1.
Tonbridge
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Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 40,356 in 2015. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Royal Tunbridge Wells,12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London and it belongs to the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling. Another theory suggests that the name is a contraction of town of bridges, until 1870, the towns name was spelt Tunbridge, as shown on old maps including the 1871 Ordnance Survey map and contemporary issues of the Bradshaw railway guide. In 1870, this was changed to Tonbridge by the GPO due to confusion with nearby Tunbridge Wells, Tunbridge Wells has always maintained the same spelling. Tonbridge stands on spur of land where the marshy River Medway could be more easily forded. Ancient trackways converged at this point, there is no record of any bridge before 1191. For much of its existence, the town remained to the north of the river, one part of the town is called Dryhill. Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare founded the Priory of St Mary Magdalene in 1124, a castle was built here in the 11th century by Richard Fitz Gilbert, son of the murdered guardian of William the Conqueror in his infancy. Richard was responsible for governing England in William Is many absences, the town was besieged by William Rufus, soon after his accession to the throne, because the Earl had pledged allegiance to Williams brother, Robert. It is thus hardly surprising that the arrow that killed William Rufus a few years later in the New Forest was fired by Walter Tirel who was born in town as well as the Earls in-law. It was soon afterwards taken again, this time by King John only a few months after the signing of the Magna Carta, both the Earl and his son were signatories and guardians of the document responsible for its compliance. It was subsequently besieged by Prince Edward, son of Henry III, on this occasion the besieged garrison burnt the town rather than see it fall. The town and Tonbridge Castle were rebuilt after this and in the 13th century became an official residence, the castle was finally taken by Henry VIII when its owner, the Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason. In medieval times, Tonbridge was considered an important strategic settlement. The King intended it to be a town, and a charter was issued allowing for walls to be built. The walls were never built, perhaps because the large outer bailey could have easily accommodated the townspeople in times of strife. A surrounding bank and ditch known as The Fosse was erected, today only traces of this encircling defence now remain. The historic core of the still contains a large number of working buildings dating from the 15th century
2.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Philip Sidney
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Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy, born at Penshurst Place, Kent, he was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley. His mother was the eldest daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and his younger brother, Robert was a statesman and patron of the arts, and was created Earl of Leicester in 1618. His younger sister, Mary, married Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and was a writer, translator, Sidney dedicated his longest work, the Arcadia, to her. After her brothers death, Mary reworked the Arcadia, which known as The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia. Philip was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford and he spent the next several years in mainland Europe, moving through Germany, Italy, Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary and Austria. On these travels, he met a number of prominent European intellectuals, returning to England in 1575, Sidney met Penelope Devereux, the future Lady Rich, though much younger, she would inspire his famous sonnet sequence of the 1580s, Astrophel and Stella. Her father, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, is said to have planned to marry his daughter to Sidney, in England, Sidney occupied himself with politics and art. He defended his fathers administration of Ireland in a lengthy document, more seriously, he quarrelled with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, probably because of Sidneys opposition to the French marriage, which de Vere championed. In the aftermath of episode, Sidney challenged de Vere to a duel. He then wrote a letter to the Queen detailing the foolishness of the French marriage. Characteristically, Elizabeth bristled at his presumption, and Sidney prudently retired from court, during a 1577 diplomatic visit to Prague, Sidney secretly visited the exiled Jesuit priest Edmund Campion. Sidney had returned to court by the middle of 1581 and in 1584 was MP for Kent and that same year Penelope Devereux was married, apparently against her will, to Lord Rich. An early arrangement to marry Anne Cecil, daughter of Sir William Cecil, in 1583, he married Frances, teenage daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. In the same year, he made a visit to Oxford University with Giordano Bruno and his artistic contacts were more peaceful and more significant for his lasting fame. During his absence from court, he wrote Astrophel and Stella, somewhat earlier, he had met Edmund Spenser, who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Both through his heritage and his personal experience, Sidney was a keenly militant Protestant. In the 1570s, he had persuaded John Casimir to consider proposals for a united Protestant effort against the Roman Catholic Church, in the early 1580s, he argued unsuccessfully for an assault on Spain itself
6.
Manor
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A manor in English law is an estate in land to which is incident the right to hold a court termed court baron, that is to say a manorial court. The proper unit of tenure under the system is the fee, on which the manor became established through the process of time. The manor is nevertheless often described as the basic unit of tenure and is historically connected with the territorial divisions of the march, county, hundred, parish. And so by continuance of time made a manor, of the portion reserved by the lord for his own use, termed the demesne, part was occupied by villeins, with the duty of cultivating the rest for the lords use. These were originally tenants at will and in a state of semi-serfdom and it is of the essence of copyhold that it should be regulated by the custom of the manor, as evidenced in the manorial roll produced by the manorial court. Manors cannot be created at the present day because manorial courts cannot be established with any legal jurisdiction, the statute did not apply to a tenant-in-chief of the king, who might have alienated his land under a license. When a great baron had granted out smaller manors to others, all land was differentiated by its legal status and by physical characteristics. It should be noted that legal status of land in England, demesne, land retained in-hand by the lord of the manor, without subtenant. Other land could be, Glebe, land not belonging to the reserved for the support of the parish priest. Common land, by open land, over which the lord, certain manorial tenants. For example, a right of estovers may belong to one of groups or all of them. Freehold Copyhold Customary Freehold Leasehold, the Reversion is held by its former freeholder, usually before the sale of land belonging to manors, arable, ploughed land used to grow crops. Pasture, grassland used for grazing livestock, closes, small enclosed fields created by hedge or stone wall boundaries, used for example to house ewes with their lambs requiring close observation. Marsh Woodland, a fuel resource. Furze, a resource used by the lower tenants. Fallow, land resting within the cycle of crop rotation agriculture, fishpond, used to breed fish such as carp A manor was akin to the modern firm or business or other going concern. It was further similar in that its ownership could be transferred, with the licence to alienate having been obtained from the overlord. The administration was self-contained and the new lord needed only to collect its net revenues to form his return on investment, the direction was ultimately provided by the manorial court, presided over by the lords personal steward, whose members included the freehold tenants of the manor
7.
Stephen de Pencester
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Stephen de Pencester was Warden of the Cinque Ports when the first authoritative list of Cinque Ports Confederation Members was produced in 1293. Pencester was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports for 32 years, his finishing in 1299 when the Baron de Burghersh was elected. When she inherited the parish of Tunstall in Kent and they resided both at Allington and Penshurst. When Pencester died in 1303, Margerie then married to Robert de Orreby, lee, Sidney, ed. Pencester, Stephen de
8.
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
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The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century, when the title was Keeper of the Coast, the Lord Warden was originally in charge of the Cinque Ports, a group of five port towns on the southeast coast of England. Today the role is a sinecure and a title, and 14 towns belong to the Cinque Ports confederation. The Lord Warden was solely responsible for the return of all writs to the Crown, along with the collection of taxes and his court was held in St Jamess church, near Dover Castle, and there he exercised jurisdiction broadly equivalent to that of Chancery. The coat of arms of the Cinque Ports first appeared in 1305, second amongst the earliest English known heraldic emblems, the coat of arms of the Cinque Ports displays three ships hulls and three lions passant guardant conjoined to these hulls, all in gold. These may originally have been Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or dimidiating Gules three ships hulks in pale Or, the coat of arms of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports is set out on a red and blue background and traditionally represents the 14 Corporate Members. It was combined from 1267 with the office of Constable of Dover Castle, however, from 1708 Walmer Castle at Deal was to be preferred as the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In earlier centuries the northern limit was taken as the Shoe Beacon in Essex, the courts of Brodhull and Guestling were established to protect the privileges of the Cinque Ports by the portsmen themselves. From the 15th century these courts had been replaced by the Lord Wardens Court at Dover. From the 16th century the business of the courts was the installation of the Lord Warden. The office continued to be a powerful one, in 1550 the Mayor and Jurats of Dover refused to accept a Royal Writ because it was not accompanied by a letter of attendance from the Lord Warden. The member ports parliamentary representatives were appointed by the Lord Warden at first, the office of Speaker has traditionally rotated between the affiliate townships every year dating from at least 1550. Inaugurations are begun on 21 May, and membership is ordained through a maritime tradition of a principle of the prevailing winds coming from west to east. A unique uniform is specified for the Lord Warden, the uniform is very similar to a pre-1956-pattern Admirals uniform trimmed in red and with Cinque Ports insignia. Sir Robert Menziess uniform, which he wore as Lord Warden from 1966 to 1978, is preserved at the National Library of Australia. All Freemen of the Ports, termed Portsmen, were deemed in the age of Feudalism to be barons, termed Barons of the Cinque Ports, they reflected an early concept that military service at sea constituted land tenure per baroniam making them quasi feudal barons. Writs of summons to parliament were sent to the following which representative barons of the Cinque Ports were selected to attend parliament. Thus the wardens duty in this respect was similar to that of the sheriff who received the writs for distribution to the barons in the shires, the warden and barons often experienced clashes of jurisdiction
9.
