title: Frigate

text: During the 1880s, as warship design shifted from iron to steel and cruising warships without sails started to appear, the term "frigate" fell out of use. Vessels with armoured sides were designated as "battleships" or "armoured cruisers", while "protected cruisers" only possessed an armoured deck, and unarmoured vessels, including frigates and sloops, were classified as "unprotected cruisers".


title: Frigate

text: Modern frigates are related to earlier frigates only by name. The term "frigate" was readopted during the Second World War by the British Royal Navy to describe an anti-submarine escort vessel that was larger than a corvette, while smaller than a destroyer. Equal in size and capability to the American destroyer escort, frigates are usually less expensive to build and maintain. Anti-submarine escorts had previously been classified as sloops by the Royal Navy, and the s of 1939–1945 were as large as the new types of frigate, and more heavily armed. Twenty-two of these were reclassified as frigates after the war, as were the remaining 24 smaller s.


title: Frigate

text: The frigate was introduced to remedy some of the shortcomings inherent in the corvette design: limited armament, a hull form not suited to open-ocean work, a single shaft which limited speed and maneuverability, and a lack of range. The frigate was designed and built to the same mercantile construction standards (scantlings) as the corvette, allowing manufacture by yards unused to warship construction. The first frigates of the (1941) were essentially two sets of corvette machinery in one larger hull, armed with the latest Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon.


title: Frigate

text: The frigate possessed less offensive firepower and speed than a destroyer, but such qualities were not required for anti-submarine warfare. Submarines were slow while submerged, and ASDIC sets did not operate effectively at speeds of over . Rather, the frigate was an austere and weatherly vessel suitable for mass-construction and fitted with the latest innovations in anti-submarine warfare. As the frigate was intended purely for convoy duties, and not to deploy with the fleet, it had limited range and speed.


title: Frigate

text: It was not until the Royal Navy's of 1944 that a British design classified as a "frigate" was produced for fleet use, although it still suffered from limited speed. These anti-aircraft frigates, built on incomplete hulls, were similar to the United States Navy's destroyer escorts (DE), although the latter had greater speed and offensive armament to better suit them to fleet deployments. The destroyer escort concept came from design studies by the General Board of the United States Navy in 1940, as modified by requirements established by a British commission in 1941 prior to the American entry into the war, for deep-water escorts. The American-built destroyer escorts serving in the British Royal Navy were rated as Captain-class frigates. The U.S. Navy's two Canadian-built and 96 British-influenced, American-built frigates that followed originally were classified as "patrol gunboats" (PG) in the U.S. Navy but on 15 April 1943 were all reclassified as patrol frigates (PF).


title: Frigate

text: The introduction of the surface-to-air missile after World War II made relatively small ships effective for anti-aircraft warfare: the "guided-missile frigate". In the USN, these vessels were called "ocean escorts" and designated "DE" or "DEG" until 1975 – a holdover from the World War II destroyer escort or "DE". The Royal Canadian Navy and British Royal Navy maintained the use of the term "frigate"; likewise, the French Navy refers to missile-equipped ship, up to cruiser-sized ships (, , and es), by the name of "frégate", while smaller units are named "aviso". The Soviet Navy used the term "guard-ship" ("сторожевой корабль").


title: Frigate

text: From the 1950s to the 1970s, the United States Navy commissioned ships classed as guided-missile frigates (hull classification symbol DLG or DLGN, literally meaning guided-missile destroyer leaders), which were actually anti-aircraft warfare cruisers built on destroyer-style hulls. These had one or two twin launchers per ship for the RIM-2 Terrier missile, upgraded to the RIM-67 Standard ER missile in the 1980s. This type of ship was intended primarily to defend aircraft carriers against anti-ship cruise missiles, augmenting and eventually replacing converted World War II cruisers (CAG/CLG/CG) in this role. The guided-missile frigates also had an anti-submarine capability that most of the World War II cruiser conversions lacked. Some of these ships – and along with the and es – were nuclear-powered (DLGN). These "frigates" were roughly mid-way in size between cruisers and destroyers. This was similar to the use of the term "frigate" during the age of sail during which it referred to a medium-sized warship, but it was inconsistent with conventions used by other contemporary navies which regarded frigates as being smaller than destroyers. During the 1975 ship reclassification, the large American frigates were redesignated as guided-missile cruisers or destroyers (CG/CGN/DDG), while ocean escorts (the American classification for ships smaller than destroyers, with hull symbol DE/DEG (destroyer escort)) such as the "Knox"-class were reclassified as frigates (FF/FFG), sometimes called "fast frigates". In the late 1970s, as a gradual successor to the "Knox" frigates, the US Navy introduced the 51-ship guided-missile frigates (FFG), the last of which was decommissioned in 2015, although some serve in other navies. By 1995 the older guided-missile cruisers and destroyers were replaced by the s and s.


title: Frigate

text: One of the most successful post-1945 designs was the British , which was used by several navies. Laid down in 1959, the "Leander" class was based on the previous Type 12 anti-submarine frigate but equipped for anti-aircraft use as well. They were used by the UK into the 1990s, at which point some were sold onto other navies. The "Leander" design, or improved versions of it, were licence-built for other navies as well.


title: Frigate

text: Nearly all modern frigates are equipped with some form of offensive or defensive missiles, and as such are rated as guided-missile frigates (FFG). Improvements in surface-to-air missiles (e.g., the Eurosam Aster 15) allow modern guided-missile frigates to form the core of many modern navies and to be used as a fleet defence platform, without the need for specialised anti-air warfare frigates.


title: Frigate

text: Modern destroyers and frigates have sufficient endurance and seaworthiness for long voyages and so are considered blue water vessels, while corvettes (even the largest ones capable of carrying an anti-submarine warfare helicopter) are typically deployed in coastal or littoral zones so are regarded as brown-water or green-water vessels. According to Dr. Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, describing the difference between 21st century destroyers and frigates, the larger "destroyers can more easily carry and generate the power for more powerful high-resolution radar and a larger number of vertical launch cells. They can thus provide theatre wide air and missile defence for forces such as a carrier battle group and typically serve this function". By contrast the smaller "frigates are thus usually used as escort vessels to protect sea lines of communication or as an auxiliary component of a strike group". The largest and powerful destroyers are often classified as cruisers, such as the s, due to their extra armament and facilities to serve as fleet flagships.


title: Frigate

text: The Royal Navy Type 61 ("Salisbury" class) were "air direction" frigates equipped to track aircraft. To this end they had reduced armament compared to the Type 41 ("Leopard"-class) air-defence frigates built on the same hull.


title: Frigate

text: Multi-role frigates like the MEKO 200, and es are designed for navies needing warships deployed in a variety of situations that a general frigate class would not be able to fulfill and not requiring the need for deploying destroyers.


title: Frigate

text: At the opposite end of the spectrum, some frigates are specialised for anti-submarine warfare. Increasing submarine speeds towards the end of World War II (see German Type XXI submarine) greatly reduced the margin of speed superiority of frigate over submarine. The frigate could no longer be slow and powered by mercantile machinery and consequently postwar frigates, such as the , were faster.


title: Frigate

text: Such ships carry improved sonar equipment, such as the variable depth sonar or towed array, and specialised weapons such as torpedoes, forward-throwing weapons such as Limbo and missile-carried anti-submarine torpedoes such as ASROC or Ikara. The Royal Navy's original Type 22 frigate is an example of a specialised anti-submarine warfare frigate, though it also has Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles for point defense plus Exocet surface-to-surface missiles for limited offensive capability.


title: Frigate

text: Especially for anti-submarine warfare, most modern frigates have a landing deck and hangar aft to operate helicopters, eliminating the need for the frigate to close with unknown sub-surface threats, and using fast helicopters to attack nuclear submarines which may be faster than surface warships. For this task the helicopter is equipped with sensors such as sonobuoys, wire-mounted dipping sonar and magnetic anomaly detectors to identify possible threats, and torpedoes or depth-charges to attack them.


title: Frigate

text: With their onboard radar helicopters can also be used to reconnoitre over-the-horizon targets and, if equipped with anti-ship missiles such as Penguin or Sea Skua, to attack them. The helicopter is also invaluable for search and rescue operation and has largely replaced the use of small boats or the jackstay rig for such duties as transferring personnel, mail and cargo between ships or to shore. With helicopters these tasks can be accomplished faster and less dangerously, and without the need for the frigate to slow down or change course.


title: Frigate

text: Frigates designed in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the US Navy's , West Germany's , and Royal Navy's Type 22 frigate were equipped with a small number of short-ranged surface-to-air missiles (Sea Sparrow or Sea Wolf) for point defense only.


title: Frigate

text: By contrast newer frigates starting with the are specialised for "zone-defense" air defence, because of the major developments in fighter jets and ballistic missiles. Recent examples include the air defence and command frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy. These ships are armed with VL Standard Missile 2 Block IIIA, one or two Goalkeeper CIWS systems, ( has two Goalkeepers, the rest of the ships have the capacity for another one.) VL Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, a special SMART-L radar and a Thales Active Phased Array Radar (APAR), all of which are for air defence. Another example is the of the Royal Danish Navy.


title: Frigate

text: Stealth technology has been introduced in modern frigate design by the French design. Frigate shapes are designed to offer a minimal radar cross section, which also lends them good air penetration; the maneuverability of these frigates has been compared to that of sailing ships. Examples are the Italian and French with the Aster 15 and Aster 30 missile for anti-missile capabilities, the German and s, the Turkish type frigates with the MK-41 VLS, the Indian , and classes with the Brahmos missile system and the Malaysian with the Naval Strike Missile.


