Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480-[525]) was a Roman statesman and philosopher. Famous for his learning, he enjoyed the confidence of King Theodoric, who sent him on several diplomatic missions. His enemies accused him of disloyalty to the King, whereupon Boethius was imprisoned and later executed. During his imprisonment he wrote his most famous work, 'De consolatione philosophiae'. Previously he had also written works on mathematics, music, theology and logic - one of his original logical treatises was 'De differentiis topicis'.
Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) was an Italian violinist and composer. He studied in Rome with Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti before moving to London in 1714. He quickly established himself as a performer and composer and also published a series of theoretical works on performance techniques and on harmony. He visited Ireland on numerous occasions and died in Dublin in 1762.
King Charles III (1716-1788) was the ruler of Spain (1759-1788) and Naples and Sicily (1735-1759).
Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was born in a small village on the Rhine. He studied arts and theology at Heidelberg, 1503-1508, during which time he joined the Franciscan Order. His study in the next few years broadened his knowledge of mathematical geography and cartography, and he published several works on the subject, as well as works on hebraistics. The latter won him a post as Chair of Hebrew at the University of Basel, which he took up in 1529 and remained in until his death from plague in 1552. Münster left the Franciscan Order and adhered to Lutheranism. During the remainder of his life he became the leading cartographer and geographer in Germany. The Cosmographia consisted of detailed geographical descriptions and depictions of Germany, and was first published in 1544.
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The Republic of Venice was created around 1140. It was headed by the Doge, and led by the Great Council, who controlled all political and administrative business. Ludovico Manin, the last doge, was deposed by Napoléon Bonaparte on May 12, 1797.
Thomas West was born around 1472. He was a soldier and courtier during the reigns of King Henry VII and King Henry VIII. West was High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex from 1524, and succeeded to his father's baronetcies in 1526. During the power struggle in 1549 to control the minority government of King Edward VI, West supported John Dudley, Earl of Warwick against Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. He was rewarded with a knighthood in 1549. He acted as joint Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex from 1551, and declared for Queen Mary I following the death of Edward VI in 1553. He died at Offington, Sussex, in 1554 and was buried at Broadwater.
The British Linen Company was incorporated by Royal Charter on 5 Jul 1746, 'to do everything that may conduce to the promoting and carrying on' the manufacture of linen.
Brabant was a feudal duchy, centred in Louvain and Brussels. Famed for its democratic and constitutionalist tendencies, it was divided into two parts in the 17th century, the northern section remaining under Dutch control, and the southern eventually becoming part of Belgium. Limburg is a province in northeastern Belgium. It is bounded by the Netherlands on the north and east, where the Meuse River marks the frontier. Largely Flemish-speaking, it was formerly part of the feudal duchy of Limburg, which was divided between Belgium and the Netherlands in 1839.
Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but has also included salt, paper and glass. A permanent board of Excise for England and Wales was established in 1683 with separate boards for Ireland in 1682 and Scotland in 1707.
Cosimo de Medici, Duke of Florence from 1537 until his death in 1574, was head of the Florentine Republic, and was assisted in its government by the senate, the assembly and the council. Pisa, intermittently under Florentine control since 1406, was reconquered and occupied by them in 1509.
The royal household originated as the sovereign's retinue, and had a purely domestic function until the 12th century, after which it became a mainspring of government. The government departments of the Treasury, the Exchequer and the common law courts all originated there. In the 13th century, under Henry III and Edward I, the Royal Wardrobe became a major financial institution. Used as a war treasury, it acted as paymaster to the major military expeditions commanded by the king. It subsequently declined in importance, being replaced by the Chamber. Separate from the king's Wardrobe was the Great Wardrobe, for army clothing and military stores, peripatetic until 1361 and then at Baynard castle, and the Privy Wardrobe, for bows, arrows, pikes, and other weapons, in the Tower of London.
Petrus Blomevenna (1466-1536) was born at Leyden, and was Prior of the Carthusian monastery of Cologne for 29 years. He composed several religious treatises. Robert de Croy became Bishop of Cambrai in 1519 when his brother Guillaume, who was Bishop of Cambrai and of Toledo, resigned the former office in favour of Robert. Robert died in 1556.
King James VI of Scotland also became King of England in 1603.
In the latter half of the sixteenth century, the craftsmen of Glasgow possessed few governing privileges, most of which belonged exclusively to citizens of merchant rank. Their assertion of rights, however, grew more violent, until eventually the question was submitted to arbitration, the result of which was the award termed 'The Letter of Guildry', which was approved and sanctioned by the Town Council on 16 Feb 1605, and ratified by Parliament in 1672.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue. The lower Exchequer, or Exchequer of Receipt, closely connected with the permanent Treasury, was an office for the receipt and payment of money. The upper Exchequer was a court sitting twice a year to regulate accounts. The business of the ancient Exchequer was mainly financial, though some judicial business connected with accounts was also conducted. In time the upper Exchequer developed into the judicial system, while the lower Exchequer became the Treasury.