Sir John de Pulteney
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Sir John de Pulteney or Sir John Poultney was a major English entrepreneur and property owner, who served four times as Mayor of London. A biography of Sir John, written by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, however, it is inaccurate in stating the Sir John’s wife was a daughter of John de St John of Lageham, for reasons that are set out in detail in two articles by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. His will identifies Sir Johns parents as Adam and Matilda, Sir John married Margaret, daughter of John de Bereford, citizen of London and his wife Roesia. A modern monument in the crypt lists him among the important graves lost, Sir John was a citizen of London and a member of the Drapers’ Company. His business activities included the lending of money, for instance, in July 1325, Robert Burdet of Sheepy, Leicestershire acknowledged that he owed £100 to John de Pulteney. In the following month, the Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England acknowledged that he owed John the sum of £800. John also lent money to the King, such as a sum that in June 1329 was outstanding. He served as Mayor of London in 1331,1332,1334 and 1336, other roles that he undertook included membership of commissions of oyer and terminer in a number of counties, guardian of the peace for Middlesex and roles in negotiations with Flanders. Sir John invested some of his wealth in notable building projects. ‘’’Penshurst Place’’’ was built about 1341 and this Grade 1 Listed Building includes later additions, but the large hall with its fine timber roof supported by figure corbels and its undercroft date back to Sir John’s era. ‘’’Coldharbour House, Candlewick Street, City of London’’ - Sir John constructed this mansion and it overlooked the River Thames and was occupied by the Black Prince after Sir John’s death until 1359 when it was transferred to Sir Nicholas de Loveyne. ‘’’College of St Laurence Pountney, London’’’ – He added to St Laurence church, Candlewick Street a chapel that was dedicated to Corpus Christi and this chantry chapel appears to have been established by 1332. ‘’’Carmelites or White Friars church, Coventry’’’ – Sir John paid for the construction of this monastery, ‘’’Cheveley Castle, Cambridgeshire’’’ – Little remains of this building, so it does not seem possible to say whether Sir John carried out the works that were permitted in 1341. Sir John died on 8 June 1349, a date that suggests he may have been a victim of the Black Death, in Hertfordshire, The manor of Shenley. In Kent, The manors of Ospringe, Penshurst, Yenesfield, Plumstead, in Leicestershire, The manors of Pulteney and Misterton. In The City of London, Various rents and burgages, in Middlesex, The manor of “Poplar in Stebbenheth”. Two mills and rent at East Smithfield, in Suffolk, The manor of Withersfield. In Warwickshire, Property at Napton and Shotteswell, the tenement called “le Coldherberuy” was to be sold
10.
Lord Mayor of London
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The Lord Mayor of London is the City of Londons mayor and leader of the City of London Corporation. This office differs from the Mayor of London, which is an elected position. However, the legal and commonly used title remains Lord Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor is elected at Common Hall each year on Michaelmas, and takes office on the Friday before the second Saturday in November, at The Silent Ceremony. One of the worlds oldest continuously elected civic offices, the Lord Mayors main role nowadays is to represent, support and promote the businesses and residents in the City of London. As leader of the Corporation of the City of London, the Lord Mayor serves as the key spokesman for the local authority, all Lord Mayors of London are apolitical. The Lord Mayor of London typically delivers dozens of speeches and addresses per year, many incumbents of the office make overseas visits while Lord Mayor of London. Currently serving is the 689th Lord Mayor Dr Andrew Parmley Of the 69 cities in the United Kingdom, the City of London is among the 30 that have Lord Mayors. The Lord Mayor is entitled to the style The Right Honourable, the same privilege extends only to the Lord Mayors of York, Cardiff and Belfast, the latter prefix applies only to Privy Counsellors. A woman who holds the office is known as a Lord Mayor. The wife of a male Lord Mayor is styled as Lady Mayoress, a female Lord Mayor or an unmarried male Lord Mayor may appoint a female consort, usually a fellow member of the corporation, to the role of Lady Mayoress. In speech, a Lord Mayor is referred to as My Lord Mayor, and it was once customary for Lord Mayors to be appointed knights upon taking office and baronets upon retirement, unless they already held such a title. This custom was followed with a few inconsistencies from the 16th until the 19th centuries, however, from 1964 onwards, the regular creation of hereditary titles such as baronetcies was phased out, so subsequent Lord Mayors were offered knighthoods. Furthermore, foreign Heads of State visiting the City of London on a UK State Visit, for example, in 2001, Sir David Howard was created a Grand Cordon of the Order of Independence of Jordan by King Abdullah II. Recently Lord Mayors have been appointed at the beginning of their term of office Knights or Dames of St John, as a mark of respect, by HM The Queen, Sovereign Head of the Order of St John. The office of Lord Mayor was instituted in 1189, the first holder of the office being Henry Fitz-Ailwin de Londonestone. The Mayor of the City of London has been elected by the City, rather than appointed by the Sovereign, the title Lord Mayor came to be used after 1354, when it was granted to Thomas Legge by King Edward III. Lord Mayors are elected for terms, by custom, they do not now serve more than one consecutive term. Almost 700 people have served as Lord Mayor, Dame Mary Donaldson, elected in 1983, and Dame Fiona Woolf, elected in 2013, are the only women to have held the office
11.
Henry IV of England
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Henry IV, also known as Henry of Bolingbroke, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1399 to 1413, and asserted the claim of his grandfather, Edward III, to the Kingdom of France. Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, one of Henrys elder sisters, Philippa of Lancaster, married John I of Portugal, and the other, Elizabeth, was the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter. His younger half-sister Catherine, the daughter of his fathers second wife and he also had four half-siblings by Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters governess, then his fathers longstanding mistress, and later his third wife. These four children were given the surname Beaufort after a castle their father held in Champagne, Henrys relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In youth he seems to have close to all of them. His brother-in-law Ralph Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherines first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where King Richard II is said to have died, Henrys half-sister Joan Beaufort through his fathers relationship with Katherine Swynford was the grandmother of Edward IV and Richard III. Joan had married Ralph Neville, the 1st Earl of Westmorland, when their daughter Cecily married Richard Plantagenet, the 3rd Duke of York, and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, Joan became the grandmother of two York kings of England. Henry experienced a rather more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father had, first cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together to the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford, Henry spent the full year of 1390 supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius by Teutonic Knights with his 300 fellow knights. During this campaign he bought 300 captured Lithuanian princes and then took them back to England. Henrys second expedition to Lithuania in 1392 illustrates the benefits to the Order of these guest crusaders. His small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, despite the efforts of Henry and his English crusaders, two years of attacks on Vilnius proved fruitless. In 1392–93 Henry undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he made offerings at the Holy Sepulchre, later he vowed to lead a crusade to free Jerusalem from the infidel, but he died before this could be accomplished. The relationship between Henry Bolingbroke and the king met with a second crisis, in 1398, a remark by Bolingbroke regarding Richard IIs rule was interpreted as treason by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbrays home in Coventry, yet before the duel could take place, Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray himself was exiled for life, John of Gaunt died in 1399
12.
