text:
Mexican Revolution
Casas Grandes
Chihuahua
Pascual Orozco
Partido Liberal Mexicano
Francisco I. Madero
Porfirio Díaz
Cuidad Juarez
northern warriors
Emilio Campa
Francisco "Pancho" Villa
Maclovio Herrera
Hidalgo del Parral
Colorados
soldier-of-fortune
Thomas Fountain
Mormons
Chihuahua
Sonora
Alvaro Obregón
Victoriano Huerta
Francisco Castro
Ciudad Chihuahua
Salvador Mercado
Battle of Tierra Blanca
Rodolfo Fierro
Ojinaga
Chihuahua
Presidio, Texas
Fort Bliss
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Fort Wingate
Elfego Baca
Albuquerque
Venustiano Carranza
solitary confinement

categories: 1917 deaths,1884 births,People from Chihuahua (state),Mexican generals

paragraph: José Inés Salazar

paragraph: José Inés Salazar (1884 – 9 August 1917) was a leading "Orozquista" General in the Mexican Revolution who later fought with Pancho Villa. He was a native of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.

paragraph: Section::::Compagnion of Pascual Orozco.

paragraph: Salazar was a good friend of Pascual Orozco and in 1909, they were reported to be involved in arms running. Prior to the Mexican Revolution he was a member of the Partido Liberal Mexicano. When Francisco I. Madero called for an armed revolt against the government of Porfirio Díaz in November 1910, Salazar and Orozco joined the cause. They and Pancho Villa were responsible for the early victories against federal forces in the winter of 1910-1911. Their biggest victory was the taking of Cuidad Juarez in May 1911, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Díaz government.

paragraph: Section::::Fight against new Government.

paragraph: With the ousting of Porfirio Díaz in May 1911, an interim government was formed to hold new elections in October. In July, Francisco Madero formed a new political party to run for the presidency. However, his moderate liberal views alienated many of his more radical supporters. Two of these, Francisco and Emilio Vazquez-Gomez attempted to gather support for an opposition. When it became apparent that Madero would win the October election, the Vazquez-Gomez brothers began organising a new uprising claiming that Madero had betrayed the spring revolution. This revolt attracted several dissatisfied northern warriors of the spring revolution, including José Salazar. Hostilities reached a peak in October 1911. Salazar took part in this 1912 rebellion in collaboration with Emilio Campa as a result of Madero's failure to give him an appointment as the police commissioner in Casas Grande.

paragraph: Pascual Orozco continued to support Madero though, and in January 1912 he was able to contain the Vazquez-Gomez movement, both militarily and because of his popularity. However, in March 1912 Orozco also became disenchanted with Madero, and he defected and joined with his old friend Salazar once again. That month, Salazar defeated the Federal garrison at Santa Rosalia. In April he forced Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Maclovio Herrera out of Hidalgo del Parral. After this battle he lost control of his troops, and they started looting the city. This behaviour had strong repercussions. Public sentiment turned against Orozco and Salazar and their "Colorados". They also received strong condemnation from the American press when Salazar allowed a captured soldier-of-fortune, American Thomas Fountain to be executed for fighting for Villa.

paragraph: Section::::Orozquista General.

paragraph: In 1912 as part of their campaign of "Mexico for Mexicans" Orozco and Salazar ordered the Mormons to leave their colonies in Chihuahua and Sonora. In September 1912, one of Salazar’s battalions was routed in the Battle of San Joaquin, Sonora, by a battalion commanded by Lt. Colonel Alvaro Obregón.

paragraph: In February 1913, a right-wing coup overthrew the Madero government, and Victoriano Huerta became president. Soon he offered amnesty to the Orozco rebels who were still active at this time. Orozco and his lieutenants including Salazar agreed to cease fighting against the central government in exchange for paid positions as Mexican irregular forces. In November 1913, Salazar commanded a brigade under General Francisco Castro defending Ciudad Juarez. On the 15th, they were attacked and driven out of Ciudad Juárez by Pancho Villa. Salazar was able to retreat south to Ciudad Chihuahua. On 23 November General Salvador Mercado ordered him to lead a force against Villa and retake Ciudad Juárez, this encounter was later to be called the Battle of Tierra Blanca. Salazar had superior artillery for support, but the next morning his army was overwhelmed by coordinated attack of Villa's cavalry and Rodolfo Fierro's men exploding materials in the army's rearward positions.

paragraph: In January 1914 Mercado and Salazar were again attacked by Pancho Villa, this time at the border town Ojinaga, Chihuahua. Both were defeated and forced across the river to Presidio, Texas. There they were arrested by the American army and interned at Fort Bliss. Salazar was charged with smuggling munitions into Mexico. A Federal jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, acquitted him in May 1914, but he was then taken to a detention camp at Fort Wingate to face charges of violating American neutrality laws. There he retained the legal services of famous gunfighter and attorney Elfego Baca. Salazar was scheduled to go on trial in Albuquerque late November 1914 but on the 20th, just a few days before his trial, he was able to arrange a daring escape. In April 1915, his attorney Baca was charged with masterminding this getaway.

paragraph: Section::::Back to Revolution.

paragraph: Salazar was next seen in El Paso in early December 1914, crossing over into Mexico. For the next 6 months, he was active in Chihuahua attempting to organize a counterrevolution against the government of Venustiano Carranza. This movement was led by former head of state Victoriano Huerta and his supporter Pascual Orozco but the arrest of both in late June 1915 thwarted the plan. Salazar returned to New Mexico in July 1915 on his own behalf, and surrendered there to law enforcement authorities. He spent nearly five months in solitary confinement at the penitentiary in Santa Fe. A federal jury acquitted him of perjury charges on 9 December 1915, and Salazar left solitary confinement. He immediately returned to Mexico.

paragraph: Section::::Fighting with Pancho Villa.

paragraph: With Huerta and Orozcon deceased, Carranza’s federal soldiers captured and imprisoned Salazar in May 1916 in Ciudad Chihuahua, but in September Pancho Villa raided the town once more and released all the prisoners. Salazar then joined rebel Villa’s forces. In November Villa learned that federal soldiers are advancing north to confront him. He ordered his subordinate south to delay the attacking federals. With 3,000 men Salazar engaged 8,000 federal troops. Although defeated, he was able to retreat in good order. In December 1916, Villa and Salazar attacked and took the city of Torreón. They captured large amounts of supplies and succeeded in extracting substantial amounts of money from the local merchants and foreign companies in the city.

paragraph: By April 1917 José Inés Salazar was one of Villa’s most trusted Lieutenants, and was in command of over one thousand men. However, he was finally killed in battle on August 9, 1917 outside of Nogales Hacienda, Chihuahua.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Cartoon of Salazar fighting "Uncle Sam" http://www.lib.utexas.edu/benson/revolutionarymexico/images6.html

description: Mexican general

wikidata_label: José Inés Salazar

wikipedia_title: José Inés Salazar


text:
Count of Bigorre
Beatrice II
Peter of Marsan
vassal
Alfonso II of Aragon
Val d'Aran
Bagnères
Beatrice III of Bigorre
Bernard IV of Comminges

categories: 1185 deaths,Counts of Bigorre,People of the Reconquista

paragraph: Centule III, Count of Bigorre

paragraph: Centule III (French: "Centulle"; died 1178) was the Count of Bigorre from 1163 until his death. He was the eldest son of Beatrice II and Peter of Marsan and succeeded his mother in Bigorre on her death.

paragraph: In 1170 he became a vassal of Alfonso II of Aragon in return for receiving the Val d'Aran in full. Under his watch the communal movement began to sweep Bigorre, but he avoided violent confrontations by granting the towns of his realm charters. The first charter was granted to Bagnères in 1171.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: In 1155 Centule had married Matelle de Baux, and left one child, a daughter, Beatrice III of Bigorre, who passed Bigorre and the Viscounty of Marsan, which Centule had inherited from his father, to Bernard IV of Comminges.

paragraph: Section::::Sources.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Bisson, T. N. "The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History". Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. . For Centule, see p. 37.

description: Count of Bigorre

wikidata_label: Centule III, Count of Bigorre

wikipedia_title: Centule III, Count of Bigorre


text:
Edo
genius
Kanji
Great Fire of Meireki
Hotta Masatoshi
Inaba Masayasu
Hotta clan
Sakura
Yamagata
Fukushima
rōnin
Kinoshita Jun'an
Kaga Domain
Manabe Akifusa
Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa Ienobu
Hayashi
Tokugawa Ietsugu
Tokugawa Yoshimune
Asakusa
Taitō, Tokyo
Nakano, Tokyo
Rōjū
Abe Seikyo
Shōtoku no chi
Tsushima
Satsuma
bakufu
Joseon
Amenomori Hōshu
mandate of heaven
shōgun
divine right
Minamoto clan
Giovanni Battista Sidotti
Hankanfu
Oritaku Shiba-no-ki
University of British Columbia Press
University of Tokyo Press
Screech
RoutledgeCurzon

categories: 1725 deaths,Japanese Confucianists,People from Chiba Prefecture,Japanese philosophers,Advisors to Tokugawa shoguns,1657 births,Japanese writers of the Edo period,Hatamoto

paragraph: Arai Hakuseki

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Hakuseki was born in Edo and from a very early age displayed signs of genius. According to one story, at the age of three Hakuseki managed to copy a Confucian book written in Kanji, character by character. Because he was born on the same year as the Great Fire of Meireki and because he was hot tempered and his brow would crease looking like 火 or "fire", he was affectionately called "Hi no Ko" (火の子) or "child of fire". He was a retainer of Hotta Masatoshi, but after Masatoshi was assassinated by Inaba Masayasu, the Hotta clan was forced to move from Sakura to Yamagata then to Fukushima and the domain's income declined. Hakuseki offered to leave, becoming a "rōnin" and studied under Confucianist Kinoshita Jun'an. He was offered a post by the largest "han", that of Kaga Domain, but he offered the position to a fellow samurai.