A sinking fund is a fund accumulated and set aside by a corporation or government agency for the purpose of periodically redeeming bonds, debentures, and preferred stocks. The fund is accumulated from earnings, and payments into the fund may be based on either a fixed percentage of the outstanding debt or a fixed percentage of profits. Sinking funds are administered separately from the corporation's working funds by a trust company or a sinking-fund trustee.
Jedburgh is a royal burgh in the Roxburgh district of Scotland.
The Hohenzollern dynasty was prominent in European history, chiefly as the ruling house of Brandenburg-Prussia (1415-1918) and of imperial Germany (1871-1918). Frederick II (1712-1768), also known as Frederick the Great, was King of Prussia from 1740. He was the eldest son of Frederick William I (1688-1740), the second King of Prussia.
The East India Company acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century.
Hermetic philosophy is based on a bundle of manuscript purported to have been written by or to report almost at first hand the activities of the legendary priest, prophet, and sage Hermes Trismegistos. These comprised works of revelation on occult, theological and philosophical subjects, most notably alchemy.
Godfrey III (1133-1190) was known as the Duke of Lothier (i.e. Lower Lorraine). Territory in Lower Lorraine was contested by the rival houses of Limburg, with continued fighting until a peace in 1155 which split the duchy into Limburg and Brabant. On the death of Godfrey III, his son Henry I took the title of Duke of Brabant.
Secretary hand was a universal hand which could be written easily and read by all. It rose out of the cursive business hands, and became popular during the fifteenth century. Italic hand was another easily written cursive script. It had a distinctive lean, and could be written rapidly with the minimum number of pen lifts. Italic script came to prominence in the fifteenth century and its use continued into the seventeenth century.
Robert of Gloucester (fl 1260-1300) is only known through his vernacular chronicle of English history. It is thought that he may have been a monk of Gloucester.
The Justice of the Peace is a local magistrate empowered chiefly to administer criminal or civil justice in minor cases.
The Mappa Mundi is a thirteenth century map bearing the name of 'Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford', who some scholars have identified as Richard de Bello, Prebendary of Lafford, in the diocese of Lincoln. The map has been dated to around 1290.Drawn on a sheet of vellum, the Mappa Mundi depicts a world with Jerusalem at its centre , based on the writings of the fifth century scholar Orosius. It includes drawings and descriptions illustrating man's history, the marvels of the natural world, and the imagined inhabitants of distant lands, though in other respects is relatively geographically accurate.The map is held at Hereford Cathedral.
Argenta is a town in the province of Ferrara, North-East Italy, situated on the Fiume Reno. Ferrara was a signoria run by the Este family from 1240 - in this period, Duke Nicolò III. In 1598 direct Papal rule was established in Ferrara.
Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but has also included salt, paper and glass. In 1643 a Board of Excise was established by the Long Parliament, to organise the collection of duties in London and the provinces. Excise duty was settled by statute in 1660. A permanent board of Excise for England and Wales was established in 1683 with separate boards for Ireland in 1682 and Scotland in 1707.
A formulary is a book or other list of stated and fixed forms.
The Court of Common Council forms part of the governing body of the City of London, along with the Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common Hall, and is responsible for local government and administration. Common councillors were first appointed during the reign of Edward I, and were formed into the Court of Common Council in 1384. The Court comprises the Lord Mayor, aldermen and councilmen, the latter two being elected from each ward of the city by local government electors.
A jury is a group chosen from the citizenry of a district to try a question of fact. It is the standard jury used in civil and criminal trials.
The report relates to the enquiry into the financial administration of James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in Catalonia in 1708, in particular to the recoining of silver sent to Spain from Italy during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714).
Adriano (Tomaso) Banchieri was an Italian composer, organist, and writer on music. In 1587 he joined the order of the Olivetans, and he subsequently lived and worked at its monasteries in Lucca, Siena, Bosco, Imola, Gubbo, Venice, and Verona. In 1609 he settled at San Michele in Bosco, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was named professor in 1613 and abbot in 1618. In 1615 in Bologna he founded the Accademia dei Floridi. He was an associate of Monteverdi, and his writings are important works in early Baroque music theory. He composed Masses, Psalm settings, motets, music for Offices, madrigals, and theatre works. These last were actually books of madrigals on related texts, using stock comic characters. They were often performed together as madrigal comedies, written to his own texts for the entertainment of Bologna's brilliant social circles. His writings in these fields were often issued under the pseudonym of Camillo Scaliggeri dalla Fratta, or, in the case of his popular La nobilità dell'asino (`The Nobility of the Ass') the improbable Attabalippa dal Peru. John Payne Collier (1789-1883) was an English critic, editor, and forger. The marginal notes and signatures supposedly discovered by him on original documents, especially those concerned with Shakespeare, were later exposed as having been forged by him while in the service of the Duke of Devonshire. His authentic work included A Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language (1865) and the reprinting of early English tracts.
