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Louis XVI

Louis XVI

Louis XVI (August 9 1754, Versailles – January 21 1793, Paris) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French in 1791-1793. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of the 10th of August, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed on January 21 1793. His execution signaled the end of the absolutist monarchy in France and would eventually bring about the rise of Napoleon. Beloved by the people at first, his indecisiveness and conservatism led the people to reject and persecute him for the perceived tyranny of the former kings of France. During the French Revolution, he was given the family name Capet (a faulty reference to Hugh Capet, the founder of the dynasty), and was called Louis Capet in an attempt to desecrate his status as king. He was also informally nicknamed Louis le Dernier ("Louis the Last"), a derisive use of the traditional nicknaming of French kings. Today, historians and Frenchmen in general have a more nuanced view of Louis XVI, who is seen as an honest man with good intentions but who was probably unfit for the Herculean task of reforming the monarchy, and who was used as a scapegoat by the Revolutionaries.

Family

Louis' father, the Dauphin (1729-1765), was the only son of Louis XV of France, and died at age 36, while Louis XV was still alive. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, second wife of the Dauphin, and the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. On May 16 1770, he married Marie Antoinette, daughter of Francis I of Austria and Empress Maria Theresa, a Hapsburg. They had four children:
- Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte (December 20 1778 – October 19 1851);
- Louis-Joseph-Xavier-François (October 22, 1781 – June 4, 1789);
- Louis-Charles (March 27, 1785 – June 8, 1795);
- Sophie-Beatrix (July 9, 1786 – June 19, 1787).

Politics

The government was deeply in debt. The radical reforms of Turgot and Malesherbes disaffected the nobles (parlements), and Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned in 1776 to be replaced by Jacques Necker. Louis supported the American Revolution in 1778, but in the Treaty of Paris (1783), the French gained little except an addition to the country's enormous debt. Necker had resigned in 1781 to be replaced by Calonne and Brienne, before being restored in 1788. In 1788, Louis ordered the first election of the Estates-General since 1614 in order to have the monetary reforms approved. The election was one of the events that transformed the general malaise into the French Revolution, which began in June 1789. The Third Estate had declared itself the National Assembly; Louis' attempts to control it resulted in the Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume, June 20), the declaration of the National Constituent Assembly on July 9, and the storming of the Bastille on July 14. In October, the royal family was forced to move from the Palace of Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Louis himself was very popular and not unobliging to the social, political, and economic reforms of the Revolution. Recent scholarship has concluded that Louis suffered from clinical depression, which left him prone to bouts of severe indecisiveness, during which times his wife, the unpopular Queen Marie Antoinette, assumed effective responsibility for acting for the Crown. The revolution's principles of popular sovereignty, though central to democratic principles of later eras, marked a decisive break from the absolute monarchical principle of throne and altar that was at the heart of contemporary governance. As a result, the revolution was opposed by almost all of the previous governing elite in France and by practically all the governments of Europe. Leading figures in the initial revolutionary movement themselves were questioning the principles of popular control of government. Some, notably Honoré Mirabeau, secretly plotted to restore the power of the Crown in a new form. However, Mirabeau's sudden death, and Louis's depression fatally weakened developments in that area. Louis was nowhere near as reactionary as his right-wing brothers, the comte d'Artois and the comte de Provence, and he sent repeated messages publicly and privately calling on them to halt their attempts to launch counter-coups (often through his secretly nominated regent, former minister de Brienne). However, he was alienated from the new government both by its challenging of the traditional role of the monarch and in its treatment of him and his family. He was particularly irked by being kept effective prisoner in the Tuileries, where his wife was forced humiliatingly to have revolutionary soldiers in her private bedroom watching her as she slept, and by the refusal of the new regime to allow him to have Catholic confessors and priests of his choice rather than 'constitutional priests' created by the revolution.

End of reign

On June 21, 1791, Louis attempted to flee secretly from Paris to modern-day Belgium (then part of the Austrian Empire) with his family in the hope of forcing a moderate swing in the revolution than was deemed possible in radical Paris. However, flaws in the escape plan caused sufficient delays to enable them to be recognised and captured at Varennes. Supposedly Louis was captured while trying to make a purchase at a store, where the clerk recognised his face on the coinage. He was returned to Paris, where he remained nominally as constitutional king, though under effective house-arrest until 1792. On July 25, 1792, in a conspiracy against his own country. Louis was officially arrested on August 13 1792. On September 21 1792, the National Assembly declared France to be a republic. Louis was tried (from December 11, 1792) and convicted of high treason before the Legislative Assembly. He was sentenced to death (January 17, 1793) by guillotine by 361 votes to 288, with 72 effective abstentions. Stripped of all titles and honorifics by the egalitarian, Republican government, Citizen Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd on January 21, 1793. On his death, his eight-year-old son, Louis-Charles, automatically became to royalists and some international states the de jure King Louis XVII of France, despite France having been declared a Republic.

August 9

August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining.

Events

- 48 BC - Roman Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
- AD 378 - Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens is killed along with 2/3 of his army.
- 681 - Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube, after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
- 1173 - Construction of the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete.
- 1483 - Opening of the Sistine Chapel
- 1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain - At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
- 1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole - Near Big Hole River in Montana, a small band of Nez Percé Indians who refused government orders to move to a reservation, clash with the United States Army. The army lost 29 soldiers and Indians lost 89 warriors in a US Army win.
- 1892 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
- 1902 - Edward VII is crowned king of the United Kingdom.
- 1936 - 1936 Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.
- 1942 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
- 1944 - The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
- 1945 - World War II: An atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man", with an energy of 92 terajoules (22,000 tons of TNT), is dropped by the B-29 Bockscar on the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 AM (local time). An estimated 70,000-90,000 are killed and 80,000 more are injured.
- 1965 - Singapore becomes an independent country.
- 1965 - Space disasters: A fire at a Titan missile base near Little Rock, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: Operation Cochise initiated - United States Marines begin a new operation in the Que Son Valley.
- 1969 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder five people,Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, and Abigail Folger.
- 1974 - Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action reportedly taken to prevent time from being wasted in impeachment proceedings in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, takes the oath of office and becomes the 38th president.
- 1983 - Peter Jennings hosts his first broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight as sole anchor.
- 1986 - The Headington Shark is erected in Oxford.
- 1987 - 9 people are shot dead and 17 more injured as 19-year old Julian Knight opens fire at random in the Hoddle Street Massacre in Clifton Hill
- 1988 - Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in hockey history.
- 1989 - Kaifu Toshiki becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
- 1993 - The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership as Hosokawa Morihiro becomes the first non-LDP Prime Minister of Japan since 1955.
- 1993 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin.
- 1995 - Netscape launches IPO.
- 1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
- 1999 - The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru and Kimi Ga Yo as the official national flag and national anthem.
- 2000 - A Piper Navajo and a Piper Seminole collide in mid-air over a housing development in Burlington, New Jersey, killing 11
- 2001 - US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
- 2001 - In Jerusalem, 15 people die and 130 wounded in the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing.
- 2005 - Space Shuttle Discovery makes successful touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, California

Births

- 1201 - Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English chronicler (d. 1274)
- 1593 - Izaak Walton, English angler (d. 1683)
- 1648 - Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
- 1653 - John Oldham, English poet (d. 1683)
- 1674 - František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect (d. 1766)
- 1722 - Augustus William, Prince of Prussia (d. 1758)
- 1726 - Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778)
- 1757 - Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1834)
- 1776 - Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (d. 1856)
- 1797 - Charles Robert Malden, British naval officer (d. 1855)
- 1805 - Joseph Locke, English railway and civil engineer (d. 1860)
- 1845 - Brother Andre, Canadian religious figure (d. 1937)
- 1871 - Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (d. 1919)
- 1872 - Joseph August, Archduke of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962)
- 1874 - Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan composer and conductor (d. 1947)
- 1896 - Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980)
- 1896 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)
- 1896 - Erich Hückel, German physicist (d. 1980)
- 1899 - P. L. Travers, Australian author (d. 1996)
- 1902 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
- 1909 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat opposing the Nazi regime (executed) (d. 1944)
- 1911 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1914 - Tove Jansson, Finnish author (d. 2001)
- 1919 - Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
- 1919 - Ralph Houk, baseball player and manager
- 1921 - J. James Exon, Nebraska Senator and Governor
- 1922 - Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985)
- 1927 - Daniel Keyes, American author
- 1927 - Robert Shaw, English actor (d. 1978)
- 1928 - Bob Cousy, American basketball player
- 1931 - Mário Zagallo, Brazilian football coach and player
- 1933 - Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese television personality and children's author
- 1938 - Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian politician
- 1938 - Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- 1939 - Romano Prodi, Italian politician, President of the European Commission
- 1939 - Brito, Brazilian football player
- 1944 - Sam Elliott, American actor
- 1945 - Ken Norton, American boxer
- 1945 - Posy Simmonds, English cartoonist
- 1949 - Jonathan Kellerman, American writer
- 1953 - Robert Cray, Blues musician
- 1957 - Melanie Griffith, American actress
- 1959 - Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor
- 1962 - Kevin Mack, American football player
- 1963 - Whitney Houston, American singer and actress
- 1964 - Brett Hull, Canadian-born hockey player
- 1967 - Deion Sanders, American football player
- 1968 - Gillian Anderson, American actress
- 1968 - Eric Bana, Australian actor
- 1969 - Troy Percival, baseball player
- 1972 - Juanes, Colombian singer
- 1973 - Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor
- 1974 - Matt Morris, baseball player
- 1976 - Jessica Capshaw, American actress
- 1976 - Rhona Mitra, English actress
- 1977 - Chamique Holdsclaw, American basketball player
- 1977 - Mikael Silvestre, French footballer
- 1978 - Audrey Tautou, French actress
- 1982 - Karol Bancerz, Polish journalist

Deaths

- 117 - Trajan, Roman Emperor (b. 53)
- 378 - Valens, Roman Emperor (killed in battle) (b. 328)
- 803 - Byzantine Empress Irene
- 1107 - Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
- 1250 - King Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216)
- 1534 - Cardinal Cajetan, Italian theologian (b. 1470)
- 1634 - William Noy, English jurist (b. 1577)
- 1720 - Simon Ockley, English orientalist (b. 1678)
- 1744 - James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English patron of the arts (b. 1673)
- 1919 - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- 1942 - Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) (executed) (b. 1891)
- 1945 - Harry Hillman, American athlete (b. 1881)
- 1962 - Hermann Hesse, German-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
- 1967 - Joe Orton, English writer (b. 1933)
- 1969 - Abigail Folger, American heiress (b. 1943)
- 1969 - Wojciech Frykowski, Polish writer (b. 1936)
- 1969 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- 1969 - Jay Sebring, American hair stylist (b. 1933)
- 1969 - Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
- 1975 - Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (b. 1906)
- 1995 - Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
- 2000 - John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
- 2002 - Peter Neville, anarchist, sociologist, and peace activist
- 2003 - Ray Harford, English footballer and manager (b. 1945)
- 2003 - Gregory Hines, American actor and dancer (b. 1946)
- 2005 - Matthew McGrory, American actor (b. 1973)
- 2005 - Judith Rossner, American novelist (b. 1935)

Holidays and observances

- Feast day of Jean Vianney, Edith Stein and Saint Romanus Ostiarius in the Roman Catholic Church
- Feast day of the great martyr Saint Panteleimon in Russian Orthodox Church
- South Africa: National Women's Day
- Singapore: National Day
- India :Quit India Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050809.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- August 8 - August 10 - July 9 - September 9 -- listing of all days ko:8월 9일 ms:9 Ogos ja:8月9日 simple:August 9 th:9 สิงหาคม

1754

1754 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- June 19 - The Albany Convention of New England Colonies proposes an American Union
- July - Columbia University founded as King's College by royal charter of King George II of England. The college was originally located in Lower Manhattan. Instruction was suspended in 1776 and the school would be reopened in 1784 as Columbia College. With the college's growth in the 19th Century, it would be renamed Columbia University in 1896.
- Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mahmud I (1730-1754) to Osman III (1754-1757)
- Beginning of the French and Indian War in North America.
- Britain and its colonies adopted a new Marriage Act that formulated many of the rules of modern marriage.

Births

- January 15 - Richard Martin, Irish founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (d. 1834)
- January 30 - John Lansing, Jr., American statesman (d. 1829)
- February 2 - Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French politician (d. 1838)
- March 17 - Madame Roland (Jeanne Marie Manon Philipon), French politician (d. 1793)
- March 23 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and artillery officer (d. 1802)
- June 4 - Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, German scientific editor and astronomer (d. 1832)
- July 11 - Thomas Bowdler, English physician (d. 1825)
- August 2 - Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect (d. 1825)
- August 21 - William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (d. 1839)
- August 23 - King Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)
- September 9 - William Bligh, English sailor (d. 1817)
- September 26 - Joseph Proust, French chemist (d. 1826)
- October 1 - Emperor Paul I of Russia (d. 1801)
- December 24 - George Crabbe, English poet (d. 1832)
- Jacques Pierre Brissot, French politician (d. 1795)
- Usman dan Fodio, Nigerian Islamic theologan (d. 1817)

Deaths

- January 10 - Edward Cave, English editor and publisher (b. 1691)
- January 28 - Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian dramatist and writer (b. 1684)
- February 16 - Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1673)
- March 6 - Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1696)
- March 23 - Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian (b. 1693)
- April 2 - Thomas Carte, English historian (b. 1686)
- April 9 - Christian Wolff, German philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1679)
- April 15 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b. 1676)
- May 14 - Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (b. 1692)
- May 23 - John Wood, the Elder, English architect (b. 1704)
- June 2 - Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (b. 1680)
- July 4 - Philippe Néricault Destouches, French dramatist (b. 1680)
- October 4 - Tanacharison, Catawba Indian chief
- October 8 - Henry Fielding, English novelist (b. 1707)
- November 27 - Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (b. 1667)
- December 12 - Wu Jingzi, Chinese writer (b. 1701)
- December 13 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1696) Category:1754 ko:1754년

Versailles

:This article is about the city of Versailles. For the Château de Versailles, see Palace of Versailles. For other uses, see Versailles (disambiguation). Versailles (disambiguation) Versailles, formerly the capital city of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important administrative and judicial center. The city (commune) of Versailles, located in the western suburbs of Paris, is the préfecture (capital) of the Yvelines département. Population of the city at the 1999 census was 85,726 inhabitants, down from a peak of 94,145 inhabitants in 1975. Versailles is made world-famous by the Château de Versailles, from the forecourt of which the city has grown.

A seat of power

Versailles was the unofficial capital city of the kingdom of France from May 1682 (King Louis XIV moves the court and government permanently to Versailles) until September 1715 (death of Louis XIV and regency, with the regent Philippe d'Orléans returning to Paris), and then again from June 1722 (King Louis XV returns to Versailles permanently) to October 1789 (King Louis XVI forced to move back to Paris by the people of Paris). During the entire period, Paris remained the official capital city of France, and the official royal palace was the Palace of the Louvre, but in practice government affairs were conducted from Versailles, and Versailles was regarded as the real capital city. Versailles became again the unofficial capital city of France from March 1871 (French government takes refuge in Versailles due to the insurrection of the Paris Commune) until November 1879 (newly elected left-wing republicans relocate government and parliament to Paris). Versailles was made the préfecture (capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département at its inception in March 1790 (Seine-et-Oise had approximately 400,000 inhabitants at its creation). By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the Seine-et-Oise département had reached almost 3 million inhabitants and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three départements in January 1968. Versailles was made the préfecture of the Yvelines département, the largest chunk of the former Seine-et-Oise département. At the 1999 census the Yvelines département had 1,354,304 inhabitants. Versailles is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles depends from the archdiocese of Paris. In 1975 Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal, whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris. Since 1972, Versailles was made the seat of one of France's 26 nationwide académies of the Ministry of National Education. It is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris. Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy, with for instance the military camp of Sartory and other institutions.

Geography

Versailles is located 17 km (10.5 miles) west-southwest from the center of Paris (as the crow flies). The city sits on an elevated plateau, 130 to 140 meters (425 to 460 ft) above sea-level (whereas the altitude of the center of Paris is only 33 m (108 ft) above sea level), surrounded by wooded hills: in the north the woods of Marly and Fausses-Reposes, and in the south the forests of Sartory and Meudon. The city of Versailles (commune) has an area of 26.18 km² (10.11 mile², or 6,469 acres), which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris. In 1999, the city of Versailles had a population density of 3,275/km² (8,481/mile²), whereas the city of Paris had a density of 20,164/km² (52,225/mile²). Born out of the will of a king, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets. For the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington DC.

History

The name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the end of the 11th century the village curled around a medieval castle and the Saint Julien church. Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy brought prosperity to the village, culminating in the end of the 13th century, the so-called "century of Saint Louis", famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of gothic cathedrals. The 14th century brought the Black Plague and the Hundred Years' War, and with it death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, the village started to recover, with a population of only 100 inhabitants. In 1561, Martial de Loménie, officer of the crown, became lord of Versailles. He obtained permission to organize four fairs per year, and one market every Thursday. The population of Versailles was 500 inhabitants. In 1575 the seigneury of Versailles ended up in the possession of the family of Gondi, a family of wealthy and influential parliamentarians at the Parlement of Paris. In the 1610s, the Gondi invited several times the king Louis XIII on some hunting trips in the large forests of Versailles. In 1622 the king became the owner of a piece of wood in Versailles for his private hunting. Later in 1624 he bought some land and ordered Philibert Le Roy to build there a small hunting "gentleman's chateau" of stone and red bricks with a roof of slate. In this small castle happened the famous historical event called the Day of the Dupes, on November 10, 1630, when the party of the queen mother was defeated and Richelieu was confirmed as prime minister. Eventually, in 1632, the king obtained the seigneury of Versailles altogether from the Gondi. The castle was enlarged between 1632 and 1634. At the death of Louis XIII in 1643 the village had 1,000 inhabitants. King Louis XIV, his son, was only 5-year-old. It was only 20 years later, in 1661, when Louis XIV started his personal reign, that the young king showed interest in Versailles. The idea of leaving Paris, where as a child he had experienced first-hand the insurrection of the Fronde, had never left him. Louis XIV commissioned his architect Le Vau and his landscape architect Le Nôtre to transform the castle of his father, as well as the park, in order to accommodate the court. In 1678, after the Treaty of Nijmegen, the king decided that the court and the government would be established permanently in Versailles, which happened on May 6, 1682. At the same time, a new city was emerging from the ground, resulting from an ingenious decree of the king dated May 22, 1671, whereby the king authorized anyone to acquire a lot in the new city for free. There were only two conditions to acquire a lot: 1- a token tax of 5 shillings (5 sols) per arpent of land should be paid every year (in 2005 US dollars, that's $0.03 per 1,000 ft² per year); 2- a house should be built on the lot according to the plans and models established by the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (architect in chief of the royal demesne). The plans provided for a city built symmetrically with respect to the Avenue de Paris (which starts from the entrance of the castle). The roofs of the buildings and houses of the new city were not to exceed the level of the Marble Courtyard, at the entrance of the castle (built above a hill dominating the city), so that the perspective from the windows of the castle would not be obstructed. The old village and the Saint Julien church were destroyed to make room for buildings housing the administrative services managing the daily life in the castle. On both sides of the Avenue de Paris were built the Notre-Dame neighborhood and the Saint-Louis neighborhood, with new large churches, markets, aristocratic mansions, buildings all built in very homogenous style according to the models established by the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi. Versailles was a vast construction site for many years. Little by little came to Versailles all those that needed or desired to live close to the political power. At the death of the Sun King in 1715, the village of Versailles had turned into a city of approximately 30,000 inhabitants. When the court of King Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1722, the city had 24,000 inhabitants. With the reign of Louis XV, Versailles grew even further. Versailles was the capital of the most powerful kingdom of Europe, and the whole of Europe admired the new architecture and design trends coming from Versailles. Soon enough, the strict building rules decided under Louis XIV were not respected anymore, real estate speculation flourished, and the lots that had been given for free under Louis XIV were now on the market for hefty prices. By 1744 the population had reached 37,000 inhabitants. The city changed considerably under kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Buildings were now taller. King Louis XV built a Ministry of War, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783 with the United Kingdom), and a Ministry of the Navy. By 1789 the population had reached 50,000 inhabitants, and Versailles was now the third or fourth largest city of France, and one of the largest cities of Europe. Seat of the political power, Versailles naturally became the cradle of the French Revolution. The Estates-General met in Versailles on May 5, 1789. The members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on June 20, 1789, and the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism on August 4, 1789. Eventually, on October 5 and 6, 1789, a throng from Paris invaded the castle and forced the royal family to move back to Paris. The National Constituent Assembly followed the king to Paris soon afterwards, and Versailles lost its role of capital city. From then on, Versailles lost a good deal of its inhabitants. From 50,000, the population declined to 28,000 inhabitants in 1824. The castle, stripped of its furniture and ornaments during the Revolution, was left abandoned, with only Napoleon briefly staying one night there and then leaving the castle for good. King Louis-Philippe saved the castle from total ruin by transforming it into a National Museum dedicated to "all the glories of France" in 1837. Versailles had become a sort of Sleeping Beauty. It was a place of pilgrimage for those nostalgic of the old monarchy. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 put Versailles in the limelight again. On January 18, 1871 the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of Prussia, Wilhelm I, emperor of Germany in the very Hall of Mirrors of the castle, in an attempt to take revenge for the conquests of Louis XIV two centuries earlier. Then in March of the same year, following the insurrection of the Paris Commune the French government under Thiers relocated to Versailles, from where the insurrection was militarily quelled. The government and the French parliament stayed in Versailles after the quelling of the insurrection, and it was even thought for some time that the capital of France would be moved definitely to Versailles in order to avoid the revolutionary mood of Paris in the future. Restoration of the monarchy was even almost realized in 1873. Versailles was again the political center of France, full of buzz and rumors. Eventually, as the left-wing republicans won elections after elections, the parties supporting a restoration of the monarchy were defeated and the new majority decided to relocate the government to Paris in November 1879. After that, Versailles was never again used as the capital city of France, but the presence of the French Parliament there in the 1870s left a vast hall built in one aisle of the palace which is still used by the French Parliament when it meets in Congress to amend the French Constitution. It was not until 1901 that Versailles recovered its level of population of 1790, with 54,982 inhabitants at the 1901 census. In 1919, at the end of the First World War, Versailles was put in the limelight again as the various treaties ending the war were negotiated and signed in the castle proper and in the Grand Trianon. After 1919, as the suburbs of Paris were ever expanding, Versailles was absorbed by the urban area of Paris and the city experienced a strong demographic and economic growth, turning it into a large suburban city of the metropolitan area of Paris. The role of Versailles as an administrative and judicial center has been reinforced in the 1960s and 1970s, and somehow Versailles has become the main centre of the western suburbs of Paris. The centre of the town has kept its very bourgeois atmosphere, while more middle-class neighborhoods have developed around the train stations and in the outskirts of the city. Extremely well linked with the center of Paris by several train lines, Versailles is a chic suburb of Paris. However, the city is extremely compartmented, divided by large avenues inherited from the monarchy which create the impression of several small cities ignoring each other. Versailles was never an industrial city, even though there are a few chemical and food processing plants. Essentially, Versailles is a place of services, such as public administration, tourism, business congresses, and festivals..

External links

- [http://www.mairie-versailles.fr/newspage.php?id=1&pg=21&lg=eng City council website]
- [http://www.offrench.net/photos/gallery-8_location-84.php Palace of Versailles photos]
- [http://www.gardenvisit.com/ge/vers.htm Versailles Gardens - information]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=versailles,+france&ll=48.805733,2.118409&spn=0.015757,0.019855&t=k&hl=en Satellite Image of Versailles] Category:Communes of Yvelines ja:ヴェルサイユ

1793

1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 2 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland
- January 9 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States.
- January 21 - After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, "Citizen Capet" ie. Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
- February 1 - France declares war on Great Britain, the Netherlands (see French Revolutionary Wars)
- February 12 - The Congress of the United States passes a law legally requiring the return of slaves escaping from slave states into free territory or states, the Fugitive Slave Act
- February 25 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
- February 27 - The Giles resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.
- March 1 - John Langdon becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate until March 3
- March 5 - French troops are defeated by Austrian forces and Liège is recaptured
- March 7 - France declares war on Spain
- April 1 - Unsen volcano erupts in Japan and causes an earthquake. About 53.000 dead
- April 6 - Committee of Public Safety established in France with Georges Danton as its head.
- April 22 - George Washington signs the Neutrality Proclamation.
- May 31 - Regular troops under Francois Hanriet demand that the Girondins must be expelled from the national convention
- June 2 - Girondins overthrown
- June 10 - The Jardin des Plantes museum opened in Paris (a year later it would become the first public zoo).
- July 9 - Act Against Slavery passed in Upper Canada
- July 13 – Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat in his bath
- July 22 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico
- July 29 - John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there
- August 10 - Feast of Unity - Crowds in Paris burn monarchist emblems
- August 23 - Universal conscription in France
- September 5 - In France, the French National Convention votes to implement terror measures to repress French Revolutionary activities. The ensuing "Reign of Terror" will last until the spring of 1794 and causes death of 35,000-40,000 people.
- October 12 - The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on the campus of the University of North Carolina. The 12th of October is now celebrated at the University as University Day.
- November 8 - In Paris, the French Revolutionary government opens the Louvre to the public as a museum
- October 16 - Execution of Marie Antoinette
- October 28 - Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin, (the patent was granted the following March).
- October 31 - Execution of arrested Girondist leaders in France in a guillotine
- November 24 – French Revolutionary Calendar begins
- December 8 - Execution of Madame du Barry
- December 9- New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
- December 17 - French forces under Napoleon capture Toulon from royalists and British troops

Unknown dates

- British admiralty begins to supply citrus juice to Navy ships to prevent scurvy.
- Claude Chappe presents his semaphore in France - 15 stations built within a year.
- In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania more than 4000 die from yellow fever
- Roman Catholicism banned in France.
- First Coalition against France formed.
- Holy Roman Empire declares war on France.
- First year of regular production for the United States Mint.
- Construction begins on the United States Capitol building.
- Niccolò Paganini debuts as a violin virtuoso at age 11.

Ongoing events

- French Revolution (1789-1799)
- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-First Coalition

Births

- January 3 - Lucretia Mott, American women's rights activist and abolitionist (d. 1880)
- March 2 - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1863)
- March 4 - Karl Lachmann, German philologist (d. 1851)
- April 19 - Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (d. 1875)
- June 6 - Edward C. Delevan, American temperance movement leader (d. 1871)
- November 3 - Stephen F. Austin, American pioneer (d. 1836)

Deaths

- January 1 - Francesco Guardi, Italian painter (b. 1712)
- January 21 - King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
- February 1 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)
- February 6 - Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright (b. 1707)
- March 2 - Carl Gustaf Pilo, Swedish-born artist
- March 4 - Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre, French admiral (b. 1725)
- March 20 - William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician (b. 1705)
- March 26 - John Mudge, English physician and inventor (b. 1721)
- April 15 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (b. 1718)
- April 29 - Yechezkel Landau, Polish rabbi and Talmudist (b. 1713)
- April 29 - John Michell, English scientist (b. 1724)
- May 3 - Martin Gerbert, German theologian and historian (b. 1720)
- May 7 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (b. 1722)
- May 20 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist (b. 1720)
- June 26 - Gilbert White, English ornithologist (b. 1720)
- July 13 - Jean Paul Marat, Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader (assassinated) (b. 1743)
- July 17 - Charlotte Corday, French assassin of Jean Paul Marat (executed) (b. 1768)
- July 23 - Roger Sherman, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)
- August 22 - Louis, 4th duc de Noailles, Marshal of France (b. 1713)
- August 28 - Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general (executed) (b. 1740)
- October 7 - Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (b. 1718)
- October 8 - John Hancock, American patriot and businessman (b. 1737)
- October 9 - Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1718)
- October 16 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (executed) (b. 1755)
- October 31 - Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1744)
- October 31 - Claude Fauchet, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1754)
- October 31 - Armand Gensonné, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1758)
- October 31 - Jacques Pierre Brissot, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1754)
- November 3 - Olympe de Gouges, French playwright (executed) (b. 1748)
- November 6 - Louis Philip II, Duke of Orléans, French noble and revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1747)
- November 8 - Madame Roland, French Revolutionary hostess (executed) (b. 1754)
- November 10 - Jean Marie Roland, French revolutionary leader (suicide) (b. 1734
- November 24 - Clément Charles François de Laverdy, French statesman (b. 1723)
- November 29 - Antoine Barnave, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1761)
- December 4 - Armand-Guy-Simon de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1742)
- December 5 - Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Etienne French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1743)
- December 7 - Joseph Bara, French Revolution child-hero (b. 1780)
- December 8 - Étienne Clavière, French financier and politician (suicide) (b. 1735)
- December 8 - Madame du Barry, French courtesan (executed) (b. 1743)
- December 23 - Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer (b. 1699) Category:1793 ko:1793년 ms:1793

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. Located on the river Seine in the country's north, it is a major cultural and political centre of Europe and the world's most visited city. The area's first inhabitants, a Celtic tribe named the "Parisii" give Paris its name. Its eponym, "the City of Lights" (la Ville Lumière), dates from 1828 when it became the first city in Europe to light its main boulevards with gas street lamps along its Champs-Élysées. The city of Paris is also widely referred to as the "most romantic city in the world." As a cultural and political centre for Europe since the early Middle Ages, Paris preserves many vestiges of its past. While hosting numerous art galleries, museums and theatres, it has grown into a significant centre of international trade with ever-growing modern business districts, including La Défense, the de facto city centre built for the purpose. In addition to the head offices of nearly half of all France's companies and the offices of many major international firms, Paris hosts the headquarters of many international trade and social organisations, including the OECD and UNESCO. The city of Paris proper has 2.1 million inhabitants , but its centre of influence extends to cover a "Greater Paris" metropolitan area that has a population of 11.1 million , over one sixth of the French population. Paris is the third largest metropolitan area in Europe (after Moscow and London), and approximately the 22nd most populous metropolitan area in the world. Paris is also the centre of an economic network that, within the limits of its Île-de-France région (of which it is also the capital), with a GDP of nearly €450 billion , is alone the producer of over one quarter of France's wealth. Because of its financial, business, political, and tourism activities, Paris today is one of the world's major transport destinations. Along with New York, London and Tokyo, it is often listed as one of the four major global cities.

