1.
Henry III of France
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Henry III was a monarch of the House of Valois who was elected the monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1573 to 1575 and ruled as King of France from 1574 until his death. He was the last French monarch of the Valois dynasty, as the fourth son of King Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, Henry was not expected to assume the throne of France. He was thus a candidate for the vacant Commonwealth throne. Henrys rule over Commonwealth was brief, but notable, the Henrician Articles he signed into law accepting the Commonwealth throne established Poland as an elective monarchy subject to free election by the Polish nobility. Of his three brothers, two would live long enough to ascend the French throne, but both died young and without a legitimate male heir. He abandoned Commonwealth upon receiving word that he had inherited the throne of France at the age of 22, Henry III was himself a politique, arguing that a strong and religiously tolerant monarchy would save France from collapse. Henry IIIs legitimate heir was his distant cousin Henry, King of Navarre, the Catholic League, led by Henry I, Duke of Guise, sought to exclude Protestants from the succession and championed the Catholic Charles, Cardinal of Bourbon, as Henry IIIs heir. Henry was born at the royal Château de Fontainebleau, the son of King Henry II and Catherine de Medici and grandson of Francis I of France. His older brothers were Francis II of France, Charles IX of France and he was made Duke of Angoulême and Duke of Orléans in 1560, then Duke of Anjou in 1566. He was his mothers favourite, she called him chers yeux and lavished fondness and his elder brother, Charles, grew to detest him, partially because he resented his better health. In his youth, Henry was considered the best of the sons of Catherine de Medici, unlike his father and elder brothers, he had little interest in the traditional Valois pastimes of hunting and physical exercise. Although he was fond of fencing and skilled in it, he preferred to indulge his tastes for the arts. These predilections were attributed to his Italian mother, at one point in his youth he showed a tendency towards Protestantism as a means of rebelling. At the age of nine, calling himself a little Huguenot, he refused to attend Mass, sang Protestant psalms to his sister Margaret and his mother firmly cautioned her children against such behaviour, and he would never again show any Protestant tendencies. Instead, he became nominally Roman Catholic, reports that Henry engaged in same sex relations with his court favourites, known as the mignons, date back to his own time. Certainly he enjoyed relationships with them. The scholar Louis Crompton provides substantial contemporary evidence of Henry IIIs homosexuality, and it is difficult, he writes, to reconcile the king whose use of favourites is so logically strategic with the man who goes to pieces when one of them dies. In 1570, discussions commenced to arrange for Henry to court Queen Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth, almost 37, was expected by many parties in her country to marry and produce an heir
2.
Jagiellonian dynasty
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The dynasty reigned in several Central European countries between the 14th and 16th centuries. Members of the dynasty were Kings of Poland, Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Kings of Hungary, one Jagiellonian briefly ruled both Poland and Hungary, and two others ruled both Bohemia and Hungary and then continued in the distaff line as a branch of the House of Habsburg. The cultural flowering had its base in the prosperity of the elites. The name comes from Jogaila, the first Grand Duke of Lithuania to become King of Poland, the rule of Piasts, the earlier Polish ruling house had ended with the death of King Casimir III the Great. Gediminids, the predecessors of the first Jagiellonian, were rulers of medieval Lithuania with the title of Grand Duke. Their realm, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was inhabited by Lithuanians and Ruthenians. Jogaila, the eponymous first ruler of the Jagiellonin dynasty, started as the Grand Duke of Lithuania, as a result of the Union of Krewo he then converted to Christianity and married the 11-year-old Hedwig of Poland. Thereby he became King of Poland and founded the dynasty, angevin rulers were the second and Jagiellonian third dynasty of Polish Kings. In 1385 the Union of Krewo was signed between Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the last pagan state in Europe, the act arranged for Jogailas baptism and for the couples marriage and constituted the beginning of the Polish–Lithuanian union. The Union strengthened both nations in their opposition to the Teutonic Knights and the growing threat of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Uniquely in Europe, the union connected two states located on the opposite sides of the great civilizational divide between the Western or Latin, and the Eastern or Byzantine worlds. The intention of the Union was to create a state under Władysław II Jagiełło. Geographic consequences of the union and the preferences of the Jagiellonian kings accelerated the process of reorientation of Polish territorial priorities to the east. The political influence of the Jagiellonian kings was diminishing during this period, the royal dynasty, however, had a stabilizing effect on Polands politics. The Jagiellonian Era is often regarded as a period of political power, great prosperity, and in its later stage. The offensive that followed lost its impact with the siege of Malbork. The failure to take the fortress and eliminate the Teutonic state had for Poland dire historic consequences in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the Peace of Thorn had given Poland and Lithuania rather modest territorial adjustments, including Samogitia. Afterwards there were negotiations and peace deals that didnt hold, more military campaigns and arbitrations, one attempted, unresolved arbitration took place at the Council of Constance
3.