paragraph: In 1693, Hakuseki was called up to serve by the side of Manabe Akifusa as a "brain" for the Tokugawa shogunate and shogun Tokugawa Ienobu. He went on to displace the official Hayashi advisers to become the leading confucianist for Ienobu and Tokugawa Ietsugu. While some of Hakuseki's policies were still carried out after Ienobu's death, after the 6th shogun, Tokugawa Ietsugu, died and Tokugawa Yoshimune's rule began, Hakuseki left his post to begin his career as a prolific writer of Japanese history and Occidental studies.

paragraph: He was buried in Asakusa (current day Taitō, Tokyo), Hoonji temple but was later moved to Nakano, Tokyo, Kotokuji temple.

paragraph: Section::::Economic Policy.

paragraph: Under the top Rōjū, Abe Seikyo, with strong support from Ienobu, he launched Shōtoku no chi, a series of economic policies designed to improve the shogunate's standing. By minting new and better quality currency, inflation was controlled. Calculating from trade records, Hakuseki deduced that fully 25% of gold and 75% of silver in Japan had been spent on trades with foreign countries. Concerned that Japan's national resources were at risk, he implemented a new trade policy, the "Kaihaku Goshi Shinrei" (海舶互市新例), to control payments to Chinese and Dutch merchants by demanding that instead of precious metals, products like silk, porcelain, and dried seafoods should be used for trading. However, the beneficial effects of this policy were limited as the trade of precious metals from Tsushima and Satsuma was uncontrolled by the "bakufu".

paragraph: He also simplified rituals for welcoming the Joseon dynasty's ambassadors, in the face of opposition from the Tsushima Confucianist Amenomori Hōshu.

paragraph: Section::::Constitutional policy.

paragraph: Hakuseki applied the mandate of heaven to both the emperor and the "shōgun". Since there had been no revolution to change Japan's basic institutions, he argued that the shogun was subordinate to the emperor and that in showing good governance, moral fortitude and respect to the emperor a shogun proved that he held divine right. He also traced Tokugawa family roots back to the Minamoto clan and thus to a line of imperial descent in order to show that Ieyasu's political supremacy had been fitting. To strengthen the shogun's power and maintain national prestige he proposed changing the title to koku-ō – nation-king.

paragraph: Section::::Selected works.

paragraph: Hakuseki's published writings encompass 237 works in 390 publications in 6 languages and 3,163 library holdings.

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1709 – 本朝軍器考

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1709 – .

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1711 – , also known as "Honchō hōka tsūyō jiryaku" ("Short Account of the circulation of currency in this realm").

paragraph: BULLET::::- _________. (1828). "Fookoua Siriak: traité sur l'origins des richesses au japon" (translation of "Hōka shiryaku" by Julius Klaproth). Paris. (1712). '

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1712 – .

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1715 – . A work describing the Occident, based on Hakuseki's conversations with Giovanni Battista Sidotti

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1729 – 蝦夷志

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1760 – 同文通考

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1805 – 東雅

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1894 – Hankanfu" (藩翰譜). A list of daimyo's family tree

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1936 – 新井白石集

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1964 – 戴恩記

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1977 – 新井白石全集

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1977 – 新編藩翰譜

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1981 – 新令句解

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Koshitsu" (古史通). A work that detailed ancient history of Japan

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Oritaku Shiba-no-ki" (折りたく柴の記). A diary and memoir

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Brownlee, John S. (1997) "Japanese historians and the national myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu." Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Brownlee, John S. (1991). "Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712)." Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Screech, Timon. (2006). "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822." London: RoutledgeCurzon.

description: Japanese philosopher

wikidata_label: Arai Hakuseki

wikipedia_title: Arai Hakuseki


text: Japanese period dramas

text: Ken Watanabe

text: NHK

text: series

text: Dokuganryū Masamune

text: Date Terumune

text: Yonezawa Castle

text: Yamagata Prefecture

text: helmet

text: smallpox

text: Katakura Kojūrō

text: Date clan

text: Ōuchi Sadatsuna

text: Aizu

text: Nihonmatsu Yoshitsugu

text: Abukuma River

text: Battle of Hitotoribashi

text: Battle of Suriagehara

text: Toyotomi Hideyoshi

text: seized Odawara Castle

text: Tōhoku-region

text: Date City

text: Kawamata

text: Koori

text: Kunimi

text: castle

text: Iwadeyama

text: Korean invasions

text: Tokugawa Ieyasu

text: Katakura Kojūrō

text: Sendai Domain

text: koku

text: Sendai

text: Siege of Odawara

text: Hōjō Ujimasa

text: Hideyoshi's campaigns in Korea

text: Osaka campaigns

text: Zen

text: ethics

text: one of the largest fiefdoms

text: Tokugawa shogunate

text: Oda Nobunaga

text: Matsushima

text: haiku

text: Matsuo Bashō

text: Padre Sotelo

text: "San Juan Bautista"

text: ship-building

text: Hasekura Tsunenaga

text: Rome

text: Philippines

text: Mexico

text: Spain

text: Coria

text: Date Terumune

text: Yoshihime

text: Mogami Yoshimori

text: Dewa Province

text: Megohime

text: Tamura Kiyoaki

text: Miharu Castle

text: Miharu Domain

text: Mutsu Province

text: Date Hidemune

text: Irohahime

text: Date Tadamune

text: Mūhime

text: Onamihime

text: Date Harumune

text: Date Terumune

text: Katakura Kita

text: Katakura Kagetsuna

text: Ivar P. Cooper

text: 1632 series

text: North America

text: Masamune Datenicle

text: city of Date

text: Gainax

text: Samurai Warriors

text: Koei

text: Sengoku Basara

text: Capcom

text: professional wrestling

text: Osaka Pro Wrestling

text: ring name

text: Masamune

text: tag team

text: Meriwether, Colyer

text: of Date Masamune,"

text: The official website of the Date clan

text: junshi

text: Aoba-jo (Sendai Castle) website

categories: 1636 deaths,Daimyo,Date clan,1567 births,History of Christianity in Japan,Japanese politicians with physical disabilities,Sendai,Smallpox survivors,Warlords

paragraph: Date Masamune

paragraph: As a legendary warrior and leader, Masamune is a character in a number of Japanese period dramas. He was played by Ken Watanabe in the popular 1987 NHK series "Dokuganryū Masamune".

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Date Masamune was born as Bontemaru (梵天丸) later Tojiro (藤次郎) the eldest son of Date Terumune, born in Yonezawa Castle (in modern Yamagata Prefecture). At the age of 14 in 1581 Masamune led his first campaign, helping his father fight the Sōma family. In 1584, at the age of 17, Masamune succeeded his father, Terumune, who chose to retire from his position as "daimyō". Masamune's army was recognized by its black armor and golden headgear.

paragraph: Section::::Military campaign.

paragraph: Masamune is known for a few things that made him stand out from other "daimyōs" of the time. In particular, his famous crescent-moon-bearing helmet won him a fearsome reputation. As a child, smallpox robbed him of sight in his right eye, though it is unclear exactly how he lost the organ entirely. Various theories behind the eye's condition exist. Some sources say he plucked out the eye himself when a senior member of the clan pointed out that an enemy could grab it in a fight. Others say that he had his trusted retainer Katakura Kojūrō gouge out the eye for him, making him the 'One-Eyed Dragon' of Ōshu.

paragraph: The Date clan had built alliances with neighboring clans through marriages over previous generations, but local disputes remained commonplace. Shortly after Masamune's succession in 1584, a Date retainer named Ōuchi Sadatsuna defected to the Ashina clan of the Aizu region. Masamune declared war on Ōuchi and the Ashina for this betrayal, and started a campaign to hunt down Sadatsuna. Formerly amicable alliances were cast aside as he began to attack and conquer the lands of Sadatsuna's allies in pursuit, even those of his kin in Mutsu and Dewa Provinces. In the winter of 1585, one of these allies, Nihonmatsu Yoshitsugu felt defeat was approaching and chose to surrender to the Date instead. Masamune agreed to accept the surrender, but on the heavy condition that the Nihonmatsu give up most of their territory to the Date. This resulted in Yoshitsugu kidnapping Masamune's father Terumune during their meeting in Miyamori Castle, where Terumune was staying at during the time. The incident ended with both Yoshitsugu and Terumune killed as the fleeing Nihonmatsu party clashed with the pursuing Date troops near the Abukuma River. Various records of the event exist, although they present different accounts of its circumstances.

paragraph: The Date fought many battles with their neighbours afterwards, including the Battle of Hitotoribashi in 1585. After defeating the Ashina at the Battle of Suriagehara in 1589, Masamune made the Aizu domain his base of operations.

paragraph: Section::::Service under Hideyoshi.

paragraph: In 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi seized Odawara Castle and compelled the Tōhoku-region "daimyōs" to participate in the campaign. Although Masamune refused Hideyoshi's demands at first, he had no real choice in the matter since Hideyoshi was the virtual ruler of Japan. Masamune still delayed, infuriating Hideyoshi. Expecting to be executed, Masamune, wearing his finest clothes and showing no fear, faced his angry overlord. Not wanting further trouble, Hideyoshi spared his life, saying that "He could be of some use."

paragraph: In 1591, Masamune forfeited the ancestral land of the Date Clan (present day Date City, Kawamata, Koori, and Kunimi) to Hideyoshi, causing widespread riots. He never regained the territory.

paragraph: He was given Iwatesawa and the surrounding lands as his home domain. Masamune moved there, rebuilt the castle, renamed it Iwadeyama, and encouraged the growth of a town at its base. Masamune stayed at Iwadeyama for 13 years and turned the region into a major political and economic center. He and his men served with distinction in the Korean invasions under Hideyoshi and, after Hideyoshi's death, he began to support Tokugawa Ieyasu—apparently at the advice of Katakura Kojūrō.

paragraph: Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded Masamune the lordship of the huge and profitable Sendai Domain, which made Masamune one of Japan's most powerful "daimyōs". Tokugawa had promised Masamune a one-million "koku" domain, but, even after substantial improvements were made, the land only produced 640,000 "koku", most of which was used to feed the Edo region. In 1604, Masamune, accompanied by 52,000 vassals and their families, moved to what was then the small fishing village of Sendai. He left his fourth son, Date Muneyasu, to rule Iwadeyama. Masamune would turn Sendai into a large and prosperous city.