title: Frigate

text: The modern French Navy applies the term first-class frigate and second-class frigate to both destroyers and frigates in service. Pennant numbers remain divided between F-series numbers for those ships internationally recognised as frigates and D-series pennant numbers for those more traditionally recognised as destroyers. This can result in some confusion as certain classes are referred to as frigates in French service while similar ships in other navies are referred to as destroyers. This also results in some recent classes of French ships such as the being among the largest in the world to carry the rating of frigate.


title: Frigate

text: The "Frégates de Taille Intermédiaire" (FTI), which means frigates of intermediate size, is a French military program to design and create a planned class of frigates to be used by the French Navy. At the moment, the program consists of five ships, with commissioning planned from 2023 onwards.


title: Frigate

text: In the German Navy, frigates were used to replace aging destroyers; however in size and role the new German frigates exceed the former class of destroyers. The future German s are the largest class of frigates worldwide with a displacement of more than 7,200 tons. The same was done in the Spanish Navy, which went ahead with the deployment of the first Aegis frigates, the s.


title: Frigate

text: The Myanmar Navy is producing modern frigates with a reduced radar cross section known as the . Before the Kyan Sittha class, the Myanmar Navy also produced an . Although the size of the Myanmar Navy is quite small, it is producing modern guided-missile frigates with the help of Russia, China, and India. However, the fleets of the Myanmar Navy are still expanding with several on-going shipbuilding programmes, including one , 4,000-tonne frigate with the vertical missile launch systems.


title: Frigate

text: Some new classes of ships similar to corvettes are optimized for high-speed deployment and combat with small craft rather than combat between equal opponents; an example is the U.S. littoral combat ship (LCS). As of 2015, all s in the United States Navy have been decommissioned, and their role partially being assumed by the new LCS. While the LCS class ships are smaller than the frigate class they will replace, they offer a similar degree of weaponry while requiring less than half the crew complement and offering a top speed of over . A major advantage for the LCS ships is that they are designed around specific mission modules allowing them to fulfill a variety of roles. The modular system also allows for most upgrades to be performed ashore and installed later into the ship, keeping the ships available for deployment for the maximum time.


title: Frigate

text: The latest U.S. deactivation plans means that this is the first time that the U.S. Navy has been without a frigate class of ships since 1943 (technically is rated as a frigate and is still in commission, but does not count towards Navy force levels).


title: Frigate

text: The remaining 20 LCSs to be acquired from 2019 and onwards that will be enhanced will be designated as frigates, and existing ships given modifications may also have their classification changed to "FF" as well.


title: Frigate

text: These ships are classified by their respective nations as frigates, but are considered destroyers internationally due to size, armament, and role.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis () is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal's stomach though now an artificial casing is often used instead. According to the 2001 English edition of the "Larousse Gastronomique": "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour".


title: Haggis

text: It is believed that food similar to haggis—perishable offal quickly cooked inside an animal's stomach, all conveniently available after a hunt—was eaten from ancient times.


title: Haggis

text: Although the name "hagws" or "hagese" was first recorded in England c. 1430, the dish is considered traditionally of Scottish origin. It is even the national dish, as a result of Scots poet Robert Burns' poem "Address to a Haggis" of 1786. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties", boiled and mashed separately, and a dram (a glass of Scotch whisky), especially as the main course of a Burns supper.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis is popularly assumed to be of Scottish origin, but many countries have produced similar dishes, albeit with different names. However, the recipes as known and standardised now are distinctly Scottish. The first known written recipes for a dish of the name, made with offal and herbs, are as "hagese", in the verse cookbook "Liber Cure Cocorum" dating from around 1430 in Lancashire, north west England, and, as "hagws of a schepe" from an English cookbook also of c. 1430.


title: Haggis

text: The Scottish poem "Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy", which is dated before 1520 (the generally accepted date prior to the death of William Dunbar, one of the composers), refers to "haggeis".


title: Haggis

text: An early printed recipe for haggis appears in 1615 in "The English Huswife" by Gervase Markham. It contains a section entitled "Skill in Oate meale": "The use and vertues of these two severall kinds of Oate-meales in maintaining the Family, they are so many (according to the many customes of many Nations) that it is almost impossible to recken all"; and then proceeds to give a description of "oat-meale mixed with blood, and the Liver of either Sheepe, Calfe or Swine, maketh that pudding which is called the Haggas or Haggus, of whose goodnesse it is in vaine to boast, because there is hardly to be found a man that doth not affect them." (Gervase Markham, "The English Huswife")


title: Haggis

text: Food writer Alan Davidson suggests that the ancient Romans were the first known to have made products of the haggis type. Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well".


title: Haggis

text: Clarissa Dickson Wright says that it "came to Scotland in a longship [i.e., from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation". She cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the "hag–" element of the word is derived from the Old Norse or the Old Icelandic "hoggva" ( meaning 'to chop' in modern Icelandic), Modern Scots "hag", meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish.


title: Haggis

text: In her book, "The Haggis: A Little History", Dickson Wright suggests that haggis was invented as a way of cooking quick-spoiling offal near the site of a hunt, without the need to carry along an additional cooking vessel. The liver and kidneys could be grilled directly over a fire, but this treatment was unsuitable for the stomach, intestines, or lungs. Chopping up the lungs and stuffing the stomach with them and whatever fillers might have been on hand, then boiling the assembly – probably in a vessel made from the animal's hide – was one way to make sure these parts were not wasted.


title: Haggis

text: In the absence of hard facts as to haggis' origins, popular folklore has provided some notions. One is that the dish originates from the days of the old Scottish cattle drovers. When the men left the Highlands to drive their cattle to market in Edinburgh, the women would prepare rations for them to eat during the long journey down through the glens. They used the ingredients that were most readily available in their homes and conveniently packaged them in a sheep's stomach allowing for easy transportation during the journey. Other speculations have been based on Scottish slaughtering practices. When a chieftain or laird required an animal to be slaughtered for meat (whether sheep or cattle) the workmen were allowed to keep the offal as their share.


title: Haggis

text: A joke sometimes maintained is that a haggis is a small Scottish animal with longer legs on one side, so that it can run around the steep hills of the Scottish highlands without falling over. According to one poll, 33 percent of American visitors to Scotland believed haggis to be an animal.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis is traditionally served as part of the Burns supper on or near January 25, the birthday of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. Burns wrote the poem "Address to a Haggis", which starts "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" In Burns's lifetime haggis was a common dish of the poor as it was nourishing yet very cheap, being made from leftover parts of sheep otherwise discarded.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland all year, with cheaper brands normally packed in artificial casings, rather than stomachs. Sometimes haggis is sold in tins or a container which can be cooked in a microwave or conventional oven. Some commercial haggis is largely made from pig, rather than sheep, offal. Kosher haggis, not only pork-free but fully conformant to Jewish dietary laws, is produced.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis is often served in Scottish fast-food establishments, in the shape of a large sausage and deep fried in batter. Together with chips, this comprises a "haggis supper". A "haggis burger" is a patty of fried haggis served on a bun. A "haggis pakora" is another deep fried variant, available in some Indian restaurants in Scotland. Haggis can be used as an ingredient in other dishes, even pizza, rather than the main part of a dish.


title: Haggis

text: A traditional haggis recipe describes haggis as "sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and boiled". Ingredients are sheep stomach, heart and lungs of one lamb, onions, oatmeal, salt, pepper, stock, and water, with optional ingredients dried coriander, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It can be boiled, baked, or deep fried.


title: Haggis

text: In the north-east of Scotland, from Aberdeen northwards, in addition to the customary neeps and tatties, haggis is commonly served with mince.


title: Haggis

text: Vegetarian haggis was first available commercially in 1984, and now can account for between 25% and 40% of haggis sales. It substitutes various pulses, nuts and vegetables for the meat. Oats and barley may be included as may different types of lentils, split peas, adzuki beans, kidney beans, borlotti beans, peanuts, other nuts and mushrooms, onions, and carrots.


title: Haggis

text: Haggis remains popular with Scottish immigrants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, owing to the strong influence of Scottish culture, especially for Burns Suppers. It can easily be made in any country but is sometimes imported from Scotland. A recipe from the Canadian province of New Brunswick uses pork and bakes it in a loaf pan.


title: Haggis

text: In 1971 it became illegal to import haggis into the US from the UK due to a ban on food containing sheep lung, which constitutes 10–15% of the traditional recipe. The ban encompasses all lungs, as fluids such as stomach acid and phlegm may enter the lung during slaughter. The situation was further complicated in 1989 when all UK beef and lamb was banned from importation to the US due to a BSE crisis. In 2010 a spokeswoman for the US Department of Agriculture stated that they were reviewing the ban on beef and lamb products, but that the ban on food containing sheep lung would remain in force.


title: Haggis

text: As haggis cannot be exported to the United States, it is instead made there, sometimes by Scottish companies. In one such use, which is stated to be the same 150-year-old recipe having the same ingredients as in Scotland, sheep lung is not used and the casing is artificial rather than stomach.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. After Edward died in 924, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Edmund's half-brother Æthelstan. Edmund was crowned after Æthelstan died childless in 939. He had two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, by his first wife Ælfgifu, and none by his second wife Æthelflæd. His sons were young children when he was killed in a brawl with an outlaw at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire, and he was succeeded by his younger brother Eadred, who died in 955 and was followed by Edmund's sons in succession.


