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Turenne, classé parmi les Plus Beaux Villages de France et situé au sud de Brive, porte le nom d’une puissante vicomté ayant régné sur le Limousin, le Périgord et le Quercy durant dix siècles.
Installé sur un promontoire, le village de Turenne et sa région bénéficièrent de privilèges capitaux. Suite au remariage d’Aliénor d’Aquitaine avec le futur roi d’Angleterre, une guerre franco-anglaise déchira la région durant trois siècles. Saint Louis, pour garder un pied français dans cette partie « anglaise », décida de donner au vicomte de Turenne des droits régaliens qui firent de la vicomté un Etat dans l’Etat. Turenne fut aussi un refuge pour les protestants durant les guerres de religion.
Turenne conserve de nombreuses traces de son histoire. En empruntant les ruelles étroites et abruptes de Turenne, le visiteur voit encore flotter les drapeaux de cette célèbre vicomté. Les maisons nobles aux toits de lauzes ou d’ardoises et coiffées de tours en poivrière, s’étalent de la partie ancienne du XIIIème siècle jusqu’à la partie plus moderne qui date du XVIIIème.
Portant le nom d'une puissante vicomté ayant régné sur le Limousin, le Périgord et le Quercy durant dix siècles, Turenne a gardé de nombreuses traces de son histoire : les tours César et du Trésor, vestiges du château dominant le village, d'anciens hôtels particuliers des XVe au XVIIe siècles ornés de tourelles ou d‘échauguettes et des demeures plus simples aux toits couverts de lauzes ou d'ardoises...
Turenne, classified among the Most Beautiful Villages of France and located south of Brive, bears the name of a powerful viscount who ruled Limousin, Périgord and Quercy for ten centuries.
Installed on a promontory, the village of Turenne and its region benefited from capital privileges. Following Eleanor of Aquitaine's remarriage with the future King of England, a Franco-English war tore the region apart for three centuries. Saint Louis, in order to keep a French foothold in this "English" part, decided to give the viscount of Turenne sovereign rights which made the viscounty a state within a state. Turenne was also a refuge for Protestants during the wars of religion.
Turenne retains many traces of its history. By taking the narrow and steep streets of Turenne, the visitor can still see the flags of this famous viscount flying. The noble houses with slate or slate roofs and topped with pepper-pot towers, stretch from the old part of the 13th century to the more modern part which dates from the 18th century.
Bearing the name of a powerful viscount who reigned over Limousin, Périgord and Quercy for ten centuries, Turenne has kept many traces of its history: the Caesar and Treasury towers, remains of the castle dominating the village, of ancient mansions from the 15th to the 17th centuries adorned with turrets or watchtowers and simpler residences with roofs covered with slate or slate ...
Fort Street West (possibly at Swain Street), constructed 1861-3. I believe this might have been the house of Isaac N. Swain (1807-1880), who made his money in lumber in Watervliet, and in flour. He was the president of Woodmere cemetry and is buried in Lot 1184.
The "American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men" p. 136 notes that Swain bought 12 acres of land on the Detroit River after his wife's death in 1858 (and his subsequent remarriage in 1859), and "commenced with its cultivation and adornment". Between 1861 and 63 he constructed "one of the most substantial mansions of the west". It notes his library, and that he has never taken "wine, or malt, or spirituous liquors as a beverage, nor does he use tea, coffee or tobacco". Even in his 70's he was a muscular well built man of 6'-2" who had a long flowing beard, iron grey hair, light clear complexion and a "fine set of natural teeth", "erect as most men of fifty". He is noted as "simple and easy in his manners; prompt, courteous , and agreeable in all business transactions; and delights in relating his varied adventures, especially to the young".
And in 1881...
www.flickr.com/photos/southofbloor/4141280356/in/set-7215...
Photo is from WSU Virtual Motor City, noted as:
Old Detroit; Residences; Swain Home - Note: Negative reads “Fort Street” (21295)
By Sheldon Smith with E. A. Walshe. Strangely someone named R. A. Sheldon produced the similar Starling Medical College in 1848 with a remarkably similar tower. www.flickr.com/photos/theeerin/280882844/
Swain is buried in Lot 1184 of Woodmere cemetery.
Please please please view larger!!! :)
Hamlet is one of my all time favorite plays and the character Ophelia always touched me deeply. The play goes through several characters madness. This portrait is Ophelia's as she was driven to madness after her brother was killed and Hamlet retracted his love for her. Everett's painting is beautiful in its utter sadness so I decided to bring some brightness to this devastating drowning.
Hamlet:
I did love you once.
Ophelia:
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
Lines from Hamlet:
Hamlet:
You should not have believ'd me, for virtue cannot so
inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I lov'd you not.
Ophelia:
I was the more deceiv'd.
Hamlet:
Get thee to a nunn'ry, why woulds't thou be a breeder of
sinners?
In this heartbreaking scene, it's hard to tell how much of what Hamlet says is sincere, and how much an act [see ANTIC DISPOSITION]. The critics have never ceased arguing this question. We do know that his mother's recent remarriage has intensified Hamlet's sexual revulsion—he's recently likened the sexual act to tumbling in a sty.
Here, the prince denies ever having loved Ophelia, right after claiming that he did love her once. This may be just a game Hamlet is playing, but perhaps he means that what seemed like love to him once now seems false and repulsive. Using a horticultural metaphor, he casts doubt on his own motives: the "old stock" (original nature) of man is so corrupt that the grafting of virtue can never wholly eradicate the "relish" (taste) of corruption. In his famous line "Get thee to a nunn'ry (slang for brothel)," he exhorts Ophelia to put herself away so that she may never breed sinners like Hamlet.
As I was returning to the train station at the end of my long Saturday in Windsor Great Park I happened by this happy couple emerging from a civil wedding ceremony in the same hall where Charles and Camilla had been "hitched" about a month earlier.
Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article about the Royal Wedding:
"The wedding took place at the Guildhall in Windsor at 12.30pm BST (12:30 UTC) on 9 April 2005. Crowds had gathered on the streets since dawn ahead of the service. A civil ceremony was planned because of controversy within the Church of England regarding the remarriage of divorcés. This was attended by all the senior royals apart from the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When Princess Anne married Timothy Laurence after having divorced Mark Phillips, she chose to do so in the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian body in Scotland. Remarriage of divorcees is less controversial in the Kirk (as it is known), and the sovereign is an ordinary member of the Kirk. The Prince of Wales and his bride did not elect this course of action.
At the wedding, the couple's witnesses were Prince William of Wales and the bride's son, Tom Parker Bowles. In keeping with tradition, the couple's wedding rings are crafted from 22 carat (92%) Welsh gold from the Clogau St David's mine in Bontddu. The design of the wedding rings is by Wartski, a London jeweller that has held the Royal Warrant to The Prince of Wales since 1979. The Prince wears his on the small finger of his left hand.For the wedding, the duchess wore a cream-coloured dress and coat with a wide-brimmed cream-coloured hat. For the blessing afterward, she wore a floor-length embroidered pale blue and gold coat over a matching chiffon gown and a dramatic spray of golden feathers in her hair. Both ensembles were by Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine, London designers who work under the name Robinson Valentine; both hats were made by the Irish milliner Philip Treacy.
The wedding was followed by a televised blessing at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, led by The Archbishop of Canterbury."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Charles,_Prince_of_Wales...
The otherday I was strolling down the musky, busy streets of Old Dhaka, tired after an afternoon of shifting through the unbearable traffic. Although, I was out hunting for an opportunity to capture human emotions in solid state packets, it was all in vein. I was exhausted, weakened, uninspired, cursing the people and myself in my mind.
Then I came across Anjoy, Jyoti and their father Soroj. Mr Soroj sells betel-leaves at the street's corner. Coming from the lower Hindu casts, their social or economical standards have seldom seen the light of improvement. What's even more heartbreaking is the fact that Anjoy and Jyoti, the two angel faced kids were orphaned at birth when their mother died of labor-complications. Since then, Mr Soroj has raised them by himself, one day at a time. Relatives have tried to coerce him into remarriage, but unlike many from his social standards and astonishingly so, he never did it. When asked why, he said " Their step mother will never treat them with the love they deserve" . I was dumbfound, thunderstruck at his devotion towards his kids. The male chromosome was never supposed to be this caring, this tending to his kids, and yet there he was... the
embodiment of "Fatherhood".
I realized then that I too was an orphan in this world. So I called out to the kids, "Hey do you know where *our mom is?" Then I pointed to the sky, and their gazes followed with a happy inquisition. Perhaps for a blink of an eye, I was able to show them zen.
The blue sky was giving them comfort, their mom was hiding behind the clouds and their dad was right beside them...guarding against the many evils of the society, evil that guises themselves as 'customs' or 'ethics'.
Hallelujah, there's still some good left in this wretched world.
Taken in Shakhari Bazar
On the Nikon D90 + Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF
Update:
# As of yet, this photograph has been placed in the "Active Spotlight" by a JPGMag admin under the upcoming "Heroes" theme.
# This is now a "HOT"-photograph in JPGMag's upcoming "Heroes" theme.
# Editor's Pick of the Week at the prestigious Smithsonian Magazine.
# See Large and On Black [ On Popular request ]
Basil Vatatzes is a minor nobleman of the Pyrite Empire, known more for his quiet resilience than for grandeur. A loyal servant in the Emperor’s armies, Basil has spent much of his life in the field, most recently returning from a grueling campaign against the northern barbarians. His estate, nestled in the sun-warmed hills of the empire’s heart land, is modest but fruitful—home to a small vineyard and olive grove that produce well-regarded wine and olive oil.
Widowed in his earlier years, Basil raised two sons who have since carved their own paths: one as a soldier in the imperial legions, the other as a clerk in the imperial court. His recent remarriage to Yazinta, a Mogholay woman and daughter of a prosperous trader, has raised eyebrows among the local land owners. Yazinta Vatatzaina, herself a widow with no children, brings a quiet dignity and worldly insight to Basil’s household, challenging the insular traditions of Pyrite aristocracy.
Though his sword arm is weary, Basil remains a man of principle—grounded by the land he tends, the family he’s built, and the empire he serves. Now he stands ready once more to answer the Emperor's call.
My character for the Brethren of the Brick Seas Prequel - Tales of Old a Lego role playing game on Eurobricks.
Murong, The a tribe of Bangladesh. Murong are fourth largest tribe in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The main profession of the Murongs is jhum cultivation and lumbering wood from jungle. Before jhum cultivation in the month of Srabon they offer Oreng puja. Rice and homemade bear are their main food and drink. They eat tiger, dog, goat, pig, cow and many other animals. Their delicacy is nappi made of fermented fat of fish, frog, deer or boar, mixed with fermented rice. Murong men wear lengti and women wear wanglai (short skirt). These are all locally made. Murongs build houses on machangs (platforms) on the top of the hills. Their houses are bigger than the houses of other tribes. Murongs burn the bodies of the dead.
Murongs are patriarchal. Sons inherit the property. They have different clans and many sub-clans. According to one source, the five major clans are Dengua, Premsang, Kongloi, Maizer and Ganaroo Gnar. Others mention the ten different Murong clans as Yarua, Yaringcha, Tang, Deng, Kough, Tam-tu-chah, Kanbak, Prenju, Naichah and Yomore. The Yarua is said to be the most influential and powerful among the Murong clans. It has four subdivisions and they are Khatpo, Chimlung, Zongnow, and Chawla. These sub-clans are also considered by some as independent clans.
Murongs do not marry within the same clan or sub-clan. Their boys and girls are also not allowed to marry within two different clans involved in war even after when they enter into truce or peace agreement and become friends, since in such situation, they become brothers in practice and therefore, their children can not marry each other. Murongs have many different ways of performing marriage ceremony but the ceremony is usually very short. Once a couple is selected for marriage, they slaughter a cock in presence of the couple. When the blood gushes from the vein, someone dips his middle finger and anoints the forehead of the bride and groom. Then follows the declaration that they are husband and wife. After this brief ceremony, the bride and groom eat together and the invitees and guests sprinkle water and rice to bless the couple. Divorce is allowed in the Murong society. But the husband can not divorce his wife without a legitimate cause. If a man divorces his wife without any cause, he will be left alone in a deep jungle only with an axe to defend himself from wild animals. A widow may marry but the remarriage is allowed only with a plebian. Bigamy or polygamy is not socially allowed.
Most Murongs are Buddhists and some are converted Christians. In general, however, they are still animists and they worship nature. They revere Thurai as the creator of this universe. All their pujas are directed to Oreng, the God of household and day-to-day business. They have many superstitions. They believe in signs and omens and their immediate undertakings are affected by these beliefs. Sungteung is another deity Murongs pay homage to, although this puja has little importance in the society. Before the harvest, the Murongs observe a puja called Kumlang, in which they ceremonially kill a cow. The young men and women dance, sing, and eat, and drink homemade bear during this ceremony.
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Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
HENRY BRASSEY MONUMENT, 1891
"The Lord Watch Between Me and Thee,
When We are Absent One from Another"
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF
HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY
OF PRESTON HALL
1840 – 1891
AND OF HIS WIFE ANNA HARRIET
1844 – 1898
Henry Brassey, died 1891. "The Good Squire of Aylesford." Lived at Preston Hall, the 2nd son of Thomas Brassey, a leading Railway Contractor. Educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford. J.P. for Kent. Liberal Unionist M. P. for Sandwich 1868 – 1885. High Sheriff of Kent 1890 – 91. Captain of West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry Cavalry.
Prize winning Cattle Breeder. He died of pneumonia, following the influenza epidemic of 1891. His Pall Bearers were some of his oldest workmen; Guard of Honour from the R. W. K. Y. C. Very large number of mourners attended funeral, a special train was laid on from Charing Cross.
The monument is rather disappointing and commonplace, it is a pity that the Brassys' taste did not match their wealth!
The Times published his will:
"MR. H. A. BRASSEY'S WILL. Probate duty has been paid on £1,042,611 0s 8d as the net value (thegross being £1, 075,913 15s 7d) of the personal estate of Mr HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY, of Preston Hall, Ashford (sic), Kent, and Bath-house, Piccadilly, who died on the 13th of May last, aged 51 years, and of whose will, dated the 10th of August, 1883, with a codicil made the 20th of July 1887, the executors are his brothers, Thomas first Lord Brassey, of Bulkely, Chester, Mr Albert Brassey, of Heythrop, Oxford, and Mr Robert Mitchell Campbell, of Glaisnock, Old Cumnock. The testator bequeaths to his wife during her widow-hood an annuity (including the income provided for by her marriage settlement) of £8,000 and the use and enjoyment of the testator's town house and its furniture and of plate to the value of £1,000. In the event of Mrs Brassey's remarriage her annuity is to be reduced to £2,000 for the remainder of her life.
Mr. Brassey leaves in trust for each of his daughters £50,000. He bequeaths to the Bishop's of London's Fund and the Fever Hospital, Liverpool road, Islington, £1,000 each; to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children, St. George's Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Incurables, the British Lying-in Hospital, Endell street, the Lock Hospital, the Royal National Hospital for Consumption, Ventnor, the Hospital for Consumption, Brompton, and the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, £500 each.
To the West Kent General Hospital the testator bequeaths £1,000 and to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, the Royal Albert Orphan Asylum, Bagshot, the Academy for the Blind, the Central London Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Ear. The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution , Walton on Thames, and the Orphan Working School, Haverstock hill, £500 each.
Mr Brassey bequeaths also £500 to the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children, Great Queen Street to be primarily applied in aid of maintaining the boys in and upon and in keeping up the training ships Chichester and Arethusa. He devises the Preston hall estate to the use of his first son in priority, and all the contents of the hall to the use of the tenant for life of that estate."
HENRY BRASSEY MONUMENT, 1891
"The Lord Watch Between Me and Thee,
When We are Absent One from Another"
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF
HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY
OF PRESTON HALL
1840 – 1891
AND OF HIS WIFE ANNA HARRIET
1844 – 1898
Henry Brassey, died 1891. "The Good Squire of Aylesford." Lived at Preston Hall, the 2nd son of Thomas Brassey, a leading Railway Contractor. Educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford. J.P. for Kent. Liberal Unionist M. P. for Sandwich 1868 – 1885. High Sheriff of Kent 1890 – 91. Captain of West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry Cavalry.
Prize winning Cattle Breeder. He died of pneumonia, following the influenza epidemic of 1891. His Pall Bearers were some of his oldest workmen; Guard of Honour from the R. W. K. Y. C. Very large number of mourners attended funeral, a special train was laid on from Charing Cross.
The monument is rather disappointing and commonplace, it is a pity that the Brassys' taste did not match their wealth!
The Times published his will:
"MR. H. A. BRASSEY'S WILL. Probate duty has been paid on £1,042,611 0s 8d as the net value (thegross being £1, 075,913 15s 7d) of the personal estate of Mr HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY, of Preston Hall, Ashford (sic), Kent, and Bath-house, Piccadilly, who died on the 13th of May last, aged 51 years, and of whose will, dated the 10th of August, 1883, with a codicil made the 20th of July 1887, the executors are his brothers, Thomas first Lord Brassey, of Bulkely, Chester, Mr Albert Brassey, of Heythrop, Oxford, and Mr Robert Mitchell Campbell, of Glaisnock, Old Cumnock. The testator bequeaths to his wife during her widow-hood an annuity (including the income provided for by her marriage settlement) of £8,000 and the use and enjoyment of the testator's town house and its furniture and of plate to the value of £1,000. In the event of Mrs Brassey's remarriage her annuity is to be reduced to £2,000 for the remainder of her life.
Mr. Brassey leaves in trust for each of his daughters £50,000. He bequeaths to the Bishop's of London's Fund and the Fever Hospital, Liverpool road, Islington, £1,000 each; to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children, St. George's Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Incurables, the British Lying-in Hospital, Endell street, the Lock Hospital, the Royal National Hospital for Consumption, Ventnor, the Hospital for Consumption, Brompton, and the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, £500 each.
To the West Kent General Hospital the testator bequeaths £1,000 and to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, the Royal Albert Orphan Asylum, Bagshot, the Academy for the Blind, the Central London Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Ear. The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution , Walton on Thames, and the Orphan Working School, Haverstock hill, £500 each.
Mr Brassey bequeaths also £500 to the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children, Great Queen Street to be primarily applied in aid of maintaining the boys in and upon and in keeping up the training ships Chichester and Arethusa. He devises the Preston hall estate to the use of his first son in priority, and all the contents of the hall to the use of the tenant for life of that estate."
I totally disagree with the above description. The monument is amazing. Fantastic attention to detail. Not sure who the sculptor was all I can see is C A W WILKE S ?? London 1877
HENRY BRASSEY MONUMENT, 1891
"The Lord Watch Between Me and Thee,
When We are Absent One from Another"
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF
HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY
OF PRESTON HALL
1840 – 1891
AND OF HIS WIFE ANNA HARRIET
1844 – 1898
Henry Brassey, died 1891. "The Good Squire of Aylesford." Lived at Preston Hall, the 2nd son of Thomas Brassey, a leading Railway Contractor. Educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford. J.P. for Kent. Liberal Unionist M. P. for Sandwich 1868 – 1885. High Sheriff of Kent 1890 – 91. Captain of West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry Cavalry.
Prize winning Cattle Breeder. He died of pneumonia, following the influenza epidemic of 1891. His Pall Bearers were some of his oldest workmen; Guard of Honour from the R. W. K. Y. C. Very large number of mourners attended funeral, a special train was laid on from Charing Cross.
The monument is rather disappointing and commonplace, it is a pity that the Brassys' taste did not match their wealth!
The Times published his will:
"MR. H. A. BRASSEY'S WILL. Probate duty has been paid on £1,042,611 0s 8d as the net value (thegross being £1, 075,913 15s 7d) of the personal estate of Mr HENRY ARTHUR BRASSEY, of Preston Hall, Ashford (sic), Kent, and Bath-house, Piccadilly, who died on the 13th of May last, aged 51 years, and of whose will, dated the 10th of August, 1883, with a codicil made the 20th of July 1887, the executors are his brothers, Thomas first Lord Brassey, of Bulkely, Chester, Mr Albert Brassey, of Heythrop, Oxford, and Mr Robert Mitchell Campbell, of Glaisnock, Old Cumnock. The testator bequeaths to his wife during her widow-hood an annuity (including the income provided for by her marriage settlement) of £8,000 and the use and enjoyment of the testator's town house and its furniture and of plate to the value of £1,000. In the event of Mrs Brassey's remarriage her annuity is to be reduced to £2,000 for the remainder of her life.
Mr. Brassey leaves in trust for each of his daughters £50,000. He bequeaths to the Bishop's of London's Fund and the Fever Hospital, Liverpool road, Islington, £1,000 each; to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children, St. George's Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Incurables, the British Lying-in Hospital, Endell street, the Lock Hospital, the Royal National Hospital for Consumption, Ventnor, the Hospital for Consumption, Brompton, and the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, £500 each.
To the West Kent General Hospital the testator bequeaths £1,000 and to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, the Royal Albert Orphan Asylum, Bagshot, the Academy for the Blind, the Central London Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Ear. The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution , Walton on Thames, and the Orphan Working School, Haverstock hill, £500 each.
Mr Brassey bequeaths also £500 to the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children, Great Queen Street to be primarily applied in aid of maintaining the boys in and upon and in keeping up the training ships Chichester and Arethusa. He devises the Preston hall estate to the use of his first son in priority, and all the contents of the hall to the use of the tenant for life of that estate."
Pearl is 19 years old. She is a cancer survivor...diagnosed in 2003 and went into remission after two years of chemo-therapy.
I was not looking for a cat when I went into a pet store in the Fall of 1990...having gone in there to buy something for my puppy. I saw a litter of blue point siamese kittens and was swept away by impulse.
I know better now, that you should never purchase a pet from a store nor buy on impulse. I was very ignorant.
Having always been a "dog person" I don't know why I took her home...but from that day forward my life has been transformed. She is the most affectionate cat you could ever hope for. She's a bit "clingy", vocal, highly intelligent and is a total indoor lap cat.
We have gone thru a divorce together, remarriage, the loss of my mother and other pets along the way. I will be a basket case when I lose my Pearl...but hopefully she will live into her 20's.
I now can't imagine my life without cats! She has educated me immensely over the last 19 years...cats are not aloof and independent. Unless abused or feral, most want and need attention from their people. My four cats love it when we're home and interacting with them..which we do all the time.
I rarely post pics on Pearl on Flickr...the spotlight mainly on Jasmine, Keiko and June instead. Pearl does not like the camera and will either look away or close her eyes. The other day I was quick enough to capture her in the bedroom after a nice brushing and took this shot to share with you all.
Thanks for reading this lengthy story about my Pearl
Pearl crossed the rainbow bridge on 12/9/09. www.flickr.com/photos/rainriver/4171149355/in/set-7215760...
Vintage postcard, no. 136.
Greta Scacchi (1960) is an Italian-Australian actress best known for her roles in the films White Mischief (1987), Presumed Innocent (1990), The Player (1992), and Emma (1996). Scacchi received a BAFTA nomination for her role in Heat and Dust (1983). For her portrayal of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the television film, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), she won a Primetime Emmy Award and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2006, Scacchi received a second Emmy nomination for her role in the TV film Broken Trail.
Greta Scacchi was born in 1960 in Milan, Italy. Her parents were Luca Scacchi, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Risbey, an English dancer and antiques dealer. Scacchi's parents divorced when she was four, and her mother returned to her native England with Greta and her two older brothers, first to London, then to Haywards Heath, West Sussex. In 1975, after her mother's remarriage the family moved to Perth, Australia, where her stepfather was a visiting professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA). While in Perth, Scacchi attended Hollywood Senior High School. After she left school, Greta worked as an Italian interpreter on a ranch. She joined UWA's University Dramatic Society, where she made her theatrical debut at the New Dolphin Theatre in Edward Bond's play Early Morning under director Arne Neeme. In 1977, 18-years-old Scacchi returned to England to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where her contemporaries included Miranda Richardson and Amanda Redman. She paid her way through college by working as a model for catalogues.She played small parts as a stage actress before she made her first screen appearance in an episode of the British detective series Bergerac (1981), starriong John Nettles. Scacchi made her film debut in Germany in Das Zweite Gesicht/The Second Face (Dominik Graf, 1982). She learned German for this production. Scacchi is also fluent in English, French, and Italian, which has made her a popular choice for European casting directors. In the following years, she gave versatile performances in such productions as Heat and Dust (James Ivory, 1983) starring Julie Christie, the TV film The Ebony Tower (Robert Knights, 1984) opposite Laurence Olivier, and the Australian comedy The Coca-Cola Kid (Dusan Makavejev, 1985) featuring Eric Roberts. She also appeared in in French, Italian and English films for such directors as the Taviani Brothers, Margareta Von Trotta and Diana Kurys.
Greta Scacchi turned down Hollywood for many years but after her success in White Mischief (Michael Radford, 1987) with Sarah Miles and Charles Dance, she agreed to co-star with Harrison Ford in the thriller Presumed Innocent (Alan J. Pakula, 1990). After that followed Shattered (Wolfgang Petersen, 1991) with Tom Berenger and Bob Hoskins, Fires Within (Gillian Armstrong, 1991), and The Player (Robert Altman, 1992) with Tom Robbins. She returned to Europe to appear in such films as The Browning Version (Mike Figgis, 1994) with Albert Finney, and Emma (Douglas McGrath, 1996), starring Gwyneth Paltrow. In 1996, Scacchi won an Emmy Award for her work as Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the television film, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (Uli Edel, 1996) with Alan Rickman, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and numerous other awards. In 1999, she had a role as an Italian-Australian single mother in the Australian film Looking for Alibrandi (Kate Woods, 1999), a performance for which she won the 2000 AFI award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2007, she received an Emmy Award nomination for the TV mini-series Broken Trail (Walter Hill, 2006) with Robert Duvall. Scacchi has also performed in a wide range of parts in theatre. In 1987, she appeared at the West End in Uncle Vanya, opposite Michael Gambon and Jonathan Pryce. In 1991 she played Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in the Festival of Perth. A year later she played in Sydney the lead role in Strindberg's Miss Julie. In 2001 she returned to Sydney for Harold Pinter's Old Times, directed by Aarne Neeme, playing Kate. In 2004 she toured Italy with the Italian version of the play, Vecchi Tempi, but this time playing Anne. In 2008, she was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Best Actress Award for playing Queen Elizabeth in Schiller's Mary Stuart in Sydney. In that year she also performed in Greta Britain in Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea. In 2010, she replaced an injured Kristin Scott Thomas in the French premiere (37 years after it was written) of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. In May 2011, she appeared alongside Anita Dobson in the play Bette and Joan at London's Arts Theatre, directed by Bill Alexander, about the personal and professional relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.In 2013, she played Regan in William Shakespeare's King Lear at The Old Vic in London. In 2016 she played Phoebe Rice opposite Kenneth Branagh's Archie Rice in a revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer in the West End. Scacchi was in a relationship with New Zealand musician Tim Finn from 1983–1989. Later, she had a relationship with American actor Vincent D'Onofrio, with whom she has a daughter, Leila George (born in 1992). Scacchi is an Italian citizen by birth. She applied for British citizenship after turning 18 but was refused and refused again on appeal. She is a dual citizen of Italy and Australia. Scacchi is married to her first cousin, Carlo Mantegazza, after taking advice and getting permission from senior members of the Catholic church. The marriage took place in a private ceremony on the banks of Lake Como in 1997. They have a son, Matteo, born in 1998. For her services to the arts she was made a knight in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2013. Greta Scacchi continues to appear in supporting parts on screen, including roles in TV series like The Terror (2018) with Hared Harris, Italian thrillers like La ragazza nella nebbia/The Girl in the Fog (Donato Carrisi, 2017) with Toni Servillo, Hollywood movies like Operation Finale (Chris Weitz, 2018), and Australian films like Palm Beach (Rachel Ward, 2019).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
County Waterford, Ireland.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2012)
Lismore Castle
County Waterford, Ireland
Irland 2010.08.18 026.jpg
Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford
Lismore Castle is located in Ireland Lismore CastleLismore Castle
TypeVictorian
Site information
OwnerCavendish family
ConditionInhabited, grounds open to the public
Site history
Builtmost current structures circa 1850[1]
Built byDukes of Devonshire
MaterialsAssorted
Lismore Castle is a stately home located in the town of Lismore in County Waterford in Ireland, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. It was largely re-built in the Gothic style during the mid-nineteenth century by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire.
Contents [hide]
1 Early history
2 The Earls of Cork & Burlington
3 The Dukes of Devonshire
4 References
5 External links
Early history[edit]
The castle site was originally occupied by Lismore Abbey, an important monastery and seat of learning established in the early 7th century. It was still an ecclesiastical centre when Henry II, King of England stayed here in 1171, and except for a brief period after 1185 when his son King John of England built a 'castellum' here, it served as the episcopal residence of the local bishop. In 1589, Lismore was leased and later acquired by Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh sold the property during his imprisonment for High Treason in 1602 to another infamous colonial adventurer, Richard Boyle, later 1st Earl of Cork.
The Earls of Cork & Burlington[edit]
Boyle came to Ireland from England in 1588 with only twenty-seven pounds in capital and proceeded to amass an extraordinary fortune. After purchasing Lismore he made it his principal seat and transformed it into a magnificent residence with impressive gabled ranges each side of the courtyard. He also built a castellated outer wall and a gatehouse known as the Riding Gate. The principal apartments were decorated with fretwork plaster ceilings, tapestry hangings, embroidered silks and velvet. It was here in 1627 that Robert Boyle The Father of Modern Chemistry, the fourteenth of the Earl's fifteen children, was born. The castle descended to another Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork & 3rd Earl of Burlington, who was a noted influence on Georgian architecture (and known in architectural histories as the Earl of Burlington).
Lismore featured in the Cromwellian wars when, in 1645, a force of Catholic confederacy commanded by Lord Castlehaven sacked the town and Castle. Some restoration was carried out by Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork (1612-1698) to make it habitable again but neither he nor his successors lived at Lismore.
The Dukes of Devonshire[edit]
The castle (along with other Boyle properties - Chiswick House, Burlington House, Bolton Abbey and Londesborough Hall) was acquired by the Cavendish family in 1753 when the daughter and heiress of the 4th Earl of Cork, Lady Charlotte Boyle (1731-1754) married William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, a future Prime Minister of Great Britain & Ireland. Their son, the 5th Duke (1748-1811) carried out improvements at Lismore, notably the bridge across the river Blackwater in 1775 designed by Cork-born architect Thomas Ivory.
The 6th Duke (1790–1858), commonly known as 'the Bachelor Duke', was responsible for the castle's present appearance. He began transforming the castle into a fashionable 'quasi-feudal ultra-regal fortress' as soon as he succeeded his father in 1811, engaging the architect William Atkinson from 1812 to 1822 to rebuild the castle in the Gothic style, using cut stone shipped over from Derbyshire. Lismore was always the Bachelor Duke's favourite residence, but as he grew older his love for the place developed into a passion. In 1850 he engaged his architect Sir Joseph Paxton, the designer of The Crystal Palace, to carry out improvements and additions to the castle on a magnificent scale - so much so that the present skyline is largely Paxton's work. At this time J.G. Crace of London, the leading maker of Gothic Revival furniture and his partner the leading architect A.W.N. Pugin were commissioned to transform the ruined chapel of the old Bishop's Palace into a medieval-style banqueting hall, with a huge perpendicular stained-glass window, choir-stalls and Gothic stenciling on the walls and roof timbers. The chimney-piece, which was exhibited at the Medieval Court of the Great Exhibition of 1851, was also designed by Pugin (and Myers) but was originally intended for Horstead Place in Sussex, it was rejected because it was too elaborate and subsequently bought for Lismore - the Barchard family emblems later replaced with the present Irish inscription Cead Mille Failte: a hundred thousand welcomes. Pugin also designed other chimney-pieces and furnishings in the castle and after his death in 1851 Crace continued to supply furnishings in the Puginesque manner.
King Edward VII visiting the Duke of Devonshire in May 1904
In 1858, the Cavendish family sponsored a new bridge over the Blackwater, which replaced the one built in 1775. This new construction followed designs by Charles Tarrant and was done by E.P.Nagle and C.H.Hunt.[2]
After the bachelor Duke's death, Lismore remained substantially unaltered. Fred Astaire's sister, Adele lived in the castle after marrying Lord Charles Cavendish, a son of the 9th Duke and, after his death in 1944, continued to use the castle until shortly before her death in 1981.[3] The castle was inherited by his brother, Lord Andrew Cavendish upon Adele's remarriage in 1947.[4] It is still owned by the Dukes of Devonshire, but it is lived in for only a short part of the year. Chatsworth House is the main family seat and the home of the Dowager Duchess.
The 12th Duke, who succeeded to the title in 2004, continues to live primarily on the family's Bolton Abbey estate. His son, William Burlington maintains an apartment in the castle and recently converted the derelict west range (2006) into a contemporary art gallery, known as Lismore Castle Arts. For most of the year the family's private apartments at Lismore are available to rent by groups of up to twenty-three visitors.
In 2004 The Robert Boyle Science Room was opened nearby in the Lismore Heritage Centre dedicated to his life and works where students have the opportunity of studying science and participating in scientific experiments.
Recently Lismore Castle was used as Northanger Abbey in the 2007 ITV dramatisation of that name during its Jane Austen season.
The castle's gardens are open to the public and feature contemporary sculptures, including works by Anthony Gormley, Marzia Colonna and Eilís O'Connell. The upper garden is a 17th-century walled garden,[5] while much of the informal lower garden was designed in the 19th century.
Spiritual Unite Articles, a place to find your pleiadian, sirian, arcturian starseed, spiritual awakening and numerology predictions.Nostradamus: original portrait like a pleiadian-starseed in The Starry Night from Vincent Van Gogh an other pleiadian guy....
Born14 or 21 December 1503 (Julian calendar)
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, Kingdom of France
Michel de Nostredame (depending on the source, 14 or 21 December 1503 – 1 or 2 July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus,[a] was a French astrologer, physician and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains[b] allegedly predicting future events. The book was first published in 1555.
Nostradamus's family was originally Jewish, but had converted to Catholic Christianity before he was born. He studied at the University of Avignon, but was forced to leave after just over a year when the university closed due to an outbreak of the plague. He worked as an apothecary for several years before entering the University of Montpellier, hoping to earn a doctorate, but was almost immediately expelled after his work as an apothecary (a manual trade forbidden by university statutes) was discovered. He first married in 1531, but his wife and two children died in 1534 during another plague outbreak. He fought alongside doctors against the plague before remarrying to Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children. He wrote an almanac for 1550 and, as a result of its success, continued writing them for future years as he began working as an astrologer for various wealthy patrons. Catherine de' Medici became one of his foremost supporters. His Les Prophéties, published in 1555, relied heavily on historical and literary precedent, and initially received mixed reception. He suffered from severe gout toward the end of his life, which eventually developed into edema. He died on 2 July 1566. Many popular authors have retold apocryphal legends about his life.
In the years since the publication of his Les Prophéties, Nostradamus has attracted many supporters, who, along with much of the popular press, credit him with having accurately predicted many major world events.[6][7] Most academic sources reject the notion that Nostradamus had any genuine supernatural prophetic abilities and maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate).[8] These academics argue that Nostradamus's predictions are characteristically vague, meaning they could be applied to virtually anything, and are useless for determining whether their author had any real prophetic powers. They also point out that English translations of his quatrains are almost always of extremely poor quality, based on later manuscripts, produced by authors with little knowledge of sixteenth-century French, and often deliberately mistranslated to make the prophecies fit whatever events the translator believed they were supposed to have predicted.
Contents
1Life
1.1Childhood
1.2Student years
1.3Marriage and healing work
1.4Occultism
1.5Final years and death
2Works
3Origins of The Prophecies
4Interpretations
4.1Content of the quatrains
4.2Popular claims
4.3Scholarly rebuttal
5In popular culture
6See also
7Notes
8References
8.1Citations
8.2Sources
9Further reading
10External links
Life[edit]
Childhood[edit]
Nostradamus's claimed birthplace before its recent renovation, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Municipal plaque on the claimed birthplace of Nostradamus in St-Rémy, France, describing him as an 'astrologer' and giving his birth-date as 14 December 1503 (Julian Calendar)
Nostradamus was born on either 14 or 21 December 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France,[9] where his claimed birthplace still exists, and baptized Michel.[9] He was one of at least nine children of notary Jaume (or Jacques) de Nostredame and Reynière, granddaughter of Pierre de Saint-Rémy who worked as a physician in Saint-Rémy.[9] Jaume's family had originally been Jewish, but his father, Cresquas, a grain and money dealer based in Avignon, had converted to Catholicism around 1459–60, taking the Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" (Our Lady), the saint on whose day his conversion was solemnised.[9] The earliest ancestor who can be identified on the paternal side is Astruge of Carcassonne, who died about 1420. Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jean (c. 1507–1577), Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523).[10][11][12] Little else is known about his childhood, although there is a persistent tradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfather Jean de St. Rémy[13]—a tradition which is somewhat undermined by the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after 1504 when the child was only one year old.[14]
Student years[edit]
At the age of 14[6] Nostradamus entered the University of Avignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a year (when he would have studied the regular trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic rather than the later quadrivium of geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy/astrology), he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors during an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon, Nostradamus, by his own account, traveled the countryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal remedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, he entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards by the student procurator, Guillaume Rondelet, when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university statutes, and had been slandering doctors.[15] The expulsion document, BIU Montpellier, Register S 2 folio 87, still exists in the faculty library.[16] However, some of his publishers and correspondents would later call him "Doctor". After his expulsion, Nostradamus continued working, presumably still as an apothecary, and became famous for creating a "rose pill" that purportedly protected against the plague.[17]
Marriage and healing work[edit]
Nostradamus's house at Salon-de-Provence, as reconstructed after the 1909 Provence earthquake
In 1531 Nostradamus was invited by Jules-César Scaliger, a leading Renaissance scholar, to come to Agen.[18] There he married a woman of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), who bore him two children.[19] In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, he continued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy.[20]
On his return in 1545, he assisted the prominent physician Louis Serre in his fight against a major plague outbreak in Marseille, and then tackled further outbreaks of disease on his own in Salon-de-Provence and in the regional capital, Aix-en-Provence. Finally, in 1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which exists today, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children—three daughters and three sons.[21] Between 1556 and 1567 he and his wife acquired a one-thirteenth share in a huge canal project, organised by Adam de Craponne, to create the Canal de Craponne to irrigate the largely waterless Salon-de-Provence and the nearby Désert de la Crau from the river Durance.[22]
Occultism[edit]
After another visit to Italy, Nostradamus began to move away from medicine and toward the "occult". Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time in print Latinising his name to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies,[23][24] as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March. It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic" advice from him, though he generally expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures for his clients' place or time of birth.[25][26][c][27]
He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand mainly French quatrains, which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today. Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds,[28] however, he devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using "Virgilianised" syntax, word games and a mixture of other languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, and Provençal.[29] For technical reasons connected with their publication in three installments (the publisher of the third and last installment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a "Century," or book of 100 verses), the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not survived in any extant edition.
Century I, Quatrain 1 in the 1555 Lyon Bonhomme edition
The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Prophéties (The Prophecies), received a mixed reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise. Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of France, was one of Nostradamus's greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded,[30] but by the time of his death in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, the young King Charles IX of France.
Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by the Inquisition, but neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he would have been in danger only if he had practised magic to support them. In 1538 he came into conflict with the Church in Agen after an Inquisitor visited the area looking for anti-Catholic views.[31] His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 was solely because he had violated a recent royal decree by publishing his 1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop.[32]
Final years and death[edit]
Nostradamus's current tomb in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent in Salon-de-Provence in the south of France, into which his scattered remains were transferred after 1789.
Nostradamus statue in Salon-de-Provence
By 1566, Nostradamus's gout, which had plagued him painfully for many years and made movement very difficult, turned into edema. In late June he summoned his lawyer to draw up an extensive will bequeathing his property plus 3,444 crowns (around US$300,000 today), minus a few debts, to his wife pending her remarriage, in trust for her sons pending their twenty-fifth birthdays and her daughters pending their marriages. This was followed by a much shorter codicil.[33] On the evening of 1 July, he is alleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead, lying on the floor next to his bed and a bench (Presage 141 [originally 152] for November 1567, as posthumously edited by Chavigny to fit what happened).[34][24] He was buried in the local Franciscan chapel in Salon (part of it now incorporated into the restaurant La Brocherie) but re-interred during the French Revolution in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where his tomb remains to this day.[35]
Works[edit]
Copy of Garencières' 1672 English translation of the Prophecies, located in The P.I. Nixon Medical History Library of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
In The Prophecies Nostradamus compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. The first installment was published in 1555 and contained 353 quatrains. The third edition, with three hundred new quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558, but now survives as only part of the omnibus edition that was published after his death in 1568. This version contains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries".
Given printing practices at the time (which included type-setting from dictation), no two editions turned out to be identical, and it is relatively rare to find even two copies that are exactly the same. Certainly there is no warrant for assuming—as would-be "code-breakers" are prone to do—that either the spellings or the punctuation of any edition are Nostradamus's originals.[5]
The Almanacs, by far the most popular of his works,[36] were published annually from 1550 until his death. He often published two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs (detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (more generalised predictions).
Nostradamus was not only a diviner, but a professional healer. It is known that he wrote at least two books on medical science. One was an extremely free translation (or rather a paraphrase) of The Protreptic of Galen (Paraphrase de C. GALIEN, sus l'Exhortation de Menodote aux estudes des bonnes Artz, mesmement Medicine), and in his so-called Traité des fardemens (basically a medical cookbook containing, once again, materials borrowed mainly from others), he included a description of the methods he used to treat the plague, including bloodletting, none of which apparently worked.[37] The same book also describes the preparation of cosmetics.
