1.
Alte Pinakothek
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The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings, the name Alte Pinakothek refers to the time period covered by the collection—from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The Neue Pinakothek covers nineteenth-century art, and the recently opened Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art, all three galleries are part of the Bavarian State Picture Collection, an organization of the Free state of Bavaria. King Ludwig I of Bavaria ordered Leo von Klenze to erect a new building for the gallery for the Wittelsbach collection in 1826, even the neo-renaissance exterior of the Pinakothek clearly stands out from the castle-like museum type usual in the early 19th Century. It is closely associated with the function and structure of the building as a museum, the museum galleries were designed to display Rubenss Last Judgment, one of the largest canvasses ever painted. The museum building was damaged by bombing in World War II but was reconstructed and reopened to the public in the late 1950s. The ornate, pre-war interior including the large loggia facing the south façade in the floor were not restored. A new wall covering was created in 2008 for the rooms on the floor of the Alte Pinakothek with a woven. The new color scheme of green and red draws on the design of the rooms, Elector Maximilian I commissioned in 1616 four hunt paintings from Peter Paul Rubens and acquired many other paintings, especially the work of Albrecht Dürer. He even obtained The Four Apostles in the year 1627 due to pressure on the Nuremberg city fathers, a few years later however 21 paintings were confiscated and moved to Sweden during the occupation of Munich in the Thirty Years war. Maximilians grandson Maximilian II Emanuel purchased a number of Dutch. Under Max Emanuels successors, the purchases were discontinued due to the tight budget. Also Max Emanuels cousin Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine collected Netherlandish paintings and he ordered from Peter Paul Rubens the The Big Last Judgment and received Raphaels Canigiani Holy Family as a dowry of his wife. Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria had a preference for Netherlandish paintings as well. By the late 18th century a number of the paintings were already displayed in Schleissheim Palace. Even though 72 paintings including The Battle of Alexander at Issus were taken to Paris in 1800 by the armies of Napoleon I. The Louvre held it until 1804, when Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France, when the Prussians captured the Château de Saint-Cloud in 1814 as part of the War of the Sixth Coalition, they supposedly found the painting hanging in Napoleons bathroom. Most of the paintings have not been returned, with the secularisation many paintings from churches and former monasteries entered into state hands
2.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
3.
Coat of arms
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A coat of arms is an heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of shield, supporters, crest. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to a person, family, state. The ancient Romans used similar insignia on their shields, but these identified military units rather than individuals, the first evidence of medieval coats of arms has been attributed to the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in which some of the combatants carry shields painted with crosses. However, that heraldic interpretation remains controversial, coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in battle in the 12th century. By the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the social classes of Europe. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, in the German-speaking regions both the aristocracy and burghers used arms, while in most of the rest of Europe they were limited to the aristocracy. The use of spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers. Flags developed from coats of arms, and the arts of vexillology, the coats of arms granted to commercial companies are a major source of the modern logo. Despite no widespread regulation, heraldry has remained consistent across Europe, some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain the same heraldic authorities which have traditionally granted and regulated arms for centuries and continue to do so in the present day. In England, for example, the granting of arms is and has controlled by the College of Arms. Unlike seals and other emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon. Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, in the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son, wives, undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference. One such charge is the label, which in British usage is now always the mark of an apparent or an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents and this has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called heraldry. In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, the author Helen Stuart argues that some coats of arms were a form of corporate logo
4.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
5.
Louis XV of France
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Louis XV, known as Louis the Beloved, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five, Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until the Cardinals death in 1743, at which time the young king took sole control of the kingdom. During his reign, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, territory won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745, Louis also ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the Seven Years War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of Lorraine and Corsica into the kingdom of France and he was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI in 1774. French culture and influence were at their height in the first half of the eighteenth century, however, many scholars believe that Louis XVs decisions damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerable to distrust and destruction. Evidence for this view is provided by the French Revolution, which broke out 15 years after his death, norman Davies characterized Louis XVs reign as one of debilitating stagnation, characterized by lost wars, endless clashes between the Court and Parliament, and religious feuds. A few scholars defend Louis, arguing that his negative reputation was based on propaganda meant to justify the French Revolution. Jerome Blum described him as a perpetual adolescent called to do a mans job, Louis XV was born in the Palace of Versailles on 15 February 1710 during the reign of Louis XIV. His grandfather, Louis Le Grand Dauphin, had three sons with his wife Marie Anne Victoire of Bavaria, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, and Charles, Duke of Berry. Louis XV was the son of the Duke of Burgundy and his wife Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. At birth, Louis XV received a title for younger sons of the French royal family. In April 1711, Louis Le Grand Dauphin suddenly died, making Louis XVs father, the Duke of Burgundy, at that time, Burgundy had two living sons, Louis, Duke of Brittany and his youngest son, the future Louis XV. A year later, Marie Adélaïde, Duchess of Burgundy, contracted smallpox and her husband, said to be heartbroken by her death, died the same week, also having contracted smallpox. Within a week of his death, it was clear that the two children had also been infected. The elder son was treated by bloodletting in an unsuccessful effort to save him. Fearing that the Dauphin would die, the Court had both the Dauphin and the Duke of Anjou baptised, the Dauphin died the same day,8 March 1712. His younger brother, the Duke of Anjou, was treated by his governess, Madame de Ventadour. The two year old Dauphin survived the smallpox, on 1 September 1715, Louis XIV died of gangrene, having reigned for 72 years
6.
Court (royal)
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The court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure. It can also refer to the residence of the monarch where the court resides or a series of complexes. In the largest courts, the households, many thousands of individuals comprised the court. Foreign princes and foreign nobility in exile may also seek refuge at a court and this is shown above Near Eastern and Eastern courts often included the harem and concubines as well as eunuchs who fulfilled a variety of functions. At times the harem was walled off and separate from the rest of the residence of the monarch, in Asia concubines were often a more visible part of the court. Lower ranking servants and bodyguards were not properly called courtiers though may be included as part of the court or royal household in the broadest definition, entertainers and others may have been counted as part of the court. A royal household is the highest ranking example of this, a group of individuals dependent on the patronage of a great man, classically in ancient Rome, forms part of the system of clientage that is discussed under vassal. Individual rulers differed greatly in tastes and interests, as well as in political skills, accordingly, some founded elaborate courts based on new palaces, only to have their successors retreat to remote castles or to practical administrative centers. Personal retreats might arise far away from official court centres, etiquette and hierarchy flourish in highly structured court settings, and may leave conservative traces over generations. Most courts featured a strict order of precedence often involving royal and noble ranks, orders of chivalry, some courts even featured court uniforms. One of the markers of a court is ceremony. Most monarchal courts included ceremonies concerning the investiture or coronation of the monarch, some courts had ceremonies around the waking and the sleeping of the monarch called a levée. Orders of chivalry as honorific orders became an important part of court culture starting in the 15th century and they were the right of the monarch to create and grant as the fount of honour. Two of the earliest titles referring to the concept of a courtier were likely the ša rēsi, the imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers. The courts systems became prevalent in other such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire. Byzantinism is a term that was coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century, however, by the Sui Dynasty the functions of the royal household and the imperial government were clearly divided. During the Heian period, Japanese Emperors and their families developed an exquisitely refined court that played an important role in their culture. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, a court culture can be recognized in the entourage of the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great
7.
Age of Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
8.
Voltaire
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Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 21,000 letters and over two books and pamphlets. He was an advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma. Some speculation surrounds Voltaires date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the son of a nobleman. Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy and his brother, Armand. Nicknamed Zozo by his family, Voltaire was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf, and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mothers cousin, standing as godparents. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he was taught Latin, theology, and rhetoric, later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father out, he sent Voltaire to study law. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies, Voltaires wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the marquis de Châteauneuf, at The Hague, Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous affair was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year, Most of Voltaires early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government and these activities were to result in two imprisonments and a temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his own daughter, the Comédie-Française had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, Œdipe, and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release. Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation, both the Régent and King George I of Great Britain presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation. He mainly argued for tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects peoples rights, the author adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille
9.
Charles Pinot Duclos
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Charles Pinot Duclos was a French author and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Duclos was born at Dinan in Brittany and studied at Paris and his romance Acajou et Zirphile was the result of a wager among the clubs members, Duclos composed it for a series of engraved plates intended for another work. He wrote two other romances which were received, The Baroness de Luz and Confessions of Count de ***. Duclos became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1739 and of the Académie française in 1747, in 1747, both academies were indebted to him not only for many valuable contributions, but also for several useful regulations and improvements. On several occasions he distinguished himself by vindicating the honour and prerogatives of the societies to which he belonged, and he used to say of himself, I shall leave behind me a name dear to literary men. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1764, upon the requisition of this body the king granted him letters of nobility. Accordingly he set out first for England, then for Italy, as a character, Duclos was considered a mixture of impulsiveness and prudence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described him laconically as a man droit et adroit, in his manners he displayed a bluntness that frequently rendered him disagreeable, and his caustic wit made him enemies. To those who knew him, however, he was a pleasant companion, a considerable number of his bons mots have been preserved by his biographers. His first serious publication was the History of Louis XI, which is dry and epigrammatical in style but displays considerable powers of research and it was translated into English and German. In consequence of his History of Louis XI, he was appointed historiographer of France and his Secret Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, were not published until after the French Revolution. A complete edition of the works of Duclos, including an autobiography, was published by Auger. See also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, t. ix, rené Kerviler, La Bretagne et lAcadémie française du XVIIIe siècle, L. Mandon, De la valeur historique des mémoires secrets de Duclos. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
10.
