title: Maytag

text: The company also consolidated warehouse operations and cut the number of Maytag vendors. Between 2002 and 2004, Maytag corporate management cut new-product investment by 50%.


title: Maytag

text: An increasing chorus of consumer complaints concerning product reliability and customer service, assisted by the rapid growth of internet consumer forums, began to affect the company's reputation with customers.


title: Maytag

text: The company was also slow to react to customer complaints regarding its flagship "Neptune" washer and dryer line (labeled the "Stinkomatic" by dissatisfied customers because they would become moldy in a way that could not be easily cleaned), resulting in further damage to the company's reputation and a $33.5 million payout to settle several class-action lawsuits arising from the Neptune problems.


title: Maytag

text: By 2005, Maytag's market share had declined to all-time lows, sales were flat, and customer satisfaction surveys ranked Maytag near the bottom of the appliance field. The problems with the "Neptune" line continued; in 2007, 250,000 "Neptune" washing machines became part of a nationwide safety recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to fire danger.


title: Maytag

text: In 2005, Haier sought to expand its share of foreign markets by acquiring rival white-goods OEMs and by expanding overseas production capacity. With backing from two large U.S. private equity funds, Haier made a bid to acquire U.S. appliance maker Maytag for $1.28 billion. The bid failed and Maytag was bought by Whirlpool for $1.7 billion.


title: Maytag

text: On April 1, 2006, Whirlpool completed its acquisition of Maytag Corporation. In May 2006, Whirlpool announced plans to close the former Maytag headquarters office in Newton, as well as laundry product manufacturing plants in Newton, Iowa; Herrin, Illinois; and Searcy, Arkansas by 2007. Following the Maytag headquarters closure, all brand administration was transferred to Whirlpool's headquarters in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The Maytag name would now be used on Whirlpool-designed appliances. Most Maytag employees were terminated, but some were offered jobs at Whirlpool. The board of directors of Maytag all received five years' severance pay. Former Maytag chairman and CEO, Ralph F. Hake, received two years' base salary and two years' target bonus under his severance agreement.


title: Maytag

text: On January 1, 2009, Maytag (under the ownership of the Whirlpool Corp.) changed the vested lifetime benefits of the Maytag retirees. There is a lawsuit pending in the Southern District Court of Iowa where Whirlpool has asked for permission to change the UAW bargained benefits. The benefits in question were subsequently changed despite any resolution of the lawsuit.


title: Maytag

text: In major appliances, Maytag was among the top three companies in the North American market, offering a full line of washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, cooktops, refrigerators, and ranges under the Maytag, JennAir, Amana, and Magic Chef brands. Maytag also used to manufacture the top load laundry for Crosley until Maytag's merger with Whirlpool.


title: Maytag

text: Maytag sold multiple small appliances including a cordless iron under the Maytag brand, a mixer and blender under JennAir, the company also sold the popular Skybox and Rookie home-vending products.


title: Maytag

text: In floor care, Maytag owned the Hoover brand, the market leader in North America and the floor-care brand with the highest consumer recognition and buying preference.


title: Maytag

text: In commercial products, Maytag owned Dixie-Narco, a leader in refrigerated soft drink and specialty vending machines as well as Jade cooking products and Amana commercial cooking products.


title: Maytag

text: Maytag had presence in markets around the world, including sales operations in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. The corporation's export sales and marketing, licensing of brands, and international joint ventures was coordinated by Maytag International in Schaumburg, Illinois.


title: Maytag

text: In 1988, DOMICOR was established as Maytag Corporation's international division and in 1992 became Maytag International, Inc. which eventually encompassed all of Maytag's worldwide ventures including Maytag Australia, Maytag Japan, Maytag Commercial (Mexico), and Maytag UK.


title: Maytag

text: Maytag International, was based in Schaumburg, Illinois, handled the sales, licensing and business ventures of corporate appliances and floorcare brands in overseas markets as well as the administrative support for the international sales organization. This network extended to more than 70 countries worldwide.


title: Maytag

text: Maytag International was responsible for export sales and licensing of the corporation's appliances and floor care brands and joint ventures in overseas markets. This network extends to more than 90 countries worldwide. The main office is located in Chicago with major subsidiary offices in Burlington, Ontario (Canada), Monterrey (Mexico), Sydney (Australia), and London (England) and region sales offices in Beirut (Lebanon) and Yokohama (Japan).


title: Maytag

text: As of 2008, Maytag, by this time a division of Whirlpool Corporation, had 14 manufacturing plants throughout the United States and Mexico. These included:


title: Maytag

text: Over the following years, Whirlpool closed Maytag plants in Newton, Iowa; Herrin, Illinois; Searcy, Arkansas; and Jackson, Tennessee. The Hoover floor care plant in Canton, Ohio was sold to Techtronic Industries, and its Dixie-Narco vending machine plant in Williston, South Carolina was acquired by Crane Merchandising Systems. (Techtronic and Crane acquired the plants when they acquired the Hoover and Dixie-Narco brands, respectively).


title: Maytag

text: Ol' Lonely, or "the lonely repairman", is a character in Maytag advertisements, created for Maytag by copywriter Vincent R. Vassolo of the Leo Burnett advertising agency. His character was initially played by Jesse White, who retained the role until 1988. In a time in which the laundry appliances of major manufacturers had reached maturity, differing mostly in minor details, the campaign was designed to remind consumers of the perceived added value in Maytag products derived from the brand's reputation for dependability. Maytag advertisements stated “Ol' Lonely’s predicament is testimony to the durability and reliability of Maytag appliances. Now if only he had something to do with his days.” The campaign proved a huge success, allowing Maytag to set a substantial price premium, as well as strongly influencing consumer preference at the higher end of the laundry appliance market.


title: Maytag

text: In 1986, the repairman was joined by Newton, a basset hound named for Maytag’s headquarters in Newton, Iowa. In 1989, character actor Gordon Jump first appeared as Ol' Lonely in the advertisement "Biker". In total, Jump appeared in more than 77 Maytag commercials and print advertisements. He made appearances at events for employees and customers and also was actively involved in several philanthropic and charitable causes.


title: Maytag

text: Actor Hardy Rawls was hired to play Ol' Lonely after Jump's retirement in 2003, although he appeared only in print advertising and personal appearances. Gordon Jump died two months later on September 22, 2003. In French-speaking Quebec, Ol' Lonely was played by Paul Berval. For a period of time Maytag gave Ol' Lonely a younger sidekick character known as the "Maytag Apprentice", played by actor Mark Devine. However, in 2005 Maytag cancelled his contract. Maytag also elected not to renew Rawls' contract, instead holding open auditions. Indianapolis Colts backup quarterback Jim Sorgi was among those who auditioned. On April 2, 2007, Maytag announced that Clay Earl Jackson of Richmond, Virginia had been selected to fill the role of Ol' Lonely.


title: Maytag

text: By the end of the twentieth century, the "Maytag repairman" character had become an iconic metaphor for a professional whose services are rarely needed. Times were changing however, and events at Maytag and within the industry began to diminish the effectiveness of the long-lived Maytag- repairman campaign. Consumer demand for innovative, expensive, and increasingly complex electronically controlled and computerized appliances, coupled with higher labor costs and complaints over Maytag product quality and service, influenced a decline in Maytag sales and profit margins. By 2004, the Maytag repairman character had become to some consumers a symbol of misplaced trust in aging marketing campaigns. As one commentator noted, "Unfortunately things change, and, after some major quality hiccups, now it's the Maytag salesman who is bemoaning his loneliness. Maytag's reputation has plunged to the bottom with costly consumer class action lawsuits and numerous quality complaints." As a partial result of Maytag's quality problems, the company reported a loss of $9 million in 2004, according to "Industry Week".


title: Maytag

text: In January 2014, Maytag announced a "Generation Five" of the Maytag Repairman, currently played by Colin Ferguson. But instead of commercials showing the repairman waiting around his shop for a Maytag appliance to break, he is playing the part of the actual appliance.


title: John C. Stennis

text: John Cornelius Stennis (August 3, 1901April 23, 1995) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat who served in the Senate for over 41 years, becoming its most senior member for his last eight years. He retired from the Senate in 1989, and is, to date, the last Democrat to have been a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. Furthermore, at the time of his retirement, Stennis was the last United States Senator to have served during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.


title: John C. Stennis

text: While attending law school, Stennis won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, holding office from 1928 to 1932. After serving as a prosecutor and state judge, Stennis won a special election to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy following the death of Theodore G. Bilbo. He won election to a full term in 1952 and remained in the Senate until he declined to seek re-election in 1988. Stennis became the first Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and also chaired the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations. He also served as President pro tempore of the Senate from 1987 to 1989. In 1973, President Richard Nixon proposed the Stennis Compromise, whereby the famously hard-of-hearing Stennis would be allowed to listen to, and summarize, the Watergate tapes, but this idea was rejected by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis was a zealous supporter of racial segregation. Along with James Eastland, he supported the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948 headed by Strom Thurmond, and signed the Southern Manifesto, which called for massive resistance to the Supreme Court ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education". He also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He supported the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982 but voted against the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. He was also the trial level prosecutor of "Brown v. Mississippi" (1936). The transcript of the trial indicated Stennis was fully aware that the confession was obtained by subjecting three black defendants to brutal whippings and hanging by the officers.