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Name of Paris and its Inhabitants

Paris is pronounced (RP) or in English, and Image:ltspkr.png in French. The original Latin name of Paris was Lutetia (), or Lutetia Parisiorum, known in French as Lutèce (). Lutetia was later dropped in favor of only Paris, based on the name of the Gallic Parisi tribe, whose name perhaps comes from the Celtic Gallic word parios, meaning "caldron", but this is not certain. Traditionally, Paris was known as Paname () in French slang, but this vulgar appellation is gradually losing currency. (.) The inhabitants of Paris are known as Parisians in English, as Parisiens (Image:ltspkr.png ) in French. The pejorative term Parigot (Image:ltspkr.png ) is sometimes used in French slang. Locally, inhabitants of the Paris suburbs are known as banlieusards (Image:ltspkr.png ). Inhabitants of the whole Paris metropolitan area are known as Franciliens (Image:ltspkr.png ), i.e. from Île-de-France.

Geography

Coordinates

Paris is located at (48.866667, 2.333056). The city straddles a north-bending arc of the river Seine. This waterway is dotted with a few islands along its path through the city, and the largest and most central of these, the Île de la Cité, is the Capital's heart and origin.

Area

The city (commune) of Paris proper has an area of 105.398 km² (40.69 mi², or 26,044 acres). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the actual area of the city is only 86.928 km² (33.56 mi², or 21,480 acres), being in the form of an almost regular oval, with a circumference of 35.5 km (22 miles). This oval extends 9.5 km (6 miles) from north to south, and 11 km (7 miles) from east to west. circumference This is not a very large area, and in fact the commune of Paris is only the 113th largest commune of France (out of 36,782 communes). By comparison, Greater London has an area of 1,572 km² (607 mi²), and New York City has an area of 786 km² (303 mi²). This peculiar fact arises because, unlike other large western cities such as New York, London, or Berlin, whose territories were enlarged in the 20th century, the borders of Paris have not been changed since 1860 when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann annexed the then suburban communes surrounding Paris, such as Montmartre and Auteuil, more than doubling the the city's area to 78 km² (30.1 mi²), and creating the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Since 1860, the limits of Paris have only marginally changed, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were officially incorporated into the city of Paris. Thus, the Brooklyn, Greenwich, or Charlottenburg of Paris are still outside the city of Paris proper, and it can be more accurately compared to the borough of Manhattan (59.5 km²/23 mi²) or to Inner London (319 km²/123 mi²). Even the largest business and financial district of Paris, known as La Défense, is outside the city boundary. The urban area (unité urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the contiguous built-up area, extends past the administrative city limits to cover 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area about 26 times larger than the city itself. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the built-up area plus the commuter belt, reaches in part beyond the surrounding Île-de-France administative région to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area 138 times larger than the city of Paris. région]]

Altitude

The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130m about sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d'Oise département), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

Temperatures

The lowest temperature recorded in central Paris (since 1873) was –23.9 °C (–11.0 °F) and –25.6 °C (–14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on December 10, 1879 . The highest temperature was recorded on July 28, 1947 when the temperature in central Paris (Parc Montsouris) reached 40.4 °C (104.7 °F). During the European heat wave of 2003, which caused the death of many elderly people in France, the temperature in central Paris reached 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) (Parc Montsouris) and 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs. A record high night-time minimum of 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in Parc Montsouris was set on August 11 and August 12, 2003.

History

Paris was occupied by a Gallic tribe until the Romans arrived in 52 BC. The invaders referred to the previous occupants as the Parisii, but called their new city Lutetia, meaning "marshy place". About 50 years later the city had spread to the left bank of the Seine, now known as the Latin Quarter (Le Quartier latin), and was renamed "Paris". Roman rule had ceased by 508, when Clovis the Frank made the city the capital of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks. In 845, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. Thereafter the weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords while Charles III was also claiming the throne. Finally, in 987 Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France by the great feudal lords after the last Carolingian king died. Hugh Capet, 1789]] In the 12th and 13th centuries the city grew strongly. Main thoroughfares were paved, the first Louvre was built as a fortress, and several churches, including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, were constructed or begun. Several schools on the Left Bank were grouped together into the Sorbonne, which counts Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its early scholars. In the Middle Ages, Paris prospered as a trading and intellectual nucleus, interrupted temporarily when the Black Death struck in the 14th century, and again in the 15th century when urban revolts drove the royal court to abandon the city for almost 100 years. In the 18th century, the royal residence was moved from Paris to nearby Versailles. The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. From the establishment of the French Second Empire in 1852 until 1914, Paris experienced the largest development in its history. The famous Parisian Haussmann Style dates back to this period, during which much of the Paris known today was planned and constructed. For the World's Fair of 1889 which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower was built, the best-known landmark in Paris and tallest structure in the world until 1930. The large scale display of electricity and light bulbs at the world's fairs of 1889 and 1900, which was a first in the world, earned Paris the nickname "City of Lights". During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared invasion by the German Army due to the French and English victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In the Interwar period, Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic life, as well as its nightlife. From Russian exiled artists fleeing the Bolsheviks (such as composer Igor Stravinsky), to Spanish painters (such as Picasso or Dalí), to US writers (such as Hemingway), Paris became a melting pot of artists from all around the world. In June 1940, five weeks after the start of the German attack on France, a partially-evauated Paris fell to German occupation forces, who remained there until late August 1944. Paris was fortunate to be the one of the few large cities in Europe that suffered almost no destruction from the war, preserving its 19th century architecture intact. In the post-war period, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the Belle Époque in 1914. The suburbs around the city proper (commune) of Paris began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as cités and the beginning of the business district La Défense. In the late 1960s, the Tour Montparnasse, a large, modern skyscraper, was built just south of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Its controversial height and location sparked immediate changes in zoning and administrative rules that now restrict skyscrapers to La Défense. Since the mid-1980s, there has been periodic unrest, sometimes degenerating into riots, in the poor immigrant neighbourhoods of the outer suburbs of Paris, especially in the cités, which have gradually become ghettos. In late 2005 a wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs, with thousands of cars and tens of public buildings burnt.

Demographics

wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs.]]

Density

At the 1999 French census the population density in the city of Paris was 20,164 inh. per km² (52,225 inh. per sq. mile). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the density in the city was actually 24,448 inh. per km² (63,321 inh. per sq. mile). As a matter of comparison, the density in Manhattan at the 2000 US census was 25,846 inh. per km² (66,940 inh. per sq. mile), and the density in Inner London at the 2001 UK census was 8,663 inh. per km² (22,438 inh. per sq. mile). The population density in the city of Paris is very high compared to those of most western cities, which are rarely as crowded as Paris (except for Manhattan). The density in Paris is comparable to the densities met within Asian cities. In many western cities, people have left the city center in the 20th century to relocate to the distant suburbs, leaving the city center as a business district dead at night. Although the city of Paris has also experienced a decline in population since the 1920s, it has nonetheless seen fewer inhabitants relocating to the suburbs than has occurred in other western cities. More precisely, people relocating to the suburbs were for the most part replaced by new people attracted to an urban lifestyle, and buildings were not converted into offices as systematically as has happened elsewhere, such as in London where the inhabitants have left the city center since the Second World War, and the density of Inner London is now much lower than that of Paris. This is most striking in the medieval heart of both metropolises: the City of London and the four first arrondissements of Paris were the medieval heart of each metropolis, with densities reaching 75,000 to 100,000 inh. per km² before the Industrial Revolution. Today, the City of London is almost empty, with a population density of only 2,478 inh. per km² (6,417 inh. per sq. mile) in 2001, whereas the four first arrondissements of Paris still have a density of 18,139 inh. per km² (46,979 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999, seven times more dense than in the City of London. Today, the most crowded arrondissement in the city of Paris is the 11th arrondissement, with a density reaching 40,672 inh. per km² (105,339 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999. Some neighborhoods in the east of this arrondissement are known to have densities of almost 100,000 inh. per km² (260,000 inh. per sq. mile).

Population Growth

At the 1999 census, the population of the city of Paris (excluding suburbs) was 2,125,246. The population of the metropolitan area of Paris was 11,174,743. Historically, the population of the city of Paris peaked in 1921, when it reached 2.9 million. However, there has been since then a movement toward living in suburbs, as well as the gentrification of many areas of inner Paris, and the use of available space for offices rather than dwellings, although this phenomenon was not as massive as happened in London or in American cities. These tendencies are controversial, and the current city administration is trying to reverse them. As a matter of fact, as of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city reached 2,142,800 inhabitants, increasing for the first time since 1954. As for the metropolitan area, it reached approximately 11.5 million inhabitants in 2004, growing twice as fast in the 2000s as it did in the 1990s. The metropolitan area of Paris has been in continuous expansion since the end of the French Wars of Religion at the end of the 16th century (with only brief setbacks during the French Revolution and World War II). As can be seen from the figures, only 18.5% of the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Paris live inside the city of Paris, while 81.5% live in the suburbs. Visitors to Paris, who mostly stay inside the city, are usually not aware that 81.5% of "Parisians" actually live outside of the city itself, in its very extended suburbs. A majority of Parisians also work outside of the city proper: at the 1999 census, there were 5,089,179 jobs in the metropolitan area of Paris, 32.5% of which were located in the city of Paris proper, while 67.5% were located outside of the city. These peculiar facts are due to the conservativeness of French administrative limits (see Geography section above). For comparisons, in the metropolitan area of London, approximately 60% of people live inside Greater London proper (2001 census), while in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area, 37.8% of people live inside New York City (2000 census). Even in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area, 22.6% of people live inside the city of Los Angeles proper. Paris can be more rightly compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, where only 11% of inhabitants live inside the city of San Francisco proper. However, unlike in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is no city inside the metropolitan area of Paris that rivals Paris, the largest city (commune) after Paris being Boulogne-Billancourt, with only 108,300 inhabitants in 2004. :See also: Historical population tables

Muséification

As a result, a so-called "muséification" (museumification) of the city of Paris is feared. Already, all airports, the largest financial and business district (La Défense), the main food wholesale market (Rungis), major renowned schools (École Polytechnique, HEC, ESSEC, INSEAD, etc.), research laboratories (in Saclay or Évry), the largest sport stadium (Stade de France), and even some ministries (Ministry of Transportation) are now located outside of the city of Paris. Similarly, the National Archives of France are due to relocate to the northern suburbs before 2010. It is feared that the city of Paris is turning into a museum for tourists and Amélie nostalgists, while the real economic activity and 21st century development take place elsewhere in the metropolitan area. With some of the most stringent protection laws in the world, it is virtually impossible to build new buildings inside the city. Recent proposals by Paris' new mayor, Bertrand Delanoë to gather renowned architects to build skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city center, have been met with strong opposition on all sides. Delanoë wished to scrap the building height limit dating back to Haussmann in the 19th century, and build upwards to compensate for the lack of space on the ground, as was done in Manhattan. The project also aimed to revitalise Paris in the 21st century, rivaling world cities like Shanghai, or even London where city planners have started building aesthetically acclaimed skyscrapers inside the City. The probable failure of the project may be seen as another sign of the "muséification" of the city of Paris.

Immigration

The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe. At the 1999 census, 19.4% of the total population of the metropolitan area were born outside of metropolitan France. As a comparison: at the 2001 UK census, 19.5% of the total population of the metropolitan area of London was born outside of the (metropolitan) United Kingdom, while at the 2000 US census 27.5% of the total population of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states), and 31.9% of the total population of the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states). Still at the 1999 French census, 4.2% of the total population of the metropolitan area of Paris were recent migrants (i.e. people who were not living in France in 1990). The most recent immigrants to Paris come essentially from mainland China and from Africa.

Economy

. See main article for references concerning the figures cited here.
Size
Africa The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the engines of the global economy. In 2003 the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris as calculated by INSEE and Eurostat was €448,933 million, or US$506.7 billion (at real exchange rates, not at PPP). If it were a country, the metropolitan area of Paris would be the 15th largest economy in the world (as of 2003), above Brazil (US$492.3 billion) and Russia (US$432.9 billion). Year in, year out, the metropolitan area of Paris accounts for about 29% of the total GDP of metropolitan France, although its population is only 18.7% of the total population of metropolitan France (as of 2004). In 2002, according to Eurostat, the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris accounted alone for 4.5% of the total GDP of the European Union (of 25 members), although its population is only 2.45% of the total population of the EU25. Although in terms of population the Paris metropolitan area is only approximately the 20th largest metropolitan area in the world, its GDP is the sixth largest in the world after the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London and Osaka. At the 1999 census there were 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area of Paris, 31.5% of whom worked inside the city of Paris proper and 16% in the Hauts-de-Seine (92) département, home of the new La Défense business district, to the west of the city proper, while the remaining 52.5% worked in the suburbs.
Economic sectors
The economy of Paris is extremely diverse and has not yet adopted a specialization inside the global economy (unlike Los Angeles with the entertainment industry, or London with financial services). The tourism industry, for instance, employs only 3.6% of the total workforce of the metropolitan area (as of 1999) and is by no means a major component of the economy. The Paris economy is essentially a service economy. Its manufacturing base is still important, the Paris metropolitan area remaining one of the manufacturing powerhouses of Europe, but it is declining, while there is a clear shift of the Paris economy towards high value-added services, in particular services. Reflecting the diversity of the Paris economy, at the 1999 census 16.5% of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defense, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. Among the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce being distributed among many other industries.
Administration
printing Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, numbered in a clockwise spiral outwards from the Ier arrondissement at the center of the city. Two parks on the edge of the city proper, Bois de Boulogne on the west and Bois de Vincennes on the east, belong to the 16th and 12th arrondissements respectively. Citizens of each arrondissement elect a local council, which in turn elects the mayor of the arrondissement. A selection of members from each arrondissement council form the Council of Paris, which itself has the dual function of being council for the Paris municipality and for Paris as a départment. The Council of Paris elects the mayor of Paris. mayor of Paris mayor of Paris has been the Mayor of Paris since March 18, 2001]] It must be noted that modern Paris had no Mayor before 1977. Paris in fact has yet to completely emerge from the "prefecture" administrative system created by Bonaparte in 1800; its laws are still governed by its State-appointed Prefecture of Police (as is its Fire Brigade) and has no municipal police force, although it does have its own traffic wardens. The city of Paris also has other jurisdictional titles: it is a commune and also a département. As a département, until 1968 it stretched beyond its city limits as a Département 75 (or Seine département) to include its immediate suburbs, but that year it was split into four: Paris proper (75) became a smaller département, and in a ring around it three others were created: (Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93) and Val-de-Marne (94)). Returning to the Prefecture of Police jurisdiction, it still governs Paris and its closest départements as a unique "Prefecture de Paris". From 1986 Paris became the capital of an Île-de-France région of eight départements: itself as a département, the three abovementioned départements and a yet larger concentric circle of four much larger départements. The three inner département are generally called "la petite couronne", or "small crown", and the outer and larger four "la grande couronne". The Île-de-France région has its own administration, as well as each of the départements in the petite couronne and grande couronne. : See also: Paris mayors (comprehensive list)
Transport
Paris mayors Paris mayors Paris is served by two principal airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Charles De Gaulle International Airport in nearby Roissy-en-France. A third and much smaller airport, at the town of Beauvais, 70 km (45 mi) to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. Le Bourget airport nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum. Paris is a central hub of the national rail network of very fast (TGV) and normal (Corail) trains, which interconnects with a high-speed regional network, the RER. Six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare connect this train network to the world famous and highly efficient underground metro system, the Métro. This latter is a network of 380 stations (more than the London Underground) connected by 221.6km of rails There are two tangential tramway lines in the suburbs: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy. A third line along the southern inner orbital road is currently under construction. Administratively speaking, the public transportation networks of the Paris region are coordinated by the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF), formerly Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP). [http://www.stif-idf.fr/ official site] Members of the syndicate include the RATP, which operates the Parisian and some suburban busses, the Métro, and sections of the RER; the SNCF, which operates the rest of the RER and the suburban train lines; and other operators. The city is also the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by an orbital road, the Périphérique, which roughly follows the path of final, 19th-century fortifications around Paris. On/off ramps of the Périphérique are called 'Portes', as they correspond to the former city gates in these fortifications. Most of these 'Portes' have parking areas and a metro station, where non-residents are advised to leave cars. Traffic in Paris is notoriously heavy, slow and tiresome. :See also: Transport in France
Cultural Centres and Organisations
Transport in France Transport in France basilica on Montmartre.]]
Monuments and Landmarks
The three most famous landmarks of Paris are almost certainly the Eiffel Tower, originally a "temporary" construction for the 1889 Universal Expositon, the Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, a 12th-century ecclesiastical masterpiece. Other than the Eiffel Tower, the lone skyscraper Tour Montparnasse and Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on the hill Montmartre are easily visible from many locations around the city, while the window-shaped Grande Arche in La Défense marks the west.

Museums
Paris landmarks's most famous treasures.]]
- Louvre - a huge museum housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue.
- Musée d'Orsay - an art museum housed in a converted 19th century railway station, which contains mainly Impressionist works.
- Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg - houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne and a cultural center with a large public library. Famous for its external skeleton of service pipes.
- Musée Rodin - a large collection of works by France's most famous sculptor
- Musée du Montparnasse in the former residence of artist Marie Vassilieff at 21 Avenue du Maine, details the history of the great artistic community of Montparnasse.
- Musée Cluny, also known as the Musée National du Moyen-Age, houses a large collection of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages, including the tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
- Musée Picasso, exhibits nearly 3000 pieces of art by Pablo Picasso as well as art from his own personal collection including works by Cézanne and Matisse.
Historical Centres

- Montmartre - historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur and also famous for the studios and cafés of many great artists.
- Champs-Élysées - a 17th-century garden promenade turned Avenue connection between the Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
- Place de la Concorde - at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built as the "Place Louis XV" site of the infamous guillotine. The Egyptian obleisk it holds today can be considered Paris's "oldest monument".
- Place de la Bastille - Former eastern stronghold and gate of Paris.
- Montparnasse - historic area on the Left Bank, famous for the its artists studios, music-halls, and café life.
- Quartier Latin - Paris's scholastic center from the 12th century, formerly stretching between the Left Bank's place Maubert and the Sorbonne university. Sorbonne in Paris. Given to the city in 1885, it faces west, toward the original Liberty in New York City.]]
Cemeteries
Many of Paris's illustrious historical figures have found rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Other notable cemeteries include Cimetière de Montmartre, Cimetière du Montparnasse, Cimetière de Passy and the Catacombs of Paris
Parks and Gardens
. Two of Paris's most famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden on the banks of the Seine next to the Louvre and the centrally-located Luxembourg Garden, which used to belong to a château built for the Marie de' Medici. During the Second Empire, Napoleon III created three vast gardens on the outskirts of Paris: Montsouris, Buttes Chaumont in the northeast, and Parc Monceau, formerly known as the folie de Chartres, in the northwest. On the western and eastern perimeters respectively are the two "forests", the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes.
Districts

- Les Halles - shopping precinct around an important metro connection station.
- Le Marais - trendy district on the Right Bank with large gay and Jewish populations
- l'Opéra - Shopping area with department stores such as Printemps and Galeries Lafayette
Boutiques, Department Stores and Hotels
Paris is famous for gastronomical establishments like Fauchon (delicatessen), near the Église de la Madeleine, or Berthillon (ice cream) on Île-Saint-Louis. Its department stores, e.g. Galeries Lafayette, Samaritaine (currently closed) or Printemps, are remarkable not only for the wide range of items they sell but also for their 19th-century or Art Nouveau architecture. Paris also hosts a number of famous hotels. The most prestigious are probably the Hôtel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde, and the nearby Hôtel Ritz Paris on Place Vendôme.
Nightlife

- Le Lido - cabaret on the Champs-Élysées famous for its exotic shows and where, as an American GI on leave with some army friends, Elvis Presley gave an impromptu concert.
- Moulin Rouge, Le Crazy Horse Saloon, Folies Bergères - other famous cabarets
- the Paris Olympia, le Zenith, Bercy, Bobino - concert halls
- The Buddha Bar, Barfly, Hotel Costes, Georges - trendy upscale restaurant / bars to see and be seen.
- Les Bains-Douches, le Man Ray, l'Elysée Montmartre, le Queen - famous and trendy nightclubs.
- The Rex Club, Le Tryptique, Le Batofar- good places for electro music (techno, electro-rock, D&B).
Sports Clubs
Paris's main sports clubs are Paris Saint-Germain, Football (soccer) club, Paris Basket Racing, Basketball team and Stade Français, Rugby union club.
Suburban Areas of Interest

- Business district
- La Défense - major office, cinema and shopping complex, west of Paris.
- Grande Arche de la Défense - built in line with the Louvre, place du Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
- Chateaux and churches
- Palace of Versailles - the former royal palace of Louis XIV and later kings, in the town of Versailles to the southeast of Paris.
- Vaux-le-Vicomte, near Melun, a smaller palace on which Versailles was modelled.
- Saint Denis Basilica - ancient Gothic Cathedral and burial site for many French monarchs, located north of the city.
- Civil Constructions
- Arcueil Aqueduct - built in the 17th century and raised in 1874, it channels water from sources 156km to the south of Paris to the Montsouris reservoirs.
- Recreation parks and areas
- Parc Astérix
- Disneyland Resort Paris
References
# INSEE. Recensement de la population 1999. Paris. [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/FR/ST_ANA/D75/POPALLPOP1POP1AD75FR.html "Population totale par sexe et âge"]. Retrieved December 1, 2005. # INSEE. Recensement de la population 1999. Île-de-France. [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/FR/ST_ANA/R11/POPALLPOP1POP1AR11FR.html "Population totale par sexe et âge"]. Retrieved December 1, 2005. # INSEE - Comptes régionaux - données 2003 semi-définitives en base 2 000. [http://www.insee.fr/fr/insee_regions/idf/rfc/chifcle_fiche.asp?ref_id=ecotc001&tab_id=1070 "Produit intérieur brut (PIB) à prix courants."]. Retrieved December 1, 2005.
External links

- [http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Paris Wikitravel:Guide to Paris]
- [http://www.paris.fr/en/ English version of official site]
- [http://www.paris.fr/ Official Paris website]
- [http://en.parisinfo.com/ English version of official Paris tourist office website]
- [http://fr.parisinfo.com/ Official Paris Tourist Office website]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=paris,+france&spn=0.131836,0.176468&t=k&hl=en Google Maps satellite images of Paris] als:Paris (Stadt) ko:파리 시 ja:パリ simple:Paris th:ปารีส

Navarre

:"Navarra" redirects here. For other uses, see Navarre (disambiguation). Navarre (Spanish Navarra, Basque Nafarroa) is an autonomous community and province of Spain. Its official Spanish-language name is Comunidad Foral de Navarra (for an explanation of foral, see fuero).

Community

It is bordered on the west by the autonomous communities of the Basque Country (the provinces of Bizkaia (Vizcaya), Guipúzcoa and Álava), on the south by La Rioja, on the east Aragonese provinces of Zaragoza/Saragossa, Teruel and Huesca, and on the north by the country France. There are 272 municipalities in Navarre. See List of municipalities in Navarre. One-third of the population lives in the capital, Pamplona (Basque Iruñea or Iruña).

People and culture

Navarre is a mixture of the Basque influence from the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean influences coming from the Ebro. The Ebro valley is amenable to wheat, vegetables, wine, and even olive trees, as in Aragon and la Rioja. It was occupied by the Roman Empire and later the taifa kingdom of Tudela. During the Reconquista, the Northerners extended southwards. In the Middle Ages, Pamplona was a crossroads for Basques, Gascons from beyond the Pyrenees and Romance speakers. The Basque language has been losing ground for centuries. Often feelings of "Basqueness" are linked to use of the language. For example, a person from a place where Basque was lost decades ago might say that they are not Basque, but that their grandfather was. Feelings of Basqueness often are carried onto politics with Basque nationalism being stronger in the North, either within Navarrese branches of Basque parties like Batasuna, or as homegrown movements like Batzarre. Among the parties that downplay links to the Basque Country, there are local branches of Spanish parties such as the PSOE, as well as local movements such as Convergencia de Demócratas Navarros.

History

For a fuller account of the history of Navarre, see Kingdom of Navarre.

1791

1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

- Unknown date - First American ship reaches Japan
- January 25 - The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada
- March 4 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
- May 3 - The Polish Sejm (Parliament) proclaims the Constitution of third May, the first modern codified constitution in Europe
- July 14 - The Priestley Riots in Birmingham, England.
- June 20 - The French Royal Family is captured when they try to flee in disguise
- August 26 - John Fitch is granted a patent for the steamboat in the United States.
- December 4 - The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
- December 15 - Ratification by the states of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution is completed, creating the United States Bill of Rights. Two additional amendments remain pending, and one of these is finally ratified in 1992, becoming the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
- Slave rebellion in Haiti has begun
- Brandenburg Gate in Berlin finished

Ongoing events

- French Revolution (1789-1799)

Births

- January 15 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (d. 1872)
- January 28 - Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (d. 1833)
- February 21 - Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
- Feburary 21 - John Mercer, chemist and industrialist (d. 1866)
- April 23 - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
- April 27 - Samuel Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
- July 26 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer and pianist (d. 1844)
- September 22 - Michael Faraday, British scientist (d. 1867)
- September 26 - Théodore Géricault, French writer (d. 1824)
- November 11 - Josef Munzinger, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1855)
- December 26 - Charles Babbage, British mathematician and inventor (d. 1871)

Deaths

- January 11 - William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymnist (b. 1717)
- March 2 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (b. 1703)
- March 14 - Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (b. 1725)
- April 19 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (b. 1723)
- May 9 - Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1737)
- June 5 - Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (b. 1718)
- June 10 - Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, French admiral (b. 1720)
- July 17 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
- July 25 - Isaac Low, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1735)
- August 16 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1719)
- September 25 - William Bradford, American printer (b. 1719)
- December 5 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1756) Category:1791 ko:1791년 ms:1791

1793

1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

Unknown dates

Ongoing events

- French Revolution (1789-1799)
- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-First Coalition

Births

Deaths

Insurrection of the 10th of August

On August 10, 1792, during the French Revolution, a mob – with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune – besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and the royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly. This proved to be the effective end of the French Monarchy (until it was restored in 1814). The formal end of the monarchy occurred six weeks later, as one of the first acts of business of the new Convention. This insurrection and its outcome are most commonly referred to by historians of the Revolution simply as "the 10th of August"; other common designations include "the journée of the 10th of August" (French: journée du 10 août), "the insurrection of the 10th of August", or even "the revolution of the 10th of August".

The context

Through the first part of 1792, France had been moving slowly toward the first of the French Revolutionary Wars. In April, the king had taken the unprecedented step of forming a cabinet of revolutionary Girondins. On April 20, war was declared against Austria. The initial battles were a disaster for the French, and Prussia joined Austria in active alliance against France (see First Coalition). However, a delay in their preparations gave France an opportunity to improve its army. The Revolution at this time was moving into a more radical phase. The Legislative Assembly passed several decrees, notably one against non-juring priests, which the king refused to sign. This led in early June to a break between the king and his Girondist ministers. When the king formed a new cabinet mostly of constitutional monarchist Feuillants, this widened the breach between the king on the one hand and the leaders of the Assembly and the majority of the common people of Paris on the other. On June 20, the armed populace invaded the hall of the Assembly and the royal apartments in the Tuileries, but were repelled. The failure of the insurrection encouraged a movement in favour of the king. Lafayette attempted to use this opportunity to heal the breach, but was suspected by people, legislature, and court alike of mere personal ambition. A last Girondist advance to Louis was rebuffed, and the Feuillants were in collapse. The Girondins now made a turn to the left and joined those ready to use force to overthrow the monarchy. Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, in a speech to the Assembly directed toward the king the following rhetorical questions: "Did the constitution leave you the choice of ministers for our happiness or our ruin? Did it place you at the head of our army for our glory or our shame? Did it give you the right of sanction, a civil list and so many prerogatives, constitutionally to lose the empire and the constitution?" Brissot was even more direct: "I tell you to strike at the Tuileries... you are told to prosecute all factious and intriguing conspirators; they will all disappear if you once knock loud enough at the door of the cabinet of the Tuileries, for that cabinet is the point to which all these threads tend, where every scheme is plotted, and whence every impulse proceeds. The nation is the plaything of this cabinet. This is the secret of our position, this is the source of the evil, and here the remedy must be applied." [http://www.outfo.org/literature/pg/etext06/8hfrr10.txt]

La Patrie en danger

On July 5 the Assembly declared that the country was "in danger". All citizens able to bear arms, and having already served in the National Guard, were placed in active service; pikes were given to those who were unable to procure guns. Banners were placed in the public squares, bearing the words, "Citizens, the country is in danger!" On July 14 – the third anniversary of the storming of the Bastille – there were massive patriotic festivities. Pétion, dismissed as mayor of Paris for his conduct during the events of June 20 was restored to office. The constitutional monarchist grenadiers of the Filles-Saint-Thomas scuffled with the federates of Marseilles, but it was the last stand of the constitutional monarchist faction: the club of the Feuillants was closed; the grenadier and chasseur companies of the National Guard which formed the force of the bourgeoisie were disbanded. Meanwhile, the allied Austrian and Prussian army was at length mustering on the frontier. The generally "constitutionalist" (monarchist) soldiers of the line, and a portion of the Swiss, were sent away from Paris. At the same time the National Guard – up to now middle-class in character – was opened to those from the lower classes. The Prussian Duke of Brunswick's famous declaration of July 25, 1792 – announcing that the allies would enter France to restore the royal authority and would visit the Assembly and the city of Paris with military execution if any further outrage were offered to the king – became known in Paris on August 1 and heated the republican spirit to revolutionary fury.

