title: Winfield Scott

text: He soon clashed with his commander, General James Wilkinson, over Wilkinson's refusal to follow the orders of Secretary of War William Eustis to remove troops from an unhealthy bivouac site. Wilkinson owned the site, and while the poor location caused several illnesses and deaths among his soldiers, Wilkinson refused to relocate them because he personally profited. In addition, staying near New Orleans enabled Wilkinson to pursue his private business interests and continue the courtship of Celestine Trudeau, whom he later married.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott briefly resigned his commission over his dissatisfaction with Wilkinson, but before his resignation had been accepted, he withdrew it and returned to the army. In January 1810, Scott was convicted in a court-martial, partly for making disrespectful comments about Wilkinson's integrity, and partly because of a $50 shortage in the $400 account he had been provided to conduct recruiting duty in Virginia after being commissioned. With respect to the money, the court-martial members concluded that Scott had not been intentionally dishonest, but had failed to keep accurate records. His commission was suspended for one year. After the trial, Scott fought a duel with William Upshaw, an army medical officer and Wilkinson friend whom Scott blamed for initiating the court-martial. Each fired at the other, but both emerged unharmed.


title: Winfield Scott

text: After the duel, Scott returned to Virginia, where he spent the year studying military tactics and strategy, and practicing law in partnership with Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Meanwhile, Wilkinson was removed from command for insubordination, and was succeeded by General Wade Hampton. The rousing reception Scott received from his army peers as he began his suspension led him to believe that most officers approved of his anti-Wilkinson comments, at least tacitly; their high opinion of him, coupled with Leigh's counsel to remain in the army, convinced Scott to resume his military career once his suspension had been served. He rejoined the army in Baton Rouge, where one of his first duties was to serve as judge advocate (prosecutor) in the court-martial of Colonel Thomas Humphrey Cushing.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Tensions between Britain and the United States continued to rise as Britain attacked American shipping, impressed American sailors, and encouraged Native American resistance to American settlement. In July 1812, Congress declared war against Britain. After the declaration of war, Scott was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned as second-in-command of the 2d Artillery, serving under George Izard. While Izard continued to recruit soldiers, Scott led two companies north to join General Stephen Van Rensselaer's militia force, which was preparing for an invasion of Canada. President James Madison made the invasion the central part of his administration's war strategy in 1812, as he sought to capture Montreal and thereby take control of the St. Lawrence River and cut off Upper Canada from Lower Canada. The invasion would begin with an attack on the town of Queenston, which was just across the Niagara River from Lewiston, New York.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In October 1812, Van Rensselaer's force attacked British forces in the Battle of Queenston Heights. Scott led an artillery bombardment that supported an American crossing of the Niagara River, and he took command of American forces at Queenston after Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer was badly wounded. Shortly after Scott took command, a British column under Roger Hale Sheaffe arrived. Sheaffe's numerically superior force compelled an American retreat, ultimately forcing Scott to surrender after reinforcements from the militia failed to materialize. As a prisoner of war, Scott was treated hospitably by the British, although two Mohawk leaders nearly killed him while he was in British custody. As part of a prisoner exchange, Scott was released in late November; upon his return to the United States, he was promoted to colonel and appointed to command the 2d Artillery. He also became the chief of staff to Henry Dearborn, who was the senior general of the army and personally led operations against Canada in the area around Lake Ontario.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Dearborn assigned Scott to lead an attack against Fort George, which commanded a strategic position on the Niagara River. With help from naval commanders Isaac Chauncey and Oliver Hazard Perry, Scott landed American forces behind the fort, forcing its surrender. Scott was widely praised for his conduct in the battle, although he was personally disappointed that the bulk of the British garrison escaped capture. As part of another campaign to capture Montreal, Scott forced the British to withdrawal from Hoople Creek in November 1813. Despite this success, the campaign fell apart after the American defeat at the Battle of Crysler's Farm, and after Wilkinson (who had taken command of the front in August) and Hampton failed to cooperate on a strategy to take Montreal. With the failure of the campaign, President Madison and Secretary of War John Armstrong Jr. relieved Wilkinson and some other senior officers of their battlefield commands. They were replaced with younger officers such as Scott, Izard, and Jacob Brown. In early 1814, Scott was promoted to brigadier general and was assigned to lead a regiment under Brown.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In mid-1814, Scott took part in another invasion of Canada, which began with a crossing of the Niagara River under Brown's command. Scott was instrumental in the American success at the Battle of Chippawa, which took place on July 5, 1814. Though the battle was regarded as inconclusive from the strategic point of view because the British army remained intact, it was seen as an important moral victory. It was "the first real success attained by American troops against British regulars."


title: Winfield Scott

text: Later in July 1814, a scouting expedition led by Scott was ambushed, beginning the Battle of Lundy's Lane. Scott's brigade was decimated after General Gordon Drummond arrived with British reinforcements, and he was placed in the reserve in the second phase of the battle. He was later badly wounded while seeking a place to commit his reserve forces. Scott believed that Brown's decision to refrain from fully committing his strength at the outset of this battle resulted in the destruction of Scott's brigade and a high number of unnecessary deaths. The battle ended inconclusively after General Brown ordered his army to withdraw, effectively bringing an end to the invasion. Scott spent the next months convalescing under the supervision of military doctors and physician Philip Syng Physick.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott's performance at the Battle of Chippawa had earned him national recognition. He was promoted to the brevet rank of major general and awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. In October 1814, Scott was appointed commander of American forces in Maryland and northern Virginia, taking command in the aftermath of the Burning of Washington. The War of 1812 came to an effective end in February 1815, after news of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent (which had been signed in December 1814) reached the United States.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In 1815, Scott was admitted to the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati as an honorary member, in recognition of his service in the War of 1812. Scott's Society of the Cincinnati insignia, made by silversmiths Thomas Fletcher and Sidney Gardiner of Philadelphia, was a one-of-a-kind, solid gold eagle measuring nearly three inches in height. It is one of the most unique military society insignias ever produced. There are no known portraits or photographs of Scott wearing the insignia, which is now in the collection of the United States Military Academy Museum.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In March 1817, Scott married Maria DeHart Mayo (1789–1862). She was the daughter of Abigail (née DeHart) Mayo and Colonel John Mayo, a wealthy engineer and businessman who came from a distinguished family in Virginia. Scott and his family lived in Elizabethtown, New Jersey for most of the next thirty years. Beginning in the late 1830s, Maria spent much of her time in Europe because of a bronchial condition, and she died in Rome in 1862. They were the parents of seven children, five daughters and two sons:


title: Winfield Scott

text: With the conclusion of the War of 1812, Scott served on a board charged with demobilizing the army and determining who would continue to serve in the officer corps. Andrew Jackson and Brown were selected as the army's two major generals, while Alexander Macomb, Edmund P. Gaines, Scott, and Eleazer Wheelock Ripley would serve as the army's four brigadier generals. Jackson became commander of the army's Southern Division, Brown became commander of the army's Northern Division, and the brigadier generals were assigned leadership of departments within the divisions. Scott obtained a leave of absence to study warfare in Europe, though to his disappointment, he reached Europe only after Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Upon his return to the United States in May 1816, he was assigned to command army forces in parts of the Northeastern United States. He made his headquarters in New York City and became an active part of the city's social life. He earned the nickname "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on proper military bearing, courtesy, appearance and discipline. In 1835, Scott wrote "Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuvre of the United States Infantry", a three-volume work that served as the standard drill manual for the United States Army until 1855.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott developed a rivalry with Jackson after the latter took offense to a comment Scott had made at a private dinner in New York, though they later reconciled. He also continued a bitter feud with Gaines that centered over which of them had seniority, as both hoped to eventually succeed the ailing Brown. In 1821, Congress reorganized the army, leaving Brown as the sole major general and Scott and Gaines as the lone brigadier generals; Macomb accepted demotion to colonel and appointment as the chief of engineers, while Ripley and Jackson both left the army. After Brown died in 1828, President John Quincy Adams passed over both Scott and Gaines due to their feuding, instead appointing Macomb as the senior general in the army. Scott was outraged at the appointment and asked to be relieved of his commission, but he ultimately backed down.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In 1832, President Andrew Jackson ordered Scott to Illinois to take command of a conflict known as the Black Hawk War. By the time Scott arrived in Illinois, the conflict had come to a close with the army's victory at the Battle of Bad Axe. Scott and Governor John Reynolds concluded the Black Hawk Purchase with Chief Keokuk and other Native American leaders, opening up much of present-day Iowa to settlement by whites. Later in 1832, Jackson placed Scott in charge of army preparations for a potential conflict arising from the Nullification Crisis. Scott traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, the center of the nullification movement, where he strengthened federal forts but also sought to cultivate public opinion away from secession. Ultimately, the crisis came to an end in early 1833 with the passage of the Tariff of 1833.


