1.
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
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Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté KB was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. He was wounded several times in combat, losing most of one arm in the attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He was shot and killed during his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson was born into a moderately prosperous Norfolk family and joined the navy through the influence of his uncle, Maurice Suckling and he rose rapidly through the ranks and served with leading naval commanders of the period before obtaining his own command in 1778. He developed a reputation in the service through his valour and firm grasp of tactics but suffered periods of illness. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars allowed Nelson to return to service and he fought in several minor engagements off Toulon and was important in the capture of Corsica and subsequent diplomatic duties with the Italian states. In 1797, he distinguished himself while in command of HMS Captain at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. The following year, he won a victory over the French at the Battle of the Nile. In 1801, he was dispatched to the Baltic and won another victory and he subsequently commanded the blockade of the French and Spanish fleets at Toulon and, after their escape, chased them to the West Indies and back but failed to bring them to battle. After a brief return to England, he took over the Cádiz blockade in 1805, on 21 October 1805, the Franco-Spanish fleet came out of port, and Nelsons fleet engaged them at the Battle of Trafalgar. The battle was Britains greatest naval victory, but during the action Nelson and his body was brought back to England where he was accorded a state funeral. Nelsons death at Trafalgar secured his position as one of Britains most heroic figures, numerous monuments, including Nelsons Column in Trafalgar Square, London, and the Nelson Monument in Edinburgh, have been created in his memory and his legacy remains highly influential. Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758 in a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England and he was named after his godfather Horatio Walpole then 2nd Baron Walpole, of Wolterton. His mother, who died on 26 December 1767, when he was nine years old, was a great-niece of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain. She lived in the village of Barsham, Suffolk, and married the Reverend Edmund Nelson at Beccles church, Suffolk, Nelsons aunt, Alice Nelson was the wife of Reverend Robert Rolfe, Rector of Hilborough, Norfolk and grandmother of Sir Robert Monsey Rolfe. Rolfe twice served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Nelson attended Paston Grammar School, North Walsham, until he was 12 years old, and also attended King Edward VI’s Grammar School in Norwich. Shortly after reporting aboard, Nelson was appointed a midshipman and began officer training, early in his service, Nelson discovered that he suffered from seasickness, a chronic complaint that dogged him for the rest of his life. He twice crossed the Atlantic, before returning to serve under his uncle as the commander of Sucklings longboat, at his nephews request, Suckling arranged for Nelson to join the expedition as coxswain to Commander Lutwidge aboard the converted bomb vessel HMS Carcass
2.
10 Downing Street
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Situated in Downing Street in the City of Westminster, London, Number 10 is over 300 years old and contains approximately 100 rooms. A private residence occupies the floor and there is a kitchen in the basement. At the rear is a courtyard and a terrace overlooking a garden of 0.5 acres. Adjacent to St Jamess Park, Number 10 is near Buckingham Palace, the London residence of the British monarch, and the Palace of Westminster, originally three houses, Number 10 was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by King George II in 1732. Walpole accepted on the condition that the gift was to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to him personally, Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the three houses and it is this larger house that is known as Number 10 Downing Street. The arrangement was not an immediate success, despite its size and convenient location near to Parliament, few early Prime Ministers lived there. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down, Number 10 was close to being demolished several times but the property survived and became linked with many statesmen, in 1985 Margaret Thatcher said Number 10 had become one of the most precious jewels in the national heritage. Number 10 Downing Street was originally three properties, a mansion overlooking St Jamess Park called the House at the Back, a house behind it. The town house, from which the building gets its name, was one of several built by Sir George Downing between 1682 and 1684. Downing, a spy for Oliver Cromwell and later Charles II, invested in property. In 1654, he purchased the lease on land south of St Jamess Park, Downing planned to build a row of town houses for persons of good quality to inhabit in. The street on which he built them now bears his name, straightforward as the investment seemed, it proved otherwise. The Hampden family had a lease on the land that they refused to relinquish, Downing fought their claim, but failed and had to wait thirty years before he could build. When the Hampden lease expired, Downing received permission to build on land further west to take advantage of recent property developments. The new warrant issued in 1682 reads, Sir George Downing. to build new, subject to the proviso that it be not built any nearer than 14 feet of the wall of the said Park at the West end thereof. Between 1682 and 1684, Downing built a cul-de-sac of two-storey town houses with coach-houses, stables, over the years, the addresses changed several times. In 1787 Number 5 became Number 10, Downing employed Sir Christopher Wren to design the houses. Although large, they were put up quickly and cheaply on soft soil with shallow foundations, the fronts were façades with lines painted on the surface imitating brick mortar
3.
