title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev returned to FCW in March 2012 with Nick Rogers as his manager. In the summer of 2012, Rusev suffered a broken neck, temporarily paralyzing his arm. While rehabilitating, Barnyashev travelled to Thailand, where he studied the martial art Muay Thai. In August 2012, WWE rebranded FCW as NXT.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: After his neck healed, Rusev made his "NXT" television debut on the May 30, 2013, episode, competing in a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship that was won by Bo Dallas. Rusev wrestled his first singles match on the August 21 edition of "NXT", losing to Dolph Ziggler. Shortly thereafter, Rusev adopted Sylvester Lefort as his manager and formed a short-lived tag team with Scott Dawson named "The Fighting Legionnaires"; they feuded with the team of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. On the October 30 episode of "NXT", Rusev ended his affiliation with Lefort by attacking him during a tag team bout.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev proceeded to adopt Lana as his "social ambassador", a pairing compared by WWE to Ivan and Ludmilla Drago from the 1985 film "Rocky IV". In matches taped before his main roster debut, Rusev defeated main roster wrestlers Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Sin Cara in singles matches, which aired on "NXT" in January and February. Rusev continued to appear sporadically on "NXT" after joining the main roster in April 2014, making his final appearance on July 24, getting disqualified against NXT Champion Adrian Neville in a non-title match.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev made his main roster debut at the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, where he was the sixth entrant in the Royal Rumble match, where he was eliminated by the joint effort of four other wrestlers. After months of self-promotional videos and speeches by Rusev and his manager Lana, Rusev's return match on the main roster came on the April 7 episode of "Raw", where he squashed Zack Ryder. In May, Rusev adopted a Russophillic, anti-American gimmick that saw him announced as having relocated to Russia, and as having been named "Hero of the Russian Federation". This angle brought Barnyashev much legitimate heat in his native Bulgaria. In the same month, his ring name was shortened to simply Rusev. Over the next several months, Rusev feuded with Xavier Woods and R-Truth (whom Rusev defeated at Extreme Rules in a two-on-one handicap match) and Big E (whom he defeated at Payback and at Money in the Bank), Jack Swagger (whom he defeated at Battleground and again at SummerSlam), Mark Henry (whom he defeated at Night of Champions) and Big Show (whom he defeated at Hell in a Cell). Lana dedicated Rusev's string of victories to President of Russia Vladimir Putin, drawing attention from the mainstream press – including "The Washington Post" and "The Daily Beast" – and criticism after she was interpreted as having referred to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 before Rusev's match at Battleground in an attempt to generate heat. On the October 6 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Lana were confronted by The Rock in a surprise appearance, with The Rock driving Rusev from the ring after a verbal exchange.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On November 3, Rusev gained his first professional wrestling championship and became the first Bulgarian-born champion in WWE history when he won the United States Championship from Sheamus in a post-"Raw" match that aired on the WWE Network and proceeded to defeat him in a rematch via count-out. At Survivor Series, Rusev competed in a 10-man Survivor Series match as part of Team Authority but he was eliminated from the match by countout. Rusev and Jack Swagger once again feuded in December, leading to Rusev successfully defending the United States Championship against Swagger at . At the Royal Rumble, Rusev entered the Rumble match at number 15, eliminating six other contestants and placing second overall. At Fastlane, Rusev successfully defended the United States Championship in a bout with John Cena. Rusev lost the United States Championship to Cena in a rematch at WrestleMania 31 after a miscommunication with Lana, ending his reign at 146 days and marking his first pinfall loss on WWE's main roster.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev failed to regain the championship the following month at Extreme Rules in a Russian Chain match; during the match, Lana garnered a positive reaction from the crowd, leading to Rusev banishing her from ringside and causing dissension between the two. Rusev lost to Cena once more at Payback on May 17, 2015, in an "I Quit" match after Lana conceded the match on his behalf. The three pay-per-view losses in a row irreversibly damaged the air of power Rusev had built up, leading to TheSportster labeling it as a burial. On the post-Payback episode of "Raw" on May 18, 2015, Rusev ended his affiliation with Lana, who slapped him in response. On the May 25 episode of "Raw", Rusev reverted to being billed from Bulgaria and began carrying the flag of Bulgaria to ringside. Later that same evening, Rusev unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile with Lana. Three days later on "SmackDown", Rusev suffered a fractured foot in a bout with Ryback, rendering him unable to compete in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber. Despite his injury, Rusev still appeared on television and made further attempts to reconcile with Lana. Lana then began a storyline relationship with Dolph Ziggler, while Summer Rae began an alliance with Rusev. On the June 29 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Rae confronted Lana and Ziggler, leading to a fight between Rae and Lana. On the July 6 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Rae once again confronted the couple, which turned out to be a ruse, as Rusev viciously attacked Ziggler after hitting him with his crutch and removed his ankle brace, revealing that his foot injury had healed. The attack resulted in Ziggler sustaining a bruised trachea in storyline and out of action indefinitely.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev made his in-ring return on the following "SmackDown", wrestling in shoes to avoid further foot injury, defeating Fandango. On the July 13 episode of "Raw", Rusev answered John Cena's United States Championship open challenge. Rusev was then interrupted by both Kevin Owens and Cesaro, who also demanded a shot at the title. This resulted in a triple threat match, where the winner would face Cena, which Rusev won after pinning Cesaro, as Owens had left the match early on. Afterwards, Rusev defeated Cena by disqualification, when Owens assaulted Rusev. On the July 16 episode of SmackDown, Rusev suffered his second loss by pinfall during his tenure on the WWE main roster when he was defeated by Cesaro in a singles match. On the August 17 episode of "Raw", Ziggler returned and attacked Rusev. This altercation prompted a match between Rusev and Ziggler at SummerSlam, which ended in a double countout due to interference from Lana and Rae, and after the match, Rusev and Rae brawled with Ziggler and Lana. On the October 5 episode of "Raw", Rae proposed to Rusev in the storyline, but said he would not marry her until he had won another championship. On October 11, TMZ reported that Rusev had become engaged to Lana in real life. Lana then confirmed the engagement and it began being used in the storyline on television, which resulted in Rae breaking up with him on the October 12 episode of "Raw". The entire storyline circulating around the break-up of Rusev and Lana received extremely negative reviews, with many claiming the storyline damaged Rusev's gimmick. On the October 31 episode of "Main Event", Rusev injured his bicep in a match with Neville, resulting in Neville winning the match via referee stoppage and Rusev being out of action.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev returned on the November 23 episode of "Raw", when he attacked Roman Reigns, and lost to him by disqualification after Sheamus and King Barrett attacked Reigns. A week later, on November 30 episode of "Raw", Lana returned to the WWE, once again as a villainess, and reconciled with Rusev, during a "Miz TV" segment, and later in the same night, the two joined Sheamus' new stable The League of Nations. Throughout December, Rusev started a feud with Ryback, with Lana faking injuries to distract Ryback and help Rusev gain advantage. At , Rusev defeated Ryback by technical submission to end the feud. Also in November, Rusev joined forces with Sheamus, King Barrett and Alberto Del Rio forming The League of Nations. The faction aligned themselves with Mr. McMahon and would continue to target WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. Rusev would enter the Royal Rumble match at the No. 2 spot, but he would be eliminated by Roman Reigns in one and a half minutes. On the March 14 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Del Rio failed to win the WWE Tag Team Championship from The New Day. At WrestleMania 32, The League of Nations defeated The New Day, but after the match, The League of Nations was attacked by Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Following WrestleMania 32, on the April 4 episode of "Raw", League of Nations members Sheamus and King Barrett were part of a losing effort against The New Day for the WWE Tag Team Championship after Barrett was pinned by Kofi Kingston, and following the match, Barrett was exiled from the group being called the "weak link", but moments after, The Wyatt Family went on to attack the remaining members of The League of Nations. On the April 28 episode of "SmackDown", Rusev walked out on Sheamus after Del Rio walked out the both of them, thus disbanding The League of Nations.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On the May 2 episode of "Raw", Rusev won a battle royal by last eliminating Zack Ryder to become the No. 1 contender for the United States Championship, which he won for the second time by defeating Kalisto at Extreme Rules via submission. Rusev defeated him in a rematch on the following week's "SmackDown", after which he was confronted by Titus O'Neil, whom Rusev defeated at Money in the Bank to successfully retain the title. Rusev followed this with a successful third title defense against Cesaro and defeated O'Neil on the July 4 episode of "Raw" to retain the title. Rusev was then challenged by Zack Ryder, whom he defeated at Battleground for another successful title defense. In the 2016 WWE draft, Rusev, along with Lana, was drafted to Raw, taking the United States Championship with him. On the August 1 episode of "Raw", after Rusev defeated Mark Henry to retain the title, Roman Reigns came out to confront Rusev. The following week on "Raw", Reigns interrupted Rusev and Lana's wedding re-enactment, and issued a challenge to Rusev for the title. Rusev declined, and the two brawled, causing Lana to fall into a wedding cake. Backstage, Mick Foley told an angered Lana and Rusev that Rusev would defend the United States title against Reigns at SummerSlam. Later that night, Rusev successfully defended the title in an impromptu match against Cesaro, who felt that he should also have a shot at the title. At SummerSlam, the match did not start after Rusev attacked Reigns before the bell rung and the two brawled outside of the ring, with Rusev suffering kayfabe injured ribs. After costing Reigns the opportunity of becoming a No. 1 contender for the Universal Championship, Rusev defended the United States Championship against Reigns in a match at Clash of Champions, which he lost, ending his reign at 126 days. Rusev would then get his rematch at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view in a Hell in a Cell match, which he would be unsuccessful.