1.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
2.
Royal Society
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Founded in November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Societys President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the members of the society. As of 2016, there are about 1,600 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS, there are also royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members, the last of which are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS. The Royal Society President is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who took up the post on 30 November 2015, since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London which was previously used by the Embassy of Germany, London. The Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers, meeting at variety of locations and they were influenced by the new science, as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis, from approximately 1645 onwards. A group known as The Philosophical Society of Oxford was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library, after the English Restoration, there were regular meetings at Gresham College. It is widely held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society, I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, and hinder us. But tis well known who were the men that began and promoted that design. This initial royal favour has continued and, since then, every monarch has been the patron of the society, the societys early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and then by Denis Papin, who was appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their area, and were both important in some cases and trivial in others. The Society returned to Gresham in 1673, there had been an attempt in 1667 to establish a permanent college for the society. Michael Hunter argues that this was influenced by Solomons House in Bacons New Atlantis and, to a lesser extent, by J. V. The first proposal was given by John Evelyn to Robert Boyle in a letter dated 3 September 1659, he suggested a scheme, with apartments for members. The societys ideas were simpler and only included residences for a handful of staff and these plans were progressing by November 1667, but never came to anything, given the lack of contributions from members and the unrealised—perhaps unrealistic—aspirations of the society. During the 18th century, the gusto that had characterised the early years of the society faded, with a number of scientific greats compared to other periods. The pointed lightning conductor had been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, during the same time period, it became customary to appoint society fellows to serve on government committees where science was concerned, something that still continues. The 18th century featured remedies to many of the early problems
3.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
4.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
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He was the last prime minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords. In 1868 upon the death of his father, Cecil was elevated to the House of Lords and he became prime minister in June 1885 when the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone resigned, and held the office until January 1886. When Gladstone came out in favour of Home Rule for Ireland, Salisbury opposed him and formed an alliance with the breakaway Liberal Unionists and he died a year later, in 1903. Historians agree that Salisbury was a strong and effective leader in foreign affairs, Paul Smith characterises his personality as deeply neurotic, depressive, agitated, introverted, fearful of change and loss of control, and self-effacing but capable of extraordinary competitiveness. A representative of the aristocracy, he held the reactionary credo, Whatever happens will be for the worse. Lord Robert Cecil was the son of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. He was a descendant of Lord Burghley and the 1st Earl of Salisbury. The family owned vast rural estates in Hertfordshire and Dorset and this wealth increased sharply in 1821, when he married the rich heiress of a merchant prince who had bought up large estates in Essex and Lancashire. Robert had a childhood, with few friends, he filled his time with reading. He was bullied unmercifully at the schools he attended, in 1840, he went to Eton College, where he did well in French, German, Classics, and Theology, however, he left in 1845 because of intense bullying. The unhappy schooling shaped his outlook on life and his negative views on democracy. He decided that most people were cowardly and cruel, and that the mob would run roughshod over sensitive individuals, in December 1847 he went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he received an honorary fourth class in mathematics conferred by noblemans privilege due to ill health. Whilst at Oxford he found the Oxford movement or Tractarianism to be an intoxicating force, in April 1850 he joined Lincolns Inn but subsequently did not enjoy law. His doctor advised him to travel for his health, and so in July 1851 to May 1853 Cecil travelled through Cape Colony, Australia, including Tasmania, and New Zealand. He found the Kaffirs a fine set of men – whose language bears traces of a very high former civilisation and they were an intellectual race, with great firmness and fixedness of will but horribly immoral as they lacked theism. In the Bendigo goldmine of Australia, he claimed there is not half as much crime or insubordination as there would be in an English town of the same wealth. Ten thousand miners were policed by four men armed with carbines, a Maori chief offered Cecil five acres near Auckland, which he declined. He entered the House of Commons as a Conservative on 22 August 1853 and he retained this seat until entering the peerage and it was not contested during his time as its representative
5.