title: Edmund I

text: Æthelstan had succeeded as the king of England south of the Humber and he became the first king of all England when he conquered Viking-ruled York in 927, but after his death Anlaf Guthfrithson was accepted as king of York and extended Viking rule to the Five Boroughs of north-east Mercia. Edmund was initially forced to accept the reverse, the first major setback for the West Saxon dynasty since Alfred's reign, but he was able to recover his position following Anlaf's death in 941. In 942 Edmund took back control of the Five Boroughs and in 944 he regained control over the whole of England when he expelled the Viking kings of York. Eadred had to deal with further revolts when he became king, and York was not finally conquered until 954. Æthelstan had achieved a dominant position over other British kings and Edmund maintained this, perhaps apart from Scotland. The north Welsh king Idwal Foel may have allied with the Vikings as he was killed by the English in 942. The British kingdom of Strathclyde may also have sided with the Vikings as Edmund ravaged it in 945 and then ceded it to Malcolm I of Scotland. Edmund also continued his brother's friendly relations with Continental rulers, several of whom were married to his half-sisters.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund inherited his brother's interests and leading advisers, such as Oda, whom he appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 941, Æthelstan Half-King, ealdorman of East Anglia, and Ælfheah the Bald, Bishop of Winchester. Government at the local level was mainly carried on by ealdormen, and Edmund made substantial changes in personnel during his reign, with a move from Æthelstan's main reliance on West Saxons to a greater prominence of men with Mercian connections. Unlike the close relatives of previous kings, his mother and brother attested many of Edmund's charters, suggesting a high degree of family cooperation. Edmund was also an active legislator, and three of his codes survive. Provisions include ones which attempt to regulate feuds and emphasise the sanctity of the royal person.


title: Edmund I

text: The major religious movement of the tenth century, the English Benedictine Reform, reached its peak under Edgar, but Edmund's reign was important in its early stages. He appointed Dunstan abbot of Glastonbury, where he was joined by Æthelwold. They were to be two of the leaders of the reform and they made the abbey the first important centre for disseminating it. Unlike the circle of his son Edgar, Edmund did not take the view that Benedictine monasticism was the only worthwhile religious life, and he also patronised unreformed (non-Benedictine) establishments.


title: Edmund I

text: In the ninth century the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia came under increasing attack from Vikings, culminating in invasion by the Great Heathen Army in 865. By 878, the Vikings had overrun East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and nearly conquered Wessex, but in that year the West Saxons fought back under Alfred the Great and achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Edington. In the 880s and 890s the Anglo-Saxons ruled Wessex and western Mercia, but the rest of England was under Viking kings. Alfred constructed a network of fortresses, and these helped him to frustrate renewed Viking attacks in the 890s with the assistance of his son-in-law, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, and his elder son Edward, who became king when Alfred died in 899. In 909 Edward sent a force of West Saxons and Mercians to attack the Northumbrian Danes, and the following year the Danes retaliated with a raid on Mercia. While they were marching back to Northumbria, they were caught by an Anglo-Saxon army and decisively defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall, ending the threat from the Northumbrian Vikings for a generation. In the 910s Edward and Æthelflæd, his sister and Æthelred's widow, extended Alfred's network of fortresses and conquered Viking-ruled eastern Mercia and East Anglia. When Edward died in 924, he controlled all England south of the Humber.


title: Edmund I

text: Edward was succeeded by his eldest son Æthelstan, who seized control of Northumbria in 927, thus becoming the first king of all England. He then styled himself in charters as king of the English, and soon afterwards Welsh kings and the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde acknowledged his overlordship. After this, he adopted more grandiose titles such as (king of the whole of Britain). In 934 he invaded Scotland and in 937 an alliance of armies of Scotland, Strathclyde and the Vikings invaded England. Æthelstan secured a decisive victory at the Battle of Brunanburh, cementing his dominant position in Britain.


title: Edmund I

text: Benedictine monasticism had flourished in England in the seventh and eighth centuries, but it severely declined in the late eighth and ninth centuries. By the time Alfred came to the throne in 871, monasteries and knowledge of Latin were at a low ebb, but there was a gradual revival from Alfred's time onwards. This accelerated during Æthelstan's reign, and two leaders of the later tenth-century English Benedictine Reform, Dunstan and Æthelwold, reached maturity in Æthelstan's cosmopolitan, intellectual court of the 930s.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund's father, Edward the Elder, had three wives, eight or nine daughters, several of whom married Continental royalty, and five sons. Æthelstan was the only known son of Edward's first wife, Ecgwynn. His second wife, Ælfflæd, had two sons: Ælfweard, who may have been acknowledged in Wessex as king when his father died in 924 but who died less than a month later, and Edwin, who drowned in 933. In about 919 Edward married Eadgifu, the daughter of Sigehelm, ealdorman of Kent. Edmund, who was born in 920 or 921, was Eadgifu's elder son. Her younger son Eadred succeeded him as king. Edmund had one or two full sisters. Eadburh was a nun at Winchester who was later venerated as a saint. The twelfth-century historian William of Malmesbury gives Edmund a second full sister who married Louis, prince of Aquitaine; she was called Eadgifu, the same name as her mother. William's account is accepted by the historians Ann Williams and Sean Miller, but Æthelstan's biographer Sarah Foot argues that she did not exist, and that William confused her with Ælfgifu, a daughter of Ælfflæd.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund was a young child when his half-brother Æthelstan became king in 924. He grew up at Æthelstan's court, probably with two important Continental exiles, his nephew Louis, future King of the West Franks, and Alain, future Duke of Brittany. According to William of Malmesbury, Æthelstan showed great affection towards Edmund and Eadred: "mere infants at his father's death, he brought them up lovingly in childhood, and when they grew up gave them a share in his kingdom". Edmund may have been a member of the expedition to Scotland in 934 as, according to the (History of Saint Cuthbert), Æthelstan instructed that in the event of his death Edmund was to take his body to Cuthbert's shrine at Chester-le-Street. Edmund fought at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, and in a poem commemorating the victory in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" ("ASC"), Edmund (prince of the royal house) is given such a prominent role – and praised for his heroism alongside Æthelstan – that the historian Simon Walker has suggested that the poem was written during Edmund's reign. At a royal assembly shortly before Æthelstan's death in 939, Edmund and Eadred attested a grant to their full sister, Eadburh, both as (king's brother). Their attestations may have been because of the family connection, but they also may have been intended to display the throneworthiness of the king's half-brothers when it was known that he did not have long to live. This is the only charter of Æthelstan attested by Edmund, the authenticity of which has not been questioned. Æthelstan died childless on 27 October 939 and Edmund's succession to the throne was undisputed. He was the first king to succeed to the throne of all England, and was probably crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames, perhaps on Advent Sunday, 1 December 939.


title: Edmund I

text: Brunanburh saved England from destruction as a united kingdom, and it helped to ensure that Edmund would succeed smoothly to the throne, but it did not preserve him from challenges to his rule once he became king. The chronology of the Viking challenge is disputed, but according to the most widely accepted version, Æthelstan's death encouraged the York Vikings to accept the kingship of Anlaf Guthfrithson, the King of Dublin who had led the Viking forces defeated at Brunanburh. According to "ASC D": "Here the Northumbrians belied their pledges and chose Anlaf from Ireland as their king." Anlaf was in York by the end of 939 and the following year he invaded north-east Mercia, aiming to recover the southern territories of the York kingdom which had been conquered by Edward and Æthelflæd. He marched on Northampton, where he was repulsed, and then stormed the ancient Mercian royal centre of Tamworth, with considerable loss of life on both sides. On his way back north he was caught at Leicester by an army under Edmund, but battle was averted by the mediation of Archbishop Wulfstan of York, on behalf of the Vikings, and probably the Archbishop of Canterbury acting for the English. They arranged a treaty at Leicester which surrendered the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, to Guthfrithson. This was the first serious setback for the English since Edward the Elder began to roll back Viking conquests in the early tenth century, and it was described by the historian Frank Stenton as "an ignominious surrender". Guthfrithson had coins struck at York with the lower Viking weight than the English standard.


title: Edmund I

text: Guthfrithson died in 941, allowing Edmund to reverse his losses. In 942 he recovered the Five Boroughs, and his victory was considered so significant that it was commemorated by a poem in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle":


title: Edmund I

text: Like other tenth-century poems in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", this one shows a concern with English nationalism and the West Saxon royal dynasty, and in this case displays the Christian English and Danes as united under Edmund in their victorious opposition to Norse (Norwegian) pagans. Stenton commented that the poem brings out the highly significant fact that the Danes of eastern Mercia, after fifteen years of Æthelstan's government, had come to regard themselves as the rightful subjects of the English king. Above all, it emphasises the antagonism between Danes and Norsemen, which is often ignored by modern writers, but underlies the whole history of England in this period. It is the first political poem in the English language, and its author understood political realities.


title: Edmund I

text: However, Williams is sceptical, arguing that the poem is not contemporary, and that it is doubtful whether contemporaries saw their situation in those terms. In the same year Edmund granted large estates in northern Mercia to a leading nobleman, Wulfsige the Black, continuing the policy of his father of granting land in the Danelaw to supporters in order to give them an interest in resisting the Vikings.


title: Edmund I

text: Guthfrithson was succeeded as king of York by his cousin, Anlaf Sihtricson, who was baptised in 943 with Edmund as his godfather, suggesting that he accepted West Saxon overlordship. Sihtricson issued his own coinage, but he clearly had rivals in York as coins were also issued there in two other names: Ragnall, a brother of Anlaf Guthfrithson who also accepted baptism under Edmund's sponsorship, and an otherwise unknown Sihtric. The coins of all three men were issued with the same design, which may suggest joint authority. In 944 Edmund expelled the Viking rulers of York and seized control of the city with the assistance of Archbishop Wulfstan, who had previously supported the Vikings, and an ealdorman in Mercia, probably Æthelmund, who had been appointed by Edmund in 940.