title: John C. Stennis

text: John Stennis was born into a middle-class family in Kemper County, Mississippi, as the son of Hampton Howell Stennis and Margaret Cornelia Adams. His great-grandfather, John Stenhouse, emigrated from Scotland to Greenville, South Carolina, just before the American Revolution.


title: John C. Stennis

text: He received a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University in Starkville (then Mississippi A&M) in 1923. In 1928, Stennis obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. While in law school, he won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, representing Kemper County, in which he served until 1932. Stennis was a prosecutor from 1932 to 1937 and a circuit judge from 1937 to 1947, both for Mississippi's Sixteenth Judicial District. He was the prosecuting attorney in a case where three African Americans had been beaten and tortured for a confession; in "Brown v. Mississippi", the Supreme Court ruled that it was a clear deception of court and jury by the presentation of testimony known to be perjured, and a clear denial of due process.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis married Coy Hines, and together they had two children, John Hampton and Margaret Jane. His son, John Hampton Stennis (1935–2013), an attorney in Jackson, Mississippi, ran unsuccessfully in 1978 for the United States House of Representatives, defeated by the Republican Jon C. Hinson, then the aide to U.S. Representative Thad Cochran.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Upon the death of Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1947, Stennis won the special election to fill the vacancy, winning the seat from a field of five candidates (including two sitting Congressmen, John E. Rankin and William M. Colmer). He was elected to a full term in 1952, and was reelected five more times. From 1947 to 1978, he served alongside James Eastland; thus Stennis spent 31 years as Mississippi's junior senator even though he had more seniority than most of his colleagues. He and Eastland were at the time the longest serving Senate duo in American history, later broken by the South Carolina duo of Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings. He later developed a good relationship with Eastland's successor, Republican Thad Cochran.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Leading up to the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Stennis supported the drafting of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Democratic nominee amid wide-ranging suspicion that President Truman could not win re-election, considering Eisenhower an acceptable candidate to Southerners. The declaration of support for civil rights at the Democratic National Convention had resulted in Southern members dissatisfied with the move and seeking to espouse their own ideology in the form of a rebellion, Stennis and Eastland being the only sitting Senators to openly back the movement. According to biographer Maarten Zwiers, Stennis was less forward in his racism than Eastland and initially hesitated to take an outspoken position against civil rights, likely underestimating the contempt for the civil rights backing of the national party in Mississippi. He adopted harsher condemnation of the program after receiving criticism.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In July 1948, the Senate voted on anti-poll tax legislation. Stennis said Congress did not have the constitutional authority to enact such a measureit had been brought up for political expediency.


title: John C. Stennis

text: On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy on two counts by a vote of 67 to 22. Two days later, Stennis advocated for the Senate to adopt rule changes proposed by the Special Censure Committee.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In March 1955, Stennis supported legislation that would increase the national cotton acreage with an amendment providing increases in cotton planting and wheat acreage.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Beginning in early 1956, along with Eastland, Allen Ellender, and Strom Thurmond, Stennis was one of several senators to meet in the office of Georgia Senator Richard Russell. Randall Bennett Woods describes the group as being "out for blood" and being pushed by extremists in their respective states to show Southerners would not be intimidated by the North.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In January 1958, Senators received a report on the development of intermediate and intercontinental missiles from Bernard A. Schriever. During two interviews after its release, Stennis said attention should be placed on the speed of production and he was satisfied with the contents of the report pertaining to the development of PGM-17 Thor.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1958, responding to President Eisenhower's placing the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sending in the 101st Airborne Division to escort and protect nine black students' entry to the all-white, public Little Rock Central High School, Stennis announced he had challenged the legality of placing guardsmen there. He stated that the Eisenhower administration had violated both the U.S. Constitution and federal laws, also believing President Eisenhower was neither "reckless nor mischievous".


title: John C. Stennis

text: During the 1960 presidential election campaign, Stennis advocated for Mississippi voters to back Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy rather than a slate of unpledged electors. Mississippi was won in the general election by the unpledged electors.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In July 1961, after Senate Republicans announced that they would cooperate with the Kennedy administration's enlarged defense bill, Stennis stated the possibility of the program requiring a boost in taxes but that he would not vote for an increase until the Senate had made every effort toward finding another way to make the payment.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In early 1962, as the Justice Department retaliated against a Mississippi official charged with refusing to register black voters, Stennis led Southern senators in opposition to the Kennedy administration's literacy test bill during a debate on the measure.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In September 1963, Stennis, Eastland, and Georgia Senator Richard Russell jointly announced their opposition to the ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty. Stennis announced his opposition to the treaty on the Senate floor, arguing that its enactment would lead to military disadvantages. The opposition was viewed as denting hopes of the Kennedy administration to be met with minimal disagreement during the treaty's appearance before the Senate.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In 1966, Stennis was initiated as an honorary member of the Delta Lambda chapter (Mississippi State) of Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In June 1967, Stennis announced that the Senate Ethics Committee would give "early preliminary consideration" to misconduct charges against Senator Edward V. Long of Missouri.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis wrote the first Senate ethics code, and was the first chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee. In August 1965, Stennis protested the Johnson administration's emergency supplemental appropriation request for the Vietnam War. In August 1967, Stennis advocated for an expansion of bombing North Vietnam to hasten what he believed would be the war's conclusion, adding that either restrictions or a pause could be a mistake. In July 1969, Stennis proposed dividing South Vietnam into two zones and one would be used for the United States to attempt ending the war. In December, Stennis supported the creation of a special commission by President Richard Nixon with the intent of investigating alleged Vietnamese civilian slayings at the hands of American soldiers.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In July 1968, Stennis served as floor manager of a bill intended to ease congestion that had throttled American airports in recent days by providing increased equipment and personnel, publicly saying the legislation had been put off for too long.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In 1969, Stennis introduced the Nixon administration's proposal for a draft lottery that would subject all potential draftees to a one-year period where they could be called, Stennis saying that studies would be conducted to see about hearings on the matter in 1970, ahead of the then-current law expiring in 1971. An aide for the senator confirmed his support for the administration's policy.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In January 1970, Stennis stated his intent to call on presidential candidates in the upcoming presidential election to visit states outside of the South and tell parents, "I'll do to your schools what we've done to the schools in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana if I'm elected President" predicting any candidate who did so would be defeated.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In February, Stennis was named as one of the members of Congress to sit on a subcommittee created to study whether the United States needed another nuclear‐powered aircraft carrier priced at $640million.


title: John C. Stennis

text: On February 12, White House Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler said President Nixon was in favor of the North and the South being treated equally on the issue of segregation, refusing to interpret his remarks as an endorsement of the Stennis amendment. Several days later, on February 18, the Senate voted 56 to 36 in favor of the Stennis amendment, Stennis afterward stating that the vote was "a landmark... a new gateway... a turning point." Stennis admitted he did not expect a difference in the temperament of the South, but that it could potentially lead to the North understanding the importance of the issue to southerners in having to maintain the same policy. Around the same time, Stennis sponsored an amendment requiring "equal treatment of schools segregated by law (de jure) and those segregated as a result of residential patterns (de facto.)" It was rejected by the Senate on April 1. In May, Stennis opined that the Supreme Court had dodged its duty by passing on the question of the legality or illegality of segregated schools outside of the South. Stennis said the question "must and should be decided as promptly as possible because a political decision is being made to continue the in integration efforts in the South but leave the other areas of the country virtually untouched." In June, as the Senate passed a $4.8billion education bill, it also defeated an amendment by Stennis to strike certain restrictions in an amendment by Senator Jacob K. Javits for aid to desegregating schools.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In 1971, Stennis sponsored a measure to enforce school desegregation laws in areas where segregation had been caused by residential patterns and in communities where segregation had been sanctioned by law. Stennis said the measure would eliminate what he called a double standard where Southern schools were forced to integrate their communities or face a loss of federal aid while Northern schools were allowed to remain segregated. The policy, noted for its similarity to the amendment sponsored by Stennis the previous year, was passed in the Senate on April 22 in a 44 to 34 vote.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1971, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard sent a letter to Stennis concerning an amendment by Harold Hughes to the draft extension bill, warning that the bill could lead to base closings and serious economic problems.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In July 1972, Stennis said it was essential that Congress appropriate $20.5million for the funding of military supplies and research to meet the basic requirements for the national defense program.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In January 1973, Stennis was shot twice in the left side of his chest and left thigh outside his Washington home by two teenagers. The suspects apparently robbed him of his wallet, a watch, and twenty-five cents.


title: John C. Stennis

text: On January 23, 1974, sources disclosed that Stennis had met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Thomas H. Moorer for discussions on military snooping in the White House allegations, a Moorer spokesman confirming the meeting but downplaying it as "a routine courtesy call traditionally made in the opening days of a Congressional session".


