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
The Chihuahua is a breed of very small dog, named after the state in Mexico where they were first obtained. The breed probably originated from the ancient Techichi breed kept by the Toltec Indians in the 9th century. The Chihuahua breed was first recognised by the American KennelClub in 1904, and was a short-haired breed. Further breeding has resulted in long-haired varieties. They dislike cold weather, and are very social but have a short-temper which makes them unsuitable as family pets where there are children. They have an unfused skull which leaves the brain exposed and makes them vulnerable to a blow on the head. Research Chihuahua
Dasyure or Dasyurus are the brush-tailed opossums, a genus of plantigrade marsupials found in Australia and Tasmania. They are so named in contrast to the opossums of the New World (Didelphys), which have naked tails somewhat like rats. The ursine dasyure (Dasyurus ursinus) of Tasmania is about the size of a badger, but of a sturdier form, of a dull black colour, carnivorous, and of so savage a temper as to have gained for itself the alternative name of Diabolus ursinus, or Tasmanian Devil. Formerly it was most destructive to flocks and poultry-yards, but by the start of the 20th century it was nearly extirpated in inhabited districts. The various species of the genus have much the same nature and habits as the European polecat. Research Dasyure
Charles II was King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1660 to 1685. He was the sone of son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. He was a refugee at the Hague on the death of his father, on which he immediately assumed the royal title. Oliver Cromwell was then all-powerful in England; but Charles II accepted an invitation from the Scots, who had proclaimed him their king in July, 1650, and, passing over to Scotland, he was crowned at Scone in 1651. Oliver Cromwell's approach made him take refuge amongst the English royalists, who, having gathered an army, encountered Oliver Cromwell at Worcester, and were totally defeated. With great difficulty Charles II escaped to France. On the death of Oliver Cromwell the Restoration effected without a struggle by General Monk set Charles on the throne after the declaration of Breda, his entry into the capital on the 29th of May, 1660 being made amidst universal acclamations.
Despite the bitterness left from the Civil Wars and Charles I's execution, there were few detailed negotiations over the conditions of Charles II's restoration to the throne. Under the Declaration of Breda of May 1660, Charles had promised pardons, arrears of Army pay, confirmation of land purchases during the Interregnum and 'liberty of tender consciences' in religious matters, but several issues remained unresolved. However, the Militia Act of 1661 vested control of the armed forces in the Crown, and Parliament agreed to an annual revenue of 1, 200,000 pounds. The bishops were restored to their seats in the House of Lords, and the Triennial Act of 1641 was repealed - there was no mechanism for enforcing the King's obligation to call Parliament at least once every three years.
Under the 1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, only the lands of the Crown and the Church were automatically resumed; the lands of Royalists and other dissenters which had been confiscated and/or sold on were left for private negotiation or litigation.
In 1662 Charles II married the Infanta of Portugal, Catharine of Bra-ganza, a prudent and virtuous princess, but in no way calculated to acquire the affection of a man like Charles. For a time his measures, mainly counselled by the chancellorLordClarendon, were prudent and conciliatory. But the indolence, extravagance, and licentious habits of the king soon involved the nation as well as himself in difficulties. Dunkirk was sold to the French to relieve his pecuniary embarrassment, and war broke out with Holland. A Dutch fleet entered the Thames, and burned and destroyed ships as far up as Chatham. The early years of Charles's reign saw an appalling plague which hit the country in 1665 with 70,000 dying in London alone, and the Great Fire of London in 1666 which destroyed St Paul's amongst other buildings. Another misfortune included the second Dutch war of 1665 (born of English and Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry). Although the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was overrun and renamed New York before the war started, by 1666 France and Denmark had allied with the Dutch. The war was dogged by poor administration culminating in a Dutch attack on the Thames in 1667; a peace was negotiated later in the year.
In 1667, Charles dismissed his LordChancellor, Clarendon - an adviser from Charles's days of exile. As a scapegoat for the difficult religious settlement and the Dutch war, Clarendon had failed to build a 'Court interest' in the Commons. Clarendon was dismissed, and was succeeded by a series of ministerial combinations, the first of which was that of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale. Such combinations (except for Danby's dominance of Parliament from 1673 to 1679) were largely kept in balance by Charles for the rest of his reign. Charles's foreign policy was a wavering balance of alliances with France and the Dutch in turn.