title: Edmund I

text: When Edmund died, his successor Eadred faced further revolts in Northumbria, which were not finally defeated until 954. In Miller's view, Edmund's reign "shows clearly that although Æthelstan had conquered Northumbria, it was still not really part of a united England, nor would it be until the end of Eadred's reign". The Northumbrians' repeated revolts show that they retained separatist ambitions, which they only abandoned under pressure from successive southern kings. Unlike Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred rarely claimed jurisdiction over the whole of Britain, although each did sometimes describe himself as 'king of the English' even at times when he did not control Northumbria. In charters Edmund sometimes even called himself by the lesser title of 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' in 940 and 942, and only claimed to be king of all Britain once he had gained full control over Northumbria in 945. He never described himself as on his coinage.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund inherited overlordship over the kings of Wales from Æthelstan, but Idwal Foel, king of Gwynedd in north Wales, apparently took advantage of Edmund's early weakness to withhold fealty and may have supported Anlaf Guthfrithson, as according to the he was killed by the English in 942. Between 942 and 950 his kingdom was conquered by Hywel Dda, the king of Deheubarth in south Wales, who is described by the historian of Wales Thomas Charles-Edwards as "the firmest ally of the English 'emperors of Britain' among all the kings of his day". Attestations of Welsh kings to English charters appear to have been rare compared with those in Æthelstan's reign, but in the historian David Dumville's view there is no reason to doubt that Edmund retained his overlordship over the Welsh kings. In a charter of 944 disposing of land in Devon, Edmund is styled "King of the English and ruler of this British province", suggesting that the former British kingdom of Dumnonia was still not regarded as fully integrated into England, although the historian Simon Keynes "suspects some 'local' interference" in the wording of Edmund's title.


title: Edmund I

text: By 945 both Scotland and Strathclyde had kings who had assumed the throne since Brunanburh, and it is likely that whereas Scotland allied with England, Strathclyde held to its alliance with the Vikings. In that year Edmund ravaged Strathclyde. According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Roger of Wendover, the invasion was supported by Hywel Dda, and Edmund had two sons of the king of Strathclyde blinded, perhaps to deprive their father of throneworthy heirs. Edmund then gave the kingdom to Malcolm I of Scotland in return for a pledge to defend it on land and on sea, a decision variously interpreted by historians. Dumville and Charles-Edwards regard it as granting Strathclyde to the Scottish king in return for an acknowledgement of Edmund's overlordship, whereas Williams thinks it probably means that he agreed to Malcolm's overlordship of the area in return for an alliance against the Dublin Vikings, and Stenton and Miller see it as recognition by Edmund that Northumbria was the northern limit of Anglo-Saxon England.


title: Edmund I

text: According to the hagiography of a Gaelic monk called Cathróe he travelled through England on his journey from Scotland to the Continent; Edmund summoned him to court and Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, then ceremonially conducted him to his ship at Lympne. Travelling clerics played an important part in the circulation of manuscripts and ideas in this period, and Cathróe is unlikely to have been the only Celtic cleric at Edmund's court.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund inherited strong Continental contacts from Æthelstan's cosmopolitan court, and these were enhanced by their sisters' marriages to foreign kings and princes. Edmund carried on his brother's Continental policies and maintained his alliances, especially with his nephew King Louis IV of West Francia and Otto I, King of East Francia and future Holy Roman Emperor. Louis was both nephew and brother-in-law of Otto, while Otto and Edmund were brothers-in-law. There were almost certainly extensive diplomatic contacts between Edmund and Continental rulers which have not been recorded, but it is known that Otto sent delegations to Edmund's court. In the early 940s some Norman lords sought the help of the Danish prince Harald against Louis, and in 945 Harald captured Louis and handed him to Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, who kept him prisoner. Edmund and Otto both protested and demanded his immediate release, but this only took place in exchange for the surrender of the town of Laon to Hugh.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund's name is in the confraternity book of Pfäfers Abbey in Switzerland, perhaps at the request of Archbishop Oda when staying there on his way to or from Rome to collect his pallium. As with the diplomatic delegations, this probably represents rare surviving evidence of extensive contacts between English and Continental churchmen which continued from Æthelstan's reign.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund inherited his brother's interests and leading advisers, such as Æthelstan Half-King, ealdorman of East Anglia, Ælfheah the Bald, bishop of Winchester, and Oda, bishop of Ramsbury, who was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury by Edmund in 941. Æthelstan Half-King first witnessed a charter as an ealdorman in 932, and within three years of Edmund's accession he had been joined by two of his brothers as ealdormen; their territories covered more than half of England and his wife fostered the future King Edgar. The historian Cyril Hart compares the brothers' power during Edmund's reign to that of the Godwins a century later. Edmund's mother, Eadgifu, who had been in eclipse during her step-son's reign, was also very influential.


title: Edmund I

text: For the first half of 940 there were no changes in the attestations of ealdormen compared with the end of Æthelstan's reign, but later in the year the number of ealdormen was doubled from four to eight, with three of the new ealdormen covering Mercian districts. There was an increased reliance on the family of Æthelstan Half-King, which was enriched by grants in 942. The appointments may have been part of Edmund's measures to deal with Anlaf's incursion.


title: Edmund I

text: Eadgifu and Eadred attested many of Edmund's charters, showing a high degree of family cooperation; initially Eadgifu attested first, but from sometime in late 943 or early 944 Eadred took precedence, perhaps reflecting his growing authority. Eadgifu attested around one third, always as (king's mother), including all grants to religious institutions and individuals. Eadred attested over half of his brother's charters. Eadgifu's and Eadred's prominence in charter attestations is unparalleled by any other West Saxon king's mother and male relative.


title: Edmund I

text: The period from around 925 to 975 was the golden age of Anglo-Saxon royal charters, when they were at their peak as instruments of royal government, and the scribes who drew up most of Edmund's charters constituted a royal secretariat which he inherited from his brother. From 928 until 935 charters were produced by the very learned scribe designated by scholars as Æthelstan A in a highly elaborate style. Keynes comments: "It is only by dwelling on the glories and complexities of the diplomas drafted and written by Æthelstan A that one can appreciate the elegant simplicity of the diplomas that followed." A scribe known as Edmund C wrote an inscription in a gospel book (BL Cotton Tiberius A. ii folio 15v) during Æthelstan's reign and wrote charters for Edmund and Eadred between 944 and 949.


title: Edmund I

text: Most of Edmund's charters belong to the diplomatic 'mainstream', including those of Edmund C, but four are part of a group, dating mainly to Eadred's reign, called the 'alliterative charters'. They were drafted by a very learned scholar, almost certainly someone in the circle of Cenwald, Bishop of Worcester, or perhaps the bishop himself. These charters are characterised both by a high proportion of words starting with the same letter and by the use of unusual words. Ben Snook describes the charters as "impressive literary works", and like much of the writing of the period their style displays the influence of Aldhelm, a leading scholar and early eighth-century bishop of Sherborne.


title: Edmund I

text: The only coin in common use in the tenth century was the penny. The main coin designs in Edmund's reign were H (Horizontal) types, with a cross or other decoration on the obverse surrounded by a circular inscription including the king's name, and the moneyer's name horizontally on the reverse. There were also substantial numbers of BC (Bust Crowned) types in East Anglia and the Danish shires; these had a portrait of the king, often crudely drawn, on the obverse. For a period in Æthelstan's reign many coins showed the mint town, but this had become rare by the time of Edmund's accession, except in Norwich, where it continued during the 940s for BC types.


title: Edmund I

text: After the reign of Edward the Elder there was a slight decline in the weight of coins under Æthelstan, and the deterioration increased after around 940, continuing until Edgar's reform of the coinage in around 973. However, based on a very small sample, there is no evidence of a decline in the silver content under Edmund. His reign saw an increase in regional diversity of the coinage which lasted for twenty years until a return to relative unity of design early in Edgar's reign.


title: Edmund I

text: Three law codes of Edmund survive, carrying on Æthelstan's tradition of legal reform. They are called I Edmund, II Edmund and III Edmund. The order in which they were issued is clear, but not the dates of issue. I Edmund is concerned with ecclesiastical matters, while the other codes deal with public order.


title: Edmund I

text: I Edmund was promulgated at a council in London convened by Edmund and attended by archbishops Oda and Wulfstan. The code is very similar to "Constitutions" previously promulgated by Oda. Uncelibate clerics were threatened with the loss of property and forbidden burial in consecrated ground, and there were also provisions regarding church dues and the restoration of church property. A clause forbidding a murderer from coming into the neighbourhood of the king, unless he had done penance for his crime, reflected an increasing emphasis on the sanctity of kingship. Edmund was one of the few Anglo-Saxon kings to promulgate laws concerned with sorcery and idolatry, and the code condemns false witness and the use of magical drugs. The association between perjury and the use of drugs in magic was traditional, probably because they both involved the breaking of a religious oath.


title: Edmund I

text: In II Edmund, the king and his counsellors are stated to be "greatly distressed by the manifold illegal deeds of violence which are in our midst", and aimed to promote "peace and concord". The main focus is on regulating and controlling blood feuds. The authorities () are required to put a stop to vendettas following murders: the killer should instead pay (compensation) to the relatives of the victim. If no wergeld is paid, the killer has to bear the feud, but attacks on him are forbidden in churches and royal manor houses. If the killer's kin abandon him and refuse to contribute to a wergeld and to protect him, then it is the king's will that they are to be exempt from the feud: any of the victim's kin taking vengeance on them shall incur the hostility of the king and his friends and shall lose all their possessions. In the view of the historian Dorothy Whitelock the need for legislation to control the feud was partly due to the influx of Danish settlers who believed that it was more manly to pursue a vendetta than to settle a dispute by accepting compensation. Several Scandinavian loan words are first recorded in this code, such as , the crime of attacking a homestead; the penalty is loss of all the offender's property, while the king decides whether he also loses his life. Scandinavian loan words are not found in Edmund's other codes, and this one may have been particularly aimed at his Danish subjects. In contrast to Edmund's concern about the level of violence, he congratulated his people on their success in suppressing thefts. The code encourages greater local initiative in upholding the law, while emphasising Edmund's royal dignity and authority.