Insurrectionism

The ruling spirit of this new revolution was Danton, a barrister only thirty-two years old, who had not sat in either Assembly, although he had been the leader of the Cordeliers, an advanced republican club, and had a strong hold on the common people of Paris. Danton and his friends and allies – Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Fabre d'Églantine, Marat, etc. – were assisted in their work by the fear of invasion. Volunteers and fédérés were constantly arriving in Paris, and, although most went on to join the army, the Jacobins enlisted those who were suitable for their purpose, especially some 500 whom Barbaroux, a Girondin, had summoned from Marseilles. François Mignet writes, "Their enterprise had been projected and suspended several times. On the 26th of July, an insurrection was to break out; but it was badly contrived, and Pétion prevented it. When the federates from Marseilles arrived, on their way to the camp at Soissons, the faubourgs were to meet them, and then repair, unexpectedly, to the château. This insurrection also failed." [http://www.outfo.org/literature/pg/etext06/8hfrr10.txt] It was resolved to strike the decisive blow on August 10. The political clubs openly discussed the dethronement of the king, and on August 3 Pétion spoke to the Assembly, soliciting an end to the monarchy in the name of the commune and of the sections. On August 8, the accusation of Lafayette was discussed; he was acquitted; but (again quoting Mignet), "all who had voted for him were hissed, pursued, and ill treated by the people at the breaking up of the sitting". [http://www.outfo.org/literature/pg/etext06/8hfrr10.txt] This harassment extended to death threats and invasions of their homes. Hector de Joly, the minister of justice wrote to the president of the Assembly, "I have denounced these attacks in the criminal court; but law is powerless; and I am impelled by honour and probity to inform you, that without the promptest assistance of the legislative body, the government can no longer be responsible." [http://www.outfo.org/literature/pg/etext06/8hfrr10.txt]

The insurrection

The populace were unwilling to wait on the result of Pétion's attempts to pursue matters through legislative channels. The section of the Quinze-vingts declared on August 8 that, if the dethronement were not pronounced that very day, at midnight they would sound the tocsin and attack the royal residence at the Tuileries. Of the forty-eight sections of Paris, all but one concurred. Pétion informed the Legislative Assembly that the sections had "resumed their sovereignty" and that he had no power over the people other than that of persuasion. On the night of August 9 a new revolutionary Paris Commune took possession of the Hôtel de Ville (the seat of city government). The plan of the Jacobins of the Assembly, supported by the armed fédérés, was to dissolve the département of Paris, to dismiss Pétion, and to institute an insurrectionary commune (municipal government), then to assault the Tuileries. At midnight, the tocsin sounded. The insurgents named a provisional council of the commune, which proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville to direct the insurrection. Pétion was at the Tuileries, where he had been summoned by the king, who wished to ascertain from him the state of Paris, and obtain an authorization to repel force by force. A portion of the Assembly, aroused by the tocsin, had gone into emergency session under the presidentship of Vergniaud. Hearing that Pétion was at the Tuileries, they presumed he was detained there and wanted to be released. They now summoned him, as the king had earlier, to give an account of the state of Paris. He came, as requested. A deputation from the Hôtel de Ville inquired for him at the Assembly, also supposing him to be a prisoner at the Tuileries. He left with them and effectively became a prisoner of the insurrectionist commune, under a guard of three hundred men. The new commune also summoned the Marquis de Mandat, commander of the National Guard forces guarding the Tuileries. Unaware of the change of regime at the Hôtel de Ville, he obeyed the summons; he was accused of authorizing the troops to fire on the people. He was ordered to the Abbaye, but, in the event, the mob murdered him as he was leaving the Hôtel de Ville. The commune immediately conferred the command of the national guard on Santerre. Pierre Louis Roederer, the recorder of the Paris départment, passed the night at the Tuileries. As the preparations of the Jacobins had been notorious, some measures of defence had been taken. Roederer's Chronique des Cinquante Jours records that at about four in the morning Queen Marie Antoinette summoned him, and he advised that the king and the royal family should proceed to the Legislative Assembly. "You propose," said Dubouchage, "to take the king to his foes". Roederer pointed out that only two days earlier two thirds of the Assembly had pronounced in favour of Lafayette, and argued that this plan was the least dangerous. The queen, however, opted to resist with force, and Roederer acquiesced. Laschenaye, commanding the troops in Mandat's absence, said that the National Guard troops were ready on the defensive, but he protested the presence of the aristocratic irregulars. Mandat had earlier vainly urged the queen to dismiss these gentlemen, because their presence discouraged the zeal of the constitutionalists. Like Mandat before him, Laschenayewas rebuked by the queen: "I will answer for those who are here; they will advance first or last, in the ranks, as you please; they are ready for all that is necessary; they are sure men." De Joly and Champion were sent to the Assembly to apprise it of the danger, and to ask for its assistance and for commissioners. The king's 5 a.m. review of his troops showed that he could not count on all of his ostensible protectors. Cries of Vive le roi! mixed with cries of Vive la nation! and even Vive Pétion! The pike battalions were openly hostile, crying out "Down with the veto!" and "Down with the traitor!"; as Louis returned, they quit their position, placed themselves near the Pont Royal, and turned their cannon against the château. Two other battalions stationed in the courts imitated them, and established themselves on the Place du Carrousel in an attitude of attack. Meanwhile, the insurgents had forced the arsenal, armed themselves, and were advancing in several columns. The fifteen-thousand-strong column of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on the Right Bank, and the five-thousand-strong column of the Faubourg Saint Marceau Left, began to march about six, gathering numbers as they advanced. Artillerymen had been placed on the Pont Neuf by the directory of the département to prevent the union of these columns, but Manuel, the town clerk, had ordered them to be withdrawn, and the passage was accordingly free. Early on the morning of August 10 the insurgents assailed the Tuileries. The vanguard of the Faubourgs, composed of Marseillais and Breton fédérés arrayed on the Carrousel, cannon turned against the château. De Joly and Champion returned from the Assembly, stating that the sixty or eighty members present were not sufficient in number to debate and that their proposition had not been heard. Members of the département, headed by Roederer, the recorder of the department, presented themselves to the crowd, observing that so great a multitude could not have access to the king, or to the national assembly, and recommending them to entrust twenty deputies with their requests, but they did not listen to him. He turned to the National Guard, reminded them of the article of the law, which enjoined them when attacked, to repel force by force. A very small part of the National Guard seemed disposed to do so; and a discharge of cannon was the only reply of the artillerymen. Roederer, seeing that the insurgents were everywhere triumphant, that they were masters of the field, and that they disposed of the multitude, and even of the troops, returned hastily to the château, at the head of the executive directory. Besides a few gentlemen in arms and a number of present and former National Guards (including recently dismissed officers), the palace was garrisoned by the Swiss Guard, about 950 strong. However, Mandat's departure and subsequent death significantly affected the situation. The National Guard would probably (at least according to Mignet) have obeyed orders from Mandat to employ force against the multitude, but finding themselves side by side with nobles and royalists and lacking their own commander, they now either dispersed or fraternised with the assailants. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica argues that even without the National Guards, the disparity of force was not so great as to make resistance altogether hopeless, but Louis let himself be persuaded into betraying his own cause and retiring with his family under the shelter of the Assembly. Mignet gives a more circumstantial account, based on Roederer's memoir:

The king held a council with the queen and ministers. A municipal officer had just given the alarm by announcing that the columns of the insurgents were advancing upon the Tuileries. "Well, and what do they want?" asked Joly, keeper of the seals. "Abdication," replied the officer. "To be pronounced by the assembly," added the minister. "And what will follow abdication?" inquired the queen. The municipal officer bowed in silence. At this moment Roederer arrived, and increased the alarm of the court by announcing that the danger was extreme; that the insurgents would not be treated with, and that the national guard could not be depended upon. "Sire," said he, urgently, "your majesty has not five minutes to lose: your only safety is in the National Assembly; it is the opinion of the department that you ought to repair thither without delay. There are not sufficient men in the court to defend the château; nor are we sure of them. At the mention of defence, the artillerymen discharged their cannon." The king replied, at first, that he had not observed many people on the Carrousel; and the queen rejoined with vivacity, that the king had forces to defend the château. But, at the renewed urgency of Roederer, the king after looking at him attentively for a few minutes, turned to the queen, and said, as he rose: "Let us go." "Monsieur Roederer," said Madame Elizabeth, addressing the recorder, "you answer for the life of the king?" "Yes, madame, with my own," he replied. "I will walk immediately before him."

The king announced to the defenders of the château his intent to go to the National Assembly and placed himself, along with his family, ministers, and the members of the département, between two ranks of national guards, summoned as an escort. While still on the grounds of the Tuileries, a deputation of the Assembly met him and offered asylum. Passing through an animated mob, the king and his family had great difficulty in reaching the hall, where they took the seats reserved for the ministers. "Gentlemen," said the king, "I come here to avoid a great crime; I think I cannot be safer than with you." Vergniaud assured him that the members of the Assembly, "have sworn to die in maintaining the rights of the people, and the constituted authorities." The king then took his seat next the president, but Chabot reminded him that the Assembly could not deliberate in the presence of the king; the royal party retired into the reporter's box behind the president, whence all that took place could be seen and heard. The king's departure removed all rational motives for resistance. The gendarmerie left their posts. The National Guard began to move in favour of the insurgents, who still surrounded the château. Meanwhile, the Marseillais and Bretons who occupied the first rank forced the Porte Royale on the Carrousel, and entered the court of the château. Led by Danton's associate François Joseph Westermann, they faced off against the Swiss Guards. A few of the assailants advanced amicably, and the Swiss threw some cartridges from the windows in token of peace. Nonetheless, a murderous combat began; it is unknown which side started it and whether they did so intentionally. The Swiss had the early advantage, but were surrounded by assailants armed with cannon. They kept their posts until they received orders from the king to cease firing. They were mostly shot down as they were retiring, and of those who surrendered many were murdered in cold blood the next day.

The demise of the National Assembly

Upon the arrival of the victorious insurgents, the Assembly instantly made a proclamation imploring the people to respect justice, their magistrates, the rights of man, liberty, and equality. But the multitude and their chiefs had all the power in their hands, and were determined to use it. The new municipality came to assert its imperious authority, preceded by three banners, inscribed with the words, "Patrie, liberté, egalité". They demanded the deposition of the king and the institution of a national convention. Deputations followed, all with the same demand. A shrunken remnant of the Legislative Assembly, almost all of them Jacobins, felt itself compelled to yield, but would not take upon itself the deposition of the king. Instead, at the initiative of Vergniaud, they unanimously voted measure to convoke the demanded national convention, dismiss the ministers, and suspend (but not depose) of the king. An ad hoc executive council was established. About four thousand non-juring priests were exiled. Commissioners were despatched to the armies to make sure of them. Louis XVI, to whom the Assembly had at first assigned the Luxembourg Palace as a residence, was transferred as a prisoner to the Temple, by the all-powerful commune, under the dubious pretext of his own safety.

The aftermath

The aftermath was to be six weeks of chaos, resulting in the end of the monarchy and the replacement of the Legislative Assembly by the new Convention. During this six weeks, the insurrectionary Paris Commune held more actual power than the Assembly. It demanded and received custody of the royal family, obtained indefinite powers of arrest, and instigated the September Massacres, in which over a 1400 of those arrested were killed in the prisons. The ad hoc executive council of the Assembly had no root in law and little hold on public opinion. When Lafayette's troops would not follow him to Paris to defend the Constitution of 1791, he chose to surrender himself to the Austrians. The elections to the Convention were by almost universal suffrage, but indifference or intimidation reduced the voters to a small number. Many who had sat in the National Constituent Assembly and many more who had sat in the Legislative Assembly were returned. The Convention met on September 20 and became the new de facto government of France. One of its first acts was to abolish the monarchy. Mignet writes that the 10th of August "marked... the insurrection of the multitude against the middle classes and the constitutional throne, as the 14th of July had seen the insurrection of the middle class against the privileged class and the absolute power of the crown. On the 10th of August began the dictatorial and arbitrary epoch of the revolution... The nature of the question was then entirely changed; it was no longer a matter of liberty, but of public safety; and the Conventional period, from the end of the Constitution of 1791, to the time when the Constitution of the Year III established the Directory, was only a long campaign of the revolution against parties and against Europe."

References

- Please update as needed.
- Mignet, in turn, cites Pierre Louis Roederer, Chronique des Cinquante Jours, and refers to him as "a writer of the most scrupulous accuracy".

External link

- [http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/august10.html The document by which the National Assembly formally deposed Louis XVI and called for the Convention], translated into English. Category:French Revolution

National Convention

:This article is about a legislative body and constitutional convention during the French Revolution. The term national convention also refers, in the United States, to the presidential nominating conventions. During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from September 20, 1792 to October 26, 1795 (the 4th of Brumaire of the year IV). It was then succeeded by the Directory.

Formation

During the insurrection of 10 August 1792, when the populace of Paris stormed the Tuileries and demanded the abolition of the monarchy, the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a "national convention" which should draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that the deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen 25 years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labour. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class. The age limit of the electors was further lowered to 21, and that of eligibility was fixed at 25 years. The first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day royalty was abolished: the formal end of the French monarchy. A little over a year later, 22 September would become the base date of the new French Revolutionary Calendar, the beginning of the Year I of the French Republic.

Revolutionary government

The Convention lasted for three years. The country was at war, and it seemed best to postpone the implementation of the new constitution until peace should be concluded. At the same time as the Convention prolonged its powers it extended them considerably in order to meet the pressing dangers which menaced the Republic. Though a legislative assembly, it took over the executive power, entrusting it to its own members. This "confusion of powers", contrary to the philosophical theories - those of Montesquieu especially - which had inspired the Revolution at first, was one of the essential characteristics of the Convention. The series of exceptional measures by, which that confusion of powers was created constitutes the "Revolutionary government" in the strict sense of the word, a government which was principally in vigour during the period called the "Reign of Terror". It is thus necessary to distinguish, in the work of the Convention, the temporary expedients from measures intended to be permanent.

Structure and membership

The Convention held its first session in a hall of the Tuileries, then it sat in the Salle du Manège, and finally from 10 May 1793 in that of the Spectacles (or Machine), an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered. This last hall had tribunes for the public, who often influenced the debate by interruptions or by applause. The members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. Seventy-five members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly, 183 in the Legislative Assembly. The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris. Besides these, however, the newly-formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations. Many of the original deputies died or were exiled during the Convention, but not all their places were filled by suppléants. Some members proscribed during the Terror returned after 9 Thermidor. Finally, many members were sent away, either to the départments or to the armies, on missions which lasted sometimes for a considerable length of time. For all these reasons it is difficult to find out the number of deputies present at any given date, for votes by roll-call were rare. During the Terror the number of those voting averaged only 250. According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its president every fortnight. He was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative purposes the Convention used committees, with powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees included the Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public), the Committee of General Security (Comité de sûreté générale), and the Committee of Education, (Comité de l’instruction).

Legacy

The article on the Convention in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica concludes, "The Convention achieved immense changes in all branches of French public affairs. To appreciate its work without prejudice, one should recall that this assembly saved France from a civil war and invasion, that it founded the system of public education (Museum, École Polytechnique, École Normale Supérieure, École des Langues orientales, Conservatoire), created institutions of capital importance, like that of the Grand Livre de la Dette publique, and definitely established the social and political gains of the Revolution."

External links

- [http://www.archontology.org/nations/france/france_state1/01_convention_nationale.php Presidents of the National Convention: 1792-1795]

References

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:

References from the 1911 Britannica article

The Convention published a Procès-verbal of its sessions, which, although lacking the value of those published by later assemblies, forms an official document of capital importance. Copies of it are rare, however, and it has been too much neglected by historians. See:
- F. A. Aulard, Recueil des actes du comité de Salut Public avec la correspondance officielle des représentants en mission, et le registre du conseil exécutif provisoire (Paris, 1889 et seq.)
- M. J. Guillaume, Procès-verbaux du comité d’Instruction Publique de la Convention Nationale (Paris, 1891 - 1904, 5 vols. 4to)
- F. A. Aulard, Histoire politique de la Révolution francaise (Paris, 1903)
- Mortimer-Ternaux, Histoire de la Terreur (1862 - 1881), a work based on and comprising documents, but written with strong royalist bias
- Eugene Despois, Le Vandatisme révolutionnaire (1868), for the scientific work of the Convention. A detailed bibliography of the documents relating to the Convention is given in the Repertoire général des sources manuscrites de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution française, vol. viii. &c. (1908), edited by A. Tueléy under the auspices of the municipality of Paris. For a more summary bibliography see M. Tourneux, Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution française, i. 89-95 (Paris, 1890). Category:French Revolution France

January 21

January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 344 days remaining (345 in leap years).

Events

- 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
- 1276 - Innocent V becomes Pope.
- 1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards entered the Vatican.
- 1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
- 1643 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga.
- 1720 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
- 1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1793 - After being found guilty for treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
- 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
- 1853 - Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope-folding machine.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
- 1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
- 1887 - The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed.
- 1887 - Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres - a record for any Australian capital city.
- 1899 - Opel Motors opens for business.
- 1908 - New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
- 1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally.
- 1915 - Kiwanis International founded in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1919 - Meeting in the Mansion House Dublin, the Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution.
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
- 1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.
- 1941 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
- 1950 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
- 1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
- 1968 - Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
- 1969 - An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
- 1976 - The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.
- 1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
- 1994 - Lorena Bobbitt is found not-guilty by reason of temporary insanity for severing the penis of her husband John Bobbitt.
- 1997 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
- 1999 - War on Drugs: In one of the one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine on board.
- 2002 - Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
- 2003 - The terms of Kevin Mitnick's parole allow him to use a computer again.
- 2004 - Canada: The residence of reporter, Juliet O'Neill was searched by the RCMP investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
- 2004 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceased communication with mission control. The problem was with Flash Memory management and fixed remotely from Earth on Feb 6th.
- 2005 - In Belize's capital city, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

Births

- 1738 - Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)
- 1804 - Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (d. 1887)
- 1824 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate Army general (d. 1863)
- 1829 - King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
- 1848 - Henri Duparc, French composer (d. 1933)
- 1855 - John Moses Browning, American inventor (d. 1926)
- 1867 - Ludwig Thoma, German writer (d. 1921)
- 1867 - Maxime Weygand, French general (d. 1965)
- 1883 - Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d. 1929)
- 1884 - Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
- 1885 - Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
- 1895 - Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (d. 1972)
- 1905 - Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d. 1957)
- 1905 - Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d. 1978)
- 1912 - Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2000)
- 1921 - Howard Unruh, American mass murderer
- 1922 - Paul Scofield, English actor
- 1924 - Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1926 - Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1936 - Koji Hashimoto, Japanese film director (d. 2005)
- 1938 - Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian football player
- 1939 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
- 1940 - Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
- 1941 - Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
- 1941 - Richie Havens, American musician
- 1942 - Mac Davis, American musician
- 1942 - Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1946 - Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
- 1950 - Billy Ocean, West Indian musician
- 1953 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
- 1955 - Jeff Koons, American artist
- 1956 - Robby Benson, American actor
- 1956 - Geena Davis, American actress
- 1962 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
- 1963 - Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-born basketball player
- 1963 - Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
- 1965 - Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d. 2002)
- 1968 - Charlotte Ross, American actress
- 1971 - Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
- 1975 - Nicky Butt, English footballer
- 1976 - Emma Bunton, English singer (Spice Girls)
- 1977 - Philip Neville, English footballer
- 1979 - Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby player
- 1981 - Dany Heatley, German hockey player

Deaths

- 304 - Saint Agnes (martyred)
- 1118 - Pope Paschal II
- 1519 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
- 1527 - Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador
- 1546 - Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1491)
- 1609 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (b. 1540)
- 1638 - Ignazio Donati, Italian composer
- 1683 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, British politican (b. 1621)
- 1699 - Obadiah Walker, English writer (b. 1616)
- 1706 - Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (b. 1649)
- 1710 - Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b. 1638)
- 1722 - Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, English supporter of William III of England (b. 1661)
- 1731 - Thomas Woolston, English theologian (b. 1669)
- 1766 - James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)
- 1773 - Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)
- 1774 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717)
- 1793 - King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
- 1795 - Samuel Wallis, English navigator
- 1831 - Achim von Arnim, German poet (b. 1781)
- 1851 - Albert Lortzing, German composer (b. 1801)
- 1870 - Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (b. 1812)
- 1872 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
- 1881 - Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1802)
- 1891 - Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)
- 1901 - Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
- 1914 - Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b. 1857)
- 1919 - Gojong of Joseon, Emperor of Korea (b. 1852)
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin, Russian Revolutionary (b. 1870)
- 1926 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
- 1928 - George Goethals, American army engineer (b. 1858)
- 1931 - Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer and conductor (b. 1863)
- 1932 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (b. 1880)
- 1933 - George A. Moore, Irish novelist (b. 1852)
- 1948 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)
- 1950 - George Orwell, British writer (b. 1903)
- 1955 - Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
- 1959 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)
- 1959 - Carl Switzer, American actor (b. 1927)
- 1961 - Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)
- 1967 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (b. 1915)
- 1984 - Jackie Wilson, American musician (b. 1934)
- 1985 - James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)
- 1987 - Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)
- 1989 - Billy Tipton, American musician (b. 1914)
- 1993 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (b. 1903)
- 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of Elvis Presley (b. 1909)
- 1998 - Jack Lord, American actor (b. 1920)
- 1999 - Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
- 2001 - Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist (b. 1921)
- 2001 - Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist (b. 1915)
- 2002 - Peggy Lee, American singer (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b. 1955)
- 2005 - John L. Hess, American journalist (b. 1917)
- 2005 - Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b. 1907)

Holidays and observances

- Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Agnes
- Mauritius - Thaipoosam Cavadee
- National Hugging Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/21 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 20 - January 22 - December 21 - February 21 — listing of all days ko:1월 21일 ms:21 Januari ja:1月21日 simple:January 21 th:21 มกราคม

1793

1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

Unknown dates

Ongoing events

- French Revolution (1789-1799)
- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-First Coalition

Births

Deaths

Napoleon

] Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution, and the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) and King of Italy under the name Napoleon I from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814, and again briefly from 20 March to 22 June 1815. Napoleon developed a number of innovative military strategies that led to many successful campaigns and surprising victories, as well as some spectacular failures. Over the course of little more than a decade, he fought virtually every European power and acquired control of most of the western and central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance until his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, followed by defeat at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his abdication several months later. He staged a comeback known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), but was again defeated decisively at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his surrender to the British and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died. Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code. He is considered to have been one of the "enlightened despots". Napoleon appointed several members of the Bonaparte family as monarchs. Although their reigns did not survive his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III, ruled France later in the nineteenth century

Early life and military career

Napoleon III He was born Napoleone Buonaparte (in Corsican, Nabolione or Nabulione) in the city of Ajaccio on Corsica on 15 August 1769, only one year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa. He later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte. His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI of France in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious Napoleon as a boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. At age ten, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes, on 15 May 1779. He had to learn to speak French before entering the school, which he spoke with a marked Italian accent throughout his life, and never learned to spell properly. He earned high marks in mathematics and geography, and passable grades in other subjects. Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the two year course of study in only one year. Although he had initially sought a naval assignment, he studied artillery at the École Militaire. Upon graduation in September, 1785, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery, and took up his new duties in January 1786, at the age of 16. 1786 Napoleon served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 (although he took nearly two years of leave in Corsica and Paris during this period). He spent most of the next several years on Corsica, where a complex three-way struggle was played out among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. Bonaparte supported the Jacobin faction, and gained the position of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers. After coming into conflict with the increasingly conservative nationalist leader, Pasquale Paoli, Bonaparte and his family were forced to flee to France in June 1793. Through the help of fellow Corsican Saliceti, he was appointed as artillery commander in the French forces besieging Toulon, which had risen in revolt against the Terror and was occupied by British troops. He formulated a successful plan: he placed guns at Point l'Eguillete, threatening the British ships in the harbour with destruction, thereby forcing them to evacuate. A successful assault of the position, during which Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh, led to the recapture of the city and a promotion to brigadier-general. His actions brought him to the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, and he became a close associate of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. As a result, he was briefly imprisoned following the fall of the elder Robespierre in 1794, but was released within two weeks.

The victorious general

The "whiff of grapeshot"

In 1795, Bonaparte was serving in Paris when royalists and counter-revolutionaries organized an armed protest against the National Convention on 3 October. Bonaparte was given command of the improvised forces defending the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. He seized artillery pieces with the aid of a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, who later became his brother-in-law. He utilized the artillery the following day to repel the attackers. He later boasted that he had cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot". This triumph earned him sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new Directory, particularly that of its leader, Barras. Within weeks he was romantically attached to Barras's former mistress, Josephine de Beauharnais, whom he married on March 9, 1796.

The Italian campaign of 1796–97

1796 by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, currently on display in the Louvre, Paris]] Days after his marriage, Bonaparte took command of the French "Army of Italy", leading it on a successful invasion of Italy. At the Lodi, he gained the nickname of "The Little Corporal" (le petit caporal), a term reflecting his camaraderie with his soldiers, all of whom he knew by name. He drove the Austrians out of Lombardy and defeated the army of the Papal States. Because Pope Pius VI had protested the execution of Louis XVI, France retaliated by annexing two small papal territories. Bonaparte ignored the Directory's order to march on Rome and dethrone the Pope. It was not until the next year that General Berthier captured Rome and took Pius VI prisoner on February 20. The pope died of illness while in captivity. In early 1797, Bonaparte led his army into Austria and forced that power to sue for peace. The resulting Treaty of Campo Formio gave France control of most of northern Italy, along with the Low Countries and Rhineland, but a secret clause promised Venice to Austria. Bonaparte then marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending over 1,000 years of independence. Later in 1797, Bonaparte organized many of the French dominated territories in Italy into the Cisalpine Republic. His remarkable series of military triumphs were a result of his ability to apply his encyclopedic knowledge of conventional military thought to real-world situations, as demonstrated by his creative use of artillery tactics, using it as a mobile force to support his infantry. As he described it: "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning." Contemporary paintings of his headquarters during the Italian campaign depict his use of the world's first telecommunications system, the Chappe semaphore line, first implemented in 1792. He was also a master of both intelligence and deception and had an uncanny sense of when to strike. He often won battles by concentrating his forces on an unsuspecting enemy by using spies to gather information about opposing forces and by concealing his own troop deployments. While campaigning in Italy, General Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He published two newspapers, ostensibly for the troops in his army, but widely circulated within France as well. In May 1797 he founded a third newspaper, published in Paris, entitled Le Journal de Bonaparte et des hommes vertueux. Elections in mid-1797 gave the royalist party increased power, alarming Barras and his allies on the Directory. The royalists, in turn, began attacking Bonaparte for looting Italy and overstepping his authority in dealings with the Austrians. Bonaparte sent General Augereau to Paris to lead a coup d'etat and purge the royalists on 4 September (18 Fructidor). This left Barras and his Republican allies in firm control again, but dependent on Bonaparte's military command to stay there. Bonaparte himself proceeded to the peace negotiations with Austria, then returned to Paris in December as the conquering hero and the dominant force in government, far more popular than any of the Directors.

The Egyptian expedition of 1798–99

Directors In March 1798, Bonaparte proposed an expedition to seize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. The Directory, although troubled by the scope and cost of the enterprise, readily agreed to the plan in order to remove the popular general from the centre of power. An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was the inclusion of a large group of scientists assigned to the invading French force: among the other discoveries that resulted, the Rosetta Stone was found. This deployment of intellectual resources is considered by some an indication of Bonaparte's devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment, and by others as a masterstroke of propaganda obfuscating the true imperialist motives of the invasion. In a largely unsuccessful effort to gain the support of the Egyptian populace, Bonaparte also issued proclamations casting himself as a liberator of the people from Ottoman oppression, and praising the precepts of Islam. Bonaparte's expedition seized Malta from the Knights of Saint John on June 9 and then landed successfully at Alexandria on July 1, eluding (temporarily) pursuit by the Royal Navy. Although Bonaparte had massive success against the native Mamluk army in the Battle of the Pyramids (his 25,000 man strong invading force defeated a 100,000 man army), his fleet was largely destroyed by Nelson at The Battle of the Nile, so that Bonaparte became land-bound. His goal of strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean Sea was thus frustrated, but his army nonetheless succeeded in consolidating power in Egypt, although it faced repeated nationalist uprisings. In early 1799 he led the army into the Ottoman province of Syria, now modern Israel, and defeated numerically superior Ottoman forces in several battles, but his army was weakened by disease and poor supplies. He was unable to reduce the fortress of Acre, and was forced to retreat to Egypt in May. On 25 July, he defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir. Eventually Bonaparte was forced to withdraw from Egypt in 1799, under constant British and Ottoman attacks.

Ruler of France

The coup of 18 Brumaire

Abukir] While in Egypt, Bonaparte had kept a close eye on European affairs, relying largely on newspapers and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. On 23 August, he abruptly set sail for France, taking advantage of the temporary departure of British ships blockading French coastal ports. Although he was later accused by political opponents of abandoning his troops, his departure actually had been authorized by the Directory, which had suffered a series of military defeats to the forces of the Second Coalition, and feared an invasion. By the time he returned to Paris in October, the military situation had improved thanks to several French victories. The Republic was bankrupt, however, and the corrupt and inefficient Directory was more unpopular with the French public than ever. Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors, Sieyès, seeking his support for a coup to overthrow the constitution. The plot included Bonaparte's brother Lucien, then serving as speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, and Talleyrand. On 9 November (18 Brumaire), and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control and dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a rump to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government. Although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmanoeuvred by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. This made him the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the Constitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life.

The First Consul

:Main article: French Consulate French Consulate Bonaparte instituted several lasting reforms including centralized administration of the départements, higher education, a tax system, a central bank, law codes, and road and sewer systems. He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, seeking to reconcile the mostly Catholic population with his regime. His set of civil laws, the Napoleonic Code or Civil Code, has importance to this day in many countries. The Code was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, who held the office Second Consul from 1799 to 1804; Bonaparte, however, participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. Other codes were commissioned by Bonaparte to codify criminal and commerce law. In 1808, a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted precise rules of judicial procedure. Although contemporary standards may consider these procedures as favoring the prosecution, when enacted they sought to preserve personal freedoms and to remedy the prosecutorial abuses commonplace in European courts.