A manuscript normally known as the Orus Apollo also exists in the Lyon municipal library, where upwards of 2,000 original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under the aegis of Michel Chomarat. It is a purported translation of an ancient Greek work on Egyptian hieroglyphs based on later Latin versions, all of them unfortunately ignorant of the true meanings of the ancient Egyptian script, which was not correctly deciphered until Champollion in the 19th century.[38]
Since his death, only the Prophecies have continued to be popular, but in this case they have been quite extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have appeared in that time, together with over 2,000 commentaries. Their persistence in popular culture seems to be partly because their vagueness and lack of dating make it easy to quote them selectively after every major dramatic event and retrospectively claim them as "hits".[39]
Origins of The Prophecies[edit]
Theophilus de Garencières, the first English translator of the Prophecies[40]
Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology—the astrological 'judgment', or assessment, of the 'quality' (and thus potential) of events such as births, weddings, coronations etc.—but was heavily criticised by professional astrologers of the day such as Laurens Videl[41] for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" (the comparison of future planetary configurations with those accompanying known past events) could actually predict what would happen in the future.[42]
Research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-world prophecies (mainly Bible-based), supplemented with references to historical events and anthologies of omen reports, and then projects those into the future in part with the aid of comparative horoscopy. Hence the many predictions involving ancient figures such as Sulla, Gaius Marius, Nero, and others, as well as his descriptions of "battles in the clouds" and "frogs falling from the sky".[43] Astrology itself is mentioned only twice in Nostradamus's Preface and 41 times in the Centuries themselves, but more frequently in his dedicatory Letter to King Henry II. In the last quatrain of his sixth century he specifically attacks astrologers.
His historical sources include easily identifiable passages from Livy, Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars, Plutarch and other classical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Jean Froissart. Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat's Livre de l'estat et mutations des temps of 1549–50.
One of his major prophetic sources was evidently the Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a range of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others (his Preface contains 24 biblical quotations, all but two in the order used by Savonarola). This book had enjoyed considerable success in the 1520s, when it went through half a dozen editions, but did not sustain its influence, perhaps owing to its mostly Latin text, Gothic script and many difficult abbreviations. Nostradamus was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French, which may explain why they are credited to him. Modern views of plagiarism did not apply in the 16th century; authors frequently copied and paraphrased passages without acknowledgement, especially from the classics. The latest research suggests that he may in fact have used bibliomancy for this—randomly selecting a book of history or prophecy and taking his cue from whatever page it happened to fall open at.[6]
Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus,[44] which included extracts from Michael Psellos's De daemonibus, and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum (Concerning the mysteries of Egypt), a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus, a 4th-century Neo-Platonist. Latin versions of both had recently been published in Lyon, and extracts from both are paraphrased (in the second case almost literally) in his first two verses, the first of which is appended to this article. While it is true that Nostradamus claimed in 1555 to have burned all of the occult works in his library, no one can say exactly what books were destroyed in this fire.
Only in the 17th century did people start to notice his reliance on earlier, mainly classical sources.[d]
Nostradamus's reliance on historical precedent is reflected in the fact that he explicitly rejected the label "prophet" (i.e. a person having prophetic powers of his own) on several occasions:[45]
Although, my son, I have used the word prophet, I would not attribute to myself a title of such lofty sublimity.
— Preface to César, 1555[46]
Not that I would attribute to myself either the name or the role of a prophet.
— Preface to César, 1555[46]
[S]ome of [the prophets] predicted great and marvelous things to come: [though] for me, I in no way attribute to myself such a title here.
— Letter to King Henry II, 1558[47]
Not that I am foolish enough to claim to be a prophet.
— Open letter to Privy Councillor (later Chancellor) Birague, 15 June 1566[45]
Detail from title-page of the original 1555 (Albi) edition of Nostradamus's Les Prophéties
Given this reliance on literary sources, it is unlikely that Nostradamus used any particular methods for entering a trance state, other than contemplation, meditation and incubation.[48] His sole description of this process is contained in 'letter 41' of his collected Latin correspondence.[49] The popular legend that he attempted the ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or both simultaneously is based on a naive reading of his first two verses, which merely liken his efforts to those of the Delphic and Branchidic oracles. The first of these is reproduced at the bottom of this article and the second can be seen by visiting the relevant facsimile site (see External Links). In his dedication to King Henry II, Nostradamus describes "emptying my soul, mind and heart of all care, worry and unease through mental calm and tranquility", but his frequent references to the "bronze tripod" of the Delphic rite are usually preceded by the words "as though" (compare, once again, External References to the original texts).
Interpretations[edit]
Content of the quatrains[edit]
Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles—all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber. Some quatrains cover these disasters in overall terms; others concern a single person or small group of people. Some cover a single town, others several towns in several countries.[50] A major, underlying theme is an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from farther east and south headed by the expected Antichrist, directly reflecting the then-current Ottoman invasions and the earlier Saracen equivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the Mirabilis Liber.[51] All of this is presented in the context of the supposedly imminent end of the world—even though this is not in fact mentioned[52]—a conviction that sparked numerous collections of end-time prophecies at the time, including an unpublished collection by Christopher Columbus.[53] [54] Views on Nostradamus have varied widely throughout history.[55] Academic views such as those of Jacques Halbronn regard Nostradamus's Prophecies as antedated forgeries written by later hands with a political axe to grind.[55]
Popular claims[edit]
Nostradamus's supporters have retrospectively claimed that he predicted major world events, including the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rises of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and September 11 attacks.[55][27]
Many of Nostradamus's supporters believe his prophecies are genuine.[55] Owing to the subjective nature of these interpretations, however, no two of them completely agree on what Nostradamus predicted, whether for the past or for the future.[55] Many supporters, however, do agree, for example, that he predicted the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rises of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler,[56][e] both world wars, and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[55][27] Popular authors frequently claim that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each book's publication, such as the Apollo moon landings in 1969, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.[27][57] This 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.[55]
Possibly the first of these books to become popular in English was Henry C. Roberts' The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during the next forty years, which contained both transcriptions and translations, with brief commentaries. This was followed in 1961 (reprinted in 1982) by Edgar Leoni's Nostradamus and His Prophecies. After that came Erika Cheetham's The Prophecies of Nostradamus, incorporating a reprint of the posthumous 1568 edition, which was reprinted, revised and republished several times from 1973 onwards, latterly as The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus. This served as the basis for the documentary The Man Who Saw Tomorrow and both did indeed mention possible generalised future attacks on New York (via nuclear weapons), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date.[58]
A two-part translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's Nostradamus: historien et prophète was published in 1980, and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987, including Nostradamus and the Millennium: Predictions of the Future, Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies (1999) and Nostradamus: A Life and Myth (2003). In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be able to contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him "interpreting" his own verse X.6 (a prediction specifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nîmes and people taking refuge in its collosse, or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the Arènes) as a prediction of an undated attack on the Pentagon, despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter to King Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor.[59]
With the exception of Roberts, these books and their many popular imitators were almost unanimous not merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy but also in inventing intriguing aspects of his purported biography: that he had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar; he had been educated by his grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King René of Provence; he had attended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree; after returning there in 1529, he had successfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there, until his views became too unpopular; he had supported the heliocentric view of the universe; he had travelled to the Habsburg Netherlands, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in the course of his travels, he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying future Pope, Sixtus V, who was then only a seminary monk. He is credited with having successfully cured the Plague at Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere; he had engaged in scrying, using either a magic mirror or a bowl of water; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter 1554; having published the first installment of his Prophéties, he had been summoned by Queen Catherine de' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husband King Henri II would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at Blois; he had bequeathed to his son a "lost book" of his own prophetic paintings;[f] he had been buried standing up; and he had been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of his disinterment.[60] This was first recorded by Samuel Pepys as early as 1667, long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated diary a legend that, before his death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but that 60 years later his body was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating the date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers.[61]
In 2000, Li Hongzhi claimed that the 1999 prophecy at X.72 was a prediction of the Chinese Falun Gong persecution which began in July 1999, leading to an increased interest in Nostradamus among Falun Gong members.[62]
Scholarly rebuttal[edit]
From the 1980s onward, however, an academic reaction set in, especially in France. The publication in 1983 of Nostradamus's private correspondence[63] and, during succeeding years, of the original editions of 1555 and 1557 discovered by Chomarat and Benazra, together with the unearthing of much original archival material[35][26] revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus did not fit the documented facts. The academics[35][60][26][64] revealed that not one of the claims just listed was backed up by any known contemporary documentary evidence. Most of them had evidently been based on unsourced rumours relayed as fact by much later commentators, such as Jaubert (1656), Guynaud (1693) and Bareste (1840), on modern misunderstandings of the 16th-century French texts, or on pure invention. Even the often-advanced suggestion that quatrain I.35 had successfully prophesied King Henry II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 years after the event.[65][66]
Skeptics such as James Randi suggest that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-day supporters who fit his words to events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to be inevitable, a process sometimes known as "retroactive clairvoyance" (postdiction). No Nostradamus quatrain is known to have been interpreted as predicting a specific event before it occurred, other than in vague, general terms that could equally apply to any number of other events.[67] This even applies to quatrains that contain specific dates, such as III.77, which predicts "in 1727, in October, the king of Persia [shall be] captured by those of Egypt"—a prophecy that has, as ever, been interpreted retrospectively in the light of later events, in this case as though it presaged the known peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Persia of that year;[68] Egypt was also an important Ottoman territory at this time.[69] Similarly, Nostradamus's notorious "1999" prophecy at X.72 (see Nostradamus in popular culture) describes no event that commentators have succeeded in identifying either before or since, other than by twisting the words to fit whichever of the many contradictory happenings they claim as "hits".[70] Moreover, no quatrain suggests, as is often claimed by books and films on the alleged Mayan Prophecy, that the world would end in December 2012.[71] In his preface to the Prophecies, Nostradamus himself stated that his prophecies extend "from now to the year 3797"[72]—an extraordinary date which, given that the preface was written in 1555, may have more than a little to do with the fact that 2242 (3797–1555) had recently been proposed by his major astrological source Richard Roussat as a possible date for the end of the world.[73][74]
Additionally, scholars have pointed out that almost all English translations of Nostradamus's quatrains are of extremely poor quality, seem to display little or no knowledge of 16th-century French, are tendentious, and are sometimes intentionally altered in order to make them fit whatever events the translator believed they were supposed to refer (or vice versa).[75][64][76] None of them were based on the original editions: Roberts had based his writings on that of 1672, Cheetham and Hogue on the posthumous edition of 1568. Even Leoni accepted on page 115 that he had never seen an original edition, and on earlier pages, he indicated that much of his biographical material was unsourced.[77]
None of this research and criticism was originally known to most of the English-language commentators, by dint of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, the language in which it was written.[78] Hogue was in a position to take advantage of it, but it was only in 2003 that he accepted that some of his earlier biographical material had in fact been apocryphal. Meanwhile, some of the more recent sources listed (Lemesurier, Gruber, Wilson) have been particularly scathing about later attempts by some lesser-known authors and Internet enthusiasts to extract alleged hidden meanings from the texts, whether with the aid of anagrams, numerical codes, graphs or otherwise.[55]
In popular culture[edit]
Main article: Nostradamus in popular culture
The prophecies retold and expanded by Nostradamus figured largely in popular culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and nonfiction), Nostradamus's life has been depicted in several films and videos, and his life and writings continue to be a subject of media interest.
There have also been several well-known Internet hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus have been circulated by e-mail as the real thing. The best-known examples concern the collapse of the World Trade Center in the 11 September attacks.[79]
With the arrival of the year 2012, Nostradamus's prophecies started to be co-opted (especially by the History Channel) as evidence suggesting that the end of the world was imminent, notwithstanding the fact that his book never mentions the end of the world, let alone the year 2012.[80]
Londres 247, Colonia del Carmen, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico
Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was one of the most remarkable Mexican painters of the indigenous culture of her country in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. She also was a remarkable personality, an active communist supporter, and wife of the Mexican muralist and cubist painter Diego Rivera.
Kahlo was noted for her unconventional appearance, declining to remove her facial hair (she had a small mustache and unibrow which she exaggerated in self portraits), and for her flamboyantly styled clothing, drawn largely from traditional Mexican dress. She was half Jewish of German-Hungarian descent, & half Mestizo.
Her paintings attracted the attention of fellow artist Diego Rivera, whom she later married. They were often referred to as "The Elephant and the Dove" due to their difference in size (Frida's mother, who did not like Diego, came up with this description of them). When they first married, he was 42, 6 ft 1 in tall, and 300 pounds; she was 22, 5 ft 3 in and 98 pounds.
Their marriage was a loving but storming one, largely due to Diego's weakness for extramarital flings. Their notoriously fiery temperaments also played a part in the storminess, and both had numerous extramarital affairs (Frida was outraged when she found that Diego had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina Kahlo). The couple divorced, but remarried in 1940. This remarriage was as turbulent as the first.
Frida did not hide from Diego the fact that she was bisexual; Diego tolerated her relationships with women (among them actress Josephine Baker) better than her relationships with men, which made him fiercely jealous.
Active Communist sympathizers, Kahlo and Rivera befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political asylum from Joseph Stalin´s regime in The Soviet Union. Initially, Trotsky lived with Rivera and then at Frida's home depicted in this photo where he and Frida allegedly had an affair. Trotsky and his wife then moved to another house in the same neighborhood of Coyoacán where Trotsky was later assassinated. Sometime after Trotsky's death, Frida denounced her former friend and praised the Soviet Union under Stalin. She spoke favorably of Mao, calling China "the new socialist hope".
Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, supposedly of a pulmonary embolism. She had been ill throughout the previous year and had had a leg amputated owing to gangrene. However, an autopsy was never performed and many are convinced she committed suicide. A few days before her death she had written in her diary: "I hope the exit is joyful; and I hope never to return."
The pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in this blue home, La Casa Azul in Coyoacán, today a museum housing a number of her great works of art.
0296-082006
(Former) English, Scottish & Australian Bank:
Historical evidence indicates that this building was constructed around 1882 for Philip Bolger, a grocer, who acquired the land from James Gibbon in that year. Bolger borrowed £3,000 from Gibbon in the same year he bought the land – possibly to finance construction of this two storey masonry building. The building was constructed during a period of growth and economic confidence which stimulated the expansion of Fortitude Valley.
Fortitude Valley was established during the 1850s, spurred by Lang’s Scottish Presbyterian immigrants who were denied land grants by the colonial government. Schools and churches were established during the 1860s with the census of 1861 reporting a population in the district of over 1300. The 1880s was a time of great commercial and residential growth in the Fortitude Valley area as both the population and the economy boomed. The imposing new Holy Trinity Catholic Church replaced the existing one in 1882 and large ornate hotels such as the Empire, the Prince Consort and the Wickham were constructed to cater to the rapidly growing population. New commercial premises were also erected to take advantage of the economic prosperity.
Early photographs show that Bolger’s building was originally more ornate, in keeping with the flamboyant style favoured in the 1880s. It had two triangular pediments, the bases of which are still evident today.
Bolger occupied the building until the 1890s when it was taken over by Jason Yetting and Son, Tea Importers. During the later half of the 1890s the building was used as a boot warehouse then from 1901 until 1920 by Albert Goodall, a bootmaker. Another boot manufacturer, John Charity, gained title to the property in 1920 and he ran his business from these premises until 1926.
In 1927 the building was converted to a bank after the English, Scottish and Australian Bank gained title in that year. This is likely to have been the period in which the alterations to the building’s external features took place. Like the 1880s, the 1920s were a time of economic confidence, particularly in the Valley which now rivalled the CBD as a major shopping precinct.
The English Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank was incorporated in the United Kindgom in 1852. On 21 August 1893 the English Scottish and Australian Bank Limited was established in Australia, based in Melbourne. It went on to have 104 branches spread throughout Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
In the 1920s, the bank expanded, acquiring the London Bank of Australia, the Commercial Bank of Tasmania and the Royal Bank of Australia. This boom ended with the 1930s depression. Wartime controls limited the bank’s revival and the 1950s witnessed a period of turbulent growth. On 10 December 1968 the English Scottish and Australian Bank merged with ANZ.
The building at 100 Wickham Street was sold to Lanart Pty Ltd in 1973 and changed hands again in 1983. From the 1990s to the present, the building has been occupied by “Monty”, a second hand dealer and pawnbroker.
Muller Brothers Building:
Until the mid-1880s, Wickham Street was a quiet and sparsely populated street. Although the section between Duncan and Brunswick Streets hosted the Roman Catholic chapel from the late 1850s and the Prince Consort hotel from the early 1860s, Anne Street (as it was then spelled) was the main commercial district of Fortitude Valley. The Valley itself was a quiet and sparsely populated town until the 1880s, when an economic boom encouraged the construction of brick and stone buildings, replacing wooden ones. Residents of the Valley also began demanding better services, including improved transport, roads and sewage systems. The boom also assisted the development of Wickham Street, which became an increasingly important retail area from the 1880s.
Phillip Bolger obtained title to the site in April 1882, with the help of a £3,000 mortgage, and ran an oyster saloon on the site. The property was sold in 1885, firstly to Benjamin Waylett in May and then to John Watson in July. The site was located between stores run by drapers Quinn and Moylan and the former Roman Catholic Chapel.
The building was constructed for John Watson in 1886. Watson was a renowned figure in nineteenth century Brisbane, a Scottish immigrant whose varied career included roles as contractor, former lessee of the Bulimba Hotel and ferry and postmaster of the Breakfast Creek area. In the 1880s he began his first forays into his career as politician, elected to the Bulimba Divisional Board. He had become its chairman in 1885, when a financial scandal erupted and caused the resignation of all board members. Watson disclaimed knowledge of the problem (defrauding the Treasury) and was reinstated to the Board. In 1886 he was a member of the Booroodabin Divisional Board and stood for election for the seat of Fortitude Valley, which had been vacated after the sudden death of Francis Beattie.
Tenders were called in March for the construction of two two-storey brick stops for J. Watson, Esquire, by renowned and flamboyant architect Andrea Stombuco, who was also the Catholic Diocesan architect. Stombuco, like Watson, attracted a great deal of notice in nineteenth century Brisbane society, infamous for his fiery temper and his manner of dressing. He was also responsible for the design of several heritage listed buildings, including St Patrick’s Church in the Valley (1882) [600210]; St Francis Xavier Church, Goodna (1881) [600553]; Heckelmann’s Building, Brisbane (1884) [600104]; and a residence, Bertholme (1883) [600263]. Stombuco began practising with son Giovanni in 1886 (Watson’s building being one of its first commissions) and the partnership was responsible for the design of, inter alia, St Joseph’s Catholic Church at Kangaroo Point and St Joseph’s Christian Brothers’ College at Nudgee, before Andrea Stombuco left Brisbane for Perth and Giovanni Stombuco retired.
Watson’s choice of Stombuco to design his new building may have been influenced by his long connection with the architect. In his work as a contractor, Watson had worked with Stombuco on Benjamin Bros’ new warehouse (1884) and ‘Palma Rosa’, Stombuco’s residence (1887) [600219]. He was in attendance at the opening of the latter building in 1887, along with a number of other prominent contractors. Watson had also erected the new belfry for the new St Patrick’s church in 1886, a building which Stombuco had designed. Stombuco had also designed the Brunswick Street drapery of Watson’s father-in-law, John Gillies, in 1880.
The construction of Watson’s new building was preceded by excavation work, carried out by Cornelius Ryan. The presence of porphyry under the site necessitated blasting operations, which were commenced in early April. On 16 April a passer-by, Felix Henry, was killed by a large stone (estimated as weighing between 5-7lb) loosened by a blast. Watson’s name was not mentioned in newspaper reports of the blast, and Watson was not reluctant to mention in May that he was undertaking the construction of two new shops which would cost £3,000 and would help beautify Wickham Street. Despite this dedication to his ward, he lost the election by 26 votes. He later won the seat and represented the Valley in 1888.
The shops were finished and leased to tenants from around 1887. Watson’s father-in-law, Gillies, managed the lease of the building, known as ‘Watson’s buildings’. Although it was a single building, it contained two shops which were considered to be separate ‘buildings’. Each building contained six rooms, including a shop and dwelling and was described as being in the best part of Wickham Street, located next to drapers Quinn and Moylan and the former Catholic chapel. The building could also be accessed by a small laneway running behind the property, which backed onto the Valley rail line, under construction at the time Watson’s building was completed. Watson had been a member of the Valley Railway Committee and an active participant at meetings in the 1880s calling for a railway to be extended to the Valley. Although Watson had favoured a line through Petrie’s Bite and not through Watson’s properties, as the line eventually ran, he continued to support the railway and encourage the extension of the line to Bulimba, or at least to the Bulimba reach of the river. John McMaster, a fellow politician, later credited Watson with being instrumental in the development of the Valley railway.
From the 1890s, the building hosted a succession of Chinese merchant businesses. The presence of Chinese merchants in the Valley was not uncommon; the first Chinese shops had opened in the 1880s, located mainly along Wickham Street, and Chinese market gardeners worked on the edge of the Valley. However, the occupation of Watson’s buildings by Chinese merchants was somewhat unusual, as John Watson was the leader of the Valley branch of the Anti-Chinese League and had stirred up anti-Chinese sentiment in the months leading up to the 1888 elections. The first round of elections had culminated in an anti-Chinese riot on 5 May, in which a large group had run through the city and Valley damaging the shops of Chinese merchants. Watson, who had campaigned on a stance of removing the Chinese from the country, was elected to the seat of Fortitude Valley by a considerable margin a week after the riots. Police were positioned in front of every Chinese shop in the Valley on the evening of the election, discouraging any further damage from the ‘larrikin classes’. The Chinese Immigration Restriction Act 1888 was passed later in the year. Nevertheless, tea importer James Yeteng and merchants Wo Yick Chong and See War and Company ran their businesses in succession from one of the shops for ten years, from 1892-1902.
Watson’s building was occupied by small drapery businesses and Muller Brothers, importers, from 1902. The Muller brothers (Max and Emil) resided upstairs at number 194. A 1913 photograph of Wickham Street shows Watson’s buildings, Maher’s building and the Prince Consort Hotel.
Following the death of John Watson in 1912, the property and the McGeehin building next door were placed in trust. The remarriage of Watson’s wife Christina left her unable to inherit and the five remaining beneficiaries, Watson’s children, intended to divide the properties so that each owned one of the shops on Wickham Street. The new Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1923 passed by the City Council intended to restrict subdivisions to properties with over 20 foot frontages, but the Watson beneficiaries successfully appealed the Council’s decision in 1924. The Muller Brothers building was passed to Charles Ferrier Watson, who inherited shop 194, on 6.98 perches of land and George Alexander Hilliary Watson, who received shop 196 on 7.43 perches. The properties also carried charges in favour of Mary Murray (another of Watson’s children, who had not inherited a property) and Christina Scott, Watson’s widow.
The Watson brothers leased the properties separately, although to similar tenants who ran tailoring or drapery businesses, and from the 1940s cafes and saloons, which had become increasingly popular in the Valley. Both properties were sold in the late 1940s and alterations were made to the shop-front of 194 in 1950 (owned by M. Andronicos, 1948-1967) and 1956 (leased by G.F. Price); and to the shop-front of 196 in 1952 (owned by D. Mee Sing), to the café in 1953 (owned by Leonard Young) and to the awning in 1965 (owned by Joe Kong).
The shops continue to be owned separately and run as commercial properties (restaurants and cafes).
(Former) McGeehin & Co Building:
The McGeehin & Co building is located on the original site of the Fortitude Valley Roman Catholic Church and School, built in the late 1850s. The Valley had been settled by European immigrants in the late 1840s and the street, named Wickham after magistrate and surveyor Captain Wickham, was in existence as early as 1855, although it was only a dirt track which meandered through a series of private properties and terminated in a swamp. Churches and hotels appeared early in the development of the Valley, and along with small dwellings, the first buildings on Wickham Street included the Catholic Church and the adjacent Prince Consort Hotel, established around 1862. The church, a small wooden building with an attached schoolhouse, was the second Catholic Church and one of only fourteen churches in the Moreton Bay settlement by 1859. The population of Fortitude Valley increased over the ensuing two decades and although it was merely a small town in comparison with the central business district, the Catholic congregation outgrew the Wickham Street building. A new Cathedral designed by diocesan architect Andrea Stombuco was constructed in Morgan Street, near Ann Street. The new building was consecrated in December 1882 and the congregation removed there, while the school was continued by the Sisters of Mercy until 1887, when it moved from the ‘dilapidated buildings’ on busy Wickham Street to a new school house in Ivory Street. The new building, St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register [600210]. The old church remained hidden but intact on the Wickham Street site until 1911, when work undertaken for the construction of new premises revealed the old wooden chapel.
With a large new church nearly ready for its parishioners, the Wickham Street land was offered for sale in September 1881. It passed through the hands of the church’s clergy before the property of one rood and 21 perches was sold to contract builder and politician John Watson in 1889.
Scottish-born Watson was a well-known figure in nineteenth and early twentieth century Brisbane. He had arrived in Queensland with his wife Eliza in 1864 and settled near the river on what is now Oxford St in Bulimba. By 1866 he had acquired a license for the Bulimba Ferry Hotel (later the Bulimba Hotel) and was the lessee of the Bulimba ferry. He was a man of many trades, having worked in the shipping and building industries, constructed the Victoria Bridge (1888-9) and several wharves and jetties around Brisbane, provided postal services for Breakfast Creek and Bulimba and served in various political functions, including chairman of the Balmoral and Bulimba Boards and a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Valley Ward. Watson was politically conservative and a protectionist, claiming at a political meeting that he always bought from the Valley. On the other hand, he was not one to shy away from controversy and publicity: he was the head of the Anti-Chinese League, had been chairman of the Balmoral Board when it was involved in financial scandals, drove the Bulimba steam punt into the oncoming ship Wyandra, and was duped out of £100 on a trip to London in 1909. He also felt strongly that the Brisbane River should be kept clean, protesting the dumping of sewage into the river. Watson was married three times and died in 1912 at his Bulimba residence.
Watson’s connections with the Valley were significant. As its representative from 1888-1896, he was credited with having been instrumental in bringing the railway to the Valley. Watson had been vocal about the location of tramlines in the Valley and was among the deputation of ratepayers who approached the Mayor in 1903 about the possibility of commencing markets in the Valley. As a contractor he had constructed the belfry for the new Valley Catholic Church in 1886. He purchased multiple properties along Wickham Street from 1882 and in 1886 commissioned Andrea Stombuco to design two two-storey brick shops on the premises, now the heritage listed as Muller Brothers’ Buildings. Watson’s second wife Elizabeth Gillies was the daughter of a Brunswick Street draper and his father-in-law, John, managed the lease of the Wickham Street properties throughout the 1880s and 1890s.
The exact date of the construction of this building is unknown, although it was almost certainly between 1898, when the property was classified as vacant land, and 1905, when the Brisbane Courier provided a history of the old Wickham Street church and added that:
[t]he land in question is no longer devoted to religious purposes, for the hand of commerce had been laid upon it, and it is now occupied by business premises owned by Mr John Watson.
The buildings were probably constructed around 1902, coinciding with a flux of development on Wickham Street. Transportation to the Valley had swept away the isolation of the township, and the Valley had emerged as a prime shopping and industrial destination. Investors began to take advantage of the circumstances, with those lucky enough to own land in the street constructing newer, larger buildings on their sites to attract tenants and customers. In addition, many of the timber buildings that had survived the development boom of the 1880s were demolished in the 1900s and replaced by more substantial masonry buildings, as required for a First Class building area.
From 1902, the building was occupied by grocers McGeehin & Co and an oyster saloon. McGeehin was later joined by Tolman, who lived in the residential portion upstairs. The buildings, described after a fire in 1910 (which damaged only goods within the shop), were three two-storey shops with residential quarters upstairs, similar to the Muller Brothers building. It remained a grocery store and oyster bar well into the 1920s. A photograph of this building taken in 1913 from the McWhirters building, looking down Wickham Street, shows the distinctive facades of Watson’s buildings.
Following the death of John Watson in 1912, the property and the Muller building next door were placed in trust. The remarriage of Watson’s wife Christina prevented her from inheriting, so the five remaining beneficiaries intended to divide the properties so that each owned one of the shops on Wickham Street. The Council was reluctant to subdivide properties which were so small (each had a frontage to Wickham Street of less than twenty feet), but Watson’s beneficiaries successfully appealed the Council’s decision and the properties were subdivided in 1924. Joseph Gillies Watson inherited shop 202, Isabella Margaret Dobson (nee Watson) shop 200 and William Francis Watson inherited shop 198, each parcel comprising around 8 perches of land. The properties also carried charges in favour of Mary Murray (another of Watson’s children, who had not inherited a property) and Christina Scott, Watson’s widow.
Each new owner continued to lease the properties, particularly as cafes, restaurants and wine saloons, which became popular in the Valley in the 1930s and 1940s. The shop in the centre (200) was run as a wine saloon for close to forty years (c.1915–c.1954). Alterations to the shops fronts and awnings were undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as interior changes such as a toilet block added in 1955. The properties continue to be owned separately and are used for commercial and entertainment purposes.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by Charles Skilton & Fry Ltd. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in Great Britain. The photography was by Lord Lichfield, courtesy of Weidenfeld Publishers Ltd.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was born on the 21st. August 1930. She was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
Margaret spent much of her childhood with her parents and sister. Her life changed at the age of six when King Edward VIII, her paternal uncle, abdicated to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson. Margaret's father became king, and her sister became heir presumptive, with Margaret second in line to the throne.
Margaret's position in the line of succession diminished over the following decades as Elizabeth's children and grandchildren were born. During the Second World War, the two sisters stayed at Windsor Castle despite suggestions that they should be evacuated to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was too young to perform official duties and continued her education, being nine years old when the war broke out and turning 15 just after hostilities ended.
From the 1950's onwards, Margaret became one of the world's most celebrated socialites, famed for her glamorous lifestyle and reputed romances. Most famously, she fell in love in the early 1950's with Peter Townsend, a married RAF officer in the royal household.
In 1952, Margaret's father died, her sister became queen, and Townsend divorced his wife. He proposed to Margaret early in the following year. Many in the government believed that he would be an unsuitable husband for the Queen's 22-year-old sister, and the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to countenance her marriage to a divorced man.
Margaret abandoned her plans with Townsend and married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960; the Queen created him Earl of Snowdon. The couple had two children, David and Sarah, and divorced in 1978. Margaret did not remarry.
Margaret was a controversial member of the British royal family. Her divorce received much negative publicity, and her private life was for many years the subject of speculation by the media and royal watchers. Her health deteriorated in the last 20 years of her life. She was a heavy smoker for most of her adult life, and had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993 as well as three strokes between 1998 and 2001.
Annus Horribilis
Margaret died in London at the age of 71 on the 9th. February 2002, following a fourth stroke. Margaret's death contributed to the Queen's 'Annus Horribilis' to which she referred in a speech at the London Guildhall on the 24th. November 1992.
Other events contributing to the Queen's awful year of 1992 included:
-- The publication of photographs of Diana sitting alone on a bench at the Taj Mahal when she was on a trip to India with Charles on the 11th. February 1992.
-- In March Andrew and Sarah announced their separation.
-- In April, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips divorced.
-- In June, Andrew Morton's biography of Diana was published. The book was controversial as it detailed Diana's suicidal unhappiness within her marriage, and her struggles with depression. At the time of publication, Buckingham Palace denied any cooperation between the princess and Morton, but it was later revealed that Diana was the main source behind the book's content.
-- In August, there were scandals in the tabloids relating to both Sarah and Diana.
-- In November, there was an enormously destructive fire at Windsor Castle which prompted controversy over who should pay for the restoration.
After the Queen's Guildhall speech, the Annus Horribilis continued unabated -- on the 9th. December, Charles and Diana announced their separation.
Princess Margaret - The Early Years
Princess Margaret was born at 9:22 p.m. on the 21st. August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mother's ancestral home, and was affectionately known as Margot within the royal family. She was the first member of the royal family in direct line of succession to be born in Scotland since the 1600's.
She was delivered by Sir Henry Simson, the royal obstetrician. The Home Secretary, J. R. Clynes, was present to verify the birth. The registration of her birth was delayed for several days to avoid her being numbered 13 in the parish register. Margaret was baptised in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on the 30th. October 1930 by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
At the time of her birth, Margaret was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne. Her father was the Duke of York (later King George VI), the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), the youngest daughter of the 14th. Earl and the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
The Duchess of York originally wanted to name her second daughter Ann Margaret, as she explained to Queen Mary in a letter:
"I am very anxious to call her Ann
Margaret, as I think Ann of York
sounds pretty, & Elizabeth and Ann
go so well together."
King George V disliked the name Ann but approved of the alternative, Margaret Rose.
Margaret's early life was spent primarily at the Yorks' residences at 145 Piccadilly (their town house in London) and Royal Lodge in Windsor. The Yorks were perceived by the public as an ideal family: father, mother and children, but unfounded rumours that Margaret was deaf and mute were not completely dispelled until her first main public appearance at her uncle Prince George's wedding in 1934.
Margaret was educated alongside her sister, Elizabeth, by their Scottish governess, Marion Crawford. Margaret's education was mainly supervised by her mother, who in the words of Randolph Churchill "never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies".
When Queen Mary insisted upon the importance of education, the Duchess of York commented:
"I don't know what she meant.
After all, I and my sisters only
had governesses, and we all
married well — one of us very
well".
Margaret resented her limited education, especially in later years, and criticised at her mother. However, Margaret's mother told a friend that she "regretted" that her daughters did not go to school like other children, and the employment of a governess rather than sending the girls to school may have been done only at the insistence of King George V.
J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, read stories to the sisters as children.
Margaret's grandfather, George V, died when she was five, and her uncle acceded as King Edward VIII. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, in the abdication crisis, he left the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, whom neither the Church of England nor the Dominion governments would accept as queen. The Church would not recognise the marriage of a divorced woman with a living ex-husband as valid.
Edward's abdication made a reluctant Duke of York the new king, and Margaret became second in line to the throne with the title The Princess Margaret to indicate her status as a child of the sovereign. The family moved into Buckingham Palace; Margaret's room overlooked The Mall.
Margaret was a Brownie in the 1st. Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack, formed in 1937. She was also a Girl Guide and later a Sea Ranger. She served as President of Girlguiding UK from 1965 until her death in 2002.
At the outbreak of World War II, Margaret and her sister were at Birkhall, on the Balmoral Castle estate, where they stayed until Christmas 1939, enduring nights so cold that drinking water in carafes by their bedside froze. They spent Christmas at Sandringham House before moving to Windsor Castle for much of the remainder of the war.
Viscount Hailsham wrote to Prime Minister Winston Churchill to advise the evacuation of the princesses to the greater safety of Canada, to which their mother famously replied:
"The children won't go without me.
I won't leave without the King.
And the King will never leave."
At Windsor, the princesses staged pantomimes at Christmas in aid of the Queen's Wool Fund, which bought yarn to knit into military garments. In 1940, Margaret sat next to Elizabeth during their radio broadcast for the BBC's Children's Hour, addressing other children who had been evacuated from cities. Margaret spoke at the end by wishing all the children goodnight.
Unlike other members of the royal family, Margaret was not expected to undertake any public or official duties during the war. She developed her skills at singing and playing the piano, often tunes from stage musicals. Her contemporaries thought she was spoiled by her parents, especially her father, who allowed her to take liberties not usually permissible, such as being allowed to stay up to dinner at the age of 13.
Crawford despaired at the attention Margaret was getting, writing to friends:
"Could you this year only ask
Princess Elizabeth to your party?
Princess Margaret does draw all
the attention, and Princess
Elizabeth lets her do that."
Elizabeth, however, did not mind this, and commented:
"Oh, it's so much easier when
Margaret's there — everybody
laughs at what Margaret says".
King George described Elizabeth as his pride and Margaret as his joy.
Princess Margaret and the Post-War Years
At the end of the war in 1945, Margaret appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace with her family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Afterwards, both Elizabeth and Margaret joined the crowds outside the palace, incognito, chanting:
"We want the King, we want the Queen!"
On the 15th. April 1946, Margaret was confirmed into the Church of England. On the 1st. February 1947, she, Elizabeth and their parents embarked on a state tour of Southern Africa. The three-month-long visit was Margaret's first visit abroad, and she later claimed that she remembered "every minute of it".
Margaret's chaperone was Peter Townsend, the King's equerry, and very firm toward Margaret, whom he apparently considered an indulged child. Later that year, Margaret was a bridesmaid at Elizabeth's wedding. In the next three years, Elizabeth had two children, Charles and Anne, whose births moved Margaret further down the line of succession.
In 1950, the former royal governess, Marion Crawford, published an unauthorized biography of Elizabeth's and Margaret's childhood years, titled The Little Princesses, in which she described Margaret's "light-hearted fun and frolics" and her "amusing and outrageous antics".
The Margaret Set
Around the time of Princess Elizabeth's wedding in November 1947, the press started to follow the social life of "unconventional" Margaret and her reputation for vivacity and wit. As a beautiful young woman, with an 18-inch waist and "vivid blue eyes", Margaret enjoyed socialising with high society and young aristocrats, including Sharman Douglas, the daughter of the American ambassador, Lewis Williams Douglas.
A celebrated beauty known for her glamour and fashion sense, Margaret was often featured in the press at balls, parties, and nightclubs with friends who became known as the "Margaret Set". The number of her official engagements increased, and she joined a growing number of charitable organisations as president or patron.
Favoured haunts of the Margaret Set were The 400 Club, the Café de Paris and the Mirabelle restaurant. Anticipation of an engagement or romance between Margaret and a member of her set were often reported. In 1948, international news grew that her engagement to "Sunny", the Marquess of Blandford, would be announced on her 18th. birthday.
Similar speculation moved to the Hon. Peter Ward, then Billy Wallace and others. The set also mixed with celebrities, including Danny Kaye, whom she met after watching him perform at the London Palladium in February 1948. He was soon accepted by the royal social circle.
In July 1949, at a fancy dress ball at the American Ambassador's residence, Margaret performed the can-can on stage, accompanied by Douglas and ten other costumed girls. A press commotion ensued, with Kaye denying he had taught Margaret the dance. Press interest could be intrusive. During a private visit to Paris in 1951, Margaret and Prince Nicholas of Yugoslavia were followed into a nightclub by a paparazzo who took photographs of them until British detectives physically removed him from the club.
In 1952, although Margaret attended parties and debutante balls with friends such as Douglas and Mark Bonham Carter, the set were seen infrequently together. They regrouped in time for Coronation season social functions. In May 1953, Margaret met singer Eddie Fisher when he performed at the Red, White and Blue Ball.
She asked him to her table and he was "invited to all sorts of parties". Margaret fell out with him in 1957, but years later, Fisher still claimed the night he was introduced to her was the greatest thrill of his lifetime. In June 1954, the Set performed the Edgar Wallace play 'The Frog' at the Scala Theatre. It was organized by Margaret's by now best girlfriend Judy Montagu with Margaret as Assistant Director.
The play drew praise for raising £10,500 for charity, but was also criticised for incompetent performances. By the mid 1950's, although still seen at fashionable nightspots and theatre premieres, the set was depleted by its members getting married. As Margaret reached her late twenties unmarried, the press increasingly turned from predicting whom she might marry to suspecting she would remain a spinster.
'Romances' and the Press (1947–1959)
The press avidly discussed "the world's most eligible bachelor-girl" and her alleged romances with more than 30 bachelors, including David Mountbatten and Michael I of Romania, Dominic Elliot, Colin Tennant (later Baron Glenconner), Prince Henry of Hesse-Kassel, and future Prime Minister of Canada John Turner.
Most had titles and almost all were wealthy. Blandford and Lord Dalkeith, both wealthy sons of dukes, were the likeliest potential husbands. Her family reportedly hoped that Margaret would marry Dalkeith, but, unlike him, the princess was uninterested in the outdoors. Billy Wallace, sole heir to a £2.8 million (£78 million today) fortune and an old friend, was reportedly Margaret's favourite date during the mid-1950's.
During her 21st. birthday party at Balmoral in August 1951, the press was disappointed to only photograph Margaret with Townsend, always in the background of pictures of royal appearances, and to her parents a safe companion as Elizabeth's duties increased.
The following month her father underwent surgery for lung cancer, and Margaret was appointed one of the Counsellors of State who undertook the King's official duties while he was incapacitated. Her father died five months later, on the 6th. February 1952, and her sister became Queen.
Romance with Peter Townsend
-- The Early Relationship
During the war, the King suggested choosing palace aides who were highly qualified men from the military, instead of only aristocrats. Told that a handsome war hero had arrived, the princesses met Townsend, the new equerry, on his first day at Buckingham Palace in 1944; Elizabeth reportedly told her sister, 13 years old, "Bad luck, he's married".
A temporary assignment of three months from the RAF became permanent. George VI and the Queen Mother were fond of Townsend; the king reportedly saw the calm and efficient combat veteran as the son he never had. He may have been aware of his daughter's infatuation with the non-titled and non-wealthy Townsend, reportedly seeing the courtier reluctantly obey the princess's order to carry her up palace stairs after a party.
Townsend was so often near Margaret that gossip columnists overlooked him as a suitor for the princess. When their relationship began is unclear. The princess told friends she fell in love with the equerry during the 1947 South Africa tour, where they often went riding together. Her biographer Craig Brown stated that, according to a National Trust curator, Townsend requested the bedroom next to hers during a trip to Belfast in October 1947.
In November 1948, they attended the inauguration of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. In later life, Townsend admitted at this point there was an attraction between them, but neither of them ever acknowledged it to one another. Not long after he discovered his wife Rosemary was involved in an extramarital affair, which ended.
Contemporary anecdotes about their closeness then dissipated until late 1950, when friendship seems to have rekindled, coinciding with Townsend's appointment as Deputy Master of the Household and the breakdown of his marriage.
From the spring of 1951 came several testimonies of a growing romantic attraction. A footman told how the King diverted the pair's picnic plans, adding that whatever the King and Queen knew about the developing relationship, few royal staff failed to notice as it was obvious to them.
