1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
3.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
4.
Kingdom of Naples
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It continued to be officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily, although it no longer included the island of Sicily. For much of its existence, the realm was contested between French and Spanish dynasties, in 1816, it was reunified with the island kingdom of Sicily once again to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Following the rebellion in 1282, King Charles I of Sicily was forced to leave the island of Sicily by Peter III of Aragons troops, Charles, however, maintained his possessions on the mainland, customarily known as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital city. Charles and his Angevin successors maintained a claim to Sicily, warring against the Aragonese until 1373, joans reign was contested by Louis the Great, the Angevin King of Hungary, who captured the kingdom several times. Queen Joan I also played a part in the demise of the first Kingdom of Naples. This led to Joan Is murder at the hands of the Prince of Durazzo in 1382, the two competing Angevin lines contested each other for the possession of the Kingdom of Naples over the following decades. René of Anjou temporarily united the claims of junior and senior Angevin lines, in 1442, however, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of Aragon. At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again separated and Naples was inherited by Ferrante, Alfonsos illegitimate son. Charles VIII expelled Alfonso II of Naples from Naples in 1495, Ferrantino was restored to the throne, but died in 1496, and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV. Charles VIIIs successor, Louis XII reiterated the French claim, in 1501, he occupied Naples and partitioned the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, the Spanish troops occupying Calabria and Apulia, led by Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova did not respect the new agreement, and expelled all Frenchmen from the area. The peace treaties that continued were never definitive, but they established at least that the title of King of Naples was reserved for Ferdinands grandson, the future Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand nevertheless continued in possession of the kingdom, being considered as the heir of his uncle Alfonso I of Naples. The French finally abandoned their claims to Naples by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, in the Treaty of London, five cities on coast of Tuscany were designated the Stato dei Presidi, and part of the Kingdom of Naples. After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, under the terms of the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714, Naples was given to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long, when Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV. Despite the two Kingdoms being in a union under the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasts, they remained constitutionally separate. Being a member of the House of Bourbon, Ferdinand IV was an opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon
5.
Kingdom of Portugal
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The Kingdom of Portugal was a monarchy on the Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of modern Portugal. It was in existence from 1139 until 1910, after 1248, it was also known as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves and between 1815 and 1822, it was known as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. The name is often applied to the Portuguese Empire, the realms extensive overseas colonies. The nucleus of the Portuguese state was the County of Portugal, established in the 9th century as part of the Reconquista, by Vímara Peres, a vassal of the King of Asturias. The county became part of the Kingdom of León in 1097, the kingdom was ruled by the Alfonsine Dynasty until the 1383–85 Crisis, after which the monarchy passed to the House of Aviz. During the 15th and 16th century, Portuguese exploration established a vast colonial empire, from 1580 to 1640, the kingdom of Portugal was in personal union with Habsburg Spain. After the Portuguese Restoration War of 1640–1668, the passed to the House of Braganza and after to the House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg. From this time, the influence of Portugal declined, but it remained a major due to its most valuable colony. Portugal was an absolute monarchy before 1822. It rotated between absolute and constitutional monarchy from 1822 until 1834, and was a constitutional monarchy after 1834. The Kingdom of Portugal finds its origins in the County of Portugal, the Portuguese County was a semi-autonomous county of the Kingdom of León. Independence from León took place in three stages, The first on 26 July 1139 when Afonso Henriques was acclaimed King of the Portuguese internally, the second was on 5 October 1143, when Alfonso VII of León and Castile recognized Afonso Henriques as king through the Treaty of Zamora. The third, in 1179, was the Papal Bull Manifestis Probatum, once Portugal was independent, D. Afonso Is descendants, members of the Portuguese House of Burgundy, would rule Portugal until 1383. Even after the change in houses, all the monarchs of Portugal were descended from Afonso I, one way or another. With the start of the 20th century, Republicanism grew in numbers and support in Lisbon among progressive politicians, however a minority with regard to the rest of the country, this height of republicanism would benefit politically from the Lisbon Regicide on 1 February 1908. When returning from the Ducal Palace at Vila Viçosa, King Carlos I, with the death of the king and his heir, Carlos Is second son would become king as King Manuel II of Portugal. Manuels reign, however, would be short-lived, ending by force with the 5 October 1910 revolution, sending Manuel into exile in England, on 19 January 1919, the Monarchy of the North was proclaimed in Porto. The monarchy would be deposed a month later and no other monarchist counterrevolution in Portugal has happened since, after centuries of Portuguese dominion in Angola, the Kingdom of Kongo was made a vassal state of the Portuguese kingdom, its king pledging allegiance to the King of Portugal
6.
Divisional General
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Divisional general is a rank of general in command of a division. Examples would include the Spanish general de división, the French général de division, for convenience such ranks are often translated into English as major-general, the equivalent rank used by most English-speaking nations. The corresponding NATO code is OF-7, or a two-star rank, some countries of Latin America such as Brazil and Chile use divisional general as the equivalent of lieutenant-general. This corresponding NATO code is OF-8, or a rank for these countries. In Japan and Taiwan the rank of lieutenant-general is equivalent to divisional general, the rank is mostly used in countries where it is used as a modern alternative to a previous older rank of major-general. The rank is almost always above a rank corresponding to command of a brigade, a French Army général de division translates as a general of division. The French Air Force equivalent is général de division aérienne, rank insignia is that of 3 white stars on the epaulette, sleeve mark or shoulder board. As well as commanding a division, a général de division may be appointed as général de corps darmée commanding a corps, or as a général darmée. These are not ranks, but appointments of the same rank, the insignia of a général de corps darmée is four stars in a diamond formation, and that of a général darmée is five stars in a cross-shaped arrangement. The arrangement for the air force is the same, but the ranks are called général de corps darmée aérien, the Italian army and Carabineer rank of generale di divisione translates as divisional general. The air force equivalent is generale di divisione aerea, the Polish equivalent is generał dywizji. The symbols of rank are the generals wavy line and two stars, featured both on the rogatywka, on the sleeves of the uniform and above the breast pocket of a field uniform. The Brazilian rank general-de-divisão translates literally as general of division, and is used by the army and this rank is equivalent to lieutenant-general. The air force equivalent is major-brigadeiro. The Spanish rank general de división translates literally as general of division, and is used by the army, the air force, the Swiss military use 4 languages, German, French, Romansh and Italian. The names of the OF-7 rank are divisionär, divisionnaire, divisiunari, in all cases, these are abbreviated as Div, and in all cases represent the head of a division, and hence can be translated as divisional general
7.
French Revolutionary Wars
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The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts, lasting from 1792 until 1802, resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted the French First Republic against Britain, Austria and several other monarchies and they are divided in two periods, the War of the First Coalition and the War of the Second Coalition. Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension as the political ambitions of the Revolution expanded, French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. The Revolutionary Wars began from increasing political pressure on King Louis XVI of France to prove his loyalty to the new direction France was taking. In the spring of 1792, France declared war on Prussia and Austria, the victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. A series of victories by the new French armies abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793, by 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel. A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796, in less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, the War of the Second Coalition began with the French invasion of Egypt, headed by Napoleon, in 1798. The Allies took the opportunity presented by the French strategic effort in the Middle East to regain territories lost from the First Coalition. The war began well for the Allies in Europe, where they pushed the French out of Italy and invaded Switzerland—racking up victories at Magnano, Cassano. However, their efforts largely unraveled with the French victory at Zurich in September 1799, meanwhile, Napoleons forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor, and Abukir. These victories and the conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleons popularity back in France, however, the Royal Navy had managed to inflict a humiliating defeat on the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, further strengthening British control of the Mediterranean. Napoleons arrival from Egypt led to the fall of the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon then reorganized the French army and launched a new assault against the Austrians in Italy during the spring of 1800. This latest effort culminated in a decisive French victory at the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, another crushing French triumph at Hohenlinden in Bavaria forced the Austrians to seek peace for a second time, leading to the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. With Austria and Russia out of the war, the United Kingdom found itself increasingly isolated and agreed to the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleons government in 1802, concluding the Revolutionary Wars. The lingering tensions proved too difficult to contain, however, in 1789–1792, the entire governmental structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army, the transformation of the army was best seen in the officer corps. Before the revolution 90% had been nobility, compared to only 3% in 1794, Revolutionary fervour was high, and was closely monitored by the Committee of Public Safety, which assigned Representatives on Mission to keep watch on generals
8.
Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
9.