An interlude of peace

1808 In 1800, Bonaparte returned to Italy, which the Austrians had reconquered during his absence in Egypt. He and his troops crossed the Alps in spring (although he actually rode a mule, not the white charger on which David famously depicted him). While the campaign began badly, the Austrians were eventually routed in June at Marengo, leading to an armistice. Napoleon's brother Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in Lunéville, reported that due to British backing for Austria, Austria would not recognize France's newly gained territory. As negotiations became more and more fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As a result the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801, under which the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased; the British signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, which set terms for peace, including the division of several colonial territories. The peace between France and Britain was uneasy and short-lived. The "legitimate" monarchies of Europe were reluctant to recognize a republic, fearing that the ideas of the revolution might be exported to them. In Britain, the brother of Louis XVI was welcomed as a state guest although officially Britain recognized France as a republic. Britain failed to evacuate Malta and Egypt as promised, and protested against France's annexation of Piedmont, and Napoleon's Act of Mediation in Switzerland (although neither of these areas was covered by the Treaty of Amiens). In 1803, Bonaparte faced a major setback when an army he sent to reconquer Santo Domingo and establish a base was destroyed by a combination of yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Recognizing that the French possessions on the mainland of North America would now be indefensible, and facing imminent war with Britain, he sold them to the United States —the Louisiana Purchase—for less than three cents per acre ($7.40/km²). The dispute over Malta provided the pretext for Britain to declare war on France in 1803 to support French royalists. 1803] 1803

Emperor of the French

In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an assassination plot against him, ostensibly sponsored by the Bourbons. In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the Duc d'Enghien, in a violation of the sovereignty of Baden. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on 21 March. Bonaparte then used this incident to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as Emperor, on the theory that a Bourbon restoration would be impossible once the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the constitution. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame Cathedral. Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII during the ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himself to the authority of the pontiff are apocryphal; in fact, the coronation procedure had been agreed upon in advance. After the Imperial regalia had been blessed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself before crowning his wife Joséphine as Empress("illustration right"). Then at Milan's cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. Iron Crown of Lombardy By 1805 Britain instigated a Third Coalition against Napoleon. Napoleon knew the French fleet could not defeat the Royal Navy and therefore arranged to lure the British fleet away from the English Channel so that a joint Spanish and French fleet could regain control of the Channel for twenty-four hours, enough for French armies to cross to England. However, with Austria and Russia preparing an invasion of France and its allies, he had to change his plans and turn his attention to the continent. The newly born Grande Armee secretly marched towards Germany. On 20 October 1805 it surprised the Austrians at Ulm. The next day, however, at the decisive Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805), Britain gained lasting control of the seas. A few weeks later, Napoleon secured a major victory against Austria and Russia at Austerlitz (2 December), forcing Austria yet again to sue for peace. A Fourth Coalition was assembled the following year, and Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (14 October 1806). He marched on against advancing Russian armies through Poland, and was attacked at the bloody Battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807. After a major victory at Friedland he signed a treaty at Tilsit in East Prussia with Tsar Alexander I of Russia, dividing Europe between the two powers. He placed puppet rulers on the thrones of German states, including his brother Jerome as king of the new state of Westphalia. In the French-controlled part of Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony as ruler. Between 1809 and 1813 Napoleon also served as Regent of the Grand Duchy of Berg for his brother Louis Bonaparte. Ludwig van Beethoven initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon in the belief that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution, but in 1804, as Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, renamed the symphony as the "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il Sovvenire di un grand'Uomo", or in English, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man".

The Peninsular War and the War of the Fifth Coalition

Main articles: Peninsular War, Fifth Coalition In addition to military endeavors against Britain, Napoleon also waged economic war, attempting to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain called the "Continental System". Although this action hurt the British economy, it also damaged the French economy and was not a decisive factor. Continental System Portugal did not comply with this Continental System and in 1807 Napoleon sought Spain's support for an invasion of Portugal. When Spain refused, Napoleon invaded Spain as well. After mixed results were produced by his generals, Napoleon himself took command and defeated the Spanish army, retook Madrid and then defeated a British army sent to support the Spanish, driving it to the coast and forcing withdrawal from Iberia (in which its commander, Sir John Moore, was killed). Napoleon installed one of his marshals and brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as the King of Naples, and his brother Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Spain. The Spanish, inspired by nationalism and the Catholic Church, and angry over atrocities committed by French troops, rose in revolt. At the same time, Austria unexpectedly broke its alliance with France and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. A bloody draw ensued at Aspern-Essling (May 21-22, 1809) near Vienna, which was the closest Napoleon ever came to a defeat in a battle with more or less equal numbers on each side. After a two month interval, the principal French and Austrian armies engaged again near Vienna resulting in a French victory at Battle of Wagram (6 July). Following this a new peace was signed between Austria and France and in the following year the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise married Napoleon, following his divorce of Josephine.

Invasion of Russia

Main article: Napoleon's invasion of Russia Although the Congress of Erfurt had sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, by 1811 tensions were again increasing between the two nations. Although Alexander and Napoleon had a friendly personal relationship since their first meeting in 1807, Alexander had been under strong pressure from the Russian aristocracy to break off the alliance with France. The first sign that the alliance was deteriorating was the easing of the application of the Continental System in Russia, angering Napoleon. By 1812, advisors to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire (and the recapture of Poland). Large numbers of troops were deployed to the Polish borders (reaching over 300,000 out of the total Russian army strength of 410,000). After receiving the initial reports of Russian war preparations, Napoleon began expanding his Grande Armée to a massive force of over 450,000-600,000 men (despite already having over 300,000 men deployed in Iberia). Napoleon ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the vast Russian heartland, and prepared his forces for an offensive campaign. On June 23, 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia commenced. Napoleon's invasion of Russia Napoleon, in an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, termed the war the "Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being the liberation of Poland from Russia, Prussia and Austria). Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of partitioned Poland to be incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and a new Kingdom of Poland created, although this was rejected by Napoleon, who feared it would bring Prussia and Austria into the war against France. Napoleon also rejected requests to free the Russian serfs, fearing this might provoke a conservative reaction in his rear. The Russians under Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly ingeniously avoided a decisive engagement which Napoleon longed for, preferring to retreat ever deeper into the heart of Russia. A brief attempt at resistance was offered at Smolensk (August 16-17), but the Russians were defeated in a series of battles in the area and Napoleon resumed the advance. The Russians then repeatedly avoided battle with the Grande Armée, although in a few cases only because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity presented itself. Criticized over his tentative strategy of continual retreat, Barclay was replaced by Kutuzov, although he continued Barclay's strategy. Kutuzov eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September. Losses were nearly even for both armies, with slightly more casualties on the Russian side, after what may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history - the Battle of Borodino (see article for comparisons to the first day of the Battle of the Somme). Although Napoleon was far from defeated, the Russian army had accepted, and withstood, the major battle the French hoped would be decisive. After the battle, the Russian army withdrew, and retreated past Moscow. The Russians retreated and Napoleon was able to enter Moscow, assuming that the fall of Moscow would end the war and that Alexander I would negotiate peace. However, on orders of the city's military governor and commander-in-chief, Fyodor Rostopchin, rather than capitulating, Moscow was ordered burned. Within the month, fearing loss of control back in France, Napoleon left Moscow. The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat; the Army had begun as over 650,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River (November 1812) to escape. In total French losses in the campaign were 570,000 against about 400,000 Russian casualties and several hundred thousand civilian deaths.

The War of the Sixth Coalition

Berezina River, before his exile to Saint Helena]] There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 whilst both the Russians and the French recovered from their massive losses. A small Russian army harassed the French in Poland and eventually 30,000 French troops there withdrew to the German states to rejoin the expanding force there - numbering 130,000 with the reinforcements from Poland. This force continued to expand, with Napoleon aiming for a force of 400,000 French troops supported by a quarter of a million German troops. Heartened by Napoleon's losses in Russia, Prussia soon rejoined the Coalition that now included Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and soon inflicted a series of defeats on the Allies culminating in the Battle of Dresden on August 26-27, 1813 causing almost 100,000 casualties to the Coalition forces (the French sustaining only around 30,000). Despite these initial successes, however, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon as Sweden and Austria joined the Coalition. Eventually the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size at the Battle of Nations (October 16-19) at Leipzig. Some of the German states switched sides in the midst of the battle, further undermining the French position. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost both sides a combined total of over 120,000 casualties. After this Napoleon withdrew in an orderly fashion back into France, but his army was now reduced to less than 100,000 against more than half a million Allied troops. The French were now surrounded (with British armies pressing from the south in addition to the Coalition forces moving in from the German states) and vastly outnumbered. The French armies could only delay an inevitable defeat.

Exile in Elba, return and Waterloo

Leipzig Paris was occupied on March 31 1814. At the urging of his marshals, Napoleon abdicated on 6 April in favour of his son. The Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender and Napoleon abdicated again, unconditionally, on 11 April. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled him to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean 20 km off the coast of Italy. In France, the royalists had taken over and restored King Louis XVIII to power. Separated from his wife and son (who had come under Austrian control), cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic, Napoleon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned to the mainland on 1 March 1815. King Louis XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment, led by Marshal Michel Ney who had formerly served under Napoleon in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now". Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days. Napoléon's final defeat came at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815. Off the port of Rochefort, Napoléon made his formal surrender while on board HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.

Exile in Saint Helena and death

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena (2,800 km off the Bight of Guinea) from 15 October 1815. Whilst there, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors. Sick for much his time on Saint Helena, Napoleon died, on 5 May 1821. His last words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army, Joséphine". Napoléon had asked in his will to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but was buried on Saint Helena. In 1840, his remains were taken to France in the frigate Belle-Poule and entombed in Les Invalides, Paris. Hundreds of millions have visited his tomb since that date.

Cause of death

Les Invalides The cause of Napoleon's death has been greatly disputed. Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon's personal physician, listed stomach cancer as the reason for Napoleon's death in his death certificate. The diaries of Louis Marchand, Napoleon's valet, have led some (most notably Sten Forshufvud and Ben Weider) to conclude that Napoleon was killed by arsenic poisoning, although whether he was murdered or ingested arsenic in some accidental way (it was used in wallpaper, as a pigment, and in some medicines) is still under dispute. In 2001, Pascal Kintz, of the Strasbourg Forensic Institute in France, added credence to this claim with a study of arsenic levels found in a lock of Napoleon's hair preserved after his death that were seven to thirty-eight times higher than normal (although this is disputable, because another use of arsenic at the time of Napoleon's death was to preserve samples of hair).

Marriages and children

Napoleon was married twice: 2001
- March 9, 1796 to Joséphine de Beauharnais. He formally adopted her son Eugène and cousin Stéphanie after assuming the throne to arrange "dynastic" marriages for them. He had her daughter Hortense marry his brother, Louis. Joséphine agreed to divorce so he could remarry in the hopes of producing an heir; it was the first under the Napoleonic Code.
- March 11, 1810 by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria to legitimize the impending birth of their child, then in a ceremony on April 1. They remained married until his death, although she did not join him in his exile.
- Napoléon Francis Joseph Charles (March 20, 1811 - July 22, 1832), King of Rome. Known as Napoléon II of France although he never ruled. Was later known as the Duke of Reichstadt. Did not have issue. Acknowledged two illegitimate children, both of whom had issue:
- Charles, Count Léon, (1806 - 1881), by Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne (1787 - 1868).
- Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count Walewski, (May 4 1810 - October 27 1868), by Marie, Countess Walewski (1789 - 1817). May have had further illegitimate issue:
- Émilie Louise Marie Françoise Joséphine Pellapra, by Françoise-Marie LeRoy.
- Karl Eugin von Mühlfeld, by Victoria Kraus.
- Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, by Countess Montholon.
- Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (August 19, 1805 - November 24, 1895) whose mother remains unknown.

Legacy

Napoleon is credited with introducing the concept of the modern professional conscript army to Europe, an innovation which other states eventually followed. In France, Napoleon is seen by some as having ended lawlessness and disorder in France, and that the Napoleonic Wars also served to export the Revolution to the rest of Europe; the movements of national unification and the rise of the nation state, notably in Italy and Germany, may have been precipitated by the Napoleonic rule of those areas. The Napoleonic Code was adopted throughout much of Europe and remained in force after Napoleon's defeat. Professor Dieter Langewiesche of the University of Tübingen describes the code as a "revolutionary project" which spurred the development of bourgeois society in Germany by expanding the right to own property and breaking the back of feudalism. Langewiesche also credits Napoleon with reorganizing what had been the Holy Roman Empire made up of more than 1,000 entities into a more streamlined network of 40 states providing the basis for the German Confederation and the future unification of Germany under the German Empire in 1871. In mathematics Napoleon is traditionally given credit for discovering and proving Napoleon's theorem, although there is no specific evidence that he did so. The theorem states that if equilateral triangles are constructed on the sides of any triangle (all outward or all inward), the centres of those equilateral triangles themselves form an equilateral triangle. See the discussion in [http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath270/kmath270.htm] about the significance of the theorem. Critics of Napoleon argue that his true legacy was a loss of status for France and many needless deaths: After all, the military record is unquestioned—17 years of wars, perhaps six million Europeans dead, France bankrupt, her overseas colonies lost. And it was all such a great waste, for when the self-proclaimed tête d'armée was done, France's "losses were permanent" and she "began to slip from her position as the leading power in Europe to second-class status—that was Bonaparte's true legacy. [http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/summer2003/hanson.html].

Misconceptions about Napoleon's height

Contrary to popular belief (perpetuated by the above-mentioned caricatures), Napoleon was not especially short. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet. This corresponds to 5 feet 6.5 inches in Imperial (British) feet, or 1.686 meters, making him slightly taller than an average Frenchman of the 19th century [http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/faq/index.asp#ancre54]. The metric system was introduced during his lifetime, so it was natural that he would be measured in feet and inches for much of his life. A French inch was 2.71 centimetres [http://www.historydata.com/miscellaneous.html#linear%20measure], an Imperial inch is 2.54 centimetres. In addition to this miscalculation, his nickname le petit caporal adds to the confusion, as non-francophones mistakenly take petit literally as meaning "small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers. He also surrounded himself with soldiers, his elite guard, who were always six feet tall or taller.

Sources

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- (Now a dead link; comparable material is at [http://www.napoleon-series.org].)
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- Full texts of
- [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_du_13_décembre_1799 The constitution of the Consulate] (in French)
- [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_du_18_mai_1804 The Imperial Constitution] (in French)
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References

#McLynn (1998), p. 31. # [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4645865.stm BBC News, Napoleon 'tried to learn English' ] # [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3913213.stm BBC News, Napoleon 'killed by his doctors' ] # [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4318288.stm BBC News, Napoleon 'not killed', paper says]

External links

- [http://www.badley.info/history/Napoleon-I-France.biog.html Napoleon I Chronology] in World History Database
- [http://www.grand-illusions.com/napoleon/napol1.htm "The Strange Story of Napoleon's Wallpaper"] - discussing the possibility of arsenic poisoning
- [http://www.geocities.com/superstorelink/napoleon.html Napoleon - Portraits and Paintings]
- [http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/index.html Napoleon, His Armies and Tactics]
- [http://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/home.html PBS Napoleon] - Detailed biography of Napoleon Category:1769 births Category:1821 deaths Category:Adoptive parents Category:First French Empire Category:Freemasons Category:French emperors Category:French heads of state Category:French Revolution Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece Category:Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Napoleonic wars Category:Napoleonic wars French commanders Category:Natives of Corsica Category:Revolutionaries Category:The Bonapartes ko:나폴레옹 보나파르트 ja:ナポレオン・ボナパルト simple:Napoleon th:นโปเลียน โบนาปาร์ต

Hugh Capet

Hugh Capet (French: Hugues Capet) (938 – October 24, 996) was King of France from 987 to 996. Capet is a nickname for "wearing a cape". Born in 938 in Paris, he came from a powerful and influential family of the Germanic aristocracy of France, two members of which had already been elected King of France in the ninth and tenth centuries. Hugh Capet was the eldest son of Hugh the Great, then the most powerful man in the kingdom, maker of kings, and of Hedwige of Saxony (c.910–c.965), daughter of King Henry I (the Fowler) of Germany and sister of German Emperor Otto I. Hugh Capet wanted to become a lay abbot, and in 980 arranged to move the relics of St. Valery to Amiens Cathedral. He inherited his father's vast estates and became the most powerful noble of his time. From 978 to 986, Hugh Capet allied himself with the German emperors Otto II and Otto III and with archbishop Adalberon of Reims to dominate the weak Carolingian king, Lothair. By 985, he was king in all but name. After Lothair and his son died in early 987, the archbishop of Reims convinced an assembly of nobles to elect Hugh Capet as their king. He was crowned King of France at Noyon, Picardie on July 3, 987, the first of the Capetian dynasty to rule France. Hugh Capet possessed minor properties near Chartres and Anjou. Between Paris and Orléans he possessed towns and estates amounting to approximately 400 square miles (1,000 km²). His authority ended there, and if he dared travel outside his small area, he risked being captured and held for ransom or even murdered. Indeed, there was a plot in 993 masterminded by the Bishop of Laon and Eudes I of Blois to deliver Hugh Capet into the custody of Otto III. The plot failed, but the fact that no one was punished illustrates how tenuous his hold on power was. Beyond his power base, in the rest of France, there were still as many codes of law as there were fiefdoms. The country operated with 150 different forms of currency and at least a dozen languages. Uniting all this into one cohesive unit was a formidable task and a constant struggle between those who wore the crown of France and its feudal lords. As such, Hugh Capet's reign was marked by numerous power struggles with the vassals on the borders of the Seine and the Loire. Beyond his realm, the investiture and then deposition of Arnulf, nephew of the duke of Lorraine, as archbishop of Reims involved the king and bishops in conflict with Pope John XV that was not yet resolved at Hugh Capet's death in 996. While Hugh Capet's military power was limited and he had to seek military aid from the Duke of Normandy, his unanimous election as king gave him great moral authority and influence. Hugh Capet married Adelaide of Aquitaine (952–1004), daughter of Duke William III of Aquitaine. Their children were: # Avoise (970–1013) # Robert II (March 27, 972 – July 20, 1031) # Alice (974–1079) # Gilette (born c.976) # Gisele (born c.978) Hugh Capet died on October 24, 996 in Paris, and was interred in the Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son, Robert II.

References

Category:938 births Category:996 deaths Category:Parisians Category:French monarchs ja:ユーグ・カペー simple:Hugh Capet

1729

Events

- July 30 - Baltimore, Maryland is founded.
- November 28 - The worst Indian massacre to take place on Mississippi soil occurred. In this attack, the Natchez Indians killed 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, MS (near modern-day Natchez, MS).
- First printing press was established in Ottoman Empire (app. 300 years after it was first used in western civilization) by Ibrahim Muteferrika.
- Astronomer James Bradley discovers and describes the prinicple of aberration of starlight.
- The third oldest settlement in Mississippi, Port Gibson, was founded

Births

- January 12 - Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and philosopher (d. 1797)
- January 22 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (d. 1781)
- May 2 - Catherine the Great of Russia (d. 1796)
- November 24 - Alexander Suvorov, Russian general (d. 1800)

Deaths

- January 19 - William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)
- January 31 - Jakob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)
- March 2 - Francesco Bianchini, Italain philosopher and scientist (b. 1662)
- March 21 - John Law, Scottish economist (b. 1671)
- May 17 - Catherine I of Russia
- May 17 - Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (b. 1675)
- July 16 - Johann David Heinichen, German composer (b. 1683)
- August 5 - Thomas Newcomen, English inventor (b. 1663)
- September 3 - Jean Hardouin, French scholar (b. 1646)
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- December 1 - Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer (b. 1665)
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Louis XV of France

Louis XV (February 16, 1710 – May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1715 to 1774. Miraculously surviving the death of his entire family, he was loved by the French at the beginning of his reign. However, in time, his inability to reform the French monarchy and his policy of appeasement on the European stage lost him the support of his people, and he died as one of the most unpopular kings of France. Louis XV is the king with the most ambivalent personality in the history of France. Though he has been much maligned by historians, modern research shows that he was in fact very intelligent and dedicated to the task of ruling the largest kingdom of Europe. However, his indecisiveness, fueled by his awareness of the complexity of problems ahead, as well as his profound timidity, hidden behind the mask of an imperious king, account for the poor results achieved during his reign. In many ways, Louis XV prefigures the bourgeois rulers of the romantic 19th century: although dutifully playing the role of the imperial king carved out by his great-grandfather Louis XIV, Louis XV in fact cherished nothing more than his private life far away from pomp and ceremony. Having lost his mother while still an infant, he always longed for a motherly and reassuring presence, which he tried to find in the intimate company of women, for which he was much slandered both during and after his life.

The Miracle Child

Louis XIV Louis XV was born at Versailles on February 15, 1710, while his great-grandfather Louis XIV was still on the throne. He was the son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and of Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy. Marie-Adélaïde was a very lively woman of whom the old king Louis XIV was very fond, and the young couple, deeply in love with each other (quite an unusual fact at the court in Versailles), had rejuvenated the court of the old king and become the centre of attraction in Versailles. Louis XV had a brother, Louis, Duke of Brittany, who was older by three years. The Duke of Burgundy was the eldest son of Louis, the Grand Dauphin, who was the only son of Louis XIV. The Duke of Burgundy had two younger brothers: Philip, Duke of Anjou, soon to be confirmed as Philip V of Spain, and Charles, Duke of Berry. Thus, by 1710, Louis XIV had plenty of male descendants: one son, three grandsons, and two great-grandsons from his oldest grandson. However, dramatic events altered the shape of the royal family. In 1700, the Duke of Anjou had become King of Spain under the name Philip V, inheriting the crown from his grandmother, wife of Louis XIV and a Spanish princess. In the War of the Spanish Succession that had followed, Philip V had had to renounce all claims to the French throne. England was loath to see Spain and its colonial empire united with France under a single king in the future. The renunciation of Philip V was not a major problem for Louis XIV since he had so many other male descendants. However, in April 1711 the Grand Dauphin died suddenly, and the Duke of Burgundy became heir to the throne. Then one year later, the vigorous and lively Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy contracted smallpox (or measles) and died on February 12, 1712, to the dismay of the old king Louis XIV. The Duke of Burgundy, heartbroken by the death of his wife, died within a week of the same disease. Within a week of the Duke of Burgundy's death, it was also clear that the two children of the couple had caught the virus. The eldest son, the Duke of Brittany, was bled repeatedly by doctors and died on March 8, 1712. His younger brother Louis XV was saved by his governess Madame de Ventadour, who vigorously forbade doctors to bleed the young boy and personally looked after him during his illness. Then finally in 1714 the Duke of Berry, third son of the Grand Dauphin, died. Thus Louis XIV had lost four male descendants in just three years, and the fate of the dynasty now lay in the survival of a four-year-old boy. Should the boy die, the crown would pass to Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV, and first cousin of the late Grand Dauphin. However, it appeared quite probable that Philip V of Spain would denounce the treaty whereby he had renounced the crown of France, and that a major European war, as well as a French civil war, was sure to happen. The young four-year-old boy was made very conscious of the heavy responsibility lying on his shoulders, and his life was carefully watched every single minute. Moreover, the young boy was now an orphan, with no surviving siblings, no uncles or aunts (except Philip V who was in Madrid and whom he would never meet), and no first cousins (again, excepting those in Madrid). This family context shaped much of the later personality of the king.

The Regency of the Duke of Orléans

Philippe d'Orléans Towards the end of August 1715, Louis XIV was dying of gangrene. On August 26 he called his five-year-old great-grandson Louis to his bedside and spoke to him, saying these famous words: "My child, you are going to be a great king. Do not imitate me in my liking for buildings and for wars. On the contrary, do try to have peace with your neighbors. Render to God what you owe Him; acknowledge the obligations under which you are placed to Him; make Him honored by your subjects. Always follow good advice. Do try to relieve the suffering of your people, which I am most distressed at not having been able to do. [...] "¹ Six days later, the man who had ruled France for more than 50 years died, and Louis XV was immediately greeted as the new King of France. In August 1714, about a year before he died, Louis XIV had made a will which granted a prominent role in the regency to come to two sons who had been born to him by his former mistress, Madame de Montespan, and who had since been legitimised, and were now known as the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse. By legitimising his bastard sons, Louis XIV was trying to remedy the death of most of his male heirs in the three preceding years, and ensure the future of the endangered dynasty. The calculation was that should the young Louis XV die, the bastard sons of Louis XIV would succeed the young boy on the throne. This was in blatant contravention of the traditional rule of succession to the throne of France. The move also resulted from the insistence of Louis XIV's second wife, Madame de Maintenon, who had raised the two boys and was on close and friendly terms with them (other bastard sons of the king, not raised by Madame de Maintenon, were not legitimised). The will sought to enhance the positions of Toulouse, and especially the elder son, Maine, at the expense of the man who was expected, by traditional right, to become regent and rule France until Louis XV reached adulthood, Philippe d'Orléans, son of Louis XIV's younger brother. The will stipulated that until the new king reached the age of majority, the nation was to be run by a Regency Council of 14 members. Philippe d'Orléans was named president of the council, but all decisions were to be taken by majority vote; and the composition of the council, which included Maine, Toulouse and various members of Louis XIV's administration, was such that Orléans would usually be outvoted. The content of this will had become known, and factions had begun to line up behind Maine, Toulouse and Maintenon on one hand, and Orléans on the other. Orléans enjoyed the support of many amongst the old sword nobility (noblesse d'épée), descending from medieval knights, as opposed to the noblesse de robe, the new aristocracy of recently ennobled lawyers and civil servants. Louis XIV had usually excluded the noblesse d'épée from government in favour of commoners from the bourgeoisie who often entered the noblesse de robe and whom he could control better. Thus the noblesse d'épée yearned for a change of policy more favourable to them, and were greatly displeased with the legitimisation of the "royal bastards" Maine and Toulouse, which they regarded as an affront to the traditional rules of inheritance. The Parlement of Paris, another political entity which Louis XIV had shut out of power, also hoped for an Orléans government and a change of course in the government, with increased powers to the Parlement. Religion too entered the picture. Madame de Maintenon was a supporter of the Jesuits, the Pope, and the Pope's controversial Bull Unigenitus, a 1713 papal bull directed against the Jansenists, a Catholic group popular in France who were deemed to have too many protestant tendencies. Philippe d'Orléans was naturally supported by the Jansenists and the Gallicans (French Catholics who wanted their church to be more independent from Rome), since they thought he would dislodge the Jesuit-Papist group from power after his own accession to power. It appears that in the final weeks before his death, King Louis XIV had made somewhat of a reconciliation with his nephew Philippe d'Orléans. Biding adieu to the closest courtiers and ministers on August 26, the king had told them: "Always obey the orders my nephew [Philippe d'Orléans] will give you; he will govern the kingdom"². In the following days, Philippe d'Orléans had had meetings, and made promises, to various aristocrats, clergymen, and members of the Parlement of Paris who he hoped would support him. He had promised the aristocrats places on new government councils he intended to form, which would eventually become known as the polysynody; he had assured Jansenists and Gallicans he would be lenient regarding Unigenitas; and he had promised the Parlement he would restore its right of remonstrance (the right to criticize and delay royal edicts), which had been taken away from the Parlament by Louis XIV in 1673. On September 2, the day after Louis XIV passed away, there was a special session of the Parlement of Paris. It was attended not only by the magistrates who were usually there, but also by the peers and princes of the blood. The king's will was read, and the future of the government decided. Philippe d'Orléans addressed the assembly. He stated his claim to be made regent, asking that he be given full power. He referred to a recent conversation in which the king had indicated to him that he would govern. He reminded those present of the arrangements he had negotiated with them over the preceding days. The Parlement responded affirmatively. He was granted the crucial right to choose his own Regency Council. Thus the king's written will was to a large extent nullified, and Philippe d'Orléans became, in fact, regent. He was 41 years old. The Parlement, on the other hand, recovered to right of remonstrance. This court coup was recorded in detail by Saint-Simon, the famous writer of memoirs. The regent Philippe d'Orléans took the symbolic decision to relocate the government to Paris, and the court in Versailles disbanded. The regent conducted affairs of state from his Parisian palace, the Palais Royal. The young Louis XV was moved to the modern lodgings attached to the medieval fortress of Vincennes, located 7 km/4.5 miles east of Paris in the Forest of Vincennes, where the air was deemed more wholesome and healthy than in Paris. Later during the regency he was moved to the Tuileries Palace, in the center of Paris, near the Palais Royal. In keeping with the tradition that all French royal princes, when they reached their seventh birthdays, should be put under the care of men, a tearful Louis was separated from his governess, Madame de Ventadour, in February 1717, and put in the care of the Duke of Villeroi, who wad been designated as his governor in Louis XIV's will of August 1714.³ The Duke of Villeroi served under the formal authority of the Duke of Maine, made superintendent of the king's education. He was aided by André-Hercule de Fleury (later to become Cardinal de Fleury), tutor to the young king. The Duke of Villeroi, an old and vain courtier, loved to show the good manners and talents of his pupil. The young king, during endless public ceremonies, had to learn to hide his feelings and his natural shyness. He acquired the cold attitude and air of majesty that he would display during his entire life in public, as well as a taste for private apartments and intimate circles - in short an almost private bourgeois lifestyle. Fleury, his tutor, gave him an excellent education, with renowned professors such as the geographer Guillaume Delisle. Louis XV had an extremely curious and open-minded personality. He was an avid reader, of eclectic tastes. A man of the Enlightenment, fond of science and new technologies, he pushed for the creation of a department of physics (1769) and mechanics (1773) at the Collège de France. The Cardinal de Fleury, an ambitious man, and, like the king, secretive, but above all affable, was deeply admired by Louis XV, and had a great influence on the rest of the king's life. During the Régence, the regent, Philippe d'Orléans, in search of support, and in keeping with his promises, favoured the nobility (aristocrats) who had been deprived of power during the reign of Louis XIV. He established the so-called polysynody (September 15, 1715), which allowed the aristocracy to participate in the government. He concluded an alliance with Great Britain in 1717 (Triple Alliance) in an effort to prevent Philip V of Spain from claiming the crown of France should the young Louis XV die. Confronted with a total lack of expertise amongst the aristocracy in government affairs, the regent reverted to the monarchical organization of government that existed under Louis XIV and by 1718 had reinstated secretaries of state. Cardinal Dubois, close confident of the regent, was made prime minister in 1722. In an attempt to replenish the French treasury the regency tried a number of original financial experiments, notable amongst which was the famous financial system of John Law, a financial bubble which ended up in bankruptcy and brought about the ruin of many aristocrats. In 1721, Louis XV was betrothed to his first cousin, Marianne Victoria of Bourbon, daughter of Philip V of Spain and his second wife Elizabeth Farnese. The eleven-year-old king found no interest in the arrival in Paris of his future wife, the three-year-old Spanish infanta, who only caused boredom in him. In June 1722 the young king and the court returned to Versailles, where they would stay until the end of the reign. In October of the same year, Louis XV was officially crowned in Reims Cathedral. On February 15 1723, as he turned thirteen, the king was declared of majority by the Parlement of Paris, thus ending the Régence. The King left the Duke of Orléans in charge of state affairs. The Duke of Orléans was made prime minister on the death of Cardinal Dubois in August 1723, and he himself died in December of the same year. Following the advice of Fleury, Louis XV appointed his cousin the Duke of Bourbon, Prince of Condé, to replace the late Duke of Orléans.