Townsend said that his love for Margaret began in Balmoral in 1951, and recalled an incident there in August when the princess woke him from a nap after a picnic lunch while the King watched, to suggest the King knew. Townsend and his wife separated in 1951, which was noticed by the press by July.
Margaret was grief-stricken by her father's death and was prescribed sedatives to help her sleep. Of her father she wrote:
"He was such a wonderful person,
the very heart and centre of our
happy family."
Margaret was consoled by her deeply-held Christian beliefs, sometimes attending church twice daily. She re-emerged attending events with her family in April, and returned to public duties and the social scene when official mourning ended in June.
American newspapers noted her increasing vitality and speculated that she must be in love. With the widowed Queen Mother, Margaret moved out of Buckingham Palace and into Clarence House in May 1953, while her older sister, now Queen, and her family moved out of Clarence House and into Buckingham Palace. After the king's death, Townsend was appointed Comptroller of Margaret's mother's restructured household.
In June 1952, the estranged Townsends hosted Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret at a cocktail party at their home. A month later, Rosemary Townsend and her new partner John de László attended judging at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. It is thought that the romance between Margaret and Townsend began around this time.
The first reports that Townsend and Margaret wished to marry began in August 1952, but these remained uncommon. The Townsend divorce in November was mentioned little in Britain and in greater detail abroad. After the divorce was finalized in December 1952, however, rumours spread about him and Margaret; the divorce, and shared grief over the death of the king in February 1952, likely helped them come together within the privacy of Clarence House, where the princess had her own apartment.
-- The Marriage Proposal
Private Secretary to the Queen Sir Alan Lascelles wrote that Townsend came to tell him that he had asked Margaret to marry him shortly before Christmas 1952. Other sources claim it occurred in April 1953. He was 15 years her senior, and had two children from his previous marriage. Margaret accepted and informed her sister, the Queen, whose consent was required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772.
During the abdication crisis, the Church of England refused to countenance the remarriage of the divorced.
Queen Mary had recently died, and, after the coronation of Elizabeth II, the new queen planned to tour the Commonwealth for six months. She told her sister:
"Under the circumstances, it isn't
unreasonable for me to ask you
to wait a year."
Although foreign media speculated on Margaret and Townsend's relationship, the British press did not. After reporters saw her plucking fluff from his coat during the coronation on the 2nd. June 1953. Townsend later said:
"I never thought a thing about it,
and neither did Margaret. After
that the storm broke."
The People first mentioned the relationship in Britain on the 14th. June 1953. With the headline "They Must Deny it NOW", the front-page article warned that "scandalous rumours about Princess Margaret are racing around the world", which the newspaper stated were "of course, utterly untrue".
The foreign press believed that the Regency Act 1953—which made Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, regent instead of Margaret on the Queen's death—was enacted to allow the princess to marry Townsend, but as late as the 23rd. July most other British newspapers except the Daily Mirror did not discuss the rumours. Acting Prime Minister Rab Butler asked that "deplorable speculation" end, without mentioning Margaret or Townsend.
The constitutional crisis that the proposed marriage caused was public. The Queen was advised by Lascelles to post Townsend abroad, but she refused, and instead transferred him from the Queen Mother's household to her own, although Townsend did not accompany Margaret as planned on a tour of Southern Rhodesia.
Prime Minister Churchill personally approved of "a lovely young royal lady married to a gallant young airman" but his wife reminded Churchill that he had made the same mistake during the abdication crisis. His cabinet refused to approve the marriage, and Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, did not approve of Margaret marrying a divorced man; opponents said that the marriage would threaten the monarchy as Edward VIII's had.
The Church of England Newspaper said that:
"Margaret is a dutiful churchwoman
who knows what strong views leaders
of the church hold in this matter."
However the Sunday Express—which had supported Edward and Wallis—asked:
"IF THEY WANT TO MARRY,
WHY SHOULDN'T THEY?"
Churchill discussed the marriage at the 1953 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference held with the coronation; the Statute of Westminster 1931 requires Dominion parliaments to also approve any Bill of Renunciation changing the line of succession.
The Canadian government stated that altering the line twice in 25 years would harm the monarchy. Churchill informed the Queen that both his cabinet and Dominion prime ministers were against the marriage, and that Parliament would not approve a marriage that would be unrecognized by the Church of England unless Margaret renounced her rights to the throne.
Prince Philip was reportedly the most opposed to Townsend in the royal family, while Margaret's mother and sister wanted her to be happy, but could not approve of the marriage. Besides Townsend's divorce, two major problems were financial and constitutional.
Margaret did not possess her sister's large fortune, and would need the £6,000 annual civil list allowance and £15,000 additional allowance Parliament had provided for her upon a suitable marriage. She did not object to being removed from the line of succession to the throne, as the Queen and all her children dying was unlikely, but receiving parliamentary approval for the marriage would be difficult and uncertain.
At the age of 25 Margaret would not need Elizabeth's permission under the 1772 Act; she could, after notifying the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, marry in one year if Parliament did not prevent her. If Churchill told the Queen, however, one could easily leave the line of succession, another could easily enter the line, dangerous for a hereditary monarchy.
The Queen told the couple to wait until 1955, when Margaret would be 25, avoiding the Queen having to publicly disapprove of her sister's marriage. Lascelles—who compared Townsend to Theudas "boasting himself to be somebody"—hoped that separating him and Margaret would end their romance.
Churchill arranged for Townsend's assignment as air attaché at the British Embassy in Brussels; he was sent on the 15th. July 1953, before Margaret's return from Rhodesia on the 30th. July. The assignment was so sudden that the British ambassador learned about it from a newspaper. Although the princess and Townsend knew about his new job, they had reportedly been promised a few days together before his departure.
-- Press Coverage
For two years, press speculation continued. In Brussels, Townsend only said that "The word must come from somebody else". He avoided parties and being seen with women. With few duties (the sinecure was abolished after him), Townsend improved his French and horsemanship. He joined a Belgian show jumping club and rode in races around Europe.
Margaret was told by the Church that she would be unable to receive communion if she married a divorced man. Three quarters of Sunday Express readers opposed the relationship, and Mass-Observation recorded criticism of the "silly little fool" as a poor example for young women who emulated her. Other newspaper polls showed popular support for Margaret's personal choice, regardless of Church teaching or government.
97% of Daily Mirror readers supported marriage, and a Daily Express editorial stated that even if the Archbishop of Canterbury was displeased:
"She would best please the vast
majority of ordinary folk by finding
happiness for herself".
The couple were not restricted on communicating by mail and telephone. Margaret worked with friends on charity productions of Lord and Lady Algy and The Frog, and publicly dated men such as Tennant and Wallace. In January 1955, she made the first of many trips to the Caribbean, perhaps to distract, and as a reward for being apart, from Townsend.
The attaché secretly travelled to Britain; while the palace was aware of one visit, he reportedly made other trips for nights and weekends with the princess at Clarence House—her apartment had its own front door—and friends' homes.
That spring Townsend for the first time spoke to the press:
"I am sick of being made to hide in
my apartment like a thief, but whether
I can marry involves more people than
myself".
He reportedly believed that his exile from Margaret would soon end, their love was strong, and that the British people would support marrying. Townsend received a bodyguard and police guard around his apartment after the Belgian government received threats on his life, but the British government still said nothing.
Stating that people were more interested in the couple than the recent 1955 United Kingdom general election, on the 29th. May the Daily Express published an editorial demanding that Buckingham Palace confirm or deny the rumours.
The press described Margaret's 25th. birthday, the 21st. August 1955, as the day she was free to marry, and expected an announcement about Townsend soon. Three hundred journalists waited outside Balmoral, four times as many as those later following Diana, Princess of Wales. "COME ON MARGARET!", the Daily Mirror's front page said two days earlier, asking her to "Please Make up Your Mind!".
On the 12th. October Townsend returned from Brussels as Margaret's suitor. The royal family devised a system in which it did not host Townsend, but he and Margaret formally courted each other at dinner parties hosted by friends such as Mark Bonham Carter. A Gallup poll found that 59% of Britons approved of their marrying, with 17% opposed.
Women in the East End of London shouted "Go on, Marg, do what you want" at the princess. Although the couple were never seen together in public during this time, the general consensus was that they would marry. Crowds waited outside Clarence House, and a global audience read daily updates and rumours on newspaper front pages.
The Manchester Guardian said on the 15th. October:
"Nothing much else than Princess
Margaret's affairs is being talked
of in this country, Now the Nation
Waits."
Observers interpreted Buckingham Palace's request to the press to respect Margaret's privacy—the first time the palace discussed the princess's recent personal life—as evidence of an imminent betrothal announcement,
As no announcement occurred—the Daily Mirror on the 17th. October showed a photograph of Margaret's left hand with the headline "NO RING YET!"—the press wondered why. The News Chronicle wrote:
"Parliamentarians are frankly puzzled
by the way the affair has been handled.
If a marriage is on, why not announce it
quickly?
If there is to be no marriage, why allow
the couple to continue to meet without
a clear denial of the rumours?"
Why a betrothal did not occur is still unclear. Margaret may have been uncertain of her desire, having written to Prime Minister Anthony Eden in August that:
"It is only by seeing him in this way
that I feel I can properly decide
whether I can marry him or not".
Margaret may have told Townsend as early as the 12th. October that governmental and familial opposition to their marriage had not changed; it is possible that neither they nor the Queen fully understood until that year how difficult the 1772 Act made a royal marriage without the monarch's permission.
An influential 26th. October editorial in The Times stating that "The Queen's sister married to a divorced man (even though the innocent party) would be irrevocably disqualified from playing her part in the essential royal function" represented The Establishment's view of what it considered a possibly dangerous crisis.
It convinced many, who had believed that the media were exaggerating, that the princess really might defy the Church and royal standards. Leslie Weatherhead, President of the Methodist Conference, now criticized the proposed marriage.
Townsend recalled that:
"We felt mute and numbed at
the centre of this maelstrom."
The Queen also wanted the media circus to end. Townsend only had his RAF income and, other than a talent for writing, had no experience in other work. He wrote in his autobiography that:
"The princess could have married
me only if she had been prepared
to give up everything -- her position,
her prestige, her privy purse.
I simply hadn't the weight, I knew it,
to counterbalance all she would have
lost"
Kenneth Rose described Margaret's potential marriage as "life in a cottage on a Group Captain's salary".
Royal historian Hugo Vickers wrote that:
"Lascelles's separation plan
had worked, and the love
between them had died".
Margaret's authorized biographer Christopher Warwick said that:
"Having spent two years apart, they
were no longer as in love as they had
been. Townsend was not the love of
her life – the love of her life was her
father, King George VI, whom she
adored".
More than 100 journalists waited at Balmoral when Eden arrived to discuss the marriage with the Queen and Margaret on the 1st. October 1955. Lord Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, that month prepared a secret government document on the proposed marriage.
According to a 1958 biography of Townsend by Norman Barrymaine and other accounts, Eden said that his government would oppose in Parliament Margaret retaining her royal status. Parliament might pass resolutions opposing the marriage, which the people would see as a disagreement between government and monarchy; Lord Salisbury, a High Anglican, might resign from the government rather than help pass a Bill of Renunciation.
While the government could not prevent the marriage when Margaret become a private individual after a Bill of Renunciation, she would no longer be a Counsellor of State, and would lose her civil list allowance; otherwise, taxpayers would subsidise a divorced man and the princess's new stepsons. The Church would consider any children from the marriage to be illegitimate. Eden recommended that, like Edward VIII and Wallis, Margaret and Townsend leave Great Britain for several years.
Papers released in 2004 to the National Archives disagree. They show that the Queen and Eden (who had been divorced and remarried himself) planned to amend the 1772 Act. Margaret would have been able to marry Townsend by removing her and any children from the marriage from the line of succession, and thus the Queen's permission would no longer be necessary. Margaret would be allowed to keep her royal title and her allowance, stay in the country, and even continue with her public duties.
Eden described the Queen's attitude in a letter on the subject to the Commonwealth prime ministers as:
"Her Majesty would not wish to stand
in the way of her sister's happiness".
Eden himself was sympathetic. He wrote:
"Exclusion from the Succession would
not entail any other change in Princess
Margaret's position as a member of the
Royal Family."
In the 28th. October 1955 final draft of the plan, Margaret would announce that she would marry Townsend and leave the line of succession. As prearranged by Eden, the Queen would consult with the British and Commonwealth governments, and then ask them to amend the 1772 Act. Eden would have told Parliament that it was "out of harmony with modern conditions"; Kilmuir estimated that 75% of Britons would approve of allowing the marriage.
He advised Eden that the 1772 Act was flawed, and might not apply to Margaret anyway. The decision not to marry was made on the 24th. October, and for the following week, Margaret was in disputes about the release and wording of her statement, which was released on the 31st.
It is unverified what or when she was told about proposals, drafted on the 28th., four days after the decision was made. By the early 1980's she was still protesting to biographers that the couple had been given false hope that marriage was possible, and she would have ended the relationship sooner had she been informed otherwise.
The Daily Mirror on the 28th. October discussed The Times's editorial with the headline "THIS CRUEL PLAN MUST BE EXPOSED". Although Margaret and Townsend had read the editorial the newspaper denounced as from "a dusty world and a forgotten age", they had earlier made their decision and written an announcement.
-- The End of the Relationship
On the 31st. October 1955, Margaret issued a statement:
"I would like it to be known that I have decided
not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.
I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing
my rights of succession, it might have been possible
for me to contract a civil marriage.
But mindful of the Church's teachings that Christian
marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty
to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these
considerations before others.
I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in
doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing
support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend."
"Thoroughly drained, thoroughly demoralized", Margaret later said, she and Townsend wrote the statement together. She refused when Oliver Dawnay, the Queen Mother's private secretary, asked to remove the word "devotion". The written statement, signed "Margaret", was the first official confirmation of the relationship.
Some Britons were disbelieving or angry while others, including clergy, were proud of the princess for choosing duty and faith; newspapers were evenly divided on the decision. Mass-Observation recorded indifference or criticism of the couple among men, but great interest among women, whether for or against.
Kenneth Tynan, John Minton, Ronald Searle, and others signed an open letter from "the younger generation". Published in the Daily Express on 4 November, the letter said that the end of the relationship had exposed The Establishment and "our national hypocrisy".
Townsend recalled that:
"We had reached the end of the road, our
feelings for one another were unchanged,
but they had incurred for us a burden so
great that we decided together to lay it
down".
The Associated Press said:
"Margaret's statement is almost a
rededication of her life to the duties
of royalty, making unlikely any
marriage for her in the near future,"
The princess may have expected to never marry after the long relationship ended, because most of her eligible male friends were no longer bachelors.
Barrymaine agreed that Margaret intended the statement to mean that she would never marry, but wrote that Townsend probably did not accept any such vow to him by the princess, and his subsequent departure from Britain for two years was to not interfere with her life.
Townsend said:
"We both had a feeling of unimaginable
relief. We were liberated at last from this
monstrous problem."
After resigning from the RAF and travelling around the world for 18 months, Townsend returned in March 1958; he and Margaret met several times, but could not avoid the press ("TOGETHER AGAIN") or royal disapproval. Townsend again left Britain to write a book about his trip; Barrymaine concluded in 1958 that:
"None of the fundamental obstacles to
their marriage has been overcome – or
shows any prospects of being overcome".
Townsend said during a 1970 book tour that he and Margaret did not correspond, and they had not seen each other since a "friendly" 1958 meeting:
"Just like I think a lot of people
never see their old girl friends".
Their love letters are in the Royal Archives, and will not be available to the public until 100 years after Margaret's birth, February 2030. These are unlikely to include Margaret's letters. In 1959, she wrote to Townsend in response to him informing her of his remarriage plans, accusing him of betraying their vow not to marry anyone else, and requesting her love letters to him be destroyed.
He claimed he had complied with her wishes, but kept this letter and an envelope of burned shards of the vow she had sent, eventually destroying these also. He was apparently unaware Margaret had already broken the pact by her engagement to Billy Wallace, as it wasn't revealed until many years later.
In October 1993, a friend of Margaret revealed she had met Townsend for what turned out to be the last time before his death in 1995. She hadn't wanted to attend the reunion they'd both been invited to, in 1992, for fear it might be picked up by the press, so she asked to see him privately instead.
Margaret said that he looked "exactly the same, except he had grey hair". Guests said he hadn't really changed, and that they just sat chatting like old friends. They also found him disgruntled and had convinced himself that in agreeing to part, he and Margaret had set a noble example which seemed to have been in vain.
Marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones
Billy Wallace later said that:
"The thing with Townsend was a girlish
nonsense that got out of hand. It was
never the big thing on her part that
people claim".
Margaret accepted one of Wallace's many proposals to marry in 1956, but the engagement ended before an official announcement when he admitted to a romance in the Bahamas; "I had my chance and blew it with my big mouth", Wallace said.
Margaret did not reveal this publicly until an interview and subsequent biography with Nigel Dempster in 1977.
Margaret met the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at a supper party in 1958. They became engaged in October 1959. Armstrong-Jones proposed to Margaret with a ruby engagement ring surrounded by diamonds in the shape of a rosebud. She reportedly accepted his proposal a day after learning from Townsend that he intended to marry a young Belgian woman, Marie-Luce Jamagne, who was half his age and greatly resembled Margaret.
Margaret's announcement of her engagement, on the 26th. February 1960, surprised the press, as she had concealed the romance from reporters.
Margaret married Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey on the 6th. May 1960. The ceremony was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television, and it attracted viewing figures of 300 million worldwide. 2,000 guests were invited for the wedding ceremony.
Margaret's wedding dress was designed by Norman Hartnell and worn with the Poltimore tiara. She had eight young bridesmaids, led by her niece, Princess Anne. The Duke of Edinburgh escorted the bride, and the best man was Dr. Roger Gilliatt. The Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher conducted the marriage service.
Following the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The honeymoon was a six-week Caribbean cruise aboard the royal yacht Britannia. As a wedding present, Colin Tennant gave her a plot of land on his private Caribbean island, Mustique. The newlyweds moved into rooms in Kensington Palace.
In 1961, Margaret's husband was created the Earl of Snowdon. The couple had two children (both born by Caesarean section at Margaret's request): David, born 3rd. November 1961, and Sarah, born 1st. May 1964.
The marriage widened Margaret's social circle beyond the Court and aristocracy to include show business celebrities and bohemians. At the time, it was thought to reflect the breaking down of British class barriers. The Snowdons experimented with the styles and fashions of the 1960's.
Separation and Divorce
Both parties in the marriage regularly committed adultery. Antony had a series of affairs, including with long-term mistress, Ann Hills, and Lady Jacqueline Rufus-Isaacs, daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Reading. Anne De Courcy’s 2008 biography summarises the situation with a quote from a close friend: "If it moves, he'll have it."
Reportedly, Margaret had her first extramarital affair in 1966, with her daughter's godfather Anthony Barton, a Bordeaux wine producer. A year later she had a one-month liaison with Robin Douglas-Home, a nephew of former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home.
Margaret claimed that her relationship with Douglas-Home was platonic, but her letters to him (which were later sold) were intimate. Douglas-Home, who suffered from depression, died by suicide 18 months after the split with Margaret.
Claims that she was romantically involved with musician Mick Jagger, actor Peter Sellers, and Australian cricketer Keith Miller are unproven. According to biographer Charlotte Breese, entertainer Leslie Hutchinson had a "brief liaison" with Margaret in 1955.
A 2009 biography of actor David Niven included assertions, based on information from Niven's widow and a good friend of Niven's, that he had had an affair with the princess, who was 20 years his junior. In 1975, the Princess was listed among women with whom actor Warren Beatty had had romantic relationships.
John Bindon, an actor from Fulham, who had spent time in prison, sold his story to the Daily Mirror, boasting of a close relationship with Margaret.
Beyond adultery, the marriage was accompanied by drugs, alcohol, and bizarre behaviour by both parties, such as his leaving lists of "things I hate about you" for the princess to find between the pages of books she read.
According to biographer Sarah Bradford, one note read:
"You look like a Jewish
manicurist and I hate you".
By the early 1970's, the Snowdons had drifted apart. In September 1973, Colin Tennant introduced Margaret to Roddy Llewellyn. Llewellyn was 17 years her junior. In 1974, she invited him as a guest to Les Jolies Eaux, the holiday home she had built on Mustique. It was the first of several visits.
Margaret described their relationship as "a loving friendship". Once, when Llewellyn left on an impulsive trip to Turkey, Margaret became emotionally distraught and took an overdose of sleeping tablets. She later said:
"I was so exhausted because
of everything that all I wanted
to do was sleep".
As she recovered, her ladies-in-waiting kept Lord Snowdon away from her, afraid that seeing him would distress her further.
In February 1976, a picture of Margaret and Llewellyn in swimsuits on Mustique was published on the front page of the News of the World. The press portrayed Margaret as a predatory older woman and Llewellyn as her toyboy lover. On the 19th. March 1976, the Snowdons publicly acknowledged that their marriage had irretrievably broken down and had decided to separate.
Some politicians suggested removing Margaret from the civil list. Labour MPs denounced her as "a royal parasite" and a "floozie". On the 24th. May 1978, the decree nisi for their divorce was granted. In the same month, Margaret was taken ill, and diagnosed as suffering from gastroenteritis and alcoholic hepatitis, although Warwick denied that she was ever an alcoholic.
On the 11th. July 1978, the Snowdons' divorce was finalized. It was the first divorce of a senior member of the British royal family since Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh's in 1901. On the 15th. December 1978, Snowdon married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, but he and Margaret remained close friends.
In 1981, Llewellyn married Tatiana Soskin, whom he had known for 10 years. Margaret remained close friends with them both.
Princess Margaret's Public Life
Among Margaret's first official engagements was launching the ocean liner Edinburgh Castle in Belfast in 1947. Subsequently, Margaret went on multiple tours of various places; in her first major tour she joined her parents and sister for a tour of South Africa in 1947. Her tour aboard Britannia to the British colonies in the Caribbean in 1955 created a sensation throughout the West Indies, and calypsos were dedicated to her.
As colonies of the British Commonwealth of Nations sought nationhood, Princess Margaret represented the Crown at independence ceremonies in Jamaica in 1962 and Tuvalu and Dominica in 1978. Her visit to Tuvalu was cut short by an illness, which may have been viral pneumonia, and she was flown to Australia to recuperate.
Other overseas tours included East Africa and Mauritius in 1956, the United States in 1965, Japan in 1969 and 1979, the United States and Canada in 1974, Australia in 1975, the Philippines in 1980, Swaziland in 1981, and China in 1987.
In August 1979, Louis Mountbatten, 1st. Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and members of his family were killed by a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. That October, while on a fundraising tour of the United States on behalf of the Royal Opera House, Margaret was seated at a dinner reception in Chicago with columnist Abra Anderson and Mayor Jane Byrne.
Margaret told them that the royal family had been moved by the many letters of condolence from Ireland. The following day, Anderson's rival Irv Kupcinet published a claim that Margaret had referred to the Irish as "pigs". Margaret, Anderson and Byrne all issued immediate denials, but the damage was already done. The rest of the tour drew demonstrations, and Margaret's security was doubled in the face of physical threats.
Princess Margaret's Charity Work
Margaret's main interests were welfare charities, music and ballet. She was president of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and of the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Children 1st.) and Invalid Children's Aid Nationwide (also called 'I CAN').
She was Grand President of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and Colonel-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. She was also the president or patron of numerous organisations, such as the West Indies Olympic Association, the Girl Guides, Northern Ballet Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Tenovus Cancer Care, the Royal College of Nursing, and the London Lighthouse (an AIDS charity that has since merged with the Terrence Higgins Trust).
In her capacity as president of the Royal Ballet, she played a key role in launching a fund for Dame Margot Fonteyn, who was experiencing financial troubles. With the help of the Children's Royal Variety Performance, she also organized yearly fundraisers for NSPCC.
Princess Margaret's Illness and Death
Margaret's later life was marred by illness and disability. She began smoking cigarettes in her early teens, and had continued to smoke heavily for many years thereafter. In the 1970s, she suffered a nervous breakdown and was treated for depression by Mark Collins, a psychiatrist from the Priory Clinic. Later on, she suffered from migraines, laryngitis, and bronchitis. On the 5th. January 1985, she had part of her left lung removed; the operation drew parallels with that of her father 34 years earlier. In 1991, she gave up smoking, though she continued to drink heavily.
In January 1993, Margaret was admitted to hospital for pneumonia. She experienced a mild stroke on the 23rd. February 1998 at her holiday home in Mustique. Early the following year, she suffered severe scalds to her feet in a bathroom accident, which affected her mobility in that she required support when walking and sometimes used a wheelchair.
Margaret was hospitalized on the 10th. January 2001, due to loss of appetite and swallowing problems after a further stroke. By March 2001, strokes had left her with partial vision and paralysis on the left side. Margaret's last public appearances were at the 101st. birthday celebrations of her mother in August 2001, and the 100th. birthday celebration of her aunt Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, that December.
Princess Margaret died in the King Edward VII's Hospital, London, at 06:30 (GMT) on the 9th. February 2002, at the age of 71, one day after having suffered another stroke that was followed by cardiac problems, and three days after the 50th. anniversary of her father's death.
Her sister's eldest son, Charles, then Prince of Wales, paid tribute to his aunt in a television broadcast. UK politicians and foreign leaders sent their condolences as well. Following her death, private memorial services were held at St. Mary Magdalene Church and Glamis Castle.
Margaret's coffin, draped in her personal standard, was taken from Kensington Palace to St. James's Palace before her funeral. The funeral was held on the 15th. February 2002, the 50th anniversary of her father's funeral. In line with her wishes, the ceremony was a private service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, for family and friends.
Unlike most other members of the royal family, Princess Margaret was cremated, at Slough Crematorium. Her ashes were placed in the Royal Vault in St. George's Chapel before being transferred to the tomb of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (who died seven weeks after Margaret), in the King George VI Memorial Chapel two months later. Princess Margaret had opted to be cremated so that her remains could fit alongside her father King George VI’s grave in a vault that was made especially to hold him specifically.
In keeping with her rebellious reputation, the princess broke from what was typically expected of a royal family member and chose to be cremated. Princess Margaret was the first member of the royal family to be cremated since the procedure became legal.
A state memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on the 19th. April 2002. Another memorial service to mark the 10th. anniversary of Margaret and the Queen Mother's death was held on the 30th. March 2012 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, which was attended by the Queen and other members of the royal family.
The Legacy of Princess Margaret
Observers often characterized Margaret as a spoiled snob capable of cutting remarks and hauteur. Critics claimed that she even looked down on her grandmother Queen Mary because Mary was born a princess with the lower "Serene Highness" style, whereas Margaret was a "Royal Highness" by birth. Their letters, however, provide no indication of friction between them.
Margaret could also be charming and informal. People who came into contact with her could be perplexed by her swings between frivolity and formality. Former governess Marion Crawford wrote in her memoir:
"Impulsive and bright remarks she
made became headlines and, taken
out of their context, began to produce
in the public eye an oddly distorted
personality that bore little resemblance
to the Margaret we knew."
Margaret's acquaintance Gore Vidal, the American writer, wrote: "She was far too intelligent for her station in life". He recalled a conversation with Margaret in which, discussing her public notoriety, she said:
"It was inevitable, when there are
two sisters and one is the Queen,
who must be the source of honour
and all that is good, while the other
must be the focus of the most
creative malice, the evil sister".
As a child, Margaret enjoyed pony shows, but unlike other family members she did not express interest in hunting, shooting, and fishing in adulthood. She became interested in ballet from a very young age, and enjoyed participating in amateur plays. She directed one such play, titled The Frogs, with her aristocratic friends as cast members.
Actors and movie stars were among the regular visitors to her residence at Kensington Palace. In January 1981, she was the castaway in an episode of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. There she chose Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake as her favourite piece of music. In 1984, she appeared as herself in an episode of the radio drama The Archers, becoming the first member of the royal family to take part in a BBC drama.
Princess Margaret's private life was for many years the subject of intense speculation by media and royalty watchers. Her house on Mustique, designed by her husband's uncle Oliver Messel, a stage designer, was her favourite holiday destination. Allegations of wild parties and drug taking also surfaced in the media.
Following Margaret's death, her lady-in-waiting, Lady Glenconner, said that Margaret was devoted to the Queen and tremendously supportive of her. Margaret was described by her cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley as:
"Somebody who had a wonderful
capacity for giving a lot of people
pleasure, and she was making a
very, very, very good and loyal
friend".
Another cousin, Lord Lichfield, said that:
"Margaret was pretty sad towards
the end of her life because it was
a life unfulfilled".
The Independent wrote in Townsend's 1995 obituary that:
"The immense display of popular sentiment and interest
in the relationship can now be seen to have constituted
a watershed in the nation's attitude towards divorce".
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church received much of the popular anger toward the end of the relationship. Randolph Churchill believed that rumours that Fisher had intervened to prevent the Princess from marrying Townsend has done incalculable harm to the Church of England.
A Gallup poll found that 28% agreed, and 59% disagreed, with the Church's refusal to remarry a divorced person while the other spouse was alive. Biographer Warwick suggests that Margaret's most enduring legacy is an accidental one. Perhaps unwittingly, Margaret paved the way for public acceptance of royal divorce. Her life, if not her actions, made the decisions and choices of her sister's children, three of whom divorced, easier than they otherwise would have been.
Eden reportedly told the Queen in Balmoral when discussing Margaret and Townsend that, regardless of outcome, the monarchy would be damaged. Harold Brooks-Baker said
"In my opinion, this was the turning point to
disaster for the royal family. After Princess
Margaret was denied marriage, it backfired
and more or less ruined Margaret's life.
The Queen decided that from then on,
anyone that someone in her family wanted
to marry would be more or less acceptable.
The royal family and the public now feel
that they've gone too far in the other direction".
Princess Margaret's Fashion and Style
During her lifetime, Princess Margaret was considered a fashion icon. Her fashion earned the nickname 'The Margaret Look'. The princess, dubbed a 'royal rebel' styled herself in contrast to her sister's prim and timeless style, adopting trendy mod accessories, such as brightly coloured headscarves and glamorous sunglasses.
Margaret developed a close relationship with atelier Christian Dior, wearing his designs throughout her life and becoming one of his most prominent customers. In 1950, he designed a cream gown worn for her 21st. birthday, which has been cited as an iconic part of fashion history. Throughout the decade, the princess was known for wearing floral-print dresses, bold-hued ballgowns and luxurious fabrics, accessorising with diamonds, pearls, and fur stoles.
British Vogue wrote that Margaret's style 'hit her stride' in the mid-60's, where she was photographed alongside celebrities like The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren. Princess Margaret was also known for her "magnificent" hats and headdresses, including a canary feather hat worn on a 1962 Jamaica visit and a peacock feather pillbox hat to the 1973 Royal Ascot.
Marie Claire stated that the princess "refused to compromise" on her style later in life, continuing with trends of big sleeves and strapless evening gowns.
In April 2007, an exhibition titled Princess Line – The Fashion Legacy of Princess Margaret opened at Kensington Palace, showcasing contemporary fashion from British designers such as Vivienne Westwood inspired by Princess Margaret's legacy of style. Christopher Bailey's Spring 2006 collection for Burberry was inspired by Margaret's look from the 1960's.
Princess Margaret's Finances
In her lifetime, Margaret's fortune was estimated to be around £20 million, with most of it being inherited from her father. She also inherited pieces of art and antiques from Queen Mary, and Dame Margaret Greville left her £20,000 in 1943.
In 1999, her son, Lord Linley, sold his mother's Caribbean residence Les Jolies Eaux for a reported £2.4 million. At the time of her death Margaret received £219,000 from the Civil List. Following her death, she left a £7.6 million estate to her two children, which was cut down to £4.5 million after inheritance tax.
In June 2006, much of Margaret's estate was auctioned by Christie's to meet the tax and, in her son's words, "normal family requirements such as educating her grandchildren", though some of the items were sold in aid of charities such as the Stroke Association.
Reportedly, the Queen had made it clear that the proceeds from any item that was given to her sister in an official capacity must be donated to charities.
A world record price of £1.24 million was set by a Fabergé clock. The Poltimore Tiara (shown in the above photograph), which Margaret wore for her wedding in 1960, sold for £926,400. The sale of her effects totalled £13,658,000.
The Poltimore Tiara
You know the photograph: Princess Margaret lying in a bath and wearing nothing but a tiara on her head. The photograph which was taken by her husband, famed photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, was not released to the public until 2006, four years after Margaret's death.
As flirtatious as it is shameless, the photograph consolidated her status as the eternal rebel of the British Royal House. Margaret once said about herself:
"Disobedience is my fun."
Eleven years later, the portrait was withdrawn from the public eye, but the image remains ingrained in the minds of the world, to such an extent that The Crown included a scene about it in the third season. In fact the image is still readily accessible on the Internet.
Despite the fact that much of what was so shocking about the image had to do with the fact that it was taken in a bath, it acquired iconic status due to the presence of the tiara: grand, resplendent and downright stunning.
The tiara has a lot of history. Known as the Poltimore tiara, it originally belonged to Lady Poltimore, the wife of the 2nd. Baron Poltimore. Made in 1870 by London's House of Garrard, it is the epitome of Victorian-era jewellery style: diamond scrolls evoking flora and nature.
Lady Poltimore wore this fantastic creation, whose support is made up of gold and silver, at the coronation of King George V in 1911.
The 4th. baron put it up for auction in January 1959, and it was then that Princess Margaret acquired it for £5,500.
It was purchased for Princess Margaret on the advice of Lord Patrick Plunkett, Deputy Master of the Household, prior to the official announcement of her engagement to Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Despite having access to the crown jewels (the Duchess of Cambridge, for example, wore tiaras borrowed from the Queen), the then-29-year-old princess wanted something she could call uniquely hers.
Sara Prentice, Creative Director of the House of Garrard, says:
“It's very modern. It is becoming more and
more common for women to buy for themselves,
but looking back to 1959, the truth is that she
chose it for herself. She had to charm him to
do it."
A year and a half later, on the 6th. May 1960, Princess Margaret wore her tiara on the most important of occasions: her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey. The tiara has been part of history ever since. It is the tiara most associated with Princess Margaret.
Margaret's wedding was the tiara's most high-profile outing. In 1977 she wore it again for the Shah of Iran's state visit to the United Kingdom.
While no tiara can be considered functional, the design of the Poltimore tiara allowed for multiple uses. It could be transformed into a necklace (which Margaret did in 1960) or, if she wanted to, into 11 different brooches.
The tiara appears to be practically floating when worn. This is because the bracket is entwined with a brown ribbon that matched Margaret 's hair color. Thus, only the ribbon-covered portion sank into her hair, while her spectacular jewellery remained fully in view.
Prentice estimates that such a piece would take around six months to make.
The Poltimore tiara was sold in 2006 at Christie's by Margaret's children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto in order to raise funds to cover unexpectedly high inheritance taxes. The tiara went to an Asian buyer for £926,400.
Since the Christie's sale of the Poltimore, the tiara's current whereabouts are unknown. A number of observers felt that the royal family should have taken the opportunity to buy the historic piece, but they didn't.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 553. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
American film and television actress Sheree North (1932–2005) was one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe. North became her own woman in a varied and sometimes bumpy 40+ year film, stage and TV career.
Sheree North was born Dawn Shirley Crang in 1932 in Los Angeles. She was the daughter of June Shoard and Richard Crang. Following her mother's remarriage to Edward Bethel, she was known as Dawn Shirley Bethel. North began taking dance lessons at age 6. At age 10 she danced in several USO shows during WWII. At age 13 she lied about her age so she could become a chorus girl. In 1948, she married Fred Bessire. She bore her first child at age 17 in 1949, and continued dancing in clubs under the stage name Shirley Mae Bessire. North made her film debut as an uncredited extra in Excuse My Dust (1951). She was discovered in a Santa Monica night club by a famous choreographer who cast her as a chorus girl in the film Here Come the Girls (1953), starring Bob Hope. Around that time, she adopted the stage name Sheree North. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Hazel Flagg. For her performance, she won a 1953 Theatre World Award. She reprised her role in the film version, Living It Up (Norman Tautog, 1954) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In 1954, North signed a four-year contract with 20th Century-Fox. In March 1954, North had a brush with scandal when it was revealed that she had earlier danced in a bikini in an 8 mm erotic film. Fox capitalised on the publicity as the studio previously had with Marilyn Monroe's nude calendar posing in 1952 She became Fox's alternative to MM. When she was pictured on the cover of the 21 March 1955, issue of Life magazine, the headline read, "Sheree North Takes Over From Marilyn Monroe". She appeared in such Box Office friendly entertainments as the musicals How to be very, very popular (Nunnally Johnson, 1955) with Betty Grable in her final role, and The Best Things in Life are Free (Michael Curtiz, 1956) with Gordon MacRae, Dan Dailey and Ernest Borgnine, as well as the comedy The Lieutenant wore Skirts (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Tom Ewell. Fox later signed Jayne Mansfield in 1956 and North was pushed aside by the studio. She appeared in four more forgettable Fox films - The Way to the Gold (Robert D. Webb, 1957), No Down Payment (Martin Ritt, 1957) with Joanne Woodward, In Love and War (Philip Dunne, 1958), and Mardi Gras (Edmund Goulding, 1958) with Pat Boone - and her contract was not renewed after 1958.
Sheree North's career stalled. She made occasional appearances on TV over the next 10 years, in such programs as Gunsmoke (1963), The Virginian (1964-1966), Burke's Law (1963-1965), The Big Valley (1966), The Fugitive (1965-1967), and more. North joined the stage cast of I Can Get It for You Wholesale in 1962, which featured Elliott Gould and introduced Barbra Streisand. She took over for Shirley Knight in a Los Angeles production of "Dutchman," which coincided with the 1965 Watts riots. The production was controversial and was blamed by conservatives for inciting unrest. It was picketed, ads were blocked from the newspapers and North's car was set on fire. Despite that, the production ran for a year. From 1959 to 1968, she appeared in only one feature film, the low budget sci-fi flick Desrination Inner Space (Francis D. Lyon, 1966) with Scott Brady. In 1968 she began her longtime association with director Don Siegel, appearing in a supporting role in the cop drama Madigan (Don Siegel, 1968) with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. Siegel went on to cast in her in some of her best screen roles. She usually played a tough, sexy dame or hard edge, world-weary type. That meant a slew of strippers, hookers, widows, cocktail waitresses, trampy housewives, etc. North's other work with Siegel included the brassy forger Jewell Everett in Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973), John Wayne's former flame Serepata in The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1973) and a brainwashed Soviet spy/housewife in Telefon (Don Siegel, 1977). With Elvis Presley she played in one of his final films, The Trouble With Girls (Peter Tewksbury, 1969).
From 1969 to the late 1970s, Sheree North was an in-demand supporting player on the big screen, playing such roles as the slutty wife of Bill McKinney in the crime drama classic The Outfit, a nameless waitress/stripper who sleeps with Gene Hackman in John Frankenheimer's forgotten gem The Gypsy Moths, a former romantic interest of Burt Lancaster, now trying to save her common-law fugitive husband in the Western Lawman (1971), the sexy hairdresser Myrna in Breakout with Charles Bronson and a security guard's drug dealing wife in The Organization with Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs. Through the 1980s & 1990s she made numerous appearances on TV and appeared in an occasional feature film like Maniac Cop and Defenseless.In her later career, she was best known for playing Babs, Kramer's (Michael Richards) mom, on Seinfeld (1989). Her many other TV credits include: Lou Grant's girlfriend with 'spunk' on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), Alias Smith and Jones, Kung Fu, McMillan & Wife, Baretta, Matlock and The Golden Girls, as Blanche Devereaux's sister, Virginia. She also played Norma Jean Baker's unbalanced mom in Marilyn: The Untold Story (Jack Arnold, John Flynn, 1980), Her appearances on Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979) netted her Emmy Nominations. North's last onscreen role came in John Landis' black comedy Susan's Plan (1998), starring Nastassja Kinski. She was married four times, to Phillip Alan Norman, Dr. Gerhardt Ralph Sommer, John M. 'Bud' Freeman and Frederick Arnold Bessire Jr. and she had two daughters, Dawn Jeanette Bessire (1949) and Erica Eve Sommer (1959), from different marriages. Emmy Award-winning film title designer Phill Norman had been her companion from 1981 and they married in 2003, two years before her death. Sheree North died during cancer surgery in 2005. She was 73.
Sources: Scott Rollins (The Scott Rollins Film and TV Trivia Blog), Wikipedia and IMDb
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was printed in England by Fincom Holdings Ltd. The photography was by Bryn Colton, and the card has a divided back.
The Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday 29th. July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The groom was the heir to the British throne, and the bride was a member of the Spencer family.
The ceremony was a traditional Church of England wedding service. The Dean of St Paul's Cathedral Alan Webster presided at the service, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie conducted the marriage.
Notable figures in attendance included many members of other royal families, republican heads of state, and members of the bride's and groom's families. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The United Kingdom had a national holiday on that day to mark the wedding. The ceremony featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry.
Their marriage was widely billed as a 'Fairytale Wedding' and the 'Wedding of the Century'. It was watched by an estimated global TV audience of 750 million people.
Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding. Many street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom to celebrate the occasion.
The couple separated in 1992, and divorced in 1996 after fifteen years of marriage.
The Tragic Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales died after a high-speed car crash at the age of 36 on the 31st. August 1997 at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.
When Diana married Charles, she was a naïve yet hopeful young woman seeking true love. But by the time she died, Diana was jaded, bitter, and impossibly scarred by her disastrous marriage and being hounded by the media.
Twenty years after Princess Diana's funeral, people recall the iconic moments, from the sea of flowers and mementos left outside Kensington Palace to the heart-breaking image of Prince William and Prince Harry walking behind their mother's casket.
Diana’s younger brother Charles, the ninth Earl Spencer, held nothing back during his funeral oration. Funeral attendees may have been expecting a tearful remembrance of Diana’s life. Instead, they felt the full brunt of her brother’s fury at those he felt were responsible for her death.
