1.
Heraldry
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The beauty and pageantry of heraldic designs allowed them to survive the gradual abandonment of armour on the battlefield during the seventeenth century. Heraldry has been described poetically as the handmaid of history, the shorthand of history, in modern times, heraldry is used by individuals, public and private organizations, corporations, cities, towns, and regions to symbolize their heritage, achievements, and aspirations. Various symbols have been used to represent individuals or groups for thousands of years, similar emblems and devices are found in ancient Mesopotamian art of the same period, and the precursors of heraldic beasts such as the griffin can also be found. In the Bible, the Book of Numbers refers to the standards and ensigns of the children of Israel, the Greek and Latin writers frequently describe the shields and symbols of various heroes, and units of the Roman army were sometimes identified by distinctive markings on their shields. The Book of Saint Albans, compiled in 1486, declares that Christ himself was a gentleman of coat armour, the medieval heralds also devised arms for various knights and lords from history and literature. Notable examples include the toads attributed to Pharamond, the cross and martlets of Edward the Confessor, and the arms attributed to the Nine Worthies. These too are now regarded as an invention, rather than evidence of the antiquity of heraldry. The development of the modern heraldic language cannot be attributed to an individual, time. Yet no individual is depicted twice bearing the arms, nor are any of the descendants of the various persons depicted known to have borne devices resembling those in the tapestry. A Spanish manuscript from 1109 describes both plain and decorated shields, none of which appears to have been heraldic, in England, from the time of the Norman conquest, official documents had to be sealed. A notable example of an armorial seal is attached to a charter granted by Philip I, Count of Flanders. Seals from the part of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries show no evidence of heraldic symbolism. One of the earliest known examples of armory as it came to be practiced can be seen on the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. An enamel, probably commissioned by Geoffreys widow between 1155 and 1160, depicts him carrying a shield decorated with six golden lions rampant. He wears a helmet adorned with another lion, and his cloak is lined in vair. A medieval chronicle states that Geoffrey was given a shield of this description when he was knighted by his father-in-law, Henry I, in 1128, but this account probably dates to about 1175. Since Henry was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, it seems reasonable to suppose that the adoption of lions as an emblem by Henry or his sons might have been inspired by Geoffreys shield. Richard is also credited with having originated the English crest of a lion statant and it is from this garment that the phrase coat of arms is derived
2.
Crest (heraldry)
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A crest is a component of a heraldic display, consisting of the device borne on top of the helm. Originating in the decorative sculptures worn by knights in tournaments and, to an extent, battles. A normal heraldic achievement consists of the shield, above which is set the helm, on which sits the crest, the word crest derives from the Latin crista, meaning tuft or plume, perhaps related to crinis, hair. They first appeared in a context in the form of the metal fans worn by knights in the 12th and 13th centuries. These were primarily decorative, but may also have served a purpose by lessening or deflecting the blows of opponents weapons. These fans were generally of one colour, later evolving to repeat all or part of the arms displayed on the shield. The fan crest was developed by cutting out the figure displayed on it, to form a metal outline. Torses did not come into use in Britain until the 15th century, and are still uncommon on the Continent. Crests were also mounted on a furred cap known as a chapeau. By the 16th century the age of tournaments had ended, and their illustrated equivalents consequently began to be treated as simply two-dimensional pictures. In the same period, different helms began to be used for different ranks, sovereigns and knights helms faced forwards, whereas those of peers, torses also suffered artistically, being treated not as silken circlets, but as horizontal bars. Heraldry in general underwent something of a renaissance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, crests are now generally not granted unless they could actually be used on a physical helm, and the rules about directions of helms are no longer rigidly observed. The use of crests was once restricted to those of tournament rank, i. e. knights and above and they are not generally used by women and clergymen, as they did not participate in war or tournaments and thus would not have helms on which to wear them. Some heraldists are also of the opinion that crests, as devices, are not suited for use by corporate bodies. This practice did not exist in Britain until the modern era, and arms with more than one crest are still rare. After the 16th century, it common for armigers to detach the crest and wreath from the helm. This led to the use of the term crest to mean arms. Unlike a badge, which can be used by any amount of relatives and retainers, a crest is personal to the armiger, and its use by others is considered usurpation
3.