Battle of Loano
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The Battle of Loano occurred on 23–24 November 1795 during the War of the First Coalition. The French Army of Italy led by Barthélemy Schérer defeated the combined Austrian and Sardinian forces under Olivier, in September 1795, General of Division Schérer replaced François Kellermann in command of the Army of Italy. Facing the French were 30,000 Austrians and 12,000 Piedmontese under the command of Feldzeugmeister Joseph Nikolaus De Vins and Benedetto of Savoy. Relations between the Austrians and the Piedmontese remained touchy, even though the force was led by an Austrian officer. The politicians in Paris insisted that Schérer mount an offensive and this was urged on by General of Brigade Napoleon Bonaparte, then a military planner at the War Ministry. The centre of the French army, under the orders of General of Division André Masséna, was formed of two old Army of Italy divisions, a third Army of Italy division formed the left wing, commanded by General of Division Jean Sérurier. The right wing, under General of Division Pierre Augereau recently arrived with Schérer from the armies of the Pyrénées, one more division, remaining at Col de Tende, covered Saorge. This army of 40,000 men lacked provisions, decent clothing and munitions, the Austro-Sardinian army was 53,000 strong. On its left the defensive works touched the sea at Loano on the Italian Riviera. Its right was anchored in the Piedmont mountains with strongholds at Ceva, Cuneo and this position was made up of apparently impregnable posts, linked together by trenches and defended by 100 artillery pieces. Schérer arrived in terrain he did not know but was modest enough to criticise his own abilities, Masséna had already proved himself the most able of Schérers colleagues and was put in charge of the planning. One of the most painful privations suffered by the French soldiers was the lack of shoes in the midst of snow, rocky crags and they wrapped their feet in linen, bandages and straps but these proved insufficient. Luckily a brig got past the British warships and arrived before the battle, bringing 100,000 biscuit rations and 24,000 pairs of shoes, raising morale throughout the camp. These were distributed to the weak and suffering first, then to those who had distinguished themselves in action, one old grenadier quipped that, from tomorrow, the enemy would be responsible for supplying them with shoes. On 17 November, General of Division Étienne Charlet attacked the Austro-Sardinians at Campo di Pietri, surprising them, destroying their trenches, Masséna was instructed to carry out this bold plan himself. Unaware of the attack, De Vins pleaded illness and gave up his command on 22 November. FZM Wallis took command of the allied armies. The French made three attacks, one a feint and the two in earnest
10.
Battle of Castiglione
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The Battle of Castiglione saw the French Army of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte attack an army of Habsburg Austria led by Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser on 5 August 1796. The outnumbered Austrians were defeated and driven back along a line of hills to the crossing at Borghetto. The town of Castiglione delle Stiviere is located 10 kilometres south of Lake Garda in northern Italy and this battle was one of four famous victories won by Bonaparte during the War of the First Coalition, part of the Wars of the French Revolution. The others were Bassano, Arcole, and Rivoli, Castiglione was the first attempt by the Austrian army to break the French Siege of Mantua, which was the primary Austrian fortress in northern Italy. To achieve this goal, Wurmser planned to lead four converging columns against the French and it succeeded insofar as Bonaparte lifted the siege in order to have the manpower sufficient to meet the threat. But his skill and the speed of his troops allowed the French army commander to keep the Austrian columns separated. Although the final attack was prematurely delivered, it nevertheless resulted in a victory. See Castiglione 1796 Campaign Order of Battle for French and Austrian units, Mantua was one of four famous fortresses known as the Quadrilateral. The French army occupied the three, Legnago, Verona and Peschiera. On 31 May, Bonaparte tried to rush Mantua, but the attempt failed, by 3 June, the French army invested the place, which was defended by Joseph Franz Canto dIrless Austrian garrison and 316 cannon. In June, Bonapartes army forced the Papal States, Tuscany, Parma and Modena to make peace, by taking artillery pieces from the subdued cities, the French general assembled a siege train of 179 cannon for his siege of Mantua. The formal siege began on 4 July, Bonaparte positioned his 46,000 soldiers to protect the siege of Mantua. Pierre François Sauret held Brescia and the side of Lake Garda. André Masséna guarded the approaches with the bulk of his force in the upper Adige River valley on the east side of Lake Garda. Pierre Augereau covered the lower Adige on either side of Legnago, jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier led the force besieging Mantua. Hyacinthe Despinoy had one demi-brigade at Peschiera, another with Masséna, Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaines cavalry reserve lay at Villafranca di Verona, southwest of Verona. Wurmser devised a plan of attack. He retained direct control over the two central columns, leading the Right-Center Column, Michael von Melas struck south with 14,000 soldiers down the west bank of the Adige
11.
Third Siege of Gerona
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The Third Siege of Girona refers to the French Grande Armées seven-month siege of Girona, from 6 May to 12 December 1809, a significant event in the Peninsular War. Alvarez left Barcelona and joined the Spanish rebels against French rule, the Spanish Government in Cadiz named him commander of the Army of Catalonia and Governor of Girona, a city with a garrison of between 3, 400–5,600 regular troops belonging to the Ultonia Regiment. Taking command of the city on 1 February 1809, he immediately started preparing its defence. On 1 April, he proclaimed his famous edict, to the effect if the city were attacked. On 3 May, arms were distributed to 1717 volunteers, on 12 June, Alvarez rejected the terms of truce offered, and General Saint-Cyr ordered bombardment to commence after midnight 13–14 June. Towards the end of September, General Saint-Cyr left his command, angered by the fact he was to be replaced as the head of the French and he left the troops without an overall commander for several days, in clear disobedience of orders received in June. Two days later, on 12 December, the town capitulated and it is estimated that some 10,000 people died inside. French losses were approximately 15,000, over half of those to disease, owing to the long delays and heavy losses suffered by the French, the towns resistance served Spanish purposes. The battle became something of a legend over the course of Spains war of independence, and Alvarez himself, voluntarios de Aragón, Copy of Alvarezs 1 April 1809 edict
12.
Marshal of France
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The Marshal of France is a military distinction, rather than a military rank, in contemporary France, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished and it was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration and one of the Great Dignitaries of the Empire during the First French Empire. A Marshal of France displays seven stars, the marshal also receives a baton, a blue cylinder with stars, formerly fleurs-de-lis during the monarchy and eagles during the First French Empire. It has the Latin inscription, Terror belli, decus pacis, the title derived from the office of marescallus Franciae created by King Philip II Augustus of France for Albéric Clément. The title was abolished by the National Convention in 1793, under the Bourbon Restoration, the title reverted to Marshal of France and Napoléon III kept that designation. After the fall of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire, the Third Republic did not use the title until the First World War, the last living Marshal of France was Alphonse Juin, promoted in 1952, who died in 1967. The latest Marshal of France was Marie Pierre Kœnig, who was made a Marshal posthumously in 1984, today, the title of Marshal of France can only be granted to a general officer who fought victoriously in war-time. Charles de Gontaut, Duc de Biron, Marshal of France in 1594, claude de La Chatre, Baron de la Maisonfort, Marshal of France in 1594. Jean de Montluc de Balagny, Marshal of France in 1594, jean III de Baumanoir, Marquis of Lavardin and Count of Nègrepelisse, Marshal of France in 1595. Henri, Duke of Joyeuse, Marshal of France in 1595, urbain de Montmorency-Laval, Marquis of Sablé, Marshal of France in 1595. Alphonse dOrnano, Marshal of France in 1597, guillaume de Hautemer, Count of Grancey, Marshal of France in 1597. François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières, Marshal of France in 1608, concino Concini, Marquis of Ancre, Marshal of France in 1613. Gilles de Courtenvaux, Marquis of Souvré, Marshal of France in 1614, antoine, Baron de Roquelaure, Marshal of France in 1614. Louis de La Châtre, Baron de Maisonfort, Marshal of France in 1616, pons de Lauzières-Thémines-Cardaillac, Marquis of Thémines, Marshal of France in 1616. Honoré dAlbert dAilly, Duke of Chaulnes, Marshal of France in 1620, François dEsparbes de Lussan, Viscount of Aubeterre, Marshal of France in 1620. Charles de Créquy, Prince of Poix, Duke of Lesdiguières, jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duke of La Force, Marshal of France in 1621. François, Marquis of Bassompierre, Marshal of France in 1622, gaspard de Coligny, Duke of Châtillon, Marshal of France in 1622. Henri de Schomberg, Marshal of France in 1625, jean-Baptiste dOrnano, Marshal of France in 1626 François Annibal, Duc dEstrées, Marshal of France in 1626
13.
Charles III of Spain
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Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. While he was the son of Philip V of Spain, he was the eldest son of Philips second wife. In 1731, the 15-year-old Charles became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I, following the death of his childless granduncle Antonio Farnese. In 1734, as Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned king on 3 July 1735, reigning as Charles VII of Naples and Charles V of Sicily until 1759. In 1738 he married Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Polish king Augustus III, Charles and Maria Amalia resided in Naples for 19 years. Charles succeeded to the Spanish throne on 10 August 1759, after the death of his half-brother King Ferdinand VI of Spain who left no heirs. As King of Spain Charles III made far-reaching reforms such as promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce and he also tried to reduce the influence of the Church and avoided costly wars. His previous experience as King of Naples and Sicily proved valuable as King of Spain and he did not achieve complete control over the States finances, and was sometimes obliged to borrow to meet expenses. Most of his reforms proved to be successful and his important legacy lives on to this day, historian Stanley Payne wrote that Charles III was probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership, personal life had won the respect of the people. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht concluded the War of the Spanish Succession and reduced the political and military power of Spain, which the House of Bourbon had ruled since 1700. Moreover, the House of Savoy gained the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Great Britain gained the island of Minorca, in 1700, Charles father, originally a French prince, became King of Spain as Philip V. For the remainder of his reign, he attempted to regain the ceded territories. Elisabeth and Philip married on 24 December 1714, she proved a domineering consort. On 20 January 1716, Elisabeth gave birth to the Infante Charles of Spain at the Real Alcázar of Madrid and he was fourth in line to the Spanish throne, after three elder half-brothers, the Infante Luis, Prince of Asturias, the Infante Felipe, and Ferdinand. Because the Duke Francesco of Parma and his heir were childless, Elisabeth sought the duchies of Parma and she also sought for him the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, because Gian Gastone de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was also childless. He was a distant cousin of hers, related via her great-grandmother Margherita de Medici, the birth of Charles encouraged the Prime Minister Alberoni to start laying out grand plans for Europe. In 1717 he ordered the Spanish invasion of Sardinia, in 1718, Alberoni also ordered the invasion of Sicily, which was also ruled by the House of Savoy
14.