In paying tribute to his sister, the 9th Earl Spencer reportedly angered the Queen and created a rift in the royal family that has only begun to heal in recent years with the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
What Charles Spencer said in Westminster Abbey is as follows:
Charles Spencer's Funeral Speech
'I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief in a country in mourning before a world in shock.
We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana but rather in our need to do so.
For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.
Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young, and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all. Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without, and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.
There is a temptation to rush to canonise your memory, there is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint. Indeed to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that bent you double.
Your joy for life transmitted where ever you took your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy which you could barely contain.
But your greatest gift was your intuition, and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal, we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.
Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish of AIDS and H.I.V. sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of landmines.
Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected. And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom.
The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for her vulnerability whilst admiring her for her honesty.
The last time I saw Diana was on July the 1st., her birthday in London, when typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a special charity fund-raising evening. She sparkled of course, but I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit me and my children in our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact apart from when she was on display meeting President Mandela we managed to contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture of her -- that meant a lot to her.
These were days I will always treasure. It was as if we had been transported back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous amount of time together -- the two youngest in the family.
Fundamentally she had not changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long train journeys between our parents' homes with me at weekends.
It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre-like life imaginable after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.
There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in her life at this time. She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hands of the newspapers. I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling. My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum. It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this -- a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.
She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.
And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned.
We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role. But we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us.
William and Harry, we all cared desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even imagine.
I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time. For taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds'.
Anne, Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal, was born Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise on the 15th. August 1950. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King Charles III.
Anne is 16th. in the line of succession to the British throne, and has been Princess Royal since 1987.
The Princess Royal's ancestry can be traced as far back as Cerdic, King of Wessex (519–534).
Born at Clarence House, Anne was educated at Benenden School and began undertaking royal duties upon reaching adulthood.
She became a respected equestrian, winning one gold medal in 1971 and two silver medals in 1975 at the European Eventing Championships.
In 1976, she became the first member of the British royal family to compete in the Olympic Games. In 1988, the Princess Royal became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The Princess Royal performs official duties and engagements on behalf of her brother, the King. She holds patronage of over 300 organisations, including WISE, Riders for Health, and Carers Trust.
Her charity work revolves around sport, sciences, people with disabilities, and health in developing countries. She has been associated with Save the Children for over fifty years, and has visited a number of their projects.
Anne married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973; they separated in 1989 and divorced in 1992. They have two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and five grandchildren.
Within months of her divorce, Anne married Commander (later Vice Admiral) Sir Timothy Laurence, whom she had met while he served as her mother's equerry between 1986 and 1989.
Princess Anne - The Early Years
Anne was born during the reign of her maternal grandfather, King George VI, at Clarence House on the 15th. August 1950 at 11:50 am, the second child and only daughter of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, later Queen Elizabeth II from 1952, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
A 21-gun salute in Hyde Park signalled the birth. Anne was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on the 21st. October 1950 by the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett.
At the time of her birth, Anne was third in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her mother – at that time Princess Elizabeth – and older brother, Charles. She rose to second after her mother's accession; she is currently 16th in line.
A governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed to look after Anne and her other siblings, Charles, Andrew, and Edward, and was responsible for her early education at Buckingham Palace. After the death of George VI in February 1952, Anne's mother ascended the throne as Queen Elizabeth II.
Given her young age at the time, Anne did not attend the coronation in June 1953.
A Girl Guides company, the 1st. Buckingham Palace Company to include the Holy Trinity Brompton Brownie pack, was re-formed in May 1959, specifically so that, as her mother and aunt had done as children, Anne could socialise with girls her own age.
The company was active until 1963, when Anne went to boarding school. Anne enrolled at Benenden School in 1963. In 1968, she left school with six GCE O-Levels and two A-Levels. She began to undertake royal engagements in 1969, at the age of 18.
In 1970, she briefly had a relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles, who later married Camilla Shand. Shand much later married Anne's brother Charles as his second wife. Anne was also briefly linked to Olympic equestrian Richard Meade.
Princess Anne's Equestrianism
In spring 1971, Princess Anne finished fourth at the Rushall Horse Trials. At age 21, Anne won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship, and was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971.
She also rode winners in horse racing, competing in the Grand Military Steeplechase at Sandown Park Racecourse and Diamond Stakes at Royal Ascot.
For more than five years, Anne also competed with the British eventing team, with her home-bred horse, Doublet suffering an injury during the 1972 Badminton Horse Trials, and winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship.
The following year, Anne participated in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the Queen's horse, Goodwill, in Eventing.
Anne suffered a concussion halfway through the course, but remounted and finished the event; she has stated she cannot remember making the rest of the jumps. The British team had to pull out of the competition after two horses were injured.
Anne finished sixth at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1979.
In 1985, she rode in a charity horse race at the Epsom Derby, finishing fourth. Anne became President of the Fédération Équestre Internationale from 1986 until 1994.
On the 5th. February 1987, she became the first member of the royal family to appear as a contestant on a television quiz show when she competed on the BBC panel game A Question of Sport.
The princess has been a patron of the Riding for the Disabled Association since 1971, and became its president in 1985, a position she still holds.
Princess Anne's Marriages and Children
-- Marriage to Mark Phillips
Anne met Mark Phillips, a lieutenant in the 1st. Queen's Dragoon Guards, in 1968 at a party for horse lovers. Their engagement was announced on the 29th. May 1973.
On the 14th. November 1973, the couple married at Westminster Abbey in a televised ceremony, with an estimated audience of 100 million. They subsequently took up residence at Gatcombe Park.
As was customary for untitled men marrying into the royal family, Phillips was offered an earldom, which he declined; consequently their children were born without titles. Anne and her husband had two children: Peter (born 1977) and Zara Phillips (born 1981). Anne and Phillips have five grandchildren.
On the 31st. August 1989, Anne and Phillips announced their intention to separate; the couple had been rarely seen in public together, and both were romantically linked with other people.
They shared custody of their children, and initially announced that there were no plans for divorce. However, on the 13th. April 1992 the Palace announced that Anne had filed for divorce, which was finalised ten days later.
-- Marriage to Sir Timothy Laurence
Anne met Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, a commander in the Royal Navy, while he was serving on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Their relationship developed in early 1989, three years after he was appointed as an equerry to the Queen.
In 1989, the existence of private letters from Laurence to the Princess was revealed by The Sun newspaper. The couple married at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral Castle in Scotland, on the 12th. December 1992.
Approximately 30 guests were invited for the private marriage service. Unlike the Church of England at the time, the Church of Scotland permitted the remarriage of divorced persons under certain circumstances.
Anne became the first royal divorcée to remarry since Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
For the wedding ceremony, Anne wore a white jacket over a demure, cropped-to-the-knee dress and a spray of white flowers in her hair. Her engagement ring was made of a cabochon sapphire flanked by three small diamonds on each side.
Following the marriage service, the couple and guests headed to Craigowan Lodge for a private reception. Laurence received no peerage.
The Kidnapping Attempt
On the 20th. March 1974, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace from a charity event when a Ford Escort forced their Princess IV car to stop on the Mall.
The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a pistol. Inspector James Beaton, Anne's personal police officer, exited the car to shield her and to try to disarm Ball.
Beaton's firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he was shot by Ball, as was Anne's chauffeur, Alex Callender, when he tried to disarm Ball. Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist, also intervened, and was shot in the chest.
Ball approached Anne's car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, the sum given by varying sources as £2 million or £3 million, which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service.
Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied, "Not bloody likely!" She reportedly briefly considered hitting Ball.
Eventually, she exited the other side of the limousine, as had her lady-in-waiting, Rowena Brassey. A passing pedestrian, a former boxer named Ron Russell, punched Ball and led Anne away from the scene.
At that point, Police Constable Michael Hills happened upon the scene; he too was shot by Ball, but he had already called for police backup. Detective Constable Peter Edmonds answered, gave chase, and finally arrested Ball.
Beaton, Hills, Callender, and McConnell were hospitalised, and recovered from their wounds. For his defence of Princess Anne, Beaton was awarded the George Cross by the Queen, who was visiting Indonesia when the incident occurred.
Hills and Russell were awarded the George Medal, and Callender, McConnell, and Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.
It was widely reported that the Queen paid off Russell's mortgage, but this is not true. Russell said in 2020 that a police officer suggested that it might happen, so he stopped paying his mortgage in anticipation, and nearly had his house repossessed after four months.
Anne visited Beaton in hospital and thanked him for his assistance. In 1983, she spoke about the event on Parkinson, saying she was scrupulously polite to Ball as she thought it would be 'silly to be too rude at that stage'.
Beaton, who had been Anne's sole bodyguard, later said about royal security:
"I had nothing… There was no back-up
vehicle. The training was non-existent;
but then again, we thought nothing was
going to happen.
They are highly specialised now, highly
trained."
Immediately after the attack, the use of only a single protection officer was stopped, and the Walther PPK pistol was replaced.
Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping. As of September 2022, he was still detained under the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor Hospital, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne was the focus of the Granada Television-produced docudrama To Kidnap a Princess (2006) and inspired story lines in Tom Clancy's novel Patriot Games.
Activities
Anne undertakes a number of duties and engagements on behalf of the sovereign. Kevin S. MacLeod, the then Canadian Secretary to the Queen, said of Anne in 2014:
"Her credo is, 'Keep me busy. I'm here
to work. I'm here to do good things.
I'm here to meet as many people as
possible'."
It was reported in December 2017 that the Princess Royal had undertaken the most official engagements that year out of all the royal family, her mother the Queen included. Among her royal visits, the Princess has toured Norway, Jamaica, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, and Australia.
Anne's first public engagement was at the opening of an educational and training centre in Shropshire in 1969. Anne travels abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom up to three times a year.
She began to undertake overseas visits upon leaving secondary school, and accompanied her parents on a state visit to Austria in the same year.
Her first tour of Australia was with her parents in 1970, since when she has returned many times to undertake official engagements as a colonel-in-chief of an Australian regiment, or to attend memorials and services such as the National Memorial Service for victims of the Black Saturday bushfires in Melbourne on the 22nd. February 2009.
In 1990 she was the first member of the royal family to make an official visit to the Soviet Union when she went there as a guest of President Mikhail Gorbachev and his government.
Anne is involved with over 200 charities and organisations in an official capacity. She works extensively for Save the Children, serving as president from 1970 to 2017, and has been patron since 2017. Anne has visited the organisation's projects in Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As a result of her work, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 by Kenneth Kaunda, President of Zambia.
She initiated The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in 1991.
Anne is the patron of Transaid, a charity which aims to provide safe and sustainable transport in developing countries. She is also the royal patron of WISE, an organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction.
Her extensive work for St. John Ambulance as Commandant-in-Chief of St. John Ambulance Cadets has helped to develop many young people, as she annually attends the Grand Prior Award Reception.
Anne is patron of St. Andrew's First Aid. She is a British representative in the International Olympic Committee as an administrator, and was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. She also serves as president of the British Olympic Association.
She was president of BAFTA from 1973 to 2001. In 1985 she became president of the Riding for the Disabled Association after serving as their patron for fourteen years.
In 1986 she was appointed Master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen. She maintains a relationship with student sport, and is the patron of British Universities and Colleges Sport.
Anne has been patron of the Royal National Children's Foundation since 2002 and the Industrial Heritage Museum since 2016.
Following the retirement of the Queen Mother in 1981, Anne was elected by graduates of the University of London as the Chancellor, and has been in the position since that year.
Throughout May 1996, Anne served as Her Majesty's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and held the post again in 2017.
In 2007, she was appointed by the Queen as Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, a position her grandmother had also held.
Anne is a Royal Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Royal Fellows are members of the royal family who are recommended and elected by the Society's Council.
Anne was elected Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh effective 31st. March 2011, succeeding her father, who stepped down from the role in 2010. Likewise, she accepted in 2011 the roles of president of City and Guilds of London Institute, Master of the Corporation of Trinity House, and president of the Royal Society of Arts, also in succession to her father.
Anne has been the president of the Commonwealth Study Conference, an initiative founded by her father. She is also patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Royal College of Midwives, Magpas Air Ambulance, Edinburgh University's Royal School of Veterinary Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, International Students House, London, Acid Survivors Trust International, Townswomen's Guilds, Citizens Advice, and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Anne represented Great Britain in the International Olympic Committee at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. In August 2016, she returned to the country to visit the Russian city of Arkhangelsk for the 75th. anniversary of Operation Dervish, which was one of the first Arctic convoys of World War II.
In September 2016, the Princess had a chest infection and was required to cancel official engagements. In late October 2016, she visited the Malaysian state of Sarawak for a two-day study tour.
In 2017, she became Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and a Governor of Gresham's School.
In 2021, Anne became patron of Mercy Ships, an international charity that operates the largest non-governmental hospital ships in the world.
In April 2022, Anne and her husband toured Australia and Papua New Guinea to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. In the same year, Anne was named honorary chair of National Lighthouse Museum's Illuminating Future Generations campaign, a project aimed at raising funds for the museum's gallery space.
On the 12th. September 2022, in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, Anne became the first woman to participate in a Vigil of the Princes, guarding her mother's coffin. This was repeated at Westminster Hall on the 16th. September.
It was later revealed that she had been the informant at her mother's death at Balmoral, a witness who signs, along with the doctor, the death certificate.
Princess Anne's Public Image and Style
Anne has been called the royal family's "trustiest anchor" and a "beacon of good, old-fashioned public service", having carried out over 20,000 engagements since her 18th. birthday.
In her early adulthood, she was cited as a "royal renegade" for choosing to forgo titles for her children despite being the "spare to the heir".
The media often called the young Anne "aloof" and "haughty", giving her the nickname "her royal rudeness".
She spurred controversy for telling photographers to "naff off" at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1982. Vanity Fair wrote that:
"Anne has a reputation for having
inherited her father's famously
sharp tongue and waspish wit".
Of her early public role, Anne has said:
"It's not just about 'can I get a tick in the box
for doing this?' No, it's about serving…It took
me probably 10 years before I really felt
confident enough to contribute to Save the
Children's public debates because you needed
to understand how it works on the ground, and
that needed a very wide coverage. So my early
trips were really important."
Anne remains one of Britain's most popular royals. Telegraph Editor Camilla Tominey called her a "national treasure", writing that she is "hailed as one of the great English eccentrics", whose work ethic contributes to her regard.
Tominey wrote that Anne's public role is:
"A contradiction of both protocol
taskmaster and occasional rule-
breaker".
Reportedly, Anne insists on doing her own make-up and hair, and drives herself to engagements, having pleaded guilty to two separate speeding fines on account of being late.
She does not shake hands with the public during walkabouts, saying:
"The theory was that you couldn't
shake hands with everybody, so
don't start."
Members of the public have seen her mending fences at Gatcombe Park, and queuing up for the Portaloos at her daughter's horse competitions.
Her reputation is also coupled with her advocacy for causes out of the mainstream, such as Wetwheels Foundation's commitment to accessible sailing and the National Lighthouse Museum.
On her 60th. and 70th. birthdays, the BBC and Vanity Fair both asked whether she would retire, and she denied it both times, citing her parents' example as well as her commitment to her royal duties.
Anne's public personality has been described as "not suffering fools lightly" while maintaining a "still-impressive level of grace and courtesy".
British Vogue editor Edward Enninful has said that:
"Princess Anne is a true style icon
and was all about sustainable fashion
before the rest of us really knew what
that meant".
Her style has been noted for its timelessness; she relies almost solely on British fashion brands, with tweed and tailored suits as her hallmarks.
She is known for recycling outfits, such as her floral-print dress worn both to the wedding of the Prince of Wales in 1981 and the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor in 2008.
Anne is the patron of the U.K. Fashion and Textile Association. She has been noted for wearing "bold patterns and vibrant pops of colour".
Her style choices often reflect her equestrian interests as well as the practicality of her fast-paced schedule.
In the 1970's and 1980's, she was often photographed wearing trends such as puff sleeves, cardigans, bright floral patterns, and multicoloured stripes. Anne is also one of the few women in the royal family to wear a military uniform.
According to The Guardian, she is rarely seen without a brooch during royal events. Her millinery styles have included jockey caps and hats of multiple colours and bold patterns.
She presented the Queen Elizabeth II award for British design at London Fashion Week in 2020.
Anne has appeared on three British Vogue covers; after first appearing on the 1971 September issue at age 21, she also featured in the May and November 1973 issues, commemorating her engagement to Mark Phillips. She was featured in the cover story for the May 2020 issue of Vanity Fair.
Anne is the first member of the royal family to have been convicted of a criminal offence. In November 2002, she pleaded guilty to one charge of having a dog dangerously out of control, an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, and was fined £500.
サネトモサマ Sanetomo-sama
200×130×100mm
Mixed media
2015
Japanese new gods.Remarriage of religion and art in the Far East.
「こころない乙女達」The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo／東京
Profile: koten-navi.com/ShirakawaYukimasa
Blog: shirakawaya.blog41.fc2.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/shirakawainari
Latvian postcard by JDA, Riga, no. 2635. Photo: Ars Film
Sabine Peters (1913-1982) was a fresh-faced German theatre and film actress. During the 1930s, she played supporting and occasional leading roles in several mainstream romances and comedies for the Ufa. For Carl Froelich, she played a young student in two films but she had her breakthrough as the selfish and jealous daughter of Lil Dagover in Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (1936).
Sabine Peters was born in 1913 in Berlin. The merchant's daughter studied acting with Ilka Grüning. After her studies, she was accepted directly into the ensemble of Agnes Straub at the Berliner Theater am Kurfürstendamm, where she played ingénue roles until 1938. In that year she also made her film debut as one of the eight school girls in the musical drama Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1932) starring Karin Hardt and Theodor Loos. In the following year, she already played at the side of important actors of that time as Heinrich George, Hertha Thiele and Albert Lieven in the drama Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froelich, 1933). She played one of three girls who start at an elite school in Lübeck. The film was inspired by the earlier German romantic drama and cult classic Madchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) also with Thiele and with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded that film. The actor and director Fritz Kampers then engaged Peters for the Bavarian comedy Konjunkturritter/Knights of the Economy (Fritz Kampers, 1934) with the famous folk actor Weiß Ferdl.
Sabine Peters had her breakthrough with Geraldine Katt and Lil Dagover in the Ufa problem film Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936). She played Irene, a selfish and jealous young girl who tries to prevent the remarriage of her attractive mother by all means. Familiar with classical roles on the stage, she appeared with Heinrich George, Ida Wüst and Rotraut Richter in Der Biberpelz/The Beaver Coat (Jürgen von Alten, 1937), the film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's stage comedy 'Der Biberpelz'. In 1938 followed the comedy Rätsel um Beate/Mystery around Beate (Johannes Meyer, 1938), again with Lil Dagover and also with Albrecht Schoenhals. She was again a student in the drama Die vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938), starring Ingrid Bergman. The film was intended as a star vehicle to launch Bergman's career in Germany following her success in several Swedish films. Sabine Peters married the opera singer Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. From this marriage came their daughter Brigitte Fassbaender, born in 1939, who later became an important mezzo-soprano. After 1945 Sabine Peters performed mainly at the theatre. Her last role was a small part in the television film Die Weber/The Weavers (Fritz Umgelter, 1980, an adaptation of the stage play by Gerhart Hauptmann. Sabine Peters passed away in 1982 in Munich.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
少彦名神 Sukunahikona
200×130×100mm
Mixed media
2015
Japanese new gods.Remarriage of religion and art in the Far East.
The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo/Tokyo
Profile: koten-navi.com/ShirakawaYukimasa
Blog: shirakawaya.blog41.fc2.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/shirakawainari
PERIYAR E.V.RAMASAMY and WOMEN RIGHTS
With regards to marriage, Periyar has stated that it is one of the worst customs in India. He claimed that the marriage principle, briefly, involves the enslavement of a woman by her husband and nothing else. This enslavement is concealed under the cover of marriage rites to deceive the women concerned by giving the wedding the false name of a divine function.[7]
There have been numerous papers in South India reporting how husbands have killed their wives, suspecting immoral behavior. The husband's suspicion of his wife's character has often led to murders. Those who believe in the divine dispensation, according to Periyar, do not have the knowledge to ask themselves why marriages conducted according to religious rites and the approval of God end in this fashion.[7]
Periyar further states that the very idea that the only proper thing for women to do is to be slaves of domesticity, bear children and bring them up, is a faulty one. As long as these restrictions are imposed on women, we can be sure that women have to be subservient to men and depend on men for help. If women have to live on terms of equality with men, they must have the liberty, like men, to have the kind of education they like and also to do unhampered, any work suitable to their knowledge, ability and taste.[8]
Furthermore, Periyar objected to terms like "giving of a maid" and "given in marriage". They are, "Sanskrit terms" and treat woman as a thing. He advocated the substitution of the word for marriage taken from the Tirukkual "Valkai thunai" or "life partner".[9]
Expenses[edit]
With marriage comes the expenses. Periyar stated that in our country, and particularly in Hindu society, a marriage is a function causing a lot of difficulties and waste to all people concerned. But those who conduct the marriage function and those who are getting married do not appear to notice the attendant difficulties because they think that social life necessitates wasteful expense and many difficulties and therefore they must necessarily face those inconveniences and hardships.[10]
Wedding feast, jewels, expensive clothes, procession, pandal, dance, music—money is spent on all these to satisfy the vanity of the organizers. Whatever may be the amount of money spent on the wedding and however pompous each of the items may be, the mirth and jollity associated with these are over in two or three days. In a week's time the prestige and honor connected with these are forgotten.[10] But the wedding expenses leave many families crushed; for many poor families these expenses leave an enormous burden and the debts remain uncleared for a number of years.[11]
However, if the money intended for the wedding expense is not borrowed and belongs to either of the marriage parties, then that amount could be used by her to bring up her children and to educate them. Such a procedure would be highly beneficial to her.[12]
Arranged marriages[edit]
In South Asia we mostly hear of arranged marriages as part of custom, heritage, and religions. Periyar thought that the Aryan wedding methods were barbarous because of the Aryan religion and art: Vedas, Sastras, Puranas, and Epics belong to the barbaric age. He further stated that is the reason why their wedding methods involve the parents giving the girl, prostituting the girl children and some stranger carrying the girl away by force or stealth.[13]
Arranged marriages in general were meant to enable the couple to live together throughout life and derive happiness, satisfaction and a good reputation, even years after the sexual urge and sexual pleasure are forgotten.[14]
But, with the selfish manipulation of this pact, Periyar claimed that women find 'pleasure' in slavish marriage because they have been brought up by their parents without education, independence and self-respect and because they have been made to believe that marriage means subordination to males. The inclusion of such slavish women in the group of 'chaste' women is another lure to them, leading them to find pleasure in such marriages.
Because a man is also married before he has understood the nature of life, its problems and its pleasures, he is satisfied with the slavish nature of the wife and the sexual pleasure she gives. If he finds any incompatibility, he adapts himself to his partner and the circumstances and puts up with his lot.[14]
Love marriages[edit]
Love marriages, claims Periyar, on the other hand will suit only those who have no ideals in life. Such a wedding gives primacy to sexual union along and it is doubtful if it indicates an agreement between the couple for good life. Sexual compatibility alone does not ensure happy married life; the couple should be able to live together cheerfully. Suitability for life or living together can be determined only if the man and woman get used to the company of each other, and are satisfied with each other. Only then, they can enter into an agreement to live together.[13]
Periyar further states that love marriages can give pleasure only as long as there is lust and the ability to satisfy that lust. If there is no compatibility between the partners in other respects, such marriages end only in the enslavement of women. The lies of such women resemble the lives of bullocks which are tied to a cart, beaten up and made to labor endlessly until they die.[14]
Therefore, there is a proverb stating, "A deeply loving girl is unfit for family life; a suitable life partner is unfit for love." Periyar believed that the agreement between partners to live together will constitute a better marriage than a love marriage.[14]
Self-respect marriages[edit]
In a leading article of Viduthalai, Periyar states that a self-respect wedding is based on rationalism. Rationalism is based on the individual's courage. Some may have the courage to conduct it during the time which almanacs indicate as the time of the planet Rahu and that, particularly in the evening. Some others may have just enough daring to avoid the Brahmin priest and his mother tongue - the Sanskrit language.[15] Some may feel nervous about not keeping the traditional lamp burning in broad daylight. Some others may have the rotten thought that conducting a wedding without 'mangala sutra' is disgraceful.
Still, the self-respect weddings conducted during the past thirty years have some basic limits. They are: Brahmins and their mantras should be utterly avoided; meaningless rituals, piling mud pots, one on another, having the traditional lamp during day time, ritual smoke - all these should be avoided. Rationalism does not approve of these. Periyar then asks why can't the government pass an Act that legalizes weddings which avoid the above-mentioned superstitious practices. If all these details cannot be accommodated in the Act, the latter can legalize weddings which don't have Brahmin priests, the Sanskrit language and the so called holy fire.[16]
Thus, marriages styled as Self-Respect marriages carried a threefold significance: a) replacing the Purohit, b) inter-caste equality, c) man-woman equality. Periyar claimed to have performed Self-Respect marriages unofficially since 1925 and officially since 1928.[17] Self-Respect marriages were legalized in 1967 by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government.[18]
Widow-remarriage[edit]
On the remarriage of widows, Periyar states that among the atrocities perpetrated by the Hindu male population against women, here we have to consider the treatment meted out to widows alone. If a girl loses her husband, even before knowing anything of worldly pleasures, she is compelled to close her eyes to everything in the world and die broken-hearted. Even in Periyar's community at the time, there were widowed girls below the age of 13 years. Periyar stated how it is a touching sight to see the parents of those widowed children treating them like untouchables.[19]
He goes on to say that whatever may be the reason for the present state of the Hindu society, my firm belief that the low position given permanently to widows may prove to be the reason for the utter ruin of the Hindu religion and the Hindu society.[20]
If we try to find the reason for such conduct, we will have to conclude that they instinctively feel that women are slaves, subservient to men and that they must be kept under control. That is why these people treat women like animals. They seem to feel that giving freedom to women is equivalent to committing a very serious crime. The result of this attitude is that there is no independence or freedom to one half of the human race. This wicked enslavement of half of the human race is due to the fact that men are physically a little stronger than women. This principle applies to all spheres of life and the weaker are enslaved by the stronger.
If slavery has to be abolished in society, the male arrogance and wickedness which lead to the enslavement of women must be abolished first. Only when this is achieved, the tender sprouts of freedom and equality will register growth.[21]
One of the reasons why Periayr hated Hinduism and the orthodoxy practiced in the name of Hinduism was the practice of child marriage. Many of the girl children who were married before they were ten or twelve years old became widows before they knew the meaning of the word. According to the 1921 All India Census the details of the child widows reported living in the country that time were as follows:[22]
1 year baby widows - 497
1 to 2 year child widows - 494
2 to 3 year child widows - 1,257
3 to 4 year child widows - 2,837
4 to 5 year child widows - 6,707
Total number of widows - 11,342
5 to 10 year young widows - 85,037
10 to 15 year young widows - 232,147
15 to 20 year young widows - 396,172
20 to 25 year young widows - 742,820
25 to 30 year young widows - 1,163,720
Total number of widows - 2,631,238[22][23]
Periyar was deeply disturbed when he realized that among the widows in India, 11,892 were little children below 5 years and that young widows below 15 years numbering 232,147 were denied the pleasures of life.[24]
With regards to the re-marriage of widows, Periyar stated that it is the practice of our people to refer to such a wedding as "a widow's marriage". Such an expression is used only with reference to women and in connection with men. Just as this lady is marrying another husband after the death of the first husband, many men marry again after the death of the first wife. But the second marriage of a man is not referred to as "a widower's marriage", though that is the proper thing to do.
Periyar himself was a widower. After becoming one, he took a second wife. He claimed that in the ancient days, both men and women in the country had this practice. There were numerous instances in sastras and puranas of women getting married again after the death of their first husband. Periyar further stated that this is not an unusual practice in the rest of the world though it might appear strange for us at the present time. Christian and Muslim women marry again after the death of the first husband. 90 percent of women in Muslim countries get married again soon after the death of the first husband. This may be unusual in certain sections of Indian societies. But it is a common practice in certain other sections of our society which are called very backward communities.[25]
Further, inter-caste marriages and remarriage of widows are on the increase in India. Brahmins oppose these because they are afraid that they cannot exploit the people any more in the name of sastras. For the same reason they oppose the Sharada Act which is necessary for social well-being.[26]
Child marriage[edit]
In all the meetings of the non-Brahmins and the Self-Respectors, Periyar condemned child marriages and emphasized the need for educating all girl children and giving right to young widows to get married again.
Periyar has been very much against child marriage and stated that it reflects the cruelty to which innocent girls were subjected by their well-meaning parents. Periyar asked that if these parents can be considered civilized in any sense of the term. There was no other leader other than Periyar who reacted against this practice of child marriage.[24]
Those who supported child marriage were strongly against Periyar's condemnation of this act. Take for example, the Sharada Act. Those who opposed this Act say that it was against the Sastras to conduct the marriage of a girl after she has attained puberty. They further say that those who conduct such marriages are committing a sin and therefore will go to hell.[27]
Chastity[edit]
Periyar claimed that "household duties" have risen out of the foolishness of people and were not natural duties.[28] He went on to say that it was our selfish greed which has multiplied our household work. Nobody need worry that without household work, the women will lose their "chastity". On chastity, Periyar went on to say that it is something that belongs to women and is not a pledge to men. Whatever, chastity is, it was something that belonged to individuals.
In society, it was believed that if people lose their chastity, they will get divine punishment. Others are not going to get that punishment. Referring to the doctrines of institutionalized orthodox religions, he went on to say that men need not to worry themselves that women are committing a sin by not doing household work. Thus, let men realize that women are not slaves and that men are not their masters or guardians. Women should be allowed to develop the competence to protect themselves and their chastity and men need not be their watchdogs. He also believed that it was derogatory for men to play such a role.[citation needed]
It was said by the orthodox[who?] that women will develop diseases if they lose their chastity. The disease that a woman gets affects the husbands also. If we[who?] educate the women, they will develop the capability to keep themselves and their husbands pure. Thus, Periyar stated in the Kudi Arasu for the society to think deeply about taking a decision and do the right thing for their sisters and girl children.[29]
Periyar kindled the thoughts of everybody by also ridiculing the use of the word chastity only with reference to women. (Periyar-Father of Tamil 32) He stated that character is essential for both men and women and that speaking of chastity only with reference to women degraded not merely women but men also. He extended this thought and said that in any sphere of activity, civilized society cannot think of one law for men and another for women. He also said that the way most men treated their women was far worse than the way the upper class people treated the lower class, the way in which rich men treated the poor and the way in which a master treated his slave.[30]
Education[edit]
On education, Periyar stated that some foolish parents believe that if girls get educated, they will correspond with their secret lovers. That it is a very foolish and mischievous notion. No parent need be anxious about it. If a girl writes a letter, it will only be to a male. We can even now caution men not to read any love letter addressed to them by a woman and, even if they read it, not to reply to it. If men do not listen to this advice, they, as well as the girls who write them must be punished. It will be a hopelessly bad thing, if parents keep their girl children uneducated for this reason.[29]
At a speeched delivered by Periyar at the Prize Distribution function in the Municipal School for Girls at Karungal Palayam, Erode, he stated that girl children should be taught active and energetic exercises like running, high jump, long jump,and wrestling so that they may acquire the strength and courage of men. Their time and energy should not be wasted in light pastimes like Kummi (groups going in a circle, clapping their hands rhythmically) and in Kolatam (striking with sticks rhythmically).
In ancient Tamil literature, poets have stressed the value of education for women. In a famous verse, a poet by the name of Naladiar stated that, "What gives beauty to a woman is not the hair style or the patter of her dress or the saffron on her face but only education".[31] In a verse of Eladhi it states, "Beauty does not lie in the style of wailing or in the charm of a blush but only in the combination of numbers and letters (education).[32]
In a 1960 issue of Viduthalai Periyar stated that "There should be a drastic revolution in the desires and ideals of Indian women. They should equip themselves to do all types of work that men are doing. They should have good domestic life without allowing nature's obstacles in their own lives. Therefore, there should be a welcome change in the minds of our women. The administrators also most pay special attention to the advancement of women".[33]
Armed forces[edit]
Periyar advocated for women to be given weapons to protect themselves in reply to a question put in the Central Legislature. He stated that we have no hope that the state governments will do anything in this sphere because most of the state ministers hold the orthodox belief that women are slavish creatures.[34] Though here and there we[who?] find women also as ministers, they are old-fashioned traditionalists who will say, "We don't want any kind of freedom. We are perfectly happy with slavery".[33]
In Periyar's time he explained that ""Indian" women had no self-determination in any sphere of life like education property and marriage. They thought that modern civilization meant dressing themselves like British and American women and adorning themselves. Even our educated women do not entertain any thought that they must enter the police and army departments and learn to pilot airplanes like the women of Russia and Turkey. Just as modern education has made men cowards an book-worms, it has made our women decoratie [sic] dolls and weaklings".[33]
In a leading article written by Periyar in Viduthalai in 1946, he claimed that unless there is a drastic, fundamental and revolutionary change in our[who?] administrative machinery, it is impossible to make our women independent beings.[33]
Periyar goes on to explain that in our country also, there are thousands of women with the courage, competence and desire to work in the police department. Just as girls going to school was considered wonderful and cycle-riding by girls was considered funny, a few years ago, women on police duty may appear to be wonderful or strange for a few years. Then, in course of time, this will be considered natural.[33]
We[who?] need methods that will effect an astounding revolution in the world of women. Until we acquire those methods, we will be moving forward like a tortoise and writing and talking about Drowpath and Sita.[35]
Periyar, in a 1932 article of Kudi Arasu, explained that "women should develop physical strength like men. They must take exercise and get training in the use of weapons. They must acquire the ability to protect themselves when any sex-mad person tries to molest them. They should get the necessary training to join the armey [sic] when need arises and fight the enemy. This is the view of all civilized people. Women also wholeheartedly support this view. When the general view in the world is like this, who can accept the statement of some people that there is no use in giving higher education to women?"[33]
Birth control[edit]
"Others advocate birth-control, with a view of preserving the health of women and conserving family property; but we advocate it for the liberation of women."[36]
In the Kudi Arasu of 1932, Periyar explained the basic differences between the reasons given to us for contraception and the reasons given by others for this. We say that contraception is necessary for women to gain freedom. Others advocate contraception taking into consideration many problems like the health of women, the health and energy of the children, the poverty of the country and the maintenance of the family property. Many Westerners also support contraception for the same reasons. Our view is not based on these considerations. We recommend that women should stop delivering children altogether because conception stands in the way of women enjoying personal freedom. Further, begetting a number of children prevents men also from being free and independent. This truth will be clear if we listen to talk of men and women when their freedom is hampered.[33]
He went on to say how birth control does not aim at preventing the birth of children altogether, but aims only at limiting births. A man and his wife may have two children, or at the most, three children. This birth control policy is against bringing forth an unlimited number of children.[37]
While Periyar and the Self-Respect movement were advocating for birth control, Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachariar) very strongly opposed it. Others who opposed birth control was Thiru Adhithanar, the publisher of an extremely popular newspaper, Dina Thandhi at the time. In response to Rajaji's stand against birth control, Periyar explained that he was against this since he was of the Vedic Brahmin community that staunchly engrossed in the Manu Dharma. Thus, limiting births of overpopulation would limit diseases and death from many and therefore leave Brahmin priests without a job of doing ceremonies for the sick and funerals. In a 1959 article of Viduthalai he exclaimed that "If people like Rajaji discover new islands, make the forests habitable, do propaganda for the birth of more and more children and have farms for the upbringing of children, we may be in a position to understand them."[38]
During the late 1950s, 80 percent of the men and 90 percent of the women in Tamil Nadu were illiterate. Siriyar argued in a 1959 article in Viduthalai that "in this situation, if birth control is not practiced and people are allowed to have any number of children, the result will be the multiplication of castes among the "Sudras", like washermen, barbers, pot-makers, kuravas or gypsies, hunters, fishermen, famers [sic], toddy tappers, padayachies, pillars, cobblers, pariahs, and a thousand others and a limitless increase in population. The increase in population will force the 'Sudras' to preserve themselves from starvation by standing with folded hands before lazy fellows and calling them 'swami', 'master' and 'landlord'. What good result can we expect if birth control is not adopted?"[39]
Previously in a 1933 article of the Kudi Arasu, Periyar, in his words, explained that "even a High Court Judge in India does not know the amount of trouble that a mother takes to bring up a child. If a husband is kind to his wife and shows concern for her health and happiness, he must adopt the contraceptive method. Otherwise, he must be one who could manage to see that in delivery and in the brining [sic] up of children, she does not have much trouble. Therefore, the proper thing to do now is to drastically cut the expenses mentioned above and spend money on the proper upbringing of children with the help of nurses."[40]
Property rights and divorce[edit]
With regards to property rights for women, Periyar stated that there was no difference between men and women. He went on to say that like men, women should have the right to own property and enjoy its benefits. With regards to divorce or separations, he advocated that a woman can lie away from her husband if he is an undesirable person and if he has nay virulent disease. When a woman has to live apart from her husband in these circumstances, she is entitled to maintenance allowance and a claim on the husband's property. Even if a widow gets remarried, she must be given the right to claim a share of the first husband's property.[41]
On February 4, 1946, the Central Legislature passed an Act giving the right the Hindu married woman to get from her husband in certain circumstances a separate place to live in and a maintenance allowance. Periyar explained how that it was a useless Act. since it seems that the members of the Hindu Mahasabha and Sanadahnis agitated against the grant of even this right.[42]
Dowry[edit]
On the Dowry system practiced widely throughout the Indian sub-continent not only by Hindus but Christians too, Periyar calls it a "serious disease that was spreading fast amongst Tamilians". He went on to state that the disease was also found in its virulent form among the Andhras and the Brahmins of Tamil Nadu. Periyar also argued that if a man with property worth one lakh has three daughters, he has to become a beggar by the time these daughters are married. In the name of dowry, the parents of the young men who marry the three daughters, squeeze the man's property out of him.[43]
In the 1959 issue of Viduthalai, Periyar stated that, "according to a new legislation, women have the right to a share of the parents' property. Therefore every girl will definitely get her legitimate share from the parents' wealth - if the parents are wealth. It is inhuamane [sic] on the part of the parents of a boy to dump on him a girl whom he does not like and to plan to such as much as they can from the property of the girl's father. There is basically no difference between selling education and love for money and selling one's chastity for money. 'Prostitute' is a germ of contempt for a woman; a boy should not be reduced by his avaricous [sic] parents to get the name, 'a prostituted boy' or 'a boy that has been sold'. A father-in-law who has means, however miserly he may be by nature, will not be indifferent when his daughter suffers out of poverty. Therefore, it is very shameful on the part of the bridegroom's parents to demand from the bride's father that at the time of the marriage he should gie jewels worth so many thousands along with so many thousand rupees as dowry and that he should provide the bridegroom with a house and a care. The fact that another party makes such demands at the time of his daughter's marriage does not justify any parent's demands at the time of his son's wedding. All people must realize that both demanding and giving dowry are wrong and they must boldly declare this when occasion arises."[44]
Periyar calls the dowry an evil and exploitative practice depriving tens of thousands of talented and beautiful young women with sound character remaining spinsters without any chance of getting married.[45]
Devadasis[edit]
Among the atrocities the Tamil society committed against women was the practice of keeping some women attached to temples as Devadasis. Dr. Muthulakshmi proposed the resolution at the Madras Legislature that the Devadasi system should be abolished. The Government wanted comments on that from all important people. Periyar in his statement pointed out that the Devadasi system was a disgrace to Hindu religion. The fact that, in the name of a temple or a god, some women are kept as common property is an insult to all the women in the society. He also remarked that the prevalence of this system encouraged immorality among men and thus set the pattern for unprincipled life in many families. This was stoutly opposed in the Assembly by Satyamurthi Iyer, an orthodox Congress member, under the pretext of safeguarding the Hindu traditions. It should be said to the credit of Dr. Muthulakshmi and the leaders like Periyar that the proposal of the Doctor was accepted and a law was enacted against the Devadasi system.[30]
Periyar's example of the degradation of women in the Devadasi system is explained that "if a man's physical passion is aroused when his wife is not with him, he immediately goes to a prostitute. Rough stones are planted where cows and bufaloes [sic] graze to facilitate the animals to rub against the stones when they feel like it.[46] Likewise, Devadasis served in temples and in all villages rough stones planted on the borders and they say that these two (employing devadasis and the planting rough stones) are aamong [sic] the 32 dharmas mentioned in the sastras. When we consider why his kindness to the suffering and also the 32 dharmas are all bogus".[46]
Resolutions passed[edit]
As the Self-Respect conference held in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu in 1929, the following were among the many resolutions passed with regards for women's rights:
Women should be given equal right along with men for the family property.
There should be no objection to employing women to any job for which they are qualified.[47]
Schools, particularly schools, should try to employ only women teachers.
At the conference held in Erode in 1930, the same resolutions were passed again reminding the delegates and others that the interest of women was still uppermost in Periyar's mind. M.R. Jayakar who presided oer the Erode conference was greatly impressed by the progressive views of Periyar and other members. He was particularly happy that the movement included not merely non-Brahmin Hindus but Christians and Muslims too. He pointed out that the Self-Respect movement was more progressive than Congress. Furthermore, at the Virudhnagar conference the women members held a separate conference and passed some resolutions demanding that women should have the right to select their life partners without any consideration of religion or community and that weddings should not involve wasteful expenditure and elaborate ceremonies.[47]
Nora Heysen was born in 1911 just before the Heysens moved into the Cedars. She grew up here and attended school at the Convent of Mercy Mt Barker. At 15 years of age she started art training at the North Adelaide School of Fine Arts which was eventually subsumed into the University of South Australia. Next she studied at the Royal SA Society of the Arts and she had her first exhibition with them in 1928 at 17 years of age. From 1930 she had her own studio at the Cedars and she had an exhibition in Sydney in 1930. By 1932 she had works in the NSW, QLD and SA art galleries. Unlike her father she specialised in still life and flowers which her father immediately stopped painting. He continued with his eucalypts and landscapes. In 1934 she sailed to Europe for further art study and did not return to Adelaide until 1937. She continued to exhibit, won more awards and moved to Sydney to live in 1939. She often revisited her family at the Cedars but never lived there again, except for some recuperation for part of 1946 after the War. Her life took a dramatic turn with the start of World War Two. She became the first female Australian War Artist from 1943 serving time mainly in Papua New Guinea. She completed 170 paintings for the War Office and 152 of them now reside in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Whilst in New Guinea she met a British medical officer Dr Robert Black. She began a relationship with him that resulted in his divorce and his remarriage to her ten years later in 1953. She travelled in Europe in 1947 and 1948 and returned to live in Sydney in 1949 where she stayed for the rest of her life in the house she purchased with Dr Black called The Chalet at Hunters Hill. She died there at The Chalet in 2003 although she had divorced Dr Black in 1972. She won many awards including the Archibald and the Melrose Prize for Portraiture. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1998.