title: Edmund I

text: The relationship between Anglo-Saxon kings and their leading men was personal; kings were lords and protectors in return for pledges of loyalty and obedience, and this is spelled out in terms based on Carolingian legislation for the first time in III Edmund, issued at Colyton in Devon. This requires that "all shall swear in the name of the Lord, before whom that holy thing is holy, that they will be faithful to King Edmund, even as it behoves a man to be faithful to his lord, without any dispute or dissension, openly or in secret, favouring what he favours and discountenancing what he discountenances." The threat of divine retribution was important in a society which had limited coercive power to punish law breaking and disloyalty. The military historian Richard Abels argues that "all" () shall swear does not mean literally all, but should be understood to mean those men qualified to take oaths administered by royal reeves at shire courts, that is the middling and great landholders, and that Edmund's oath united his diverse peoples by binding them all to him personally. The emphasis on lordship is further seen in provisions setting out the duties of lords to take responsibility for their followers and stand surety for them.


title: Edmund I

text: III Edmund was also concerned to prevent theft, especially cattle rustling. The local community is required to cooperate in catching thieves, dead or alive, and to assist in tracking down stolen cattle, while trading had to be witnessed by a high reeve, priest, treasurer or port reeve. According to a provision described by the legal historian Patrick Wormald as gruesome: "we have declared with regard to slaves that, if a number of them commit theft, their leader shall be captured and slain, or hanged, and each of the others shall be scourged three times and have his scalp removed and his little finger mutilated as a token of his guilt". The code has the first reference to the hundred as an administrative unit of local government in a provision requiring anyone who refuses to assist in the apprehension of a thief to pay 120 shillings to the king and 30 shillings to the hundred.


title: Edmund I

text: Williams comments "In both the second code and the Colyton legislation, the functions of the four pillars of medieval society, kingship, lordship, family, and neighbourhood, are clearly evident." Wormald describes the codes as "an object-lesson in the variety of Anglo-Saxon legal texts", but he sees what they have in common as more important, especially a heightened rhetorical tone which extends to treating murder as an affront to the royal person. The historian Alaric Trousdale sees "explicit funding of local administrative institutions and the greater empowerment of local officials in the application of the law" as original contributions of Edmund's legislation. Edmund is listed in laws of his grandson Æthelred the Unready as one of the wise law-givers of the past.


title: Edmund I

text: The major religious movement of the tenth century, the English Benedictine Reform, reached its peak under Edgar, but Edmund's reign was important in the early stages, which were led by Oda and Ælfheah, both of whom were monks. Oda had strong connections with Continental centres of reform, especially Fleury Abbey. He had been a leading counsellor of Æthelstan and had helped to negotiate the return of Louis to France as king of the Franks in 936. Dunstan was to be a key figure in the reform and Archbishop of Canterbury, and according to his first biographer he was a leading figure at Edmund's court until his enemies persuaded Edmund to expel him, only for the king to have a change of heart after a narrow escape from death and give him a royal estate at Glastonbury, including its abbey. Williams rejects the story because there is no evidence that he was influential in this period; his brother attested charters, but he did not. Edmund may have given Dunstan the abbey to keep him at a distance because he was too much of a disruptive influence at court. He was joined by Æthelwold, another future reform leader, and they spent much of the next decade studying Benedictine texts at Glastonbury, which became the first centre for disseminating monastic reform.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund visited the shrine of St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street church, probably on his way to Scotland in 945. He prayed at the shrine and commended himself and his army to the saint. His men gave 60 pounds to the shrine, and Edmund placed two gold bracelets on the saint's body and wrapped two costly (lengths of Greek cloth) around it. One of the was probably an excellent Byzantine silk found in Cuthbert's tomb known as the 'Nature Goddess silk'. He also "granted peace and law better than any it ever had to the whole territory of St Cuthbert". Edmund's show of respect and support for the shrine reflected both the political power of the community of St Cuthbert in the north and southern reverence for him. According to William of Malmesbury, Edmund brought the relics of important Northumbrian saints such as Aidan south to Glastonbury Abbey.


title: Edmund I

text: Another sign of the religious revival was the number of aristocratic women who adopted a religious life. Several received grants from Edmund, including a nun called Ælfgyth, who was a patron of Wilton Abbey, and Wynflæd, the mother of Edmund's first wife. Æthelstan had granted two estates to religious women, Edmund made seven such grants and Eadred four. After this the practice ceased abruptly, apart from one further donation. The significance of the donations is uncertain, but the most likely explanation is that in the mid-tenth century some religious aristocratic women were granted the estates so that they could choose how to pursue their vocation, whether by establishing a nunnery or living a religious life in their own homes.


title: Edmund I

text: In the reign of Edmund's son Edgar, Æthelwold and his circle insisted that Benedictine monasticism was the only worthwhile form of religious life, but this was not the view of earlier kings such as Edmund. He was concerned to support religion, but was not committed to a particular ideology of religious development. In his grants he continued Æthelstan's policies. When Gérard of Brogne reformed the Abbey of Saint Bertin by imposing the Benedictine rule in 944, monks who rejected the changes fled to England and Edmund gave them a church owned by the crown at Bath. He may have had personal motives for his assistance, as the monks had given burial to his half-brother, Edwin, who had drowned at sea in 933, but the incident shows that Edmund did not see only one monastic rule as valid. He may also have granted privileges to the unreformed (non-Benedictine) Bury St Edmunds Abbey, but the charter's authenticity is disputed.


title: Edmund I

text: Latin learning revived in Æthelstan's reign, influenced by Continental models and by the hermeneutic style of the leading seventh-century scholar and Bishop of Sherborne, Aldhelm. The revival continued in Edmund's reign, and Welsh book production became increasingly influential. Welsh manuscripts were studied and copied, and they influenced the early use of Carolingian minuscule script in England, although Continental sources are also important. Edmund's reign also saw the development of a new style of the native square minuscule script, which was used in mid-century royal diplomas. Oda's school at Canterbury was praised by post-Conquest chroniclers, especially for the presence there of Frithegod, a brilliant Continental scholar and the most skilful poet in mid-tenth-century England. The "Vatican" recension of the was produced in England in Edmund's reign, probably in 944.


title: Edmund I

text: Edmund probably married his first wife Ælfgifu around the time of his accession to the throne, as their second son was born in 943. Their sons Eadwig and Edgar both became kings of England. Ælfgifu's father is not known, but her mother is identified by a charter of Edgar which confirms a grant by his grandmother Wynflæd of land to Shaftesbury Abbey. Ælfgifu was also a benefactor of Shaftesbury Abbey; when she died in 944 she was buried there and venerated as a saint. Edmund had no known children by his second wife, Æthelflæd, who died after 991. Her father Ælfgar became ealdorman of Essex in 946. Edmund presented him with a sword lavishly decorated with gold and silver, which Ælfgar later presented to King Eadred. Æthelflæd's second husband was Æthelstan Rota, a south-east Mercian ealdorman, and her will survives.


title: Edmund I

text: On 26 May 946 Edmund was killed in a brawl at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. According to the post-Conquest chronicler, John of Worcester:


title: Edmund I

text: The historians Clare Downham and Kevin Halloran dismiss John of Worcester's account and suggest that the king was the victim of a political assassination, but this view has not been accepted by other historians.


title: Edmund I

text: Like his son Edgar thirty years later, Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. The location may have reflected its spiritual prestige and royal endorsement of the monastic reform movement, but as his death was unexpected it is more likely that Dunstan was successful in claiming the body. His sons were still young children, so he was succeeded as king by his brother Eadred, who was in turn succeeded by Edmund's elder son Eadwig in 955.


title: Edmund I

text: Historians' views of Edmund's character and record differ widely. The historian Barbara Yorke comments that when substantial powers were delegated there was a danger that subjects would become over-powerful: the kings following Æthelstan came to the throne young and had short reigns, and the families of Æthelstan 'Half-King' and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, developed unassailable positions. In the view of Cyril Hart: "For the whole of his brief reign, the young king Edmund remained strongly under the influence of his mother Eadgifu and the 'Half King', who between them must have decided much of the national policy." In contrast, Williams describes Edmund as "an energetic and forceful ruler" and Stenton commented that "he proved himself to be both warlike and politically effective", while in Dumville's view, but for his early death "he might yet have been remembered as one of the more remarkable of Anglo-Saxon kings".