Bona Sforza
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Bona Sforza was a member of the powerful House of Sforza, which ruled the Duchy of Milan since 1447. In 1518, she became the wife of Sigismund I the Old. Their marriage lasted 30 years until Sigismunds death in 1548, ambitious and energetic, Bona became heavily involved in the political life of Poland–Lithuania. To increase state revenue, she implemented various economic and agricultural reforms and her reforms made her the richest landowner in the Grand Duchy. In foreign policy, she opposed the Habsburgs and sought to secure her eldest daughter Isabella Jagiellon in the Kingdom of Hungary, Bona was the third of the four children of Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife Isabella of Naples. Gian Galeazzo was the heir to the Duchy of Milan. The couple was sent to live at the Castello Visconteo in Pavia, rumors spread that he was poisoned by Ludovico. The family moved to the Sforza Castle in Milan, where they lived under the eye of Ludovico. He was afraid that Milan residents would rebel and install Francesco Sforza, to minimize the risk, Ludovico separated the boy from his family and granted Bari and Rossano to Isabella. The plans were interrupted by the Italian War of 1499–1504, King Louis XII of France deposed Ludovico and took Francesco with him to Paris. Isabella had nothing left in Milan and departed for her native Naples in February 1500, the war reached the Kingdom of Naples and Isabellas uncle Frederick of Naples was deposed. Together with other relatives, she hid at the Aragonese Castle on Ischia. In April 1502, Isabella and her surviving daughter Bona settled at the Castello Normanno-Svevo in Bari more permanently. There Bona started her extensive education and her teachers included Italian humanists Crisostomo Colonna and Antonio de Ferraris who taught her Latin, classical literature, mathematics, history, law, natural science, theology, even geography. Bona could also play musical instruments. When the House of Sforza was restored to the Duchy of Milan in 1512, Isabella hoped to wed Bona, the initial and most likely plan to marry Maximilian Sforza failed when he was deposed after the French victory in the Battle of Marignano in 1515. Pope Leo X proposed his nephew Lorenzo de Medici as he hoped, using Bonas inheritance claims to the Milan, however, the French hold on Milan was too strong and the plan failed. Polish King Sigismund I the Old was widowed in October 1515, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, did not want Sigismund to marry another Habsburg opponent like his late wife Barbara Zápolya
4.
Northern Seven Years' War
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The Northern Seven Years War was the war between the Kingdom of Sweden and a coalition of Denmark–Norway, Lübeck and Poland, fought between 1563 and 1570. The war was motivated by the dissatisfaction of King Frederick II of Denmark with the dissolution of the Kalmar Union, the fighting continued until both armies had been exhausted, and many men died. The resulting Treaty of Stettin was a stalemate, with neither party gaining any new territory, the Danish-ruled Nordic Kalmar Union lasted on and off from 1397 to 1523, until it finally collapsed following the continued Swedish resentment of Danish domination. A successful rebellion in 1471 led to Swedish victory at the Battle of Brunkeberg, in 1520, Christian II of Denmark reconquered Sweden and took a bloody revenge on the anti-Union faction at the Stockholm Bloodbath. More than 80 noble men and ladies, including leading citizens of Stockholm, were executed, the violence elicited strong reactions in Sweden for years to come, and the Union was broken by the successful Swedish War of Liberation from 1521 to 1523. Christian II was condemned by the Pope, and he abdicated in 1523, under Vasa, the Kalmar Union was finally dissolved, and Sweden began establishing itself as a rival power of Denmark–Norway. Furthermore, Denmark controlled the Baltic, limiting Swedish movement there, Gustav Vasa took an action which did not bear immediate fruit in the Nordic Seven Years War, but was to have a lasting impact on Sweden’s fortune, he changed the military structure in Sweden. In 1544 he used the old Scandinavian concept of Uppbåd to establish the first native standing army in Europe, the men served in standby, remaining at home in peacetime, and being paid by tax concessions, but were required to assemble and drill. This system was expanded as the Swedish allotment system. By 1560 when Gustav Vasa died, every ten peasants were required to one soldier who must serve anywhere domestic or foreign as required by the king. After the deaths of Christian III and Gustav Vasa – in 1559 and 1560, respectively, Frederick II envisioned the resurrection of the Kalmar Union under Danish leadership, while Eric wanted to finally break the dominating position of Denmark. During the next year, the Danish expansion continued with the possession of the Baltic Sea island of Ösel, during this conflict, King Eric of Sweden successfully obstructed the Danish plans to conquer Estonia. In February 1563, Swedish messengers were sent to Hesse to negotiate Erics marriage with Christine of Hesse, in retaliation, Eric added the insignia of Norway and Denmark to his own coat of arms, and refused Danish requests to remove these symbols. Lübeck, upset over obstacles of trade that Eric had introduced to hinder the Russian trade and withdrawn trade privileges, the Polish–Lithuanian union also joined, desiring control of the Baltic trade. Skirmishes broke out in May 1563, before war was declared in August that year. In May, the first movements of the war started, a Danish fleet under Jakob Brockenhuus sailed towards the Baltic. At Bornholm, on 30 May 1563, the Danish fleet fired on the Swedish navy under Jakob Bagge even though war had not officially been declared, a battle arose that ended with Danish defeat. German royal emissaries were sent to negotiate a peace, but at the place of Rostock no Swedes appeared
5.
