 1924 autobiography, My Life and Loves, dr Clayton was, however, a society doctor with many patients among the British upper class. Harris book recounted a story told by Louis Jennings, who had published Randolphs 1880-1888 speeches, Jennings account as reported by Harris has never been corroborated. By 1924, Harris had fallen out with Winston Churchill, for whom he had been a literary agent, Harris had made similar but false or unsubstantiated assertions about Oscar Wilde and Guy de Maupassant
32.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
33.
British Museum
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The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician, the museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Although today principally a museum of art objects and antiquities. Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish-born British physician, on 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. They were joined in 1757 by the Old Royal Library, now the Royal manuscripts, together these four foundation collections included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary, the body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost. With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts. A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784, in the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1816 these masterpieces of art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815, the Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an extension to the Museum. For the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it, and put forward plans for todays quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the Kings Library Gallery began in 1823, the extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. The Museum became a site as Sir Robert Smirkes grand neo-classical building gradually arose
34.
Augustus Wollaston Franks
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Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB was an English antiquary and museum administrator. Born at Geneva, he was son of Captain Frederick Franks, R. N. and of Frederica Anne. His godfather was William Hyde Wollaston, a friend of his mother and his early years were spent mainly in Rome and Geneva. In September 1839 he went to Eton College, where he remained until 1843, Franks then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1850 he was secretary of the first exhibition of art held in the rooms of the Society of Arts. In 1851, Franks was appointed assistant in the Department of Antiquities of the British Museum, the post was newly founded, and the brief was to develop a collection of British antiquities. Franks in a 45-year career at the Museum went on to five distinct departments. David M. Wilson writes that In many respects Franks was the founder of the British Museum. The Christy collection of ethnography in Victoria Street, London, was also under his care before its incorporation into the British Museum collections and he became vice-president and ultimately president of the Society of Antiquaries, and in 1878 he declined the principal librarianship. Franks retired on his birthday in 1896. In 1855 Franks was responsible for acquiring for the museum the finest items from the collection of Ralph Bernal, the Liberal politician and collector, including the outstanding Lothair Crystal. In 1892 he succeeded in raising the £8,000 needed to buy the Royal Gold Cup, to Franks this was his greatest acquisition, and he had temporarily had to fund the purchase with £5,000 of his own money. Towards the end of his career, he wrote, I think I may fairly say that I have created the department of which I am now Keeper, and at a very moderate cost to the country. When I was appointed to the Museum in 1851 the scanty collections out of which the department has grown occupied a length of 154 feet of wall cases, and 3 or 4 table cases. The collections now occupy 2250 feet in length of wall cases,90 table cases and 31 upright cases, Franks used personal influence on behalf of the Museum to help in the acquisition of collections. This he applied in the cases of Felix Slade, John Henderson, Lady Fellows for the collection of Sir Charles Fellows, William Burges, Franks had a substantial personal fortune, which he used to build up some remarkable personal collections in parallel with his museum work on acquisitions. Though this activity was as an independent collector, it was of benefit also to the holdings of the British Museum, Franks was also an authority on classical art, especially Roman remains in Britain. He set up an exhibition of his Asian ceramics, mainly porcelain and he collected netsuke and tsuba from Japan, finger rings and drinking vessels
35.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
36.