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
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After his fathers accession to the throne of England as Henry IV, John of Lancaster began to accumulate lands and lucrative offices. He was knighted on 12 October 1399 at his fathers coronation, between 1403 and 1405 grants of the forfeited lands from the House of Percy and of the alien priory of Ogbourne, Wiltshire, considerably increased his income. He was appointed master of the mews and falcons in 1402, Constable of England in 1403 and he was created Earl of Kendal, Earl of Richmond and Duke of Bedford in 1414 by his brother, King Henry V. When Henry V died in 1422, Bedford vied with his brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Bedford was declared Regent but focused on the war in France. Bedford defeated the French several times, most notably at the Battle of Verneuil, until the arrival of Joan of Arc rallied the opposition, in 1431, Bedford had Joan tried and executed at Rouen, then arranged a coronation for the young Henry VI at Paris. Bedford had been Governor in Normandy between 1422–1432 where the University of Caen was founded under his auspices and he was an extremely important commissioner of illuminated manuscripts, both from Paris and England. This last is signed in two places by Herman Scheere, all are lavishly decorated and famous examples of the style of the period. Johns first marriage was to Anne, daughter of John the Fearless on 13 May 1423 in Troyes, The couple were happily married, Anne died of the plague in Paris in 1432. Johns second marriage was to Jacquetta of Luxembourg and this marriage was also childless, though Jacquetta went on to have more than a dozen children in her second marriage. In addition, out of wedlock he had a daughter named Mary, who married Pierre de Montferrand, son of the lord of Langoiran, Soudan de la Trau, and had issue, and a son, Richard. John died in 1435 during the Congress of Arras at his Castle of Joyeux Repos in Rouen and was buried at Rouen Cathedral and he had no legitimate surviving issue. He appears in William Shakespeares plays Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 as John of Lancaster, georgette Heyers novel My Lord John deals with his life from when he was four to about twenty. In the 2011 Philippa Gregory novel, The Lady of the Rivers, John features as the first husband of main character, in Tony Milnes play bloody bedford, he is the protagonist, facing Joan of Arc. The play focuses on his role as the last English Regent of France, as a son of the sovereign, John bore the Royal arms of his father King Henry IV, differenced by a label of five points per pale ermine and France. It is possible that the yale was painted in silver which has tarnished black, the shield is surrounded with a pair of banners gules which reverse in argent with the motto repeated four times, A vous entier. The Hours were supposedly produced as a present from John to his wife, Anne. Johns second wife, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, cousin to the Emperor, was mother to Elizabeth Woodville who may be this queen, Elizabeth Woodvilles right to inherit these armorial supporters would seem dubious if they belong to her mothers first husband or to his first wife
13.
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
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Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham KG was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and he was convicted of treason, and executed on 17 May 1521. After the execution of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his widow, Catherine Woodville, married Jasper Tudor, second son of Owen Tudor and King Henry Vs widow, after Jasper Tudors death on 21 December 1495, Catherine Woodville married Sir Richard Wingfield. Catherine Woodville died 18 May 1497, after her death, Sir Richard Wingfield married Bridget Wiltshire, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone, Kent. In October 1483 Staffords father participated in a rebellion against King Richard III and he was beheaded without trial on 2 November 1483, whereby all his honours were forfeited. Stafford is said to have hidden in various houses in Herefordshire at the time of the rebellion. In September 1497 he was a captain in the forces sent to quell a rebellion in Cornwall, according to Davies, as a young man Buckingham played a conspicuous part in royal weddings and the reception of ambassadors and foreign princes, dazzling observers by his sartorial splendour. At the wedding of Henry VIIs then eldest son and heir Arthur, Prince of Wales and he was the chief challenger at the tournament held the following day. At the accession of King Henry VIII, Buckingham was appointed on 23 June 1509, for the day of the only, Lord High Constable. He also served as Lord High Steward at the coronation, in 1509 he was made a member of the Kings Privy Council. In 1510 Buckingham was involved in a scandal concerning Anne, his sister, after hearing rumours concerning her and Sir William Compton, Buckingham found Compton in Annes room. Compton was forced to take the sacrament to prove that he and Anne had not committed adultery, there is no extant evidence establishing that Anne and Sir William Compton were guilty of adultery. There are some suggestions that the affair continued until 1513, from June to October 1513 Buckingham served as a captain during Henry VIIIs invasion of France, commanding 500 men in the middle ward. About 1517 he was one of twelve challengers chosen to tilt against the King and his companions and he and his wife, Eleanor, attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. According to Davies, in general Buckingham exercised little direct political influence, during 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry VIII authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower and he was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the Kings death and intending to kill the King. He was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May, Buckingham was posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1523, disinheriting most of his wealth from his children
14.
Henry VIII of England
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Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII, Henry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. Despite his resulting excommunication, Henry remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings to England. Besides asserting the supremacy over the Church of England, he greatly expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were commonly used to quash dissent, and he achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich and his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated, and accomplished king, and he has been described as one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne. He was an author and composer, as he aged, Henry became severely obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI, born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henrys six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary – survived infancy and he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, and was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York, in May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. Henry was given an education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king, as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, Arthurs death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public, as a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship
15.
Anne Boleyn
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Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII, and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henrys marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, in February/March 1526, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress – which her sister Mary had been and it soon became the one absorbing object of Henrys desires to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne. When it became clear that Pope Clement VII would not annul the marriage, in 1532, Henry granted Anne the Marquessate of Pembroke. Henry and Anne married on 25 January 1533, after a marriage on 14 November 1532. On 23 May 1533, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherines marriage null and void, five days later, he declared Henry, shortly afterwards, the Pope decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer. As a result of marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place and the Church of England was brought under the Kings control. Anne was crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533, on 7 September, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a rather than a son but hoped a son would follow. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages, and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour, in order to marry Jane Seymour, Henry had to find reasons for his marriage with Anne to end. Henry had Anne investigated for treason in April 1536. She was beheaded four days later, modern historians view the charges against her, which included adultery, incest, and plotting to kill the king, as unconvincing. Some say that Anne was accused of witchcraft but the indictments make no mention of this charge, after the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth, as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe. Over the centuries, she has inspired, or been mentioned, in artistic and cultural works. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, Thomas Boleyn was a well respected diplomat with a gift for languages, he was also a favourite of King Henry VII, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. Anne and her siblings grew up at Hever Castle in Kent, however, the siblings were born in Norfolk at the Boleyn home at Blickling. A lack of records from the period has made it impossible to establish Annes date of birth
16.
Edward VI of England
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Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was Englands first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority, the Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland. Edwards reign was marked by problems and social unrest that, in 1549, erupted into riot. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland as well as Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace, the transformation of the Church into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred under Edward, who took great interest in religious matters. Although his father, Henry VIII, had severed the link between the Church of England and Rome, Henry VIII had never permitted the renunciation of Catholic doctrine or ceremony. The architect of these reforms was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in February 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, he and his Council drew up a Devise for the Succession, Edward named his first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. This decision was disputed following Edwards death, and Jane was deposed by Mary nine days after becoming queen, during her reign, Mary reversed Edwards Protestant reforms, which nonetheless became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559. Edward was born on 12 October 1537 in his mothers room inside Hampton Court Palace and he was the son of King Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour. Throughout the realm, the people greeted the birth of a male heir, te Deums were sung in churches, bonfires lit, and their was shott at the Tower that night above two thousand gonnes. The Queen, however, fell ill on 23 October from presumed postnatal complications, Henry VIII wrote to Francis I of France that Divine Providence. Hath mingled my joy with bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness, Edward was a healthy baby who suckled strongly from the outset. His father was delighted with him, in May 1538, Henry was observed dallying with him in his arms, and so holding him in a window to the sight and great comfort of the people. That September, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Audley, reported Edwards rapid growth and vigour, the tradition that Edward VI was a sickly boy has been challenged by more recent historians. At the age of four, he fell ill with a quartan fever. Edward was initially placed in the care of Margaret Bryan, lady mistress of the princes household and she was succeeded by Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy. Until the age of six, Edward was brought up, as he put it later in his Chronicle, the formal royal household established around Edward was, at first, under Sir William Sidney, and later Sir Richard Page, stepfather of Edward Seymours wife, Anne Stanhope
17.
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
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Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset KG was Lord Protector of England from 1547 until 1549 during the minority of his nephew, King Edward VI. He was the eldest brother of Queen Jane Seymour, the wife of King Henry VIII. Edward Seymour was born circa 1500, the son of Sir John Seymour by his wife Margery Wentworth, in 1514 aged about 14 he received an appointment in the household of Mary Tudor. When Edwards sister Jane Seymour married King Henry VIII in 1536, he was created Viscount Beauchamp on 5 June 1536 and he became Warden of the Scottish Marches and continued in royal favour after his sisters death on 24 October 1537. Upon the death of Henry VIII, Seymours nephew became king as Edward VI. Henry VIIIs will named sixteen executors and these executors were supplemented by twelve men of counsail who would assist the executors when called on. The final state of Henry VIIIs will has occasioned controversy, some historians suggest that those close to the king manipulated either him or the will itself to ensure a shareout of power to their benefit, both material and religious. In this reading, the composition of the Privy Chamber shifted towards the end of 1546 in favour of the Protestant faction, in addition, two leading conservative Privy Councillors were removed from the centre of power. Stephen Gardiner was refused access to Henry during his last months, whatever the case, Henrys death was followed by a lavish hand-out of lands and honours to the new power group. Henry VIIIs will did not provide for the appointment of a Protector and it entrusted the government of the realm during his sons minority to a Regency Council that would rule collectively, by majority decision, with like and equal charge. Nevertheless, a few days after Henrys death, on 4 February, thirteen out of the sixteen agreed to his appointment as Protector, which they justified as their joint decision by virtue of the authority of Henrys will. Seymour may have done a deal with some of the executors and he is known to have done so with William Paget, private secretary to Henry VIII, and to have secured the support of Sir Anthony Browne of the Privy Chamber. Hertfords appointment was in keeping with historical precedent, and his eligibility for the role was reinforced by his successes in Scotland. In March 1547, he secured letters patent from King Edward granting him the almost monarchical right to appoint members to the Privy Council himself, in the words of historian G. R. Elton, from that moment his autocratic system was complete. He proceeded to rule largely by proclamation, calling on the Privy Council to do more than rubber-stamp his decisions. Somersets takeover of power was smooth and efficient, wriothesley, a religious conservative, objected to Somerset’s assumption of monarchical power over the Council. He then found himself dismissed from the chancellorship on charges of selling off some of his offices to delegates. Somerset faced less manageable opposition from his younger brother Thomas, who has described as a worm in the bud. As King Edwards uncle, Thomas Seymour demanded the governorship of the king’s person, Somerset tried to buy his brother off with a barony, an appointment to the Lord Admiralship, and a seat on the Privy Council—but Thomas was bent on scheming for power
18.