title: Edmund I

text: The historian Ryan Lavelle comments that "a case can be made, as Alaric Trousdale has recently done [in his PhD thesis on Edmund's reign], for assigning Edmund a central role to the achievements of the tenth-century English state". Trousdale comments that the period between the reigns of Æthelstan and Edgar has been comparatively neglected by historians: the reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig "are often lumped together as a sort of interim period between the much more interesting reigns of Æthelstan and Edgar". He argues that "King Edmund's legislation shows an ambition towards tighter control of the localities through increased cooperation between all levels of government, and that king and archbishop were working closely together in restructuring the English administrative framework". Trousdale sees a transition which "was marked in part by a small yet significant shift away from a reliance on traditional West Saxon administrative structures and the power blocs that had enjoyed influence under King Æthelstan, towards increased cooperation with interests and families from Mercia and East Anglia". He also sees Edmund as moving away from Æthelstan's centralisation of power to a more collegial relationship with local secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Trousdale's picture contrasts with that of other historians such as Sarah Foot, who emphasises the achievements of Æthelstan, and George Molyneaux in his study of the formation of the late Anglo-Saxon state in the reign of Edgar.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery. He introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar, and a new land revenue system, which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry. He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual "Fathul Mujahidin". He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Srirangapatna.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan and his father used their French-trained army in alliance with the French in their struggle with the British, and in Mysore's struggles with other surrounding powers: against the Marathas, Sira, and rulers of Malabar, Kodagu, Bednore, Carnatic, and Travancore. Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, had risen to power and Tipu succeeded him as the ruler of Mysore upon his death from cancer in 1782. He won important victories against the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. He negotiated the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore with them, ending the Second Anglo-Mysore War.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu's conflicts with his neighbours included the Maratha–Mysore War, which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Gajendragad. The treaty required that Tipu Sultan pay 4.8 million rupees as a one-time war cost to the Marathas, and an annual tribute of 1.2 million rupees, in addition to returning all the territory captured by Hyder Ali.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu remained an implacable enemy of the British East India Company, sparking conflict with his attack on British-allied Travancore in 1789. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, he was forced into the Treaty of Seringapatam, losing a number of previously conquered territories, including Malabar and Mangalore. He sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, a combined force of British East India Company troops, supported by the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad defeated Tipu. He was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his stronghold of Seringapatam.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan was born on 10 November 1750 at Devanahalli, in present-day Bangalore Rural district, about north of Bangalore city. He was named "Tipu Sultan" after the saint Tipu Mastan Aulia of Arcot. Being illiterate, Hyder was very particular in giving his eldest son a prince's education and a very early exposure to military and political affairs. From the age of 17 Tipu was given independent charge of important diplomatic and military missions. He was his father's right arm in the wars from which Hyder emerged as the most powerful ruler of southern India.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, was a military officer in service to the Kingdom of Mysore who had become the "de facto" ruler of Mysore in 1761 while his mother Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa was the daughter of Mir Muin-ud-Din, the governor of the fort of Kadapa. Hyder Ali appointed able teachers to give Tipu an early education in subjects like Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Kannada, beary, Quran, Islamic jurisprudence, riding, shooting and fencing.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father. At age 15, he accompanied his father against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766. He commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of Carnatic in 1767 at age 16. He also distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Maratha War of 1775–1779.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Alexander Beatson, who published a volume on the Fourth Mysore War entitled "View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultaun", described Tipu Sultan as follows: "His stature was about five feet eight inches; he had a short neck, square shoulders, and was rather corpulent: his limbs were small, particularly his feet and hands; he had large full eyes, small arched eyebrows, and an aquiline nose; his complexion was fair, and the general expression of his countenance, not void of dignity".


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1779, the British captured the French-controlled port of Mahé, which Tipu had placed under his protection, providing some troops for its defence. In response, Hyder launched an invasion of the Carnatic, with the aim of driving the British out of Madras. During this campaign in September 1780, Tipu Sultan was dispatched by Hyder Ali with 10,000 men and 18 guns to intercept Colonel Baillie who was on his way to join Sir Hector Munro. In the Battle of Pollilur, Tipu decisively defeated Baillie. Out of 360 Europeans, about 200 were captured alive, and the sepoys, who were about 3800 men, suffered very high casualties. Munro was moving south with a separate force to join Baillie, but on hearing the news of the defeat he was forced to retreat to Madras, abandoning his artillery in a water tank at Kanchipuram.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Annagudi near Tanjore on 18 February 1782. Braithwaite's forces, consisting of 100 Europeans, 300 cavalry, 1400 sepoys and 10 field pieces, was the standard size of the colonial armies. Tipu Sultan seized all the guns and took the entire detachment prisoner. In December 1781 Tipu Sultan successfully seized Chittur from the British. Tipu Sultan had thus gained sufficient military experience by the time Hyder Ali died on Friday, 6 December 1782 – some historians put it at 2 or 3 days later or before, (Hijri date being 1 Muharram, 1197 as per some records in Persian – there may be a difference of 1 to 3 days due to the Lunar Calendar). Tipu Sultan realised that the British were a new kind of threat in India. He became the ruler of Mysore on Sunday, 22 December 1782 (The inscriptions in some of Tipu's regalia showing it as 20 Muharram, 1197 Hijri – Sunday), in a simple coronation ceremony.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: He then worked on to check the advances of the British by making alliances with the Marathas and the Mughals. The Second Mysore War came to an end with the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The Maratha Empire, under its new Peshwa Madhavrao I, regained most of Indian subcontinent, twice defeating Tipu's father, who was forced to accept Maratha Empire as the supreme power in 1764 and then in 1767. In 1767 Maratha Peshwa Madhavrao defeated both Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and entered Srirangapatna, the capital of Mysore. Hyder Ali accepted the authority of Madhavrao who gave him the title of Nawab of Mysore.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: However Tipu Sultan wanted to escape from the treaty of Marathas and therefore tried to take some Maratha forts in Southern India, which were captured by Marathas in the previous war. Tipu also stopped the tribute to Marathas which was promised by Hyder Ali. This brought Tipu in direct conflict with the Marathas, leading to Maratha–Mysore War


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Conflict ended with Treaty of Gajendragad in March 1787, as per which Tipu returned all the territory captured by Hyder Ali to Maratha Empire. Tipu agreed to pay four year arrears of tribute which his father Hyder Ali had agreed to pay to Maratha Empire (4.8 million rupees), The Marathas agreed to address Tipu sultan as "Nabob Tipu Sultan Futteh Ally Khan".


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu would also release Kalopant and return Adoni, Kittur, and Nargund to their previous rulers. Badami would be ceded to the Marathas. Tipu would also pay an annual tribute of 12 lakhs, for an agreed period of 4 years to the Marathas. In return, Tipu Sultan would get all the region that he had captured during the war. This includes Gajendragarh and Dharwar.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1766, when Tipu Sultan was just 15 years old, he got the chance to apply his military training in battle for the first time, when he accompanied his father on an invasion of Malabar. After the incident- Siege of Tellicherry in Thalassery in North Malabar, Hyder Ali started losing his territories in Malabar. Tipu came from Mysore to reinstate the authority over Malabar. After the Battle of the Nedumkotta (1789–90), due to the monsoon flood, the stiff resistance of the Travancore forces and news about the attack of British in Srirangapatnam he went back.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1789, Tipu Sultan disputed the acquisition by Dharma Raja of Travancore of two Dutch-held fortresses in Cochin. In December 1789 he massed troops at Coimbatore, and on 28 December made an attack on the lines of Travancore, knowing that Travancore was (according to the Treaty of Mangalore) an ally of the British East India Company. On account of the staunch resistance by the Travancore army, Tipu was unable to break through the Tranvancore lines and the Maharajah of Travancore appealed to the East India Company for help. In response, Lord Cornwallis mobilised company and British military forces, and formed alliances with the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad to oppose Tipu. In 1790 the company forces advanced, taking control of much of the Coimbatore district. Tipu counter-attacked, regaining much of the territory, although the British continued to hold Coimbatore itself. He then descended into the Carnatic, eventually reaching Pondicherry, where he attempted without success to draw the French into the conflict.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1791 his opponents advanced on all fronts, with the main British force under Cornwallis taking Bangalore and threatening Srirangapatna. Tipu harassed the British supply and communication and embarked on a "scorched earth" policy of denying local resources to the British. In this last effort he was successful, as the lack of provisions forced Cornwallis to withdraw to Bangalore rather than attempt a siege of Srirangapatna. Following the withdrawal, Tipu sent forces to Coimbatore, which they retook after a lengthy siege.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The 1792 campaign was a failure for Tipu. The allied army was well-supplied, and Tipu was unable to prevent the junction of forces from Bangalore and Bombay before Srirangapatna. After about two weeks of siege, Tipu opened negotiations for terms of surrender. In the ensuing treaty, he was forced to cede half his territories to the allies, and deliver two of his sons as hostages until he paid in full three crores and thirty lakhs rupees fixed as war indemnity to the British for the campaign against him. He paid the amount in two instalments and got back his sons from Madras.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1794, with the support of French Republican officers, Tipu allegedly helped found the Jacobin Club of Mysore for 'framing laws comfortable with the laws of the Republic'. He planted a Liberty Tree and declared himself Citizen Tipoo. In a 2005 paper, historian Jean Boutier argued that the club's existence, and Tipu's involvement in it, was fabricated by the East India Company in order to justify British military intervention against Tipu.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: One of the motivations of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt was to establish a junction with India against the British. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with Tippoo Sahib. Napoleon assured the French Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions." According to a 13 February 1798 report by Talleyrand: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English." Napoleon was unsuccessful in this strategy, losing the Siege of Acre in 1799 and at the Battle of Abukir in 1801.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Horatio Nelson defeated François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers at the Battle of the Nile in Egypt in 1798. Three armies marched into Mysore in 1799—one from Bombay and two British, one of which included Arthur Wellesley. They besieged the capital Srirangapatna in the Fourth Mysore War. There were more than 60,000 soldiers of the British East India Company, approximately 4,000 Europeans and the rest Indians; while Tipu Sultan's forces numbered only 30,000. The betrayal by Tipu Sultan's ministers in working with the British and weakening the walls to make an easy path for the British. The death of Tipu Sultan lead British General Harris to exclaim "now india is ours".