paragraph: Although Masamune was a patron of the arts and sympathized with foreign causes, he was also an aggressive and ambitious "daimyō". When he first took over the Date clan, he suffered a few major defeats from powerful and influential clans such as the Ashina. These defeats were arguably caused by recklessness on Masamune's part.

paragraph: Being a major power in northern Japan, Masamune was naturally viewed with suspicion, as any potential rival would be viewed. Toyotomi Hideyoshi reduced the size of his land holdings after his tardiness in coming to the Siege of Odawara against Hōjō Ujimasa. Later in his life, Tokugawa Ieyasu increased the size of his lands again, but was constantly suspicious of Masamune and his policies.

paragraph: Although Tokugawa Ieyasu and other Date allies were always suspicious of him, Date Masamune for the most part served the Tokugawa and Toyotomi loyally. He took part in Hideyoshi's campaigns in Korea, and in the Osaka campaigns. When Tokugawa Ieyasu was on his deathbed, Masamune visited him and read him a piece of Zen poetry. Masamune was highly respected for his ethics; a still-quoted aphorism is, "Rectitude carried to excess hardens into stiffness; benevolence indulged beyond measure sinks into weakness."

paragraph: Section::::Patron of culture and Christianity.

paragraph: Masamune expanded trade in the otherwise remote, backwater Tōhoku region. Although initially faced with attacks by hostile clans, he managed to overcome them after a few defeats and eventually ruled one of the largest fiefdoms of the later Tokugawa shogunate. He built many palaces and worked on many projects to beautify the region. He is also known to have encouraged foreigners to come to his land. Even though he funded and promoted an envoy to establish relations with the Pope in Rome, he was likely motivated at least in part by a desire for foreign technology, similar to that of other lords, such as Oda Nobunaga. Further, once Tokugawa Ieyasu outlawed Christianity, Masamune reversed his position, and though disliking it, let Ieyasu persecute Christians in his domain. For 270 years, Tōhoku remained a place of tourism, trade and prosperity. Matsushima, for instance, a series of tiny islands, was praised for its beauty and serenity by the wandering haiku poet Matsuo Bashō.

paragraph: He showed sympathy for Christian missionaries and traders in Japan. In addition to allowing them to come and preach in his province, he also released the prisoner and missionary Padre Sotelo from the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Date Masamune allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tōhoku.

paragraph: Masamune notably funded and backed one of Japan's few journeys of far-flung diplomacy and exploration in this period. He ordered the building of the exploration ship "Date Maru" or "San Juan Bautista", using foreign (European) ship-building techniques. He sent one of his retainers, Hasekura Tsunenaga, Sotelo, and an embassy numbering 180 on a successful voyage to establish relations with the Pope in Rome. This expedition visited such places as the Philippines, Mexico, Spain and Rome. Previously, Japanese lords had never funded this sort of venture, so it was probably the first successful voyage. At least five members of the expedition stayed in Coria (Seville) of Spain to avoid the persecution of Christians in Japan. 600 of their descendants, with the surname Japón (Japan), are now living in Spain.

paragraph: When the Tokugawa government banned Christianity, Masamune had to obey the law. However, some sources suggest that Masamune's eldest daughter, Irohahime, was a Christian.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Father: Date Terumune

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mother: Yoshihime (1548–1623), daughter of Mogami Yoshimori the "daimyō" of Dewa Province

paragraph: BULLET::::- Wife: Megohime, daughter of Tamura Kiyoaki owner of Miharu Castle in Miharu Domain, Mutsu Province

paragraph: BULLET::::- Concubines:

paragraph: BULLET::::- Īsaka no Tsubone (1569–1634)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Shōkoin (1583–1656)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Oyama no Kata (1587–1668)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Shōgo'in (d. 1644)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Okachi no Kata (d. 1669)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Hosshōin (d. 1664)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Shinzo no Kata (d. 1612)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Prostitute: Kōnomae (1577–1641)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Children:

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Hidemune by Shinzo no Kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Irohahime by Megohime

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Tadamune by Megohime

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munekiyo (1600–1634) by Shinzo no Kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Muneyasu (1602–1639) by Shoukoin

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munetsuna (1603–1618) by Megohime

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munenobu (1603–1627) by Oyama no Kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munetaka (1607–1626) by Oyama no Kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mūhime by Oyama no Kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Takematsumaru by Megohime

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munezane (1613–1665) by Shōgo'in

paragraph: BULLET::::- Minehime (1616–1632) married Date Munesane by Okachi no kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Date Munekatsu (1621–1679) by Okachi no kata

paragraph: BULLET::::- Sengikuhime (1626–1655) married Kyogoku Takakuni by Hossoin

paragraph: BULLET::::- Tsuta married Harada Munesuke by Konomae

paragraph: BULLET::::- Watari Munemoto (1600–1669) by Konomae

paragraph: Section::::Family.:Others.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Aunt: Onamihime (1541–1602) daughter of Date Harumune, sister of Date Terumune and owner of Sukagawa castle in Mutsu.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Wet nurse (foster mother): Katakura Kita (1538–1610), half-sister of Katakura Kagetsuna and mentor of Kagetsuna and Masamune.

paragraph: Section::::In popular culture.

paragraph: Like many figures of the Sengoku period, Date Masamune has been featured in literature, film, manga, anime, video games, and other media. There are a few of prominent and notable examples. In the Ivar P. Cooper 1632 series book "", Masamune is a prominent character in the short novel "Rising Sun" which is set in the north Pacific region focusing on Japan's expansion into North America.

paragraph: Masamune is the protagonist of the anime series "Masamune Datenicle", produced by the city of Date in collaboration with Fukushima Gainax in order to promote the city's historic connection to the Date Clan. In this series, he is depicted as a child taking on the role of leader of his clan for the first time. Previous leaders of the Date Clan manifest in order to help him prepare for his first battle.

paragraph: In the video game series "Samurai Warriors" (Koei) Masamune Date is featured as a playable character. In his first appearance he was a very young man and fought with dual wooden swords, later, his appearance was changed to be a bit older and his weapons were switched out for a more European style sword and a pair of pistols. He is also a prominent character in the "Sengoku Basara" series (Capcom), and has been featured in every major release, portrayed as a reckless, but astute general with a penchant for using humorous English verses, he is also notable for carrying six katanas, which he can equip as "dragon's claws", wielding them between his fingers, three in each hand.

paragraph: The professional wrestling organization Osaka Pro Wrestling featured two wrestlers using the ring names Masamune and Hideyoshi, who together form the tag team "Sengoku".

paragraph: Section::::Further reading.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Kobayashi Seiji 小林清治. "Date Masamune" 伊達政宗. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 吉川弘文館, 1959.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Meriwether, Colyer. (1893). of Date Masamune," "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol. XXI.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Owada Tetsuo 小和田哲男. "Date Masamune: shiden" 伊達政宗: 史伝. Tokyo: Gakken 学研, 2000.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Ken-ichi Sato 佐藤憲一. "Date Masamune's letters" 伊達政宗の手紙. Tokyo: Sinchosensho 新潮選書, 1995.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Zelia Nuttall (1906). "The earliest historical relations between Mexico and Japan".

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- The official website of the Date clan

paragraph: BULLET::::- Zuihoden – The mausoleum of Date Masamune. When he died, twenty of his followers killed themselves (committed junshi) to serve him in the next life. They lay in state at Zuihōden

paragraph: BULLET::::- Aoba-jo (Sendai Castle) website

paragraph: BULLET::::- An example of Date-influenced architecture

paragraph: BULLET::::- "TEN-CHI-JIN" General of UESUGI Clan NAOE KANETSUGU – (Japanese)-Kabuto(Samurai Helmet) Papercraft

description: daimyo of the Sengoku period to early-Edo period; 1st lord of Sendai

wikidata_label: Date Masamune

wikipedia_title: Date Masamune


text: Oda Nobunaga

text: Imagawa Ujichika

text: Imagawa clan

text: Emperor Seiwa

text: Minamoto clan

text: Ashikaga clan

text: Ujiteru

text: Takeda Shingen

text: Kai

text: Sagami

text: Mikawa Province

text: Oda Nobuhide

text: Battle of Azukizaka (1542)

text: Takeda Yoshinobu

text: Hōjō Ujitsuna

text: Tokugawa Ieyasu

text: Oda Nobunaga

text: Owari Province

text: sake

text: Imagawa Ujizane

text: Tokugawa Ieyasu

text: kōke

text: Tokugawa clan

text: Tokugawa Ieyasu

text: Toyokawa

text: Aichi Prefecture

text: Imagawa Ujichika

text: Jukei-ni

text: Ii Naohira

text: Imagawa Ujizane

text: Takeda Yoshinobu

text: Pokémon Conquest

text: Pokémon

text: Pineco

text: Forretress

text: Samurai Warriors

text: kemari

text: The Ambition of Oda Nobuna

text: Sengoku Basara

text: Oda Nobunaga

text: "Suruga Imagawa-shi" on Harimaya.com

categories: Daimyo,Rinzai Buddhists,Japanese warriors killed in battle,1519 births,Imagawa clan,1560 deaths

paragraph: Imagawa Yoshimoto

paragraph: He died in 1560 while marching to Kyoto to become Shōgun. He was killed in the village of Dengakuhazama in Okehazama by Oda Nobunaga.

paragraph: Section::::Early life and succession.

paragraph: Yoshimoto was born in 1519, the third son of Imagawa Ujichika of the Imagawa clan-which claimed descent from Emperor Seiwa (850–880). His childhood name was Yosakimaru (芳菊丸). His family branched from Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. As he was not the eldest son, he was not an heir to his father's lordship. As a result, the young boy was sent to a temple where his name was changed to or . In 1536, his older brother Ujiteru died suddenly, unleashing successional disputes. His elder half-brother, , tried to seize the lordship, but the clan split into two factions. Yoshimoto's faction argued he was the rightful heir because Yoshimoto's mother was the consort of Ujichika. Genkō Etan's faction disputed this based on Genkō's seniority, and that his mother was a member of the Kushima family. However, the Genkō faction was eliminated in the . Baigaku Shōhō changed his name to Yoshimoto at this point and succeeded the clan.