Polish Golden Age
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The Polish Golden Age refers to the period from the late 15th century Jagiellon Poland to the death of the last of the Jagiellons, Sigismund August in 1572. Some historians claim that the Golden Age lasted until the mid-17th century, when in 1648 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was ravaged by the Khmelnytsky Uprising, during its Golden Age, the Commonwealth became one of the largest kingdoms of Europe, stretching from modern-day Estonia, to Moldavia and Silesia. Its army was able to defend the realm against numerous Teutonic knights, Turkish, Swedish, Russian, the country prospered thanks to its enormous grain, wood and salt exports. In the 16th century, the area of the Commonwealth reached almost 1 million km and its goods were transported to Western Europe via Baltic Sea ports of Gdańsk, Elbląg, Riga, Memel and Königsberg. The Commonwealth had several major cities, such as Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Lviv, Vilnius, Toruń, during the Golden Age the Commonwealth was regarded as one of the most powerful European states. One of its features was the Liberum veto, used for the first time in 1653, nobility, which consisted of both szlachta and magnates, made up approximately 8-10% of the population. In the early 16th century the situation for peasants was relatively good, the Academy of Kraków possessed well-stocked libraries, smaller collections were increasingly common at noble courts, schools, and in townspeoples households. Illiteracy levels were falling, as by the end of the 16th century almost every parish ran a school, the Lubrański Academy, an institution of higher learning, was established in Poznań in 1519. The Catholic reaction was the creation of Jesuit colleges of comparable quality, the Kraków University in turn responded with humanist program gymnasiums of its own. Latin, Greek, Hebrew and their literatures were likewise popular, by the mid 16th century the institution entered a crisis stage, and by the early 17th century regressed into Counter-reformational conformism. The Jesuits took advantage of the infighting and established in 1579 a university college in Vilnius, under the circumstances many elected to pursue their studies abroad. Their patronage example was followed by ecclesiastic and lay feudal lords, Polish science reached its culmination in the first half of the 16th century as the medieval point of view was criticized and more rational explanations were sought. Generally the prominent scientists of the period resided in different regions of the country, and increasingly. Copernicus, a son of a Toruń trader from Kraków, made contributions to science. His scientific creativity was inspired at the University of Kraków, he studied at Italian universities. As an astronomer, he worked on his theory for many years at Frombork. Josephus Struthius became famous as a physician and medical researcher, bernard Wapowski was a pioneer of Polish cartography. Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was one of the greatest theorists of political thought in Renaissance Europe and his most famous work, On the Improvement of the Commonwealth, was published in Kraków in 1551
6.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
7.