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It is now open to the public as a museum run by the Newport Preservation Society.
The mansion was built as a summer "cottage" between 1888 and 1892 for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt. It was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to its current image as a resort of opulent stone palaces. The fifty-room mansion required a staff of 36 servants, including butlers, maids, coachmen, and footmen. The mansion cost $11 million (equivalent to $332 million in 2021); $660 million in Gold-dollar equivalence (1890 $20 Double Eagle gold coin) of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet (14,000 m3) of marble. Vanderbilt's older brother Cornelius Vanderbilt II subsequently built the largest of the Newport cottages, The Breakers, between 1893 and 1895.
When Alva Vanderbilt divorced William in 1895, she already owned Marble House outright, having received it as her 39th birthday present. Upon her remarriage in 1896 to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, she relocated down the street to Belmont's mansion, Belcourt. After his death, she reopened Marble House and added the Chinese Tea House on the seaside cliff, where she hosted rallies for women's suffrage.
Alva Belmont closed the mansion permanently in 1919, when she relocated to France to be closer to her daughter, Consuelo Balsan. There she divided her time between a Paris townhouse, a villa on the Riviera, and the Château d'Augerville, which she restored. She sold the house to Frederick H. Prince in 1932, less than a year before her death. For more than 30 years, the Prince family carefully occupied the house during Newport's summer season, taking special efforts to leave the vast majority of the interior intact as the Vanderbilts had originally intended. One notable event that occurred in the Marble House during the Prince family's residency was the famed Tiffany Ball in July 1957, sponsored by Tiffany & Company and held to benefit the relatively new Preservation Society of Newport County. Continuing late into the early morning hours, the ball welcomed internationally known guests including then Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy; Mr. and Mrs. E. Sheldon Whitehouse; the Astors; and Count Anthony and Countess Sylvia Szapary of the Vanderbilt family. During their summer occupancies, to help preserve the integrity of Marble House's famed interiors, the Princes primarily resided in smaller quarters in the building's third floor, which had formerly been used for servant housing during the Vanderbilts' time. In 1963, the Preservation Society of Newport County purchased the house from the Prince Trust, with funding provided by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt couple's youngest son. Through the Prince Trust, the Prince family donated virtually all original furniture for the house directly to the Preservation Society.
from Wikipedia
Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 73.
Mary Philbin (1902-1993) was an American film actress of the silent film era, who is best known for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) opposite Lon Chaney, and as Dea in The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928), opposite Conrad Veidt.
Mary Philbin was born in 1903, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Philbin and his first wife and namesake, Mary. The child was regarded as a little beauty from an early age and her mother was exceedingly proud of her and loved to show her off. Her mother was controlling and domineering, to the point of imprinting her strict religious beliefs on the child. Mary took after her shy, quiet, and reserved father, whom she adored. Emily Greene at IMDb: "Many of her contemporaries remarked how she didn't seem to belong to the current age; her personality was a throwback to the 19th century with her mannerisms and religious, quiet and very gentle nature. Being an only child, Mary grew up quite spoiled by her mother. Her father would take her often to see the plays at local theaters and even, on rare occasions, to see an opera at the Chicago Opera House." She fell in love with the stage and decided that she wanted a career in the theatre. She took up classical dancing (ballet and waltz) and was quite adept at playing the pipe organ and piano, although much to her chagrin, she could not sing. However, she did not train in an acting school and this would ultimately have impact on her later career. Her best friend was Carla Laemmle, the daughter of Joseph Laemmle, brother of Universal Studios mogul Carl Laemmle. Through her friend's uncle, Mary became interested in films and put her stage career on hold. Upon seeing her first "Nickelodeon", she was bitten by the film bug and eagerly awaited any new ones that came out. She was particularly fond of the films of Erich von Stroheim, so much so that at the age of 16, when she heard that the director was making his new film Blind Husbands (1919) and a contest was set up to search for talent for the film, Mary tried to sign up. At first, she could not find the right photograph worthy of submission, but her mother had taken a picture and submitted it. The contest was held in Chicago at the Elks Club and was sponsored by her church, with Von Stroheim himself as the judge. The Teutonic director was smitten with her beauty and her eagerness to behave and speak well and gave her the leading role in one of his films. When finding out she was to move to Los Angeles to make the film, Mary at first had reservations and consulted her parents. Her parents refused until they found out their old family friends, the Laemmles, were moving out to Los Angeles as well, and they gave consent for Mary to go but only with her parents as her chaperons due to their fear that the 'sheiks' of Los Angeles would corrupt Mary's moral character. When arriving at the studio, she found out that she had been replaced in the leading role in Blind Husbands. Mary was deeply hurt at the time and felt cheated, and was considering going home had it not been for her friend Carla who recommended her to her uncle, the owner of Universal City, Carl Laemmle, and the man in charge of production, Irving Thalberg. Although Carl Laemmle had met Mary sometime earlier and always regarded her as an 'angelic, sweet, quiet' young lady, he was none too impressed with her at the time to consider her for a contract, owing mostly to her moralistic and reserved disposition. Thalberg held the same reservations about her. However, after being persuaded by Mary's family and Carla, Carl caved and gave 17-year-old Mary her first big part: Talitby Millicuddy, the leading lady, in the melodrama The Blazing Trail (Robert Thornby, 1921) starring Frank Mayo. Mary caught on in films very quickly and was considered by the public, initially at least, in the same league as her bigger contemporaries - Mary Pickford, Florence Lawrence, Mae Marsh, and Lillian Gish, one of those 'child-woman' actresses particularly noted for her subtle but extraordinary ethereal Irish beauty. In 1922, Philbin was awarded at the first annual WAMPAS Baby Stars awards, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honoured thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.
After the moderate success of her first film, Mary Philbin was cast in Danger Ahead! (Rollin S. Sturgeon, 1921), the one-reel comedy Twelve Hours to Live (William Watson, 1921), and the Western Red Courage (B. Reeves Eason, 1921), starring Hoot Gibson. In all, she made six films in 1921. After seeing her work in Danger Ahead, Erich von Stroheim cast Mary in a small part as the crippled girl for his next film, Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922). It would become the most expensive production ever for Univeral; the costs rising up to a million dollars. Mary can be seen in the film as the little girl on crutches with her back turned, and you only quickly get a darkened glimpse of her face through her curly ringlets. Although her role in the film was just a bit part, Mary relished being under Von Stroheim's tutelage and it was from him, as she always said, she learned about 'true' acting in comparison to stage acting. Emily Greene at IMDb: "It has always been said of Mary Philbin that when the director was really good (such as von Stroheim, Paul Leni, and William Beaudine), people noticed she could be equally as good an actress as her colleagues. However, in the hands less talented directors such as Rupert Julian, who would partly direct her later in Merry-Go-Round (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera, her lack of acting training became a real handicap for her (this is clearly evident in some of her later films)." Mary began to get more notice from Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg, after Erich von Stroheim's high recommendation of her. After a minor film, The Trouper (Harry B. Harris, 1922) starring Gladys Walton, she was given the role of Ruth in Human Hearts (King Baggot, 1922). Mary began to get even further recognition, but her personal life was darkened by her father's divorce and remarriage to Alice Mead. Mary was shattered by the event, and as a result, became closer to her mother. Mary made two more films before she received her first big break as the heroine Agnes Urban, in von Stroheim's The Merry-Go-Round (1923). The casting for this film, set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the time of Emperor Franz Josef, was impeccable and in particular with her leading man, Norman Kerry, she would be reunited in several films. The production came to a standstill when the perfectionist von Stroheim insisted that some of the actors wear underwear embroidered with the Imperial Austrian Royal Family insignia, which infuriated Carl Laemmle. After an intense argument with Laemmle the wildly extravagant director was dropped from the picture. The cast was stunned and the two most affected were Wallace Beery (cast as Agnes' father) and Mary Philbin. Beery, infuriated with Laemmle's decision walked out, as did many others. Laemmle hired Universal actor Rupert Julian to direct. Not having met or worked with Julian before, Philbin decided to stay, and Cesare Gravina was re-cast in Beery's role. However, it became clearly evident that Julian was a novice compared to von Stroheim, and much of the original footage was cut or re-filmed upon its release. However, Merry-Go-Round (Rupert Julian, Erich von Stroheim, 1923) launched Mary as an official Hollywood star. During this time, Mary met the love of her life, Universal Studio executive/producer Paul Kohner - through the Laemmles. Paul Kohner was only a year older than Mary and born in Teplitz-Schoenau, Austria-Hungary (now Teplice, Czech Republic). They were immediately smitten with each other - but due to Mary's parents' religion (Roman Catholicism) and the fact that Paul was a Jew - they kept their relationship, in the early years, secret as much as possible. Mary's film career took off with such films as the comic Western Where Is This West? (George Marshall, 1923), the drama The Age of Desire (Frank Borzage, 1923), the fantasy The Temple of Venus (Henry Otto, 1923), and the action-comedy The Thrill Chaser (Edward Sedgwick, 1923) with Hoot Gibson. Paul Kohner sometimes was the producer, which afforded her more time to be with him, under the protection from her parents' observance. But it wasn't until 1924 after she made good in the role of Marianne in The Rose of Paris (Irving Cummings, 1924) that Mary was to be cast in her next, most famous and best-remembered film role of her entire career.
In 1924, Carl Laemmle was searching among the elite list of Hollywood starlets for the role of the young Swedish soprano Christine Daaé in the film adaption of Gaston Leroux's novella 'Le Fantôme de l'Opéra' (The Phantom of the Opera) starring in the leading role of Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, was one of Hollywood's best actors Lon Chaney, fresh from his success in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923). Much to the concern of the cast and crew, the director hired for the picture was the temperamental Rupert Julian. Julian remembered Mary and Norman Kerry from Merry-Go-Round and hired them. Mary was cast in the key role of Christine, the chance of a lifetime. But the production was one of the most difficult for the cast to endure. Although Mary was working alongside of many of her former colleagues and friends (Norman Kerry, Cesare Gravina, and Carla Laemmle), she had never met Lon Chaney personally before and, in keeping with her nature, was initially very shy and nervous around him. During the filming Chaney and Julian exchanged heated arguments. Chaney would direct his own scenes including several scenes with Mary. Her big test with Chaney came for the climactic unmasking scene - there was a shot of Mary on the floor screaming after Christine unmasks the Phantom and is supposed to cry. Julian had gone through several takes of the scene with Mary, but all takes failed to satisfy Julian. This angered the cast and crew and Julian called it a day and they shut down early. But Lon Chaney remained behind and asked Mary and the crew to stay and reshoot the scene themselves. His approach was a success. From then on Chaney would always be on the set when Julian was directing Mary in future scenes, even if he was not in it. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) was Universal's biggest money maker of the decade, launching not only Chaney to stardom but Philbin as well. Her next big role was the dual part of Stella Maris/Unity Blake in a remake of Mary Pickford's Stella Maris (Marshall Neilan, 1918). The new version, Stella Maris (Charles Brabin, 1925), was received with moderate success with Mary being complimented on her ability to change from the beautiful Stella into the hideous outcast Unity Blake so well that many didn't recognise her. When Mary was filming The Man who Laughs in the role of the blind girl Dea, her secret fiance Paul Kohner was acting as production supervisor and interpreter for Conrad Veidt who played Gwynplaine. On opening night, the film was hailed as a box-office success and Mary was praised for her the role as Dea. It was then that Mary announced her engagement to Paul Kohner. But her family was outraged at the news and called a meeting to meet Kohner. Paul admitted then he was a staunch Jew and Mary's mother would have none of it. In the end, Mary gave the devastated Paul back the ring. Mary also was devastated, even so much that she would never marry. At the dawn of talkies, Mary's film career nose-dived along with her personal life. Because of the inadequacy of early recording equipment - Mary's voice recorded as high pitched and squeaky. However, she did dubbed her own voice when The Phantom of the Opera was given sound and re-released in 1929. New scenes with Norman Kerry were intercut with footage of the 1924 version with Chaney. In retrospect, all of her post-Phantom films were mediocre. She received good notices in D.W. Griffith's otherwise pathetic Drums of Love (1928), co-starring Lionel Barrymore and Don Alvarado. Her final film was the sound film After the Fog (Leander De Cordova, 1929). Mary decided to abandon her film career and took up a life of self-enforced celibacy, becoming a virtual recluse in her father's home. Mary virtually vanished off the face of the earth and Hollywood forgot her. In the 1960s, it was discovered that Philbin was still alive, living in the very same home in Huntington Beach, she had bought in the 1920s. She had never married and had spent much of her life looking after her parents. It was remarked at how youthful and beautiful she still looked even though she was in her 60s and how her voice still had that youthful girlish quality. She had been a faithful member of her parents' church and only went out to visit friends and family, shop, and go to church. During that time, she admitted that she refused interviews and photo shoots, although she replied to her fans and sent them autographs. In the late 1970s, Philbin experienced the first symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease. In 1988, Mary made her first public appearance since 1931 at a memorial service for Rudolph Valentino. Another blow came when it was announced Paul Kohner had passed away. Shortly after his death, workers cleaning out his office at his agency found Mary's love letters close at hand in his desk, more than 60 years later. When she was informed, Mary cried and revealed the letters Paul had sent to her and even a few after the 'family incident'. After that Mary's memory lapses grew worse, and her old friend Carla Laemmle came to help her. At her insistence - Mary made two more public appearances - the first at the Los Angeles opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'The Phantom of the Opera'. And the second to help promote author Philip Riley's study 'The Phantom of the Opera'. After that, Mary was never seen in public again. In 1993, Mary Philbin died of complications from pneumonia. The original Christine Daaé was dead at age 91.
Sources: Emily Greene (IMDb) Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Eddie Ewing and Marge Nicholds-Ewing, ca. 1924, Los Angeles Co., CA. Caption on left: "How's this for a drib snap HUH?" (spelling as recorded); Caption on right: "Guess who this is?" Marge, my maternal Grandmother, and Eddie, my Grandfather, were 21 and 20, respectively. Marge was born near Bath, England in October 1902, and Eddie was born in Ontario, Canada, in October 1903. They both immigrated into the U.S. and were eventually naturalized as U.S. citizens. These photos are from an album Eddie assembled and partially labeled of their trip to Los Angeles and of their first years in L.A. They had only been married a short time during this period. My mother, their only child, was not born until March 1929. Marge and Eddie lived the life of the Roaring 20's, and Eddie played saxophone in jazz bands, at least for awhile.
Note how small the palm trees are in these photos. Anyone familiar with L.A. will remark at how tall the typical L.A. palms are today, compared to those seen here, 91 years later...
I was very close to my maternal grandparents, and with the turbulent relationship of my parents, a continuous crisis of separation, divorce and remarriage, my grandparents often seemed like my second parents. We lived with them more than once when my parents were split up. While they had their issues, Marge and Eddie were great people, and treated my mom and I, as well as my sister, Kerry Marie Egger, and, later, my brother Brian, with kindness and selfless devotion. They were together, through better and worse, until Marge died suddenly in 1969, at the age of 67. Ed died in 1981 at the age of 76. They both live in my heart always, as the ones who cared for me, took me traveling repeatedly to the Pacific Northwest, visiting the great National Parks and other scenic wonders. It is from them I learned to love nature, including plants. In later years, Marge was an enthusiastic gardener, and their backyard was a refuge of beautiful, exotic and interesting plants and spaces, even though they were not wealthy people, and never had a gardener that I remember. Both Marge and Eddie worked full-time in relatively humble, business-related careers throughout my childhood. Ed worked for some company whatever in downtown L.A. He kept the company's books, honestly, carefully and competently, for many years, but was terminated unfairly and harshly by some corporate dude... Left with next to nothing by them.
ENGLISH (FRANÇAIS SUIT)
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It is now open to the public as a museum run by the Newport Preservation Society.
History
The mansion was built as a summer “cottage” between 1888 and 1892 for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt. It was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to the now-legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. The fifty-room mansion required a staff of 36 servants, including butlers, maids, coachmen, and footmen. The mansion cost $11 million (equivalent to $317 million in 2020); $660 million in Gold-dollar equivalence (1890 $20 Double Eagle gold coin) of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet (14,000 m³) of marble. Vanderbilt’s older brother Cornelius Vanderbilt II subsequently built the largest of the Newport cottages, The Breakers, between 1893 and 1895.
When Alva Vanderbilt divorced William in 1895, she already owned Marble House outright, having received it as her 39th birthday present. Upon her remarriage in 1896 to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, she relocated down the street to Belmont's mansion, Belcourt. After his death, she reopened Marble House and added the Chinese Tea House on the seaside cliff, where she hosted rallies for women's suffrage.
Alva Belmont closed the mansion permanently in 1919, when she relocated to France to be closer to her daughter, Consuelo Balsan. There she divided her time between a Paris townhouse, a villa on the Riviera, and the Château d’Augerville, which she restored. She sold the house to Frederick H. Prince in 1932, less than a year before her death. For more than 30 years, the Prince family carefully occupied the house during Newport's summer season, taking special efforts to leave the vast majority of the interior intact as the Vanderbilts had originally intended. One notable event that occurred in the Marble House during the Prince family’s residency was the famed Tiffany Ball in July 1957, sponsored by Tiffany & Company and held to benefit the relatively new Preservation Society of Newport County. Continuing late into the early morning hours, the ball welcomed internationally known guests including then Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy; Mr. and Mrs. E. Sheldon Whitehouse; the Astors; and Count Anthony and Countess Sylvia Szápary of the Vanderbilt family. During their summer occupancies, to help preserve the integrity of Marble House's famed interiors, the Princes primarily resided in smaller quarters in the building's third floor, which had formerly been used for servant housing during the Vanderbilts' time. In 1963, the Preservation Society of Newport County purchased the house from the Prince Trust, with funding provided by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt couple's youngest son. Through the Prince Trust, the Prince family donated virtually all original furniture for the house directly to the Preservation Society.
The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1971. The Department of the Interior designated it as a National Historic Landmark on February 17, 2006. The Bellevue Avenue Historic District, which includes Marble House and many other historic Newport mansions, was added to the Register on December 8, 1972 and subsequently designated as a National Historic Landmark District on May 11, 1976.
The mansion still stands in great visible condition and is used for many things such as guided and non-guided tours, as well as hosting various special events, parties, and weddings. The Marble House is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Newport, RI. In keeping with custom of the time, the Vanderbilts also commissioned a sizeable carriage house to be built for Marble House diagonally across Bellevue Avenue, on what is now known as Rovensky Avenue. The Carriage House abuts Rovensky Park, which is maintained by The Preservation Society of Newport County. The Carriage House property is currently privately owned and has been converted for residential use.
Design
The rear façade faces towards the ocean
Marble House, one of the earliest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, is loosely inspired by the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. Jules Allard and Sons of Paris, first hired by the Vanderbilts to design some of the interiors for their Petit Château on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, designed the French-inspired interiors of Marble House. The grounds were designed by landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch.
The mansion is U-shaped and, while it appears to be two stories, it actually has four levels: the kitchen and other service areas are located in the basement; reception rooms are on the ground floor; bedrooms are on the second floor; and servant quarters are on the concealed third floor. Load-bearing walls are brick, with their exterior sides faced in white Westchester marble, which Hunt detailed in the manner of French neoclassical architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The façade of the mansion features bays that are defined by two story Corinthian pilasters. These frame arched windows on the ground floor and rectangular ones on the second on most of the façade. A curved marble carriage ramp, fronted by a semi-circular fountain with grotesque masks, spans the entire western façade. The masks serve as water spouts. The center of this façade, facing Bellevue Avenue, features a monumental tetrastyle Corinthian portico. The north and south facades match the western in basic design. The eastern façade, facing the Atlantic Ocean, is divided into a wing on each side. These wings semi-enclose a marble terrace and are surrounded by a marble balustrade on the ground floor level. The inset central portion of this façade differs from the others, with four bays of ground floor doors topped by second floor arched windows.
The dining room, featuring pink Numidian marble and gilt bronze capitals and trophies. The interior features a number of notable rooms. Entrance into the mansion is through one of two French Baroque-style doors, each weighing a ton and a half. Both are embellished by the monogram “WV” set into an oval medallion. They were made at the John Williams Bronze Foundry in New York. The Stair Hall is a two-story room that features walls and a grand staircase of yellow Siena marble, with a wrought iron and gilt bronze staircase railing. he railing is based on models at Versailles. An 18th-century Venetian ceiling painting featuring gods and goddesses adorns the ceiling.
Architect Richard Morris Hunt hired Giuseppe Moretti to produce the interior's marble friezes and statuary, including work on bas-reliefs of Hunt and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the master architect for Louis XIV during the construction of Palace of Versailles; and which stood side by side on the mezzanine level of the staircase. The Grand Salon, designed by Allard and Sons, served as a ballroom and reception room. Designed in the Louis XIV style, it features green silk cut velvet upholstery and draperies. The originals were made by Prelle. The walls are carved wood and gold gilt panels representing scenes from classical mythology, inspired by the panels and trophies adorning the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre. The ceiling features an 18th-century French painting in the manner of Pietro da Cortona depicting Minerva, with a surround adapted from the ceiling of the Queen's Bedroom at Versailles.
The Gothic Room, in the Gothic Revival-style, was designed to display Alva Vanderbilt's collection of Medieval and Renaissance decorative objects. The stone fireplace in the room was copied by Allard and Sons from one in the Jacques Cœur House in Bourges. The furniture was by Gilbert Cuel. The Library is in the Rococo-style. It served as both a morning room and library. The doors and bookcases, in carved walnut, were a collaboration between Allard and Cuel. The Dining Room features pink Numidian marble and gilt bronze capitals and trophies. The fireplace is a replica of the one in the Salon d’Hercule at Versailles. The ceiling is decorated painted with a hunting and fishing motif, with an 18th-century French ceiling in the center. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, on the second floor, is in the Louis XIV style. The ceiling in this room is adorned with circular ceiling painting of Athena, painted circa 1721 by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. It was originally in the library of the Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice.
Filming location
The interiors of the mansion have appeared in several films or television series. Scenes appearing in the 1972–73 television series, “America,” the 1974 film, “The Great Gatsby,” the 1995 miniseries “The Buccaneers,” the 1997 film “Amistad,” and the 2008 film “27 Dresses” were shot here. More recently, Victoria's Secret filmed one of their 2012 holiday commercials here.
ENGLISH (FRANÇAIS SUIT)
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It is now open to the public as a museum run by the Newport Preservation Society.
History
The mansion was built as a summer “cottage” between 1888 and 1892 for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt. It was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to the now-legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. The fifty-room mansion required a staff of 36 servants, including butlers, maids, coachmen, and footmen. The mansion cost $11 million (equivalent to $317 million in 2020); $660 million in Gold-dollar equivalence (1890 $20 Double Eagle gold coin) of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet (14,000 m³) of marble. Vanderbilt’s older brother Cornelius Vanderbilt II subsequently built the largest of the Newport cottages, The Breakers, between 1893 and 1895.
When Alva Vanderbilt divorced William in 1895, she already owned Marble House outright, having received it as her 39th birthday present. Upon her remarriage in 1896 to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, she relocated down the street to Belmont's mansion, Belcourt. After his death, she reopened Marble House and added the Chinese Tea House on the seaside cliff, where she hosted rallies for women's suffrage.
Alva Belmont closed the mansion permanently in 1919, when she relocated to France to be closer to her daughter, Consuelo Balsan. There she divided her time between a Paris townhouse, a villa on the Riviera, and the Château d’Augerville, which she restored. She sold the house to Frederick H. Prince in 1932, less than a year before her death. For more than 30 years, the Prince family carefully occupied the house during Newport's summer season, taking special efforts to leave the vast majority of the interior intact as the Vanderbilts had originally intended. One notable event that occurred in the Marble House during the Prince family’s residency was the famed Tiffany Ball in July 1957, sponsored by Tiffany & Company and held to benefit the relatively new Preservation Society of Newport County. Continuing late into the early morning hours, the ball welcomed internationally known guests including then Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy; Mr. and Mrs. E. Sheldon Whitehouse; the Astors; and Count Anthony and Countess Sylvia Szápary of the Vanderbilt family. During their summer occupancies, to help preserve the integrity of Marble House's famed interiors, the Princes primarily resided in smaller quarters in the building's third floor, which had formerly been used for servant housing during the Vanderbilts' time. In 1963, the Preservation Society of Newport County purchased the house from the Prince Trust, with funding provided by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt couple's youngest son. Through the Prince Trust, the Prince family donated virtually all original furniture for the house directly to the Preservation Society.
The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1971. The Department of the Interior designated it as a National Historic Landmark on February 17, 2006. The Bellevue Avenue Historic District, which includes Marble House and many other historic Newport mansions, was added to the Register on December 8, 1972 and subsequently designated as a National Historic Landmark District on May 11, 1976.
The mansion still stands in great visible condition and is used for many things such as guided and non-guided tours, as well as hosting various special events, parties, and weddings. The Marble House is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Newport, RI. In keeping with custom of the time, the Vanderbilts also commissioned a sizeable carriage house to be built for Marble House diagonally across Bellevue Avenue, on what is now known as Rovensky Avenue. The Carriage House abuts Rovensky Park, which is maintained by The Preservation Society of Newport County. The Carriage House property is currently privately owned and has been converted for residential use.
Design
The rear façade faces towards the ocean
Marble House, one of the earliest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, is loosely inspired by the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. Jules Allard and Sons of Paris, first hired by the Vanderbilts to design some of the interiors for their Petit Château on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, designed the French-inspired interiors of Marble House. The grounds were designed by landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch.
The mansion is U-shaped and, while it appears to be two stories, it actually has four levels: the kitchen and other service areas are located in the basement; reception rooms are on the ground floor; bedrooms are on the second floor; and servant quarters are on the concealed third floor. Load-bearing walls are brick, with their exterior sides faced in white Westchester marble, which Hunt detailed in the manner of French neoclassical architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The façade of the mansion features bays that are defined by two story Corinthian pilasters. These frame arched windows on the ground floor and rectangular ones on the second on most of the façade. A curved marble carriage ramp, fronted by a semi-circular fountain with grotesque masks, spans the entire western façade. The masks serve as water spouts. The center of this façade, facing Bellevue Avenue, features a monumental tetrastyle Corinthian portico. The north and south facades match the western in basic design. The eastern façade, facing the Atlantic Ocean, is divided into a wing on each side. These wings semi-enclose a marble terrace and are surrounded by a marble balustrade on the ground floor level. The inset central portion of this façade differs from the others, with four bays of ground floor doors topped by second floor arched windows.
The dining room, featuring pink Numidian marble and gilt bronze capitals and trophies. The interior features a number of notable rooms. Entrance into the mansion is through one of two French Baroque-style doors, each weighing a ton and a half. Both are embellished by the monogram “WV” set into an oval medallion. They were made at the John Williams Bronze Foundry in New York. The Stair Hall is a two-story room that features walls and a grand staircase of yellow Siena marble, with a wrought iron and gilt bronze staircase railing. he railing is based on models at Versailles. An 18th-century Venetian ceiling painting featuring gods and goddesses adorns the ceiling.
Architect Richard Morris Hunt hired Giuseppe Moretti to produce the interior's marble friezes and statuary, including work on bas-reliefs of Hunt and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the master architect for Louis XIV during the construction of Palace of Versailles; and which stood side by side on the mezzanine level of the staircase. The Grand Salon, designed by Allard and Sons, served as a ballroom and reception room. Designed in the Louis XIV style, it features green silk cut velvet upholstery and draperies. The originals were made by Prelle. The walls are carved wood and gold gilt panels representing scenes from classical mythology, inspired by the panels and trophies adorning the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre. The ceiling features an 18th-century French painting in the manner of Pietro da Cortona depicting Minerva, with a surround adapted from the ceiling of the Queen's Bedroom at Versailles.
The Gothic Room, in the Gothic Revival-style, was designed to display Alva Vanderbilt's collection of Medieval and Renaissance decorative objects. The stone fireplace in the room was copied by Allard and Sons from one in the Jacques Cœur House in Bourges. The furniture was by Gilbert Cuel. The Library is in the Rococo-style. It served as both a morning room and library. The doors and bookcases, in carved walnut, were a collaboration between Allard and Cuel. The Dining Room features pink Numidian marble and gilt bronze capitals and trophies. The fireplace is a replica of the one in the Salon d’Hercule at Versailles. The ceiling is decorated painted with a hunting and fishing motif, with an 18th-century French ceiling in the center. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, on the second floor, is in the Louis XIV style. The ceiling in this room is adorned with circular ceiling painting of Athena, painted circa 1721 by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. It was originally in the library of the Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice.
Filming location
The interiors of the mansion have appeared in several films or television series. Scenes appearing in the 1972–73 television series, “America,” the 1974 film, “The Great Gatsby,” the 1995 miniseries “The Buccaneers,” the 1997 film “Amistad,” and the 2008 film “27 Dresses” were shot here. More recently, Victoria's Secret filmed one of their 2012 holiday commercials here.
FRANÇAIS
Marble House est un manoir construit pendant l’Âge d’Or et situé au 596 Bellevue Avenue à Newport, dans le Rhode Island, maintenant ouvert au public comme un musée géré par la société de conservation du comté de Newport. Il a été conçu par la société architecte Richard Morris Hunt. Pour une maison américaine, il était sans précédent dans la conception et l'opulence quand il a été construit. Son portique avant, qui sert également de porte cochère, ressemble à celle de la Maison-Blanche.
Histoire
Le manoir a été construit comme un «chalet» de retraite d'été entre 1888 et 1892 pour Alva et William Kissam Vanderbilt. Ce fut un point de repère social qui contribua à déclencher la transformation de Newport à partir d'une colonie relativement détendue d'été de maisons en bois à une station de palais de pierre opulents. Le manoir de cinquante pièces exigeait un personnel de 36 domestiques, y compris les majordomes, servantes, cochers et valets. Le manoir a coûté 11 millions $ (260 millions $ en dollars de 2009) dont 7 millions $ ont été dépensés sur 14 000 m³ de marbre1,3. Le frère aîné de William, Cornelius Vanderbilt II construit ensuite le plus grand des «chalets» à Newport, The Breakers, entre 1893 et 18954.
Lorsqu'Alva Vanderbilt divorça de William en 1895, elle possédait déjà Marble House (reçu en tant que présent pour son 39e anniversaire)5. Après son remariage en 1896 à Oliver Belmont, elle déménagea dans la maison de Belmont, à Belcourt. Après la mort de ce dernier, elle rouvrit Marble House et y ajouta la maison de thé chinoise sur la falaise en bord de mer, où elle organisa des rassemblements en faveur du suffrage des femmes.
Le Pavillon de Thé
Alva Belmont ferma la maison de façon permanente en 1919, quand elle déménagea en France pour se rapprocher de sa fille, Consuelo Vanderbilt. Là, elle partage son temps entre une maison de ville de Paris, une villa sur la Côte d'Azur, et le château d’Augerville, qu'elle fit restaurer. Elle vendit la maison à Frederick H. Prince en 1932, moins d'un an avant sa mort. En 1963, la société de conservation du comté de Newport acheta la maison du prince Trust, grâce au financement fourni par Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, le plus jeune fils du couple Vanderbilt. Le Trust fit don des meubles du manoir directement à la société de conservation.
Le manoir a été ajouté au registre national des lieux historiques, le 10 septembre 1971. Le ministère de l'Intérieur désigna la résidence comme monument historique national le 17 février 2006. Le quartier historique de Bellevue Avenue, qui comprend Marble House et bien d'autres demeures historiques de Newport, a été ajouté au registre le 8 décembre 1972. Marble House fut par la suite désigné comme Historic District National Landmark, le 11 mai 19767.
Conception
Marble House est l'un des premiers exemples de l'architecture Beaux-Arts aux États-Unis, avec un design inspiré du Petit Trianon au château de Versailles. Jules Allard et Fils, à Paris, d'abord embauchés par les Vanderbilt pour concevoir certains des intérieurs pour leur Petit Château sur la Cinquième Avenue à Manhattan, conçut également les intérieurs d'inspiration française de Marble House. Les motifs ont été conçus par l'architecte paysagiste Ernest W. Bowditch.
La maison est un bâtiment en forme de U. Bien que cela semble être une structure à deux étages, il est en réalité réparti sur quatre niveaux. Les zones de cuisine et de service sont situées au niveau du sous-sol, des salles de réception au rez-de-chaussée, chambres à coucher au deuxième étage, et les quartiers des serviteurs sur le niveau le plus élevé caché. La partie portante des murs est en briques, avec les faces extérieures en marbre blanc venant du village de Tuckahoe, dans le Comté de Westchester.
La façade de la maison dispose de baies qui sont définies par deux pilastres corinthiens. Les châssis des fenêtres sont cintrés au rez-de-chaussée et rectangulaires au second niveau sur la plupart de la façade. Une rampe de transport en marbre incurvé, menée par une fontaine semi-circulaire avec des masques grotesques, couvre toute la façade occidentale. Les masques servent de jets d'eau. Le centre de cette façade, face à Bellevue Avenue, dispose d'un portique tétrastyle corinthien monumental. Les façades nord et sud correspondent à l'ouest dans la conception de base. La façade est, face à l'océan Atlantique, est divisée en une aile de chaque côté. Ces ailes entourent une terrasse en marbre et sont entourées par une balustrade en marbre au rez-de-chaussée. La partie centrale de cette façade se distingue des autres, avec quatre baies au rez-de-chaussée surmontées de fenêtres cintrées au deuxième étage.
L'intérieur dispose d'un certain nombre de pièces remarquables. L'entrée possède deux portes de style baroque français, chacune pesant une tonne et demie. Les deux sont embellies par le monogramme “WV” mis en un médaillon ovale. Elles ont été faites à la John Williams Bronze Foundry à New York. La cage d'escalier est une pièce à deux étages qui dispose de murs et un grand escalier de marbre jaune de Sienne, dont les balustrades sont en fer forgé et bronze doré. Le garde-corps est basé sur des modèles à Versailles. Une peinture de plafond vénitien du xviiie siècle, avec des dieux et des déesses orne le plafond.
L'architecte Richard Morris Hunt embaucha Giuseppe Moretti pour produire des frises et des statues en marbre pour l'intérieur, y compris les travaux sur les bas-reliefs de Hunt et Jules Hardouin-Mansart, l'architecte maître pour Louis XIV lors de la construction du château de Versailles; et qui se tenaient côte à côte sur le niveau de l'escalier de la mezzanine. Le Grand Salon, conçu par Allard et Fils, a servi de salle de bal et de réception. Conçu dans le style Louis XIV, il dispose de soie verte de velours d'ameublement et des rideaux. Les originaux ont été faits par Prelle. Les murs sont en bois sculpté et des panneaux dorés représentent des scènes de la mythologie classique, inspirées par les panneaux et les trophées qui ornent la galerie d'Apollon au Louvre. Le plafond comporte une peinture française du xviiie siècle à la manière de Pietro da Cortona représentant Minerve, avec un encadrement adapté du plafond de la chambre de la Reine à Versailles.
La salle à manger
La salle gothique, dans le style néo-gothique, a été conçue pour afficher la collection d'objets décoratifs médiévaux et Renaissance d'Alva Vanderbilt. La cheminée en pierre dans la salle a été copiée par Allard et Fils dans la maison de Jacques Cœur à Bourges. Le mobilier fut fait par Gilbert Cuel. La bibliothèque est dans le style rococo. Elle servait à la fois comme chambre de réveil et de bibliothèque. Les portes et les bibliothèques, en noyer sculpté, étaient une collaboration entre Allard et Cuel. La salle à manger dispose de marbre numide rose et des chapiteaux et des trophées en bronze doré. Le foyer est une réplique de celui du salon d'Hercule à Versailles. Le plafond est décoré avec un motif de chasse et de pêche, avec un plafond à la française du xviiie siècle dans le centre. La chambre à coucher d'Alva Vanderbilt, au deuxième étage, est dans le style Louis XIV. Le plafond de cette salle est orné de peinture à son plafond circulaire d'Athéna, peinte vers 1721 par Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. Il était à l'origine dans la bibliothèque du palais Pisani Moretta à Venise.
Lieu de tournage
Les intérieurs du manoir ont fait leur apparition dans plusieurs films ou séries télévisées. Quelques scènes pour la série de 1972-1973 : l'Amérique, le film de 1974 : Gatsby le Magnifique, la mini-série de 1995 : The Buccaneers, le film de 1997 : Amistad et le film de 2008 : 27 Robes ont été tournées. En été 2012, Victoria Secret y filma une de ses publicités.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3463/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
Sabine Peters (1913-1982) was a fresh-faced German theatre and film actress. During the 1930s, she played supporting and occasional leading roles in several mainstream romances and comedies for the Ufa. For Carl Froelich, she played a young student in two films but she had her breakthrough as the selfish and jealous daughter of Lil Dagover in Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (1936).
Sabine Peters was born in 1913 in Berlin. The merchant's daughter studied acting with Ilka Grüning. After her studies, she was accepted directly into the ensemble of Agnes Straub at the Berliner Theater am Kurfürstendamm, where she played ingénue roles until 1938. In that year she also made her film debut as one of the eight school girls in the musical drama Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1938) starring Karin Hardt and Theodor Loos. In the following year, she already played at the side of important actors of that time as Heinrich George, Hertha Thiele and Albert Lieven in the drama Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froelich, 1933). She played one of three girls who start at an elite school in Lübeck. The film was inspired by the earlier German romantic drama and cult classic Madchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) also with Thiele and with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded that film. The actor and director Fritz Kampers then engaged Peters for the Bavarian comedy Konjunkturritter/Knights of the Economy (Fritz Kampers, 1934) with the famous folk actor Weiß Ferdl.
Sabine Peters had her breakthrough with Geraldine Katt and Lil Dagover in the Ufa problem film Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936). She played Irene, a selfish and jealous young girl who tries to prevent the remarriage of her attractive mother by all means. Familiar with classical roles on the stage, she appeared with Heinrich George, Ida Wüst and Rotraut Richter in Der Biberpelz/The Beaver Coat (Jürgen von Alten, 1937), the film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's stage comedy 'Der Biberpelz'. In 1938 followed the comedy Rätsel um Beate/Mystery around Beate (Johannes Meyer, 1938), again with Lil Dagover and also with Albrecht Schoenhals. She was again a student in the drama Die vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938), starring Ingrid Bergman. The film was intended as a star vehicle to launch Bergman's career in Germany following her success in several Swedish films. Sabine Peters married the opera singer Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. From this marriage came their daughter Brigitte Fassbaender, born in 1939, who later became an important mezzo-soprano. After 1945 Sabine Peters performed mainly at the theatre. Her last role was a small part in the television film Die Weber/The Weavers (Fritz Umgelter, 1980, an adaptation of the stage play by Gerhart Hauptmann. Sabine Peters passed away in 1982 in Munich.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
Cuban sculptor Jorge Pardo’s monumental Penelope (2004) sculpture dominates the Wolstenholme space with its brightly coloured tentacles, Penelope is one of the largest sculptures in the city. Commissioned in 2006 by Liverpool Biennial, the sculpture is apparently inspired by the story of Ulysses’ wife in The Odyssey. Penelope waited faithfully for her husband to return from the Trojan war, and rejected numerous suitors by saying she had first to finish weaving a rope before she could consider remarriage. She unravelled her day’s work each night in order to maintain her cover story. The stalks on the sculpture are a reference to both Penelope’s weaving and to the local history of rope-making in this part of Liverpool city centre.
PERIYAR E.V.RAMASAMY and WOMEN RIGHTS
With regards to marriage, Periyar has stated that it is one of the worst customs in India. He claimed that the marriage principle, briefly, involves the enslavement of a woman by her husband and nothing else. This enslavement is concealed under the cover of marriage rites to deceive the women concerned by giving the wedding the false name of a divine function.[7]
There have been numerous papers in South India reporting how husbands have killed their wives, suspecting immoral behavior. The husband's suspicion of his wife's character has often led to murders. Those who believe in the divine dispensation, according to Periyar, do not have the knowledge to ask themselves why marriages conducted according to religious rites and the approval of God end in this fashion.[7]
Periyar further states that the very idea that the only proper thing for women to do is to be slaves of domesticity, bear children and bring them up, is a faulty one. As long as these restrictions are imposed on women, we can be sure that women have to be subservient to men and depend on men for help. If women have to live on terms of equality with men, they must have the liberty, like men, to have the kind of education they like and also to do unhampered, any work suitable to their knowledge, ability and taste.[8]
Furthermore, Periyar objected to terms like "giving of a maid" and "given in marriage". They are, "Sanskrit terms" and treat woman as a thing. He advocated the substitution of the word for marriage taken from the Tirukkual "Valkai thunai" or "life partner".[9]
Expenses[edit]
With marriage comes the expenses. Periyar stated that in our country, and particularly in Hindu society, a marriage is a function causing a lot of difficulties and waste to all people concerned. But those who conduct the marriage function and those who are getting married do not appear to notice the attendant difficulties because they think that social life necessitates wasteful expense and many difficulties and therefore they must necessarily face those inconveniences and hardships.[10]
Wedding feast, jewels, expensive clothes, procession, pandal, dance, music—money is spent on all these to satisfy the vanity of the organizers. Whatever may be the amount of money spent on the wedding and however pompous each of the items may be, the mirth and jollity associated with these are over in two or three days. In a week's time the prestige and honor connected with these are forgotten.[10] But the wedding expenses leave many families crushed; for many poor families these expenses leave an enormous burden and the debts remain uncleared for a number of years.[11]
However, if the money intended for the wedding expense is not borrowed and belongs to either of the marriage parties, then that amount could be used by her to bring up her children and to educate them. Such a procedure would be highly beneficial to her.[12]
Arranged marriages[edit]
In South Asia we mostly hear of arranged marriages as part of custom, heritage, and religions. Periyar thought that the Aryan wedding methods were barbarous because of the Aryan religion and art: Vedas, Sastras, Puranas, and Epics belong to the barbaric age. He further stated that is the reason why their wedding methods involve the parents giving the girl, prostituting the girl children and some stranger carrying the girl away by force or stealth.[13]
Arranged marriages in general were meant to enable the couple to live together throughout life and derive happiness, satisfaction and a good reputation, even years after the sexual urge and sexual pleasure are forgotten.[14]
But, with the selfish manipulation of this pact, Periyar claimed that women find 'pleasure' in slavish marriage because they have been brought up by their parents without education, independence and self-respect and because they have been made to believe that marriage means subordination to males. The inclusion of such slavish women in the group of 'chaste' women is another lure to them, leading them to find pleasure in such marriages.