paragraph: Section::::Campaigns.

paragraph: After Yoshimoto succeeded to family headship, he married the sister of Takeda Shingen of Kai. This allowed Yoshimoto to cement an alliance with the Takeda when he helped Shingen imprison his father, Takeda Nobutora, in 1540. Soon after, Yoshimoto fought against the Hōjō of Sagami. In 1542, Yoshimoto began his advance into Mikawa Province, in an effort to fight the growing influence of Oda Nobuhide in that region, but was defeated in the Battle of Azukizaka (1542). In campaigns over the course of the ensuing decades, Yoshimoto wrested control over the Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa provinces.

paragraph: In 1552, Shingen's son, Takeda Yoshinobu, married Yoshimoto's daughter. Yoshimoto and the Hōjō clan reached a peace agreement in 1554 with the marriage of Yoshimoto's son Ujizane to the daughter of Hōjō Ujitsuna. In 1558, Yoshimoto left the clan's political affairs in Ujizane's hands, in order to focus on dealing with the advance westward into Mikawa.

paragraph: Section::::Battle of Okehazama and death.

paragraph: In the summer of 1560, after forming a three-way alliance with the Takeda and the Hōjō, Yoshimoto headed out to the capital with Tokugawa Ieyasu (then known as Matsudaira Motoyasu) of Mikawa in the vanguard. Despite having a strong force of 25,000, Yoshimoto deliberately announced that he had 40,000 troops. While this statement put fear in many factions, Oda Nobunaga of Owari Province saw through it. (Some historical sources support the claim of 40,000.)

paragraph: With many victories, Yoshimoto's army was letting its guard down, celebrating with song and sake. A surprise attack by the Oda army of 3,000 following a downpour left Yoshimoto's army in complete disorder. Two Oda samurai (Mōri Shinsuke and Hattori Koheita) ambushed the Imagawa army and killed Yoshimoto, in the village of Dengakuhazama.

paragraph: Imagawa Ujizane succeeded to family headship after Yoshimoto's death, but the Imagawa clan fell from power. Ujizane was later summoned by Tokugawa Ieyasu and became a "kōke" in the administration of the Tokugawa clan. Yoshimoto's niece was Lady Tsukiyama, the wife of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

paragraph: Yoshimoto has several graves; his body itself is buried at Daisei-ji, a temple in the city of Toyokawa in modern Aichi Prefecture.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Father: Imagawa Ujichika

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mother: Jukei-ni (d. 1568).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Wife: Jōkei-in (1519–1550)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Concubine: Ii Naohira's daughter

paragraph: BULLET::::- Children:

paragraph: BULLET::::- Imagawa Ujizane by Jōkei-in

paragraph: BULLET::::- Chotoku Ichigetsu (d. 1625) by Jōkei-in

paragraph: BULLET::::- Reishō-in (d. 1612) married Takeda Yoshinobu by Jōkei-in

paragraph: BULLET::::- Daughter (隆福院)

paragraph: BULLET::::- daughter married Mure Katsushige

paragraph: Section::::Appearances in popular fiction.

paragraph: He is a playable character in "Pokémon Conquest" (Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition in Japan), with his partner Pokémon being Pineco and Forretress.

paragraph: In the Samurai Warriors series, Yoshimoto is represented as a foolish old-fashioned nobleman. His weapon is a kemari which is inspired by his son, Ujizane's historical obsession towards kemari.

paragraph: A female version of Yoshimoto appears in anime The Ambition of Oda Nobuna. In this version, instead of dying Yoshimoto is spared and later installed as a figurehead Shōgun to legitimize Nobuna's claim to Kyoto.

paragraph: See People of the Sengoku period in popular culture.

paragraph: In Sengoku Basara game and anime series, he was shown to be a weak leader, using his vassals as decoys while trying to retreat. In anime version, he was killed by Oda Nobunaga.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Suruga Imagawa-shi" on Harimaya.com

description: Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku period

wikidata_label: Imagawa Yoshimoto

wikipedia_title: Imagawa Yoshimoto


text:
Bishop of Lichfield
archdiocese
Mercian king
Offa
Mercia
Canterbury
Coenwulf
Hartleford
Jænberht
Council of Chelsea
diocese of Lichfield
Staffordshire
Charlemagne
Matthew Paris
Egbert II
Ecgbert
Archbishop of York
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Peterborough Manuscript (Version E)
Canterbury Manuscript (Version F)
Nicholas Brooks
mancus
St. Peter's Basilica
Peter's Pence
pallium
Hadrian I
charter
Æthelhard
Alcuin of York
suffragans
Winchester
Sherborne
Selsey
Rochester
London
Worcester
Hereford
Leicester
Lindsey
Dommoc
Elmham
Gesta pontificum Anglorum
William of Malmesbury
Ealdwulf
Gregory I
Leo III
Council of Clovesho
Eric John

categories: 8th-century archbishops,Anglo-Saxon bishops of Lichfield,Year of birth unknown

paragraph: Hygeberht

paragraph: Hygeberht (died after 803) was the Bishop of Lichfield from 779 and Archbishop of Lichfield after the elevation of Lichfield to an archdiocese some time after 787, during the reign of the powerful Mercian king Offa. Little is known of Hygeberht's background, although he was probably a native of Mercia.

paragraph: Offa succeeded in having Lichfield elevated to an archbishopric, but the rise in Lichfield's status was unpopular with Canterbury, the other southern English archbishopric. Offa was probably motivated by a desire to increase the status of his kingdom and to free his kingdom's ecclesiastical affairs from the control of another kingdom's archbishopric, and possibly the need to secure the coronation of Offa's successor, which the Archbishop of Canterbury had opposed. After Offa's death his distant relative Coenwulf became king, and petitioned the pope to have Lichfield returned to a simple bishopric. The pope agreed to do so in 803, by which time Hygeberht was no longer even considered a bishop: he is listed as an abbot at the council that oversaw the demotion of Lichfield in 803. The date of his death is unknown.

paragraph: Section::::Background.

paragraph: Nothing is known of Hygeberht's ancestry or his upbringing, but given his close ties to the kingdom of Mercia, he was probably a Mercian by birth. He became Bishop of Lichfield in 779. At a Mercian council he attended that year at Hartleford he was styled "electus praesul", or "bishop elect". Two years later he witnessed a charter of Offa's concerning an ecclesiastical claim on a church in Worcester.

paragraph: Perhaps as early as 786 the creation of a Mercian archbishopric was being discussed at Offa's court. A letter to the papacy written by Coenwulf, who succeeded Offa's son Ecgfrith to the Mercian throne, claimed that Offa's motives were his dislike of Jænberht, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the men of Kent. At the Council of Chelsea held in 787, Offa secured the creation of an archbishopric for his kingdom centred on the diocese of Lichfield (in modern Staffordshire). Offa may have justified the move by suggesting that Jænberht planned to allow the Frankish king Charlemagne to use a landing site in Kent if the latter decided to invade, although this is only known from a 13th-century writer, Matthew Paris. Another concern was probably that of prestige, as having the main Mercian diocese held by an archbishop rather than a bishop would increase the kingdom's status.

paragraph: An archbishopric in Mercia would also reinforce the kingdom's independence and free it from ecclesiastical dependence on Canterbury in the kingdom of Kent, which Offa had recently brought under Mercian control. Jænberht supported the Kentish king Egbert II, who was not known as a firm supporter of Offa's; an archbishop at Canterbury who was either indifferent or in active opposition to Offa would be an impediment to Offa's ability to establish overlordship of Kent and other areas of England. By elevating another archbishop, Offa would reduce the political power of the archbishops of Canterbury. Elevation of a bishopric to an archbishopric was not unprecedented; in 735 the papacy had elevated another Anglo-Saxon bishopric to an archbishopric, when Ecgbert became the first Archbishop of York.

paragraph: Section::::Council of Chelsea.

paragraph: Two different versions of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" record the proceedings of the council. The Peterborough Manuscript (Version E) of the "Chronicle" records the council under the year 785, although the events took place in 787, and states that "here there was a contentious synod at Chelsea and Archbishop Jænberht relinquished some part of his bishopric, and Hygeberht was chosen by King Offa, and Ecgfrith consecrated as king." The Canterbury Manuscript (Version F) has the council under 785 also, and describes the council as "a full synod sat at Chelsey" but otherwise relates much the same events. The historian Nicholas Brooks sees the coupling of the elevation of Lichfield with the consecration of Ecgfrith, who was Offa's son, as significant. He argues that Offa desired to have Ecgfrith consecrated as his successor during Offa's lifetime, but was unable to get Jænberht to agree, and this was another factor in the creation of Lichfield as an archbishopric. Hygeberht consecrated Ecgfrith after Hygeberht's elevation to archiepiscopal status.

paragraph: Offa vowed at the council to donate 365 mancuses each year to the papacy, to provide for poor people in Rome and to provide lights for St. Peter's Basilica, stated to be a thanks-offering for his victories. C. J. Godfrey has argued that the donation was really in return for the papal approval of Offa's scheme to elevate the diocese of Lichfield to an archdiocese. Whatever Offa's motivation, historians have generally seen the gift as the beginning of Peter's Pence, an annual "tax" paid to Rome by the English Church.

paragraph: Although it appears that the Council of Chelsea approved Lichfield's elevation to an archdiocese, Hygeberht, who was present, remained a bishop at its conclusion; he signed the council's report still as a bishop. There is no indication that he played any significant part in the council nor in the actions that led to him becoming an archbishop.

paragraph: Section::::Archbishop.

paragraph: In 788 Hygeberht traveled to Rome and received a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, from Pope Hadrian I. In one surviving charter of 788 Hygeberht is listed with the title of bishop, but another from late 788 gives him the title of archbishop. More charters from 789 and 792 also give him the title of archbishop, and he continued to be named as such on charters until 799.