Sir William Sidney
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Sir William Sidney was an English courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI. He was eldest son of Nicholas Sidney, by Anne, sister of Sir William Brandon and he was hospitably entertained by King Ferdinand, but declined the honour of knighthood from him, and shortly afterwards returned home through France. As captain of the ‘Great Bark’ he took part in the operations before Brest in April 1513. He was knighted for his services, and on 23 March 1514 obtained a grant in tail male of the lordship of Kingston-upon-Hull and the manor of Myton forfeited by the attainder of Edmund de la Pole. In the following summer he went to France, charged with the delicate task of announcing the approaching second marriage of the Princess Mary. Sidney was appointed a squire of the body to Henry VIII and he accompanied the king to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and in 1523, during the war with France, took part in the expedition commanded by the Duke of Suffolk. In March 1538 he was appointed tutor and steward of the household to Prince Edward, in 1539 he received a large grant of lands in Kent and Sussex in exchange for those held by him in York and Lincoln. His wife died on 22 October 1543, and on 25 April 1552 Edward VI added to his estates in Kent the manor of Penshurst, Sidney died at Penshurst on 10 February 1554, and was buried in the parish church. Sidney married Anne Pakenham, daughter of Sir Hugh Pakenham, frances, who married of Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex. Everingham, Kimball G. ed. Magna Carta Ancestry, A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, attriution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Dunlop, Robert. London, Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 210–217
19.
Henry Sidney
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He was instrumental in the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland, serving as Lord Deputy three times. His career was both at home and in Ireland. Born to Anne Pakenham and Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, Sidney married Mary Dudley, eldest daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and they would have three sons and four daughters. His eldest son was Sir Philip Sidney, and his second was Robert Sidney and his daughter Mary Sidney married Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and by reason of her literary achievements was one of the most celebrated women of her time. In 1556 Sidney served in Ireland with the Lord Deputy, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, both served Queen Mary until her death in 1558. Sidney had a share in expanding the English administration in the country. He was also involved in the civil and military measures taken by his brother-in-law for bringing Irish chieftains into submission to the English Crown, known as Surrender, in the course of the Lord Deputys expedition to Ulster in 1557 Sidney devastated the island of Rathlin. In the following year, during the absence of Sussex in England, he had responsibility for the government of Ireland. In 1565 Sidney was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in place of Sir Nicholas Arnold and he said he found the English Pale to be in a more impoverished and turbulent condition than when he left it, and claimed the chief disturbing factor to be Shane ONeill in Ulster. In the autumn of 1567 Sidney returned to England, and was absent from Ireland for the ten months. In 1569, he oversaw the opening of a parliament in Dublin and he proposed the establishment of the Court of Castle Chamber – an Irish version of the Star Chamber – which drew the encouragement of the Queen and was established after his recall. Sidney proposed the appointment of a governor in the provinces of Munster. This provoked the first of the Desmond Rebellions led by James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald of the Geraldine family, in 1570 many followers of Sir Edmund Butler were hanged, and three brothers of Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, were attainted by an act of the Irish parliament. Sidney left Ireland in 1571, aggrieved by the appreciation of his statesmanship shown by Queen Elizabeth. In September 1575 he returned with greater authority, to find matters in a worse state than before. He left his mark on the areas of the island by creating shire divisions on the English model. At an earlier period he had combined the districts of the Ardes and Clandeboye to form the county of Carrickfergus, and had converted the country of the OFarrells into the County Longford. He then carried out a policy in Connacht, where the ancient Irish district of Thomond became County Clare
20.
Mary Dudley
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Mary Sidney was a lady-in-waiting at the court of Elizabeth I, and the mother of Sir Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. A daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, she was implicated in her fathers attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. Mary Dudley was one of Queen Elizabeths most intimate confidantes during the years of her reign. Her duties included nursing the Queen through smallpox in 1563 and acting as her mouthpiece towards diplomats, a sister of Elizabeths favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she remained always loyal to her family. She was the mother of seven children and accompanied her husband, Sir Henry Sidney, to Ireland, from the 1570s the couple complained repeatedly about their, as they saw it, niggardly treatment at the Queens hands. Still one of Elizabeths favourite ladies, Mary Dudley retired from life in 1579. Mary Dudley was the eldest daughter among the 13 children of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, fluent in Italian, French, and Latin, she was interested in alchemy, romances, and writing poetry. Her copy of Edward Halls Chronicles bears her annotations in French and she also became a friend, correspondent and frequent visitor of the scientist and magus John Dee. On 29 March 1551 Mary Dudley married Henry Sidney at Esher, possibly a love match, the ceremony was repeated in public on 17 May 1551 at her parents house Ely Place, London. In May 1553 Marys second youngest brother, Guildford Dudley, was married to Edwards favourite cousin, Lady Jane Grey. According to Lady Jane it was Mary Dudley who, on 9 July 1553, called upon her to bring her to Syon House, after Mary Is triumph within a fortnight and the arrest and execution of the Duke of Northumberland, the Sidneys were in a precarious situation. Like the rest of the Dudley family, Mary Dudley was attainted and suffered the consequences in her legal status, Henry Sidneys three sisters, however, were favourite ladies of Queen Mary, which may have saved his career. In early 1554 he went with an embassy to Spain to plead with Englands prospective king consort, Philip, for the pardon of his brothers-in-law John, Ambrose, Robert, and Henry. John Dudley, the eldest brother, died days after his release in October 1554 at Penshurst Place in Kent, Philip Sidney, Mary Dudleys first child, was born there in November 1554 and named after his godfather, the King. His godmother, the widowed Duchess of Northumberland, died in January 1555 and she left her daughter 200 marks as well as a cherished clock that was the lord her fathers, praying her to keep it as a jewel. In 1556 Mary Dudley went with her husband to Ireland, where they resided mostly at Athlone Castle and their first daughter, Mary Margaret, was born some time after their arrival. Queen Mary acted as godmother, but the child died at one year, meanwhile, the infant Philip stayed behind at Penshurst until his mother returned from Ireland in September 1558. She had been restored in blood earlier in the year when the Dudleys attainder was lifted by Mary Is last parliament, on Elizabeth Is accession in November 1558 Mary Dudley became a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber without wages, an unsalaried position which left her dependent on her husband
21.
Lady Jane Grey
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Lady Jane Grey, also known as Lady Jane Dudley or the Nine-Day Queen, was an English noblewoman and de facto monarch of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. The great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, Jane was a first cousin once removed of Edward VI, in May 1553, she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edwards chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Privy Council decided to change sides, Jane was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared. Wyatts rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary Is plans to marry Philip of Spain led to the execution of both Jane and her husband, Lady Jane Grey had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day. A committed Protestant, she was regarded as not only a political victim. Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Lady Frances was the eldest daughter of King Henry VIIIs younger sister, Mary. Jane received a humanist education, studying Latin, Greek and Hebrew with John Aylmer, through the influence of her father and her tutors, she became a committed Protestant and also corresponded with the Zürich reformer Heinrich Bullinger. Jane preferred book studies to hunting parties and regarded her strict upbringing and that I think myself in hell. In early February 1547, Jane was sent to live in the household of Edward VIs uncle, Thomas Seymour, Jane lived with the couple until the death of Queen Catherine in childbirth in September 1548. Seymours brother, the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, among other things, Thomas Seymour was charged with proposing Jane as a bride for the king. In the course of Thomas Seymours following attainder and execution, Janes father was lucky to stay out of trouble. After his fourth interrogation by the Kings Council, he proposed his daughter Jane as a bride for the Protectors eldest son, Lord Hertford. Nothing came of this, however, and Jane was not engaged until the spring of 1553, her bridegroom being Lord Guildford Dudley, the duke was then the most powerful man in the country. The Third Succession Act of 1544 restored Henry VIIIs daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession, furthermore, this Act authorised Henry VIII to alter the succession by his will. When the 15-year-old Edward VI lay dying in the summer of 1553. Edward also announced to have his declaration passed in parliament in September, the King died on 6 July 1553. On 9 July Jane was informed that she was now queen, Jane refused to name her husband Dudley as king by letters patent and deferred to Parliament. She offered to make him Duke of Clarence instead, Northumberland faced a number of key tasks to consolidate his power after Edwards death
22.