Leicestershire
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Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. The border with most of Warwickshire is Watling Street, the county has a population of just under 1 million with over half the population living in Leicesters built-up area. Leicestershire was recorded in the Domesday Book in four wapentakes, Guthlaxton, Framland, Goscote and these later became hundreds, with the division of Goscote into West Goscote and East Goscote, and the addition of Sparkenhoe hundred. In 1087, the first recorded use of the name was as Laegrecastrescir, Leicestershires external boundaries have changed little since the Domesday Survey. These actions were reversed on 1 April 1997, when Rutland, Rutland became a distinct Ceremonial County once again, although it continues to be policed by Leicestershire Constabulary. The symbol of the county council, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Leicestershire is considered to be the birthplace of fox hunting as it is known today. Hugo Meynell, who lived in Quorn, is known as the father of fox hunting, Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough have associations with fox hunting, as has neighbouring Rutland. A large part of the north-west of the county, around Coalville, the highest point of the county is Bardon Hill at 278 metres, which is also a Marilyn. The lowest point is about 24. 8m, north of Bottesford where the River Devon leaves Leicestershire, the population of Leicestershire is 609,578 people. The county covers an area of 2,084 km2 and its largest population centre is the city of Leicester, followed by the town of Loughborough. Other large towns include Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Coalville, Hinckley, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Oadby, Wigston, some of the larger of villages are, Burbage Birstall, Broughton Astley, Castle Donington, Kibworth Beauchamp, Great Glen, Ibstock, Countesthorpe and Kegworth. One of the most rapidly expanding villages is Anstey, which has seen a large number of development schemes. The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a resident population for Leicester of 279,921. Approximately 62,000 were aged under 16,199,000 were aged 16–74,76. 9% of Leicesters population claim they have been born in the UK, according to the 2001 UK Census. Mid-year estimates for 2006 indicate that the population of the City of Leicester stood at 289,700 making Leicester the most populous city in East Midlands, the population density is 3, 814/km2 and for every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Leicester,38. 5% had no academic qualifications,23. 0% of Leicesters residents were born outside of the United Kingdom, more than double than the English average of 9. 2%. Engineering has long been an important part of the economy of Leicestershire, John Taylor Bellfounders continues a history of bellfounding in Loughborough since the 14th century. In 1881 John Taylors cast the largest bell in Britain, Great Paul, snibston Discovery Park is built on one of three coal mines that operated in Coalville from the 1820s until 1986
4.
Anstey, Leicestershire
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Anstey is a large village in Leicestershire, England, located north west of Leicester in the borough of Charnwood. Its population was 6,528 at the 2011 census and this figure is expected to increase due to the building of a new housing development off Groby Road. To the north-west lies Bradgate Park, Anstey is known as the Gateway to Charnwood Forest. Anstey dates back to Angle origins, when it was known as Hanstige, Anstey was positioned between Charnwood Forest and Leicester Forest. Whilst developing the site for the new Co-op store in 2002 archaeologists were called in, a plaque recording this has been placed on the wall of the new shop. The place-name of Anstey is first recorded in Domesday Book when it was held by one of the countys largest landholders, Hugh de Grandmesnil, at the time it was a small farming community. Anstey appears to have had its origins in two distinct settlement foci, each associated with a manor, one associated with Leicester Abbey. It is believed that Anstey once had a military force - in 1431 William Porter furnished XIX hommes. When Bonnie Prince Charlies army moved south during the 1745 rebellion, although the body of troops were turned back at Derby. Local industry included hosiery from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, by 1845 there were 300 people employed as framework knitters in the village. A decline in the industry in the middle of the century saw a fall in the villages population. The villages population rose to over 2,500 by 1900, Anstey became an independent parish in 1866, having previously been a chapelry of Thurcaston. A number of related industries developed in the village, including tanning and box-making, one of the largest companies in the village was the Anstey Wallpaper Company, which occupied a site east of Cropston Road now filled with houses and the new Co-op store. Nearly all the factories have now either been demolished or converted into flats. By 1971, the population of the village had risen to almost 6,000, the village is still the home of Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd. known for their large-print editions of popular books, published since 1964. The most notable family of Anstey was the Martin family, who lived in the village from the 13th century until 1892, two members of the family held the position of Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, and the local high school is named after them. They lived at Anstey Pastures, before moving to The Brand in 1892, footballer Derek Dougan lived in the village during his time at Leicester City. According to legend, the last wolf to be killed in England was shot in a forest near Anstige in Wolfdale
5.