Anna Jagiellon
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Anna Jagiellon was Queen of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in her own right from 1575 to 1586. She was a daughter of Polish King Sigismund I the Old, despite multiple proposals, she remained unmarried until the age of 52. She was elected, along with her then-fiancé Stephen Báthory, as co-ruler in the 1576 royal election of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and their marriage was a formal arrangement and distant. Báthory was preoccupied with the Livonian War, while Anna spent her time in Warsaw on local administrative matters, after Báthorys death in December 1586, she had an opportunity to claim the throne for herself, but did not even attempt it. Instead, she promoted her nephew Sigismund III Vasa, establishing House of Vasa on the Polish–Lithuanian throne for the eighty years. Anna Jagiellon was born on 18 October 1523 to the Polish king and queen, Sigismund I the Old and she spent most of her childhood in Kraków. Twice, from June 1533 to November 1536 and from April 1540 to June 1542, Anna and that meant that the three sisters grew closer, but grew more distant from their elder brother Sigismund II Augustus. Her early life was rather mundane and she embroidered and sewed, played chess and dice, was involved in works of charity and fulfilled her obligations as a princess. She also received an education – she was fluent in Italian and knew Latin –, the issue of marriage of the three Jagiellon sisters was neglected by both their father and their mother. Sigismund II Augustus did not attend to the issue of his sisters marriages, in 1550, Bona attempted to negotiate marriage with Charles Victor or Philip, sons of Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or Ernest of Bavaria. Finally in January 1556, Queen Bona managed to arrange a marriage for Sophia Jagiellon, a month later, Bona Sforza departed to her native Italy leaving her two unmarried daughters alone in Warsaw. After about a year, Sigismund II Augustus brought his sisters to Vilnius where they became close to his third wife Catherine of Austria, even though Anna was already in her mid-thirties, Sigismund investigated marriage proposals. John agreed, but asked for Annas younger sister Catherine and it was against custom for a younger sister to marry first, therefore their wedding was postponed. However, at the last minute, only John arrived to the wedding in Vilnius, the court demanded that John married Anna, but John insisted on Catherine. Sigismund II Augustus, who needed Swedish troops and money in the Livonian War, though it must have been humiliating for Anna, she agreed and Catherine married John on 4 October 1562. Anna moved to the Royal Castle in Warsaw as Vilnius was not safe due to the Livonian War, there she lived alone with a court of about 70 people, she spent her time praying, embroidering or sewing, and corresponding with her sisters. Her brother visited her annually when he attended sessions of the sejm in Warsaw. Even though Anna was already in her forties, marriage continued to come in
8.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
9.
Sandomierz
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Sandomierz is a town in south-eastern Poland with 25,714 inhabitants, situated in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Sandomierz County, Sandomierz is known for its Old Town, which is a major tourist attraction. In the past, Sandomierz used to be one of the most important urban centers not only of Lesser Poland, but also of the whole country. The name of the city might have originated from the Old Polish Sędomir, composed of Sędzi- and mir, or more likely from the given name Sędzimir. Sandomierz is known in German, Sandomir, Latin, Sandomiria, Yiddish, צויזמיר, Hungarian, Szandomir, Ukrainian, Сандомир or Судомир, Russian, Сандомир, Sandomierz is one of the oldest and historically most significant cities in Poland. Archeological finds around the city indicate that humans have inhabited the area since neolithic times, the city came into existence in the early Middle Ages, taking advantage of an excellent location at the junction of Vistula and San rivers, and on the path of important trade routes. The first known mention of the city comes from the early 12th-century. The testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth, in which he divided Poland among his sons, designated Sandomierz as the capital of one of the resulting principalities, in the course of the 13th century the city suffered grievous damage during raids by Tatars in 1241,1259 and 1287. The old wooden buildings of the town were completely destroyed, as a result, in 1286 the High Duke of Poland Leszek II the Black, effectively refounded the city under Magdeburg Law. The city archives preserve the founding document, after the re-unification of the Polish lands in the 14th century, the former principality became the Sandomierz Voivodeship, incorporating large areas of southeastern Poland. Until 1474, it was one of two voivodeships of Lesser Poland, together with Krakow Voivodeship, in 1474, Lublin Voivodeship was created from eastern part of Sandomierz Voivodeship. At this time Sandomierz had about 3,000 inhabitants and was one of the largest Polish cities, in the middle of the 14th century the city was burned again during a raid by the Lithuanians. It was rebuilt during the rule of king Casimir III of Poland, the layout of the city has survived practically unchanged since that time until the present day. The following three hundred years, running until the middle of the 17th century, were prosperous for the city. The most important historical buildings were built during this period and this golden age came to an end in 1655 when Swedish forces captured the city in the course of the Deluge. After briefly holding out in the city, the withdrawing Swedes blew up the castle, in the next 100 years the economy of Poland suffered a decline, which also affected the city. A great fire in 1757 and the First Partition of Poland in 1772, as a result, Sandomierz lost its role as an administrative capital. In 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, fighting between the forces of Austria and of the Duchy of Warsaw caused damage to the city, after 1815 it found itself in the Russian Empire
Elisabeth of Austria
Barbara Radziwiłł
Catherine of Austria
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Sigismund II.". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 68.