title: Tipu Sultan

text: When the British broke through the city walls, French military advisers told Tipu Sultan to escape via secret passages and to fight the rest of the wars from other forts, but he refused.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan was killed at the Hoally (Diddy) Gateway, which was located from the N.E. Angle of the Srirangapatna Fort. He was buried the next afternoon at the Gumaz, next to the grave of his father. Many members of the British East India Company believed that Nawab of Carnatic Umdat Ul-Umra secretly provided assistance to Tipu Sultan during the war and sought his deposition after 1799. These five men include Mir Sadiq, Purnaiya, two military commanders Saiyed Saheb and Qamaruddin, and Mir Nadim, commandant of the fort of Seringapatam. The episode of treachery as narrated by Hasan starts with the disobedience of Tipu’s instructions. When he died there were jubilant celebrations in Britain, with authors, playwrights and painters creating works to celebrate it. The death of Tipu Sultan was celebrated with declaration of public holiday in britain.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu introduced a new calendar, new coinage, and seven new government departments, during his reign, and made military innovations in the use of rocketry.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore (30 November 1991), called Tipu Sultan the innovator of the world's first war rocket. Two of these rockets, captured by the British at Srirangapatna, were displayed in the Royal Artillery Museum in London. According to historian Dr Dulari Qureshi Tipu Sultan was a fierce warrior king and was so quick in his movement that it seemed to the enemy that he was fighting on many fronts at the same time. Tipu managed to subdue all the petty kingdoms in the south. He was also one of the few Indian rulers to have defeated British armies.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan's father had expanded on Mysore's use of rocketry, making critical innovations in the rockets themselves and the military logistics of their use. He deployed as many as 1,200 specialised troops in his army to operate rocket launchers. These men were skilled in operating the weapons and were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance to the target. The rockets had twin side sharpened blades mounted on them, and when fired "en masse", spun and wreaked significant damage against a large army. Tipu greatly expanded the use of rockets after Hyder's death, deploying as many as 5,000 rocketeers at a time. The rockets deployed by Tipu during the Battle of Pollilur were much more advanced than those the British East India Company had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missiles (up to 2 km range).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: British accounts describe the use of the rockets during the third and fourth wars. During the climactic battle at Srirangapatna in 1799, British shells struck a magazine containing rockets, causing it to explode and send a towering cloud of black smoke with cascades of exploding white light rising up from the battlements. After Tipu's defeat in the fourth war the British captured a number of the Mysorean rockets. These became influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1786 Tipu Sultan, again following the lead of his father, decided to build a navy consisting of 20 battleships of 72 cannons and 20 frigates of 65 cannons. In the year 1790 he appointed Kamaluddin as his "Mir Bahar" and established massive dockyards at Jamalabad and Majidabad. Tipu Sultan's board of admiralty consisted of 11 commanders in service of a "Mir Yam". A "Mir Yam" led 30 admirals and each one of them had two ships. Tipu Sultan ordered that the ships have copper-bottoms, an idea that increased the longevity of the ships and was introduced to Tipu by Admiral Suffren.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Due to their perpetual battle engagements, Haidar and Tipu required a disciplined standing army. Thus, Rajputs, Muslims and Bedars were enrolled for full time service replacing the local militia called the "Kandachar" force of agricultural origin which existed in the Mysore army earlier. The removal of the Vokkaligas from the local militia which had taken part in wars for centuries and the imposition of higher taxes on them in place of their quit rent led indirectly to the implementation of Ryotwari system. Now the Ryots could not rely upon slaves for their agricultural activities since their slaves were enrolled in the army in some places. Besides paying higher taxes they had to endure the additional responsibility of feeding the slaves and financing their marriages. This led to the weakening of the system of slavery in Mysore.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The peak of Mysore's economic power was under Tipu Sultan in the late 18th century. Along with his father Hyder Ali, he embarked on an ambitious program of economic development, aiming to increase the wealth and revenue of Mysore. Under his reign, Mysore overtook Bengal Subah as India's dominant economic power, with highly productive agriculture and textile manufacturing. Mysore's average income was five times higher than subsistence level at the time.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan laid the foundation for the construction of the Kannambadi dam (present-day Krishna Raja Sagara or KRS dam) on the Kaveri river, as attested by an extant stone plaque bearing his name, but was unable to begin the construction. The dam was later built and opened in 1938. It is a major source of drinking water for the people of Mysore and Bangalore.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The Mysore silk industry was first initiated during the reign of Tipu Sultan. He sent an expert to Bengal Subah to study silk cultivation and processing, after which Mysore began developing polyvoltine silk.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan was considered as pioneer of road construction, especially in Malabar, as part of his campaigns, he connected most of the cities by roads.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Both Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan owed nominal allegiance to the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II; both were described as Nabobs by the British East India Company in all existing treaties. But unlike the Nawab of Carnatic, they did not acknowledge the overlordship of the Nizam of Hyderabad.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Immediately after his coronation as "Badshah", Tipu Sultan sought the investiture of the Mughal emperor. He earned the title ""Nasib-ud-Daula"" with the heavy heart of those loyal to Shah Alam II. Tipu was a selfdeclared "Sultan" this fact drew towards him the hostility of Nizam Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad, who clearly expressed his hostility by dissuading the Mughal emperor and laying claims on Mysore. Disheartened, Tipu Sultan began to establish contacts with other Muslim rulers of that period.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan was the master of his own diplomacy with foreign nations, in his quest to rid India of the East India Company and to ensure the international strength of France. Like his father before him he fought battles on behalf of foreign nations which were not in the best interests of Shah Alam II.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: After Ghulam Qadir had Shah Alam II blinded on 10 August 1788, Tipu Sultan is believed to have broken into tears.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: After the Fall of Seringapatam in 1799, the blind emperor did remorse for Tipu, but maintained his confidence in the Nizam of Hyderabad, who had now made peace with the British.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: After facing substantial threats from the Marathas, Tipu Sultan began to correspond with Zaman Shah Durrani, the ruler of the Afghan Durrani Empire, so they could defeat the British and Marathas. Initially, Zaman Shah agreed to help Tipu, but the Persian attack on Afghanistan's Western border diverted its forces, and hence no help could be provided to Tipu.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In 1787, Tipu Sultan sent an embassy to the Ottoman capital Constantinople, to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I requesting urgent assistance against the British East India Company. Tipu Sultan requested the Ottoman Sultan to send him troops and military experts. Furthermore, Tipu Sultan also requested permission from the Ottomans to contribute to the maintenance of the Islamic shrines in Mecca, Medina, Najaf and Karbala.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: However, the Ottomans were themselves in crisis and still recuperating from the devastating Austro-Ottoman War and a new conflict with the Russian Empire had begun, for which Ottoman Turkey needed British alliance to keep off the Russians, hence it could not risk being hostile to the British in the Indian theatre.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Due to the Ottoman inability to organise a fleet in the Indian Ocean, Tipu Sultan's ambassadors returned home only with gifts from their Ottoman brothers.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Nevertheless, Tipu Sultan's correspondence with the Ottoman Empire and particularly its new Sultan Selim III continued till his final battle in the year 1799.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Like his father before him, Tipu Sultan maintained friendly relations with Mohammad Ali Khan, ruler of the Zand Dynasty in Persia. Tipu Sultan also maintained correspondence with Hamad bin Said, the ruler of the Sultanate of Oman.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu’s and Mysore’s tryst with silk began in the early 1780s when he received an ambassador from the Qing dynasty-ruled China at his court. The ambassador presented him with a silk cloth. Tipu was said to be enchanted by the item to such an extent that he resolved to introduce its production in his kingdom. He sent a return journey to China, which returned after twelve years.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Both Hyder Ali and Tipu sought an alliance with the French, the only European power still strong enough to challenge the British East India Company in the subcontinent. In 1782, Louis XVI concluded an alliance with the Peshwa Madhu Rao Narayan. This treaty enabled Bussy to move his troops to the Isle de France (now Mauritius). In the same year, French Admiral De Suffren ceremonially presented a portrait of Louis XVI to Haidar Ali and sought his alliance.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Napoleon conquered Egypt in an attempt to link with Tipu Sultan. In February 1798, Napoleon wrote a letter to Tipu Sultan appreciating his efforts of resisting the British annexation and plans, but this letter never reached Tipu and was seized by a British spy in Muscat. The idea of a possible Tipu-Napoleon alliance alarmed the British Governor, General Sir Richard Wellesley (also known as Lord Wellesley), so much that he immediately started large scale preparations for a final battle against Tipu Sultan.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan appointed judges from both communities for Hindu and Muslim subjects. Qadi for Muslims and Pandit for Hindus in each province. Upper courts also had similar systems.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Usage of liquor and prostitution were strictly prohibited in his administration. Usage and agriculture of psychedelics, such as Cannabis, was also prohibited.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Polyandry in Kerala was prohibited by Tipu Sultan. He passed a decree for all women to cover their breasts, which was not practised in Kerala in the previous era.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: On a personal level, Tipu was a devout Muslim, saying his prayers daily and paying special attention to mosques in the area. Regular endowments were made during this period to about 156 Hindu temples, including the famed Ranganathaswami Temple at Srirangapatna. Many sources mention the appointment of Hindu officers in Tipu's administration and his land grants and endowments to Hindu temples, which are cited as evidence for his religious tolerance.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: His religious legacy has become a source of considerable controversy in India, with some groups (including Christians and even Muslims) proclaiming him a great warrior for the faith or "Ghazi" for both religious and political reasons. Various sources describe the massacres, imprisonment and forced conversion of Hindus (Kodavas of Coorg, Nairs of Malabar) and Christians (Catholics of Mangalore), the destruction of churches and temples, and the clamping down on Muslims (Mappila of Kerala, the Mahdavia Muslims, the rulers of Savanur and the people of Hyderabad State), which are sometimes cited as evidence for his intolerance.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Historians such as Brittlebank, Hasan, Chetty, Habib, and Saletare, amongst others, argue that controversial stories of Tipu Sultan's religious persecution of Hindus and Christians are largely derived from the work of early British authors (who were very much against Tipu Sultan's independence and harboured prejudice against the Sultan) such as James Kirkpatrick and Mark Wilks, whom they do not consider to be entirely reliable and likely fabricated. A. S. Chetty argues that Wilks' account in particular cannot be trusted.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Irfan Habib and Mohibbul Hasan argue that these early British authors had a strong vested interest in presenting Tipu Sultan as a tyrant from whom the British had liberated Mysore. This assessment is echoed by Brittlebank in her recent work where she writes that Wilks and Kirkpatrick must be used with particular care as both authors had taken part in the wars against Tipu Sultan and were closely connected to the administrations of Lord Cornwallis and Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan's treasurer was Krishna Rao, Shamaiya Iyengar was his Minister of Post and Police, his brother Ranga Iyengar was also an officer, and Purnaiya held the very important post of "Mir Asaf". Moolchand and Sujan Rai were his chief agents at the Mughal court, and his chief "Peshkar", Suba Rao, was also a Hindu.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The Editor of Mysore Gazette reports of correspondence between his court and temples, and his having donated jewellery and deeded land grants to several temples, which he was compelled to for forming alliances with Hindu rulers. Between 1782 and 1799 Tipu Sultan issued 34 "Sanads" (deeds) of endowment to temples in his domain, while also presenting many of them with gifts of silver and gold plate.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The Srikanteswara Temple in Nanjangud still possesses a jeweled cup presented by the Sultan. He also gave a greenish linga; to Ranganatha temple at Srirangapatna, he donated seven silver cups and a silver camphor burner. This temple was hardly a stone's throw from his palace from where he would listen with equal respect to the ringing of temple bells and the muezzin's call from the mosque; to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale he gifted four cups, a plate and Spitoon in silver.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: During the Maratha–Mysore War in 1791, a group of Maratha horsemen under Raghunath Rao Patwardhan raided the temple and "matha" of Sringeri "Shankaracharya". They wounded and killed many people, including Brahmins, plundered the monastery of all its valuable possessions, and desecrated the temple by displacing the image of goddess Sarada.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The incumbent "Shankaracharya" petitioned Tipu Sultan for help. About 30 letters written in Kannada, which were exchanged between Tipu Sultan's court and the Sringeri Shankaracharya, were discovered in 1916 by the Director of Archaeology in Mysore. Tipu Sultan expressed his indignation and grief at the news of the raid:


title: Tipu Sultan

text: "People who have sinned against such a holy place are sure to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds at no distant date in this Kali age in accordance with the verse: "Hasadbhih kriyate karma rudadbhir-anubhuyate" (People do [evil] deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying)."


title: Tipu Sultan

text: He immediately ordered the Asaf of Bednur to supply the Swami with 200 "rahati"s ("fanam"s) in cash and other gifts and articles. Tipu Sultan's interest in the Sringeri temple continued for many years, and he was still writing to the Swami in the 1790s.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: In light of this and other events, historian B. A. Saletare has described Tipu Sultan as a defender of the Hindu dharma, who also patronised other temples including one at Melkote, for which he issued a Kannada decree that the Shrivaishnava invocatory verses there should be recited in the traditional form. The temple at Melkote still has gold and silver vessels with inscriptions indicating that they were presented by the Sultan. Tipu Sultan also presented four silver cups to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale. Tipu Sultan does seem to have repossessed unauthorised grants of land made to Brahmins and temples, but those which had proper "sanads" (certificates) were not. It was a normal practice for any ruler, Muslim or Hindu, on his accession or on the conquest of new territory.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu got Runmust Khan, the "Nawab of Kurnool", to launch a surprise attack upon the Kodavas who were besieged by the invading Muslim army. 500 were killed and over 40,000 Kodavas fled to the woods and concealed themselves in the mountains. Thousands of Kodavas were seized along with the Raja and held captive at Seringapatam.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Mohibbul Hasan, Prof. Sheikh Ali, and other historians cast great doubt on the scale of the deportations and forced conversions in Coorg in particular. Hassan says that it is difficult to estimate the real number of Kodava captured by Tipu.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The coinage of Tipu Sultan is one of most complex and fascinating series struck in India during the 18th century. Local South India coinage had been struck in the area that became Mysore since ancient times, with the first gold coinage introduced about the 11th century (the elephant pagoda), and other pagodas continuing through the following centuries. These pagoda were always in the South Indian style until the reign of Haidar Ali (1761–1782), who added pagodas with Persian legends, plus a few very rare gold mohurs and silver rupees, always in the name of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II plus the Arabic letter "ح" as the first letter of his name. His successor, Tipu Sultan, continued to issue pagodas, mohurs and rupees, with legends that were completely new. As for copper, the new large paisa was commenced by Haidar Ali in AH1195, two years before his death, with the elephant on the obverse, the mint on the reverse, and was continued throughout the reign of Tipu Sultan, who added other denominations. Tipu Sultan introduced a set of new Persian names for the various denominations, which appear on all of the gold and silver coins and on some of the copper. They were:


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Copper: Qutb "قطب" for the 1/8 paisa (Persian for the pole star) – Akhtar "اختر" for the 1/4 paisa (star) – Bahram "بهرام" for the 1/2 paisa (the planet Mars) – Zohra "زهره" for the paisa (the planet Venus) – either Othmani "عثمانی" for the double-paisa (the third caliph of the Rashidun) or Mushtari "مشتری" (the planet Jupiter).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Silver: Khizri "خضری" for the 1/32 rupee (Khizr the prophet) – Kazimi "کاظمی" for the 1/16 rupee (for Musa, the seventh Shi'ite Imam) – Ja'fari "جعفری" for the 1/8 rupee (Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Shi'ite Imam) – Bâqiri "باقری" for the 1/4 rupee (Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Imam) – Abidi "عبیدی" for the 1/2 rupee (Ali Zain al-'Abidin, the fourth Imam) – Imami for the rupee (reference to the 12 Shi'ite Imams) – Haidari "حیدری" for the double-rupee (lion, for Ali b. Abi Talib, who was both the fourth caliph and the first Shi'ite Imam).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Gold: Faruqi "فاروقی" for the pagoda (Umar al-Faruq, the second caliph) – Sadîqi "صدیقی" for the double-pagoda (Abu Bakr al-Sadiq, the first caliph) – Ahmadi "احمدی" for the four-pagoda ( "most praised ", one of the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). During his first 4 years, the large gold coin was the mohur, with an average weight of about 10.95g (AH1197-1200), replaced with the four-pagoda of 13.74g with the calendar change to the Mauludi "مولودی" system (AM1215-1219).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The denomination does not appear on the Hijri dated gold coins, but was added on all the Mauludi dated pieces.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: At the beginning of his first year, Tipu Sultan abandoned the Hijri dating system and introduced the Mauludi system (from the Arabic word "walad ", which means "birth "), based on the solar year and the birth year of Muhammad (actually 571 AD, but for some perplexing reason reckoned as 572 by Tipu Sultan for his staff).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: From the beginning of his reign, Tipu Sultan added the name of the Indian cyclic year on the large silver and gold coins, including this double-pagoda, together with his regnal year. Each of the names is Persian, though in several examples, the meaning of the names in India was different from the Iranian meaning (not indicated here). According to the Indian meanings, these are the cyclic years: Zaki "زکي" for cyclic 37, which corresponded to his year 1 ( "pure ") – Azâl "أزل" for 38 ( "eternity ", year 2) – Jalal "جَلال" for 39 ( "splendor ", year 3) – Dalv "دَلو" for 40 (the sign of Aquarius, year 4) – Shâ "شاه" for 41 ( "king ", year 5) – Sârâ "سارا" for 42 ( "fragrant ", year 6) – Sarâb "سراب" for 43 ( "mirage ", for year 7) – Shitâ "شتا" for 44 ( "winter ", year 8) – Zabarjad "زبرجد" for 45 ( "topaz ", year 9) – sahar "سَحَر" ( "dawn ", year 10) – Sâher "ساحِر" ( "magician ", year 11).


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Assessments of Tipu Sultan have often been passionate and divided. Successive Indian National Congress governments have often celebrated Tipu Sultan's memory and monuments and relics of his rule while the Bharatiya Janata Party has been largely critical. School and college textbooks in India officially recognize him as a "freedom-fighter" along with many other rulers of the 18th century who fought European powers. The original copy of the Constitution of India bears a painting of Tipu Sultan.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The 14th Indian president Ram Nath Kovind hailed Tipu Sultan in his address to the Karnataka Assembly on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the state secretariat Vidhana Soudha saying “Tipu Sultan died a heroic death fighting the British. He was also a pioneer in the development and use of Mysore rockets in warfare. This technology was later adopted by the Europeans.“


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan is also admired as a hero in Pakistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that he admires Tipu Sultan as a freedom fighter.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu also patronised art forms such as Ganjifa cards, effectively saving this art form. Ganjifa card of Mysore have the GI Tag today.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu Sultan had lost his sword in a war with the Nairs of Travancore during the Battle of the Nedumkotta (1789), in which he was forced to withdraw due to the severe joint attack from the Travancore army and British army. The Nair army under the leadership of Raja Kesavadas again defeated the army of Tipu near Aluva. The Maharaja, Dharma Raja, gave the famous sword to the Nawab of Arcot, from whom the sword was taken as a war trophy by the British after annexing Arcot and sent to London. The sword was on display at the Wallace Collection, No. 1 Manchester Square, London.


title: Tipu Sultan

text: Tipu was commonly known as the Tiger of Mysore and adopted this animal as the symbol ("bubri/babri") of his rule. It is said that Tipu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. They came face to face with a tiger there. The tiger first pounced on the French soldier and killed him. Tipu's gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it. That earned him the name "the Tiger of Mysore". He even had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace. The device, known as Tipu's Tiger, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not only did Tipu place relics of tigers around his palace and domain, but also had the emblem of a tiger on his banners and some arms and weapons. Sometimes this tiger was very ornate and had inscriptions within the drawing, alluding to Tipu's faith – Islam. Historian Alexander Beatson reported that "in his palace was found a great variety of curious swords, daggers, fusils, pistols, and blunderbusses; some were of exquisite workmanship, mounted with gold, or silver, and beautifully inlaid and ornamented with tigers' heads and stripes, or with Persian and Arabic verses".


title: Tipu Sultan

text: The last sword used by Tipu in his last battle, at Sri Rangapatnam, and the ring worn by him were taken by the British forces as war trophies. Till April 2004, they were kept on display at the British Museum London as gifts to the museum from Maj-Gen Augustus W.H. Meyrick and Nancy Dowager. At an auction in London in April 2004, Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tipu Sultan and some other historical artefacts, and brought them back to India.