Because a man is also married before he has understood the nature of life, its problems and its pleasures, he is satisfied with the slavish nature of the wife and the sexual pleasure she gives. If he finds any incompatibility, he adapts himself to his partner and the circumstances and puts up with his lot.[14]
Love marriages[edit]
Love marriages, claims Periyar, on the other hand will suit only those who have no ideals in life. Such a wedding gives primacy to sexual union along and it is doubtful if it indicates an agreement between the couple for good life. Sexual compatibility alone does not ensure happy married life; the couple should be able to live together cheerfully. Suitability for life or living together can be determined only if the man and woman get used to the company of each other, and are satisfied with each other. Only then, they can enter into an agreement to live together.[13]
Periyar further states that love marriages can give pleasure only as long as there is lust and the ability to satisfy that lust. If there is no compatibility between the partners in other respects, such marriages end only in the enslavement of women. The lies of such women resemble the lives of bullocks which are tied to a cart, beaten up and made to labor endlessly until they die.[14]
Therefore, there is a proverb stating, "A deeply loving girl is unfit for family life; a suitable life partner is unfit for love." Periyar believed that the agreement between partners to live together will constitute a better marriage than a love marriage.[14]
Self-respect marriages[edit]
In a leading article of Viduthalai, Periyar states that a self-respect wedding is based on rationalism. Rationalism is based on the individual's courage. Some may have the courage to conduct it during the time which almanacs indicate as the time of the planet Rahu and that, particularly in the evening. Some others may have just enough daring to avoid the Brahmin priest and his mother tongue - the Sanskrit language.[15] Some may feel nervous about not keeping the traditional lamp burning in broad daylight. Some others may have the rotten thought that conducting a wedding without 'mangala sutra' is disgraceful.
Still, the self-respect weddings conducted during the past thirty years have some basic limits. They are: Brahmins and their mantras should be utterly avoided; meaningless rituals, piling mud pots, one on another, having the traditional lamp during day time, ritual smoke - all these should be avoided. Rationalism does not approve of these. Periyar then asks why can't the government pass an Act that legalizes weddings which avoid the above-mentioned superstitious practices. If all these details cannot be accommodated in the Act, the latter can legalize weddings which don't have Brahmin priests, the Sanskrit language and the so called holy fire.[16]
Thus, marriages styled as Self-Respect marriages carried a threefold significance: a) replacing the Purohit, b) inter-caste equality, c) man-woman equality. Periyar claimed to have performed Self-Respect marriages unofficially since 1925 and officially since 1928.[17] Self-Respect marriages were legalized in 1967 by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government.[18]
Widow-remarriage[edit]
On the remarriage of widows, Periyar states that among the atrocities perpetrated by the Hindu male population against women, here we have to consider the treatment meted out to widows alone. If a girl loses her husband, even before knowing anything of worldly pleasures, she is compelled to close her eyes to everything in the world and die broken-hearted. Even in Periyar's community at the time, there were widowed girls below the age of 13 years. Periyar stated how it is a touching sight to see the parents of those widowed children treating them like untouchables.[19]
He goes on to say that whatever may be the reason for the present state of the Hindu society, my firm belief that the low position given permanently to widows may prove to be the reason for the utter ruin of the Hindu religion and the Hindu society.[20]
If we try to find the reason for such conduct, we will have to conclude that they instinctively feel that women are slaves, subservient to men and that they must be kept under control. That is why these people treat women like animals. They seem to feel that giving freedom to women is equivalent to committing a very serious crime. The result of this attitude is that there is no independence or freedom to one half of the human race. This wicked enslavement of half of the human race is due to the fact that men are physically a little stronger than women. This principle applies to all spheres of life and the weaker are enslaved by the stronger.
If slavery has to be abolished in society, the male arrogance and wickedness which lead to the enslavement of women must be abolished first. Only when this is achieved, the tender sprouts of freedom and equality will register growth.[21]
One of the reasons why Periayr hated Hinduism and the orthodoxy practiced in the name of Hinduism was the practice of child marriage. Many of the girl children who were married before they were ten or twelve years old became widows before they knew the meaning of the word. According to the 1921 All India Census the details of the child widows reported living in the country that time were as follows:[22]
1 year baby widows - 497
1 to 2 year child widows - 494
2 to 3 year child widows - 1,257
3 to 4 year child widows - 2,837
4 to 5 year child widows - 6,707
Total number of widows - 11,342
5 to 10 year young widows - 85,037
10 to 15 year young widows - 232,147
15 to 20 year young widows - 396,172
20 to 25 year young widows - 742,820
25 to 30 year young widows - 1,163,720
Total number of widows - 2,631,238[22][23]
Periyar was deeply disturbed when he realized that among the widows in India, 11,892 were little children below 5 years and that young widows below 15 years numbering 232,147 were denied the pleasures of life.[24]
With regards to the re-marriage of widows, Periyar stated that it is the practice of our people to refer to such a wedding as "a widow's marriage". Such an expression is used only with reference to women and in connection with men. Just as this lady is marrying another husband after the death of the first husband, many men marry again after the death of the first wife. But the second marriage of a man is not referred to as "a widower's marriage", though that is the proper thing to do.
Periyar himself was a widower. After becoming one, he took a second wife. He claimed that in the ancient days, both men and women in the country had this practice. There were numerous instances in sastras and puranas of women getting married again after the death of their first husband. Periyar further stated that this is not an unusual practice in the rest of the world though it might appear strange for us at the present time. Christian and Muslim women marry again after the death of the first husband. 90 percent of women in Muslim countries get married again soon after the death of the first husband. This may be unusual in certain sections of Indian societies. But it is a common practice in certain other sections of our society which are called very backward communities.[25]
Further, inter-caste marriages and remarriage of widows are on the increase in India. Brahmins oppose these because they are afraid that they cannot exploit the people any more in the name of sastras. For the same reason they oppose the Sharada Act which is necessary for social well-being.[26]
Child marriage[edit]
In all the meetings of the non-Brahmins and the Self-Respectors, Periyar condemned child marriages and emphasized the need for educating all girl children and giving right to young widows to get married again.
Periyar has been very much against child marriage and stated that it reflects the cruelty to which innocent girls were subjected by their well-meaning parents. Periyar asked that if these parents can be considered civilized in any sense of the term. There was no other leader other than Periyar who reacted against this practice of child marriage.[24]
Those who supported child marriage were strongly against Periyar's condemnation of this act. Take for example, the Sharada Act. Those who opposed this Act say that it was against the Sastras to conduct the marriage of a girl after she has attained puberty. They further say that those who conduct such marriages are committing a sin and therefore will go to hell.[27]
Chastity[edit]
Periyar claimed that "household duties" have risen out of the foolishness of people and were not natural duties.[28] He went on to say that it was our selfish greed which has multiplied our household work. Nobody need worry that without household work, the women will lose their "chastity". On chastity, Periyar went on to say that it is something that belongs to women and is not a pledge to men. Whatever, chastity is, it was something that belonged to individuals.
In society, it was believed that if people lose their chastity, they will get divine punishment. Others are not going to get that punishment. Referring to the doctrines of institutionalized orthodox religions, he went on to say that men need not to worry themselves that women are committing a sin by not doing household work. Thus, let men realize that women are not slaves and that men are not their masters or guardians. Women should be allowed to develop the competence to protect themselves and their chastity and men need not be their watchdogs. He also believed that it was derogatory for men to play such a role.[citation needed]
It was said by the orthodox[who?] that women will develop diseases if they lose their chastity. The disease that a woman gets affects the husbands also. If we[who?] educate the women, they will develop the capability to keep themselves and their husbands pure. Thus, Periyar stated in the Kudi Arasu for the society to think deeply about taking a decision and do the right thing for their sisters and girl children.[29]
Periyar kindled the thoughts of everybody by also ridiculing the use of the word chastity only with reference to women. (Periyar-Father of Tamil 32) He stated that character is essential for both men and women and that speaking of chastity only with reference to women degraded not merely women but men also. He extended this thought and said that in any sphere of activity, civilized society cannot think of one law for men and another for women. He also said that the way most men treated their women was far worse than the way the upper class people treated the lower class, the way in which rich men treated the poor and the way in which a master treated his slave.[30]
Education[edit]
On education, Periyar stated that some foolish parents believe that if girls get educated, they will correspond with their secret lovers. That it is a very foolish and mischievous notion. No parent need be anxious about it. If a girl writes a letter, it will only be to a male. We can even now caution men not to read any love letter addressed to them by a woman and, even if they read it, not to reply to it. If men do not listen to this advice, they, as well as the girls who write them must be punished. It will be a hopelessly bad thing, if parents keep their girl children uneducated for this reason.[29]
At a speeched delivered by Periyar at the Prize Distribution function in the Municipal School for Girls at Karungal Palayam, Erode, he stated that girl children should be taught active and energetic exercises like running, high jump, long jump,and wrestling so that they may acquire the strength and courage of men. Their time and energy should not be wasted in light pastimes like Kummi (groups going in a circle, clapping their hands rhythmically) and in Kolatam (striking with sticks rhythmically).
In ancient Tamil literature, poets have stressed the value of education for women. In a famous verse, a poet by the name of Naladiar stated that, "What gives beauty to a woman is not the hair style or the patter of her dress or the saffron on her face but only education".[31] In a verse of Eladhi it states, "Beauty does not lie in the style of wailing or in the charm of a blush but only in the combination of numbers and letters (education).[32]
In a 1960 issue of Viduthalai Periyar stated that "There should be a drastic revolution in the desires and ideals of Indian women. They should equip themselves to do all types of work that men are doing. They should have good domestic life without allowing nature's obstacles in their own lives. Therefore, there should be a welcome change in the minds of our women. The administrators also most pay special attention to the advancement of women".[33]
Armed forces[edit]
Periyar advocated for women to be given weapons to protect themselves in reply to a question put in the Central Legislature. He stated that we have no hope that the state governments will do anything in this sphere because most of the state ministers hold the orthodox belief that women are slavish creatures.[34] Though here and there we[who?] find women also as ministers, they are old-fashioned traditionalists who will say, "We don't want any kind of freedom. We are perfectly happy with slavery".[33]
In Periyar's time he explained that ""Indian" women had no self-determination in any sphere of life like education property and marriage. They thought that modern civilization meant dressing themselves like British and American women and adorning themselves. Even our educated women do not entertain any thought that they must enter the police and army departments and learn to pilot airplanes like the women of Russia and Turkey. Just as modern education has made men cowards an book-worms, it has made our women decoratie [sic] dolls and weaklings".[33]
In a leading article written by Periyar in Viduthalai in 1946, he claimed that unless there is a drastic, fundamental and revolutionary change in our[who?] administrative machinery, it is impossible to make our women independent beings.[33]
Periyar goes on to explain that in our country also, there are thousands of women with the courage, competence and desire to work in the police department. Just as girls going to school was considered wonderful and cycle-riding by girls was considered funny, a few years ago, women on police duty may appear to be wonderful or strange for a few years. Then, in course of time, this will be considered natural.[33]
We[who?] need methods that will effect an astounding revolution in the world of women. Until we acquire those methods, we will be moving forward like a tortoise and writing and talking about Drowpath and Sita.[35]
Periyar, in a 1932 article of Kudi Arasu, explained that "women should develop physical strength like men. They must take exercise and get training in the use of weapons. They must acquire the ability to protect themselves when any sex-mad person tries to molest them. They should get the necessary training to join the armey [sic] when need arises and fight the enemy. This is the view of all civilized people. Women also wholeheartedly support this view. When the general view in the world is like this, who can accept the statement of some people that there is no use in giving higher education to women?"[33]
Birth control[edit]
"Others advocate birth-control, with a view of preserving the health of women and conserving family property; but we advocate it for the liberation of women."[36]
In the Kudi Arasu of 1932, Periyar explained the basic differences between the reasons given to us for contraception and the reasons given by others for this. We say that contraception is necessary for women to gain freedom. Others advocate contraception taking into consideration many problems like the health of women, the health and energy of the children, the poverty of the country and the maintenance of the family property. Many Westerners also support contraception for the same reasons. Our view is not based on these considerations. We recommend that women should stop delivering children altogether because conception stands in the way of women enjoying personal freedom. Further, begetting a number of children prevents men also from being free and independent. This truth will be clear if we listen to talk of men and women when their freedom is hampered.[33]
He went on to say how birth control does not aim at preventing the birth of children altogether, but aims only at limiting births. A man and his wife may have two children, or at the most, three children. This birth control policy is against bringing forth an unlimited number of children.[37]
While Periyar and the Self-Respect movement were advocating for birth control, Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachariar) very strongly opposed it. Others who opposed birth control was Thiru Adhithanar, the publisher of an extremely popular newspaper, Dina Thandhi at the time. In response to Rajaji's stand against birth control, Periyar explained that he was against this since he was of the Vedic Brahmin community that staunchly engrossed in the Manu Dharma. Thus, limiting births of overpopulation would limit diseases and death from many and therefore leave Brahmin priests without a job of doing ceremonies for the sick and funerals. In a 1959 article of Viduthalai he exclaimed that "If people like Rajaji discover new islands, make the forests habitable, do propaganda for the birth of more and more children and have farms for the upbringing of children, we may be in a position to understand them."[38]
During the late 1950s, 80 percent of the men and 90 percent of the women in Tamil Nadu were illiterate. Siriyar argued in a 1959 article in Viduthalai that "in this situation, if birth control is not practiced and people are allowed to have any number of children, the result will be the multiplication of castes among the "Sudras", like washermen, barbers, pot-makers, kuravas or gypsies, hunters, fishermen, famers [sic], toddy tappers, padayachies, pillars, cobblers, pariahs, and a thousand others and a limitless increase in population. The increase in population will force the 'Sudras' to preserve themselves from starvation by standing with folded hands before lazy fellows and calling them 'swami', 'master' and 'landlord'. What good result can we expect if birth control is not adopted?"[39]
Previously in a 1933 article of the Kudi Arasu, Periyar, in his words, explained that "even a High Court Judge in India does not know the amount of trouble that a mother takes to bring up a child. If a husband is kind to his wife and shows concern for her health and happiness, he must adopt the contraceptive method. Otherwise, he must be one who could manage to see that in delivery and in the brining [sic] up of children, she does not have much trouble. Therefore, the proper thing to do now is to drastically cut the expenses mentioned above and spend money on the proper upbringing of children with the help of nurses."[40]
Property rights and divorce[edit]
With regards to property rights for women, Periyar stated that there was no difference between men and women. He went on to say that like men, women should have the right to own property and enjoy its benefits. With regards to divorce or separations, he advocated that a woman can lie away from her husband if he is an undesirable person and if he has nay virulent disease. When a woman has to live apart from her husband in these circumstances, she is entitled to maintenance allowance and a claim on the husband's property. Even if a widow gets remarried, she must be given the right to claim a share of the first husband's property.[41]
On February 4, 1946, the Central Legislature passed an Act giving the right the Hindu married woman to get from her husband in certain circumstances a separate place to live in and a maintenance allowance. Periyar explained how that it was a useless Act. since it seems that the members of the Hindu Mahasabha and Sanadahnis agitated against the grant of even this right.[42]
Dowry[edit]
On the Dowry system practiced widely throughout the Indian sub-continent not only by Hindus but Christians too, Periyar calls it a "serious disease that was spreading fast amongst Tamilians". He went on to state that the disease was also found in its virulent form among the Andhras and the Brahmins of Tamil Nadu. Periyar also argued that if a man with property worth one lakh has three daughters, he has to become a beggar by the time these daughters are married. In the name of dowry, the parents of the young men who marry the three daughters, squeeze the man's property out of him.[43]
In the 1959 issue of Viduthalai, Periyar stated that, "according to a new legislation, women have the right to a share of the parents' property. Therefore every girl will definitely get her legitimate share from the parents' wealth - if the parents are wealth. It is inhuamane [sic] on the part of the parents of a boy to dump on him a girl whom he does not like and to plan to such as much as they can from the property of the girl's father. There is basically no difference between selling education and love for money and selling one's chastity for money. 'Prostitute' is a germ of contempt for a woman; a boy should not be reduced by his avaricous [sic] parents to get the name, 'a prostituted boy' or 'a boy that has been sold'. A father-in-law who has means, however miserly he may be by nature, will not be indifferent when his daughter suffers out of poverty. Therefore, it is very shameful on the part of the bridegroom's parents to demand from the bride's father that at the time of the marriage he should gie jewels worth so many thousands along with so many thousand rupees as dowry and that he should provide the bridegroom with a house and a care. The fact that another party makes such demands at the time of his daughter's marriage does not justify any parent's demands at the time of his son's wedding. All people must realize that both demanding and giving dowry are wrong and they must boldly declare this when occasion arises."[44]
Periyar calls the dowry an evil and exploitative practice depriving tens of thousands of talented and beautiful young women with sound character remaining spinsters without any chance of getting married.[45]
Devadasis[edit]
Among the atrocities the Tamil society committed against women was the practice of keeping some women attached to temples as Devadasis. Dr. Muthulakshmi proposed the resolution at the Madras Legislature that the Devadasi system should be abolished. The Government wanted comments on that from all important people. Periyar in his statement pointed out that the Devadasi system was a disgrace to Hindu religion. The fact that, in the name of a temple or a god, some women are kept as common property is an insult to all the women in the society. He also remarked that the prevalence of this system encouraged immorality among men and thus set the pattern for unprincipled life in many families. This was stoutly opposed in the Assembly by Satyamurthi Iyer, an orthodox Congress member, under the pretext of safeguarding the Hindu traditions. It should be said to the credit of Dr. Muthulakshmi and the leaders like Periyar that the proposal of the Doctor was accepted and a law was enacted against the Devadasi system.[30]
Periyar's example of the degradation of women in the Devadasi system is explained that "if a man's physical passion is aroused when his wife is not with him, he immediately goes to a prostitute. Rough stones are planted where cows and bufaloes [sic] graze to facilitate the animals to rub against the stones when they feel like it.[46] Likewise, Devadasis served in temples and in all villages rough stones planted on the borders and they say that these two (employing devadasis and the planting rough stones) are aamong [sic] the 32 dharmas mentioned in the sastras. When we consider why his kindness to the suffering and also the 32 dharmas are all bogus".[46]
Resolutions passed[edit]
As the Self-Respect conference held in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu in 1929, the following were among the many resolutions passed with regards for women's rights:
Women should be given equal right along with men for the family property.
There should be no objection to employing women to any job for which they are qualified.[47]
Schools, particularly schools, should try to employ only women teachers.
At the conference held in Erode in 1930, the same resolutions were passed again reminding the delegates and others that the interest of women was still uppermost in Periyar's mind. M.R. Jayakar who presided oer the Erode conference was greatly impressed by the progressive views of Periyar and other members. He was particularly happy that the movement included not merely non-Brahmin Hindus but Christians and Muslims too. He pointed out that the Self-Respect movement was more progressive than Congress. Furthermore, at the Virudhnagar conference the women members held a separate conference and passed some resolutions demanding that women should have the right to select their life partners without any consideration of religion or community and that weddings should not involve wasteful expenditure and elaborate ceremonies.[47]
There has been some recent talk within the project about the arrival of winter. Many of us (from the northern hemisphere, at least) approach the winter months with some trepidation regarding its impact on our photo projects which take place mainly on the streets. While the impact of shortened daylight, unfriendly temperatures, and less colorful strangers is undeniable, we realize that winter weather need not stop us from doing what we do best: meeting strangers with our surprise request that they become part of our Human Family photo project.
This encounter is an example of why we need not fear the winter. I saw him walking toward me in downtown Toronto and immediately realized that his strong features, surrounded by fur, would make him an excellent candidate for a street portrait and a friendly chat. He politely listened to my appeal and, reasonably enough, asked a few questions about the project and where the photos appear. Satisfied with the answers, and interested in the photo samples on my contact card (worth its weight in gold) he was happy to participate. Meet Sarvelio.
We met in front of an entire block of small storefronts in downtown Toronto which have been bought up by a developer and boarded up prior to redevelopment. Given the trend in Toronto it’s safe to assume the block will become more condominiums. The location did provide several doorways which provided some shelter from the dull, flat light and the light showers which had begun falling.
Photos taken, we proceeded to get acquainted. Sarvelio is 25 and was born and raised in Toronto. His parents are from El Salvador. He has lived in a few locations in Toronto and remained with his mother through a divorce and remarriage. He is in love with his girlfriend and they are engaged to be married in a year or two. “It’s expensive to get married” he observed. We chatted a bit about how many North Americans are having smaller, less formal weddings which are less costly, but in some cultures a large, expensive wedding is pretty much dictated by custom.
Sarvelio is working in retail in a popular store down the street. Most of his responsibilities have to do with stocking the shelves with clothing items, keeping the clothing folded and neatly displayed, and directing shoppers to the products they are seeking. I commented that when I go into a retail store and items are unfolded and piled on the shelves or dropped on the floor, I lose interest in shopping there. He agreed that keeping things tidy and presentable is really important. For the future, Sarvelio would like to move toward an office job of some sort in a company which can provide stable employment that will allow him to marry and support a family. He knows he may have to return to college at some point soon to be competitive in today’s job market.
I told him that prior to retirement I worked with a woman from El Salvador and I was always struck by her dedication to family, belief in God, and commitment to having her children become responsible, hard-working adults. Sarvelio confirmed my impression that most people from El Salvador have strong family values and are always there for each other. Religion is also important to most (he is Pentacostal.)
When I asked about the hat (it made me think of someone from Russia or Lapland) he smiled and said he just saw it in a store in Toronto and bought it because it looked so warm. He showed me the ear flaps which he will use when the temperatures begin to drop in January and February.
Challenges in life? He told me that finding his way into adulthood has been a bit of a challenge. It’s not easy for many young people to decide how they will fit into the workforce and prepare for a good, secure job. He struck me as a young man who is responsible and eager to be a productive breadwinner. He said that he has encountered some racism in growing up as people attribute inaccurate stereotypes to anyone with a skin color other than white and we both agreed there is no place for that in the modern world and yet it persists. His message to the world is “Focus on living and believe in yourself. Do you.” He was a bit concerned that he wasn’t making himself clear and said his grammar isn’t the best, but his grammar was fine and he made himself very clear.
When I compared my age to he (he is on the verge of turning 26 and I’m on the verge of turning 70) he said “You have learned so much about the world with all your experience. I’m just getting started and have a lot to learn about the world.” We parted with Sarvelio explaining that he has a split shift job. He worked from 8-10 a.m. getting the store tidied and set up for opening and he would return at 4:00 for the second shift. It’s an awkward schedule with a long gap in the middle of the day. He was on his way to get a bite to eat.
I felt a sense of strong engagement and mutual respect between the two of us and I told him how glad I was that I had stopped him and asked him to be part of my project. He seemed equally pleased with the experience and we parted with Sarvelio telling me “God bless.”
Thank you Sarvelio for stopping to chat and for participating in The Human Family photo project. I wish you luck in the world and a happy marriage.
This is my 121st submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2742/1, 1939-1940. Photo: FDF / Märkische-Panorama-Schneider-Südost.
Sabine Peters (1913-1982) was a fresh-faced German theatre and film actress. During the 1930s, she played supporting and occasional leading roles in several mainstream romances and comedies for the Ufa. For Carl Froelich, she played a young student in two films but she had her breakthrough as the selfish and jealous daughter of Lil Dagover in Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (1936).
Sabine Peters was born in 1913 in Berlin. The merchant's daughter studied acting with Ilka Grüning. After her studies, she was accepted directly into the ensemble of Agnes Straub at the Berliner Theater am Kurfürstendamm, where she playedingénue roles until 1938. In that year she also made her film debut as one of the eight school girls in the musical drama Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1938) starring Karin Hardt and Theodor Loos. In the following year, she already played at the side of important actors of that time as Heinrich George, Hertha Thiele and Albert Lieven in the drama Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froelich, 1933). She played one of three girls who start at an elite school in Lübeck. The film was inspired by the earlier German romantic drama and cult classic Madchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) also with Thiele and with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded that film. The actor and director Fritz Kampers then engaged Peters for the Bavarian comedy Konjunkturritter/Knights of the Economy (Fritz Kampers, 1934) with the famous folk actor Weiß Ferdl.
Sabine Peters had her breakthrough with Geraldine Katt and Lil Dagover in the Ufa problem film Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936). She played Irene, a selfish and jealous young girl who tries to prevent the remarriage of her attractive mother by all means. Familiar with classical roles on the stage, she appeared with Heinrich George, Ida Wüst and Rotraut Richter in Der Biberpelz/The Beaver Coat (Jürgen von Alten, 1937), the film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's stage comedy 'Der Biberpelz'. In 1938 followed the comedy Rätsel um Beate/Mystery around Beate (Johannes Meyer, 1938), again with Lil Dagover and also with Albrecht Schoenhals. She was again a student in the drama Die vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938), starring Ingrid Bergman. The film was intended as a star vehicle to launch Bergman's career in Germany following her success in several Swedish films. Sabine Peters married the opera singer Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. From this marriage came their daughter Brigitte Fassbaender, born in 1939, who later became an important mezzo-soprano. After 1945 Sabine Peters performed mainly at the theatre. Her last role was a small part in the television film Die Weber/The Weavers (Fritz Umgelter, 1980, an adaptation of the stage play by Gerhart Hauptmann. Sabine Peters passed away in 1982 in Munich.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
PERIYAR E.V.RAMASAMY and WOMEN RIGHTS
With regards to marriage, Periyar has stated that it is one of the worst customs in India. He claimed that the marriage principle, briefly, involves the enslavement of a woman by her husband and nothing else. This enslavement is concealed under the cover of marriage rites to deceive the women concerned by giving the wedding the false name of a divine function.[7]
There have been numerous papers in South India reporting how husbands have killed their wives, suspecting immoral behavior. The husband's suspicion of his wife's character has often led to murders. Those who believe in the divine dispensation, according to Periyar, do not have the knowledge to ask themselves why marriages conducted according to religious rites and the approval of God end in this fashion.[7]
Periyar further states that the very idea that the only proper thing for women to do is to be slaves of domesticity, bear children and bring them up, is a faulty one. As long as these restrictions are imposed on women, we can be sure that women have to be subservient to men and depend on men for help. If women have to live on terms of equality with men, they must have the liberty, like men, to have the kind of education they like and also to do unhampered, any work suitable to their knowledge, ability and taste.[8]
Furthermore, Periyar objected to terms like "giving of a maid" and "given in marriage". They are, "Sanskrit terms" and treat woman as a thing. He advocated the substitution of the word for marriage taken from the Tirukkual "Valkai thunai" or "life partner".[9]
Expenses[edit]
With marriage comes the expenses. Periyar stated that in our country, and particularly in Hindu society, a marriage is a function causing a lot of difficulties and waste to all people concerned. But those who conduct the marriage function and those who are getting married do not appear to notice the attendant difficulties because they think that social life necessitates wasteful expense and many difficulties and therefore they must necessarily face those inconveniences and hardships.[10]
Wedding feast, jewels, expensive clothes, procession, pandal, dance, music—money is spent on all these to satisfy the vanity of the organizers. Whatever may be the amount of money spent on the wedding and however pompous each of the items may be, the mirth and jollity associated with these are over in two or three days. In a week's time the prestige and honor connected with these are forgotten.[10] But the wedding expenses leave many families crushed; for many poor families these expenses leave an enormous burden and the debts remain uncleared for a number of years.[11]
However, if the money intended for the wedding expense is not borrowed and belongs to either of the marriage parties, then that amount could be used by her to bring up her children and to educate them. Such a procedure would be highly beneficial to her.[12]
Arranged marriages[edit]
In South Asia we mostly hear of arranged marriages as part of custom, heritage, and religions. Periyar thought that the Aryan wedding methods were barbarous because of the Aryan religion and art: Vedas, Sastras, Puranas, and Epics belong to the barbaric age. He further stated that is the reason why their wedding methods involve the parents giving the girl, prostituting the girl children and some stranger carrying the girl away by force or stealth.[13]
Arranged marriages in general were meant to enable the couple to live together throughout life and derive happiness, satisfaction and a good reputation, even years after the sexual urge and sexual pleasure are forgotten.[14]
But, with the selfish manipulation of this pact, Periyar claimed that women find 'pleasure' in slavish marriage because they have been brought up by their parents without education, independence and self-respect and because they have been made to believe that marriage means subordination to males. The inclusion of such slavish women in the group of 'chaste' women is another lure to them, leading them to find pleasure in such marriages.
Because a man is also married before he has understood the nature of life, its problems and its pleasures, he is satisfied with the slavish nature of the wife and the sexual pleasure she gives. If he finds any incompatibility, he adapts himself to his partner and the circumstances and puts up with his lot.[14]
Love marriages[edit]
Love marriages, claims Periyar, on the other hand will suit only those who have no ideals in life. Such a wedding gives primacy to sexual union along and it is doubtful if it indicates an agreement between the couple for good life. Sexual compatibility alone does not ensure happy married life; the couple should be able to live together cheerfully. Suitability for life or living together can be determined only if the man and woman get used to the company of each other, and are satisfied with each other. Only then, they can enter into an agreement to live together.[13]
Periyar further states that love marriages can give pleasure only as long as there is lust and the ability to satisfy that lust. If there is no compatibility between the partners in other respects, such marriages end only in the enslavement of women. The lies of such women resemble the lives of bullocks which are tied to a cart, beaten up and made to labor endlessly until they die.[14]
Therefore, there is a proverb stating, "A deeply loving girl is unfit for family life; a suitable life partner is unfit for love." Periyar believed that the agreement between partners to live together will constitute a better marriage than a love marriage.[14]
Self-respect marriages[edit]
In a leading article of Viduthalai, Periyar states that a self-respect wedding is based on rationalism. Rationalism is based on the individual's courage. Some may have the courage to conduct it during the time which almanacs indicate as the time of the planet Rahu and that, particularly in the evening. Some others may have just enough daring to avoid the Brahmin priest and his mother tongue - the Sanskrit language.[15] Some may feel nervous about not keeping the traditional lamp burning in broad daylight. Some others may have the rotten thought that conducting a wedding without 'mangala sutra' is disgraceful.
Still, the self-respect weddings conducted during the past thirty years have some basic limits. They are: Brahmins and their mantras should be utterly avoided; meaningless rituals, piling mud pots, one on another, having the traditional lamp during day time, ritual smoke - all these should be avoided. Rationalism does not approve of these. Periyar then asks why can't the government pass an Act that legalizes weddings which avoid the above-mentioned superstitious practices. If all these details cannot be accommodated in the Act, the latter can legalize weddings which don't have Brahmin priests, the Sanskrit language and the so called holy fire.[16]
Thus, marriages styled as Self-Respect marriages carried a threefold significance: a) replacing the Purohit, b) inter-caste equality, c) man-woman equality. Periyar claimed to have performed Self-Respect marriages unofficially since 1925 and officially since 1928.[17] Self-Respect marriages were legalized in 1967 by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government.[18]
Widow-remarriage[edit]
On the remarriage of widows, Periyar states that among the atrocities perpetrated by the Hindu male population against women, here we have to consider the treatment meted out to widows alone. If a girl loses her husband, even before knowing anything of worldly pleasures, she is compelled to close her eyes to everything in the world and die broken-hearted. Even in Periyar's community at the time, there were widowed girls below the age of 13 years. Periyar stated how it is a touching sight to see the parents of those widowed children treating them like untouchables.[19]
He goes on to say that whatever may be the reason for the present state of the Hindu society, my firm belief that the low position given permanently to widows may prove to be the reason for the utter ruin of the Hindu religion and the Hindu society.[20]
If we try to find the reason for such conduct, we will have to conclude that they instinctively feel that women are slaves, subservient to men and that they must be kept under control. That is why these people treat women like animals. They seem to feel that giving freedom to women is equivalent to committing a very serious crime. The result of this attitude is that there is no independence or freedom to one half of the human race. This wicked enslavement of half of the human race is due to the fact that men are physically a little stronger than women. This principle applies to all spheres of life and the weaker are enslaved by the stronger.
If slavery has to be abolished in society, the male arrogance and wickedness which lead to the enslavement of women must be abolished first. Only when this is achieved, the tender sprouts of freedom and equality will register growth.[21]
One of the reasons why Periayr hated Hinduism and the orthodoxy practiced in the name of Hinduism was the practice of child marriage. Many of the girl children who were married before they were ten or twelve years old became widows before they knew the meaning of the word. According to the 1921 All India Census the details of the child widows reported living in the country that time were as follows:[22]
1 year baby widows - 497
1 to 2 year child widows - 494
2 to 3 year child widows - 1,257
3 to 4 year child widows - 2,837
4 to 5 year child widows - 6,707
Total number of widows - 11,342
5 to 10 year young widows - 85,037
10 to 15 year young widows - 232,147
15 to 20 year young widows - 396,172
20 to 25 year young widows - 742,820
25 to 30 year young widows - 1,163,720
Total number of widows - 2,631,238[22][23]
Periyar was deeply disturbed when he realized that among the widows in India, 11,892 were little children below 5 years and that young widows below 15 years numbering 232,147 were denied the pleasures of life.[24]
With regards to the re-marriage of widows, Periyar stated that it is the practice of our people to refer to such a wedding as "a widow's marriage". Such an expression is used only with reference to women and in connection with men. Just as this lady is marrying another husband after the death of the first husband, many men marry again after the death of the first wife. But the second marriage of a man is not referred to as "a widower's marriage", though that is the proper thing to do.
Periyar himself was a widower. After becoming one, he took a second wife. He claimed that in the ancient days, both men and women in the country had this practice. There were numerous instances in sastras and puranas of women getting married again after the death of their first husband. Periyar further stated that this is not an unusual practice in the rest of the world though it might appear strange for us at the present time. Christian and Muslim women marry again after the death of the first husband. 90 percent of women in Muslim countries get married again soon after the death of the first husband. This may be unusual in certain sections of Indian societies. But it is a common practice in certain other sections of our society which are called very backward communities.[25]
Further, inter-caste marriages and remarriage of widows are on the increase in India. Brahmins oppose these because they are afraid that they cannot exploit the people any more in the name of sastras. For the same reason they oppose the Sharada Act which is necessary for social well-being.[26]
Child marriage[edit]
In all the meetings of the non-Brahmins and the Self-Respectors, Periyar condemned child marriages and emphasized the need for educating all girl children and giving right to young widows to get married again.
Periyar has been very much against child marriage and stated that it reflects the cruelty to which innocent girls were subjected by their well-meaning parents. Periyar asked that if these parents can be considered civilized in any sense of the term. There was no other leader other than Periyar who reacted against this practice of child marriage.[24]
Those who supported child marriage were strongly against Periyar's condemnation of this act. Take for example, the Sharada Act. Those who opposed this Act say that it was against the Sastras to conduct the marriage of a girl after she has attained puberty. They further say that those who conduct such marriages are committing a sin and therefore will go to hell.[27]
Chastity[edit]
Periyar claimed that "household duties" have risen out of the foolishness of people and were not natural duties.[28] He went on to say that it was our selfish greed which has multiplied our household work. Nobody need worry that without household work, the women will lose their "chastity". On chastity, Periyar went on to say that it is something that belongs to women and is not a pledge to men. Whatever, chastity is, it was something that belonged to individuals.
In society, it was believed that if people lose their chastity, they will get divine punishment. Others are not going to get that punishment. Referring to the doctrines of institutionalized orthodox religions, he went on to say that men need not to worry themselves that women are committing a sin by not doing household work. Thus, let men realize that women are not slaves and that men are not their masters or guardians. Women should be allowed to develop the competence to protect themselves and their chastity and men need not be their watchdogs. He also believed that it was derogatory for men to play such a role.[citation needed]
It was said by the orthodox[who?] that women will develop diseases if they lose their chastity. The disease that a woman gets affects the husbands also. If we[who?] educate the women, they will develop the capability to keep themselves and their husbands pure. Thus, Periyar stated in the Kudi Arasu for the society to think deeply about taking a decision and do the right thing for their sisters and girl children.[29]
Periyar kindled the thoughts of everybody by also ridiculing the use of the word chastity only with reference to women. (Periyar-Father of Tamil 32) He stated that character is essential for both men and women and that speaking of chastity only with reference to women degraded not merely women but men also. He extended this thought and said that in any sphere of activity, civilized society cannot think of one law for men and another for women. He also said that the way most men treated their women was far worse than the way the upper class people treated the lower class, the way in which rich men treated the poor and the way in which a master treated his slave.[30]
Education[edit]
On education, Periyar stated that some foolish parents believe that if girls get educated, they will correspond with their secret lovers. That it is a very foolish and mischievous notion. No parent need be anxious about it. If a girl writes a letter, it will only be to a male. We can even now caution men not to read any love letter addressed to them by a woman and, even if they read it, not to reply to it. If men do not listen to this advice, they, as well as the girls who write them must be punished. It will be a hopelessly bad thing, if parents keep their girl children uneducated for this reason.[29]
At a speeched delivered by Periyar at the Prize Distribution function in the Municipal School for Girls at Karungal Palayam, Erode, he stated that girl children should be taught active and energetic exercises like running, high jump, long jump,and wrestling so that they may acquire the strength and courage of men. Their time and energy should not be wasted in light pastimes like Kummi (groups going in a circle, clapping their hands rhythmically) and in Kolatam (striking with sticks rhythmically).