The Ministry of the Duke of Bourbon

The king took no part in the decisions of the government under the Duke of Bourbon. The government was secretly under the influence of a group of speculators and wheeler-dealers such as É. Berthelot de Pléneuf and banker J. Pâris-Duverney. The Duke of Bourbon was worried by the health of the young king, not so much out of concern for the king or the future of the dynasty, but in fact out of a desire to prevent the House of Orléans (of the late regent) from ascending the throne should the king die. The Duke of Bourbon saw the House of Orléans as his enemy. The king was quite frail, and several alerts led to concern for his life. The Spanish infanta was too young to procreate and give an heir. Thus, the Duke of Bourbon, who was also hostile to Spain, sent the infanta back to Spain and set about choosing a European princess old enough to produce an heir. Eventually, the choice fell on 21-year-old Marie Leszczyńska, daughter of Stanislaus I of Poland, the toppled King of Poland. A poor princess who had followed her father's misfortunes, she was nonetheless said to be virtuous, and quite charming. She was also from a royal family who had never interbred with the French royal family, and it was hoped that she would bring new blood into the French royal family. The relatively low status of her father would also ensure that the marriage would not cause diplomatic embarrassment to France by having to choose one royal court over another. The marriage was celebrated in September 1725. The young king immediately fell in love with his new wife, who was seven years older than he. Nonetheless, the marriage of the most powerful king in Europe with such a low-ranking princess was considered to be improper and lacking in grandeur by most of Europe. The ministry of the Duke of Bourbon was marked by the persecution of Protestants (1726), several monetary manipulations, the creation of new taxes such as the fiftieth (cinquantième) in 1725, and the high price of grain, all of which created troubles and economic depression. In 1726, the king, who was now sixteen and had had since his marriage a new health and authority that everyone at court had noticed, dismissed the Duke of Bourbon, who was extremely unpopular and was preparing a war against Spain and Austria. As his replacement he chose his old tutor, Cardinal de Fleury, to serve as prime minister.

The Ministry of Cardinal de Fleury

Austria From 1726 until his death in 1743, Cardinal de Fleury ruled France with the king's assent. It was the most peaceful and prosperous part of the reign of Louis XV, despite some Parliamentarian and Jansenist unrest. After the financial and human losses suffered at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the rule of Fleury, generating peace and order, is seen by historians as a period of "recovery" (French historians talk of a gouvernement "réparateur"). It is hard to determine exactly which part the king took in the decisions of the Fleury government, but what remains certain is that the king steadily supported Fleury against the intrigues of the court and the conspiracies of ministers. With the help of controllers-general of finances Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts (1726-1730) and above all Philibert Orry (1730-1745), Fleury stabilized the French currency (1726) and eventually managed to balance the budget in 1738. Economic expansion was also a central goal of the government: communications were improved, with the completion of the Saint-Quentin canal (linking the Oise and Somme rivers) in 1738, later extended to the Escaut River and the Low Countries, and above all with the systematic building of a national road network. The body of ponts et chaussées engineers, instituted by the central state, built modern straight highways starting in Paris and reaching the far-away borders of France, in the typical star pattern that is still the backbone of the National Highway network of France today. By the middle of the 18th century, France had the most modern and extensive road network in the world, with most of these highways still used today by automobile traffic. Maritime trade was also stimulated by the Bureau and the Council of Commerce, and the French foreign maritime trade increased from 80 to 308 million livres between 1716 and 1748. However, rigid Colbertist laws (prefiguring dirigisme) hindered industrial development. The power of the absolute monarchy was demonstrated with the quelling of the Jansenist and Gallican oppositions. The troubles caused by the convulsionaries of the Saint-Médard graveyard in Paris (a group of Jansenists pretending that miracles took place in this graveyard) were put to an end in 1732. On the other hand, after the "exile" of 139 Parliamentarians in the provinces, the parlement of Paris had to register the Unigenitus papal bull and was forbidden to hear religious cases in the future. Abroad, Fleury sought peace at all cost, averse as he was to wars. His peace policy was based on an English alliance and the reconciliation with Spain. In September 1729, at the end of her third pregnancy, the queen finally gave birth to a male child, Louis, dauphin de France, who immediately became heir to the throne. The birth of a long awaited heir, which ensured the survival of the dynasty for the first time since 1712, was welcome with tremendous joy and celebrations in all spheres of French society, and indeed in most European courts. The royal couple was at the time very united and in love of each other, and the young king was extremely popular. The birth of a male heir also dispelled the risks of a succession crisis and the likely war with Spain that would have resulted. In 1733, despite Fleury's peace policy, the king, won over by his secretary of state for foreign affairs Germain Louis Chauvelin (1727-1737), intervened in the War of the Polish Succession in an attempt to restore his father-in-law Stanislaus Leszczynski on the Polish throne. France also hoped to secure the long coveted duchy of Lorraine from its duke Francis III, who was expected to marry Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI's daughter, Maria Theresa, which would bring Austrian power dangerously close to the French border. The half-hearted French intervention in the east was unable to reverse the course of the war, and Stanislaus could not recover his throne. In the west, however, French troops rapidly overran Lorraine, and peace was restored as early as 1735. By the Treaty of Vienna (November 1738), Stanislaus was compensated for the loss of his Polish throne with the duchy of Lorraine, which was scheduled to pass to France on his death (through his daughter, the wife of Louis XV), while Duke Francis III of Lorraine was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as a compensation for the loss of Lorraine. The war cost very little to France, compared to the financial and human drains of Louis XIV's wars, and was a clear success for French diplomacy. The acquisition of Lorraine (effective in 1766 at Stanislaus' death) was to be the last territorial expansion of France on the continent before the French Revolution. Shortly after this favorable result, France's mediation in the war between the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire led to the Treaty of Belgrade (September 1739) which ended the war in favor of the Ottoman Empire, a traditional ally of France against the Habsburgs (since the early 16th century). As a result, in 1740 the Ottoman Empire renewed the French capitulations, which marked the supremacy of French trade in the Middle East. After all these successes, the prestige of Louis XV, arbiter of Europe, was at its highest. In 1740, the death of Emperor Charles VI and his succession by his daughter Maria Teresa started the European War of the Austrian Succession. The old cardinal de Fleury did not have enough energy left to oppose the war, and the king gave in to the strong pressure of the anti-Austrian party at court: he entered the war in 1741 by allying with Prussia. The war would last seven long years. France was renewing with the cycle of wars so typical of Louis XIV's reign. Fleury, however, did not live to see the end of the war, and died in January 1743. The king, following at last the example of his predecessor Louis XIV, decided henceforth to rule without a prime minister, thus starting his personal reign.

First signs of unpopularity

At the death of his old tutor Fleury in 1743, the king was 33 years old. He had experienced a few years of happiness with his devoted Polish queen, who worshipped him as she worshipped God. A child was born almost every year. However, the queen eventually tired of continual pregnancies, while the king tired of the queen's unconditional love. Moreover, most of the queen's pregnancies ended up with girls, which the king eventually resented. Out of ten children born of the queen, there were only two sons, only one of whom survived, the dauphin. This did not help to dispel the concerns about the future of the dynasty brought about by the repeated deaths of the early 1710s (read above). In 1734, for the first time, the queen complained to her father about the king's infidelities. The king found love with Madame de Mailly, then with her younger sister Madame de Vintimille, then at her death with her younger sister Madame de Châteauroux, while the queen took refuge in religion and charities. One year after the death of Fleury, there happened the dramatic events of Metz (August 1744), which left profound scars on the psyche of the king as well as on French political life. The king, who had left Versailles for the front in order to take personal command of his armies fighting in the War of the Austrian Succession, fell gravely ill in Metz. The doctors thought death was imminent. The people, who still loved him, gave him the royal nickname "Well-Beloved", and public prayers were held all across France to ask God to save the king from a certain death. His mistress Madame de Châteauroux, who had accompanied the king to the front, was forced to leave to the boos of the public, while the queen hastily arrived in Metz. Pressed by the dévot party, Msgr. de Fitz-James, First Chaplain (premier aumônier) of the king, refused to give the king the absolution without a public confession of his sins, in which the king appeared as an immoral person not worthy of the name of Very Christian King (Rex Christianissimus, a traditional title of the kings of France, who had inherited the role of protector of the Church and the papacy from the Frankish Empire in the Middle Ages). Spread all across the kingdom by the clergy, the king's confession stunned the masses and tarnished the prestige of the monarchy. The king escaped death, but the sense of guilt pushed him even further into adultery. The Marquise de Pompadour, met in February 1745 at a lavish masked ball given in honor of the dauphin's marriage, was the most famous mistress of the reign, and the most honorable one. She was the daughter of a chief agent of the powerful Pâris family of financiers who became embroiled in the intrigue that ousted the Duke of Bourbon as head of the Regency council in favor of Cardinal de Fleury. A beautiful woman, educated and cultured, intelligent, and sincerely attached to the king, she nonetheless possessed one major shortcoming in the eyes of the masses: she was a commoner, from the bourgeoisie, and what is more, a commoner who meddled into royal politics. The public had generally accepted the mistresses of Louis XIV, who, apart from Madame de Maintenon, where all chosen in the highest spheres of the aristocracy and had absolutely no influence on the government. But that the king may thus compromise himself with a commoner was found a profound disgrace. Soon flourished libels called poissonades (a word meaning something like "fish stew", a pun based on the Marquise de Pompadour's family name, Poisson, which literally means "fish" in French), violently attacking the Marquise and slandering her, such as shown in this example: "Daughter of leech, and leech herself, Poisson ["Fish"], with an extreme arrogance, flaunts in this château, without fear or dread, the substance of the people and the shame of the King." leech Despite the critics, the Marquise de Pompadour had an undeniable influence on the flourishing of French arts during the reign of Louis XV, a reign that is often considered the peak of French architecture and interior design (see: Louis XV style). A patron of the arts, the Marquise amassed a considerable amount of furniture and objet d'art in her various estates. She was responsible for the tremendous development of the porcelain manufactory of Sèvres, which became one of the most famous porcelain manufacturer in Europe, and her commands ensured the living of artists and families of craftsmen for many years. She was also prominent in architecture, being responsible for the building of the Place Louis XV (now called Place de la Concorde) and the École Militaire in Paris, both built by Jacques Ange Gabriel, whom she protected. The École Militaire, for the creation of which she successfully lobbied the king, showed her commitment to the training of officers from poor families of the aristocracy (one student of the École Militaire, Napoléon Bonaparte, would later rise to fame). The Marquise was a liberal at heart and she steadily defended the Encyclopédie against the attacks of the Church. She was a supporter of the Philosophy of the Enlightenment, and tried to win the king to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, albeit not quite as successfully as she would have hoped. The lavish display of luxury in her various estates was responsible for the criticism she received, although her rich family of financiers in many instances gave money to the government and saved the monarchy from bankruptcy. All her estates, which she had bequeathed to the state, reverted to the crown at her death. The Marquise de Pompadour was officially settled on the third floor (second storey) of the Palace of Versailles, in some small but cozy apartments that can still be visited today. There, she organized fine suppers for the king, with chosen guests, far from the pomp and etiquette of the court which the king detested. The atmosphere in these private quarters was so relaxed that the king was said to serve coffee during the suppers. She often entertained the king, trying to relieve him from the state of boredom in which the court often plunged him. The king, who liked a more bourgeois lifestyle than his forefather Louis XIV, found in the private apartments of the Marquise de Pompadour, located above his own office and bedchamber, the intimacy and reassuring feminine presence of which he had been deprived during his childhood. The Marquise de Pompadour, who was reportedly frigid and with a frail health, was no more than a friend after 1750. Although the sexual relationship stopped, the Marquise remained the close confident and friend of the king until her death, which is quite a feat in the history of royal mistresses. She, more than anyone else, was adept at understanding the complex and demanding personality of the king. After 1750, the king was mired in a series of short-lived love affairs and sexual relationships, hiding his temporary conquests in a small mansion at the Parc-aux-Cerfs ("Stags Park"), the most famous of whom was Louise O'Murphy. Legend later enormously exaggerated the events taking place at the Parc-aux-Cerfs, contributing to the dark reputation still associated with Louis XV's name today. The oft mentioned womanizing of the king, however, was not very different from that of many of his ancestors, such as kings Francis I or Henry IV, known for their relentless pursuit of women, but nonetheless two of the best remembered kings of France today, to say nothing of other European monarchs such as Henry VIII of England.

First try at reform

All these love affairs did not take the king away from the duties of his office, but he lacked the inexhaustible energy of his great-grandfather Louis XIV. He had gotten used to taking decisions based on Cardinal de Fleury's advice, and to relying on Fleury for the execution of government policies. During the 17 long years of Fleury's government, the king had formed his judgment but had not forged his will. Starting in 1743 with the death of Fleury, the king ruled alone without a prime minister. He had read time and again the instructions of Louis XIV: "Listen to people, seek advice from your Council, but decide [alone]." Although he was without a doubt more intelligent and cultured than his great-grandfather, Louis XV lacked self-confidence. His political correspondence reveals his deep knowledge of public affairs as well as the soundness of his judgment. However, the king was often afraid of taking firm decisions, thinking that he might be wrong and other people might be right. It is only when pushed to the limit, often when it was too late, that he suddenly resolved to bold action, with a brutality that stunned people. Always supportive and friendly towards his ministers in appearance, his disgrace fell suddenly without warning on the ministers that he felt dissatisfied with, leading to his reputation of a feigned character. It was very difficult for ministers to decipher the king, or to know if their action was in agreement with what he really thought. Usually, they were given great independence each in their ministry, the king never really directing them, and they never received any warning or sign of displeasure from the king until came the sudden disgrace. Moreover, the king often acted without their knowing it, such as in the case of the "Secret of the king" ("Secret du roi"), a secret diplomatic correspondence between the king and the courts of the nations against which France was fighting during the wars of the reign. Most of government work was conducted in committees of ministers which met without the king. The king was sitting in the High Council (Conseil d'en haut), created by Louis XIV, in charge of secrets of State regarding religion, diplomacy, and war. There, he let various political factions oppose each other and vie for influence and power: the dévot party, led by the Comte d'Argenson, secretary of state for war, opposed the parti philosophique, which supported the Enlightenment philosophy and was led by Machault d'Arnouville, controller-general of finances. The parti philosophique was supported by the Marquise de Pompadour, who acted as a sort of minister without portfolio from the time she became royal mistress in 1745 until her death in 1764. The Marquise was in favor of reforms. Supported by her clan of financiers (Pâris-Duverney, Montmartel, etc.), she obtained from the king the appointment of ministers (Bernis, secretary of state for foreign affairs, in 1757), as well as their dismissal (Orry, controller-general of finances, in 1745; Maurepas, secretary of state for the Navy, in 1749). On her advice, the king supported the policy of fiscal justice designed by Machault d'Arnouville. In order to finance the budget deficit, which amounted to 100 million livres in 1745, Machault d'Arnouville created a tax on the twentieth of all revenues which affected also the privileged classes (Edict of Marly, 1749). This breach in the privileged status of the aristocracy and the clergy, normally exempt from taxes, was a first in French history, although it had already been advocated by visionary minds such as Vauban under Louis XIV. However, the new tax was received with violent protest from the privileged classes sitting in the provincial states (états provinciaux) of the few provinces which still kept the right to decide over taxation (most provinces had long lost their provincial status and the right to decide over taxation that came with it). The new tax was also violently opposed by the clergy and by the parlements. Pressed and eventually won over by his entourage at court, the king gave in and exempted the clergy from the twentieth in 1751. Eventually, the twentieth became a mere increase in the already existing taille, the most important direct tax of the monarchy from which privileged classes were exempted. It was the first defeat in the "taxation war" waged against the privileged classes. taille (Louvre Museum)]] As a result of these attempts at reform, the parlement of Paris, using the quarrel between the clergy and the Jansenists as a pretext, addressed remonstrances to the king (April 1753). In these remonstrances, the parlement, which was made up of privileged aristocrats and ennobled commoners, proclaimed itself the "natural defender of the fundamental laws of the kingdom" against the arbitrariness of the monarchy. Abroad, the policy of the king seemed inconsistent. The period was dominated by the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), which had started under Fleury. The war pitted the French and Prussians against the Austrians, English, and Dutch. The latter part of the war saw a series of major French victories: Battle of Fontenoy (1745), Battle of Rocourt (1746), and Battle of Lawfeld (1747). In particular, the Battle of Fontenoy, won by the Maréchal de Saxe, is considered one of the most resounding French victories in history against the English, and is still well remembered in France today. As a result of these victories, France occupied the entire Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium), at the time the wealthiest area of Europe, and Louis XV was well on his way to fulfill the old dream of France to establish the country’s northeastern border on the Rhine River. The king was then at the peak of his popularity. However, at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, France restored all its conquests to Austria, to the amazement of French people, and to the surprise of European powers. Louis XV, who at heart was not a bellicose king, unlike his great-grandfather Louis XIV, felt content with his almost perfect hexagon-shaped kingdom, which he called his pré carré (i.e. "square field"), a concept still used in French politics today. He thought it better to cultivate his pré carré rather than trying to expand it. The king declared he had made peace "as a king and not as a merchant". The attitude of the king was hailed in Europe, and he became overnight the "arbiter of Europe". However, at home the consequences for his popularity were catastrophic. The people had forgiven Louis XIV for his high taxes, his mistresses, and his lavish expenditures, as long as he was successful in wars. As for Louis XV, the incident of Metz (1744) weighed little in the eyes of the public against the king's victories in the War of the Austrian Succession. But the news that the king had restored the Southern Netherlands to Austria at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was met with disbelief and bitterness. Parisians coined the phrase: "As stupid as peace" ("Bête comme la paix"). Historians usually consider that 1748 is the first true manifestation of public opinion in France, a nationalist public opinion that the king did not understand. 1748 was also the turning point in the king's popularity at home: after 1748, his popularity steadily declined, never to recover, and pamphlets against his mistresses and his lifestyle arose en masse. Moreover, in 1756, breaking with the traditional Franco-Prussian alliance, the king operated the so-called "reversal of alliances". A new European conflict was brewing, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle being but a sort of truce. Already, French and English were fighting each other in North America without a declaration of war (see Indian Wars). In 1755, the English seized 300 French merchant ships, in violation of international law. A few months later, on January 16, 1756, the United Kingdom and Prussia signed a treaty of "neutrality". In Paris and Versailles, the parti philosophique and the Marquise de Pompadour couldn't hide their disappointment at this betrayal by King Frederick II of Prussia, who was until then seen as an enlightened sovereign friend of the Philosophers. Frederick II had even welcomed Voltaire in Potsdam when the famous writer had run into trouble with the dévot party in France. But the truth was that Frederick II was motivated first and foremost by personal interests and the desire to expand the territory of Prussia, by any means available. He had already abandoned his French ally during the War of Austrian Succession, signing a separate peace treaty with Austria in December 1745, which had greatly angered the French. The Marquise de Pompadour particularly disliked Frederick II, who had always showed contempt for her, and had even named one of his poodles "Pompadour". At the same time, French officials realized that the Habsburg empire of Austria was no more the danger it had been in the heyday of the Habsburgs, back in the 16th and 17th centuries, when they controlled Spain and most of Europe, and presented a formidable challenge to France. The new dangerous power looming now on the horizon was Prussia. It is in this context that the parti philosophique and the Marquise managed to win over the king to a reversal of alliances. By the Treaty of Versailles signed on April 1, 1756, the king, overruling his ministers, who were still attached to the policy of Habsburg containment followed under Richelieu and Louis XIV, allied with Austria and thus put an end to more than 200 years of conflicts with the Habsburgs. At the end of August 1756, Frederick II invaded Saxony without a declaration of war. He soon defeated the unprepared Saxon and Austrian armies, and occupied the whole of Saxony. His treatment of the electoral family of Saxony was particularly brutal, the Electress Maria Josepha died from maltreatment. These actions by Frederick II profoundly shocked Europe, and particularly France. The wife of the dauphin, who was the daughter of the Elector and Electress of Saxony, had a miscarriage as a result of the news coming from Saxony. Louis XV was left with no choice but to enter the war. Meanwhile England had already declared war on France on May 18, 1756. The ensuing Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was to have profound consequences for France and England.

Assassination attempt

At home, discontent grew, fueled by the perceived political incompetence of the king and the spending spree of the court. As previously highlighted, modern historians have shown that the king was in fact not incompetent, albeit not resolute enough. The spending of the court was also not particularly high under Louis XV, at any rate not any higher than under previous French kings, and certainly much lower than in some other European courts, such as in Russia where Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth spent enormous amounts of money to build palaces in and around Saint Petersburg. Court spending also helped to carry French arts to their zenith under Louis XV, and supported thousands of families of artists and craftsmen. French arts were admired and copied all over Europe, and even today, 250 years later, Louis XV style is still a favorite among the rich and famous around the world. Yet, at the time the French public certainly perceived a royal incompetence and spending spree, influenced as it was by a violent campaign of libels against the king and the Marquise de Pompadour starting in the mid-1740s. This is what may have inspired the assassination attempt on the king by Robert Damiens. On January 5, 1757, would-be assassin Damiens entered the Palace of Versailles, as did thousands of people every day to petition the king. At 6 p.m., as night had fallen on a cold Versailles covered in snow, the king, who was visiting his daughter, left her apartments to return to the Trianon where he was staying that day. As he was walking in the Marble Courtyard between two lines of guards lighting the way with torches, heading toward his carriage which was waiting at the edge of the Marble Courtyard, Damiens suddenly emerged from the night, passed through the guards, and stabbed the king in the side with a penknife. The 8.1 cm. (3.2 in.) blade entered the king between the fourth and fifth ribs. The king, who was bleeding, remained calm and called for a confessor as he thought he would die. Thoughts of poison came to his mind. At the sight of the queen, who had come in a hurry, he asked for forgiveness for his misbehavior. The king, however, survived. He was probably saved by the thick layers of clothes he wore on that cold day, which cushioned the blade, preserving internal organs. Allegedly, the blade penetrated only 1 cm. (0.4 in.) into the king's body, leading Voltaire to mock what he called a "pinprick". Damiens, who was mentally unstable, had been the servant of members of the Parlement of Paris where he had heard much criticism of the king. This, combined with the violent pamphlets and general discontent with the king, convinced him that he had to commit regicide in order to save France. Other sources say that he did not want to kill the king, but merely to give him a warning and thus force him to change his behavior. In any case, it was the first attempt at regicide in France since the murder of King Henry IV by Ravaillac in 1610. The king, bent on forgiving Damiens, could not avoid a trial for regicide. Tried by the Parlement of Paris, Damiens was executed on the Place de Grève on March 28, 1757 following the horrible procedure applied to regicides: after numerous tortures, Damiens was carried to the Place de Grève in the cold afternoon of that day. There, the hand which had hold the penknife was burnt with sulphur, his chest was opened and melted lead was introduced in the wounds, then his four limbs were severed by horses (quartering), and finally, still alive, his trunk was thrown into fire. There was an immense crowd to attend this gruesome spectacle, which nobody had witnessed in 147 years. Balconies in buildings above the Place de Grève were rented to women of the aristocracy for the exorbitant price of 100 livres per balcony (approx. $700 in 2005 US dollars) The king was already so unpopular that whatever sympathy for him the attempted murder had generated in the public quickly disappeared with the execution of Damiens. This gruesome execution was harshly criticized by Philosophers, who saw it as a remnant of the dark ages. In truth, the king himself had not much to do with the method of execution. It was the members of the Parlement of Paris who chose such an horrific way of execution, as they thought it would please the king, willing as they were to reconcile themselves with the king after their opposition to the tax on the twentieth and their support of the Jansenists against the king's will. But above all, the people were outraged that the king did not dismiss Madame de Pompadour, despite the clear signal sent by Damiens. Posters appeared on the walls of Paris with the following ironic pun: "Ruling from the Mint Court: a louis not properly struck shall be struck a second time." The Austrian ambassador wrote to Vienna: " The public discontent is general. All the conversations are about death and poison. There appeared in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles some dreadful posters threatening the life of the king." The king, who had displayed calm and royal dignity on the day of the assassination attempt, sank into profound depression in the following weeks. He became convinced that he was on the wrong track, since his people so disowned him. All attempts at reforms were abandoned. At the Marquise de Pompadour's instigation, the king dismissed his two most hated ministers, the comte d'Argenson, secretary of state for war, and Machault d'Arnouville, keeper of the seals (justice minister) and before that controller-general of finances; and he called Choiseul to the government. Reforms would resume only with Maupeou in 1771.

Regime crisis

Louis XIV had left France in a financial mess and in a general decline. Unfortunately, Louis XV failed to overcome these fiscal problems, mainly due to his chronic indecision and lack of commitment. At Versailles, the King and the nobility surrounding him showed signs of ennui, signaling a monarchy in steady decline. Worse, Louis seemed to be aware of the forces of anti-monarchism threatening his family's rule and yet failed to do anything to stop them. Popular legend has it that Louis even predicted, "After us will come the deluge (Après nous, le déluge)." A chillingly accurate prediction, and one Louis XV could have done something to prevent. King Louis expended a great deal of energy in the pursuit of women. His marriage to Marie Leszczynska produced many children (see below), but the King was persistently (and notoriously) unfaithful. Some of his mistresses, such as Madame de Pompadour and the former prostitute Madame du Barry, are as well-known as the King himself, and his affairs with all five Mailly-Nesle sisters are documented by the formal agreements into which he entered. In his later years, Louis developed a penchant for young girls, keeping several at a time in a house known as the Parc aux Cerfs ("Deer Park"

Marie-Josèphe of Saxony

Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, (4 November 1731-13 March 1767), Dauphiness of France, was the daughter of Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and king of Poland, and Marie Josepha of Austria, (1699-1757), the daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. She married Louis, dauphin de France, only surviving son of Louis XV, on 9 February 1747 at Versailles. She bore the Dauphin eight living children, three of whom became kings of France, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. A daughter, Marie-Clotilde, became a queen-consort when she married King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. Aymar Chretien Francois Michel de Nicolay, bishop of Verdun (brother of the marshal) is said to have been one of her more influential counsellors.

Sources

- Augustus II
- Louis XV
- Louis, dauphin de France
- Louis XVI
- Louis XVIII
- Charles X
- Nicolay Category:House of Bourbon Category:French monarchs Category:Queen mothers Category:Royal families Category:French monarchy Category:History of France

Prince-elector

The prince-electors or electoral princes of the Holy Roman Empire — German: Kurfürst ( - singular), Kurfürsten (plural) — were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Emperors of Germany. During and after the 15th century they often merely formalised the elective monarchy into what was in fact a dynastic succession. Formally, they elected a King of the Romans, who became Holy Roman Emperor only when crowned by the pope. Charles V was the last to be actually crowned; all of his successors were merely "Emperors-Elect". Electors were among the princes of the Empire, but they had several privileges (in addition to electoral ones) which were disallowed to their non-electoral brethren. For a great part of the Holy Roman Empire's history (at least from the 13th century) there were seven electors, including three spiritual ones — the Archbishop of Mainz, the Archbishop of Trier, and the Archbishop of Cologne — and four lay ones — the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. (The last three aforementioned are also known as the Elector Palatine, the Elector of Saxony, and the Elector of Brandenburg, respectively.) Other electors, added in the 17th century, include the Dukes of Bavaria (referred to as Electors of Bavaria - replacing the Count Palatine of the Rhine, who was of the same family but had lost his title temporarily during the Thirty Year War) and the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (the Electors of Hanover). In 1803, several new electors were created, but they never participated in an election, for the Holy Roman Empire was abolished under pressure from Napoléon Bonaparte on August 6, 1806.

Composition

The German practice of electing monarchs began when ancient Germanic tribes formed ad hoc coalitions and elected the leaders thereof. Elections were irregularly held by the Franks, whose successor states include France and Germany. The French monarchy eventually became hereditary, but the German monarchy continued to remain elective. While all men originally exercised the right to vote in such elections, suffrage eventually came to be limited to the leading men of the realm. In the election of Lothar II in 1125, a small number of eminent nobles chose the monarch and then submitted him to the remaining magnates for their approbation. Soon, the right to choose the monarch was settled on an exclusive group of princes, and the procedure of seeking the approval of the remaining nobles was abandoned. The college of electors was mentioned in 1152 and again in 1198. A letter of Pope Urban IV suggests that by "immemorial custom", seven princes —
- Three ecclesiastic
- Archbishop of Mainz
- Archbishop of Trier
- Archbishop of Cologne
- Four secular
- Duke of Francony
- Duke of Swabia
- Duke of Saxony
- Duke of Bavaria — had the right to elect the Emperor. The three Archbishops aforementioned oversaw some of the richest and most powerful sees in Europe, while the four Dukes controlled ancient Frankish territory and held important hereditary offices. By the thirteenth century, the Frankish and Swabian ducal lines became extinct; their electoral claims passed to the Count Palatine of the Rhine and the Margrave of Brandenburg. The Palatinate and Bavaria were originally held by the same individual, but in 1253, they were divided between two members of the Wittelsbach dynasty. The other electors refused to allow two princes from the same dynasty to have electoral rights, so a heated rivalry between the Count Palatine and the Duke of Bavaria arose. Meanwhile, the King of Bohemia, who held the ancient imperial office of Arch-Cupbearer, asserted his right to participate in elections, but was challenged on the grounds that his kingdom was not German. The Golden Bull of 1356 finally resolved the disputes; under it, the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, as well as the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg held the right to elect the King. Golden Bull of 1356 The college's composition remained unchanged until the 17th century. In 1621, the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, came under the imperial ban after participating in the Bohemian Revolt (a part of the Thirty Years' War). The Elector Palatine's seat was conferred on the Duke of Bavaria, the head of a junior branch of his family. Originally, the Duke held the electorate personally, but it was later made hereditary along with the duchy. When the Thirty Years' War concluded with the Treaty of Münster (also called the Peace of Westphalia) in 1648, a new electorate was created for the Count Palatine of the Rhine. Since the Elector of Bavaria retained his seat, the number of electors increased to eight. In 1692, as a result of the inheritance of the Palatinate by a Catholic branch of the Wittelsbach family, which threatened to upset the religious balance of the College of Electors, the number of electors was increased to nine, with a seat being granted to the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who became known as the Electors of Hanover (the Reichstag officially confirmed the creation in 1708). In 1706, the Elector of Bavaria and Archbishop of Cologne were banned during the War of the Spanish Succession, but both were restored in 1714 after the Peace of Baden. In 1777, the number of electors was reduced to eight when the Elector Palatine inherited Bavaria. Many changes to the composition of the college were necessitated by Napoleon's aggression during the early 19th century. The Treaty of Lunéville (1801), which ceded territory on the Rhine's left bank to France, led to the abolition of the archbishoprics of Trier and Cologne, and the transfer of the remaining spiritual Elector from Mainz to Regensburg. In 1803, electorates were created for the Duke of Württemberg, the Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and the Duke of Salzburg, bringing the total number of electors to ten. When Austria annexed Salzburg under the Treaty of Pressburg (1805), the Duke of Salzburg moved to the Principality of Würzburg and retained his electorate. None of the new electors, however, had an opportunity to cast votes, as the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, and the new electorates were never confirmed by the Emperor.