William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow
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William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow GCMG PC DL was a British Conservative politician. He held several governmental positions between 1880 and 1905 and was also Governor of New Zealand between 1889 and 1892. Born at Old Alresford, Hampshire, Onslow was the son of George Augustus Cranley Onslow, son of the Hon. Thomas Cranley Onslow, second son of Thomas Onslow. His mother was Mary Harriet Anne Loftus, in 1870, at the age of 17, he succeeded his great-uncle in the earldom of Onslow. He was educated at Eton and Exeter College, Oxford, in November 1888 Onslow was appointed Governor of New Zealand. As a result of the downturn in the late 1880s. At 35, he was the youngest governor of New Zealand since George Grey was appointed in 1845, the New Zealand government had recently cut allowances for the governor, and Onslow was able to obtain the position mainly as it was no longer attractive to more senior colonial administrators. He assumed the office on 2 May 1889, shortly after his arrival in Wellington, there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in the town. Onslows twelve-year-old son and heir, Viscount Cranley, caught the disease and was at one time seen to be in danger of his life, after this Onslow and his family avoided the capital as much as they could - which did not endear them to the New Zealand people. According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Onslow did not have the flair or flamboyance which helped some later governors win popular support. In 1890 Onslow became embroiled in controversy over appointments to the Legislative Council, up until then Prime Minister Harry Atkinson had not made any recommendations on appointements. However, this year Atkinsons conservative supporters became more and more concerned that the Liberals under John Ballance would gain power, Atkinson was put under pressure to assure that there was a conservative majority in the Council. He informed Atkinson that a little list of nominations for the Legislative Council could be agreed upon, Atkinson lost ground in the election of December 1890, although it was unclear if the Liberals under Ballance would get enough support to form an administration. However, despite public opposition Onslow followed Atkinsons recommendations and nominated six people to the council, Onslows actions even further damaged the reputation of the council. Several independent members were pressurised into supporting Ballance, who was able to form an administration, in 1891 Ballance asked Onslow to nominate 18 representatives to the council in order to counterbalance Atkinsons nominations of the previous year. He agreed to eight representatives, a compromise Ballance declined. The matter was deferred to Onslows successor, the Earl of Glasgow. Onslow resigned in February 1892 and returned to England, in 1903 he entered Balfours cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year
6.
Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton
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Sydney Charles Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton GCMG PC was a radical British Liberal politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Buxton was the son of Charles Buxton and grandson of social reformer Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and his mother was Emily Mary, daughter of the physician and traveller Sir Henry Holland, 1st Baronet. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1880, Buxton became prominent in political circles by the publication of his Handbook to the Political Questions of the Day, a work which eventually went through 11 editions. That same year, he ran for Parliament for Boston, however, he became an MP in 1883 by winning a by-election in Peterborough. He was defeated in the 1885 general election, but returned to Parliament the very next year and he would represent this constituency in Parliament until 1914. From 1892-95, Buxton served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1905, he earned his first Cabinet post, that of Postmaster-General. In this capacity he introduced such services as penny postage to the United States, the Canadian magazine post, in 1910, Buxton was named President of the Board of Trade, in this position he oversaw the passage or amendment of many trade and commerce laws. Upon the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, he asked Lord Loreburn and this commission eventually came to be headed by Lord Mersey. In February 1914, Buxton was appointed Governor-General of South Africa, thereafter, Buxton and Botha formed an effective partnership, planning and executing South African actions in the war, including the invasion of the neighbouring German colony of South West Africa. Buxton travelled widely throughout South Africa, and endeared himself to the people, upon his retirement in 1920, the people demonstrated their affection for him. He continued his interest in South African affairs after returning to England and he was created Earl Buxton in 1920, and continued to be a member of the Liberal Party, often supporting his close friend and colleague Sir Edward Grey. In his later years, he had to undergo amputation of his leg due to an injury sustained earlier in his life. He died at Newtimber on 15 October 1934, Buxton was twice married, firstly in 1882 to Hon. By his first wife, he had two sons and one daughter, of whom the sons died in his lifetime. By his second wife, he had one son and two daughters, of whom the son and the daughter died in his lifetime. By his first wife Hon. Constance Mary Lubbock, Charles Sydney Buxton, the elder son Charles Sydney Buxton, the only surviving son by his first wife Constance, proposed marriage to Octavia Wilberforce, a descendant of the reformer, but she refused him. Kenneth Sydney Buxton, died in childhood, aged seven, Lady Phyllis Sydney Buxton, later Lady Phyllis Ponsonby OBE, married 23 September 1918 Rev. She died aged 25, shortly after the birth of her third child, after her death, her husband remarried
7.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
8.
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
9.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
10.
King's College London
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Kings College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, and a founding constituent college of the federal University of London. Kings was established in 1829 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington, in 1836, Kings became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is a member of organisations such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association. Kings has five campuses, its main campus on the Strand in central London. In 2015/16, Kings had an income of £738.4 million, of which £193.2 million was from research grants and contracts and as of 2014/15. It has the fifth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and its academic activities are organised into nine faculties which are subdivided into numerous departments, centres and research divisions. Kings is home to six Medical Research Council centres and is a member of the Kings Health Partners academic health sciences centre, Francis Crick Institute. Kings College London, so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in response to the controversy surrounding the founding of London University in 1826. The need for such an institution was a result of the religious and social nature of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans. The secular nature of London University was disapproved by The Establishment, indeed, thus, the creation of a rival institution represented a Tory response to reassert the educational values of The Establishment. Winchilsea and about 150 other contributors withdrew their support of Kings College London in response to Wellingtons support of Catholic emancipation. In a letter to Wellington he accused the Duke to have in mind insidious designs for the infringement of our liberty, the letter provoked a furious exchange of correspondence and Wellington accused Winchilsea of imputing him with disgraceful and criminal motives in setting up Kings College London. The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March 1829, Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel, Wellington took aim and fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether Wellington missed on purpose, Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill. Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology, duel Day is still celebrated on the first Thursday after 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout Kings, including reenactments. Kings opened in October 1831 with the cleric William Otter appointed as first principal, despite the attempts to make Kings Anglican-only, the initial prospectus permitted, nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely. William Howley, the governors and the professors, except the linguists, had to be members of the Church of England but the students did not, though attendance at chapel was compulsory. Kings was divided into a department and a junior department, also known as Kings College School
11.
Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
12.
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
13.
Franz Joseph I of Austria
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Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and many others from 2 December 1848 until his death on 21 November 1916. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, in December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne at Olomouc as part of Ministerpräsident Felix zu Schwarzenbergs plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary. This allowed Ferdinands nephew Franz Joseph to accede to the throne, largely considered to be a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism during his entire reign and he concluded the Ausgleich of 1867, which granted greater autonomy to Hungary, hence transforming the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire under his dual monarchy. After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, the Bosnian crisis was a result of Franz Josephs annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin. On 28 June 1914, the assassination of his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungarys declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia and this activated a system of alliances which resulted in World War I. Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years and he was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles. His name in German was Franz Joseph I and I and his names in other languages were, Croatian and Bosnian, Franjo Josip I. Ukrainian, Фра́нц Йо́сиф I, Romanian, Francisc Iosif Slovene, serbian, Фрања Јосиф Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl, and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Franzl came to idolise his grandfather, der Gute Kaiser Franz, at the age of thirteen, Franzl started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. From that point onward, his fashion was dictated by army style, Franz Joseph was soon joined by three younger brothers, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke Karl Ludwig, and Archduke Ludwig Viktor, and a sister, Maria Anna, who died at the age of four. Instead, Franz was sent to the front in Italy, joining Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on 29 April, by all accounts he handled his first military experience calmly and with dignity. Around the same time, the Imperial Family was fleeing revolutionary Vienna for the setting of Innsbruck. Soon, the Archduke was called back from Italy, joining the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It was at Innsbruck at this time that Franz Joseph first met his cousin Elisabeth, his bride, then a girl of ten. Following victory over the Italians at Custoza in late July, the court felt safe to return to Vienna, but within a few months Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in September the court left again, this time for Olomouc in Moravia. By now, Prince Alfred I of Windisch-Grätz, the military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young Archduke soon put on the throne. By the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father, at this time he first became known by his second as well as his first Christian name
14.
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
15.
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
16.
Amschel Mayer Rothschild
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Baron Amschel Mayer von Rothschild was a German Jewish banker of the wealthy Rothschild family. He was the child and eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty. As Amschel Mayer died childless, the sons of his brothers assumed responsibility for the business from 1855 and he was ennobled as Amschel Mayer von Rothschild in 1817 and became a Freiherr in 1822. Amschel Mayer Rothschild was close to Orthodox Jewish circles, and was referred to by Eastern European Jews as the pious Rothschild
17.
Salomon Mayer von Rothschild
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Salomon Mayer von Rothschild was a German-born banker in the Austrian Empire and the founder of the Austrian branch of the prominent Mayer Amschel Rothschild family. He was born at Frankfurt-am-Main the third child and second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, in 1800, he married Caroline Stern. They had the children, Anselm Salomon Betty Salomon - married her uncle James Mayer de Rothschild in 1824. His father had built a prosperous banking business in Germany. Salomon von Rothschild was made a shareholder of the de Rothschild Frères bank when it was opened in Paris in 1817 by brother James Mayer de Rothschild. Trained in finance and with years of experience, in 1820 Salomon Rothschild was sent to Austria to formalize the familys existing involvements in financing Austrian government projects, in Vienna, Salomon von Rothschild established S M von Rothschild. The business financed the Nordbahn rail transport network, Austrias first steam railway and he made connections amongst the countrys aristocracy and its political elite through Prince Klemens Metternich and Friedrich von Gentz. Under the direction of Salomon von Rothschild, the Viennese bank was highly successful, in recognition of his services, in 1822 Salomon Mayer Rothschild was made part of the Austrian nobility when Emperor Francis I awarded him the hereditary title Freiherr. In 1843, he became the first Jew to ever be given honorary Austrian citizenship, endogamy was an essential part of the Rothschild familys strategy for future success in order to ensure that control of their businesses remained in family hands. Therefore, in 1824 Salomon Mayer Rothschilds daughter Betty married her uncle James Mayer de Rothschild, Salomon von Rothschilds personal wealth was enormous and he acquired extensive properties and made investments in art and antiquities. By the time of the revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas, anti-Rothschild sentiments were frequently being voiced, with the fall of Metternich, Salomon von Rothschild lost some of his political clout and his bank a considerable amount of money. Under pressure, the 74-year-old handed over the reins of the bank to his son Anselm and he left Vienna and retired in Paris where he died in 1855. From his collection some of the dart from the Italian. Atheneum Publishers ISBN 978-1568362205 The Rothschilds, a Family of Fortune by Virginia Cowles, alfred A. Knopf ISBN 978-0297765387 Rothschild, The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty by Derek Wilson. Scribner, London ISBN 978-0684190181 House of Rothschild, Moneys Prophets, viking Press ISBN 978-0140240849 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson. Viking Press ISBN 978-0670887941 The Rothschild Archive - an international cente in London for research into the history of the Rothschild family, objets dArt donated to the Louvre