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On the November 21 episode of "Raw", after being locked out of his locker room, Enzo Amore would run into Lana in the hallway before being angrily confronted by Rusev. Rusev would challenge Amore to a match later that night, quickly defeating him. The following week on "Raw", Amore would defeat Rusev by disqualification. At , Rusev would face Amore's tag partner, Big Cass, defeating him by countout. The following night on "Raw", Rusev would face Cass again, this time defeating him by disqualification. That same night, Amore would have to attend sensitivity training from the incident on the November 21 episode of "Raw". At the training, Amore would be attacked by Rusev and his new ally, Jinder Mahal. On the January 2, 2017 episode of "Raw", Rusev teamed with Mahal in a 2-on-1 handicap match, defeating Big Cass. At Royal Rumble, Rusev would enter the Rumble match at number eighteen, lasting over 20 minutes before being eliminated by Goldberg. On the February 27 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Mahal began to show tension after Rusev inadvertently distracted Mahal, causing the two to lose to The New Day. At Fastlane, general manager Mick Foley placed Rusev and Mahal in singles matches that night after Mahal revealed his desire to return to singles competition. Rusev and Mahal both lost their respective matches against Big Show and Cesaro. Both Rusev and Lana disappeared from television following Rusev requiring surgery for an injury.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On April 11, Rusev was moved to SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. On the April 25 episode of "SmackDown", Rusev made his first appearance on WWE programming since Fastlane, appearing via satellite, and declared that he would not make his debut on SmackDown unless he was given a WWE Championship match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on June 18. He was not granted his request, but on the July 4 episode of "SmackDown", he made his first appearance for the brand and confronted the returning John Cena, setting up a flag match for Battleground, which he lost.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: In August, Rusev started a feud with Randy Orton and was defeated by Orton at SummerSlam in 10 seconds. On the September 19 episode of "SmackDown", Rusev got his revenge on Orton by defeating him in the same time, after a distraction from Aiden English. Soon after, Rusev assumed a new character where he would proclaim that every day was "Rusev Day". This act would become incredibly popular with the fans, despite the fact that Rusev played a villainous character. At Hell in a Cell on October 9, Rusev lost to Orton again, thus ending their feud.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: After his feud with Orton, Rusev began a team with English, with the two participating in a fatal four-way tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at Clash of Champions in December also involving The New Day, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin and the champions The Usos, which The Usos won. Rusev entered the 2018 Royal Rumble match on January 28 as the first entrant, lasting over 30 minutes before being eliminated by Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy. On the March 27 episode of "SmackDown", Rusev teamed with Jinder Mahal to defeat Bobby Roode and Randy Orton, adding him to the United States Championship match at WrestleMania 34. At the event, Rusev was pinned by Mahal, losing the match. At the Greatest Royal Rumble event, he faced The Undertaker in a Casket Match, but lost. On the May 8 episode of "SmackDown", Rusev defeated Daniel Bryan to qualify for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank, which was won by Braun Strowman. On the following episode of "SmackDown", he won a gauntlet match to become the number one contender for AJ Styles' WWE Championship at Extreme Rules. At the event, he was defeated by Styles.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: In July, Rusev Day started a feud with Andrade "Cien" Almas and Zelina Vega, thus turning them face in the process for the first time in his career. Rusev and Lana lost a mixed tag team match to Almas and Vega at SummerSlam but defeated them in a rematch on the August 21 episode of "SmackDown". At Hell in a Cell, Rusev and English unsuccessfully faced The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. On the following episode of "SmackDown", English attacked Rusev, ending their alliance. English would later claim to have had an affair with Lana, leading to a match on the October 23 episode of "SmackDown", where Rusev defeated English, ending their feud.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: After failing to win the United States Championship from Shinsuke Nakamura at Crown Jewel, Rusev finally managed to capture the United States Championship for a third time in his career on the December 25 episode of "SmackDown Live". On January 27, 2019, he lost the title back to Nakamura on the Royal Rumble pre-show. Two days later on "SmackDown Live", Rusev confronted R-Truth, who had just defeated Nakamura for the United States Championship, and pushed him into defending his newly won title against him, but Truth retained his title. After the match, Nakamura attacked Truth, and Rusev joined him in attacking Truth, thus turning heel again in the process and later forming a tag team with Nakamura. On the Fastlane pre-show, Rusev and Nakamura were defeated by The New Day. At WrestleMania 35, Nakamura and Rusev would compete in a fatal four-way tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. Rusev competed in a 51-man battle royal at Super ShowDown, but failed to win. Following Super ShowDown, Rusev began a sabbatical from WWE.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Rusev returned on the September 16 episode of "Raw" as a face and was involved in a storyline where Lana was having an affair with Bobby Lashley. Seeking answers for Lana's infidelity, she would accuse Rusev of being a controlling sex addict, leading to the two divorcing on the December 9 episode of "Raw", during which Rusev was attacked by Lashley. At the pay-per-view event on December 15, Rusev lost to Lashley in a tables match, following interference from Lana. On the January 13, 2020 episode of "Raw", Rusev lost to Lashley again following an interference from Lana and Liv Morgan, after the match, a mixed tag team match was scheduled between teams of Rusev and Morgan, and Lashley and Lana. The mixed tag team of Rusev and Morgan was defeated by Lashley and Lana in the January 20 episode of "Raw". Rusev teamed with Humberto Carrillo in a loss to Lashley and Angel Garza on the February 17 episode of "Raw". This would be Rusev's final appearance in WWE, as on April 15, he was released from his WWE contract as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. His real life wife Lana, however, remained with WWE until she was also released over a year later in June 2021.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Barnyashev, now known as Miro (which he originally used on Twitch and is shortened from his real name of Miroslav), debuted in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on the September 9, 2020 episode of "Dynamite", where he was revealed as Kip Sabian's best man for his upcoming wedding with Penelope Ford. Miro also took on the moniker of "The Best Man", claiming that he was the best at everything he does. On the September 23 episode of "Dynamite", Miro made his in-ring debut, teaming with Sabian to defeat Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss. In October, Miro and Sabian began feuding with Best Friends (Chuck Taylor, Trent, and Orange Cassidy), after they accidentally destroyed the arcade game that Miro had purchased for Sabian as a wedding gift. On the November 4 episode of "Dynamite", Miro had his first singles match in AEW, in which he defeated Trent. At the Beach Break event on February 3, 2021, Miro officiated Sabian and Ford's wedding, but the ceremony was crashed by Taylor and Cassidy. At the Revolution pay-per-view on March 7, Miro and Sabian defeated Cassidy and Taylor. However, on the March 31 episode of "Dynamite", Miro and Sabian were defeated by Cassidy and Taylor in an Arcade Anarchy match, marking Miro's first loss in AEW. Following this, Miro attacked and brutalized Sabian to end their alliance. Miro then became more dominant and aggressive in his matches.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Miro then began a rivalry with Darby Allin, and defeated Allin on the May 12 episode of "Dynamite" to win the AEW TNT Championship. He defeated Lance Archer to retain the championship at the Double or Nothing event on May 30. He then made successful defenses against the likes of Evil Uno, Brian Pillman Jr., Lee Johnson, Fuego Del Sol, and at All Out against Eddie Kingston.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: During this time, Miro furthered his shift in gimmick by adopting the moniker of "God's Favorite Champion", utilising new entrance music, and thanking his dominance in matches to his God during interviews and promos. He also introduced a new championship belt, representing his hometown of Plovdiv; the black leather strap was changed to white, the red banner on the center plate was changed to green, and the inner side plates were changed to feature Plovdiv's coat of arms.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On September 29, Miro lost his TNT Championship against Sammy Guevara, ending his reign at 140 days. In subsequent promos, Miro would aggressively question the motivation of his God.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: On the November 3, 2021, episode of "Dynamite", Miro substituted for Jon Moxley against Orange Cassidy in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament; he defeated Cassidy via submission, advancing to the finals of the tournament. At Full Gear, Miro lost to Bryan Danielson in the tournament final. In December, it was revealed that Miro was recovering from a hamstring injury. After a six-month hiatus due to injury and outside the ring projects, Miro made his return to AEW television on the June 1, 2022, edition of "Dynamite", scoring a submission victory over Johnny Elite.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Early in his career, Barnyashev's finishing move was the "Bulplex", an Oklahoma roll transitioned into a release German suplex. Beginning in 2013, he began using "The Accolade" (a camel clutch); upon moving to AEW in 2020, he changed the name of the move to "Game Over" and modified the move to stretch the victim entirely back whilst in the hold. In 2014, he introduced the "Machka Kick", a jumping savate kick.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: For the early part of his career, Barnyashev portrayed a villainous foreigner billed from Bulgaria or Russia. He nicknamed himself "The Bashing Bulgarian" and "The Bulgarian Brute" and, for a period of time, used the Bulgarian national anthem as his entrance theme. From 2017, he began portraying a more heroic character who declared every day to be a public holiday called "Rusev Day".