paragraph: Throughout the early part of Hygeberht's episcopate, Jænberht of Canterbury was the senior archbishop and enjoyed precedence, although after Jænberht's death in 792 Hygeberht became the foremost prelate in southern England. It is unknown if Jænberht ever acknowledged Hygeberht's elevation as an archbishop, but there is no evidence that Jænberht contested the division of his archiepiscopal see and the creation of another archbishopric. Hygeberht consecrated Jænberht's successor Æthelhard, after Offa consulted Alcuin of York about proper procedure. Hygeberht then was considered the senior prelate in the south of England, as shown by him being listed before Æthelhard in any charters they both appear on.

paragraph: Canterbury retained as suffragans, or subordinates, the bishops of Winchester, Sherborne, Selsey, Rochester, and London. The dioceses of Worcester, Hereford, Leicester, Lindsey, Dommoc and Elmham were transferred to Lichfield. This listing, however, comes from the "Gesta pontificum Anglorum" of the later medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury, written in about 1120. Although the division is logical, William confuses Hygeberht with Hygeberht's successor Ealdwulf, and does not give a source for his list, which suggest that it may be untrustworthy. The creation of a third archbishopric was controversial, and the community at Canterbury Cathedral seems never to have accepted Hygeberht as an archbishop. The historian D. P. Kirby speculates that there were always some in the Mercian kingdom who disapproved of the elevation of Lichfield to an archdiocese.

paragraph: During Hygeberht's archbishopric, joint synods for the provinces of Lichfield and Canterbury were held, presided over by both archbishops. These gatherings were canonically irregular, as the usual procedure was for each province to hold its own synod. The reasons for holding joint councils are unclear; they may have been a manifestation of Offa's desire to supervise the entire southern church, or an attempt by the archbishops of Canterbury to retain some authority over the province of Lichfield.

paragraph: Offa died in July 796 and his son Ecgfrith 141 days later. Coenwulf, a distant relative, succeeded to the Mercian throne after Ecgfrith's death. Soon after his accession Coenwulf sought to replace the two archdioceses with one at London, arguing that Pope Gregory I's original plan had been that there be an archbishopric at London instead of at Canterbury. In 797 and 798 Coenwulf sent envoys to Rome to Pope Leo III, suggesting that a new archdiocese be created at London for Æthelhard. The king's envoys laid the blame for the problems encountered with the Lichfield archdiocese on Pope Hadrian I's incompetence. Displeased by criticism of the papacy, Leo ruled against the king's plan. In 801 Coenwulf put down a Kentish rebellion, allowing him to once more assert his authority in Canterbury and control the archbishopric. Finally, in 802, Pope Leo III granted that Hadrian's decision was invalid, after the English clergy told him it had been achieved by Offa's misrepresentation. Leo returned all jurisdiction to Canterbury, a decision announced by Æthelhard at the Council of Clovesho in 803.

paragraph: Section::::Resignation and death.

paragraph: Hygeberht had resigned his see before Lichfield was demoted back to a bishopric. He was still named as archbishop in 799, but evidence suggests that he no longer controlled all of the suffragan bishops that he once had. Possibly, he was replaced at Lichfield; his successor Ealdwulf attended a council in 801, and was named bishop in the council's records. By the time that Æthelhard held another council at Clovesho in 803, Hygeberht was no longer even named as a bishop, and appears at that council as an abbot. Which abbey he was abbot of, and his exact date of death, are unknown.

paragraph: Hygeberht's contemporary at Canterbury, Æthelhard, was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to require an affirmation of faith from his subordinate bishops when they were elected. The historian Eric John argues that this custom began because of the creation of the archbishopric of Lichfield.

description: Bishop of Lichfield; Archbishop of Lichfield

wikidata_label: Hygeberht

wikipedia_title: Hygeberht


text:
masons
Newcastle-on-the-Tyne
Abbot of La Trinité at Fécamp
Rouen
Duke of Bedford
Henry V
Jenson Salvart
Rouen Castle
Abbey Church of Saint-Ouen
rose window
Gothic
Flamboyant

categories: 15th-century French architects,Fécamp Abbey,1440 deaths

paragraph: Alexandre de Berneval

paragraph: Alexandre de Berneval (b ?1367; d 5 January 1440) was an architect and one of the foremost masons in Normandy in the early 15th century.

paragraph: He is known to have visited England, in 1413, buying alabaster from "Newcastle-on-the-Tyne" for Estaud d’Estouteville, Abbot of La Trinité at Fécamp (1390–1423). In 1420, he was paid 200 "livres tournois" for a masonry tabernacle at Fécamp for the relic of the "Pas de l’ange" or "Pas au Pèlerin", an impression in sandstone of the footstep of an angel at the dedication of the 10th-century church. Although damaged, the tabernacle is the earliest extant example of Berneval’s style.

paragraph: In Rouen, he worked for the French King in 1417 and, after the occupation of Rouen by the English in 1419, for the Duke of Bedford, who commissioned him to build a castle for Henry V. On this project he worked closely with Jenson Salvart (flourished 1398–1447), the master mason of Rouen Cathedral. In 1424, the two of them were implicated in a plot to overthrow the English by giving information about the castle to an insurgence led by Richard Mites or Ricart Mittes. Rouen Castle no longer exists.

paragraph: Berneval was first recorded in the accounts of the Abbey Church of Saint-Ouen in 1424 and was master there until his death. The church contains his tomb. He is generally credited with the design of the south rose window and (probably) the south transept porch ("Portail des Marmousets", in Gothic and Flamboyant style. Although scholars have attributed to him extensive work on the north and south transepts and the second stage of the crossing tower, the styles are too diverse to be the design of a single master.

paragraph: The epitaph on his tomb in Saint-Ouen reads:

paragraph: "Cy gist maistre Alexandre de Berneval, maistre de machonerie du roy nostre sire au bailliage de rouen et de saint ouen qui trespassa le V de janvier mil CCCC et XL. Priez dieu pour luy. Amen".br

paragraph: Here lies Master Alexandre de Berneval, master of masonry of the king our sire in the bailliage of Rouen and of Saint Ouen who died the 5th of January 1440. Pray to God for him. Amen

paragraph: Alexandre de Berneval was succeeded as architect at St Ouen by his son, Colin de Berneval. His effigy on their joint tomb shows him holding a tablet with a plan of the nave and main portal, the sections with which he was mainly involved.

description: French architect

wikidata_label: Berneval

wikipedia_title: Alexandre de Berneval


text: King of the Belgians

text: Brussels

text: Leopold I

text: Louise of Orléans

text: Albert I

text: Congo Free State

text: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Democratic Republic of the Congo

text: Berlin Conference

text: Force Publique

text: ivory

text: rubber

text: atrocities

text: Congolese

text: smallpox

text: sleeping sickness

text: rubber

text: Brussels

text: Leopold I

text: Louise

text: King Louis Philippe

text: France

text: French Revolution of 1848

text: United Kingdom

text: Queen Victoria

text: tuberculosis

text: Marie Henriette of Austria

text: Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria

text: Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Joseph

text: sobriquet

text: horseback riding

text: stableman

text: nun

text: Leopold

text: pneumonia

text: Spa

text: Caroline Lacroix

text: civil ceremony

text: Louis Philippe

text: Duke of Brabant

text: the army

text: Belgian Senate

text: India

text: China

text: Egypt

text: Mediterranean

text: Africa

text: Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders

text: Liberals

text: Frère-Orban

text: Roman Catholic

text: Catholic Party

text: Labour Party

text: suffrage

text: labour union

text: employment record book

text: Belgian constitution

text: Universal male suffrage

text: plural voting

text: the senate

text: proportional representation

text: veto

text: government

text: abdication

text: at Liège

text: at Namur

text: at Antwerp

text: Franco-Prussian War

text: Remplacement

text: Congo

text: Dutch

text: French

text: Brussels

text: Ostend

text: Antwerp

text: Hippodrome Wellington

text: Royal Galleries

text: Ostend

text: Royal Museum for Central Africa

text: Tervuren

text: Cinquantenaire

text: Duden Park

text: Antwerpen-Centraal railway station

text: Royal Castle of Laeken

text: Royal Greenhouses

text: Ardennes

text: châteaux

text: Ardenne

text: Ciergnon

text: country estate

text: French Riviera

text: Villa des Cèdres

text: botanical garden

text: Villa Leopolda

text: Royal Trust

text: anarchist

text: Gennaro Rubino

text: assassinate

text: Marie Henriette

text: Grand Marshall

text: regicide

text: Empress Elisabeth of Austria

text: Umberto I of Italy

text: Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

text: Tristan und Isolde

text: Brabançonne

text: Congo Free State

text: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Democratic Republic of the Congo

text: Berlin Conference

text: Force Publique

text: ivory

text: smallpox

text: sleeping sickness

text: Isabella II of Spain

text: Philippines

text: holding company

text: International African Society

text: Henry Stanley

text: Congo

text: Berlin Conference

text: United States

text: Congo Free State

text: private army

text: Force Publique

text: Lado Enclave

text: Mahdist

text: Mahdist War

text: Baron Dhanis

text: Louis-Napoléon Chaltin

text: Fashoda

text: Khartoum

text: Battle of Rejaf

text: Berlin Conference

text: forced labor

text: John Harris

text: Baringa

text: E. D. Morel

text: Adam Hochschild

text: King Leopold's Ghost

text: Jan Vansina

text: African trypanosomiasis

text: Congo River

text: Roger Casement

text: Joseph Conrad

text: Heart of Darkness

text: Blackwood’s Magazine

text: human rights

text: Roger Casement

text: Casement Report

text: widespread war of words

text: E. D. Morel

text: Congo Reform Association

text: human rights

text: Mark Twain

text: political satire

text: King Leopold's Soliloquy

text: Arthur Conan Doyle

text: The Crime of the Congo

text: Nigeria

text: Catholic Party

text: Labour Party

text: Belgian parliament

text: Belgian Congo

text: Republic of the Congo

text: Zaire

text: Mobutu Sese Seko

text: Democratic Republic of the Congo

text: Republic of the Congo

text: Laeken

text: Albert

text: Philippe, Count of Flanders

text: Church of Our Lady of Laeken

text: Brussels

text: Royal Museum for Central Africa

text: Blankenberge

text: Ostend

text: King Leopold's Ghost

text: Democratic Republic of Congo

text: Kinshasa

text: Christophe Muzungu

text: Empress Carlota of Mexico

text: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

text: Prince Albert

text: King Fernando II of Portugal

text: Princess Louise of Belgium

text: Wiesbaden

text: Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

text: Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant

text: heir apparent

text: Laeken

text: Princess Stéphanie of Belgium

text: Archabbey of Pannonhalma

text: Győr-Moson-Sopron

text: Hungary

text: Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

text: heir apparent

text: suicide pact

text: mistress

text: Baroness Mary Vetsera

text: Mayerling hunting lodge

text: Princess Clémentine of Belgium

text: Nice

text: Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte

text: Bonaparte

text: Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon

text: Caroline Lacroix

text: Royal Order of Leopold

text: Royal Order of Leopold

text: Grand Master

text: Order of the Crown

text: Order of Leopold II

text: Royal Order of the Lion

text: Order of the African Star

text: Abir Congo Company

text: Émile Banning

text: Congo Free State propaganda war

text: Crown Council of Belgium

text: Kings of Belgium family tree

text: Ascherson, Neal

text: Allen & Unwin

text: Hochschild, Adam

text: King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

text: Mariner Books

text: Official biography from the Belgian Royal Family website

text: "The Political Economy of Power"

