The American Association was an association formed among the American colonists in 1774 to enforce their claim of rights against the British government. Fourteen articles were agreed to, pledging the associates to an entire commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland and the West Indies, denouncing the slave trade and appointing committees to detect and publish the names of violators of the articles. The association was formed against such acts as the Sugar, Stamp, Tea and Quartering Acts and the Boston Port Bill. Research American Association
Billeting is a mode of feeding and lodging soldiers when they are not in camp or barracks, by quartering them on the inhabitants of a town. Research Billeting
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular uprising which occurred in 1536, as a reaction to the dissolution of the monasteries. In the barren north, where towns were few and far between, the monks were still popular. In Yorkshire they had been the only people to dispense hospitality to the wandering beggar and the ordinary traveller. The work of the Cistercians, too, as sheep-farmers, was a benefit to a country where agriculture was difficult; and it was feared that the dissolution of the larger abbeys (like Fountains) was only a matter of time. A lawyer called Robert Aske mustered the rebels on Skipworth Moor, and then took possession of York; the expelled monks were restored to their monasteries.
The king then sent the Duke of Norfolk to Yorkshire, but when the latter reached Doncaster he found the rising too formidable to risk a battle. So he adopted the usual expedient in such cases - a general promise of a pardon if the rebels would submit, and this was successful for the time being. But a further outbreak in 1537 caused the king to act with a ferocity congenial to his temper. 'You shall in any wise', he wrote to his agents, 'cause such dreadful execution to be done upon a good number of the inhabitants of every town, village and hamlet...as well by the hanging of them up in trees or by the quartering of them, and the setting of their heads and quarters in every town great or small, as they may be a fearful spectacle to others hereafter that they would practise any like matter.' The leaders and no less than twelve abbots were hanged for their part in the rebellion, and that was the end of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Research Pilgrimage of Grace
Quartering is a form of torturous execution in which the victim is torn apart by four horses, one each attached to each limb and then driven in opposite directions. A typical example is recounted by Casanova who witnessed the execution of Damien in 1757. He recounts how every available spot within sight of the scaffold was crowded with Parisian sightseers who gloated over the doomed man's sufferings. After having his hand burned off and being subjected to the torture of boiling oil and melted lead, for hours, to the accompaniment of his piercing screams, the whip-goaded horses dragged his limbs and body apart. Research Quartering
In 1765 the British Parliament passed an act compelling the colonies to provide the garrisons in America with fire, candles, vinegar, salt, bedding, cooking utensils and liquors. It was the first act requiring the colonies to tax themselves for imperial objects. In 1774 an act was passed legalizing the quartering of troops in the town of Boston. Both acts were most distasteful to the colonists. Research Quartering Acts
The Union Flag (formerly known as the Great Union and popularly known as the 'Union Jack') is the British royal flag. It was first produced in 1606 in response to a royal proclamation of James I with the object of providing a single flag for both England (including Wales) and Scotland which might put an end to disputes concerning the precedence of their respective banners of St George and St Andrew. The Union Flag combined the blazonry of the two rival ensigns, not marshalling them by quartering, but by blending them into a single composition. This was achieved by charging the cross of St George with a narrow white border and placing it on the banner of St Andrew. On the first of January 1801 the second Union Flag superseded the flag of King James and Queen Anne with the incorporation of the banner of Ireland, the saltire of St Patrick, following the Union with Ireland. The Union Flag has never been officially adopted by law, and as such remains a royal flag. The United Kingdom, unlike other countries doesn't have a national flag, though the Union Flag is accepted as such by its widespread usage. Research Union Flag
In heraldry, quartering is the division or marshalling of a shield by lines drawn per pale and per fesse cutting each other, each division containing different coats of arms, and divifing the shield into four or more compartments. The term quartering also describes one of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer. Research Quartering
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research American Association