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Upon debuting in AEW in 2020, Barnyashev changed his ring name to "Miro", adopting the nickname of the "Best Man". After winning the AEW TNT Championship, he became a villainous character once more, adopted the nicknames "The Redeemer" and "God's Favorite Champion", and changed his gimmick to that of a violent man with a god complex.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Barnyashev, along with other Vendetta Pro Wrestling (VPW) wrestlers, appeared in the music video for the song "The Whole F'n Show" by Kushinator (the entrance music of wrestler Rob Van Dam).


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: As Rusev, he is a playable character in the video games "WWE 2K15", "WWE 2K16", "WWE 2K17", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", and "WWE 2K20".


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: In 2016, Barnyashev appeared as himself in Season 6 of the reality series "Total Divas", as well as the WWE film "Countdown" and the animated film "".


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: After his release from WWE in April 2020, Barnyashev began hosting a streaming channel on Twitch, as well as a YouTube channel, under the name "Miro", shortened from his real name Miroslav. "Miro" would also become his ring name in AEW when he debuted for the promotion in September 2020.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Barnyashev married American professional wrestler and model Catherine Perry, better known as Lana, on July 29, 2016. They reside in Nashville, Tennessee.


title: Miro (wrestler)

text: Miro is a supporter of his hometown football team Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Spanish football team Real Madrid. He is also one of three partial owners of the FCF Beasts indoor football team, alongside American football player Marshawn Lynch and basketball player Renee Montgomery.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Brendan Ray Dassey (born October 19, 1989) is an American convicted murderer from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who at 16 confessed to being a party to first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison with the earliest possibility of parole in 2048. His videotaped interrogation and confession, which he recanted at trial, substantially contributed to his conviction. Parts were shown in the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer" (2015). The series examined the 2005–2007 investigation, prosecution, and trials of Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, both of whom were convicted of murdering the photographer Teresa Halbach on October 31, 2005.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: After his conviction, Dassey's case was taken by the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth. In August 2016, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Dassey's confession had been coerced and overturned his conviction and ordered him released, which was delayed during appeal. In June 2017, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the magistrate's order overturning Dassey's conviction. In December 2017, the full "en banc" Seventh Circuit upheld Dassey's conviction by a vote of 4–3, with the majority finding that the police had properly obtained Dassey's confession.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Brendan Ray Dassey was born to Barbara and Peter Dassey in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. He has three brothers (Bryan, Bobby, and Blaine) and a half-brother (Brad).


title: Brendan Dassey

text: At the time of his indictment, Dassey was a 16-year-old sophomore at Mishicot High School. With an IQ in the borderline deficiency range, he was enrolled in special education classes. Dassey was described as a quiet, introverted young man with an interest in WWE (he was reportedly upset when he missed WrestleMania 22), animals, and video games. Before this case, he had no involvement with the criminal justice system.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Photographer Teresa Halbach, born March 22, 1980, in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, was reported missing by her parents on November 3, 2005. Halbach, who had not been seen since October 31, resided next door to her parents in Calumet County. Halbach was known to have visited the Avery Salvage Yard in Manitowoc County on October 31, 2005.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: On November 10, 2005, following the discovery of her Toyota RAV4 vehicle partially concealed on the Avery property, Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel conducted a search and found the charred remains of Halbach. Her cell phone, license plates and car key were also recovered. On November 15, after Steven Avery's blood was found in her vehicle, Avery was charged with the kidnapping and murder of Halbach, mutilation of a corpse, and illegal possession of a firearm.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: During the investigation, Dassey, Avery's alibi, underwent a series of interrogations without counsel or parent present, although Dassey and his mother consented to the interrogations, in which investigators made false promises to Dassey using approved interrogation techniques. While being interrogated, Dassey confessed in detail to being a co-conspirator in the rape and murder of Halbach and the mutilation of her corpse. His confession was later described as "clearly involuntary in a constitutional sense" by a US magistrate judge whose opinion was overturned by an appellate court. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the appellate court by refusing to hear the case.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: He was arrested and charged on March 1, 2006, with being party to a first-degree homicide, sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse. The special prosecutor Ken Kratz held a major press conference about the two cases, discussing the charges against Avery and Dassey, and reading verbatim elements of Dassey's confession. It was widely covered by TV and newspapers.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Dassey later recanted his confession in a letter to the trial judge. He said he got most of his ideas from a book.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Dassey was interrogated on four occasions over a 48-hour period, including three times in a 24-hour time frame with no legal representative, parent, or other adult present. Initially interviewed on November 6 at the family cabin in Crivitz, Dassey was interrogated via the Reid technique, which was developed to permit and encourage law enforcement officers to use tactics that pressure suspects to confess. Dassey had been clinically evaluated as being highly suggestible, which makes a suspect more compliant and can ultimately lead to improper interrogation outcomes such as false confessions.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Dassey recanted his confession and informed his defense counsel. He later charged that his first defense counsel collaborated with the prosecution to get Dassey to plead guilty in order to testify against Avery. The defense counsel was replaced. The Netflix series "Making a Murderer" (2015), which chronicles the trials of Dassey and Avery, has generated global dialogue centered around wrongful convictions, coerced confessions, interrogation of minors, and criminal justice reform.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Dassey's first appointed lawyer, Len Kachinsky, was removed by the court on August 26, 2006, due to his decision not to appear with Brendan during the May 13 interrogation. He was replaced by two public defenders.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: The Dassey trial began on April 16, 2007, with a jury from Dane County, Wisconsin. The trial lasted nine days, with a verdict delivered on April 25, 2007.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: The jury deliberated for four hours, finding Dassey guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, rape and mutilation of a corpse. Though only 17 years old at the time, Dassey was tried and sentenced as an adult, and his intellectual limitations were ruled irrelevant. He was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 2048 and incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: In January 2010, Dassey's attorneys entered a motion for retrial, which was denied in December by Judge Fox. Fox's ruling was affirmed by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in January 2013, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to review it.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: The release of "Making a Murderer" in December 2015 generated a wide, international audience and was met with significant media attention. There were numerous discussions regarding the prosecution of criminal cases. Due to the unprecedented response to the Netflix docu-series, by July 2016, "Making a Murderer 2" was in production, focusing on the post-conviction process for Dassey and his family. His conviction has been appealed through the state court system and a petition for "habeas corpus" was filed in federal court. Because of the nature of Dassey's interrogations, there have been calls for the exoneration of Dassey with petitions for his freedom and the implementation of the "Juvenile Interrogation Protection Law in Wisconsin", which would prohibit police from questioning minors without a lawyer present.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: In December 2015, petitions were submitted for the investigation of the police officers who interrogated Dassey, and January 2016, on the federal government's We the People website. Rallies in support of the exoneration of Dassey were held in the United States, London, Manchester, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth. Supporters have been communicating with him via letters and contributing to his prison commissary.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: Dassey is now represented by Steven Drizin and Laura Nirider, both professors at Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth and experts in false confessions from juvenile suspects. In December 2015, Dassey's attorneys filed a writ of "habeas corpus" in federal district court for release or retrial, citing constitutional rights violations due to ineffective assistance of counsel and a coerced confession.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: In August 2016, United States magistrate judge William E. Duffin ruled that Dassey's confession had been coerced, and was therefore involuntary and unconstitutional, and ordered him released. In November, the Wisconsin Justice Department appealed Duffin's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which blocked Dassey's release pending a hearing.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: In June 2017, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit upheld the magistrate's decision to overturn Dassey's conviction. Judge Ilana Rovner, joined by Judge Ann Claire Williams, affirmed, over the dissent of Judge David Hamilton. On July 5, the Wisconsin Department of Justice submitted a petition requesting a rehearing "en banc"—by the entire 7th Circuit panel. On August 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted the State of Wisconsin's request for an en banc hearing with oral arguments set for September 26 in Chicago before a full panel of sitting judges.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: On December 8, 2017, the full "en banc" Seventh Circuit upheld Dassey's conviction by a vote of 4–3, with the majority finding that the police had properly obtained Dassey's confession. Circuit Judges Joel Flaum and Amy Coney Barrett (who joined the court after argument in the case had been heard) recused themselves from the case and did not participate in the consideration or decision. Judge Hamilton's majority opinion was joined by Judges Frank H. Easterbrook, Michael Stephen Kanne, and Diane S. Sykes. Then-Chief Judge Diane Wood and Judge Rovner both wrote dissents, joined by Judge Williams.


title: Brendan Dassey

text: On February 20, 2018, Dassey's legal team, including former U.S. Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. The case was assigned case number 17-1172. Justices were scheduled to discuss the case in conference to determine if they would hear the case on June 14, 2018, but the case was removed from the schedule without an explanation or a rescheduling order on the morning of the conference. On June 25, 2018, certiorari was denied.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Solomon Northup (born July 10, 1807-1808) was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir "Twelve Years a Slave". A free-born African American from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. A farmer and a professional violinist, Northup had been a landowner in Washington County, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. (where slavery was legal); there he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold as a slave. He was shipped to New Orleans, purchased by a planter, and held as a slave for 12 years in the Red River region of Louisiana, mostly in Avoyelles Parish. He remained a slave until he met Samuel Bass, a Canadian working on his plantation who helped get word to New York, where state law provided aid to free New York citizens who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. His family and friends enlisted the aid of the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup regained his freedom on January 3, 1853.


title: Solomon Northup

text: The slave trader in Washington, D.C., James H. Birch, was arrested and tried, but acquitted because District of Columbia law at the time prohibited Northup as a black man from testifying against white people. Later, in New York State, his northern kidnappers were located and charged, but the case was tied up in court for two years because of jurisdictional challenges and finally dropped when Washington, D.C. was found to have jurisdiction. The D.C. government did not pursue the case. Those who had kidnapped and enslaved Northup received no punishment.


title: Solomon Northup

text: In his first year of freedom, Northup wrote and published a memoir, "Twelve Years a Slave" (1853). He lectured on behalf of the abolitionist movement, giving more than two dozen speeches throughout the Northeast about his experiences, to build momentum against slavery. He largely disappeared from the historical record after 1857, although a letter later reported him alive in early 1863; some commentators thought he had been kidnapped again, but historians believe it unlikely, as he would have been considered too old to bring a good price. The details of his death have never been documented.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup's memoir was adapted and produced as the 1984 television film "Solomon Northup's Odyssey" and the 2013 feature film "12 Years a Slave". The latter won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 86th Academy Awards.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Solomon Northup was born in the town of Minerva in Essex County, New York on July 10, 1807 or July 10, 1808. His mother was a free woman of color, which meant that her sons, Solomon and his older brother Joseph, were born free according to the principle of "partus sequitur ventrem". Solomon described his mother as a quadroon, meaning that she was one-quarter African, and three-quarters European.


title: Solomon Northup

text: His father Mintus was a freedman who had been a slave in his early life in service to the Northup family. Born in Rhode Island, he was taken with the Northups when they moved to Hoosick, New York, in Rensselaer County. His master, Henry Northrop, manumitted Mintus in his will, after which Mintus adopted the surname Northup. His surname was sometimes spelled Northrup in records. Upon attaining his freedom, Mintus married and he moved to Minerva with his wife.