title: John C. Stennis

text: On February 9, Stennis met privately with Charles Radford, a member of the United States Navy who admitted removing documents from the files of Henry Kissinger in addition to delivering them to the Pentagon. After the meeting's conclusion, Stennis said Radford "was cooperative fully and I have no complaints about him".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In April, Stennis attended the Annual Convention of the Mississippi Economic Council at the Mississippi State Coliseum in Jackson, Mississippi. President Nixon said "no State in the Union is represented by men in the Congress of the United States who more vigorously speak up for their States and for the Nation than has the State of Mississippi" and Stennis would be among those "when they write profiles in courage".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1974, amid the Senate's voting to approve a bill increasing public access to Government information and documents, Stennis opposed an amendment by Maine Senator Edmund Muskie that would have deleted some guidelines for federal judges involving classified information, on the grounds that they were "flirting here with things that can be deadly and dangerous to our national welfare". The amendment passed 56 to 29.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In November 1974, Stennis announced his intent to advocate for the creation of a congressional fact‐finding committee to investigate the possibility of a conspiracy being behind price disparities.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In March 1976, amid the Senate voting unanimously to seat Henry Bellmon, Stennis was one of nine Democrats to vote alongside Republicans to put aside a motion declaring the Senate unable to determine a winner and the seat would require a special election to fill the vacancy. Later that month, Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire requested Stennis delay action on the nomination of Albert Hall as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. In May, Stennis and Texan John Tower cosponsored a measure to remove the Select Committee on Intelligence's legislative jurisdiction over Defense Department intelligence operations, the amendment being defeated 63 to 31. In June 1976, Stennis joined a coalition of Democrats endorsing Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter for the presidency. The "New York Times" assessed Stennis and Eastland as jointly "trying to pull Mississippi out for Mr. Carter" in their first campaign for a national Democrat in decades.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In February 1977, after President Jimmy Carter selected Paul Warnke as his nominee for Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Stennis announced that Warnke had agreed to testify before the Armed Services Committee. On April 16, President Carter announced his approval for full or substantial funding of the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway. "The New York Times" wrote that Carter's approval had prevented him from "having to fight with" Stennis, Eastland, and John J. Sparkman. In June, Stennis authorized a request by Colorado Democrat Gary Hart to delay hearings on the promotion of Donn A. Starry to United States Army Training and Doctrine Command; Starry was later confirmed to the position. In July, President Carter sent Stennis a letter stating his decision on deployment would come after he received reports on the neutron bomb from the Pentagon and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. After the November death of Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan, Stennis was seen as a potential chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the event Warren Magnuson did not attempt to take the position himself.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In April 1978, after President Carter announced a halt on production of neutron weapons, Stennis was known to be one of the senators dissatisfied with the decision. In July, Stennis introduced an amendment to the Endangered Species Act which would authorize any head of a government agency to be able to decide whether the individual's agency had a project that outweighed the importance of preserving a species. The amendment was defeated 76 to 22.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In September 1978, after the House voted to approve a $37billion defense spending bill, Stennis made moves toward producing a new bill that maintained similar attributes to the House-passed measure with the exception of the carrier. Defense Secretary Harold Brown issued a statement a short time afterward praising Stennis and Representatives Melvin Price and George H. Mahon as "dedicated and patriotic Americans", rhetoric that was seen as matching the tone "evidently designed to repair the rift the veto opened between the White House and defense leaders in Congress" used by President Carter in his own statement. In October, the Carter administration disclosed that President Carter had reversed his choice to not approve construction of the large nuclear‐powered aircraft carrier. Carter was said to have personally assured Stennis he would not veto the carrier.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In April 1970, in response to the Nixon administration's choice to back efforts by the South Vietnamese in Cambodia, senators made moves toward ending funding for American military aid there. Stennis and Michigan Senator Robert P. Griffin described the operation as one limited in scale and with the purpose of destroying sanctuaries of the North Vietnamese and Vietcong in Cambodia on the South Vietnam border. In July, Stennis advocated for the United States adopting an Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system to safeguard against Soviet SS‐9 intercontinental ballistics missiles and called on fellow senators to recall "the grim fact of rapidly increasing Russian strategic forces which could place this country in jeopardy in the years ahead." In August, as the Senate voted to bar the United States from paying larger allowances to allied troops in Vietnam than it pays to American soldiers, Stennis said he was impressed with the legislation and that he would be in favor if "some adjustment can be made consistent with our honor". Stennis also pledged to try arranging an agreement between the two chambers on the final military procurement bill. Stennis furthered that the United States "would have to observe any commitments it might have already made, and that some delicacy might be necessary since American forces are leaving Vietnam." In September, the Senate voted on the McGovern–Hatfield Amendment, a proposal that would have required the end of military operations in Vietnam by December 31, 1970, and a complete withdrawal of American forces halfway through the next year. Stennis argued the amendment was constitutional and that Congress had "the sole power to appropriate money" but opposed it on the grounds that it would harm the American negotiating position. The amendment was defeated in a vote of 55 to 39.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1971, the Senate rejected legislation designed to prohibit assignments of draftees to combat in Vietnam after the end of the year without consent on the part of the draftees. Stennis said the legislation would have caused the creation of two classes of soldiers where one group could fight and the other could not while arguing that any army unit "would be rendered inoperative if each man's record had to be reviewed by the commanders before they acted in an emergency".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In March 1972, John D. Lavelle was relieved of duty as commander of the Seventh Air Force in Southeast Asia due to alleged misconduct over bombing missions in Vietnam, President Nixon announcing the appointment of Creighton W. Abrams as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army by Nixon in June. A week later, during a Senate floor speech, Stennis announced a full hearing would be conducted around the pending retirement of Lavelle, his announcement coming in light of new testimony linking Creighton W. Abrams to an unauthorized bombing of North Vietnam. The move by Stennis was viewed as serving "to complicate further an already intricate series of changes at the top of the Army's command structure". On September 13, Stennis said there was a conflict in the testimony of Abrams and Lavelle regarding the intricacies of the strikes, specifying the difference in who was behind them and their planning. This difference, he stated, would need further inspection from the committee, declining to specify the particular conflict in their account while speaking to newsmen. Later that month, Lavelle sent Stennis a letter detailing his activities and other information pertaining to the case.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In April 1973, Stennis, in a statement drafted at Walter Reed Army Hospital while he was still recovering from gunshot injuries, called for legislation that would prevent the President from restoring American troops in Vietnam without congressional backing. The Senate, in a vote of 71 to 18, approved a similar measure in July, barring the president from being able to commit American armed forces to future foreign hostilities without the consent of Congress. Stennis sent a letter to Edmund Muskie advising that cluttering the "war powers bill with other matters" would give the measure the possibility of overriding a veto.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1974, Stennis announced the Senate Armed Services Committee had approved $21.8billion in weapons production and research for the upcoming fiscal year, a 5.6 percent decrease in the funding requested by the Nixon administration.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1970, Stennis argued against an amendment by Frank Church and John Sherman Cooper that if enacted would prohibit funds for retaining American troops in Cambodia, telling Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright he did not understand how a president could select a date without assurance there would be no reversals in battle. After Stennis recalled President Nixon's having made an estimate on when the U.S. would exit the conflict, Fulbright said Stennis had confirmed his belief that Nixon did not mean it when he said American involvement in Cambodia would be over by July 1. Stennis then charged Fulbright with putting words in his mouth.


title: John C. Stennis

text: On May 12, 1971, Stennis introduced legislation curbing the ability of the president to commence war without congressional consent. Stennis called the choice to declare war "too big a decision for one mind to make and too awesome a responsibility for one man to bear" and that he was aiming for Congress to give consideration to the idea posed in his measure for roughly a year before drafting any legislation. The introduction of the measure was viewed "as one of those potentially historic moments when the action of one man can turn the tide of policy". In June, the Senate turned down an amendment by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy that would have enabled young men registering for the draft have the right to lawyer and hearings in the style of a courtroom before their local draft boards. With multiple amendments still needing to be voted on by the chamber, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield afterward announced that Stennis, Hugh Scott, and himself would present a petition to end a debate.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In September 1973, the White House disclosed President Nixon had written Stennis, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott to urge Senate approval of the full weapons budget requested by his administration. Days later, the Senate rejected an amendment by Mansfield requiring a reduction in American troops abroad in a vote of 51 to 44 after initially voting in favor of it. Along with Texan Lloyd Bentsen, Stennis was noted as one of two Democratic senators to have backed the Nixon administration who were absent during the first vote.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In September 1974, Stennis argued in favor of the $82.5billion defense appropriations bill the Senate sent to the White House, a measure noted for having a $4.4billion decrease in the amount requested by the Ford administration for the 1975 fiscal year, saying it was not reducing "the muscle of America's military".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In May 1977, Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson named Stennis as one of the senators who was part of a bipartisan attempt to develop, in reference to the SALTII treaty, "the kind of agreement that... will stabilize the situation in the world." By May 1979, "The New York Times" wrote that Stennis was one of the moderate senators who would swing the vote on the SALTII treaty and along with West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd was viewed as "possibly timing their decisions to influence other waverers". On June 19, Stennis, Robert Byrd, and Frank Church consented to the Senate Armed Services Committee holding separate hearings on SALTII on July 23, allowing the Senate Foreign Relations committee to have two weeks as the only committee reviewing the treaty.