Galero
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A galero is a broad-brimmed hat with tasselated strings worn by clergy in the Catholic Church. Over the centuries, the red galero was restricted to use by individual cardinals while such other colors as green and violet were reserved to clergy of other ranks and styles. The privilege of wearing the red galero was first granted to cardinals by Pope Innocent IV in 1245 at the First Council of Lyon, tradition in the Archdiocese of Lyon is that the red color was inspired by the red hats of the canons of Lyon. Pope Innocent wanted his favorites to be distinct and recognizable in the processions at the council. Anachronistically, some early Church Fathers are shown wearing a galero, notably Jerome frequently is pictured in art either wearing a galero, or with one close by. Even though the office of cardinal did not exist in Jeromes day, he had been secretary to Pope Damasus I, cardinal Jean Cholet used his galero to crown Charles of Valois in 1285 at Girona during the Aragonese Crusade, pronouncing him King of Aragon. As a result, roi du chapeau became Charless nickname, when creating a cardinal, the pope used to place a scarlet galero on the new cardinals head in consistory, the practice giving rise to the phrase receiving the red hat. In 1965, a decree during the Second Vatican Council ended the use of the galero. Since that time, only the scarlet zucchetto and biretta are placed over the heads of cardinals during the consistory, some cardinals continue to obtain a galero privately so that the custom of suspending it over their tombs may be observed. Traditionally, the galero remains over the tomb until it is reduced to dust, in a cathedral that has no crypt, the galeri are suspended from the ceiling. Cardinal Raymond Burke has been known to wear the galero on occasion in the 21st century, a few cardinals from eastern rites wear distinctive oriental headgear. Other ecclesiastical hats are used by ministers of other Christian communities, alongside Catholic clergy, the Scots Public Register records its use by Episcopalian and Presbyterian ministers. The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland uses a hat, with blue cords. The ecclesiastical hat replaces the helmet and crest, because those were considered too belligerent for men in the clerical state, the color of the hat and number of tassels indicate the clerics place in the hierarchy. Generally, priests and ministers have a hat with cords and tassels. Depiction in arms can vary depending on the artists style. Sammlung Philippi – Kopfbedeckungen in Glaube, Religion und Spiritualität, pictures of clerical headgear, information and literature in German language Picture of a cardinals galero, hanging
4.
Ordinary (heraldry)
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In heraldry, an ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, diminutives of ordinaries and some subordinaries are charges of the same shape, though thinner. Most of the ordinaries are theoretically said to occupy one-third of the shield, ordinaries resemble partitions of the field, but are formally considered objects on the field. Though there is debate as to exactly which geometrical charges—with straight edges and running from edge to edge of the shield—constitute ordinaries. Except for the chief they are central to the shield, Cross, a pale and a fess of equal widths conjoined, as in the arms of the City of London. Pale, a vertical stripe right down the middle of the shield, typically 1/5th to 1/3rd the width of the field. A variant is the Canadian pale, invented in 1964 for the new Canadian national flag, fess, a horizontal stripe, as in the coat of arms of Austria. Typically 1/5th to 1/3rd the height of the field, bar, a narrower fess, sometimes reckoned as an ordinary in its own right. Bend, a band from the dexter chief to the opposite corner. Bend sinister, A bend in the opposite direction, Chief, horizontal band right across the top of the shield, as in the arms of the district of Lausanne. Chief triangular begins in the corners and extends to a point that is one quarter to one third the way down the shield and it is a complex line division variant of a chief. Chief enarched is drawn with a concave arch, the following are sometimes classed as ordinaries, sometimes as subordinaries, Bordure, the boundary of the shield, often used for cadency. Pile, downward pointing triangle, issuing from the top of the shield, a variant is the shakefork, a pall cut short of the margins, with pointed ends. It is frequent in Scotland, owing to its prominence in the armory of Clan Cunningham, ordinaries need not be bounded by straight lines. Some geometric figures are not considered to be honourable ordinaries and are called subordinaries, very loosely, they are geometric or conventional charges that, unlike ordinaries, do not stretch from edge to edge of the shield. There is no definitive list or definition, but they generally include, Quarter, the dexter chief quadrant of the shield Canton, smaller than the quarter, formally said to occupy one-ninth of the shield, though sometimes drawn smaller. Very occasionally a sinister canton is found, on the other side. Flaunches, always borne in pairs, a circular arc emerging out of each flank of the shield, Fret, interlacing bendlet, bendlet sinister and mascle
5.