Castiglione delle Stiviere
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Castiglione delle Stiviere is a town and comune in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, Italy,30 kilometres northwest of Mantua by road. During the War of the Spanish Succession, the French under the duc de Vendôme occupied it, in 1706, in the first Battle of Castiglione a French army under Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey defeated here a Hessian army led by Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. It is the birthplace of St. Aloysius Gonzaga who was a Jesuit, Aloysius was buried in the Church of the Annunciation in Rome. His head was later translated to the basilica bearing his name in Castiglione delle Stiviere, Castiglione received the honorary title of city by presidential decree on 18 October 2001. It has an old castle, much altered and restored, especially by the Gonzaga family of Mantua in the 16th century, Castiglione is the birthplace of the International Red Cross, which was established by Henri Dunant during the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in 1859. There is a museum in the center of the dedicated to the IRC
15.
Peerage of France
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The Peerage of France was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages, and only a small number of noble individuals were peers. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France was held by the greatest, French peerage thus differed from British peerage, for the vast majority of French nobles, from baron to duke, were not peers. The title of Peer of France was an honour granted only to a small number of dukes, counts. It was analogous to the rank of Grandee of Spain in this respect, the French word pairie is equivalent to the English peerage. The individual title, pair in French and peer in English, derives from the Latin par and it signifies those noblemen and prelates considered to be equal to the monarch in honour, and it considers the monarch thus to be primus inter pares, or first among equals. The main uses of the word refer to two historical traditions in the French kingdom, before and after the First French Empire of Napoleon I, the word also exists to describe an institution in the Crusader states. Some etymologists posit that the French word baron, taken from the Latin baro, such a derivation would fit the early sense of baron, as used for the whole peerage and not simply as a noble rank below the comital rank. Medieval French kings conferred the dignity of a peerage on some of their pre-eminent vassals, some historians consider Louis VII to have created the French system of peers. A peerage was attached to a territorial jurisdiction, either an episcopal see for episcopal peerages or a fief for secular ones. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, the traditional number of peers is twelve. But since the first two were absorbed into the early in the recorded history of the peerage, the Duke of Burgundy has become the premier lay peer. In their heyday, the Duke of Normandy was undoubtedly the mightiest vassal of the French crown, the constitution of the peerage first became important in 1202, for the court that would try King John of England in his capacity as vassal of the French crown. In 1216, Erard of Brienne claimed the County of Champagne through the right of his wife, again this required the peers of France, so the County of Champagne is also a peerage. Six of the peers were identified in the charter - the archbishop of Reims, the bishops of Langres, Chalons, Beauvais and Noyon. The tenth peerage that could be identified in the documents is the County of Flanders, in that year John de Nesle entered a complaint against Joan of Flanders, the countess responded that she could only be cited by a peer. Thus, though there had been differences in the dates of the identification of the peers, they were probably instituted simultaneously. Parallels may also be seen with the mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur, in later periods peers also held up by poles a baldaquin or cloth of honour over the king during much of the ceremony. This paralleled the arch-offices attached to the electorates, the more prestigious and powerful first college in the Holy Roman Empire
16.
Order of Saint Louis
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The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis. It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles, by the authorities of the French Republic, it is considered a predecessor of the Legion of Honour, with which it shares the red ribbon. As such, it is recognised by the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry. The King was the Grand Master of the order, and the Dauphin was automatically a member as well, the Order had three classes, Grand-Croix Commandeur Chevalier The entire order included 8 Grand Crosses,28 Commanders and a variable number of Knights. Officers of the Order included, after the Grand Master, a Trésorier, a Greffier, the badge of the order consisted of a portrait of Saint Louis surrounded by the motto « LUD M IN1693 ». The reverse features a sword interlaced with a crown and a white sash. The general assembly of the Order was held annually on 25 August, conditions to obtain the award did not include nobility, however, Catholic faith was mandatory, as well as at least ten years service as a commissioned officer in the Army or the Navy. Members of the Order received a pension, hereditary nobility was granted to a knights son and grandsons. Another decoration, the Institution of Military Merit was created for the Protestant officers in service of the French king. Until the death of Louis XIV, the medal was awarded to outstanding officers only, on 1 January 1791, during the French Revolution, a decree changed the name to décoration militaire. It was subsequently withdrawn on 15 October 1792, one of the first acts of Louis XVIII was to reinstate the Order of Saint Louis, awarding it to officers of the Royal and Imperial armies alike. In 1830 the new king Louis-Philippe abolished the order, which was never reinstated, Louis, by the grace of God King of France and Navarre, to all present and yet to come, hail. We have decided that only officers still serving in our troops shall be introduced and that virtue, merit and distinguished service in our armies shall be the only criteria to enter
17.
Louis XVIII of France
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Louis XVIII, known as The Desired, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1814 to 1824 except for a period in 1815 known as the Hundred Days. Until his accession to the throne of France, Louis held the title of Count of Provence as brother of King Louis XVI, on 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and deposed King Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine. When the young Louis XVII, Louis XVIs son, died in prison in June 1795, during the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia, the United Kingdom and Russia. When the Sixth Coalition finally defeated Napoleon in 1814, Louis was placed in what he, Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba, however, and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon, Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. The Bourbon Restoration regime was a constitutional monarchy, as a constitutional monarch, Louis XVIIIs royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814, Frances new constitution. Louis had no children, therefore, upon his death, the passed to his brother, Charles. Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while reigning, as his successor Charles X abdicated and both Louis Philippe I and Napoléon III were deposed. Louis Stanislas Xavier, styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles, the son of Louis, Dauphin of France and he was the grandson of the reigning King Louis XV. As a son of the Dauphin he was a Fils de France, Louis Stanislas was christened Louis Stanislas Xavier six months after his birth in accordance with Bourbon family tradition, being nameless before his baptism. By this act, he also a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The former died in 1761, leaving Louis Auguste as heir to their father until the Dauphins own premature death in 1765, the two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession, while Louis Auguste acquired the title Dauphin. Louis Stanislas found comfort in his governess, Madame de Marsan, Governess of the Children of France, as he was her favourite among his siblings. Louis Stanislas was taken away from his governess when he turned seven, Antoine de Quélen de Stuer de Caussade, Duke of La Vauguyon, a friend of his father, was named his governor. Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy, excelling in classics and his education was of the same quality and consistency as that of his older brother, Louis Auguste, despite the fact that Louis Auguste was heir and Louis Stanislas was not. Louis Stanislas education was religious in nature, several of his teachers were men of the cloth. La Vauguyon drilled into young Louis Stanislas and his brothers the way he thought princes should know how to withdraw themselves, to like to work, and to know how to reason correctly. In the same month his household was founded, Louis was granted titles by his grandfather, Louis XV, Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Perche
18.
Fruit
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In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate seeds, accordingly, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the worlds agricultural output, and some have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. On the other hand, in usage, fruit includes many structures that are not commonly called fruits, such as bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes. The section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body. Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications, however, in botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed, and a seed is a ripened ovule. Examples of culinary vegetables and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, cucurbits, eggplant, legumes, sweet pepper, in addition, some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits, botanically speaking. g. Botanically, a grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat, is also a kind of fruit. However, the wall is very thin and is fused to the seed coat. The outer, often edible layer, is the pericarp, formed from the ovary and surrounding the seeds, the pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, the epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp. Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked, a fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, and the gynoecium of the flower forms all or part of the fruit. Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the egg cell, after double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds. The ovules are fertilized in a process starts with pollination. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule, later the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, in some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules. The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, in some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower, fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the fall off. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit, since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms. There are three modes of fruit development, Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels
19.