text: Interview with King Leopold II

text: Mass crimes against humanity in the Congo Free State

text: "Congo: White king, red rubber, black death"

text: The Crime of the Congo, 1909, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Archive.org

categories: 19th-century monarchs in Europe,Congo Free State,House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Belgium),Grand Crosses of the House Order of the Wendish Crown,Knights of the House Order of Hohenzollern,Knights of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary,Extra Knights Companion of the Garter,Grand Crosses of the Order of the Tower and Sword,Recipients of the Order of the Black Eagle,20th-century Belgian monarchs,Belgian monarchs,1909 deaths,Grand Crosses of the Order of the Red Eagle,19th-century Belgian monarchs,People from Brussels,1835 births,Burials at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken,Recipients of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky,Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order,Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint-Charles,Grand Crosses of the Order of the African Star,Recipients of the Order of the Double Dragon,Knights of the Order of Saint Hubert,19th-century Belgian people,Knights of Malta,Recipients of the Order of the White Falcon,Grand Crosses of the House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis,Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion,Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class,Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Belgium),Recipients of the Order of St. Andrew,Knights of the Golden Fleece,Leopold II of Belgium,Dukes of Brabant,Grand Crosses of the Royal Order of the Lion,Recipients of the Royal Order of Cambodia,Recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II,Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Württemberg)

paragraph: Leopold II of Belgium

paragraph: Leopold II (9 April 183517 December 1909) was King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest surviving son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death – the longest reign of any Belgian monarch. He died without surviving male heirs. The current Belgian king descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I.

paragraph: Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. Leopold ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. He used great sums of the money from this exploitation for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period. He donated the private buildings to the state before his death, to preserve them for Belgium.

paragraph: Leopold's administration of the Congo was characterised by murder, torture, and atrocities, resulting from notorious systematic brutality. The hands of men, women, and children were amputated when the quota of rubber was not met. These and other facts were established at the time by eyewitness testimony and on-site inspection by an international Commission of Inquiry (1904). Millions of the Congolese people died: modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million deaths, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Some historians argue against this figure, citing the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or sleeping sickness, and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation. In 1908, the reports of deaths and abuse induced the Belgian government to take over the administration of the Congo from Leopold.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Leopold was born in Brussels on 9 April 1835, the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I, and of his second wife, Louise, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. The French Revolution of 1848 forced Louis Philippe to flee to the United Kingdom. The British monarch, Queen Victoria, was Leopold II's first cousin, as Leopold's father and Victoria's mother were siblings. Louis Philippe died two years later, in 1850. Leopold's fragile mother was deeply affected by the death of her father, and her health deteriorated. She died of tuberculosis that same year, when Leopold was 15 years old.

paragraph: Section::::Marriage and family.

paragraph: On 22 August 1853, at the age of 18, he married Marie Henriette of Austria in Brussels. Marie Henriette was a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and granddaughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor through her father, Austrian archduke Joseph. Marie Henriette was lively and energetic, and endeared herself to the people by her character and benevolence, and her beauty gained for her the sobriquet of "The Rose of Brabant". She was also an accomplished artist and musician. She was passionate about horseback riding to the point that she would care for her horses personally. Some joked about this "marriage of a stableman and a nun", the shy and withdrawn Leopold referred to as the nun.

paragraph: Four children were born of this marriage, three daughters and one son, also named Leopold. The younger Leopold died in 1869 at the age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond. His death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold, who had lost his only heir. The marriage became unhappy, and the couple separated completely after a last attempt to have another son, a union that resulted in the birth of their last daughter Clementine. Marie Henriette retreated to Spa in 1895, and died there in 1902.

paragraph: Leopold had many mistresses. In 1899, in his sixty-fifth year, Leopold took as a mistress Caroline Lacroix, a sixteen-year-old French prostitute, and they remained together for the next decade until his death. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, Baroness Vaughan. Owing to these gifts and the unofficial nature of their relationship, Caroline was deeply unpopular among the Belgian people and internationally. She and Leopold married secretly in a religious ceremony five days before his death. Their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage invalid under Belgian law. After the king's death, it was soon discovered that he had left Caroline a large fortune, which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters tried to seize as rightfully theirs. Caroline bore two sons who were probably Leopold's; the boys would have had a strong claim to the throne had the marriage been valid.

paragraph: Section::::Early political career.

paragraph: As Leopold's older brother, also named Louis Philippe, had died the year before Leopold's birth, Leopold was heir to the throne from his birth. When he was 9 years old, Leopold received the title of Duke of Brabant, and was appointed a sub-lieutenant in the army. He served in the army until his accession in 1865, by which time he had reached the rank of lieutenant-general.

paragraph: Leopold's public career began on his attaining the age of majority in 1855, when he became a member of the Belgian Senate. He took an active interest in the senate, especially in matters concerning the development of Belgium and its trade, and began to urge Belgium's acquisition of colonies. Leopold traveled extensively abroad from 1854 to 1865, visiting India, China, Egypt, and the countries on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. His father died on December 10, 1865, and Leopold took the oath of office on December 17, in his thirtieth year.

paragraph: Section::::Domestic reign.

paragraph: Leopold became king in 1865. He explained his goal for his reign in an 1888 letter addressed to his brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders: "the country must be strong, prosperous, therefore have colonies of her own, beautiful and calm."

paragraph: Leopold's reign was marked by a number of major political developments. The Liberals governed Belgium from 1857 to 1880, and during its final year in power legislated the Frère-Orban Law of 1879. This law created free, secular, compulsory primary schools supported by the state and withdrew all state support from Roman Catholic primary schools. The Catholic Party obtained a parliamentary majority in 1880, and four years later restored state support to Catholic schools. In 1885, various socialist and social democratic groups drew together and formed the Labour Party. Increasing social unrest and the rise of the Labour Party forced the adoption of universal male suffrage in 1893.

paragraph: During Leopold's reign other social changes were enacted into law. Among these were the right of workers to form labour unions and the abolition of the "livret d'ouvrier", an employment record book. Laws against child labour were passed. Children younger than 12 were not allowed to work in factories, children younger than 16 were not allowed to work at night, and women younger than 21 years old were not allowed to work underground. Workers gained the right to be compensated for workplace accidents, and were given Sundays off.

paragraph: The first revision of the Belgian constitution came in 1893. Universal male suffrage was introduced, though the effect of this was tempered by plural voting. The eligibility requirements for the senate were reduced, and elections would be based on a system of proportional representation, which continues to this day. Leopold pushed strongly to pass a royal referendum, whereby the king would have the power to consult the electorate directly on an issue, and use his veto according to the results of the referendum. The proposal was rejected, as it would have given the king the power to override the elected government. Leopold was so disappointed that he considered abdication.

paragraph: Leopold emphasized military defence as the basis of neutrality, and strove to make Belgium less vulnerable militarily. He achieved the construction of defensive fortresses at Liège, at Namur and at Antwerp. During the Franco-Prussian War, he managed to preserve Belgium's neutrality in a period of unusual difficulty and danger. Leopold pushed for a reform in military service, but he was unable to obtain one until he was on his deathbed. Under the old system of "Remplacement", the Belgian army was a combination of volunteers and a lottery, and it was possible for men to pay for substitutes for service. This was replaced by a system in which one son in every family would have to serve in the military.

paragraph: Section::::Domestic reign.:Builder King.

paragraph: Leopold commissioned a great number of buildings, urban projects and public works, largely with the profits generated from exploitation of natural resources and the population of the Congo. These projects earned him the epithet of "Builder King" ("Koning-Bouwheer" in Dutch, "le Roi-Bâtisseur" in French). The public buildings were mainly in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp, and include the Hippodrome Wellington racetrack, the Royal Galleries and Maria Hendrikapark in Ostend; the Royal Museum for Central Africa and its surrounding park in Tervuren; the "Cinquantenaire" park, triumphal arch and complex, and the Duden Park in Brussels, and the 1895-1905 Antwerpen-Centraal railway station.

paragraph: In addition to his public works, he acquired and built numerous private properties for himself inside and outside Belgium. He expanded the grounds of the Royal Castle of Laeken, and built the Royal Greenhouses, the Japanese Tower and the Chinese Pavilion near the palace. In the Ardennes, his domains consisted of of forests and agricultural lands and the châteaux of Ardenne, Ciergnon, Fenffe, Villers-sur-Lesse and Ferage. He also built important country estates on the French Riviera, including the "Villa des Cèdres" and its botanical garden, and the Villa Leopolda.

paragraph: Thinking of the future after his death, Leopold did not want the collection of estates, lands and heritage buildings he had privately amassed to be scattered amongst his daughters, each of whom was married to a foreign prince. In 1900, he created the Royal Trust, by means of which he donated most of his property to the Belgian nation. This preserved them to beautify Belgium in perpetuity, while still allowing future generations of the Belgian Royal family the privilege of their use.

paragraph: Section::::Domestic reign.:Attempted assassination.

paragraph: On 15 November 1902, Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate Leopold, who was riding in a royal cortege from a ceremony at Saint-Gudule Cathedrale in memory of his recently deceased wife, Marie Henriette. After Leopold's carriage passed, Rubino fired three shots at the procession. The shots missed Leopold but almost killed the king's Grand Marshall, Count Charles John d'Oultremont. Rubino was immediately arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1918.

paragraph: The king replied after the attack to a senator: "My dear senator, if fate wants me shot, too bad!" ("Mon cher Senateur, si la fatalite veut que je sois atteint, tant pis"!)

paragraph: After the failed regicide the security of the king was questioned, because the glass of the landaus was 2 cm thick. Elsewhere in Europe, the news of this assassination attempt was received with alarm. Heads of state and the pope sent telegrams to the king congratulating him for surviving the assassination attempt. Many people remembered the earlier assassinations of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Umberto I of Italy by other Italian anarchists.

paragraph: The Belgians rejoiced that the king was safe. Later in the day, in the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie before "Tristan und Isolde" was performed, the orchestra played the Brabançonne, which was sung loudly and ended with loud cheers, acclamations, and applause.