18.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild
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Nathan Mayer, Freiherr von Rothschild was a Jewish German banker, businessman and financier. He was one of five sons of the generation of the Rothschild banking dynasty. He was born in Frankfurt am Main, the child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Once the wealthiest man on earth, he was the richest among the Rothschilds, in 1816, his two elder brothers were granted noble status by the Emperor of Austria. They were now permitted to prefix the Rothschild name with von or de and their device of four arrows became five when Nathan too was elevated in 1818, although he chose not to use his aristocratic title of Freiherr von Rothschild. In 1838, Queen Victoria authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom by his male-line descendants, on 22 October 1806 in London, he married Hannah Barent-Cohen, daughter of Levy Barent Cohen and wife Lydia Diamantschleifer. From 1809 Rothschild began to deal in gold bullion, and developed this as a cornerstone of his business, in 1818 he arranged a £5 million loan to the Prussian government and the issuing of bonds for government loans formed a mainstay of his banks business. He gained a position of power in the City of London that by 1825–1826 he was able to supply enough coin to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis. In 1824 he founded the Alliance Assurance Company with Moses Montefiore, in 1830 he funded, along with other notable bankers, the country of Belgium, which had just gained independence and was looking for investors. He loaned them upwards of 3 million Belgian Franks, in 1835 he secured a contract with the Spanish Government giving him the rights to the Almadén mines in southern Spain, effectively gaining a European mercury monopoly. Nathan Meyer Rothschild was known for his role in the abolition of the trade through his part-financing of the £20 million British government buyout of the plantation industrys slaves. However, in 2009 it was claimed that as part of banking dealings with a slave owner and he set up his London business, N. M. Rothschild and Sons at New Court in St Swithins Lane, City of London, where it trades today. He also purchased a house at Gunnersbury Park near Acton in western London. An anonymous contemporary described Nathan Rothschild at the London Stock Exchange as he leaned against the Rothschild Pillar, hung his heavy hands into his pockets, and began to release silent, motionless, implacable cunning, Eyes are usually called the windows of the soul. But in Rothschilds case you would conclude that the windows are false ones, there comes not one pencil of light from the interior, neither is there one gleam of that which comes from without reflected in any direction. The whole puts you in mind of an empty skin, by and by another figure comes up to it. After this, the eyes are sheathed up again, and the figure resumes its stony posture, during the morning, numbers of visitors come, all of whom meet with a similar reception and vanish in a similar manner. Last of all the figure itself vanishes, leaving you utterly at a loss, by the time an infected abscess caused his death in 1836, his personal net worth amounted to 0. 62% of British national income
19.
Carl Mayer von Rothschild
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Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild was a German-born banker in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the founder of the Rothschild banking family of Naples. Born Kalman Mayer Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, he was the fourth of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and he would become known as Carl by the family except for his English relatives who translated it as Charles. The 1821 occupation of Naples by the Austrian army provided the opportunity for the Rothschilds to set up business in the Kingdom, Carl Rothschild has sometimes been seen as the least gifted of the five brothers. However, he proved himself in Naples as a financial manager. He established a working relationship with Luigi de Medici, the Direttore della Segreteria di Azienda del Regno di Napoli. In 1822, Carl Rothschild and his four brothers were granted the title of baron, or Freiherr. During the winter of 1826, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, future King of the Belgians was a guest of Carl von Rothschild at his villa in Naples, Carl von Rothschild maintained homes in Frankfurt am Main and in Naples. In 1837 he built the Villa Günthersburg on a country property outside Frankfurt am Main owned by his father at what is now Günthersburg Park. In 1841, he bought the Villa Pignatelli at Riviera di Chiaia with a view of the Sea. Two years after his wife Adelheid died in 1853 and one year after their son Anselm Alexander Carl died at the age of eighteen, one seventh of his estate went to his daughter Charlotte with the rest divided equally between his three surviving sons. Adolf Carl took over the business in Naples from his father and Mayer Carl, 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, viking Press ISBN0670857688 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson
20.