Speech scroll
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In art history, speech scroll is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or, in rarer cases, other types of sound. While European speech scrolls were drawn as if they were an actual unfurled scroll or strip of parchment, Mesoamerican speech scrolls are merely scroll-shaped, speech scrolls are found throughout Mesoamerica. One of the earliest examples of a Mesoamerican speech scroll was found on an Olmec ceramic cylinder seal dated to approximately 650 BC, here two lines issue from a birds mouth followed by glyphs proposed to be 3 Ajaw, a rulers name. In Mesoamerica, the speech-scroll is usually oriented with the longest outer edge upward, some Mesoamerican speech scrolls are divided lengthwise with each side a different shade. Glyphs or similar markings rarely appear on the Mesoamerican speech scroll, although tabs—small, if the speech scroll represents a tongue, then the tabs may represent teeth, but their meaning or message, if any, is not known. At times, speech scrolls are decorated with devices that describe the tone of the speech, In an engraving at the Maya site of Chichen Itza, a Spaniards speech scroll in a 16th-century Aztec codex is decorated with feathers to denote soft, smooth words. In another 16th century codex, the Selden Codex, two Mixtec rulers are shown insulting two ambassadors through the use of flint knife icons attached to the speech scrolls, as with many native traditions, use of the speech scroll died out in the decades following the Spanish Conquest. In contrast to the nature of Mesoamerican speech scrolls, Medieval European speech scrolls or banderoles appear as actual scrolls. They first become common at the start of the Gothic period, previously, as in Byzantine art, spoken words, if they appeared at all, were usually painted alongside a figure, these are called tituli. However, earlier works using banderoles are the Aachen Gospels of Otto III and it may be seen in the Santa Trinita Maestà by Cimabue, Duccios Maestà, and other works. The convention had a historical appropriateness, as the Old Testament was originally written on scrolls and they may also be used for the words of angels, especially Gabriels greeting to Mary in Annunciation scenes. Unlike Mesoamerican speech scrolls, European speech scrolls usually contain the spoken words, because the words are usually religious in nature, the speech scroll is often written in Latin even when appearing in woodcut illustrations for books written in the vernacular. This would also enable the illustration to be used in editions in other languages, European speech scrolls may at times be seen in secular works as well and may also contain the name of a person to identify them. On carved figures the words would usually be painted on the scroll and have worn away. In some Late Gothic and Renaissance works, and in architectural decoration, the European speech scroll fell out of favor largely due to an increasing interest in realism in painting, the halo had a similar decline. Speech balloon Banderole - a streamer or pennant Boone, Elizabeth Writing Without Words, Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica, coggins, Clement Chase Pure Language & Lapidary Prose in New Theories on the Ancient Maya, Elin C. Danien and Robert J. Sharer, Eds, john Pohls - Ancient Books - Mixtec Group Codices - Codex Selden. Hilmo, Maidie Medieval Images, Icons, and Chaucer Illustrated English Literary Texts, From Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer, holt, Dennis About the Endangered Language Fund Logo, accessed November 2007
6.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
7.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
8.