Francis Hayman
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Francis Hayman RA was an English painter and illustrator who became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and later its first librarian. Born in Exeter, Devon, Hayman begun his career as a scene painter in Londons Drury Lane theatre before establishing a studio in St Martins Lane. A versatile artist influenced by the French Rococo style, he achieved some note during the 1740s through decorative paintings executed for the boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London. Hayman was also a successful portraitist and history painter and he also illustrated Pamela, a novel by Samuel Richardson, Miltons Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Smollets translation of Don Quixote, and other well-known works. His pupils included Mason Chamberlin, Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Thomas Seton and Lemuel Francis Abbott, with Joshua Reynolds, Hayman was actively involved in the formation of the Society of Artists, a forerunner of the Royal Academy, during the early 1760s. London, Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 296–7, the Surrender of Montreal to General Amherst de Francis Hayman et l’identité impériale britannique Mens, revue dhistoire intellectuelle et culturelle, Volume 12, numéro 1, automne 2011, p. 91-135. Francis Hayman online Portrait of Hayman by Joshua Reynolds
6.
Joseph Wright of Derby
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Joseph Wright ARA, styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, Wright is notable for his use of chiaroscuro effect, which emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. Many of Wrights paintings and drawings are owned by Derby City Council, Joseph Wright was born in Irongate, Derby to a respectable family of lawyers. The third of five children of John Wright, attorney, and Town Clerk of Derby, Joseph had two elder brothers, John and Richard Wright. Deciding to become a painter, Wright went to London in 1751, after painting portraits for a while at Derby, Wright again worked as an assistant to Hudson for fifteen months. Wright also spent a period in Liverpool, from 1768 to 1771. These included pictures of a number of prominent citizens and their families, Wright married Ann Swift, the daughter of a leadminer, on 28 July 1773 Wright and his wife had six children, three of whom died in infancy. Wright set off in 1773 with John Downman, a pregnant Ann Wright and their ship took shelter for three weeks in Nice before they completed their outward voyage in Livorno in Italy in February 1774. Downman returned to Britain in 1775, on his return from Italy he established himself at Bath as a portrait-painter, but meeting with little encouragement he returned to Derby in 1777, where he spent the rest of his life. He became increasingly asthmatic and nervous about the house, and for these complaints he was treated by his friend Erasmus Darwin, Ann Wright died on 17 August 1790. On 29 August 1797 Wright died at his new home at No.28 Queen Street, Derby, where he had spent his final months with his two daughters. Wright was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists, and to those of the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1781 and his Old Man and Death is also a striking and individual production. It hangs in the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College and its companion piece, Dovedale by Sunlight captures the colors of day. Another memorable image from his tour of the Lake District is Rydal Waterfall of 1795, cave at evening is painted with the same dramatic chiaroscuro for which Joseph Wright is noted. The painting was executed during 1774, while he was staying in Italy, notice the similarities to the Museum of Fine Arts, Bostons holding, Grotto by the Seaside in the Kingdom of Naples with Banditti, Sunset. Wright had close contact with the industrialists of the Midlands. One of Wrights students, William Tate, was uncle to the eccentric gentleman tunneler Joseph Williamson, Wright also had connections with Erasmus Darwin and other members of the Lunar Society, which brought together leading industrialists, scientists, and philosophers. An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, shows people gathered round observing an early experiment into the nature of air, the Alchemist in Search of the Philosophers Stone depicts the discovery of the element phosphorus by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669
7.
Bloomsbury
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Bloomsbury is an area of the London Borough of Camden, between Euston Road and Holborn. It was developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a residential area. It is notable for its garden squares, literary connections, and numerous cultural, educational, Bloomsbury Square was laid out in 1660 by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton. Much of the district was planned and built by James Burton and it is also home to the University of Law and New College of the Humanities. London Contemporary Dance School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and are located in the area. Bloomsbury is in the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras. The western half of the district comprises Bloomsbury ward, which three councillors to Camden Borough Council. The earliest record of what would become Bloomsbury is in the 1086 Domesday Book, but it is not until 1201 that the name Bloomsbury is first noted, when William de Blemond, a Norman landowner, acquired the land. The name Bloomsbury is a development from Blemondisberi – the bury, or manor, at the end of the 14th century, Edward III acquired Blemonds manor, and passed it on to the Carthusian monks of the London Charterhouse, who kept the area mostly rural. In the 16th century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII took the back into the possession of the Crown and granted it to Thomas Wriothesley. In the early 1660s, the Earl of Southampton constructed what eventually became Bloomsbury Square, the Yorkshire Grey public house on the corner of Grays Inn Road and Theobalds Road dates from 1676. The area was laid out mainly in the 18th century, largely by landowners such as Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, who built Bloomsbury Market, William de Blemond in the 13th century, a Norman, was the first landowner. Edward III acquired Blemonds manor, and passed it on to the Carthusian monks who governed it until Henry VIII granted it to the Earl of Southampton, the Russell family became landowners in the 18th century. The area lay within the parishes of St Giles in the Fields and St Georges, Bloomsbury and it is now controlled by the London Borough of Camden and part of the district is contained within the Bloomsbury ward. The district is situated in the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras. Bloomsbury merges gradually with Holborn in the south, with St Pancras and Kings Cross in the north-east, the road runs from Euston and Somers Town in the north to Holborn in the south. East of Southampton Row/Woburn Place are the Grade II listed Brunswick Centre, a residential and shopping centre, the area west of Southampton Row/Woburn Place is notable for its concentration of academic establishments, museums, and formal squares. Bloomsbury contains some of Londons finest parks and buildings, and is known for its formal squares
8.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
9.
Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet
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Major-general Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB was a Scottish soldier and colonial administrator. He was an East India Company Army officer and statesman, Munro was born in Glasgow on 27 May 1761 to a merchant called Alexander Munro. Thomas grandfather was a tailor, who prospered by successful investments in American tobacco, after working as a bank clerk, Alexander Munro joined the familys prosperous tobacco business, but was ruined by the collapse of the tobacco trade during the American Revolutionary War. Thomas was also a descendant of George Munro, 10th Baron of Foulis. Thomas was educated at the University of Glasgow, while at school, Thomas was distinguished for a singular openness of temper, a mild and generous disposition, with great personal courage and presence of mind. Being naturally of a robust frame of body, he surpassed all his school-fellows in athletic exercises and he was at first intended to enter his fathers business, but in 1779 was appointed to an infantry cadetship in Madras. He served with his regiment during the war against Haidar Ali, serving under his older and distant relation Major Sir Hector Munro. Thomas also later served alongside a younger distant relation John Munro, Thomas served again with his regiment in the first campaign against Tipu Sultan. On the outbreak of the Pindari War in 1817, he was appointed as brigadier-general to command the division formed to reduce the southern territories of the Peshwa. Of his services on this occasion Lord Canning said in the House of Commons, He went into the field with not more than five or six hundred men, of whom a very small proportion were Europeans. Nine forts were surrendered to him or taken by assault on his way, leaving everything secure and tranquil behind him. In 1819 Munro was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, in 1819, he was appointed governor of Madras, where he founded systems of revenue assessment and general administration which substantially persisted into the twentieth century. He is regarded as the father of the Ryotwari system and his official minutes, published by Sir A. Arbuthnot, form a manual of experience and advice for the modern civilian. Munro was created a Baronet, of Lindertis in the County of Forfar and he died of cholera on 6 July 1827 while on tour in the ceded districts, where his name is preserved by more than one memorial. Mantralaya village in Andhra Pradesh is a place where the Brindavan of famous Dvaita saint Raghavendra Swami is located, when Sir Thomas Munro was the Collector of Bellary in 1800, the Madras Government ordered him to procure the entire income from the Math and Manthralaya village. When the Revenue officials were unable to comply with this order and he removed his hat and shoes and entered the sacred precincts. Sri Raghavendraswamy emerged from the Vrindavan and conversed with him for some time, the Saint was visible and audible only to Munro, who received Manthraksha. The Collector went back and wrote an order in favour of the Math and this notification was published in the Madras Government Gazette in Chapter XI, page 213, with the caption Manchali Adoni Taluka
10.