Seller
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A sale is the exchange of a commodity or money as the price of a good or a service. Sales is activity related to selling or the amount of goods or services sold in a time period. The seller or the provider of the goods or services completes a sale in response to an acquisition, appropriation, requisition or an interaction with the buyer at the point of sale. There is a passing of title of the item, and the settlement of a price, the seller, not the purchaser generally executes the sale and it may be completed prior to the obligation of payment. In common law countries, sales are governed generally by the common law, a person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered item of value is referred to as a potential buyer, prospective customer or prospect. Buying and selling are understood to be two sides of the coin or transaction. Both seller and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to consummate the exchange of values, the exchange, or selling, process has implied rules and identifiable stages. It is implied that the process will proceed fairly and ethically so that the parties end up nearly equally rewarded. Sometimes, sellers have to use their own experiences when selling products with appropriate discounts, from a management viewpoint it is thought of as a part of marketing, although the skills required are different. Sales often forms a separate grouping in a structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salespersons. Selling is considered by many to be a sort of persuading art, selling is the profession-wide term, much like marketing defines a profession. Recently, attempts have been made to understand who is in the sales profession. There are many articles looking at marketing, advertising, promotions, two common terms used to describe a salesperson are Farmer and Hunter. The reality is that most professional sales people have a little of both, a hunter is often associated with aggressive personalities who use aggressive sales technique. In terms of sales methodology a hunter refers to a person whose focus is on bringing in and this process is called sales capturing. An example is a commodity such as a long distance sales person, shoe sales person. Their job is to find and convert buyers, a sales farmer is someone who creates sales demand by activities that directly influence and alter the buying process. Many believe that the focus of selling is on the agents involved in the exchange between buyer and seller
20.
Dragoons
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The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, in most armies, dragoons came to signify ordinary medium cavalry. Dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the late 17th, the name is derived from a type of firearm, called a dragon, which was a handgun version of a blunderbuss, carried by dragoons of the French Army. The title has been retained in modern times by a number of armoured or ceremonial mounted regiments, the establishment of dragoons evolved from the practice of sometimes transporting infantry by horse when speed of movement was needed. In 1552 Prince Alexander of Parma mounted several companies of infantry on horses to achieve surprise. Another early instance was ordered by Louis of Nassau in 1572 during operations near Mons in Hainaut and it is also suggested the first dragoons were raised by the Marshal de Brissac in 1600. According to old German literature, dragoons were invented by Count Ernst von Mansfeld, one of the greatest German military commanders, there are other instances of mounted infantry predating this. However Mansfeld, who had learned his profession in Hungary and the Netherlands, often used horses to make his troops more mobile. The name possibly derives from a weapon, a short wheellock called a dragon because the first dragoons raised in France had their carbines muzzle decorated with a dragons head. The practice comes from a time when all gunpowder weapons had distinctive names, including the culverin, serpentine, falcon, falconet and it is also sometimes claimed a galloping infantryman with his loose coat and the burning match resembled a dragon. It has also suggested that the name derives from the German tragen or the Dutch dragen. Howard Reid claims that the name and role descend from the Latin Draconarius, Dragoon is occasionally used to mean to subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops, and by extension to compel by any violent measures or threats. Early dragoons were not organized in squadrons or troops as were cavalry, Dragoon regiments used drummers, not buglers, to communicate orders on the battlefield. Supplied with inferior horses and more equipment, the dragoon regiments were cheaper to recruit. When in the 17th century Gustav II Adolf introduced dragoons into the Swedish Army, he provided them with a sabre, an axe, many of the European armies henceforth imitated this all-purpose set of weaponry. In the Spanish Army, Pedro de la Puente organized a body of dragoons in Innsbruck in 1635, in 1640, a tercio of a thousand dragoons armed with the arquebus was created in Spain. By the end of the 17th century, the Spanish Army had three tercios of dragoons in Spain, plus three in the Netherlands and three more in Milan, in 1704, the Spanish dragoons were reorganised into regiments by Philip V, as were the rest of the tercios. Towards the end of 1776, George Washington realized the need for a branch of the American military
21.
Swordsman
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Swordsmanship or swordfighting refers to the skills of a swordsman, a person versed in the art of the sword. The term is modern, and as such was used to refer to smallsword fencing. The word gladiator itself comes from the Latin word gladius, meaning sword, the sword in ancient Egypt was known by several names, but most are variations of the words sfet, seft or nakhtui. The earliest bronze swords in the date back 4000 years. The khopesh was used region-wide and is depicted as early as the Sixth Dynasty and it was thick-backed and weighted with bronze, sometimes even with gold hilts in the case of pharaohs. The blade may be edged on one or both sides, and was made from iron or blue steel, the double-edge sword had a leaf-shaped blade, and a handle which hollows away at the centre and thickens at each end. These swords are of lengths, and were paired with shields. Middle Eastern swords became dominant throughout North Africa after the introduction of Islam, the process of both iron smelting and forging was introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa from the north, thus many African swords were of Egyptian derivation. Among some communities, swords were restricted to royalty or tribal leaders, forms vary from one area to another, such as the billao of Somalia, boomerang-sword in Niger or the single-edge swords of the Gold Coast. The Abyssinian shotel took the form of a sickle, like the Egyptian khopesh. The edge was on the inside of the blade, which has a mid-rib running along its entire length, double-edge swords similar to those of Europe and ancient Arabia occurred in some areas such as the takoba and kaskara. Two types of sword existed in Zanzibar, the shortsword and the standard sword with a blade measuring 3–3.5 feet. The latter weapon was wielded with both hands like a quarterstaff, greece provides the foundation for the widespread use of the sword as a weapon in its own right in the West. The Roman legionaries and other forces of the Roman military, until the 2nd century A. D. used the gladius as a short thrusting sword effectively with the scutum, gladiators used a shorter gladius than the military. The Empires legionary soldiers were trained and prided themselves on their disciplinary skills. This probably carried over to their training with weaponry, but we have no Roman manuals of swordsmanship, one translation of Juvenals poetry by Barten Holyday in 1661 makes note that the Roman trainees learned to fight with the wooden wasters before moving on to the use of sharpened steel. In fact, it is found that Roman gladiators trained with a wooden sword. This training would have provided the Roman soldier with a foundation of skill
22.
Duel
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A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules. Duels in this form were chiefly practiced in early modern Europe with precedents in the code of chivalry. During the 17th and 18th centuries, duels were fought with swords. But beginning in the late 18th century in England, duels were more commonly fought using pistols, fencing and pistol duels continued to co-exist throughout the 19th century. The duel was based on a code of honor, on rare occasions, duels with pistols or swords were fought between women, these were sometimes known as petticoat duels. Legislation against dueling goes back to the medieval period, the Fourth Council of the Lateran outlawed duels, and civil legislation in the Holy Roman Empire against dueling was passed in the wake of the Thirty Years War. From the early 17th century, duels became illegal in the countries where they were practiced, Dueling largely fell out of favor in England by the mid-19th century and in Continental Europe by the turn of the 20th century. Dueling declined in the Eastern United States in the 19th century and by the time the American Civil War broke out, dueling had begun to decline, public opinion, not legislation, caused the change. In Western society, the concept of a duel developed out of the medieval judicial duel. In Medieval society, judicial duels were fought by knights and squires to end various disputes, countries like Germany, United Kingdom, and Ireland practiced this tradition. Judicial combat were of two forms in society, the feat of arms and chivalric combat. The feat of arms were done to settle hostilities between two parties and supervised by a judge. The battle was fought when one partys honor was disrespected or challenged upon in which the conflict cannot be resolved in court, a spiked hand guard for pumbling, and extra grip for half swording. The duel lasted until the party was too weak to fight back. In early cases, the party was then subsequently executed. If a traveling venans did not have weapons or horse to meet the challenge, one might be provided, if a lady passed unescorted, she would leave behind a glove or scarf, to be rescued and returned to her by a future knight who passed that way. The Roman Catholic Church was critical of dueling throughout medieval history, judicial duels were deprecated by the Lateran Council of 1215, but the judicial duel persisted in the Holy Roman Empire into the 15th century. The word duel comes from the Latin duellum, cognate with bellum, during the early Renaissance, dueling established the status of a respectable gentleman, and was an accepted manner to resolve disputes
23.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
24.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
25.
Saxony
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Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate. To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan region with Halle. The latter city is located just across the border to Saxony-Anhalt, Leipzig shares for instance an S-train system and an airport with Halle. Saxony has, after Saxony Anhalt, the most vibrant economy of the states of the former East Germany and its economy grew by 1. 9% in 2010. Nonetheless, unemployment remains above the German average, the eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin, qualifies as an Objective 1 development-region within the European Union, and is eligible to receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. FutureSAX, a business competition and entrepreneurial support organisation, has been in operation since 2002. Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region the nickname Silicon Saxony, the publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions to the regional economy are no longer significant. Today the automobile industry, machinery production and services contribute to the development of the region. Saxony is also one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Germany - especially the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, new tourist destinations are developing, notably in the lake district of Lausitz. Saxony reported an unemployment of 8. 8% in 2014. By comparison the average in the former GDR was 9. 8% and 6. 7% for Germany overall, the unemployment rate reached 8. 2% in May 2015. The Leipzig area, which recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many part suppliers, zwickau is another major Volkswagen location
26.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
27.