James Mayer de Rothschild
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James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, born Jakob Mayer Rothschild, was a German-French banker and the founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family. James de Rothschild was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and he was the fifth son and youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Guttle Schnapper. Along the way, he added to his fortune with investments in such things as the importation of tea, a strong-willed and shrewd businessman, de Rothschild amassed a fortune that made him one of the richest men in the world. Although his papers have never disclosed, evidence suggests that in todays money. In 1822 de Rothschild, along with his four brothers, was bestowed the title of Freiherr by Emperor Francis I of Austria. That same year he was appointed consul-general of the Austrian Empire, on 11 July 1824, in Frankfurt, Germany, de Rothschild married his niece Betty Salomon von Rothschild, the daughter of his brother, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild. Thereafter Rothschild refused to do business with the king, following the July 1830 Revolution that saw King Louis Philippe come to power, de Rothschild put together a loan package to stabilize the finances of the new government, and in 1834 a second loan. In gratitude for his services to the French nation, Louis Philippe elevated him to the dignity of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, in 1817 de Rothschild purchased Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt, where his children were born and reared. In 1838 he purchased from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand a large residence in Paris and it remained in the family until 1950, when it was sold to the United States government, today it serves as the consular section of the American Embassy. De Rothschild and his sophisticated Viennese wife were at the center of Parisian culture, the chef for their lavish receptions was Antonin Carême. They patronized major personalities in the arts, including Gioacchino Rossini, Frédéric Chopin, Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Delacroix, and Heinrich Heine. As an acknowledgment of the years of patronage extended by Baron James and his wife Betty, in 1847 Chopin dedicated his Valse Op.64. In 1848 Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted Betty de Rothschilds portrait, in February 1848, King Louis Philippe was dethroned, to the temporary alarm of his friend de Rothschild. Banking competitor Achille Fould was a friend of the new President of the French Republic, Napoleon III, however, despite some difficulties, the family business survived and prospered under the new regime. In 1854 de Rothschild commissioned the famous architect Joseph Paxton to build the Château de Ferrières in Ferrières-en-Brie, the property remained the home of his inheriting male descendants until 1975, when Guy de Rothschild gave it to the University of Paris. In addition to his business, in 1868 de Rothschild purchased Château Lafite. Located in the Bordeaux region, it is a business that remains in the family to this day, beyond his business activities, de Rothschild made the first significant acquisitions for what became the French familys massive art collections. His art included Vermeers 1668 work The Astronomer, according to the paintings provenance, it was seized by the Nazis in 1940 but after World War II the painting was returned to the family
21.
Inner Temple
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The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales and it is located in the wider Temple area of the capital, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. The Inn is a body that provides legal training, selection. It is ruled by a council called Parliament, made up of the Masters of the Bench, and led by the Treasurer. The Temple takes its name from the Knights Templar, who leased the land to the Temples inhabitants until their abolition in 1312. The Inner Temple was a society from at least 1388. After a disruptive early period it flourished, becoming the second largest Inn during the Elizabethan period, the Inner Temple expanded during the reigns of James I and Charles I, with 1,700 students admitted between 1600 and 1640. The First English Civil Wars outbreak led to a suspension of legal education. Following the English Restoration the Inner Templars welcomed Charles II back to London personally with a lavish banquet. After a period of decline in the 18th century, the following 100 years saw a restoration of the Temples fortunes, with buildings constructed or restored, such as the Hall. Much of this work was destroyed during The Blitz, when the Hall, Temple, Temple Church, rebuilding was completed in 1959, and today the Temple is a flourishing and active Inn of Court, with over 8,000 members. The Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court, along with Grays Inn, Lincolns Inn, and the Middle Temple. The Inns are responsible for training, regulating, and selecting barristers within England and Wales, the Temple is an independent, unincorporated organisation, and works as a trust. It has approximately 8,000 members and around 450 apply to join per year, the original Temple covered much of what is now the northern part of Chancery Lane, which the Knights created to provide access to their new buildings. The old Temple eventually became the London palace of the Bishop of Lincoln, after the Reformation it became the home of the Earl of Southampton, and the location is now named Southampton Buildings. The first group of lawyers came to live here during the 13th century, the Knights fell out of favour, and the order was dissolved in 1312, with the land seized by the king and granted to the Knights Hospitaller. The Hospitallers probably did not live on the property, but rather used it as a source of revenue through rent, during the 12th and 13th centuries, the law was taught in the City of London, primarily by the clergy. As a result, the system of education fell apart
22.
Greenwich (UK Parliament constituency)
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From 1832 until 1885 it was a two-member constituency, but its representation was reduced to one Member of Parliament under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. For the 1997 general election, it was merged with part of the former Woolwich constituency to form the Greenwich and Woolwich seat and its history is dominated by the areas strong maritime tradition. 1885-1918, The parishes of Greenwich, St Nicholas, Deptford, Charlton, 1918-1974, The Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. 1974-1983, The London Borough of Greenwich wards of Blackheath, Charlton, Eastcombe, Hornfair, Kidbrooke, Marsh, Park, Trafalgar, Vanbrugh, and West. 1983-1997, The London Borough of Greenwich wards of Blackheath, Charlton, Ferrier, Hornfair, Kidbrooke, Rectory Field, St Alfege, Trafalgar, Vanbrugh, between 1983 and 1997, the constituency formed the western part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Cecil was a free-trader and Benn was a supporter of tariff reform swings relative to 1983 election, leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with G British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, compiled and edited by F. W. S
23.