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.

paragraph: Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State and all its people, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants.

paragraph: From the beginning, Leopold ignored these conditions and millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated and killed. He ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal enrichment. Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands.

paragraph: He used great sums of the money from this exploitation for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period. He donated the private buildings to the state before his death.

paragraph: Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the natives to harvest and process rubber. Under his regime millions of Congolese people died. Modern estimates range from one million to fifteen million, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Several historians argue against this figure due to the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or sleeping sickness and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation.

paragraph: Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908.

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.:Obtaining the Congo Free State.

paragraph: Leopold fervently believed that overseas colonies were the key to a country's greatness, and he worked tirelessly to acquire colonial territory for Belgium. Leopold eventually began to acquire a colony as a private citizen. The Belgian government lent him money for this venture.

paragraph: In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium. Knowing the situation fully, the ambassador did nothing. Leopold quickly replaced the ambassador with a more sympathetic individual to carry out his plan. In 1868, when Isabella II was deposed as queen of Spain, Leopold tried to press his original plan to acquire the Philippines. But without funds, he was unsuccessful. Leopold then devised another unsuccessful plan to establish the Philippines as an independent state, which could then be ruled by a Belgian. When both of these plans failed, Leopold shifted his aspirations of colonisation to Africa.

paragraph: After numerous unsuccessful schemes to acquire colonies in Africa and Asia, in 1876 Leopold organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society, or the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of the Congo. In 1878, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired explorer Henry Stanley to explore and establish a colony in the Congo region. Much diplomatic maneuvering among European nations resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 regarding African affairs, at which representatives of 14 European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area to which he and Stanley had laid claim. On 5 February 1885, the Congo Free State, an area 76 times larger than Belgium, was established under Leopold II's personal rule and private army, the "Force Publique".

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.:Obtaining the Congo Free State.:Lado Enclave.

paragraph: In 1894, King Leopold signed a treaty with Great Britain which conceded a strip of land on the Congo Free State's eastern border in exchange for the Lado Enclave, which provided access to the navigable Nile and extended the Free State's sphere of influence northwards into Sudan. After rubber profits soared in 1895, Leopold ordered the organization of an expedition into the Lado Enclave, which had been overrun by Mahdist rebels since the outbreak of the Mahdist War in 1881. The expedition was composed of two columns: the first, under Belgian war hero Baron Dhanis, consisted of a sizable force, numbering around 3,000, and was to strike north through the jungle and attack the rebels at their base at Rejaf. The second, a much smaller force of 800, was led by Louis-Napoléon Chaltin and took the main road towards Rejaf. Both expeditions set out in December 1896.

paragraph: Although Leopold had initially planned for the expedition to carry on much farther than the Lado Enclave, hoping indeed to take Fashoda and then Khartoum, Dhanis' column mutinied in February 1897, resulting in the death of several Belgian officers and the loss of his entire force. Nonetheless, Chaltin continued his advance, and on 17 February 1897, his outnumbered forces defeated the rebels in the Battle of Rejaf, securing the Lado Enclave as a Belgian territory until Leopold's death in 1909.

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.:Exploitation, atrocities, and death toll.

paragraph: Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune by exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. At first, ivory was exported, but this did not yield the expected levels of revenue. When the global demand for rubber exploded, attention shifted to the labor-intensive collection of sap from rubber plants. Abandoning the promises of the Berlin Conference in the late 1890s, the Free State government restricted foreign access and extorted forced labor from the natives. Abuses, especially in the rubber industry, included Slavery of the native population, beatings, widespread killings, and frequent mutilation when production quotas were not met. Missionary John Harris of Baringa was so shocked by what he had encountered that he wrote to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo, saying:

paragraph: I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit.

paragraph: Estimates of the death toll range from one million to fifteen million, since accurate records were not kept. Historians Louis and Stengers in 1968 stated that population figures at the start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", and that attempts by E. D. Morel and others to determine a figure for the loss of population were "but figments of the imagination".

paragraph: Adam Hochschild devotes a chapter of his book "King Leopold's Ghost" to the problem of estimating the death toll. He cites several recent lines of investigation, by anthropologist Jan Vansina and others, that examine local sources (police records, religious records, oral traditions, genealogies, personal diaries, and "many others"), which generally agree with the assessment of the 1919 Belgian government commission: roughly half the population perished during the Free State period. Hochshild points out that since the first official census by the Belgian authorities in 1924 put the population at about 10 million, these various approaches suggest a rough estimate of a population decline by 10 million.

paragraph: Smallpox epidemics and sleeping sickness also devastated the disrupted population. By 1896, African trypanosomiasis had killed up to 5,000 Africans in the village of Lukolela on the Congo River. The mortality statistics were collected through the efforts of British consul Roger Casement, who found, for example, only 600 survivors of the disease in Lukolela in 1903.

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.:Criticism of the management of Congo.

paragraph: Inspired by works such as Joseph Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" (1902), originally published as a three-part series in "Blackwood’s Magazine" (1899) and based on Conrad's experience as a steamer captain on the Congo 12 years earlier, international criticism of Leopold’s rule increased and mobilized. Reports of outrageous exploitation and widespread human rights abuses led the British Crown to appoint their consul Roger Casement to investigate conditions there. His extensive travels and interviews in the region resulted in the Casement Report, which detailed the extensive abuses under Leopold's regime. A widespread war of words ensued. In Britain, former shipping clerk E. D. Morel with Casement's support founded the Congo Reform Association, the first mass human rights movement. Supporters included American writer Mark Twain, whose stinging political satire entitled "King Leopold's Soliloquy" portrays the king arguing that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation, and uses many of Leopold's own words against him.

paragraph: Writer Arthur Conan Doyle also criticised the "rubber regime" in his 1908 work "The Crime of the Congo", written to aid the work of the Congo Reform Association. Doyle contrasted Leopold's rule to the British rule of Nigeria, arguing that decency required those who ruled primitive peoples to be concerned first with their uplift, not how much could be extracted from them. As Hochschild describes in "King Leopold's Ghost", many of Leopold's policies, in particular those of colonial monopolies and forced labour, were influenced by Dutch practice in the East Indies. Similar methods of forced labour were employed to some degree by Germany, France, and Portugal where natural rubber occurred in their own colonies.

paragraph: Section::::Congo Free State.:Relinquishment of the Congo.

paragraph: International opposition and criticism from both the Catholic Party and the Labour Party caused the Belgian parliament to compel the king to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908. The deal that led to the handover cost Belgium the considerable sum of 215.5 million Francs. This was used to discharge the debt of the Congo Free state and to pay out its bond holders as well as 45.5 million for Leopold's pet building projects in Belgium and a personal payment of 50 million to him. The Congo Free State was transformed into a Belgian colony known as the Belgian Congo under parliamentary control. Leopold went to great lengths to conceal potential evidence of wrongdoing during his time as ruler of his private colony. The entire archive of the Congo Free State was burned and he told his aide that even though the Congo had been taken from him, "they have no right to know what I did there".

paragraph: After gaining its independence in the mid-20th century, it was renamed three times: first, as the Republic of the Congo; second as Zaire, the name it retained under Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorship; and third as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC. (This is not to be confused with the neighboring Republic of the Congo, which was formerly a colony of France.)

paragraph: Section::::Death and legacy.

paragraph: On 17 December 1909, Leopold II died at Laeken, and the Belgian crown passed to Albert, the son of Leopold's brother, Philippe, Count of Flanders. His funeral cortege was booed by the crowd. Leopold's reign of exactly 44 years remains the longest in Belgian history. He was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels.

paragraph: After the king's death and transfer of his private colony to Belgium, there occurred a "Great Forgetting". Many Belgians in the 20th and 21st centuries remember Leopold II as the "Builder King" for his extensive public works projects. In the 1990s, the colonial Royal Museum for Central Africa made no mention of the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State, despite the museum's large collection of colonial objects. On the boardwalk of Blankenberge, a popular coastal resort, a monument shows a pair of colonists as heroes protecting a desperate Congolese woman and child with "civilization". In Ostend, the beach promenade has a 1931 sculptural monument to Leopold II, showing Leopold and grateful Ostend fishermen and Congolese. The inscription accompanying the Congolese group notes: "De dank der Congolezen aan Leopold II om hen te hebben bevrijd van de slavernij onder de Arabieren" ("The gratitude of the Congolese to Leopold II for having liberated them from slavery under the Arabs"). In 2004, an activist group cut off the hand of the leftmost Congolese bronze figure, in protest against the atrocities committed in the Congo. The city council decided to keep the statue in its new form, without the hand.

paragraph: The debate over Leopold's legacy was reopened in 1999 with the publication of "King Leopold's Ghost" by American historian Adam Hochschild. In the book Leopold was portrayed as a mass murderer and compared to Hitler. The book was controversial in Belgium but widely praised by American scholars and critics.