Carabiniers
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A carabinier is in principle a soldier armed with a carbine. A carbine is a version of a musket or rifle. Carabiniers were first introduced during the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the word is derived from the identical French word carabinier. Historically, carabiniers were generally horse soldiers, the carbine was considered a more appropriate firearm for a horseman than a full-length musket, since it was lighter and easier to handle while on horseback. In Italy and Spain, carbines were considered suitable equipment for soldiers with policing roles, so the term evolved to sometimes denote gendarmes. Today, the term is used by armies, police. Carabiniers differed from army to army and over time, but typically were medium cavalry, similar in armament, Napoleon inherited two French carabinier regiments of heavy cavalry, which gained some prestige in his wars. In 1810, French Carabiniers were equipped like cuirassiers with helmets and breastplates, the French army has no carabinier regiments today. The British army raised regiments of carabiniers in the late 17th century, the descendants of one such regiment survived as the 3rd Carabiniers until 1971, when it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Greys. Accordingly, no regiment bears the title today, although the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are sub-titled Carabiniers, Italy has a famous force of carabiniers, a gendarmerie known by the Italian name Carabinieri. Chile also has a force of gendarme Carabiniers and the National Police of Colombia has mobile road-based units called Mobile Carabinier Squadrons. The Belgian Army includes a Regiment des Carabiniers, which saw service against the German invaders in August 1914 still dressed in its green 19th century uniform complete with a form of top hat, the Spanish Army formerly maintained a corps of Carabineros who served as frontier guards. This force was, however, disbanded following the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, the use of carabinier to refer to infantry troops comes from the French light infantry battalions of 1794, where it denoted troops of the elite company known as grenadiers in line infantry. Other infantry units with the title of carabiniers included, The Force Publique includes a unit called the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince. In the Imperial Russian Army during the Napoleonic wars, the sections on the flank of Yeger battalions deployed in line were called carabiniers. Quite apart from the elite Yeger platoons, Foot Carabinier regiments existed for a time after 12 February 1816 when the six Grenadier-Yeger Regiments were renamed as Carabiniers. These included the oldest regular regiment in the Russian Army. Foot Carabinier regiments were renamed rifles in 1857 following the Crimean War, following a merger in 1992, the unit became the Regiment Carabiniers Prince Baudouin - Grenadiers
28.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
29.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
30.
Hussars
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A Hussar was a member of any one of several types of light cavalry used during the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning in Central Europe. Historically, the term derives from the cavalry of late medieval Hungary, the title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry regiments in European and European colonial armies in the late 17th and 18th centuries. A number of armored or ceremonial mounted units in modern armies retain the designation of hussars, the first written mention of the word Hussarones has been found in documents dating from 1432 in Southern Hungary. A type of light horsemen was already well-established by the 15th century in medieval Hungary. Etymologists are divided over the derivation of the word hussar, byzantinist scholars argue that the term originated in Roman military practice, and the cursarii. 10th-century Byzantine military manuals mention chonsarioi, light cavalry, recruited in the Balkans, especially Serbs and this word was subsequently reintroduced to Western European military practice after its original usage had been lost with the collapse of Rome in the west. According to Websters Dictionary, the word stems from the Hungarian huszár. On the other hand, husz means twenty in Hungarian whilst ar is a unit of measurement or acre. Hussars are so named as they were a form of military levy whereby any land owner with twenty acres was duty bound to provide a mounted and equipped soldier to the army at their own expense. The elaborate uniforms were based on traditional Magyar horsemans clothes with highly braided, tight riding breeches, close fitting pointed boots, the hussars reportedly originated in bands of mostly Serbian warriors, crossing into southern Hungary after the Ottoman conquest of Serbia at the end of the 14th century. Regent-Governor John Hunyadi created mounted units inspired by the Ottomans and his son, Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is unanimously accepted as the creator of these troops, commonly called Rac. Initially, they fought in bands, but were reorganised into larger. The first hussar regiments comprised the cavalry of the Black Army of Hungary. Under Corvinus command, the took part in the war against the Ottoman Empire in 1485 and proved successful against the sipahis as well as against the Bohemians. After the kings death, in 1490, hussars became the form of cavalry in Hungary in addition to the heavy cavalry. The Habsburg emperors hired Hungarian hussars as mercenaries to serve against the Ottomans, early hussars wore armor when they could afford to it like the later Polish hussars. Hungarian hussars abandoned using shields and later armors and became entirely light cavalry in the first half of the 17th century, initially the first units of Polish hussars in the Kingdom of Poland were formed in 1500, influenced by Serbian mercenaries. A small number of Serbian mercenaries were recruited and became citizens of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish heavy hussars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were far more manoeuvrable than the heavily armoured lancers previously employed
31.
Jean Antoine Rossignol
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Jean Antoine Rossignol, was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars. Rossignol began his Memoirs, published in 1820 by Victor Barrucand, with the words and my father, who died before I was born, was a Bourguignon. He came to Paris and, after years, he sought to marry. He thus got to know my mother and they married, of the five children they had, I was the last. In 1774, aged 14, after 3 years apprenticeship as a goldsmith, Rossignol, full of illusions and wanting to be his own master, left for the provinces. He journeyed by stages, stopping at Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Niort, before regretting his decision to leave Paris after six months and returning there. Faced with difficulties in finding work, he joined the Royal-Roussillon infantry regiment at Dunkirk on 13 August 1775, however, he participated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and in the revolutionary days of 20 June and 10 August. He engaged in looting and reported several successes. As a general Rossignol was accused of incompetence by his subordinate and he then became commander in chief of the armée des côtes de Brest, armée de lOuest and armée des côtes de Cherbourg on 12 November 1793. He was reestablished in this role several times despite several setbacks and he proposed a plan to the advocates of the council of war at Saumur was called absurd by Philippeaux and also by the soldiers of the armée de Mayence, interested in the outcome. Rossignol insisted and showed that the project that he supported was the one that could be executed. It can be believed that the plan by Rossignol, an ignorant general, was not the best one, but we have an authoritative opinion of some value on the point—that of Napoleon himself. The conduct of general Rossignol in the Vendee war, like that of all the Hébertist generals, was appreciated by historians writing at a distance from the passions of that conflict. The opinion of general Turreau in his Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la Vendée, was the closest to the truth and to the ulterior motives presiding over Rossignols fate. Imprisoned for several days after the Thermidorian Reaction, he was compromised in the conjuration des Égaux of Babeuf and he served the French Directory without conviction, all the while continuing a clandestine popular militarism in the suburb in which he had been born. After the plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, Bonaparte used this chance to rid himself of Rossignol, transferred from prison to prison, he was condemned to deportation to the Seychelles in 1801, with other jacobins, then transferred to the Comores. Rossignol died at Anjouan in 1802, but the refused to believe that their hero had died - it seemed at the time that he had committed suicide of the Fauborg. Rossignol thus survived in souvenirs, and took a position in the legend after the bad 4-volume novel Le Robinson du Faubourg Saint-Antoine
32.
Jean-Antoine Marbot
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General Jean-Antoine Marbot was a French general and politician. Marbot was a member of the Garde du Corps but resigned upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, in 1791 he was elected a deputy to the Legislative Assembly. He took part in the French Revolutionary Wars in the Cerdagne against Spain, by 1795 he had been promoted to general de division. In 1795 he was elected to the Council of Ancients and twice served as its president, in 1799 he succeeded Joubert as head of the Paris military district. In 1800 Marbot died in the siege of Genoa under André Masséna and he was the father of Antoine Adolphe Marcelin Marbot and Jean Baptiste Antoine Marcellin de Marbot
33.
Toulouse
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Toulouse is the capital city of the southwestern French department of Haute-Garonne, as well as of the Occitanie region. The city lies on the banks of the River Garonne,150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea,230 km from the Atlantic Ocean and it is the fourth-largest city in France with 466,297 inhabitants in January 2014. The Toulouse Metro area is, with 1312304 inhabitants as of 2014, Frances 4th metropolitan area after Paris, Lyon and Marseille and ahead of Lille and Bordeaux. Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, the Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, the Airbus Group, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. The city also hosts the European headquarters of Intel and CNESs Toulouse Space Centre, thales Alenia Space, and Astrium Satellites, Airbus Groups satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe and, with more than 103,000 students, is the fourth-largest university campus in France, after the Universities of Paris, Lyon and Lille. The air route between Toulouse Blagnac and Paris Orly is the busiest in Europe, transporting 2.4 million passengers in 2014, according to the rankings of LExpress and Challenges, Toulouse is the most dynamic French city. It is now the capital of the Occitanie region, the largest region in metropolitan France, sernin, the largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998 because of its significance to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. Toulouse is in the south of France, north of the department of Haute-Garonne, the city is traversed by the Canal de Brienne, the Canal du Midi and the rivers Garonne, Touch and Hers-Mort. Toulouse has a subtropical climate which can be qualified as submediterranean due to its proximity to the Mediterranean climate zone. The Garonne Valley was a point for trade between the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic since at least the Iron Age. The historical name of the city, Tolosa, it is of unknown meaning or origin, possibly from Aquitanian, or from Iberian, Tolosa enters the historical period in the 2nd century BC, when it became a Roman military outpost. After the conquest of Gaul, it was developed as a Roman city of Gallia Narbonensis. In the 5th century, Tolosa fell to the Visigothic kingdom and became one of its cities, in the early 6th century even serving as its capital. From this time, Toulouse was the capital of Aquitaine within the Frankish realm, in 721, Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeated an invading Umayyad Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse. Odos victory was an obstacle to Muslim expansion into Christian Europe. Charles Martel, a later, won the Battle of Tours. The Frankish conquest of Septimania followed in the 750s, and a quasi-independent County of Toulouse emerged within the Carolingian sub-kingdom of Aquitaine by the late 8th century
34.