Bethlem Royal Hospital
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Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its infamous history has inspired several books, films and TV series, most notably Bedlam. It has moved three times from its location, and is Europes first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses. The hospital is associated with Kings College London and, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology. It is part of the Kings Health Partners academic health science centre, originally the hospital was near Bishopsgate just outside the walls of the City of London. It moved outside of Moorfields in the 17th century, then to St Georges Fields in Southwark in the 19th century, the word bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from the hospitals prior nickname. Although the hospital became a psychiatric facility, historically it was representative of the worst excesses of asylums in the era of lunacy reform. The hospital was founded in 1247 as the Priory of the New Order of St Mary of Bethlem in the city of London during the reign of Henry III. It was established by the Bishop-elect of Bethlehem, the Italian Goffredo de Prefetti, following a donation of property by the London alderman and former sheriff. The original location was in the parish of St Botolph, Bishopsgates ward, just beyond Londons wall, the priory, obedient to the Church of Bethlehem, would also house the poor and, if they visited, provide hospitality to the bishop, canons and brothers of Bethlehem. Thus, Bethlem became a hospital, in British English usage, by this time the Bethlehemite bishops had relocated to Clamecy, France, under the surety of the Avignon papacy. As a dependent house of the Order of Saint Bethlehem in Clamecy, Bethlem was vulnerable to seizure by the crown, after this event the masters of the hospital, semi-autonomous figures in charge of its day-to-day management, were normally crown appointees and it became an increasingly secularised institution. The removal of the last symbolic link to the Bethlehemites was confirmed in 1403 when it was reported that master, in 1546 the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Gresham, petitioned the crown to grant Bethlem to the city. This petition was successful and Henry VIII reluctantly ceded to the City of London the custody, order and governance of the hospital and of its occupants. This charter came into effect in 1547, the crown retained possession of the hospital while its administration fell to the city authorities. It is Europes oldest extant psychiatric hospital and has operated continuously for over 600 years and it has also been the continents most famous, and infamous, specialist institution for the care and treatment of the insane. Its popular designation – Bedlam – has long been synonymous with madness, precisely dating its transition to this role is difficult. It is unknown when it began to specialise in the care and control of the insane and this date is derived from the unsubstantiated conjecture of the Reverend Edward Geoffrey ODonoghue, chaplain to the hospital, who published a monograph on its history in 1914
11.
George III of the United Kingdom
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He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britains American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence, further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, on George IIIs death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV. Historical analysis of George IIIs life has gone through a kaleidoscope of changing views that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them. Until it was reassessed in the half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant. George was born in London at Norfolk House and he was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months prematurely and he was unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker. One month later, he was baptised at Norfolk House. His godparents were the King of Sweden, his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, George grew into a healthy but reserved and shy child. The family moved to Leicester Square, where George and his younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of York, Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and German, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight. He was the first British monarch to study science systematically and his religious education was wholly Anglican. At age 10 George took part in a production of Joseph Addisons play Cato and said in the new prologue, What. It may with truth be said, A boy in England born, historian Romney Sedgwick argued that these lines appear to be the source of the only historical phrase with which he is associated. Georges grandfather, King George II, disliked the Prince of Wales, however, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury, and George became heir apparent to the throne. He inherited one of his fathers titles and became the Duke of Edinburgh, now more interested in his grandson, three weeks later the King created George Prince of Wales. Georges mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, preferred to keep George at home where she could imbue him with her moral values
12.
William Herschel
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Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS was a British astronomer and composer of German origin, and brother of fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel, with whom he worked. Born in the Electorate of Hanover, Herschel followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, Herschel constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that the nebulae in the Messier catalogue were clusters of stars, Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 and in 1820. In the course of an observation on 13 March 1781, he realized that one celestial body he had observed was not a star and this was the first planet to be discovered since antiquity and Herschel became famous overnight. As a result of this discovery, George III appointed him Court Astronomer and he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and grants were provided for the construction of new telescopes. Herschel pioneered the use of astronomical spectrophotometry as a tool, using prisms. Other work included a determination of the rotation period of Mars, the discovery that the Martian polar caps vary seasonally. In addition, Herschel discovered infrared radiation, Herschel was made a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1816. He was the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society when it was founded in 1820 and he died in August 1822, and his work was continued by his only son, John Herschel. Herschel was born in the Electorate of Hanover in Germany, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and his father was an oboist in the Hanover Military Band. In 1755 the Hanoverian Guards regiment, in whose band Wilhelm, at the time the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover were united under King George II. As the threat of war with France loomed, the Hanoverian Guards were recalled from England to defend Hanover, after they were defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck, Herschels father Isaak sent his two sons to seek refuge in England in late 1757. Although his older brother Jakob had received his dismissal from the Hanoverian Guards, Wilhelm, nineteen years old at this time, was a quick student of the English language. In England he went by the English rendition of his name, in addition to the oboe, he played the violin and harpsichord and later the organ. He composed numerous works, including 24 symphonies and many concertos. Six of his symphonies were recorded in April 2002 by the London Mozart Players, Herschel moved to Sunderland in 1761 when Charles Avison immediately engaged him as first violin and soloist for his Newcastle orchestra, where he played for one season. In ‘Sunderland in the County of Durh, apprill 20th 1761’ he wrote his Symphony No.8 in C Minor. He was head of the Durham Militia band 1760–61 and visited the home of Sir Ralph Milbanke at Halnaby Hall in 1760, after Newcastle he moved to Leeds and Halifax where he was the first organist at St John the Baptist church