Prince Rupert Loewenstein
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His affectionate nickname was Rupie the Groupie. Loewenstein was named to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame in 2001, henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright was his fathers maternal grandfather. Following his parents separation, he and his mother arrived in England in 1940, Loewenstein was educated at the Quaker St Christopher School in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied medieval history. After school, Loewenstein worked as a stockbroker for Bache & Co, leopold Joseph had previously been family owned by the Josephs, and carried out only specialised lines of banking business. Following the acquisition, the business was expanded to include advice on issues and mergers, investment advice. By 1971, the firm had become one of the dealers in London in investment dollars. That year, it undertook a capital raising with a target of a net £940,000 to enable further expansion. In 1981, Loewenstein left to start his own company, Rupert Loewenstein Ltd, where most of his clients were new money, people with old money are nearly always having to be adjusted downwards, those with new money are much more realistic. Loewenstein was the Rolling Stones business adviser and financial manager from 1968 until 2007, in 1968, then working in London as a merchant banker, he was introduced to Mick Jagger by a mutual friend, art dealer Christopher Gibbs. According to Keith Richards, Loewenstein had never heard of Jagger before then, Jagger was of the opinion that the Stones then manager, Allen Klein, was not paying them everything they were due. He managed their release from a contract, which paid them almost nothing. He channelled their earnings through a series of companies in the Netherlands, Richards said, he tax rate in the early 70s on the highest earners was 83 percent, and that went up to 98 percent for investments. It was Ruperts advice that we become non-resident, Loewenstein also copyrighted the famous red tongue logo, and enlisted corporates sponsors such as General Electric for tours. Richards described how, until they started to tour venues in the 1980s. The first important one was the 1981–82 tour which broke box office records, by then, Loewenstein had reorganised the bands finances so that they did not get cheated out of eighty percent of the takings. On a fifty-dollar ticket, up till then, three dollars and he set up sponsorship and clawed back merchandising deals. He cleaned out the scams and fiddles, or most of them, in a 2002 interview, Richards said of Loewenstein, He is a great financial mind for the market. He plays that like I play guitar and he does things like a little oil well
24.
The Rolling Stones
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The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The original line-up consisted of Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Stewart was removed from the official line-up in 1963 but continued as a touring member until his death in 1985. Jones left the less than a month prior to his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor. After Taylor left the band, Ronnie Wood took his place in 1975 and has been on guitar in tandem with Richards ever since, following Wymans departure in 1993, Darryl Jones joined as their touring bassist. Other touring keyboardists for the band have been Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, the band was first led by Jones, but after teaming as the bands songwriters, Jagger and Richards assumed leadership while Jones dealt with legal and personal troubles. The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the US in 1964, and identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the group began a period of musical experimentation in the mid-1960s that peaked with the psychedelic album Their Satanic Majesties Request. During this period, they were first introduced on stage as The Worlds Greatest Rock, the band continued to release commercially successful records in the 1970s and sold many albums, including Some Girls and Tattoo You, which were their most popular albums worldwide. From 1983 to 1987, tensions between Jagger and Richards almost caused the band to split, however, they managed to patch up their friendship in 1987. They separated temporarily to work on projects and experienced a comeback with Steel Wheels. Since the 1990s, new recorded material from the group has been increasingly less well-received, despite this, the Rolling Stones have continued to be a huge attraction on the live circuit, with stadium tours in the 1990s and 2000s. By 2007, the band had four of the top five highest-grossing concert tours of all time, Voodoo Lounge Tour, Bridges to Babylon Tour, Licks Tour and A Bigger Bang Tour. The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list and their estimated album sales are above 250 million. They have released 30 studio albums,18 live albums and numerous compilations, Let It Bleed was their first of five consecutive number one studio and live albums in the UK. Sticky Fingers was the first of eight number one studio albums in the US. In 2008, the band ranked 10th on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists chart, in 2012, the band celebrated its 50th anniversary. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were childhood friends and classmates in Dartford, Kent, Jagger had formed a garage band with Dick Taylor, mainly playing Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin Wolf and Bo Diddley material. Jagger met Richards again in 1960 on platform two of Dartford railway station, the Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records that Jagger carried revealed a common interest that prompted their musical partnership
25.
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
26.