The River Medway is Kent's premier river, rising in the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex and flowing roughly in a north easterly direction for some 70 miles through Kent to its mouth in the Thames estuary at Sheerness. It is tidal up to the lock at Allington, near Maidstone, and is navigable as far as Tonbridge. The first Act Of Parliament enabling a navigation on the Medway was in 1664 and the last was in 1884, the purpose of the Navigation being to facilitate trade.
With a main line of 127.25 miles, the Leeds and Liverpool is the longest canal in Britain. It links the seaport of Liverpool with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Leeds, forming a through route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea. It was proposed in the 1760s as a joint enterprise between the merchants of Yorkshire and Lancashire, though there were some heated discussions as to the route the canal should take. The route finally chosen was up the Aire valley to Gargrave, then through Padiham, Whalley and Leyland to Liverpool, with a link to Wigan, and work started at each end simultaneously. By 1777, when the canal was open from Liverpool to Wigan and from Leeds to Gargrave, the company ran out of money. Construction ceased until 1790 when the economy improved and more finance was available, but the development of East Lancashire as an industrial area meant the proposed line of canal was altered. When it opened throughout, in 1816, it had been constructed along the route first suggested by the Liverpool merchants, through Wigan, Chorley, Blackburn and Burnley, joining the Yorkshiremen's line at Foulridge.
The Court of King's Bench was formerly one of the superior courts of common law in England. King's, or Queen's, Bench was so called because it descended from the English court held coram rege ("before the monarch") and thus traveled wherever the king went. King's Bench heard cases that concerned the sovereign or cases affecting great persons privileged to be tried only before him. It could also correct the errors and defaults of all other courts, and, after the close of the civil wars of Henry III's reign (1216-72), it mainly tried criminal or quasi-criminal cases. In 1268 it obtained its own chief justice, but only very gradually did it lose its close connections with the king and become a separate court of common law. The Court of King's Bench exercised a supreme and general jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases as well as special jurisdiction over the other superior common-law courts until 1830.
A militia was a military organization of citizens with limited military training, which was available for emergency service, usually local defence.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue.
Richard Simon (1638-1712) was a Professor of Philosophy and a Hebrew scholar, who wrote commentaries on the language of the Bible. Isaac-Louis (Le Maistre) de Sacy (1613-1684) was a scripture translator and commentator, and director of the Port Royal Monastery. He was imprisoned for three years in the Bastille for his Jansenist opinions, and translated the Bible during his captivity (1666-1670). Nicolas le Tourneux (1640-1686) was Prior of Villiers sur Fere, and a respected theologian. Adrien Baillet (1649-1706) was a theologian and the librarian to Francois-Chrétien de Lamoignon.
A pontifical is a book of ceremonies performed by a bishop.
Thomas Wentworth was of an ancient and wealthy Yorkshire family, and was born at London, in 1593. He studied at Cambridge, married in 1611, was knighted, and travelled on the continent. He was returned to parliament as member for Yorkshire in 1614, and the next year was named custus rotulorum for the West Riding. He sat in several parliaments for Yorkshire, and without going to extremes, took part with the opponents of the court. In 1628 he went over to the side of the king, and was created Baron Wentworth, then Viscount, Lord President of the Council of the North, and in 1629 Privy-Councillor. In 1633 he was made Lord-Deputy of Ireland (1632-1640), where his harsh government led to the rebellion of 1641. In 1639 Wentworth was created Earl of Strafford, and received the title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Strafford took his seat in the House of Lords in November 1640 and was immediately impeached of high treason for attempting to raise Irish troops to fight the King's English enemies, and committed to the Tower. In March, 1641 his trial began - Strafford defended himself admirably and, as the impeachment seemed likely to fail, a bill of attainder was proposed. Though he initially refused his assent to the attainder, King Charles I finally gave way and his minister, who had trusted in his promise of protection, was beheaded on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641.
The English Parliament is the main legislative body of the country. The House of Commons has the right to impose taxes and to vote money to various public departments and services.
Though first proposed in 1825, the Exeter and Exmouth Railway was finally completed in 1861.
Sir John Dawnay may have been the son of Sir Guy Dawnay, who died in 1552.
Maistre Wace (c 1112-1174) was an Anglo-Norman poet born in Jersey. His works included Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, Vie de Saint Nicolas, Le Roman de Rou, and Vies de la Vierge Marie et de Saint George. The work in question, Le Roman de Brut was a verse-paraphrase written in 1155, which was based on the history of Britain written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and introduced the Round Table into the legend of King Arthur.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue. In time the upper Exchequer developed into the judicial system, while the lower Exchequer became the Treasury.
The Conseil d'Etat is the highest court in France for issues and cases involving public administration. Its origin dates back to 1302, though it was extensively reorganized under Napoleon and was given further powers in 1872. It has long had the responsibility of deciding or advising on state issues and legislative measures submitted to it by the sovereign or, later, by the president, the cabinet, or the parliament. It is the court in which French citizens may bring claims against the administration.