paragraph: Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His statue in the capital Kinshasa (known until 1966 as Leopoldville in his honor) was removed after independence. Congolese culture minister Christophe Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005. He noted that the beginning of the Free State had been a time of some economic and social progress. He argued that people should recognize some positive aspects of the king as well as the negative; but hours after the six-metre (20 ft) statue was installed near Kinshasa's central station, it was officially removed.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: Leopold's sister became the Empress Carlota of Mexico. His first cousins included both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert, as well as King Fernando II of Portugal.

paragraph: He had four children with Queen Marie-Henriette, of whom the youngest two have descendants living :

paragraph: BULLET::::- Princess Louise of Belgium, born in Brussels on 18 February 1858, and died at Wiesbaden on 1 March 1924. She married Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 4 February 1875, they had two children and divorced on 15 January 1906.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut (as eldest son of the heir apparent), later Duke of Brabant (as heir apparent), born at Laeken on 12 June 1859, and died at Laeken on 22 January 1869, from pneumonia, after falling into a pond.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, born at Laeken on 21 May 1864, and died at the Archabbey of Pannonhalma in Győr-Moson-Sopron, Hungary, on 23 August 1945. She married (1) Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, the heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary . In 1889, he died in a suicide pact with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at the Mayerling hunting lodge. Stéphanie's second husband was (2) Elemér Edmund Graf Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény (created, in 1917, Prince Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Princess Clémentine of Belgium, born at Laeken on 30 July 1872, and died at Nice on 8 March 1955. She married Prince Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (1862–1926), head of the Bonaparte family. The current head of the Imperial family, Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon is a direct descendant of King Leopold II.

paragraph: Leopold also fathered two sons by Caroline Lacroix. They were adopted in 1910 by Lacroix's second husband, Antoine Durrieux. Leopold granted them courtesy titles that were honorary, as the parliament would not have supported any official act or decree:

paragraph: BULLET::::- Lucien Philippe Marie Antoine (9 February 19061984), duke of Tervuren

paragraph: BULLET::::- Philippe Henri Marie François (16 October 190721 August 1914), count of Ravenstein

paragraph: Section::::Titles, styles, arms and honours.

paragraph: Section::::Titles, styles, arms and honours.:Titles and styles.

paragraph: BULLET::::- 9 April 183516 December 1840: "His Royal Highness" The Crown Prince of Belgium, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony

paragraph: BULLET::::- 16 December 184017 December 1865: "His Royal Highness" The Duke of Brabant, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony

paragraph: BULLET::::- 17 December 186517 December 1909: "His Majesty" The King of the Belgians

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1 July 188515 November 1908: "His Serene Majesty" The Sovereign of the Congo Free State

paragraph: Section::::Titles, styles, arms and honours.:Honours.

paragraph: BULLET::::- National decorations

paragraph: 9 April 1853: Leopold was given the Grand Cordon of the Royal Order of Leopold by his father, as a gift for his 18th birthday.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "17 December 186517 December 1909": Royal Order of Leopold, Grand Master

paragraph: BULLET::::- "15 October 189717 December 1909": Order of the Crown, Founder and Grand Master

paragraph: BULLET::::- " 24 August 190017 December 1909": Order of Leopold II, Founder and Grand Master

paragraph: BULLET::::- "9 April 189117 December 1909": Royal Order of the Lion, Founder and Grand Master

paragraph: BULLET::::- "10 October 190817 December 1909": Order of the African Star, Founder and Grand Master

paragraph: BULLET::::- Foreign decorations

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Abir Congo Company

paragraph: BULLET::::- Émile Banning

paragraph: BULLET::::- Congo Free State propaganda war

paragraph: BULLET::::- Crown Council of Belgium

paragraph: BULLET::::- Kings of Belgium family tree

paragraph: Section::::Bibliography.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Ascherson, Neal: "The King Incorporated", Allen & Unwin, 1963. ("1999 Granta edition").

paragraph: BULLET::::- Hochschild, Adam: "King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa", Mariner Books, 1998. .

paragraph: BULLET::::- Petringa, Maria: "Brazza, A Life for Africa", 2006.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Wm. Roger Louis and Jean Stengers: "E.D. Morel's History of the Congo Reform Movement", Clarendon Press Oxford, 1968.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Ó Síocháin, Séamas and Michael O’Sullivan, eds: "The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement's Congo Report and 1903 Diary". University College Dublin Press, 2004. .

paragraph: BULLET::::- Ó Síocháin, Séamas: "Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary". Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2008.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Stanard, Matthew G. "Selling the Congo: A history of European pro-empire propaganda and the making of Belgian imperialism" (U of Nebraska Press, 2012)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Viaene, Vincent. "King Leopold's imperialism and the origins of the Belgian colonial party, 1860–1905." "Journal of Modern History" 80.4 (2008): 741-790.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Official biography from the Belgian Royal Family website

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Political Economy of Power" Interview with political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, with a discussion of Leopold halfway through

paragraph: BULLET::::- Interview with King Leopold II Publishers' Press, 1906

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mass crimes against humanity in the Congo Free State

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Congo: White king, red rubber, black death" A 2003 documentary by Peter Bate on Leopold II and the Congo

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Crime of the Congo, 1909, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Archive.org

alias:
Leopold II of Belgium
LLeopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor

description: King of the Belgians

enwikiquote_title: Leopold II of Belgium

wikidata_label: Leopold II

wikipedia_title: Leopold II of Belgium


text:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
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categories: Phillips Exeter Academy alumni,Works Progress Administration (band) members,Tulane University alumni,21st-century American keyboardists,Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers members,Male organists,Musicians from Gainesville, Florida,21st-century organists,American session musicians,American male pianists,American organists,Mudcrutch members,20th-century American pianists,1953 births,American rock pianists,American rock keyboardists,Living people

paragraph: Benmont Tench

paragraph: Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III (born September 7, 1953) is an American musician and singer, best known as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

paragraph: Section::::Early years.

paragraph: Tench was born in Gainesville, Florida, the second child of Benjamin Montmorency Tench Jr. and Mary Catherine McInnis Tench. His father was born and raised in Gainesville, and served as a circuit court judge.

paragraph: Tench played piano from an early age and his first recital was at age six. After discovering the music of The Beatles, he ended his classical piano lessons and focused on rock and roll. At age 11, he met Tom Petty for the first time at a Gainesville music store. Petty and Tench played together as members of the "Sundowners" in 1964. The Tench family's garage was a frequent practice site for the band on evenings when his father was out. Tench's mother enjoyed having the boys there, but would check with the neighbors to make certain the music was not disturbing them.

paragraph: Section::::Education.

paragraph: He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and subsequently Tulane University in New Orleans. While on a college break, Tench went to a concert by Mudcrutch, Petty's band, with an opening act from nearby Jacksonville, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Afterwards, he sat in with the band on several different sessions, then went back to school. Soon after, Petty called Tench and asked him to quit school and join Mudcrutch full-time, which after long deliberation, Tench agreed to; but before he would leave school, Petty had to convince Tench's father that his son had a promising music career.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.

paragraph: Mudcrutch eventually evolved into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

paragraph: In addition to playing piano and Hammond organ with the Heartbreakers, Tench is also known as a skilled session musician, having recorded with dozens of notable artists.

paragraph: Songs written by Tench and recorded by other artists include "You Little Thief", a top 5 UK and Australian hit for Feargal Sharkey in 1985, and "Never Be You" (co-written with Petty), which became a #1 US Country hit for Rosanne Cash, also in 1985. Tench has received two ASCAP songwriting awards: in 1995 for "Stay Forever" (performed by Hal Ketchum) and in 2001 for "Unbreakable Heart" (performed by Jessica Andrews). This was also recorded by Carlene Carter in the early 1990s. He also wrote songs for Kimmie Rhodes ("Play Me A Memory") and Lone Justice ("Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)").

paragraph: Section::::Other bands and solo career.

paragraph: In 2008, Tench became part of a supergroup, initially named The Scrolls, now officially known as Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). The band is composed of Tench, Sean Watkins (guitar), Sara Watkins (fiddle), Glen Phillips (guitar, vocals), Luke Bulla (fiddle), Greg Leisz (various), Pete Thomas (drums), and Davey Faragher (bass). The group released a self-titled album in September 2009. Tench penned one of the songs on the album, named "The Price," sung by Sara Watkins and himself.

paragraph: Tench has worked extensively with other musicians, playing keyboards on hundreds of songs on albums such as Stevie Nicks' "Bella Donna", Bob Dylan's "Shot of Love", along with other musical greats such as Johnny Cash, Alanis Morissette, Eurythmics, Fiona Apple, U2, among many more.

paragraph: In 2009, Tench frequently appeared with the Watkins Family Hour at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. He has also appeared at the Largo and at the Fillmore in San Francisco as a special guest with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and accompanied the Dave Rawlings Machine on part of their west coast tour in spring 2010. In 2015, the Watkins Family Hour released their debut album and went on a national tour.

paragraph: In 2014, Tench released his first solo album, entitled "You Should Be So Lucky". Tench also added keyboard parts to Stevie Nicks' album "".

paragraph: In 2016, he played the Fleetwood Mac tribute at the Fonda Theater, in Los Angeles; he performed the song "Silver Springs" with Courtney Love. Tench also appears on the bill for a tribute to the band Big Star that took place in Los Angeles, CA, in April 2016 (together with members of R.E.M, Wilco and Semisonic).

paragraph: Tench also reunited with Mudcrutch to record the band's second album, "Mudcrutch 2". The band embarked on their American tour on May 26, 2016.

paragraph: In March 2019, Tench played 3 shows with Phil Lesh & Friends at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: In 1991, Tench married Canadian model Courtney Taylor. They divorced in late 1999. In 2015 Tench married his second wife, author Alice Carbone Tench. Benmont and Alice welcomed their first daughter, Catherine Gabriella Winter, on December 16, 2017.

description: American musician

wikidata_label: Benmont Tench

wikipedia_title: Benmont Tench