Holy Thorn Reliquary
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The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest and it is one of a small number of major goldsmiths works or joyaux that survive from the extravagant world of the courts of the Valois royal family around 1400. The rear view has less extravagant decoration, mostly in gold in low relief, and has doors that opened to display a flat object, now missing. The reliquary was in the Habsburg collections from at least the 16th century until the 1860s, the fraud remained undetected until well after the original reliquary came to the British Museum. King Louis IX of France bought what he believed to be the authentic Crown of Thorns in Constantinople in 1239, and individual thorns were distributed as gifts by subsequent French kings. The Holy Thorn Reliquary was later thought to have been in the possession of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, but all recent writers prefer his brother, the Duke of Berry. Its location is unknown until an inventory of 1544, when it belonged to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and it presumably passed to the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs on Charles Vs death, as it is listed in several inventories of the Imperial Schatzkammer in Vienna from 1677 onwards. It remained in Vienna until after 1860, when it appeared in an exhibition, some time after this it was sent to be restored by Salomon Weininger, an art dealer with access to skilled craftsmen, who secretly made a number of copies. One of the copies remained in the Ecclesiastical Treasury of the Imperial Habsburg Court in Vienna, the original reliquary reached the British Museum as part of the Waddesdon Bequest in 1899, by which time its origins had been completely lost and it was described as Spanish, 16th Century. Thus its history had to be reconstructed through scholarship, the meaning of the plaques on the castle base had by now been lost in both London and Vienna. The assembled experts from the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, normally it is on display in Room 45, the dedicated Waddesdon Bequest Room, as specified in the terms of the bequest. The Holy Thorn Reliquary is made of gold, enamel, rock crystal, pearls and it is just over 30 centimetres high and weighs 1.4 kilograms. There are some areas of damage, and small losses and repairs, the central front compartment holding the relic is protected by a thin pane of rock crystal, which has kept it in perfect condition. The enamel is mostly in ronde bosse technique, applied to three-dimensional figures, white enamel using lead was only recently developed, and very fashionable, dominating many contemporary ronde bosse works. There is also red, green, blue, pink and black enamel, pure gold is used throughout, which is rare even in royal commissions of such pieces at this period, most use cheaper silver-gilt for the structural framework. The gold elements framing God the Father and the compartment with Christ. There may have been other jewels now lost, for example mounted in two holes on either side of the door of the castle-like base, the design of the front face is based on the general resurrection of the dead following the Last Judgment. At the top sits God the Father, above two angels, a small hole at the level of their knees shows where a dove representing the Holy Spirit was originally attached, with Christ below, all three persons of the Trinity were therefore represented
37.
Provenance
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Provenance, is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The practice has a value in helping authenticate objects. Comparative techniques, expert opinions, and the results of tests may also be used to these ends. It has been argued that in archaeology, when the US spelling provenience is used it has a related, any given antiquity may therefore have both a provenience and a provenance. In some cases, especially there is an inscription, the provenance may include a history that predates its burial in the ground. The provenance of works of art, antiques and antiquities is of great importance. There are a number of reasons why painting provenance is important, a good provenance increases the value of a painting, and establishing provenance may help confirm the date, artist and, especially for portraits, the subject of a painting. It may confirm whether a painting is genuinely of the period it seems to date from, the provenance of paintings can help resolve ownership disputes. For example, provenance between 1933 and 1945 can determine whether a painting was looted by the Nazis, many galleries are putting a great deal of effort into researching the provenance of paintings in their collections for which there is no firm provenance during that period. Documented evidence of provenance for an object can help to establish that it has not been altered and is not a forgery, Provenance helps assign the work to a known artist, and a documented history can be of use in helping to prove ownership. An example of a detailed provenance is given in the Arnolfini portrait. The provenance of a work of art may vary greatly in length, depending on context or the amount that is known, an expert certification can mean the difference between an object having no value and being worth a fortune. Certifications themselves may be open to question, jacques van Meegeren forged the work of his father Han van Meegeren. Jacques sometimes produced a certificate with his forgeries stating that a work was created by his father, john Drewe was able to pass off as genuine paintings, a large number of forgeries that would have easily been recognised as such by scientific examination. He established an impressive provenance and because of this galleries and dealers accepted the paintings as genuine and he created this false provenance by forging letters and other documents, including false entries in earlier exhibition catalogues. Sometimes provenance can be as simple as a photograph of the item with its original owner, simple yet definitive documentation such as that can increase its value by an order of magnitude, but only if the owner was of high renown. Many items that were sold at auction have gone far past their estimates because of a showing that item with a famous person. Some examples include antiques owned by politicians, musicians, artists, actors, the objective of provenance research is to produce a complete list of owners from when the painting was commissioned or in the artists studio through to the present time
38.