Montesquieu
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He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He is also known for doing more than any author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon. Montesquieu was born at the Château de la Brède in southwest France,25 kilometres south of Bordeaux and his father, Jacques de Secondat, was a soldier with a long noble ancestry. His mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel, who died when Charles was seven, was an heiress who brought the title of Barony of La Brède to the Secondat family. After the death of his mother he was sent to the Catholic College of Juilly, a prominent school for the children of French nobility and his father died in 1713 and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu. He became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parliament in 1714, in 1715 he married Jeanne de Lartigue, a Protestant, who eventually bore him three children. The Baron died in 1716, leaving him his fortune as well as his title, Montesquieus early life occurred at a time of significant governmental change. England had declared itself a constitutional monarchy in the wake of its Glorious Revolution, in France the long-reigning Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeeded by the five-year-old Louis XV. These national transformations had a impact on Montesquieu, he would refer to them repeatedly in his work. Montesquieu withdrew from the practice of law to himself to study. De lEsprit des Lois was originally published anonymously in 1748, the book quickly rose to influence political thought profoundly in Europe and America. In France, the met with an unfriendly reception from both supporters and opponents of the regime. The Catholic Church banned lEsprit – along with many of Montesquieus other works – in 1751 and it received the highest praise from the rest of Europe, especially Britain. Montesquieu was also regarded in the British colonies in North America as a champion of liberty. Following the American revolution, Montesquieus work remained an influence on many of the American founders, most notably James Madison of Virginia. He was buried in the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Montesquieus philosophy of history minimized the role of individual persons and events. Ask the Romans, who had a sequence of successes when they were guided by a certain plan. There are general causes, moral and physical, which act in every monarchy, elevating it, maintaining it, all accidents are controlled by these causes
11.
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle
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Fontenelle was born in Rouen, France and died in Paris just one month before his 100th birthday. His mother was the sister of great French dramatists Pierre and Thomas Corneille and his father, François le Bovier de Fontenelle, was a lawyer who worked in the provincial court of Rouen and came from a family of lawyers from Alençon. He trained in the law but gave up after one case, devoting his life to writing about philosophers and scientists, especially defending the Cartesian tradition. In spite of the merit and value of his writings. He was a commentator and explicator and occasionally a passionate, though generally good-humoured and he was educated at the college of the Jesuits, the Lycée Pierre Corneille. At the Lycée he showed a preference for literature and distinguished himself and he began as a poet, writing a poem in Latin at the age of 13 and more than once competed for prizes of the Académie française, but he never won anything. He visited Paris from time to time and became friendly with the abbé de Saint-Pierre, the abbé Vertot and he witnessed, in 1680, the total failure of his tragedy Aspar. Fontenelle afterwards acknowledged the public verdict by burning his unfortunate drama and his opera of Thétis et Pélée,1689, was not much better, and it may be significant that none of his dramatic works are still performed. His Poésies pastorales are also mediocre and his Lettres galantes du chevalier dHer. Published anonymously in 1685, was a collection of letters portraying worldly society of the time. In 1686 his famous allegory of Rome and Geneva, slightly disguised as the rival princesses Mreo and Eenegu, in the Relation de lîle de Bornéo and he wrote extensively on the nature of the universe, Behold a universe so immense that I am lost in it. I no longer know where I am, I am just nothing at all. Our world is terrifying in its insignificance and it consisted of two essays, the first of which was designed to prove that oracles were not given by the supernatural agency of demons, and the second that they did not cease with the birth of Jesus. A noted gourmand, he attributed his longevity to eating strawberries, at ninety-two one woman wrote that he was as lively as a man of twenty-two. When, in his nineties he met the beautiful Madame Helvétius, he reportedly told her, Ah Madame. Perhaps the best known of his éloges, of which there are sixty-nine in all, is that of his uncle Pierre Corneille. This was first printed in the Nouvelles de la republique des lettres and, the other important works of Fontenelle are his Éléments de la géometrie de linfini and his Théorie des tourbillons. In the latter he supported the views of René Descartes concerning gravitation and he is noted for the accessibility of his work – particularly its novelistic style
12.
Cardinal de Bernis
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François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis was a French cardinal and statesman. He was the sixth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française in 1744, born at Saint-Marcel dArdèche, Bernis was of a noble, but impoverished family, and, being a younger son, was intended for the church. His father, Joachim de Pierre, seigneur de Bernis, was a captain of cavalry and in 1697 was married to Marie Elisabeth, the cardinals elder brother was Philippe Charles François, baron de Pierrebourg, marquis de Pierre de Bernis, seigneur de Saint-Marcel. He was educated at the Louis-le-Grand college and the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, voltaire admired his verses, calling him Babet la bouquetière. In 1751, Bernis was appointed to the French embassy at Venice, during his stay in Venice he received subdeacons orders, and on his return to France in 1755 was made a papal councillor of state. Bernis took an important part in the negotiations between France and Austria which preceded the Seven Years War. He regarded the alliance purely as an expedient, and did not propose to employ the whole forces of France in a general war. But he was overruled by his colleagues, in the previous November he had been created cardinal by Pope Clement XIII. On the death of the mistress in 1764, Bernis was recalled and once more offered the seals of office, but declined them. His occupancy of the see was not of long duration and he was partly instrumental in bringing about the suppression of the Jesuits, and acted with greater moderation than is generally allowed. During the French Revolution, he celebrated, in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, a solemn funeral for Louis XVI of France. He resigned the administration of his rather than take the constitutional oath. Bernis died at Rome on 3 November 1794, and was buried in the church of S. Luigi de Francesi, in 1803 his remains were transferred to the cathedral at Nîmes. His poems, the longest of which is La Religion vengée, were collected and published after his death, after his death Pope Pius VI bestowed on him the epithet Protector of the Church of France. Frédéric Masson, prefaces to the Mémoires et lettres, and Le Cardinal de Bernis depuis son ministère Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, Mme de Pompadour Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, marcus Cheke, The Cardinal de Bernis. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
13.
Phaeton (carriage)
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A Phaeton was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With the advent of the automobile, the term was adapted to open touring cars, the most impressive phaeton was the English four-wheeled high flyer. The mail and spider phaetons were more conservatively constructed, the mail phaeton was used chiefly to carry passengers with luggage and was named for its construction, using mail springs originally designed for use on mail coaches. The spider phaeton, of American origin and made for drivers, was a high and lightly constructed carriage with a covered seat in front. A variation of type of a carriage is called a Victoria. There is a print of the monarch enjoying her morning excursions on page 490 of the Illustrated London News of April 10,1897, in addition, there is a photograph in the Royal Collection, dated 1898. There are also photographs, using a black donkey, taken at Windsor Castle. Bolshevik revolutionaries used a phaeton to escape after carrying out the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, valerie, Lady Meux would startle London Society by driving herself in a high phaeton drawn by zebras. In the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, the character Mr. Willoughby drives a yellow phaeton, while the phaeton seems to exhibit his reckless and dashing character, in the novel on which the film is based, the original character drives a curricle. In the 2012 Bengali film Bhooter Bhabishyat, Raibahadur Darpo Narayan Chowdhury often refers to phaetons in reference to Sir Donald Ramsay, in Turn, Washingtons Spies, season 3 episode 1 Benedict Arnold is riding in a phaeton spider. He states to Peggy Shippen Do you like it, then goes on to say I had it fit with a Collinge axle for a smoother ride. In Frances Burneys novel, Evelina, young gentlemen race their phaetons on the highways of Clifton, near Bristol. In Anne Brontës The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Mr. Huntingdon drives a light phaeton that comes bowling merrily up the lawn, the sporty character of the carriage reflects Huntingdons devil-may-care attitude. She also references a phaeton in Agnes Grey, the useful pony phaeton was sold. In the 1928 American childrens book Freddy Goes to Florida by Walter R. Brooks, Hank the farm horse draws an old phaeton that carries the animals and their treasure back from Florida to the Bean farm. In Absalom, Absalom. by William Faulkner, Sutpens wife Ellen had a phaeton that caused her daughter to become distressed when it arrived in place of their normal carriage. The character Mr. Spenlow from the novel David Copperfield dies suddenly of an attack while driving his phaeton home
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Masquerade ball
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A masquerade ball is an event in which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. The Bal des Ardents was held by Charles VI of France, and intended as a Bal des sauvages and it took place in celebration of the marriage of a lady-in-waiting of Charles VI of Frances queen in Paris on January 28,1393. The King and five courtiers dressed as wildmen of the woods, with costumes of flax, when they came too close to a torch, the dancers caught fire. Such costumed dances were a luxury of the ducal court of Burgundy. Masquerade balls were extended into costumed public festivities in Italy during the 16th century Renaissance and they were generally elaborate dances held for members of the upper classes, and were particularly popular in Venice. They have been associated with the tradition of the Venetian Carnival, with the fall of the Venetian Republic at the end of the 18th century, the use and tradition of masks gradually began to decline, until they disappeared altogether. They became popular throughout mainland Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, sometimes with fatal results, gustav III of Sweden was assassinated at a masquerade ball by disgruntled nobleman Jacob Johan Anckarström, an event which Eugène Scribe and Daniel Auber turned into the opera Gustave III. The same event was the basis of Giuseppe Verdis opera A Masked Ball, most masks came from countries like Switzerland and Italy. Londons public gardens, like Vauxhall Gardens, refurbished in 1732, and Ranelagh Gardens, provided optimal outdoor settings, throughout the century, masquerade dances became popular in Colonial America. Its prominence did not go unchallenged, a significant anti-masquerade movement grew alongside the balls themselves, the anti-masquerade writers held that the events encouraged immorality and foreign influence. In the 1770s, fashionable Londoners went to the organized by Teresa Cornelys at Carlisle House in Soho Square. Masquerade balls were set as a game among the guests. The masked guests were dressed so as to be unidentifiable. This would create a type of game to see if a guest could determine each others identities and this added a humorous effect to many masquerades and enabled a more enjoyable version of typical balls. One of the most noted masquerade balls of the 20th century was held at Palazzo Labia in Venice on 3 September 1951. It was dubbed the party of the century, a new resurgence of masquerade balls began in the late 1990s in North America. More recently, the party atmosphere is emphasized and the formal dancing usually less prominent, less formal costume parties may be a descendant of this tradition. The picturesque quality of the ball has made it a favorite topic or setting in literature
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Palace of Versailles