A triple alliance between England, Holland, and Sweden, for the purpose of checking the ambition of Louis XIV, followed; but the extravagance of the king made him willing to become a mere pensioner of Louis XIV, with whom he arranged a private treaty against Holland in 1670 - the secret treaty of Dover under which Charles would declare himself a Catholic and England would side with France against the Dutch, in return Charles would receive subsidies from the King of France (thus enabling Charles some limited room for manoeuvre with Parliament, but leaving the possibility of public disclosure of the treaty by Louis). Practical considerations prevented such a public conversion, but Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence, using his prerogative powers to suspend the penal laws against Catholics and Nonconformists. In the face of an Anglican Parliament's opposition, Charles was eventually forced to withdraw the Declaration in 1673.
The Cabal ministry was by this time in power, and they were quite ready to break the triple alliance and bring about a rupture with the Dutch. As the king did not choose to apply to parliament for money to carry on the projected war he caused the exchequer to be shut up in January, 1672, and by several other disgraceful and arbitrary proceedings gave great disgust and alarm to the nation. The war ended in failure, and the Cabal ministry was dissolved in 1673.
In 1677 Charles married his niece Mary to William of Orange partly to restore the balance after his brother's second marriage to the Catholic Mary of Modena and to re-establish his own Protestantcredentials. This assumed a greater importance as it became clear that Charles's marriage to Catherine of Braganza would produce no legitimate heirs (although Charles had a number of mistresses and illegitimate children) , and his Roman Catholic brother James's position as heir apparent raised the prospect of a Catholic king.
Throughout Charles's reign, religious toleration dominated the political scene. The 1662 Act of Uniformity had imposed the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and insisted that clergy subscribe to Anglican doctrine (some 1,000 clergy lost their livings). Anti-Catholicism was widespread; the Test Act of 1673 excluded Roman Catholics from both Houses of Parliament. Parliament's reaction to the Popish Plot of 1678 (an allegation by Titus Oates that Jesuit priests were conspiring to murder the King, and involving the Queen and the Lord Treasurer, Danby) was to impeach Danby and present a Bill to exclude James (Charles's younger brother and a Roman Catholic convert) from the succession.
In 1679 the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, and the temper of the parliament was so much excited that the king dissolved it. A new parliament which assembled in 1680 had to be dissolved for a like reason, and yet another which met the year following at Oxford. Finally Charles, like his father, determined to govern without a parliament, and after the suppression of the Rye House plot and the execution of Russell and Sidney Charles became as absolute as any sovereign in Europe.
Charles sponsored the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 to promote scientific research. Charles also encouraged a rebuilding programme, particularly in the last years of his reign, which included extensive rebuilding at Windsor Castle, a huge but uncompleted new palace at Winchester and the Greenwich Observatory. Charles was a patron of Christopher Wren in the design and rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral, Chelsea Hospital and other London buildings. Charles II died in 1685, becoming a Roman Catholic on his deathbed. Research Charles II
Diego Velazquez was a Spanish administrator. He was born about 1460 at Cuellar, near Valladolid and died in 1522. He sailed with Cgristopher Columbus on his second voyage, and in 1511 conquered Cuba, of which he became governor, founding several towns, and remaining there until his death. Velazquez was responsible for an expedition which discovered Yucatan, in 1517, and sent Hernando Cortes to Mexico in 1518. Regretting, however, the extensive powers he had given to Cortes, he sent a force under Panfilo de Narvaez, which was overthrown by Cortes in 1520.
Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velazquez was a Spanish painter. He was born in 1599 at Seville and died in 1660. He studied under Francesco Herrera and then, when Herrera's temper got too much for him, under Pacheco whose daughter he later married. Velazquez also came under the influence of Luis Tristan, a pupil of El Greco. Settling in Madrid in 1623, he there painted a portrait of Fonseca, almoner to Philip IV which introduced him to the notice of the king. In the same year he painted a portrait of Philip IV, the first of a very long series which he painted of that king at every period of his life.
In 1628 Velazquez met Rubens, who came to Madrid as ambassador from the regent of the Netherlands. Having then conceived an eager desire to visit Italy, he left Spain in 1629, journeying to Venice, and then to Rome, by way of Ferrara and Bologna, and in 1630 was in Naples. The next year saw him back again at Madrid, and from that time began his long series of notable portraits.
His second visit to Italy was paid in 1649, v/hen his main object was to collect pictures and casts from the antique. On this occasion he painted his celebrated portrait of Pope Innocent X. In 1651, home again in Spain, he was given a high court appointment by the king, which took up much time. His pictures at this period include Maids of Honour, and the Tapestry Weavers.