General of brigade
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Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general, when appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000 troops. In some countries a brigadier general is designated as a one-star general. The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a general, or simply a brigadier. An alternative rank of general was first used in the French revolutionary armies. Some countries, such as Brazil, Taiwan, and Japan, some of these countries then use the rank of colonel general to make four general-officer ranks. The naval equivalent is usually commodore and this gallery displays Air Force brigadier general insignia if they are different from the Army brigadier general insignia. Note that in many Commonwealth countries, the equivalent air force rank is Air Commodore, the rank of brigadier general is used in the Argentine Air Force. Unlike other armed forces of the World, the rank of general is actually the highest rank in the Air Force. This is due to the use of the rank of brigadier and its derivatives to designate all general officers in the Air Force, brigadier, brigadier-major, and brigadier-general. The rank of general is reserved for the Chief General Staff of the Air Force. The Argentine Army does not use the rank of brigadier-general, instead using brigade general which in turn is the lowest general officer before Divisional General, see also Argentine Army officer rank insignia. When posted elsewhere, the rank would be relinquished and the former rank resumed and this policy prevented an accumulation of high-ranking general officers brought about by the relatively high turnover of brigade commanders. Brigadier general was used as an honorary rank on retirement. The rank insignia was like that of the current major general, as in the United Kingdom, the rank was later replaced by brigadier. Prior to 2001, the Bangladesh Army rank was known as brigadier, in 2001 the Bangladesh Army introduced the rank of brigadier general, however the grade stayed equivalent to brigadier. It is the lowest ranking general officer, between the ranks of Colonel and Major General, Brigadier General is equivalent to commodore of the Bangladesh Navy and air commodore of the Bangladesh Air Force. It is still popularly called brigadier
35.
Army of the Eastern Pyrenees
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The Army of the Eastern Pyrenees was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It fought against the Kingdom of Spain in Rousillon, the Cerdanya and this army and the Army of the Western Pyrenees were formed by splitting the original Army of the Pyrenees at the end of April 1793 soon after the war started. Shortly after the Peace of Basel on 22 July 1795, the fighting ended, many of its units and generals were transferred to join the Army of Italy and fought under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796. In the first dismal months of fighting, the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees was beaten at Mas Deu and Bellegarde, then the French repelled two Spanish attacks at Perpignan and Peyrestortes. Though the army was defeated again at Truillas and in other actions, throughout the year the representatives on mission had enormous powers and used them to interfere with the military effort and to arrest officers that they deemed unpatriotic or unsuccessful. In 1794, the armys fortunes improved when Jacques François Dugommier took command, the army drove the Spanish army from France soil at Boulou and recaptured the Fort de Bellegarde and Collioure. After establishing itself on Spanish territory, the army won a victory at the Battle of the Black Mountain in November during which Dugommier was killed. His replacement, Dominique Catherine de Pérignon soon captured the Sant Ferran fortress, after these events the front became static and the last notable action was a Spanish victory at Bascara in June. The war took a toll on the commanders of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees. Aside from Dugommiers death in battle, three were executed by the guillotine and another died of disease, five officers from the army later became Marshals of France under Napoleon. These were Pérignon, Pierre Augereau, Claude Perrin Victor, Jean Lannes, the execution of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette outraged the ancient monarchies of Europe. Even so, it was the First French Republic that declared war on its ancient ally the Kingdom of Spain on 7 March 1793, Spain joined the War of the First Coalition and invaded Rousillon on 17 April 1793. The Army of the Pyrenees was formed on 1 October 1792, on 30 April 1793, the army was divided into two separate armies. At the start of the War of the Pyrenees, Servan went to Bayonne in the west, at first the war went badly for France. A Spanish column of 4,500 soldiers under Captain General Antonio Ricardos invaded France on 17 April 1793, on 20 April, Ricardos routed 1,800 unsteady French soldiers from Céret and crossed the Tech River. The representatives on mission blamed La Houlière for the fiasco and removed him from command, the distraught La Houlière put a gun to his head and killed himself on 18 June 1793. The old soldier was 76 years old, General of Brigade Claude Souchon de Chameron was appointed to lead the local forces on 25 April and he took interim command of the newly created army from 1 to 13 May. Chameron was arrested later and sent to the guillotine on 12 April 1794, the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees was in the grip of its representatives on mission, to an extent unknown elsewhere, according to historian Ramsay Weston Phipps
36.
General of division
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Divisional general is a rank of general in command of a division. Examples would include the Spanish general de división, the French général de division, for convenience such ranks are often translated into English as major-general, the equivalent rank used by most English-speaking nations. The corresponding NATO code is OF-7, or a two-star rank, some countries of Latin America such as Brazil and Chile use divisional general as the equivalent of lieutenant-general. This corresponding NATO code is OF-8, or a rank for these countries. In Japan and Taiwan the rank of lieutenant-general is equivalent to divisional general, the rank is mostly used in countries where it is used as a modern alternative to a previous older rank of major-general. The rank is almost always above a rank corresponding to command of a brigade, a French Army général de division translates as a general of division. The French Air Force equivalent is général de division aérienne, rank insignia is that of 3 white stars on the epaulette, sleeve mark or shoulder board. As well as commanding a division, a général de division may be appointed as général de corps darmée commanding a corps, or as a général darmée. These are not ranks, but appointments of the same rank, the insignia of a général de corps darmée is four stars in a diamond formation, and that of a général darmée is five stars in a cross-shaped arrangement. The arrangement for the air force is the same, but the ranks are called général de corps darmée aérien, the Italian army and Carabineer rank of generale di divisione translates as divisional general. The air force equivalent is generale di divisione aerea, the Polish equivalent is generał dywizji. The symbols of rank are the generals wavy line and two stars, featured both on the rogatywka, on the sleeves of the uniform and above the breast pocket of a field uniform. The Brazilian rank general-de-divisão translates literally as general of division, and is used by the army and this rank is equivalent to lieutenant-general. The air force equivalent is major-brigadeiro. The Spanish rank general de división translates literally as general of division, and is used by the army, the air force, the Swiss military use 4 languages, German, French, Romansh and Italian. The names of the OF-7 rank are divisionär, divisionnaire, divisiunari, in all cases, these are abbreviated as Div, and in all cases represent the head of a division, and hence can be translated as divisional general
37.
Battle of Boulou
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The decisive French victory resulted in the French regaining nearly all the land they lost to the Kingdom of Spain in 1793. Le Boulou is on the modern A9 highway,20 km south of the department capital at Perpignan, the year 1793 was a difficult time for the poorly trained French forces defending Rousillon against the Spanish army of Captain General Antonio Ricardos. The Siege of Bellegarde concluded in June with the French surrender of the Fort de Bellegarde, however, Ricardos was repelled in the Battle of Perpignan on 17 July. The French army revived again under General of Division Eustache Charles dAoust to deal their enemies a sharp reverse at the Battle of Peyrestortes on 17 September, five days later, Ricardos defeated the French at the Battle of Truillas. Subsequently, the Spanish general fell back to the valley of the Tech River where he repulsed a series of French attempts to him back into Spain. DAoust tried and failed to oust the Spanish from Le Boulou on 3 October, in the Battle of the Tech from 13 to 15 October, Ricardos bloodily repulsed the attacks of General of Division Louis Marie Turreau. DAoust was defeated again in his 7 December attack on Villelongue-dels-Monts, the Spanish seized the port of Collioure on 20 December. Fresh from his victory at the Siege of Toulon, General of Division Jacques François Dugommier arrived to lead the army on 16 January 1794 and he began a complete reorganization of the army, setting up supply depots, hospitals, and arsenals, and also improving roads. After getting reinforcements from the Toulon army, Dugommiers field army numbered 28,000 and these troops were supported by 20,000 garrison troops and 9,000 green volunteers. He formed his army into three infantry divisions under Generals of Division Dominique Catherine de Pérignon, Pierre Augereau, and Pierre François Sauret. There was a 2, 500-strong cavalry division led by General of Division André de la Barre, a report from 30 April 1794 listed Saurets Left Division as having a strength of 7,362 infantry and 100 cavalry and Victors brigade having 2,669 infantry. Martin led 3,091 infantry, Chabert 2,648, Point 2,774, Lemoine 3,257, Despinoy 1,074, La Barre commanded 1,357 infantry and 1,907 cavalry while the Detachment of the Left numbered 1,994 foot soldiers. During the winter, Ricardos travelled to Madrid to plead for reinforcements and he died there of pneumonia on 13 March 1794. Ricardos designated successor, Captain General Alejandro OReilly died on 23 March before he could reach the front, in the interim, Lieutenant General Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma, Marquis de las Amarilas assumed leadership over the Army of Catalonia. But in late April, Lieutenant General Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión finally accepted command of the army, de la Union deployed his 20, 000-strong army to hold the Tech valley, with defences both north and south of the river. Lieutenant General Eugenio Navarro commanded the right division, whose positions included Collioure. The 8, 300-man centre division of Lieutenant General de las Amarilas held strongpoints at Le Boulou, Montesquieu-des-Albères, Lieutenant General Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu with 5,500 soldiers of the left division defended Céret, where de la Union installed his headquarters. Lieutenant General John Forbes Portuguese contingent deployed on the left at Arles-sur-Tech
38.