Rights and privileges

Electors were among the rulers of the States of the Empire, but enjoyed precedence over the other princes. They were, until the 18th century, exclusively entitled to the style Durchlaucht (Serene Highness). In 1742, the electors became entitled to the superlative Durchläuchtigste (Most Serene Highness), while other princes were promoted to Durchlaucht. As rulers of States of the Empire, the electors enjoyed all the privileges of the other princes, including the right to enter into alliances, autonomy in relation to dynastic affairs and precedence over other subjects. The Golden Bull recognised certain additional rights belonging to the electors. For instance, electors were granted a monopoly over all mines of gold, silver, and other metals within their territories, to tax Jews, to collect tolls, and to mint money; these powers belonged to the Emperor in the other territories, and princes who wrongly assumed them could be deprived of their status. Thus, the electors were among the most powerful princes in the Empire. Electors also enjoyed several judicial powers within their territories. Their subjects could be not be tried in the imperial courts, and appeal from their courts lay only in cases where denial of justice was claimed. After the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in August of 1806, the electors continued to reign over their territories, many of them taking higher titles. The Dukes of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony made themselves Kings, as did the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who was already King of Great Britain; meanwhile, the Margrave of Baden elevated himself to the Grand-Ducal dignity. The Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, however, retained the meaningless title "Elector of Hesse", thus distinguishing himself from other Hessian princes (the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg). In 1866, however, the Elector of Hesse was dethroned under Otto von Bismarck's plan for German Unification.

Reichstag

The electors, like the other princes ruling States of the Empire, were members of the Reichstag, which was divided into three collegia: the Council of Electors, the Council of Princes, and the Council of Cities. In addition to being members of the Council of Electors, several lay electors were therefore members of the Council of Princes as well by virtue of other territories they possessed. In many cases, the lay electors ruled numerous States of the Empire, and therefore held several votes in the Council of Princes. In 1792, the King of Bohemia held three votes, the Elector of Bavaria six votes, the Elector of Brandenburg eight votes, and the Elector of Hanover six votes. Thus, of the hundred votes in the Council of Princes in 1792, twenty-three belonged to electors. The lay electors therefore exercised considerable influence, being members of the small Council of Electors and holding a significant number of votes in the Council of Princes. The assent of both bodies was required for important decisions affecting the structure of the Empire, such as the creation of new electorates or States of the Empire. In addition to voting by colleges or councils, the Reichstag also voted on religious lines, as provided for by the Peace of Westphalia. The Archbishop of Mainz presided over the Catholic body, or corpus catholicorum, while the Elector of Saxony presided over the Protestant body, or corpus evangelicorum. The division into religious bodies was on the basis of the official religion of the state, and not of its rulers. Thus, even when the Electors of Saxony were Catholics during the eighteenth century, they continued to preside over the corpus evangelicorum, since the state of Saxony was officially Protestant.

Elections

Protestant The individual chosen by the electors assumed title "King of the Romans", though he actually reigned in Germany and Austria. The King of the Romans became Holy Roman Emperor only when crowned by the pope. On many occasions, a pope refused to crown a king with whom he was engaged in a dispute, but a lack of a papal coronation deprived a king of only the title Emperor and not of the power to govern. The Habsburg dynasty stopped the practice of papal coronations. Since Charles V, all individuals chosen by the electors were merely "Emperors-Elect". The electors were originally summoned by the Archbishop of Mainz within one month of an Emperor's death, and met within three months of being summoned. During the interregnum, imperial power was exercised by two imperial vicars. Each vicar, in the words of the Golden Bull, was "the administrator of the empire itself, with the power of passing judgments, of presenting to ecclesiastical benefices, of collecting returns and revenues and investing with fiefs, of receiving oaths of fealty for and in the name of the holy empire". The Elector of Saxony was vicar in areas operating under Saxon law (Saxony, Westphalia, Hanover, and northern Germany), while the Elector Palatine was vicar in the remainder of the Empire (Franconia, Swabia, the Rhine, and southern Germany). The Elector of Bavaria replaced the Elector Palatine in 1623, but when the latter was granted a new electorate in 1648, there was a dispute between the two as to which was vicar. In 1659, both purported to act as vicar, but the other vicar recognised the Elector of Bavaria. Later, the two electors made a pact to act as joint vicars, but the Reichstag rejected the agreement. In 1711, while the Elector of Bavaria was under the ban of the Empire, the Elector Palatine again acted as vicar, but his cousin was restored to his position upon his restoration three years later. Finally, in 1745, the two agreed to alternate as vicars, with Bavaria starting first. This arrangement was upheld by the Reichstag in 1752. In 1777 the question became moot when the Elector Palatine inherited Bavaria. On many occasions, however, there was no interregnum, as a new king had been elected during the lifetime of the previous Emperor. Frankfurt has regularly served as the site of the election since the fifteenth century, but elections have also been held at Cologne (1531), Regensburg (1575 and 1636), and Augsburg (1653 and 1690). An elector could appear in person or could appoint another elector his proxy. More often, an electoral suite or embassy was sent to cast the vote; the credentials of such representatives were verified by the Archbishop of Mainz, who presided over the ceremony. The deliberations were held at the city hall, but voting occurred in the cathedral. In Frankfurt, a special electoral chapel, or Wahlkapelle, was used for elections. Under the Golden Bull, a majority of electors sufficed to elect a king, and each elector could cast only one vote. Electors were free to vote for whomsoever they pleased (including themselves), but dynastic considerations played a great part in the choice. Electors drafted a Wahlkapitulation, or electoral capitulation, which was presented to the king-elect. The capitulation may be described as a contract between the princes and the king, the latter conceding rights and powers to the electors and other princes. Once an individual swore to abide by the electoral capitulation, he assumed the office of King of the Romans. In the 10th and 11th centuries, electors often acted merely to confirm hereditary succession in the Saxonian, Franconian, and Staufen dynasties. After these lines ended in extinction, the electors began to elect kings from different families so that the throne would not once again settle within a single dynasty. For a short time, the monarchy was elective both in theory and in practice; the arrangement, however, did not last, since the powerful House of Habsburg managed to secure succession within their dynasty during the fifteenth century. The Habsburg Archdukes of Austria (and later Kings of Hungary and Bohemia) were all elected kings from 1438 until 1740, when the archduchy was inherited by a woman, Maria Theresa. The House of Wittelsbach came to power for a short period of time, but in 1745, Maria Theresa's husband, Francis I of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, became King; all of his successors were also from the same family. Hence, for the greater part of the Empire's history, the role of the electors was largely ceremonial.

High Offices

Francis I Each elector held a "High Office of the Empire" and was a member of the (ceremonial) Imperial Household. The three spiritual electors were all Arch-Chancellors: the Archbishop of Mainz was Arch-Chancellor of Germany, the Archbishop of Trier was Arch-Chancellor of Burgundy, and the Archbishop of Cologne was Arch-Chancellor of Italy. The King of Bohemia held the office of the Arch-Cupbearer, the Elector Palatine that of Arch-Steward, the Elector of Saxony that of Arch-Marshal, and the Elector of Brandenburg that of Arch-Chamberlain. When the Duke of Bavaria replaced the Elector Palatine in 1623, he assumed the latter's office of Arch-Steward. When the Count Palatine was granted a new electorate, he assumed the position of Arch-Treasurer of the Empire. When the Duke of Bavaria was banned in 1706, the Elector Palatine returned to the office of Arch-Steward, and in 1710 the Elector of Hanover was promoted to the post of Arch-Treasurer. Matters were complicated by the Duke of Bavaria's restoration in 1714; the Elector of Bavaria resumed the office of Arch-Steward, while the Elector Palatine returned to the post of Arch-Treasurer. The Electors of Hanover, however, continued to be styled Arch-Treasuers, though the Elector Palatine was the one who actually exercised the office until 1777, when he inherited Bavaria and the Arch-Stewardship. After 1777, no further changes were made to the Imperial Household; new offices were planned for the Electors admitted in 1803, but the Empire was abolished before they could be created. Many High Officers were entitled to use "augmentations" on their coats of arms; these augmentations, which were special marks of honour, appeared in the centre of the electors' shields (as shown in the image on the right) above the other charges (in heraldic terms, the augmentations appeared in the form of inescutcheons). The Arch-Steward used gules an orb Or (a gold orb on a red field — illustrated on the right). The Arch-Marshal utilised the more complicated per fess sable and argent, two swords per saltire gules (two red swords arranged in the form of a saltire, on a black and white field). The Arch-Chamberlain's augmentation was azure a sceptre per pale Or (a gold sceptre on a blue field), while the Arch-Treasurer's was gules the crown of Charlemagne Or (a gold crown on a red field). As noted above, the Elector Palatine and the Elector of Hanover styled themselves Arch-Treasurer from 1714 until 1777; during this time, both electors used the corresponding augmentations. The three Arch-Chancellors and the Arch-Cupbearer did not use any augmentations. The electors discharged the ceremonial duties associated with their offices only during coronations, where they bore the crown and regalia of the Empire. Otherwise, they were represented by holders of corresponding "Hereditary Offices of the Household". The Arch-Cupbearer was represented by the Cupbearer (the Count of Althann), the Arch-Steward by the Steward (the Count of Waldburg), the Arch-Chamberlain by the Chamberlain (the Count of Hohenzollern), the Arch-Marshal by the Marshal (the Count of Pappenheim), and the Arch-Treasurer by the Treasurer (the Count of Sinzendorf).

References

- Bryce, J. (1887). The Holy Roman Empire, 8th ed. New York: Macmillan.
- "Germany." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

External links

- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/golden.htm The Avalon Project. (2003). "The Golden Bull of the Emperor Charles IV 1356 A.D."]
- [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/reichsstande.htm Oestreich, G. and Holzer, E. (1973). "Übersicht über die Reichsstände." In Gebhardt, Bruno. Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte, 9th ed. (Vol. 2, pp. 769-784). Stuttgart: Ernst Ketler Verlag.]
- [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/royalty/royalstyle.htm Velde, F. R. (2003). "Royal Styles."]
- [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/hre.htm Velde, F. R. (2004). "The Holy Roman Empire."] Category:Titles Category:Holy Roman Empire
- ja:選帝侯

Saxony

Free State of Saxony Freistaat Sachsen Swobodny Stata Sakska
State Service Flag
image:De-sn-serviceflag.png
Civil Flag
image:De-sn-civilflag.png
Statistics
Capital:	Dresden
Area:	18,413 km²
Inhabitants:	4,300,000 (2004)
pop. density:	234 inh./km²
Website:	[http://www.sachsen.de/ sachsen.de]
ISO 3166-2:	DE-SN
Politics
Minister-president:	Georg Milbradt (CDU)
Ruling party:	CDU/SPD
Map
SPD

With an area of 18,413 km² and a population of 4.3 million, the Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen; Sorbian: Swobodny Stata Sakska) is the tenth-largest in area but sixth in population among Germany's sixteen states. Re-established upon Germany's reunification in 1990, it occupies the approximate area of the former kingdom (until 1918) of the same name. Dresden serves as the capital city. In the early Middle Ages the term Saxony referred to a different region, occupying today's states of Lower Saxony and Bremen and the northern (Westphalian) part of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Saxons had migrated there from the area of present-day Schleswig-Holstein between 250 and 500. See the history section below. Note that Saxony might not be directly related to every other meaning of word "Saxons"; that is, a Saxon is not necessarily an inhabitant of Saxony (e.g. it can mean also Saxon people or Saxons of Romania). For full disambiguation of the meaning, see Saxon.

Geography

Saxony borders, from the east and clockwise, on Poland, the Czech Republic and the German states of Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. Its capital is Dresden, and the other principal cities are Leipzig and Chemnitz. Since 1989 the population of the state and its urban centers has diminished because of migration to the former West Germany. The main axis of Saxony is the Elbe river, crossing the state from southeast to northwest. Another important river, west of the Elbe, is the Mulde. The Neiße river forms the Polish border. The portions in the east of Saxony are the southern parts of the historical region of Lusatia (Lausitz) and are called Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz); the minority of the Sorbs live in the region, which is bilingual today. The countryside rises gradually from north to south, culminating in the mountain ranges along the Czech border. The Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) extend from Bavaria to the Elbe river. The Elbe itself has cut a majestic gorge to pass the mountains of the Elbsandsteingebirge, better known as Saxon Switzerland. Further east the mountains are less high and form a hilly countryside called the Lausitzer Bergland. See also List of places in Saxony. Saxony is divided into 3 Regierungsbezirke - Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig - which are subdivided into 22 districts: image:Districts_Saxony.png

# Annaberg (ANA) # Aue-Schwarzenberg (ASZ) # Bautzen (BZ) # Chemnitzer Land (GC) # Delitzsch (DZ) # Döbeln (DL) # Freiberg (FG) # Kamenz (KM)

Leipziger Land (L)
Löbau-Zittau (ZI)
Meißen (MEI)
Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis (MEK)
Mittweida (MW)
Muldentalkreis (MTL)
Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis (NOL), belonged to Lower Silesia (mainly Poland today) before the war.

Furthermore there are seven independent cities, which don't belong to any district: # Chemnitz (C) # Dresden (DD) # Görlitz (GR) (didn't belong to Saxony 1815-1945) # Hoyerswerda (HY) (decided to accompany Saxony in 1990) # Leipzig (L) # Plauen (PL) # Zwickau (Z)

Economy

Saxony has been observed to have the most vibrant economy among the former GDR states. Its economy grew by 2.1% in 2004, making it the only eastern state to exceed the national average. Nonetheless, unemployment remains high and investment is scarce. Because of these factors, Saxony, along with the rest of the east (excluding Berlin) qualifies as an "Objective 1" development region within the European Union, and thus can receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. In the interests of encouraging growth, the state government has attempted to develop tourism in the region, notably in the lake district of Lausitz (Economist, Aug. 27, 2005).

History

Main article: History of Saxony Prehistoric Saxony was the site of some of the largest of the ancient Central European monumental temples, dating from the 5th millennium BC. Notable archeological sites have been discovered in Dresden and the village of Aythra near Leipzig. For the origins of the Saxon tribes see Saxons.

Foundation of the first Saxon state

The first Duchy of Saxony emerged about 700 AD in today's Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. In the 10th century the dukes of Saxony were at the same time kings (or emperors) of the Holy Roman Empire (Ottonian or Saxon Dynasty). At that time, a Saxon noble family of Billungs received extensive fiefs in Saxony, and the Emperor eventually gave them the title of Duke of Saxony. After the extinction of the male line of Billungs, the duchy was given to Lothar of Supplinburg, who then also became Emperor for a short time. In 1137 Saxony was passed to the Welfen dynasty, who were descendants (1) of Wulfhild Billung, eldest daughter of the last Billung duke, and (2) of the daughter of Lothar of Supplinburg. It reached its peak under Duke Henry the Lion, and after his death it began to decline (Henry had declined to participate the later Italian wars of his liege lord, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and those expeditions to Italy ended in disasters. The furious emperor retaliated and sent his troops to end duke Henry's dominion). In 1180 large portions west of the Weser were ceded to the bishops of Cologne, while some central parts between Weser and Elbe remained to Welfs, later forming the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg). The remaining Eastern lands, together with the title of Duke of Saxony, were passed to an Ascanian dynasty (who descended from Eilika Billung, Wulfhild's younger sister) and divided in 1260 into the two small states of Saxony-Lauenburg and Saxony-Wittenberg. Saxony-Lauenburg was later renamed Lauenburg and was no longer part of Saxony or its history. Saxe-Wittenberg was confirmed to have inherited the "main" ducal title of Saxons and as such was recognized as Elector of the Empire in 14th century.

Foundation of the second Saxon state

Saxony-Wittenberg, in present Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meißen and ruled by the Wettin dynasty) in 1423. A new powerful state was established, occupying large portions of present Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Although the center of this state was far southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower Saxony. In 1485, Saxony was split as a collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Thuringia). The remaining Saxon state became even more powerful, becoming known in the 18th century for its cultural achievements, although it was politically inferior to Prussia and Austria, which pressed Saxony from either side.

Saxony in the 19th and 20th centuries

With the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Saxony became a kingdom, and Elector Frederick Augustus III became King Frederick Augustus I. Frederick Augustus made the mistake of remaining loyal for too long to Napoleon I, and he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, with the intention of their being annexed by Prussia. Ultimately, the opposition of Austria, France, and Britain resulted in Frederick Augustus being restored to his throne at the Congress of Vienna, but Saxony was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia. These lands became the Prussian province of Saxony, which is today incorporated in Saxony-Anhalt. What was left of the Kingdom of Saxony was roughly identical with the present federal state. During the 1848-49 constitutionalist revolutions in Germany, Saxony became a hotbed for revolutionaries, with anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin and democrats including Richard Wagner and Gottfried Semper taking part in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. After 1918 Saxony was a state in the Weimar Republic and was the scene of Gustav Stresemann's overthrow of the KPD/SPD led government in 1923, during the Nazi era and under Soviet occupation. It was dissolved in 1952, and divided into three smaller 'Bezirke' based on Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt, but reestablished within slightly altered borders in 1990 upon German reunification. Today Saxony also includes a small part of Silesia around the town of Görlitz which remained German after the war and which for obvious reasons of unviability as a separate state was incorporated into Saxony. See also:
- Rulers of Saxony
- Ottonian dynasty
- Wettin dynasty

List of minister presidents of Saxony

For earlier rulers, see Rulers of Saxony. # 1918 - 1919: Richard Lipinski (USPD) # 1919 - 1920: Georg Gradnauer (SPD) # 1920 - 1923: Wilhelm Buck (SPD) # 1923: Erich Zeigner (SPD) # 1923 - 1924: Alfred Fellisch (SPD) # 1924 - 1929: Max Heldt (SPD) # 1929 - 1930: Wilhelm Bünger (DVP) # 1930 - 1933: Walter Schieck (no party) # 1933 - 1935: Manfred Freiherr von Killinger (NSDAP) # 1935 - 1945: Martin Mutschmann (NSDAP) # 1945 - 1947: Rudolf Friedrichs (SPD, then SED) # 1947 - 1952: Max Seydewitz (SED) # 1990 - 2002: Kurt Biedenkopf (CDU) # since 2002: Georg Milbradt (CDU)

References

- "Still Troubled". The Economist. August 27th-September 2nd, 2005.

External links

- [http://www.sachsen.de/ Official governmental portal]
- [http://www.weihnachtsfreu.de Christmas time in Saxony] Category:Saxony Category:States of Germany Category:Former countries in Europe ko:작센 주 ja:ザクセン州 simple:Saxony

May 16

May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.

Events

- 1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
- 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.
- 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
- 1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
- 1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
- 1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
- 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
- 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
- 1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
- 1918 - The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
- 1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
- 1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
- 1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
- 1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.
- 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
- 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
- 1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
- 1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
- 1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
- 1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
- 2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.
- 2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
- 2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Births

- 1490 - Duke Albert of Prussia (d. 1568)
- 1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
- 1611 - Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
- 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
- 1763 - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist (d. 1829)
- 1827 - Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect (d. 1921)
- 1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)
- 1891 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
- 1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
- 1912 - Studs Terkel, American writer
- 1913 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- 1917 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (d. 1986)
- 1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1927 - Nílton Santos, Brazilian football player
- 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1929 - Adrienne Rich, American writer
- 1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist (d.2000)
- 1931 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- 1936 - Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
- 1936 - Karl Lehmann, German Catholic cardinal
- 1946 - Robert Fripp, English guitarist
- 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
- 1955 - Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
- 1955 - Jack Morris, baseball player
- 1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
- 1955 - Debra Winger, American actress
- 1963 - Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
- 1963 - Rosie Perez, American actress
- 1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
- 1966 - Janet Jackson, American singer
- 1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1969 - Tucker Carlson, American television commentator
- 1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
- 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player
- 1973 - Tori Spelling, American actress
- 1977 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Canadian hockey player

Deaths

- 1620 - William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b.1564)
- 1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
- 1669 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian architect (b. 1598)
- 1691 - Jacob Leisler, German-born American colonist (b. 1640)
- 1703 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- 1778 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
- 1782 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
- 1790 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (b. 1720)
- 1891 - Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
- 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
- 1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
- 1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
- 1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
- 1955 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
- 1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1984 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
- 1984 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
- 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1988 - Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
- 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1925)
- 1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
- 2003 - Mark McCormack, American sports business pioneer

Holidays and observances

- In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
- The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Ubaldus
- Saint Honoré
- John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 - 1393)
- Andrew Bobola
- Simon Stock
- Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
- Adelaide Cup day - South Australia (2005)

Song

"May 16" is also the title of a punk/rock song by Lagwagon from their album Let's Talk About Fellings. It is a upbeat song about living life on your own, and was featured in the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/5/16 Today in History: May 16] ---- May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 – listing of all days ko:5월 16일 ms:16 Mei ja:5月16日 simple:May 16 th:16 พฤษภาคม

Marie Antoinette

] Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 - 16 October 1793), was Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria; wife of Louis XVI; and mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution, and is interred with her husband in the royal crypt at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.