title: Solomon Northup

text: According to Northup, his father was "a man respected for his industry and integrity". A farmer, Mintus was successful enough to own land and thus meet the state's property requirements for the right to vote. His sons received what was considered to be a good education for free black people at that time. As boys, Northup and his brother worked on the family farm. He spent his leisure time playing the violin and reading books.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Mintus moved his family to Washington County, New York and worked on several farms owned by the Northups. From Minerva, they moved to the farm of Clark Northup near Slyborough (Slyboro) in Granville, Washington County for several years. The family of four then lived at Alden Farm, a short distance north of Sandy Hill (now called Hudson Falls). They later moved to an area east of Fort Edward on the road from Fort Edward to Argyle, where Mintus lived until his death. Mintus died at Fort Edward on November 22, 1829, and was interred at the Hudson Falls Baker Cemetery. His mother died during Northup's enslavement (1841 to 1852). According to her daughter-in-law Anne and Nicholas C. Northup, she died around 1846 or 1847 in Oswego County, New York.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Solomon Northup married Anne Hampton on December 25, 1829, one month after the death of his father, or on December 25, 1828, according to sworn depositions by Anne Northup, Josiah Hand, and Timothy Eddy, the latter of whom was the Justice of the Peace who performed the wedding. They were married in Fort Edward. Anne, the daughter of William Hampton, was born March 14, 1808. She grew up in Sandy Hill. A "woman of color", she was of African, European, and Native American descent. They had three children: Elizabeth (born ca. 1831), Margaret (born ca. 1833), and Alonzo (born ca. 1835).


title: Solomon Northup

text: At the start of their marriage, the couple lived at Fort House, "the old yellow house", in the southern end of Fort Edward. In 1830, they moved to Kingsbury, both of which were small communities in Washington County, New York. After selling their farm in 1834, the Northups moved 20 miles to Saratoga Springs, New York, for its employment opportunities.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Anne was known for her culinary expertise. She worked for local taverns that served food and drink, and at the United States Hotel. When court was in session at the county seat of Fort Edward, she worked at Sherrill's Coffee House in Sandy Hill.


title: Solomon Northup

text: After Northup was kidnapped, Anne and her oldest daughter Elizabeth went to work as domestic servants in New York City at Madame Jumel's Mansion on the East River in the summer of 1841. Alonzo was with them. Margaret, their youngest daughter went to Hoboken, New Jersey to live with a friend of Madame Jumel, who also had a young daughter.


title: Solomon Northup

text: After about two years, Anne brought the family back together in Saratoga, where she worked as a cook in hotels, including in Glens Falls at Carpenter's Hotel. In 1852, she learned of her husband's fate and asked for Henry B. Northup's help to have him freed. A letter was prepared to the Governor of New York Washington Hunt based upon a deposition given by Anne Northup to Justice of the Peace Charles Hughes on November 19, 1852. He gathered the information to prove that Northup was free and went to Louisiana to bring him back to New York.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup returned to Sandy Hill on January 21, 1853, and reunited with his wife and children. By 1855, he was living with his daughter Margaret Stanton and her family in Queensbury, Warren County, New York. He purchased land in Glens Falls near his daughter. In his memoir, Northup described his love for his wife as "sincere and unabated", since the time of their marriage, and his children as "beloved".


title: Solomon Northup

text: While Northup gave talks about his book around the country, Anne worked in Bolton Landing on Lake George at the hotel Mohican House. Author David Fiske states that Northup seems to have had a difficult time overcoming the years in which he was enslaved. He was said to have drunk a lot and did not seem to spend a lot of time with his wife. By the late 1850s, it was not known what had become of Northup, and he was not listed with his family in the 1860 census.


title: Solomon Northup

text: After selling their land in Glens Falls, Anne Northup moved to the household of her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Philip Stanton, in Moreau, Saratoga County, where she again was recorded as married though Solomon was not with the family. Anne did laundry, cooking and chores for a Moreau man. In 1870, she worked as a cook in the household of Burton C. Dennis, who kept the Middleworth House hotel in Sandy Hill. Anne Northup lived in Kingsbury in Washington County, New York in 1875. By that time she was identified as a widow. She died in 1876 while performing her chores in Moreau. One obituary, while praising Anne, says of Solomon Northup that "after exhibiting himself through the country [he] became a worthless vagabond".


title: Solomon Northup

text: In the winter of the year that he married, Northup worked as a laborer repairing the Champlain Canal. He then bought two horses and contracted to tow lumber on rafts to Troy from Lake Champlain beginning the following spring. He employed two workers. He worked on other waterways in upstate New York and he traveled to northern New York and Montreal, Canada. When the canal was closed down, he cut lumber during the winter of 1831–1832. He worked as a farm laborer in the Sandy Hill area.


title: Solomon Northup

text: He arranged to farm corn and oats on part of the Alden farm where his father lived in Kingsbury. He built a fine reputation as a fiddler and was in high demand to play for dances in surrounding villages. The couple had become prosperous due to the income Anne received as a cook and that Northup made farming and playing the violin.


title: Solomon Northup

text: The couple moved to Saratoga Springs in March 1834, where he drove a horse-drawn taxi for a businessman, and during the tourist season he worked for the United States Hotel, where he was employed by Judge James M. Marvin, a part-owner of the hotel. He played his violin at several well-known hotels in Saratoga Springs. He also worked on the construction of the Troy and Saratoga Railroad. He had become a regular customer and friend of William Perry and Cephus Parker, who owned several shops in town. Over the seven years that the Northups lived in Saratoga Springs, they had been able to make ends meet and dress their children in fine clothes, but they had been unable to prosper as hoped.


title: Solomon Northup

text: In March 1841, Anne went 20 miles to Sandy Hill where she ran the kitchen at Sherrill's Coffee House during the session of the court. She may have taken their oldest daughter Elizabeth with her. Their two youngest children went to stay with their aunt. Northup stayed in Saratoga Springs to look for employment until the tourist season.


title: Solomon Northup

text: In 1841, at age 32, Northup met two men, who introduced themselves as Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton. Saying they were entertainers, members of a circus company, they offered him a job as a fiddler for several performances in New York City. Expecting the trip to be brief, Northup did not notify Anne, who was working in Sandy Hill. When they reached New York City, the men persuaded Northup to continue with them for a gig with their circus in Washington, D.C., offering him a generous wage and the cost of his return trip home. They stopped so that he could get a copy of his "free papers", which documented his status as a free man.


title: Solomon Northup

text: The city had one of the nation's largest slave markets, and slave catchers were not above kidnapping free black people. At this time, 20 years before the Civil War, the expansion of cotton cultivation in the Deep South had led to a continuing high demand for healthy slaves. Kidnappers used a variety of means, from forced abduction to deceit, and frequently abducted children, who were easier to control.


title: Solomon Northup

text: It is possible that "Brown" and "Hamilton" incapacitated Northuphis symptoms suggest that he was drugged with belladonna or laudanum, or with a mixture of bothand sold him to Washington slave trader James H. Birch for $650, claiming that he was a fugitive slave. However, Northup stated in his account of the ordeal in "Twelve Years a Slave" in Chapter II, "[w]hether they were accessory to my misfortunes – subtle and inhuman monsters in the shape of men – designedly luring me away from home and family, and liberty, for the sake of gold – those who read these pages will have the same means of determining as myself." Birch and Ebenezer Radburn, his jailer, severely beat Northup to stop him from saying he was a free man. Birch then wrongfully presented Northup as a slave from Georgia. Northup was held in the slave pen of trader William Williams, close to the United States Capitol. Birch shipped Northup and other slaves by sea to New Orleans, in what was called the coastwise slave trade, where Birch's partner Theophilus Freeman would sell them. During the voyage, Northup and the other slaves caught smallpox.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup persuaded John Manning, an English sailor, to send to Henry B. Northup, upon reaching New Orleans, a letter that told of his kidnapping and illegal enslavement. Henry was a lawyer, was related to Henry Northrop who had held and freed Solomon's father, and a childhood friend of Solomon's. The letter was delivered to Governor Seward by Henry, but it was not actionable because Northup's location was unknown.


title: Solomon Northup

text: The New York State Legislature had passed a law in 1840 that made it illegal to entice or kidnap an African-American out of New York and sell them into slavery. It provided legal and financial assistance to aid the recovery of any who were kidnapped and taken out of state and illegally enslaved.


title: Solomon Northup

text: At the New Orleans slave market, Birch's partner Theophilus Freeman sold Northup (who had been renamed Platt) along with Harry and Eliza (renamed Dradey) to William Prince Ford, a preacher who engaged in small farming on Bayou Boeuf of the Red River in northern Louisiana. Ford was then a Baptist preacher. (In 1843, he led his congregation in converting to the closely related Churches of Christ, after they were influenced by the writings of Alexander Campbell.) In his memoir, Northup characterized Ford as a good man, considerate of his slaves. In spite of his situation, Northup wrote:


title: Solomon Northup

text: At Ford's place in Pine Woods, Northup assessed the problem of getting timber off Ford's farm to market. He proposed and then made a log raft to move lumber down the narrow Indian Creek, in order to transport the logs more easily. Northup built weaving looms, so that fabric could be woven for clothing.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Ford came into financial difficulties and had to sell 18 slaves to settle his debts. In the winter of 1842, Ford sold Northup to John M. Tibaut, a carpenter who had been working for Ford on the mills. He also had helped construct a weaving-house and corn mill on Ford's Bayou Boeuf plantation. Ford owed Tibaut money for the work. Since the amount Ford owed Tibaut was less than the purchase price agreed upon for Solomon, Ford held a chattel mortgage on Northup for $400, the difference between the two amounts.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Under Tibaut, Northup suffered cruel and capricious treatment. Tibaut used him to help complete construction at Ford's plantation. At one point, Tibaut whipped Northup because he did not like the nails Northup was using. But Northup fought back, beating Tibaut severely. Enraged, Tibaut recruited two friends to lynch and hang the slave, which a master was legally entitled to do. Ford's overseer Chapin interrupted and prevented the men from killing Northup, reminding Tibaut of his debt to Ford, and chasing them off at gunpoint. Northup was left bound and noosed for hours until Ford returned home to cut him down. Northup believed that Tibaut's debt to Ford saved his life. Historian Walter Johnson suggests that Northup may well have been the first slave Tibaut ever bought, marking his transition from itinerant employee to property-owning master.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Tibaut hired Northup out to a planter named Eldret, who lived about 38 miles south on the Red River. At what he called "The Big Cane Brake", Eldret had Northup and other slaves clear cane, trees, and undergrowth in the bottomlands in order to develop cotton fields for cultivation. With the work unfinished, after about five weeks, Tibaut sold Northup to Edwin Epps.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Epps held Northup for almost 10 years, until 1853, in Avoyelles Parish. He was a cruel master who frequently and indiscriminately punished slaves and drove them hard. His policy was to whip slaves if they did not meet daily work quotas he set for pounds of cotton to be picked, among other goals.