In ancient Tamil literature, poets have stressed the value of education for women. In a famous verse, a poet by the name of Naladiar stated that, "What gives beauty to a woman is not the hair style or the patter of her dress or the saffron on her face but only education".[31] In a verse of Eladhi it states, "Beauty does not lie in the style of wailing or in the charm of a blush but only in the combination of numbers and letters (education).[32]
In a 1960 issue of Viduthalai Periyar stated that "There should be a drastic revolution in the desires and ideals of Indian women. They should equip themselves to do all types of work that men are doing. They should have good domestic life without allowing nature's obstacles in their own lives. Therefore, there should be a welcome change in the minds of our women. The administrators also most pay special attention to the advancement of women".[33]
Armed forces[edit]
Periyar advocated for women to be given weapons to protect themselves in reply to a question put in the Central Legislature. He stated that we have no hope that the state governments will do anything in this sphere because most of the state ministers hold the orthodox belief that women are slavish creatures.[34] Though here and there we[who?] find women also as ministers, they are old-fashioned traditionalists who will say, "We don't want any kind of freedom. We are perfectly happy with slavery".[33]
In Periyar's time he explained that ""Indian" women had no self-determination in any sphere of life like education property and marriage. They thought that modern civilization meant dressing themselves like British and American women and adorning themselves. Even our educated women do not entertain any thought that they must enter the police and army departments and learn to pilot airplanes like the women of Russia and Turkey. Just as modern education has made men cowards an book-worms, it has made our women decoratie [sic] dolls and weaklings".[33]
In a leading article written by Periyar in Viduthalai in 1946, he claimed that unless there is a drastic, fundamental and revolutionary change in our[who?] administrative machinery, it is impossible to make our women independent beings.[33]
Periyar goes on to explain that in our country also, there are thousands of women with the courage, competence and desire to work in the police department. Just as girls going to school was considered wonderful and cycle-riding by girls was considered funny, a few years ago, women on police duty may appear to be wonderful or strange for a few years. Then, in course of time, this will be considered natural.[33]
We[who?] need methods that will effect an astounding revolution in the world of women. Until we acquire those methods, we will be moving forward like a tortoise and writing and talking about Drowpath and Sita.[35]
Periyar, in a 1932 article of Kudi Arasu, explained that "women should develop physical strength like men. They must take exercise and get training in the use of weapons. They must acquire the ability to protect themselves when any sex-mad person tries to molest them. They should get the necessary training to join the armey [sic] when need arises and fight the enemy. This is the view of all civilized people. Women also wholeheartedly support this view. When the general view in the world is like this, who can accept the statement of some people that there is no use in giving higher education to women?"[33]
Birth control[edit]
"Others advocate birth-control, with a view of preserving the health of women and conserving family property; but we advocate it for the liberation of women."[36]
In the Kudi Arasu of 1932, Periyar explained the basic differences between the reasons given to us for contraception and the reasons given by others for this. We say that contraception is necessary for women to gain freedom. Others advocate contraception taking into consideration many problems like the health of women, the health and energy of the children, the poverty of the country and the maintenance of the family property. Many Westerners also support contraception for the same reasons. Our view is not based on these considerations. We recommend that women should stop delivering children altogether because conception stands in the way of women enjoying personal freedom. Further, begetting a number of children prevents men also from being free and independent. This truth will be clear if we listen to talk of men and women when their freedom is hampered.[33]
He went on to say how birth control does not aim at preventing the birth of children altogether, but aims only at limiting births. A man and his wife may have two children, or at the most, three children. This birth control policy is against bringing forth an unlimited number of children.[37]
While Periyar and the Self-Respect movement were advocating for birth control, Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachariar) very strongly opposed it. Others who opposed birth control was Thiru Adhithanar, the publisher of an extremely popular newspaper, Dina Thandhi at the time. In response to Rajaji's stand against birth control, Periyar explained that he was against this since he was of the Vedic Brahmin community that staunchly engrossed in the Manu Dharma. Thus, limiting births of overpopulation would limit diseases and death from many and therefore leave Brahmin priests without a job of doing ceremonies for the sick and funerals. In a 1959 article of Viduthalai he exclaimed that "If people like Rajaji discover new islands, make the forests habitable, do propaganda for the birth of more and more children and have farms for the upbringing of children, we may be in a position to understand them."[38]
During the late 1950s, 80 percent of the men and 90 percent of the women in Tamil Nadu were illiterate. Siriyar argued in a 1959 article in Viduthalai that "in this situation, if birth control is not practiced and people are allowed to have any number of children, the result will be the multiplication of castes among the "Sudras", like washermen, barbers, pot-makers, kuravas or gypsies, hunters, fishermen, famers [sic], toddy tappers, padayachies, pillars, cobblers, pariahs, and a thousand others and a limitless increase in population. The increase in population will force the 'Sudras' to preserve themselves from starvation by standing with folded hands before lazy fellows and calling them 'swami', 'master' and 'landlord'. What good result can we expect if birth control is not adopted?"[39]
Previously in a 1933 article of the Kudi Arasu, Periyar, in his words, explained that "even a High Court Judge in India does not know the amount of trouble that a mother takes to bring up a child. If a husband is kind to his wife and shows concern for her health and happiness, he must adopt the contraceptive method. Otherwise, he must be one who could manage to see that in delivery and in the brining [sic] up of children, she does not have much trouble. Therefore, the proper thing to do now is to drastically cut the expenses mentioned above and spend money on the proper upbringing of children with the help of nurses."[40]
Property rights and divorce[edit]
With regards to property rights for women, Periyar stated that there was no difference between men and women. He went on to say that like men, women should have the right to own property and enjoy its benefits. With regards to divorce or separations, he advocated that a woman can lie away from her husband if he is an undesirable person and if he has nay virulent disease. When a woman has to live apart from her husband in these circumstances, she is entitled to maintenance allowance and a claim on the husband's property. Even if a widow gets remarried, she must be given the right to claim a share of the first husband's property.[41]
On February 4, 1946, the Central Legislature passed an Act giving the right the Hindu married woman to get from her husband in certain circumstances a separate place to live in and a maintenance allowance. Periyar explained how that it was a useless Act. since it seems that the members of the Hindu Mahasabha and Sanadahnis agitated against the grant of even this right.[42]
Dowry[edit]
On the Dowry system practiced widely throughout the Indian sub-continent not only by Hindus but Christians too, Periyar calls it a "serious disease that was spreading fast amongst Tamilians". He went on to state that the disease was also found in its virulent form among the Andhras and the Brahmins of Tamil Nadu. Periyar also argued that if a man with property worth one lakh has three daughters, he has to become a beggar by the time these daughters are married. In the name of dowry, the parents of the young men who marry the three daughters, squeeze the man's property out of him.[43]
In the 1959 issue of Viduthalai, Periyar stated that, "according to a new legislation, women have the right to a share of the parents' property. Therefore every girl will definitely get her legitimate share from the parents' wealth - if the parents are wealth. It is inhuamane [sic] on the part of the parents of a boy to dump on him a girl whom he does not like and to plan to such as much as they can from the property of the girl's father. There is basically no difference between selling education and love for money and selling one's chastity for money. 'Prostitute' is a germ of contempt for a woman; a boy should not be reduced by his avaricous [sic] parents to get the name, 'a prostituted boy' or 'a boy that has been sold'. A father-in-law who has means, however miserly he may be by nature, will not be indifferent when his daughter suffers out of poverty. Therefore, it is very shameful on the part of the bridegroom's parents to demand from the bride's father that at the time of the marriage he should gie jewels worth so many thousands along with so many thousand rupees as dowry and that he should provide the bridegroom with a house and a care. The fact that another party makes such demands at the time of his daughter's marriage does not justify any parent's demands at the time of his son's wedding. All people must realize that both demanding and giving dowry are wrong and they must boldly declare this when occasion arises."[44]
Periyar calls the dowry an evil and exploitative practice depriving tens of thousands of talented and beautiful young women with sound character remaining spinsters without any chance of getting married.[45]
Devadasis[edit]
Among the atrocities the Tamil society committed against women was the practice of keeping some women attached to temples as Devadasis. Dr. Muthulakshmi proposed the resolution at the Madras Legislature that the Devadasi system should be abolished. The Government wanted comments on that from all important people. Periyar in his statement pointed out that the Devadasi system was a disgrace to Hindu religion. The fact that, in the name of a temple or a god, some women are kept as common property is an insult to all the women in the society. He also remarked that the prevalence of this system encouraged immorality among men and thus set the pattern for unprincipled life in many families. This was stoutly opposed in the Assembly by Satyamurthi Iyer, an orthodox Congress member, under the pretext of safeguarding the Hindu traditions. It should be said to the credit of Dr. Muthulakshmi and the leaders like Periyar that the proposal of the Doctor was accepted and a law was enacted against the Devadasi system.[30]
Periyar's example of the degradation of women in the Devadasi system is explained that "if a man's physical passion is aroused when his wife is not with him, he immediately goes to a prostitute. Rough stones are planted where cows and bufaloes [sic] graze to facilitate the animals to rub against the stones when they feel like it.[46] Likewise, Devadasis served in temples and in all villages rough stones planted on the borders and they say that these two (employing devadasis and the planting rough stones) are aamong [sic] the 32 dharmas mentioned in the sastras. When we consider why his kindness to the suffering and also the 32 dharmas are all bogus".[46]
Resolutions passed[edit]
As the Self-Respect conference held in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu in 1929, the following were among the many resolutions passed with regards for women's rights:
Women should be given equal right along with men for the family property.
There should be no objection to employing women to any job for which they are qualified.[47]
Schools, particularly schools, should try to employ only women teachers.
At the conference held in Erode in 1930, the same resolutions were passed again reminding the delegates and others that the interest of women was still uppermost in Periyar's mind. M.R. Jayakar who presided oer the Erode conference was greatly impressed by the progressive views of Periyar and other members. He was particularly happy that the movement included not merely non-Brahmin Hindus but Christians and Muslims too. He pointed out that the Self-Respect movement was more progressive than Congress. Furthermore, at the Virudhnagar conference the women members held a separate conference and passed some resolutions demanding that women should have the right to select their life partners without any consideration of religion or community and that weddings should not involve wasteful expenditure and elaborate ceremonies.[47]
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1788/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Atelier von Bergen, Berlin.
Sabine Peters (1913-1982) was a fresh-faced German theatre and film actress. During the 1930s, she played supporting and occasional leading roles in several mainstream romances and comedies for the Ufa. For Carl Froelich, she played a young student in two films but she had her breakthrough as the selfish and jealous daughter of Lil Dagover in Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (1936).
Sabine Peters was born in 1913 in Berlin. The merchant's daughter studied acting with Ilka Grüning. After her studies, she was accepted directly into the ensemble of Agnes Straub at the Berliner Theater am Kurfürstendamm, where she playedingénue roles until 1938. In that year she also made her film debut as one of the eight school girls in the musical drama Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1938) starring Karin Hardt and Theodor Loos. In the following year, she already played at the side of important actors of that time as Heinrich George, Hertha Thiele and Albert Lieven in the drama Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froelich, 1933). She played one of three girls who start at an elite school in Lübeck. The film was inspired by the earlier German romantic drama and cult classic Madchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) also with Thiele and with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded that film. The actor and director Fritz Kampers then engaged Peters for the Bavarian comedy Konjunkturritter/Knights of the Economy (Fritz Kampers, 1934) with the famous folk actor Weiß Ferdl.
Sabine Peters had her breakthrough with Geraldine Katt and Lil Dagover in the Ufa problem film Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936). She played Irene, a selfish and jealous young girl who tries to prevent the remarriage of her attractive mother by all means. Familiar with classical roles on the stage, she appeared with Heinrich George, Ida Wüst and Rotraut Richter in Der Biberpelz/The Beaver Coat (Jürgen von Alten, 1937), the film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's stage comedy 'Der Biberpelz'. In 1938 followed the comedy Rätsel um Beate/Mystery around Beate (Johannes Meyer, 1938), again with Lil Dagover and also with Albrecht Schoenhals. She was again a student in the drama Die vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938), starring Ingrid Bergman. The film was intended as a star vehicle to launch Bergman's career in Germany following her success in several Swedish films. Sabine Peters married the opera singer Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. From this marriage came their daughter Brigitte Fassbaender, born in 1939, who later became an important mezzo-soprano. After 1945 Sabine Peters performed mainly at the theatre. Her last role was a small part in the television film Die Weber/The Weavers (Fritz Umgelter, 1980, an adaptation of the stage play by Gerhart Hauptmann. Sabine Peters passed away in 1982 in Munich.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Private Collection, USA
Self Portrait Dedicated to Sigmund Firestone (1940)
In early 1940, the American engineer Sigmund Firestone commissioned a self-portrait from both Frida and Diego. They were paid a total of $ 500. Frida delivered this self-portrait to Firestone in 1940 but Diego did not finish his self-portrait until the following year.
In this self-portrait, Frida is combining the preColumbian jewelry with the typical catholic covering of the head, pointing to the duality of her roots, as well as the duality of her country. In the inscription on the note in the upper right corner Frida dedicates the self-portrait to Firestone and his two daughters: Natalia and Alberta:
"Mexico, Coyoacan.
For Mr. Sigmund Firestone and his daughters Alberta and Natalia I painted this self-portrait with affection, in February of 1940 - Frida Kahlo"
In a 1940 letter to Firestone, Frida assures him that Diego will start his self-portrait as soon as he finishes the murals he is working on. When his self-portrait is finished she tells Firestone that: "...and we will be together again on your wall, as a symbol of our remarriage. I am very happy and proud because you like my portrait, it is not beautiful, but I made it with a great pleasure for you".
There seems to be some inflation in the quality of a ploughman's lunch. Graded cheese...
---
A ploughman's lunch is an English cold meal based around bread, cheese, and fresh or pickled onions. Additional items can be added such as ham, green salad, hard boiled eggs, and apple, and usual accompaniments are butter and "pickle", which in Britain denotes a chutney-like condiment. As its name suggests, it is most commonly eaten at lunchtime. It is particularly associated with pubs, and often served with beer.
Beer, bread, and cheese have been combined in the English diet since antiquity, and have been served together in inns for centuries. However, the specific term "ploughman's lunch" is believed to date from the 1950s, when the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body, began promoting it in pubs as a way to increase the sales of cheese, which had recently ceased to be rationed. Its popularity increased as the Milk Marketing Board promoted the meal nationally throughout the 1960s.
History
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede (c. 1394) mentions the traditional ploughman's meal of bread, cheese, and beer. Bread and cheese formed the basis of the diet of English rural labourers for centuries: skimmed-milk cheese, supplemented with a little lard and butter, was their main source of fats and protein. In the absence of access to expensive seasonings, onions were the "favoured condiment", as well as providing a valuable source of vitamin C.
The reliance on cheese rather than meat protein was especially strong in the south of the country. As late as the 1870s, farmworkers in Devon were said to eat "bread and hard cheese at 2d. a pound, with cider very washy and sour" for their midday meal. While this diet was associated with rural poverty, it also gained associations with more idealised images of rural life. Anthony Trollope in The Duke's Children has a character comment that "A rural labourer who sits on the ditch-side with his bread and cheese and an onion has more enjoyment out of it than any Lucullus".
While farm labourers usually carried their food with them to eat in the fields, similar food was for a long time served in public houses as a simple, inexpensive meal. In 1815, William Cobbett recalled how farmers going to market in Farnham, forty years earlier, would often add "2d. worth of bread and cheese" to the pint of beer they drank at the inn stabling their horses. In the 19th century the English fondness for serving cheese and bread with beer was noted, as "the very dryness and saltness heighten thirst, and therefore the relish of the beer". In the early 20th century, bread and cheese was still the only food available in many rural pubs: in 1932 Martin Armstrong described stopping at village inns for a lunch of bread, cheese and beer, noting that "On these occasions in country inns when bread, cheese and beer seem so extraordinarily good, the alternative is generally nothing; and compared with nothing bread, cheese, and beer are beyond compare".
Bread, cheese and beer were traditionally served together in English pubs, where the saltiness of the cheese was noted to enhance the "relish of the beer".
While Oxford English Dictionary states the first recorded use of the phrase "ploughman's luncheon" occurred in 1837, from the Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott by John G. Lockhart, this stray early use may have meant merely the sum of its parts, "a lunch for a ploughman". The OED's next reference is from the July 1956 Monthly Bulletin of the Brewers' Society, which describes the activities of the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body affiliated with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. It describes how the Bureau exists for the admirable purpose of popularising cheese and, as a corollary, the public house lunch of bread, beer, cheese and pickle. This traditional combination was broken by rationing; the Cheese Bureau hopes, by demonstrating the natural affinity of the two parties, to effect a remarriage.
By the 1950s, the traditional combination of bread, cheese, beer and onions was certainly being referred to by forms of the name later used to promote it. In 1956, author Adrian Bell reported: "There's a pub quite close to where I live where ... all you need say is, 'Ploughboy's Lunch, Harry, please'. And in a matter of minutes a tray is handed across the counter to you on which is a good square hunk of bread, a lump of butter and a wedge of cheese, and pickled onions, along with your pint of beer". Only a year later, in June 1957, another edition of the Monthly Bulletin of the Brewers' Society referred to a ploughman's lunch using that name, and said that it consisted of "cottage bread, cheese, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cold sausages and, of course, beer". The Glasgow newspaper The Bulletin from 15 April 1958 and The Times from 29 April 1958 refer to a ploughman's lunch consisting of bread, cheese and pickled onions.
The meal rose rapidly in popularity during the 1970s. This has been argued to be at least partially based on a British cultural "revulsion from technology and modernity and a renewed love-affair with an idealised national past", although it appears the main reasons the ploughman's lunch was favoured by caterers were that it was simple and quick to prepare even for less skilled staff, required no cooking, and involved no meat, giving a potential for high profit margins.
The film The Ploughman's Lunch (1983), from a screenplay by Ian McEwan, has a subtext that is "the way countries and people re-write their own history to suit the needs of the present". The title alludes to the debatable claim that the supposedly "traditional" meal was the result of a marketing campaign of the 1960s devised to encourage people to eat meals in pubs.
The almost-perfect diagonal line that connects the heads of the boy (of course, he wants to be the man), the mother, and the little girl, the boy's hand, resting inimately and protectively on his mother's shoulder, her gaze, resolute, a bit tense and apprehensive, and the way the young girl has turned to the mother----there's just a lot I like about this photograph.
One can imagine the situation a widow might have found herself, out on the Nebraska prairie (Wahoo is just a bit west of Omaha and a bit north of Lincoln). Unless her husband left her with substantial holdings, or she had her own family to fall back on, she have faced rather bleak prospects: the remarriage lottery, or some sort of subsistence from whatever income she could have rustled-up. She could have sewn clothes or run a boardinghouse, or what? There probably weren't a lot of opportunities for a woman in that part of the country to make a living. I'm sure some women who were widowed attempted to run farms or businesses on there own, and certainly some succeeded. But still, I doubt any of the options seemed very attractive.
This photograph makes me think of my own mother, who went back to work (we had been living very comfortably on my father's doctor income up to that point) after my father died. My mother struggled to maintain our perhaps extravagant lifestyle, cutting back where she could. She took a job, at first, at a rural school some miles out in the country. Later on, she found a teaching position in town, close to home. Meanwhile, she entertained a steady stream of suitors (a bit like Penelope, but Ulysses wasn't coming home), some licit, and some notably illicit (i.e., men who had wives and families, and paid court under the guise of being neighborly. After a while, being "neighborly" becomes something else. My mother was too polite, or too gullible, or whatever, to say the magic words to make these shameless (well, there was one in particular) men go away.
We did talk about it, us kids and our mother, and how embarrassing it was. However, the one notable inappropriate suitor took mrwaterslide, along with his boys, up to Cleveland to see the Indians play (he came from Boston, and the whole family venerated Ted Williams, and this was Ted's last year), so whatever shameless sins of lustful design the illicit suitor bore towards his mother, mrwaterslide forgave him (also, fortunately, it was apparent that mother-of-mrwaterslide had the cajones to hold out against this somewhat spineless fellow, and meanwhile, he did us little favors that needed doing.)
Soon enough, Harold came along, ex Military Policeman (at Monte Casino, among other places) ex Ohio State Highway Patrolman, burr-cut, golf-loving man's man, and son enough, new stepfather (Harold's first wife Jean had given birth at a fairly advanced age to a new baby boy and then died suddenly and unexpectedly a month after the baby came; with two teenage boys and brand-new baby, Harold felt the need to have a certified mother in attendance---in our small town, mrwaterslide imagines that more-or-less everybody knew that mother-of-mrwaterslide was the #1 eligible candidate).
And that, folks, is more or less the end of this story. Over the course of some odd (pun well intended) years, mrwaterslide came to appreciate, yes, even to love old Harold. Not without a few scars and abrasions.
Hans Heysen and Nora Heysen and the Cedars.
Sir Hans Heysen was born in Hamburg in Germany and migrated to SA in 1883 when he was seven years old. At age 14 he enrolled in James Ashton’s Norwood Art School. From the age of 16(1893) his works were being exhibited in galleries in Adelaide. He loved the Australian landscape and one of his favourite haunts for painting was the Onkaparinga Valley near the village of Grunthal. In the mid 1890s Robert Barr Smith paid the fees for Heysen to attend the school of design at the Art Gallery of Adelaide. Other patrons paid for his studies of art in Europe on condition that they could sell the works of art he produced whilst there! He returned to Adelaide in 1903, married in 1904 and continued to exhibit in Adelaide and Melbourne. In 1908 he rented a cottage near Grunthal as he loved the big gums of what became Heysen Country so much. As his fame and commissions grew he was able to buy in 1912 a nearby property, the Cedars, with 36 acres of big gum country. He soon added a studio (1912) and enlarged the house in 1912 and again in 1924 to accommodate his eight children and one adopted child. He transformed the original Victorian villa style house into an Arts and Crafts Federation bungalow style house. He travelled to the Flinders Ranges for the first time in 1926 and by then he was a well established and prominent artist with many prizes and awards to his name. His artist recognition continued and he was knighted in 1959. Sir Hans Heysen died in the Mt Barker Hospital in 1968 and was buried in Hahndorf. Only one of his children showed artistic talent and that was daughter Nora. A number of his paintings depict the country between Verdun, Balhannah and Hahndorf including Summer 1908; Red Gold 1913; The Road 1918; At The Panels 1920; The Toilers 1920 ; Light and Shade 1923; and Twp white Gums near Ambleside 1944 .
Nora Heysen was born in 1911 just before the Heysens moved into the Cedars. She grew up here and attended school at the Convent of Mercy Mt Barker. At 15 years of age she started art training at the North Adelaide School of Fine Arts which was eventually subsumed into the University of South Australia. Next she studied at the Royal SA Society of the Arts and she had her first exhibition with them in 1928 at 17 years of age. From 1930 she had her own studio at the Cedars and she had an exhibition in Sydney in 1930. By 1932 she had works in the NSW, QLD and SA art galleries. Unlike her father she specialised in still life and flowers which her father immediately stopped painting. He continued with his eucalypts and landscapes. In 1934 she sailed to Europe for further art study and did not return to Adelaide until 1937. She continued to exhibit, won more awards and moved to Sydney to live in 1939. She often revisited her family at the Cedars but never lived there again, except for some recuperation for part of 1946 after the War. Her life took a dramatic turn with the start of World War Two. She became the first female Australian War Artist from 1943 serving time mainly in Papua New Guinea. She completed 170 paintings for the War Office and 152 of them now reside in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Whilst in New Guinea she met a British medical officer Dr Robert Black. She began a relationship with him that resulted in his divorce and his remarriage to her ten years later in 1953. She travelled in Europe in 1947 and 1948 and returned to live in Sydney in 1949 where she stayed for the rest of her life in the house she purchased with Dr Black called The Chalet at Hunters Hill. She died there at The Chalet in 2003 although she had divorced Dr Black in 1972. She won many awards including the Archibald and the Melrose Prize for Portraiture. She specialised in portraits and still life. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1998.
Hahndorf.
The origins of Hahndorf can be indirectly traced back to George Fife Angas, one of the financiers of SA and the SA Company. Through his SA agent Mr Flaxman, Angas purchased seven Special Surveys totalling 28,000 acres in the Barossa Valley in 1839. But whilst still in England in 1838 George Fife Angas met Lutheran Pastor Kavel and then soon after he financed Pastor Kavel’s passage to SA along with and 250 German Lutherans immigrants. Angas wanted to have a supply of potential labourers and possible tenants for his land purchases in the SA colony. His actions encouraged other German Lutherans to migrate to SA. Another group of German Lutherans arrived in SA in 1838 aboard the ship the Zebra under the command of Captain Hahn. Captain Hahn searched for suitable land for the 200 or so people from the Zebra so that they could settle together as a religious community. He accidentally met William Dutton who had just paid for the Mt Barker Special Survey of 1839. Hahn asked for 100 acres, to be rent free in the first year, to help the Lutherans become established near Mt Barker. Around 150 acres were allotted to the Germans by Dutton, Finniss and MacFarlane from the Mt Barker Special Survey and 240 acres were purchased from the government. Soon more German Lutherans, including some from Klemzig and Pastor Kavel’s group joined the original group led by Captain Hahn. They formed a village in early 1839 along traditional German lines and called it Hahndorf after the Captain that had been so helpful to them. The story of Hahndorf had begun. The land was divided between the 54 founding Lutheran families and Hahndorf thus became the second (after Klemzig) and eventually oldest surviving German settlement in Australia. But it did not remain that way for long. In the 1840s some families moved away to other areas of German settlement, partly because of religious splits between Pastor Kavel and Pastor Fritzsche and by the 1850s English background families started moving into the village of Hahndorf as well. As most families had a frontage to the main street many of the original buildings from the 1840s and early 1850s remain today with their typical German architectural style. They include houses, the old mill (the first settlers grew wheat for the Adelaide market), two Lutheran churches, St. Pauls (1890) and St. Michaels (1858, the second church on the site - the first one opened in 1840), two of the early hotels, several early stores and the Hahndorf Academy. The Hahndorf Academy opened in 1857 as a school for the Lutherans where they were taught in German but learned English as well. The current large Academy building was built with its two storeys in 1871. In 1876 it also became a Lutheran seminary for a short time before reverting to a secular Academy which finally closed in 1912.
“Our brains aren’t just shaped by the past. They are constantly being shaped by our future.”
80% of people describe themselves as optimists. Our brains are wired to see the bright side. Tali Sharot’s TED talk on our collective bias toward optimism went online.
“We are more optimistic than realistic, but we are oblivious to the fact. Take marriage for example. In the Western world, divorce rates are about 40%. But when you ask newlyweds about their own likelihood of divorce, they estimate it at zero percent. Even divorce lawyers. Optimists are not less likely to divorce, but they are more likely to remarry. In the words of Samuel Johnson, “Remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience.”
Some say ‘Happiness correlates with low expectations.’
It’s a good theory, but it turns out to be wrong for three reasons:
1) Whatever happens, whether you succeed or you fail, people with high expectations always feel better, because how we feel — when we get dumped or we win employee of the month — depends on how we interpret that event.
2) Regardless of outcome, anticipation makes us happy.
3) Optimism changes subjective and objective reality. Optimism leads to success. If we expect the future to be bright, stress and anxiety are reduced.”
Information: yes, in this photo I have removed the background to focus your eyes on the details - like in all my other edited photos without background. I hope you like these photos, it´s very time-consuming - in some photos up to 8 hours, depending how many tiny parts. In the set you find the original photo.
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Kartikeya (Sanskrit Kārtikēya "son of Kṛttikā" Tamil: Kārttikēyaṉ) (/ˌkɑrtɪˈkeɪjə/), also known as Murugan, Skanda, Kumaran, Kumara Swami and Subramaniyan is the Hindu god of war. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the devas and the son of Shiva and Parvati.
Murugan (Tamil Murukaṉ) is often referred to as Tamiḻ kaṭavuḷ ("god of the Tamils") and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Réunion. His six most important shrines in India are the Six Abodes of Murugan, temples located in Tamil Nadu.
In Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra, he is popularly known as Kartikeya.
OTHER NAMES
The several names of Murugan of Tamil origin would include the following, Seyon, Senthil, Vēlaṇ, Kumāran ("prince, child, young one"), Svaminatha ("smart, clever"), Saravaṇa, Arumugam or Shanmuga ("having six faces"), Dandapani ("god with a club"), Guhan or Guruguha ("cave-dweller"), Subrahmanya, Kartikeya and Skanda "attacker". He was also known as Mahasena and the Kadamba dynasty worshiped him by this name.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
SANGAM TAMIL LITERATURE
The Tolkāppiyam, possibly the most ancient of the Tamil literature, mentions Ceyyavaṉ "the red one", who is identified with Murugan, whose name is literally Murukaṉ "the youth"; the three other gods referred in the Tolkāppiyam are Māyavaṉ "the dark one" (identified with Vishnu), Vēntaṉ "the sovereign" (identified with Indra) and Koṟṟavai "the victorious" (identified with Kali). Extant Sangam literature works, dated between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE glorified Murugan, "the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent," as "the favoured god of the Tamils." The Sangam poetry divided space and Tamil land into five allegorical areas (tinai) and. according to the Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai ( c. 400–450), attributed to the great Sangam poet Nakkirar, Murugan was the presiding deity of the kuṟiñci (hilly tracts). The Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai is a deeply devotional poem included in the Pattuppāṭṭu "ten idyls" of the age of the third Sangam. In the Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai, he is described as a god of eternal youth: "His face shines a myriad rays light and removes the darkness from this world".
Other Sangam period works in Tamil that refer to Murugan in detail include the Paripāṭal, the Akanaṉūṟu and the Purananuru.
VEDIC AND PURANIC LITERATURE
The Atharvaveda calls Kumāra Agnibhū because he is form of Agni, who held him in his hands when Kumāra was born. The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra and the six faces of Rudra. The Taittiriya Aranyaka contains the Gayatri Mantra for Shanmukha. The Chandogya Upanishad refers to Skanda as the "way that leads to wisdom". Baudhāyana's Dharmasūtra calls Skanda Mahāsena "Having a Great Army" and Subrahmaṇya "beloved of Brahmins". The āraṇyaparvan (first section of the third book) of the Mahabharata relates the legend of Kartikeya Skanda in considerable detail. The Skanda Purana is devoted to the narrative of Kartikeya. The Upanishads also constantly make a reference to a Supreme Being called Guha, the indweller.
HINDU EPICS
The first elaborate account of Kartikeya's origin occurs in the Mahabharata. In a complicated story, he is said to have been born from Agni and Svaha, after the latter impersonated the six of the seven wives of the Saptarishi (Seven Sages). The actual wives then become the Pleiades. Kartikeya is said to have been born to destroy a buffalo demon (mahishasura). In later mythology, the buffalo demon became the adversary of Durga.
Indra attacks Kartikeya as he sees the latter as a threat until Shiva intervenes and makes Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of the army of the Devas. He is also married to Devasena, Indra's daughter. The origin of this marriage lies probably in the punning of 'Deva-sena-pati'. It can mean either lord of Devasena or Lord of the army (sena) of Devas. But according to Anandamurti, in his master work on Shiva and other works, Kartikeya was married to Devasenā and that is on the ground of his name as Devasena's husband, Devasenāpati, misinterpreted as Deva-senāpati (Deva's general) that he was granted the title general and made the Deva's army general.
The Ramayana version is closer to the stories told in the Puranas below.
References to Murugan can be traced back to the first millennium BCE. There are references to Murugan in Kautilya's Arthashastra, in the works of Patanjali, in Kalidasa's epic poem the Kumārasambhava. The Kushan Empire, which governed from what is today Peshawar, and the Yaudheyas, a confederation in the Punjab region, struck coins bearing the image of Skanda. The deity was venerated also by the Ikshvakus, an Andhra dynasty, and the Gupta Empire. The worship of Kumāra was one of the six principal sects of Hinduism at the time of Adi Shankara. The Shanmata system propagated by him included this sect. In many Shiva and Devi temples of Tamil Nadu, Murugan is installed on the left of the main deity. The story of His birth goes as follows:
Sati immolated herself in a pyre as her father King Daksha had insulted Shiva, her Lord. She was reborn as Parvathi or Uma, daughter of the King of Himalayas, Himavan. She then married her Lord Shiva. The Devas were under onslaught from the Asuras whose leader was Soorapadman. He had been granted boons that only Lord Shiva or his seed could kill him. Fearless he vanquished the Devas and made them his slaves. The Devas ran to Vishnu for help who told them that it was merely their fault for attending Daksha's yagna, without the presence of Lord Shiva. After this, they ran to Shiva for help. Shiva decided to take action against Soorapadman's increasing conceit. He frowned and his third eye- the eye of knowledge- started releasing sparks. There were six sparks in total. Agni had the responsibility to take them to Saravana Lake. As he was carrying them, the sparks were growing hotter and hotter that even the Lord of Fire could not withstand the heat. Soon after Murugan was born on a lotus in the Saravana Lake with six faces, giving him the name Arumukan. Lord Shiva and Parvati visited and tears of joy started flowing as they witnessed the most handsome child. Shiva and Parvathi gave the responsibility of taking care of Muruga to the six Krittika sisters. Muruga grew up to be a handsome, intelligent, powerful, clever youth. All the Devas applauded at their saviour, who had finally come to release them from their woes. Murugan became the supreme general of the demi-gods, then escorted the devas and led the army of the devas to victory against the asuras.
PURANAS
Though slightly varying versions occur in the Puranas, they broadly follow the same pattern. By this period, the identification of Shiva/Rudra with Agni, that can be traced back to the Vedas and Brahmanas, had clearly made Kartikeya the son of Shiva.
The Skanda Purana narrates that Shiva first wed Dakshayani (also named Sati), the first incarnation of Adi Shakthi the granddaughter of Brahma, and the daughter of Daksha. Daksha was a Vishnu devotee and never liked Shiva, who symbolized destruction of evil, detachment, and who lives a simple life. Daksha publicly insults Shiva in a Yagna ceremony, and Dakshayani immolates herself. The Yagna is destroyed by Shiva's avatar Virabhadra. Virabhadra broke the sacrificial vessels, polluted the offerings, insulted the priests and finally cut off Daksha's head, trampled on Indra, broke the staff of Yama, scattered the gods on every side; then he returned to Kailash. Taraka believed that, because Shiva is an ascetic and his earlier marriage was conducted with great difficulty, his remarriage was out of the question, hence his boon of being killed by Shiva's son alone would give him invincibility.
The Devas manage to get Shiva married to Parvati (who was Dakshayani, reborn), by making Manmatha (also known as Kama), the God of love awaken him from his penance, but Manmatha incurred the Lord's wrath indicated by the opening his third eye – "Netri Kann", and being destroyed and resurrected. Shiva hands over his effulgence of the third eye used to destroy Manmatha to Agni, as he alone is capable of handling it until it becomes the desired offspring. But even Agni, tortured by its heat, hands it over to Ganga who in turn deposits it in a lake in a forest of reeds (sharavanam). Then Goddess Parvati, took the form of this water body as she alone is capable of taming the Tejas of Shiva, her consort. The child is finally born in this forest (vana) with six faces: eesanam, Tathpurusham, vamadevam, agoram, sathyojatham and adhomugam. He is first spotted and cared for by six women representing the Pleiades — Kritika in Sanskrit. He thus gets named Kartikeya. As a young lad, he destroys Tarakasur. He is also called Kumara (Tamil and Sanskrit for "youth").
LEGENDS
Given that legends related to Murugan are recounted separately in several Hindu epics, some differences between the various versions are observed. Some Sanskrit epics and puranas indicate that he was the elder son of Shiva. This is suggested by the legend connected to his birth; the wedding of Shiva and Parvati being necessary for the birth of a child who would vanquish the asura named Taraka. Also, Kartikeya is seen helping Shiva fight the newborn Ganesha, Shiva's other son, in the Shiva Purana. In the Ganapati Khandam of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, he is seen as the elder son of Shiva and Ganesha as the younger. In South India, it is believed that he is the younger of the two. A Puranic story has Ganesha obtain a divine fruit of knowledge from Narada winning a contest with Murugan. While Murugan speeds around the world thrice to win the contest for the fruit, Ganesha circumambulates Shiva and Parvati thrice as an equivalent and is given the fruit. After winning it, he offers to give the fruit to his upset brother. After this event, Ganesha was considered the elder brother owing as a tribute to his wisdom. Many of the major events in Murugan's life take place during his youth, and legends surrounding his birth are popular. This has encouraged the worship of Murugan as a child-God, very similar to the worship of the child Krishna in north India. He is married to two wives, Valli and Devasena. This led to a very interesting name : Devasenapati viz. Pati (husband) of Devsena and/or Senapati (commander in chief) of Dev (gods).
SYMBOLISM
Kartikeya symbols are based on the weapons – Vel, the Divine Spear or Lance that he carries and his mount the peacock. He is sometimes depicted with many weapons including: a sword, a javelin, a mace, a discus and a bow although more usually he is depicted wielding a sakti or spear. This symbolizes his purification of human ills. His javelin is used to symbolize his far reaching protection, his discus symbolizes his knowledge of the truth, his mace represents his strength and his bow shows his ability to defeat all ills. His peacock mount symbolizes his destruction of the ego. His six heads represent the six siddhis bestowed upon yogis over the course of their spiritual development. This corresponds to his role as the bestower of siddhis.
REGIONS OF WORSHIP
SOUTH INDIA
Murugan is often referred to as "Tamil Kadavul" "God of the Tamils" and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences. Subramanya is also a major deity among the Hindus of northern Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. Rituals like nagaradhane are unique to Uttara Kannada region of Karnataka.
TAMIL NADU
In Tamil Nadu, Murugan has continued to be popular with all classes of society right since the Sangam age. This has led to more elaborate accounts of his mythology in the Tamil language, culminating in the Tamil version of Skanda Purana, called Kandha Purānam, written by Kacchiappa Sivachariyar (1350–1420 AD.) of Kumara Kottam in the city of Kanchipuram. (He was a scholar in Tamil literature, and a votary of the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy) He is married to two deities, Valli, a daughter of a tribal chief and Deivayanai (also called Devasena), the daughter of Indhra. During His bachelorhood, Lord Murugan is also regarded as Kumaraswami (or Bachelor God), Kumara meaning a bachelor and Swami meaning God. Muruga rides a peacock and wields a bow in battle. The lance called Vel in Tamil is a weapon closely associated with him. The Vel was given to him by his mother, Parvati, and embodies her energy and power. His army's standard depicts a rooster. In the war, Surapadman was split into two, and each half was granted a boon by Murugan. The halves, thus turned into the peacock (his mount) and the rooster his flag, which also "refers to the sun".
As Muruga is worshipped predominantly in Tamil Nadu, many of his names are of Tamil origin. These include Senthil, the red or formidable one; Arumugam, the six-faced one; Guhan and Maal-Marugan, the son-in-law of Vishnu. Murugan is venerated throughout the Tamil year. There is a six-day period of fast and prayer in the Tamil month of Aippasi known as the Skanda Shasti. He is worshipped at Thaipusam, celebrated by Tamil communities worldwide near the full moon of the Tamil month Thai. This commemorates the day he was given a Vel or lance by his mother in order to vanquish the asuras. Thirukarthigai or the full moon of the Tamil month of Karthigai signifies his birth. Each Tuesday of the Tamil month of Adi is also dedicated to the worship of Murugan. Tuesday in the Hindu tradition connotes Mangala, the god of planet Mars and war.
WEST BENGAL
Kartikeya also known as Kartik or Kartika is also worshipped in West Bengal, and Bangladesh on the last day of the Hindu month of 'Kartik'. However, the popularity of Kartik Puja (worshipping Kartik) is decreasing now, and Kartikeya is primarily worshipped among those who intend to have a son. In Bengal, traditionally, many people drop images of Kartik inside the boundaries of different households, who all are either newly married, or else, intend to get a son to carry on with their ancestry. Lord Kartik is also associated to the Babu Culture prevailed in historic Kolkata, and hence, many traditional old Bengali paintings still show Kartik dressed in traditional Bengali style. Also, in some parts of West Bengal, Kartik is traditionally worshipped by the ancestors of the past royal families too, as in the district of Malda. In Bansberia (Hooghly district) Kartik Puja festival is celebrated like Durga puja of Kolkata, Jagadhatri puja in Chandannagar for consecutive four days. The festival starts on 17 November every year and on 16 November in case of Leap year. Some of the must see Puja committees are Bansberia Kundugoli Nataraj, Khamarapara Milan Samity RadhaKrishna, Kishor Bahini, Mitali Sangha, Yuva Sangha, Bansberia Pratap Sangha and many more. In Durga Puja in Bengal, Kartikeya is considered to be a son of Parvati or Durga and Shiva along with his brother Ganesha.
ODISHA
Kumara Purnima, which is celebrated on the full moon day after Vijayadashami, is one of the popular festival dedicated to Kartikeya in Odisha.It is believed that unmarried girls worship Kartikeya on this day to get grooms handsome as Kartikeya. Kartikeya is worshiped during Durga Puja in Odisha as well as in various Shiva temples throughout the year. Kartik puja is celebrated in Cuttack along with various other parts of the state during the last phases of Hindu month of Kartik. Kartik purnima is celebrated with much joy and in a grand fashion in Cuttack, Jamadhar, Rekabibajar of Jajpur District and other parts in the state.
OTHER PARTS
Kartikeya Swami or locally called the Devta "Kelang Wazir" is worshipped near parts of Bharmour as their main deity at Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Situated at Kugti Village, which is 10-14 km from Bharmour is the major deity of the tribe Gaddi. The temple of Kartikeya Swami is visited every year by thousands of devotees when the trek is opened in the month of March-April.(Covered with snow in the winters)
Historically, Kartikeya was immensely popular in the Indian subcontinent. One of the major Puranas, the Skanda Purana is dedicated to him. In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch.10, Verse 24), Krishna, while explaining his omnipresence, names the most perfect being, mortal or divine, in each of several categories. While doing so, he says: "Among generals, I am Skanda, the lord of war."
Kartikeya's presence in the religious and cultural sphere can be seen at least from the Gupta age. Two of the Gupta kings, Kumaragupta and Skandagupta, were named after him. He is seen in the Gupta sculptures and in the temples of Ellora and Elephants. As the commander of the divine armies, he became the patron of the ruling classes. His youth, beauty and bravery was much celebrated in Sanskrit works like the Kathasaritsagara. Kalidasa made the birth of Kumara the subject of a lyrical epic, the Kumaarasambhavam. In ancient India, Kartikeya was also regarded as the patron deity of thieves, as may be inferred from the Mrichchakatikam, a Sanskrit play by Shudraka, and in the Vetala-panchvimshati, a medieval collection of tales. This association is linked to the fact that Kartikeya had dug through the Krauncha mountain to kill Taraka and his brothers (in the Mrichchakatikam, Sarivilaka prays to him before tunnelling into the hero's house).
However, Kartikeya's popularity in North India receded from the Middle Ages onwards, and his worship is today virtually unknown except in parts of Haryana. There is a very famous temple dedicated to Him in the town of Pehowa in Haryana and this temple is very well known in the adjoining areas, especially because women are not allowed anywhere close to it. Women stay away from this temple in Pehowa town of Haryana because this shrine celebrates the Brahmachari form of Kartikeya. Reminders of former devotions to him include a temple at Achaleshwar, near Batala in Punjab, and another temple of Skanda atop the Parvati hill in Pune, Maharashtra. There is also a popular temple of Kartikeya called Kartik Swami Mandir in the Panchavati region of Nashik, Maharashtra. In Maharashtra too, women don't visit Kartik swami temple.
SRI LANKA
Murugan is adored by both Tamil Hindus and Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Numerous temples exist throughout the island. He is a favorite deity of the common folk everywhere and it is said he never hesitates to come to the aid of a devotee when called upon. In the deeply Sinhalese south of Sri Lanka, Murugan is worshipped at the temple in Katirkāmam, where he is known as Kathiravel or Katragama Deviyo (Lord of Katragama). This temple is next to an old Buddhist place of worship. Local legend holds that Lord Murugan alighted in Kataragama and was smitten by Valli, one of the local aboriginal lasses. After a courtship, they were married. This event is taken to signify that Lord Murugan is accessible to all who worship and love him, regardless of their birth or heritage. The Nallur Kandaswamy temple, the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple and the Sella Channithy Temple near Valvettiturai are the three foremost Murugan temples in Jaffna. The Chitravelayutha temple in Verukal on the border between Trincomalee and Batticaloa is also noteworthy as is the Mandur Kandaswamy temple in Batticaloa. The late medieval-era temple of the tooth in Kandy, dedicated to the tooth relic of the Buddha, has a Kataragama deiyo shrine adjacent to it dedicated to the veneration of Skanda in the Sinhalese tradition. Almost all buddhist temples house a shrine room for Kataragama deviyo (Murugan) reflecting the significance of Murugan in Sinhala Buddhism,
Based on archeological evidence found, it is believed that the Kiri Vehera was either renovated to build during the 1st century BCE. There are number of others inscriptions and ruins.
By the 16th century the Kathiravel shrine at Katirkāmam had become synonymous with Skanda-Kumara who was a guardian deity of Sinhala Buddhism. The town was popular as a place of pilgrimage for Hindus from India and Sri Lanka by the 15 the century. The popularity of the deity at the Kataragama temple was also recorded by the Pali chronicles of Thailand such as Jinkalmali in the 16th century. There are number of legends both Buddhist and Hindu that attribute supernatural events to the very locality. Scholars such as Paul Younger and Heinz Bechert speculate that rituals practiced by the native priests of Kataragama temple betray Vedda ideals of propitiation. Hence they believe the area was of Vedda veneration that was taken over by the Buddhist and Hindus in the medieval period.