Old St Paul's Cathedral
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Old St Pauls Cathedral was the medieval cathedral of the City of London that, until 1666, stood on the site of the present St Pauls Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, the cathedral was the church on the site at Ludgate Hill. Work on the cathedral began during the reign of William the Conqueror after a fire in 1087 that destroyed much of the city, Work took more than 200 years, and construction was delayed by another fire in 1135. The church was consecrated in 1240 and enlarged again in 1256, at its completion in the middle of the 14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world and had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass. The presence of the shrine of Saint Erkenwald made the cathedral a pilgrimage site during the Medieval period, after the Reformation, the open-air pulpit in the churchyard, St Pauls Cross, became the stage for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling. The cathedral was already in severe structural decline by the 17th century, Restoration work by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was halted by the English Civil War. Sir Christopher Wren was attempting another restoration in 1666 when the cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, after demolition of the old structure, the present, domed cathedral was erected on the site, with an English Baroque design by Wren. The cathedral could be the church on the site at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul. A devastating fire in 1087, detailed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, destroyed much of the city, Bishop Maurice oversaw early preparations, although it was primarily under his successor, Richard de Beaumis, that construction work fully commenced. Beaumis was assisted by King Henry I, who gave the bishop stone, to fund the cathedral, Henry gave Beamis rights to all fish caught within the cathedral neighbourhood and tithes on venison taken in the County of Essex. Beaumis also gave a site for the foundation of St Pauls School. After Henry Is death, a war known as The Anarchy broke out. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to administer the affairs of St Pauls, almost immediately, he had to deal with the aftermath of a fire at London Bridge in 1135. It spread over much of the city, damaging the cathedral, during this period, the style of the building was changed from heavy Romanesque into Early English Gothic. Although the base Norman columns were left alone, lancet pointed arches were placed over them in the triforium, the steeple was erected in 1221 and the cathedral was rededicated by Bishop Roger Niger in 1240. After a succession of storms, in 1255 Bishop Fulk Basset appealed for funds to repair the damaged roof, the roof was once more rebuilt in wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. At this time, the east end of the church was lengthened, enclosing the parish church of St Faith. The eastward addition was always referred to as The New Work, after complaints from the dispossessed parishioners of St Faiths, the east end of the west crypt was allotted to them as their parish church
23.
Battle of Zutphen
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The Battle of Zutphen was fought on 22 September 1586, near the village of Warnsveld and the town of Zutphen, the Netherlands, during the Eighty Years War. It was fought between forces of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, aided by the English, against the Spanish, in 1585, England signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the States-General of the Netherlands and formally entered the war against Spain. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was appointed as the Governor-General of the Netherlands, Zutphen was strategically important to Farnese, as it allowed his troops to levy war contributions in the rich Veluwe region. Therefore, he left some troops blockading Rheinberg and marched to relieve the town and he personally supplied Zutphen at first, but as the Anglo-Dutch siege continued, he assembled a large convoy whose delivery to the town he entrusted to the Marquis of Vasto. Leicester learned of this when a courier dispatched by Farnese to Francisco Verdugo, the English and Dutch prepared an ambush, in which many English knights and noblemen were involved. In the end, the Spanish succeeded in delivering the convoy safely to Zutphen after a hard-fought battle, the Spanish cavalry, composed mainly of Italian and Albanian soldiers, was defeated by the English cavalry under the Earl of Essex. The Spanish infantry, however, held its ground and delivered the convoy to Zutphen, from there, reinforced by Verdugo, the Spanish troops forced the English to retreat. Zutphen was secured for the Spanish, though in the weeks the English managed to capture a major Spanish fort, Zutphens sconce. Most of the English gains were negated when, months later, in 1585, Queen Elizabeth I of England took the United Provinces of the Netherlands under her protection and signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the States-General. England dispatched 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry soldiers to the Low Countries, when Farnese besieged Rheinberg in September 1586, Leicesters army marched towards Zutphen and took a Spanish sconce on the left bank of the IJssel river. On 18 September Leicester laid a bridge over the IJssel and took positions on the right bank of the river. Leicesters Anglo-Dutch army consisted of 8,000 infantry – mainly English and Scottish, as the siege continued, Farnese left some troops to blockade Rheinberg and supplied Zutphen in person with 600 cavalry and a convoy of 300 wagons of wheat. Leicester was in Deventer then, but on receiving news of Farneses approach and he found, on his arrival, that Counts Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein and William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg had entrenched the army on a mountain along the right bank of the IJssel. Leicester was informed of the ways through which the Spanish army might attempt to supply the town. Led by Farnese himself and Francisco Verdugo, the Spanish troops left Borculo at night, passed next to the Dutch town of Lochem, Farnese prayed in the St. Walburgis church and later on walked up its tower to watch the English army. The following morning a war council was held after a captured Scottish officer was interrogated and revealed Leicesters plans and strength. Farnese considered the possibility of defending the town himself, but Verdugo dissuaded him to avoid giving the Queen of England the fame that Prince of Parma was like a prisoner inside Zutphen. Farnese returned to Borculo, entrusted the command of the town to Verdugo, while the siege continued, he marched to Lingen with his army to intercept a corps of reiters who were being recruited in Germany under Elizabeth Is orders
24.
Great Fire of London
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The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London from Sunday,2 September to Wednesday,5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall and it threatened but did not reach the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles IIs Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses,87 parish churches, St Pauls Cathedral and it is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the Citys 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll is unknown but traditionally thought to have been small, a melted piece of pottery on display at the Museum of London found by archaeologists in Pudding Lane, where the fire started, shows that the temperature reached 1250 °C. The Great Fire started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday,2 September, by the time that large-scale demolitions were ordered on Sunday night, the wind had already fanned the bakery fire into a firestorm that defeated such measures. The fire pushed north on Monday into the heart of the City, order in the streets broke down as rumours arose of suspicious foreigners setting fires. The fears of the focused on the French and Dutch, Englands enemies in the ongoing Second Anglo-Dutch War. The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming, evacuation from London and resettlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst the dispossessed refugees. Despite numerous radical proposals, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan used before the fire, by the 1660s, London was by far the largest city in Britain, estimated at half a million inhabitants. By inartificial, Evelyn meant unplanned and makeshift, the result of organic growth, London had been a Roman settlement for four centuries and had become progressively more crowded inside its defensive city wall. It had also pushed outwards beyond the wall into squalid extramural slums such as Shoreditch, Holborn, and Southwark, the City was surrounded by a ring of inner suburbs where most Londoners lived. The City was then, as now, the heart of the capital. The aristocracy shunned the City and lived either in the countryside beyond the suburbs, or in the exclusive Westminster district. The relationship was tense between the City and the Crown. The City magistrates were of the generation that had fought in the Civil War and they were determined to thwart any similar tendencies in his son, and when the Great Fire threatened the City, they refused the offers that Charles made of soldiers and other resources. Even in such an emergency, the idea of having the unpopular Royal troops ordered into the City was political dynamite, by the time that Charles took over command from the ineffectual Lord Mayor, the fire was already out of control. The City was essentially medieval in its plan, an overcrowded warren of narrow, winding. It had experienced major fires before 1666, the most recent in 1632
25.
Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester
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Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, second son of Sir Henry Sidney, was a statesman of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. He was also a patron of the arts and an interesting poet and his mother, Mary Sidney née Dudley, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I and a sister of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, an advisor and favourite of the Queen. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards travelling on the Continent for some years between 1578 and 1583 and he was present at the Battle of Zutphen where Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded, and remained with his brother. He had been appointed governor of the town of Flushing in 1588. In 1595 he sent his business manager Rowland Whyte to court to lobby for resources for Flushing, whytes letters provide a major resource for historians of the period. Whyte himself regularly complains about the indecipherable handwriting of his employers replies, in 1603, on the accession of James I, he returned to England. James raised him at once to the peerage as Baron Sidney of Penshurst, in 1605 he was created Viscount Lisle, and in 1618 Earl of Leicester, the latter title having become extinct in 1588 on the death of his uncle, part of whose property he had inherited. Sidney married twice, Firstly to Barbara Gamage, an heiress and beauty, the daughter of John Gamage, of Coity Castle. By his first wife he had eleven children, Sir William Sidney, his eldest son who predeceased his father and died unmarried. Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, second son and heir, Henry Sidney Philip Sidney Mary Sidney, who married Sir Robert Wroth of Loughton Hall, was like her father a poet, Ben Jonson dedicated The Alchemist to her in 1612. Barbara Sidney Dorothy Sidney Elizabeth Bridget Sidney Secondly to Sarah Blount, daughter of William Blount, and widow of Sir Thomas Smythe. Leicester was a man of taste and a patron of literature, whose cultured mode of life at his seat, Penshurst Place, was celebrated in verse by Ben Jonson. Sidney had agreed to be godfather to John Dowland’s son, and A Musicall Banquet opens with a Galliard by John Dowland entitled Syr Robert Sidney his Galliard. Subsequent research showed it had acquired in 1848 after passing through a number of sales beginning with the dispersal of the library at Penshurst in the early 19th century. They show Robert Sidney as an advocate of the Neo-platonic philosophy of love, the fact that several of the poems are based on identifiable tunes confirms his interest in music. While he cannot be placed in the first rank of Elizabethan poets, his poems are by no means negligible and of the greatest interest for the working methods, the arms of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester showed sixteen quarters as follows,1. Barry of ten a lion rampant crowned 3, a lion rampant double queued 4. Barry of six in chief three torteaux a label of three points for difference 6, barry of ten as many martlets in orle 9
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Earl of Leicester
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The title Earl of Leicester was created in the 12th century in the Peerage of England, and is currently a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1837. The title was first created for Robert de Beaumont, but he always used his French title of Count of Meulan. Three generations of his descendants, all also named Robert, called themselves Earls of Leicester, the Beaumont male line ended with the death of the Fourth Earl. His property was split between his two sisters, with Simon IV de Montfort, the son of the eldest sister, acquiring Leicester, de Montfort however was never formally recognized as earl, due to the antipathy between France and England at that time. His second son, Simon V de Montfort, did succeed in taking possession of the earldom and he is the Simon de Montfort who became so prominent during the reign of Henry III. He was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and his lands, in 1267 the title was created a second time and granted to the kings youngest son Edmund Crouchback. In 1276 he also became Earl of Lancaster, and the titles became united, crouchbacks son Thomas lost the earldom when he was executed for treason in 1322, but a few years later it was restored to his younger brother Henry. Henrys son Henry of Grosmont left only two daughters, and his estate was divided between them, the eldest daughter Matilda receiving the earldom, which was held by her husband William V of Holland. Matilda, however, soon died, and the passed to John of Gaunt, husband of her younger sister, Blanche. Both the dukedom and the earldom were inherited by John of Gaunts son, Henry Bolingbroke, the properties associated with the earldom became part of what was later called the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1564 the earldom was created for Queen Elizabeth Is favourite. Since Dudley died without heirs, the title became extinct at his death, the title was again created in 1618 for Robert Sidney, his nephew. Along with the earldom Robert Sidney was granted the title of Viscount Lisle on 4 May 1605. The Sidneys retained the titles until the death of the seventh Earl in 1743, the title of earl was then recreated for Thomas Coke, but it became extinct when he, too, died without heirs. Townshend was a female-line great-great-great-grandson of Lady Lucy Sydney, daughter of the second Earl of the 1618 creation, the earldom became extinct yet again upon the death of his son, the third Marquess and second Earl, in 1855. The Coke family is descended from the judge and politician Sir Edward Coke. His great-great-great-grandson Thomas Coke was a landowner, politician and patron of arts, Lord Leicester began the construction of Holkham Hall in Norfolk. He married Margaret Tufton, 19th Baroness de Clifford and their only child Edward Coke, Viscount Coke, predeceased both his parents, without issue
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Viscount De L'Isle
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Viscount De LIsle, of Penshurst in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1956 for William Sidney, 6th Baron de LIsle and Dudley, VC, KG, GCMG, thomas Sidney, fourth son of Robert Sidney, 4th Earl of Leicester. In 1799 he assumed by Royal licence the surname of Sidney on succeeding to the estates, including Penshurst Place in Kent. In 1818 he was created a Baronet, of Penshurst in the County of Kent and his son and heir apparent, Philip Sidney, represented Eye in the House of Commons. In 1835, fourteen years before succeeding his father in the baronetcy, he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron De LIsle and Dudley, of Penshurst in the County of Kent. The title derived from the fact that the title of Viscount De LIsle had been held by his ancestors the Earls of Leicester, lord De LIsle and Dudley discontinued the use of the surname Shelley. His grandson, the fifth Baron, notably served as Mayor of Chelsea and was a member of the London County Council and his son, the sixth Baron, was a prominent Conservative politician and served as Secretary of State for Air from 1951 to 1955. In 1956 he was created Viscount De LIsle, of Penshurst in the County of Kent, lord De LIsle later served as Governor-General of Australia. In 1965 he also succeeded his kinsman as ninth Baronet of Castle Goring, as of 2017 the titles are held by his son, the second Viscount, who succeeded in 1991. The family seat is Penshurst Place, near Tonbridge, Kent, close to it is the parish church of St John the Baptist where the Sidney Chapel houses many memorials to the family. Shelley Baronets, of Castle Goring Earl of Leicester Duke of Northumberland Viscount Lisle Baron Lisle Kidd, Charles, Williamson, new York, St Martins Press,1990
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William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle
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Sidney was the younger of two children, and the only son, of William Sidney, 5th Baron De LIsle and Dudley and his wife, Winifred Agneta Yorke Bevan. The Sidney family is one of Englands oldest and most distinguished families and he was a descendant of King William IV by his mistress Dorothea Jordan. He was educated at Eton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1929 he joined the Grenadier Guards Reserve of Officers. Lord De LIsle married Hon Jacqueline Corrine Yvonne Vereker, daughter of Field Marshal John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, Hon. Catherine Mary, married to Martin John Wilbraham, and then to Nicholas Hyde Villiers. Philip John Algernon, 2nd Viscount De LIsle Hon. Anne Marjorie, Hon. Lucy Corinna Agneta, married to Michael Willoughby, 13th Baron Middleton After his wifes death, he married the widowed Lady Glanusk on 24 March 1966 in Paris. During the Second World War, Sidney fought in the Battle of France, Sidney led a successful attack which drove German troops out of a gully. Later he led another counter-attack and dashed forward, engaging the Germans with his gun at point-blank range. During this time, although weak from loss of blood, he continued to encourage. In later life, when asked where he had been shot and this was to conceal the fact that he had, in fact, been shot in the buttocks. The ribbon for the medal was made one of his father-in-law Lord Gorts uniforms and was awarded by General Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied Armies in Italy. At a by-election in October 1944, he was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for Chelsea and his father died in June 1945 and he succeeded as 6th Baron De LIsle and Dudley, requiring translation to the House of Lords. He thus retired from the House of Commons prior to the July 1945 general election, in 1951 he was appointed Secretary of State for Air under Winston Churchill and held that office until 1955. During this time he visited Australia, travelling to Woomera to examine weapons research and meeting the Prime Minister, in 1956 he was created Viscount De LIsle, of Penshurst in the County of Kent. In 1961, following the death of Lord Dunrossil, Menzies recommended De LIsles appointment as Governor-General of Australia. He performed his duties with dignity and travelled widely around Australia. De LIsles Official Secretary throughout his term was Murray Tyrrell, by the time of his retirement in 1965, public opinion was strongly in favour of an Australian Governor-General, although this was not a reflection on his performance in the role. In 1975 he co-founded what is now called The Freedom Association, Viscount De LIsle died in Kent on 5 April 1991 and was buried in the Sidney family vault at St John the Baptist, Penshurst. He was the last surviving Victoria Cross recipient who had been a member of both Houses of Parliament He was succeeded in his titles by his son, Philip
29.