James de Rothschild (politician)
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De Rothschild was the son of Edmond James de Rothschild of the French branch of family. He was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris and at Trinity College, Cambridge and he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was a follower of the turf and a racehorse owner. His 33-1 runner Bomba won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1909 and he married Dorothy Mathilde Pinto in 1913. She was 17 years old, he was 35, described by the Journal of Liberal History as one of the Liberal Partys most colourful MPs, Rothschild served as Liberal Member of Parliament for the Isle of Ely constituency from 1929 to 1945. During the Second World War he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply in the Coalition Government 1940-1945 and he was also a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of London and a Justice of the Peace in Buckinghamshire. Rothschild continued to support his fathers Zionist causes, and donated 6,000,000 Israeli Pounds towards the construction of the Knesset building in Jerusalem, when he died in 1957, he bequeathed Waddesdon Manor to the National Trust. His widow Dorothy de Rothschild inherited the estate, and maintained a strong interest in the house. Palestine Jewish Colonization Association Mrs James de Rothschild - Rothschilds at Waddesdon Manor ISBN 978-0-00-216671-3 Schama, two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by James de Rothschild Short biography for James de Rothschild Knesset website New York Times obituary for James de Rothschild
39.
Sidney Lee
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Sir Sidney Lee was an English biographer, writer and critic. Lee was born Solomon Lazarus Lee in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury and he was educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In 1883, Lee became assistant-editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, in 1890 he became joint editor, and on the retirement of Sir Leslie Stephen in 1891, succeeded him as editor. Lee wrote over 800 articles in the Dictionary, mainly on Elizabethan authors or statesmen and his sister Elizabeth Lee also contributed. While still at Balliol, Lee had written two articles on Shakespearean questions, which were printed in The Gentlemans Magazine, in 1884, he published a book about Stratford-on-Avon, with illustrations by Edward Hull. Lees article on Shakespeare in the 51st volume of the Dictionary of National Biography formed the basis of his Life of William Shakespeare, Lee received a knighthood in 1911. Between 1913 and 1924, he served as Professor of English Literature, there are personal letters from Lee, including those written during his final illness, in the T. F. Tout Collection of the John Rylands Library in Manchester, John Denham Parsons Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Lee, Sidney. Sidney Lee Dictionary of National Biography, Index and Epitome Works by Sidney Lee at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Sidney Lee at Internet Archive
40.
Dictionary of National Biography
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The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and he approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the Cornhill Magazine, owned by Smith, to become editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus on subjects from the UK and its present, an early working title was the Biographia Britannica, the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work. The first volume of the Dictionary of National Biography appeared on 1 January 1885, in May 1891 Leslie Stephen resigned and Sidney Lee, Stephens assistant editor from the beginning of the project, succeeded him as editor. While much of the dictionary was written in-house, the DNB also relied on external contributors, by 1900, more than 700 individuals had contributed to the work. Successive volumes appeared quarterly with complete punctuality until midsummer 1900, when the series closed with volume 63, the year of publication, the editor and the range of names in each volume is given below. The supplements brought the work up to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. The dictionary was transferred from its original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. to Oxford University Press in 1917, until 1996, Oxford University Press continued to add further supplements featuring articles on subjects who had died during the twentieth century. The supplements published between 1912 and 1996 added about 6,000 lives of people who died in the century to the 29,120 in the 63 volumes of the original DNB. In 1993 a volume containing missing biographies was published and this had an additional 1,000 lives, selected from over 100,000 suggestions. Consequently, the dictionary was becoming less and less useful as a reference work, in 1966, the University of London published a volume of corrections, cumulated from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. There were various versions of the Concise Dictionary of National Biography, the last edition, in three volumes, covered everyone who died before 1986. In the early 1990s Oxford University Press committed itself to overhauling the DNB, the new dictionary would cover British history, broadly defined, up to 31 December 2000. The research project was conceived as a one, with in-house staff co-ordinating the work of nearly 10,000 contributors internationally. Following Matthews death in October 1999, he was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Professor Brian Harrison, in January 2000. The new dictionary, now known as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes in print at a price of £7500, most UK holders of a current library card can access it online free of charge. In subsequent years, the print edition has been able to be obtained new for a lower price. At publication, the 2004 edition had 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives, a small permanent staff remain in Oxford to update and extend the coverage of the online edition
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Seccombe, Thomas (1901). "Rothschild, Ferdinand James de". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