Wyke, Surrey
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Wyke is a rural and suburban village in Surrey, England. Its local government district is the Borough of Guildford, the nearest town is Aldershot,2 miles west although the large village/town of Ash, Surrey is 1 mile west and has more shops than smaller Wyke and adjacent Normandy combined. Normandy, Surrey is also dispersed yet is typically marked just 0.25 miles east, Normandy, Flexford and Christmas Pie share the parish church of Wyke, being relatively central to the four former hamlets. Wyke shares in the associations and community groups of Normandy. Wyke unlike the settlement of Flexford, Normandy appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wucha held by Godric from Thorold under Roger de/of Montgomery. It was part of Burpham manor and was valued underneath its listing, as heads of household it had four villagers, three smallholders, one serf, two ploughlands and woodland for 83 pigs,25 acres of meadow and a mill worth 15s per year. It rendered 8 pound sterling per year to its feudal system overlords, one side of the roadside common of Normandy has medieval homes and farmhouses,0.25 miles east. Wyke has two farmhouses pre-dating 1600, Wyke as a wider parish than its topographical definition was formed out of Ash, Worplesdon and Wanborough in 1847 when its church was built. The maximum elevation is 118m at Normandy/Gravel Pit hill in the north, at the south of the ridge known as the Chobham Ranges. The minimum is 50m at Westwood Hall, a manor, at the start of the Normandy locality. The soil is sandy and heath towards the escarpment shielding the Ministry of Defence training land directly north of Wyke and its local government district is the Borough of Guildford. The nearest town is Aldershot,2 miles west although the village of Ash. Normandy, Surrey can also be categorised as dispersed rather than polyfocal but has more amenities. Wyke has one place of worship, that of St Mark in the Church of England building of which completed in November 1846 as a chapel, Wyke Primary School is a county-supported school on School Lane. Its roots are Wyke National School in 1874 which was enlarged 1896, for recreational and community hall purposes Wyke has a civil parish, that of Normandy. The rural Normandy Youth Center has a number of current children of the village who attend its meetings or use its facilities, james Stirling, former Governor of Western Australia is buried in St Marks Churchyard in Wyke. Surrey portal Media related to Wyke, Surrey at Wikimedia Commons St, Marks Church, Wyke - local history site
27.
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
28.
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
29.
Smith, Elder & Co.
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Smith, Elder & Co. or Smith, Elder, and Co. or Smith, Elder and Co. was a firm of British publishers who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century. The firm was founded by George Smith and Alexander Elder and successfully continued by George Murray Smith and they are known to have published as early as 1839. They are notable for producing the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, the firm achieved its first major success with the publication of Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. In addition, beginning in 1841, they published The London, beginning in 1859, they published Cornhill Magazine. Up to the beginning of the 20th century
30.
The London Gazette
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The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. This claim is made by the Stamford Mercury and Berrows Worcester Journal. It does not have a large circulation, in turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette, the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO on behalf of Her Majestys Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown Copyright, the London Gazette is published each weekday, except for Bank Holidays. The official Gazettes are published by The Stationery Office, the content, apart from insolvency notices, is available in a number of machine-readable formats, including XML and XML/RDFa via Atom feed. The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, the Gazette was Published by Authority by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, the Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense, it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Her Majestys Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889, publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision, in the 1990s, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office. In time of war, dispatches from the conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have mentioned in dispatches. When members of the forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here. Man tally-ho, Miss piano, Wife silk and satin, Boy Greek and Latin, the phrase gazetted fortune hunter is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage were also published in the Gazette. Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions
31.
Joseph Jacobs
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Joseph Jacobs was an Australian folklorist, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. He also edited editions of The Thousand and One Nights and he went on to join The Folklore Society in England and became an editor of the society journal Folklore. Joseph Jacobs also contributed to The Jewish Encyclopedia and he was the sixth surviving son of John Jacobs, a publican who had emigrated from London around 1837, and his wife Sarah, née Myers. Jacobs was educated at Sydney Grammar School and at the University of Sydney and he did not complete his studies in Sydney, but left for England at the age of 18 and entered St Johns College, Cambridge. He graduated with a B. A. in 1876, and in 1877, Jacobs married Georgina Horne and fathered two sons and a daughter. In 1900, when he became revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, based in New York and he died on 30 January 1916 at his home in Yonkers, New York. Jacobs was secretary of the Society of Hebrew Literature from 1878 to 1884 and this led to the formation of the mansion house fund and committee, of which Jacobs was secretary from 1882 to 1900. He was a student of anthropology at the Statistical Laboratory at University College London in the 1880s under Francis Galton and his Studies in Jewish Statistics, Social, Vital and Anthropometric made his reputation as the first proponent of Jewish race science. He wrote many articles for the Athenaeum, which published in 1891 the collection, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Browning, Newman, Essays. In the same year appeared his Studies in Jewish Statistics, in 1892, Tennyson and In Memoriam, and in 1893, his important book on The Jews of Angevin England. His historical novel dealing with the life of Jesus, As Others Saw Him, A Retrospective A. D.54, was published anonymously in 1895, in the year his Jewish Ideals. In this year, he was invited to the United States of America to give a course of lectures on the Philosophy of Jewish History, the Story of Geographical Discovery was published towards the end of 1898 and ran into several editions. He had been compiling and editing the Jewish Year Book since 1896, in 1900, he accepted an invitation to become revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, which was then being prepared at New York. He settled permanently in the United States, where he wrote articles for the Jewish Encyclopedia. He then became registrar and professor of English at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, in 1908, he was appointed a member of the board of seven, which made a new English translation of the Bible for the Jewish Publication Society of America. In 1913, he resigned his positions at the seminary to become editor of the American Hebrew, in 1920, Book I of his Jewish Contributions to Civilization, which was practically finished at the time of his death, was published at Philadelphia. Jacobs was also a contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and James Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion, although he collected many tales under the name of fairy tales, many of them are unusual sorts of tales. Binnorie and Tamlane are prose versions of ballads, The Old Woman and Her Pig is a rhyme, Henny-Penny is a fable
32.