title: Solomon Northup

text: In 1852, itinerant Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass came to do some work for Epps. Hearing Bass express his abolitionist views, Northup eventually decided to confide his secret to him. Bass was the first person he told of his true name and origins as a free man since he was first enslaved. Along with mailing a letter written by Northup, Bass wrote several letters at his request to Northup's friends, providing general details of his location at Bayou Boeuf, in hopes of gaining his rescue.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Bass did this at great personal risk as the local people would not take kindly to a person helping a slave and depriving a man of his property. In addition, Bass's help came after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which increased federal penalties against people assisting slaves to escape.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Bass wrote several letters to people Northup knew in Saratoga Springs: one went to his former employer Judge James M. Marvin and another reached Cephas Parker and William Perry, storekeepers in Saratoga. Parker and Perry forwarded the letter to Northup's wife, Anne, who contacted attorney Henry B. Northup, the son of Solomon's father's former master. Henry B. Northup contacted New York Governor Washington Hunt, who took up the case, appointing the attorney general as his legal agent. In 1840, the New York State Legislature had passed a law committing the state to help any African-American residents kidnapped into slavery, as well as guaranteeing a jury trial to alleged fugitive slaves. Once Northup's family was notified, his rescuers still had to do detective work to find the enslaved man, as he had partially tried to hide his location for protection in case the letters fell into the wrong hands, and Bass had not used his real name. They had to find documentation of his free status as a citizen and New York resident; Henry B. Northup also collected sworn affidavits from people who knew Solomon Northup. During this time, Northup did not know if Bass had reached anyone with the letters. There was no means of communicating, because of the secrecy they needed to maintain, and the necessity of preventing Northup's owner from knowing their plans. Bass did not reveal his own name in the letter.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Henry gathered documentation and depositions and stopped off in Washington, D.C. to meet with Pierre Soule, a legislator from Louisiana, and the Secretary of War in preparation for his rescue effort in Louisiana. Although he did not have Bass's name, Henry still managed to find him in Marksville (the postmark on the letters), and Bass revealed that Solomon Northup was held by Edwin Epps on his plantation. Henry had legal paperwork prepared based upon the documentation that proved that Northup was free. The sheriff went with Henry to give the news to Epps and take Northup off the farm.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup later wrote, "He [Epps] thought of nothing but his loss, and cursed me for having been born free." Attorney Henry B. Northup convinced Epps that it would be futile to contest the free papers in a court of law, so the planter conceded the case. He signed papers giving up all claim to Northup. Finally on January 4, 1853, four months after meeting Bass, Northup regained his freedom.


title: Solomon Northup

text: After he made it back to New York, Solomon Northup wrote and published his memoir, "Twelve Years a Slave" (1853). The book was written in three months with the help of David Wilson, a local lawyer and writer.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup told the story of his kidnapping and enslavement with many verifiable details. Northup told the cruelty, treatment as chattel, and the appreciated acts of kindnesses that he received. "Its tone is much milder than we expected to see exhibited," according to the "Rome Citizen" of New York. The detail that he provided helped illuminate the depth of his experiences, and allowed for verification of what life was like on a plantation. Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon researched the facts from Northup's book and were able to verify many of the events and people and published their annotated version of the book in 1968. Edwin Epps, his slaveholder, stated that a greater part of the book was the truth to soldiers from the 114th New York Infantry Regiment that Epps met during the Civil War. Northup was literate and provided the facts without hyperbole in "plain and candid language", while Wilson corrected style, grammar, and inconsistencies.


title: Solomon Northup

text: It was published by Derby & Miller of Auburn, New York. In the period when questions of slavery generated debate and the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a bestseller, Northup's book sold 30,000 copies within three years, also becoming a bestseller. Northup traveled and went on a lecture tour in Northeastern states to tell his story and sell books. The book became the backbone of other books about him, such as "Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave."


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup was one of the few kidnapped free black people to regain freedom after being sold into slavery. Represented by attorneys Senator Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, General Orville Clark, and Henry B. Northup, Solomon Northup sued Birch and other men involved in selling him into slavery in Washington, DC. The historian Carol Wilson documented 300 kidnapping cases in her 1994 book, and believes that it is likely that thousands more were kidnapped who were never documented.


title: Solomon Northup

text: As Solomon Northup and Henry Northup made their way back to New York, they first stopped in Washington DC to file a legal complaint with the police magistrate against James H. Birch, the man who had first enslaved him. Birch was immediately arrested and tried on criminal charges. However, Northup was unable to testify at the trial due to laws in Washington DC against black men testifying in court. Birch and several others who were also in the slave trade testified that Northup had approached them, saying he was a slave from Georgia and was for sale. No note of his purchase was made in Birch's accounting ledger, however. The prosecution consisted of Henry B. Northup and another white man asserting that they had known Northup for many years, and he was born and lived a free man in New York until his abduction. With no one legally able to testify against Birch's tale, Birch was found not guilty. However, the sensational case immediately attracted national attention, and "The New York Times" published an article about the trial on January 20, 1853, just days after its conclusion and only two weeks after Northup's rescue.


title: Solomon Northup

text: The New York trial opened on October 4, 1854. Both Northup and St. John testified against the two men. The case brought widespread illegal practices in the domestic slave trade to light. Through testimony during the court case, various details of Northup's account of his experience were confirmed. The respective counsels argued over whether the crime had been committed in New York (where Northup could testify), or in Washington, DC, outside the jurisdiction of New York courts. After more than two years of appeals, a new district attorney in New York failed to continue with the case, and it was dropped in May 1857.


title: Solomon Northup

text: He worked again as a carpenter after he moved back to New York. He became active in the abolitionist movement and lectured on slavery in the years before the American Civil War. During the summer of 1857, Northup was in Canada for a series of lectures. In Streetsville, Ontario, a hostile Canadian crowd prevented him from speaking.


title: Solomon Northup

text: After 1857, he was not living with family and there was speculation by family, friends, and others that he was enslaved again. The 21st-century historians Clifford Brown and Carol Wilson believe it is likely that he died of natural causes, because he was too old to be of interest to slave catchers.


title: Solomon Northup

text: According to John R. Smith, in letters written in the 1930s, his father Rev. John L. Smith, a Methodist minister in Vermont, had worked with Northup and former slave Tabbs Gross in the early 1860s, during the Civil War, aiding fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. Northup was said to have visited Rev. Smith after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which was made in January 1863.


title: Solomon Northup

text: There is no contemporaneous documentation of his death. It is believed by historians that he died in 1863 or 1864.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Although the memoir is often classified among the genre of slave narratives, the scholar Sam Worley says that it does not fit the standard format of the genre. Northup was assisted in the writing by David Wilson, a white man, and, according to Worley, some believed he would have biased the material. Worley discounted concerns that Wilson was pursuing his own interests in the book. He writes of the memoir:


title: Solomon Northup

text: "Twelve Years" is convincingly Northup's tale and no one else's because of its amazing attention to empirical detail and unwillingness to reduce the complexity of Northup's experience to a stark moral allegory.


title: Solomon Northup

text: Northup's biographer, David Fiske, has investigated Northup's role in the book's writing and asserts authenticity of authorship. Northup's full and descriptive account has been used by numerous historians researching slavery. His description of the "Yellow House" (also known as "The Williams Slave Pen"), in view of the Capitol, has helped researchers document the history of slavery in the District of Columbia.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish cream liqueur, an alcoholic drink flavoured with cream, cocoa and Irish whiskey. It is made by Diageo at Nangor Road, in Dublin, Ireland and in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. It is the original Irish cream, invented by a team headed by Tom Jago in 1971 for Gilbeys of Ireland; Diageo currently owns the trademark. It has a declared alcohol content of 17% by volume.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: Baileys Irish Cream was created by Tom Jago of Gilbeys of Ireland, a division of International Distillers & Vintners, as Gilbeys searched for something to introduce to the international market. The process of finding a product began in 1971, and production research began in earnest after consultants David Gluckman, Hugh Seymour-Davies and Mac Macpherson came up with an alcoholic drink made of Irish whiskey and cream that, they remarked, "didn't taste punishing".


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: The formulation of Baileys was motivated partly by the availability of alcohol from a money-losing distillery (part of International Distillers & Vintners, and probably W&A Gilbey) and a desire to use surplus cream from another business, Express Dairies, owned by Grand Metropolitan, resulting from the increased popularity of semi-skimmed milk. It included alcohol, cream and the chocolate milk-based drink powder Nesquik produced by Nestle; the initial formulation process took approximately 45 minutes.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: Baileys was introduced in 1974 as the first Irish cream on the market. The name is that of a restaurant owned by John Chesterman, who granted W&A Gilbey permission to use it. The fictional "R.A. Bailey" signature was inspired by The Bailey's Hotel in London, though the registered trademark omits the apostrophe.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: Cream and Irish whiskey from various distilleries are homogenised to form an emulsion with the aid of an emulsifier containing refined vegetable oil. The process prevents the separation of alcohol and cream during storage. Baileys contains a proprietary cocoa extract recipe giving Baileys its chocolate character and essence. The number of other ingredients is not known, but they include herbs and sugar.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: According to the manufacturer, no preservatives are required as the alcohol content preserves the cream. The cream used in the drink comes from Glanbia, an Irish dairy company. Glanbia's Virginia facility in County Cavan produces a range of fat-filled milk powders and fresh cream. It has been the principal cream supplier to Baileys Irish Cream Liqueurs for more than 30 years. At busier times of the year, Glanbia also supplies cream from its Ballyragget facility in Kilkenny.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: The manufacturer claims Baileys Irish Cream has a shelf life of 24 months and guarantees its taste for two years from the day it was made—opened or unopened, refrigerated or not—when stored away from direct sunlight at temperatures between .