Battle of San-Lorenzo de la Muga
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The Battle of San Lorenzo de la Muga was fought on 13 August 1794 between an attacking Spanish–Portuguese army led by the Conde de la Unión and a French army commanded by Jacques François Dugommier. The local French defenders headed by Pierre Augereau and Dominique Pérignon repulsed the allies, the Spanish garrison of Fort de Bellegarde surrendered a month later. In 1793 the Spanish army defeated the ill-trained French armies where the Franco-Spanish border touches the Mediterranean Sea, the Siege of Bellegarde resulted in the surrender of the fort to the Spanish army on 24 June. The Spanish army won the Battle of Truillas and several other actions, in January 1794, the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees received a new commander in General of Division Jacques François Dugommier. Fresh from his triumph at the Siege of Toulon, the new leader reorganized the army, Dugommier set up supply depots, established hospitals, and improved local roads. By the time the French assumed the offensive in April 1794, their army numbered 28,000 regular soldiers,20,000 garrison troops, and 9,000 hastily trained volunteers. Dugommier organized the infantry divisions of Generals of Division Pérignon, Augereau, the French defeated their adversaries at the Battle of Boulou on 1 May. Immediately after their victory, they pushed the Allied army south of the Pyrenees, Collioure fell on 29 May, but Bellegarde proved to be much more difficult to capture. In a combat at La Junquera on 7 June, Pérignon repulsed a Spanish attempt to relieve Bellegarde, anxious about the beleaguered garrison of Bellegarde, de la Union assembled an army of 45,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. He emerged from his fortified lines covering the Alto Ampurdán to attack Augereaus division on the western flank, the fighting took place near Sant Llorenç de la Muga, the site of a cannon ammunition foundry. The Spanish assault, carried out by 14,000 regular infantry and 6,000 provincial militia, failed to break the French defenders, saurets defenses, on the eastern flank, were not threatened. General John Forbes covered the retreat with a Portuguese division consisting of one each of the 1st, 2nd, Olivença, Cascais, Peniche. The French counted 800 casualties, including General of Brigade Guillaume Mirabel killed, the Spanish suffered losses of 1,400 soldiers killed, wounded, and missing. The Marquis of Val-Santaro surrendered Bellegarde to Pérignon on 17 September, the 1,000 starving survivors of the garrison became prisoners, while 68 cannon and 40,000 rounds of cannon shot fell into French hands. French losses during the blockade were light, the next action was the Battle of the Black Mountain in November 1794. Fortified-places. com Bellegarde by Dominic Goode Ostermann, Georges
39.
Battle of the Black Mountain
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The Battle of the Black Mountain was fought from 17 to 20 November 1794 between the army of the First French Republic and the allied armies of the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal. The French, led by Jacques François Dugommier defeated the Allies, though the Spanish right wing held, its left flank was driven back on the first days fighting. On the last day of the battle, the French overran a key position, the battle was remarkable in that both army commanders were slain. A Spanish artillery shell killed Dugommier early in the battle and Dominique Catherine de Pérignon assumed command of the French army. De la Union was shot dead while leading a charge on the last day of the fighting and was temporarily replaced by Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma. The French victory led to the capture of Figueres and the Siege of Roses, during 1793, the Spanish army won victories at the Siege of Bellegarde and the Battle of Truillas. These battles and other actions resulted in Spanish forces overrunning part of Rousillon, on 16 January 1794, General of Division Jacques François Dugommier took command of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees. The victor in the Siege of Toulon immediately reorganized the army, the new general began stockpiling supplies, establishing arms factories, setting up hospitals, and improving roads. By April, the army counted 28,000 soldiers. These were backed up by 20,000 garrison troops and 9,000 raw volunteers, the French victory in the Battle of Boulou on 1 May caused the Spanish army to withdraw south of the Pyrenees. The recapture of Collioure occurred on 29 May, Pérignon won a combat at La Junquera on 7 June, in which La Barre was killed. Augereau repulsed a Spanish attack on 13 August at the Battle of San-Lorenzo de la Muga, a long siege of Fort de Bellegarde ended on 17 September with a Spanish capitulation. To shield Figueres, Roses, and the Alt Emporda, Lieutenant General Luis Firmin de Carvajal, the defenders included crack troops such as the three battalions each of the Spanish Guard and Walloon Guard Regiments. Lower quality troops such as provincial militia also manned the lines, Dugommier deployed a total 36,000 troops for his assault, including 22,000 in the first line. Augereaus division on the flank had 9,000 men. Pérignons 8,700 soldiers held the center and Saurets 4,300 troops were on the east flank, the second line had 7,500 men and the third line contained 4,500 troops. A further 8,000 soldiers lay in reserve, de la Union deployed 45,000 to defend his fortified lines, including 10,000 second line reserves. Lieutenant General Juan de Courten had 10,000 troops to hold Sant Llorenç de la Muga, Magdalena Mountain, Lieutenant General Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu defended the eastern flank from Pont de Molins to the sea with 12,000 men
40.
Peace of Basel
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The Peace of Basel of 1795 consists of three peace treaties involving France during the French Revolution. With great diplomatic cunning, the treaties enabled France to placate and divide its enemies of the First Coalition, thereafter, Revolutionary France emerged as a major European power. The first treaty, on 5 April 1795 between France and Prussia, had been discussion since 1794. Prussia withdrew from the coalition that had been working on the partition of Poland and. In secret, Prussia recognized French control of the west bank of the Rhine, France returned all of the lands east of the Rhine captured during the war. On the night of 6 April, the document was signed by the representatives of France and Prussia, François de Barthélemy and they were not face to face, each was in his own accommodation in Rosshof or the Markgräflerhof, and the papers were passed around by a courier. Peter Ochs drew up the Treaty and served as a mediator for a significant proportion of these financial statements, Prussia stuck to the agreement of the Treaty of Basel until 1806, when it joined the Fourth Coalition. In the second treaty, on 22 July, Spain ceded the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola to France in exchange for keeping Gipuzkoa. The French also came at night to sign the treaty between France and Spain in which Spain was represented by Domingo dYriarte, who signed the treaty in the mansion of Ochs. These treaties with Prussia and Spain had the effect of breaking the alliance between the French Republics two main opponents of the First Coalition. On 28 August 1795, the treaty was completed, a peace between France and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, signed by Friedrich Sigismund Waitz von Eschen. There was also an agreement to exchange the Austrian troops who had captured in Belgium. Campaigns of 1795 in the French Revolutionary Wars Cisrhenian Republic List of treaties
41.
War of the Pyrenees
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The War of the Pyrenees, also known as War of Roussillon or War of the Convention, was the Pyrenean front of the First Coalitions war against the First French Republic. It pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal from March 1793 to July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars, the war was fought in the eastern Pyrenees, the western Pyrenees, at the French port of Toulon, and at sea. In 1793, a Spanish army invaded Roussillon in the eastern Pyrenees, the French army drove the Spanish back into Catalonia and inflicted a serious defeat on it in November 1794. After February 1795, the war in the eastern Pyrenees became a stalemate, in the western Pyrenees, the French began to win in 1794. By 1795, the French army controlled a portion of northeast Spain, the war was brutal in at least two ways. First, the Committee of Public Safety decreed that all French royalist prisoners be executed, Second, French generals who lost battles or otherwise displeased the all-powerful representatives-on-mission were sent to prison or the guillotine with alarming frequency. Army of the Eastern Pyrenees commanders and generals were especially unlucky in this regard, on 21 January 1793, the National Convention of France executed King Louis XVI of France by guillotine, enraging the other monarchs of Europe. France was already at war with Habsburg Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia, after winning the Battle of Jemappes, the French army occupied the Austrian Netherlands. Emboldened, the government decreed annexation of the territory, provoking a diplomatic break with Great Britain, on 1 February, France declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic. On 7 March, France declared war on her ancient ally Spain, Spanish forces took part in the Siege of Toulon, which lasted from 18 September to 18 December 1793. The French were led by Dugommier while the Anglo-Spanish defenders were commanded by Admirals Juan de Lángara, Federico Gravina, Samuel Hood, the Allies abandoned the port after a young officer of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte took the fleets anchorage under cannon fire. The French navy lost 14 ships of the burned and 15 more captured. French casualties numbered 2,000 while Allied losses were twice as great, afterward, the victors massacred up to 2,000 French Royalists taken as prisoners. The Action of 14 February 1795 in the Gulf of Roses was a defeat for the French navy, at the outbreak of war, King Charles IV of Spain appointed Captain General Antonio Ricardos to command the Army of Catalonia in the eastern Pyrenees. Ricardos invaded the Cerdagne and captured Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans on 17 April 1793, three days later, he routed a French force at Céret on the Tech River. In despair, the elderly French commander in charge of Roussillon, on 30 April, the French government split the Army of the Pyrenees into the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees and the Army of the Western Pyrenees. In the Battle of Mas Deu on 19 May 1793, Ricardos defeated Louis-Charles de Flers and this allowed the Spanish to invest the Fort de Bellegarde on 23 May. The Siege of Bellegarde ended when the French garrison surrendered on 24 June, in the Battle of Perpignan on 17 July, de Flers turned back the Spanish, though French losses were heavier
42.