The main feature of the art of Velazquez is its absolute truth. He was an impressionist in the truest meaning of the word, could seize upon an effect in its momentary force, and represent it in all its bare truth, painting colour as it really was. He had an unequalled command of values. There is never any false lighting or inaccurate incidence of light in his pictures, and he not only understood atmosphere, but grasped the mystery of shadows and darkness. He selected essentials with unerring judgement, and no other works are so near to the effect of nature as are his, or produce like them the true perspective of the atmosphere. Research Diego Velazquez
Sir Edward Coke was an English judge. He was born in 1552 and died in 1634. He was known as the greatest common lawyer of all time. The son of a Norfolkshire gentleman, after finishing his education at Cambridge he went to London, and entered the Inner Temple. His reputation and practice rapidly increased. He was chosen recorder of the cities of Norwich and of Coventry, knight of the shire for his county, and, in spite of the rivalship of Bacon, attorney-general. As such he conducted the prosecutions for the crown in all great state cases, notably those of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh, which Edward Coke conducted with great rancour and asperity. In 1613 he became Chief-justice of the Court of King's Bench; but his rough temper and staunch support of constitutional liberties brought him into disfavour with King James and his courtiers. In 1621 he was committed to the Tower, and soon after expelled from the privy-council.
In 1628 he was chosen member of parliament for Buckinghamshire, and greatly distinguished himself by his vindication of the rights of the Commons, and by proposing and framing the famous Petition of Rights. This was the last of his public acts. On the dissolution of the parliament he retired to his seat in Buckinghamshire, where he died. His principal works are Reports, from 1600 to 1615; Institutes of the Laws of England, in four parts; the first of which contains the celebrated commentary on Littleton's Tenures ('Coke upon Littleton'); A Treatise of Bail and Mainprise, Complete Copyholder. Research Edward Coke
George Friderick Handel (properly Haendel) was a German composer. He was born in 1685 at Halle and died in 1759.
The strong passion which he showed early in life for the art of music overcame his father's opposition to training him as a musician, and at the age of seven he was placed under the tuition of Zachau, organist of HalleCathedral, and was soon so far advanced in the practical part of the science as to be able to officiate occasionally as deputy to his instructor.
In 1696 he was sent to Berlin, where he heard the music of Bononcini and Ariosti, then at the head of the BerlinOpera House. He returned to Halle, was appointed organist of the cathedral in 1702, but soon left to visit Hanover and Hamburg, where Steffani and Reinhard Keiser, the latter the greatest German operatic composer of his day, resided. At Hamburg he played second violin in the orchestra, and in 1794 brought out his first work, an oratorio on the Passion, and his first opera, Almira, followed in February by his Nero, and subsequently by his Florinda and Daphne.
He visited England twice, and ultimately, having received a pension from Queen Anne, settled down there. For some years his popularity was very great. He
was placed at the head of the newly-founded Royal Academy of Music, and accumulated a large fortune in spite of the heavy losses which he incurred by setting up an opera company in 1735 in opposition to that supported by the leading nobility and the principal Italian singers.
Amongst the operas which he had composed up to this date are: Radamisto, Ottone, Giulio Cesare, Flavio, Tamerlano, Scipio, Ricardo I, Orlando, Ariadne, etc. His last opera was performed in 1740. By this time he had begun to devote himself chiefly to music of a serious nature, especially the oratorio. The approval which his first works of this kind (Esther, 1731; Deborah, 1732; Athalia, 1733) had met with encouraged him to new efforts; and he produced in succession Israel in Egypt, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, Saul, and The Messiah. The last-mentioned, which is his chief work, was brought out in 1741, for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital. It was not much appreciated at the first representation, but increased in reputation every year.
In 1742 the Samson appeared, in 1746 the Judas Maccabseus, in 1748 the Solomon, and in 1752 the Jephthah. In 1752 he became blind, but did not lose his spirits, continuing to perform in public and even to compose.
After his death he was buried in Westminster Abbey. Handel was of large and ungainly person. His manners were rough and his temper violent, but his disposition was humane and liberal. As a musician his characteristics are boldness and strength of style and combination of vigour, spirit, and invention in his instrumental compositions. Research George Frederick Handel
Lord George Gordon Noel Byron was an English poet. He was born in 1788 at London and died in 1824. He was the grandson of Admiral John Byron, and son of the admiral's only son, CaptainJohn Byron, of the Guards, so notorious for his gallantries and reckless dissipation that he was known as 'Mad Jack Byron.' His mother was Catherine Gordon of Gight, in Aberdeenshire, who was left a widow in 1791. Mrs. Byron retired with the infant poet to Aberdeen, where she lived in seclusion on the ruins of her fortune.