Childhood

Marie Antoinette was the fifteenth child (the youngest daughter; she had a brother one year younger) of the Austrian Archduchess, later Empress, Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. She was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on 2 November 1755. She was christened Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna. Maria was in honour of the Virgin Mary, Antonia in honour of Saint Anthony of Padua, Josepha in honour of her elder brother, Archduke Josef, and Johanna in honour of Saint John the Evangelist. A court official described the new baby as "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess." Maria Antonia was brought up in the company of her nearest siblings in age, sister Maria Carolina (two years older) and brother Max (one year younger). Her other brothers – Joseph, Leopold, and Ferdinand Karl – already had important official roles within the Habsburg Empire. Habsburg As a child, legend has that Maria Antonia met the young child genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He performed a short musical concert for the Imperial Family. When the Empress asked him what he would like as a reward, Mozart is said to have responded by saying he would like the hand of the Empress's youngest daughter, Maria Antonia, in marriage (much to the Empress's amusement). Maria Antonia's sisters were soon married off to European royalty. Maria Christina, the oldest, was married to the Regent of the Netherlands, Maria Amalia was married to the Prince of Parma and Maria Antonia's favourite sister, Maria Carolina, was married to King Ferdinand of Naples. Charming and well-mannered as a child, Maria Antonia had little real education. She was flighty, artistic and read almost nothing. Her French was imperfect and she preferred to speak German. However, when her sister Johanna Gabriella died of smallpox in 1762, Maria Antonia became the next child to be involved in her mother's political games. With a new peace treaty having been signed between Austria and France, it was hoped that the fighting which had being going on intermittently since 1494 would finally end. Louis XV's heir was his grandson, Louis-Auguste, and it was proposed that he should marry one of Maria Theresa's daughters. With Johanna Gabriella dead, it was decided that Maria-Antonia should be sent to France to marry the dauphin. When Maria Theresa asked a seer if her daughter would be happy in France, he replied, "There are crosses for all shoulders." Maria Antonia left Vienna in April 1770, when she was fourteen. The Empress's parting words to her sobbing daughter were, "Farewell, my dearest child. Do so much good to the French people that they can say that I have sent them an angel." Two and half weeks after leaving Vienna, Maria Antonia was handed over to messengers from the French court. She was stripped of all her Austrian clothes and re-dressed in French attire. She was then taken to Strasbourg, where a Thanksgiving Mass was held in her honour. The streets of the city were covered in flowers, which Marie Antoinette (as she was now known) gently picked up like "the goddess Flora". The entire city was illuminated in her honour and a few days later, she began the journey to Versailles.
Marriage
Versailles Marie Antoinette was conveyed to the royal palace at Versailles, where she met her future grandfather-in-law Louis XV and the other members of the royal family. Her future husband, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste was shy, awkward and distant. He was only a year older than she was and had no sexual or romantic relationships to prepare him for dealing with his fiancée. Their marriage was conducted within hours of Marie Antoinette arriving at Versailles. The Wedding Mass was celebrated with great pomp in the Chapel Royal on 16 May 1770. Just before the wedding, Marie Antoinette was presented with the magnificent jewels which traditionally belonged to a French dauphine. This collection included an elaborate diamond necklace which had belonged to Anne of Austria and pieces which had also belonged to Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine de Medici. The large collection of gems was valued at approximately 2 million livres. Marie Antoinette then received King Louis's own personal wedding gift to her the Queen. It was a fan, encrusted with diamonds. The Dauphin and Marie Antoinette were then married in front of the court, with Marie Antoinette wearing a magnificent dress with huge white hoops covered in diamonds and pearls. There was then a formal dinner, which was also held in front of the crowd. Louis-Auguste ate an enormous amount. When the king told him to eat less, the Dauphin replied "Why? I always sleep better when I have a full stomach!" The court then conducted the young couple to their bed to have sex, which had just been blessed by the Archbishop of Rheims. However, the marriage was not consummated that night. Rumours would later circulate that Louis-Auguste was impotent, but this was not the case. Nor was it true that he suffered from phimosis. Rather, it seems that no one had explained to either Louis or Marie Antoinette what they were supposed to do on their wedding night. They had only a very vague idea of sex and this increased the awkwardness between them. Within days, gossips at Versailles were already whispering that the royal marriage was a sham.
Life as Dauphine
Since they were not having sexual intercourse, Louis and Marie Antoinette remained childless for the first 7 years of their marriage. Spiteful gossips blamed Marie Antoinette for her childlessness and some people even asserted that she should be divorced and sent back to Austria. The young dauphine's position was not helped by the fact that she had earned the enmity of the King's mistress, Madame du Barry. Du Barry had begun life as Jeanne Bécu, a common prostitute before she had been noticed by Louis XV and become his paramour. Marie Antoinette felt it was beneath her dignity as a Habsburg princess to talk to a lady with such a past. Du Barry therefore set about to make Marie Antoinette's life as miserable as possible. She began turning the king against his granddaughter-in-law and once tipped a bucket of dirty water on Antoinette's head as she walked underneath her window. Marie Antoinette's daily routine was even more depressing. When she awoke in the morning, she was assisted out of bed and dressed by the various high-ranking noblewomen who were her ladies-in-waiting. Her dinner was also in public, which she ate with her husband. Anyone who was decently dressed was permitted to come and watch the royals eating their dinner. Louis-Auguste ate enormous amounts of food, whilst Marie Antoinette ate almost nothing when she was in public. Marie-Antoinette loathed this spectacle and she complained bitterly to her mother, "I put on my rouge and wash my hands in front of the whole world!" Homesick and melancholy, Marie Antoinette especially missed the companionship she had enjoyed with her sister, Maria Carolina. She found a substitute for this with the gentle Princesse Thérèse de Lamballe. The Princesse de Lamballe was wealthy and kind-natured; she was also absolutely devoted to Marie Antoinette. Not long after meeting Thérèse, Marie Antoinette formed a deep attachment to the beautiful and ambitious aristocrat, Gabrielle, Comtesse de Polignac. She was also on excellent terms with her husband's youngest brother Charles, the Comte d'Artois. Marie Antoinette refused to involve herself in politics, possibly because she lacked any real knowledge or interest in it. She was being spied upon by her mother's ambassador, Comte Mercy d'Argenteau, who reported with great frustration that she was doing nothing to further Austria's influence in France. Louis-Auguste and Marie Antoinette's life changed suddenly at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of 10th May 1774 when King Louis XV died of smallpox. The courtiers rushed over to Marie Antoinette's apartments to swear allegiance to their new king, Louis XVI, and his Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette. The new king and queen fell on their knees in prayer, with Louis saying "Dear God, guide and protect us. We are too young to reign." Marie-Antoinette wiped away her tears and stood with her husband to greet the courtiers who had come to pledge their loyalty to the new king and queen.
Coronation and reign
Louis XVI's coronation took place at Rheims during the height of a bread shortage in Paris. Tradition would later state that it was at this point that Marie Antoinette joked, "If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!" ("Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.") However, this phrase was never uttered by Marie Antoinette. During a bread rioy , the fish women (they worked on docks gutting fish ,and where quite stron) led a march to Versaille. While they were outside of the gates the Queen (she ruled at this time) might have heard their chants for bread, and said "Let them eat cake". But, if she did , by cake she meant white bread. Marie was a bit ignorant of peasant life, and didn't understand that if they couldn't afford the brown breadt of peasants, they certainly couldn't afford the white bread she feasted on daily! When Marie Antoinette actually heard about the bread shortage she wrote, "It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shallt never forget the day of the coronation." The royals had been greeted with an outpouring of national joy and the young queen was especially adored; despite the cost of the coronation (almost 7000 livres were spent on a new crown for Louis XVI) and Marie Antoinette's magnificent gown was ordered from the fashion house of Paris's most exclusive designer, Rose Bertin. Shortly after the coronation, Marie Antoinette attempted to bring Étienne François, duc de Choiseul back to court. He had been banished by Madame du Barry because of his loyalty to Marie Antoinette and the alliance with Austria. However, the new queen did not have much success. Although King Louis did meet with Choiseul, he did not bring him back to court permanently. Later, when she tried to have her friend, the duc de Guines, appointed ambassador to England, Louis XVI said, "I have made it quite clear to the queen that he cannot serve in England or in any other Embassy." It was obvious that Marie-Antoinette enjoyed no political influence with her husband, whatsoever. When Marie Antoinette's sister-in-law, Marie Thérèse, the wife of the Comte d'Artois, gave birth to her first child in August 1775, Marie-Antoinette was subjected to cat-calls from market women asking why she had not produced a son too. She spent the next day weeping in her rooms; much to the distress of her ladies-in-waiting, who felt she was "extremely affecting when in misfortune." Fulfilling Marie Antoinette's determination to avoid boredom, conversation in her circle shied away from the mundane or intellectual. According to Madame Campan, one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, "The newest songs from the Comédie, the most timely joke or pun or quip, the bon mot of the day, the latest and choicest titbit of scandal or gossip – these comprised the sole topics of conversation in the intimate group about the queen; discussion on a serious plane was banished from her court." The queen's circle of friends was very exclusive. This caused resentment in Versailles, where the courtiers thought the queen was deliberately excluding them. Soon, she became the target of the vicious gossip of Versailles. She, however, remained oblivious. Under the influence of d'Artois, Marie Antoinette began visiting the Paris Opéra balls in disguise. It was not long before gossips began whispering that the queen was orchestrating such events to meet with various secret lovers. She also began spending more and more money, since she had no real idea of its value. She had three major weaknesses; clothes, gambling and diamonds. For her twenty-first birthday, she participated in a three-day long gambling party, in which huge amounts of money changed hands. Versailles Marie Antoinette had already caused enough anger at Versailles when she started appointing her friends to places which were traditionally held by others. She made Thérèse de Lamballe the Superintendent of the Queen's Household, despite the fact that there were some aristocratic ladies who had greater right to have that job. She then began spending less time living at the palace and more time at Le Petit Trianon, which was a small château in the palace grounds. The château was renovated for her and the costs soon spiralled out of control, especially whenever the gardens were re-designed to suit the queen's new tastes. Vindictive rumours began that Marie Antoinette was sleeping with her brother-in-law. Illegal presses in Paris soon began printing pamphlets showing the queen and Artois as adulterous lovers. The first pamphlet was called Les Amours de Charlot et Antoinette. L'Autrichienne en Goguette showed Artois and the Queen having anal sex in a palace salon. Le Godmiché Royal showed Marie Antoinette masturbating, and later pamphlets would suggest that she had indulged in bestiality and lesbianism. None of these charges were true, but they began to chip away at the queen's popularity with the people. There were also wider problems affecting France at the time; for the entire country was standing on the edge of bankruptcy. The long series of wars fought by Louis XIV and Louis XV had left France with the highest national debt anywhere in Europe. French society was under-taxed and what little money was collected failed to save the economy. An anti-British clique at court persuaded Louis XVI to support the American revolutionaries in their fight for independence from George III. This decision was a disaster for France, for the cost was enormous. Marie Antoinette's brother, Emperor Joseph II, visited her in April 1777. He had come to inquire about the state of her marriage, since the Austrians were concerned about her failure to produce a son. They went for a long walk in the grounds of Le Petit Trianon, during which Joseph criticised her gambling and her taste in friends. He also had a deep conversation with Louis XVI, in which they discussed his sexual problems. Whatever Joseph II said to Louis XVI, it obviously worked, for the marriage was soon consummated and by April 1778, the queen could happily announce that she was pregnant.
Motherhood
Marie Antoinette's first child was born at Versailles 19th December 1778. She was forced to endure the humiliation of a public birth in her bedchamber, in front of hundreds of courtiers. The queen actually passed out through a combination of embarrassment and pain. It was the last time such a ritual was permitted as Marie-Antoinette refused to give birth in public ever again. The baby was a girl and she was christened Marie Thérèse Charlotte. She was created "Princess Royal" or Madame Royale, since she was the oldest daughter of the king of France. Despite the fact that the country had desired a boy, Marie Antoinette was delighted with a girl. "A son would have belonged to the state," she said, "but you shall be mine, and have all my care; you shall share my happiness and soften my sorrows." France]] Much to the chagrin of many courtiers, Marie Antoinette's favourite the Comtesse de Polignac was made the new princess' Governess. She kept this post even when Marie-Antoinette's three other children were born – Louis Joseph in 1781, Louis Charles in 1785 and Sophie Béatrix in 1786. As she grew older, Marie Antoinette became much less extravagant. She was devoted to her children and she was very involved in taking care of them. Speaking of her youngest son, Louis Charles, she said, "Mon chou d'amour is charming, and I love him madly. He loves me very much too, in his own way, without embarrassment." She was also much more involved in charity work, although she had always been very generous. After she turned thirty in 1785, Marie Antoinette also began to dress with more restraint. She abandoned the more elaborate wigs which had been festooned with jewels and feathers and she refused to buy any more jewels for her personal collection. She was, however, fiercely criticised for building a small mock-village for herself in the grounds of Versailles in 1786. The building of these kinds of artificial villages was very popular among French aristocratic ladies, who were keen to experience a rural idyll in the comfort of their own estates. This tradition had begun with Louis XIV's greatest mistress, the beautiful Athénaïs de Montespan in the 1680s. Marie-Antoinette's defenders did not think she deserved so much criticism for building the Hameau (as it was known.) Baroness d'Oberkirch complained, "Other people spent more on their gardens!" Even so, the queen was already unpopular and she could not possibly understand how much the Hameau would further damage her reputation. Many people began to see her as a clueless spendthrift who liked to play at being a shepherdess, whilst some of the real peasants lived in very hard conditions.
The Affair of the Necklace
Baroness d'Oberkirch Main article: Affair of the diamond necklace Louis, Cardinal de Rohan, a member of one of France's most prominent aristocratic houses, was not in the queen's favour. He had been the Envoy to Austria: personal letters of his had been intercepted, in which he bragged to friends back home that he had "bedded half the Austrian court" and that Marie Antoinette's own mother the Empress had "begged" him for her turn. He had also jested to friends in Vienna by showing them some of the pamphlets insulting Marie Antoinette's honour. His ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Cardinal Richelieu and become Prime Minister of France meant that he was desperate to return to her favour, as the position was by royal appointment, and Marie Antoinette blocked his progress at every turn. When an impoverished aristocrat named Jeanne Saint-Rémy de Valois, Comtesse de la Motte, became aware of Rohan's desire to befriend the queen, she first became his mistress and then set about hatching an ingenious plan to make a small fortune for herself in the process. Marie Antoinette had refused to buy a magnificent diamond necklace from the Royal Jewellers (she said the cost was too high and that the royal family preferred now to spend their money on the Navy). She became impatient with the jeweller and snapped, "Not only have I never commissioned you to make a jewel … but, what is more, I have told you repeatedly that I would never add so much as another carat to my present collection of diamonds. I refused to buy your necklace for myself; the king offered to buy it for me, and I refused it as a gift. Never mention it again." The Comtesse de la Motte then pretended to be an intimate friend of the queen's, whilst persuading the cardinal that the queen secretly desired the necklace. He paid the 2 million livres to her (thinking she would then give it to the queen) and the Comtesse collected the necklace from the jewellers (who also thought she would give it to the queen, who would then pay them.) The Comtesse de la Motte, however, disappeared with both the jewels and the money. When the Comtesse and the cardinal were brought to trial, the monarchy's enemies seized upon the chance to attack the queen through the scandal. They implied that it was Marie-Antoinette's poor reputation which had made the whole débâcle possible. The cardinal was acquitted and Marie-Antoinette was suspected of having masterminded the whole plot. Naturally, the pamphleteers delighted in suggesting that she was having affairs with both the cardinal and the Comtesse. Popular hatred against the queen accelerated rapidly after the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The Comtesse later escaped to England, where she continued to insult the queen and protest her own innocence.
The Countdown to Revolution
Coupled with the political disaster of the Affair of the Necklace, the royal family also suffered some terrible personal tragedies. In 1787, Marie Antoinette's youngest daughter, Sophie-Béatrix, died shortly before her first birthday. The queen was devastated and spent hours weeping over the baby's body. Not long after, the Royal Physicians informed her that her eldest son, the Dauphin Louis-Joséph, was terminally ill with consumption. The child's condition deteriorated and Marie Antoinette spent most of her time nursing him during his last agonising months. The French government was now seriously in debt, thanks to inefficient taxation and costly foreign wars. The king summoned a council of nobles to discuss the situation. The Assembly of Notables, as it was called, could find no solution to the government's financial crisis. So Louis XVI was left with no alternative other than to call a meeting of the Estates-General in May 1789. The Estates-General was the main representative body of the French population, but it had not been called since the reign of Louis XIII in 1614. Within days of meeting, the Estates-General was clamouring for reforms and criticising the monarchy and its policies. However, the royal family's attentions were on other things. On 4 June, the Dauphin died at the age of seven. The king sank into sporadic bouts of clinical depression and the queen was heartbroken. Immediately, some of her enemies began to spread rumours that she had poisoned her own son. The ultra-royalist circles at Versailles feared and resented the Estates-General. Marie Antoinette was coming to suspect that the reformists in the Estates-General were secretly working to overthrow the monarchy. On 11 July, Marie-Antoinette and her brother-in-law the Comte d'Artois persuaded Louis XVI to dismiss the liberal prime minister, Jacques Necker. Marie-Antoinette's ally, Baron de Breteuil was made prime minister instead. Breteuil was a devout Roman Catholic and a committed royalist. The monarchy's enemies painted him as a ruthless tyrant, even though he did have a reputation for being very humanitarian in his treatment of opponents. Even so, the propaganda worked and Paris was gripped by fear that the royalists were planning a military attack on the city in order to force it into submission. A large mob marched on the symbol of royal authority in Paris, the Bastille Prison and seized control of it on 14 July 1789. The Governor of the Prison was lynched and so were two ultra-right politicians. News did not reach the palace until very late that evening. When Louis XVI heard of it he asked, "This is a revolt?" to which the duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt replied, "No, sire. It is a revolution." Panic seized the palace and many courtiers fled for their lives. The Comte d'Artois fled abroad, in part due to fears he would be assassinated. Marie Antoinette's beloved Comtesse de Polignac fled to Switzerland, where she continued writing to the queen. Marie Antoinette appointed the Marquise de Tourzel as governess to the two surviving royal children – Princess Marie Thérèse and the new dauphin, Louis Charles. Tourzel was a much better choice than Polignac, for she was devoutly religious, discreet, loyal and disciplined. Marie Antoinette hoped to flee also. She felt it was unwise to remain so close to Paris during the current troubles. She hoped that the king would give orders for them to move to their château at Saint-Cloud or even to another royal home at Compiègne. The queen's things were already packed, and so were her children's, however Louis decided that they would stay at Versailles. The queen could not disobey her husband and she refused to leave him. Later, Louis XVI would realise what a mistake he had made in not leaving the Palace of Versailles when he had the chance. His decision to remain at the palace would condemn his entire family to intense suffering and trauma in the years ahead.
The fall of Versailles
It was a few months before news arrived that a mob from Paris had taken the decision to march on Versailles. Rumours had spread in the city that the royals were hoarding all the grain. News reached the Palace on October 5th, with Marie-Antoinette once again repeating her plea that they flee. The king refused. Since she was aware that she was the most unpopular member of the royal family, Marie-Antoinette chose to sleep on her own that evening. She left strict instructions with the Marquise de Tourzel that she was to take the children straight to the king if there were any disturbances. In the early hours of the morning, the mob broke into the palace. The queen's guards were massacred. She and her ladies-in-waiting only narrowly escaped with their lives before the crowd burst in and ransacked her chambers. They made it to the centre of the palace; the king's bedchamber. The king's younger sister, Princess Elisabeth, was already there. The two children arrived and the doors were locked. By this time, a large crowd had gathered in the palace's courtyard and were demanding that the queen come to the balcony. She appeared in her night-robe, accompanied by her two children. The crowd demanded that the two children be sent back inside. So the queen stood alone for almost ten minutes, whilst many in the crowd pointed muskets at her. She then bowed her head and returned inside. Some in the mob were so impressed by her bravery that they cried "Vive la Reine!" ("Long live the Queen!") The Royals were forced to return with the mob to Paris. They were taken to the dilapidated Tuileries Palace, which had last been used during the reign of Louis XIV. The Marquis de la Fayette, a liberal aristocrat who had embraced many American ideas when he fought for George Washington, was placed in charge of the royal family's security. When he met the queen he bluntly told her, "Your Majesty is a prisoner. Yes, it's true. Since Her Majesty no longer has her Guard of Honour, she is a prisoner." Other royal "prisoners" included Louis XVI's sister, Elisabeth, and his other brother – the Comte de Provence. The Princesse de Lamballe had refused to abandon Marie-Antoinette, as had the Marquise de Tourzel and several other royal servants. Desperate to re-assure her friends, Marie Antoinette sent a short note to the Austrian ambassador saying, "I'm fine, don't worry." When she appeared in public she appeared calm, serene and dignified. Yet, beneath the façade she was suffering intense trauma. She knew that she had narrowly escaped with her life during the siege of the palace; she also knew that she was under virtual house arrest and that the French monarchy was facing the greatest crisis of its existence.
A republican monarchy?
From the beginning of the Revolution, Marie Antoinette remained skeptical about the chances of a compromise. However, she was not yet prepared to give up all hope of a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Certain republicans, like Antoine Barnave, were moved by her plight and many more were thoroughly impressed by her dignity. The Comte de Mirabeau, whom she despised, told many people how impressed he was with the queen's courage and "manly" strength of character. Trying to re-establish normality, Marie Antoinette began inviting charitable commissions to the Tuileries and continued her generous patronage and desire to alleviate the suffering of the poor children of Paris. She also spent as much time as possible with her children, particularly the Dauphin, whom she affectionately nicknamed mon chou d'amour. Public hatred against the queen was so intense that she had to attend her daughter's first Communion in disguise. The traditional gift for a Princess upon her first Communion was a set of magnificent diamonds, but both Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette decided it would be better that Marie Thérèse go without the diamonds than the people go without bread. Meanwhile, the National Assembly was drawing up a new constitution which would turn France into a constitutional monarchy. Catherine the Great wrote to Marie Antoinette from Russia, telling her that the royals should ignore the complaints of their people "as the moon goes on its course without being stopped by the cries of dogs." Louis's sister, Elisabeth, was even more vocal in her hatred of the new system. Elisabeth, like her exiled brother the Comte d'Artois, was so horrified with the French Revolution, that she believed a civil war was inevitable. On 14 July 1790, the royal family had to attend festivities to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. The queen dutifully attended, even though she described the celebrations as symbolising "everything that is most cruel and sorrowful". The king's ultra-liberal cousin, Philippe, duc d'Orléans returned from England and publicly proclaimed his support for the revolutionaries. His hatred for Marie Antoinette was extreme and she believed that he was fomenting the Revolution in order to seize the crown for himself. Ultra-royalists even whispered that the duc d'Orléans had orchestrated the siege of Versailles in the hope of having Marie Antoinette assassinated. The duke enjoyed enormous popular support amongst the people of Paris, although his Scottish mistress Grace Elliott was a secret royalist, who later admitted to having gone to Belgium on a secret mission for the queen. She carried messages to baron de Breteuil, who was now acting as Louis and Antoinette's secret Prime Minister-in-exile. With Louis now suffering from periodic depression and chronic lethargy, Marie Antoinette had taken it upon herself to appointing Breteuil. It is generally believed that she forged the official document appointing Breteuil and passed it off as the king's own handwriting. Any hope of a compromise between the royals and the revolutionaries ended with the creation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790. This was a republican attack on the privileges and ancient practises of the Roman Catholic Church. When news was delivered to the royal family, Marie-Antoinette whispered to the Marquise de Tourzel, "The Church. The Church... we're next." By 1791, both the king and the queen had now come to the conclusion that the Revolution was going to destroy France. They came to the decision to flee to Montmédy, a royalist stronghold in the east of France. There they would gather their supporters and any foreign assistance they could gather (Marie-Antoinette's brother Emperor Leopold II, the Russian empress, the King of Sweden and the King of Prussia had all promised military aid.) They hoped that once they had escaped they would be able to negotiate with the revolutionaries, but they were now quite prepared to use force to stop them. The royals' escape was foiled at the town of Varennes and they were forced back to Paris by local republicans. They were returned to the Tuileries Palace, but from now on it was clear that the King and the entire royal family were enemies of the Revolution. Louis's attempt, encouraged by the Queen, to regain his authority by making war with her relations in Austria, hoping that a quick defeat by France would cause the Austrians to restore the monarchy, proved disastrous. When the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Austro-Prussian army invading France, issued a manifesto threatening Paris with destruction if the royal family were harmed, reaction in Paris was swift and brutal. Rather than heeding the Manifesto, the revolutionaries were enraged by it and they attacked the Tuileries on August 10th 1792. Marie Antoinette's initial decision was to stand and face the mob, even if it meant doing it on her own. However, her ladies-in-waiting begged her to think of her children and she reluctantly agreed to accompany the king and his entourage when they fled the palace for the National Assembly. The Palace was invaded in their absence and the Swiss Guard were massacred. The Governor of the Tuileries, the Marquis de Champcenetz, managed to escape the mob despite incurring heavy wounds. He was sentenced to death by the revolutionaries but managed to escape Paris with the help of Mrs. Elliott. Louis XVI was arrested by the republicans on 13th August and just over a month later, on September 21st, the National Convention abolished the monarchy. The royal family were then moved to the foreboding Temple Fortress and imprisoned. The king, queen, their two children and Louis's sister Elisabeth were heavily guarded, lest they were rescued by royalists. After they had been imprisoned, Paris erupted into violence. The mob invaded the prisons and massacred anyone suspected of royalist leanings. Marie Antoinette's dearest friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, was captured and told to repudiate her oath of loyalty to the queen. When she refused, she was murdered by repeated hammer-blows to the head. Her body was then torn apart and her head placed on a pike. It was taken to Marie Antoinette's window and displayed outside it. When the queen saw this horrific sight, she collapsed to the ground in a dead faint. Louis was tried for treason on December 11th. He was condemned to death on January 17th. He was betrayed by his cousin, the duc d'Orléans, who (as Marie Antoinette had always suspected) turned traitor by voting for Louis's death. He was allowed one last farewell supper with his family and he urged his young son not to seek vengeance for his death. The queen spent the next few hours huddled against her husband, clutching their son. Marie Thérèse sobbed hysterically, whilst Elisabeth clung to her brother. Louis was taken to the guillotine the next day. When she heard the crowds cheer at his death, Marie Antoinette collapsed to the ground unable to speak.
Imprisonment
Marie Antoinette did not ever truly recover from her husband's death. According to her daughter, "She no longer had any hope left in her heart or distinguished between life and death." She began to suffer from convulsions and fainting fits. She also lost her appetite and lost an enormous amount of weight. January On the night of July 3 1793, commissioners arrived in the royal family's cell with instructions to separate Marie Antoinette's son from the rest of his family. He had been proclaimed Louis XVII by exiled royalists after his father's death. The republican government had therefore decided to imprison the eight-year-old child in solitary confinement. Louis flung himself into his mother's arms crying hysterically and Marie Antoinette shielded him with her body, refusing to give him up. When the commissioners threatened to kill her if she did not hand the child over, she still refused to move. It was only when they threatened to kill Marie Thérèse that she came to realise how hopeless the situation was. Two hours after the commissioners had entered her room, Marie Antoinette had to say goodbye to her beloved son. She would never see him again. At two o'clock in the morning of 2nd August 1793, Marie Antoinette was awoken by guards and told to get dressed. She was taken away from her daughter and sister-in-law and transferred across Paris to the Conciergerie Prison. She was re-named "the Widow Capet," after Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian Dynasty. She was no longer to be referred to as "Marie Antoinette" but simply "Antoinette Capet" or "Prisoner No. 280." A young peasant girl, Rosalie Lamorlière, was entrusted to take care of Marie Antoinette's needs, but these were few since the queen did not ask for much. On 2nd September, the republican journalist and politician, Jacques Hébert, told the Committee of Public Safety, "I have promised [my readers] the head of Antoinette. I will go and cut it off myself if there is any delay in giving it to me." Most republicans now felt an intense hatred for her and they were determined to see her dead. She was brought to trial on October 14th. When she entered the courtroom, most people were shocked at her appearance. She was emaciated, prematurely aged, exhausted and care-worn. Forty witnesses were called by the prosecution. They returned to the Affair of the Necklace or alleged that the queen had plied the Swiss Guard with alcohol during the siege of the palace. The most horrific charges came whenever Hébert accused her of having sexually abused her own son. When the queen was pressed to answer this charge she replied, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother." She was condemned to death for treason on October 15th and escorted back to the Conciergerie. She wrote her final letter, to her sister-in-law Elisabeth. She expressed her love for her friends and family and begged that her children would not seek to avenge her murder.
Execution
Conciergerie On the morning of October 16th, a guard arrived to cut her hair and bind her hands behind her back. She was forced into a common, slow-moving cart and paraded through the streets of Paris for over an hour before reaching the Place de la Révolution where the guillotine stood. She stepped lightly down from the cart and stared up at the guillotine. The priest who had accompanied her whispered, "This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage." Marie Antoinette turned to look at him and smiled, "Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me." Legend states that her last words were "pardonnez-moi" meaning "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose.", spoken after she had stepped on the executioner's foot. At 12:15 on Wednesday October 16 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed. Her head was exhibited to a cheering crowd. Her body was then taken and dumped in an unmarked mass grave in the Rue d'Anjou.
Reputation
Marie Antoinette went down in history as a shallow, weak, self-indulgent and stupid person. Only royalists, who saw her as a martyr, viewed her any differently. They later recovered her body and reburied it in the Bourbon dynasty crypt in Paris, they also retrieved the bodies of Louis XVI and Princess Elisabeth (who was executed in 1794). In recent years, however, this has somewhat changed. In 1933, Stefan Zweig wrote a biography of her Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Ordinary Woman, in which he argued the queen achieved greatness during the final years of her life thanks to her extraordinary courage. His biography was later made into a hugely successful movie starring Norma Shearer (see below.) French historians, like André Castelot and Évelyne Lever, have generally been more critical in their biographies of Marie Antoinette; although neither have attacked her with the venom that she received during her lifetime. The trend in recent years, however, has been to focus on Marie Antoinette's strengths rather than her weaknesses. Deborah Cadbury, in her biography of Louis XVII, praised Marie Antoinette's devotion to her family and Munro Price, in his political study on the fall of the French monarchy, wrote "Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have often been portrayed as weak and vacillating. Far from it; their policy between 1789 and 1792 was entirely consistent, and highly conservative. They were prepared to die for their beliefs, and ultimately did so." The most thorough biography of Marie Antoinette has come from British historian, Lady Antonia Fraser. Marie Antoinette: The Journey was first published in 2001 and became an instant best-seller. Plans are now afoot to turn it into a Hollywood movie (see below.) After reading Fraser's book, historian Simon Sebag Montefiore concluded that Marie Antoinette was "a woman more sinned against than sinning." The only major disagreement amongst modern historians is the role played by the Swedish aristocrat, Count Axel von Fersen. There were unsubstantiated rumours at court that the dashing Fersen was at one time Marie Antoinette's lover. It is true that the two were very close and that Fersen risked his life many times to try and free her from prison. Some historians, like Evelyn Farr and Antonia Fraser, seem convinced that at one point the two did enjoy a physical relationship. Others remain sceptical, arguing that there is no concrete evidence to support the idea that the two were lovers in the physical sense.
In the movies
Axel von Fersen] Axel von Fersen Given that she has become one of the most iconic historical figures, Marie Antoinette has appeared in many motion pictures. The most famous was Marie Antoinette in 1938, a multi-million dollar MGM studio extravaganza. It was based on Stefan Zweig's biography of Marie-Antoinette. Lasting over three hours and famed for its set designs and costumes, Marie Antoinette became an instant hit. Hollywood legend Norma Shearer starred in the title role. She identified heavily with the role and heavily researched every aspect of Marie Antoinette's life. Even today, there is still an emotional vibrancy and naturalness to her portrayal of the queen. She was nominated for the Oscar, but controversially lost out to Bette Davis for her role in Jezebel. For many people, Shearer's portrayal remains the definitive screen-version of Marie Antoinette. In Argentina, the film became the favourite movie of Eva Perón, who so admired Shearer's style that she later dyed her hair blonde. Her character has also appeared in several French-made movies on the life of Madame du Barry and several on the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace has inspired two movies, the most recent being The Affair of the Necklace in 2001. Heavily-romanticised and with the facts distorted to favour the Countess, the film was panned by critics. Joely Richardson played Marie Antoinette, with Hilary Swank, Jonathan Pryce, Adrien Brody, Brian Cox and Christopher Walken also starring. In 1989, the French historian André Castelot wrote the script for L'Autrichienne (a cruel nickname given to Marie Antoinette, meaning something along the lines of "the Austrian Woman," or, more strongly, "the Austrian bitch.") The film starred the German-born actress, Ute Lemper, as Marie-Antoinette and the entire script was based on the transcripts of the queen's trial in 1793. At the moment, US director Sofia Coppola is completing Post-production on an adaptation of Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette for the big screen under the title Marie-Antoinette. Filming commenced in early 2005, with some scenes being shot at Versailles. Kirsten Dunst is starring as Marie Antoinette, with Jason Schwartzmann playing Louis XVI, Asia Argento as Madame du Barry, Rip Torn as Louis XV and Marianne Faithfull playing Marie Antoinette's mother Empress Maria Theresa.kt was here
External links

- [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3891/3891-h/3891-h.htm Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France] - Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
- [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422720/ Marie-Antoinette (2006)] at the Internet Movie Database Category:1755 births Category:1793 deaths Category:Natives of Vienna Category:Non-ruling Austrian royalty Category:Habsburg-Lorraine Category:House of Bourbon Category:Queen consorts Category:Executed royalty members Category:Guillotined French Revolution figures Category:History of France ko:마리 앙투아네트 ja:マリー・アントワネット th:มารี อองตัวเนต

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I (December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was also known as Francis III Stephen, Duke of Lorraine. He was born in Nancy, Lorraine (now in France), the second son of Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine, and his wife Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Philippe I of Orléans. He was connected with the Habsburgs through his grandmother Eleanore, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III, and wife of Charles Leopold of Lorraine, his grandfather. Emperor Charles VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Francis' older brother Clement. On Clement's death, Charles adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law. Francis was brought up in Vienna with Maria Theresa on the understanding that they were to be married, and a real affection arose between them. At the age of 15, when he was brought to Vienna, he was established in the Silesian Duchy of Cieszyn, which had been mediatized and granted to his father by the emperor in 1722. He succeeded his father as Duke of Lorraine in 1729, but the emperor, at the end of the War of the Polish Succession, desiring to compensate his candidate Stanislaus Leszczynski for the loss of his crown in 1735, persuaded Francis to exchange Lorraine for the grand duchy of Tuscany. On February 12, 1736, Francis and Maria Theresa were married, and they went for a short time to Florence, when he succeeded to the grand duchy on the death of John Gaston, the last of the ruling house of Medici. His wife secured his election to the Empire on the September 13, 1745, in succession to Charles VII, and she made him co-regent of her hereditary dominions. Francis was well content to leave the wielding of power to his able wife. He had a natural fund of good sense and some business capacity and was a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing the complicated Austrian dominions, but his functions appear to have been primarily secretarial. He also took a great interest in the natural sciences. He died suddenly in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on August 18, 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Maria Theresa and Francis I had sixteen children--their youngest daughter was the future queen consort of France, Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). He was officially succeeded by his eldest son Joseph II although the real power remained with his wife. Another son was the Emperor Leopold II.

External link and reference

- [http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.f/f659693.htm Encyclopedia of Austria: Franz I]

References

- Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Category:Habsburg-Lorraine Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor ja:フランツ1世 (神聖ローマ皇帝)

Hapsburg

.]] Habsburg (sometimes spelled Hapsburg, but never so in official use) was one of the major ruling houses of Europe. Their principal roles were as:
- Holy Roman Emperors (several centuries to 1806), and
- Rulers of Austria (as dukes 1282–1453, archdukes 1453–1804, and emperors 1804–1918),
- Kings of Croatia (1527–1918),
- Kings of Hungary (1437–1918),
- Kings of Spain (1516–1700),
- Kings of Portugal (1580–1640),
- Kings of Bohemia (1526–1618 and 1621–1918) and
- Great Princes of Transylvania (1690–1867).

A brief history of the House of Habsburg

From Counts of Habsburg to Holy Roman Emperors

The name is derived from the Swiss Habichtsburg (Hawk Castle), the family seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries at Habsburg, Switzerland (Switzerland did not then exist in its present form, and the Swiss lands were part of the mainly Germanic Holy Roman Empire). From South-East-Germany the family extended its influence and holdings to the eastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly today's Austria (1278 - 1382). Within only two or three generations, the Habsburgs had managed to secure an initially intermittent grasp on the imperial throne that would last for centuries (1273 - 1291, 1298 - 1308, 1438 - 1740, and 1745 - 1806). After the marriage of Maximilian I with Mary, heiress of Burgundy (the Low Countries) and the marriage of his son Philipp the Handsome with Juana, heiress of Spain and its newly-founded empire, Charles V inherited an empire where "the sun does not set". Under Maximilian II, the Habsburgs first acquired the land upon which would later be erected the Schönbrunn Palace: the Habsburgs' summer palace in Vienna and one of the most enduring symbols of the dynasty.