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The Palace of Versailles, Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. Versailles is therefore not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. First built by Louis XIII in 1623, as a lodge of brick and stone. The first phase of the expansion was designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau and it culminated in the addition of three new wings of stone, which surrounded Louis XIIIs original building on the north, south, and west. After Le Vaus death in 1670, the work was taken over and completed by his assistant, charles Le Brun designed and supervised the elaborate interior decoration, and André Le Nôtre landscaped the extensive Gardens of Versailles. Le Brun and Le Nôtre collaborated on the fountains, and Le Brun supervised the design. During the second phase of expansion, two enormous wings north and south of the wings flanking the Cour Royale were added by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. He also replaced Le Vaus large terrace, facing the garden on the west, with became the most famous room of the palace. The Royal Chapel of Versailles, located at the end of the north wing, was begun by Mansart in 1688. One of the most baffling aspects to the study of Versailles is the cost – how much Louis XIV, owing to the nature of the construction of Versailles and the evolution of the role of the palace, construction costs were essentially a private matter. Initially, Versailles was planned to be a residence for Louis XIV and was referred to as the kings house. Once Louis XIV embarked on his campaigns, expenses for Versailles became more of a matter for public record. To counter the costs of Versailles during the years of Louis XIVs personal reign. Accordingly, all materials that went into the construction and decoration of Versailles were manufactured in France, even the mirrors used in the decoration of the Hall of Mirrors were made in France. While Venice in the 17th century had the monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors, to meet the demands for decorating and furnishing Versailles, Colbert nationalised the tapestry factory owned by the Gobelin family, to become the Manufacture royale des Gobelins. In 1667, the name of the enterprise was changed to the Manufacture royale des Meubles de la Couronne, the Comptes meticulously list the expenditures on the silver furniture – disbursements to artists, final payments, delivery – as well as descriptions and weight of items purchased. Entries for 1681 and 1682 concerning the silver used in the salon de Mercure serve as an example. 5 In anticipation, For the silver balustrade for the bedroom,90,000 livres II
16.
Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain
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Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain was an Infanta of Spain by birth and was later the wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV of France. She died aged 20, three days after giving birth to a daughter who died in 1748, born at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid in Spain, she was the second daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. Baptised María Teresa Antonia Rafaela she was an Infanta of Spain by birth and was granted the style of address of Royal Highness and she was known as María Teresa Rafaela though sometimes just Maria Teresa. Louis XV had instead married Marie Leszczyńska and by her fathered the Dauphin, under the influence of her mother Elisabeth Farnese, María Teresa Rafaela was not to go to France until she reached a more mature age. The Infanta was married to the dauphin by proxy in Madrid on 18 December 1744 and she arrived at Versailles on 21 February 1745. The official marriage took place at the Palace of Versailles on 23 February 1745 and was performed by the Cardinal de Rohan, in France she was known as Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle dEspagne or de Bourbon. The betrothal had been broken off and relations between the two countries had been cold and this latest union was meant to improve links between them both. Addressed as Madame la Dauphine at Versailles, Maria Teresa Rafaela was the highest ranking female in the kingdom after Queen Marie and she was the first Dauphine since the 1712 death of Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. On 24 February the Ball of the Clipped Yew was held in honor of the newlyweds, the event also marked the arrival of Madame de Pompadour at Versailles. The marriage did not get off on a start as it was not consummated on the first night. This was an embarrassment to the young dauphine and as a result her position at court was undermined. Despite this, she had a relationship with the king and queen. Although the dauphine was described as beautiful, dignified, pious and her shy nature further isolated her from the court and she was openly hostile to the king for his affair with Madame de Pompadour. The Dauphin and Dauphine disliked the royal mistress for the way she drew away from Queen Marie Leszczyńska. Finally, the marriage was consummated in September 1745, ending court gossip, the couple became very close and devoted to each other spending most of their time together. On 19 July 1746 at Versailles, Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle gave birth to a daughter and her death on 22 July caused an intense sorrow to the Dauphin, which persisted into his second marriage. Louis XV had to drag his son away from the death bed of his wife. To make matters worse the Dauphine´s Father King Philip V of Spain died just 13 days before her on July 9, the child was baptised Marie Thérèse and was styled as Madame Royale but died at Versailles in 1748
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Marquess
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A marquess is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in imperial China. In Great Britain and Ireland, the spelling of the aristocratic title of this rank is marquess. In Scotland the French spelling is sometimes used. In Great Britain and Ireland, the ranks below a duke. A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness /ˌmɑːrʃəˈnɛs/ in Great Britain, the dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquisate or marquessate. The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march, was on the border of the country, while a land, called a county. As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against potentially hostile neighbours and was more important. The title is ranked below that of a duke, which was restricted to the royal family. In the German lands, a Margrave was a ruler of an immediate Imperial territory, German rulers did not confer the title of marquis, holders of marquisates in Central Europe were largely associated with the Italian and Spanish crowns. The word entered the English language from the Old French marchis in the late 13th or early 14th century, the French word was derived from marche, itself descended from the Middle Latin marca, from which the modern English words march and mark also descend. In Great Britain and Ireland, the spelling for an English aristocrat of this rank is marquess. The word marquess is unusual in English, ending in -ess but referring to a male, a woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness in Great Britain and Ireland, or a marquise /mɑːrˈkiːz/ elsewhere in Europe. The dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquisate or marquessate, the honorific prefix The Most Honourable is a form of address that precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness in the United Kingdom. The rank of marquess was a late introduction to the British peerage, no marcher lords had the rank of marquess. The following list may still be incomplete, feminine forms follow after a slash, many languages have two words, one for the modern marquess and one for the original margrave. Even where neither title was used domestically, such duplication to describe foreign titles can exist
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Arnac-Pompadour
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Arnac-Pompadour is a French commune in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of central France. The name of Pompadour became world famous due to the favourite of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour to whom the King gave the chateau of Pompadour and the associated title of Marquise. The town is famous for its chateau and its stud farm, Arnac-Pompadour is located some 25 km south-east of Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche and 35 km west by north-west of Brive-la-Gaillarde. Access to the commune is by the D901 road from Lubersac in the north-east passing through the part of the commune. The D7 road also comes from Troche in the south-east passing through the town, the D126 goes north from the town through the length of the commune to join the D149 north of the commune. A railway passes through the commune with a station at the town. The commune is mixed forest and farmland, apart from the town there are also the following hamlets in the commune, The Auvézère river passes through the north of the commune flowing from east to west. Several tributaries flow north to join it in the commune, Arnac was inhabited in Gallo-Roman times by a landowner named Artonacus or Artonos. Pompadour belonged to one of the oldest lordships in Limousin, the Lastours, the first castle was built in 1026 by Guy de Lastours to defend his possessions, coveted by the Vicomte de Ségur. He also rebuilt Arnac church and established a monastery there, given to Saint Martials Abbey in Limoges, as centuries went by, the suzerainty of the Pompadours spread to all the adjoining parishes. Geoffroi Hélie de Pompadour rebuilt extended the castle in the 15th century having in 1513 inherited the illustrious Viscounty of Comborn, the House of Pompadour had reached the religious, military and political heights. Elevated to a marquisate, it died out at the dawn of the 18th century, after that family died out the inheritance was disputed in a long trial between the Prince of Conti and the Marquis de La Vallière and it was finally transferred to the Crown. In 1745, Louis XV gave it to his favourite, Mme dÉtiolles, in 1760, a few years before her death, she left the castle and it returned to the Crown. In the following year Louis XV established a Royal Stud at the Castle and it was closed at the fall of the Ancien Régime then re-established by the French Directory in 1795 and became the National Stud in 1872. It is currently a famous National Stud specialising particularly in developing the Anglo-Arab breed, during the French Revolution the commune took the name Arnac-la-Prairie. List of Successive Mayors In 2009 the commune had 1,226 inhabitants, the evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held five years. Population Change Sources, Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 The Château de Pompadour is registered as a historical monument, of the castrum of Guy de Lastours, built around 1000, nothing remains
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Diana (mythology)
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In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was eventually equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy, Diana was worshipped in ancient Roman religion and is revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria. Diana was known to be the goddess of childbirth and women. She was one of the three goddesses, along with Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry. Oak groves were especially sacred to her as were deer, according to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother, Apollo, on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter and Latona. She made up a triad with two other Roman deities, Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife, and Virbius, the woodland god. Diana is a form developed from an ancient *divios, corresponding to later divus, dius, as in Dius Fidius, Dea Dia. It is rooted in Indoeuropean *dyw, meaning sky or daylight, from which also derived the name of Vedic god Dyaus and the Latin deus, dies. On the Tablets of Pylos a theonym διϝια is supposed as referring to a deity precursor of Artemis, Modern scholars mostly accept the identification. The ancient Latin writers Varro and Cicero considered the etymology of Dīāna as allied to that of dies, the persona of Diana is complex and contains a number of archaic features. According to Georges Dumézil it falls into a subset of celestial gods. Such gods, while keeping the original features of celestial divinities, the celestial character of Diana is reflected in her connection with light, inaccessibility, virginity, and her preference for dwelling on high mountains and in sacred woods. Diana therefore reflects the world in its sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility. At the same time, however, she is seen as active in ensuring the succession of kings and these functions are apparent in the traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess. This ever open succession reveals the character and mission of the goddess as a guarantor of kingly status through successive generations. Her function as bestower of authority to rule is also attested in the story related by Livy in which a Sabine man who sacrifices a heifer to Diana wins for his country the seat of the Roman empire. Diana was also worshipped by women who wanted to be pregnant or who, once pregnant and this form of worship is attested in archeological finds of votive statuettes in her sanctuary in the nemus Aricinum as well as in ancient sources, e. g. Ovid. According to Dumezil the forerunner of all gods is an Indian epic hero who was the image of the Vedic god Dyaus
20.