Jewish Encyclopedia
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The Jewish Encyclopedia is an English encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the history, culture, and state of Judaism and the Jews up to the early 20th century. It was originally published in 12 volumes by Funk and Wagnalls of New York City between 1901 and 1906 and reprinted in the 1960s by KTAV Publishing House and it is now in the public domain and hosted at various sites around the internet. The encyclopedias managing editor was Isidore Singer, the editorial board was chaired by Isaac K. Funk and Frank H. Vizetelly. William Popper served as the assistant revision editor and chief of translation for Vols, in the 20th century, the movements members dispersed to Jewish Studies departments in the United States and Israel. L. Rapoport, David Zvi Hoffman, Heinrich Graetz, etc, of the works cited which are not German—usually the more classical works—the large part are either Hebrew or Arabic. The only heavily cited English-language source of scholarship is Solomon Schechters publications in the Jewish Quarterly Review. Wolfson continues that if a Jewish Encyclopedia in a language were planned for the first time. The Jewish Encyclopedia was heavily used as a source by the 16-volume Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian, published by Brockhaus, the unedited text of the original can be found at the Jewish Encyclopedia website. The site offers both JPEG facsimiles of the articles and Unicode transcriptions of all texts. Thus, for example, to search for Halizah, one would have to know that they have transliterated this as Ḥaliẓah. The alphabetic index ignores diacriticals so it can be useful when searching for an article whose title is known. The scholarly apparatus of citation is thorough, but can be a bit daunting to contemporary users, a list of abbreviations used in the encyclopedia is provided on the Jewish Encyclopedia website. I, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. II, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. III, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. V, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, VI & VII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, IX, X, & XI, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. XII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, schwarz, Leo W. com, maintained by the Kopelman Foundation. Multiple copies at the Internet Archive Hathi Trust
33.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
34.
William Ewart Gladstone
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William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS was a British Liberal and earlier conservative politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, Gladstone was also Britains oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832, beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite – in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs, as Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet The Peoples William. Gladstones first ministry saw many reforms including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, after his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkeys reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. Gladstones Midlothian Campaign of 1879–80 was an example of many modern political campaigning techniques. The government also passed the Third Reform Act, Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep out of office, with one short break. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82, the Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure and he left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as The Peoples William or the G. O. M, Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britains greatest Prime Ministers. Born in 1809 in Liverpool, at 62 Rodney Street, William Ewart Gladstone was the son of the slave-owning merchant Sir John Gladstone. Although born and brought up in Liverpool, William Gladstone was of purely Scottish ancestry, in 1814 young Willy visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives. William and his brother were both made freemen of the burgh of Dingwall, in 1815 Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents. In London he attended a service of thanksgiving with his family at St Pauls Cathedral following the Battle of Waterloo, William Gladstone was educated from 1816 to 1821 at a preparatory school at the vicarage of St Thomass Church at Seaforth, close to his familys residence, Seaforth House. In December 1831 he achieved the double first-class degree he had long desired, Gladstone served as President of the Oxford Union debating society, where he developed a reputation as an orator, which followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform, following the success of his double first, William travelled with his brother John on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. On his return to England, William was elected to Parliament in 1832 as Tory Member of Parliament for Newark, partly through the influence of the local patron, the Duke of Newcastle
35.
John Holms
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John Holms JP, DL, was a Scottish businessman and Liberal politician. Holms was the son of James Holms of Sancel Bank, Paisley and his brother William Holms was MP for Paisley. Holms was a partner in W. Holms Bros, spinners, when Hackney was divided into single-member constituencies in 1885 John stood for the Central division. He was defeated by his Conservative opponent by 193 votes, just a few days later he was seriously injured in an accident on the London Underground and rendered an invalid for the remainder of his life. He was also a Justice of the Peace for Lanarkshire, Middlesex and Westminster and he was the author of military books including The British Army in 1875 and Our Military Difficulty. Holms married Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of Edward Lyon of Kennington in 1856 and he died in March 1891, aged 60. Works by or about John Holms at Internet Archive Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by John Holms Brief biography at portcullis. parliament. uk