title: Winfield Scott

text: President Jackson initiated a policy of Indian removal, forcibly relocating Native Americans to the west of the Mississippi River. Some Native Americans moved peacefully, but others, including many Seminoles, forcibly resisted. In December 1835, the Second Seminole War broke out after the Dade massacre, in which a group of Seminoles ambushed and massacred a U.S. Army company in Central Florida. President Jackson ordered Scott to personally take command of operations against the Seminole, and Scott arrived in Florida by February 1836. After several months of inconclusive campaigning, he was ordered to the border of Alabama and Georgia to put down a Muscogee uprising known as the Creek War of 1836. American forces under Scott, General Thomas Jesup, and Alabama Governor Clement Comer Clay quickly defeated the Muscogee. Scott's actions in the campaigns against the Seminole and the Muscogee received criticism from some subordinates and civilians, and President Jackson initiated a Court of Inquiry that investigated both Scott and Gaines. The court cleared Scott of misconduct but reprimanded him for the language he used in criticizing Gaines in official communications. The court was critical of Gaines' actions during the campaign, though it did not accuse him of misconduct or incompetence. It also criticized the language he used to defend himself, both publicly and to the court.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Martin Van Buren, a personal friend of Scott's, assumed the presidency in 1837, and Van Buren continued Jackson's policy of Indian removal. In April 1838, Van Buren placed Scott in command of the removal of Cherokee from the Southeastern United States. Some of Scott's associates tried to dissuade Scott from taking command of what they viewed as an immoral mission, but Scott accepted his orders. After almost all of the Cherokee refused to voluntarily relocate, Scott drew up careful plans in an attempt to ensure that his soldiers forcibly, but humanely, relocated the Cherokee. Nonetheless, the Cherokee endured abuse from Scott's soldiers; one account described soldiers driving the Cherokee "like cattle, through rivers, allowing them no time to take off their shoes and stockings. In mid-1838, Scott agreed to Chief John Ross's plan to let the Cherokee lead their own movement west, and he awarded a contract to the Cherokee Council to complete the removal. Scott was strongly criticized by many Southerners, including Jackson, for awarding the contract to Ross rather than continuing the removal under his own auspices Scott accompanied one Cherokee group as an observer, traveling with them from Athens, Tennessee to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was ordered to the Canada–United States border.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In late 1837, the so-called "Patriot War" broke out along the Canadian border as some Americans sought to support the Rebellions of 1837–1838 in Canada. Tensions further escalated due to an incident known as the Caroline affair, in which Canadian forces burned a steamboat that had been used to deliver supplies to rebel forces. President Van Buren dispatched Scott to Western New York to prevent unauthorized border crossings and prevent the outbreak of a war between the United States and the United Kingdom. Still popular in the area due to his service in the War of 1812, Scott issued public appeals, asking Americans to refrain from supporting the Canadian rebels. In late 1838, a new crisis known as the Aroostook War broke out over a dispute regarding the border between Maine and Canada, which had not been conclusively settled in previous treaties between Britain and the United States. Scott was tasked with preventing the conflict from escalating into a war. After winning the support of Governor John Fairfield and other Maine leaders, Scott negotiated a truce with John Harvey, who commanded British forces in the area.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In the mid-1830s, Scott joined the Whig Party, which was established by opponents of President Jackson. Scott's success in preventing war with Canada under Van Buren confirmed his popularity with the broad public, and in early 1839 newspapers began to mention him as a candidate for the presidential nomination at the 1839 Whig National Convention. By the time of the convention in December 1839, party leader Henry Clay and 1836 presidential candidate William Henry Harrison had emerged as the two front-runners, but Scott loomed as a potential compromise candidate if the convention deadlocked. After several ballots, the convention nominated Harrison for president. Harrison went on to defeat Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election, but he died just one month into his term and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.


title: Winfield Scott

text: On June 25, 1841, Macomb died, and Scott and Gaines were still the two most obvious choices for the position of Commanding General of the United States Army. Secretary of War John Bell recommended Scott, and President Tyler approved; Scott was also promoted to the rank of major general. According to biographer John Eisenhower, the office of commanding general had, since its establishment in 1821, been an "innocuous and artificial office ... its occupant had been given little control over the staff, and even worse, his advice was seldom sought by his civilian superiors." Macomb had largely been outside of the chain-of-command, and senior commanders like Gaines, Scott, and Quartermaster General Thomas Jesup reported directly to the Secretary of War. Despite Scott's efforts to invigorate the office, he enjoyed little influence with President Tyler, who quickly became alienated from most of the rest of the Whig Party after taking office. Some Whigs, including Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, favored Scott as the Whig candidate in the 1844 presidential election, but Clay quickly emerged as the prohibitive front-runner for the Whig nomination. Clay won the 1844 Whig nomination, but he was defeated in the general election by Democrat James K. Polk. Polk's campaign centered on his support for the annexation of the Republic of Texas, which had gained independence from Mexico in 1836. After Polk won the election, Congress passed legislation enabling the annexation of Texas, and Texas gained statehood in 1845.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Polk and Scott had never liked one another, and their distrust deepened after Polk became president, partly due to Scott's affiliation with the Whig Party. Polk came into office with two major foreign policy goals: the acquisition of Oregon Country, which was under joint American and British rule, and the acquisition of Alta California, a Mexican province. The United States nearly went to war with Britain over Oregon, but the two powers ultimately agreed to partition Oregon Country at the 49th parallel north. The Mexican–American War broke out in April 1846 after U.S. forces under the command of Brigadier General Zachary Taylor clashed with Mexican forces north of the Rio Grande in a region claimed by both Mexico and Texas. Polk, Secretary of War William L. Marcy, and Scott agreed on a strategy in which the U.S. would capture Northern Mexico and then pursue a favorable peace settlement. While Taylor led the army in Northern Mexico, Scott presided over the expansion of the army, ensuring that new soldiers were properly supplied and organized.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Taylor won several victories against the Mexican army, but Polk eventually came to the conclusion that merely occupying Northern Mexico would not compel Mexico to surrender. Scott drew up an invasion plan that would begin with a naval assault on the Gulf port of Veracruz and end with the capture of Mexico City. With Congress unwilling to establish the rank of lieutenant general for Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Polk reluctantly turned to Scott to command the invasion. Among those who joined the campaign were several officers who would later distinguish themselves in the American Civil War, including Major Joseph E. Johnston, Captain Robert E. Lee, and Lieutenants Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, George G. Meade, and P. G. T. Beauregard. While Scott prepared the invasion, Taylor inflicted what the U.S. characterized as a crushing defeat on the army of Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. In the encounter known in Mexico as the Battle of La Angostura, Santa Anna brought U.S. forces to near collapse, capturing cannons and flags, and returned to Mexico City, leaving U.S. forces on the field. Santa Anna left to put down a minor insurrection, and recruited a new army.


title: Winfield Scott

text: According to biographer John Eisenhower, the invasion of Mexico through Veracruz was "up to that time the most ambitious amphibious expedition in human history." The operation commenced on March 9, 1847 with the Siege of Veracruz, a joint army-navy operation led by Scott and Commodore David Conner. After safely landing his 12,000-man army, Scott encircled Veracruz and began bombarding it; the Mexican garrison surrendered on March 27. Seeking to avoid a rising by the divided Mexicans against the American invasion, Scott placed a priority on winning the cooperation of the Catholic Church. Among other initiatives designed to show respect for church property and officials, he ordered his men to salute Catholic priests on the streets of Veracruz. After securing supplies and wagons, Scott's army began the march towards Xalapa, a city on the way to Mexico City. Meanwhile, Polk dispatched Nicholas Trist, Secretary of State James Buchanan's chief clerk, to negotiate a peace treaty with Mexican leaders. Though they initially feuded, Scott and Trist eventually developed a strong working relationship.


