A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. Once captured, the privateer could bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to conduct a reprisal and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders. Popular among Europeans from the late Middle Ages up to the 19th century, cruising for enemy prizes with a letter of marque was considered an honorable calling that combined patriotism and profit; such privateering contrasted with attacks and captures of random ships, unlicensed and known as piracy. In reality, the differences between privateers and pirates were at best subtle and at worst a matter of interpretation. In addition to the meaning of the license itself, the terms letter of marque and privateer were sometimes used to describe the vessels used to pursue and capture prizes.

In this context, a letter of marque was a lumbering, square-rigged cargo carrier that might pick up a prize if the opportunity arose in its normal course of duties. In contrast, the term privateer referred to a fast and weatherly fore-and-aft rigged vessel armed and crewed, intended for fighting. Marque derives from the Old English mearc, from the Germanic *mark-, which means boundary, or boundary marker, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *merǵ-, meaning boundary, or border; the French marque is from the Provençal language marca, from marcar Provençal, seize as a pledge. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of "letters of marque and reprisal" was in an English statute in 1354 during the reign of Edward III; the phrase referred to "a licene granted by a sovereign to a subject, authorizing him to make reprisals on the subjects of a hostile state for injuries alleged to have been done to him by the enemy's army." During the Middle Ages, armed private vessels enjoying their sovereign's tacit consent, if not always an explicit formal commission raided shipping of other nations, as in the case of Francis Drake's attacks on Spanish shipping, of which Elizabeth I took a share.

Grotius's 1604 seminal work on international law, De Iure Praedae, was an advocate's brief defending Dutch raids on Spanish and Portuguese shipping. King Henry III of England first issued what became known as privateering commissions in 1243; these early licences were granted to specific individuals to seize the king’s enemies at sea in return for splitting the proceeds between the privateers and The Crown. The letter of marque and reprisal first arose in 1295, 50 years after wartime privateer licenses were first issued. According to Grotius, letters of marque and reprisal were akin to a "private war", a concept alien to modern sensibilities but related to an age when the ocean was lawless and all merchant vessels sailed armed for self-defense. A reprisal involved seeking the sovereign's permission to exact private retribution against some foreign prince or subject; the earliest instance of a licensed reprisal recorded in England was in the year 1295 under the reign of Edward I. The notion of reprisal, behind it that just war involved avenging a wrong, clung to the letter of marque until 1620 in England, in that to apply for one a shipowner had to submit to the Admiralty Court an estimate of actual losses.

Licensing privateers during wartime became widespread in Europe by the 16th Century, when most countries began to enact laws regulating the granting of letters of marque and reprisal. Business could be profitable. Although privateering commissions and letters of marque were distinct legal concepts, such distinctions became purely technical by the eighteenth century; the United States Constitution, for instance, states that "The Congress shall have Power To... grant Letters of marque and reprisal...", without separately addressing privateer commissions. During the American War of Independence, Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, it was common to distinguish verbally between privateers on the one hand, armed merchantmen, which were referred to as "letters of marque", on the other, though both received the same commission; the Sir John Sherbrooke was a privateer. The East India Company arranged for letters of marque for its East Indiamen such as the Lord Nelson, not so that they could carry cannons to fend off warships and pirates on their voyages to India and China—that they could do without permission—but so that, should they have the opportunity to take a prize, they could do so without being guilty of piracy.

The Earl of Mornington, an East India Company packet ship of only six guns, too carried a letter of marque. In July 1793, the East Indiamen Royal Charlotte and Warley participated in the capture of Pondichéry by maintaining a blockade of the port. Afterwards, as they

Charles-Michel Marle is a French engineer and mathematician, corresponding member of the French Academy of sciences since 1983. Charles-Michel Marle is Professor Emeritus at Marie Curie University. Charles-Michel Marle completed his primary and secondary education in Constantine where he obtained the first part of the baccalaureate in 1950, the second part in 1951, he was a pupil of the preparatory classes for the grandes écoles at the Lycée Bugeaud in Algiers: higher mathematics in 1951-1952 special mathematics in 1952-1953. He was admitted to the École Polytechnique in 1953; when he left this school in 1955, he opted for the Corps des mines. He did his military service as a second lieutenant at the Engineering School in Angers from October 1955 to February 1956 in Algeria during the war until 30 December 1956. Having been kept in the army for a few more months, he began attending the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Paris in January 1957, three months late. From October 1957 to September 1958 he attended the École nationale supérieure du pétrole et des moteurs and completed various internships in the oil industry in France and Algeria.

Returning to the Paris School of Mines in October 1958, his last year of study was interrupted in January or February 1959 by the decision, taken at that time by the Minister of Industry, to send all junior civil servants of category A to Algeria to participate in the Constantine Plan. He was attached to the short-lived Common Organisation of the Saharan Regions and worked in Algiers, the Sahara and Paris on various industrial projects. In October 1959 he was seconded by the Corps des Mines to the French Petroleum Institute, where he was a research engineer head of department director of division, until September 1969. While working at this Institute, with a view to a change of direction, he obtained a degree in mathematics and prepared a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor André Lichnerowicz, he works on this thesis outside of working hours at IFP, as his subject has nothing to do with the research done at this Institute. In October 1969 he changed direction. First he was a lecturer at the University of Besançon from October 1969 to September 1975 at the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University in Paris, was appointed professor at this university in 1977.

He remained there until his retirement in September 2000. Charles-Michel Marle is the great-great-grandson of the grammarian L. C. Marle, author of an attempt at spelling reform around 1840; this work focused on fluid flows in porous media, which are being investigated for applications in hydrocarbon field development. He published a book on the subject, developing a course that he taught at the École nationale du pétrole et des moteurs, he has published two articles in this field. The problem he studied in his thesis was the establishment of equations of viscous, heat-conducting, non-uniform composition relativistic fluid dynamics from the Boltzmann relativistic equation, his thesis was published in two papers. Since the early 1970s, until today, he has worked on symplectic geometry, Poisson geometry and their applications in mechanics and physics. With his colleague Paulette Libermann he published a research-level book on this subject, he has published another book, taking up part of the previous one, exposing recent results obtained in this field since 1987.

He has published a number of articles in this field. French Academy of sciences laboratory prize for his thesis work, 1973. Member of the Mathematical Society of France, the French Physical Society and the American Mathematical Society

Nigel Lythgoe OBE is an English television and film director and producer, television dance competition judge, former dancer in the Young Generation and choreographer. He was the producer of the shows Pop Idol and American Idol and is the creator and executive producer of, a regular judge on, So You Think You Can Dance, he created the 2009 competition Superstars of Dance. Born in Wallasey, Wirral, to dockworker George Percival Lythgoe and Gertrude Emily Lythgoe, he became interested in dance at the age of 10, he began tap dancing, went on to study at the Hylton-Bromley School of Dance and Drama and the Perry Cowell School of Dance, both in Wallasey, Merseyside where he studied classical ballet, modern jazz, character, classical Greek and National dance from various countries. Lythgoe's first professional job was in the Corps de Ballet for the National tour of "The Merry Widow." He trained in London under Molly Molloy. Beginning in 1969, Lythgoe performed with the BBC's The Young Generation dance troupe.

He has since choreographed over 500 television shows. Early in Lythgoe's career, he learned to use techniques to film choreography well, a skill that would lead to a TV career. During the 1970s and into the 1980s, Lythgoe had the opportunity to perform with dancers from Cyd Charisse to Gene Kelly, he choreographed for Ben Vereen, Shirley Bassey and the Muppets. Lythgoe, in an interview with People said that he was "the only person to dance, choreograph and direct the Royal Variety Performance."After working his way through the television industry, including at TVS, by 1995, Lythgoe held the post of Head of Entertainment and Comedy at London Weekend Television, where he commissioned and produced shows including Gladiators and Blind Date. In 2000, he became the tough judge on Popstars and was nicknamed "Nasty Nigel" by the British tabloid press, he was loaned by London Weekend Television to Bob Geldof's television company Planet 24 to executive produce and direct the UK version of Survivor. Lythgoe joined Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment group as President of 19 Television.

He produced a new show created by Fuller, Pop Idol. This became a global franchise that includes American Idol. Lythgoe moved to the U. S. in 2002 to produce American Idol and became producer/judge and co-creator of So You Think You Can Dance on the FOX television network. Lythgoe, his production partner Ken Warwick, who went to school together from age 12 agreed to produce the 2007 Emmys, but could not due to scheduling conflicts with SYTYCD. In 2007, Lythgoe worked with a number of prominent California-based Brits, including then-British Consul-General Bob Peirce, to found BritWeek, an annual program of events held in Los Angeles and Orange County to celebrate the strong business and entertainment ties between the UK and California. On 4 August 2008, Lythgoe confirmed that he was leaving American Idol and decided to move on with So You Think You Can Dance. In 2009, Lythgoe and Fuller formed. Fuller is a fan of Manchester Lythgoe of Liverpool. Both teams play in red, their first venture was Superstars of Dance for NBC.

He is a judge on So You Think You Can Dance. On 5 August 2010, American Idol confirmed Lythgoe would be returning as an executive producer to the hit show beginning season 10. Lythgoe married Bonita Shawe in 1974, whom he met while he was choreographer for the BBC's Young Generation dance troupe. Shawe was an audition judge on the first season of So You Think You Can Dance and was a judge on the Australian version of So You Think You Can Dance for the first three seasons; the couple divorced in 2010 and have two sons together and Kristopher and four grandchildren Kyan, Tighe and George. He suffered a heart attack in January 2003, he gave up his 60-a-day cigarette habit as a result. He nearly died from a burst appendix in October 2003, he owns a vineyard in Paso Robles, California. 2015 O. B. E - Order of The British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2014 Ellis Island International Medal of Honor 2011 International Emmy: Founders Award - Winner 2008 Emmy: Outstanding Reality/Competition Program - Nominee 2007 The Governors Award - Winner 2007 Emmy: Outstanding Reality/Competition Program - Nominee 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Reality/Competition Program - Nominee 2005 Emmy: Outstanding Reality/Competition Program - Nominee 2004 Emmy: Outstanding Reality/Competition Program - Nominee 2003 Grammy: Album of the Year - Nominee List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards Notes Bibliography Looseleaf, Victoria, "A Man, A Plan, A Wildy Successful TV Show".

Dance Magazine. 81:42-46 Nigel Lythgoe on IMDb