Army of Italy (France)
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The Army of Italy was a field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best known for its role during the French Revolutionary Wars. Poorly supplied, and only getting reinforcements irregularly, the Army of Italy was sometimes reduced to looting to survive, when Bonaparte arrived, indiscipline was rife. Chouan songs were sung by the troops, and a company of the Dauphin was formed, all the while improving the supply system as much as possible, Bonaparte also reestablished discipline. He condemned officers who had cried Vive le roi. dismissed the 13th regiment of hussards for indiscipline, purged in this way, the Army of Italy was subsequently the most Jacobin of all the French armies. Much of the original Armée dItalie became the Army of Egypt, the new armys first commander was Masséna, followed by Bonaparte and général Berthier It was under Berthier that this army beat the Austrians at the battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800. From 11 to 25 December, the commander was effectively General Moreau. Clerget, Tableaux des armées françaises pendant les guerres de la Révolution
43.
Austrian Habsburgs
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
44.
Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont
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The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Southern Europe which existed from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the state of todays Italy. When it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, however, the Savoyards united it with their possessions on the Italian mainland and, by the time of the Crimean War in 1853, had built the resulting kingdom into a strong power. The formal name of the entire Savoyard state was the States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia and its final capital was Turin, the capital of Savoy since the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia, in 1420 the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire, in 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. While in theory the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Congress of Vienna, which restructured Europe after Napoleons defeat, returned to Savoy its mainland possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from the Republic of Genoa. In 1847–48, in a fusion, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system, with the capital in Turin, and granted a constitution. There followed the annexation of Lombardy, the central Italian states and the Two Sicilies, Venetia, in 238 BC Sardinia became, along with Corsica, a province of the Roman Empire. The Romans ruled the island until the middle of the 5th century, when it was occupied by the Vandals, in 534 AD it was reconquered by the Romans, but now from the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. It remained a Byzantine province until the Arab conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, after that, communications with Constantinople became very difficult, and powerful families of the island assumed control of the land. Starting from 705–706, Saracens from north Africa harassed the population of the coastal cities, information about the Sardinian political situation in the following centuries is scarce. There is a record of another massive Saracen sea attack in 1015–16 from the Balearics, the Saracen attempt to invade the island was stopped by the Judicatus with the support of the fleets of the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa, free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Benedict VIII also requested aid from the republics of Pisa. Even the title of Judices was a Byzantine reminder of the Greek church and state, of these sovereigns only two names are known, Turcoturiu and Salusiu, who probably ruled in the 10th century. The Archons still wrote in Greek or Latin, but one of the first documents of the Judex of Cagliari, their successor, was written in romance Sardinian language. The realm was divided into four kingdoms, the Judicati, perfectly organized as was the previous realm, but was now under the influence of the Pope. That was the cause of leading to a long war between the Judices, who regarded themselves as kings fighting against rebellious nobles
45.
Montenotte Campaign
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The Montenotte Campaign began on 10 April 1796 with an action at Voltri and ended with the Armistice of Cherasco on 28 April. The French defeated both Austrian and Sardinian armies and forced Sardinia to quit the First Coalition, the campaign formed part of the Wars of the French Revolution. Montenotte Superiore is located at the junction of Strada Provinciale 12 and 41 in the Liguria region of northwest Italy,15 kilometres northeast of Carcare municipality, however, the fighting occurred in an area from Genoa on the east to Cuneo on the west. In the spring of 1796, Bonaparte planned to launch an offensive against the armies of Sardinia and Austria. However, the Austrian army moved first, attacking the French right flank at Voltri, in response, Bonaparte counterattacked the center of the enemy array, striking the boundary between the armies of his adversaries. Beating the Austrians at Montenotte, the military genius strove to drive the Piedmontese west. Victories at Millesimo over the Sardinians and at Dego over the Austrians began to drive a wedge between them. Leaving a division to observe the stunned Austrians, Bonapartes army chased the Piedmontese west after a clash at Ceva. A week after the French drubbed the Sardinians at Mondovì the Sardinian government signed an armistice, in two and a half weeks, Bonaparte had overcome one of Frances enemies, leaving the crippled Austrian army as his remaining opponent in northern Italy. See Montenotte 1796 Campaign Order of Battle for a list of French, Austrian, the government of the First French Republic wished to drive Sardinia-Piedmont out of the First Coalition. To achieve this aim, the French Army of Italy first had to defeat Michelangelo Alessandro Colli-Marchis 21, 000-man Sardinian army and Johann Peter Beaulieus 28, 000-strong Austrian army. For this purpose, Bonaparte had a force of 43,000, while 22,000 more troops guarded his vulnerable supply line along the Italian. Several passes and river valleys crossed the Ligurian Alps mountain chain between the Italian Riviera and Piedmont, the coastal strip to the south was not sufficient to support an army unless it was well supplied. However, to the north, Piedmont and the Po valley were rich in resources, the theater of operations stretched from the Col de Tende on the west to Voltri on the east. The town of Savona lies on the coast,56 kilometres west of Genoa, going northwest from Savona, a road crosses the Colle di Cadibona and reaches Carcare on the Bormida River,20 kilometres from Savona. Continuing west from Carcare, the passes through Millesimo after another 8 kilometres. Crossing a divide near the hamlet of Montezemolo, the highway descends into the Tanaro River valley at the fortress of Ceva. From Millesimo to Ceva is about 21 kilometres, from Ceva to Mondovì is a distance of 22 kilometres
46.
Battle of Ceva
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Augereau assaulted the strong defensive position without success. At the direction of the Sardinian army commander, Feldmarschal-Leutnant Michelangelo Colli, the Montenotte Campaign began on 10 April when Feldzeugmeister Johann Beaulieus Austrian army attacked the extreme right flank of General of Division Napoleon Bonapartes army near Genoa. Bonaparte launched a counterattack on 12 April at the Battle of Montenotte. On 13 April, MG Augereaus reinforced division defeated part of Collis Sardinian army at the Battle of Millesimo, in the Second Battle of Dego on 14 and 15 April, the Austrians were defeated again. On 15 April, Colli assembled a force on ground at Montezemolo in order to cover the fortress of Ceva. Meanwhile, MG Jean Séruriers division advanced from Ormea north toward Ceva along the Tanaro River valley, fearing he might be cut off from Ceva, the Piedmontese commander fell back to the fortress. Marching from the east, Augereau occupied Montezemolo early on 16 April, then his division moved north, see the Montenotte 1796 Campaign Order of Battle for a list of French, Austrian, and Sardinian units and organizations. In 1796, the fortress loomed over the side of Ceva. The Sardinians deployed atop a ridge runs from the fortress north about seven kilometers to the hamlet of La Pedaggera. Sardinian and Austrian engineers had fortified the ridge, which overlooks the Bovina stream, General Brempt held the north end of the line with several Piedmontese battalions plus the Austrian Belgioso Infantry Regiment #44. Vital defended the south end of the line with nine battalions, Augereaus division formed several columns under General of Brigade Martial Beyrand and BG Barthélemy Joubert. Two French columns pressed home their attacks on Brempts left flank while one column assaulted Vitals position near Mondoni in the center, the Sardinians repelled all attacks on the ridge. That evening Sérurier camped within sight of Ceva, threatening to turn the flank of the Sardinian line. On the northern flank, Brempt reported that he might be cut off if attacked again, though they had won a defensive success, the mood of the Piedmontese generals was gloomy and they recommended a retreat. That night, Colli held a council of war in which he decided to withdraw most of the army west behind the Corsaglia River, some units were sent northwest to Cherasco to prevent the French from cutting between Colli and the Piedmontese capital of Turin. Augereau occupied the abandoned Sardinian positions on 17 April, Bonaparte decided to mask the fortress with a force under BG Jean Rusca and continue to press the Piedmontese back on Cuneo. The French lost about 600 men killed and wounded, Brempt reported a loss of 150 while Vitals casualties are unknown. The Sardinians won another rear guard action at San Michele Mondovi on 19 April and this was followed by the decisive French victory at the Battle of Mondovì on 21 April
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Augereau, Pierre François Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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