title: John C. Stennis

text: At the end of January 1978, Stennis announced his opposition to the Panama Canal treaties, citing their causing the U.S. to withdrawal from the Canal Zone too rapidly, a move that he furthered would leave the U.S. "highly uncertain what is going to happen down there".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In July 1978, the Senate voted to approve the construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and military spending bill authorizing the Pentagon to spend $36 billion for weapons. Stennis stated his hope and prediction "that this will be the last bill that will have a carrier of this type".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In September 1979, Stennis held a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance over the Soviet brigade in Cuba. Stennis also met with President Carter for a discussion on future arms spending which failed to resolve a disagreement over budget increases that could potentially determine the fate of the proposed treaty to limit strategic arms. Stennis said after the meeting he believed the senators had made some progress with Carter. Later that month, on September 27, President Carter signed the Panama Canal Act of 1979 into law, saying in part, "I particularly want to thank Senators Stennis and Levin and Congressmen Murphy, Bowen, and Derwinski for their outstanding leadership in resolving the many difficult issues embodied in this act." In October, during a committee hearing, Stennis stated his opposition to suggestions recommending that the Senate postpone action on the strategic arms treaty with the Soviet Union until the following year, and that he believed the treaty debate in the Senate should continue on the ground that the issue would likely be more clear at the present time than it possibly would months later. Stennis, by then considered an influential member of the Senate to newer members in both parties, was seen as "useful to President Carter in trying to stave off attempts to delay or kill the pact". In December, the Senate Armed Services Committee agreed on a formula for making public a report condemning the pending nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union on the condition that the report would not make any specific recommendation to the Senate while concluding that the treaty was not in the "national security interests" of the United States without undergoing major changes. Making the report public was seen as a victory to opponents of the treaty but also by Senate aides as having a larger impact on Stennis's authority, the aides citing Stennis finally having bent to pressure from senators opposed to the treaty over issuing the report and possibly weakening his control over the committee.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In October 1973, during the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration proposed the Stennis Compromise, wherein the hard-of-hearing Stennis would listen to the contested Oval Office tapes and report on their contents, but this plan went nowhere. "Time" magazine ran a picture of John Stennis that read: "Technical Assistance Needed". The picture had his hand cupped around his ear.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In January 1974, during a telephone interview, Stennis indicated his intent to investigate on allegations of military spying in the White House, saying he did not expect the White House to intervene with the inquiry and confirmed he was not familiar with the spying until news reports. After Nixon's resignation, Stennis opposed pursuing criminal charges, arguing that his leaving office was enough punishment. The resignation was followed a month later by President Ford's pardon of Nixon, a move Stennis and other conservative Democrats favored.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In January 1974, Stennis said his health was without complications (from the shooting in 1973) and that he would be running for another term in 1976. Stennis was re-elected without opposition.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In November 1980, Defense Secretary Harold Brown sent two letters to Stennis complaining that the House of Representatives had added $7.5billion in new programs and deleted $5billion in administration programs for a net increase of $2.5billion and urging the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense instead approve the administration's budget. The Senate instead approved $161billion, $6billion more than what the administration proposed and $3.5million more than approved in the House.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In early 1981, Stennis was replaced by John Tower as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Virginia Senator John Warner said: "With no disrespect to Senator John Stennis, our former chairman, John Tower will provide a more vigorous thrust to the committee."


title: John C. Stennis

text: In spring 1981, Stennis predicted there would be larger opposition to military spending in the event of new proposals in favor of more funds being allocated. "The New York Times" referred back to Stennis in July when Senator Mark Hatfield conducted his first detailed foray into military spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. In a Senate floor speech, Stennis warned that "great pressure" to an increase would persist with continued showing of a deficit in the federal budget and Americans would stop supporting the military and its budget "if our military forces do not show real improvement without damaging the health of our economy".


title: John C. Stennis

text: In June 1982, Stennis was renominated for a seventh term, defeating Charles Pittman and radio station owner Colon Johnston by a large margin. Stennis faced political operative Haley Barbour in the general election. Barbour's supporters poked fun at Stennis's age, an issue the senator made self-deprecating comments about. President Ronald Reagan met with Stennis during the general election and promised he would not campaign for Barbour, despite Reagan's taping an ad for Barbour attacking Stennis for his age.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis was named President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the 100th Congress (1987–1989). During his Senate career he chaired, at different times, the Select Committee on Standards and Conduct, and the Armed Services, and Appropriations Committees.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In February 1988, along with Robert Byrd and John Melcher, Stennis was one of three senators to attend the traditional reading of the farewell address of President George Washington by North Carolina Senator Terry Sanford.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In February 1988, Stennis was one of twelve Democrats to support the Reagan administration-backed $43million aid to Nicaraguan rebels.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In June 1988, Stennis voted against a bill authorizing the use of the death penalty on drug dealers convicted of murder.


title: John C. Stennis

text: A dinner in honor of Stennis was held on June 23, 1988, in the Sheraton Ballroom of the Sheraton Washington Hotel. President Reagan delivered an address praising Stennis for his service in the Senate and announced "as an expression of the Nation's gratitude for the public service of the man we honor tonight, the Navy's next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-74, will be christened ."


title: John C. Stennis

text: Based on his voting record, Stennis was an ardent supporter of racial segregation. In the 1950s and 1960s, he vigorously opposed the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968; he signed the Southern Manifesto of 1956, supporting filibuster tactics to block or delay passage in all cases.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Earlier, as a prosecutor, he sought the conviction and execution of three sharecroppers whose murder confessions had been extracted by torture, including flogging. The convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of "Brown v. Mississippi" (1936) which banned the use of evidence obtained by torture. The transcript of the trial indicated Stennis was fully aware the suspects had been tortured.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Later in his political career, Stennis supported one piece of civil rights legislation, the 1982 extension of the Voting Rights Act, which passed in the Senate by an 85–8 vote. A year later, he voted against establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday. Stennis campaigned for Mike Espy in 1986 during Espy's successful bid to become the first black Congressman from the state since the end of Reconstruction.


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis opposed President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 23, 1987, Stennis voted with all but two Democrats and six Republicans to defeat Bork's nomination.


title: John C. Stennis

text: In 1982, his last election, Stennis easily defeated Republican Haley Barbour. Declining to run for re-election in 1988, Stennis retired in 1989, having never lost an election. He took a teaching post at his alma mater, Mississippi State University, working there until his death in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 93. One of his student aides at Mississippi State University, David Dallas, wrote and performed a one-man play about his time with the Senator.


title: John C. Stennis

text: At the time of Stennis's retirement, his continuous tenure of 41 years and 2months in the Senate was second only to that of Carl Hayden. (It has since been surpassed by Robert Byrd, Strom Thurmond, Ted Kennedy, Daniel Inouye, Patrick Leahy, Orrin Hatch, and Chuck Grassley, leaving Stennis ninth).


title: John C. Stennis

text: Stennis died on April 23, 1995, at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi at the age of 93. He is buried at Pinecrest Cemetery in Kemper County.


title: Hardcover

text: A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk.


title: Hardcover

text: Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cover design directly onto the board binding.


title: Hardcover

text: If brisk sales are anticipated, a hardcover edition of a book is typically released first, followed by a "trade" paperback edition (same format as hardcover) the next year. Some publishers publish paperback originals if slow hardback sales are anticipated. For very popular books these sales cycles may be extended, and followed by a mass market paperback edition typeset in a more compact size and printed on thinner, less hardy paper. This is intended to, in part, prolong the life of the immediate buying boom that occurs for some best sellers: After the attention to the book has subsided, a lower-cost version in the paperback, is released to sell further copies. In the past the release of a paperback edition was one year after the hardback, but by the early twenty-first century paperbacks were released six months after the hardback by some publishers. It is very unusual for a book that was first published in paperback to be followed by a hardback. An example is the novel "The Judgment of Paris" by Gore Vidal, which had its revised edition of 1961 first published in paperback, and later in hardcover.


title: Hardcover

text: Hardcover books are usually sold at higher prices than comparable paperbacks. Books for the general public are usually printed in hardback only for authors who are expected to be successful, or as a precursor to the paperback to predict sale levels; however, many academic books are often only published in hardcover editions.


title: Hardcover

text: Hardcovers usually consist of a page block, two boards, and a cloth or heavy paper covering. The pages are sewn together and glued onto a flexible spine between the boards, and it too is covered by the cloth. A paper wrapper, or dust jacket, is usually put over the binding, folding over each horizontal end of the boards. Dust jackets serve to protect the underlying cover from wear. On the folded part, or flap, over the front cover is generally a blurb, or a summary of the book. The back flap is where the biography of the author can be found. Reviews are often placed on the back of the jacket. Many modern bestselling hardcover books use a partial cloth cover, with a cloth-covered board on the spine only, and only boards covering the rest of the book.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The Anglo-French War, also known as the War of 1778 or the Bourbon War in Britain, was a military conflict fought between France and Great Britain, sometimes with their respective allies, between 1778 and 1783. As a consequence, Great Britain was forced to divert resources used to fight the American War of Independence (the rebellion by 13 British colonies in North America) to theatres in Europe, India and the West Indies, and to rely on what turned out to be the chimera of Loyalist support in its North American operations. From 1778 to 1783, with or without their allies, France and Britain fought over dominance in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Within days of the news of Burgoyne's surrender reaching France, King Louis XVI decided to enter into negotiations with the Americans that resulted in a formal Franco-American alliance and the French entry into the war, moving the conflict onto a global stage. Spain did not enter into the war until 1779, when it entered the war as an ally of France pursuant to the secret Treaty of Aranjuez. Vergennes' diplomatic moves following the French war with Britain also had material impact on the later entry of the Dutch Republic into the war, and declarations of neutrality on the part of other important geopolitical players like Russia. Opposition to the costly war was increasing, and in June 1780 contributed to disturbances in London known as the "Gordon Riots".