title: Winfield Scott

text: In mid-April, Scott's force met Santa Anna's army at Cerro Gordo, a town near Xalapa. Santa Anna had established a strong defensive position, but he left his left flank undefended on the assumption that dense trees made the area impassible. Scott decided to attack Santa Anna's position on two fronts, sending a force led by David E. Twiggs against Santa Anna's left flank, while another force, led by Gideon Pillow, would attack Santa Anna's artillery. In the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Pillow's force was largely ineffective, but Twiggs and Colonel William S. Harney captured the key Mexican position of El Telegrafo in hand-to-hand fighting. Mexican resistance collapsed after the capture of El Telegrafo; Santa Anna escaped the battlefield and returned to Mexico City, but Scott's force captured about 3,000 Mexican soldiers. After the battle, Scott continued to press towards Mexico City, cutting him and his army off from his supply base at Veracruz.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott's force arrived in the Valley of Mexico in August 1847, by which time Santa Anna had formed an army of approximately 25,000 men. Because Mexico City lacked walls and was essentially indefensible, Santa Anna sought to defeat Scott in a pitched battle, choosing to mount a defense near the Churubusco River, several miles south of the city. The Battle of Contreras began on the afternoon of August 19, when the Mexican army under General Gabriel Valencia attacked and pushed back an American detachment charged with building a road. In the early morning of the following day, an American force led by General Persifor Frazer Smith surprised and decimated Valencia's army. News of the defeat at Contreras caused a panic among the rest of Santa Anna's army, and Scott immediately pressed the attack, beginning the Battle of Churubusco. Despite the strong defense put up by the Saint Patrick's Battalion and some other units, Scott's force quickly defeated the demoralized Mexican army. After the battle, Santa Anna negotiated a truce with Scott, and the Mexican foreign minister notified Trist that they were ready to begin negotiations to end the war.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Despite the presence of Scott's army just outside of Mexico City, the Mexican and American delegations remained far apart on terms; Mexico was only willing to yield portions of Alta California, and refused to accept the Rio Grande as its northern border. While negotiations continued, Scott faced a difficult issue in the disposition of 72 members of Saint Patrick's Battalion who had deserted from the U.S. Army and were captured while fighting for Mexico. All 72 were court-martialed and sentenced to death. Under pressure from some Mexican leaders, and personally feeling that the death penalty was an unjust punishment for some defendants, Scott spared 20, but the rest were executed. In early September, negotiations between Trist and the Mexican government broke down, and Scott exercised his right to end the truce. In the subsequent Battle for Mexico City, Scott launched an attack from the west of the city, capturing the key fortress of Chapultepec on September 13. Santa Anna retreated from the city after the fall of Chapultepec, and Scott accepted the surrender of the remaining Mexican forces early on the 14th.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Unrest broke out in the days following the capture of Mexico City, but, with the cooperation of civil leaders and the Catholic Church, Scott and the army restored order in the city by the end of the month. Peace negotiations between Trist and the Mexican government resumed, and Scott did all he could to support the negotiations, ceasing all further offensive operations. As military commander of Mexico City, Scott was held in high esteem by Mexican civil and American authorities alike, primarily owing to the fairness with which he treated Mexican citizens. In November 1847, Trist received orders to return to Washington, and Scott received orders to continue the military campaign against Mexico; Polk had grown frustrated at the slow pace of negotiations. With the support of Scott and Mexican president Manuel de la Peña y Peña, Trist defied his orders and continued the negotiations. Trist and the Mexican negotiators concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848; it was ratified by the U.S. Senate the following month. In late 1847, Scott arrested Pillow and two other officers after they wrote letters to American newspapers that were critical of Scott. In response, Polk ordered the release of the three officers, and removed Scott from command.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Upon the founding of the Aztec Club of 1847, a military society of officers who served in Mexico during the war, Scott was elected as one of only two honorary members of the organization.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott was again a contender for the Whig presidential nomination in the 1848 election. Clay, Daniel Webster, and General Zachary Taylor were also candidates for the nomination. As in 1840, Whigs were looking for a non-ideological war hero to be their candidate. Scott's main appeal was to anti-slavery "conscience Whigs", who were dismayed by the fact that two of the leading contenders, Clay and Taylor, were slaveholders. Ultimately, however, the delegates passed on Scott for a second time, nominating Taylor on the fourth ballot. Many anti-slavery Whigs then defected to support the nominee of the Free-Soil Party, former President Martin Van Buren. Taylor went on to win the general election.


title: Winfield Scott

text: After the war, Scott returned to his administrative duties as the army's senior general. Congress became engaged in a divisive debate over the status of slavery in the territories, and Scott joined with Whig leaders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in advocating for passage of what became known as the Compromise of 1850. Meanwhile, Taylor died of an illness in July 1850 and was succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore. The Compromise of 1850 and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 badly divided the country as a whole and the Whig Party in particular. Northerners strongly objected to the stringent provisions of the act, while Southerners complained bitterly about any perceived slackness in enforcement. Despite Scott's support for the Compromise of 1850, he became the chosen candidate of William Seward, a leading Northern Whig who objected to the Compromise of 1850 partly because of the fugitive slave act.


title: Winfield Scott

text: By early 1852, the three leading candidates for the Whig presidential nomination were Scott, who was backed by anti-Compromise Northern Whigs; President Fillmore, the first choice of most Southern Whigs; and Secretary of State Webster, whose support was concentrated in New England. The 1852 Whig National Convention convened on June 16, and Southern delegates won approval of a party platform endorsing the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of the slavery question. On the convention's first presidential ballot, Fillmore received 133 of the necessary 147 votes, while Scott won 131 and Webster won 29. After the 46th ballot still failed to produce a presidential nominee, the delegates voted to adjourn until the following Monday. Over the weekend, Fillmore and Webster supporters conducted unsuccessful negotiations to unite behind one candidate. On the 48th ballot, Webster delegates began to defect to Scott, and the general gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Fillmore accepted his defeat with equanimity and endorsed Scott, but many Northern Whigs were dismayed when Scott publicly endorsed the party's pro-Compromise platform. Despite the party's effort to appeal to southerners by nominating William Alexander Graham of North Carolina for vice president, many Southern Whigs, including Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs, refused to support Scott.


title: Winfield Scott

text: The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce, a Northerner sympathetic to the Southern view on slavery who had served under Scott as a brigadier general during the Mexican War. Pierce had resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1842, and had briefly held only the minor office of United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire since then, but emerged as a compromise candidate partly because of his service under Scott in the Mexican–American War. The Democrats attacked Scott for various incidents from his long public career, including his court-martial in 1809 and the hanging of members of the Saint Patrick's Battalion during the Mexican–American War. Scott proved to be a poor candidate who lacked popular appeal, and he suffered the worst defeat in Whig history. In the South, distrust and apathy towards Scott led many Southern Whigs to vote for Pierce or to sit out the election, and in the North, many anti-slavery Whigs voted for John P. Hale of the Free Soil Party. Scott won just four states and 44 percent of the popular vote, while Pierce won just under 51 percent of the popular vote and a large majority of the electoral vote.


title: Winfield Scott

text: After the 1852 election, Scott continued his duties as the senior officer of the army. He maintained cordial relations with President Pierce but frequently clashed with Pierce's Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, over issues like travel expenses. Despite his defeat in the 1852 presidential election, Scott remained broadly popular, and on Pierce's recommendation, in 1855 Congress passed a resolution promoting Scott to brevet lieutenant general. Scott was the first U.S. Army officer since George Washington to hold the rank of lieutenant general. He also earned the appellation of the "Grand Old Man of the Army" for his long career.


title: Winfield Scott

text: The passage of the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act and the outbreak of violent confrontations between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in Kansas exacerbated sectional tensions and split both major parties. Pierce was denied re-nomination in favor of James Buchanan, while the Whig Party collapsed. In the 1856 presidential election, Buchanan defeated John C. Frémont of the anti-slavery Republican Party and former President Fillmore, the candidate of the nativist American Party. Sectional tensions continued to escalate after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in "Dred Scott v. Sandford". Buchanan proved incapable of healing sectional divides, and some leading Southerners became increasingly vocal in their desire to secede from the union. In 1859, Buchanan assigned Scott to lead a mission to settle a dispute with Britain over the ownership of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest. Scott reached an agreement with British official James Douglas to reduce military forces on the islands, thereby resolving the so-called "Pig War".


title: Winfield Scott

text: In the 1860 presidential election, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, while the Democrats split along sectional lines, with Northern Democrats supporting Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Southern Democrats supporting Vice President John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln won the election, taking just 44 percent of the popular vote but winning a majority of the electoral vote due to his support in the North despite his name not being on the ballot in many Southern States. Fearing the possibility of imminent secession, Scott advised Buchanan and Secretary of War John B. Floyd to reinforce federal forts in the South. He was initially ignored, but Scott gained new influence within the administration after Floyd was replaced by Joseph Holt in mid-December. With assistance from Holt and newly appointed Secretary of State Jeremiah S. Black, Scott convinced Buchanan to reinforce or resupply Washington, D.C., Fort Sumter (near Charleston, South Carolina), and Fort Pickens (near Pensacola, Florida). Meanwhile, several Southern states seceded, formed the Confederate States of America, and chose Jefferson Davis as president.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Because Scott was from Virginia, Lincoln sent an envoy, Thomas S. Mather, to ask whether Scott would remain loyal to the United States and keep order during Lincoln's inauguration. Scott responded to Mather, "I shall consider myself responsible for [Lincoln's] safety. If necessary, I shall plant cannon at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and if any of the Maryland or Virginia gentlemen who have become so threatening and troublesome show their heads or even venture to raise a finger, I shall blow them to hell." Scott helped ensure that Lincoln arrived in Washington safely, and ensured the security of Lincoln's inauguration, which ultimately was conducted without a major incident.


title: Winfield Scott

text: By the time Lincoln assumed office, seven states had declared their secession and had seized federal property within their bounds, but the United States retained control of the military installations at Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. Scott advised evacuating the forts on the grounds that an attempted re-supply would inflame tensions with the South, and that Confederate shore batteries made re-supply impossible. Lincoln rejected the advice and chose to re-supply the forts; although Scott accepted the orders, his resistance to the re-supply mission, along with poor health, undermined his status within the administration. Nonetheless, he remained a key military adviser and administrator. On April 12, Confederate forces began an attack on Fort Sumter, forcing its surrender the following day. On April 15, Lincoln declared that a state of rebellion existed and called up tens of thousands of militiamen. On the advice of Scott, Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union forces, but Lee ultimately chose to serve the Confederacy.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott took charge of molding Union military personnel into a cohesive fighting force. Lincoln rejected Scott's proposal to build up the regular army, and the administration would largely rely on volunteers to fight the war. Scott developed a strategy, later known as the Anaconda Plan, that called for the capture of the Mississippi River and a blockade of Southern ports. By cutting off the eastern states of the Confederacy, Scott hoped to force the surrender of Confederate forces with a minimal loss of life on both sides. Scott's plan was leaked to the public, and was derided by most Northern newspapers, which tended to favor an immediate assault on the Confederacy. As Scott was too old for battlefield command, Lincoln selected General Irvin McDowell, an officer whom Scott saw as unimaginative and inexperienced, to lead the main Union army in the eastern theater of the war. Though Scott counseled that the army needed more time to train, Lincoln ordered an offensive against the Confederate capital of Richmond. Irvin McDowell led a force of 30,000 men south, where he met the Confederate Army at the First Battle of Bull Run. The Confederate army dealt the Union a major defeat, ending any hope of a quick end to the war.