MALAYSIA
Lord Murugan is one of the most important deities worshipped by the Tamil Hindus in Malaysia and other South-East Asian countries such as Singapore and Indonesia. Thaipoosam is one of the important festivals celebrated. Sri Subramanyar Temple at Batu Caves temple complex in Malaysia is dedicated to Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES
The main temples of Murugan are located in Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India. They include the Aru Padaiveedu (six abodes) — Thiruchendur, Swamimalai, Pazhamudircholai, Thirupparangunram, Palani (Pazhani), Thiruthani and other important shrines like Mayilam, Sikkal, Marudamalai, Kundrathur, Vadapalani, Kandakottam, Thiruporur, Vallakottai, Vayalur, Thirumalaikoil, Chennimalai, Sivanmalai, Pachaimalai and Pavalamalai near Gobichettipalayam. Malai Mandir, a prominent and popular temple complex in Delhi, is one of the few dedicated to Murugan in all of North India apart from the Pehowa temple in Haryana.
There are many temples dedicated to Lord Subramanya in Kerala. Amongst them are Atiyambur Sri Subramanya Temple in Kanhangad Kasaragod, Payyannur Subramanya Swamy temple in Payyanur, Panmana Subramanya Swamy temple in Panmana and the Subramanya temple in Haripad. There is a temple in Skandagiri, Secunderabad, one in Bikkavolu, East Godavari district and one in Mopidevi,Krishna district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka there is the Kukke Subramanya Temple where Lord Murugan is worshiped as the Lord of the serpents. Aaslesha Bali, Sarpa Samskara with nagapathista samarpa are major prayers here.
The key temples in Sri Lanka include the sylvan shrine in Kataragama / (Kadirgamam) or Kathirkamam in the deep south, the temple in Tirukovil in the east, the shrine in Embekke in the Kandyan region and the famed Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. There are several temples dedicated to Lord Murugan in Malaysia, the most famous being the Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur. There is a 42.7-m-high statue of Lord Murugan at the entrance to the Batu Caves, which is the largest Lord Murugan statue in the world. Sri Thandayuthapani Temple in Tank Road, Singapore is a major Hindu temple where each year the Thaipusam festival takes place with devotees of Lord Muruga carrying Kavadis seeking penance and blessings of the Lord.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN AMERICA
In the USA, Shiva Murugan Temple in Concord, Northern California and Murugan Temple of North America in Maryland, Washington DC region are popular. Thaipusam walk for Shiva Murugan Temple in Concord, USA is very pouplar and attracting many devotees from all over America. In Toronto, Canada, Canada Kanthasamy Temple is known amongst many Hindus in Canada. In Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a suburb of the city of Montreal in Canada, there is a monumental temple of Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN UK
In the United Kingdom, Highgate Hill Murugan temple is one of the oldest and most famous. In London, Sri Murugan Temple in Manor park is a well-known temple. In Midlands, Leicester Shri Siva Murugan Temple is gaining popularity recently. Skanda Vale in West Wales was founded by Guruji, a Tamil devotee of Subramaniam, and its primary deity is Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN AUSTRALIA
In Australia, Sydney Murugan temple in Parramatta (Mays Hill), Perth Bala Muruguan temple in Mandogalup and Kundrathu Kumaran temple in Rockbank, Melbourne are major Hindu temples for all Australian Hindus and Murugan devotees. In New Zealand, there is a Thirumurugan Temple in Auckland and a Kurinji Kumaran Temple in Wellington, both dedicated to Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN EUROPE
The Sri Sivasubramaniar Temple, located in the Sihl Valley in Adliswil, is the most famous and largest Hindu temple in Switzerland.
WIKIPEDIA
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in 1834 in Tobolsk, Siberia, the youngest of 14 children. He studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he became a professor of chemistry at the university in 1863. He published his initial periodic table in 1869. Although his table was not the first, his version is the one that had the biggest impact on the scientific community. He also championed the system, defending its validity and devoting time to its elaboration. Mendeleev died just over 100 years ago, in 1907. A statue of him with his table stands in St. Petersburg.
www.researchgate.net/figure/Dimitri-Ivanovich-Mendeleev-w...
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Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev 8 February 1834 – 2 February 1907 [OS 27 January 1834 – 20 January 1907]) was a Russian chemist and inventor. He formulated the Periodic Law, created a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements, and used it to correct the properties of some already discovered elements and also to predict the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered.
Mendeleev was born in the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk in Siberia, to Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev (1783–1847) and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva (née Kornilieva) (1793–1850). His paternal grandfather Pavel Maximovich Sokolov was a Russian Orthodox priest from the Tver region. Ivan, along with his brothers and sisters, obtained new family names while attending the theological seminary. He worked as a school principal and a teacher of fine arts, politics and philosophy at the Tambov and Saratov gymnasiums.
Maria Kornilieva came from a well-known dynasty of Tobolsk merchants, founders of the first Siberian printing house who traced their ancestry to Yakov Korniliev, a 17th-century posad man turned a wealthy merchant. In 1889 a local librarian published an article in the Tobolsk newspaper where he claimed that Yakov was a baptized Teleut, an ethnic minority known as "white Kalmyks" at the time. Since no sources were provided and no documented facts of Yakov's life were ever revealed, biographers generally dismiss it as a myth. In 1908, shortly after Mendeleev's death, one of his nieces published Family Chronicles. Memories about D. I. Mendeleev where she voiced "a family legend" about Maria's grandfather who married "a Kyrgyz or Tatar beauty whom he loved so much that when she died, he also died from grief". This, however, contradicts the documented family chronicles, and neither of those legends is supported by Mendeleev's autobiography, his daughter's or his wife's memoirs. Yet some Western scholars still refer to Mendeleev's supposed "Mongol", "Tatar", "Tartarian" or simply "Asian" ancestry as a fact.
Mendeleev was raised as an Orthodox Christian, his mother encouraging him to "patiently search divine and scientific truth". His son would later inform that he departed from the Church and embraced a form of "romanticized deism".
Mendeleev was the youngest of 17 siblings, of whom "only 14 stayed alive to be baptized" according to Mendeleev's brother Pavel, meaning the others died soon after their birth. The exact number of Mendeleev's siblings differs among sources and is still a matter of some historical dispute. Unfortunately for the family's financial well being, his father became blind and lost his teaching position. His mother was forced to work and she restarted her family's abandoned glass factory. At the age of 13, after the passing of his father and the destruction of his mother's factory by fire, Mendeleev attended the Gymnasium in Tobolsk.
In 1849, his mother took Mendeleev across Russia from Siberia to Moscow with the aim of getting Mendeleev a higher education. The university in Moscow did not accept him. The mother and son continued to Saint Petersburg to the father's alma mater. The now poor Mendeleev family relocated to Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1850. After graduation, he contracted tuberculosis, causing him to move to the Crimean Peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in 1855. While there, he became a science master of the 1st Simferopol Gymnasium. In 1857, he returned to Saint Petersburg with fully restored health.
Between 1859 and 1861, he worked on the capillarity of liquids and the workings of the spectroscope in Heidelberg. Later in 1861, he published a textbook named Organic Chemistry. This won him the Demidov Prize of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
On 4 April 1862 he became engaged to Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva, and they married on 27 April 1862 at Nikolaev Engineering Institute's church in Saint Petersburg (where he taught).
Mendeleev became a professor at the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and Saint Petersburg State University in 1864, and 1865, respectively. In 1865 he became Doctor of Science for his dissertation "On the Combinations of Water with Alcohol". He achieved tenure in 1867 at St. Petersburg University and started to teach inorganic chemistry, while succeeding Voskresenskii to this post. and by 1871 he had transformed Saint Petersburg into an internationally recognized center for chemistry research.
In 1863, there were 56 known elements with a new element being discovered at a rate of approximately one per year. Other scientists had previously identified periodicity of elements. John Newlands described a Law of Octaves, noting their periodicity according to relative atomic weight in 1864, publishing it in 1865. His proposal identified the potential for new elements such as germanium. The concept was criticized and his innovation was not recognized by the Society of Chemists until 1887. Another person to propose a periodic table was Lothar Meyer, who published a paper in 1864 describing 28 elements classified by their valence, but with no predictions of new elements.
After becoming a teacher in 1867, Mendeleev wrote the definitive textbook of his time: Principles of Chemistry (two volumes, 1868–1870). It was written as he was preparing a textbook for his course. This is when he made his most important discovery. As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his periodic table; he claimed to have envisioned the complete arrangement of the elements in a dream:
I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.
— Mendeleev, as quoted by Inostrantzev
Unaware of the earlier work on periodic tables going on in the 1860s, he made the following table:
Cl 35.5 K 39 Ca 40
Br 80 Rb 85 Sr 88
I 127 Cs 133 Ba 137
By adding additional elements following this pattern, Mendeleev developed his extended version of the periodic table. On 6 March 1869, he made a formal presentation to the Russian Chemical Society, titled The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements, which described elements according to both atomic weight (now called relative atomic mass) and valence. This presentation stated that
The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weight, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties.
Elements which are similar regarding their chemical properties either have similar atomic weights (e.g., Pt, Ir, Os) or have their atomic weights increasing regularly (e.g., K, Rb, Cs).
The arrangement of the elements in groups of elements in the order of their atomic weights corresponds to their so-called valencies, as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be, B, C, N, O, and F.
The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights.
The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body.
We must expect the discovery of many yet unknown elements – for example, two elements, analogous to aluminum and silicon, whose atomic weights would be between 65 and 75.
The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123 and 126, and cannot be 128. (Tellurium's atomic weight is 127.6, and Mendeleev was incorrect in his assumption that atomic weight must increase with position within a period.)
Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights.
Mendeleev published his periodic table of all known elements and predicted several new elements to complete the table in a Russian-language journal. Only a few months after, Meyer published a virtually identical table in a German-language journal. Mendeleev has the distinction of accurately predicting the qualities of what he called ekasilicon, ekaaluminium and ekaboron (germanium, gallium and scandium, respectively).
For his predicted eight elements, he used the prefixes of eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit one, two, three) in their naming. Mendeleev questioned some of the currently accepted atomic weights (they could be measured only with a relatively low accuracy at that time), pointing out that they did not correspond to those suggested by his Periodic Law. He noted that tellurium has a higher atomic weight than iodine, but he placed them in the right order, incorrectly predicting that the accepted atomic weights at the time were at fault. He was puzzled about where to put the known lanthanides, and predicted the existence of another row to the table which were the actinides which were some of the heaviest in atomic weight. Some people dismissed Mendeleev for predicting that there would be more elements, but he was proven to be correct when Ga (gallium) and Ge (germanium) were found in 1875 and 1886 respectively, fitting perfectly into the two missing spaces.
By giving Sanskrit names to his "missing" elements, Mendeleev showed his appreciation and debt to the Sanskrit grammarians of ancient India, who had created sophisticated theories of language based on their discovery of the two-dimensional patterns in basic sounds. Mendeleev was a friend and colleague of the Sanskritist Otto von Böhtlingk, who was preparing the second edition of his book on Pāṇini at about this time, and Mendeleev wished to honor Pāṇini with his nomenclature. Noting that there are striking similarities between the periodic table and the introductory Śiva Sūtras in Pāṇini's grammar, Prof. Kiparsky says:
[T]he analogies between the two systems are striking. Just as Panini found that the phonological patterning of sounds in the language is a function of their articulatory properties, so Mendeleev found that the chemical properties of elements are a function of their atomic weights.
Like Panini, Mendeleev arrived at his discovery through a search for the "grammar" of the elements (using what he called the principle of isomorphism, and looking for general formulas to generate the possible chemical compounds).
Just as Panini arranged the sounds in order of increasing phonetic complexity (e.g. with the simple stops k,p... preceding the other stops, and representing all of them in expressions like kU, pU) so Mendeleev arranged the elements in order of increasing atomic weights, and called the first row (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon etc.) "typical (or representative) elements".
Just as Panini broke the phonetic parallelism of sounds when the simplicity of the system required it, e.g. putting the velar to the right of the labial in the nasal row, so Mendeleev gave priority to isomorphism over atomic weights when they conflicted, e.g. putting beryllium in the magnesium family because it patterns with it even though by atomic weight it seemed to belong with nitrogen and phosphorus. In both cases, the periodicities they discovered would later be explained by a theory of the internal structure of the elements.
The original draft made by Mendeleev would be found years later and published under the name Tentative System of Elements.
Dmitri Mendeleev is often referred to as the Father of the Periodic Table. He called his table or matrix, "the Periodic System".
Later life - Dmitri Mendeleev
In 1876, he became obsessed with Anna Ivanova Popova and began courting her; in 1881 he proposed to her and threatened suicide if she refused. His divorce from Leshcheva was finalized one month after he had married Popova (on 2 April) in early 1882. Even after the divorce, Mendeleev was technically a bigamist; the Russian Orthodox Church required at least seven years before lawful remarriage. His divorce and the surrounding controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences (despite his international fame by that time). His daughter from his second marriage, Lyubov, became the wife of the famous Russian poet Alexander Blok. His other children were son Vladimir (a sailor, he took part in the notable Eastern journey of Nicholas II) and daughter Olga, from his first marriage to Feozva, and son Ivan and twins from Anna.
Though Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including (in 1882) the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London (which later also awarded him the Copley Medal in 1905), he resigned from Saint Petersburg University on 17 August 1890. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1892, and in 1893 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post which he occupied until his death.
Mendeleev also investigated the composition of petroleum, and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. He recognized the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals. He is credited with a remark that burning petroleum as a fuel "would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes".
In 1905, Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The following year the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1906 to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system. The Chemistry Section of the Swedish Academy supported this recommendation. The Academy was then supposed to approve the Committee's choice, as it has done in almost every case. Unexpectedly, at the full meeting of the Academy, a dissenting member of the Nobel Committee, Peter Klason, proposed the candidacy of Henri Moissan whom he favored. Svante Arrhenius, although not a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, had a great deal of influence in the Academy and also pressed for the rejection of Mendeleev, arguing that the periodic system was too old to acknowledge its discovery in 1906. According to the contemporaries, Arrhenius was motivated by the grudge he held against Mendeleev for his critique of Arrhenius's dissociation theory. After heated arguments, the majority of the Academy chose Moissan by a margin of one vote. The attempts to nominate Mendeleev in 1907 were again frustrated by the absolute opposition of Arrhenius.
In 1907, Mendeleev died at the age of 72 in Saint Petersburg from influenza. His last words were to his physician: "Doctor, you have science, I have faith," which is possibly a Jules Verne quote.
Other achievements
Mendeleev made other important contributions to chemistry. The Russian chemist and science historian Lev Chugaev has characterized him as "a chemist of genius, first-class physicist, a fruitful researcher in the fields of hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, certain branches of chemical technology (explosives, petroleum, and fuels, for example) and other disciplines adjacent to chemistry and physics, a thorough expert of chemical industry and industry in general, and an original thinker in the field of economy." Mendeleev was one of the founders, in 1869, of the Russian Chemical Society. He worked on the theory and practice of protectionist trade and on agriculture.
In an attempt at a chemical conception of the Aether, he put forward a hypothesis that there existed two inert chemical elements of lesser atomic weight than hydrogen. Of these two proposed elements, he thought the lighter to be an all-penetrating, all-pervasive gas, and the slightly heavier one to be a proposed element, coronium.
Mendeleev devoted much study and made important contributions to the determination of the nature of such indefinite compounds as solutions.
Mendeleev Medal
In another department of physical chemistry, he investigated the expansion of liquids with heat, and devised a formula similar to Gay-Lussac's law of the uniformity of the expansion of gases, while in 1861 he anticipated Thomas Andrews' conception of the critical temperature of gases by defining the absolute boiling-point of a substance as the temperature at which cohesion and heat of vaporization become equal to zero and the liquid changes to vapor, irrespective of the pressure and volume.
Mendeleev is given credit for the introduction of the metric system to the Russian Empire.
He invented pyrocollodion, a kind of smokeless powder based on nitrocellulose. This work had been commissioned by the Russian Navy, which however did not adopt its use. In 1892 Mendeleev organized its manufacture.
Mendeleev studied petroleum origin and concluded hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth – see Abiogenic petroleum origin. He wrote: "The capital fact to note is that petroleum was born in the depths of the earth, and it is only there that we must seek its origin." (Dmitri Mendeleev, 1877).
Intellectual activities beyond chemistry
Beginning in the 1870s, he published widely beyond chemistry, looking at aspects of Russian industry, and technical issues in agricultural productivity. He explored demographic issues, sponsored studies of the Arctic Sea, tried to measure the value of chemical fertilizers, and promoted the a merchant navy. He was especially active in promoting the Russian petroleum industry, making careful detail comparisons with the more advanced industry in Pennsylvania. He joined in the debate about the scientific claims of spiritualism, arguing that metaphysical idealism was no more than ignorant superstition. He bemoaned the widespread acceptance of spiritualism in Russian culture, and its negative effects on the study of science. Although he was not well grounded in economic theory, he helped convince the Ministry of Finance in 1887-1891 to impose a temporary tariff in 1891 which, based on his wide travels in Europe, suggested it would allow Russian industry to mature faster. After resigning his professorship at at St. Petersburg University following a dispute with officials at the Ministry of Education in 1907, he became director of Russia's Central Bureau of Weights and Measures, he led the way to standardize fundamental prototypes and measurement procedures. He set up an inspection system, and introduced the metric system to Russia.
Vodka myth
A very popular Russian story is that it was Mendeleev who came up with the 40% standard strength of vodka in 1894, after having been appointed Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures with the assignment to formulate new state standards for the production of vodka. This story has, for instance, been used in marketing claims by the Russian Standard vodka brand that "In 1894, Dmitri Mendeleev, the greatest scientist in all Russia, received the decree to set the Imperial quality standard for Russian vodka and the 'Russian Standard' was born", or that the vodka is "compliant with the highest quality of Russian vodka approved by the royal government commission headed by Mendeleev in 1894".
While it is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg, and evolved it into a government bureau the following year, that institution was never involved in setting any production quality standards, but was issued with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments. Furthermore, the 40% standard strength was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old.
The basis for the whole story is a popular myth that Mendeleev's 1865 doctoral dissertation "A Discourse on the combination of alcohol and water" contained a statement that 38% is the ideal strength of vodka, and that this number was later rounded to 40% to simplify the calculation of alcohol tax. However, Mendeleev's dissertation was about alcohol concentrations over 70% and he never wrote anything about vodka.
Commemoration
Bust of Mendeleev in the city of Mendeleyevsk, Tatarstan
A number of places and objects are associated with the name and achievements of the scientist.
In Saint Petersburg his name was given to D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, the National Metrology Institute,[ dealing with establishing and supporting national and worldwide standards for precise measurements. Next to it there is a monument to him that consists of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment.
In the Twelve Collegia building, now being the centre of Saint Petersburg State University and in Mendeleev's time – Head Pedagogical Institute – there is Dmitry Mendeleev's Memorial Museum Apartment with his archives. The street in front of these is named after him as Mendeleevskaya liniya (Mendeleev Line).
In Moscow, there is the D. Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia.
After him was also named mendelevium, which is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Md (formerly Mv) and the atomic number 101. It is a metallic radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series, usually synthesized by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles.
The mineral mendeleevite-Ce, Cs6(Ce22Ca6)(Si70O175)(OH,F)14(H2O)21, was named in Mendeleev's honor in 2010. The related species mendeleevite-Nd, Cs6[(Nd,REE)23Ca7](Si70O175)(OH,F)19(H2O)16, was described in 2015.
A large lunar impact crater Mendeleev, that is located on the far side of the Moon, also bears the name of the scientist.
The Russian Academy of Sciences has occasionally awarded a Mendeleev Golden Medal since 1965 (Wikipedia).
Kartikeya (Sanskrit Kārtikēya "son of Kṛttikā" Tamil: Kārttikēyaṉ) (/ˌkɑrtɪˈkeɪjə/), also known as Murugan, Skanda, Kumaran, Kumara Swami and Subramaniyan is the Hindu god of war. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the devas and the son of Shiva and Parvati.
Murugan (Tamil Murukaṉ) is often referred to as Tamiḻ kaṭavuḷ ("god of the Tamils") and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Réunion. His six most important shrines in India are the Six Abodes of Murugan, temples located in Tamil Nadu.
In Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra, he is popularly known as Kartikeya.
OTHER NAMES
The several names of Murugan of Tamil origin would include the following, Seyon, Senthil, Vēlaṇ, Kumāran ("prince, child, young one"), Svaminatha ("smart, clever"), Saravaṇa, Arumugam or Shanmuga ("having six faces"), Dandapani ("god with a club"), Guhan or Guruguha ("cave-dweller"), Subrahmanya, Kartikeya and Skanda "attacker". He was also known as Mahasena and the Kadamba dynasty worshiped him by this name.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
SANGAM TAMIL LITERATURE
The Tolkāppiyam, possibly the most ancient of the Tamil literature, mentions Ceyyavaṉ "the red one", who is identified with Murugan, whose name is literally Murukaṉ "the youth"; the three other gods referred in the Tolkāppiyam are Māyavaṉ "the dark one" (identified with Vishnu), Vēntaṉ "the sovereign" (identified with Indra) and Koṟṟavai "the victorious" (identified with Kali). Extant Sangam literature works, dated between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE glorified Murugan, "the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent," as "the favoured god of the Tamils." The Sangam poetry divided space and Tamil land into five allegorical areas (tinai) and. according to the Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai ( c. 400–450), attributed to the great Sangam poet Nakkirar, Murugan was the presiding deity of the kuṟiñci (hilly tracts). The Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai is a deeply devotional poem included in the Pattuppāṭṭu "ten idyls" of the age of the third Sangam. In the Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai, he is described as a god of eternal youth: "His face shines a myriad rays light and removes the darkness from this world".
Other Sangam period works in Tamil that refer to Murugan in detail include the Paripāṭal, the Akanaṉūṟu and the Purananuru.
VEDIC AND PURANIC LITERATURE
The Atharvaveda calls Kumāra Agnibhū because he is form of Agni, who held him in his hands when Kumāra was born. The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra and the six faces of Rudra. The Taittiriya Aranyaka contains the Gayatri Mantra for Shanmukha. The Chandogya Upanishad refers to Skanda as the "way that leads to wisdom". Baudhāyana's Dharmasūtra calls Skanda Mahāsena "Having a Great Army" and Subrahmaṇya "beloved of Brahmins". The āraṇyaparvan (first section of the third book) of the Mahabharata relates the legend of Kartikeya Skanda in considerable detail. The Skanda Purana is devoted to the narrative of Kartikeya. The Upanishads also constantly make a reference to a Supreme Being called Guha, the indweller.
HINDU EPICS
The first elaborate account of Kartikeya's origin occurs in the Mahabharata. In a complicated story, he is said to have been born from Agni and Svaha, after the latter impersonated the six of the seven wives of the Saptarishi (Seven Sages). The actual wives then become the Pleiades. Kartikeya is said to have been born to destroy a buffalo demon (mahishasura). In later mythology, the buffalo demon became the adversary of Durga.
Indra attacks Kartikeya as he sees the latter as a threat until Shiva intervenes and makes Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of the army of the Devas. He is also married to Devasena, Indra's daughter. The origin of this marriage lies probably in the punning of 'Deva-sena-pati'. It can mean either lord of Devasena or Lord of the army (sena) of Devas. But according to Anandamurti, in his master work on Shiva and other works, Kartikeya was married to Devasenā and that is on the ground of his name as Devasena's husband, Devasenāpati, misinterpreted as Deva-senāpati (Deva's general) that he was granted the title general and made the Deva's army general.
The Ramayana version is closer to the stories told in the Puranas below.
References to Murugan can be traced back to the first millennium BCE. There are references to Murugan in Kautilya's Arthashastra, in the works of Patanjali, in Kalidasa's epic poem the Kumārasambhava. The Kushan Empire, which governed from what is today Peshawar, and the Yaudheyas, a confederation in the Punjab region, struck coins bearing the image of Skanda. The deity was venerated also by the Ikshvakus, an Andhra dynasty, and the Gupta Empire. The worship of Kumāra was one of the six principal sects of Hinduism at the time of Adi Shankara. The Shanmata system propagated by him included this sect. In many Shiva and Devi temples of Tamil Nadu, Murugan is installed on the left of the main deity. The story of His birth goes as follows:
Sati immolated herself in a pyre as her father King Daksha had insulted Shiva, her Lord. She was reborn as Parvathi or Uma, daughter of the King of Himalayas, Himavan. She then married her Lord Shiva. The Devas were under onslaught from the Asuras whose leader was Soorapadman. He had been granted boons that only Lord Shiva or his seed could kill him. Fearless he vanquished the Devas and made them his slaves. The Devas ran to Vishnu for help who told them that it was merely their fault for attending Daksha's yagna, without the presence of Lord Shiva. After this, they ran to Shiva for help. Shiva decided to take action against Soorapadman's increasing conceit. He frowned and his third eye- the eye of knowledge- started releasing sparks. There were six sparks in total. Agni had the responsibility to take them to Saravana Lake. As he was carrying them, the sparks were growing hotter and hotter that even the Lord of Fire could not withstand the heat. Soon after Murugan was born on a lotus in the Saravana Lake with six faces, giving him the name Arumukan. Lord Shiva and Parvati visited and tears of joy started flowing as they witnessed the most handsome child. Shiva and Parvathi gave the responsibility of taking care of Muruga to the six Krittika sisters. Muruga grew up to be a handsome, intelligent, powerful, clever youth. All the Devas applauded at their saviour, who had finally come to release them from their woes. Murugan became the supreme general of the demi-gods, then escorted the devas and led the army of the devas to victory against the asuras.
PURANAS
Though slightly varying versions occur in the Puranas, they broadly follow the same pattern. By this period, the identification of Shiva/Rudra with Agni, that can be traced back to the Vedas and Brahmanas, had clearly made Kartikeya the son of Shiva.
The Skanda Purana narrates that Shiva first wed Dakshayani (also named Sati), the first incarnation of Adi Shakthi the granddaughter of Brahma, and the daughter of Daksha. Daksha was a Vishnu devotee and never liked Shiva, who symbolized destruction of evil, detachment, and who lives a simple life. Daksha publicly insults Shiva in a Yagna ceremony, and Dakshayani immolates herself. The Yagna is destroyed by Shiva's avatar Virabhadra. Virabhadra broke the sacrificial vessels, polluted the offerings, insulted the priests and finally cut off Daksha's head, trampled on Indra, broke the staff of Yama, scattered the gods on every side; then he returned to Kailash. Taraka believed that, because Shiva is an ascetic and his earlier marriage was conducted with great difficulty, his remarriage was out of the question, hence his boon of being killed by Shiva's son alone would give him invincibility.
The Devas manage to get Shiva married to Parvati (who was Dakshayani, reborn), by making Manmatha (also known as Kama), the God of love awaken him from his penance, but Manmatha incurred the Lord's wrath indicated by the opening his third eye – "Netri Kann", and being destroyed and resurrected. Shiva hands over his effulgence of the third eye used to destroy Manmatha to Agni, as he alone is capable of handling it until it becomes the desired offspring. But even Agni, tortured by its heat, hands it over to Ganga who in turn deposits it in a lake in a forest of reeds (sharavanam). Then Goddess Parvati, took the form of this water body as she alone is capable of taming the Tejas of Shiva, her consort. The child is finally born in this forest (vana) with six faces: eesanam, Tathpurusham, vamadevam, agoram, sathyojatham and adhomugam. He is first spotted and cared for by six women representing the Pleiades — Kritika in Sanskrit. He thus gets named Kartikeya. As a young lad, he destroys Tarakasur. He is also called Kumara (Tamil and Sanskrit for "youth").
LEGENDS
Given that legends related to Murugan are recounted separately in several Hindu epics, some differences between the various versions are observed. Some Sanskrit epics and puranas indicate that he was the elder son of Shiva. This is suggested by the legend connected to his birth; the wedding of Shiva and Parvati being necessary for the birth of a child who would vanquish the asura named Taraka. Also, Kartikeya is seen helping Shiva fight the newborn Ganesha, Shiva's other son, in the Shiva Purana. In the Ganapati Khandam of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, he is seen as the elder son of Shiva and Ganesha as the younger. In South India, it is believed that he is the younger of the two. A Puranic story has Ganesha obtain a divine fruit of knowledge from Narada winning a contest with Murugan. While Murugan speeds around the world thrice to win the contest for the fruit, Ganesha circumambulates Shiva and Parvati thrice as an equivalent and is given the fruit. After winning it, he offers to give the fruit to his upset brother. After this event, Ganesha was considered the elder brother owing as a tribute to his wisdom. Many of the major events in Murugan's life take place during his youth, and legends surrounding his birth are popular. This has encouraged the worship of Murugan as a child-God, very similar to the worship of the child Krishna in north India. He is married to two wives, Valli and Devasena. This led to a very interesting name : Devasenapati viz. Pati (husband) of Devsena and/or Senapati (commander in chief) of Dev (gods).
SYMBOLISM
Kartikeya symbols are based on the weapons – Vel, the Divine Spear or Lance that he carries and his mount the peacock. He is sometimes depicted with many weapons including: a sword, a javelin, a mace, a discus and a bow although more usually he is depicted wielding a sakti or spear. This symbolizes his purification of human ills. His javelin is used to symbolize his far reaching protection, his discus symbolizes his knowledge of the truth, his mace represents his strength and his bow shows his ability to defeat all ills. His peacock mount symbolizes his destruction of the ego. His six heads represent the six siddhis bestowed upon yogis over the course of their spiritual development. This corresponds to his role as the bestower of siddhis.
REGIONS OF WORSHIP
SOUTH INDIA
Murugan is often referred to as "Tamil Kadavul" "God of the Tamils" and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences. Subramanya is also a major deity among the Hindus of northern Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. Rituals like nagaradhane are unique to Uttara Kannada region of Karnataka.
TAMIL NADU
In Tamil Nadu, Murugan has continued to be popular with all classes of society right since the Sangam age. This has led to more elaborate accounts of his mythology in the Tamil language, culminating in the Tamil version of Skanda Purana, called Kandha Purānam, written by Kacchiappa Sivachariyar (1350–1420 AD.) of Kumara Kottam in the city of Kanchipuram. (He was a scholar in Tamil literature, and a votary of the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy) He is married to two deities, Valli, a daughter of a tribal chief and Deivayanai (also called Devasena), the daughter of Indhra. During His bachelorhood, Lord Murugan is also regarded as Kumaraswami (or Bachelor God), Kumara meaning a bachelor and Swami meaning God. Muruga rides a peacock and wields a bow in battle. The lance called Vel in Tamil is a weapon closely associated with him. The Vel was given to him by his mother, Parvati, and embodies her energy and power. His army's standard depicts a rooster. In the war, Surapadman was split into two, and each half was granted a boon by Murugan. The halves, thus turned into the peacock (his mount) and the rooster his flag, which also "refers to the sun".
As Muruga is worshipped predominantly in Tamil Nadu, many of his names are of Tamil origin. These include Senthil, the red or formidable one; Arumugam, the six-faced one; Guhan and Maal-Marugan, the son-in-law of Vishnu. Murugan is venerated throughout the Tamil year. There is a six-day period of fast and prayer in the Tamil month of Aippasi known as the Skanda Shasti. He is worshipped at Thaipusam, celebrated by Tamil communities worldwide near the full moon of the Tamil month Thai. This commemorates the day he was given a Vel or lance by his mother in order to vanquish the asuras. Thirukarthigai or the full moon of the Tamil month of Karthigai signifies his birth. Each Tuesday of the Tamil month of Adi is also dedicated to the worship of Murugan. Tuesday in the Hindu tradition connotes Mangala, the god of planet Mars and war.
WEST BENGAL
Kartikeya also known as Kartik or Kartika is also worshipped in West Bengal, and Bangladesh on the last day of the Hindu month of 'Kartik'. However, the popularity of Kartik Puja (worshipping Kartik) is decreasing now, and Kartikeya is primarily worshipped among those who intend to have a son. In Bengal, traditionally, many people drop images of Kartik inside the boundaries of different households, who all are either newly married, or else, intend to get a son to carry on with their ancestry. Lord Kartik is also associated to the Babu Culture prevailed in historic Kolkata, and hence, many traditional old Bengali paintings still show Kartik dressed in traditional Bengali style. Also, in some parts of West Bengal, Kartik is traditionally worshipped by the ancestors of the past royal families too, as in the district of Malda. In Bansberia (Hooghly district) Kartik Puja festival is celebrated like Durga puja of Kolkata, Jagadhatri puja in Chandannagar for consecutive four days. The festival starts on 17 November every year and on 16 November in case of Leap year. Some of the must see Puja committees are Bansberia Kundugoli Nataraj, Khamarapara Milan Samity RadhaKrishna, Kishor Bahini, Mitali Sangha, Yuva Sangha, Bansberia Pratap Sangha and many more. In Durga Puja in Bengal, Kartikeya is considered to be a son of Parvati or Durga and Shiva along with his brother Ganesha.
ODISHA
Kumara Purnima, which is celebrated on the full moon day after Vijayadashami, is one of the popular festival dedicated to Kartikeya in Odisha.It is believed that unmarried girls worship Kartikeya on this day to get grooms handsome as Kartikeya. Kartikeya is worshiped during Durga Puja in Odisha as well as in various Shiva temples throughout the year. Kartik puja is celebrated in Cuttack along with various other parts of the state during the last phases of Hindu month of Kartik. Kartik purnima is celebrated with much joy and in a grand fashion in Cuttack, Jamadhar, Rekabibajar of Jajpur District and other parts in the state.
OTHER PARTS
Kartikeya Swami or locally called the Devta "Kelang Wazir" is worshipped near parts of Bharmour as their main deity at Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Situated at Kugti Village, which is 10-14 km from Bharmour is the major deity of the tribe Gaddi. The temple of Kartikeya Swami is visited every year by thousands of devotees when the trek is opened in the month of March-April.(Covered with snow in the winters)
Historically, Kartikeya was immensely popular in the Indian subcontinent. One of the major Puranas, the Skanda Purana is dedicated to him. In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch.10, Verse 24), Krishna, while explaining his omnipresence, names the most perfect being, mortal or divine, in each of several categories. While doing so, he says: "Among generals, I am Skanda, the lord of war."
Kartikeya's presence in the religious and cultural sphere can be seen at least from the Gupta age. Two of the Gupta kings, Kumaragupta and Skandagupta, were named after him. He is seen in the Gupta sculptures and in the temples of Ellora and Elephants. As the commander of the divine armies, he became the patron of the ruling classes. His youth, beauty and bravery was much celebrated in Sanskrit works like the Kathasaritsagara. Kalidasa made the birth of Kumara the subject of a lyrical epic, the Kumaarasambhavam. In ancient India, Kartikeya was also regarded as the patron deity of thieves, as may be inferred from the Mrichchakatikam, a Sanskrit play by Shudraka, and in the Vetala-panchvimshati, a medieval collection of tales. This association is linked to the fact that Kartikeya had dug through the Krauncha mountain to kill Taraka and his brothers (in the Mrichchakatikam, Sarivilaka prays to him before tunnelling into the hero's house).
However, Kartikeya's popularity in North India receded from the Middle Ages onwards, and his worship is today virtually unknown except in parts of Haryana. There is a very famous temple dedicated to Him in the town of Pehowa in Haryana and this temple is very well known in the adjoining areas, especially because women are not allowed anywhere close to it. Women stay away from this temple in Pehowa town of Haryana because this shrine celebrates the Brahmachari form of Kartikeya. Reminders of former devotions to him include a temple at Achaleshwar, near Batala in Punjab, and another temple of Skanda atop the Parvati hill in Pune, Maharashtra. There is also a popular temple of Kartikeya called Kartik Swami Mandir in the Panchavati region of Nashik, Maharashtra. In Maharashtra too, women don't visit Kartik swami temple.
SRI LANKA
Murugan is adored by both Tamil Hindus and Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Numerous temples exist throughout the island. He is a favorite deity of the common folk everywhere and it is said he never hesitates to come to the aid of a devotee when called upon. In the deeply Sinhalese south of Sri Lanka, Murugan is worshipped at the temple in Katirkāmam, where he is known as Kathiravel or Katragama Deviyo (Lord of Katragama). This temple is next to an old Buddhist place of worship. Local legend holds that Lord Murugan alighted in Kataragama and was smitten by Valli, one of the local aboriginal lasses. After a courtship, they were married. This event is taken to signify that Lord Murugan is accessible to all who worship and love him, regardless of their birth or heritage. The Nallur Kandaswamy temple, the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple and the Sella Channithy Temple near Valvettiturai are the three foremost Murugan temples in Jaffna. The Chitravelayutha temple in Verukal on the border between Trincomalee and Batticaloa is also noteworthy as is the Mandur Kandaswamy temple in Batticaloa. The late medieval-era temple of the tooth in Kandy, dedicated to the tooth relic of the Buddha, has a Kataragama deiyo shrine adjacent to it dedicated to the veneration of Skanda in the Sinhalese tradition. Almost all buddhist temples house a shrine room for Kataragama deviyo (Murugan) reflecting the significance of Murugan in Sinhala Buddhism,
Based on archeological evidence found, it is believed that the Kiri Vehera was either renovated to build during the 1st century BCE. There are number of others inscriptions and ruins.
By the 16th century the Kathiravel shrine at Katirkāmam had become synonymous with Skanda-Kumara who was a guardian deity of Sinhala Buddhism. The town was popular as a place of pilgrimage for Hindus from India and Sri Lanka by the 15 the century. The popularity of the deity at the Kataragama temple was also recorded by the Pali chronicles of Thailand such as Jinkalmali in the 16th century. There are number of legends both Buddhist and Hindu that attribute supernatural events to the very locality. Scholars such as Paul Younger and Heinz Bechert speculate that rituals practiced by the native priests of Kataragama temple betray Vedda ideals of propitiation. Hence they believe the area was of Vedda veneration that was taken over by the Buddhist and Hindus in the medieval period.
MALAYSIA
Lord Murugan is one of the most important deities worshipped by the Tamil Hindus in Malaysia and other South-East Asian countries such as Singapore and Indonesia. Thaipoosam is one of the important festivals celebrated. Sri Subramanyar Temple at Batu Caves temple complex in Malaysia is dedicated to Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES
The main temples of Murugan are located in Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India. They include the Aru Padaiveedu (six abodes) — Thiruchendur, Swamimalai, Pazhamudircholai, Thirupparangunram, Palani (Pazhani), Thiruthani and other important shrines like Mayilam, Sikkal, Marudamalai, Kundrathur, Vadapalani, Kandakottam, Thiruporur, Vallakottai, Vayalur, Thirumalaikoil, Chennimalai, Sivanmalai, Pachaimalai and Pavalamalai near Gobichettipalayam. Malai Mandir, a prominent and popular temple complex in Delhi, is one of the few dedicated to Murugan in all of North India apart from the Pehowa temple in Haryana.
There are many temples dedicated to Lord Subramanya in Kerala. Amongst them are Atiyambur Sri Subramanya Temple in Kanhangad Kasaragod, Payyannur Subramanya Swamy temple in Payyanur, Panmana Subramanya Swamy temple in Panmana and the Subramanya temple in Haripad. There is a temple in Skandagiri, Secunderabad, one in Bikkavolu, East Godavari district and one in Mopidevi,Krishna district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka there is the Kukke Subramanya Temple where Lord Murugan is worshiped as the Lord of the serpents. Aaslesha Bali, Sarpa Samskara with nagapathista samarpa are major prayers here.
The key temples in Sri Lanka include the sylvan shrine in Kataragama / (Kadirgamam) or Kathirkamam in the deep south, the temple in Tirukovil in the east, the shrine in Embekke in the Kandyan region and the famed Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. There are several temples dedicated to Lord Murugan in Malaysia, the most famous being the Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur. There is a 42.7-m-high statue of Lord Murugan at the entrance to the Batu Caves, which is the largest Lord Murugan statue in the world. Sri Thandayuthapani Temple in Tank Road, Singapore is a major Hindu temple where each year the Thaipusam festival takes place with devotees of Lord Muruga carrying Kavadis seeking penance and blessings of the Lord.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN AMERICA
In the USA, Shiva Murugan Temple in Concord, Northern California and Murugan Temple of North America in Maryland, Washington DC region are popular. Thaipusam walk for Shiva Murugan Temple in Concord, USA is very pouplar and attracting many devotees from all over America. In Toronto, Canada, Canada Kanthasamy Temple is known amongst many Hindus in Canada. In Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a suburb of the city of Montreal in Canada, there is a monumental temple of Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN UK
In the United Kingdom, Highgate Hill Murugan temple is one of the oldest and most famous. In London, Sri Murugan Temple in Manor park is a well-known temple. In Midlands, Leicester Shri Siva Murugan Temple is gaining popularity recently. Skanda Vale in West Wales was founded by Guruji, a Tamil devotee of Subramaniam, and its primary deity is Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN AUSTRALIA
In Australia, Sydney Murugan temple in Parramatta (Mays Hill), Perth Bala Muruguan temple in Mandogalup and Kundrathu Kumaran temple in Rockbank, Melbourne are major Hindu temples for all Australian Hindus and Murugan devotees. In New Zealand, there is a Thirumurugan Temple in Auckland and a Kurinji Kumaran Temple in Wellington, both dedicated to Lord Murugan.
MURUGAN TEMPLES IN EUROPE
The Sri Sivasubramaniar Temple, located in the Sihl Valley in Adliswil, is the most famous and largest Hindu temple in Switzerland.
WIKIPEDIA
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
Under the rule of Mohammed VI, the government of Morocco has taken initiatives to improve the status of women in society. For instance, the Moudawana 2003 code of law has greatly improved the family status code. It has given women the right to make decisions on marriage, divorce, and custody of children in the case of remarriage/divorce.
Dayet Aaoua, Morocco.