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: At the same time France assisted the Spanish in operations against British-held Menorca and Gibraltar as well as islands in the Caribbean. Menorca was taken in 1781 as were many islands in the Caribbean. The Franco-Spanish alliance, however, in 1782 encountered severe setbacks with the defeat and capture of De Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in April as well as the failure of the Great Siege of Gibraltar in September. France, also facing financial difficulties, wanted peace which meant coercing her Spanish ally into negotiations.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In addition, a series of naval battles between Admirals Edward Hughes and Pierre André de Suffren were fought in a French attempt to displace Britain from her Indian territories. The fighting here was largely inconclusive but the French were unable to displace the British and fighting only ended upon learning of the provisional Anglo-French-Spanish peace treaties of 1783.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The Bourbon War helped secure American independence and bring an end to the First British Empire but turned out to be detrimental to the French crown. The cost of participation in the American war inexorably led to France's own bankruptcy six years later, setting the stage for the French Revolution.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Ever since the Seven Years' War, France's Foreign Ministers, beginning with Choiseul, had followed the general idea that the independence of Britain's North American colonies would be good for France and bad for Britain, and furthermore that French attempts to recover parts of New France would be detrimental to that cause. When war broke out in 1775, the Comte de Vergennes, then the Foreign Minister, outlined a series of proposals that led to secret French and also Spanish support of the rebel movement, and preparations for the war, including expansion of their navies. To further the aim of French participation in the war, Vergennes closely monitored news from North America and London, and worked to remove impediments to Spanish participation in the war. Vergennes went so far as to propose war to King Louis XVI in August 1776, but news of Howe's capture of New York City delayed that plan.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: By 1777, the Thirteen Colonies' rebellion was entering its third year. John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga had signalled that the struggle against the American colonies was likely to prove longer and more costly than expected. British defeat had raised the prospect of French intervention and of a European war. North's government, fearful of war with France, sought reconciliation with the American colonies and was willing to grant a fair measure of autonomy to this end, but what would be enough in 1775 would no longer suffice by 1778. North had no intention of offering independence, but in the wake of Saratoga and with the prospect of a French alliance, the Americans were unlikely to agree with lesser terms.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Although equally interested in maintaining its influence among the German states, France had a double problem. As a supporter of the rebellious British colonies in North America, it was in France's interest to avoid a continental engagement. France could do more damage to the British in North America than in Europe. The diplomatic realignment in 1756 had overthrown 200 years of French foreign policy that united the French Crown and the French populace against the House of Habsburg, arguably bringing to France massive territorial gains in repeated wars with Habsburg Austria and Habsburg Spain. A reversal of this policy in 1756 tied French foreign policy in Europe to Vienna. Despite this restructuring, there existed in the French Court at Versailles, and in France generally, a strong anti-Austrian sentiment. The diplomatic revolution of 1756, sealed in 1770 with the personal union (the diplomatic term for marriage) of Louis, the "Dauphin of Viennois", and the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette, was considered both a political and matrimonial "mésalliance" in the eyes of many Frenchmen. It flew in the face of 200 years of French foreign policy, in which the central axiom "had been hostility to the House of Habsburg". The French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, maintained deep-seated hostility to the Austrians that pre-dated the alliance of 1756. He had not approved of the shift of France's traditional bonds, and considered the Austrians untrustworthy. He managed to extricate France from immediate military obligations to Austria by 1778.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: On 4 December 1777, word reached Benjamin Franklin at Versailles that Philadelphia had fallen and that Burgoyne had surrendered. Two days later, Louis XVI assented to negotiations for an alliance. The treaty was signed on 6 February 1778, and France declared war on Britain one month later, with hostilities beginning with naval skirmishes off Ushant in June, notably the action of 17 June 1778. George III did not welcome a war with France, but he was "prepared" for it. The king believed he had tried to avoid the conflict, but "France chooses to be the Aggressor", and Britain had taken "all the steps necessary if it should end in war". He was "prepared" for armed conflict with the French by remembering British victories over that Bourbon power in the Seven Years' War.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: During that conflict, France had been pinned down in Europe fighting Continental powers while Britain defeated the French navy and won victories in India, the West Indies and North America. However, Britain's strategic position at the beginning of 1778 was far different from the one she enjoyed in 1756. Gone was the alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia: in 1778 Britain was diplomatically isolated and without European allies. In the first months of this year, Britain attempted, without success, to find a Continental ally to engage the power of France. This failure produced the central strategic fact of the War of 1778: there would be no competing European campaigns to absorb France's strength. European isolation was irrelevant in peacetime, but Britain was at serious disadvantage without European allies in war against France.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Unlike previous wars against the French, this one would offer Britain few, if any, strategic options like choosing to fight in Europe as opposed to one in Asia and America. France and Britain fought over the control of the Channel, as one of the episodes of the globalised warfare that followed the start of the hostilities in 1778. Early in the war, the first fleet action in European waters was fought on 27 July 1778, 100 miles west of Ushant, an island at the mouth of the Channel. The two French and British battle fleets, of equal strength at 30 ships each, came to battle each other violently for several hours with neither side scoring a clear victory. The battle had been described since then as indecisive in its results.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The strategic and operational situation in the West was complex. It consisted of battles for naval supremacy, raids on enemy convoys and colonies, and sorties in support of the sides fighting the War of the American Independence. The French blockaded Britain's most important sugar producers, Barbados and Jamaica, cutting them off from food and supplies, with thousands dying from starvation and disease. Colonial militias played only limited supporting roles and more French and British troops died from the Caribbean climate and disease than from fighting. One key territory that was of particular interest was the West Indies island of Dominica, which lay between French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe, and had been captured by Britain in 1761. Recapture of the island would improve communication among the islands, and deny the use of Dominican ports to privateers who preyed on French shipping. In August 1778, when François Claude Amour, the marquis de Bouillé, the French governor-general of Martinique, received word that war had been declared.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The French frigate "Concorde" reached Martinique on August 17 with orders from Paris to take Dominica at the earliest opportunity, and de Bouillé made immediate plans for such an operation. He had maintained contacts in the Dominican population, which had remained largely French during the years of British administration. As a result, he had an accurate picture of the condition of the Dominican defences, and knew that the island's garrison numbered fewer than "fifty soldiers fit for duty". He was also concerned with the whereabouts of the British Leeward Islands fleet of Admiral Samuel Barrington, which significantly exceeded his in military power. Unbeknown to de Bouillé, Barrington, who had only recently assumed his post, was under orders to retain most of his fleet at Barbados until further instructions were received. The British regular forces on the island, which in total numbered about 100, were distributed amongst defences in the capital Roseau, the hills that overlooked it, and at Cachacrou.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: De Bouillé carefully maintained a façade of peace in his dealings with Dominican authorities while he began preparing his forces on Martinique. On 2 September he and Lieutenant Governor Stuart signed an agreement that formally prohibited privateering crews to plunder. The next day de Bouillé sent one of his officers to Dominica to see whether a Royal Navy frigate was still anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay (near present-day Portsmouth). Stuart, suspicious of the man, had him questioned and then released. On 5 September de Bouillé was informed that the frigate had sailed for Barbados. He struck fast, defeating the British at Dominica in September 1778. De Bouillé left a garrison of 800 (700 French regulars and 100 free black militia) on the island, turned its command over to the Marquis de Duchilleau, and returned to Martinique. These events were the first in a series of military actions resulting in the change of control of Caribbean islands during the war, in which De Bouillé was often involved.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: News of Dominica's fall was received with surprise in London considering that a single ship of the line might have prevented the attack, Admiral Barrington was widely blamed for the loss, and criticised for adhering too closely to his orders. French Admiral the comte D'Estaing arrived in the West Indies in early December 1778 in command of a fleet consisting of 12 ships of the line and a number of smaller vessels. At about the same time a British fleet under Admiral William Hotham also arrived, augmenting the West Indies fleet of Admiral Samuel Barrington. The orders and reinforcements whose late arrival had held Admiral Barrington at Barbados were to launch an attack on French-held St. Lucia, which the British then captured in December 1778. Despite d'Estaing's attempt at relief, the British used St. Lucia to monitor the major French base at Martinique, where d'Estaing was headquartered.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The British fleet was further reinforced in January 1779 by ten ships of the line under Admiral John Byron, who assumed command of the British Leeward Islands station. Throughout the first half of 1779 both fleets received further reinforcements, after which the French fleet was superior to that of the British. Furthermore, Byron departed St. Lucia on 6 June in order to provide escort services to British merchant ships gathering at St. Kitts for a convoy to Europe, leaving d'Estaing free to act. D'Estaing and de Bouillé, seized the opportunity to begin a series of operations against nearby British possessions. Their first target was the isle of Saint Vincent, south of St. Lucia. It fell on 18 June, and d'Estaing turned his attention to other islands. He had hoped to capture Barbados, a key British possession, but after making no progress against the prevailing easterly trade winds, he turned his attention instead to Grenada. The French fleet arrived off Grenada on 2 July, and stormed its main defences beginning late on 3 July. Terms of capitulation were agreed on the 4th.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The first large expedition to the North was undertaken in 1779 by French Vice Admiral d'Estaing. In the attempt to invade the British-occupied Savannah, the French brought 20 ships-of-the-line and 3,000 troops in transports to Georgia. Although Washington failed to cooperate with his allies, being fixated on attacking the British in New York City, D'Estaing landed the troops in aid to the Americans before he returned to France, as he had been ordered to do. On 9 October 1779, in concert with a contingent of the Continental Army, the French admiral initiated an assault on the besieged city. The well-fortified British army repulsed the invaders; d'Estaing was seriously wounded and had to sail for Europe. Despite a correct strategic concept, allied cooperation eluded successful operational implementation.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: One clear result of the renewal of the Anglo-French contest in the East Indies between 1778 and 1783 was a greater appreciation by the British of the strategic needs of their newly acquired possessions in Asia. The superimposition of a global struggle between European powers upon several localised Indian wars did unnerve the company and seriously embarrass its presidencies. Furthermore, the war exposed the rival geo-political ambitions of the French and these in turn provoked the more stolid, unreflecting British to formulate their own logic of empire. When word reached India in 1778 that France had entered the war, the British East India Company moved quickly to capture French colonial outposts there, notably capturing Pondicherry after two months of siege.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In March 1779 the British forces won Mahé ("Mahey") from the French; the Nairs ("Nayhirs"), a Hindu community that was ruled by matriarchs and (to some extent) practiced polyandry, took this opportunity to rebel against Haidar Ali's rule. The uprising was supported, if not instigated, by the British but suppressed, and the French retook Mahé in 1780 with Haidar Ali's aid.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In April 1779 France and Spain signed the Convention of Aranjuez, which laid out a summary of Bourbon War aims. Spain sought to recover Gibraltar and Minorca, Mobile and Pensacola in Florida, and to expel the British from Spanish Central America by ending their right to cut logwood in the Bay of Honduras and the coast of Campeche. France declared that her aims were to expel the British from the Newfoundland fishery, to end restrictions on French sovereignty over Dunkirk, to regain free trade in India, to recover Senegal and Dominica, and to restore the Treaty of Utrecht provisions relating to the Anglo-French commerce.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Spain entered the war with one of the goals of recovering Gibraltar, which had been lost to England in 1704. Its garrison included troops from Britain and the Electorate of Hanover. Spain formally began the siege in June 1779, the fourteenth and longest of Gibraltar, with the Spanish establishing a land blockade around the Rock of Gibraltar. The Spanish strategy combined a steady bombardment of Gibraltar from the land with seaborne attacks and attempts to cut off the supply lines to Morocco, planning to retake Gibraltar by blockading and starving out its garrison. The matching naval blockade was comparatively weak, and the British discovered that small fast ships could evade the blockaders, while slower and larger supply ships generally could not. By late 1779, however, supplies in Gibraltar had become seriously depleted, and its commander, General George Eliott, appealed to London for relief.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: A supply convoy was organised, and in late December 1779 a large fleet sailed from Britain under the command of Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney. Although Rodney's ultimate orders were to command the West Indies fleet, he had secret instructions to first resupply Gibraltar and Minorca and on 4 January 1780 the fleet divided, with ships headed for the West Indies sailing westward. This left Rodney in command of nineteen ships of the line which were to accompany the supply ships to Gibraltar.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The supply convoy sailed into Gibraltar on January 19, driving the smaller blockading fleet to retreat to the safety of Algeciras. Rodney arrived several days later, and the British garrison was heartened by the arrival of the supplies and the presence of Prince William Henry. Upon the return of the ships from Minorca, Rodney put to sea again on February 13, for the West Indies, the detachment from the Channel fleet accompanied him three days' sail on his way, and then parted for Britain with the prizes. On this return voyage it fell in with fifteen French supply vessels, convoyed by two sixty-fours, bound for the Ile de France, in the Indian Ocean, one of the ships of war, the "Protée", and three of the storeships were taken.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In North America, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, attacked the south part of the United States and took British garrisons by surprise.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In order to help relieve pressure on other fronts, France and its new ally, Spain, planned and attempted to execute an invasion of Great Britain in late summer of 1779. The action, referring to a previous Spanish invasion attempt, the Spanish Armada of 1588, was called the Armada of 1779. The proposed plan was to seize the Isle of Wight and then capture the British naval base of Portsmouth. The combined French and Spanish fleet boasted 66 ships of the line, whose goal was to sweep the Royal Navy from the Channel in preparation for the landing of 30–40,000 troops who had been readied for the invasion.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Despite superiority of numbers over the British fleet in the English Channel, the combined French-Spanish operation failed due to a comedy of errors of navigation, miscommunication, disease, food shortages, and bad weather. On 3 September, having failed to decisively engage the British fleet, which had by then taken up a strong defensive position in The Solent, the leaders of the great Armada decided to retreat with as many as 8,000 being afflicted with disease. The invasion caused alarm in Britain but George III was encouraged by its failure.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: With d'Estaing back to France, Washington got stuck in New Jersey, while asking for a continuous French naval presence in North American waters. When in July 1780 the Lieutenant General Comte de Rochambeau, arrived in Newport with an army of 6,000 men, he described the situation: "in any operation, and under all circumstances, a decisive naval superiority is to be considered as a fundamental principle, and the basis upon which every hope of success must ultimately depend". The Dutch were helping the American rebels by selling them guns and gunpowder from their ports in the Caribbean. The British used this as a pretext to declare war on the Netherlands in December 1780. Admiral Rodney spent the years of 1780 and 1781 in the Caribbean to plundering and sacking the Dutch Caribbean islands.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: By December 1780, the War in North America had reached a critical point. The Continental Army had suffered major defeats earlier in the year, with its southern armies either captured or dispersed in the loss of Charleston and the Battle of Camden in the south, while the armies of George Washington and the British commander-in-chief for North America, Sir Henry Clinton watched each other around New York City in the north. The national currency was virtually worthless, public support for the war, about to enter its sixth year, was waning, and army troops were becoming mutinous over pay and conditions.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: French military planners had to balance competing demands for the 1781 campaign. After a series of unsuccessful American attempts at cooperation (leading to unsuccessful attempts on Newport, Rhode Island and Savannah, Georgia), they decided more involvement in North America was necessary. They also needed to coordinate their actions with Spain, as there was potential interest in making an assault on the British stronghold of Jamaica. It turned out that the Spanish were not interested in operations against Jamaica until after they had dealt with an expected British attempt to reinforce besieged Gibraltar, and merely wanted to be informed of the movements of the West Indies fleet.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: As the French fleet was preparing to depart Brest in March 1781, several important decisions were made. The West Indies fleet, led by the Comte de Grasse, after operations in the Windward Islands, was directed to go to Cap-Français (present-day Cap-Haïtien) to determine what resources would be required to assist Spanish operations. Due to a lack of transports, France also provided six million livres to support the American war effort beyond of providing additional troops. The French fleet at Newport was given a new commander, the Comte de Barras. De Barras was ordered to take the Newport fleet to harass British shipping off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and the French army at Newport was ordered to combine with Washington's army outside New York.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In orders that were deliberately not fully shared with General Washington, De Grasse was instructed to assist in North American operations after his stop at Cap-Français. The French general, the Comte de Rochambeau was instructed to tell Washington that de Grasse "might" be able to assist, without making any commitment. (Washington learned from John Laurens, stationed in Paris, that de Grasse had discretion to come north.)