Jean-Marc Nattier
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Jean-Marc Nattier, French painter, was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier, a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois, a miniaturist. He is noted for his portraits of the ladies of King Louis XVs court in classical mythological attire and he received his first instruction from his father, and from his uncle, the history painter Jean Jouvenet. In 1715 he went to Amsterdam, where Peter the Great was then staying, and painted portraits of the tsar and the empress Catherine, Nattier aspired to be a history painter. The financial collapse of 1720 caused by the schemes of Law all but ruined Nattier, who found himself forced to devote his energy to portraiture. He became the painter of the ladies of Louis XVs court. He subsequently revived the genre of the portrait, in which a living person is depicted as a Greco-Roman goddess or other mythological figure. Nattiers graceful and charming portraits of ladies in this mode were very fashionable. He died in Paris in 1766, many of his pictures are in the public collections of France. Thus at the Louvre is his Magdalen, at Nantes the portrait of La Camargo and A Lady of the Court of Louis XV. At Orléans a Head of a Young Girl, at Marseilles a portrait of Mme de Pompadour, at Perpignan a portrait of Louis XV, the Versailles Museum owns an important group of two ladies, and the Dresden Gallery a portrait of the Maréchal de Saxe. At the Wallace collection Nattier is represented by The comtesse de Tillières, Mademoiselle de Clermont en sultane, and The marquise de Belestat. In the early part of the 20th century in the collection of Mr Lionel Phillips were the duchess of Flavacourt as Le Silence, and the duchess of Châteauroux as Le Point du jour. A portrait of the Comtesse de Neubourg and her Daughter formed part of the Vaile Collection, nattiers works have been engraved by Alphonse Leroy, Tardieu, Jean Audran, Dupin and many other noted craftsmen. The Getty Museum has Madame Bonier de la Mosson as Diana,1742, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has Madame de Maison-Rouge as Diana,1756
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Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz
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Wenzel Anton, Prince von Kaunitz-Rietberg was an Austrian diplomat and statesman of the Habsburg Monarchy. A proponent of enlightened absolutism, he held the office of State Chancellor for about four decades, responsible for the policies under the reign of Maria Theresa, Joseph II. In 1764 he was elevated to the rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. The Kaunitz family belonged to the old Bohemian nobility and, like the related Martinic dynasty, first mentioned in the 14th century, they first lived in the Silesian duchy of Troppau, in 1509 they moved to Slavkov Castle near Brno. Wenzel Antons grandfather Dominik Andreas von Kaunitz served as a Habsburg Geheimrat, wenzels father Count Maximilian Ulrich was appointed member of the Aulic Council in 1706, he served as Imperial envoy and as governor of Moravia from 1720. By his marriage with Marie Ernestine in 1699, he inherited the immediate County of Rietberg in Westphalia, Wenzel Anton himself married Maria Ernestine von Starhemberg, a granddaughter of Imperial Chamber president Gundaker Thomas Starhemberg, on 6 May 1736. Four sons were born of the marriage, among them the Austrian general Count Franz Wenzel von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Wenzel Antons granddaughter Eleonora married his successor in the office of the State Chancellor, Prince Klemens von Metternich. As the second son, it was at first intended that Wenzel Anton should become a clergyman, with the death of his elder brother, however, he decided on a secular career, and studied law and diplomacy at the universities of Vienna, Leipzig and Leiden. He became a chamberlain of the Habsburg emperor Charles VI, and continued his education for years by a Grand Tour to Berlin, the Netherlands, Italy, Paris. Back in Vienna, he was appointed member of the Imperial Aulic Council in 1735, at the Imperial Diet of Regensburg in 1739, he was one of the emperors commissaries. During the War of the Austrian Succession, in March 1741, he was sent on a mission to Florence, Rome. In August 1742 he was appointed ambassador at Turin and reached the support of King Charles Emmanuel III for Maria Theresa, upon the December 1744 death of Charles consort, Archduchess Maria-Anna, a sister of Maria Theresa, Kaunitz was virtually the head of government. His request to be recalled from his situation was heeded in June 1746. Two years later, he represented Maria Theresa at the Congress of Aachen at the close of the War of the Austrian Succession, in the common feeling of disappointment, the Austrian and French side began to approach each other. From 1749 Kaunitz served as a Geheimrat at the court of Maria Theresa, the empress appealed to all her counsellors for advice as to the policy Austria ought to pursue in view of the changed conditions produced by the rise of Prussia. The great majority of them, including her husband Francis Stephen of Lorraine, were of opinion that the old alliance with the sea powers, England and Holland, should be maintained. The empress eagerly accepted views which were already her own, thus Kaunitz was made ambassador at the French court in Versailles in 1750, where he had extensive contact with the Lumières movement and several Encyclopédistes. Staying in France until 1752, he co-operated in laying the groundwork for the future Bourbon-Habsburg alliance and he had reluctantly accepted his appointment and demanded complete freedom to re-organise the foreign office on Ballhausplatz
22.
Diplomatic Revolution
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The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 was the reversal of longstanding alliances in Europe between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France, the most influential diplomat involved was Prince Kaunitz of Austria. It was part of the quadrille, which saw a constantly shifting pattern of alliances throughout the 18th century. It was part of efforts to preserve or upset the European balance of power, the diplomatic change was triggered by a separation of interests between Austria, Britain, and France. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, after the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, Maria Theresa of Austria had defended her claim to the Habsburg throne and had her husband, Francis Stephen, crowned Emperor in 1745. However, she had forced to relinquish valuable territory in the process. Under British diplomatic pressure, Maria Theresa had given up most of Lombardy, the British also forced her to cede Parma to Spain and, more importantly, to abandon the valuable state of Silesia to Prussian occupation. During the war, Frederick II of Prussia had seized Silesia and that acquisition had further advanced Prussia as a great European power, which now posed an increasing threat to Austrias German lands and to Central Europe as a whole. The results of the War of Austrian Succession were clear that Britain no longer viewed Austria as powerful enough to check French power but was content to build up smaller states like Prussia. Therefore, Britain and Prussia, in the Westminster Convention, agreed that Britain would not aid Austria in a conflict for Silesia if Prussia agreed to protect Hanover from France. Protection of Hanover was important to Britain because it was a possession of its king, Britain felt that with Prussias growing strength, it would be more apt to defend Hanover than Austria. Meanwhile, Austria was determined to reclaim Silesia so the two found themselves with conflicting interests. Maria Theresa recognized the futility of renewed alliance with Britain and so set out to align Austria with France, Maria Theresa knew that without a powerful ally such as France, she could never hope to reclaim Silesia from Frederick. The agreement was followed by a more direct Anglo-Prussian Convention in 1758, Maria Theresa sent her foreign policy minister, Count Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, to France to secure an alliance to enable Austria to reclaim Silesia. Kaunitz approached Madame de Pompadour, Louis XVs mistress, to intervene in the negotiations, however, Louis XV proved reluctant to agree to any treaty presented by Kaunitz. Only with renewed aggression between France and Britain was Louis made to align with Austria, furthermore, Austria no longer surrounded France, instead, Frederick II had managed to end the prospect of Habsburg-German dominion bordering French lands. Therefore, France no longer saw Austria as an immediate threat, Maria Theresas diplomats, after securing French neutrality, actively began to establish an anti-Prussian coalition. Austrias actions alerted Frederick II, who decided to strike first by invading Saxony, fredericks actions were meant to scare Russia out of supporting Austria
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France in the Seven Years War
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France was one of the leading participants in the Seven Years War which lasted between 1754 and 1763. France entered the war with the hope of achieving a victory against Prussia, Britain and their German allies. While the first few years of war proved successful for the French, in 1759 the situation reversed, in an effort to reverse their losses, France concluded an alliance with their neighbor, Spain, in 1761. In spite of this the French continued to suffer defeats throughout 1762 eventually forcing them to sue for peace, the 1763 Treaty of Paris confirmed the loss of French possessions in North America and Asia to the British. France also finished the war with very heavy debts, which struggled to repay for the remainder of the 18th century. The previous major conflict in Europe, the War of the Austrian Succession, France and Britain were engaged in an intensifying global rivalry after they superseded Spain as the leading colonial powers. Hoping to establish supremacy, both engaged in several minor wars in North America. French colonies in Louisiana, Illinois, and Canada had largely surrounded British colonies strung out in a strip along the coast. All the French needed to totally envelop the British was control of the Ohio Country, attempting to gain control of this territory, France built a complex system of alliances with the areas Native American tribes and brought them into conflict with Britain. In the mid-18th century, France was a monarchy, all power resided with the King. Louis XV was a weak personality easily manipulated by his advisors, chief amongst them was Madame Pompadour, his mistress who exercised enormous influence over appointments and matters of grand strategy. Other advisors rose and fell with rapid succession, continuing the lack of the stability which had plagued the monarchy in the early 18th century, while the war began in North America, in 1756 France became drawn into a major war in Europe. Allied to Austria, Sweden and Russia the French tried to defeat the Prussians who had only the British as major allies, despite repeated attempts between 1757 and 1762, the French and their allies failed to win the conclusive victory against Prussia despite a constant war of attrition. They were partly frustrated by a led by the Duke of Brunswick made up of British forces. France had opened the war against Britain in Europe by capturing Minorca, the British navy, however, had initiated a tight blockade of the French coast which prevented supplies and troops moving freely and sapped morale. He oversaw the construction of a fleet of transports to convey the troops during 1759. Defeats of the French navy at Lagos and Quiberon Bay put an end to these plans, a diversionary force under François Thurot had managed to land in Northern Ireland before he was hunted down and killed by the British navy. In the wake of the disaster at Quiberon, Thurot was lionised as a hero in France
24.