Victoria Cross
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The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system. It is awarded for gallantry in the face of the enemy to members of the British armed forces and it was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857 and these investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War, since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals,11 to members of the British Army, the traditional explanation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Some research has suggested a variety of origins for the material, research has established that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannons that were captured from the Russians in 1855. Owing to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal has fetched over £400,000 at auction, a number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross. The private collection of Lord Ashcroft, amassed since 1986, contains over one-tenth of all VCs awarded, following a 2008 donation to the Imperial War Museum, the Ashcroft collection went on public display alongside the museums Victoria and George Cross collection in November 2010. These are unique awards of honours system, recommended, assessed, gazetted and presented by each country. In 1854, after 39 years of peace, Britain found itself fighting a war against Russia. The Crimean War was one of the first wars with modern reporting, before the Crimean War, there was no official standardised system for recognition of gallantry within the British armed forces. This structure was limited, in practice awards of the Order of the Bath were confined to officers of field rank. Brevet promotions or Mentions in Despatches were largely confined to those who were under the notice of the commanders in the field. Other European countries had awards that did not discriminate against class or rank, France awarded the Légion dhonneur and The Netherlands gave the Order of William. There was a feeling among the public and in the Royal Court that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a mans lengthy or meritorious service. Queen Victoria issued a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual on 29 January 1856 that officially constituted the VC, the order was backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War. Queen Victoria had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class, the medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services
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Order of the Garter
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The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honour in England and the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George and it is awarded at the Sovereigns pleasure as a personal gift on recipients from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Membership of the Order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, the order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies. New appointments to the Order of the Garter are always announced on St Georges Day, the orders emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense in gold lettering. Members of the wear it on ceremonial occasions. King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter around the time of his claim to the French throne, the list includes Sir Sanchet DAbrichecourt, who died on 20 October 1345. Other dates from 1344 to 1351 have also been proposed, the Kings wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of 1348. Also, its original statutes required that member of the Order already be a knight. The earliest written mention of the Order is found in Tirant lo Blanch and it was first published in 1490. This book devotes a chapter to the description of the origin of the Order of the Garter, at the time of its foundation, the Order consisted of King Edward III, together with 25 Founder Knights, listed in ascending order of stall number in St.1431. Various legends account for the origin of the Order, the most popular legend involves the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, Honi soit qui mal y pense, King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. This story is recounted in a letter to the Annual Register in 1774, The motto in fact refers to Edwards claim to the French throne, the use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour. Medieval scholars have pointed to a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in Gawain, a girdle, very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough version of the Orders motto also appears in the text and it translates from Old French as Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart. While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter. Scholar J. P. Oakden has suggested that it is related to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and, more importantly. Another competing theory is that the work was written for Enguerrand de Coucy, the Sire de Coucy was married to King Edward IIIs daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day
31.
Philip Sidney, 2nd Viscount De L'Isle
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Philip John Algernon Sidney, 2nd Viscount De LIsle, MBE is a British peer and former soldier. Lord De LIsle is the son of William Sidney, 1st Viscount De LIsle and his wife Jacqueline. He was educated at Tabley House, Mons OCS and Sandhurst, after service in the Rifle Brigade, in 1966, he became a Major in the Grenadier Guards and took early retirement in 1979. He was appointed Vice-Lieutenant of Kent in 2002 and is also a Freeman of the City of London, on 1 September 2011, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Kent. In 2012, he was made a commander of the Order of Saint John, on 15 November 1980, De LIsle married Isobel Tresyllian Compton, youngest daughter of the civil servant Sir Edmund Compton. They have two children, Sophia Jacqueline Mary Sidney and Philip William Edmund Sidney, De LIsle succeeded to his fathers titles in 1991. The family seat is Penshurst Place in Kent, leger, Thomas, Earl of Rutland, Henry, Earl of Rutland, John, Earl of Rutland, Lady Bridget Manners, Roger Tyrwhitt, Francis Tyrwhitt, Catherine Tyrwhitt, Sir Thomas Hunloke, Bt. Henrietta Hunloke, Philip, Lord De LIsle and Dudley, Philip, Lord De LIsle and Dudley, William, Baron De LIsle and Dudley, William, Viscount De LIsle, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Viscount De LIsle |}
32.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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St John the Baptist, Penshurst
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St John the Baptist Church at Penshurst, Kent is a Grade I listed Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Rochester in England. A church has stood on the present site in Penshurst since 1115, at the centre of a cluster of buildings, including the house, guild house. The church of 1115 is mentioned in the Textus Roffensis, there may have been a church on the site since Saxon times, as suggested by the recent discovery of artefacts dating from 860 AD on adjoining land. Penshurst’s first priest, Wilhelmus, was installed in 1170 by Archbishop Thomas Becket, the core of the nave as it appears today may be of that date. The North aisle was added c.1200, and the South-Eastern chapel is 13th century in origin, the South aisle and South chapel arcade were built or rebuilt in the 14th century, and the North-Eastern chapel was also in existence by the mid-14th century. The nave and chancel walls were raised and provided with a clerestory in the 15th century, the South aisle was widened and the South porch built in 1631. Before the restoration by George Gilbert Scott, the windows there were of 1631, the unusual corner turrets and pinnacles on the tower may also be 17th century. The church was restored and partially rebuilt in 1864–1865 by George Gilbert Scott. There was further refurnishing in the late 19th century, St John the Baptist has a nave with North and South aisles and a South porch. The tower stands in the West, Side chapels are in the North-East, the South and the South-East. The latter is the Sidney Chapel which has its own porch and is connected with the churchs chancel. The church is located set back from the street and in proximity to Penshurst Place. The churchs exterior is built from coursed sandstone ashlar, sections of the present building can be traced to almost each century between the 12th and 19th. On the interior, the church as no chancel arch, but a timber arch of 1865–1866 which serves to divide nave. There is a 15th-century polygonal font with quatrefoils on the bowl and tracery on the stem, the chancel screen dates from 1895 and is by Bodley and Garner, in a very elaborate late Perpendicular style with delicate tracery and a coved loft. There is a screen in the North aisle. There is also some good heraldic glass of 1627 in the West window and glass of 1884 in the South clerestory by Holiday, as well as other good 19th century and early 20th century windows. The Chancel, where the choir sits, and Sanctuary, behind the rail, incorporate 14th
34.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
35.
Anne of the Thousand Days
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Anne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 British costume drama made by Hal Wallis Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B, the film tells the story of Anne Boleyn. The film stars Richard Burton as King Henry VIII and Geneviève Bujold as Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Taylor makes a brief, uncredited appearance. Irene Papas plays Catherine of Aragon, Geneviève Bujolds portrayal of Anne, her first in an English-speaking film, was, however, very highly praised, even by Time magazine, which otherwise skewered the movie. The play Anne of the Thousand Days, the basis, was first enacted on Broadway in the Shubert Theatre on 8 December 1948. Potter, with Rex Harrison and Joyce Redman as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn respectively, running 288 performances, Harrison won a Tony Award for his performance. Cinematically, Anne of the Thousand Days took twenty years to reach the screen because its themes – adultery, illegitimacy, the film was made on such locations as Penshurst Place and Hever Castle, and at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios. Hever Castle was one of the settings for the film. The stunning formal Tudor gardens provided the setting for the film. Starting in 1527, Henry has a problem, he reveals his dissatisfaction with his wife and he is currently enjoying a discreet affair with Mary Boleyn, a daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn who is one of his courtiers, but the King is bored with her too. At a court ball, he notices Marys 18-year-old sister Anne and she is engaged to the son of the Earl of Northumberland and they have received their parents permission to marry. The King, however, is enraptured with Annes beauty and orders his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, when news of this decision is carried to Anne, she reacts furiously. She blames the Cardinal and the King for ruining her happiness, when Henry makes a rather clumsy attempt to seduce her, Anne bluntly informs him how she finds him, Ive heard what your courtiers say and Ive seen what you are. Youre spoiled and vengeful and bloody and your poetry is sour and your music is worse. You make love as you eat with a deal of noise. Henry brings her back to Court with him, whilst she continues to resist his advances out of a mixture of repugnance for Henry, however, she becomes intoxicated with the power that the Kings love gives her. Power is as exciting as love, she tells her brother George Boleyn, using this power, she continually undermines Cardinal Wolsey, who at first sees Anne as just a passing love interest for the King. When Henry again presses Anne to become his mistress, she repeats that she never give birth to a child who is illegitimate
36.
Ben Jonson
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Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours, Ben Jonson said that his family originally came from the folk of the Anglo-Scottish border country, which genealogy is attested by the three spindles in the Jonson family coat of arms. One spindle is a heraldic device shared with the Border-country Johnstone family of Annandale. Jonsons clergyman father died two months before his birth, his mother married a master bricklayer two years later, Jonson attended school in St. Martins Lane. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School, on leaving Westminster School, Jonson was to have attended the University of Cambridge, to continue his book learning but did not, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Jonson at this time built a wall in Lincolns Inn. After having been a bricklayer, Ben Jonson went to the Netherlands. After his military activity on the Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor, as an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” in the play The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, the first revenge tragedy in English literature. Regarding his marriage Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as a shrew, concerning the family of Anne Lewis and Ben Jonson, the St. Martins Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Moreover,32 years later, a son, also named Benjamin Jonson. By summer 1597, Jonson had an engagement in the Admirals Men, then performing under Philip Henslowes management at The Rose. John Aubrey reports, on authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor, whatever his skills as an actor. By this time Jonson had begun to write plays for the Admirals Men. None of his early tragedies survive, however, an undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597 a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, was suppressed after causing great offence, arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth Is so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with Leude and mutynous behaviour, two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright, in 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Days Mirth
37.