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: De Grasse received these letters in July at roughly the same time Cornwallis was preparing to occupy Yorktown, Virginia. De Grasse concurred with Rochambeau and subsequently sent a dispatch indicating that he would reach the Chesapeake at the end of August but that agreements with the Spanish meant he could only stay until mid-October. The arrival of his dispatches prompted the Franco-American army to begin a march for Virginia. De Grasse reached the Chesapeake as planned, and his troops were sent to assist Lafayette's army in the blockade of Cornwallis. A British fleet sent to confront de Grasse's control of the Chesapeake was defeated by the French on September 5 at the Battle of the Chesapeake, and the Newport fleet delivered the French siege train to complete the allied military arrival. The Siege of Yorktown and following surrender by Cornwallis on October 19 were decisive in ending major hostilities in North America.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In March 1782 the British House of Commons had voted in parliament with a "No offensive war" against America as a result of the surrender of Yorktown. News of the surrender of Yorktown, Menorca and losses in the West Indies then brought down the government. The new government under Marquess of Rockingham soon began the negotiations leading to the Peace of Paris. Although offensive operations against America had ended, the war continued elsewhere in the West and East Indies as well as Gibraltar. The appointment of Lord Shelburne after Rockingham's death in July forced another change in government. Nevertheless, Shelburne accepted American independence without preconditions. Although a French naval expedition had destroyed British trading posts in Hudson Bay during the summer of 1782, no territory had actually been captured.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In Britain opposition to the costly war was increasing, and in June 1780 contributed to disturbances in London known as the Gordon riots.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The war in the Atlantic had reached a stalemate by 1780, but the following year French Navy soon encountered a series of defeats in her home waters by the Royal Navy which would prove to be costly not just militarily but also financially. First at Ushant in December 1781 where a number of transports escorted by ships under the Comte de Guichen were captured by a Royal Navy fleet led by Richard Kempenfelt led to the loss of many French soldiers. In April the following year the larger third battle of Ushant took place in April where a Royal Navy fleet led by Samuel Barrington captured two valuable French ships of the line but also took two-thirds of its escorting convoy. This defeat was severe – the financial damage on the French treasury was significant, and was also a blow to the French forces operating in the Indian Ocean. More defeats followed with the loss of the brand new frigate Hébé in the action of 4 September 1782 where Chevalier de Vigny was condemned to fifteen years in prison – the case of his rank and service being declared as unfit for service. The next action proved to be the last naval battle of the American Revolutionary war where a Franco-American convoy was defeated by James Luttrell off Ferrol on 12 December 1782. The convoy was part of Pierre Beaumarchais's supply chain to the American colonists.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: In October 1781, a plan had been worked out between de Grasse, commander of the French fleet in the West Indies, and Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies, court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez. The strategic objectives of this plan were to guide the Franco-Spanish military forces in the West Indies to accomplish the following objectives:


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: This plan became known as the "De Grasse – Saavedra Convention" and the first objective was essentially met with the surrender of the British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in September 1781. De Grasse and his fleet had played a decisive part in that victory, after which they then sailed to the Caribbean. On arrival in Saint Domingue November 1781 he was given news that the plan was given the go ahead: to proceed with the conquest of Jamaica.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Jamaica was the most profitable British possession in the New World, in particular the commodity that stood out the most was sugar; it was more valuable to the British economy than the thirteen American colonies combined. In a letter from King George III to Lord Sandwich he declared that he would risk protecting Britain's important Caribbean islands at the risk of Britain herself, and this was strategy implemented in 1779. Sugar made up 20% of all British imports and was worth five times as much as tobacco. As well as the gradual expulsion of the British from the West Indies by the French and Spanish, the conquest was to force a massive blow on the British economy. The invasion itself though was perceived in the courts at Paris and Madrid as an alternative to the Spanish and French attempts to take Gibraltar which for two years had been a costly disaster.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: While de Grasse waited for reinforcements to undertake the Jamaica campaign, he captured St. Kitts in February 1782. The rest of the Windward Islands (Antigua, St Lucia, and Barbados) still remained under British control, while Admiral George Rodney arrived in the Caribbean theatre the following month, having brought reinforcements. These included seventeen ships of the line, and gave the British a slight advantage in number.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: On 7 April 1782, de Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line, including two 50-gun ships and a large convoy of more than 100 cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet consisting of 12 ships of the line. In addition de Grasse was to rendezvous with 15,000 troops at Saint Domingue earmarked for the conquest by landing on Jamaica's North coast. Rodney on learning of this then sailed from St Lucia in pursuit now with 36 ships of the line the following day.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The British ships by this time had hulls which had gone through a process known as copper sheathing; found to be a practicable means of protecting them from marine growth and fouling as well as salt water corrosion. The result of this was that their speed and sailing performance as a whole in good wind improved dramatically.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Between 9 April 1782 and 12 April 1782 a British fleet under Admiral George Brydges Rodney engaged and defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse at the battle of the Saintes. French losses were huge; nearly 8,000 to 9,000 men killed wounded or captured and lost five ships of the line, four of which were captured. French and Spanish plans for an invasion of Jamaica were thus cancelled. The British fleet made its way to Jamaica, from where Rodney ordered Hood to seek out any disabled or damaged French ships that had escaped the battle. Hood's division of thirteen ships set out towards toward San Domingo, and while travelling through the Mona Passage, came across and captured a number of French ships which had become separated before the battle of the Saintes and were on their way to Cap-Français.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: News of the battle reached France in June and was met with despair. The defeat along with the loss of the "Ville de Paris" was a devastating blow to French King Louis XVI. The navy minister the Marquis de Castries greeted the news as 'a grim disaster'. The Comte De Vergennes felt undermined in the confidence of the French navy.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: By the end of 1782 the French had been on defensive in the Caribbean, which signalled a stalemate of the seas. Nevertheless, the Royal navy was able to conduct a blockade off Cap Francois and Fort Royal as well as keeping a watch off Havana. At the same time British frigates were battling both Spanish and French privateers.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Suffren, an aggressive fighter and seeker of decisive action, foiled a British attempt to take the Cape in early 1781, attacking a Royal Navy squadron at Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands which are in the Atlantic about 450 miles west of Africa. He arrived in southern India a year later. On land, the French supported Hyder Ali in his war against the British East India Company. At sea, Suffren fought five intense and hard contested battles against the British East Indies Fleet during 1782 and 1783. Vice Admiral Edward Hughes was aware that the French purpose was objectived at dislocating the British economic exploitation and military domination, and that the preservation of his squadron was crucial for the survival of the British presence in India. The two equally capable and determined fleets broke off their mutual challenge only when news arrived that peace treaties had been signed by Britain, France and Spain in early 1783. When news of the peace had filtered through the tactical situation in India had also ended in stalemate.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Serious negotiations began between Britain, France and Spain (for which Britain's chief negotiator was Alleyne Fitzherbert, and Spain's Count of Aranda). From time to time, news would arrive from India of continuing stalemate, both in the land wars (which involved the French only as supporters to local rulers) and in naval battles; the British still appeared to hold all the French territory there that they had captured in 1778–79, while the French held no British territory. In the West Indies, on the other hand, the French still held all the territory they had captured, while the British held only one French island, St. Lucia. Nevertheless, after the Battle of the Saintes the strategic initiative was passed to the British whose dominance at sea was reasserted and signaled a collapse in the Franco-American alliance. As a result, talks between America and Britain through Shelburne and Franklin began with the British agreeing to recognise the new 'United States'.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: France, under its treaty of alliance with Spain, could not make peace without Spain's agreement; not without a guarantee that Gibraltar would be handed over to Spain. Both wanted to speed up their major assault on Gibraltar with the hope of its capture, in order to gain a major diplomatic hand. Gibraltar thus became a main factor in the peace talks. French troops had reinforced the Spanish along with the ships of the French navy. The French commander the Duc de Crillon was now in charge of Franco-Spanish operations.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: On 18 September the allies launched their grand assault with ten French designed floating batteries involving more troops than had ever been in service at one time on the entire North American continent. The assault that day and into the following morning however was a huge costly failure with the loss of all ten floating batteries. By 27 September news of the disaster had reached Paris and Madrid and was met with despair by both nations. All hope now lay on the defeat of the British squadron on its way to relieve Gibraltar. The French and Spanish hoped that its defeat or failure would lead to the surrender of the garrison prompting negotiation. The convoy got through without any problems and an attempt to defeat the British fleet ended in failure at the Battle of Cape Spartel. News of this further failure broke French and Spanish resolve. With Gibraltar safe along with Rodney's victory at the Saintes back in April, British demands at the peace talks had now greatly strengthened and had undermined the French confidence that had greeted the success at Yorktown. The British diplomats steadfastly refused to part with Gibraltar, despite offers by Spain to trade most of its gains.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: The French had done all they could to help the Spanish achieve their essential war aim, and began serious discussions on alternative exit strategies, the French diplomat Comte de Vergennes attempted to get Spain to offer Britain some very large concessions in return for Gibraltar. The Spanish under the Count of Aranda consented without consulting the court of Madrid.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Vergennes was desperate for peace – for France the cost of the war became a huge issue they had approached the limits of its ability to borrow money. At the forefront of this cost was the French Navy – during the first four years of the war the French navy had lost four ships of the line, three of them to accidents. During 1782 however it would lose fifteen of the line (nearly half of these being in April alone). The losses of these ships were significant financially – undaunted, Louis nevertheless promised to build more ships. New taxes were thus levied – the French finance minister Jean-François Joly de Fleury successfully secured the addition of a Vingtième income tax – the third and last one of its kind in the ancien regime.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: Soon after Gibraltar had been relieved Vergennes promptly reopened negotiations. The French accepted the preliminary peace treaty between Great Britain and America on 30 November, with protests but no action. Preliminary treaties were signed with Britain, France and Spain on 20 January 1783. The siege of Gibraltar was lifted three days later but news of the peace in Indian waters was not reached until June.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: As a result of the peace France and Britain returned to each other nearly all the territories they had taken from each other since 1778.