Battle of Rossbach
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The Battle of Rossbach took place during the Seven Years War near the village of Rossbach, in the Electorate of Saxony. It is sometimes called the Battle of or at Reichardtswerben, after a nearby town, in this battle, Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, defeated an allied army composed of French forces augmented by a contingent of the Habsburg Monarchy. The French and Austrian army included almost 42,000 men, despite overwhelming odds, Frederick employed rapid movement, flanking maneuver and oblique order to achieve complete surprise. Following the battle, Frederick immediately left Rossbach and marched for 13 days to the outskirts of Breslau, there he met the Austrian army at the Battle of Leuthen in which he employed similar tactics to defeat an army considerably larger than his own. Rossbach is considered one of Fredericks greatest strategic masterpieces and he crippled an enemy army while suffering negligible casualties. His artillery also played a role in the victory, based on its ability to reposition itself rapidly responding to changing circumstances on the battlefield. Although the Seven Years War was a conflict, it took a specific intensity in the European theater based on the recently concluded War of the Austrian Succession. The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle concluded the war with Austria. Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, acquired the prosperous province of Silesia, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the treaty to gain time to rebuild her military forces and forge new alliances, she was intent upon regaining ascendancy in the Holy Roman Empire. In 1754, escalating tensions between Britain and France in North America offered the Empress the opportunity to regain her lost territories, similarly, France sought to break the British dominance of Atlantic trade. France and Austria put aside their old rivalry to form a coalition of their own and this series of political maneuvers became known as the Diplomatic Revolution. After over-running Saxony, Frederick campaigned in Bohemia and defeated the Austrians on 6 May 1757 at the Battle of Prague, Frederick had one of the finest armies in Europe, his troops—any company—could fire at least four volleys a minute, and some of them could fire five. By summer 1757, Prussia was threatened on two fronts, in the east, the Russians under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin besieged Memel with 75,000 troops. Memel had one of the strongest fortresses in Prussia, however, after five days of artillery bombardment the Russian army was able to storm it. The Russians then used Memel as a base to invade East Prussia, however, the Russians were not yet able to take Königsberg after using up their supplies of cannonballs at Memel and Gross-Jägersdorf and retreated soon afterward. Logistics of supplies remained a problem for the Russians throughout the war. Still, the Imperial Russian Army was a new threat to Prussia, forcing Frederick to abandon his invasion of Bohemia, as summer ended, a combined French and Reichsarmee army commanded by Prince Soubise approaching from the west. The Franco-Imperial allied army marched into Thuringia, a march is only as fast as its slowest components, and Frederick obtained needed supplies ahead of the army, which enabled him to abandon his supply wagons
25.
New France
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The territory was divided into five colonies, each with its own administration, Canada, Hudsons Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Louisiana. Acadia had a history, with the Great Upheaval, remembered on July 28 each year since 2003. The descendants are dispersed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in Maine and Louisiana in the United States, with populations in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. In the sixteenth century, the lands were used primarily to draw from the wealth of natural resources, in the seventeenth century, successful settlements began in Acadia, and in Quebec by the efforts of Champlain. By 1765, the population of the new Province of Quebec reached approximately 70,000 settlers. In 1763 France had ceded the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain at the Treaty of Paris, in 1800, Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New France eventually became part of the United States and Canada, with the only vestige remaining under French rule being the tiny islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon. In the United States, the legacy of New France includes numerous placenames as well as pockets of French-speaking communities. In Canada, institutional bilingualism and strong Francophone identities are arguably the most enduring legacy of New France, the Conquest is viewed differently among Francophone Canadians, and between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians. Around 1523, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano convinced King Francis I, late that year, Verrazzano set sail in Dieppe, crossing the Atlantic on a small caravel with 50 men. After exploring the coast of the present-day Carolinas early the year, he headed north along the coast. The first European to discover the site of present-day New York, he named it Nouvelle-Angoulême in honour of the king, verrazzanos voyage convinced the king to seek to establish a colony in the newly discovered land. Verrazzano gave the names Francesca and Nova Gallia to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, in 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. It was the first province of New France, however, initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. French fishing fleets continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, which were becoming rare in Europe. Eventually, the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure, another early French attempt at settlement in North America took place in 1564 at Fort Caroline, now Jacksonville, Florida. Intended as a haven for Huguenots, Caroline was founded under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and it was sacked by the Spanish led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who then established the settlement of St. Augustine on 20 September 1565. Acadia and Canada were inhabited by indigenous nomadic Algonquian peoples and sedentary Iroquoian peoples and these lands were full of unexploited and valuable natural riches, which attracted all of Europe
26.
Noah's Flood
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The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Torah. Thus, the flood was a reversal of creation, although many religious groups consider the story to be largely allegorical, there are still many groups and individuals who believe the story to be literally true. Genesis 6, 1–4 presents the reason for the flood, the Sons of God marry the daughters of men and sire a race of giants, mighty men which of old, men of renown. Genesis continues, And GOD saw that the wickedness of man great in the earth, God decides to destroy the world in a reversal of creation. The flood occurs because God judges humanity, in Genesis 6, 5-8, the LORD judged man for being wicked and evil. In verses Genesis 6, 11-22, God judged all flesh for being corrupt, the judgment in verses 6, 5–8 is thought to have been written earlier and later combined with the second. This element of judgment makes the flood story different from the flood in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Gilgamesh story, the flood is mentioned only in passing as part of the Epic tale itself, beginning with Genesis 6,14, God instructed Noah to build an ark to save his immediate family, along with samples of animal life. The ark was to be made of wood covered with pitch inside and outside. The ark was 300 cubits long,50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, and it had an opening for daylight near the top, an entrance on its side, and three decks. God told Noah that he, his sons, his wife, his sons wives, and two of each kind of beast – male and female – would survive in the ark. The Priestly source, Genesis 7,11,8, 1-2, describes the nature of the waters as a cosmic cataclysm, by the opening of the springs of the deep. This is the reverse of the separation of the waters recounted in the Genesis creation narrative of chapter 1. After Noah and the remnant of animals were secured, the fountains of the great deep, the waters elevated, with the summits of the highest mountains under 15 cubits of water, flooding the world for 150 days, and then receding in 220 days. The Jahwist version of how the waters came to be is indicated in Genesis 7,12. During this time, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, then he sends out a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the ground, but the dove could not find a resting place, and returned to the ark. He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove, and he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return. When Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the ground was drying, God makes a pledge of commitment to Noah in Genesis 9, 1–17
27.