title: Winfield Scott

text: McDowell took the brunt of public vituperation for the defeat at Bull Run, but Scott, who had helped plan the battle, also received criticism. Lincoln replaced McDowell with McClellan, and the president began meeting with McClellan without Scott in attendance. Frustrated with his diminished standing, Scott submitted his resignation in October 1861. Though Scott favored General Henry Halleck as his successor, Lincoln instead made McClellan the army's senior officer.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott grew very heavy in his last years of service, and was unable to mount a horse or walk more than a few paces without stopping to rest. He was often in ill health, and suffered from gout, dropsy, rheumatism, and vertigo. After retiring, he traveled to Europe with his daughter, Cornelia, and her husband, H. L. Scott. In Paris, he worked with Thurlow Weed to aid American consul John Bigelow in defusing the Trent Affair, a diplomatic incident with Britain. On his return from Europe in December 1861, he lived alone in New York City and at West Point, New York, where he wrote his memoirs and closely followed the ongoing civil war.


title: Winfield Scott

text: On June 23–24, 1862, President Lincoln made an unannounced visit to West Point, where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling of the Civil War and the staffing of the War Department. After McClellan's defeat in the Seven Days Battles, Lincoln accepted Scott's advice and appointed General Halleck as the army's senior general. In 1864, Scott sent a copy of his newly published memoirs to Ulysses S. Grant, who had succeeded Halleck as the lead Union general. The copy that Scott sent was inscribed, "from the oldest to the greatest general." Following a strategy similar to Scott's Anaconda Plan, Grant led the Union to victory, and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in April 1865.


title: Winfield Scott

text: On October 4, 1865, Scott was elected as a Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and was assigned insignia number 27. He is one of the few individuals who belonged to the three most senior military societies of the United States – the Society of the Cincinnati, the Aztec Club of 1847 and the Loyal Legion.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott died at West Point on May 29, 1866, two weeks before his 80th birthday. President Andrew Johnson ordered the flags flown at half-staff to honor Scott, and Scott's funeral was attended by many of the leading Union generals, including Grant, George G. Meade, George H. Thomas, and John Schofield. He is buried at the West Point Cemetery.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott holds the record for the greatest length of active service as general in the U.S. Army, as well as the longest tenure as the army's chief officer. Steven Malanga of "City Journal" writes that "Scott was one of America’s greatest generals ... but he had the misfortune to serve in two conflicts—the War of 1812 and the controversial Mexican-American War—bracketed by the far more significant American Revolution and Civil War." Biographer John Eisenhower writes that Scott "was an astonishing man" who was the country's "most prominent general" between the retirement of Andrew Jackson in 1821 and the onset of the Civil War in 1861. The Duke of Wellington proclaimed Scott "the greatest living general" after his capture of Mexico City. Robert E. Lee wrote, "the great cause of our success [in Mexico] was in our leader [Scott]". Historians Scott Kaufman and John A. Soares Jr. write that Scott was "an able diplomat who proved crucial in helping avert war between Britain and the United States in period after the War of 1812." Fanny Crosby, the hymn writer, recalled that Scott's "gentle manner did not indicate a hero of so many battles; yet there was strength beneath the exterior appearance and a heart of iron within his breast. But from him I learned that the warrior only it is, who can fully appreciate the blessing of peace."


title: Winfield Scott

text: In addition to his reputation as a tactician and strategist, Scott was also noteworthy for his concern about the welfare of his subordinates, as demonstrated by his willingness to risk his career in the dispute with Wilkinson over the Louisiana bivouac site. In another example, when cholera broke out among his soldiers while they were aboard ship during the Black Hawk campaign and the ship's surgeon was incapacitated by the disease, Scott had the doctor tutor him in treatment and risked his own health by tending to the sick troops himself.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott was the recipient of several honorary degrees. These included a Master of Arts from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1814, a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from Columbia University in 1850, and an LL.D. from Harvard University in 1861.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott has been memorialized in numerous ways. Scott County, Iowa in the state of Iowa; Scott County, Kansas; Scott County, Virginia; Scott County, Minnesota; and Scott County, Tennessee were all named for him. Communities named for Scott include Winfield, Illinois; Winfield, Indiana; Winfield, Iowa; Winfield, Alabama; and Winfield, Tennessee, Fort Scott, Kansas, and Scott Depot and Winfield, West Virginia. Fort Winfield Scott at the Presidio of San Francisco was part of the coastal defenses of San Francisco Bay from 1861 to 1970, and is now a part of the Fort Point National Historic Site. Other things named for Scott include Lake Winfield Scott in Georgia, Mount Scott in Oklahoma, and the Scott's oriole, a bird.


title: Winfield Scott

text: A statue of Scott stands at Scott Circle in Washington, D.C. Scott was also honored by having his likeness depicted on a U.S. postage stamp. A paddle steamer named "Winfield Scott" launched in 1850, and a US Army tugboat in service in the 21st century is named "Winfield Scott". Various individuals, including officers Union General Winfield Scott Hancock, Confederate General Winfield Scott Featherston, and Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, were named after General Scott. The US Army Civil Affairs Association views General Scott as the 'Father of Civil Affairs' and the regimental award medallions bear his name.


title: Winfield Scott

text: The General Winfield Scott House, his home in New York City during 1853–1855, was named as a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Scott's papers are held by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan.


title: Winfield Scott

text: During his career, which ended with his retirement on November 1, 1861, Scott was promoted from captain to brevet lieutenant general. The effective dates of his promotions were:


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott's fame and political career led to the creation of several musical pieces named for him. In 1848, Hall, a Boston publisher, produced the "Scott & Taylor Almanac" to capitalize on the name recognition of the Mexican–American War's two most famous generals. In 1852, Huestis and Couzans of New York City published "Scott and Graham Melodies", a book of songs used during the 1852 presidential campaign. Another book of songs used by Whig campaigners in 1852, "The Scott Songster", was published by Edwards & Goshorn of Cincinnati. In 1861, Stephen Glover created in Scott's honor an instrumental music piece, "General Scott's Grand Review March".


title: Winfield Scott

text: Actor Roy Gordon portrayed Scott in the 1953 film "Kansas Pacific". Sydney Greenstreet played Scott in the 1941 film "They Died with their Boots On." Scott was played by Patrick Bergin in the 1999 film "One Man's Hero", a drama about the Mexican–American War's Saint Patrick's Battalion.


title: Winfield Scott

text: Scott is referenced in the Season 6 "Outlander" episode "Hour of the Wolf". During a scene set in the era of the American Revolution, Jamie asks what will be the fate of the Cherokee people. Brianna, who has traveled back in time from the 1960s, tells Jamie about the Trail of Tears and Scott's role in it.


title: Halberd

text: A halberd (also called halbard, halbert or Swiss voulge) is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The word "halberd" is cognate with the German word "Hellebarde", deriving from Middle High German "halm" (handle) and "barte" (battleaxe) joined to form "helmbarte". Troops that used the weapon were called halberdiers.


title: Halberd

text: The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It always has a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants. It is very similar to certain forms of the voulge in design and usage. The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres (5 to 6 feet) long.


title: Halberd

text: The word has also been used to describe a weapon of the Early Bronze Age in Western Europe. This consisted of a blade mounted on a pole at a right angle.


title: Halberd

text: The halberd was inexpensive to produce and very versatile in battle. As the halberd was eventually refined, its point was more fully developed to allow it to better deal with spears and pikes (and make it able to push back approaching horsemen), as was the hook opposite the axe head, which could be used to pull horsemen to the ground. A Swiss peasant used a halberd to kill Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, decisively ending the Burgundian Wars in a single stroke. Researchers suspect that a halberd or a bill sliced through the back of King Richard III's skull at the Battle of Bosworth.


title: Halberd

text: The halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Later, the Swiss added the pike to better repel knightly attacks and roll over enemy infantry formations, with the halberd, hand-and-a-half sword, or the dagger known as the "Schweizerdolch" used for closer combat. The German "Landsknechte", who imitated Swiss warfare methods, also used the pike, supplemented by the halberd—but their side arm of choice was a short sword called the "Katzbalger".


title: Halberd

text: As long as pikemen fought other pikemen, the halberd remained a useful supplemental weapon for "push of pike", but when their position became more defensive, to protect the slow-loading arquebusiers and matchlock musketeers from sudden attacks by cavalry, the percentage of halberdiers in the pike units steadily decreased. By 1588, official Dutch infantry composition was down to 39% arquebuses, 34% pikes, 13% muskets, 9% halberds, and 2% one-handed swords. By 1600, troops armed exclusively with swords were no longer used and the halberd was only used by sergeants.


title: Halberd

text: While rarer than it had been from the late 15th to mid 16th centuries, the halberd was still used infrequently as an infantry weapon well into the mid 17th century. The armies of the Catholic League in 1625, for example, had halberdiers comprising 7% of infantry units, with musketeers comprising 58% and armored pikemen 35%. By 1627 this had changed to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds. A near-contemporary depiction of the 1665 Battle of Montes Claros at Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira depicts a minority of the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers as armed with halberds. Antonio de Pereda's 1635 painting "El Socorro a Génova" depicting the Relief of Genoa has all the soldiers armed with halberds. The most consistent users of the halberd in the Thirty Years War were German sergeants who would carry one as a sign of rank. While they could use them in melee combat, more often they were used for dressing the ranks by grasping the shaft in both hands and pushing it against several men simultaneously. They could also be used to push pikes or muskets up or down, especially to stop overexcited musketeers from firing prematurely.