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: As with milk, cream will curdle whenever it comes into contact with a weak acid. Milk and cream contain casein, which coagulates when mixed with weak acids such as lemon, tonic water, or traces of wine. While this outcome is undesirable in most situations, some cocktails (such as the cement mixer, which consists of a shot of Baileys mixed with the squeezed juice from a slice of lime) specifically encourage coagulation.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: In 2003, Bailey & Co. launched Baileys Glide, aimed at the alcopop market. It was discontinued in 2006.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: In 2005, Baileys launched mint chocolate and crème caramel variants at 17% ABV. They were originally released in UK airports and were subsequently released in the mass markets of the UK, US, Australia and Canada in 2006.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: In 2008, Baileys, after the success of previous flavour variants, released a coffee variant, followed by a hazelnut-flavoured variant in 2010. The company trialled a new premium variety, Baileys Gold, at several European airports in 2009. The Gold version also was marketed towards the Japanese consumer. 2011, Baileys launched a Biscotti flavour, and a sub-brand premium product Baileys Chocolat Luxe, which combined Belgian chocolate with Baileys, in 2013. The company released a Vanilla-Cinnamon variety in the US market in 2013, with further flavours, Pumpkin Spice, Espresso and Salted Caramel launching the following year.


title: Baileys Irish Cream

text: From 2016 to 2018, Baileys Coffee Mocha and Latte was available in cans across the UK and Europe. In 2017, Baileys launched their Pumpkin Spice flavoured liqueur, as well as their vegan-friendly Baileys Almande, described as a blend of "sweet almond oil, cane sugar and a touch of real vanilla". In 2018, Baileys Strawberries & Cream was made available. Baileys launched a new flavour, Red Velvet Cupcake late 2019. In 2020, Baileys Apple Pie Flavour was launched for Christmas.


title: The-Dream

text: Terius Youngdell Nash (born September 20, 1977), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His co-writing credits include songs with "Me Against the Music" (2003) for Britney Spears, "Ride" (2010) for Ciara, "Umbrella" (2007) for Rihanna, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (2008) and "Partition" (2013) for Beyoncé, "Touch My Body" (2008) for Mariah Carey, "16 @ War" for Karina Pasian (2008), "Baby" (2010) for Justin Bieber, "All of the Lights"(2010) for Kanye West, and "No Church in the Wild" (2013) for Jay-Z and Kanye West. As a solo recording artist, he released five studio albums between 2007 and 2013: "Love/Hate" (2007), "Love vs. Money" (2009), "Love King" (2010), "1977" (2011) and "IV Play" (2013). His most recent album releases were the 2018 triple album "Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3" and the 2020 album "Sextape 4".


title: The-Dream

text: He was nominated for the first ever Grammy Award for Songwriter of the Year at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for his work on releases by Beyoncé, Brent Faiyaz and Pusha T.


title: The-Dream

text: Terius Nash was born in Rockingham, North Carolina. He moved with his mother to Atlanta, Georgia when he was two years old. After first learning to play trumpet in elementary school, Nash learned how to play the drums and guitar. His mother died in 1992 when Nash was fifteen years old, an event which would inspire him to write songs. He states that the death of his mother gave him a "soft spot" for women, to which he credits his desire to write songs about female empowerment such as Rihanna's "Umbrella". He moved in with his grandfather, a concrete mason who instilled a strong work ethic in young Nash. Of his grandfather, Nash recalls "He came out of a bad time for blacks in the South, but even though we lived in the hood, we had a boat, some cars and a house that was paid for. So I've always had a different outlook on life. There's nothing I can't do."


title: The-Dream

text: Nash met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001 and Stewart helped him get a publishing deal after Nash wrote "Everything" for B2K's album "Pandemonium!". Under the pen name "The-Dream", Nash began writing lyrics for popular artists. He co-wrote Britney Spears' hit "Me Against the Music" from her album "In the Zone". He spent two years working on Nivea's second album "Complicated", which he executive produced, and continued to write and produce with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Laney's brother, which led to Rihanna's 2007 hit "Umbrella". "Umbrella" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2008 Grammy Awards.


title: The-Dream

text: In 2007, Nash signed a record contract with Def Jam Recordings and began working on his debut studio album "Love/Hate". The album was produced by The-Dream, his production partner Tricky Stewart, and Los Da Mystro, and featured Fabolous and Rihanna. The album was written and recorded in eight days with twelve tracks making the final cut. Released December 11, 2007, on The-Dream's Def Jam imprint Radio Killa Records, the album featured the singles "Shawty Is a 10", "Falsetto" and "I Luv Your Girl" and received generally positive reviews from critics, as "Rolling Stone" called it "one of the most likable R&B records of the year" and UrbanMusicReviews.com said that the singer had "hit a home run". In June 2008, The-Dream was named Best New Artist at the BET Awards.


title: The-Dream

text: Nash wrote and produced Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", which was included on her third studio album "I Am... Sasha Fierce" and released in 2008. The song went on to win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Best R&B Song, becoming the first career wins at the Grammys for The Dream.


title: The-Dream

text: On March 10, 2009, The-Dream released his second album "Love vs. Money". He re-teamed with Tricky Stewart, who produced most of the tracks on the album, and Los Da Mystro. The album featured Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and Lil Jon and featured the singles "Rockin' That Shit", "Walkin' on the Moon" and "Sweat It Out". Upon its release, the album received general acclaim from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 83/100 from Metacritic and it was more commercially successful than its predecessor, debuting at number two on the "Billboard" 200.


title: The-Dream

text: During the making of "Love King", he recorded a song with T-Pain and expressed that he would like to make a collaborative album with Kanye West in the future. In January 2010, The-Dream stated he was finished recording the album and he called it the best of his three albums. The album was released on June 29, 2010. Before the album's release, The-Dream announced that "Love King" will be his last solo album. Once again produced by The-Dream, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, and Los Da Mystro, the album spawned the singles "Love King" and "Make Up Bag". Despite positive reviews from critics, the album was less commercially successful than "Love vs. Money", and debuted at number four on the "Billboard" 200.


title: The-Dream

text: On the "Love King" track "Sex Intelligent (Remix)", The-Dream sang that he would release a follow-up album titled "Love Affair" on June 7, 2011. On that intended release date, The-Dream released a medley of two new songs titled "Body Work / Fuck My Brains Out" as a free download followed by an album titled "1977" on August 31, 2011, also as a free download. Def Jam Recordings released "1977" commercially on December 18, 2012, with a modified track list. "Love Affair" was delayed repeatedly and the name was changed to "The Love, IV", "Love IV: Diary of a Madman", "Love IV MMXII", and finally "IV Play". In the nearly three years between "Love King" and "IV Play", The-Dream released the singles "Roc" and "Dope Bitch", which were not included on the final track list for "IV Play".


title: The-Dream

text: "IV Play" was released on May 28, 2013. The album features guest appearances from Jay-Z, Big Sean, Pusha T, Beyoncé, 2 Chainz, Kelly Rowland, Gary Clark Jr. and Fabolous and the singles "Slow It Down" and "IV Play". On January 8, 2014, he revealed that he had left Def Jam Recordings and was independent. However, as of 2014, he was listed as being on the artist roster of major label Capitol Records.


title: The-Dream

text: In the summer of 2014, The-Dream released his first free mixtape called "Royalty: The Prequel (EP)" to launch to the public his new work. The mixtape consisted of seven songs total, with hit songs "Pimp C Lives" and "Outkast". He followed with "Fruition" and "That's My Shit" to further introduce his new style of music and his upcoming album, "Crown Jewel". Because of complications the album was split into two EP's. "Crown" was released May 3, 2015. "Jewel" will be released in the future after the transition to new management. In May 2016, The-Dream uploaded a video to Instagram, and in the description of the video he told he will continue "The Love" series, and his next project will be called "Love Affair" as he said at 2010 in the lyrics of the song "Sex Intelligent (Remix)". On December 9, he released "Love You to Death EP". On Instagram, The-Dream commented to fans that "Love Affair" will be released in March 2017. On February 28, The-Dream featured on a track released by Kanye West on his SoundCloud, entitled "Bed Yeezy Season 5 (ft. The-Dream)".


title: The-Dream

text: The-Dream released an album titled "Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3" in December 2018, and another album titled "Sextape 4" in April 2020.


title: The-Dream

text: In addition to his work with Nivea and Rihanna, Nash has written and produced songs for many other notable R&B, hip hop, and pop artists, including J. Holiday, Usher, Yung Joc, Jesse McCartney, Mariah Carey, Karina Pasian, Ciara, Brandy, Diddy, Mary J. Blige, B2K, Beyoncé and Tulisa Contostavlos. In 2009, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart co-wrote and produced the album "" by the R&B girl group Electrik Red.


title: The-Dream

text: The-Dream has also been a featured artist on singles by artists such as Plies, LL Cool J, Dear Jayne, Gym Class Heroes, Sterling Simms, Rick Ross, Fabolous, Jamie Foxx, and Snoop Dogg.


title: The-Dream

text: In early 2009, The-Dream began working with Christina Milian on her fourth studio album "Elope", which led to her signing a joint-deal with Radio Killa Records. The-Dream said that when he was building his label, he went looking for Milian because he believed she was a talented singer. The singer confirmed that her second single would be a duet with The-Dream called "Supersonic". "Elope" was never released and the material she recorded with The-Dream was scrapped after her marriage to Nash ended.


title: The-Dream

text: In 2010, The-Dream was criticized for his cover of Aaliyah's song "One in a Million". Upon the release of the song, fans of Aaliyah voiced distaste for The-Dream's rendition on radio shows and blog sites.


title: The-Dream

text: John Calvert of The Quietus writes that The-Dream's "stadium-R&B reinvented the genre as a mythological epic", citing it as an influence on Frank Ocean's 2012 song "Pyramids". Allmusic editor Andy Kellman writes that, with Carlos McKinney and Tricky Stewart, The-Dream "seized possession of [...] the belt for the electronic pop-R&B division, once held by innovators Leon Sylvers III, Kashif and Morrie Brown, Prince, Jam & Lewis, Teddy Riley, Timbaland and Missy Elliott, and the Neptunes".