Division of the House: Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs

Vienna over which the Habsburgs presided, nor are the vast Spanish holdings of the New World shown.]] After the April 21, 1521 assignment of the Austrian lands to Ferdinand I from his brother Emperor Charles V (also King Charles I of Spain) (1516 - 1556), the family split into the Austrian Habsburgs and the Spanish Habsburgs. The Austrian Habsburgs held (after 1556) the title of Holy Roman Emperor, as well as the Habsburg Hereditary Lands and the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, while the Spanish Habsburgs ruled over the Spanish kingdoms, the Netherlands, the Habsburgs' Italian possessions, and, for a time, Portugal. Hungary, nominally under Habsburg kingship from 1526 but mostly under Ottoman Turkish occupation for 150 years, was reconquered in 1683 - 1699. The Spanish Habsburgs died out in 1700 (prompting the War of the Spanish Succession), as did the Austrian Habsburgs in 1740 (prompting the War of the Austrian Succession). However, the heiress of the last Austrian Habsburg (Maria Theresa) had married Francis Stephan Duke of Lorraine, (both of them were great-grandchildren of Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III, but from different empresses) and their descendants carried on the Habsburg tradition from Vienna under the dynastic name Habsburg-Lorraine. (It is often speculated that extensive intra-family marriages within both lines contributed to their extinctions, but there were few such marriages in the Austrian line. Smallpox killing young heirs was a greater cause.) Vienna

House of Habsburg-Lorraine: the Austrian Empire

On August 6 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was wound up under the French Emperor Napoleon I's reorganisation of Germany. However, in anticipation of the loss of his title of Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria (as Francis I, thereof) on August 11, 1804, three months after Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of France on May 18, 1804. Emperor Francis I of Austria used the official great title: "We, Francis the First, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria; King of Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, and Lodomeria; Archduke of Austria; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Würzburg, Franconia, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; Grand Duke of Kraków; Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Sandomir, Masovia, Lublin, Upper and Lower Silesia, Auschwitz and Zator, Teschen, and Friule; Prince of Berchtesgaden and Mergentheim; Princely Count of Habsburg, Gorizia, and Gradisca and of the Tyrol; and Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria". In 1867 effective autonomy was given to Hungary under the terms of the Ausgleich or "compromise" (see Austria-Hungary) until the Habsburgs' deposition from both Austria and Hungary in 1918 following defeat in World War I. The current head of the Habsburg family is Otto von Habsburg, Emperor Karl's eldest son.

Main Line

Before Rudolph rose to German king, the Habsburgs were Counts in what is today south-western Germany and Switzerland.

Ancestors

- Guntram the Rich (ca. 930 - 985 / 990) Father of:
- Lanzelin of Altenburg (d. 991). Besides Radbot, he had sons named Rudolph I, Wernher, and Landolf.

Counts of Habsburg

- Radbot of Klettgau, built the Habsburg (ca. 985 - 1035). Besides Werner I, he had two other sons: Otto I, who would become Count of Sundgau in the Alsace, and Albrecht I.
- Werner I, Count of Habsburg (1025 / 1030 - 1096). Besides Otto II, there was another son, Albert II, who was reeve of Muri from 1111 - 1141 after the death of Otto II.
- Otto II of Habsburg; first to name himself as "of Habsburg" (d. 1111) Father of:
- Werner II of Habsburg (around 1135; d. 1167) Father of:
- Albrecht III of Habsburg (the Rich), d. 1199. Under him, the Habsburg territories expanded to cover most of what is today the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Father of:
- Rudolph II of Habsburg (d. 1232) Father of:
- Albrecht IV of Habsburg, (d. 1239 / 1240); father of Rudolph IV of Habsburg, who would later become king Rudolph I of Germany. Between Albrecht IV and his brother Rudolph III, the Habsburg properties were split, with Albrecht keeping the Aargau and the western parts, the eastern parts going to Rudolph III.

Kings of Germany

- Rudolph I was king of Germany (then an elective position, as its successive post, the Holy Roman Emperor, would be) from 1273 - 1291.

Dukes of Austria

In the late middle ages, when the Habsburgs expanded their territories in the east, they often ruled as dukes. "Duke of Austria" is a bit misleading, though: Austria proper at the time covered what is today Lower Austria. The Habsburg possessions also included Styria, and then expanded west to include Carinthia and Carniola in 1335 and Tyrol in 1363. Their original scattered possessions in the southern Alsace, south-western Germany and Vorarlberg were collectively known as Vorderösterreich. The Habsburg dukes gradually lost their homelands south of the Rhine and Lake Constance to the expanding Old Swiss Confederacy. Unless mentioned explicitly, the dukes of Austria also ruled over Vorderösterreich until 1379, after that year, Vorderösterreich was ruled by the Princely Count of Tyrol. Names in italics designate dukes that never actually ruled.
- Rudolph II, son of Rudolph I, duke of Austria and Styria together with his brother 1282 - 1283, was dispossessed by his brother, who eventually would be murdered by one of Rudolph's sons.
- Albert I (Albrecht I), son of Rudolph I and brother of the above, duke from 1282 - 1308; was Holy Roman Emperor from 1298 - 1308. See also below.
- Rudolph III, oldest son of Albert I, designated duke of Austria and Styria 1298 - 1307
- Frederick the Handsome (Friedrich der Schöne), brother of Rudolph III. Duke of Austria and Styria (with his brother Leopold I) from 1308 - 1330; officially co-regent of emperor Louis IV since 1325, but never ruled.
- Leopold I, brother of the above, duke of Austria and Styria from 1308 - 1326.
- Albert II (Albrecht II), brother of the above, duke of Vorderösterreich from 1326 - 1358, duke of Austria and Styria 1330 - 1358, duke of Carinthia after 1335.
- Otto the Jolly (der Fröhliche), brother of the above, duke of Austria and Styria 1330 - 1339 (together with his brother), duke of Carinthia after 1335.
- Rudolph IV the Founder (der Stifter), oldest son of Albert II. Duke of Austria and Styria 1358 - 1365, Duke of Tyrol after 1363. After the death of Rudolph IV, his brothers Albert III and Leopold III ruled the Habsburg possessions together from 1365 until 1379, when they split the territories in the Treaty of Neuberg, Albert keeping Austria proper and Leopold ruling over Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Windish March, Tyrol, and Vorderösterreich.

Albertine line: Dukes of Austria

- Albert III (Albrecht III), duke of Austria until 1395, from 1386 (after the death of Leopold) until 1395 also ruled over the latters possessions.
- Albert IV (Albrecht IV), duke of Austria 1395 - 1404, in conflict with Leopold IV.
- Albert V (Albrecht V), duke of Austria 1404 - 1439, Holy Roman Emperor from 1438 - 1439 as Albert II. See also below.
- Ladislaus Posthumus, son of the above, duke of Austria 1440 - 1457.

Leopoldine line: Dukes of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol

- Leopold III, duke of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Vorderösterreich until 1386, when he was killed in the Battle of Sempach.
- William (Wilhelm), son of the above, 1386 - 1406 duke in Innerösterreich (Carinthia, Styria)
- Leopold IV, son of Leopold III, 1391 regent of Vorderösterreich, 1395 - 1402 duke of Tyrol, after 1404 also duke of Austria, 1406 - 1411 duke of Innerösterreich

Leopoldine-Innerösterreich sub-line

:
- Ernest the Iron (der Eiserne), 1406 - 1424 duke of Innerösterreich, until 1411 together and competing with his brother Leopold IV. :
- Frederick V (Friedrich), son of Ernst, became emperor Frederick III in 1440. He was duke of Innerösterreich from 1424 on. Guardian of Sigismund 1439 - 1446 and of Ladislaus Posthumus 1440 - 1452. See also below. :
- Albert VI (Albrecht VI), brother of the above, 1446 - 1463 regent of Vorderösterreich, duke of Austria 1458 - 1463

Leopoldine-Tyrol sub-line

:
- Frederick IV (Friedrich), brother of Ernst, 1402 - 1439 duke of Tyrol and Vorderösterreich :
- Sigismund, also spelled Siegmund or Sigmund, 1439 - 1446 under the tutelage of the Frederick V above, then duke of Tyrol, and after the death of Albrecht VI in 1463 also duke of Vorderösterreich.

Reuniting of Habsburg possessions

Sigismund had no children and adopted Maximilian I, son of duke Frederick V (emperor Frederick III). Under Maximilian, the possessions of the Habsburgs would be united again under one ruler, after he had re-conquered Lower Austria after the death of Matthias Corvinus, who resided in Vienna and styled himself duke of Austria from 1485 - 1490.

Holy Roman Emperors previous to the reunion of the Habsburg possessions

- Rudolph I, emperor 1273 - 1291 (never crowned)
- Albert I, emperor 1298 - 1308 (never crowned)
- Albert II, emperor 1438 - 1439 (never crowned)
- Frederick III, emperor 1440 - 1493

Kings of Hungary previous to the reunion of the Habsburg possessions

- Albert, king of Hungary 1437 - 1439
- Ladislaus V Posthumus, king of Hungary 1444 - 1457

Main Line: Holy Roman Emperors, Archdukes of Austria

- Maximilian I, emperor 1493 - 1519
- Charles V, emperor 1519 - 1556

Spanish Habsburgs: Kings of Spain, Kings of Portugal (1580-1640)

See also: Portuguese House of Habsburg
- Philip I of Castile, second son of Maximilian I, founded the Spanish Habsburgs in 1506 by marrying Joanna the Mad, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Philip promptly died, leaving the thrones of Castile and Aragon to be inherited and united into the nation of Spain by his son:
- Charles I 1516-1556, aka Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor; converdivided the House into Austrian and Spanish lines
- Philip II of Spain 1556-1598, also Filipe I of Portugal 1580-1598
- Philip III, also Filipe II of Portugal 1598-1621
- Philip IV 1621-1665, also Filipe III 1621-1640
- Charles II 1665-1700 The War of the Spanish Succession took place after the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg line, to determine the inheritance of Charles II.

Austrian Habsburgs: Holy Roman Emperors, Archdukes of Austria

- Ferdinand I, emperor 1556 - 1564 (→Family Tree)
- Maximilian II, emperor 1564 - 1576
- Rudolph II, emperor 1576 - 1612
- Matthias, emperor 1612 - 1619
- Ferdinand II, emperor 1619 - 1637
- Ferdinand III, emperor 1637 - 1657 (→Family Tree)
- Leopold I, emperor 1658 - 1705
- Josef I, emperor 1705 - 1711
- Charles VI, emperor 1711 - 1740 NB: Maria Theresa of Austria, Habsburg heiress and wife of emperor Francis I Stephen, reigned as Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia 1740 - 1780

House of Habsburg-Lorraine (Lothringen), main line: Holy Roman Emperors, Archdukes of Austria

- Francis I Stephen, emperor 1745 - 1765 (→Family Tree)
- Joseph II, emperor 1765 - 1790
- Leopold II, emperor 1790 - 1792 (→Family Tree)
- Francis II, emperor 1792 - 1806 (→Family Tree) The House of Habsburg-Lorraine retained Austria and attached possessions after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire; see below.

House of Habsburg-Lorraine: Grand dukes of Tuscany

- Francis Stephen 1737-1765 (later Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor) Francis Stephen assigned the grand duchy of Tuscany to his second son Peter Leopold, who in turn assigned it to his second son upon his accession as Holy Roman Emperor. Tuscany remained the domain of this cadet branch of the family until Italian unification.
- Peter Leopold 1765-1790 (later Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor)
- Ferdinand III 1790-1800, 1814-1824 (→Family Tree)
- Leopold II 1824-1849, 1849-1859
- Ferdinand IV 1859

House of Habsburg-Lorraine: Dukes of Modena

The duchy of Modena was assigned to a minor branch of the family by the Congress of Vienna. It was lost to Italian unification.
- Francis IV 1814-1831, 1831-1846 (→Family Tree)
- Francis V 1846-1848, 1849-1859

House of Habsburg-Lorraine: Duchess of Parma

The duchy of Parma was likewise assigned to a Habsburg, but did not stay in the House long before succumbing to Italian unification.
- Maria Luisa 1814-1847 (→Family Tree)

House of Habsburg-Lorraine: Emperor of Mexico

Maximilian, an adventurous younger son, was invited as part of Napoleon III's manipulations to take the throne of Mexico. The adventure did not end well. Maximilian was shot in "Cerro de las Campanas" in 1867.
- Maximilian I 1864-1867) (→Family Tree)

House of Habsburg-Lorraine, main line: Emperors of Austria

- Franz I, emperor of Austria 1804 - 1835: was Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (→Family Tree)
- Ferdinand I, emperor of Austria 1835 - 1848
- Franz Joseph, emperor of Austria 1848 - 1916, sometimes referred to in English as "Francis Joseph"
- Karl, emperor of Austria 1916 - 1918, sometimes referred to in English as "Charles". He died in exile in 1922.

House of Habsburg-Lorraine, main line: Heads of the House of Habsburg (post-monarchy)

Charles I was expelled from his domains after World War I and the empire was abolished.
- Charles I (1918-1922) (→Family Tree)
- Otto von Habsburg (1922-present)
- Zita of Bourbon-Parma, guardian, (1922-1930))
- Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, successor in due course to Otto

Burials

See Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Habsburgs as Kings of Hungary

The kingship of Hungary remained in the Habsburg family for centuries; but as the kingship was not strictly inherited and was sometimes used as a training ground for young Habsburgs, the dates of rule do not always match those of the primary Habsburg possessions. Therefore, the kings of Hungary are listed separately.

Albertine line: Kings of Hungary

- Albert, king of Hungary 1437 - 1439
- Ladislaus V Posthumus, king of Hungary 1444 - 1457

Austrian Habsburgs: Kings of Hungary

- Ferdinand I, king of Hungary 1526 - 1564
- Maximilian I, king of Hungary 1563 - 1576
- Rudolf I, king of Hungary 1572 - 1608
- Matthias, king of Hungary 1608 - 1619
- Ferdinand II, king of Hungary 1618 - 1637
- Ferdinand III, king of Hungary 1625 - 1657
- Ferdinand IV, king of Hungary 1647 - 1654
- Leopold I, king of Hungary 1655 - 1705
- Joseph I, king of Hungary 1687 - 1711
- Charles III, king of Hungary 1711 - 1740

House of Habsburg-Lorraine, main line: Kings of Hungary

- Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary 1741 - 1780
- Joseph II, king of Hungary 1780 - 1790
- Leopold II, king of Hungary 1790 - 1792
- Francis, king of Hungary 1792 - 1835
- Ferdinand V, king of Hungary 1835 - 1848
- Francis Joseph I, king of Hungary 1848 - 1916
- Charles IV, king of Hungary 1916 - 1918

Habsburgs as Kings of Bohemia

The kingship of Bohemia was for centuries a position elected by its nobles. As a result, it was not an automatically inherited position. The king of Bohemia tended to be a Habsburg, but was not always. Hence, the kings of Bohemia and their ruling dates are listed separately.

Main line: Kings of Bohemia

- Rudolph I, king of Bohemia 1306-1307

Albertine line: Kings of Bohemia

- Albert, king of Bohemia 1437 - 1439
- Ladislaus Posthumus, king of Bohemia 1444 - 1457

Austrian Habsburgs: Kings of Bohemia

- Ferdinand I, king of Bohemia 1526 - 1564
- Maximilian I, king of Bohemia 1563 - 1576
- Rudolph II, king of Bohemia 1572 - 1611
- Matthias, king of Bohemia 1611 - 1618
- Ferdinand II, king of Bohemia 1621 - 1637
- Ferdinand III, king of Bohemia 1625 - 1657
- Ferdinand IV, king of Bohemia 1647 - 1654
- Leopold I, king of Bohemia 1655 - 1705
- Joseph I, king of Bohemia 1687 - 1711
- Charles II, king of Bohemia 1711 - 1740

House of Habsburg-Lorraine, main line: Kings of Bohemia

From the accession of Maria Theresa, the kingship of Bohemia became united with the Austrian possessions.
- Maria Theresa, queen of Bohemia 1743 - 1780
- Joseph II, king of Bohemia 1780 - 1790
- Leopold II, king of Bohemia 1790 - 1792
- Francis, king of Bohemia 1792 - 1835
- Ferdinand V, king of Bohemia 1835 - 1848
- Francis Joseph I, king of Bohemia 1848 - 1916
- Charles III, king of Bohemia 1916 - 1918

Habsburgs as Queens Consort of France

From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the greatest non-Habsburg power in Europe was usually France. As a result, in usually futile attempts to either unite Europe under the Habsburg family or to prevent French enmity, Habsburg daughters were wed to successive kings of France.

Austrian Habsburgs

- Elisabeth of Austria (1554 - 1592), wife of King Charles IX of France

Spanish Habsburgs

- Anne of Austria, infanta of Spain, (1601 - 1666), wife of King Louis XIII
- Maria Theresa of Spain (1638 - 1683), wife of King Louis XIV

Habsburg-Lorraine

- Marie Antoinette (1755 - 1793), wife of King Louis XVI

External links

- [http://otto.twschwarzer.de/ "Erzherzog Dr. Otto von Habsburg" (Autorisierte Ehrenseite)]
- [http://www.antiquesatoz.com/habsburg/ Habsburg Biographies]
- [http://www.surnameweb.org/registry/h/a/b/habsburg.shtml Habsburg Resource Centre on SurnameWeb]
- http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Rulers/hapsburg3.html
- [http://www.chh.de.free.fr/archiv/Sonstiges/habsburg.php Genealogical tree of the house of Habsburg (till Maria Theresia)]
- Category:Royal families Category:Austrian nobility Category:History of Austria ja:ハプスブルク家

December 20

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining.

Events

- 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
- 1803 - Louisiana Purchase completed
- 1860 - South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States
- 1915 - Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli
- 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded
- 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
- 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
- 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines
- 1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1989 - Operation Just Cause: United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
- 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia
- 1995 - An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160
- 1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
- 1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples
- 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
- 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
- 2004 - The Miami Dolphins upset the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots in a fourth quarter comeback and scoring two touchdowns in the final 4 minutes of the game to win 29-28.

Births

- 1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
- 1566 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (d. 1612)
- 1579 - (baptized) John Fletcher, English playwright (d. 1625)
- 1626 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (d. 1692)
- 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (d. 1684)
- 1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)
- 1786 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)
- 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, French painter (d. 1845)
- 1805 - Thomas Graham, Scottish chemist (d. 1869)
- 1833 - Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)
- 1838 - Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster, theologian, and author (d. 1926)
- 1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)
- 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
- 1861 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)
- 1868 - Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
- 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (d. 1974)
- 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, French-born actress (d. 1958)
- 1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
- 1898 - Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor (d. 1967)
- 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
- 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
- 1917 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
- 1922 - George Roy Hill, American film director (d. 2002)
- 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician
- 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician
- 1927 - Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea
- 1933 - Jean Carnahan, U.S. Senator
- 1942 - Bob Hayes, American football player (d. 2002)
- 1946 - Uri Geller, Israeli psychic
- 1946 - Dick Wolf, American television series creator
- 1949 - Soumaïla Cissé, Malian politician
- 1952 - Jenny Agutter, English actress
- 1954 - Michael Badalucco, American actor
- 1957 - Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter
- 1957 - Mike Watt, American bassist
- 1957 - Joyce Hyser, American actress
- 1957 - Anna Vissi, Greek singer
- 1960 - Nalo Hopkinson, Canadian writer
- 1965 - Rich Gannon, American football player
- 1970 - Nicole DeBoer, Canadian actress
- 1970 - Massimo Ellul, Maltese entrepreneur and philanthropist
- 1978 - Njitap Geremi, Cameroon footballer
- 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer
- 1980 - Lloyd Bradbury, Ascendancy 9 Media CEO
- 1990 - JoJo, American singer

Deaths

- 217 - Pope Zephyrinus
- 860 - King Ethelbald of Wessex
- 910 - Alfonso III of Leon
- 1022 - Elvira Mendes, queen of Alfonso V of Castile (b. 996)
- 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet
- 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician
- 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer
- 1590 - Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)
- 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
- 1740 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and statesman (b. 1675)
- 1768 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)
- 1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- 1929 - Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (b.1838)
- 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
- 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
- 1954 - James Hilton, American author (b. 1900)
- 1961 - Moss Hart, American author (b. 1904)
- 1961 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
- 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain (assassinated) (b. 1903)
- 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)
- 1974 - André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)
- 1976 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
- 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist (b. 1887)
- 1984 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)
- 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
- 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
- 1996 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)
- 1997 - Denise Levertov, English-born poet (b. 1923)
- 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
- 1998 - Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1910)
- 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 1999 - Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)
- 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Indian statesman, politician, and philanthropist (b. 1920)
- 2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
- 2001 - Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of Senegal (b. 1906)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/20 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 19 - December 21 - November 20 - January 20 -- listing of all days ko:12월 20일 ms:20 Disember ja:12月20日 simple:December 20 th:20 ธันวาคม

1778

1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

- The term thoroughbred was first used in the United States in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.
- January 18 - Third Pacific expedition of Capt. James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first view O'ahu then Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands."
- February 5 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- February 6 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
- February 23 - American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and begins to train the Continental Army.
- July 10 - American Revolutionary War: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- July 27 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
- August 26 - Triglav, at 2,864 metres above sea level the highest peak of Slovenia, was ascended for the first time by four brave men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič and Lovrenc Willomitzer on Sigismund Zois's initiative.
- September - The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
- November 26 - In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
- France introduced the first state-controlled brothel.
- The first settlement was made in the area of what is now Louisville, Kentucky by 13 families under Col. George Rogers Clark.
- Phillips Academy, the most prestigious secondary boarding school in the United States, was founded by Samuel Phillips Jr.

Births

- January 3 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)
- February 22 - Rembrandt Peale, American artist (d. 1860)
- March 19 - Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)
- April 10 - William Hazlitt, English essayist (d. 1830)
- May 18 - Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British politician (d. 1854)
- August 11 - Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German patriot (d. 1852)
- September 8 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
- September 19 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1868)
- November 1 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (d. 1837)
- December 17 - Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)

Deaths

- January 10 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
- February 18 - Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
- February 20 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
- March 5 - Thomas Augustine Arne, English compoer (b. 1710)
- March 7 - Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist (b. 1720)
- March 13 - Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
- April 22 - James Hargreaves, English weaver, carpenter, and inventor (b. 1720)
- May 16 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
- May 30 - Voltaire, French philosopher (b. 1694)
- June 12 - Philip Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
- June 16 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (b. 1720)
- June 24 - Pieter Burmann the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
- July 2 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
- July 2 - Bathsheba Ruggles, American murderer (b. 1746?)
- August 5 - Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
- August 12 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
- November 9 - Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (b. 1720)
- November 20 - Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726) Category:1778 ko:1778년 ms:1778

October 19

October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 73 days remaining.

Events

- 202 BC - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal.
- 439 - The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
- 1453 - The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
- 1466 - The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Treaty of Toruń. Gdansk Pomerania and Prussia as a whole are incorporated into Poland; the Teutonic Knights are allowed to rule its eastern part as Polish vassals.
- 1469 - Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.
- 1512 - Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
- 1781 - Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American Revolutionary War.
- 1789- Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1812 - Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow.
- 1813 - The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
- 1822 - In Parnaíba city; Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva, Domingos Dias declares the Independence of State of Piauí.
- 1864 - Battle of Cedar Creek - Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
- 1864 - Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
- 1873 - Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
- 1912 - Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1914 - The First Battle of Ypres begins.
- 1917 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
- 1933 - Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
- 1943 - Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
- 1944 - United States forces land in the Philippines.
- 1953 - Arthur Godfrey fires Julius LaRosa live on American national TV.
- 1954 - First ascent of Cho Oyu
- 1973 - President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
- 1974 - Niue becomes independent from New Zealand
- 1982 - John De Lorean is arrested for trafficking in cocaine (later acquitted).
- 1983 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard.
- 1985 - The first Blockbuster Video store opens in Dallas, Texas.
- 1986 - Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others died when their Tupolev 134 plane crashed into the Lebombo Mountains.
- 1987 - In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.
- 1987 - (Black Monday) Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%.
- 1989 - Guildford Four convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal - they had spent 15 years in prison through a miscarriage of justice.
- 1994 - New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi says good night for the last time.
- 1998 - The Earth Liberation Front sets fire to the Vail Mountain ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing $12 million in damage.
- 2001 - SIEV-X sinks en route to Christmas Island
- 2003 - Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
- 2004 - Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the Thai government on charges of corruption.
- 2005 - Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

Births

- 1276 - Prince Hisaaki, Japanese shogun (d. 1328)
- 1433 - Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher (d. 1499)
- 1562 - Archbishop George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1633)
- 1582 - Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsarevich (d. 1591)
- 1605 - Thomas Browne, English writer (d. 1682)
- 1610 - James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English statesman and soldier (d. 1688)
- 1658 - Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1704)
- 1688 - William Cheselden, English surgeon and anatomist (d. 1752)
- 1680 - John Abernethy, Irish protestant minister (d. 1740)
- 1718 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (d. 1804)
- 1720 - John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (d. 1772)
- 1721 - Joseph de Guignes, French orientalist (d. 1800)
- 1784 - John McLoughlin, Canadian fur trader (d. 1857)
- 1862 - Auguste Lumière, French inventor (d. 1954)
- 1873 - Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (d. 1925))
- 1885 - Charles Merrill, American investment banker (d. 1956)
- 1895 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
- 1899 - Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
- 1900 - Bill Ponsford, Australian Cricketer (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, American bandleader (d. 1962)
- 1908 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer
- 1910 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- 1910 - Jean Genet, French author (d. 1986)
- 1913 - Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (d. 1980)
- 1916 - Jean Dausset, French immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1916 - Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994)
- 1926 - Joel Feinberg, American moral philosopher (d. 2004)
- 1931 - John le Carré, English novelist
- 1932 - Robert Reed, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1937 - Peter Max, American artist
- 1940 - Michael Gambon, Irish actor
- 1942 - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
- 1945 - Divine, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1945 - John Lithgow, American actor
- 1946 - Philip Pullman English writer
- 1947 - Giorgio Cavazzano, comics artist and illustrator
- 1951 - Patricia Ireland, American President of the National Organization for Women
- 1956 - Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 2003)
- 1962 - Evander Holyfield, American boxer
- 1965 - Ty Pennington, American television carpenter
- 1966 - Jon Favreau, American actor, writer, director
- 1969 - Trey Parker, American cartoonist, comedian, writer, and actor
- 1972 - Pras, American musician
- 1976 - Michael Young, baseball player
- 1989 - Dallin Schmidt, Canadian musician

Deaths

- 727 - Saint Frideswide
- 1187 - Pope Urban III
- 1216 - King John died at Newark Castle
- 1432 - John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1392)
- 1587 - Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1541)
- 1608 - Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (b. 1551)
- 1636 - Marcin Kazanowski, Polish politician
- 1682 - Thomas Browne, English writer (b. 1605)
- 1723 - Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (b. 1646)
- 1745 - Jonathan Swift, Irish author (b. 1667)
- 1790 - Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1724)
- 1813 - Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince and Marshal of France (friendly fire) (b. 1763)
- 1889 - King Louis of Portugal (b. 1838)
- 1897 - George Pullman, American inventor and industrialist (b. 1831)
- 1918 - Harold Lockwood, American actor (b. 1887)
- 1936 - Lu Xun, Chinese writer (b. 1881)
- 1937 - Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1871)
- 1943 - Camille Claudel, French sculptor (b. 1864)
- 1950 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (b. 1892)
- 1956 - Isham Jones, American musician (b. 1894)
- 1973 - Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (b. 1913)
- 1983 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1944)
- 1987 - Jacqueline Du Pré, English cellist (b. 1945)
- 1988 - Son House, American musician (b. 1902)
- 1982 - Cristina Pérez, World Beauty (b. 1982)
- 1992 - Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner (b. 1920)
- 1994 - Martha Raye, American comedienne and actress (b. 1916)
- 1997 - Glen Buxton, American guitarist (b. 1947)
- 1999 - Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born French writer (b. 1900)
- 2003 - Faith Fancher, American television journalist and activist (b. 1950)
- 2003 - Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (b. 1925)
- 2003 - Margaret Murie, American conservationist (b. 1902)

Holidays and observances

- Roman festivals - Armilustrium in honor of Mars
- Roman Catholic Saints - Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and Companions; Saint Frideswide
- Also see October 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Albania - Mother Teresa Day.
- Brazil - Independence Day of State of Piauí
- Niue - Constitution Day in honour of the country's independence (self-governing in free association with New Zealand) in 1974.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/19 BBC: On This Day] ---- October 18 - October 20 - November 19 - September 19 - more historical anniversaries ko:10월 19일 ms:19 Oktober ja:10月19日 simple:October 19 th:19 ตุลาคม

1851

1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
- March 1 - Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United States of Europe several times
- March 27 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
- March 30 - A population census was taken of all people living in the United Kingdom.
- May 1 - The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria. It runs until October 18.
- May 15 - Rama IV is crowed King of Thailand.
- July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
- July 1 - Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
- July 1 - Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France
- July 29 - Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
- August 5 - Mount Pelee erupts and kills 30 people.
- August 22 - The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race.
- September 15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- September 18 - The New York Times is founded.
- October - Reuters news service founded.
- October 18 - The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
- October 24 - Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Lassell.
- November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.
- November 14 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, by Richard Bentley, London.
- December 2 - Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.
- December 6 - Trial of Helene Jegado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed in a guillotine.
- December 9 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
- December 24 - The Library of Congress burns.
- December 26-27 - Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.
- December 29 - The first YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Undated

- Dictator Rosas overthrown in Brazil. New government recognizes independent Paraguay. New Blanco government in Uruguay
- Florida State University is founded.
- Gold discovered in Australia.
- St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.

Births

- January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
- January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
- February 8 - Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
- March 19 - William Henry Stark, Business Leader (d. 1936)
- March 27 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
- March 28 - Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
- April 21 - Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
- May 6 - Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
- May 20 - Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
- May 21 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
- August 14 - Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
- September 7 - David King Udall, American politician (d. 1938)
- October 2 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
- Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
- Tom Morris, Jr., Scottish golfer (d. 1875)

Deaths

- January 10 - Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)
- January 27 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (b. 1785)
- January 31 - David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (b. 1813)
- February 1 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
- February 18 - Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
- March 9 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish scientist (b. 1777)
- September 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator (b. 1787)
- September 11 - Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (b. 1794)
- September 14 - James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (b. 1789)
- October 4 - Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (b. 1767)
- November 26 - Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, French marshal (b. 1769)
- December 19 - Joseph Mallord William Turner, English artist (b. 1775) ko:1851년 ms:1851 simple:1851 th:พ.ศ. 2394

Cucuta

Cúcuta, also known as San José de Cúcuta, is a city in Colombia. It is the capital of Norte de Santander, which is between Los Patios and the border with Venezuela. Simon Bolivar captured Cúcuta in 1813 and set out from there on his march to Caracas. At Cúcuta the constituent congress of 1821 met to draft the constitution of Greater Colombia (present day Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia). The city was largely destroyed by an earthquake on 18 May, 1875, but was soon rebuilt. In 1939 Cúcuta had a population of 59,323 people; in 1990 it had 532,564, and in 2005 the metropolitan area had a population of 902,000.

External links

- http://www.cucutalinda.com (in Spanish)
- http://www.cucuta.com (in Spanish)
- http://www.colombialink.com/01_INDEX/index_turismo/destinos/cucuta.html Category:Cities in Colombia Category:Municipalities of Norte de Santander

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