title: Halberd

text: The halberd has been used as a court bodyguard weapon for centuries, and is still the ceremonial weapon of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican and the "Alabarderos" (Halberdiers) Company


title: Halberd

text: of the Spanish Royal Guard. The halberd was one of the polearms sometimes carried by lower-ranking officers in European infantry units in the 16th through 18th centuries. In the British army, sergeants continued to carry halberds until 1793, when they were replaced by spontoons. The 18th century halberd had, however, become simply a symbol of rank with no sharpened edge and insufficient strength to use as a weapon. It served as an instrument for ensuring that infantrymen in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other and that their muskets were aimed at the correct level.


title: Parliament

text: In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. The term is similar to the idea of a senate, synod or congress and is commonly used in countries that are current or former monarchies. Some contexts restrict the use of the word "parliament" to parliamentary systems, although it is also used to describe the legislature in some presidential systems (e.g., the Parliament of Ghana), even where it is not in the official name.


title: Parliament

text: Historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies, an example being the French medieval and early modern parlements.


title: Parliament

text: The English term is derived from Anglo-Norman and dates to the 14th century, coming from the 11th century Old French , "discussion, discourse", from , meaning "to talk". The meaning evolved over time, originally referring to any discussion, conversation, or negotiation through various kinds of deliberative or judicial groups, often summoned by a monarch. By the 15th century, in Britain, it had come to specifically mean the legislature.


title: Parliament

text: Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders. This is called tribalism. Some scholars suggest that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a primitive democratic government where the kings were assessed by council. The same has been said about ancient India, where some form of deliberative assemblies existed, and therefore there was some form of democracy. However, these claims are not accepted by other scholars, who see these forms of government as oligarchies.


title: Parliament

text: Ancient Athens was the cradle of democracy. The Athenian assembly (, "ekklesia") was the most important institution, and every free male citizen could take part in the discussions. Slaves and women could not. However, Athenian democracy was not representative, but rather direct, and therefore the "ekklesia" was different from the parliamentary system.


title: Parliament

text: The Roman Republic had legislative assemblies, who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital punishment, the declaration of war and peace, and the creation (or dissolution) of alliances. The Roman Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy.


title: Parliament

text: Some Muslim scholars argue that the Islamic shura (a method of taking decisions in Islamic societies) is analogous to the parliament. However, other scholars (notably from Hizb ut-Tahrir) highlight what they consider fundamental differences between the shura system and the parliamentary system.


title: Parliament

text: England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist and advise the king on important matters. Under the Anglo-Saxon kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, for "meeting of wise men". The first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca. 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose; however, the witan was certainly in existence long before this time. The Witan, along with the folkmoots (local assemblies), is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament.


title: Parliament

text: As part of the Norman Conquest, the new king, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, replacing it with a Curia Regis ("King's Council"). Membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few nobles who "rented" great estates directly from the king, along with ecclesiastics. William brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy, and sought the advice of the curia regis before making laws. This is the original body from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet descend. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament; judges sit in the Supreme Court of Judicature. Only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court.


title: Parliament

text: Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of Edward I. Like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance and taxation. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments. The significant difference between the Model Parliament and the earlier Curia Regis was the addition of the Commons; that is, the inclusion of elected representatives of rural landowners and of townsmen. In 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without the "consent of the realm" through parliament. He also enlarged the court system.


title: Parliament

text: The tenants-in-chief often struggled with their spiritual counterparts and with the king for power. In 1215, they secured from King John of England "Magna Carta", which established that the king may not levy or collect any taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of a council. It was also established that the most important tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics be summoned to the council by personal writs from the sovereign, and that all others be summoned to the council by general writs from the sheriffs of their counties. Modern government has its origins in the Curia Regis; parliament descends from the Great Council later known as the "parliamentum" established by "Magna Carta".


title: Parliament

text: During the reign of King Henry III, 13th-Century English Parliaments incorporated elected representatives from shires and towns. These parliaments are, as such, considered forerunners of the modern parliament.


title: Parliament

text: In 1265, Simon de Montfort, then in rebellion against Henry III, summoned a parliament of his supporters without royal authorization. The archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and barons were summoned, as were two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. Knights had been summoned to previous councils, but it was unprecedented for the boroughs to receive any representation. Come 1295, Edward I later adopted de Montfort's ideas for representation and election in the so-called "Model Parliament". At first, each estate debated independently; by the reign of Edward III, however, Parliament recognisably assumed its modern form, with authorities dividing the legislative body into two separate chambers.


title: Parliament

text: The purpose and structure of Parliament in Tudor England underwent a significant transformation under the reign of Henry VIII. Originally its methods were primarily medieval, and the monarch still possessed a form of inarguable dominion over its decisions. According to Elton, it was Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, then chief minister to Henry VIII, who initiated still other changes within parliament.


title: Parliament

text: The Reformation Acts supplied Parliament with unlimited power over the country. This included authority over virtually every matter, whether social, economic, political, or religious ; it legalised the Reformation, officially and indisputably. The king had to rule through the council, not over it, and all sides needed to reach a mutual agreement when creating or passing laws, adjusting or implementing taxes, or changing religious doctrines. This was significant: the monarch no longer had sole control over the country. For instance, during the later years of Mary, Parliament exercised its authority in originally rejecting Mary's bid to revive Catholicism in the realm. Later on, the legislative body even denied Elizabeth her request to marry . If Parliament had possessed this power before Cromwell, such as when Wolsey served as secretary, the Reformation may never have happened, as the king would have had to gain the consent of all parliament members before so drastically changing the country's religious laws and fundamental identity .


title: Parliament

text: The power of Parliament increased considerably after the Civil War. It also provided the country with unprecedented stability. More stability, in turn, helped assure more effective management, organisation, and efficiency. Parliament printed statutes and devised a more coherent parliamentary procedure.


title: Parliament

text: The rise of Parliament proved especially important in the sense that it limited the repercussions of dynastic complications that had so often plunged England into civil war. Parliament still ran the country even in the absence of suitable heirs to the throne, and its legitimacy as a decision-making body reduced the royal prerogatives of kings like Henry VIII and the importance of their whims. For example, Henry VIII could not simply establish supremacy by proclamation; he required Parliament to enforce statutes and add felonies and treasons. An important liberty for Parliament was its freedom of speech; Henry allowed anything to be spoken openly within Parliament and speakers could not face arrest – a fact which they exploited incessantly. Nevertheless, Parliament in Henry VIII's time offered up very little objection to the monarch's desires. Under his and Edward's reign, the legislative body complied willingly with the majority of the kings' decisions.


title: Parliament

text: Much of this compliance stemmed from how the English viewed and traditionally understood authority. As Williams described it, "King and parliament were not separate entities, but a single body, of which the monarch was the senior partner and the Lords and the Commons the lesser, but still essential, members."


title: Parliament

text: Although its role in government expanded significantly during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Parliament of England saw some of its most important gains in the 17th century. A series of conflicts between the Crown and Parliament culminated in the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Afterward, England became a commonwealth, with Oliver Cromwell, its lord protector, the de facto ruler. Frustrated with its decisions, Cromwell purged and suspended Parliament on several occasions.


title: Parliament

text: A controversial figure accused of despotism, war crimes, and even genocide, Cromwell is nonetheless regarded as essential to the growth of democracy in England. The years of the Commonwealth, coupled with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the subsequent Glorious Revolution of 1688, helped reinforce and strengthen Parliament as an institution separate from the Crown.


title: Parliament

text: The Parliament of England met until it merged with the Parliament of Scotland under the Acts of Union. This union created the new Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.


title: Parliament

text: Originally, there was only the Parliament of Paris, born out of the Curia Regis in 1307, and located inside the medieval royal palace, now the Paris Hall of Justice. The jurisdiction of the "Parliament" of Paris covered the entire kingdom. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. In 1443, following the turmoil of the Hundred Years' War, King Charles VII of France granted Languedoc its own "parliament" by establishing the "Parliament" of Toulouse, the first "parliament" outside of Paris, whose jurisdiction extended over the most part of southern France. From 1443 until the French Revolution several other "parliaments" were created in some provinces of France (Grenoble, Bordeaux).


title: Parliament

text: All the "parliaments" could issue regulatory decrees for the application of royal edicts or of customary practices; they could also refuse to register laws that they judged contrary to fundamental law or simply as being untimely. Parliamentary power in France was suppressed more so than in England as a result of absolutism, and parliaments were eventually overshadowed by the larger Estates General, up until the French Revolution, when the last Estates General transformed itself into a National Assembly, a legislative body whose existence is independent of the royal power.


title: Parliament

text: A "thing" or "ting" (Old Norse and ; other modern Scandinavian: "ting", "ding" in Dutch) was the governing assembly in Germanic societies, made up of the free men of the community and presided by lawspeakers.


title: Parliament

text: The thing was the assembly of the free men of a country, province or a hundred "(hundare/härad/herred)". There were consequently, hierarchies of things, so that the local things were represented at the thing for a larger area, for a province or land. At the thing, disputes were solved and political decisions were made. The place for the thing was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce.


title: Parliament

text: The thing met at regular intervals, legislated, elected chieftains and kings, and judged according to the law, which was memorised and recited by the "law speaker" (the judge).


title: Parliament

text: The Icelandic, Faroese and Manx parliaments trace their origins back to the Viking expansion originating from the Petty kingdoms of Norway as well as Denmark, replicating Viking government systems in the conquered territories, such as those represented by the Gulating near Bergen in western Norway.


title: Parliament

text: Later national diets with chambers for different estates developed, e.g. in Sweden and in Finland (which was part of Sweden until 1809), each with a House of Knights for the nobility. In both these countries, the national parliaments are now called riksdag (in Finland also "eduskunta"), a word used since the Middle Ages and equivalent of the German word Reichstag.


title: Parliament

text: Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures, political and judicial institutions in the North-Germanic countries. In the Yorkshire and former Danelaw areas of England, which were subject to much Norse invasion and settlement, the wapentake was another name for the same institution.


title: Parliament

text: The Diet of Hungary, or originally Parlamentum Publicum and Parlamentum Generale (), became the supreme legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period. The name of the legislative body was originally "Parlamentum" during the Middle Ages, the "Diet" expression gained mostly in the Early Modern period. It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, and again until 1946.


title: Parliament

text: Some researchers have traced the roots of the Hungarian institution of national assemblies as far back as the 11th century. This based on documentary evidence that, on certain "important occasions" under the reigns of King Ladislaus I and King Coloman "the Learned", assemblies were held on a national scale where both ecclesiastic and secular dignitaries made appearances.


title: Parliament

text: The first exact written mention of the word "parlamentum" (Parliament) for the nation-wide assembly originated during the reign of King Andrew II in the Golden Bull of 1222, which reaffirmed the rights of the smaller nobles of the old and new classes of royal servants (servientes regis) against both the crown and the magnates, and to defend the rights of the whole nation against the crown by restricting the powers of the latter in certain fields and legalizing refusal to obey its unlawful/unconstitutional commands (the ""ius resistendi"").


title: Parliament

text: The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the Hungarian Diet.


title: Parliament

text: An institutionalized Hungarian parliament emerged during the 14th and 15th centuries. Beginning under King Charles I, continuing under subsequent kings through into the reign of King Matthias I, the Diet was essentially convened by the king. However, under the rule of heavy handed kings like Louis the Great and during reign of the early absolutist Matthias Corvinus the parliaments were often convened to announce the royal decisions, and had no significant power of its own. Since the reign of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the parliament has regained most of its former power.


title: Parliament

text: According to the "Chronicles" of Gallus Anonymus, the first legendary Polish ruler, Siemowit, who began the Piast dynasty, was chosen by an ancient "wiec" council. The idea of the "wiec" led to the development of the Polish parliament, the "Sejm", in around 1180.


title: Parliament

text: The term "sejm" comes from an old Polish expression denoting a meeting of the populace. The power of early sejms grew between 1146 and 1295, when the power of individual rulers waned and various councils grew stronger. Since the 14th century irregular sejms (described in various Latin sources as "contentio generalis, conventio magna, conventio solemna, parlamentum, parlamentum generale, dieta") have been convened by Poland's monarchs. From 1374, the king had to receive permission from that assembly to raise taxes and the 1454 Nieszawa Statutes granted the szlachta (nobles) unprecedented concessions and authority. The General Sejm (Polish "sejm generalny" or "sejm walny"), first convoked by the John I Albert in 1493 near Piotrków, evolved from earlier regional and provincial meetings called "sejmiks". Simultaneously, the Senate was founded on the earlier "curia regis", convened at the king's discretion. Hence, the year 1493 marked the beginning of a bicameral legislative body of government. With the subsequent development of Polish Golden Liberty in the next several decades, the Sejm's powers systematically increased. Poland was among the few countries in Europe where the parliament played an especially important role in its national identity as it contributed to the unity of the nation and the state.


title: Parliament

text: The general parliament of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth consisted of three estates – the King of Poland, the Senate (consisting of Ministers, Palatines, Castellans and Roman Catholic Bishops) and the Chamber of Envoys comprising 170 nobles acting on behalf of their holdings as well as representatives of major cities, who did not possess any voting privileges. In 1573, a convocation sejm established an elective monarchy in the Commonwealth.


title: Parliament

text: After its self-proclamation as an independent kingdom in 1139 by Afonso I of Portugal (followed by the recognition by the Kingdom of León in the Treaty of Zamora of 1143), the first historically established Cortes of the Kingdom of Portugal occurred in 1211 in Coimbra by initiative of Afonso II of Portugal. These established the first general laws of the kingdom ("Leis Gerais do Reino"): protection of the king's property, stipulation of measures for the administration of justice and the rights of his subjects to be protected from abuses by royal officials, and confirming the clerical donations of the previous king Sancho I of Portugal. These Cortes also affirmed the validity of canon law for the Church in Portugal, while introducing the prohibition of the purchase of lands by churches or monasteries (although they can be acquired by donations and legacies).


title: Parliament

text: After the conquest of Algarve in 1249, the Kingdom of Portugal completed its Reconquista. In 1254 King Afonso III of Portugal summoned Portuguese Cortes in Leiria, with the inclusion of burghers from old and newly incorporated municipalities. This inclusion establishes the Cortes of Leiria of 1254 as the second sample of modern parliamentarism in the history of Europe (after the Cortes of León in 1188). In these Cortes the monetagio was introduced: a fixed sum was to be paid by the burghers to the Crown as a substitute for the septennium (the traditional revision of the face value of coinage by the Crown every seven years). These Cortes also introduced staple laws on the Douro River, favoring the new royal city of Vila Nova de Gaia at the expense of the old episcopal city of Porto.


title: Parliament

text: The Portuguese Cortes met again under King Afonso III of Portugal in 1256, 1261 and 1273, always by royal summon. Medieval Kings of Portugal continued to rely on small assemblies of notables, and only summoned the full Cortes on extraordinary occasions. A Cortes would be called if the king wanted to introduce new taxes, change some fundamental laws, announce significant shifts in foreign policy (e.g. ratify treaties), or settle matters of royal succession, issues where the cooperation and assent of the towns was thought necessary. Changing taxation (especially requesting war subsidies), was probably the most frequent reason for convening the Cortes. As the nobles and clergy were largely tax-exempt, setting taxation involved intensive negotiations between the royal council and the burgher delegates at the Cortes.


title: Parliament

text: Delegates ("procuradores") not only considered the king's proposals, but, in turn, also used the Cortes to submit petitions of their own to the royal council on a myriad of matters, e.g. extending and confirming town privileges, punishing abuses of officials, introducing new price controls, constraints on Jews, pledges on coinage, etc. The royal response to these petitions became enshrined as ordinances and statutes, thus giving the Cortes the aspect of a legislature. These petitions were originally referred to as "aggravamentos" (grievances) then "artigos" (articles) and eventually "capitulos" (chapters). In a Cortes-Gerais, petitions were discussed and voted upon separately by each estate and required the approval of at least two of the three estates before being passed up to the royal council. The proposal was then subject to royal veto (either accepted or rejected by the king in its entirety) before becoming law.


title: Parliament

text: Nonetheless, the exact extent of Cortes power was ambiguous. Kings insisted on their ancient prerogative to promulgate laws independently of the Cortes. The compromise, in theory, was that ordinances enacted in Cortes could only be modified or repealed by Cortes. But even that principle was often circumvented or ignored in practice.


title: Parliament

text: The Cortes probably had their heyday in the 14th and 15th centuries, reaching their apex when John I of Portugal relied almost wholly upon the bourgeoisie for his power. For a period after the 1383–1385 Crisis, the Cortes were convened almost annually. But as time went on, they became less important. Portuguese monarchs, tapping into the riches of the Portuguese empire overseas, grew less dependent on Cortes subsidies and convened them less frequently. John II (r.1481-1495) used them to break the high nobility, but dispensed with them otherwise. Manuel I (r.1495-1521) convened them only four times in his long reign. By the time of Sebastian (r.1554–1578), the Cortes was practically an irrelevance.


title: Parliament

text: Curiously, the Cortes gained a new importance with the Iberian Union of 1581, finding a role as the representative of Portuguese interests to the new Habsburg monarch. The Cortes played a critical role in the 1640 Restoration, and enjoyed a brief period of resurgence during the reign of John IV of Portugal (r.1640-1656). But by the end of the 17th century, it found itself sidelined once again. The last Cortes met in 1698, for the mere formality of confirming the appointment of Infante John (future John V of Portugal) as the successor of Peter II of Portugal. Thereafter, Portuguese kings ruled as absolute monarchs and no Cortes were assembled for over a century. This state of affairs came to an end with the Liberal Revolution of 1820, which set in motion the introduction of a new constitution, and a permanent and proper parliament, that however inherited the name of Cortes Gerais.


title: Parliament

text: The zemsky sobor (Russian: зе́мский собо́р) was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land.


title: Parliament

text: It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma. Three categories of population, comparable to the Estates-General of France but with the numbering of the first two Estates reversed, participated in the assembly:


title: Parliament

text: The name of the parliament of nowadays Russian Federation is the Federal Assembly of Russia. The term for its lower house, State Duma (which is better known than the Federal Assembly itself, and is often mistaken for the entirety of the parliament) comes from the Russian word "думать" ("dumat"), "to think". The Boyar Duma was an advisory council to the grand princes and tsars of Muscovy. The Duma was discontinued by Peter the Great, who transferred its functions to the Governing Senate in 1711.


title: Parliament

text: In present-day Ukraine, the Sich Rada (council) was an institution of Cossack administration from the 16th to the 18th century. With the establishment of the Hetmanate in 1648, it was officially known as the General Military Council until 1750.


title: Parliament

text: The "veche" was the highest legislature and judicial authority in the republic of Novgorod until 1478. In its sister state, Pskov, a separate veche operated until 1510.


title: Parliament

text: Since the Novgorod revolution of 1137 ousted the ruling grand prince, the veche became the supreme state authority. After the reforms of 1410, the veche was restructured on a model similar to that of Venice, becoming the Commons chamber of the parliament. An upper Senate-like Council of Lords was also created, with title membership for all former city magistrates. Some sources indicate that veche membership may have become full-time, and parliament deputies were now called "vechniks". It is recounted that the Novgorod assembly could be summoned by anyone who rung the veche bell, although it is more likely that the common procedure was more complex. This bell was a symbol of republican sovereignty and independence. The whole population of the city—boyars, merchants, and common citizens—then gathered at Yaroslav's Court. Separate assemblies could be held in the districts of Novgorod. In Pskov the veche assembled in the court of the Trinity cathedral.


title: Parliament

text: "Conciliarism" or the "conciliar movement", was a reform movement in the 14th and 15th century Roman Catholic Church which held that final authority in spiritual matters resided with the Roman Church as corporation of Christians, embodied by a general church council, not with the pope. In effect, the movement sought – ultimately, in vain – to create an All-Catholic Parliament. Its struggle with the Papacy had many points in common with the struggle of parliaments in specific countries against the authority of Kings and other secular rulers.


title: Parliament

text: From the 10th century the Kingdom of Alba was ruled by chiefs ("toisechs") and subkings ("mormaers") under the suzerainty, real or nominal, of a High King. Popular assemblies, as in Ireland, were involved in law-making, and sometimes in king-making, although the introduction of tanistry—naming a successor in the lifetime of a king—made the second less than common. These early assemblies cannot be considered "parliaments" in the later sense of the word, and were entirely separate from the later, Norman-influenced, institution.


title: Parliament

text: The Parliament of Scotland evolved during the Middle Ages from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls. The unicameral parliament is first found on record, referred to as a "colloquium", in 1235 at Kirkliston (a village now in Edinburgh).


title: Parliament

text: By the early fourteenth century the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and from 1326 burgh commissioners attended. Consisting of the Three Estates; of clerics, lay tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners sitting in a single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most obviously it was needed for consent for taxation (although taxation was only raised irregularly in Scotland in the medieval period), but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and all manner of other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical, social or economic. Parliamentary business was also carried out by "sister" institutions, before c. 1500 by General Council and thereafter by the Convention of Estates. These could carry out much business also dealt with by Parliament – taxation, legislation and policy-making – but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.


title: Parliament

text: The parliament, which is also referred to as the Estates of Scotland, the Three Estates, the Scots Parliament or the auld Scots Parliament (Eng: "old"), met until the Acts of Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England, creating the new Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.


title: Parliament

text: Following the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, and the passing of the Scotland Act 1998 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Scottish Parliament was reconvened on 1 July 1999, although with much more limited powers than its 18th-century predecessor. The parliament has sat since 2004 at its newly constructed Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, situated at the foot of the Royal Mile, next to the royal palace of Holyroodhouse.


title: Parliament

text: Although there are documented councils held in 873, 1020, 1050 and 1063, there was no representation of commoners. What is considered to be the first parliament (with the presence of commoners), the Cortes of León, was held in the Kingdom of León in 1188. According to the UNESCO, the Decreta of Leon of 1188 is the oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system. In addition, UNESCO granted the 1188 Cortes of Alfonso IX the title of "Memory of the World" and the city of Leon has been recognized as the "Cradle of Parliamentarism".


title: Parliament

text: After coming to power, King Alfonso IX, facing an attack by his two neighbors, Castile and Portugal, decided to summon the "Royal Curia". This was a medieval organization composed of aristocrats and bishops but because of the seriousness of the situation and the need to maximize political support, Alfonso IX took the decision to also call the representatives of the urban middle class from the most important cities of the kingdom to the assembly. León's Cortes dealt with matters like the right to private property, the inviolability of domicile, the right to appeal to justice opposite the King and the obligation of the King to consult the Cortes before entering a war. Prelates, nobles and commoners met separately in the three estates of the Cortes. In this meeting, new laws were approved to protect commoners against the arbitrarities of nobles, prelates and the king. This important set of laws is known as the "Carta Magna Leonesa".


title: Parliament

text: Following this event, new Cortes would appear in the other different territories that would make up Spain: Principality of Catalonia in 1192, the Kingdom of Castile in 1250, Kingdom of Aragon in 1274, Kingdom of Valencia in 1283 and Kingdom of Navarre in 1300.


title: Parliament

text: After the union of the Kingdoms of Leon and Castile under the Crown of Castile, their Cortes were united as well in 1258. The Castilian Cortes had representatives from Burgos, Toledo, León, Seville, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén, Zamora, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Cuenca, Toro, Valladolid, Soria, Madrid, Guadalajara and Granada (after 1492). The Cortes' assent was required to pass new taxes, and could also advise the king on other matters. The comunero rebels intended a stronger role for the Cortes, but were defeated by the forces of Habsburg Emperor Charles V in 1521. The Cortes maintained some power, however, though it became more of a consultative entity. However, by the time of King Philip II, Charles's son, the Castilian Cortes had come under functionally complete royal control, with its delegates dependent on the Crown for their income.


title: Parliament

text: The Cortes of the Crown of Aragon kingdoms retained their power to control the king's spending with regard to the finances of those kingdoms. But after the War of the Spanish Succession and the victory of another royal house – the Bourbons – and King Philip V, their Cortes were suppressed (those of Aragon and Valencia in 1707, and those of Catalonia and the Balearic islands in 1714).


title: Parliament

text: The very first Cortes representing the whole of Spain (and the Spanish empire of the day) assembled in 1812, in Cadiz, where it operated as a government in exile as at that time most of the rest of Spain was in the hands of Napoleon's army.


title: Parliament

text: The Federal Diet of Switzerland was one of the longest-lived representative bodies in history, continuing from the 13th century to 1848.


title: Parliament

text: The development of the modern concept of parliamentary government dates back to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800).


title: Parliament

text: The British Parliament is often referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments" (in fact a misquotation of John Bright, who remarked in 1865 that "England is the Mother of Parliaments") because the British Parliament has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its Acts have created many other parliaments. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British "three-tier" model known as the Westminster system. Most countries in Europe and the Commonwealth have similarly organised parliaments with a largely ceremonial head of state who formally opens and closes parliament, a large elected lower house and a smaller, upper house.


title: Parliament

text: The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 by the Acts of Union that replaced the former parliaments of England and Scotland. A further union in 1801 united the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland into a Parliament of the United Kingdom.


title: Parliament

text: In the United Kingdom, Parliament consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch. The House of Commons is composed of 650 (soon to be 600) members who are directly elected by British citizens to represent single-member constituencies. The leader of a Party that wins more than half the seats, or less than half but is able to gain the support of smaller parties to achieve a majority in the house is invited by the Monarch to form a government. The House of Lords is a body of long-serving, unelected members: Lords Temporal – 92 of whom inherit their titles (and of whom 90 are elected internally by members of the House to lifetime seats), 588 of whom have been appointed to lifetime seats, and Lords Spiritual – 26 bishops, who are part of the house while they remain in office.


title: Parliament

text: Legislation can originate from either the Lords or the Commons. It is voted on in several distinct stages, called readings, in each house. First reading is merely a formality. Second reading is where the bill as a whole is considered. Third reading is detailed consideration of clauses of the bill.


title: Parliament

text: In addition to the three readings a bill also goes through a committee stage where it is considered in great detail. Once the bill has been passed by one house it goes to the other and essentially repeats the process. If after the two sets of readings, there are disagreements between the versions that the two houses passed it is returned to the first house for consideration of the amendments made by the second. If it passes through the amendment stage Royal Assent is granted and the bill becomes law as an Act of Parliament.


title: Parliament

text: The House of Lords is the less powerful of the two houses as a result of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. These Acts removed the veto power of the Lords over a great deal of legislation. If a bill is certified by the Speaker of the House of Commons as a money bill (i.e. acts raising taxes and similar) then the Lords can only block it for a month. If an ordinary bill originates in the Commons the Lords can only block it for a maximum of one session of Parliament. The exceptions to this rule are things like bills to prolong the life of a Parliament beyond five years.


title: Parliament

text: In addition to functioning as the second chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords was also the final court of appeal for much of the law of the United Kingdom—a combination of judicial and legislative function that recalls its origin in the Curia Regis. This changed in October 2009 when the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom opened and acquired the former jurisdiction of the House of Lords.


title: Parliament

text: Since 1999, there has been a Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, and, since 2020, a Senedd—or Welsh Parliament—in Cardiff. However, these national, unicameral legislatures do not have complete power over their respective countries of the United Kingdom, holding only those powers devolved to them by Westminster from 1997. They cannot legislate on defence issues, currency, or national taxation (e.g. VAT, or Income Tax). Additionally, the bodies can be theoretically dissolved, at any given time, by the British Parliament without the consent of the devolved government.


title: Parliament

text: In Sweden, the half-century period of parliamentary government beginning with Charles XII's death in 1718 and ending with Gustav III's self-coup in 1772 is known as the Age of Liberty. During this period, civil rights were expanded and power shifted from the monarch to parliament.


title: Parliament

text: While suffrage did not become universal, the taxed peasantry was represented in Parliament, although with little influence and commoners without taxed property had no suffrage at all.


title: Parliament

text: Changes in Poland’s internal situation in the 1980s led to the Round Table Talks which ended in the signing of the famous Round Table Agreement on 5 April 1989. The Agreement spearheaded the evolutionary transformation of the country’s political system; independence was regained once again. The document Position on Political Reforms provided grounds for amending the Constitution. The amended Constitution restored the office of the President of the Polish People’s Republic and the Senate – both to be elected in free and democratic elections. In the Sejm, the opposition was allocated 35% of the mandates. Thus the so called “contract” elections could not be fully democratic. The Sejm (first chamber) became superior to the Senate (second chamber). In addition, the institution of National Assembly was established, consisting of the Sejm and the Senate sitting jointly to elect the President of the Polish People’s Republic. A declaration of the Solidarity Citizens’ Committee heralded the prompt enactment of a new, democratic constitution and electoral law. As a result of Solidarity’s success in elections to the Sejm and the Senate, profound reforms of the political system were undertaken by adopting an amendment to the Constitution on 29 December 1989. In the Constitution, the Republic of Poland was defined as a democratic state ruled by law. As the provisional constitution lasted too long, it was decided to adopt a provisional regulation in the form of the so called Small Constitution. The President signed it on 17 October 1992. The Small Constitution regulated above all the relationship between the executive and legislative powers, on the basis of the doctrine of separation of powers. A bicameral parliament was maintained.


title: Parliament

text: After long years of legislative work, on 2 April 1997, the National Assembly adopted The Constitution of the Republic of Poland. It entered into force on 17 October 1997. The new Constitution introduced a “rationalised” parliamentary-cabinet system in Poland. It is the first Constitution of the Third Republic. That was the first Constitution of the Third Republic. The act defined the position of the Sejm and the Senate within the system without using the term “parliament”. It adopted the doctrine of separation of powers, which provided for a balance between the legislative and executive powers. In practice the binding provisions of the Constitution ensure the supremacy of the legislative power. Both chambers are autonomous bodies, independent of each other, with their own powers. The Constitution retained the principle of bicameralism of the legislature. The Sejm and the Senate sitting jointly constitute the National Assembly. Characteristically, the new Constitution conferred very extensive powers on the Sejm. On the other hand, the powers of the Senate are limited, as in the Constitutions of 1921 and 1992.


title: Parliament

text: Many parliaments are part of a parliamentary system of government, in which the executive is constitutionally answerable to the parliament from the genetic moment of the birth of Government (Motion of confidence), to the final moment of his termination (Motion of no confidence), through all the commitments that can be added to the government contract from time to time through motions and resolutions. Some restrict the use of the word "parliament" to parliamentary systems, while others use the word for any elected legislative body. Parliaments usually consist of "chambers" or "houses", and are usually either bicameral or unicameral although more complex models exist, or have existed ("see Tricameralism").


title: Parliament

text: In some parliamentary systems, the prime minister is a member of the parliament (e.g. in the United Kingdom), whereas in others they are not (e.g. in the Netherlands). They are commonly the leader of the majority party in the lower house of parliament, but only hold the office as long as the "confidence of the house" is maintained. If members of the lower house lose faith in the leader for whatever reason, they can call a vote of no confidence and force the prime minister to resign.


title: Parliament

text: This can be particularly dangerous to a government when the distribution of seats among different parties is relatively even, in which case a new election is often called shortly thereafter. However, in case of general discontent with the head of government, their replacement can be made very smoothly without all the complications that it represents in the case of a presidential system.


title: Parliament

text: The parliamentary system can be contrasted with a presidential system, such as the American congressional system, which operates under a stricter separation of powers, whereby the executive does not form part of, nor is it appointed by, the parliamentary or legislative body. In such a system, congresses do not select or dismiss heads of governments, and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments. Some states, such as France, have a semi-presidential system which falls between parliamentary and congressional systems, combining a powerful head of state (president) with a head of government, the prime minister, who is responsible to parliament.


title: Parliament

text: In the federal (bicameral) kingdom of Belgium, there is a curious asymmetrical constellation serving as directly elected legislatures for three "territorial" "regions"—Flanders (Dutch), Brussels (bilingual, certain peculiarities of competence, also the only region not comprising any of the 10 provinces) and Wallonia (French)—and three cultural "communities"—Flemish (Dutch, competent in Flanders and for the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels), Francophone (French, for Wallonia and for Francophones in Brussels) and German (for speakers of that language in a few designated municipalities in the east of the Walloon Region, living alongside Francophones but under two different regimes):


title: Parliament

text: Accept of the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, where the city council is the state parliament as well, all state parliaments are called "Landtag"


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (, ; born 9 September 1953) is an Uzbek-born businessman and oligarch. By 2022, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $19.5 billion and was among the world's 100 wealthiest people.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov made his wealth after the collapse of the Soviet Union, through metal and mining operations, and investments. He is the majority shareholder of Metalloinvest, a Russian industrial conglomerate, which consolidated in 2006 JSC Metalloinvest's assets (Mikhailovsky GOK and Ural Steel) with those of Gazmetall JSC (Lebedinsky GOK and the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant).


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: He owns the Kommersant publishing house. He is also a co-owner of Russia's second-largest mobile telephone operator, MegaFon, and owner of Udokan copper which develops one of the largest copper deposits in the world. Usmanov eventually teamed up with Yuri Milner and became the largest investor of Digital Sky Technologies ("DST"). On 16 September 2010, Digital Sky Technologies (DST) changed its name to "Mail.ru Group". He also holds shares of a number of international technology companies. He was the president of the "Fédération Internationale d'Escrime", the international governing body of the sport of fencing, from 2008 until 2022.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: On 28 February 2022, in reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union blacklisted Usmanov, imposing an EU-wide travel ban on him and freezing all his assets. On 3 March, the United States imposed similar sanctions on him, with some exceptions for his companies. Usmanov was named in the "Official Journal of the European Union", the publication of record of the EU, as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin [who is] one of Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs."


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: He spent six years in a Soviet prison in the 1980s on charges of fraud and embezzlement, but his conviction was later overturned. In 2000, he was eventually rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, which ruled that the case against him was trumped up and no crime had been committed.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov was born in Uzbekistan in the provincial town of Chust. He spent his childhood in the capital Tashkent, where his father was a state prosecutor. Planning to pursue a career of a diplomat, he later moved to Moscow. After first failing to be accepted, one year later he made the cut and was accepted to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, from which he graduated in 1976 with a degree in international law. Usmanov then returned to Tashkent, where he was appointed director of the Foreign Economic Association of the Soviet Peace Committee.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov was arrested and convicted on charges of fraud, corruption, and theft of state property, which charges included shaking down an Army officer, in Uzbek SSR in August 1980. He was imprisoned in a remote Uzbek prison for six years of an eight-year sentence. Three decades later, his conviction was vacated in July 2000, 9 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, which ruled that "the original conviction was unjust, no crime was ever committed, and that the evidence was fabricated." His version of events has been questioned by Craig Murray, the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004. Years later, Usmanov's public relations firm tried to delete reference to his conviction and imprisonment from Wikipedia.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov, who is Muslim, married Jewish rhythmic gymnastics coach Irina Viner in 1992. Viner is considered to be close to Putin, having introduced him to former rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov was named in the "Official Journal of the European Union", the publication of record of the EU, as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin". It added: "[Usmanov] has been referred to as one of Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs. He is considered to be one of Russia's businessmen-officials, who were entrusted with servicing financial flows, but their positions depend on the will of the President."


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov became a dollar millionaire in the years before the Soviet Union collapsed. He set up a privately owned for-profit company, cooperative Agroplast which produced plastic bags. He enriched himself considerably after the collapse of the USSR.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov worked as the Deputy General Director of Intercross JSC from 1990 to 1994, and from 1994 to 1998, he headed Interfin Interbank Investment and Finance Company. He also acted as an Adviser to the General Director of Moscow Aviation Industrial Enterprise from 1994 to 1995, and served as the First Deputy Chairman of MAPO-Bank from 1995 to 1997.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: In the end of the 90s Usmanov was the General Director of Gazprom Invest Holdings, the investment-holding subsidiary of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom, and managed it for more than a decade; Usmanov left the company in 2014.


title: Alisher Usmanov

text: Usmanov has a 49% economic interest and 100% voting rights in USM, a global conglomerate with its main investments in metals and mining industry, telecommunications, technology, and media. Through USM and as an individual investor, Usmanov owns diverse interests including stakes in iron ore and steel, media, and internet companies.