Pacte de Famille
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The Pacte de Famille is one of three separate, but similar alliances between the Bourbon kings of France and Spain. The first of these was made on November 7,1733 by King Philip V of Spain, Philip V was the grandson of Louis XIV and had become the first Bourbon King of Spain in 1700 upon the extinction of Spanish Habsburgs. In addition, Spanish possessions in Italy were ceded to the branch of the House of Habsburg. He had married Maria Leszczyńska, the daughter of King Stanislaus I of Poland, because of this marriage alliance France became involved in the War of the Polish Succession in 1733. Philip V formed a plan to use this conflict to win back lost territory in Italy for his sons, because of his close relationship with Louis XV their alliance became known as the Family Compact. Louis failed to restore Stanislas to the Polish throne, but the Bourbons would gain the Duchy of Lorraine, the second Family Compact was made on October 25,1743 again by King Philip V of Spain and King Louis XV of France in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. This pact was signed in the middle of the War of Austrian Succession, the result was the expansion of Spanish influence in Italy when Philip Vs fourth son Philip, became in 1748 Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla. The third Family Compact was made on 15 August 1761 by King Charles III of Spain, Charles III was the son of Philip V, making him Louiss first cousin. At this time France was fighting the Seven Years War against Great Britain, charless alliance reversed the policy of his predecessor, Ferdinand VI, who wished to keep Spain out of the war. The agreement involved Spains allies Naples and Tuscany, when Spain became involved, the British occupied the Philippines and Cuba. Charles III recovered these possessions in the Treaty of Paris, on April 12,1779 France and Spain signed the Treaty of Aranjuez, by which Spain joined the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain. This Pact was seen as a renewal of the third Pacte de Famille, in August 1796 Manuel Godoy negotiated and signed the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso with France which required that Spain declare war on Great Britain. This treaty can not be considered a Family Compact, since the French Bourbons at that time had killed or fled France because of the French revolution. François Velde, The Pacte de Famille of 1761, in English, includes French-language text of the Pact
28.
Jesuits
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
29.
Treaty of Paris (1763)
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The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. Great Britain and France each returned much of the territory that they had captured during the war, additionally, Great Britain agreed to protect Roman Catholicism in the New World. The treaty did not involve Prussia and Austria as they signed a separate agreement, France had captured Minorca and British trading posts in Sumatra, while Spain had captured the border fortress of Almeida in Portugal, and Colonia del Sacramento in South America. In the treaty, most of territories were restored to their original owners. France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal, Britain restored Manila and Havana to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée, and the Indian factories to France. In return, France ceded Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain, that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in addition, while France regained its factories in India, France recognized British clients as the rulers of key Indian native states, and pledged not to send troops to Bengal. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in British Honduras, but retained a logwood-cutting colony there, Britain confirmed the right of its new subjects to practise Catholicism. In turn France gained the return of its colony, Guadeloupe. Voltaire had notoriously dismissed Canada as Quelques arpents de neige, A few acres of snow, the Treaty of Paris is frequently noted as the point at which France gave Louisiana to Spain. The transfer, however, occurred with the Treaty of Fontainebleau but was not publicly announced until 1764, the Treaty of Paris was to give Britain the east side of the Mississippi. New Orleans on the east side remained in French hands, the Mississippi River corridor in what is modern day Louisiana was to be reunited following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819. The 1763 treaty states in Article VII, While the war was all over the world. While the war had weakened France, it was still a European power, British Prime Minister Lord Bute wanted a peace that would not aggravate France towards a second war. This explains why Great Britain agreed to return so much while being in such a strong position, though the Protestant British feared Roman Catholics, Great Britain did not want to antagonize France through expulsion or forced conversion. Also, it did not want French settlers to leave Canada to strengthen other French settlements in North America and this explains Great Britains willingness to protect Roman Catholics living in Canada. Unlike Lord Bute, the French Foreign Minister the Duke of Choiseul expected a return to war, however, France needed peace to rebuild. French diplomats believed that without France to keep the Americans in check, in Canada, France wanted open emigration for those, such as nobility, who would not swear allegiance to the British Crown
30.
Great Britain in the Seven Years War
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Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years War which lasted between 1756 and 1763. The war started poorly for Britain, which suffered many deaths from the plague and scurvy, and at the hands of France in North America during 1754–55, and in the loss of Minorca in 1756. The same year Britains major ally Austria switched sides and aligned itself with France, for the next seven years these two nations were ranged against a growing number of enemy powers led by France. In 1759 Britain enjoyed an Annus Mirabilis with success over the French on the continent, in North America, in 1761 Britain also came into conflict with Spain. The following year British forces captured Havana and Manila, the western and eastern capitals of the Spanish Empire, by this time the Pitt-Newcastle ministry had collapsed, Britain was short of credit and the generous peace terms offered by France and its allies were accepted. Through the crown, Britain was allied to the Electorate of Hanover and Kingdom of Ireland and it also directed the military strategy of its various colonies around the world including British America. In India British possessions were administered by the East India Company, by the early 1750s many saw another major war as imminent, and Austria was preparing its forces for an attempt to retake Silesia from Prussia. The British Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, had acceded to the premiership in 1754 following the death of his brother Henry Pelham. Newcastle had thirty years experience as a Secretary of State and was a figure on the diplomatic scene. Despite enjoying a majority in the House of Commons he was extremely cautious and vulnerable to attacks led by men such as William Pitt. Newcastle fervently believed that peace in Europe was possible so long as the Old System, one of the major concerns for the British government of the era was colonial expansion. During the eighteenth century the British colonies in North America had become more populous, the territory most prized by the new settlers was the Ohio Country, which was also claimed by France. As well as having potential, it was considered strategically key. French control of territory would block British expansion westwards and eventually French territory would surround the British colonies. A number of delegations to London urged the government to take more decisive action in the Ohio dispute. The Ohio country located between Britains Thirteen Colonies and Frances New France saw France and Britain clash, in 1753 the French sent an expedition south from Montreal that began constructing forts in the upper reaches of the Ohio River. Washington and some native allies ambushed a company of French scouts at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in late May 1754, in the skirmish the French envoy Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville was left dead, leading to a diplomatic incident. The French responded in force from Fort Duquesne, and in July Washington was forced to surrender at the Battle of Fort Necessity, despite the conflict between them, the two nations were not yet formally at war
31.
Physiocracy
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Their theories originated in France and were most popular during the second half of the 18th century. Physiocracy is perhaps the first well-developed theory of economics, the movement was particularly dominated by François Quesnay and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. It immediately preceded the first modern school, classical economics, which began with the publication of Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations in 1776, the most significant contribution of the physiocrats was their emphasis on productive work as the source of national wealth. This is in contrast to earlier schools, in particular mercantilism, however, for the physiocrats, only agricultural labor created this value in the products of society. All industrial and non-agricultural labor was unproductive appendages to agricultural labor, at the time the physiocrats were formulating their ideas, economies were almost entirely agrarian. That is presumably why the theory considered only agricultural labor to be valuable, profit in capitalist production was really only the rent obtained by the owner of the land on which the agricultural production was taking place. The physiocrats damned cities for their artificiality and praised more natural styles of living and they called themselves Les Économistes, but are generally referred to as physiocrats to distinguish them from the many schools of economic thought that followed them. Physiocracy is an agrarianist philosophy which developped in the context of the prevalent European rural society of the time, in the late Roman Republic, the dominant senatorial class was not allowed to engage in banking or commerce but relied on their latifundia, large plantations, for income. They circumvented this rule through freedmen proxies who sold surplus agricultural goods, another inspiration came from Chinas economic system, then the largest in the world. Chinese society broadly distinguished four occupations, with scholar-bureaucrats at the top, leading physiocrats like François Quesnay were avid Confucianists who advocated Chinas agrarian policies. Some scholars have advocated connections with the school of agriculturalism, which promoted utopian communalism, one of the integral part of physiocracy, laissez faire, was adopted from Quesnays writings on China, being a translation of the Chinese term wu wei. The concept natural order of physiocracy originated from Way of Nature of Chinese Taoism, Le Pesant asserted that wealth came from self-interest and markets are connected by money flows. Thus he realized that lowering prices in times of shortage – common at the time – is dangerous economically as it acted as a disincentive to production. Generally, Le Pesant advocated less government interference in the grain market, for instance, if the government bought corn abroad, some people would speculate that there is likely to be a shortage and would buy more corn, leading to higher prices and more of a shortage. This was an example of advocacy of free trade. Vaubans use of statistics contrasted with earlier methods in economics. Around the time of the Seven Years War between France and England, the movement grew. Several journals appeared, signaling an increasing audience in France for new economic ideas, the other, François Quesnay, was among those writing prolifically in contemporaneous journals
32.
Adam Smith
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Adam Smith FRSA was a Scottish economist, philosopher, and author. He was a philosopher, a pioneer of political economy. He is best known for two works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and An Inquiry into the Nature. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, after graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he wrote, in his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day. Smith laid the foundations of free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he developed the concept of division of labour, Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by Tory writers in the moralising tradition of William Hogarth and Jonathan Swift. In 2005, The Wealth of Nations was named among the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time, the minor planet 12838 Adamsmith was named in his memory. Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife and his father, also Adam Smith, was a Scottish Writer to the Signet, advocate, and prosecutor and also served as comptroller of the Customs in Kirkcaldy. In 1720 he married Margaret Douglas, daughter of the landed Robert Douglas of Strathendry and his father died two months after he was born, leaving his mother a widow. The date of Smiths baptism into the Church of Scotland at Kirkcaldy was 5 June 1723, and this has often been treated as if it were also his date of birth, Smith was close to his mother, who probably encouraged him to pursue his scholarly ambitions. He attended the Burgh School of Kirkcaldy—characterised by Rae as one of the best secondary schools of Scotland at that period—from 1729 to 1737, he learned Latin, mathematics, history, Smith entered the University of Glasgow when he was fourteen and studied moral philosophy under Francis Hutcheson. Here, Smith developed his passion for liberty, reason, in 1740 Smith was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, under the Snell Exhibition. Adam Smith considered the teaching at Glasgow to be far superior to that at Oxford, according to William Robert Scott, The Oxford of time gave little if any help towards what was to be his lifework. Nevertheless, Smith took the opportunity while at Oxford to teach several subjects by reading many books from the shelves of the large Bodleian Library. When Smith was not studying on his own, his time at Oxford was not a happy one, near the end of his time there, Smith began suffering from shaking fits, probably the symptoms of a nervous breakdown
33.