Covington Cross
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Covington Cross is a British/American television series that was broadcast on the ABC in the United States from August 25 to October 31,1992. The program also aired in the United Kingdom and was scheduled to be broadcast in France, the series was filmed and produced in the UK, by a British production company, but it was ultimately accountable to an American network. Set in 14th-century England, the series follows the daily intrigues of Sir Thomas Grey, a widower, covington Cross is the name of Sir Thomas castle. His children are eldest son, Armus, the serious Richard, free spirited Cedric, another son, William, appeared in the pilot episode, but was then directed by the programs writers to fight in the Crusades. Also featuring in Sir Thomass life is his love interest, Lady Elizabeth, thirteen episodes were produced, but only seven aired in the US. It was an expensive show to produce thanks to overseas production costs. In addition, on occasions the shows time slot airtimes was bought by businessman Ross Perot for infomercials in an attempt to raise his poll numbers during his independent run for president. Much of the filming was done in and around castles in England, allington Castle was used for the exterior scenes, while Penshurst Place in Kent were used for the interior scenes
38.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008 film)
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The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2008 historical drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. The screenplay by Peter Morgan was adapted from the 2001 novel of the name by Philippa Gregory. Production studio BBC Films also owns the rights to adapt the novel, The Boleyn Inheritance. King Henry VIIIs marriage to Catherine of Aragon does not produce a heir to the throne. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and his brother in law Thomas Boleyn, plan to install Boleyns older daughter Anne Boleyn and they hope Anne will bear him a son. Annes mother, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, is disgusted by the plot, Anne eventually agrees to please her father and uncle. Annes younger sister, Mary Boleyn, marries William Carey, even though his family had asked for Annes hand. While visiting the Boleyn estate, Henry is injured in an accident, indirectly caused by Anne. While in her care, Henry becomes smitten with her and invites her to court, Mary and her husband reluctantly agree, aware that the king has invited her because he desires her. Mary and Anne become ladies-in-waiting to Queen Catherine and Henry sends William Carey abroad on an assignment, separated from her husband, Mary finds herself falling in love with Henry. Anne secretly marries the nobleman Henry Percy, although he is betrothed to Lady Mary Talbot, Anne confides in her brother George Boleyn, who is overjoyed and proceeds to tell Mary. Fearing Anne will ruin the Boleyn family by marrying such a prominent earl without the consent, Mary alerts her father. They confront Anne, annul the marriage, and exile her to France and her family receives new grants and estates, their debts are paid, and Henry arranges Georges marriage to Jane Parker. When Mary nearly suffers a miscarriage, she is confined to bed until her child is born, Norfolk recalls Anne to England to keep Henrys attention from wandering to another rival. In her belief that Mary exiled her to increase her own status, Henry then has Mary sent to the country at Annes request. Anne encourages Henry to break from the Catholic Church when the Pope refuses to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine, Henry succumbs to Annes demands, declares himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, and gets Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to annul the marriage. Henry comes to Annes rooms but she refuses to have sex with him, a pregnant Anne marries Henry to please her family and becomes Queen of England. Despite the birth of a daughter, Elizabeth, Henry blames Anne for not producing a son
39.
The Princess Bride
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The Princess Bride is a 1973 fantasy romance novel written by William Goldman. The book combines elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, romantic love, romance and it is presented as an abridgment of a longer work by S. Morgenstern, and Goldmans commentary asides are constant throughout. It was originally published in the United States by Harcourt Brace, then later by Random House, while in the United Kingdom, the book was adapted into a 1987 feature film, whose screenplay was written by Goldman himself, that was directed by Rob Reiner. Adam Guettel attempted to adapt it into a musical, William Goldman said, Ive gotten more responses on The Princess Bride than on everything else Ive done put together—all kinds of strange outpouring letters. Something in The Princess Bride affects people, a segment of the book was published as Duel Scene in the anthology The Best of All Possible Worlds, which was edited by Spider Robinson. In 2015, a collection of essays on the novel and the adaptation was published entitled The Princess Bride. In a Renaissance-era world, a young woman named Buttercup lives on a farm in the country of Florin. She delights in verbally abusing the farm hand Westley, whom she addresses as farm boy, Westleys response to her demands is always As you wish. She eventually realizes that what he is saying is, I love you. After Buttercup realizes, as well, that she truly and strongly loves him and confesses her romantic feelings. Buttercup later receives word that the Dread Pirate Roberts, who is notorious for killing all those whose vessels he boards, believing Westley dead, Buttercup sinks into abject despair, declaring, I will never love again. Before the wedding, a trio of outlaws—the Sicilian criminal genius Vizzini, the Spanish fencing master Inigo Montoya, a masked man in black follows them across the sea and up the Cliffs of Insanity, whereupon Vizzini orders Inigo to stop him. Before the man in black reaches the top of the cliff, when the man in black arrives, Inigo arranges a fair fight, allowing his opponent to rest before the duel. The man in black wins the duel, but out of respect, stunned, Vizzini orders Fezzik to kill the man in black. Another flashback occurs detailing Fezziks history of reluctant fighting matches since childhood and his conscience compelling him, Fezzik throws a rock as a warning and challenges the man to a wrestling match. The man in black accepts the challenge and chokes Fezzik until the giant blacks out and he then catches up with Vizzini and proposes a battle of wits, guessing which cup of wine is poisoned with iocaine powder. They drink, and the man in black reveals that both cups were poisoned, but he had cultivated an immunity to iocaine powder, with Prince Humperdincks rescue party in hot pursuit, the man in black flees with Buttercup. He taunts Buttercup, claiming that women cannot be trusted and that she must have felt nothing when her true love, enraged, she shoves him into a gorge, yelling, You can die, too, for all I care
40.
Merlin (2008 TV series)
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Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme created by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy, and Johnny Capps, starring Colin Morgan in the title role. It was broadcast on BBC One from 20 September 2008 to 24 December 2012 for a total of 65 episodes, the show is loosely based on the Arthurian legends of the young wizard Merlin and his relationship with King Arthur, but it differs from traditional versions. The show was influenced by the US drama series Smallville about the years of Superman. The show was picked up by the BBC in 2006 after unsuccessful attempts, the series premiered in 2008 to mixed reviews but good ratings which improved as the series went on, and proved popular on the BBCs digital catch-up service iPlayer. It was shown in the United States on NBC, though it moved to the cable network Syfy. It is a mainstay in both Netflix US and UK, Merlin is a reimagining of the legend in which the future King Arthur and Merlin are young contemporaries. Arthurs father Uther Pendragon has banned magic in Camelot, its use punishable by death, Arthur grows from a young, self-absorbed boy to the mighty king in the legends, and Merlin develops into his colossal role in creating the powerful Camelot. The series was popular and very well received by the public. It was responsible for bringing much of the young cast to international prominence, in 2012, the shows producers announced that its fifth series would be its last, with a two-part finale on 24 December 2012. Merlin still holds a major following, years after the airing of the show. Merlin is a warlock who arrives in the kingdom of Camelot after his mother arranges for him to stay with the court physician. He discovers that the king, Uther Pendragon, outlawed magic twenty years earlier in an event known as the Great Purge, when Merlin meets Arthur, he believes that he is an arrogant bully and Arthur, likewise, has a less than stellar opinion of Merlin. After saving the princes life Merlin becomes his servant and the two begin to respect and trust one another, Merlin eventually becomes close friends with Arthur, and another servant named Guinevere. But when Uthers actions eventually cause his ward Morgana to turn against Camelot, Merlin must work together with the Once and Future King to save Albion. Colin Morgan as Merlin, Arthurs servant and Gaius ward, who must secretly develop his magical gifts under the gaze of kings Uther and Arthur, although Merlin is accused of sorcery several times during the run of the series, only Gaius and Lancelot are aware of his magic. Merlin also has an alter-ego, Dragoon the Great, who is considered a criminal by both Uther and Arthur, and inspires profound fear in Morgana, who recognises him as Emrys, her prophetic nemesis. Bradley James as Arthur Pendragon, the prince and later King of Camelot, additionally, he welcomes commoners Lancelot, Gwaine, Mordred, and Percival as knights, and falls in love with Gwen, a mere serving girl. Most importantly, he comes to regard his servant Merlin as a friend and confidant
41.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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