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: For the French the results of the war were mixed; they succeeded in their war aim to separate America from Britain. The gains however were meagre – the tiny island of Tobago, which they had captured in 1781, and also some territory around the Senegal River in Africa which it had lost to Britain in 1763. The whole arrangement for fishing around the Newfoundland coast had to be renegotiated because of the rights awarded to the Americans. France was unable to reverse the humiliation of 1762 – India, Canada and Britain's West Indian colonies – all gains from 1762 remained intact. Aside from some lamentation, Britons were not traumatized by the loss of America. In addition to the fact that cultural and economic ties soon revived between America, Britain had effectively won the last year of the global war. They ended up with good trade links with their former colonists and out traded France within months of the final peace treaty. As the French foreign minister Vergennes later put it, "The English buy peace rather than make it".


title: Anglo-French War (1778–1783)

text: For France however the cost of the war would leave a serious mark; over 1.3 billion "livres" had been spent over the five year conflict. On top of the costs of French ship building after the Seven Years' war, the debt caused major economic and political problems and, as the country struggled to pay its debts, this eventually led to the Financial Crisis of 1786 and ultimately to the French Revolution in 1789.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly Baratheon is a fictional character in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation "Game of Thrones".


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Introduced in 1996's "A Game of Thrones", Renly is the youngest of the three sons of Lord Steffon Baratheon and Cassana Estermont, and the younger brother of Robert and Stannis Baratheon. He is Lord of Storm's End and Lord Paramount of the Stormlands. He served as master of laws in his eldest brother's small council, before crowning himself king in the wake of Robert's death with the support of the Reach and the Stormlands, an act that helps kick off the War of Five Kings. This brings him into conflict with his older brother Stannis, whose claim is greater.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly's homosexual relationship with Loras Tyrell is alluded to in the books and is made clearly evident in the television show. Both men are among Martin's most prominent LGBTQ characters, although Renly and Loras' adapted relationship and the show's portrayal of the latter has received mixed criticism.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly Baratheon is the younger brother of King Robert and of King Stannis. He is a handsome and charismatic man that wins friends easily, which makes him popular with the smallfolk. He is thought to look extremely similar to his older brother Robert, albeit smaller and slimmer, inheriting the Baratheon height and long black hair. Although he is well-liked and charismatic, many powerful lords at court secretly consider him to be vain and frivolous. He is described as disdainful of reading, although he enjoys hunting and jousting. Renly is also a closeted homosexual engaged in a relationship with Loras Tyrell.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly is not a point of view character in the novels, so his actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of other people, such as Ned and Catelyn Stark. He is also often mentioned and remembered by Brienne of Tarth, who had fallen in love with him at a young age. Renly is mostly a background character in the novels.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly Baratheon is the youngest of the Baratheon brothers and Lord of Storm's End. He is described as handsome and charismatic, winning friends easily. Renly serves on Robert's council as Master of Laws. After Robert dies, Renly declares himself King of the Seven Kingdoms in "A Clash of Kings", wins the support of the Baratheon bannermen as he is their Lord Paramount, and seals an alliance with House Tyrell by marrying Margaery Tyrell. Before he can march on the capital though, he hears Stannis is besieging Storm's End. Renly marches there, intending to kill his brother in battle, and turning down an offer to become Stannis' heir. Before the battle he is assassinated by a shadow conjured by Melisandre, though it is unclear if Stannis is aware of this or not.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly Baratheon is played by the British actor Gethin Anthony in the television adaption of the series of books.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Gethin Anthony on his character: "The reason why I like playing him is I think he's a fantastic man who believes in Westeros being a cultured and enlightened place. His major advantage -- and why he gets on well in the world -- is that he gets on well with people."


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, is the youngest brother of King Robert and Master of Laws in the Small Council. He is popular with the people because he is handsome, jovial, and throws extravagant balls and masquerades. He is not fond of fighting or bloodshed, and would rather make friends than kill enemies. He is secretly the lover of Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of the Flowers, who convinces him that those qualities make him better ruling material than either of his older brothers. While Robert lies dying, Renly attempts to convince Ned of this, and that the two of them should kidnap Joffrey and rule the realm themselves. However, Ned refuses, so Renly, Loras, and their followers flee south. Once Joffrey becomes King and has Ned executed, Renly challenges his alleged nephew's claim to the throne.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly declares himself King of the Seven Kingdoms during Season 2 and wins the support of the Baratheon bannermen and the support of other houses, despite Stannis' better claim. He also seals an alliance with the powerful House Tyrell and its bannermen (including Randyll Tarly, father of Samwell Tarly) by marrying Margaery Tyrell. He leads his massive army slowly through southern Westeros, biding his time. Catelyn Stark tries to convince Renly and Stannis to put aside their differences and unite against the Lannisters but it fails as both brothers refuse to give up their claim for the throne. On the night before a battle between his and Stannis' forces, Renly agrees to allow Robb Stark to keep the title "King in the North" and rule the North and Riverlands, but on the condition that he swear fealty to Renly as King on the Iron Throne. Before Catelyn can offer a real negotiation, Renly is assassinated by Melisandre, who gives birth to a shadow demon and sends it to kill Renly in order to remove him from Stannis' path. Stannis is initially unaware of the exact nature of Melisandre's crime, and is later visibly shocked and saddened of the role he played in his brother's death, which he visibly regrets.


title: Renly Baratheon

text: Renly is later avenged in the Season 5 finale when Brienne of Tarth executes his brother Stannis after the battle outside Winterfell against the Boltons, spitefully telling Stannis that Renly was the rightful King.


title: Salient (military)

text: A salient, also known as a bulge, is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. The salient is surrounded by the enemy on multiple sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. The opponent's front line that borders a salient is referred to as a re-entrant – that is, an angle pointing inwards. A deep salient is vulnerable to being "pinched off" through the base, and this will result in a pocket in which the forces in the salient become isolated and without a supply line. On the other hand, a breakout of the forces within the salient through its tip can threaten the rear areas of the opposing forces outside it, leaving them open to an attack from behind.


title: Salient (military)

text: Salients can be formed in a number of ways. An attacker can produce a salient in the defender's line by either intentionally making a pincer movement around the military flanks of a strongpoint, which becomes the tip of the salient, or by making a broad, frontal attack which is held up in the centre but advances on the flanks. An attacker would usually produce a salient in his own line by making a broad, frontal attack that is successful only in the center, which becomes the tip of the salient. A salient can also be formed if the attacking army feigns retreat, tricking the defending forces to chase them down, leading to the main army being on all sides in a pre-arranged ambush.


title: Salient (military)

text: In trench warfare, salients are distinctly defined by the opposing lines of trenches, and they were commonly formed by the failure of a broad frontal attack. The static nature of the trenches meant that forming a pocket was difficult, but the vulnerable nature of salients meant that they were often the focus of attrition battles.


title: Salient (military)

text: In mobile warfare, such as the German Blitzkrieg, salients were more likely to be made into pockets which became the focus of annihilation battles.


title: Salient (military)

text: A pocket carries connotations that the encircled forces have not allowed themselves to be encircled intentionally, as they may when defending a fortified position, which is usually called a siege. This is a similar distinction to that made between a skirmish and pitched battle.


title: Relative atomic mass

text: Relative atomic mass (symbol: A; sometimes abbreviated RAM or r.a.m.), also known by the deprecated synonym atomic weight, is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a given sample to the atomic mass constant. The atomic mass constant (symbol: "m") is defined as being of the mass of a carbon-12 atom. Since both quantities in the ratio are masses, the resulting value is dimensionless; hence the value is said to be "relative".


title: Relative atomic mass

text: For a single given sample, the relative atomic mass of a given element is the weighted arithmetic mean of the masses of the individual atoms (including their isotopes) that are present in the sample. This quantity can vary substantially between samples because the sample's origin (and therefore its radioactive history or diffusion history) may have produced unique combinations of isotopic abundances. For example, due to a different mixture of stable carbon-12 and carbon-13 isotopes, a sample of elemental carbon from volcanic methane will have a different relative atomic mass than one collected from plant or animal tissues.


title: Relative atomic mass

text: The more common, and more specific quantity known as standard atomic weight ("A") is an application of the relative atomic mass values obtained from multiple different samples. It is sometimes interpreted as the "expected range" of the relative atomic mass values for the atoms of a given element from all terrestrial sources, with the various sources being taken from Earth. "Atomic weight" is often loosely and incorrectly used as a synonym for standard atomic weight (incorrectly because standard atomic weights are not from a single sample). Standard atomic weight is nevertheless the most widely published variant of relative atomic mass.