Denis Diderot
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Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, Denis Diderot was born in Langres, Champagne, and began his formal education at a Jesuit collège in Langres. His parents were Didier Diderot a cutler, maître coutelier, three of five siblings survived to adulthood, Denise Diderot and their youngest brother Pierre-Didier Diderot, and finally their sister Angélique Diderot. According to Arthur McCandless Wilson, Denis Diderot greatly admired his sister Denise, in 1732 Denis Diderot earned the Master of Arts degree in philosophy. Then he entered the Collège dHarcourt of the University of Paris and he abandoned the idea of entering the clergy and decided instead to study at the Paris Law Faculty. His study of law was short-lived however and in 1734 Diderot decided to become a writer, because of his refusal to enter one of the learned professions, he was disowned by his father, and for the next ten years he lived a bohemian existence. In 1742 he befriended Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in 1743 he further alienated his father by marrying Antoinette Champion, a devout Roman Catholic. The match was considered due to Champions low social standing, poor education, fatherless status. She was about three years older than Diderot, the marriage in October 1743 produced one surviving child, a girl. Her name was Angélique, after both Diderots dead mother and sister, the death of his sister, a nun, from overwork in the convent may have affected Diderots opinion of religion. Babuti, Madeleine de Puisieux, Sophie Volland and Mme de Maux and his letters to Sophie Volland are known for their candor and are regarded to be among the literary treasures of the eighteenth century. Though his work was broad as well as rigorous, it did not bring Diderot riches, when the time came for him to provide a dowry for his daughter, he saw no alternative than to sell his library. When Empress Catherine II of Russia heard of his financial troubles she commissioned an agent in Paris to buy the library and she then requested that the philosopher retain the books in Paris until she required them, and act as her librarian with a yearly salary. Between October 1773 and March 1774, the sick Diderot spent a few months at the court in Saint Petersburg. Diderot died of thrombosis in Paris on 31 July 1784. His heirs sent his vast library to Catherine II, who had it deposited at the National Library of Russia and this idea seems to have been shelved. In 1745, he published a translation of Shaftesburys Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit, in 1746, Diderot wrote his first original work, the Philosophical Thoughts. In this book, Diderot argued for a reconciliation of reason with feeling so as to establish harmony, according to Diderot, without feeling there would be a detrimental effect on virtue and no possibility of creating sublime work
34.
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
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Jean-Baptiste le Rond dAlembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie, DAlemberts formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation is named after him. The wave equation is referred to as dAlemberts equation. Born in Paris, dAlembert was the son of the writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin and the chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches. Destouches was abroad at the time of dAlemberts birth, days after birth his mother left him on the steps of the Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris church. According to custom, he was named after the saint of the church. DAlembert was placed in an orphanage for foundling children, but his father found him and placed him with the wife of a glazier, Madame Rousseau, Destouches secretly paid for the education of Jean le Rond, but did not want his paternity officially recognized. DAlembert first attended a private school, the chevalier Destouches left dAlembert an annuity of 1200 livres on his death in 1726. Under the influence of the Destouches family, at the age of twelve entered the Jansenist Collège des Quatre-Nations. Here he studied philosophy, law, and the arts, graduating as baccalauréat en arts in 1735, in his later life, DAlembert scorned the Cartesian principles he had been taught by the Jansenists, physical promotion, innate ideas and the vortices. The Jansenists steered DAlembert toward a career, attempting to deter him from pursuits such as poetry. Theology was, however, rather unsubstantial fodder for dAlembert and he entered law school for two years, and was nominated avocat in 1738. He was also interested in medicine and mathematics, Jean was first registered under the name Daremberg, but later changed it to dAlembert. The name dAlembert was proposed by Johann Heinrich Lambert for a moon of Venus. In July 1739 he made his first contribution to the field of mathematics, at the time Lanalyse démontrée was a standard work, which dAlembert himself had used to study the foundations of mathematics. DAlembert was also a Latin scholar of note and worked in the latter part of his life on a superb translation of Tacitus. In 1740, he submitted his second scientific work from the field of fluid mechanics Mémoire sur la réfraction des corps solides, in this work dAlembert theoretically explained refraction. In 1741, after failed attempts, dAlembert was elected into the Académie des Sciences
35.
Christophe de Beaumont
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Christophe de Beaumont du Repaire, French ecclesiastic and archbishop of Paris, was a cadet of the Les Adrets and Saint-Quentin branch of the illustrious Dauphin family of Beaumont. He became bishop of Bayonne in 1741, then archbishop of Vienne in 1745, an austere man with no wish for glory, had to be summoned three times by Louis XV before he would leave his diocese of Vienne and move to Paris. Beaumont is noted for his struggle with the Jansenists, while other bishops sent Beaumont their adhesion to his crusade, the Parlement of Paris threatened to confiscate his temporalities. Louis XV of France forbade the Parlement to interfere in these spiritual questions, efforts were made to induce him to resign the active duties of his see to a coadjutor, he refused despite the most tempting offers - including a cardinals hat. As the dispute between the king and the Parlements continued, de Beaumont was exiled from Paris a second time and he eventually returned, having conceded none of his principles. Let them erect a scaffold in the midst of the court he said, I would ascend it to maintain my rights, fulfil my duties, to his polemic against the Jansenists he added an attack on the philosophes, and issued a formal mandatory letter condemning Rousseaus Émile. Rousseau replied in his masterly Lettre a M. de Beaumont, Archbishop de Beaumont was a forthright and powerful voice in defence of Church authority and an opponent of anything that he saw as undermining it. This often put him at odds with statesmen and thinkers alike, at de Beaumonts request, volume 2 of the Encyclopédie was banned in 1752 because it contained material deemed to be heretical. He was so opposed to Madame de Pompadour that he said he should like to see her burned. In 1762 the Society of Jesus was suppressed in France, and de Beaumont realised that if the king, in October 1763 he published a pastoral instruction condemning the encroachment of civil authority upon the spiritual. The Parlement of Paris responded by ordering the public hangman to burn the book, Louis XV, anxious to avoid a major confrontation, once again banished de Beaumont from his diocese. On 21 July 1773 the international campaign against the Jesuit Order reached the point where Pope Clement XIV issued the brief Dominus ac Redemptor which formally abolished the Order around the world. The brief was explicitly indicated that the reason for the abolition was to satisfy the King of France, holy Father, it is not possible for me to commit the Clergy to the acceptance of the said brief. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Beaumont, Christophe de
36.
Cardinal Mazarin
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Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu. He was a collector of art and jewels, particularly diamonds. His personal library was the origin of the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris, some of these principles, such as the nation states sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and the legal equality among states, remain the basis of international law to this day. Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino was born in Pescina, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, giulio was the older brother of Michele Mazzarino, Master of the Sacred Palace under Pope Urban VIII, and later Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence and a cardinal. Contemporary John Bargrave suggested that his father Pietro Mazzarini had lost a significant amount of money during a transaction and was forced to flee to Rome. Regardless, Pietro was a notary who made use of his connections to the Colonna once he arrived in Rome and became chamberlain to the Constable Filippo I Colonna and he had a younger sister, Laura Margherita Mazzarini. Mazarin studied at the Jesuit College in Rome, though he declined to join their order, at seventeen he accompanied Girolamo Colonna, one of the sons of Filippo I Colonna, to the university of Alcalá de Henares in Spain, to serve as his chamberlain. His stay was brief, a notary who had advanced some cash to cover gaming debts urged the charming and personable young Mazarino to take his daughter as bride, with a substantial dowry. Later Mazarin frequented the University of Rome La Sapienza, gaining the title of Doctor in jurisprudence, Mazarin followed Filippo I Colonna as captain of infantry in his regiment during the war in Monferrato of 1628, over the succession to Mantua. During this war he gave proofs of much ability, and Pope Urban VIII entrusted him, in 1629. At the time Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna, was married to Urbans nephew Taddeo Barberini, and the Pope now made her brother, Girolamo Colonna, Archbishop of Albano and a new cardinal. The Cardinal was sent to Monferrat as papal legate, to treat of peace between France and Spain in the matter of Mantua, and insisted that Mazarin be attached to his legation as secretary. As papal vice-legate at Avignon, and nuncio extraordinary in France, under Habsburg pressure, Mazarin was sent back to Avignon, where he was dismissed by Urban VIII on 17 January 1636. Richelieu, who felt the weight of his years, though he was as assiduous in the Kings service as ever, detected in Mazarin a likely aide in carrying on government. He confided to the man several sensitive missions, in which Mazarin acquitted himself well, then presented him to the King. He attributed his winnings to the Queens presence, and in thanks, the Queen demurred, Mazarin pressed, and she accepted. Several days later, Mazarin quietly received a deal more than he had given. Thus he was affirmed in the favour of the King, the court and above all of Anne of Austria, who would soon be regent
37.
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
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Maurice Quentin de La Tour was a French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. He was born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, the son of a musician, François de La Tour, a Laonnois. François de La Tour apparently was successively a trumpet-player for the regiment of the duc du Maine. He is popularly said to have disapproved of his son taking up the arts, according to François Marandet in 2002, an apprenticeship was arranged for La Tour with a painter named Dupouch from 12 October 1719, but it is not known when this contract was terminated. After travelling briefly to England in 1725, he returned to Paris in 1727 and his earliest known portrait, of which only an engraving by Langlois of 1731 is testament, was that of Voltaire. Nevertheless, the painter Joseph Ducreux claimed to be his only student, on 25 May 1737 La Tour was officially recognised by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and soon attracted the attention of the French court. According to Jeffares, he had an apartment in the palais du Louvre in 1745, contemporary accounts describe Quentin de La Tours nature as lively, good-humoured, but eccentric. However, of a nervous disposition, and an exacting practitioner, he has also been accused of over-engineering his work. He was also advisor and benefactor to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, jean-François de La Tour, chevalier de lordre royal militaire de Saint-Louis, was the natural heir to his estate. Issue of regular 50 Francs French Banknotes during the years 1976 to 1992 with de La Tours portrait, mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes. III, 1854–56, pp. 66–78. de Goncourt, Edmond and Jules
38.
Salon (Paris)
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The Salon, or rarely Paris Salon, beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world, at the 1761 Salon, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the Société des Artistes Français, in 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, held its first semi-public art exhibit at the Salon Carré. The Salons original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibition at the Salon de Paris was essential for any artist to achieve success in France for at least the next 200 years. Exhibition in the Salon marked a sign of royal favor, in 1725, the Salon was held in the Palace of the Louvre, when it became known as Salon or Salon de Paris. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of the Louvre and they were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day of St. Louis, once made regular and public, the Salons status was never seriously in doubt. In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced, from this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed. The Salon exhibited paintings floor-to-ceiling and on every inch of space. The jostling of artwork became the subject of other paintings. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians, critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in the gazettes mark the beginning of the modern occupation of art critic. The French revolution opened the exhibition to foreign artists, the vernissage of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists like Honoré Daumier. Charles Baudelaire, Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons, the 1848 revolution liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced, the increasingly conservative and academic juries were not receptive to the Impressionist painters, whose works were usually rejected, or poorly placed if accepted. The Salon opposed the Impressionists shift away from traditional painting styles, in 1863 the Salon jury turned away an unusually high number of the submitted paintings. An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected, in order to prove that the Salons were democratic, Napoleon III instituted the Salon des Refusés, containing a selection of the works that the Salon had rejected that year. It opened on 17 May 1863, marking the birth of the avant-garde, the Impressionists held their own independent exhibitions in 1874,1876,1877,1879,1880,1881,1882 and 1886. In 1881, the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, in December 1890, the leader of the Société des Artistes Français, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, propagated the idea that Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet awarded, artists
39.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
40.
Jacques Guay
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Jacques Guay was a French gemstone engraver, a protegé of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France. He was the most eminent gemstone engraver of his time, the engraver of the king. Subjects included classical figures, events in the reign of the king, jacques Guay was born in Marseille in 1711. Little is known about his family or early life and he came to Paris at an early age and studied drawing with François Boucher. He met the financier and collector Pierre Crozat and studied his collection of 1,400 classical engraved gemstones. He decided to study the art of fine stone engraving and his first efforts were successful, but he needed formal training. He went to Florence in 1742, where he studied the stones in the grand dukes collection. He went on to Rome, where King Louis XV of France let him stay in the French Academys building and he made several engraved stones while in Rome. Guay made an engraving on a small carnelian of the Triumph of Fontenoy after a design provided by Edmé Bouchardon and this was the first of a series of engravings on historical subjects. Guay was named graveur du roi in 1745, and was granted lodgings in the Louvre and he succeeded François-Julien Barier in this position. Barier, who had a minutely detailed style, was inferior as an artist. Guay was agrée for admission to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1747 and he was formally admitted on 30 March 1748. He exhibited his work at almost all the Salons from 1747 to 1759 and he taught Madame de Pompadour how to engrave stones, and she acquired proficiency as shown in surviving samples of her work in onyx, jasper and other precious stones. One of her works was of Victory, a self-portrait in sardonyx, in 1753 Guay made a splendid cameo portrait of Louis XV in sardonyx. In a portrait of Madame de Pompadour by Boucher, exhibited in a Salon of 1755, a portrait of Madame de Pompadour at Her Toilette shows her wearing Guays cameo of Louis XV on her wrist. Guays miniature of Louis XV, cut from three-color sardonyx, was the basis for an etching of the king as a Roman emperor by Pompadour, one of the last of Guays historical works was Wishes for the recovery of the health of Madame de Pompadour. There were two variants, one an intaglio in rock crystal dated 1764, the year of Madame de Pompadours death, the work is incomplete since it could not be offered to its intended recipient. Guay lost much of his importance after the death of the marquise, no more historical works by him are known, other than an allegory on the accession of Louis XVI dated 1774
41.
Paulette Duval
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Paulette Duval was a French dancer and actress of the silent film era and early sound motion pictures. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1889 and she was considered one of the most beautiful women in Paris in the early twentieth century. Paulette was recruited by Florenz Ziegfeld for the Ziegfeld Follies, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York, New York, United States, before joining the Follies, the French beauty was engaged with the Scandals dance productions of George White. Duval was in Hollywood film production from 1919-1933 and she is widely known for her role Madame de Pompadour in Monsieur Beaucaire. Rudolph Valentino starred opposite Duval in the 1924 production based on a written by Booth Tarkington. In 1925 she played the role of a vamp in the version of Cheaper to Marry. The movie was based on the stage play written by Samuel Shipman. Paulette played a young woman who was embittered by the cynicism of the man she intended to marry. The MGM motion picture featured many of the clothes the French actress brought from Paris as well as evening attire, from her own possessions Miss Duval gave Norma Talmadge a $5,000 headdress. Paulette introduced knee muffs to Hollywood in 1926, a fur importer, Maurice Gebber, made the muffs from Russian sable after a design by Paulette Duval. She appeared with Marion Davies in Beverly of Graustark in the spring of 1926 and her final film was Lidoire, a short film directed by Maurice Tourneur, in which Duval played the character of La Dame. In 1952 Paulettes daughter, Jacqueline, made her motion picture debut in Red Ball Express, the film featured Jeff Chandler and Alex Nicol. The uniqueness of her debut had to do with the camera shot, Jacqueline is shown pedaling away on a French bicycle in the opening shot of the Universal International feature. The irony is that the actress was under contract to MGM for the previous two years. During this time more than 3000 feet of tests were made of her facial expressions, La Crosse, Wisconsin Tribune And Leader Press, American Films Provide Laughs For German Fans, Friday, October 5,1925, Page 11. Long Beach, California Free Press-Telegram, Makes Her Film Debut Backwards, Friday, March 7,1952, los Angeles Times, Now Its Bare-Knee Muffs, March 3,1926, Page 23. New York Times, Theatrical Notes, October 4,1923, Paulette Duval at the Internet Movie Database Duval on right with Bebe Daniels and Lowell Sherman in Monsieur Beaucaire. Duval is misidentified as Lois Wilson another costar in the film
42.
Rudolph Valentino
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He was an early pop icon, a sex symbol of the 1920s, who was known as the Latin lover or simply as Valentino. He had applied for American citizenship shortly before his death at age 31. Valentino was born Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi in Castellaneta, Apulia and his mother, Marie Berta Gabrielle, was French, born in Lure in Franche-Comté. His father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina dAntonguella, was Italian, Valentino had an older brother, Alberto, a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister, Beatrice, who had died in infancy. As a child, Rodolfo was indulged because of his exceptional looks and his mother coddled him, while his father disapproved of him. He did poorly in school and was enrolled in agricultural school at Genoa. After living in Paris in 1912, he returned to Italy. Unable to secure employment, he departed for the United States in 1913 and he was processed at Ellis Island at age 18 on December 23,1913. Arriving in New York City, Valentino soon ran out of money and he supported himself with odd jobs such as bussing tables in restaurants and gardening. Eventually, he work as a taxi dancer at Maxims Restaurant-Cabaret. Among the other dancers at Maxims were several displaced members of European nobility, Valentino eventually befriended Chilean heiress Blanca de Saulles, who was unhappily married to prominent businessman John de Saulles, with whom she had a son. Following the divorce, John de Saulles reportedly used his connections to have Valentino arrested, along with a Mrs. Thyme. The evidence was flimsy at best, and after a few days in jail, following the well publicized trial and subsequent scandal, Valentino could not find employment. Shortly after the trial, Blanca de Saulles fatally shot her ex-husband during a dispute over their son. Fearful of being called in as a witness in another trial, Valentino left town. In 1917, Valentino joined a company that traveled to Utah. He then joined an Al Jolson production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. which was travelling to Los Angeles, by fall, he was in San Francisco with a bit part in a theatrical production of Nobody Home. While in town, Valentino met actor Norman Kerry, who convinced him to try a career in cinema, Valentino and Kerry moved back to Los Angeles and became roommates at the Alexandria Hotel
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