title: The-Dream

text: After dating for six months, Nash married his girlfriend, Nivea in December 2004. Their daughter Navy Talia Nash was born on May 10, 2005, and their twin sons London Nash and Christian Nash on April 19, 2006. Nivea filed for legal separation on December 10, 2007. Nash said that although he was in love with Nivea, his lack of experience in a family growing up meant he was " "not taught how much more than love [it takes] to run a relationship. Like, 'cause love isn't just where it's gonna end. It can't start and stop with love. There has to be a certain amount of knowledge and patience that's acquired in order to keep it going and keep it straight, and I found out the hard way."" Their divorce was finalized on June 15, 2008. Nash stated in an interview, ""I decided to end it because I didn't want to take this person [Nivea] and treat them a certain way based on what I was changing into, based on being bitter." " However, Nivea says The-Dream wanted the divorce, not she.: ""I'm lying, it's not. We're supposed to say that, but it's not true. It wasn't no mutual agreement, he wanted to do it, I didn't, but it's done. I'm dealing with it." "


title: The-Dream

text: Nash began dating Christina Milian in early 2009 and she became pregnant. They were engaged in June 2009 and married on September 4, 2009, at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. Nash said in an interview that Nivea was still a good friend of his, and that she was also friends with Milian. Five months after their wedding, Nash filed divorce papers in Georgia on February 17, 2010. Their daughter, Violet Madison Nash, was born on 26 February 2010. The couple announced their separation on July 12, 2010, after photos surfaced of Nash being intimate with his assistant. Their divorce was finalized on October 23, 2011.


title: The-Dream

text: In 2012, Nash briefly dated Lydia Nam, who gave birth to their son in 2013. This son's name and picture has never been publicly revealed.


title: The-Dream

text: Nash began dating LaLonne Martinez in early 2014, they became engaged in May 2014 and married on July 3, 2014, at San Francisco City Hall. Together they have four children: sons Heir Wolf Nash (May 8, 2015) and Lord Nash (August 2016); and daughters Maverick (August 2017) and Élysées Nash (May 6, 2019).


title: The-Dream

text: Nash was arrested in June 2013 in Newport Beach, California for an alleged domestic violence incident, but his girlfriend Lydia Nam declined to press charges.


title: The-Dream

text: Nash was arrested on May 7, 2014, on charges of felony assault and strangulation, reckless endangerment and child endangerment against his then-pregnant girlfriend Lydia Nam for his alleged actions on April 4, 2013, while they were staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Nash was cleared of charges, including felony assault and strangulation, at a brief appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court.


title: The-Dream

text: The-Dream has been nominated nineteen times for the Grammy Awards, winning five of these nominations.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Mary of Guise (; 22 November 1515 – 11 June 1560), also called Mary of Lorraine, was a French noblewoman of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine and one of the most powerful families in France. She was Queen of Scotland from 1538 until 1542, as the second wife of King James V. As the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, she was a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked mid-16th-century Scotland, ruling the kingdom as regent on behalf of her daughter from 1554 until her death in 1560.


title: Mary of Guise

text: The eldest of the twelve children born to Claude, Duke of Guise, and Antoinette de Bourbon, in 1534 Mary was married to Louis II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville, the Grand Chamberlain of France. The marriage was arranged by King Francis I of France, but proved shortlived. The Duke of Longueville died in 1537, and the widower kings of England and Scotland, Henry VIII and James V, both sought the Duchess of Longueville's hand. After much persuasion from Francis I and James V, who wrote a personal letter pleading for her hand and counsel, Mary eventually relented and agreed to marry the King of Scots. Following the new queen's arrival in Scotland, James and Mary were married in person in June 1538 at St Andrews Cathedral. Mary was crowned queen at Holyrood Abbey on 22 February 1540, and the marriage produced three children in quick succession: James, Duke of Rothesay; Robert, Duke of Albany; and Mary. Both sons died in April 1541, and when James V himself died in December 1542, his only surviving heir, Mary, became Queen of Scots at the age of six days old.


title: Mary of Guise

text: James V's death thrust Mary of Guise into the political arena as mother of the infant Queen of Scots, with the government of Scotland entrusted to James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, as regent during the early years of the minority and the Rough Wooing. With the Treaty of Haddington in 1548, the child queen Mary was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and was sent to be brought up in France under the protection of King Henry II. Mary of Guise replaced Arran as regent in 1554, and her regency was dominated by her determination to protect and advance the dynastic interests of her daughter, maintain the Franco-Scottish alliance, and reassert the power of the Scottish crown. Throughout her regency, Mary displayed tolerance towards the religious reform movement, and implemented a policy of accommodation towards her Protestant subjects, though she was ultimately unable to prevent the Scottish Reformation.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Mary was born at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine, the eldest daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, head of the House of Guise, and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon, herself the daughter of Francis, Count of Vendome, and Marie de Luxembourg. Among her 11 siblings were Francis, Duke of Guise; Claude, Duke of Aumale; Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine; and Louis I, Cardinal of Guise.


title: Mary of Guise

text: When Mary was five, she was godmother to her younger sister Louise. Not long afterward, she joined her grandmother Philippa of Guelders in the convent of the Poor Clares at Pont-à-Mousson. Mary grew to be exceptionally tall by the standards of her time and reached a height of . Her mother mentioned that she suffered from bad colds. When she was about 14 her uncle Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, and aunt Renée of Bourbon visited her. Impressed by their niece's qualities and stature, they took her away from the convent and prepared her for life at the French court. In 1531, Mary made her first appearance and debut at the wedding of Francis I and Eleanor of Austria. She established a friendship with the king's daughters Madeleine (whom she would later succeed as Queen of Scots) and Margaret.


title: Mary of Guise

text: On 4 August 1534, at the age of 18, she became Duchess of Longueville by marrying Louis II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville, the Grand Chamberlain of France, at the Louvre Palace. Their union turned out to be happy, but brief. On 30 October 1535, Mary gave birth to her first son, Francis, but on 9 June 1537, Louis died at Rouen and left her a pregnant widow at the age of 21. For the rest of her life, Mary kept the last letter from her "bon mari et ami" (her good husband and friend) Louis, which mentioned his illness and explained his absence at Rouen. It can still be seen at the National Library of Scotland. On 4 August 1537, Mary gave birth to their second son, who was named Louis after his deceased father. Louis died very young, but Francis wrote letters to his mother in Scotland. On 22 March 1545 he sent a piece of string to show how tall he was, and on 2 July 1546 he sent her his portrait.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Rather than live in Edinburgh, Mary primarily lived in Leith where a garrison of French troops were stationed. Her two houses in Leith were firstly just off the Shore at the Paunch Market, on what (until unification with Edinburgh) was called Queen Street in her honour. The beautifully ornate building was demolished in 1849 and now is simply a car park. The site lies at the south-west section of Shore Place, the new name for Queen Street. Secondly she had a small palace on Rotten Row (now called Water Street). After her death this went into the ownership of Andrew Lamb, and it is almost certainly for this reason that her daughter Mary, Queen of Scots visited "the house of Andro Lamb beit the space of ane hour" on her return to Scotland in 1561. The house was demolished in 1830 to build a whisky warehouse, but the her memory lived on in the name of the linked building which was named the "Mary of Guise Buildings" carved in stone. The latter was demolished around 1995 and was replaced by a small block of flats. Her former (Shore Place) residence housed Oliver Cromwell in 1651.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Later, in 1537, Mary became the focus of marriage negotiations with James V of Scotland, who had lost his first wife, Madeleine of Valois, to tuberculosis, and wanted a second French bride to further the interests of the Franco-Scottish alliance against England. According to a 17th-century writer, William Drummond of Hawthornden, James V had noticed the attractions of Mary when he went to France to meet Madeleine and Mary of Bourbon, and she was next in his affections. It is known that Mary had attended the wedding of James and Madeleine.


title: Mary of Guise

text: The recently widowed Henry VIII of England, in attempts to prevent this union, also asked for Mary's hand. Given Henry's marital history—banishing his first wife and beheading the second—Mary refused the offer. In December 1537, Henry VIII told Castillon, the French ambassador in London, that he was big in person and had need of a big wife. Biographer Antonia Fraser writing in 1969 said Mary replied, "I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck." This was apparently a tribute to the famously macabre jest made by Henry's French-educated second wife, Anne Boleyn, who had joked before her death that the executioner would find killing her easy because she had "a little neck".


title: Mary of Guise

text: King Francis I of France accepted James's proposal over Henry's and conveyed his wishes to Mary's father. Francis had a marriage contract prepared that offered James a dowry as large as if Mary had been born a princess of France. Mary's mother found the contract "marvellously strange", because the king had included Mary's son's inheritance in the dowry. Mary received the news with shock and alarm, as she did not wish to leave family and country, especially as she had just lost her first husband and her younger son. It has been said that her father tried to delay matters, apparently until James, perhaps sensing her reluctance, wrote to her, appealing for her advice and support. However, the authenticity of this letter, which was first produced in 1935, has been questioned.


title: Mary of Guise

text: David Beaton (who was made a cardinal in 1538) travelled to France for the marriage negotiations. He wrote to James V from Lyon on 22 October 1537 that Mary was "stark (strong), well complexioned, and fit to travel". Beaton wrote that the Duke of Guise was "marvellous desirous of the expedition and hasty end of the matter", and had already consulted with his brother, the Duke of Lorraine, and Mary herself, who was with her mother in Champagne waiting for the resolution of the negotiations. The marriage contract was finalized in January 1538, with James V receiving a dowry of 150,000 livres. As was customary, if the king died first, Mary would retain for her lifetime her jointure houses of Falkland Palace, Stirling Castle, Dingwall Castle and Threave Castle, along with the rentals of the earldoms of Fife, Strathearn, Ross and Orkney, and the lordships of Galloway, Ardmannoch and the Isles.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Finally, Mary accepted the offer and made hurried plans for departure. The proxy wedding of James V and Mary of Guise was held on 9 May 1538 in the Sainte Chapelle at the Château de Châteaudun. Some 2,000 Scottish lords and barons came from Scotland aboard a fleet of ships under Lord Maxwell to attend. Lord Maxwell himself stood as proxy for James V. Maxwell, and the other lords and barons who had come to France, travelled back to Scotland with Mary, who sailed from Le Havre on 10 June 1538, leaving behind her three-year-old son, Francis, Duke of Longueville. She landed in Scotland 6 days later at Crail in Fife. She came in a fleet of three French galleys commanded by Jacques de Fountaines, Sieur de Mormoulins. She was formally received by the king at St Andrews few days later amid pageants and plays performed in her honour. James and Mary were married in person at St Andrews Cathedral on 18 June 1538. James's mother Margaret Tudor wrote to Henry VIII in July, "I trust she will prove a wise Princess. I have been much in her company, and she bears herself very honourably to me, with very good entertaining." In August Mary went into the Highlands with James on a hunting trip to Glen Finglas, with six ladies-in-waiting.