English heraldry
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English heraldry is the form of coats of arms and other heraldic bearings and insignia used in England. It lies within the so-called Gallo-British tradition, Coats of arms in England are regulated and granted to individuals by the English kings of arms of the College of Arms. They are subject to a system of cadency to distinguish between sons of the holder of the coat of arms. The English heraldic style is exemplified in the arms of British royalty, Royal orders in England, such as the Order of the Garter, also maintain notable heraldic bearings. Like many countries heraldry, there is an influence within English heraldry, such as designs originally on Greek. Many coats of arms feature charges related to the name or profession. Some canting arms make references to foreign languages, particularly French, such as the otter in the arms of the Luttrel family. Representations in person of Saints or other figure are very rare, although there are however a few uses, mostly originating from seals, where there have never been such limitations. Although many places have dropped such iconography, the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone, London, includes a rendering of the Virgin Mary and this is also the case in many other examples, particularly those depicting Christ, to remove religious complications. Unlike in mainland Europe where family crests make a use of their eponymous Saints. The lion is the most common charge, particularly in Royal heraldry, Heraldic roses are also common in English heraldry, as in the War of the Roses where both houses, Lancaster and York, used them, and in the ensuing Tudor dynasty. The second quarter shows the arms of the Montacutes, the third quarter shows the arms of Neville differenced by a label for Lancaster. The first use of associated with the English was in the Bayeux Tapestry, recounting the events of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The first Royal Coat of Arms was created in 1154 under Henry II, under Henry III it gained a system of classification and a technical language, confirming its place as a science. However, over the two centuries the system was abused, leading to the swamping of true coats-of-arms. For the rest of the period it was popular within the upper classes to have a distinctive family mark for competitions and tournaments. It found particular use with knights, for practice and in the mêlée of battle, indeed, their houses signs became known as coats-of-arms in this way. They were also worn on shields, where they were known as shields-of-arms, as well as military uses, the main charge was used in the seals of households
9.
Great Seal of the United States
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The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the U. S. federal government. The phrase is used both for the seal itself, and more generally for the design impressed upon it. The Great Seal was first used publicly in 1782, the obverse of the great seal is used as the national coat of arms of the United States. It is officially used on such as United States passports, military insignia, embassy placards. As a coat of arms, the design has official colors, since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal have appeared on the reverse of the one-dollar bill. The Seal of the President of the United States is directly based on the Great Seal, the design on the obverse of the seal is the coat of arms of the United States. The shield, though sometimes drawn incorrectly, has two differences from the American flag. First, it has no stars on the blue chief, second, unlike the American flag, the outermost stripes are white, not red, so as not to violate the heraldic rule of tincture. The supporter of the shield is an eagle with its wings outstretched. Although not specified by law, the branch is usually depicted with 13 leaves and 13 olives. The eagle has its head turned towards the branch, on its right side. In its beak, the eagle clutches a scroll with the motto E pluribus unum, over its head there appears a glory with 13 mullets on a blue field. In the current dies of the seal, the 13 stars above the eagle are arranged in rows of 1-4-3-4-1. The 1782 resolution of Congress adopting the arms, still in force, legally blazoned the shield as Paleways of 13 pieces, argent and gules, a more technically proper blazon would have been argent, six pallets gules. But the phrase used was chosen to preserve the reference to the 13 original states, the 1782 resolution adopting the seal blazons the image on the reverse as A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, the pyramid is conventionally shown as consisting of 13 layers to refer to the 13 original states. The adopting resolution provides that it is inscribed on its base with the date MDCCLXXVI in Roman numerals, where the top of the pyramid should be, the Eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottos appear, Annuit cœptis signifies that Providence has approved of undertakings, Novus ordo seclorum, freely taken from Virgil, is Latin for a new order of the ages
10.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
11.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
12.
Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset
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