Until the age of seven he was entirely under the care of his mother, and to her injudicious indulgence the waywardness that marked his after career has been partly attributed. On reaching his seventh year he was sent to the grammar-school at Aberdeen, and four years after, in 1798, the death of his grand-uncle gave him the titles and estates of the family. Mother and son then removed to NewsteadAbbey, the family seat, near Nottingham. Soon after Byron was sent to Harrow, where he distinguished himself by his love of manly sports and his undaunted spirit. While yet at school he fell deeply in love with Miss Chaworth, a distant cousin of his own. But the lady slighted the homage of the Harrow school-boy, her junior by two years, and married another and more mature suitor. In The Dream Byron alludes finely to their parting- interview.
In 1805 he was entered to Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years after, in 1807, appeared his first poetic volume, Hours of Idleness, which, though indeed containing nothing of much merit, was castigated with a verseverity by Brougham in the Edinburgh Review. This caustic critique roused the slumbering energy in Byron, and drew from him his first really notable effort, the celebrated satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. In 1809, in company with a friend, he visited the southern provinces of Spain, and voyaged along the shores of the Mediterranean. The fruit of these travels was the fine poem of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the first two cantos of which were published on his return in 1812. The poem was an immense success, and Byron 'awoke one morning and found himself famous.'
His acquaintance was now much courted, and his first entry on the stage of public life may be dated from this era. During the next two years between 1813 and 1814 the Giaour, the Bride of Abydos, the Corsair, Lara, and the Siege of Corinth showed the brilliant work of which the new poet was capable. On the second of January, 1815, Byron married Anna Isabella, only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, but the marriage turned out unfortunate, and in about a year, Lady Byron having gone on a visit to her parents, refused to return, and a formal separation took place. This rupture produced a considerable sensation, and the real cause of it has never been satisfactorily explained. It gave rise to much popular indignation against Byron, who left England, with an expressed resolution never to return.
He visited France, the field of Waterloo and Brussels, the Rhine, Switzerland, and the north of Italy, and for some time took up his abode at Venice, and latterly at Rome, where he completed his third canto of Childe Harold. Not long after appeared the Prisoner of Chillon, The Dream, and other Poems; and in 1817 Manfred, a tragedy, and the Lament of Tasso. From Italy he made occasional excursions to the islands of Greece, and at length visited Athens, where he sketched many of the scenes of the fourth and last canto of Childe Harold. In 1819 was published the romantic tale of Mazeppa, and the same year was marked by the commencement of Don Juan.
In 1820 appeared Marino Faliero Doge of Venice, a tragedy; the drama of Sardanapalus; the Two Foscari, a tragedy; and Gain, a mystery. After leaving VeniceByron resided for some time at Ravenna, then at Pisa, and lastly at Genoa. At Ravenna he became intimate with the Countess Guiccioli, a married lady; and when he removed to Pisa, in 1822, she followed him. There he continued to occupy himself with literature and poetry, sustained for a time by the companionship of Shelley, one of the few men whom he entirely respected and with whom he was quite confidential.
Besides his contributions to the Liberal, a periodical established at this time in conjunction with Leigh Hunt and Shelley, he completed the later cantos of Don Juan, with Werner, a tragedy, and the Deformed Transformed, a fragment. These are the last of Byron's poetical efforts. In 1823, troubled perhaps by the consciousness that his life had too long been unworthy of him, he conceived the idea of throwing himself into the struggle for the independence of Greece. In January, 1824, he arrived at Missolonghi, was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and immediately took into his pay a body of 500 Suliotes. The disorderly temper of these troops, and the difficulties of his situation, together with the malarious air of Missolonghi, began to affect his health. On the 9th April, 1824, while riding out in the rain, he caught a fever, which ten days later ended fatally.
Thus, in his thirty-seventh year, died prematurely a man whose natural force and genius were perhaps superior to those of any Englishman of his time, and, largely undisciplined as they were, and wasted by an irregular life, they acquired for him a name second, in the opinion of continentalEurope at least, to that of no other Englishman of his time. The body of Byron was brought to England and interred near NewsteadAbbey. Research Lord Byron
Ralph Izard was an American statesman. He was born in 1742 and died in 1804. He was a commissioner to Tuscany from 1776 to 1779, and resided at Paris. He pledged his estate as security for a Governmental debt during the American War of Independence. He represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1783. He was a US Senator from 1789 to 1795. He was able and eloquent, but possessed an uncontrollable temper. Research Ralph Izard
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Ophthalmoscopy