title: Mary of Guise

text: The Duchess of Guise sent her masons, including Nicolas Roy, miners and an armourer. She had a French painter, Pierre Quesnel, to decorate her palaces. Her household included a dwarf and a fool who were both dressed in green. On 24 August 1539 Mary and James V made a pilgrimage to the Isle of May in the Forth. They took three ships, the "Unicorn", the "Little Unicorn" and the "Mary Willoughby". It was believed that a visit to the shrine of St Adrian could help a woman become pregnant, and Mary of Guise made a note of her pilgrimages in Scotland.


title: Mary of Guise

text: She was crowned queen at Holyrood Abbey on 22 February 1540. Preparations for her coronation had begun in October 1539 when the jeweller John Mosman made a new crown from Scottish gold and her silver sceptre was gilded. Payments made for the ceremony include the hanging of tapestries; carrying church furnishings from the Palace chapel into the Abbey; the attendance of eleven chaplains; boards for stages in the Abbey; and messengers sent to summon the ladies of the kingdom. A salute of 30 guns was fired from David's Tower in Edinburgh Castle, and there were fireworks devised by James and made by his royal gunners.


title: Mary of Guise

text: James and Mary had two sons: James, Duke of Rothesay (born 22 May 1540 at St Andrews), and Robert, Duke of Albany (born and baptised on 12 April 1541); however, both died on 21 April 1541, when James was nearly one year old and Robert was nine days old. Mary's mother Antoinette de Bourbon wrote that the couple was still young and should hope for more children. She thought a change of wet nurse and over-feeding contributed. The third and last child of the union was a daughter Mary, who was born on 8 December 1542. King James died six days later, making the infant Mary Queen of Scotland.


title: Mary of Guise

text: The government of Scotland was first entrusted to James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, as regent. Henry VIII of England wished the infant Queen Mary to marry his son, Prince Edward. This led to internal conflicts in Scotland between those who favoured the marriage and those who preferred the alliance with France and led to an English invasion, the so-called Rough Wooing. Guise told English diplomat Ralph Sadler that Regent Arran was a "simple man" and she could easily find out his "whole intent".


title: Mary of Guise

text: At first Mary of Guise stayed at Linlithgow Palace. Sadler visited her on 22 March 1543 to see the infant queen for the first time. Guise showed him the queen out of her swaddling, to show the child was healthy, because Arran had spread rumours the child was sickly. Sadler wrote that the infant queen was "as goodly a child I have seen, and like to live". Guise reminded him of Regent Arran's plans to have his son James Hamilton to marry Princess Elizabeth. Guise tried to get Sadler to intercede with Regent Arran to release her ally Cardinal Beaton from imprisonment, alleging his political expertise could be employed to mutual benefit.


title: Mary of Guise

text: In April 1543, Arran heard a rumour that Henry VIII now wished to make Mary of Guise his sixth wife. He confronted Mary with this and she prevaricated, learning from him (as she had already guessed) that he told everything to Sadler. She then sent her confidant Lord Fleming to Sadler to report the conversation. In turn, Sadler relayed to Henry VIII his account of "every man's tale whereby your grace may perceive the perplexed state of affairs in Scotland."


title: Mary of Guise

text: In July 1543 she moved with the infant Queen to Stirling Castle. When Ralph Sadler spoke to her again in August, Guise assured him the English marriage would go ahead when Mary was ten years old. In the meantime Mary was safe at Stirling; Guise said she was glad to be at Stirling, and "much she praised there about the house."


title: Mary of Guise

text: It soon became clear to Henry VIII that Mary and Edward would not be married, despite Scottish promises and the Treaty of Greenwich, and at the end of 1543 he launched the war now called the Rough Wooing, hoping to turn the situation around. In 1544 she spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to replace Arran as regent.


title: Mary of Guise

text: After a Scottish defeat at the Battle of Pinkie in September 1547, French military aid weakened English resolve and increased the power base of Mary of Guise, who remained in Scotland. Equipped with a newly painted spear for her royal standard, Mary came to view the progress of the siege of Haddington in July 1548. On 9 July her party came in range of the English guns and sixteen of her entourage were killed around her. Following this terrifying incident, Mary gave one of her gunners at Haddington, Andro Straitoun, a reward of a month's wages, £4 Scots.


title: Mary of Guise

text: By the resolution of the Scottish Parliament at Haddington on 7 July, the child Queen Mary was sent to France in August 1548 to be raised with her husband-to-be, the dauphin Francis, son of Henry II of France. Guise first planned to sail with her daughter from Dumbarton as far as Whithorn where she would make pilgrimage. Instead, she returned for a council meeting in Edinburgh.


title: Mary of Guise

text: At this time, the dedication of the Scottish book, "The Complaynt of Scotland", recalled Mary of Guise's descent from Godfrey de Bouillon and claimed her courage and virtue exceeded those of the ancient heroines Tomyris, Semiramis and Penthesilea.


title: Mary of Guise

text: After negotiating on Christmas Day 1549 at Stirling Castle for more French guns for the siege of Broughty Castle, she showed more prudence by watching the successful assault on Wednesday 6 February 1550 from a vantage point across the Tay. Paul de Thermes led the French troops, 240 were injured and 50 killed. The garrison surrendered six days later at midnight. Mary of Guise was triumphant, writing that "the English had left nothing behind but the plague."


title: Mary of Guise

text: The peace process began and Scotland was included in the Treaty of Boulogne of 24 March 1550. As part of the treaty, Mary's brother Claude, Marquis de Mayenne, was one of six French hostages sent to England. After their father died on 12 April 1550, Claude was allowed to come to Scotland with a passport from Edward VI dated 11 May. Claude wrote from Edinburgh on 18 May that he would survey the fortifications of the realm. After the Treaty was signed, Mary was able to travel to France to see her family.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Mary left Scotland on 6 September 1550 and arrived at Dieppe in time to participate in a festival with the French court at Rouen with her daughter on 1 October 1550. At Rouen, Mary and the Queen of Scots rode in procession behind soldiers carrying banners depicting Scottish fortresses recently defended and recovered by the French. She brought with her a large retinue of Scottish gentlemen, including the earls of Huntly, Cassillis, Sutherland, Marischal and Wigtown, plus lords Home and Maxwell, and the bishops of Caithness and Galloway. Historians have analysed the Scottish retinue as a team-building exercise for Mary.


title: Mary of Guise

text: Over the winter she stayed with the French court at Blois, then spent the summer with Henry II visiting Tours, Angers and Nantes. At Amboise in April, Mary was sickened by news of a plot to poison the young queen of Scots. A Scottish would-be poisoner, Robert Stewart, discovered in London was delivered to the French in May. Throughout her time in France, Mary was anxious to gain the best settlement for her daughter's marriage to the dauphin and financial support for herself in Scotland. At Tours in May, a cynical English observer, John Mason, who scanned the Scottish retinue for signs of dissent, reported, "the Dowager of Scotland maketh all this court weary of her, such an importunate beggar is she for herself. The king would fain be rid of her. The trucking is about money matters."


title: Mary of Guise

text: While accompanying her to Dieppe on her return, her son Francis died at Amiens. In October 1551, she met Edward VI in England. Mary landed at Portsmouth and was given, by the King, an escort of gentlemen to accompany her to London. She stayed her first night at Southwick Priory. On her way to London she stopped at Warblington, Cowdray, Hampton Court, where she was entertained by the Marquess and Marchioness of Northampton, and Fulham Palace. At his meeting with Mary at Whitehall Palace, Edward gave her a diamond ring. The ring, "sett with a fayer table diamount", had belonged to Catherine Parr. The Princess Mary Tudor declined to attend her visit, though the Princess Elizabeth was present, and according to John Aylmer, unlike the other women at Edward's court she did not try to emulate the novel French "frounsed, curled and double-curled" hairstyles of Guise's Scottish retinue.


title: Mary of Guise

text: On her way north to Scotland Ralph Sadler conveyed her through Hertfordshire, and she stopped at Robert Chester's house at Royston Priory and the house of the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk at Grimsthorpe Castle near Stamford. Arran summoned some of the barons of East Lothian to meet her at Berwick, and the gentlemen of Selkirk, Jedburgh and Duns, Scottish Borders, Peebles and Lauder, Haddington, Dunbar and North Berwick were summoned to meet her at Our Lady Kirk of Steill on 24 November 1551. Six cart loads of breech-loading cannon chambers were brought from the armoury at Leith up to Edinburgh Castle to fire salutes on her return.


title: Mary of Guise

text: In December 1552, Mary of Austria, Queen of Hungary, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, pointed out to Mary that her diplomatic complaints had no force and must come from Arran. Furthermore, she was dissatisfied by Mary's evident friendship with France. Mary's power was increasing. In May 1553, the imperial ambassador in London, Jean Scheyfve, heard she had challenged Arran's regency and proposed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, her illegitimate step-son, as a replacement. Mary herself became regent on 12 April 1554. Henri Cleutin is said to have placed the crown on her head. The eleven-year-old Queen Mary sent her congratulations to "la Royne, ma mere" ("the Queen, my mother") from the Château de Meudon at Easter, where she was staying with her grandmother and her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine.