FLAMBOYANT

 

rebellion, sedition, blazing, flaming

unrest brooding beneath the surface

creeping along the island, wafting in the air

resentment of colonial overlords

big dark brown flamboyant pods

red, green, yellow, blue, the colours of the flag

not nickel but plastic cogwheels, one red one blue

match the red, green, yellow matches ready to catch fire

 

there is also a bird feather, coral from the shores

some seashells, star anise seeds, corrugated cardboard

delonix regia is a wonderful sight, bright firey red flowers

set off just right against the rich dark green leafy bowers

 

....................

 

ALBERO DEL FUOCO

 

ribellione, sedizione, arde, fiammeggia

irrequietezza covata sotto la superficie

striscia lungo l'isola, aleggia nell'aria

risentimento per feudatari coloniali

grandi baccelli marrone scuro del albero di fuoco

rosso, verde, giallo, blu, i colori della bandiera

ruote dentate non di nichel ma di plastica, una rossa, una blu

si abbinano ai fiammiferi rossi, verdi, gialli, pronti a incendiarsi

 

c'è anche una piuma di uccello, corallo dal litorale

alcune conchiglie, semi di anice stellato, cartone ondulato

delonix regia è uno spettacolo meraviglioso, fiori rossi vivi infuocati

contrastano perfettamente il fogliame intensamente verdeggiante

 

....................

 

FLAMMENBAUM

 

Rebellion, Aufruhr, flammt, brennt

Unruhe brütet unter der Oberfläche

kriecht die Insel entlang, schwebt in der Luft

Feindseligkeit der kolonialen Herrscher

grosse dunkelbraune Flammenbaumhülsen

rot, grün, gelb, blau, die Farben der Flagge

nicht Nickel, sondern Kunststoffzahnräder, eines rot, eines blau

stimmen sie mit den roten, grünen und gelben Streichhölzern überein

 

es gibt auch eine Vogelfeder, Korallen vom Meeresstrand

einige Muscheln, Sternanissamen, Wellpappe

Delonix regia ist ein wunderbarer Anblick, leuchtend feuerrote Blüten

heben sich direkt von den üppigen dunkelgrünen Lauben ab

On the evening or night of Tuesday 28 November 1290 Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I and mother of his 14 children, died aged 49, at Harby in Nottinghamshire. The places where her body rested during the journey south to its tomb in Westminster Abbey were marked by stone crosses.

 

The twelve crosses were at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham (Cross), Westcheap (Cheapside), Charing (Charing Cross). Of these only three of the original crosses survive, those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross.

 

Queen Eleanor was three times buried. The tomb, containing her viscera, is in Lincoln Cathedral. Her heart was buried at Blackfriars Monastery in London and her body in Westminster Abbey.

 

Edward was determined to mark the death of his remarkable Queen in significant and elaborate fashion. There has been nothing like the cortège of Eleanor, before or since, on this island. Her embalmed body was dressed in loose robes, crowned, and placed on an open bier. The procession, with the Queen’s chaplain at its head and Edward following the bier, left Lincoln on 4 December. The journey back to Westminster took just under two weeks, with much of the route following the ancient roads of Ermine Street and Watling Street, and most of the overnight stops on or close to Eleanor’s landholdings. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290.

 

Eleanor's bier reached the City of London on 14 December 1290. The cortège entered the city through the northern gate of Bishopsgate. Here they turned left, skirting the city wall until they arrived at Holy Trinity Priory in the east of the city where it rested for the night of 14th December.

 

On Friday 15 December the funeral party journeyed slowly westwards along the city’s busiest street, Cheapside. Passing the little priory of Sack Friars that Eleanor had refounded in the late 1260s, they reached the large Franciscan friary of Grey Friars. After a mass there, the procession entered the precinct of St Paul’s Cathedral where it rested for the night of 15th December.

 

A site for the cross was selected in Westcheap (now Cheapside). Her heart was buried in the Blackfriars priory on 19 December. The Cheapside cross was built from 1291 onwards by Michael of Canterbury at a total recorded cost of £226 13s. 4d.

Under a licence granted by Henry VI in 1441, the cross was extensively restored or rebuilt in 1484–86. It was subsequently re-gilded several times in the 16th century on the occasion of coronations and royal visits to the City. John Stow included a detailed account of the cross and its history in his "Survay of London" of 1598, updating it in 1603.

Although a number of images of the cross and its eventual destruction are known, these all postdate its various refurbishments, and so provide no certain guide to its original appearance. However, the chronicler Walter of Guisborough refers to this and Charing Cross as being fashioned of "marble"; and it is likely that it was similar to the Hardingstone and Waltham Crosses, but even more ornate and boasting some Purbeck marble facings.

The cross came to be regarded as something of a public hazard, both as a traffic obstruction and because of concerns about fragments of stone falling off; while in the post-Reformation period some of its Catholic imagery aroused resentment, and elements were defaced in 1581, 1599 and 1600–01. Matters came to a head during the years leading up to the Civil War. To puritanical reformers, it was identified with Dagon, the ancient god of the Philistines, and was seen as the embodiment of royal and Catholic tradition. At least one riot was fought in its shadow, as opponents of the cross descended upon it to pull it down, and supporters rallied to stop them. After Charles I had fled London to raise an army, the destruction of the cross was almost the first order of business for the Parliamentary Committee for the Demolition of Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry, led by Sir Robert Harley, and it was demolished on 2 May 1643. The downfall of the Cheapside Cross is an important episode of iconoclasm in English history.

 

Two Purbeck marble fragments of the original cross, displaying shields bearing the royal arms of England and of Castile and León, were recovered in 1838 during reconstruction of the sewer in Cheapside. They are now held by the Museum of London.

 

A paving stone with a carved inscription, outside the western door of St Mary-le-Bow church tower, in Cheapside, was installed in 2015 to record the former existence of an Eleanor Cross nearby.

 

See also

mapoflondon.uvic.ca/ELEA1.htm

 

Image (c) Tamsin Slater

Shams-ud-din Iltutmish (reigned: 1211–36) was the founder of the Delhi Sultanate (actually the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate was done by Qutub-uddin-Aibak, but the Sultanate consolidated its position in India during the reign of Iltutmish).

 

Shams-ud-din Iltutmish was the third ruler of the Slave dynasty. He founded the Delhi Sultanate in 1211 and received the Caliph's investiture in his rule. He conquered Multan and Bengal from contesting rulers, and Ranathambhore and Siwalik from their rulers.

 

He expanded his domain by defeating the Muslim rulers of Ghazni, Multan and Bengal, which had previously annexed some of his territories and threatened his domain. He conquered the latter two territories and made further conquests in the Hindu lands, conquering the fort of Ranathambhore and the lands of Gawalior and the fort of Mandur.

 

He instituted many changes to the Sultanate, re-organising the monetary system and the nobility as well as the distribution of grounds and fiefs, and erected many buildings, including Mosques, Khanqas (Monasteries), Dargahs (Graves) and a Hauz (reservoir) for pilgrims.

 

Shams ud-din Iltutmish founded the Delhi Sultanate and much strengthened the power of the slave dynasty and of Islam in the India, although his kindred and heirs were not as politically gifted, with no ruler comparable to him in the area until the time of Ghiyas ud din Balban.

 

NAME AND TUTELAGE

The name Iltutmish is a Turkic name, meaning "he has held/owned land" (İltutmuş, in modern Turkish). Another theory concerning the meaning of the name suggests a connection with an eclipse that supposedly occurred at his birth (an event of some importance in the view of the people of the time). The other etymologies for his name include Altamash, which donates the number sixty, or the guard of the army, which is the ancient Turkic Khanates numbered at sixty; but this theory falsely draws its source from that he is often referred to as "Al-Tamash", which is most likely an Arabic variation of his Turkic name.

 

The title "Shams ad-Dunya Wa'd-Din" is a royal Laqab (regal title) of the time, translated as "Sun of the world and [of the] Faith" which he used once he was established Sultan at Delhi. Subsequent to the investiture by the Caliph, he was also addressed by the title "Yamin Amir al-Mu'minin" - The righthand man of the commander of the Faithful, or as "Naib" (lieutenant) of the Commander of the Faithful, which is the Caliph.

 

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Shams-ud-din belonged to the tribe of Ilbari in the Eurasian Steppe of Turkestan. While his association (by his biographers) with the Turkic nobility of that tribe confederation can be seen as dubious and anachronistic, it is possible that he was indeed high-born.

 

He was sold into slavery at an early age, reportedly after being sold by his kinsmen to slave merchants. the motif was for being handsome and particularly intelligent that Iltutmish caused jealousy among his brothers (a motif admittedly taken from the Biblical and Quranic tale of Joseph) that were all around the Steppe, supplying Turkic slaves as soldiers (Ghilman) to the military Elite of the Muslim world of the time.

 

He was taken to the great slave market of Bukhara, and later to Ghazni, which was the Western capital of the Ghurid dynasty, where he was purchased to the court of the Sultan, Muhammad Ghuri Sam, a notable Muslim ruler of the time. Earning some reputation in his court, he was quickly appointed personal attendant of the Sultan.

 

Muhammad's deputy and former slave, Qutub-ud-din-Aybak, then Viceroy of Lahore, sought to procure the slave. Due to the Sultan's refusal to sell his slave to his nobles, it was decided that Iltutmish be taken to Delhi, and there bought by Aibak, so that the Sultan's orders may not be violated in his own capital. Aibak bought Iltutmish and another slave (who would later perish) for the high price of 100,000 Tankas, the silver coin used in Muslim India.

 

He rose quickly in Aibak's service, earned the title Amir Tamghach, married Aibak's daughter, and served in succession as the Governor of Tabarind, Gwalior and Baran. In recognition of his services during the campaign of Muhammad of Ghur against the Khokhars in 1205-06, he was, by the Sultan's order, manumitted. Iltutmish was appointed Governor of Badaun in 1206 and was serving in this post when Aibak died in a polo accident and succeeded by a rumoredly incompetent man called Aram Shah. Subsequently, a group of noblemen invited Iltutmish to stake his claim on the Indian dominions of the Ghurids.

 

SULTAN OF DELHI

RISE TO POWER

In 1210, Qutb-ud-din Aibak died in a seemingly naive Polo accident in his capital of Lahore. Muizzi amirs, who had been appointed by Muhammad of Ghor, supported one Aram Shah, whose relation to Aibak is clad in mystery. Sources and estimations vary, considering him Aibak's son, brother or one of his nobles.

 

Qutbi amirs, owing allegiance to Aibak, invited Iltutmish, then Governor of Badaun, to seize power in Delhi. Aram Shah acceded to the throne in Lahore. In 1211, Iltutmish claimed the throne in Delhi. Aram Shah marched towards Delhi but was slain in battle at Bagh-i-Jud (the plains of Jud) leaving Iltutmish unopposed in Delhi.

 

The clash between Iltutmish, now Sultan Shams-ud-din, and Aram Shah, also led to the shift of capital from Lahore to Delhi. Thereby, Shams-ud-din can be viewed as the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, albeit being the third ruler in the Slave Dynasty, a fact leading to some confusion as to the periodization of the Delhi Sultanate. The shift of capital was probably supposed to shift power from the seat of Aram Shah's supporters and nobles, as well as to establish a more central and secured position of his newly founded Sultanate.

 

EARLY CHALLENGES

On his accession, Iltutmish faced a number of challenges to his rule. In the aftermath of Aibak's death, the Ghurid dominions in India had divided into four. Iltutmish controlled Delhi. Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha, the Governor of Uch and Multan asserted his independence. Ali Mardan Khilji, who had been appointed Governor of Lakhnauti in Bengal by Aibak in 1206, had thrown off his allegiance to Delhi after his death and styled himself Sultan Ala-ud-din. His successor, Ghiyasuddin, conquered Bihar. Lahore was contested by Iltutmish, Qabacha and [Tajuddin Yildoz], Muhammad of Ghor's adopted son and successor in Ghazni. Yildoz attempted to bring Delhi under his control. Initially, Iltutmish acknowledged Yildoz's suzerainty by accepting the symbolic presents of the chatr and durbash. The Hindu princes and chiefs were discontented at their loss of independence and had recovered Kannauj, Benaras, Gwalior, and Kalinjar had been lost during Qutub-ud-din's reign while Ranthambore had been reconquered by the Chauhans during Aram Shah's rule. To add to Iltutmish's troubles, some of the Amirs of Delhi expressed resentment against his rule.

 

The first order of business was to bring under control dependencies of Delhi that were under the control of Muizzi nobles and Hindu chieftains. Iltutmish launched military campaigns to assert his rule over Awadh, Badaun, Benaras and Siwalik. Iltutmish's son Nasir-ud-din Mahmud captured the Gangetic valley territories of Budaun, Kanauj, and the Hindus' holy city of Benaras. Rohilkhand was taken with heavy losses.

 

In 1215-1216, Yildoz, who had been defeated and expelled from Ghazni by the forces of the Shah of Khwarezm, moved towards Punjab and captured Lahore from Qabacha. Yildoz laid claim to the throne of Delhi as the heir to Muhammad of Ghor. Iltutmish refused, stating:

 

[T]he dominion of the world is enjoyed by the one who possesses the greatest strength. The principle of hereditary succession is not extinct but long ago destiny abolished this custom Iltutmish defeated Yildoz at Tarain. Yildoz was imprisoned in Badaun and was later executed. This ended Ghazni's aspirations to dominate northern India

 

After the death of Yildoz, Qabacha had retaken Lahore. In 1217, Iltutmish led his army towards Qabacha. Qabacha attempted to retreat from Lahore towards Multan but was defeated at Mansura. Iltutmish refrained from attacking Sindh due to the presence of Mongols on his north-west frontier. Iltutmish was preoccupied with the Mongol threat and did not threaten Qabacha until year 1227. Lahore was under Iltutmish's rule but not for long.

 

MONGOL THREAT

In 1221, the Mongols, under Genghis Khan appeared for the first time on the banks of the Indus. They had overrun the countries of Central and Western Asia with lightning rapidity. The Mongols sacked the Khwarazmian kingdom (Khwarazm-Shah), captured Khiva and forced its ruler, Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu al-Khwarazmi to flee to the Punjab.

 

Mingburnu, a staunt opposer of the Mongols, entered into an alliance with the Khokhars and captured Lahore and much of the Punjab. He requested an alliance with Shams-ud-din against the Mongols . The Sultan of Delhi refused, not wishing to get into a conflict with Genghis Khan and marched towards Lahore at the head of a large army. Mingburnu retreated from Lahore and moved towards Uchch inflicting a heavy defeat on Qabacha, and plundered Sindh and northern Gujarat and returned to Persia in 1224. The Mongols invested Multan before leaving as well.

 

CONSOLDATION OF POWER

Loath to get into a conflict with the Mongols, Iltutmish turned his attention towards the Hindu east. Iltutmish marched against Ghiyasuddin in 1225 and was successful. Ghiyasuddin accepted Iltutmish's suzerainty, ceded Bihar, and paid a large tribute. However, soon after Iltutmish left, Ghiyasuddin revoked the agreement and retook control of Bihar. Iltutmish's son Nasiruddin Mahmud, Governor of Awadh was tasked with dealing with Bengal. In 1227, when Ghiyasuddin was campaigning in Assam, Mahmud launched a sudden attack, capturing Lakhnauti. Ghiyasuddin was imprisoned and then executed. Mahmud died suddenly in 1229, to the dismay of his father. This led to further revolts by the Khalji Maliks of Bengal until Iltutmish captured Lakhnauti again in 1230. Ala-ud-din Jani was appointed Governor of Lakhnauti.

 

Iltutmish then turned his attention to Qabacha. Capture of Bengal and Rajput territories had significantly enhanced the state of Iltutmish's treasury whereas Qabacha had been weakened by Mingburnu's sack of Uchch and the Mongol siege of Multan. The upheaval caused by the Mongol invasion had led to a large number of military adventurers and officers from Turkic lands to move to India. Iltutmish's replenished treasury allowed him to recruit a large army. A number of officials also defected from Qabacha's camp. In 1228, Iltutmish attacked Qabacha. Ucch was captured after a siege of three months.[10] Qabacha fled and was surrounded on all sides in the fort of Bhakkar, on the banks of Indus. He drowned while attempting to escape. Sindh and Multan were incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate and placed under separate governors.

 

In 1228-29, Iltutmish received emissaries from the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir and was presented with the Caliphal robe (khilat) and investiture (manshur) signifying the Caliphate's recognition of Iltutmish's rule over India. Such recognition was highly sought after by the Sunni Muslim rulers of India as it leant religious and political legitimacy and prestige. In Iltutmish's case, in particular, this was a symbolic declaration of the Delhi Sultanate's status as an independent kingdom rather than a client of the Ghurids. and earned Iltutmish the title of "Lieutanat" (Naib) or "righthand man" (Yamin) of the Caliph, or Commander of the Faithfull (Amir al-Mu'minin). Iltutmish also went to Egypt, the seat of the Caliph under the Ayyubid Cairo Sultanate, as part of the mutual delegations between his domain and the Caliphate. Due to his problems first with Turkic nobles and then with the Mongols, Iltutmish had also ignored the Rajputs, who had regained territory lost earlier to the Turks, for the first fifteen years of his reign. Starting in 1226, however, Iltutmish began a series of campaigns against the Rajputs. Ranthambore, considered impregnable, was taken in 1226; Mandsaur in 1227. Bayana, Ajmer and Sambhar were also captured. Ranthambore was returned to its Chauhan rulers, who served as feudatories, while Ajmer remained part of the Delhi Sultanate. Nagaur was captured in 1230 and Gwalior was captured in 1231 after a one-year siege. In 1235, Iltutmish sacked Ujjain.

 

CIVIL ADMINISTRATION

ARCHITECTURE

During his dominion in Badaun, Iltutmish built the city's fort (Kotla) and the Jama Masjid (great Friday Mosque) of the city, which remained the biggest and most famous Mosque in Mediveal India until the expansion of Delhi's Jama Masjid in Alauddin's time and is still second largest with the largest Mosque Dome.

 

Shams ud-din built several Khanqas (monasteries) and Dargahs (graves) for Sufi saints, as Sufism was dominant in the Deccan. He commenced the structure of Hamid ud-din's Khanaqa, and build the Gandhak-ki-Baoli, a stepwell for the Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, who moved to Delhi during his reign.

 

Near the Gandhaki Baoli, Shams ud-din also built the Hauz-i-Shamsi, a watertank (a popular means for the welfare of pilgrims), which he erected in 1230 after the Prophet Muhammad was claimed to appeared in his dream and led him there. Iltutmish claimed to have found the footprint of the Buraq, the prophet's mount, at the site. The site also encompasses the Jahaz Mahal standing on its edge, used by later Mughal Emperors.

 

In 1231, following the demise of his oldest son and heir apparent, Nasir ud-Din Mahmud, he built Sultan Ghari the mausoleum for him, which was the first Islamic Mausoleum in Delhi. The tomb lies within fortified grounds, which also include the graves of several others of Iltutmish's kindred.

 

He is said to have completed the construction of the Qutb Minar, erected by Qutb ud-din, and expanded the Qutb complex and the Quwwat al-Islam Mosque therein

 

COINAGE

The early Ghurid rulers had maintained the Rajput coinage system based on the Hindushahi bull-and horseman coins in place at the Delhi mint. Dehliwala, the standard coin, was a silver-copper alloy with a uniform weight of 3.38 grams, of which 0.59 grams was Silver. The major source of silver for the Delhi mint were coin hoards from Central Asia. Another source was European silver which made its way to Delhi via the Red Sea, Persian Gulf through the ports of Gujarat. By the 1220s, supply from Central Asia had dried up and Gujarat was under control of hostile forces.

 

In response to the lack of silver, Iltutmish introduced a new bimetallic coinage system to Northern India consisting of an 11 grams silver Tanka and the billon Jital, with 0.25 grams of silver. The Dehliwala was devalued to be on par with the Jital. This meant that a Dehliwala with 0.59 grams of silver was now equivalent to a coin with 0.25 grams of silver. Each Dehliwala paid as tax, therefore produced an excess 0.34 grams of silver which could be used to produce Tankas. The new system served as the basis for coinage for much of the Sultanate period and even beyond, though periodic shortages of silver caused further debasement. The Tanka is a forerunner to the Rupee.

 

IQTADAR

Iltutmish introduced the Iqta-dar system, which had been the common practice of the majority of the Islamic world since the time of the Buyids. The system shares some similarities with the contemporary European custom of Feudalism, and involved dedicating the profits of a certain land of fief (Quta') to warlords in payment of their martial service and political loyalty.

 

ISLAMIC CULTURE

Shams ud-din's court was abundant with poets in the Arabic and Persian languages. He is said to have rewarded a poet called Nasiri for writing him a fifty-three couplets long Qasida, by giving him fifty-three thousands Tankas; Iltutmish is also said to have learned the opening (Fatiha) of the Qasida by heart. His victories against the Hindu Rajputs of Ranathambhor was celebrated by the poet Ruhani al-Samarqandi to devote these verses to the Sultan:

 

- The faithful Gabriel carried the tidings to the dwellers in heaven,

- From the record of victories of the Sulṭán of the age Shams ud-Dín,

- Saying — Oh ye holy angels raise upon the heavens,

- Hearing this good tidings, the canopy of adornment.

- That from the land of the heretics the Sháhansháh of Islám

- Has conquered a second time the fort resembling the sky;

- The Sháh, holy warrior and Ghází, whose hand and sword

- The soul of the lion of repeated attacks praises.

 

The verses compare the Sultan to 'Ali, who is often called Asad-Illah (or Shir-i Khuda), and adornes him with the Persian title of Shanshah (King of Kings) and clearly refer to Ranathambor as "the fort resembling the sky", due to its high position in the mountains. The famous poet, Amir Khusraw, was a poet in the service of his court, as well, and has mentioned the Sultan in verses often

 

NOBILITY

Shams ud-din installed a new nobility, which was based on a confederation of Turkic and a few Mawali (new Muslims of Hindu origin) that were acquitants of him or of Qutb ud-din. They formed a council of forty (Chilanghan) which was very powerful and became the de facto rulers behind the majority of his heirs.

 

DEATH AND SUCCESSION

In 1236 Iltutmish died, and was buried in the Qutb complex in Mehrauli.

 

The death of Iltutmish was followed by years of political instability at Delhi. During this period, four descendants of Iltutmish were put on the throne and murdered. Iltutmish's eldest son, Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, had died in 1229 while governing Bengal as his father's deputy. The surviving sons of the Sultan were incapable of the task of administration. In 1236, Iltutmish, on his death-bed, nominated his daughter Razia as his heiress. But, Razia did not have support of the nobles of the court, who did not want a woman ruler.

 

Iltutmish's eldest surviving son, Rukn-ud-din Firuz was raised to the throne. Firuz left governance in the hands of his mother, Shah Turken. Firuz was deposed within six months, and Razia became the ruler. Razia's growing assertiveness brought her in conflict with the nobles. In 1240, a rebellion led to the replacement of Razia by her brother, Muiz ud din Bahram. Bahram ruled for two years before he was overthrown in favour of Firuz's son, Ala ud din Masud in 1242.

 

Order was re-established only after Iltutmish's grandson Nasir-ud-din-Mahmud became Sultan with Iltutmish's prominent slave, Ghias-ud-din-Balban as his Deputy Sultan (Naib) in 1246. Balban held all the power at the time and became Sultan in 1266. There was internal stability from 1246 until 1290 when Jalal-ud-din Khilji overthrew Balban's great-grandson Kayumarath, thus ending the Mamluk Dynasty and founded the Khilji Dynasty.

 

IN ART

Poet-diplomat Abhay K's poem 'Iltutmish' is a reflection of the Sultan from his grave.

 

WIKIPEDIA

1. Satisfaction

It usually feels great to send an email and get it off your to-do list, especially if it was an important one. For about 30 seconds, you’re just high from the feeling that you accomplished something. Sadly, that doesn’t last long.

2. Humor

Ha. That’s funny. She hasn’t responded back within 31 seconds—even though you put so much time and effort into this email and it possesses a very important question!

3. Curiosity

What could she be doing that she can’t respond right now? Maybe she’s writing an email and yours is next on the docket, or maybe she’s reading a really in-depth New Yorker piece…or fell into a BuzzFeed coma.

4. Anger

OK, seriously, how hard it is write a short email? All you want is a response. A simple response. A 2-year-old child could do this! And if she’s on vacation, why doesn’t she have an Out of Office response?! That’s just common courtesy!

5. Sadness

Guess this person just doesn’t think you’re important. Maybe everyone feels that way. Might as well just go and eat worms.

6. The Crazy Hypothesis Stage

Hmm, maybe her computer broke? Or the window washer’s harness broke and she was the only one who could save him? Or maybe she writes Pretty Little Liars fan fiction and got stuck on the cliffhanger? Or maybe she got one of those Chinese finger traps and actually got her fingers stuck in it so she can’t type. Yeah, that’s probably it.

7. Resentment

Now you can’t do anything else because all you can think about is this email. Your coworkers are talking about Bachelor in Paradise and you don’t even want to weigh in on it. You’re literally 11 seconds away from having a full-on meltdown, Elfaba Finale of Act 1 in Wicked style.

8. Denial

Maybe she just didn’t get it. It says it went through, but maybe it didn’t. Or the computer exploded at the exact moment you sent it. You’ll just keep checking. Checking repeatedly always helps.

9. Distraction

It’s fine. You can be super busy and important, too. You’re going to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte, like important people do, and you won’t think about the fact that she hasn’t emailed while you wait in line for your Pumpkin Email Latte. Damnit. Pumpkin Spice Latte.

10. Acceptance

OK, your email will never be answered. Ever. This is just part of your life now.

11. Relief (When They Finally Respond to Your Email)

Oh, she was in a meeting. That makes sense. I’ll read this later.

This article originally appeared on Levo.com

More from Levo.com:

The Right Way to Send Emails

8 Things That May Be Decreasing Your Productivity

10 Ways to Sharpen Your Listening Skills at Work

  

economyechoes.com/the-11-emotional-stages-of-waiting-for-...

This morning I was blogging and listening to music. "Aria" by Villa-Lobos came on and I started crying after a few seconds. It is such a powerful and painful song by one of the greatest Brazilian composers of the last century.

 

As a man, I guess it seems ridiculous to cry at 8 o' clock in the morning, sitting infront of the computer. Maybe even more to write about it. But I'd rather let the tears flow, then let the bitterness fester inside of me, whilst harbouring ill resentment toward my fellow brethren.

 

It's been a difficult few weeks for me and I think only photography, music, and art in all of it's forms can keep me sane in such a tumultuous and unjust world.

 

I leave you with these quotes . . .

 

"There is only way to go and that is forward." - JP

 

"Discipline is a chore that sets you free to fly."

 

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

 

--- Thomas Edison

 

Never, never, never, never give up.

 

--- Winston Churchill

 

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

 

--- Will Rogers

 

My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories.

 

--- Bjorn Borg

 

Patience and Perserverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

 

--- John Quincy Adams

 

The difference between perseverance and obstinancy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.

 

--- Henry Ward Beecher

 

Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.

 

--- Ted Williams

 

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.

 

--- Ross Perot

 

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

 

--- Lord Chesterfield

 

You have to put up with the rain to get the rainbow.

 

--- Anon

..and the creaking of the hotwalker echoes down the side streets as the ponies stamp their feet. One rider, everyone walks. Resentments build. Hooves slash at the pony behind, teeth snap at a rump just a fraction too far away...sweat and manure and that sweet smell of hay on the warm breath and for a second it's magic...just a second, and then the pony twitches and shudders hoping the rider will fall off just this once....just this once...

Jealousy Misunderstanding Unjust resentment Prejudice etc...

 

youtu.be/KcPcJ9ycEu4?t=2m22s Full Feature

Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

1957/58 / B&W / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 82, 95 min. / Street Date August 13, 2002 / $24.95

Starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler

Cinematography Ted Scaife

Production Designer Ken Adam

Special Effects George Blackwell, S.D. Onions, Wally Veevers

Film Editor Michael Gordon

Original Music Clifton Parker

Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester from the story Casting the Runes by Montague R. James

Produced by Frank Bevis, Hal E. Chester

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

 

Savant champions a lot of genre movies but only infrequently does one appear like Jacques Tourneur's superlative Curse of the Demon. It's simply better than the rest -- an intelligent horror film with some very good scares. It occupies a stylistic space that sums up what's best in ghost stories and can hold its own with most any supernatural film ever made. Oh, it's also a great entertainment that never fails to put audiences at the edge of their seats.

What's more, Columbia TriStar has shown uncommon respect for their genre output by including both versions of Curse of the Demon on one disc. Savant has full coverage on the versions and their restoration below, following his thorough and analytical (read: long-winded and anal) coverage of the film itself.

 

Synopsis:

  

Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews), a scientist and professional debunker of superstitious charlatans, arrives in England to help Professor Henry Harrington (Maurice Denham) assault the phony cult surrounding Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall McGinnis). But Harrington has mysteriously died and Holden becomes involved with his niece Joanna (Peggy Cummins), who thinks Karswell had something to do with it. Karswell's 'tricks' confuse the skeptical Holden, but he stubbornly holds on to his conviction that he's " ... not a sucker, like 90% of the human race." That is, until the evidence mounts that Harrington was indeed killed by a demon summoned from Hell, and that Holden is the next intended victim!

  

The majority of horror films are fantasies in which we accept supernatural ghosts, demons and monsters as part of a deal we've made with the authors: they dress the fantasy in an attractive guise and arrange the variables into an interesting pattern, and we agree to play along for the sake of enjoyment. When it works the movies can resonate with personal meaning. Even though Dracula and Frankenstein are unreal, they are relevant because they're aligned with ideas and themes in our subconscious.

Horror films that seriously confront the no-man's land between rational reality and supernatural belief have a tough time of it. Everyone who believes in God knows that the tug o' war between rationality and faith in our culture has become so clogged with insane belief systems it's considered impolite to dismiss people who believe in flying saucers or the powers of crystals or little glass pyramids. One of Dana Andrews' key lines in Curse of the Demon, defending his dogged skepticism against those urging him to have an open mind, is his retort, "If the world is a dark place ruled by Devils and Demons, we all might as well give up right now." Curse of the Demon balances itself between skepticism and belief with polite English manners, letting us have our fun as it lays its trap. We watch Andrews roll his eyes and scoff at the feeble séance hucksters and the dire warnings of a foolish-looking necromancer. Meanwhile, a whole dark world of horror sneaks up on him. The film's intelligent is such that we're not offended by its advocacy of dark forces or even its literal, in-your-face demon.

The remarkable Curse of the Demon was made in England for Columbia but is gloriously unaffected by that company's zero-zero track record with horror films. Producer Hal E. Chester would seem an odd choice to make a horror classic after producing Joe Palooka films and acting as a criminal punk in dozens of teen crime movies. The obvious strong cards are writer Charles Bennett, the brains behind several classic English Hitchcock pictures (who 'retired' into meaningless bliss writing for schlockmeister Irwin Allen) and Jacques Tourneur, a master stylist who put Val Lewton on the map with Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. Tourneur made interesting Westerns (Canyon Passage, Great Day in the Morning) and perhaps the most romantic film noir, Out of the Past. By the late '50s he was on what Andrew Sarris in his American Film called 'a commercial downgrade'. The critic lumped Curse of the Demon with low budget American turkeys like The Fearmakers. 1

Put Tourneur with an intelligent script, a decent cameraman and more than a minimal budget and great things could happen. We're used to watching Corman Poe films, English Hammer films and Italian Bavas and Fredas, all the while making excuses for the shortcomings that keep them in the genre ghetto (where they all do quite well, thank you). There's even a veiled resentment against upscale shockers like The Innocents that have resources (money, time, great actors) denied our favorite toilers in the genre realm. Curse of the Demon is above all those considerations. It has name actors past their prime and reasonable production values. Its own studio (at least in America) released it like a genre quickie, double-billed with dreck like The Night the World Exploded and The Giant Claw. They cut it by 13 minutes, changed its title (to ape The Curse of Frankenstein?) and released a poster featuring a huge, slavering demon monster that some believe was originally meant to be barely glimpsed in the film itself. 2

 

Horror movies can work on more than one level but Curse of the Demon handles several levels and then some. The narrative sets up John Holden as a professional skeptic who raises a smirking eyebrow to the open minds of his colleagues. Unlike most second-banana scientists in horror films, they express divergent points of view. Holden just sees himself as having common sense but his peers are impressed by the consistency of demonological beliefs through history. Maybe they all saw Christensen's Witchcraft through the Ages, which might have served as a primer for author Charles Bennett. Smart dialogue allows Holden to score points by scoffing at the then-current "regression to past lives" scam popularized by the Bridey Murphy craze. 3 While Holden stays firmly rooted to his position, coining smart phrases and sarcastic put-downs of believers, the other scientists are at least willing to consider alternate possibilities. Indian colleague K.T. Kumar (Peter Elliott) keeps his opinion to himself. But when asked, he politely states that he believes entirely in the world of demons! 4

Holden may think he has the truth by the tail but it takes Kindergarten teacher Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins of Gun Crazy fame) to show him that being a skeptic doesn't mean ignoring facts in front of one's face. Always ready for a drink (a detail added to tailor the part to Andrews?), Holden spends the first couple of reels as interested in pursuing Miss Harrington, as he is the devil-worshippers. The details and coincidences pile up with alarming speed -- the disappearing ink untraceable by the lab, the visual distortions that might be induced by hypnosis, the pages torn from his date book and the parchment of runic symbols. Holden believes them to be props in a conspiracy to draw him into a vortex of doubt and fear. Is he being set up the way a Voodoo master cons his victim, by being told he will die, with fabricated clues to make it all appear real? Holden even gets a bar of sinister music stuck in his head. It's the title theme -- is this a wicked joke on movie soundtracks?

 

Speak of the Devil...

 

This brings us to the wonderful character of Julian Karswell, the kiddie-clown turned multi-millionaire cult leader. The man who launched Alfred Hitchcock as a maker of sophisticated thrillers here creates one of the most interesting villains ever written, one surely as good as any of Hitchcock's. In the short American cut Karswell is a shrewd games-player who shows Holden too many of his cards and finally outsmarts himself. The longer UK cut retains the full depth of his character.

Karswell has tapped into the secrets of demonology to gain riches and power, yet he tragically recognizes that he is as vulnerable to the forces of Hell as are the cowering minions he controls through fear. Karswell's coven means business. It's an entirely different conception from the aesthetic salon coffee klatch of The Seventh Victim, where nothing really supernatural happens and the only menace comes from a secret society committing new crimes to hide old ones.

Karswell keeps his vast following living in fear, and supporting his extravagant lifestyle under the idea that Evil is Good, and Good Evil. At first the Hobart Farm seems to harbor religious Christian fundamentalists who have turned their backs on their son. Then we find out that they're Karswell followers, living blighted lives on cursed acreage and bled dry by their cultist "leader." Karswell's mum (Athene Seyler) is an inversion of the usual insane Hitchcock mother. She lovingly resists her son's philosophy and actively tries to help the heroes. That's in the Night version, of course. In the shorter American cut she only makes silly attempts to interest Joanna in her available son and arranges for a séance. Concerned by his "negativity", Mother confronts Julian on the stairs. He has no friends, no wife, no family. He may be a mass extortionist but he's still her baby. Karswell explains that by exploiting his occult knowledge, he's immersed himself forever in Evil. "You get nothing for nothing"

 

Karswell is like the Devil on Earth, a force with very limited powers that he can't always control. By definition he cannot trust any of his own minions. They're unreliable, weak and prone to double-cross each other, and they attract publicity that makes a secret society difficult to conceal. He can't just kill Holden, as he hasn't a single henchman on the payroll. He instead summons the demon, a magic trick he's only recently mastered. When Karswell turns Harrington away in the first scene we can sense his loneliness. The only person who can possibly understand is right before him, finally willing to admit his power and perhaps even tolerate him. Karswell has no choice but to surrender Harrington over to the un-recallable Demon. In his dealings with the cult-debunker Holden, Karswell defends his turf but is also attempting to justify himself to a peer, another man who might be a potential equal. It's more than a duel of egos between a James Bond and a Goldfinger, with arrogance and aggression masking a mutual respect; Karswell knows he's taken Lewton's "wrong turning in life," and will have to pay for it eventually.

Karswell eventually earns Holden's respect, especially after the fearful testimony of Rand Hobart. It's taken an extreme demonstration to do it, but Holden budges from his smug position. He may not buy all of the demonology hocus-pocus but it's plain enough that Karswell or his "demon" is going to somehow rub him out. Seeking to sneak the parchment back into Karswell's possession, Holden becomes a worthy hero because he's found the maturity to question his own preconceptions. Armed with his rational, cool head, he's a force that makes Karswell -- without his demon, of course -- a relative weakling. Curse of the Demon ends in a classic ghost story twist, with just desserts dished out and balance recovered. The good characters are less sure of their world than when they started, but they're still able to cope. Evil has been defeated not by love or faith, but by intellect.

 

Curse of the Demon has the Val Lewton sensibility as has often been cited in Tourneur's frequent (and very effective) use of the device called the Lewton "Bus" -- a wholly artificial jolt of fast motion and noise interrupting a tense scene. There's an ultimate "bus" at the end when a train blasts in and sets us up for the end title. It "erases" the embracing actors behind it and I've always thought it had to be an inspiration for the last shot of North by NorthWest. The ever-playful Hitchcock was reportedly a big viewer of fantastic films, from which he seems to have gotten many ideas. He's said to have dined with Lewton on more than one occasion (makes sense, they were at one time both Selznick contractees) and carried on a covert competition with William Castle, of all people.

Visually, Tourneur's film is marvelous, effortlessly conjuring menacing forests lit in the fantastic Mario Bava mode by Ted Scaife, who was not known as a genre stylist. There are more than a few perfunctory sets, with some unflattering mattes used for airport interiors, etc.. Elsewhere we see beautiful designs by Ken Adam in one of his earliest outings. Karswell's ornate floor and central staircase evoke an Escher print, especially when visible/invisible hands appear on the banister. A hypnotic, maze-like set for a hotel corridor is also tainted by Escher and evokes a sense of the uncanny even better than the horrid sounds Holden hears. The build-up of terror is so effective that one rather unconvincing episode (a fight with a Cat People - like transforming cat) does no harm. Other effects, such as the demon footprints appearing in the forest, work beautifully.

In his Encyclopedia of Horror Movies Phil Hardy very rightly relates Curse of the Demon's emphasis on the visual to the then just-beginning Euro-horror subgenre. The works of Bava, Margheriti and Freda would make the photographic texture of the screen the prime element of their films, sometimes above acting and story logic.

 

Columbia TriStar's DVD of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon presents both versions of this classic in one package. American viewers saw an effective but abbreviated cut-down. If you've seen Curse of the Demon on cable TV or rented a VHS or a laser anytime after 1987, you're not going to see anything different in the film. In 1987 Columbia happened to pull out the English cut when it went to re-master. When the title came up as Night of the Demon, they just slugged in the Curse main title card and let it go.

From such a happy accident (believe me, nobody in charge at Columbia at the time would have purposely given a film like this a second glance) came a restoration at least as wonderful as the earlier reversion of The Fearless Vampire Killers to its original form. Genre fans were taken by surprise and the Laserdisc became a hot item that often traded for hundreds of dollars. 6

 

Back in film school Savant had been convinced that ever seeing the long, original Night cut was a lost cause. An excellent article in the old Photon magazine in the early '70s 5, before such analytical work was common, accurately laid out the differences between the two versions, something Savant needs to do sometime with The Damned and These Are the Damned. The Photon article very accurately describes the cut scenes and what the film lost without them, and certainly inspired many of the ideas here.

Being able to see the two versions back-to-back shows exactly how they differ. Curse omits some scenes and rearranges others. Gone is some narration from the title sequence, most of the airplane ride, some dialogue on the ground with the newsmen and several scenes with Karswell talking to his mother. Most crucially missing are Karswell's mother showing Joanna the cabalistic book everyone talks so much about and Holden's entire visit to the Hobart farm to secure a release for his examination of Rand Hobart. Of course the cut film still works (we loved the cut Curse at UCLA screenings and there are people who actually think it's better) but it's nowhere near as involving as the complete UK version. Curse also reshuffles some events, moving Holden's phantom encounter in the hallway nearer the beginning, which may have been to get a spooky scene in the middle section or to better disguise the loss of whole scenes later. The chop-job should have been obvious. The newly imposed fades and dissolves look awkward. One cut very sloppily happens right in the middle of a previous dissolve.

Night places both Andrews and Cummins' credits above the title and gives McGinnis an "also starring" credit immediately afterwards. Oddly, Curse sticks Cummins afterwards and relegates McGinnis to the top of the "also with" cast list. Maybe with his role chopped down, some Columbia executive thought he didn't deserve the billing?

Technically, both versions look just fine, very sharp and free of digital funk that would spoil the film's spooky visual texture. Night of the Demon is the version to watch for both content and quality. It's not perfect but has better contrast and less dirt than the American version. Curse has more emulsion scratches and flecking white dandruff in its dark scenes, yet looks fine until one sees the improvement of Night. Both shows are widescreen enhanced (hosanna), framing the action at its original tighter aspect ratio.

It's terrific that Columbia TriStar has brought out this film so thoughtfully, even though some viewers are going to be confused when their "double feature" disc appears to be two copies of the same movie. Let 'em stew. This is Savant's favorite release so far this year.

 

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon rates:

Movie: Excellent

  

Footnotes:

Made very close to Curse of the Demon and starring Dana Andrews, The Fearmakers (great title) was a Savant must-see until he caught up with it in the UA collection at MGM. It's a pitiful no-budgeter that claims Madison Avenue was providing public relations for foreign subversives, and is negligible even in the lists of '50s anti-Commie films.

Return

 

Curse of the Demon's Demon has been the subject of debate ever since the heyday of Famous Monsters of Filmland. From what's on record it's clear that producer Chester added or maximized the shots of the creature, a literal visualization of a fiery, brimstone-smoking classical woodcut demon that some viewers think looks ridiculous. Bennett and Tourneur's original idea was to never show a demon but the producer changed that. Tourneur probably directed most of the shots, only to have Chester over-use them. To Savant's thinking, the demon looks great. It is first perceived as an ominous sound, a less strident version of the disturbing noise made by Them! Then it manifests itself visually as a strange disturbance in the sky (bubbles? sparks? early slit-scan?) followed by a billowing cloud of sulphurous smoke (a dandy effect not exploited again until Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The long-shot demon is sometimes called the bicycle demon because he's a rod puppet with legs that move on a wheel-rig. Smoke belches from all over his scaly body. Close-ups are provided by a wonderfully sculpted head 'n' shoulders demon with articulated eyes and lips, a full decade or so before Carlo Rambaldi started engineering such devices.

Most of the debate centers on how much Demon should have been shown with the general consensus that less would have been better. People who dote on Lewton-esque ambivalence say that the film's slow buildup of rationality-versus demonology is destroyed by the very real Demon's appearance in the first scene, and that's where they'd like it removed or radically reduced. The Demon is so nicely integrated into the cutting (the giant foot in the first scene is a real jolt) that it's likely that Tourneur himself filmed it all, perhaps expecting the shots to be shorter or more obscured. It is also possible that the giant head was a post-Tourneur addition - it doesn't tie in with the other shots as well (especially when it rolls forward rather stiffly) and is rather blunt. Detractors lump it in with the gawd-awful head of The Black Scorpion, which is filmed the same way and almost certainly was an afterthought - and also became a key poster image. This demon head matches the surrounding action a lot better than did the drooling Scorpion.

Savant wouldn't change Curse of the Demon but if you put a gun to my head I'd shorten most of the shots in its first appearance, perhaps eliminating all close-ups except for the final, superb shot of the the giant claw reaching for Harrington / us.

  

Kumar, played (I assume) by an Anglo actor, immediately evokes all those Indian and other Third World characters in Hammer films whose indigenous cultures invariably hold all manner of black magic and insidious horror. When Hammer films are repetitious it's because they take eighty minutes or so to convince the imagination-challenged English heroes to even consider the premise of the film as being real. In Curse of the Demon, Holden's smart-tongued dismissal of outside viewpoints seems much more pigheaded now than it did in 1957, when heroes confidently defended conformist values without being challenged. Kumar is a scientist but also probably a Hindu or a Sikh. He has no difficulty reconciling his faith with his scientific detachment. Holden is far too tactful to call Kumar a crazy third-world guru but that's probably what he's thinking. He instead politely ignores him. Good old Kumar then saves Holden's hide with some timely information. I hope Holden remembered to thank him.

There's an unstated conclusion in Curse of the Demon: Holden's rigid disbelief of the supernatural means he also does not believe in a Christian God with its fundamentally spiritual faith system of Good and Evil, saints and devils, angels and demons. Horror movies that deal directly with religious symbolism and "real faith" can be hypocritical in their exploitation and brutal in their cheap toying with what are for many people sacred personal concepts. I'm thinking of course of The Exorcist here. That movie has all the grace of a reporter who shows a serial killer's atrocity photos to a mother whose child has just been kidnapped. Curse of the Demon hasn't The Exorcist's ruthless commercial instincts but instead has the modesty not to pretend to be profound, or even "real." Yet it expresses our basic human conflict between rationality and faith very nicely.

 

Savant called Jim Wyrnoski, who was associated with Photon, in an effort to find out more about the article, namely who wrote it. It was very well done and I've never forgotten it; I unfortunately loaned my copy out to good old Jim Ursini and it disappeared. Obviously, a lot of the ideas here, I first read there. Perhaps a reader who knows better how to take care of their belongings can help me with the info? Ursini and Alain Silvers' More Things than are Dreamt Of Limelight, 1994, analyzes Curse of the Demon (and many other horror movies) in the context of its source story.

 

This is a true story: Cut to 2000. Columbia goes to re-master Curse of the Demon and finds that the fine-grain original of the English version is missing. The original long version of the movie may be lost forever. A few months later a collector appears who says he bought it from another unnamed collector and offers to trade it for a print copy of the American version, which he prefers. Luckily, an intermediary helps the collector follow up on his offer and the authorities are not contacted about what some would certainly call stolen property. The long version is now once again safe. Studios clearly need to defend their property but many collectors have "items" they personally have acquired legally. More often than you might think, such finds come about because studios throw away important elements. If the studios threaten prosecution, they will find that collectors will never approach them. They'd probably prefer to destroy irreplaceable film to avoid being criminalized.

  

I'd be looking for another girlfriend. But perhaps he thinks he has scored big.

 

You can see the golden colour of the spider silk here that gives the Golden Orb spiders their name.

 

There are even some small snails in her collection.

 

I watched the male spider leave its position to begin dismantling a large section of the female's web. It systematically unpicked a large round hole and then returned to its position here. I have no idea why (resentment?) but I have read that spiders sometimes make holes in their webs on windy days to allow wind to pass through and leave the web intact. But this was not a windy day, just a slight breeze, and was not the male spider's web.

Buildings to Watch Out for in Brisbane.

•Parliament House in the French Empire style. The architect Charles Tiffin was inspired by the Louvre Art gallery in Paris! It is open for free public inspection but only when parliament is not sitting (QLD parliament is meant to rise on 6 August). It was built in 1868. It is located on the corner of George and Alice Streets, opposite the Old Botanical Gardens. This

Photograph shows the 2 side pavilions or wings making it Palladian in style.

•Old Government House. This is now part of the QUT (Queensland University of Technology). It has recently been extensively restored and re-opened to the public over the Queens birthday long weekend in June. It too has free entry with the upstairs devoted to the art of William Robinson a gifted Queensland painter. Old Government House was built in 1862 and is one of the older buildings in Brisbane. It is a grand two storey house with arcaded loggias, classical facades and features, and two semi-circular balconies. The interior has a grand staircase. The complex is in the Old Botanical Gardens and has a café too.

•The Old Customs House. (399 Queen Street.) Pictured below with its green copper dome, classical balustrades, Corinthian columns and pilasters and triangular roof pediment etc. It is now a commercial building with a café on the river front.

 

•Brisbane City Hall. This Art Deco building built between 1920 and 1930 with classical features is dominated by the 92 metre high clock tower. The building and the clock tower are open free for public inspection during office hours. Note the tympanum frieze decoration in the triangular pediment across the façade.

 

•Albert St Uniting Church. This distinctive brick, gothic style church is across the plaza from the Town Hall. It is open on Fridays till 4 pm. The most prominent feature of the external design is the spire rising to a height of 42 metres from the street. It is capped with a handsome wrought iron final. The original organ was imported from England, and built by George Benson of Manchester. The front pipes are coloured and gilded with gold leaf.

 

•ANZAC Square War Memorial is uniquely and ideally set in peaceful surrounds and worth a visit. The Shrine of Remembrance, with its Eternal Flame, forms the focal point for the radial patterned pathways, pools and lawns. From here you get a view down to the Old Post Office which was built of local sandstone in 1872 by Mr Petrie.

 

A Very brief History of Brisbane.

Australia’s third largest city is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, Scotsman who was governor of NSW from 1821 to 1825. The first European settlement in Queensland was a small convict colony which was established at Redcliffe in 1824. Redcliffe is a northern beach suburb of Brisbane. The settlement was soon moved in 1825 to better location on the Brisbane River in what is now the CBD of Brisbane. John Oxley suggested this change of location and also that the town be known as Brisbane after Sir Thomas Brisbane who visited the settlement in 1826. The settlement area was known as the Moreton Bay. By 1831 Moreton Bay had 1,241 people, but 86% were convicts, and almost all the rest were guards and administrators. One of the founding pioneers to settle in Brisbane was Andrew Petrie, a government clerk, who arrived in the settlement in 1837. His son later became the first mayor of Brisbane.

 

In 1842 (six years after the settlement of SA) Moreton Bay penal establishment was closed and the area opened to free settlers. Half the convicts at Moreton Bay were Irish Catholics which influenced the development of the settlement thereafter. By 1846 Moreton Bay had a population of 4,000 people, considerably less than that of Burra at the time which had over 5,000 people! In 1848 the first immigrants direct from Britain arrived, as did some Chinese. In 1849 three ship loads of Presbyterians arrived in Brisbane, the first ship being the Fortitude- hence the naming of Fortitude Valley. The colony was still far from self sufficient in terms of food production. In the mid 1850s German immigrants also started to arrive in the settlement. The only building still standing built by convict labour is the Old Windmill in Wickham Park. Most of the other convict built buildings were in the CBD and gradually demolished during phases of growth in the 19th century.

 

During the late 1840s a few grand houses were built in Brisbane like Newstead House at Hamilton, and the city began to take shape. All the central streets were named after members of Queen Victoria’s family- Adelaide, Alice, Ann, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Margaret, Mary for the streets parallel to Queen Street, and Albert, Edward, George and William for the streets perpendicular to Queen Street. In 1859 the population had grown sufficiently, to about 30,000 people for Queensland to be proclaimed a separate colony from NSW with Brisbane (about 6,000 people) as its capital city. It was now a self governing independent colony. Old Government House was built shortly after this in 1862 followed by numerous colonial government buildings. The French Empire style Parliament House opposite the old Botanical Gardens was erected in 1865 to a design by Charles Tiffin. It had perfect symmetry, mansard roof lien with dormer windows, triangular pediments above some windows, and an arcaded loggia. It is still one of the most pleasing and distinctive buildings in Brisbane. Nearby the pastoralists and wealthy built the Queensland Club in Alice Street in 1882 with classical columns, roof line pediment, balustrade and perfect symmetry, but with Italianate style bay windows. The location near parliament house is much like the situation of the Adelaide Club on North Terrace almost adjacent to the SA parliament. The wealthy and pastoralists in both states had immeasurable influence over early colonial politics. One of the other finest colonial buildings of Brisbane is the Old Customs House with the circular copper domed roof on the edge of the Brisbane River. It was erected in 1888.

 

Although Brisbane grew quickly through the following decades it was not incorporated as a city until 1902.Part of the reason for the relatively slow of growth of Brisbane, compared to Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney was that it was not the focal point of the state railway network. Queensland always had other major regional centres. The railway from Brisbane reached out to southern Queensland only- Ipswich in 1864, Toowoomba in 1867, and Charleville by 1888. There was no early push to have a railway link with the coast cities and their hinterlands. The coastal cities of Queensland were not linked by a railway until 1927 when road transport had already taken over the transport of livestock and freight. The coastal railway in Queensland was always for passenger traffic as much as freight traffic.

 

Unlike the other Australian state capitals, Brisbane City Council governs most of the metropolitan area of Brisbane. In 1925 over twenty shires and municipalities were amalgamated into the City of Brisbane. It was at this time that the landmark Brisbane city Hall was built in Art Deco style. It was opened in 1930 and members of the public can enter and walk around the inside of the building.

 

During World War Two, Brisbane had a distinctive history as Prime Minister John Curtin had the “Brisbane Line” as a controversial defense plan, whereby if there was a land invasion of Australia, the northern half of the country would be surrendered at a line just north of Brisbane! Brisbane also became the headquarters for the Americans campaign in the South Pacific with General Douglas MacArthur based there at times. In 1942 a violent clash erupted between American and Australian service personnel in Brisbane. Between 2,000 and 5,000 men were involved in the riots which spread over two days. One soldier was killed and eight injured by gun fire as well as 100s injured with black eyes, swollen faces, broken noses etc. On the second night 21 Americans were injured with 11 of them having to be hospitalised. It was locally known as The Battle of Brisbane.

 

Yet around 1 million American troops passed through Queensland between December 1941 (just after the bombing of Pearl harbour) and the end of 1945. They were here to spearhead attacks to take back the Philippines, and to prevent the Japanese from taking New Guinea.

Black American soldiers were especially unpopular in Brisbane as their landing contravened the “White Australia Policy” of the times. In response to this policy General Douglas MacArthur announced his support for the Australian government’s insistence that no more Black American troops be sent to Brisbane after 1942. The Black American units in Australia were later sent to New Guinea and New Caledonia. Black American troops in New Guinea were not allowed to visit Australia for rest and recreation leave although white American troops were allowed to visit Australia, mainly to Mackay. Resentment between American and Australian troops in Brisbane had to be contained and suppressed. Riots between troops also occurred in Townsville during the War.

 

Kyoto Gion Festival after the Festival of Japan is a Hikiyama of North Kannnon yama named.

 

Gion (Gion Festival), a festival of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto Yasaka Shrine (Gion, Inc.), until the Meiji was called "Gion Spirit Association (Spirit Association)". Continued from Jogan year (9th century). In Kyoto of summer tradition, it is a long festival that takes place over a period of one month from July 1.

 

It is one of Japan's three major festivals, and has continued for more than 1100, up to now.

 

Epidemic by the court is 863 years of the epidemic (5 years Jogan), the first of the Spirit Association (the Goryoe) was carried out in Shinsen'en. Spirit Board [1] in the festival to be performed in order to appease calm, such as evil spirits of 疫神 or dead, plague was also believed to be resentment is the ghost of the people who died, leaving in this world curse. But then also worshiped the Gozu Tenno for the epidemic of plague was followed, it was pray for good health by performing a Spirit Association.

869 years (Jogan '11), set a 66 pieces of pike, which represents the number of national country Urabe NichiRyoMaro, the exorcism the defilement of countries by making dwell move the evil spirits of the countries in the pike, a portable shrine 3 groups The has been the incarnation of the feed Yakushinyorai Gozu Tenno I Toriokona~tsu Festival Spirit Association. Spirit Board of this 869 years has been the origin of the Gion Festival.

 

www.yasaka-jinja.or.jp/en/

Selective coloring of Pudge in homage to Dog Ma

"I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie" is what Roger Ebert wrote in his opening sentence of the review for "Mommy Dearest" - a sad, demented, tragic and depressing tale of a mother cruelly abusing her daughters.

 

I wonder the same thing about this doll.

 

I can't even begin to describe how wrong this doll - which IT enthusiastically introduced "Just in time for Mother's Day" as the "boldest mother of them all" - is. Yeah because bold, and not cruel, is how Mommy Dearest portrayed Joan Crawford. And because abusive mothers is exactly what a gal needs on Mother's Day.

 

How trivial has abuse and neglect become in our culture where its victims become the butt of jokes while monuments and commemorative dolls are erected in honor of the abusers? Celebrate a fan favorite by collaborating with Paramount Pictures? And then including the hanger which she used ti beat the shit out of her daughter as well? Really? People find that classic, bold and just hilarious?

 

What the fuck is wrong with people?

 

And then to have a doll like that in your collection? What do you even tell your friends?

 

"Oh, here I have my Audrey dolls and my Lana Turners and Marilyn Monroes. Oh yeah and since "Mommy Dearest" was such an endearingly feisty movie about such a bold woman, here I got the Joan Crawford doll with the hanger she used to beat up her kids. Hahahaahahaha. Isn't that great that I have such a classic? Wanna cokctail now? I can show you the rest of my collection later."

 

I mean really. She is a lovely doll. I like her screening because it is the Dania one. I love her soft features, her 50s style eye brows and just overall demeanor. Dania is just such a classically beautiful sculpt.

  

But what this doll represents is very offensive and supremely inappropriate. What Roger Ebert had to say sums it up and exemplifies just how wrong the creation of this doll as a commemorative doll no less to this "classic" tale of abuse and neglect is:

 

""Mommie Dearest" repeats the same basic dramatic situation again and again. Baby Christina tries to do the right thing, tries to be a good girl, tries to please Mommie, but Mommie is a manic-depressive who alternates between brief triumphs and long savage tirades, infecting her daughter with resentment and guilt. In scene after scene, we are invited to watch as Joan Crawford screams at Christina, chops her hair with scissors, beats her with a wire coat hanger and, on an especially bad day, tackles her across an end table, hurls her to the carpet, bangs her head against the floor, and tries to choke her to death. Who wants to watch this?"

 

And more to the point, who wants a doll of such a person?

An old Cherokee told his grandson, “My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment , inferiority, lies & ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, & truth.” The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”

 

Author Unknown

 

Photo Credit: Cloudtail.

Used under CC attributive, non-commercial, share-alike licence

Rocinha slum - favela - , Río de Janeiro, Brazil. An agency arranges tours of the favelas and spends part of the gains is on charity in the favelas, mostly on building schools. This means that you're actually welcome - even though some of the young men, reasonably enough, showed signs of resentment.

(Also, we all just had a 4-day weekend and I really don't want to go back to work.)

 

After the failure of the earlier conference, the employee now has to go back to her cubicle. She was entitled to something better than this drudgery, which is mounting...those tiny annoyances that escalate and grow into so much resentment.

 

Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M and Zeiss 50mm Distagon CF*T lens, at F/8, with a #25 red filter.

 

Film: Tri-X (400TX) pushed EI 800 / development: Acufine stock at 72° F, 6 minutes.

 

Strobist: Nikon SB-900 flash through softbox on camera right, wireless trigger.

 

Paper: Ilford Multigrade IV Fiber Glossy, #4 Ilford filter. Scanned with an Epson V750.

 

Update: This picture was DCist Photo of the Day for 5 January, 2012!

Whenever I visit parks and plazas in South America, I delight in their vibrance and orderliness, including the relative lack of tagging and graffiti.

 

Seeing these public spaces being enjoyed by all sectors of the public at all hours makes me mourn the decay of American society once again.

 

Walk though one of Portland's lovely parks in the morning and you won't see office workers gathered for that last smoke and a coffee before work. You will not find many mothers with their children or encounter teens hanging out to have good clean fun (corny but true) the way I have seen them do in Arequipa, Cajamarca, Ayacucho, Chachapoya and Tarapoto in Peru, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Montevideo, Uruguay. And, of course, in Santos, Brazil.

 

No, except for the lunch hour, when some office workers have lunch on the park benches, many of my city's parks have been taken over by the homeless, the insane and the druggy street kids. Why do we permit this?

 

My anger and frustration are not aimed at the homeless or the insane, though I have had it with the fuc*ing transient street kids and their nonstop drug parties in our public spaces.

 

My resentment is directed at the Republican war on government and the Republican support for the oligarchy, both of which have created the conditions that have flooded our public spaces with down-and-outers in ways not seen since the Great Depression.

 

In Portland, the well-to-do can retreat to the exclusive Multnomah Athletic Club and their posh neighborhoods in the West Hills, Lake Oswego, West Linn, and Dunthorpe, leaving the rest of us to endure the fallout from the society their greed has created.

 

Along the route of the Linha Turistica de Bonde, the trolley ride in Santos, Brazil.

© David K. Edwards

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermostat

Hore Abbey (also Hoare Abbey, sometimes known as St. Mary's) is a ruined Cistercian monastery near the Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland.

 

'Hore' is thought to derive from 'iubhair' – yew tree. The former Benedictine abbey at Hore was given to the Cistercians by Archbishop David MacCearbhaill (in 1270), who later entered the monastery. He endowed the Abbey generously with land, mills and other benefices previously belonging to the town. A story that is much cited by tour-guides is that he evicted the Benedictines after a dream that they were about to kill him. This is unlikely to be true and probably arises from the Archbishop's 'interference' with the commerce of the city of Cashel. His disfavour of the established orders in Cashel certainly caused local resentment. He was resented by some of the towns-people, being considered too much in favour of the Irish by the more Anglicised. This is evident in the objection by the thirty-eight local brewers to the levy of two flagons out of every brewing and in the murder of two monks who were visiting the town.

I had another friend agree to a test photoshoot recently. Imagine we did this small project on our day off from work (national holiday). :) Now this shoot was sooo much fun. We decided to meet up in the middle of town and just walked around. Normally our nation's capital is a hive of activity on evenings, but we had the run of the place pretty much.

 

I try to sometimes take a look back at my work and my life and I try to make sense of the person I was then and the person I am now. Have you ever looked back in your archives and tried to remember your thought process at the time? What about your circumstances? And what would I have done differently, knowing what I know now. I do this a lot actually. Can anyone honestly say that they haven't changed in the last few years? I'm not the same person I was as a teen (thankfully), nor am I exactly the same person I was a year ago. I like to think I am better, even if there is room for improvement. If I have one piece of advice to impart, it would be this:

 

"Never live with regret, anger or resentment, but take the time to look back and learn and make peace with the you that was in the past. After all, you did the best you could with what you had."

 

Wishing you all a very good weekend, dear friends.

 

Camera: Sony DSLR-A300

Shutter speed: 0.0004 sec (1/2500)

Aperture: f2.2

ISO setting: 200

 

© Nicky Highlander Photography 2013

 

All Rights Reserved

 

Uploaded with PhotoQueue

Two journalists, Clément Di Roma and Carol Valade, have been awarded the 2022 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for their documentary “The Central African Republic under Russian influence”

 

This documentary is a Découpages/Arte G.E.I.E co-production, initially broadcast on Arte Reportage in French, German and English. It was also broadcast on France 24 and published in the French newspaper Le Monde.

 

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, Vice-President responsible for the Prize, and Anthony Bellanger, Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists and representative of the 29 members of the independent European-wide Jury, opened the award ceremony held in the Daphne Caruana Galizia Press Room of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

 

President Metsola said: "The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism sends a strong message. The European Parliament is on the side of truth and justice, of independent journalism.

 

A strong democracy needs a strong press. And there is no democracy without freedom of the press. In Europe, rights and liberties are goals we fight for, not obstacles."

  

Between the 3rd May and 1st August 2022, more than 200 journalists from the 27 EU countries submitted their stories for consideration. 11 of these submissions were shortlisted by the jury before the overall winner was decided.

 

About the winning story

 

This film is Clément Di Roma and Carol Valade’s first documentary and the culmination of their work as correspondents in the Central African Republic in 2020. The country was going through a wave of violence and abuses triggered by a new rebellion, partly fought by Wagner, a shadow army serving the Kremlin's interests. They investigated, filmed and continued their correspondence for several international media despite the surveillance of Russian mercenaries and the prevailing hostility against the French media. It was also a question of continuing the work of their three Russian colleagues, Orhan Djemal, Kirill Radchenko, and Alexander Rasstorguyev, murdered in the Central African Republic while investigating Wagner in 2018. Their main concern has been the protection of their sources, especially those who denounce the crimes of mercenaries, in a country where disappearances of opponents are common. After several months of investigation, they gained the trust of Russian propaganda actors in the Central African Republic. Their voices had never been heard before. Without bias, their documentary gives a voice to the victims of the mercenaries, but also to their supporters, to better understand the methods of this takeover, facilitated by a resentment towards France. They wanted to make all voices heard in this other front of the conflict with Russia that is now spreading to the Sahel on both military and disinformation fields.

 

Read more: www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20221017IPR4370...

 

This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2022– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

In 1989 I left apartheid South Africa and spent much of the next year travelling Europe. In October I found myself in the outback of Turkey, and the word on the street was that the Berlin Wall was about to fall. With it's fascinating history, cold war angst and strong David Bowie connection, Berlin had always been on my "must visit" list and I accelerated my plans to get there. Unfortunately the wall began crumbling on the evening of November 9, 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks. Nevertheless, I skipped through the Greek islands and caught the ferry from the port of Piraeus in Athens to Brindisi in Italy. I decided to bypass Naples and caught a fast train north to Rome. I think it was either on the ferry or on the train that I met fellow traveller, Serge Bowers from Pennsylvania in the USA. He and I made good companions and has a Chianti-fuelled blast through Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice (but that's another story).

 

On November 25, Serge and I went our own ways - he headed for Amsterdam, while I spent a couple of days in Milan, visiting the magnificent Il Museo Storico dell’Alfa Romeo in Arese. I then skipped through Switzerland (Lausanne, Bern, Luzern and Lurich) beofre finally making it to Stuttgart in Germany, taking in the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum. By this time (December 4) I was running low on cash and so resorted to hitch-hiking from Stuttgart to Mannheim, heading for Bonn where I was going to be staying with Prof. Dr. Marcella Rietschel (a Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn) who I had met in Istanbul in October. It was freezing cold and snowing out on the road, and by the time I reached Mannheim, I had had enough and headed to the Hauptbahnhof. After a cup of steaming coffee, I bought a ticket to Bonn, boarded the milk-train and continued the journey north. As fate would have it, I ended up in Zeppelinheim, close to Frankfurt, and that extraordinary interlude is detailed here.

 

Being on the bones of my financial arse, and with a severe cold snap making hitch-hiking a really bad idea, I now resorted to using the Mitfahrzentrale - an organised hitch-hiking (or "car pooling") service where a driver can register how many spare seats they have in their car and where they are travelling from, to, and on what date. Potential passengers are provided with contact details and descriptions of the journey including any proposed stops along the way. As all travellers share costs, the savings can be extensive and it also serves as a good way to meet interesting people and to practice your German!

 

Our route to the east The so-called "inner German border" (a.k.a. "Zonengrenze") was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. The border was a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War. The border could be crossed legally only through a limited number of routes and foreigners were able to traverse East German territory to or from West Berlin via a limited number of road corridors, the most used of which was at Helmstedt-Marienborn on the Hanover–Berlin A2 autobahn. Codenamed Checkpoint Alpha, this was the first of three Allied checkpoints on the road to Berlin. The others were Checkpoint Bravo, where the autobahn crossed from East Germany into West Berlin, and most famous of all, Checkpoint Charlie, the only place where non-Germans could cross from West to East Berlin. Lengthy inspections caused long delays to traffic at the crossing points, and for some the whole experience was very disturbing: "Travelling from west to east through [the inner German border] was like entering a drab and disturbing dream, peopled by all the ogres of totalitarianism, a half-lit world of shabby resentments, where anything could be done to you, I used to feel, without anybody ever hearing of it, and your every step was dogged by watchful eyes and mechanisms." (Jan Morris) Personally, having spent almost three decades of my life under the oppression of the apartheid regime, it felt all too familiar.

 

So, after an uncomfortable 6-8 hour road trip, I was finally there - Berlin! One of my German friends from South Africa (P.A.) had been a regular visitor to Berlin during our high school and university years, before relocating to the city in the mid-80's. In those days it made a lot of sense - getting out of South Africa after studying meant escaping two years military service with the south African Defence Force and moving to Berlin meant avoiding conscription into the German military as well. That is, in order to encourage young people to move to West Berlin, they were lured in with exemptions from national service and good study benefits. It was December 8, 1989 and P.A. was unfortunately not in town. But a mutual friend was - L.M. had left Africa at about the same time as Pierre and was an aspirant artist in Berlin. He offered me a place to stay and we spent a brilliant week together, partying, clubbing and taking in all the delights that this city in change had to offer! I don't remember too much, but have some photos that I am sharing for the first time, a quarter of a century later, to the day.

 

45657-34e-ew - the caption on the back of the photo reads:

Self-portrait. M.L.P. at the "Berlin Wall". The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, West Germany. "The Wall" just behind him. Sunday, December 10, 1989." Travelling alone, I mastered the art of self-portraits with my Pentax ME Super 35mm SLR. In these shots I'm using a screw-on fish-eye attachment, but I generally used a relatively wide 24mm lens. I figured out that what you saw in the reflection of the curved lens, is what was captured on film. So in those pre-autofocus days, I would focus the camera at arm's lenght, turn it around, align the shot using the reflection in the lens, and release. When my father died the following year, I returned to SA for some time. Back at the f22 Camera Club in Pretoria, they were impressed by some of the self-portraits, especially those from interesting angles. So I ran a little informal workshop for the club, and shared my secrets. Funny enough, in that workshop (in late-1990 or early-91) I actually used the term "selfie"...which is what my girlfriend (and future wife) used to call these shots. So I guess I pioneered the "selfie"!!

Mark Pautz © 1989

  

  

youtu.be/KcPcJ9ycEu4?t=2m22s Full Feature

Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

1957/58 / B&W / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 82, 95 min. / Street Date August 13, 2002 / $24.95

Starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler

Cinematography Ted Scaife

Production Designer Ken Adam

Special Effects George Blackwell, S.D. Onions, Wally Veevers

Film Editor Michael Gordon

Original Music Clifton Parker

Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester from the story Casting the Runes by Montague R. James

Produced by Frank Bevis, Hal E. Chester

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

 

Savant champions a lot of genre movies but only infrequently does one appear like Jacques Tourneur's superlative Curse of the Demon. It's simply better than the rest -- an intelligent horror film with some very good scares. It occupies a stylistic space that sums up what's best in ghost stories and can hold its own with most any supernatural film ever made. Oh, it's also a great entertainment that never fails to put audiences at the edge of their seats.

What's more, Columbia TriStar has shown uncommon respect for their genre output by including both versions of Curse of the Demon on one disc. Savant has full coverage on the versions and their restoration below, following his thorough and analytical (read: long-winded and anal) coverage of the film itself.

 

Synopsis:

  

Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews), a scientist and professional debunker of superstitious charlatans, arrives in England to help Professor Henry Harrington (Maurice Denham) assault the phony cult surrounding Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall McGinnis). But Harrington has mysteriously died and Holden becomes involved with his niece Joanna (Peggy Cummins), who thinks Karswell had something to do with it. Karswell's 'tricks' confuse the skeptical Holden, but he stubbornly holds on to his conviction that he's " ... not a sucker, like 90% of the human race." That is, until the evidence mounts that Harrington was indeed killed by a demon summoned from Hell, and that Holden is the next intended victim!

  

The majority of horror films are fantasies in which we accept supernatural ghosts, demons and monsters as part of a deal we've made with the authors: they dress the fantasy in an attractive guise and arrange the variables into an interesting pattern, and we agree to play along for the sake of enjoyment. When it works the movies can resonate with personal meaning. Even though Dracula and Frankenstein are unreal, they are relevant because they're aligned with ideas and themes in our subconscious.

Horror films that seriously confront the no-man's land between rational reality and supernatural belief have a tough time of it. Everyone who believes in God knows that the tug o' war between rationality and faith in our culture has become so clogged with insane belief systems it's considered impolite to dismiss people who believe in flying saucers or the powers of crystals or little glass pyramids. One of Dana Andrews' key lines in Curse of the Demon, defending his dogged skepticism against those urging him to have an open mind, is his retort, "If the world is a dark place ruled by Devils and Demons, we all might as well give up right now." Curse of the Demon balances itself between skepticism and belief with polite English manners, letting us have our fun as it lays its trap. We watch Andrews roll his eyes and scoff at the feeble séance hucksters and the dire warnings of a foolish-looking necromancer. Meanwhile, a whole dark world of horror sneaks up on him. The film's intelligent is such that we're not offended by its advocacy of dark forces or even its literal, in-your-face demon.

The remarkable Curse of the Demon was made in England for Columbia but is gloriously unaffected by that company's zero-zero track record with horror films. Producer Hal E. Chester would seem an odd choice to make a horror classic after producing Joe Palooka films and acting as a criminal punk in dozens of teen crime movies. The obvious strong cards are writer Charles Bennett, the brains behind several classic English Hitchcock pictures (who 'retired' into meaningless bliss writing for schlockmeister Irwin Allen) and Jacques Tourneur, a master stylist who put Val Lewton on the map with Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. Tourneur made interesting Westerns (Canyon Passage, Great Day in the Morning) and perhaps the most romantic film noir, Out of the Past. By the late '50s he was on what Andrew Sarris in his American Film called 'a commercial downgrade'. The critic lumped Curse of the Demon with low budget American turkeys like The Fearmakers. 1

Put Tourneur with an intelligent script, a decent cameraman and more than a minimal budget and great things could happen. We're used to watching Corman Poe films, English Hammer films and Italian Bavas and Fredas, all the while making excuses for the shortcomings that keep them in the genre ghetto (where they all do quite well, thank you). There's even a veiled resentment against upscale shockers like The Innocents that have resources (money, time, great actors) denied our favorite toilers in the genre realm. Curse of the Demon is above all those considerations. It has name actors past their prime and reasonable production values. Its own studio (at least in America) released it like a genre quickie, double-billed with dreck like The Night the World Exploded and The Giant Claw. They cut it by 13 minutes, changed its title (to ape The Curse of Frankenstein?) and released a poster featuring a huge, slavering demon monster that some believe was originally meant to be barely glimpsed in the film itself. 2

 

Horror movies can work on more than one level but Curse of the Demon handles several levels and then some. The narrative sets up John Holden as a professional skeptic who raises a smirking eyebrow to the open minds of his colleagues. Unlike most second-banana scientists in horror films, they express divergent points of view. Holden just sees himself as having common sense but his peers are impressed by the consistency of demonological beliefs through history. Maybe they all saw Christensen's Witchcraft through the Ages, which might have served as a primer for author Charles Bennett. Smart dialogue allows Holden to score points by scoffing at the then-current "regression to past lives" scam popularized by the Bridey Murphy craze. 3 While Holden stays firmly rooted to his position, coining smart phrases and sarcastic put-downs of believers, the other scientists are at least willing to consider alternate possibilities. Indian colleague K.T. Kumar (Peter Elliott) keeps his opinion to himself. But when asked, he politely states that he believes entirely in the world of demons! 4

Holden may think he has the truth by the tail but it takes Kindergarten teacher Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins of Gun Crazy fame) to show him that being a skeptic doesn't mean ignoring facts in front of one's face. Always ready for a drink (a detail added to tailor the part to Andrews?), Holden spends the first couple of reels as interested in pursuing Miss Harrington, as he is the devil-worshippers. The details and coincidences pile up with alarming speed -- the disappearing ink untraceable by the lab, the visual distortions that might be induced by hypnosis, the pages torn from his date book and the parchment of runic symbols. Holden believes them to be props in a conspiracy to draw him into a vortex of doubt and fear. Is he being set up the way a Voodoo master cons his victim, by being told he will die, with fabricated clues to make it all appear real? Holden even gets a bar of sinister music stuck in his head. It's the title theme -- is this a wicked joke on movie soundtracks?

 

Speak of the Devil...

 

This brings us to the wonderful character of Julian Karswell, the kiddie-clown turned multi-millionaire cult leader. The man who launched Alfred Hitchcock as a maker of sophisticated thrillers here creates one of the most interesting villains ever written, one surely as good as any of Hitchcock's. In the short American cut Karswell is a shrewd games-player who shows Holden too many of his cards and finally outsmarts himself. The longer UK cut retains the full depth of his character.

Karswell has tapped into the secrets of demonology to gain riches and power, yet he tragically recognizes that he is as vulnerable to the forces of Hell as are the cowering minions he controls through fear. Karswell's coven means business. It's an entirely different conception from the aesthetic salon coffee klatch of The Seventh Victim, where nothing really supernatural happens and the only menace comes from a secret society committing new crimes to hide old ones.

Karswell keeps his vast following living in fear, and supporting his extravagant lifestyle under the idea that Evil is Good, and Good Evil. At first the Hobart Farm seems to harbor religious Christian fundamentalists who have turned their backs on their son. Then we find out that they're Karswell followers, living blighted lives on cursed acreage and bled dry by their cultist "leader." Karswell's mum (Athene Seyler) is an inversion of the usual insane Hitchcock mother. She lovingly resists her son's philosophy and actively tries to help the heroes. That's in the Night version, of course. In the shorter American cut she only makes silly attempts to interest Joanna in her available son and arranges for a séance. Concerned by his "negativity", Mother confronts Julian on the stairs. He has no friends, no wife, no family. He may be a mass extortionist but he's still her baby. Karswell explains that by exploiting his occult knowledge, he's immersed himself forever in Evil. "You get nothing for nothing"

 

Karswell is like the Devil on Earth, a force with very limited powers that he can't always control. By definition he cannot trust any of his own minions. They're unreliable, weak and prone to double-cross each other, and they attract publicity that makes a secret society difficult to conceal. He can't just kill Holden, as he hasn't a single henchman on the payroll. He instead summons the demon, a magic trick he's only recently mastered. When Karswell turns Harrington away in the first scene we can sense his loneliness. The only person who can possibly understand is right before him, finally willing to admit his power and perhaps even tolerate him. Karswell has no choice but to surrender Harrington over to the un-recallable Demon. In his dealings with the cult-debunker Holden, Karswell defends his turf but is also attempting to justify himself to a peer, another man who might be a potential equal. It's more than a duel of egos between a James Bond and a Goldfinger, with arrogance and aggression masking a mutual respect; Karswell knows he's taken Lewton's "wrong turning in life," and will have to pay for it eventually.

Karswell eventually earns Holden's respect, especially after the fearful testimony of Rand Hobart. It's taken an extreme demonstration to do it, but Holden budges from his smug position. He may not buy all of the demonology hocus-pocus but it's plain enough that Karswell or his "demon" is going to somehow rub him out. Seeking to sneak the parchment back into Karswell's possession, Holden becomes a worthy hero because he's found the maturity to question his own preconceptions. Armed with his rational, cool head, he's a force that makes Karswell -- without his demon, of course -- a relative weakling. Curse of the Demon ends in a classic ghost story twist, with just desserts dished out and balance recovered. The good characters are less sure of their world than when they started, but they're still able to cope. Evil has been defeated not by love or faith, but by intellect.

 

Curse of the Demon has the Val Lewton sensibility as has often been cited in Tourneur's frequent (and very effective) use of the device called the Lewton "Bus" -- a wholly artificial jolt of fast motion and noise interrupting a tense scene. There's an ultimate "bus" at the end when a train blasts in and sets us up for the end title. It "erases" the embracing actors behind it and I've always thought it had to be an inspiration for the last shot of North by NorthWest. The ever-playful Hitchcock was reportedly a big viewer of fantastic films, from which he seems to have gotten many ideas. He's said to have dined with Lewton on more than one occasion (makes sense, they were at one time both Selznick contractees) and carried on a covert competition with William Castle, of all people.

Visually, Tourneur's film is marvelous, effortlessly conjuring menacing forests lit in the fantastic Mario Bava mode by Ted Scaife, who was not known as a genre stylist. There are more than a few perfunctory sets, with some unflattering mattes used for airport interiors, etc.. Elsewhere we see beautiful designs by Ken Adam in one of his earliest outings. Karswell's ornate floor and central staircase evoke an Escher print, especially when visible/invisible hands appear on the banister. A hypnotic, maze-like set for a hotel corridor is also tainted by Escher and evokes a sense of the uncanny even better than the horrid sounds Holden hears. The build-up of terror is so effective that one rather unconvincing episode (a fight with a Cat People - like transforming cat) does no harm. Other effects, such as the demon footprints appearing in the forest, work beautifully.

In his Encyclopedia of Horror Movies Phil Hardy very rightly relates Curse of the Demon's emphasis on the visual to the then just-beginning Euro-horror subgenre. The works of Bava, Margheriti and Freda would make the photographic texture of the screen the prime element of their films, sometimes above acting and story logic.

 

Columbia TriStar's DVD of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon presents both versions of this classic in one package. American viewers saw an effective but abbreviated cut-down. If you've seen Curse of the Demon on cable TV or rented a VHS or a laser anytime after 1987, you're not going to see anything different in the film. In 1987 Columbia happened to pull out the English cut when it went to re-master. When the title came up as Night of the Demon, they just slugged in the Curse main title card and let it go.

From such a happy accident (believe me, nobody in charge at Columbia at the time would have purposely given a film like this a second glance) came a restoration at least as wonderful as the earlier reversion of The Fearless Vampire Killers to its original form. Genre fans were taken by surprise and the Laserdisc became a hot item that often traded for hundreds of dollars. 6

 

Back in film school Savant had been convinced that ever seeing the long, original Night cut was a lost cause. An excellent article in the old Photon magazine in the early '70s 5, before such analytical work was common, accurately laid out the differences between the two versions, something Savant needs to do sometime with The Damned and These Are the Damned. The Photon article very accurately describes the cut scenes and what the film lost without them, and certainly inspired many of the ideas here.

Being able to see the two versions back-to-back shows exactly how they differ. Curse omits some scenes and rearranges others. Gone is some narration from the title sequence, most of the airplane ride, some dialogue on the ground with the newsmen and several scenes with Karswell talking to his mother. Most crucially missing are Karswell's mother showing Joanna the cabalistic book everyone talks so much about and Holden's entire visit to the Hobart farm to secure a release for his examination of Rand Hobart. Of course the cut film still works (we loved the cut Curse at UCLA screenings and there are people who actually think it's better) but it's nowhere near as involving as the complete UK version. Curse also reshuffles some events, moving Holden's phantom encounter in the hallway nearer the beginning, which may have been to get a spooky scene in the middle section or to better disguise the loss of whole scenes later. The chop-job should have been obvious. The newly imposed fades and dissolves look awkward. One cut very sloppily happens right in the middle of a previous dissolve.

Night places both Andrews and Cummins' credits above the title and gives McGinnis an "also starring" credit immediately afterwards. Oddly, Curse sticks Cummins afterwards and relegates McGinnis to the top of the "also with" cast list. Maybe with his role chopped down, some Columbia executive thought he didn't deserve the billing?

Technically, both versions look just fine, very sharp and free of digital funk that would spoil the film's spooky visual texture. Night of the Demon is the version to watch for both content and quality. It's not perfect but has better contrast and less dirt than the American version. Curse has more emulsion scratches and flecking white dandruff in its dark scenes, yet looks fine until one sees the improvement of Night. Both shows are widescreen enhanced (hosanna), framing the action at its original tighter aspect ratio.

It's terrific that Columbia TriStar has brought out this film so thoughtfully, even though some viewers are going to be confused when their "double feature" disc appears to be two copies of the same movie. Let 'em stew. This is Savant's favorite release so far this year.

 

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon rates:

Movie: Excellent

  

Footnotes:

Made very close to Curse of the Demon and starring Dana Andrews, The Fearmakers (great title) was a Savant must-see until he caught up with it in the UA collection at MGM. It's a pitiful no-budgeter that claims Madison Avenue was providing public relations for foreign subversives, and is negligible even in the lists of '50s anti-Commie films.

Return

 

Curse of the Demon's Demon has been the subject of debate ever since the heyday of Famous Monsters of Filmland. From what's on record it's clear that producer Chester added or maximized the shots of the creature, a literal visualization of a fiery, brimstone-smoking classical woodcut demon that some viewers think looks ridiculous. Bennett and Tourneur's original idea was to never show a demon but the producer changed that. Tourneur probably directed most of the shots, only to have Chester over-use them. To Savant's thinking, the demon looks great. It is first perceived as an ominous sound, a less strident version of the disturbing noise made by Them! Then it manifests itself visually as a strange disturbance in the sky (bubbles? sparks? early slit-scan?) followed by a billowing cloud of sulphurous smoke (a dandy effect not exploited again until Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The long-shot demon is sometimes called the bicycle demon because he's a rod puppet with legs that move on a wheel-rig. Smoke belches from all over his scaly body. Close-ups are provided by a wonderfully sculpted head 'n' shoulders demon with articulated eyes and lips, a full decade or so before Carlo Rambaldi started engineering such devices.

Most of the debate centers on how much Demon should have been shown with the general consensus that less would have been better. People who dote on Lewton-esque ambivalence say that the film's slow buildup of rationality-versus demonology is destroyed by the very real Demon's appearance in the first scene, and that's where they'd like it removed or radically reduced. The Demon is so nicely integrated into the cutting (the giant foot in the first scene is a real jolt) that it's likely that Tourneur himself filmed it all, perhaps expecting the shots to be shorter or more obscured. It is also possible that the giant head was a post-Tourneur addition - it doesn't tie in with the other shots as well (especially when it rolls forward rather stiffly) and is rather blunt. Detractors lump it in with the gawd-awful head of The Black Scorpion, which is filmed the same way and almost certainly was an afterthought - and also became a key poster image. This demon head matches the surrounding action a lot better than did the drooling Scorpion.

Savant wouldn't change Curse of the Demon but if you put a gun to my head I'd shorten most of the shots in its first appearance, perhaps eliminating all close-ups except for the final, superb shot of the the giant claw reaching for Harrington / us.

  

Kumar, played (I assume) by an Anglo actor, immediately evokes all those Indian and other Third World characters in Hammer films whose indigenous cultures invariably hold all manner of black magic and insidious horror. When Hammer films are repetitious it's because they take eighty minutes or so to convince the imagination-challenged English heroes to even consider the premise of the film as being real. In Curse of the Demon, Holden's smart-tongued dismissal of outside viewpoints seems much more pigheaded now than it did in 1957, when heroes confidently defended conformist values without being challenged. Kumar is a scientist but also probably a Hindu or a Sikh. He has no difficulty reconciling his faith with his scientific detachment. Holden is far too tactful to call Kumar a crazy third-world guru but that's probably what he's thinking. He instead politely ignores him. Good old Kumar then saves Holden's hide with some timely information. I hope Holden remembered to thank him.

There's an unstated conclusion in Curse of the Demon: Holden's rigid disbelief of the supernatural means he also does not believe in a Christian God with its fundamentally spiritual faith system of Good and Evil, saints and devils, angels and demons. Horror movies that deal directly with religious symbolism and "real faith" can be hypocritical in their exploitation and brutal in their cheap toying with what are for many people sacred personal concepts. I'm thinking of course of The Exorcist here. That movie has all the grace of a reporter who shows a serial killer's atrocity photos to a mother whose child has just been kidnapped. Curse of the Demon hasn't The Exorcist's ruthless commercial instincts but instead has the modesty not to pretend to be profound, or even "real." Yet it expresses our basic human conflict between rationality and faith very nicely.

 

Savant called Jim Wyrnoski, who was associated with Photon, in an effort to find out more about the article, namely who wrote it. It was very well done and I've never forgotten it; I unfortunately loaned my copy out to good old Jim Ursini and it disappeared. Obviously, a lot of the ideas here, I first read there. Perhaps a reader who knows better how to take care of their belongings can help me with the info? Ursini and Alain Silvers' More Things than are Dreamt Of Limelight, 1994, analyzes Curse of the Demon (and many other horror movies) in the context of its source story.

 

This is a true story: Cut to 2000. Columbia goes to re-master Curse of the Demon and finds that the fine-grain original of the English version is missing. The original long version of the movie may be lost forever. A few months later a collector appears who says he bought it from another unnamed collector and offers to trade it for a print copy of the American version, which he prefers. Luckily, an intermediary helps the collector follow up on his offer and the authorities are not contacted about what some would certainly call stolen property. The long version is now once again safe. Studios clearly need to defend their property but many collectors have "items" they personally have acquired legally. More often than you might think, such finds come about because studios throw away important elements. If the studios threaten prosecution, they will find that collectors will never approach them. They'd probably prefer to destroy irreplaceable film to avoid being criminalized.

  

youtu.be/KcPcJ9ycEu4?t=2m22s Full Feature

Night of the Demon screens on 29 August as part of the BFI’s Monster Weekend at the British Museum.

This is assistant director Basil Keys’ annotated shooting script for Jacques Tourneur’s scary occult classic Night of the Demon (1957). Note the working title ‘The Haunted’ on the cover page, then turn to the page where the demon appears in the trees on a dark night.

The demon’s apparition is famously referenced later in the film in a séance scene, where Professor Harrington (Maurice Denham) – in the grip of communion with the spirit world – utters the bone-chilling words: “It’s in the trees! It’s coming.”

Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

1957/58 / B&W / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 82, 95 min. / Street Date August 13, 2002 / $24.95

Starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler

Cinematography Ted Scaife

Production Designer Ken Adam

Special Effects George Blackwell, S.D. Onions, Wally Veevers

Film Editor Michael Gordon

Original Music Clifton Parker

Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester from the story Casting the Runes by Montague R. James

Produced by Frank Bevis, Hal E. Chester

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

 

Savant champions a lot of genre movies but only infrequently does one appear like Jacques Tourneur's superlative Curse of the Demon. It's simply better than the rest -- an intelligent horror film with some very good scares. It occupies a stylistic space that sums up what's best in ghost stories and can hold its own with most any supernatural film ever made. Oh, it's also a great entertainment that never fails to put audiences at the edge of their seats.

What's more, Columbia TriStar has shown uncommon respect for their genre output by including both versions of Curse of the Demon on one disc. Savant has full coverage on the versions and their restoration below, following his thorough and analytical (read: long-winded and anal) coverage of the film itself.

 

Synopsis:

  

Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews), a scientist and professional debunker of superstitious charlatans, arrives in England to help Professor Henry Harrington (Maurice Denham) assault the phony cult surrounding Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall McGinnis). But Harrington has mysteriously died and Holden becomes involved with his niece Joanna (Peggy Cummins), who thinks Karswell had something to do with it. Karswell's 'tricks' confuse the skeptical Holden, but he stubbornly holds on to his conviction that he's " ... not a sucker, like 90% of the human race." That is, until the evidence mounts that Harrington was indeed killed by a demon summoned from Hell, and that Holden is the next intended victim!

  

The majority of horror films are fantasies in which we accept supernatural ghosts, demons and monsters as part of a deal we've made with the authors: they dress the fantasy in an attractive guise and arrange the variables into an interesting pattern, and we agree to play along for the sake of enjoyment. When it works the movies can resonate with personal meaning. Even though Dracula and Frankenstein are unreal, they are relevant because they're aligned with ideas and themes in our subconscious.

Horror films that seriously confront the no-man's land between rational reality and supernatural belief have a tough time of it. Everyone who believes in God knows that the tug o' war between rationality and faith in our culture has become so clogged with insane belief systems it's considered impolite to dismiss people who believe in flying saucers or the powers of crystals or little glass pyramids. One of Dana Andrews' key lines in Curse of the Demon, defending his dogged skepticism against those urging him to have an open mind, is his retort, "If the world is a dark place ruled by Devils and Demons, we all might as well give up right now." Curse of the Demon balances itself between skepticism and belief with polite English manners, letting us have our fun as it lays its trap. We watch Andrews roll his eyes and scoff at the feeble séance hucksters and the dire warnings of a foolish-looking necromancer. Meanwhile, a whole dark world of horror sneaks up on him. The film's intelligent is such that we're not offended by its advocacy of dark forces or even its literal, in-your-face demon.

The remarkable Curse of the Demon was made in England for Columbia but is gloriously unaffected by that company's zero-zero track record with horror films. Producer Hal E. Chester would seem an odd choice to make a horror classic after producing Joe Palooka films and acting as a criminal punk in dozens of teen crime movies. The obvious strong cards are writer Charles Bennett, the brains behind several classic English Hitchcock pictures (who 'retired' into meaningless bliss writing for schlockmeister Irwin Allen) and Jacques Tourneur, a master stylist who put Val Lewton on the map with Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. Tourneur made interesting Westerns (Canyon Passage, Great Day in the Morning) and perhaps the most romantic film noir, Out of the Past. By the late '50s he was on what Andrew Sarris in his American Film called 'a commercial downgrade'. The critic lumped Curse of the Demon with low budget American turkeys like The Fearmakers. 1

Put Tourneur with an intelligent script, a decent cameraman and more than a minimal budget and great things could happen. We're used to watching Corman Poe films, English Hammer films and Italian Bavas and Fredas, all the while making excuses for the shortcomings that keep them in the genre ghetto (where they all do quite well, thank you). There's even a veiled resentment against upscale shockers like The Innocents that have resources (money, time, great actors) denied our favorite toilers in the genre realm. Curse of the Demon is above all those considerations. It has name actors past their prime and reasonable production values. Its own studio (at least in America) released it like a genre quickie, double-billed with dreck like The Night the World Exploded and The Giant Claw. They cut it by 13 minutes, changed its title (to ape The Curse of Frankenstein?) and released a poster featuring a huge, slavering demon monster that some believe was originally meant to be barely glimpsed in the film itself. 2

 

Horror movies can work on more than one level but Curse of the Demon handles several levels and then some. The narrative sets up John Holden as a professional skeptic who raises a smirking eyebrow to the open minds of his colleagues. Unlike most second-banana scientists in horror films, they express divergent points of view. Holden just sees himself as having common sense but his peers are impressed by the consistency of demonological beliefs through history. Maybe they all saw Christensen's Witchcraft through the Ages, which might have served as a primer for author Charles Bennett. Smart dialogue allows Holden to score points by scoffing at the then-current "regression to past lives" scam popularized by the Bridey Murphy craze. 3 While Holden stays firmly rooted to his position, coining smart phrases and sarcastic put-downs of believers, the other scientists are at least willing to consider alternate possibilities. Indian colleague K.T. Kumar (Peter Elliott) keeps his opinion to himself. But when asked, he politely states that he believes entirely in the world of demons! 4

Holden may think he has the truth by the tail but it takes Kindergarten teacher Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins of Gun Crazy fame) to show him that being a skeptic doesn't mean ignoring facts in front of one's face. Always ready for a drink (a detail added to tailor the part to Andrews?), Holden spends the first couple of reels as interested in pursuing Miss Harrington, as he is the devil-worshippers. The details and coincidences pile up with alarming speed -- the disappearing ink untraceable by the lab, the visual distortions that might be induced by hypnosis, the pages torn from his date book and the parchment of runic symbols. Holden believes them to be props in a conspiracy to draw him into a vortex of doubt and fear. Is he being set up the way a Voodoo master cons his victim, by being told he will die, with fabricated clues to make it all appear real? Holden even gets a bar of sinister music stuck in his head. It's the title theme -- is this a wicked joke on movie soundtracks?

 

Speak of the Devil...

 

This brings us to the wonderful character of Julian Karswell, the kiddie-clown turned multi-millionaire cult leader. The man who launched Alfred Hitchcock as a maker of sophisticated thrillers here creates one of the most interesting villains ever written, one surely as good as any of Hitchcock's. In the short American cut Karswell is a shrewd games-player who shows Holden too many of his cards and finally outsmarts himself. The longer UK cut retains the full depth of his character.

Karswell has tapped into the secrets of demonology to gain riches and power, yet he tragically recognizes that he is as vulnerable to the forces of Hell as are the cowering minions he controls through fear. Karswell's coven means business. It's an entirely different conception from the aesthetic salon coffee klatch of The Seventh Victim, where nothing really supernatural happens and the only menace comes from a secret society committing new crimes to hide old ones.

Karswell keeps his vast following living in fear, and supporting his extravagant lifestyle under the idea that Evil is Good, and Good Evil. At first the Hobart Farm seems to harbor religious Christian fundamentalists who have turned their backs on their son. Then we find out that they're Karswell followers, living blighted lives on cursed acreage and bled dry by their cultist "leader." Karswell's mum (Athene Seyler) is an inversion of the usual insane Hitchcock mother. She lovingly resists her son's philosophy and actively tries to help the heroes. That's in the Night version, of course. In the shorter American cut she only makes silly attempts to interest Joanna in her available son and arranges for a séance. Concerned by his "negativity", Mother confronts Julian on the stairs. He has no friends, no wife, no family. He may be a mass extortionist but he's still her baby. Karswell explains that by exploiting his occult knowledge, he's immersed himself forever in Evil. "You get nothing for nothing"

 

Karswell is like the Devil on Earth, a force with very limited powers that he can't always control. By definition he cannot trust any of his own minions. They're unreliable, weak and prone to double-cross each other, and they attract publicity that makes a secret society difficult to conceal. He can't just kill Holden, as he hasn't a single henchman on the payroll. He instead summons the demon, a magic trick he's only recently mastered. When Karswell turns Harrington away in the first scene we can sense his loneliness. The only person who can possibly understand is right before him, finally willing to admit his power and perhaps even tolerate him. Karswell has no choice but to surrender Harrington over to the un-recallable Demon. In his dealings with the cult-debunker Holden, Karswell defends his turf but is also attempting to justify himself to a peer, another man who might be a potential equal. It's more than a duel of egos between a James Bond and a Goldfinger, with arrogance and aggression masking a mutual respect; Karswell knows he's taken Lewton's "wrong turning in life," and will have to pay for it eventually.

Karswell eventually earns Holden's respect, especially after the fearful testimony of Rand Hobart. It's taken an extreme demonstration to do it, but Holden budges from his smug position. He may not buy all of the demonology hocus-pocus but it's plain enough that Karswell or his "demon" is going to somehow rub him out. Seeking to sneak the parchment back into Karswell's possession, Holden becomes a worthy hero because he's found the maturity to question his own preconceptions. Armed with his rational, cool head, he's a force that makes Karswell -- without his demon, of course -- a relative weakling. Curse of the Demon ends in a classic ghost story twist, with just desserts dished out and balance recovered. The good characters are less sure of their world than when they started, but they're still able to cope. Evil has been defeated not by love or faith, but by intellect.

 

Curse of the Demon has the Val Lewton sensibility as has often been cited in Tourneur's frequent (and very effective) use of the device called the Lewton "Bus" -- a wholly artificial jolt of fast motion and noise interrupting a tense scene. There's an ultimate "bus" at the end when a train blasts in and sets us up for the end title. It "erases" the embracing actors behind it and I've always thought it had to be an inspiration for the last shot of North by NorthWest. The ever-playful Hitchcock was reportedly a big viewer of fantastic films, from which he seems to have gotten many ideas. He's said to have dined with Lewton on more than one occasion (makes sense, they were at one time both Selznick contractees) and carried on a covert competition with William Castle, of all people.

Visually, Tourneur's film is marvelous, effortlessly conjuring menacing forests lit in the fantastic Mario Bava mode by Ted Scaife, who was not known as a genre stylist. There are more than a few perfunctory sets, with some unflattering mattes used for airport interiors, etc.. Elsewhere we see beautiful designs by Ken Adam in one of his earliest outings. Karswell's ornate floor and central staircase evoke an Escher print, especially when visible/invisible hands appear on the banister. A hypnotic, maze-like set for a hotel corridor is also tainted by Escher and evokes a sense of the uncanny even better than the horrid sounds Holden hears. The build-up of terror is so effective that one rather unconvincing episode (a fight with a Cat People - like transforming cat) does no harm. Other effects, such as the demon footprints appearing in the forest, work beautifully.

In his Encyclopedia of Horror Movies Phil Hardy very rightly relates Curse of the Demon's emphasis on the visual to the then just-beginning Euro-horror subgenre. The works of Bava, Margheriti and Freda would make the photographic texture of the screen the prime element of their films, sometimes above acting and story logic.

 

Columbia TriStar's DVD of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon presents both versions of this classic in one package. American viewers saw an effective but abbreviated cut-down. If you've seen Curse of the Demon on cable TV or rented a VHS or a laser anytime after 1987, you're not going to see anything different in the film. In 1987 Columbia happened to pull out the English cut when it went to re-master. When the title came up as Night of the Demon, they just slugged in the Curse main title card and let it go.

From such a happy accident (believe me, nobody in charge at Columbia at the time would have purposely given a film like this a second glance) came a restoration at least as wonderful as the earlier reversion of The Fearless Vampire Killers to its original form. Genre fans were taken by surprise and the Laserdisc became a hot item that often traded for hundreds of dollars. 6

 

Back in film school Savant had been convinced that ever seeing the long, original Night cut was a lost cause. An excellent article in the old Photon magazine in the early '70s 5, before such analytical work was common, accurately laid out the differences between the two versions, something Savant needs to do sometime with The Damned and These Are the Damned. The Photon article very accurately describes the cut scenes and what the film lost without them, and certainly inspired many of the ideas here.

Being able to see the two versions back-to-back shows exactly how they differ. Curse omits some scenes and rearranges others. Gone is some narration from the title sequence, most of the airplane ride, some dialogue on the ground with the newsmen and several scenes with Karswell talking to his mother. Most crucially missing are Karswell's mother showing Joanna the cabalistic book everyone talks so much about and Holden's entire visit to the Hobart farm to secure a release for his examination of Rand Hobart. Of course the cut film still works (we loved the cut Curse at UCLA screenings and there are people who actually think it's better) but it's nowhere near as involving as the complete UK version. Curse also reshuffles some events, moving Holden's phantom encounter in the hallway nearer the beginning, which may have been to get a spooky scene in the middle section or to better disguise the loss of whole scenes later. The chop-job should have been obvious. The newly imposed fades and dissolves look awkward. One cut very sloppily happens right in the middle of a previous dissolve.

Night places both Andrews and Cummins' credits above the title and gives McGinnis an "also starring" credit immediately afterwards. Oddly, Curse sticks Cummins afterwards and relegates McGinnis to the top of the "also with" cast list. Maybe with his role chopped down, some Columbia executive thought he didn't deserve the billing?

Technically, both versions look just fine, very sharp and free of digital funk that would spoil the film's spooky visual texture. Night of the Demon is the version to watch for both content and quality. It's not perfect but has better contrast and less dirt than the American version. Curse has more emulsion scratches and flecking white dandruff in its dark scenes, yet looks fine until one sees the improvement of Night. Both shows are widescreen enhanced (hosanna), framing the action at its original tighter aspect ratio.

It's terrific that Columbia TriStar has brought out this film so thoughtfully, even though some viewers are going to be confused when their "double feature" disc appears to be two copies of the same movie. Let 'em stew. This is Savant's favorite release so far this year.

 

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon rates:

Movie: Excellent

  

Footnotes:

Made very close to Curse of the Demon and starring Dana Andrews, The Fearmakers (great title) was a Savant must-see until he caught up with it in the UA collection at MGM. It's a pitiful no-budgeter that claims Madison Avenue was providing public relations for foreign subversives, and is negligible even in the lists of '50s anti-Commie films.

Return

 

Curse of the Demon's Demon has been the subject of debate ever since the heyday of Famous Monsters of Filmland. From what's on record it's clear that producer Chester added or maximized the shots of the creature, a literal visualization of a fiery, brimstone-smoking classical woodcut demon that some viewers think looks ridiculous. Bennett and Tourneur's original idea was to never show a demon but the producer changed that. Tourneur probably directed most of the shots, only to have Chester over-use them. To Savant's thinking, the demon looks great. It is first perceived as an ominous sound, a less strident version of the disturbing noise made by Them! Then it manifests itself visually as a strange disturbance in the sky (bubbles? sparks? early slit-scan?) followed by a billowing cloud of sulphurous smoke (a dandy effect not exploited again until Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The long-shot demon is sometimes called the bicycle demon because he's a rod puppet with legs that move on a wheel-rig. Smoke belches from all over his scaly body. Close-ups are provided by a wonderfully sculpted head 'n' shoulders demon with articulated eyes and lips, a full decade or so before Carlo Rambaldi started engineering such devices.

Most of the debate centers on how much Demon should have been shown with the general consensus that less would have been better. People who dote on Lewton-esque ambivalence say that the film's slow buildup of rationality-versus demonology is destroyed by the very real Demon's appearance in the first scene, and that's where they'd like it removed or radically reduced. The Demon is so nicely integrated into the cutting (the giant foot in the first scene is a real jolt) that it's likely that Tourneur himself filmed it all, perhaps expecting the shots to be shorter or more obscured. It is also possible that the giant head was a post-Tourneur addition - it doesn't tie in with the other shots as well (especially when it rolls forward rather stiffly) and is rather blunt. Detractors lump it in with the gawd-awful head of The Black Scorpion, which is filmed the same way and almost certainly was an afterthought - and also became a key poster image. This demon head matches the surrounding action a lot better than did the drooling Scorpion.

Savant wouldn't change Curse of the Demon but if you put a gun to my head I'd shorten most of the shots in its first appearance, perhaps eliminating all close-ups except for the final, superb shot of the the giant claw reaching for Harrington / us.

  

Kumar, played (I assume) by an Anglo actor, immediately evokes all those Indian and other Third World characters in Hammer films whose indigenous cultures invariably hold all manner of black magic and insidious horror. When Hammer films are repetitious it's because they take eighty minutes or so to convince the imagination-challenged English heroes to even consider the premise of the film as being real. In Curse of the Demon, Holden's smart-tongued dismissal of outside viewpoints seems much more pigheaded now than it did in 1957, when heroes confidently defended conformist values without being challenged. Kumar is a scientist but also probably a Hindu or a Sikh. He has no difficulty reconciling his faith with his scientific detachment. Holden is far too tactful to call Kumar a crazy third-world guru but that's probably what he's thinking. He instead politely ignores him. Good old Kumar then saves Holden's hide with some timely information. I hope Holden remembered to thank him.

There's an unstated conclusion in Curse of the Demon: Holden's rigid disbelief of the supernatural means he also does not believe in a Christian God with its fundamentally spiritual faith system of Good and Evil, saints and devils, angels and demons. Horror movies that deal directly with religious symbolism and "real faith" can be hypocritical in their exploitation and brutal in their cheap toying with what are for many people sacred personal concepts. I'm thinking of course of The Exorcist here. That movie has all the grace of a reporter who shows a serial killer's atrocity photos to a mother whose child has just been kidnapped. Curse of the Demon hasn't The Exorcist's ruthless commercial instincts but instead has the modesty not to pretend to be profound, or even "real." Yet it expresses our basic human conflict between rationality and faith very nicely.

 

Savant called Jim Wyrnoski, who was associated with Photon, in an effort to find out more about the article, namely who wrote it. It was very well done and I've never forgotten it; I unfortunately loaned my copy out to good old Jim Ursini and it disappeared. Obviously, a lot of the ideas here, I first read there. Perhaps a reader who knows better how to take care of their belongings can help me with the info? Ursini and Alain Silvers' More Things than are Dreamt Of Limelight, 1994, analyzes Curse of the Demon (and many other horror movies) in the context of its source story.

 

This is a true story: Cut to 2000. Columbia goes to re-master Curse of the Demon and finds that the fine-grain original of the English version is missing. The original long version of the movie may be lost forever. A few months later a collector appears who says he bought it from another unnamed collector and offers to trade it for a print copy of the American version, which he prefers. Luckily, an intermediary helps the collector follow up on his offer and the authorities are not contacted about what some would certainly call stolen property. The long version is now once again safe. Studios clearly need to defend their property but many collectors have "items" they personally have acquired legally. More often than you might think, such finds come about because studios throw away important elements. If the studios threaten prosecution, they will find that collectors will never approach them. They'd probably prefer to destroy irreplaceable film to avoid being criminalized.

  

Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film is a major four-month film season at BFI Southbank and across the UK from October 2013 to January 2014.

This is assistant director Basil Keys’ annotated shooting script for Jacques Tourneur’s scary occult classic Night of the Demon (1957). Note the working title ‘The Haunted’ on the cover page, then turn to the page where the demon appears in the trees on a dark night.

The demon’s apparition is famously referenced later in the film in a séance scene, where Professor Harrington (Maurice Denham) – in the grip of communion with the spirit world – utters the bone-chilling words: “It’s in the trees! It’s coming.”

 

So I’ve got these dolls at Savers cuz I need more Ken bodies and clothing.

 

I have a weird love-hate relationship with the Shang Li doll because he was the first ever male doll who had a remote similarity to my ethnicity when I was like 11. But I guess he became this object of resentment because he was literally the ONLY Asian male doll and he never did fit in my collection because he was so obviously stylised and I guess it just emphasised my other-ness in general.

 

But seeing one in such good condition I guess I wanted to revisit the doll even if it’s like 12 years later and Asian males in the fashion doll world is still pitiful, scarce and out of reach for me lol.

 

I ended up putting Shang Li’s head on a proper articulated body and stole his original legs for my older 1975 Ken torso cuz I stole THOSE legs for another doll lol.

 

For the Fashionista Ken I had a pair of Fashionista legs so I switched them out, and yeah lol.

This organ was placed in Elsing Church by

WILLIAM LEWIS BOYLE and CHARLOTTE MARY his wife

During their residence at Elsing Hall

In grateful memory of the safe return on the 16th day of June 1901

From the Boer War of their brother ERNEST CHARLES PATRICK BOYLE

Sergeant Major 73rd Squadron Imperial Yeomanry Pagets Horse

After twelve months active service at the front.

 

On 13 December 1899, the decision to allow volunteer forces serve in the Second Boer War was made. Due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December 1899, the British government realized they were going to need more troops than just the regular army, thus issuing a Royal Warrant on 24 December 1899. This warrant officially created the Imperial Yeomanry.

 

In February 1900 the Yeomanry's commander was Major-General J. P. Brabazon, being in South Africa at the time, followed shortly by Lord Chesham who was appointed as its brigadier-general.

 

The Royal Warrant asked standing Yeomanry regiments to provide service companies of approximately 115 men each. In addition to this, many British citizens (usually middle or upper class) volunteered to join the new regiment. Although there were strict requirements, many volunteers were accepted with substandard horsemanship/marksmanship; however, they had significant time to train while awaiting transport.

 

The first contingent of recruits contained 550 officers, 10,371 men in 20 battalions of four companies each, which arrived in South Africa between February and April, 1900. Upon arrival, the regiment was sent throughout the zone of operations.

 

The Imperial Yeomanry’s first action was on 5 April 1900, when members of 3rd and 10th battalions fought Boer volunteers led by Frenchman Count de Villebois-Mareuil at Boshof. After a series of tactical errors, the Boers were subsequently surrounded. The Count was killed, and the Imperial Yeomanry was victorious, suffering only three casualties.

 

The next action took place in Lindley, a Boer held town. On 27 May 1900, due to a miscommunication, the 13th battalion (under Lieutenant Colonel Basil Spragge) arrived at Lindley where they were ambushed by a group of Boers. Rather than retreat, Spragge decided to fight until aid arrived. Although a message for help did arrive, it did not describe the urgency of the situation, and no help came until it was too late. One officer and 16 men were killed (with another officer and three more men later dying of wounds), and 400 were captured.

 

Following the disaster at Lindley, the Yeoman rode hundreds of miles over the Veldt, but rarely encountered any Boers. With the rate of disease and death rising, morale was falling. During the later part of 1900 they had a few small victories, but still nothing major. Finally, in September, 1900, the City Imperial Volunteers were returning to England, instead of the Imperial Yeomen. This plummeted the morale, and a high number of Yeomen volunteered to join police forces to escape the monotony of regular duty. Due to this, only one-third of the original force was still serving. Eventually, in June or July 1901, all of the first recruits returned to England, except the ones who re-enlisted.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Yeomanry

 

Paget’s Horse was an elite unit whose four companies (51st, 52nd, 68th and 73rd) made up the 19th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. “They were public school-educated men recruited through advertisements in gentlemen’s clubs.

 

The battalion was raised by George [Thomas Cavendish] Paget, the son of a British general and a compulsive amateur soldier with a penchant for getting himself involved in any conflict that afforded the chance of action. He never seems to have been a regular officer but served in the Russo- Turkish War of 1877-8 and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, as well as the Zulu War in 1879. Although aged 46 when the Boer War broke out, he went out to South Africa as second-in-command of his regiment and proved himself to be a man of some courage, being wounded twice. A portly figure who felt at home in the dining rooms and smoking rooms of Pall Mall, Paget recruited 500 officers and men from a tiny, hopelessly inadequate room at the Imperial Yeomanry Committee’s offices in Suffolk Street. However, it at least had the advantage of being only a short stroll from the clubs of which he was a member. Paget’s Horse wore a badge made up of the letters PH which provided a source of instant merriment for the wags on the streets of London, who suggested that it stood for ‘Piccadilly Heroes’ or more commonly for ‘Perfectly Harmless’.”

 

The 51st, 52nd and 68th companies departed on the troopship Tagus on the 16th March 1900 with the 73rd company following on the 31st March 1900 on the Delphic. The battalion arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in April 1900 and was sent to Maitland Camp situated near Cape Town where it spent many weeks waiting for the arrival of its horses and was occupied in cleaning stables, fetching food and forage, striking tents etc.

 

On the morning of the 30th May 1900 a small detachment of Paget’s Horse, led by Lt. J.G.B. Lethbridge, 52nd company, together with other Imperial Yeomanry units, Royal Canadian Artillery, and companies of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own, was engaged in an action at Faber’s Put, in Griqualand West.

 

Paget’s Horse took part in several further actions, as well as convoy duty, including one “general engagement just outside Malmami where Sir Frederick Carrington and Lord Errol commanded. We galloped about from place to place the whole morning without firing a shot… We were not, I think, under actual fire altogether for more than half an hour, although the engagement itself lasted all day.” (Rose-Innes, Cosmo, With Paget’s Horse to the Front.). Four squadrons of Paget’s Horse were present at this action.

 

There were many small engagements in which Paget’s Horse played a part, in conjunction with Colonial forces of New Zealand and Australia. The main area of activity was western Transvaal notably around Mafeking, Ottoshoop, Rustenburg, Zeerust, Lichtenburg, Schweizer-Reneke and the Elands River Staging Post.

www.militarysunhelmets.com/2012/pagets-horse-in-the-boer-war

 

In September 1900, word began to spread among the Yeomanry about the decision made to return another volunteer unit, the City of London Imperial Volunteers (CIV), home to Britain. Although the CIV had been in South Africa since January 1900, the decision to send them home caused resentment among the Imperial Yeomanry. The constant, monotonous routine of patrolling was beginning to affect their enthusiasm for the war. Another cause of resentment was the policy of farm burning that had been imposed by Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief, work that the educated men of the Yeomanry found particularly hard to accept. With morale running low, they began to volunteer for service outside their units. Regular Army regiments readily accepted these men as officers while government departments also offered these men jobs in civilian life. The reduction in the ranks caused by these transfers, along with the number decimated by disease and discharged on medical grounds, occurred at an alarming rate. There was no policy in place to reinforce the first Imperial Yeomanry contingent and, as a result, by the end of 1900, only about one-third of the original strength remained. Although the contingent had signed on for 'a year or for the duration of the war', it was clear that it was heading for disaster, unless something could be done quickly to remedy the decline in volunteer numbers. This realisation led to recruitment for a second, and larger, Imperial Yeomanry contingent in early 1901

samilitaryhistory.org/vol136sw.html

 

Ernest’s Queen South Africa Medal was auctioned in 2012. The on-line auctioneers notes are:-

 

Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle was born on 21 November 1860, the son of Charles John Boyle and Zacyntha Moore. During the Boer War he served as a Sergeant-Major in the 73rd Company (Paget’s Horse) 19th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, 1900-01, and was awarded the Queen’s medal with four clasps. As a Captain in the Honourable Artillery Company, he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 20 January 1915. As a Lieutenant-Colonel in the H.A.C. he was awarded the D.S.O. (London Gazette 1 January 1917). He was killed in action on 7 February 1917, aged 56 years. Lieutenant-Colonel Boyle was buried in the Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel. Entitled to the 1914-15 Star trio. With copied research.

The Q.S.A. awarded to Sergeant-Major E. C. P. Boyle, Imperial Yeomanry, who as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Honourable Artillery Company during the Great War, was awarded the D.S.O., and was killed in action, 7 February 1917

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 (13476 S. Major E. C. P. Boyle, 73rd Coy. 19th Imp. Yeo.) nearly extremely fine

www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?a...

 

Census

There is no obvious match for Ernest on the 1911 census. His brother William Lewis Boyle, (aged 51 and an Irishman born the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa), was recorded staying at what looks like a Gentlemans Club on Northumberland Avenue, The Strand, West Central London. His relationship to the head of household is listed as member. His occupation is Member of Parliament, while fellow club members includes a Director of British American Tobacco, various Barristers, Solictors, Merchants and Army and Navy Officers.

 

His wife Charlotte Mary was recorded staying at The Lodge, East Tuddenham, Norfolk. Her husband was absent on the night of the census. Charlotte was aged 51 and was born St Mary-le-Bow, London. The couple have been married 23 years and have had two children, both then still alive. One was still living with her mother – Evelyn Vere Boyle, (aged 22 and born New York, USA). There are then 7 live-in servants.

 

On the 1901 census the service personnel in South Africa were not covered. William and Charlotte were recorded at a dwelling The Hall, Peaseland Green, Elsing. William, from the Cape Colony, South Africa, is recorded as Living on Own Means. Daughter Evelyn V, (aged 11) was living with them.

 

Given Evelyn’s date and place of birth, the couple could well have still been in the States at the time of the 1891 census. There is no match for Ernest either.

 

Military Career

In the London Gazette edition dated 13th December 1901, it was announced that Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle, Gentleman was to be a Lieutenant, dated 8th December 1901 in the 1st County of London, (Rough Riders), Imperial Yeomanry.

www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27387/page/8842

 

In the edition of the 11th March 1902 Lieutenant Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle, 1st County of London Imperial Yeomanry was confirmed as a Captain, (with the temporary rank of Captain in the Army), dated 30th January 1902.

www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27415/page/1734

 

Next appearance is in the Gazette of the 29th September 1914, when in the Infantry Force of the Honourable Artillery Company, Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle, City of London Imperial Yeomanry, was appointed Captain effective 30th September 1914.

www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28918/page/7696

 

In the Gazette of the 22nd June 1917, the following Legal Notice appears.

Re. Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle D.S.O. deceased

Pursuant to the Act of Parliament of the 22nd and 23rd Vict, cap 35.

NOTICE is hereby given that all creditors and other persons having claims against the estate of Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Charles Patrick Boyle DSO, late of Good Hope, Mavis Bank in the Island of Jamaica, deceased, (who died on the 7th day of February 1917 on active service in France and whose will was proved in the Principal Registry of the Probate Division of the High Court of Justice, on the 19th Day of June 1917 by Colonel Lionel Richard Cavendish Boyle, M.V.O, (one of the executors named in the said will), are hereby required to send the particulars in writing of their debts, claims and demands to the undersigned, the Solicitor for the said Lionel Richard Cavendish Boyle, on or before the 31st July 1917, after which date the said executor will proceed to distribute the assets of the said deceased amongst the persons entitled thereto, having regards only to the claims and demands of which he shall then have had notice; and he will not be liable for the assets of the said deceased or any part thereof, so distributed, to any person or persons of whose debts, claims or demands he shall not then have had notice. Dated this 20th day of June 1917.

R J Preston, 7 Bedford row, London W.C.1. Solicitor for the said Executor.

www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30145/page/6203

 

His headstone (and a bit more about his Military Career), can be seen here

hac1418.wordpress.com/1917/02/07/boyle-ernest-charles-pat...

 

On the day

7th February 1917

On 7th February it was the turn of l90 Brigade to attack. This went well with 1/HAC taking Baillescourt Farm which was in the river valley 600yds ahead of the line taken and established on the 4th. The position now was that the line was advanced into the river valley, but the high ground to the north and south was still in German hands.

www.royalnavaldivision.co.uk/mir1.htm

 

From the Battalion War Diary of the 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.

7 Feb 1917 6 p.m. 4th Bedf.R. take over left front Subsector and relieve NELSON Bn. R.N.D. Frontage R.1.a.7.3. to R.2.a.9.7. Bn. on our right 10 R.Dublin Fusrs. with 1st H.A.C. on extreme right. Bn. on our left 15 H.L.I. 7 Royal Fusiliers in Support.

www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/4thbn/4thbtn1917diary.html

 

Bailescourt Farm; they were involved in an attack on the night of the 7th Feb at "Sunken Road, including the junction of Miraumont Alley and Bailescourt Farm.

The Battalion HQ moved to the Puisieux Line and zero hour was timed for 11pm. Two companies attacked, 'A' on the right and 'B' on the left. The former had for their objective Bailescourt Farm, and the latter found what proved to be the more difficult task of assaulting the Sunken Road. 'C' and 'D' Companies were held in reserve. Thirty five minutes later all objectives were reported to be reached, the success of the operation being largely due to the magnificent creeping barrage put down by our artillery. Miraumont Alley was the scene of final resistance, and Capt S J Bryan, a very brave soul, lost his life. Eighty-six prisoners in all were captured, and our men soon got to work consolidating the new position."

 

from The Honourable Artillery Company in the Great War 1914-1919

1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=125177

 

"It was on this day, the 7th, at 2 p.m, Col. E. C. P. Boyle, DSO, received orders to attend a conference with the Brigadier, but when within two yards of the door of his dugout was mortally wounded and died at 2.35 p.m."

"The Corps, Divisional and Brigade Commanders were present at Hamel Cemetary on the 9th, when Col. Boyle was buried."

 

From: "The Honourable Artillery Company in the Great War."

(The same forum post includes a low quality picture – only visible to forum members)

 

We slept right through until just after midday. She got up to visit the bathroom, it stirred me and I remember looking at the time and thinking another few more hours would be perfectly fine. She came back and dropped beside me on the bed, cuddling in to my side and falling asleep moments later. Her breathing, the feel of it on my neck became hypnotic. It wasn’t long before I slipped into a deep and relaxing sleep for the first time in weeks.

 

When I roused it was well into the afternoon. She was still beside me but wide awake watching me as I came to. She must have wrapped us both up in the duvet while I was sleeping. She had it pulled around her chest. Her arms across my chest, a gentle smile on her face.

 

“You will have missed your train back” she said as matter of fact.

 

I glanced at the time, I had missed my train by hours. It was likely already back in London and filling with passengers to make the return journey to Paris.

 

She could read my expression. “Stay here another night and we can both travel back to London first thing?” she asked.

 

A few hours later, showered and another change of clothes and we were both back at the bar at Rue de Lyon, where Friday night had seemed so glum, almost morbid affair. However with hindsight it had to run its course for the following two days to be as they were. She had been watching me closely since we had arrived, even in the taxi journey over from the Champs-Élysées I could feel her prolonged sideward glances at me as I watched Parisian life go past. We had sat there without saying anything for around thirty minutes. It was a content silence, had it been awkward at any time then one of us would certainly have made some passing comment. Quietly sat there drinking another fine red wine and smoking. Watching and listening to the city around us attempt to wind down for the Sunday evening.

 

“I suppose we should talk” she said topping up both our glasses. With the bottle nearly empty she catches the waiter’s eye.

 

Very wary of how to reply to this I watched her as she made sure the waiter got the right wine, opened the bottle without corking it. After he had emptied the bottle into our glasses and carried it away, she lit up another cigarette, rolling it around her painted red lips. Her eyes darting around for the first time I realised she was avoiding eye contact. She was nervous about something. I smiled and reached across the table for her hand.

 

Le parfum sucré de vos roses s'évapore Et moi je compose

Vous ne m'aurez jamais donné Que le baiser du condamné

 

She instinctively pulled her hand away a fraction, then resisted and I held her hand in mine. She finally looked at me and I could see the moisture of tears in her eyes. I moved around the table so I was sitting next to her and not across from her, putting my arm around her shoulder and pulling her towards me. She let her head rest against my chest and there we both stayed.

 

When the waiter came back to top up the glasses and change the ashtray he looked down at us, I assume he asks whether we are both ok, face still buried in my chest she says she is ok. The waiter exchanged the ashtrays and left.

 

“What’s on your mind?” I finally asked her.

 

With a deep sigh she lifted her head and sat back up in the chair. Reaching for a cigarette, flicking her Zippo open and then puffing the fag alight. Her eyes now dry still wore the underlying redness around the lids. This was totally out of character for her. It had been years since she had broken down into tears in front of me and that was a result of her family’s rejection of her sexuality. That particular issue rolled on for years with biting and snapping going both ways between her father and Angel. It ended predictably with a hostile exile from the family home, and she has never been back. However the arrogance of her father and willingness to drop her simply because of her given sexuality created a stubbornness and relentless desire in her to achieve. To prove that she could aspire to great heights not only in her career but life in general. It has been this constant push behind her that has ensured her success.

 

Something pure and wholesome emerged from the years of resentment.

 

Now she had felt so worn down that only tears could flow. Dragging deeply and inhaling the smoke, she now looked away into the distant. It was hard to read her expression yet I felt I had to say or do something because deep down there was this emotional bond that I felt had been stretched with her over the last two days, and I had been pulling on it. Inadvertently I hasten to add.

 

Standing up she motioned to the waiter and handed him a company credit card. She drained her glass and nodded to me suggesting that I should also finish my drink. Entering her PIN for the card she picked up her coat, drained the last of the wine from her glass and then held out her hand for me to take. Taking her hand and gulping down the rest of the wine we left the bar, I hoped it wouldn’t be the last time I saw it, or indeed ventured there together with her.

 

“Tell me about her?” she asked as we walked up to the square. “This babe of yours” she added.

 

“Nothing to say really” I replied.

 

“That’s your polite way of saying to mind my own business isn’t it?” she fired back.

“Yes” I replied smiling. “It is.”

 

“Well at least tell me how the two of you met. You can talk about that, right?” she said getting slightly frustrated.

 

“Sure I can. We met at the Swinging Witch in Stepford one night” I replied still smiling.

A sideways glance, it meant nothing to her but seemed to appease her curiosity. In fact there were only two people who would understand the reference, I was one, babe was the other.

 

We continued walking in silence until we reached the square. Instead of waiting to see what taxis were around she pulled me towards the Metro. As we approached the steps she stopped and looked at me. Searching my face for something that clearly wasn’t there.

 

“She will break your heart you know that don’t you?” she stated rather than propositioned.

 

I pulled her down the steps and hoped by the time were emerged at the other end this conversation would have been forgotten. She was doing it again, telling me the things I knew deep down were right but I would rather not accept. Not until it was far too late. The reality was so much colder than the warmth of an illusion.

 

By the time we reached the apartment I had managed to deflect all of her questions. She had talked about how things had changed for her as well. Professionally speaking but she had only done so by questioning what she had accepted. She told me how I had reassured her, given the comfort and confidence to challenge herself on an issue which remained of great importance. The conclusion was already reached before she even asked the question. That is why she had cried. So much water under the bridge, mostly all of it polluted with the sedition and control of others she trusted and were supposed to be close to her. When she took me back to her childhood and her growing up, the things that became so fundamental in her life seemed perfectly reasonable given what she had to shoulder on her own.

 

Malcolm McLaren’s voice softly drifted over the evening air educating the uninitiated that Paris and jazz were inextricably linked, entwined like new lovers. She poured us both a large glass of brandy and we sat, the balcony doors open watching the evening sky. She appeared to be much happier in herself now. I would like to say that I had a hand in helping her through a very dark period of her life but this is simply not true. She had come to her own conclusions, I had merely provided emotional support had she needed it. Which she hadn’t.

 

She padded around picking up clothes, clearing away glasses and emptying ashtrays. Finally she closed the doors on the balcony, yawned and made her way to her bedroom door.

 

“Goodnight” she said

 

I raised my glass to her silhouetted outline. “Good night, sleep well Angel.” I replied.

 

By the time the haunting tune of the ‘Revenge of the Flowers’ came on I had finished my brandy and was getting comfy on the sofa. I heard footsteps across the floor next door. Hurried, then the sound of her door opening.

 

I sat up now worried that she was going to be sick but she didn’t make her way towards bathroom. She came over to me and stood by the sofa. I could see she was smiling. She pulled me up off the sofa and held me by the waist. Her mouth hovered by my lips. I could smell the expensive wine on her breath. She then pulled me across the room to her bedroom and kicked the door shut after us.

 

I had no need to say anything.

 

(‘three nights in Paris’ excerpts by Jack Hargreaves © 2013)

 

E F Drew- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: DREW, EDGAR FREDERICK

Rank: Pilot Officer (Air Gnr.) Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Unit Text: 7 Sqdn.

Age: 27 Date of Death: 25/08/1941 Service No: 46121

Additional information: Son of Frederick and Violet Harriet Drew, of Silfield, Wymondham, Norfolk.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Coll. grave 8. F. 6-9. Cemetery: RHEINBERG WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2042970

 

Stirling N6020 Information

Type......................................................Stirling

Serial Number....................................N6020

Squadron.............................................7

X1D.......................................................MG-B

Operation............................................Karlsruhe

Date 1..................................................25th August 1941

Date 2..................................................26th August 1941

 

Further Information

"Serial Range N6000 - N6049. 50 Stirling Mk.1. Delivered to Wyton 29Apr 41, to No.7 Sqdn 5 May 41. Total Flying Hours 88.10. Airborne 2102 25Aug41 from Oakington. Crashed at Trier, Germany, due to a combination of battle damage and adverse weather. Those killed are buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery.

F/O K.O.Blunden KIA

P/O J.D.Wright KIA

Sgt G.Nicholson KIA

Sgt J.D.Edworthy RCAF KIA

Sgt W.E.Allan RCAF KIA

P/O E.F.Drew KIA

Sgt D.A.Lloyd PoW Sgt D.A.Lloyd was interned in Camps 8B/L3/L6/357, PoW No.23610. "

www.lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=690

 

There are no Stirlings claimed as shot down in the Luftwaffe records for this period.

 

*******************************************************************

*A G J Dove- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: DOVE, ALAN GILBERT JOHN

Rank: Convoy Signalman Regiment/Service: Royal Navy Unit Text: H.M.S. President III

Date of Death: 22/01/1943 Service No: C/JX 309935

Grave/Memorial Reference: 70, 3. Memorial: CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2466830

 

The HMS President III was a home ship for many Royal Naval Personnel who were actually assigned to Merchantmen and other non-RN craft. In Alan Dove’s case this was the SS St Sunniva, a pre-war luxury ocean going yacht that was requisitioned by the Navy and was being used as a Convoy Rescue ship.

 

The winter of 1942/1943 was one of the harshest in living memory. SS St Sunniva had an uneventful journey out with convoy ON158 from the Clyde, heading for Nova Scotia. She was last heard of on the 21st January on the approach to Labrador. Her final fate is not known, but it is surmised that a sudden build up of ice caused her to become top heavy, and she turned turtle. There were no survivors.

archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Mariners/2005-01/1...

 

St Sunniva, steamship

ANDERSON, Douglas, Act/Able Seaman (DEMS), P/JX 312619, (President III, O/P), MPK

BARLOW, Albert W, Act/Able Seaman (DEMS), P/JX 335076, (President III, O/P), MPK

CALLAGHAN, Bernard, Gunner, RA, 1821370, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

CHRISTER, Robert E W, Sick Berth Attendant (DEMS), C/MX 109355, (President III, O/P), MPK

COOK, William, Gunner, RA, 1826034, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

DAVIES, Claude M, Ty/Py/Surgeon Lieutenant, RNVR, (Spartiate, O/P), killed

DOVE, Alan G J, Convoy Signalman, C/JX 309935, (President III, O/P), MPK

HAWKRIDGE, William L, Sick Berth Attendant, C/MX 109227, (President III, O/P), MPK

HOGAN, John J, Act/Able Seaman (DEMS), D/JX 345350, (President III, O/P), MPK

HOWE, John H, Gunner, RA, 1754676, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

LINDSAY, David P, Act/Able Seaman (DEMS), C/JX 249698, (President III, O/P), MPK

MCINERNEY, Joseph J, Gunner, RA, 1821351, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

MORLEY, Richard W, Ty/Act/Leading Seaman (DEM), C/JX 201866, (President III, O/P), MPK

PEAD, Henry D, Lance Bombardier, RA, 6968723, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

RALPH, Gerald G, Bombardier, RA, 4755362, (7/4 Maritime Regt, RA, O/P), killed

WAKELING, John E, Act/Able Seaman (DEMS), C/JX 339510, (President III, O/P), MPK

WHITE, Robert, Convoy Signalman, C/JX 269287, (President III, O/P), MPK

www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1943-01JAN.htm

 

Another report lists 64 souls on board, presumably from the merchant marine.

archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Mariners/2005-01/1...

 

www.aberdeenquest.com/Play/LookandPlay/StSunnivaII/StSunn...

shetlopedia.com/St_Sunniva_(II)

www.simplonpc.co.uk/NorthCo/StSunniva1931_03.jpg

 

I suspect this is Alan brother as he mentions he had a brother who served 18 months on the Russian Convoys before going down with his ship

 

www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/02/a3880802.shtml

 

******************************************************************

C F Douglas- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: DOUGLAS, COLIN FREDERICK

Rank: Aircraftman 1st Class Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Unit Text: 605 Sqdn.

Date of Death: 25/11/1942 Service No: 1294625

Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 418. Memorial: SINGAPORE MEMORIAL

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1814442

 

One of many from Norfolk who died in Japanese PoW camps

****************************************************************

F J G Elvin- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: ELVIN, FREDERICK JAMES GEORGE

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Royal Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 4th Bn.

Age: 21 Date of Death: 15/02/1942 Service No: 5775120

Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 50. Memorial: SINGAPORE MEMORIAL

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4018597

 

www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Regiments/Royal_Norfolk_Regimen...

 

******************************************************************

F G Forster- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: FORSTER, FREDERICK GEORGE

Rank: Lance Corporal Regiment/Service: Royal Army Service Corps Age: 21

Date of Death: 26/09/1945 Service No: T/14770444

Additional information: Son of James Ernest and Mabel Gertrude Forster, of Wymondham, Norfolk.

Grave/Memorial Reference: 26. E. 17. Cemetery: TAUKKYAN WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2085556

 

One of many from Norfolk who died in Japanese PoW camps

******************************************************************

K F Fowler- also on Abbey Roll of Honour,

 

Name: FOWLER, KENNETH FREDERICK

Rank: Aircraftman 2nd Class Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Age: 19 Date of Death: 31/10/1942 Service No: 1450295

Additional information: Son of Frederick Alomis Fowler and Rose Gwendoline Fowler, of Wymondham.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Sec. 3. Grave 465. Cemetery: WYMONDHAM CEMETERY

*******************************************************************

J C Hall- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: HALL, JOHN CHARLES

Rank: Squadron Leader (Pilot) Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Unit Text: 15 Sqdn.

Age: 24 Date of Death: 18/05/1942 Service No: 41693 Awards: D F C, Mentioned in Despatches

Additional information: Son of William Salkeld Hall and Dorothy Mary Hall, of Wymondham, Norfolk.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Grave BD. 382. Cemetery: ODENSE (ASSISTENS) CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2271434

 

Stirling W7531 Information

Type....................................................Stirling

Serial Number..................................W7531

Squadron..........................................15

X1D.....................................................LS-F

Operation.........................................Gardening

Date 1...............................................17th May 1942

Date 2...............................................18th May 1942

 

Further Information

"Serial Range W7500 - W7539. 40 Stirling Mk.1. Delivered to No.15 Sqdn 2 May 42. This aircraft was the second Stirling to be named 'MacRobert's Reply', the first one was N6086 which was damaged on take off from Lossiemouth by hitting a Spitfire 'which shouldn't have been there' (quote from Sgt Jeffs). The Spitfire pilot was killed, which caused a considerable amount of distress to the crew (Captain S/Ldr P.Boggis)

 

Airborne 2140 17 May 42 from Wyton to lay mines in the Danish Sound (Carrots Region). Hit by Marine Flak in the target area and a port engine caught fire. Shortly afterwards, the Stirling flew over the Little Belt Bridge, again coming under sustained ground fire, which sent the bomber down at 0210 into a wooded area at Galsklint, 2 km W of Middelfart, Denmark. Sgt Jeffs was thrown out on impact and was taken into captivity, severely injured. Sgt Maycock has no known grave, but the rest of the crew killed were buried 21 May 42 in Odense Cemetery.

 

F/L Booth was a not a member of 15 Sqdn. He had been visiting Wyton and, on impulse, had asked to join the crew. F/O Ryan was a New Zealander serving in the RCAF.

 

S/L J.C.Hall DFC MiD KIA

F/L N.G.R.Booth (guest) KIA

Sgt A.Spriggs KIA

F/O J.P.Ryan RCAF KIA

Sgt R.Maycock KIA

Sgt J.B.Butterworth KIA

Sgt F.L.Sharp KIA

Sgt D.J.Jeffs PoW

Sgt R.Nicholson KIA

 

Mr Philip Jeffs, son of the lone survivor, offers the following illuminating information. Sgt Maycock is now also buried in Odense Cemetery, and a new headstone laid in 1999 marks the spot. His family now live in Australia and are aware of the burial of his remains. F/Lt Booth was assigned to W7531 for that flight, not as a guest on impulse, but as an official observer of the new GEE Radar System. The rest of the crew were forbidden to talk about this late entry. It appears that there was some resentment from the regular crewmen about having an RAF Observer on board, especially as a 'second' pilot. John 'Buck' Ryan was a New Zealander who went to Canada to join the RCAF, and was appointed to the 'The Reply' due to his Navigation and Radar skills. Sgt D.J.Jeffs was interned in Camps 8B/344, PoW No.24967."

www.lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=11118

Stirling I W7531 shot down by flak at Galsklint on 18/5 1942.

 

The Stirling belonged to RAF 15 Sqn. Bomber Command and was coded LS-F.

T/o 21:40 Wyton OP: Gardening Daffodil (South entrance to Øresund)

 

When W7531 was ready to drop mines in the southern entrance to Øresund, it was hit by flak from several ships, as well as from shore batteries.

 

Fires broke out and Pilot Sqn Ldr. John Hall DFC turned due west, while the crew battled the fires. When W7531 passed the Lille Bælt Bridge it was hit several times by flak from 3.lei Flak Abt. 844 II and IV Zug. At 02:10 hours W7531 crashed in the Forrest on Gals Klint , approximately 2 km to the west of Middelfart.

 

When the Stirling hit the ground, one of the remaining mines onboard exploded and the plane was totally wrecked.

 

Only W/Op Sgt Donald Jeffs survived the crash and the explosion, severely wounded. He was by the German Wehrmacht brought to the German Lazarett in Fredericia, and later on to the lazarett in Rendsburg. When he had recovered from his wounds, he was sent to Stalag VIIIB / 344 Lamsdorf.

 

The rest of the crew who apart from Sqn Ldr Hall consisted of Pilot F/Lt Neville G.R.Booth, Navigator F/O John P.Ryan RCAF, Air Gnr. Sgt John B. Butterworth, Air Gnr. Sgt Robert Nicholson, Air Gnr. Frank L. Sharp, Observer Sgt Ronald Maycock and Flt. Engr. Sgt Anthony Spriggs all perished.

 

The bodies were severely mutilated,and on 21/5 at 07:00 hours what was believed to be six crewmembers were laid to rest in a common grave in the Assistens cemetery in Odense.

The ceremony was performed by the German army chaplain Vorrath with full military honuors. Also participating were several Danish and German officers. The missing crewmember was Sgt Ronald Maycock.

 

In 1999 a group of people from Odense had worked their way through reports and testimonies dating back from May 1943 and had collected enough evidence to be able to convince The Commonwealth War Graves Commission that Maycock actually had been buried with his comrades on 21/5 1942. On 10/5 1999 a ceremony was held at the cemetery and a headstone with Maycocks name on it was unveiled.

 

After the war a memorial stone was raised on the spot where W7531 crashed. Every year on 5/5 on the day of the liberation of Denmark a ceremony is held on the site.

 

(There is also pictures of Jeffs and Sharp)

 

www.flensted.eu.com/194227.shtml

 

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W J P Haylett- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: HAYLETT, WILLIAM JOHN PATRICK

Rank: Corporal Regiment/Service: Royal Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 5th Bn.

Age: 26 Date of Death: 18/09/1944 Service No: 5775353

Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 48. Memorial: SINGAPORE MEMORIAL

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2133472

 

One of many from Norfolk who died in Japanese PoW camps

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W E Holmes- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: HOLMES, WILLIAM ERNEST

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Royal Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 4th Bn.

Age: 23 Date of Death: 11/02/1942 Service No: 5774338

Additional information: Son of Ernest Daniel and Jane Agnes Holmes, of Wymondham, Norfolk.

Memorial Reference: Column 51. Memorial: SINGAPORE MEMORIAL

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2133793

 

William was to die during the final days of the Fall of Singapore, and like so many, has no known grave.

 

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R J Howes- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Possibly

Name: HOWES, RAYMOND JOHN

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: South Wales Borderers Unit Text: 2nd Bn.

Age: 19 Date of Death: 11/08/1944 Service No: 14675789

Grave/Memorial Reference: XXII. A. 2. Cemetery: BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2326766

 

Less Likely is

 

Name: HOWES, RAYMOND DOUGLAS

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 28 Date of Death: 28/02/1944 Service No: 5771965

Additional information: Son of George and Beatrice Elizabeth Howes, of Sculthorpe, Norfolk.

Grave/Memorial Reference: III, H, 1. Cemetery: ASSISI WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2048841

 

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F Lain- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Either

Name: LAIN, FREDERICK NORMAN

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment Unit Text: 2nd Bn. The Hertfordshire Regt.

Age: 30 Date of Death: 18/09/1944 Service No: 5778211

Additional information: Son of Frederick and Lucy Lain; husband of Kathleen Kate Lain. Grave/Memorial Reference: XIX, G, 5. Cemetery: CORIANO RIDGE WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2635743

 

Or

Name: LAIN, FREDERICK CHARLES

Rank: Lance Serjeant Regiment/Service: Grenadier Guards Unit Text: 3rd Bn.

Age: 30 Date of Death: 02/05/1940 Service No: 768990

Additional information: Son of Frederick Archibald and Alice Lain, of Watford; husband of Doris Mildred Lain, of Watford.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Sec. B. Cons. Grave 569. Cemetery: WATFORD NORTH CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2933221

 

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R J Leeder- also on Abbey Roll of Honour

 

Name: LEEDER, ROBERT JOHN CHARLES

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Royal Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 18 Date of Death: 06/06/1944 Service No: 14646610

Grave/Memorial Reference: 1. A. 5. Cemetery: HERMANVILLE WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2337265

 

The Allied offensive in north-western Europe began with the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. The village of Hermanville lay behind Sword beach and was occupied early on 6 June by men of the South Lancashire regiment. Later the same day, the Shropshire Light Infantry supported by the armour of the Staffordshire Yeomanry managed to reach and hold Bieville-Benville, four kilometres to the south of Hermanville. Many of those buried in Hermanville War Cemetery died on 6 June or during the first days of the drive towards Caen. The cemetery contains 1,003 Second World War burials, 103 of them unidentified

www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=203300...

 

A personal narrative of an NCO from the 1st Battalion involved in the D Day landings can be read here.

 

www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/39/a2691939.shtml

 

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K B Howlett

 

Name: HOWLETT, KENNETH BASIL

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Royal Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 2nd Bn.

Age: 19 Date of Death: 16/03/1945 Service No: 14631679

Additional information: Son of William and Annie Howlett.

Grave/Memorial Reference: 17. J. 21. Cemetery: TAUKKYAN WAR CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2086271

    

Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.

 

Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities, Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society.

 

The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a centre for the arts, fashion, and entertainment. The city is known for its street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its red-light districts. The Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings.

 

Bangkok's rapid growth coupled with little urban planning has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure. Despite an extensive expressway network, an inadequate road network and substantial private car usage have led to chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The city has since turned to public transport in an attempt to solve the problem, operating eight urban rail lines and building other public transit, but congestion still remains a prevalent issue. The city faces long-term environmental threats such as sea level rise due to climate change.

 

The history of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, dates at least to the early 15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya. Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank. King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, who succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782, to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name, "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon". Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes, growing rapidly, especially in the second half of the 20th century, to become the primate city of Thailand. It was the centre of Siam's modernization in the late 19th century, subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War, and has long been the modern nation's central political stage, with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years.

 

It is not known exactly when the area which is now Bangkok was first settled. It probably originated as a small farming and trading community, situated in a meander of the Chao Phraya River within the mandala of Ayutthaya's influence. The town had become an important customs outpost by as early as the 15th century; the title of its customs official is given as Nai Phra Khanon Thonburi (Thai: นายพระขนอนทณบุรี) in a document from the reign of Ayutthayan king Chao Sam Phraya (1424–1448). The name also appears in the 1805 revised code of laws known as the Law of Three Seals.

 

At the time, the Chao Phraya flowed through what are now the Bangkok Noi and Bangkok Yai canals, forming a large loop in which lay the town. In the reign of King Chairacha (either in 1538 or 1542), a waterway was excavated, bypassing the loop and shortening the route for ships sailing up to Ayutthaya. The flow of the river has since changed to follow the new waterway, dividing the town and making the western part an island. This geographical feature may have given the town the name Bang Ko (บางเกาะ), meaning 'island village', which later became Bangkok (บางกอก, pronounced in Thai as [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk]). Another theory regarding the origin of the name speculates that it is shortened from Bang Makok (บางมะกอก), makok being the name of Spondias pinnata, a plant bearing olive-like fruit. This is supported by the fact that Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, used to be named Wat Makok. Specific mention of the town was first made in the royal chronicles from the reign of King Maha Chakkraphat (1548–1568), giving its name as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (ธนบุรีศรีมหาสมุทร). Bangkok was probably a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors.

 

The importance of Bangkok/Thonburi increased with the amount of Ayutthaya's maritime trade. Dutch records noted that ships passing through Bangkok were required to declare their goods and number of passengers, as well as pay customs duties. Ships' cannons would be confiscated and held there before they were allowed to proceed upriver to Ayutthaya. An early English language account is that of Adam Denton, who arrived aboard the Globe, an East India Company merchantman bearing a letter from King James I, which arrived in "the Road of Syam" (Pak Nam) on 15 August 1612, where the port officer of Bangkok attended to the ship. Denton's account mentions that he and his companions journeyed "up the river some twenty miles to a town called Bancope, where we were well received, and further 100 miles to the city...."

 

Ayutthaya's maritime trade was at its height during the reign of King Narai (1656–1688). Recognition of the city's strategic location guarding the water passage to Ayutthaya lead to expansion of the military presence there. A fort of Western design was constructed on the east side of the river around 1685–1687 under the supervision of French engineer de la Mare, probably replacing an earlier structure, while plans to rebuild the fort on the west bank were also made. De la Mare had arrived with the French embassy of Chevalier de Chaumont, and remained in Siam along with Chevalier de Forbin, who had been appointed governor of Bangkok. The Bangkok garrison under Forbin consisted of Siamese, Portuguese, and French reportedly totalling about one thousand men.

 

French control over the city was further consolidated when the French General Desfarges, who had arrived with the second French embassy in 1687, secured the king's permission to board troops there. This, however, lead to resentment among Siamese nobles, led by Phetracha, ultimately resulting in the Siamese revolution of 1688, in which King Narai was overthrown and 40,000 Siamese troops besieged Bangkok's eastern fort for four months before an agreement was reached and the French were allowed to withdraw. The revolution resulted in Siam's ties with the West being virtually severed, steering its trade towards China and Japan. The eastern fort was subsequently demolished on Phetracha's orders.

 

Ayutthaya was razed by the Burmese in 1767. In the following months, multiple factions competed for control of the kingdom's lands. Of these, Phraya Tak, governor of Tak and a general fighting in Ayutthaya's defence prior to its fall, emerged as the strongest. After succeeding in reclaiming the cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, Phraya Tak declared himself king (popularly known as King Taksin) in 1768 and established Thonburi as his capital. Reasons given for this change include the totality of Ayutthaya's destruction and Thonburi's strategic location. Being a fortified town with a sizeable population meant that not much would need to be reconstructed. The existence of an old Chinese trading settlement on the eastern bank allowed Taksin to use his Chinese connections to import rice and revive trade.

 

King Taksin had the city area extended northwards to border the Bangkok Noi Canal. A moat was dug to protect the city's western border, on which new city walls and fortifications were built. Moats and walls were also constructed on the eastern bank, encircling the city together with the canals on the western side. The king's palace (Thonburi Palace) was built within the old city walls, including the temples of Wat Chaeng (Wat Arun) and Wat Thai Talat (Wat Molilokkayaram) within the palace grounds. Outlying orchards were re-landscaped for rice farming.

 

Much of Taksin's reign was spent in military campaigns to consolidate the Thonburi Kingdom's hold over Siamese lands. His kingdom, however, would last only until 1782 when a coup was mounted against him, and the general Chao Phraya Chakri established himself as king, later to be known as Phutthayotfa Chulalok or Rama I.

 

Rama I re-established the capital on the more strategic east bank of the river, relocating the Chinese already settled there to the area between Wat Sam Pluem and Wat Sampheng (which developed into Bangkok's Chinatown). Fortifications were rebuilt, and another series of moats was created, encircling the city in an area known as Rattanakosin Island.

 

The erection of the city pillar on 21 April 1782 is regarded as the formal date of the city's establishment. (The year would later mark the start of the Rattanakosin Era after calendar reforms by King Rama V in 1888.) Rama I named the new city Krung Rattanakosin In Ayothaya (กรุงรัตนโกสินทร์อินท์อโยธยา). This was later modified by King Nangklao to be: Krungthepmahanakhon Bowonrattanakosin Mahintha-ayutthaya. While settlements on both banks were commonly called Bangkok, both the Burney Treaty of 1826 and the Roberts Treaty of 1833 refer to the capital as the City of Sia-Yut'hia. King Mongkut (Rama IV) would later give the city its full ceremonial name:

 

Rama I modelled his city after the former capital of Ayutthaya, with the Grand Palace, Front Palace and royal temples by the river, next to the royal field (now Sanam Luang). Continuing outwards were the royal court of justice, royal stables and military prison. Government offices were located within the Grand Palace, while residences of nobles were concentrated south of the palace walls. Settlements spread outwards from the city centre.

 

The new capital is referred to in Thai sources as Rattanakosin, a name shared by the Siamese kingdom of this historical period. The name Krung Thep and Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, both shortened forms of the full ceremonial name, began to be used near the end of the 19th century. Foreigners, however, continued to refer to the city by the name Bangkok, which has seen continued use until this day.

 

Most of Rama I's reign was also marked by continued military campaigns, though the Burmese threat gradually declined afterwards. His successors consistently saw to the renovation of old temples, palaces, and monuments in the city. New canals were also built, gradually expanding the fledgling city as areas available for agriculture increased and new transport networks were created.

 

At the time of the city's foundation, most of the population lived by the river or the canals, often in floating houses on the water. Waterways served as the main method of transportation, and farming communities depended on them for irrigation. Outside the city walls, settlements sprawled along both river banks. Forced settlers, mostly captives of war, also formed several ethnic communities outside the city walls.

 

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants continued to settle in Bangkok, especially during the early 19th century. Such was their prominence that Europeans visiting in the 1820s estimated that they formed over half of the city population. The Chinese excelled in trade, and led the development of a market economy. The Chinese settlement at Sampheng had become a bustling market by 1835. 

 

By the mid-19th century, the West had become an increasingly powerful presence. Missionaries, envoys and merchants began re-visiting Bangkok and Siam, bringing with them both modern innovations and the threat of colonialism. King Mongkut (Rama IV, reigned 1851–1868) was open to Western ideas and knowledge, but was also forced to acknowledge their powers, with the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. During his reign, industrialization began taking place in Bangkok, which saw the introduction of the steam engine, modern shipbuilding and the printing press. Influenced by the Western community, Charoen Krung Road, the city's first paved street, was constructed in 1862–1864. This was followed by Bamrung Mueang, Fueang Nakhon, Trong (now Rama IV) and Si Lom Roads. Land transport would later surpass the canals in importance, shifting people's homes from floating dwellings toward permanent buildings. The limits of the city proper were also expanded during his reign, extending to the Phadung Krung Kasem Canal, dug in 1851.

 

King Mongkut's son Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) was set upon modernizing the country. He engaged in wide-ranging reforms, abolishing slavery, corvée (unfree labour) and the feudal system, and creating a centralized bureaucracy and a professional army. The Western concept of nationhood was adopted, and national borders demarcated against British and French territories. Disputes with the French resulted in the Paknam Incident in 1893, when the French sent gunboats up the Chao Phraya to blockade Bangkok, resulting in Siam's concession of territory to France.

 

With Chulalongkorn's reforms, governance of the capital and the surrounding areas, established as Monthon Krung Thep Phra Mahanakhon (มณฑลกรุงเทพพระมหานคร), came under the Ministry of Urban Affairs (Nakhonban). During his reign many more canals and roads were built, expanding the urban reaches of the capital. Infrastructure was developed, with the introduction of railway and telegraph services between Bangkok and Samut Prakan and then expanding countrywide. Electricity was introduced, first to palaces and government offices, then to serve electric trams in the capital and later the general public. The King's fascination with the West was reflected in the royal adoption of Western dress and fashions, but most noticeably in architecture. He commissioned the construction of the neoclassical Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall at the new Dusit Palace, which was linked to the historic city centre by the grand Ratchadamnoen Avenue, inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Examples of Western influence in architecture became visible throughout the city.

 

By 1900, rural market zones in Bangkok began developing into residential districts. Rama VI (1910–1925) continued his predecessor's program of the development of public works by establishing Chulalongkorn University in 1916, and commissioned a system of locks to control waterway levels surrounding the developing city, he also provided the city's first and largest recreational area, Lumphini Park. The Memorial Bridge was constructed in 1932 to connect Thonburi to Bangkok, which was believed to promote economic growth and modernization in a period when infrastructure was developing considerably. Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932. It was subject to Japanese occupation and Allied bombing during World War II. With the war over in 1945, British and Indian troops landed in September, and during their brief occupation of the city disarmed the Japanese troops. A significant event following the return of the young king, Ananda Mahidol, to Thailand, intended to defuse post-war tensions lingering between Bangkok's ethnic Chinese and Thai people, was his visit to Bangkok's Chinatown Sam Peng Lane (ซอยสำเพ็ง), on 3 June 1946.

 

As a result of pro-Western bloc treaties Bangkok rapidly grew in the post-war period as a result of United States developmental aid and government-sponsored investment. Infrastructure, including the Don Mueang International Airport and highways, was built and expanded.  Bangkok's role as an American military R&R destination launched its tourism industry as well as sex trade.  Disproportionate urban development led to increasing income inequalities and unprecedented migration from rural areas into Bangkok; its population surged from 1.8 to 3 million in the 1960s. Following the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam, Japanese businesses took over as leaders in investment, and the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing led to growth of the financial market in Bangkok.  Rapid growth of the city continued through the 1980s and early 1990s, until it was stalled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By then, many public and social issues had emerged, among them the strain on infrastructure reflected in the city's notorious traffic jams. Bangkok's role as the nation's political stage continues to be seen in strings of popular protests, from the student uprisings in 1973 and 1976, anti-military demonstrations in 1992, and successive anti-government protests by the "Yellow Shirt" and "Red Shirt" movements from 2008 on.

 

Administratively, eastern Bangkok and Thonburi had been established as separate provinces in 1915. (The province east of the river was named Phra Nakhon (พระนคร.) A series of decrees in 1971–1972 resulted in the merger of these provinces and its local administrations, forming the current city of Bangkok which is officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was created in 1975 to govern the city, and its governor has been elected since 1985.

Wat Pho, also spelled Wat Po, is a Buddhist temple complex in the Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand. It is on Rattanakosin Island, directly south of the Grand Palace. Known also as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, its official name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan. The more commonly known name, Wat Pho, is a contraction of its older name, Wat Photaram

 

The temple is first on the list of six temples in Thailand classed as the highest grade of the first-class royal temples. It is associated with King Rama I who rebuilt the temple complex on an earlier temple site. It became his main temple and is where some of his ashes are enshrined. The temple was later expanded and extensively renovated by Rama III. The temple complex houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, including a 46 m long reclining Buddha. The temple is considered the earliest centre for public education in Thailand, and the marble illustrations and inscriptions placed in the temple for public instructions has been recognised by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Programme. It houses a school of Thai medicine, and is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage which is still taught and practiced at the temple.

 

Wat Pho is one of Bangkok's oldest temples. It existed before Bangkok was established as the capital by King Rama I. It was originally named Wat Photaram or Podharam, from which the name Wat Pho is derived. The name refers to the monastery of the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India where Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. The date of the construction of the old temple and its founder are unknown, but it is thought to have been built or expanded during the reign of King Phetracha (1688–1703). The southern section of Wat Pho used to be occupied by part of a French Star fort that was demolished by King Phetracha after the 1688 Siege of Bangkok.

 

After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to the Burmese, King Taksin moved the capital to Thonburi where he located his palace beside Wat Arun on the opposite side of the Chao Phraya River from Wat Pho. The proximity of Wat Pho to this royal palace elevated it to the status of a wat luang ('royal monastery').

 

In 1782, King Rama I moved the capital from Thonburi across the river to Bangkok and built the Grand Palace adjacent to Wat Pho. In 1788, he ordered the construction and renovation at the old temple site of Wat Pho, which had by then become dilapidated. The site, which was marshy and uneven, was drained and filled in before construction began. During its construction, Rama I also initiated a project to remove Buddha images from abandoned temples in Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, as well other sites in Thailand, and many of these retrieved Buddha images were kept at Wat Pho. These include the remnants of an enormous Buddha image from Ayuthaya's Wat Phra Si Sanphet destroyed by the Burmese in 1767, and these were incorporated into a chedi in the complex. The rebuilding took over seven years to complete. In 1801, twelve years after work began, the new temple complex was renamed Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklavas in reference to the vihara of Jetavana, and it became the main temple for Rama I.

 

The complex underwent significant changes over the next 260 years, particularly during the reign of Rama III (1824-1851). In 1832, King Rama III began renovating and enlarging the temple complex, a process that took 16 years and seven months to complete. The ground of the temple complex was expanded to 56 rai (9.0 ha; 22 acres), and most of the structures now present in Wat Pho were either built or rebuilt during this period, including the Chapel of the Reclining Buddha. He also turned the temple complex into a public center of learning by decorating the walls of the buildings with diagrams and inscriptions on various subjects.: 90  The inscriptions were written by about 50 people from the court of Rama III and learned monks led by Supreme Patriarch Prince Paramanuchitchinorot (1790-1853), the abbot of Wat Pho, a Buddhist scholar, historian and poet. On 21 February 2008, these marble illustrations and inscriptions was registered in the Memory of the World Programme launched by UNESCO to promote, preserve and propagate the wisdom of the world heritage. Wat Pho is regarded as Thailand's first university and a center for traditional Thai massage. It served as a medical teaching center in the mid-19th century before the advent of modern medicine, and the temple remains a center for traditional medicine today where a private school for Thai medicine founded in 1957 still operates.

 

The name of the complex was changed again to Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm during the reign of King Rama IV. Apart from the construction of a fourth great chedi and minor modifications by Rama IV, there had been no significant changes to Wat Pho since. Repair work, however, is a continuing process, often funded by devotees of the temple. The temple was restored again in 1982 before the Bangkok Bicentennial Celebration.

 

Wat Pho is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok covering an area of 50 rai or 80,000 square metres. It is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images at 46 metres (151 ft) in length. The Wat Pho complex consists of two walled compounds bisected by Chetuphon Road running in the east–west direction. The larger northern walled compound, the phutthawat, is open to visitors and contains the finest buildings dedicated to the Buddha, including the bot with its four directional viharn, and the temple housing the reclining Buddha. The southern compound, the sankhawat, contains the residential quarters of the monks and a school. The perimeter wall of the main temple complex has sixteen gates, two of which serve as entrances for the public (one on Chetuphon Road, the other near the northwest corner).

 

The temple grounds contain four great chedis, 91 small chedis, two belfries, a bot (central shrine), a number of viharas (halls) and various buildings such as pavilions, as well as gardens and a small temple museum. Architecturally the chedis and buildings in the complex are different in style and sizes. A number of large Chinese statues, some of which depict Europeans, are also found in the complex guarding the gates of the perimeter walls as well as other gates in the compound. These stone statues were originally imported as ballast on ships trading with China.

 

Wat Pho was also intended to serve as a place of education for the general public. To this end a pictorial encyclopedia was engraved on granite slabs covering eight subject areas: history, medicine, health, custom, literature, proverbs, lexicography, and the Buddhist religion. These plaques, inscribed with texts and illustrations on medicine, Thai traditional massage, and other subjects, are placed around the temple, for example, within the Sala Rai or satellite open pavilions. Dotted around the complex are 24 small rock gardens (khao mor) illustrating rock formations of Thailand, and one, called the Contorting Hermit Hill, contains some statues showing methods of massage and yoga positions. There are also drawings of constellations on the wall of the library, inscriptions on local administration, as well as paintings of folk tales and animal husbandry.

 

Phra Ubosot (Phra Uposatha) or bot is the ordination hall, the main hall used for performing Buddhist rituals, and the most sacred building of the complex. It was constructed by King Rama I in the Ayuthaya-style, and later enlarged and reconstructed in the Rattanakosin-style by Rama III. The bot was dedicated in 1791, before the rebuilding of Wat Pho was completed. This building is raised on a marble platform, and the ubosot lies in the center of courtyard enclosed by a double cloister (Phra Rabiang).

 

Inside the ubosot is a gold and crystal three-tiered pedestal topped with a gilded Buddha made of a gold-copper alloy, and over the statue is a nine-tiered umbrella representing the authority of Thailand. The Buddha image, known as Phra Buddha Theva Patimakorn and thought to be from the Ayutthaya period, was moved here by Rama I from Wat Sala Si Na (now called Wat Khuhasawan) in Thonburi. Rama IV later placed some ashes of Rama I under the pedestal of the Buddha image so that the public may pay homage to both Rama I and the Buddha at the same time. There are also ten images of Buddha's disciples in the hall: Moggalana is to the left of Buddha and Sariputta to the right, with eight Arahants below.

 

The exterior balustrade surrounding the main hall has around 150 depictions in stone of the epic, Ramakien, the ultimate message of which is transcendence from secular to spiritual dimensions. The stone panels were recovered from a temple in Ayuthaya. The ubosot is enclosed by a low wall called kamphaeng kaew, which is punctuated by gateways guarded by mythological lions, as well as eight structures that house bai sema, stone markers that delineate the sacred space of the bot.

 

Phra Rabiang - This double cloister contains around 400 images of Buddha from northern Thailand selected out of the 1,200 originally brought by King Rama I. Of these Buddha images, 150 are on the inner side of the double cloister, another 244 images are on the outer side. These Buddha figures, some standing and some seated, are evenly mounted on matching gilded pedestals. These images are from different periods in Siamese history, such as the Chiangsaen, Sukhothai, U-Thong, and Ayutthaya eras, but they were renovated by Rama I and covered with stucco and gold leaves to make them look similar.

 

The Phra Rabiang is intersected by four viharns. The viharn in the east contains an eight metre tall standing Buddha, the Buddha Lokanatha, originally from Ayutthaya. In its antechamber is Buddha Maravichai, sitting under a bodhi tree, originally from Sawankhalok of the late-Sukhothai period. The one on the west has a seated Buddha sheltered by a naga, the Buddha Chinnasri, while the Buddha on the south, the Buddha Chinnaraja, has five disciples seated in front listening to his first sermon. Both Buddhas in the south and west viharns were brought from Sukhothai by Rama I. The Buddha in the north viharn, called Buddha Palilai, was cast in the reign of Rama I. The viharn on the west contains a small museum.

 

Phra Prang - There are four towers, or phra prang, at each corner of the courtyard around the bot. Each of the towers is tiled with marble and contains four Khmer-style statues which are the guardian divinities of the Four Cardinal Points.

 

This is a group of four large stupas, each 42 metres high. These four chedis are dedicated to the first four Chakri kings. The first, in green mosaic tiles, was constructed by Rama I to house the remnants of the great Buddha from Ayuthaya, which was scorched to remove its gold covering by the Burmese. Two more were built by Rama III, one in white tiles to hold the ashes of his father Rama II, another in yellow for himself. A fourth in blue was built by Rama IV who then enclosed the four chedis leaving no space for more to be built.

 

The viharn or wihan contains the reclining Buddha and was constructed in the reign of Rama III emulating the Ayutthaya style. The interior is decorated with panels of mural.

 

Adjacent to this building is a small raised garden (Missakawan Park) with a Chinese-style pavilion; the centre piece of the garden is a bodhi tree which was propagated from the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka that is believed to have originally came from a tree in India where Buddha sat while awaiting enlightenment.

 

Phra Mondop or the ho trai is the Scripture Hall containing a small library of Buddhist scriptures. The building is not generally open to the public as the scriptures, which are inscribed on palm leaves, need to be kept in a controlled environment for preservation. The library was built by King Rama III. Guarding its entrance are figures called Yak Wat Pho ('Wat Pho's Giants') placed in niches beside the gates. Around Phra Mondop are three pavilions with mural paintings of the beginning of Ramayana.

 

Phra Chedi Rai - Outside the Phra Rabiang cloisters are dotted many smaller chedis, called Phra Chedi Rai. Seventy-one of these small chedis were built by Rama III, each five metres in height. There are also four groups of five chedis that shared a single base built by Rama I, one on each corner outside the cloister. The 71 chedis of smaller size contain the ashes of the royal family, and 20 slightly larger ones clustered in groups of five contain the relics of Buddha.

 

Sala Karn Parien - This hall is next to the Phra Mondop at the southwest corner of the compound, and is thought to date from the Ayutthaya period. It serves as a learning and meditation hall. The building contains the original Buddha image from the bot which was moved here to make way for the Buddha image currently in the bot. Next to it is a garden called The Crocodile Pond.

Sala Rai - There are 16 satellite pavilions, most of them placed around the edge of the compound, and murals depicting the life of Buddha may be found in some of these. Two of these are the medical pavilions between Phra Maha Chedi Si Ratchakarn and the main chapel. The north medicine pavilion contains Thai traditional massage inscriptions with 32 drawings of massage positions on the walls while the one to the south has a collection of inscriptions on guardian angel that protects the newborn.

Phra Viharn Kod - This is the gallery which consists of four viharas, one on each corner outside the Phra Rabiang.

Tamnak Wasukri - Also called the poet's house, this is the former residence of Prince Patriarch Paramanuchitchinorot, a scholar, historian and poet. The house was a gift from his nephew Rama III. This building is in the living quarters of the monks in the southern compound and is open once a year on his birthday.

 

The wat and the reclining Buddha (Phra Buddhasaiyas, Thai: พระพุทธไสยาสน์) were built by Rama III in 1832. The image of the reclining Buddha represents the entry of Buddha into Nirvana and the end of all reincarnations. The posture of the image is referred to as sihasaiyas, the posture of a sleeping or reclining lion. The figure is 15 m high and 46 m long, and it is one of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand.

 

The figure has a brick core, which was modelled and shaped with plaster, then gilded. The right arm of the Buddha supports the head with tight curls, which rests on two box-pillows encrusted with glass mosaics. The soles of the feet of the Buddha are 3 m high and 4.5 m long, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They are each divided into 108 arranged panels, displaying the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified, such as flowers, dancers, white elephants, tigers, and altar accessories. At the center of each foot is a circle representing a chakra or 'energy point'. There are 108 bronze bowls in the corridor representing the 108 auspicious characters of Buddha. Visitors may drop coins in these bowls as it is believed to bring good fortune, and it also helps the monks to maintain the wat.

 

Although the reclining Buddha is not a pilgrimage destination, it remains an object of popular piety. An annual celebration for the reclining Buddha is held around the time of the Siamese Songkran or New Year in April, which also helps raise funds for the upkeep of Wat Pho.

 

The temple is considered the first public university of Thailand, teaching students in the fields of religion, science, and literature through murals and sculptures. A school for traditional medicine and massage was established at the temple in 1955, and now offers four courses in Thai medicine: Thai pharmacy, Thai medical practice, Thai midwifery, and Thai massage. This, the Wat Pho Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School, is the first school of Thai medicine approved by the Thai Ministry of Education, and one of the earliest massage schools. It remains the national headquarters and the center of education of traditional Thai medicine and massage to this day. Courses on Thai massage are held in Wat Pho, and these may last a few weeks to a year. Two pavilions at the eastern edge of the Wat Pho compound are used as classrooms for practising Thai traditional massage and herbal massage, and visitors can received massage treatment here for a fee. The Thai massage or Nuad Thai taught at Wat Pho has been included in UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Wat Pho has trained more than 200,000 massage therapists who practice in 145 countries.

 

There are many medical inscriptions and illustrations placed in various buildings around the temple complex, some of which serve as instructions for Thai massage therapists, particularly those in the north medical pavilion. They were inscribed by scholars during the reign of King Rama III. Among these are 60 inscribed plaques, 30 each for the front and back of human body, showing pressure points used in traditional Thai massage. These therapeutic points and energy pathways, known as sen, with explanations given on the walls next to the plaques.

 

Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.

 

Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities, Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society.

 

The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a centre for the arts, fashion, and entertainment. The city is known for its street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its red-light districts. The Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings.

 

Bangkok's rapid growth coupled with little urban planning has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure. Despite an extensive expressway network, an inadequate road network and substantial private car usage have led to chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The city has since turned to public transport in an attempt to solve the problem, operating eight urban rail lines and building other public transit, but congestion still remains a prevalent issue. The city faces long-term environmental threats such as sea level rise due to climate change.

 

The history of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, dates at least to the early 15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya. Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank. King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, who succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782, to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name, "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon". Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes, growing rapidly, especially in the second half of the 20th century, to become the primate city of Thailand. It was the centre of Siam's modernization in the late 19th century, subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War, and has long been the modern nation's central political stage, with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years.

 

It is not known exactly when the area which is now Bangkok was first settled. It probably originated as a small farming and trading community, situated in a meander of the Chao Phraya River within the mandala of Ayutthaya's influence. The town had become an important customs outpost by as early as the 15th century; the title of its customs official is given as Nai Phra Khanon Thonburi (Thai: นายพระขนอนทณบุรี) in a document from the reign of Ayutthayan king Chao Sam Phraya (1424–1448). The name also appears in the 1805 revised code of laws known as the Law of Three Seals.

 

At the time, the Chao Phraya flowed through what are now the Bangkok Noi and Bangkok Yai canals, forming a large loop in which lay the town. In the reign of King Chairacha (either in 1538 or 1542), a waterway was excavated, bypassing the loop and shortening the route for ships sailing up to Ayutthaya. The flow of the river has since changed to follow the new waterway, dividing the town and making the western part an island. This geographical feature may have given the town the name Bang Ko (บางเกาะ), meaning 'island village', which later became Bangkok (บางกอก, pronounced in Thai as [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk]). Another theory regarding the origin of the name speculates that it is shortened from Bang Makok (บางมะกอก), makok being the name of Spondias pinnata, a plant bearing olive-like fruit. This is supported by the fact that Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, used to be named Wat Makok. Specific mention of the town was first made in the royal chronicles from the reign of King Maha Chakkraphat (1548–1568), giving its name as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (ธนบุรีศรีมหาสมุทร). Bangkok was probably a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors.

 

The importance of Bangkok/Thonburi increased with the amount of Ayutthaya's maritime trade. Dutch records noted that ships passing through Bangkok were required to declare their goods and number of passengers, as well as pay customs duties. Ships' cannons would be confiscated and held there before they were allowed to proceed upriver to Ayutthaya. An early English language account is that of Adam Denton, who arrived aboard the Globe, an East India Company merchantman bearing a letter from King James I, which arrived in "the Road of Syam" (Pak Nam) on 15 August 1612, where the port officer of Bangkok attended to the ship. Denton's account mentions that he and his companions journeyed "up the river some twenty miles to a town called Bancope, where we were well received, and further 100 miles to the city...."

 

Ayutthaya's maritime trade was at its height during the reign of King Narai (1656–1688). Recognition of the city's strategic location guarding the water passage to Ayutthaya lead to expansion of the military presence there. A fort of Western design was constructed on the east side of the river around 1685–1687 under the supervision of French engineer de la Mare, probably replacing an earlier structure, while plans to rebuild the fort on the west bank were also made. De la Mare had arrived with the French embassy of Chevalier de Chaumont, and remained in Siam along with Chevalier de Forbin, who had been appointed governor of Bangkok. The Bangkok garrison under Forbin consisted of Siamese, Portuguese, and French reportedly totalling about one thousand men.

 

French control over the city was further consolidated when the French General Desfarges, who had arrived with the second French embassy in 1687, secured the king's permission to board troops there. This, however, lead to resentment among Siamese nobles, led by Phetracha, ultimately resulting in the Siamese revolution of 1688, in which King Narai was overthrown and 40,000 Siamese troops besieged Bangkok's eastern fort for four months before an agreement was reached and the French were allowed to withdraw. The revolution resulted in Siam's ties with the West being virtually severed, steering its trade towards China and Japan. The eastern fort was subsequently demolished on Phetracha's orders.

 

Ayutthaya was razed by the Burmese in 1767. In the following months, multiple factions competed for control of the kingdom's lands. Of these, Phraya Tak, governor of Tak and a general fighting in Ayutthaya's defence prior to its fall, emerged as the strongest. After succeeding in reclaiming the cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, Phraya Tak declared himself king (popularly known as King Taksin) in 1768 and established Thonburi as his capital. Reasons given for this change include the totality of Ayutthaya's destruction and Thonburi's strategic location. Being a fortified town with a sizeable population meant that not much would need to be reconstructed. The existence of an old Chinese trading settlement on the eastern bank allowed Taksin to use his Chinese connections to import rice and revive trade.

 

King Taksin had the city area extended northwards to border the Bangkok Noi Canal. A moat was dug to protect the city's western border, on which new city walls and fortifications were built. Moats and walls were also constructed on the eastern bank, encircling the city together with the canals on the western side. The king's palace (Thonburi Palace) was built within the old city walls, including the temples of Wat Chaeng (Wat Arun) and Wat Thai Talat (Wat Molilokkayaram) within the palace grounds. Outlying orchards were re-landscaped for rice farming.

 

Much of Taksin's reign was spent in military campaigns to consolidate the Thonburi Kingdom's hold over Siamese lands. His kingdom, however, would last only until 1782 when a coup was mounted against him, and the general Chao Phraya Chakri established himself as king, later to be known as Phutthayotfa Chulalok or Rama I.

 

Rama I re-established the capital on the more strategic east bank of the river, relocating the Chinese already settled there to the area between Wat Sam Pluem and Wat Sampheng (which developed into Bangkok's Chinatown). Fortifications were rebuilt, and another series of moats was created, encircling the city in an area known as Rattanakosin Island.

 

The erection of the city pillar on 21 April 1782 is regarded as the formal date of the city's establishment. (The year would later mark the start of the Rattanakosin Era after calendar reforms by King Rama V in 1888.) Rama I named the new city Krung Rattanakosin In Ayothaya (กรุงรัตนโกสินทร์อินท์อโยธยา). This was later modified by King Nangklao to be: Krungthepmahanakhon Bowonrattanakosin Mahintha-ayutthaya. While settlements on both banks were commonly called Bangkok, both the Burney Treaty of 1826 and the Roberts Treaty of 1833 refer to the capital as the City of Sia-Yut'hia. King Mongkut (Rama IV) would later give the city its full ceremonial name:

 

Rama I modelled his city after the former capital of Ayutthaya, with the Grand Palace, Front Palace and royal temples by the river, next to the royal field (now Sanam Luang). Continuing outwards were the royal court of justice, royal stables and military prison. Government offices were located within the Grand Palace, while residences of nobles were concentrated south of the palace walls. Settlements spread outwards from the city centre.

 

The new capital is referred to in Thai sources as Rattanakosin, a name shared by the Siamese kingdom of this historical period. The name Krung Thep and Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, both shortened forms of the full ceremonial name, began to be used near the end of the 19th century. Foreigners, however, continued to refer to the city by the name Bangkok, which has seen continued use until this day.

 

Most of Rama I's reign was also marked by continued military campaigns, though the Burmese threat gradually declined afterwards. His successors consistently saw to the renovation of old temples, palaces, and monuments in the city. New canals were also built, gradually expanding the fledgling city as areas available for agriculture increased and new transport networks were created.

 

At the time of the city's foundation, most of the population lived by the river or the canals, often in floating houses on the water. Waterways served as the main method of transportation, and farming communities depended on them for irrigation. Outside the city walls, settlements sprawled along both river banks. Forced settlers, mostly captives of war, also formed several ethnic communities outside the city walls.

 

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants continued to settle in Bangkok, especially during the early 19th century. Such was their prominence that Europeans visiting in the 1820s estimated that they formed over half of the city population. The Chinese excelled in trade, and led the development of a market economy. The Chinese settlement at Sampheng had become a bustling market by 1835. 

 

By the mid-19th century, the West had become an increasingly powerful presence. Missionaries, envoys and merchants began re-visiting Bangkok and Siam, bringing with them both modern innovations and the threat of colonialism. King Mongkut (Rama IV, reigned 1851–1868) was open to Western ideas and knowledge, but was also forced to acknowledge their powers, with the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. During his reign, industrialization began taking place in Bangkok, which saw the introduction of the steam engine, modern shipbuilding and the printing press. Influenced by the Western community, Charoen Krung Road, the city's first paved street, was constructed in 1862–1864. This was followed by Bamrung Mueang, Fueang Nakhon, Trong (now Rama IV) and Si Lom Roads. Land transport would later surpass the canals in importance, shifting people's homes from floating dwellings toward permanent buildings. The limits of the city proper were also expanded during his reign, extending to the Phadung Krung Kasem Canal, dug in 1851.

 

King Mongkut's son Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) was set upon modernizing the country. He engaged in wide-ranging reforms, abolishing slavery, corvée (unfree labour) and the feudal system, and creating a centralized bureaucracy and a professional army. The Western concept of nationhood was adopted, and national borders demarcated against British and French territories. Disputes with the French resulted in the Paknam Incident in 1893, when the French sent gunboats up the Chao Phraya to blockade Bangkok, resulting in Siam's concession of territory to France.

 

With Chulalongkorn's reforms, governance of the capital and the surrounding areas, established as Monthon Krung Thep Phra Mahanakhon (มณฑลกรุงเทพพระมหานคร), came under the Ministry of Urban Affairs (Nakhonban). During his reign many more canals and roads were built, expanding the urban reaches of the capital. Infrastructure was developed, with the introduction of railway and telegraph services between Bangkok and Samut Prakan and then expanding countrywide. Electricity was introduced, first to palaces and government offices, then to serve electric trams in the capital and later the general public. The King's fascination with the West was reflected in the royal adoption of Western dress and fashions, but most noticeably in architecture. He commissioned the construction of the neoclassical Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall at the new Dusit Palace, which was linked to the historic city centre by the grand Ratchadamnoen Avenue, inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Examples of Western influence in architecture became visible throughout the city.

 

By 1900, rural market zones in Bangkok began developing into residential districts. Rama VI (1910–1925) continued his predecessor's program of the development of public works by establishing Chulalongkorn University in 1916, and commissioned a system of locks to control waterway levels surrounding the developing city, he also provided the city's first and largest recreational area, Lumphini Park. The Memorial Bridge was constructed in 1932 to connect Thonburi to Bangkok, which was believed to promote economic growth and modernization in a period when infrastructure was developing considerably. Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932. It was subject to Japanese occupation and Allied bombing during World War II. With the war over in 1945, British and Indian troops landed in September, and during their brief occupation of the city disarmed the Japanese troops. A significant event following the return of the young king, Ananda Mahidol, to Thailand, intended to defuse post-war tensions lingering between Bangkok's ethnic Chinese and Thai people, was his visit to Bangkok's Chinatown Sam Peng Lane (ซอยสำเพ็ง), on 3 June 1946.

 

As a result of pro-Western bloc treaties Bangkok rapidly grew in the post-war period as a result of United States developmental aid and government-sponsored investment. Infrastructure, including the Don Mueang International Airport and highways, was built and expanded.  Bangkok's role as an American military R&R destination launched its tourism industry as well as sex trade.  Disproportionate urban development led to increasing income inequalities and unprecedented migration from rural areas into Bangkok; its population surged from 1.8 to 3 million in the 1960s. Following the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam, Japanese businesses took over as leaders in investment, and the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing led to growth of the financial market in Bangkok.  Rapid growth of the city continued through the 1980s and early 1990s, until it was stalled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By then, many public and social issues had emerged, among them the strain on infrastructure reflected in the city's notorious traffic jams. Bangkok's role as the nation's political stage continues to be seen in strings of popular protests, from the student uprisings in 1973 and 1976, anti-military demonstrations in 1992, and successive anti-government protests by the "Yellow Shirt" and "Red Shirt" movements from 2008 on.

 

Administratively, eastern Bangkok and Thonburi had been established as separate provinces in 1915. (The province east of the river was named Phra Nakhon (พระนคร.) A series of decrees in 1971–1972 resulted in the merger of these provinces and its local administrations, forming the current city of Bangkok which is officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was created in 1975 to govern the city, and its governor has been elected since 1985.

Statue of Sir Henry Parkes (see later) on the Department of Lands building.

 

The Lands Department building, 23-33 Bridge Street was designed by James Barnet and built in two stages in 1876-1880 and 1888-1893. The site had been occupied since 1788 by the Surveyor General. The new Lands Act of 1884 required additional office accommodation and a second stage was urgently required by 1887. The 23 statues on the cornice of the building were not completed until 1901.

 

The highly important Datum Bench Mark Plug which controls all levels in the state, was inserted on the front of the building at some time between 1887 and 1894. Initially the building was shared by Lands and by Mines and Agriculture.

 

It remains the home of the Department of Land and Water Conservation. The building was and still is one of Sydney’s most elaborate sandstone facades. At the upper levels the building has concrete lanterns to copper-roofed domes, a revolving observatory dome (never used), and a prominent stone tower with a distinctive onion-shaped dome.

 

Parkes, Sir Henry (1815–1896) by A. W. Martin

 

Sir Henry Parkes (1815-1896), politician and journalist, was born on 27 May 1815 in Warwickshire, England, youngest of the seven children of Thomas Parks, tenant farmer on Stoneleigh Abbey Estate, and his wife Martha, née Faulconbridge. Forced off their farm in 1823 by debt, the Parkes family moved to Glamorganshire and about 1825 settled in Birmingham, where Thomas was a gardener and odd-job man. Henry's formal education was in his own words, 'very limited and imperfect'; he briefly attended Stoneleigh parish school and later joined the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute. Obliged as a boy to help in supporting the family, he worked as a road labourer and in a brickpit and rope-walk, before being apprenticed to John Holding, bone and ivory turner of Moseley Street. Having served his articles, he began his own business in 1837. On 11 July 1836 at Edgbaston Parish Church he had married Clarinda, 23-year-old daughter of John Varney, butcher. They regularly attended Carr's Lane Independent Chapel under the formidable John Angell James, whose precepts and oratorical style left a permanent impression on Parkes. Another important Birmingham influence was Thomas Attwood's Political Union, which Parkes joined at 17. He heard Attwood, Scholefield and Edmunds orate at Newhall Hill, sported the union badge and in 1833 dedicated a poem on the wrongs of Poland to Attwood's son.

 

The business failed and in 1838 Parkes took Clarinda to London in search of better prospects. They survived a few weeks by pawning his tools, then determined to leave for New South Wales as bounty migrants. In March 1839 Hetherington's Charter published verses from Parkes as 'A Poet's Farewell', indignantly condemning a society through whose injustices 'men like this are compelled to seek the means of existence in a foreign wilderness'. Parkes assured his Birmingham family of his certainty of 'making my fortune and coming back to fetch all of you'. He and Clarinda sailed from Gravesend on 27 March 1839 in the Strathfieldsaye, their ears 'incessantly assailed by the coarse expressions and blasphemies' of other steerage passengers.

 

They reached Sydney on 25 July 1839 with a first surviving child born at sea two days earlier. Parkes found work as a labourer on Sir John Jamison's Regentville estate but after six months returned to Sydney to work in Thomas Burdekin's iron-mongery and Peter Russell's brass-foundry. In 1840 he became a tide-waiter in the Customs Department, slowly bought tools and in 1845 set up in Hunter Street as an ivory turner and importer of fancy goods. Impressed by what seemed 'flattering prospects' of developing 'a respectable mercantile business', he opened branches in Maitland and Geelong, but both failed and by 1850 he was in financial difficulties, writing remorsefully to his wife of 'too culpable neglect of my business in Sydney'. He had by then become deeply involved in literary and political activities, attractions which highlighted the dullness of a business life.

 

Parkes's talents as a writer, extraordinary for one so lacking in formal education, developed quickly in the 1840s. He was briefly Sydney correspondent for the Launceston Examiner, and contributed occasional poems and articles on political and literary topics, sometimes under the pseudonym 'Faulconbridge', to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australasian Chronicle and the Atlas. In 1842 he published by subscription a first book of verse, Stolen Moments. Through W. A. Duncan and Charles Harpur, his 'chief advisers on matters of intellectual resource and enquiry', he came to be associated with most of the colony's radical patriots. Discussion gave place in 1848 to action, when with J. K. Heydon he became organizing secretary of a tradesmen's committee which successfully promoted Robert Lowe for the City of Sydney seat in the Legislative Council. Later that year he joined radicals in the Constitutional Association which developed out of the Lowe committee to agitate for franchise extension and land reform. In his first public speech, made at the City Theatre in January 1849, Parkes advocated universal suffrage as the best guarantee that the people, 'growing in enlightenment', would avoid 'the excesses of Paris and Frankfurt'. His radicalism reached a brief apogee in April 1850 when Rev. John Dunmore Lang and J. R. Wilshire established the Australian League to work for universal suffrage and transformation of the Australian colonies into a 'Great Federal Republic'. Parkes wrote to Lang to denounce the 'dung-hill aristocracy of Botany Bay' and to assert his eagerness to 'enrol in the league for the entire freedom and independence' of this 'land of my adoption and of my children's birth'. In July he worked as chief organizer and canvasser when Lang stood against J. R. Holden for a vacant Sydney seat in the Legislative Council. In this campaign Parkes joined the Chartist, David Blair, to issue the Representative: A Daily Journal of the Election as a counter to the 'discreditable handbills' circulated by Lang's opponents. Lang won the seat but his league did not survive long and Parkes's republicanism soon evaporated. Daniel Deniehy told Lang that Parkes had 'too much, not of the Englishman in him, but of “Englishmanism” about him', to lend serious comfort to the republicans of New South Wales. But this was only part of the story; Parkes was already finding a more congenial cause in the liberal movement which by the early 1850s was becoming the most effective spearhead against the old colonial conservatives.

 

Parkes, who had been prominent in the great protest which greeted the convict ship Hashemy in 1849, eagerly dedicated his organizational talents to the Anti-transportation League and drifted easily into the liberal campaigns against the anti-democratic Electoral Act of 1851. Late in 1850 he found support to set up as editor-proprietor of the Empire, a newspaper destined to be the chief organ of mid-century liberalism and to serve as the rallying and reconciliation point for the sharpest radical and liberal minds of the day. Critics of the existing system as diverse as C. G. Duffy, Edward Butler, James Martin, William Forster, Deniehy and Lang were contributors but Parkes was presiding genius. Full-time journalist and politician now, he abandoned shopkeeping for a happy reconciliation of desire and duty: the Empire allowed devotion to a political cause and promised steady economic support for a growing family. By 1853, deeply involved in organizing the Constitution Committee to oppose Wentworth's constitution bill, he was ready to seek a place in the Legislative Council. Failing at a by-election that year, he won Wentworth's old Sydney seat in 1854, defeating Charles Kemp in a contest generally seen as a trial of strength between liberals and conservatives over the constitutional issue. The radicals' acceptance of a frankly liberal Parkes as their candidate in place of Lang symbolized the merging in his person of radical and liberal movements. The liberal leader, Charles Cowper, warmly welcomed him to the council as an opponent of 'Wentworthian and Thomsonian policy', and Parkes's election to the Chamber of Commerce signified his acceptance into the inner liberal group.

 

Parkes entered the council near its end: the constitutional proposals were under scrutiny in London and no longer a subject for effective local debate. Meanwhile the liberals' reformism was chiefly reflected in a range of inquiries instituted by the dying council into such matters as a nautical school for boys, the importation of Asiatic labour, the adulteration of food and the state of agriculture. In this work Parkes won repute as an assiduous and imaginative committeeman.

 

In March 1856 at the first Legislative Assembly established by the new Constitution, Parkes was one of the liberal bunch which carried all four seats in the premier Sydney City constituency. He supported Cowper in the complex manoeuvres of the first parliament until obliged in December to resign to give full attention to the Empire, then in serious financial difficulties. He re-entered parliament in January 1858 for the North Riding of Cumberland but in August had to resign for insolvency. The Empire had collapsed, ending his dream of using the paper as 'an independent power to vivify, elevate and direct the political life of the country' and leaving him 'to begin life afresh with a wife and five children to support, a name in a commercial sense ruined and a doubt of the practical character of my mind'. He survived bankruptcy proceedings, struggled on with the support of friends and the proceeds of occasional journalism and planned briefly to abandon politics for a legal career. But in June 1859 he was back in parliament to represent East Sydney.

 

Politics in the assembly had by then settled into a faction mould. Having in 1857 declared his independence of Cowper and John Robertson, Parkes developed a personal following in the House and in 1859-60 emerged as critic and rival of the established liberal leadership. But economic insecurity made him vulnerable, and early in 1861 he accepted an invitation by Cowper to tour England with W. B. Dalley as government lecturer on emigration at a salary of £1000.

 

Parkes sailed in May, leaving his family in poverty on their rented farm at Werrington. In England he attended vigorously to his duties, though with limited success. Prevailing English sentiment was well expressed by Sir John Pakington, who declared at Parkes's meeting in Droitwich his unwillingness to see 'the pith of our English population seeking a home elsewhere'. Early in 1863 Parkes returned to Sydney in good spirits, his self-confidence strengthened by the kind attention he had received from government officials and such literary idols as Carlyle, Hughes and Cobden, and having established while in Birmingham a new fancy goods importing business which he hoped might in the next six years 'provide for the rest of our lives'.

 

An opportunity to return to parliament offered itself in August 1863 when J. B. Darvall sought ministerial re-election at East Maitland. Parkes opposed Darvall and lost the contest after a bitter campaign, but in January 1864 was returned at a by-election for Kiama, a seat he held until 1870. From late 1864 until early 1866 he opposed consecutive Martin and Cowper ministries, while steadily rebuilding his own faction. In 1865 Cowper tried without success to buy him off again, with offers first of the lucrative post of inspector of prisons, then of a portfolio in his ministry. By early 1866 Martin and Parkes were in private negotiation: successful censure of Cowper followed and Martin, commissioned to form a ministry, included Parkes, as colonial secretary, and two followers.

 

This coalition, scarcely more than a marriage of convenience, failed to develop a positive and unanimous programme. Its leaders differed on such basic issues as the tariff, state aid, electoral and land reform. Parkes was responsible for establishing the hulk Vernon as a nautical school for destitute boys, for an Act requiring the inspection of hospitals and for bringing to Sydney under Lucy Osburn nursing sisters trained by Florence Nightingale. But the government's support was uncertain and its ministers quarrelsome; its only major legislation in two years and a half of office, Parkes's 1866 Public Schools Act, passed the assembly with Opposition assistance. This measure was Parkes's first important contribution to education reform. Prompted by the high cost of competing national and denominational systems of education, it aimed at rationalizing expenditure by placing both under a Council of Education which was also to oversee teacher training and the content of secular lessons.

 

The measure aroused sectarian controversy which Parkes did little to assuage. It revived again in March 1868 when H. J. O'Farrell attempted to assassinate the visiting Duke of Edinburgh. The government, alleging a Fenian plot, carried a savage Treason Felony Act suspending civil rights, but no conspiracy was discovered. In September Parkes resigned from the ministry in protest at its handling of a quarrel between the treasurer, Geoffrey Eagar, and W. A. Duncan, collector of customs. Lacking Parkes's support, Martin's ministry fell within a month. Meanwhile in a speech at Kiama Parkes had alleged that he had evidence to prove O'Farrell had acted on Fenian orders and that one conspirator had been murdered when suspected of revealing the plot. While his move had obvious political purposes, Parkes's correspondence also shows that he was obsessed with fears for his own safety and a belief in Catholic ambitions to seize political hegemony. A select committee under W. J. Macleay found no proof of the allegations, but though Parkes rallied sectarian and factional support to have its report expunged from the records of the House, the 'Kiama ghost' long remained an embarrassment.

 

Parkes's financial difficulties had been mounting: his importing venture failed and in December 1870 he collapsed again into bankruptcy. He resigned his seat but soon assured his sister that he would be 're-elected to the Legislature whenever I choose to offer myself, and strange as it may seem two-thirds of the mercantile classes will vote for me. They have got a notion that I am wholly unfit for business, but the fittest of all men for Parliament'. He survived by borrowing from friends, working as a journalist and briefly acting as travelling agent for H. H. Hall. In January 1872 he was returned for Mudgee in time to help in ousting the Martin-Robertson coalition ministry. General elections in February-March confirmed Martin's defeat and after complex negotiations Parkes became premier for the first time. His achievement bore witness to the political arts of which he was now supreme master: besides his own followers the ministry included old Cowper-Robertson men and Butler, a barrister who had covertly engineered sectional Catholic support for Parkes at the election.

 

The ministry took office in May at a time of commercial prosperity. By December, thanks chiefly to the rising sale of public lands, the Treasury had a substantial surplus. Parkes embarked on vigorous development of public works, effected a downward revision of tariff schedules and negotiated an agreement with Victoria on free border trade. Though once 'bitten by the doctrine of fostering infant industries' Parkes had in 1861 learnt from Cobden the error of his ways: now as tariff reformer, he received a gold medal from the Cobden Club and established his image as high priest of free trade in New South Wales. He also won the confidence of Sir Hercules Robinson, a convinced free trader and experienced colonial governor, whose eagerness to discuss administrative and constitutional problems with cordiality and balance proved important for Parkes's development.

 

Despite favourable assembly majorities, the council mauled government bills to consolidate the criminal law and to redraw electoral boundaries. The governor refused a ministerial request for new appointments and the council threw out a bill which, with overwhelming assembly support, aimed to give the Upper House an elective component. Echoes of former constitutional battles brought Parkes kudos as an old liberal campaigner. He emerged less happily from another crisis which arose in 1873 when his attorney-general and personal friend, Butler, resigned in protest against his failure to honour an implied promise of the chief justiceship then vacant. Though correct in judging that Martin had superior claims to the post, Parkes extricated himself from the obligation to Butler without displaying the frankness of a gentleman or the sensitivity of a friend and colleague. His deviousness is understandable in the light of pressure from the Bar, of his instinct for intrigue, of his unease at Butler's unpredictability and of the danger of his ministry falling. The reputations of both men were not enhanced when Butler made public their correspondence. The unhappy consequence of the breach was more than personal since the Parkes-Butler alliance had effected a liberal-Catholic rapprochement full of promise for the colony's best interests.

 

After an assembly motion in November 1874 which condemned the handling of messages on the governor's response to petitions for and against the release of Frank Gardiner, the ministry resigned in January 1875. Public passions muddied the constitutional issues at stake and the ministry's defeat had resulted from a clever Opposition stratagem: the permanent significance of the case lay in calmer discussions between Robinson, Parkes and the Colonial Office leading to clearer definition of the responsibilities of ministers and governor in exercising the prerogative of pardon.

 

Parkes led the opposition to Robertson's ministry of 1875 and was premier from March to August 1877. By then politics had drifted into chaos. Of the faction leaders of the 1860s only Parkes and Robertson remained, but neither helped to readjust members' loyalties by developing distinctive policies; while both shuffled on major issues, a 'third party' was formed under J. S. Farnell and short-lived governments did little more than business essential to the conduct of administration. On 13 December 1878 Robertson resigned from parliament, hoping that 'the Assembly will naturally arrange itself into two parties'. Four days later a meeting of opposition members, mostly Robertson's followers, invited Parkes to become their leader. On 21 December he formed a new ministry with himself colonial secretary and Robertson, speedily appointed to the Upper House, vice-president of the Executive Council. 'It only remains to be hoped', wrote Governor Robinson dryly, 'that these gentlemen who have for nearly a quarter of a century assailed each other with such bitter political hostility will now work together harmoniously in the same cabinet'. But Parkes's claim that the coalition had been effected 'without any violation of principles' was substantially correct. The government, overwhelmingly supported in the assembly, passed appropriation and loan bills with an ease unknown to its predecessors. By late 1880 its Lands, Public Instruction and Electoral Acts had surpassed in importance any legislation for more than a decade. Elections in November enlarged the ministry's majority. Its 1881 Licensing Act regulated the liquor trade and established local option, for which the temperance movement had long clamoured. Chinese immigration was restricted and employers' liability for workmen's injuries extended. New public works were started, electoral boundaries revised and stipendiary magistrates set up.

 

The Public Instruction Act was for Parkes the ministry's most significant measure, an earnest of his deep conviction of the social necessity of equal educational opportunity. He had steadily defended the 1866 settlement against pressure from the Public School League and embattled Catholic and Anglican denominationalists until by the late 1870s administrative difficulties on the Council of Education, concern to spread scarce resources more widely and the alliance with Robertson led him to move in a way most practical politicians were coming to think inevitable. Archbishop Vaughan's 'audacious' attacks on National schools embittered the debate but did not prompt the 1880 legislation. Parkes correctly insisted that his bill was not anti-religious and tempered pragmatism with that liberal faith in 'freedom and equality' for which he had argued in his Empire days. Though he understood the Catholic position, he grieved at the separation of Catholic children from others with whom they would have to 'mix in later years', and his exhortations still echoed the simple colonial nativism of the 1840s and 1850s: 'let us be of whatever faith we may, let us still remember that we are above everything else free citizens of a free commonwealth'.

 

In December 1881 on medical advice Parkes began a holiday voyage, leaving Robertson as acting premier. He was accepted abroad, according to The Times, as 'the most commanding figure in Australian politics'. Hoping to further Australian interests, he secured commissions from all colonial governments except Victoria to represent, in the United States government and financial circles, their wish for support for the trans-Pacific steamship service and for a relaxation of import duties on wool. Though Parkes's speeches and talks on these matters had no perceptible effect on American policy he was treated everywhere with flattering attention which made his six weeks in America something of a personal triumph. He arrived in England in March 1882. His health was still poor but he found strength to become one of the social lions of the season: 'fortunately for me', he wrote, 'I can enjoy the Dinners because I have little exertion and new men of mark I constantly meet are of unfailing interest to me'. He was noticed by royalty, politicians, expatriate Australians, guilds and companies; he spoke at dinners, visited Birmingham as the mayor's guest, stayed three days with the Tennysons at Farringford, lunched at Brussels with the King and Queen of Belgium and at Potsdam spent a day as the special guest of Prince Frederick and his wife, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Invited by Lord Leigh he visited his birthplace, Stoneleigh, where he slept at the abbey and spoke to an assembly of village children in authoritative tones: 'you will not all rise to a position of power, honour, influence and responsibility such as that I now fill. But by resolving to discharge the duties of life, and in being of use and service in your day and generation, you will do far better than I have done'. He returned to Australia in August to be honoured at civic banquets in Melbourne and Sydney.

 

Parkes spoke to friends of new ministerial goals: to establish a comprehensive system of local government and make a vigorous attempt to federate the colonies. But on 16 November the government was defeated on Robertson's land bill and advised a dissolution. A general election proved unfavourable; Parkes lost the East Sydney seat but won Tenterfield and the government resigned on 4 January 1883. Its abrupt fall followed Robertson's refusal to recognize weaknesses in his 1861 land system. The governor, Lord Augustus Loftus, also noted that since his return Parkes had squandered the 'popularity and confidence he had previously enjoyed … had become dictatorial in his mode of action and overbearing in his manner, and whether intentionally or not had assumed a despotic tone which latterly became not only offensive to the Parliament but to the country'.

 

Loss of office dampened Parkes's zest for politics and loss of ministerial salary brought him financial problems: he returned to business and went to England as agent for a Sydney firm. Though absent from July 1883 to August 1884 he held the Tenterfield seat at the request of his constituents. In England a busy social round was punctuated by hard work on his own affairs. He addressed the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and other public meetings in Scotland and was the moving spirit in founding the Australasian Investment Co., with its head office in Edinburgh and in Sydney a colonial board, on which he was to be prominent. He brought ivory goods home for sale and undertook to become Australasian representative of the engineering firm of Latimer, Clark, Muirhead & Co. After three months in the assembly as an ordinary Opposition member, he resigned on 3 November in protest at what he saw as the corrupt railway policy of Alexander Stuart's government. To a friend he also wrote that at 70 he was being forced by adversity 'to close a great career' to give all his time to improving his finances.

 

This self-imposed retirement ended when in March 1885 he attacked Dalley's decision to send colonial troops to the Sudan and contested the Argyle seat as the 'one way of constitutionally testing the opinion of the country'. Though his election by a narrow majority proved little, his principled and lucid approach to the Sudan affair did much, once jingoism abated, to reduce the government's prestige. In parliament he faced an expulsion move by enemies anxious to brand as a 'gross libel' his public assertion, made when resigning Tenterfield, that 'political character had almost disappeared from the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly'. He survived and before the dissolution in October became the spearhead of a sustained Opposition attack on the government's alleged corruption.

 

In the elections Parkes contested St Leonards against G. R. Dibbs and won the seat after an acrimonious campaign. In the new parliament the government fell after announcing a large deficit resulting from economic recession and the collapse of land revenue following Stuart's land reforms. Robertson unwillingly formed a ministry in December but Parkes refused to join him. Robertson fell in February 1886 and Jennings took office, to struggle in a turbulent House to carry measures to meet the financial crisis. A group led by Parkes, alarmed by protectionist clamour out of doors, chose to interpret a proposed 5 per cent ad valorem tariff as 'sneaking in protection'. The climax to wild scenes in the assembly came at midnight on Saturday, 10 July, when after three days of continuous sitting Parkes led his followers out of the House, throwing on the table a written protest against the government's determination to sit on into the next day as a violation both of the Constitution and of the Sabbath.

 

When Jennings resigned in January 1887 Parkes formed his fourth ministry and went to the country with the slogan 'good government and commercial freedom'. He won a resounding victory, partly through his own energetic electioneering and partly through the work of the Free Trade Association of New South Wales which had taken charge of organizing the campaign. In the new parliament he led a majority whose dedication to the principle of free trade forced political divisions into a party-like mould and signalled the imminent end of the old faction system. For Parkes a ministerial salary compensated for the collapse of his commercial hopes in a third bankruptcy.

 

By 1889 the ministry had 'balanced' the budget, mildly reformed the tariff and amended the bankruptcy and criminal laws. Major reform of public works administration and railway management followed. In 1888 Parkes had responded to the Chinese immigration crisis with restrictive measures which defied imperial authority and nettled other colonial leaders anxious for concerted action. Given these successes, some mystery surrounds Parkes's virtual abdication of power in January 1889 when he 'courted defeat' by refusing to answer charges against the integrity of W. M. Fehon, appointed to the new Railway Commission. Parkes professed weariness in face of the Opposition's obstructive tactics; some supporters were disgruntled at his equivocal attitude to free trade and direct taxation, and his cabinet was divided. Parkes was also under personal strain: he was still in financial difficulties; Clarinda had died on 2 February 1888; and his marriage at St Paul's Church of England, Redfern, on 6 February 1889 to Eleanor Dixon offended his family and provoked social censure.

 

Defeated on a snap adjournment division, Parkes resigned on 16 January. In protest William McMillan rallied the free traders who denied supply to the new Dibbs government and the House was dissolved. Narrowly victorious at the poll, the free trade party asked Parkes to resume leadership. In March he was back in office at the head of a reconstituted free trade ministry, and held office until October 1891, being dependent after June on support from the new Labor Party.

 

For Parkes, the principal departure of these years was the campaign which resulted in the Federation Conference and the Australasian Federal Convention of 1890-91. Though an advocate of colonial union for over thirty years, Parkes had shunned the Federal Council and puzzled federalists by seeking, largely at the prompting of Sir Alfred Stephen, to alter the name of New South Wales to Australia. In January 1889 he had announced in Melbourne his readiness to join 'heart in hand' to promote true Federation, and in June warmed to a suggestion from the governor, Lord Carrington, that to confederate the colonies would be a 'glorious finish' to his life. He told his daughter that he had lost much of his 'former relish for parliamentary work' and was moved by 'repeated suggestions and invitations from the other colonies' to offer himself 'as leader in a great movement to federate on a solid basis all the colonies'. He sounded Duncan Gillies on the subject and in October employed Major-General Edwards's reports on defence as evidence of the urgent need for Federation. In that month, as a counter to Gillies's insistence that New South Wales join the Federal Council, he went to Brisbane to consult Queensland ministers and on his return journey delivered at Tenterfield a speech calling for a federal convention to devise 'a great national Government for all Australia'. The following Federal Conference and Convention owed much to the private negotiations of Lord Carrington yet were also personal diplomatic triumphs for Parkes and at the convention he was, according to Alfred Deakin, 'from first to last the Chief and leader'.

 

Political opportunism and the hope of strengthening his immediate position in New South Wales doubtless supported large-minded idealism in Parkes's commitment to Federation after 1889. But in Sydney the draft Constitution bill of 1891 divided free traders, was suspected by Labor and aroused little public enthusiasm. Meantime the maritime strike and its aftermath focussed attention on more urgent social issues. While the other colonies awaited a lead, Parkes failed to press the bill to an issue in his parliament, dallying lest opponents persuade the electors 'that we had consumed our time in the “fad” of federation … and had neglected the legislation so urgently required for the advancement of New South Wales'. He was also in poor physical shape to fight forlorn battles after injuries from a cab accident in 1890, though he continued to hold the reins of government firmly, as acting premier McMillan found in September when an injudicious reaction to the Circular Quay riots earned sharp censure from the premier. But another minister, J. H. Carruthers, feared that Parkes's health was 'gradually breaking and feebleness supervening his usual vigour'.

 

In October 1891 Parkes supported a motion to adjourn the debate on the recommittal of the coal mines regulation bill; the motion was not carried and he resigned leaving office with 'joyful satisfaction'. Though pressed to stay as free trade Opposition leader he refused. 'I am working on my book and … resting from political turmoil', he told Carrington two months later. In June 1892 Parkes completed Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, his great apologia, its vitality reflecting the wells of strength that were his. By 1893 'extremely well in bodily health', he toured Victoria in November to speak on Federation, dined and danced at Government House, and enjoyed the Derby with Sydney friends who invited him out in a 'brand new drag and four fine horses': he 'climbed to a top seat with a young lady on each side of me and went to Flemington with a dash'. But his old political acumen did not accompany renewed physical strength. In 1894 he pettishly revealed his resentment of (Sir) George Reid's re-election as free trade leader and shocked friends by moving formal censure on the new government. Out of tune with Reid's fiscal and social reformism, he became obsessed with an ambition to head 'a new Party'. In the 1895 election he joined his old enemy Dibbs to form a shadowy 'Federal Party', which was labelled by the Sydney Morning Herald as 'an act of flagrant political immorality—an insult to the country'. In the Sydney-King electorate he challenged Reid, to fail after a vituperative campaign, which underlined his genuine concern for Federation but cruelly revealed his insensitiveness to the electorate's mood and the erosion by old age of his former powers. He unsuccessfully contested two other seats, and his political career was at an end.

 

Parkes had been appointed K.C.M.G. in 1877 and G.C.M.G. in 1888. Lady Parkes, 'for whom I have paid so heavy a penalty and who has been such a true friend to me', died of cancer during the King campaign. He determined to retire to 'perfect privacy', but still spoke on Federation, hinted at another trip to England and rejoiced 'in better health than for many years past'. On 24 October 1895 he married Julia Lynch, but on 27 April 1896 died suddenly at his home Kenilworth, Annandale, of heart failure after an attack of pneumonia. He was reconciled on his deathbed to Reid and at his own wish was buried without pomp beside his first wife at Faulconbridge on the Blue Mountains. He was survived by his third wife and by five daughters and a son of the twelve children of his first marriage, and by four sons and a daughter of the second. The Bulletin, which had never spared him, carried a cartoon-epitaph which captured the momentary mood of the whole colony. Under the caption 'Finis', a young cornstalker, the 'Little Boy from Manly', with tear-filled eyes wistfully closed a great volume, on its spine the simple legend, 'Parkes'.

 

Largest figure of nineteenth century Australian politics, Parkes also remains the most enigmatic. In a celebrated obituary, William Astley saw him merely as a 'master of the art of seeming great'; more sensitively, Alfred Deakin felt 'there was in him the man he dressed himself to appear'. Deakin's instinct for the real Parkes has not in fact been bettered: 'though not rich or versatile, his personality was massive, durable and imposing, resting upon elementary qualities of human nature elevated by a strong mind. He was cast in the mould of a great man and though he suffered from numerous pettinesses, spites and failings, he was in himself a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament and whose resources of character and intellect enabled him in his later years to overshadow all his contemporaries'. Parkes's papers add other dimensions which indicate a personality moulded over a long and changeful life by inner conflict, as he sought to reconcile deeply held principles, a mighty drive for self-realization and the compromises which were the price of success. Astley further sensed that his 'heart was … not in politics but in literature, in history and in art. There was a singular vein of sentiment in his nature which found no appropriate vent in his public existence … To see him handle a letter of Tennyson or Carlyle, or the simple autograph of Lincoln, was to receive a lesson in reverence. Books and other mementoes of the illustrious dead were to him the wine of life. And yet he was no scholar—scarcely even to be termed a student. As to his own place in literature, his poems are a byword'. Fate deprived him of easy paths to the preferred life of the 'choice spirit' (his phrase), through gentle birth, education, independence or business success, and the way of politics offered a sometimes unhappy alternative.

 

His vanity, craving for recognition and overbearing manner were the concomitants of a ruthless pursuit of personal success. Yet fiery integrity bit through in his scorn for the world's judgment of his marital and financial affairs and his inner resources provided resilience to weather crises which might have destroyed other men. While a remarkable instinct for political guile explains his ascendency in faction politics, he held tenaciously to important principles and prejudices. He was ever suspicious of the Church of Rome, steady in his concern to prevent cant depriving children of education, genuine in his wish to see justice achieved within the framework of a laissez faire system, dedicated to the idea of keeping Australian society racially homogeneous and sincere in his chosen role as guardian of constitutional proprieties. His probity and skill as an administrator cannot be seriously challenged and his energy and self-sacrifice in tasks sincerely undertaken command profound respect.

 

Bearded after 1861, he was always physically impressive, though imposing rather than handsome. For studied oratory he had few peers among colonial contemporaries, despite his uncertainty about aspirates and a tendency towards affectation. He collected autographs, books and artistic bric-à-brac, and his friends were always intrigued by his choice menagerie of native wild animals. Though temperate, he enjoyed champagne and had, as William Walker had it, great faith in the virtue of gastronomy as a political force.

 

Parkes's other volumes of verse were Murmurs of the Stream (1857), Studies in Rhyme (1870), The Beauteous Terrorist and Other Poems (1885), Fragmentary Thoughts (1889) and Sonnets and Other Verse (1895). His other prose works include Australian Views of England: Eleven Letters Written in 1861 and 1862 (1869) and many political pamphlets. An Emigrant's Home Letters is an edited collection of his letters to his family in 1838-43, published in 1896 by his daughter Annie.

 

Portraits by Julian Ashton are in the National Memorial School of Arts, Tenterfield, and copies are in the Parliament Houses in Sydney and Canberra; by Tom Roberts in the National Gallery, Adelaide; by Mary Stoddard in the Legislative Council Chamber, Sydney; and by John Henry Chinner in the National Library of Australia. A bust by Nelson Illingworth is in the National Library and a bust by Theodora Cowen in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

 

From: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/parkes-sir-henry-4366

Statue of Sir Henry Parkes (see later) on the Department of Lands building.

 

The Lands Department building, 23-33 Bridge Street was designed by James Barnet and built in two stages in 1876-1880 and 1888-1893. The site had been occupied since 1788 by the Surveyor General. The new Lands Act of 1884 required additional office accommodation and a second stage was urgently required by 1887. The 23 statues on the cornice of the building were not completed until 1901.

 

The highly important Datum Bench Mark Plug which controls all levels in the state, was inserted on the front of the building at some time between 1887 and 1894. Initially the building was shared by Lands and by Mines and Agriculture.

 

It remains the home of the Department of Land and Water Conservation. The building was and still is one of Sydney’s most elaborate sandstone facades. At the upper levels the building has concrete lanterns to copper-roofed domes, a revolving observatory dome (never used), and a prominent stone tower with a distinctive onion-shaped dome.

 

Parkes, Sir Henry (1815–1896) by A. W. Martin

 

Sir Henry Parkes (1815-1896), politician and journalist, was born on 27 May 1815 in Warwickshire, England, youngest of the seven children of Thomas Parks, tenant farmer on Stoneleigh Abbey Estate, and his wife Martha, née Faulconbridge. Forced off their farm in 1823 by debt, the Parkes family moved to Glamorganshire and about 1825 settled in Birmingham, where Thomas was a gardener and odd-job man. Henry's formal education was in his own words, 'very limited and imperfect'; he briefly attended Stoneleigh parish school and later joined the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute. Obliged as a boy to help in supporting the family, he worked as a road labourer and in a brickpit and rope-walk, before being apprenticed to John Holding, bone and ivory turner of Moseley Street. Having served his articles, he began his own business in 1837. On 11 July 1836 at Edgbaston Parish Church he had married Clarinda, 23-year-old daughter of John Varney, butcher. They regularly attended Carr's Lane Independent Chapel under the formidable John Angell James, whose precepts and oratorical style left a permanent impression on Parkes. Another important Birmingham influence was Thomas Attwood's Political Union, which Parkes joined at 17. He heard Attwood, Scholefield and Edmunds orate at Newhall Hill, sported the union badge and in 1833 dedicated a poem on the wrongs of Poland to Attwood's son.

 

The business failed and in 1838 Parkes took Clarinda to London in search of better prospects. They survived a few weeks by pawning his tools, then determined to leave for New South Wales as bounty migrants. In March 1839 Hetherington's Charter published verses from Parkes as 'A Poet's Farewell', indignantly condemning a society through whose injustices 'men like this are compelled to seek the means of existence in a foreign wilderness'. Parkes assured his Birmingham family of his certainty of 'making my fortune and coming back to fetch all of you'. He and Clarinda sailed from Gravesend on 27 March 1839 in the Strathfieldsaye, their ears 'incessantly assailed by the coarse expressions and blasphemies' of other steerage passengers.

 

They reached Sydney on 25 July 1839 with a first surviving child born at sea two days earlier. Parkes found work as a labourer on Sir John Jamison's Regentville estate but after six months returned to Sydney to work in Thomas Burdekin's iron-mongery and Peter Russell's brass-foundry. In 1840 he became a tide-waiter in the Customs Department, slowly bought tools and in 1845 set up in Hunter Street as an ivory turner and importer of fancy goods. Impressed by what seemed 'flattering prospects' of developing 'a respectable mercantile business', he opened branches in Maitland and Geelong, but both failed and by 1850 he was in financial difficulties, writing remorsefully to his wife of 'too culpable neglect of my business in Sydney'. He had by then become deeply involved in literary and political activities, attractions which highlighted the dullness of a business life.

 

Parkes's talents as a writer, extraordinary for one so lacking in formal education, developed quickly in the 1840s. He was briefly Sydney correspondent for the Launceston Examiner, and contributed occasional poems and articles on political and literary topics, sometimes under the pseudonym 'Faulconbridge', to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australasian Chronicle and the Atlas. In 1842 he published by subscription a first book of verse, Stolen Moments. Through W. A. Duncan and Charles Harpur, his 'chief advisers on matters of intellectual resource and enquiry', he came to be associated with most of the colony's radical patriots. Discussion gave place in 1848 to action, when with J. K. Heydon he became organizing secretary of a tradesmen's committee which successfully promoted Robert Lowe for the City of Sydney seat in the Legislative Council. Later that year he joined radicals in the Constitutional Association which developed out of the Lowe committee to agitate for franchise extension and land reform. In his first public speech, made at the City Theatre in January 1849, Parkes advocated universal suffrage as the best guarantee that the people, 'growing in enlightenment', would avoid 'the excesses of Paris and Frankfurt'. His radicalism reached a brief apogee in April 1850 when Rev. John Dunmore Lang and J. R. Wilshire established the Australian League to work for universal suffrage and transformation of the Australian colonies into a 'Great Federal Republic'. Parkes wrote to Lang to denounce the 'dung-hill aristocracy of Botany Bay' and to assert his eagerness to 'enrol in the league for the entire freedom and independence' of this 'land of my adoption and of my children's birth'. In July he worked as chief organizer and canvasser when Lang stood against J. R. Holden for a vacant Sydney seat in the Legislative Council. In this campaign Parkes joined the Chartist, David Blair, to issue the Representative: A Daily Journal of the Election as a counter to the 'discreditable handbills' circulated by Lang's opponents. Lang won the seat but his league did not survive long and Parkes's republicanism soon evaporated. Daniel Deniehy told Lang that Parkes had 'too much, not of the Englishman in him, but of “Englishmanism” about him', to lend serious comfort to the republicans of New South Wales. But this was only part of the story; Parkes was already finding a more congenial cause in the liberal movement which by the early 1850s was becoming the most effective spearhead against the old colonial conservatives.

 

Parkes, who had been prominent in the great protest which greeted the convict ship Hashemy in 1849, eagerly dedicated his organizational talents to the Anti-transportation League and drifted easily into the liberal campaigns against the anti-democratic Electoral Act of 1851. Late in 1850 he found support to set up as editor-proprietor of the Empire, a newspaper destined to be the chief organ of mid-century liberalism and to serve as the rallying and reconciliation point for the sharpest radical and liberal minds of the day. Critics of the existing system as diverse as C. G. Duffy, Edward Butler, James Martin, William Forster, Deniehy and Lang were contributors but Parkes was presiding genius. Full-time journalist and politician now, he abandoned shopkeeping for a happy reconciliation of desire and duty: the Empire allowed devotion to a political cause and promised steady economic support for a growing family. By 1853, deeply involved in organizing the Constitution Committee to oppose Wentworth's constitution bill, he was ready to seek a place in the Legislative Council. Failing at a by-election that year, he won Wentworth's old Sydney seat in 1854, defeating Charles Kemp in a contest generally seen as a trial of strength between liberals and conservatives over the constitutional issue. The radicals' acceptance of a frankly liberal Parkes as their candidate in place of Lang symbolized the merging in his person of radical and liberal movements. The liberal leader, Charles Cowper, warmly welcomed him to the council as an opponent of 'Wentworthian and Thomsonian policy', and Parkes's election to the Chamber of Commerce signified his acceptance into the inner liberal group.

 

Parkes entered the council near its end: the constitutional proposals were under scrutiny in London and no longer a subject for effective local debate. Meanwhile the liberals' reformism was chiefly reflected in a range of inquiries instituted by the dying council into such matters as a nautical school for boys, the importation of Asiatic labour, the adulteration of food and the state of agriculture. In this work Parkes won repute as an assiduous and imaginative committeeman.

 

In March 1856 at the first Legislative Assembly established by the new Constitution, Parkes was one of the liberal bunch which carried all four seats in the premier Sydney City constituency. He supported Cowper in the complex manoeuvres of the first parliament until obliged in December to resign to give full attention to the Empire, then in serious financial difficulties. He re-entered parliament in January 1858 for the North Riding of Cumberland but in August had to resign for insolvency. The Empire had collapsed, ending his dream of using the paper as 'an independent power to vivify, elevate and direct the political life of the country' and leaving him 'to begin life afresh with a wife and five children to support, a name in a commercial sense ruined and a doubt of the practical character of my mind'. He survived bankruptcy proceedings, struggled on with the support of friends and the proceeds of occasional journalism and planned briefly to abandon politics for a legal career. But in June 1859 he was back in parliament to represent East Sydney.

 

Politics in the assembly had by then settled into a faction mould. Having in 1857 declared his independence of Cowper and John Robertson, Parkes developed a personal following in the House and in 1859-60 emerged as critic and rival of the established liberal leadership. But economic insecurity made him vulnerable, and early in 1861 he accepted an invitation by Cowper to tour England with W. B. Dalley as government lecturer on emigration at a salary of £1000.

 

Parkes sailed in May, leaving his family in poverty on their rented farm at Werrington. In England he attended vigorously to his duties, though with limited success. Prevailing English sentiment was well expressed by Sir John Pakington, who declared at Parkes's meeting in Droitwich his unwillingness to see 'the pith of our English population seeking a home elsewhere'. Early in 1863 Parkes returned to Sydney in good spirits, his self-confidence strengthened by the kind attention he had received from government officials and such literary idols as Carlyle, Hughes and Cobden, and having established while in Birmingham a new fancy goods importing business which he hoped might in the next six years 'provide for the rest of our lives'.

 

An opportunity to return to parliament offered itself in August 1863 when J. B. Darvall sought ministerial re-election at East Maitland. Parkes opposed Darvall and lost the contest after a bitter campaign, but in January 1864 was returned at a by-election for Kiama, a seat he held until 1870. From late 1864 until early 1866 he opposed consecutive Martin and Cowper ministries, while steadily rebuilding his own faction. In 1865 Cowper tried without success to buy him off again, with offers first of the lucrative post of inspector of prisons, then of a portfolio in his ministry. By early 1866 Martin and Parkes were in private negotiation: successful censure of Cowper followed and Martin, commissioned to form a ministry, included Parkes, as colonial secretary, and two followers.

 

This coalition, scarcely more than a marriage of convenience, failed to develop a positive and unanimous programme. Its leaders differed on such basic issues as the tariff, state aid, electoral and land reform. Parkes was responsible for establishing the hulk Vernon as a nautical school for destitute boys, for an Act requiring the inspection of hospitals and for bringing to Sydney under Lucy Osburn nursing sisters trained by Florence Nightingale. But the government's support was uncertain and its ministers quarrelsome; its only major legislation in two years and a half of office, Parkes's 1866 Public Schools Act, passed the assembly with Opposition assistance. This measure was Parkes's first important contribution to education reform. Prompted by the high cost of competing national and denominational systems of education, it aimed at rationalizing expenditure by placing both under a Council of Education which was also to oversee teacher training and the content of secular lessons.

 

The measure aroused sectarian controversy which Parkes did little to assuage. It revived again in March 1868 when H. J. O'Farrell attempted to assassinate the visiting Duke of Edinburgh. The government, alleging a Fenian plot, carried a savage Treason Felony Act suspending civil rights, but no conspiracy was discovered. In September Parkes resigned from the ministry in protest at its handling of a quarrel between the treasurer, Geoffrey Eagar, and W. A. Duncan, collector of customs. Lacking Parkes's support, Martin's ministry fell within a month. Meanwhile in a speech at Kiama Parkes had alleged that he had evidence to prove O'Farrell had acted on Fenian orders and that one conspirator had been murdered when suspected of revealing the plot. While his move had obvious political purposes, Parkes's correspondence also shows that he was obsessed with fears for his own safety and a belief in Catholic ambitions to seize political hegemony. A select committee under W. J. Macleay found no proof of the allegations, but though Parkes rallied sectarian and factional support to have its report expunged from the records of the House, the 'Kiama ghost' long remained an embarrassment.

 

Parkes's financial difficulties had been mounting: his importing venture failed and in December 1870 he collapsed again into bankruptcy. He resigned his seat but soon assured his sister that he would be 're-elected to the Legislature whenever I choose to offer myself, and strange as it may seem two-thirds of the mercantile classes will vote for me. They have got a notion that I am wholly unfit for business, but the fittest of all men for Parliament'. He survived by borrowing from friends, working as a journalist and briefly acting as travelling agent for H. H. Hall. In January 1872 he was returned for Mudgee in time to help in ousting the Martin-Robertson coalition ministry. General elections in February-March confirmed Martin's defeat and after complex negotiations Parkes became premier for the first time. His achievement bore witness to the political arts of which he was now supreme master: besides his own followers the ministry included old Cowper-Robertson men and Butler, a barrister who had covertly engineered sectional Catholic support for Parkes at the election.

 

The ministry took office in May at a time of commercial prosperity. By December, thanks chiefly to the rising sale of public lands, the Treasury had a substantial surplus. Parkes embarked on vigorous development of public works, effected a downward revision of tariff schedules and negotiated an agreement with Victoria on free border trade. Though once 'bitten by the doctrine of fostering infant industries' Parkes had in 1861 learnt from Cobden the error of his ways: now as tariff reformer, he received a gold medal from the Cobden Club and established his image as high priest of free trade in New South Wales. He also won the confidence of Sir Hercules Robinson, a convinced free trader and experienced colonial governor, whose eagerness to discuss administrative and constitutional problems with cordiality and balance proved important for Parkes's development.

 

Despite favourable assembly majorities, the council mauled government bills to consolidate the criminal law and to redraw electoral boundaries. The governor refused a ministerial request for new appointments and the council threw out a bill which, with overwhelming assembly support, aimed to give the Upper House an elective component. Echoes of former constitutional battles brought Parkes kudos as an old liberal campaigner. He emerged less happily from another crisis which arose in 1873 when his attorney-general and personal friend, Butler, resigned in protest against his failure to honour an implied promise of the chief justiceship then vacant. Though correct in judging that Martin had superior claims to the post, Parkes extricated himself from the obligation to Butler without displaying the frankness of a gentleman or the sensitivity of a friend and colleague. His deviousness is understandable in the light of pressure from the Bar, of his instinct for intrigue, of his unease at Butler's unpredictability and of the danger of his ministry falling. The reputations of both men were not enhanced when Butler made public their correspondence. The unhappy consequence of the breach was more than personal since the Parkes-Butler alliance had effected a liberal-Catholic rapprochement full of promise for the colony's best interests.

 

After an assembly motion in November 1874 which condemned the handling of messages on the governor's response to petitions for and against the release of Frank Gardiner, the ministry resigned in January 1875. Public passions muddied the constitutional issues at stake and the ministry's defeat had resulted from a clever Opposition stratagem: the permanent significance of the case lay in calmer discussions between Robinson, Parkes and the Colonial Office leading to clearer definition of the responsibilities of ministers and governor in exercising the prerogative of pardon.

 

Parkes led the opposition to Robertson's ministry of 1875 and was premier from March to August 1877. By then politics had drifted into chaos. Of the faction leaders of the 1860s only Parkes and Robertson remained, but neither helped to readjust members' loyalties by developing distinctive policies; while both shuffled on major issues, a 'third party' was formed under J. S. Farnell and short-lived governments did little more than business essential to the conduct of administration. On 13 December 1878 Robertson resigned from parliament, hoping that 'the Assembly will naturally arrange itself into two parties'. Four days later a meeting of opposition members, mostly Robertson's followers, invited Parkes to become their leader. On 21 December he formed a new ministry with himself colonial secretary and Robertson, speedily appointed to the Upper House, vice-president of the Executive Council. 'It only remains to be hoped', wrote Governor Robinson dryly, 'that these gentlemen who have for nearly a quarter of a century assailed each other with such bitter political hostility will now work together harmoniously in the same cabinet'. But Parkes's claim that the coalition had been effected 'without any violation of principles' was substantially correct. The government, overwhelmingly supported in the assembly, passed appropriation and loan bills with an ease unknown to its predecessors. By late 1880 its Lands, Public Instruction and Electoral Acts had surpassed in importance any legislation for more than a decade. Elections in November enlarged the ministry's majority. Its 1881 Licensing Act regulated the liquor trade and established local option, for which the temperance movement had long clamoured. Chinese immigration was restricted and employers' liability for workmen's injuries extended. New public works were started, electoral boundaries revised and stipendiary magistrates set up.

 

The Public Instruction Act was for Parkes the ministry's most significant measure, an earnest of his deep conviction of the social necessity of equal educational opportunity. He had steadily defended the 1866 settlement against pressure from the Public School League and embattled Catholic and Anglican denominationalists until by the late 1870s administrative difficulties on the Council of Education, concern to spread scarce resources more widely and the alliance with Robertson led him to move in a way most practical politicians were coming to think inevitable. Archbishop Vaughan's 'audacious' attacks on National schools embittered the debate but did not prompt the 1880 legislation. Parkes correctly insisted that his bill was not anti-religious and tempered pragmatism with that liberal faith in 'freedom and equality' for which he had argued in his Empire days. Though he understood the Catholic position, he grieved at the separation of Catholic children from others with whom they would have to 'mix in later years', and his exhortations still echoed the simple colonial nativism of the 1840s and 1850s: 'let us be of whatever faith we may, let us still remember that we are above everything else free citizens of a free commonwealth'.

 

In December 1881 on medical advice Parkes began a holiday voyage, leaving Robertson as acting premier. He was accepted abroad, according to The Times, as 'the most commanding figure in Australian politics'. Hoping to further Australian interests, he secured commissions from all colonial governments except Victoria to represent, in the United States government and financial circles, their wish for support for the trans-Pacific steamship service and for a relaxation of import duties on wool. Though Parkes's speeches and talks on these matters had no perceptible effect on American policy he was treated everywhere with flattering attention which made his six weeks in America something of a personal triumph. He arrived in England in March 1882. His health was still poor but he found strength to become one of the social lions of the season: 'fortunately for me', he wrote, 'I can enjoy the Dinners because I have little exertion and new men of mark I constantly meet are of unfailing interest to me'. He was noticed by royalty, politicians, expatriate Australians, guilds and companies; he spoke at dinners, visited Birmingham as the mayor's guest, stayed three days with the Tennysons at Farringford, lunched at Brussels with the King and Queen of Belgium and at Potsdam spent a day as the special guest of Prince Frederick and his wife, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Invited by Lord Leigh he visited his birthplace, Stoneleigh, where he slept at the abbey and spoke to an assembly of village children in authoritative tones: 'you will not all rise to a position of power, honour, influence and responsibility such as that I now fill. But by resolving to discharge the duties of life, and in being of use and service in your day and generation, you will do far better than I have done'. He returned to Australia in August to be honoured at civic banquets in Melbourne and Sydney.

 

Parkes spoke to friends of new ministerial goals: to establish a comprehensive system of local government and make a vigorous attempt to federate the colonies. But on 16 November the government was defeated on Robertson's land bill and advised a dissolution. A general election proved unfavourable; Parkes lost the East Sydney seat but won Tenterfield and the government resigned on 4 January 1883. Its abrupt fall followed Robertson's refusal to recognize weaknesses in his 1861 land system. The governor, Lord Augustus Loftus, also noted that since his return Parkes had squandered the 'popularity and confidence he had previously enjoyed … had become dictatorial in his mode of action and overbearing in his manner, and whether intentionally or not had assumed a despotic tone which latterly became not only offensive to the Parliament but to the country'.

 

Loss of office dampened Parkes's zest for politics and loss of ministerial salary brought him financial problems: he returned to business and went to England as agent for a Sydney firm. Though absent from July 1883 to August 1884 he held the Tenterfield seat at the request of his constituents. In England a busy social round was punctuated by hard work on his own affairs. He addressed the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and other public meetings in Scotland and was the moving spirit in founding the Australasian Investment Co., with its head office in Edinburgh and in Sydney a colonial board, on which he was to be prominent. He brought ivory goods home for sale and undertook to become Australasian representative of the engineering firm of Latimer, Clark, Muirhead & Co. After three months in the assembly as an ordinary Opposition member, he resigned on 3 November in protest at what he saw as the corrupt railway policy of Alexander Stuart's government. To a friend he also wrote that at 70 he was being forced by adversity 'to close a great career' to give all his time to improving his finances.

 

This self-imposed retirement ended when in March 1885 he attacked Dalley's decision to send colonial troops to the Sudan and contested the Argyle seat as the 'one way of constitutionally testing the opinion of the country'. Though his election by a narrow majority proved little, his principled and lucid approach to the Sudan affair did much, once jingoism abated, to reduce the government's prestige. In parliament he faced an expulsion move by enemies anxious to brand as a 'gross libel' his public assertion, made when resigning Tenterfield, that 'political character had almost disappeared from the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly'. He survived and before the dissolution in October became the spearhead of a sustained Opposition attack on the government's alleged corruption.

 

In the elections Parkes contested St Leonards against G. R. Dibbs and won the seat after an acrimonious campaign. In the new parliament the government fell after announcing a large deficit resulting from economic recession and the collapse of land revenue following Stuart's land reforms. Robertson unwillingly formed a ministry in December but Parkes refused to join him. Robertson fell in February 1886 and Jennings took office, to struggle in a turbulent House to carry measures to meet the financial crisis. A group led by Parkes, alarmed by protectionist clamour out of doors, chose to interpret a proposed 5 per cent ad valorem tariff as 'sneaking in protection'. The climax to wild scenes in the assembly came at midnight on Saturday, 10 July, when after three days of continuous sitting Parkes led his followers out of the House, throwing on the table a written protest against the government's determination to sit on into the next day as a violation both of the Constitution and of the Sabbath.

 

When Jennings resigned in January 1887 Parkes formed his fourth ministry and went to the country with the slogan 'good government and commercial freedom'. He won a resounding victory, partly through his own energetic electioneering and partly through the work of the Free Trade Association of New South Wales which had taken charge of organizing the campaign. In the new parliament he led a majority whose dedication to the principle of free trade forced political divisions into a party-like mould and signalled the imminent end of the old faction system. For Parkes a ministerial salary compensated for the collapse of his commercial hopes in a third bankruptcy.

 

By 1889 the ministry had 'balanced' the budget, mildly reformed the tariff and amended the bankruptcy and criminal laws. Major reform of public works administration and railway management followed. In 1888 Parkes had responded to the Chinese immigration crisis with restrictive measures which defied imperial authority and nettled other colonial leaders anxious for concerted action. Given these successes, some mystery surrounds Parkes's virtual abdication of power in January 1889 when he 'courted defeat' by refusing to answer charges against the integrity of W. M. Fehon, appointed to the new Railway Commission. Parkes professed weariness in face of the Opposition's obstructive tactics; some supporters were disgruntled at his equivocal attitude to free trade and direct taxation, and his cabinet was divided. Parkes was also under personal strain: he was still in financial difficulties; Clarinda had died on 2 February 1888; and his marriage at St Paul's Church of England, Redfern, on 6 February 1889 to Eleanor Dixon offended his family and provoked social censure.

 

Defeated on a snap adjournment division, Parkes resigned on 16 January. In protest William McMillan rallied the free traders who denied supply to the new Dibbs government and the House was dissolved. Narrowly victorious at the poll, the free trade party asked Parkes to resume leadership. In March he was back in office at the head of a reconstituted free trade ministry, and held office until October 1891, being dependent after June on support from the new Labor Party.

 

For Parkes, the principal departure of these years was the campaign which resulted in the Federation Conference and the Australasian Federal Convention of 1890-91. Though an advocate of colonial union for over thirty years, Parkes had shunned the Federal Council and puzzled federalists by seeking, largely at the prompting of Sir Alfred Stephen, to alter the name of New South Wales to Australia. In January 1889 he had announced in Melbourne his readiness to join 'heart in hand' to promote true Federation, and in June warmed to a suggestion from the governor, Lord Carrington, that to confederate the colonies would be a 'glorious finish' to his life. He told his daughter that he had lost much of his 'former relish for parliamentary work' and was moved by 'repeated suggestions and invitations from the other colonies' to offer himself 'as leader in a great movement to federate on a solid basis all the colonies'. He sounded Duncan Gillies on the subject and in October employed Major-General Edwards's reports on defence as evidence of the urgent need for Federation. In that month, as a counter to Gillies's insistence that New South Wales join the Federal Council, he went to Brisbane to consult Queensland ministers and on his return journey delivered at Tenterfield a speech calling for a federal convention to devise 'a great national Government for all Australia'. The following Federal Conference and Convention owed much to the private negotiations of Lord Carrington yet were also personal diplomatic triumphs for Parkes and at the convention he was, according to Alfred Deakin, 'from first to last the Chief and leader'.

 

Political opportunism and the hope of strengthening his immediate position in New South Wales doubtless supported large-minded idealism in Parkes's commitment to Federation after 1889. But in Sydney the draft Constitution bill of 1891 divided free traders, was suspected by Labor and aroused little public enthusiasm. Meantime the maritime strike and its aftermath focussed attention on more urgent social issues. While the other colonies awaited a lead, Parkes failed to press the bill to an issue in his parliament, dallying lest opponents persuade the electors 'that we had consumed our time in the “fad” of federation … and had neglected the legislation so urgently required for the advancement of New South Wales'. He was also in poor physical shape to fight forlorn battles after injuries from a cab accident in 1890, though he continued to hold the reins of government firmly, as acting premier McMillan found in September when an injudicious reaction to the Circular Quay riots earned sharp censure from the premier. But another minister, J. H. Carruthers, feared that Parkes's health was 'gradually breaking and feebleness supervening his usual vigour'.

 

In October 1891 Parkes supported a motion to adjourn the debate on the recommittal of the coal mines regulation bill; the motion was not carried and he resigned leaving office with 'joyful satisfaction'. Though pressed to stay as free trade Opposition leader he refused. 'I am working on my book and … resting from political turmoil', he told Carrington two months later. In June 1892 Parkes completed Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, his great apologia, its vitality reflecting the wells of strength that were his. By 1893 'extremely well in bodily health', he toured Victoria in November to speak on Federation, dined and danced at Government House, and enjoyed the Derby with Sydney friends who invited him out in a 'brand new drag and four fine horses': he 'climbed to a top seat with a young lady on each side of me and went to Flemington with a dash'. But his old political acumen did not accompany renewed physical strength. In 1894 he pettishly revealed his resentment of (Sir) George Reid's re-election as free trade leader and shocked friends by moving formal censure on the new government. Out of tune with Reid's fiscal and social reformism, he became obsessed with an ambition to head 'a new Party'. In the 1895 election he joined his old enemy Dibbs to form a shadowy 'Federal Party', which was labelled by the Sydney Morning Herald as 'an act of flagrant political immorality—an insult to the country'. In the Sydney-King electorate he challenged Reid, to fail after a vituperative campaign, which underlined his genuine concern for Federation but cruelly revealed his insensitiveness to the electorate's mood and the erosion by old age of his former powers. He unsuccessfully contested two other seats, and his political career was at an end.

 

Parkes had been appointed K.C.M.G. in 1877 and G.C.M.G. in 1888. Lady Parkes, 'for whom I have paid so heavy a penalty and who has been such a true friend to me', died of cancer during the King campaign. He determined to retire to 'perfect privacy', but still spoke on Federation, hinted at another trip to England and rejoiced 'in better health than for many years past'. On 24 October 1895 he married Julia Lynch, but on 27 April 1896 died suddenly at his home Kenilworth, Annandale, of heart failure after an attack of pneumonia. He was reconciled on his deathbed to Reid and at his own wish was buried without pomp beside his first wife at Faulconbridge on the Blue Mountains. He was survived by his third wife and by five daughters and a son of the twelve children of his first marriage, and by four sons and a daughter of the second. The Bulletin, which had never spared him, carried a cartoon-epitaph which captured the momentary mood of the whole colony. Under the caption 'Finis', a young cornstalker, the 'Little Boy from Manly', with tear-filled eyes wistfully closed a great volume, on its spine the simple legend, 'Parkes'.

 

Largest figure of nineteenth century Australian politics, Parkes also remains the most enigmatic. In a celebrated obituary, William Astley saw him merely as a 'master of the art of seeming great'; more sensitively, Alfred Deakin felt 'there was in him the man he dressed himself to appear'. Deakin's instinct for the real Parkes has not in fact been bettered: 'though not rich or versatile, his personality was massive, durable and imposing, resting upon elementary qualities of human nature elevated by a strong mind. He was cast in the mould of a great man and though he suffered from numerous pettinesses, spites and failings, he was in himself a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament and whose resources of character and intellect enabled him in his later years to overshadow all his contemporaries'. Parkes's papers add other dimensions which indicate a personality moulded over a long and changeful life by inner conflict, as he sought to reconcile deeply held principles, a mighty drive for self-realization and the compromises which were the price of success. Astley further sensed that his 'heart was … not in politics but in literature, in history and in art. There was a singular vein of sentiment in his nature which found no appropriate vent in his public existence … To see him handle a letter of Tennyson or Carlyle, or the simple autograph of Lincoln, was to receive a lesson in reverence. Books and other mementoes of the illustrious dead were to him the wine of life. And yet he was no scholar—scarcely even to be termed a student. As to his own place in literature, his poems are a byword'. Fate deprived him of easy paths to the preferred life of the 'choice spirit' (his phrase), through gentle birth, education, independence or business success, and the way of politics offered a sometimes unhappy alternative.

 

His vanity, craving for recognition and overbearing manner were the concomitants of a ruthless pursuit of personal success. Yet fiery integrity bit through in his scorn for the world's judgment of his marital and financial affairs and his inner resources provided resilience to weather crises which might have destroyed other men. While a remarkable instinct for political guile explains his ascendency in faction politics, he held tenaciously to important principles and prejudices. He was ever suspicious of the Church of Rome, steady in his concern to prevent cant depriving children of education, genuine in his wish to see justice achieved within the framework of a laissez faire system, dedicated to the idea of keeping Australian society racially homogeneous and sincere in his chosen role as guardian of constitutional proprieties. His probity and skill as an administrator cannot be seriously challenged and his energy and self-sacrifice in tasks sincerely undertaken command profound respect.

 

Bearded after 1861, he was always physically impressive, though imposing rather than handsome. For studied oratory he had few peers among colonial contemporaries, despite his uncertainty about aspirates and a tendency towards affectation. He collected autographs, books and artistic bric-à-brac, and his friends were always intrigued by his choice menagerie of native wild animals. Though temperate, he enjoyed champagne and had, as William Walker had it, great faith in the virtue of gastronomy as a political force.

 

Parkes's other volumes of verse were Murmurs of the Stream (1857), Studies in Rhyme (1870), The Beauteous Terrorist and Other Poems (1885), Fragmentary Thoughts (1889) and Sonnets and Other Verse (1895). His other prose works include Australian Views of England: Eleven Letters Written in 1861 and 1862 (1869) and many political pamphlets. An Emigrant's Home Letters is an edited collection of his letters to his family in 1838-43, published in 1896 by his daughter Annie.

 

Portraits by Julian Ashton are in the National Memorial School of Arts, Tenterfield, and copies are in the Parliament Houses in Sydney and Canberra; by Tom Roberts in the National Gallery, Adelaide; by Mary Stoddard in the Legislative Council Chamber, Sydney; and by John Henry Chinner in the National Library of Australia. A bust by Nelson Illingworth is in the National Library and a bust by Theodora Cowen in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

 

From: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/parkes-sir-henry-4366

PART 4

Day 5 started slowly. The ship lay in the hot still air, swinging lazily on its anchor. Everything was quiet, and those Vietnamese not included in the various work parties spent the time pacing restlessly up and down the deck. For the adults this new day brought more uneasiness. What was happening? What were the powers-that-be in some far off land deciding? What would be their fate?

 

Nerves tightened when a cutter was seen leaving the shore and heading directly towards Wellpark. As it reached the gangway we heard our new visitor was no less than one of Denholm Ship Management’s senior Director’s flown out from the UK to assist our situation. Knowing that he was on board in meetings with the Captain and senior officer’s demonstrated the seriousness of our position, one that I and the younger members of the crew had so far thought of as a jolly adventure.

 

Fortunately the children, who made up half the ship’s population, could not be kept down. They were everywhere, unaware of the tension that enveloped the adults. They played, and laughed, tagging along behind the cadets as if they were older brothers. In return most of the cadets, not so long out of school themselves, could not resist the urge to have fun where it was possible. To the children the ship was a massive and exciting playground, but it could also be a very dangerous place. As potential officers we were thoroughly trained in safety matters, proficient in first aid, and as firefighters and lifeboatmen. So the children were always in safe hands, not least because the crew had a genuine affection for them. We couldn’t resist their sense of fun and their smiles. Smiles are infectious things and seeing and having happy children around, I’m sure helped divert their parents minds from more worrying matters.

 

Sometime during the day another cadet told me to go and look at the ship’s notice board. There were a few crew members already there, reading a letter pinned to the board. It was a letter of thanks from the Vietnamese. It read:

 

On behalf of all the refugees in the ship and of myself May I address to you, the General Manager of the Denholm Ship Management Limited, to the Dymandee’s commander, Officers and all the Crews members our profound and Grateful thanks for Saving us from the coming death on our boat.

We believe that October the Second 1978 will be an unforgotten day among the coming remaining days of our life, and we think our relative, parents and children will hear from our mouth the Dymandee’s noble and humanitarians task very soon.

Really, excepted a Small privileged part of us on the boat, we were in a Semi-consciousness caused by the days lack of food, by the high move of the sea, by the mechanical trouble of the boat.

So far the desire to escape has nourished our hope and given us faith. We believe in God and happily our boat was lost on Dymandees road.

And Dymandee with her mechanical and human forces managed by a handful of energetic humanitarian people has pulled three hundred and fifty human lives from the nightmare of coming death to the brightness of life, from the unimaginable lack of air in the last hole of the boat, to the bright and hopeful Dymandee’s deck.

So Dymandee has saved us!

Thanks to God!

Thanks to Dymandee’s Managers

Thanks to Dymandee’s Commander, Officers and all the members of the crew

 

Signed, Ny quy Bao

 

We understood what the name Dymandee was. It’s customary for ships to have the same name on their lifeboats too. But Wellpark was a training ship and she had one addition to the lifeboats in the shape of a small sailing dinghy stowed on the stern. This little boat had been named Dymandee, a name created from the Denholm Line crest, or logo, of a blue diamond shape with a white ‘D’ in the middle of it; hence, Dymandee. Seeing the dinghy with its name on it, it is understandable someone might believe the ship was called Dymandee.

 

But we overlooked the error of the name. The emotive phrasing of the letter in front of us at first seemed somewhat melodramatic. But slowly as each of us read on, realisation began to dawn on us. As a youthful and carefree ship’s crew, death always seemed a lifetime away. Here, for the first time we began to appreciate that the people we now shared life with really had believed death for them was only a matter of hours or a day away. Hope had slipped away with their last food, the last distress flare and the light of day. And then came the lights of Wellpark, turning towards them like an Angel out of the darkness of despair. That letter was a message of gratitude that sank deep into the psyche of all that read it.

 

All that day there was no new news for the refugees. All day long we kept glancing up towards the ship’s accommodation within which we knew the Captain and Denholm Director must be in conference calls with Head Office in Glasgow and various government departments discussing what would happen next. It seemed a long drawn out day and the nightly gathering after dark on the hatch lid had a more sombre air to it. It can’t have been easy for the Vietnamese to sleep on the steel hatch cover that night.

 

Over in the UK my mother hadn't the slightest idea what I was doing. It would be five days more before our families and the British public would be told what had happened on the night of 1st October.

 

It was the same routine the next day. The bodies stirred under the blankets at about 6.30am. By that time we were already on duty again, and some of the Vietnamese asked when we slept, for they noticed we were active about the ship when they went to sleep and ’still’ on duty when they awoke. Of course we were getting sleep but only for a few hours a day.

 

Word was passed round that Wellpark would dock later that day at the grain terminal a few miles away. Whilst the crew test opened the cargo hatch lids, the refugees did their best to keep themselves busy. Some washed or repaired clothes, whilst the younger children drew pictures or cut shapes out of card with scissors. Many spent time washing, cleaning or reorganising the few items that constituted their home on the hatchlid, straightening and folding the few blankets each family had. Many were off the hatchlid helping in the ship’s galleys with preparing food and others in various work parties helping out the crew where it was requested. Having been strictly ordered to stay on the hatchlid in the first day, the ‘barriers’ had been eased and now some felt free to roam the ships open deck, but the ship’s accommodation remained off-limits unless the individual was on ‘official duties’.

 

As the grain berth became vacant by mid-afternoon, Wellpark was ordered in. The crew were busy on the bow raising the 5 tonne anchor. On the bridge wing the Captain and the Pilot were occupied passing orders from bridge wing to the man at the wheel, steering the 30,000 tonne ship towards the berth. A couple of tugs came out to assist, and as the Vietnamese watched, the ship was nudged into her parking spot opposite the grain elevators. The cadets once again showed the skills they had used in securing the refugee boat six days earlier, as they tied Wellpark tight up against the quay.

 

The sun was setting as two of the giant hatchlids were opened on their hydraulic rams. Almost straightaway two grain elevators marched up, guided from their little wooden control huts mounted up high, and started to suck the grain out of the ship’s holds. And they kept going. Later the refugees settled off to sleep. But the constant hum of the machinery, and the bright lights they used to work by, must have been an ugly intruder of their dreams throughout the night.

 

Once again I was already on duty when the Vietnamese peeked out from under their blankets next morning. I had started work again at 4.00 am, my duties to control access to the ship on the Gangway watch. We had two Taiwanese Police on board and a total of seven cadets patrolling the ship at any time on a so-called Security watch. From time to time some Taiwanese dock workers would come on board. I didn’t like their attitude. They were nosey. Too often they wandered close to the area where the refugees were sleeping, dressing or sitting. I often had to confront them. But up close I saw they appeared to be bleeding in their mouths. There was red stuff around their teeth like blood. And every so often they would spit the 'blood' on the deck. It was disgusting. Even when I discovered the red stuff they were chewing was beetlejuice, I still found the habit disgusting, as they obscenely desecrated our ‘home’ with patches of spat ‘blood’ all over the place.

 

Now life for the Vietnamese was less pleasant. As the grain was lifted from the holds dust drifted on the light breeze across the ship’s deck. It got everywhere and the refugees were meticulous in cleaning it from their space on the hatchlid. But worse for them , the weather turned cooler. Used to a life in tropical Vietnam, Taiwan was unfavourably cool by their standards.

 

Fortunately news of their plight seems to have been broadcast in Taiwan, no doubt with some anti-communist twist to it. Looking down from the gangway we were initially mystified to see large bags being dropped on the quayside by dock workers. The pile grew, until eventually it was gathered up in a crane sling and hauled on board. In it were bags and bags of clothes and footwear. The bags were opened and the whole was made into a long pile some five or six feet wide and perhaps forty feet long down the port side of No.5 hatch. It was probably one to two feet deep in places, all of it clothing donated by the peoples of Kaohsiung. The Vietnamese rummaged amongst it lifting a shirt here, a jumper there, trying on trousers or shoes. In no time the Vietnamese were re-clothed and the pyjama style clothes so many of the women and girls wore, disappeared in favour of warmer and cleaner clothes.

 

In fact, so many bundles of clothes were donated that a sign was placed at the foot of the gangway explaining the situation and requesting specific items, which seemed to magically appear almost immediately. A huge television turned up from somewhere and this was placed on deck for the refugees, it’s original packing box being used to shade it from the sun. It always had an audience, eager for world news sitting cross-legged on the deck in front of it. Their future was completely unknown and they looked for some clue in the news programmes as to what would happen to them. Word had it that their new home would almost certainly be in the USA.

 

By 9th October, life on Wellpark had settled into a regular pattern. The ship continued to unload cargo 24 hours a day. To prevent stress to the ship’s hull they had to unload the cargo reasonably evenly so this meant moving the elevators from hold to hold. A time came when the cargo had to be emptied from Hatch No.5. The games nets were taken down, along with the assorted lifeboat and winchcovers, dinghy sail and swimming pool awning that had provided patchy cover. All 346 refugees were moved up the deck to make a new home on No.3 hatch cover. Later they were moved to No.2. Each time it meant building new cover from the weather that increasingly threatened rain. But unlike ten days earlier where we raided the ship for equipment and machinery covers, we now had huge rolls of tough, blue and white stripped plastic sheeting. It made sense to rig this into Arabian tent-like shapes along side the hatch covers.

 

With a supply of constant fresh water available from the shore by hose, the swimming pool area on the ship was made into a crude washing station where the Vietnamese could not only wash themselves but also use the freshwater to clean clothes. Still, only refugees who were on special duties were allowed in to the ship’s accommodation. There was no apparent resentment to this, and now the crew were surrounded by friendly smiles and respectful assistance wherever they went.

 

Every day the Captain headed a party of senior officers and Refugee Committee members as they toured the ship, clipboard in hand checking every detail of the social arrangements for the 400 on board. With considerable organisation they considered sleeping arrangements, the shelters, food, washing facilities, and even what could be done to relieve boredom. But much of the time the Captain and Committee members were out of sight, discussing and liaising with government authorities on what would happen. If they had some idea, out on deck they gave no clue to what they knew.

 

Life for the crew was different. We were still only getting a few hours sleep a night, but at least we slept in mattressed bunks in air conditioned cabins, and now there was an adequate supply of freshwater, we could shower at will. We were also free to leave the ship when off-duty and most made at least one trip in to the city of Kaohsiung. Some were heading on appointments to dentists or doctors, but after browsing a few shops and markets, inevitably we sought out the bars for a cold beer and some ‘cultural education’. Normally after any long period at sea, and it had been two months since I had stepped ashore, we were eager to explore a new country, but this time, after just a brief walk, I knew I just wanted to get back to Wellpark. I bought a black leather bomber jacket thinking it was a wonderful bargain. I hadn’t heard of ‘imitation’ leather before, but that was the greatest thing about going to sea as a young man. You learnt so much in such a short time, sometimes by your mistakes!

 

Other chapters of this story are here:

 

PART A www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1438584566/in/set-72...

PART 1 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1436299943/in/set-72...

PART 2 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1437528215/in/set-72...

PART 3 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1461744696/in/set-72...

PART 5 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1437563459/in/set-72...

PART 6 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1438381480/in/set-72...

 

You can also join the Wellpark Reunion site here : wellparkreunion.ning.com/main/authorization/signIn?target...

  

Go to www.shipsnostalgia.com/Guides/MV_Wellpark for the rest of the story

 

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

"When routine bites hard and ambitions are low

And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow

And we're changing our ways, taking different roads"

 

From my first session in 2015. Shot this at 2:30am while listening to Joy Division.

Gateway Camp Verse

(Pin1) Ging1 Mahn4

Isaiah 62:10

 

What Dale instructed about going out of our way to treat the Mainland Chinese well resonated within me. To be sure, just as the Koreans have gone out of their way to bless me so I must step out to bless and to love my Mainland brethren.

 

After the first meeting, Ed and I wandered off campus and found inside a shopping mall a cha chaan teng where we had a late-night snack. And hardly had we tucked into our meals when in walked several dozen volunteers, all locals, who were overcome, it seemed, by the same munchies that infected Ed and me. It’s surprising how such a primal urge, at such a time, drives everyone to no less than the same, impossibly far location.

 

I thus far have met so many people that, had I not brought along my iPod, I would have already lost track of the multitudinous names flying around like fireflies at night, sparkling luminously one moment and then disappearing the next. And this is only the beginning: more and more people will arrive both today and tomorrow so I had better stay awake, alert, and writing.

 

I am working with a partner who really challenges me, and indeed that is why I chose to work with him. From the first words that came streaming out of his mouth, I knew he would be a special one, and as if to conifrm my conjecture, indeed, the more he spoke, the more confused I became. The challenge, I have realized after much ruminating, isn’t so much the pace of his speech as his choice of words, which fall outside a normal lexical range; that is, at least with me, when he talks, he doesn’t use familiar collocations to communicate; besides, he has an uncanny Tin Shui Wai accent; those, along with his amazing resistance to Chinglish, which impresses me, by the way, have made our communication tedious, since I am bombarded by peculiar lexical constructions that I generally never encounter in Cantonese conversation and must therefore stop our flow to clarify his speech. It’s too bad that he doesn’t speak English as I would love to hear how he structures ideas in my native language to determine whether or not this strange lexis has spilled over into his other modes of communication.

 

Regardless, in being with him, I have learned to be patient, and if I am truly to walk away from resentment, I must continue rather to engage him than to keep him at arm’s length. It helps us, then, that he is a congenial fellow, prone more to expressing love, much in the same way that I do by warmly grabbing a forearm or a shoulder, than to venting his frustration, which with me could certainly be great. He is verily a good guy, and so long as the Lord keeps him — I am sure Daddy will — Tin Shui Wai, that small patch of concrete moon colony, is in capable, faithful human hands.

 

Sau2 muhn6 je2

Mihng6 dihng6

Kyuhn4 lihk6

Lihk6 leuhng6

Chong3 yi3 adjective

Chong3 jouh6 verb

 

Romans 5:3-5

 

Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

 

I cried this morning when I read these words, because they are true, and comfort my soul as water to a dry, parched land. However many times I’ve lamented this place and its people, I am still inextricably tied to this rock, per God’s will for my life; and God really is faithful in providing a way out not from this place but from these spiritual hindrances. These past few days, what with communication failures and fatigue setting in, I could have more easily give into my rationality, in defense of my weaknesses, than resisted this bait of satan. Thank God, hence, for the words which are like fuel for the refiner’s fire that burns up all my expectations, my pride and my flesh. I can survive, nay, rejoice, indeed, because of God, who, in me, day by day teaches me to suffer long with a smile.

 

This is what the gateway is all about, I believe: jumping head-first out of my comfort zone to confront the nations, for my brothers and sisters and I must face each other if we are to raise the banners together. Battling through enemy strongholds of mistrust ad resentment, we demolish carnal thoughts and dig deep in the Spirit for the unity that shall overcome as much language as culture; God, after all, is bigger, even, than the battlefield. In these ways can my brethren and I love each other as ourselves, as we shall be one in the Father, with audacious power and boldness laying hands on His kingdom which advances, in this kairos moment, over all of China, including, no doubt, Hong Kong. No longer will there be curses thrown upon the nations; but rather the river of life will flow through the city, and the leaves of the tree on each side of the river will be for the healing of the nations.

 

1) Welcoming the Father

2) Unifying the body

3) Partnering with the Chinese

4) Serving the city

5) Supporting the Chinese

 

Isaac and I have worked quite hard this morning, putting up signs all over campus, and as if to reward me for my assiduity, he offered to buy me a drink, an offer which I took up. Indeed, this man’s care and concern for others, genuine, doubtlessly, fills me with joy, for, to be sure, the joy of the lord is his strength. My friend is indefatigable, always encouraging and never slighting, no matter the circumstances, rain (that has happened a lot today) or shine. Praise God!

 

Much like my relationship with Isaac, my relationships with my other team members have improved considerably since, even, this morning’s briefing during which, the code-switching, happening too fast and too furiously for my comfort, vexed me so terribly that if Isaac had not put a generous arm around my shoulder immediately afterwards, I surely would have blown my top in frustration at the perplexing language option. Thankfully, my team and I settled our language arrangements: Isaac, Dorcas and I will intractably speak Cantonese to each other whereas my other group mates and I will use English with as little code-switching as possible; and I, along with Ed, no doubt, am satisfied. It’s best to avoid misunderstandings.

 

Lihng4 Mahn4 (soul)

Sihng4 jeung2

Muhng6 Seung2 (dreams)

 

The Lord’s mercies are new everyday. Just now, during the morning rally, by His Spirit, hundreds of brothers and sisters received a new anointing, to be spiritual mothers and fathers of a new generation so as to minister to the next. This outpouring of the Spirit was sudden, and so captivated me that when the call came to reap, I rushed to the front to ask my father for this anointing, and naturally, my life was transformed. In the same way, the pastor called up a new generation of spiritual children to receive the love, care and support of these new parents; and likewise, so many young men and women heeded this call that verily, the pit in front of the stage was soon awash in hugs and tears between generations that, once lost, were now found. Indeed, no sooner did these people embrace their father than Dad immediately swept them up in his strong arms and showered them with audacious encouragement and support. Praise God!

 

An Outburst

 

I was angry this morning during our team time. I temporarily lost my ability to be merciful and to live in God’s grace. When my team leader began to address me in English, yet again, I couldn’t help but berate him for doing so when Cantonese, I argued, would be a more economical medium of delivery. And then I compounded this already incendiary situation by ranting about the hypocrisy of Hong Kong being a gateway to China but not a gateway into its own neighborhoods teeming with Chinese people, 97% of whom, according to one of the pastors at this camp, do not know the Lord Jesus. Cantonese will matter, I posit, if anyone dares to take on the onerous mission in this vexing place.

 

To be sure, even my brother announced that language was a prohibitive barrier to closer relationships with these local people, and therefore, since he neither speaks Cantonese nor is going to give learning the language a go, he is relegated to the outer walls of the gates into Hong Kong.

 

In hindsight, I thought I cared enough about God’s purposes for me in Hong Kong, but I realize now that I still care a lot about myself, and resentment. Though I have prayed and declared boldly that God is bigger than language and culture, I know I don’t believe it; and that’s upsetting. For the time being, I don’t verily believe in my heart that I can have deeper, closer relationships with Chinese people without the benefit of language and culture, patterns of action.

 

OK. This is actually an opportune start for my spiritual parentship, for now I have an opportunity to put aside my very compelling arguments for the necessity of language and culture in deep and close relationships, these conclusions born out of my reason, and to step out in faith, to trust in the Lord who, I pray, will show me deep and close relationships sans language and culture, and with whom my deep and close relationship shall obviously be the key to this victory.

 

I’m thinking about events at this camp that heretofore demonstrated loving relationships without language and culture, and I recalled two acts: the first happened yesterday when I spontaneously joined a line of ushers to high-five and to cheer the audience as they flooded out of the auditorium, the morning rally having scarcely finished; and the second, this was my meeting Yao, a man from the Ivory Coast, whom I befriended in those first, fleeting, if not frantic moments before the opening rally on Friday evening. That encounter was immediate and sudden, neither words nor habits needed; Yao and I simply high-fived, hugged and sat beside each other; and wow, that was terrific companionship — praise God!

 

Finally, however hard my diatribe may have struck my team members’ hearts, my merciful group mates still forgave me, not only on an personal level, but also, as I had sought forgiveness on behalf of all foreigners who have ever cursed locals or stood passively outside the gateway, on a corporate level, thereby releasing countless non-Chinese people into the freedom of these Hong Kong people’s forgiveness; just as brothers and sisters had so recently been reconciled to each other in my church, so local and non-local people have received the others’ freedom of forgiveness; more than a homecoming, that, indeed, is a breakthrough.

 

In listening to this morning’s sermon, I hear such verses as I know God is speaking to me through His word. 2Corinthians 4:16-18, this scripture in particular carries a buoyant, hopeful currency in my heart. My spirit soaks in this divine revelation as a sponge soaks in water and thus becomes malleable, able to be formed and shaped according to its holder’s will: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

Disagreeable

 

I don’t know why my brother and I undermine each others’ comments; why we no more know consensus than the deaf music. Our interactions have been especially abrasive recently since we have spent so much time together without the benefit of our other brother to act as a natural, vociferous buffer; and as a result we argue like pieces of sand paper being rubbed against flesh, which inevitably leads to significant soreness. I feel sore now.

 

I think back to my outburst this morning and can appreciate my role in this evening’s embarrassing outcome; I am certainly not without fault, for I choose these days not only to venture my opinions but to do so passionately, if not emotionally. People consequently who otherwise are phlegmatic at best are put in a discomfiting position by my impassioned pleas. Besides, I recall Interrupting my brother prolifically, which understandably would not make him a happy camper; just as a hyperactive child doesn’t know when to stop pestering his sibling, so I don’t know nowadays when to hold my tongue. Indeed, I would rather not respond at all to my brother, even after he has fired off his rejoinder, than to strike him down in mid-speech.

 

In view of this latest incident, I have resolved to take the former course of action. To be sure, I simply stopped our petty dispute about a stupid basketball game by, awkward as it was, taking out my book and perusing it as fixedly as my tattered mind would allow. I will try my best to stay away from my brother for a spell, to create physical and spiritual space between us, so hopefully, in this way at least one of us will be able to come to his senses about this matter; better yet, now would be an opportune time for our father in his mercy to reveal to us the fault lines in our flesh so that we could surrender these tremulous spots in our soul, crucifying them to the father for our healing and the redemption of our relationship. I will pray about this.

 

…Praise God. If I had not separated myself from my brother’s presence, I wouldn’t have been sitting at that bench at the exact moment when Isaac came over to me in a plaintive mood. Obviously upset, he had been so recently wronged, he lamented on the verge of tears. And at that, mercy swept over my countenance, for my brother felt as aggrieved as I did earlier; and this appointment, per God’s unfailing, obstinate love, had at last come for me, convicting me to be very, very agreeable, sympathetic and kind to my fellow long-suffering brother. In this instance, thank God, language did not matter so much as empathy, carrying each others’ burdens and thus fulfilling the rule of Christ. We prayed and blessed each other in Jesus’ name, and then boldly went forward into the rally.

 

I suspect the enemy has infiltrated our team what with my outbursts and Isaac’s failing out as evidence. My group mates and I must be more vigilant in prayer and in digging deep into the Father’s word if we are to overcome the spies in our camp that have planted incendiary devices in our mouths and in our hearts. We certainly need such encouragement as the Lord provides for the edification and encouragement of each other, even more so, in fact, in the face of adversity, despite our fatigue and other physical ills that befall us like a hail of arrows. In faith, I’m sure, faith will see us through; and per what the pastors exhorted at the rally, we will become as if the smooth stone in David’s sling, ready to fly into the air to crush the Goliath in this world.

 

Sihng4 jauh6 achievement

Ngwuih misunderstanding

Nggaai2 to misunderstand

Yuhn4 leuhng6 forgive

Gaan2syun2 chosen

 

The Security Guard

 

At the morning rally, a security guard left an indelible impression on my heart what with her showing of unconditional support and her proffering of words of encouragement, which like a waterfall fell in force and power over my friends and me. To my amazement, I first saw her out of the corner of my eye stepping out of her role as a security guard to pray as a spiritual parent to two spiritual children during the morning rally’s prayer time; there she was, clad in her blue uniform, laying hands on those weeping kids; finally, I had witnessed someone courageous enough to step out of that rule of law, her boundary in Hong Kong, to be bound to that which is ethereal, the rule of Christ to carry each others’ burdens. Later, as the audience passed through the exit, I had time to confirm her love for the Lord and at that, we broke into a torrent of encouragement and followed this with a flurry of picture-taking. Indeed, never have I stumbled upon such good will from a dragon security guard in HK so I am hopeful, therefore, that this is but the the start of a greater movement within that particular demon-worshipping core, that at this time, God is opening up the heavenly armory and placing his prayer warriors inside that particular stronghold in Hong Kong to demolish every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and placing in its stead a profusion of love, gentleness and kindness. I look forward to the day when wisdom, and not languid stares, shall emanate from all the people who man the facilities in these universities.

 

Reconciliation

 

This is special. No sooner had Isaac and I stepped into the auditorium than we heard the plaintive cry of the mainland Chinese on the stage forgiving the Hong Kong people for their trespasses against their brethren from the north. A flurry of hugs, replete with a few tears, ensued. That was, as Dale announced from the stage, a delicious moment. Jesus must have been breaking out the good champagne in heaven for a rousing celebration in view of this victory.

 

Sex Talk – Part One

 

The kids finally received the sex talk this morning; a fiery pastor delivered the message which was as much shocking as informative; and gasps and wincing abounded in the audience.

 

While I have recently heard the sex talk at the men’s retreat, and have furthermore by God’s grace been inoculated against this particular area of struggle, it was nonetheless refreshing to hear the news, as shocking and as sensational as it was. I am willing, in addition, to believe that some of the atrocious acts that the pastor referenced, such as gruesome abortions and bizarre sexual acts, are more prevalent than my reason will believe, because my scope is limited by experience, but as the Father witnesses everything, if the Spirit has convicted this man and has told him that the world is heading closer and closer into the mouth of Jezebel in this way, I accept this. In fact, believing this is important if I am to be a good spiritual parent who will not only protect but educate the new generation from the prowling enemy that lurks these days, even, in our computers.

 

Prayer

 

The Holy Spirit fell over me this morning during my group’s team time. He convicted me to pray in Cantonese for the first time, and so I did without fear, those Chinese words pouring out of me as if perfume from an alabaster jar. Praise God: he is good; and this was the moment I have been waiting for.

 

I think about what happened, and am amazed at the Father’s favor; despite my critiques against this culture, and in spite of my recent lamentations, the Lord, ever faithfully, provided a way out under which I could stand and by which I could be protected from the bait of Satan. Little did I know that the escape route would, in fact, ironically, direct me to the very thing that heretofore has stood as an obstruction, a spiritual roadblock, in my mind.

 

A missionary on the stage just spoke into my life when she said about her experience learning Putonghua in China: the difficult part was not learning the language but learning to love those people as Jesus loves them. This will always be my mission, no matter where I am.

 

Keuhng4 jong3

Lai1 hei2 (pull up)

 

In the afternoon, my team had a reconciliation meeting during which, in small groups, each team member at last was given an opportunity to share alternately their joys and struggles. At that time, though having staved off an open rebuke for several days, I could no longer hold back this challenge to my small group: to step out in faith to be a gateway to the nations; and second, per the morning’s message, to on their guard against the sexually explicit, insidious media. I laid out my argument with much cogency, and such a response as I saw fit knocked my group mates into a stupor, because they certainly didn’t have much to say afterwards.

 

Oscillate between…and…

Vacillate…

Equivocated

Prevaricate

 

Sex Talk – Part Two

 

1) Jesus came to show us the Father; John1:18

2) Grace First, Truth Second; John 1:24:25; 16-18

 

Pahn4 mohng6 (hope)

 

Do you believe that Jesus can heal you? Then lay hands.

 

Dale and I are men who have shared similar struggles. His testimony is riveting.

 

Suddenly, I realized that this rally is, in fact, a continuation of yesterday morning’s sex talk, because we ended the previous rally praying more against the shame of abortion than against personal sexual immorality. Notionally, what is being discussed will enable people to really experience the love of the Father such that to change permanently our behavior. So when we are tempted:

 

1) Call for help; Romans 10:13

2) Escape Plan; 1Corinthians 10:13

 

Remember not to stand and rebuke the enemy with your own strength; move physically from the situation.

 

3) Run Away; 2Timothy 2:22

4) Into the Father’s Arms; Hebrews 4:14

 

I like this talk. This might be the first time that these young people get straight sex talk from their leaders; and there is no better time than now for these young people to break through in this particular area of struggle, just as the young men of SP broke through these obstinate barriers during our men’s retreat.

 

5) Confess and be Healed; James 5:16

 

I hope these young people find faithful accountability brothers and sisters in this service.

 

6) Walk in Transparent Accountable Relationships; 1John 1:7

7) Resist the Enemy; James 4:7

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

how deeply can you release?

  

there is a correlation, you know.

  

as much you can let go

is as deep and wide the well

that can be filled.

  

no, wait -

there is no end to the filling,

with release,

you become limitless.

  

releasing leaves you open,

leaves you liberated,

leaves you vulnerable

and incredibly strong.

 

release with an exhale

or

into the wind

the rain

flowing water

or an outgoing tide.

 

as you eliminate

fear

anger

doubt

resentment

expectations

judgment

confusion

need for control

 

you are left with

yourself

in its most distilled

form.

 

you are left with

love.

 

love that is organic,

 

that grows

  

and spreads

 

and connects us

 

to all living things.

 

you are unlimited.

 

J'ai un grain d'espoir qu'un jour nous soyons amants.

Juste pour un bel après-midi de printemps.

Amour ou amitié, je ne sais plus où aller.

À la croisée des chemins, je suis plein de doutes.

Amour ou amitié, pas question de choisir.

Le cœur a ses raisons, qui dépassent la raison.

Si l'amour sort perdant de cet injuste duel,

Que ton amitié me soit alors éternelle.

Et que jamais la rancœur ne vienne assombrir

L'amitié qu'il me reste et ton bon souvenir.

Un jour, une lumière révèlera à mes yeux

De l'amitié ou de l'amour, ce qui pour nous était le mieux...

  

I have a grain of hope that one day we will be lovers.

Just for one beautiful spring afternoon.

Love or friendship, I don't know where to go from here.

At the crossroads, I'm full of doubts.

Love or friendship, there's no choice.

The heart has its reasons, which go beyond reason.

If love comes out the loser in this unfair duel,

May your friendship be eternal.

And never let resentment darken

The friendship I still have and the memory of you.

One day, a light will reveal to my eyes

Of friendship or love, which was best for us...

Psychological consequences for battered women.

 

The battered woman syndrome, defined by Walker and Dutton is defined as an adaptation to the aversive situation characterized by increasing a person's ability to cope with adverse stimuli and to minimize the pain, and cognitive distortions present, such as minimizing , denial or dissociation of the change in the way of seeing themselves, others and the world. They may also develop symptoms of PTSD, depressive feelings, anger, low self-esteem, guilt and resentment, and often have somatic complaints, sexual dysfunction, addictive behaviors and difficulties in their relationships.

 

Enrique Paz del Corral Echeburúa and equate these effects by post-traumatic stress disorder whose symptoms and characteristics, no doubt, appear in some of these women: re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoidance of situations associated with abuse and increased arousal. These women find it difficult to sleep with nightmares of reliving the past, are constantly alert, hypervigilant, irritable, and difficulty concentrating.

 

In addition, the high level of anxiety causes health problems and psychosomatic disorders and major depressive problems may occur.

Development of battered woman syndrome

 

Marie-France Hirigoyen difference between two phases of the consequences, which occur in the domain phase and long term.

 

In the first phase, the woman is confused and disoriented, leading to relinquish their own identity and attributing the aggressor positive aspects that help to deny reality. They are exhausted by the lack of meaning that the aggressor imposes on her life, unable to understand what is happening, alone and isolated from their family and social environment in constant tension with any aggressive response from your partner.

 

Marie-France Hirigoyen speaks of long-term consequences referring to the stages that victims spend from the time they realize the type of relationship in which they are immersed. During this phase, women spend an initial impact to feel hurt, cheated and embarrassed, in addition to being apathetic, tired and with no interest in anything.

Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.

 

Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities, Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society.

 

The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a centre for the arts, fashion, and entertainment. The city is known for its street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its red-light districts. The Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings.

 

Bangkok's rapid growth coupled with little urban planning has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure. Despite an extensive expressway network, an inadequate road network and substantial private car usage have led to chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The city has since turned to public transport in an attempt to solve the problem, operating eight urban rail lines and building other public transit, but congestion still remains a prevalent issue. The city faces long-term environmental threats such as sea level rise due to climate change.

 

The history of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, dates at least to the early 15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya. Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank. King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, who succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782, to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name, "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon". Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes, growing rapidly, especially in the second half of the 20th century, to become the primate city of Thailand. It was the centre of Siam's modernization in the late 19th century, subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War, and has long been the modern nation's central political stage, with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years.

 

It is not known exactly when the area which is now Bangkok was first settled. It probably originated as a small farming and trading community, situated in a meander of the Chao Phraya River within the mandala of Ayutthaya's influence. The town had become an important customs outpost by as early as the 15th century; the title of its customs official is given as Nai Phra Khanon Thonburi (Thai: นายพระขนอนทณบุรี) in a document from the reign of Ayutthayan king Chao Sam Phraya (1424–1448). The name also appears in the 1805 revised code of laws known as the Law of Three Seals.

 

At the time, the Chao Phraya flowed through what are now the Bangkok Noi and Bangkok Yai canals, forming a large loop in which lay the town. In the reign of King Chairacha (either in 1538 or 1542), a waterway was excavated, bypassing the loop and shortening the route for ships sailing up to Ayutthaya. The flow of the river has since changed to follow the new waterway, dividing the town and making the western part an island. This geographical feature may have given the town the name Bang Ko (บางเกาะ), meaning 'island village', which later became Bangkok (บางกอก, pronounced in Thai as [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk]). Another theory regarding the origin of the name speculates that it is shortened from Bang Makok (บางมะกอก), makok being the name of Spondias pinnata, a plant bearing olive-like fruit. This is supported by the fact that Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, used to be named Wat Makok. Specific mention of the town was first made in the royal chronicles from the reign of King Maha Chakkraphat (1548–1568), giving its name as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (ธนบุรีศรีมหาสมุทร). Bangkok was probably a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors.

 

The importance of Bangkok/Thonburi increased with the amount of Ayutthaya's maritime trade. Dutch records noted that ships passing through Bangkok were required to declare their goods and number of passengers, as well as pay customs duties. Ships' cannons would be confiscated and held there before they were allowed to proceed upriver to Ayutthaya. An early English language account is that of Adam Denton, who arrived aboard the Globe, an East India Company merchantman bearing a letter from King James I, which arrived in "the Road of Syam" (Pak Nam) on 15 August 1612, where the port officer of Bangkok attended to the ship. Denton's account mentions that he and his companions journeyed "up the river some twenty miles to a town called Bancope, where we were well received, and further 100 miles to the city...."

 

Ayutthaya's maritime trade was at its height during the reign of King Narai (1656–1688). Recognition of the city's strategic location guarding the water passage to Ayutthaya lead to expansion of the military presence there. A fort of Western design was constructed on the east side of the river around 1685–1687 under the supervision of French engineer de la Mare, probably replacing an earlier structure, while plans to rebuild the fort on the west bank were also made. De la Mare had arrived with the French embassy of Chevalier de Chaumont, and remained in Siam along with Chevalier de Forbin, who had been appointed governor of Bangkok. The Bangkok garrison under Forbin consisted of Siamese, Portuguese, and French reportedly totalling about one thousand men.

 

French control over the city was further consolidated when the French General Desfarges, who had arrived with the second French embassy in 1687, secured the king's permission to board troops there. This, however, lead to resentment among Siamese nobles, led by Phetracha, ultimately resulting in the Siamese revolution of 1688, in which King Narai was overthrown and 40,000 Siamese troops besieged Bangkok's eastern fort for four months before an agreement was reached and the French were allowed to withdraw. The revolution resulted in Siam's ties with the West being virtually severed, steering its trade towards China and Japan. The eastern fort was subsequently demolished on Phetracha's orders.

 

Ayutthaya was razed by the Burmese in 1767. In the following months, multiple factions competed for control of the kingdom's lands. Of these, Phraya Tak, governor of Tak and a general fighting in Ayutthaya's defence prior to its fall, emerged as the strongest. After succeeding in reclaiming the cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, Phraya Tak declared himself king (popularly known as King Taksin) in 1768 and established Thonburi as his capital. Reasons given for this change include the totality of Ayutthaya's destruction and Thonburi's strategic location. Being a fortified town with a sizeable population meant that not much would need to be reconstructed. The existence of an old Chinese trading settlement on the eastern bank allowed Taksin to use his Chinese connections to import rice and revive trade.

 

King Taksin had the city area extended northwards to border the Bangkok Noi Canal. A moat was dug to protect the city's western border, on which new city walls and fortifications were built. Moats and walls were also constructed on the eastern bank, encircling the city together with the canals on the western side. The king's palace (Thonburi Palace) was built within the old city walls, including the temples of Wat Chaeng (Wat Arun) and Wat Thai Talat (Wat Molilokkayaram) within the palace grounds. Outlying orchards were re-landscaped for rice farming.

 

Much of Taksin's reign was spent in military campaigns to consolidate the Thonburi Kingdom's hold over Siamese lands. His kingdom, however, would last only until 1782 when a coup was mounted against him, and the general Chao Phraya Chakri established himself as king, later to be known as Phutthayotfa Chulalok or Rama I.

 

Rama I re-established the capital on the more strategic east bank of the river, relocating the Chinese already settled there to the area between Wat Sam Pluem and Wat Sampheng (which developed into Bangkok's Chinatown). Fortifications were rebuilt, and another series of moats was created, encircling the city in an area known as Rattanakosin Island.

 

The erection of the city pillar on 21 April 1782 is regarded as the formal date of the city's establishment. (The year would later mark the start of the Rattanakosin Era after calendar reforms by King Rama V in 1888.) Rama I named the new city Krung Rattanakosin In Ayothaya (กรุงรัตนโกสินทร์อินท์อโยธยา). This was later modified by King Nangklao to be: Krungthepmahanakhon Bowonrattanakosin Mahintha-ayutthaya. While settlements on both banks were commonly called Bangkok, both the Burney Treaty of 1826 and the Roberts Treaty of 1833 refer to the capital as the City of Sia-Yut'hia. King Mongkut (Rama IV) would later give the city its full ceremonial name:

 

Rama I modelled his city after the former capital of Ayutthaya, with the Grand Palace, Front Palace and royal temples by the river, next to the royal field (now Sanam Luang). Continuing outwards were the royal court of justice, royal stables and military prison. Government offices were located within the Grand Palace, while residences of nobles were concentrated south of the palace walls. Settlements spread outwards from the city centre.

 

The new capital is referred to in Thai sources as Rattanakosin, a name shared by the Siamese kingdom of this historical period. The name Krung Thep and Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, both shortened forms of the full ceremonial name, began to be used near the end of the 19th century. Foreigners, however, continued to refer to the city by the name Bangkok, which has seen continued use until this day.

 

Most of Rama I's reign was also marked by continued military campaigns, though the Burmese threat gradually declined afterwards. His successors consistently saw to the renovation of old temples, palaces, and monuments in the city. New canals were also built, gradually expanding the fledgling city as areas available for agriculture increased and new transport networks were created.

 

At the time of the city's foundation, most of the population lived by the river or the canals, often in floating houses on the water. Waterways served as the main method of transportation, and farming communities depended on them for irrigation. Outside the city walls, settlements sprawled along both river banks. Forced settlers, mostly captives of war, also formed several ethnic communities outside the city walls.

 

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants continued to settle in Bangkok, especially during the early 19th century. Such was their prominence that Europeans visiting in the 1820s estimated that they formed over half of the city population. The Chinese excelled in trade, and led the development of a market economy. The Chinese settlement at Sampheng had become a bustling market by 1835. 

 

By the mid-19th century, the West had become an increasingly powerful presence. Missionaries, envoys and merchants began re-visiting Bangkok and Siam, bringing with them both modern innovations and the threat of colonialism. King Mongkut (Rama IV, reigned 1851–1868) was open to Western ideas and knowledge, but was also forced to acknowledge their powers, with the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. During his reign, industrialization began taking place in Bangkok, which saw the introduction of the steam engine, modern shipbuilding and the printing press. Influenced by the Western community, Charoen Krung Road, the city's first paved street, was constructed in 1862–1864. This was followed by Bamrung Mueang, Fueang Nakhon, Trong (now Rama IV) and Si Lom Roads. Land transport would later surpass the canals in importance, shifting people's homes from floating dwellings toward permanent buildings. The limits of the city proper were also expanded during his reign, extending to the Phadung Krung Kasem Canal, dug in 1851.

 

King Mongkut's son Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) was set upon modernizing the country. He engaged in wide-ranging reforms, abolishing slavery, corvée (unfree labour) and the feudal system, and creating a centralized bureaucracy and a professional army. The Western concept of nationhood was adopted, and national borders demarcated against British and French territories. Disputes with the French resulted in the Paknam Incident in 1893, when the French sent gunboats up the Chao Phraya to blockade Bangkok, resulting in Siam's concession of territory to France.

 

With Chulalongkorn's reforms, governance of the capital and the surrounding areas, established as Monthon Krung Thep Phra Mahanakhon (มณฑลกรุงเทพพระมหานคร), came under the Ministry of Urban Affairs (Nakhonban). During his reign many more canals and roads were built, expanding the urban reaches of the capital. Infrastructure was developed, with the introduction of railway and telegraph services between Bangkok and Samut Prakan and then expanding countrywide. Electricity was introduced, first to palaces and government offices, then to serve electric trams in the capital and later the general public. The King's fascination with the West was reflected in the royal adoption of Western dress and fashions, but most noticeably in architecture. He commissioned the construction of the neoclassical Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall at the new Dusit Palace, which was linked to the historic city centre by the grand Ratchadamnoen Avenue, inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Examples of Western influence in architecture became visible throughout the city.

 

By 1900, rural market zones in Bangkok began developing into residential districts. Rama VI (1910–1925) continued his predecessor's program of the development of public works by establishing Chulalongkorn University in 1916, and commissioned a system of locks to control waterway levels surrounding the developing city, he also provided the city's first and largest recreational area, Lumphini Park. The Memorial Bridge was constructed in 1932 to connect Thonburi to Bangkok, which was believed to promote economic growth and modernization in a period when infrastructure was developing considerably. Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932. It was subject to Japanese occupation and Allied bombing during World War II. With the war over in 1945, British and Indian troops landed in September, and during their brief occupation of the city disarmed the Japanese troops. A significant event following the return of the young king, Ananda Mahidol, to Thailand, intended to defuse post-war tensions lingering between Bangkok's ethnic Chinese and Thai people, was his visit to Bangkok's Chinatown Sam Peng Lane (ซอยสำเพ็ง), on 3 June 1946.

 

As a result of pro-Western bloc treaties Bangkok rapidly grew in the post-war period as a result of United States developmental aid and government-sponsored investment. Infrastructure, including the Don Mueang International Airport and highways, was built and expanded.  Bangkok's role as an American military R&R destination launched its tourism industry as well as sex trade.  Disproportionate urban development led to increasing income inequalities and unprecedented migration from rural areas into Bangkok; its population surged from 1.8 to 3 million in the 1960s. Following the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam, Japanese businesses took over as leaders in investment, and the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing led to growth of the financial market in Bangkok.  Rapid growth of the city continued through the 1980s and early 1990s, until it was stalled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By then, many public and social issues had emerged, among them the strain on infrastructure reflected in the city's notorious traffic jams. Bangkok's role as the nation's political stage continues to be seen in strings of popular protests, from the student uprisings in 1973 and 1976, anti-military demonstrations in 1992, and successive anti-government protests by the "Yellow Shirt" and "Red Shirt" movements from 2008 on.

 

Administratively, eastern Bangkok and Thonburi had been established as separate provinces in 1915. (The province east of the river was named Phra Nakhon (พระนคร.) A series of decrees in 1971–1972 resulted in the merger of these provinces and its local administrations, forming the current city of Bangkok which is officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was created in 1975 to govern the city, and its governor has been elected since 1985.

The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

 

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

 

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

 

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

__________________________

 

AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

 

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

 

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

 

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

 

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

 

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

 

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

 

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

 

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

 

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

 

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

 

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

 

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

 

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

 

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

 

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

 

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

 

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

 

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

 

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[

 

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

 

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

 

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

 

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

 

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

 

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

 

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

 

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

 

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

 

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

 

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

 

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

 

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

 

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

 

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

 

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

 

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

 

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

 

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

 

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

 

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

 

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

 

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

 

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

 

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

 

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Nearly halfway through the month, and it's the weekend again, and the the good news is that the sore throat I had on Friday went and did not return.

 

Which is nice.

 

Jools's cough, however, which seemed like it was getting better, returned slightly on Friday evening, and would again on Saturday. We had tockets to see Public Service Bradcasting again, this time in Margate, but our hearts were not in it, if I'm honest, and in the end we decided not to go in light of her coughing, but also as I said, we saw them a month back, though this would be a different show.

 

And Norwich were on the tellybox, what could be better than watching that?

 

Anything, as it turned out.

 

But that was for later.

 

We went to Tesco, a little later than usual, as we had slept in rather, then back home for breakfast before the decision on what to do for the day. Jools decided to stay home to bead and read, I would go out.

 

There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.

 

But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.

 

There was a small group with the Vicar, talking in one of the chapels, so I made busy getting my shots, just happy that the church was open. I left a fiver with the vicar, and walked back to the car, passing the old guy supping from a tin of cider sitting outside the church hall.

 

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In the heart of the town with a prominent twelfth-century tower. From the outside it is obvious that much work was carried out in the nineteenth century. The church has major connections with the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports and is much used for ceremonial services. The western bays of the nave with their low semi-circular arches are contemporary with the tower, while the pointed arches to the east are entirely nineteenth century. The scale and choice of stone is entirely wrong, although the carving is very well done. However the east end, with its tall narrow lancet windows, is not so successful. The Royal Arms, of the reign of William and Mary, are of carved and painted wood, with a French motto - Jay Maintendray - instead of the more usual Dieu et Mon Droit. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War, but one of the survivors was the typical Norman font of square Purbeck marble construction. One of the more recent additions to the church is the Herald of Free Enterprise memorial window of 1989 designed by Frederick Cole.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Dover+1

 

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THE TOWN AND PORT OF DOVER.

DOVER lies at the eastern extremity of Kent, adjoining to the sea, the great high London road towards France ending at it. It lies adjoining to the parish of Charlton last-described, eastward, in the lath of St. Augustine and eastern division of the county. It is within the liberty of the cinque ports, and the juristion of the corporation of the town and port of Dover.

 

DOVER, written in the Latin Itinerary of Antonine, Dubris. By the Saxons, Dorsa, and Dofris. By later historians, Doveria; and in the book of Domesday, Dovere; took its name most probably from the British words, Dufir, signifying water, or Dusirrha, high and steep, alluding to the cliffs adjoining to it. (fn. 1)

 

It is situated at the extremity of a wide and spacious valley, inclosed on each side by high and steep hills or cliffs, and making allowance for the sea's withdrawing itself from between them, answers well to the description given of it by Julius Cæfar in his Commentaries.

 

In the middle space, between this chain of high cliffs, in a break or opening, lies the town of Dover and its harbour, which latter, before the sea was shut out, so late as the Norman conquest, was situated much more within the land than it is at present, as will be further noticed hereafter.

 

ON THE SUMMIT of one of these cliffs, of sudden and stupendous height, close on the north side of the town and harbour, stands DOVER CASTLE, so famous and renowned in all the histories of former times. It is situated so exceeding high, that it is at most times plainly to be seen from the lowest lands on the coast of France, and as far beyond as the eye can discern. Its size, for it contains within it thirty five acres of ground, six of which are taken up by the antient buildings, gives it the appearance of a small city, having its citadel conspicuous in the midst of it, with extensive fortifications, around its walls. The hill, or rather rock, on which it stands, is ragged and steep towards the town and harbour; but towards the sea, it is a perpendicular precipice of a wonderful height, being more than three hundred and twenty feet high, from its basis on the shore.

 

Common tradition supposes, that Julius Cæfar was the builder of this castle, as well as others in this part of Britain, but surely without a probability of truth; for our brave countrymen found Cæfar sufficient employment of a far different sort, during his short stay in Britain, to give him any opportunity of erecting even this one fortress. Kilburne says, there was a tower here, called Cæsar's tower, afterwards the king's lodgings; but these, now called the king's keep, were built by king Henry II. as will be further mentioned hereafter; and he further says, there were to be seen here great pipes and casks bound with iron hoops, in which was liquor supposed to be wine, which by long lying had become as thick as treacle, and would cleave like birdlime; salt congealed together as hard as stone; cross and long bows and arrows, to which brass was fastened instead of feathers, and they were of such size, as not to be fit for the use of men of that or any late ages. These, Lambarde says, the inhabitants shewed as having belonged to Cæfar, and the wine and salt as part of the provision he had brought with him hither; and Camden relates, that he was shewn these arrows, which he thinks were such as the Romans used to shoot out of their engines, which were like to large crossbows. These last might, no doubt, though not Cæsar's, belong to the Romans of a later time; and the former might, perhaps, be part of the provisions and stores which king Henry VIII. laid in here, at a time when he passed from hence over sea to France. But for many years past it has not been known what is become of any of these things.

 

Others, averse to Cæsar's having built this castle, and yet willing to give the building of it to the empire of the Romans of a later time, suppose, and that perhaps with some probability, it was first erected by Arviragus, (or Arivog, as he is called on his coin) king of Britain, in the time of Claudius, the Roman emperor. (fn. 2)

 

That there was one built here, during the continuance of the Roman empire in Britain, must be supposed from the necessity of it, and the circumstances of those times; and the existence of one plainly appears, from the remains of the tower and other parts of the antient church within it, and the octagon tower at the west end, in which are quantities of Roman brick and tile. These towers are evidently the remains of Roman work, the former of much less antiquity than the latter, which may be well supposed to have been built as early as the emperor Claudius, whose expedition hither was about or immediately subsequent to the year of Christ 44. Of these towers, probably the latter was built for a speculum, or watch-tower, and was used, not only to watch the approach of enemies, but with another on the opposite hill, to point out the safe entrance into this port between them, by night as well as by day.

 

In this fortress, the Romans seem afterwards to have kept a garrison of veterans, as we learn from Pancirollus, who tells us that a company of soldiers under their chief, called Præpositus Militum Tungricanorum, was stationed within this fortess.

 

Out of the remains of part of the above-mentioned Roman buildings here, a Christian church was erected, as most historians write, by Lucius, king of Britain, about the year 161; but it is much to be doubted whether there ever was such a king in Britain; if there was, he was only a tributary chief to the Roman emperor, under whose peculiar government Britain was then accounted. This church was built, no doubt, for the use of that part of the garrison in particular, who were at that time believers of the gospel, and afterwards during the different changes of the Christian and Pagan religions in these parts, was made use of accordingly, till St. Augustine, soon after the year 597, at the request of king Ethelbert, reconsecrated it, and dedicated it anew, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.

 

¶His son and successor Eadbald, king of Kent, founded a college of secular canons and a provost in this church, whose habitations, undoubtedly near it, there are not the least traces of. These continued here till after the year 691; when Widred, king of Kent, having increated the fortifications, and finding the residence of the religious within them an incumbrance, removed them from hence into the town of Dover, to the antient church of St. Martin; in the description of which hereafter, a further account of them will be given.

  

DOVER does not seem to have been in much repute as a harbour, till some time after Cæsar's expedition hither; for the unfitness, as well as insecurity of the place, especially for a large fleet of shipping, added to the character which he had given of it, deterred the Romans from making a frequent use of it, so that from Boleyne, or Gessoriacum, their usual port in Gaul, they in general failed with their fleets to Richborough, or Portus Rutupinus, situated at the mouth of the Thames, in Britain, and thence back again; the latter being a most safe and commodious haven, with a large and extensive bay.

 

Notwithstanding which, Dover certainly was then made use of as a port for smaller vessels, and a nearer intercourse for passengers from the continent; and to render the entrance to it more safe, the Romans built two Specula, or watch-towers, here, on the two hills opposite to each other, to point out the approach to it, and one likewise on the opposite hill at Bologne, for the like purpose there; and it is mentioned as a port by Antoninus, in his Itinerary, in which, ITER III. is A Londinio ad Portum Dubris, i. e. from London to the port of Dover.

 

After the departure of the Romans from Britain, when the port of Bologne, as well as Richborough, fell into decay and disuse, and instead of the former a nearer port came into use, first at Whitsan, and when that was stopped up, a little higher at Calais, Dover quickly became the more usual and established port of passage between France and Britain, and it has continued so to the present time.

 

When the antient harbour of Dover was changed from its antient situation is not known; most probably by various occurrences of nature, the sea left it by degrees, till at last the farmer scite of it became entirely swallowed up by the beach. That the harbour was much further within land, even at the time of the conquest than it is at present, seems to be confirmed by Domesday, in which it is said, that at the entrance of it, there was a mill which damaged almost every ship that passed by it, on account of the great swell of the sea there. Where the scite of this mill was, is now totally unknown, though it is probable it was much within the land, and that by the still further accumulation of the beach, and other natural causes, this haven was in process of time so far filled up towards the inland part of it, as to change its situation still more to the south-west, towards the sea.

 

From the time of the Norman conquest this port continued the usual passage to the continent, and to confine the intercourse to this port only, there was a statute passed anno 4 Edward IV. that none should take shipping for Calais, but at Dover. (fn. 20) But in king Henry VII.'s time, which was almost the next reign, the harbour was become so swerved up, as to render it necessary for the king's immediate attention, to prevent its total ruin, and he expended great sums of money for its preservation. But it was found, that all that was done, would not answer the end proposed, without the building of a pier to seaward, which was determined on about the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, and one was constructed, which was compiled of two rows of main posts, and great piles, which were let into holes hewn in the rock underneath, and some were shod with iron, and driven down into the main chalk, and fastened together with iron bands and bolts. The bottom being first filled up with great rocks of stone, and the remainder above with great chalk stones, beach, &c. During the whole of this work, the king greatly encouraged the undertaking, and came several times to view it; and in the whole is said to have expended near 63,000l. on it. But his absence afterwards abroad, his ill health, and at last his death, joined to the minority of his successor, king Edward VI. though some feeble efforts were made in his reign, towards the support of this pier, put a stop to, and in the end exposed this noble work to decay and ruin.

 

Queen Mary, indeed, attempted to carry it on again, but neither officers nor workmen being well paid, it came to nothing, so that in process of time the sea having brought up great quantities of beach again upon it, the harbour was choaked up, and the loss of Calais happening about the same time, threatened the entire destruction of it. Providentially the shelf of beach was of itself became a natural defence against the rage of the sea, insomuch, that if a passage could be made for ships to get safely within it, they might ride there securely.

 

To effect this, several projects were formed, and queen Elizabeth, to encourage it, gave to the town the free transportation of several thousand quarters of corn and tuns of beer; and in the 23d of her reign, an act passed for giving towards the repair of the harbour, a certain tonnage from every vessel above twenty tons burthen, passing by it, which amounted to 1000l. yearly income; and the lord Cobham, then lordwarden, and others, were appointed commissioners for this purpose; and in the end, after many different trials to effect it, a safe harbour was formed, with a pier, and different walls and sluices, at a great expence; during the time of which a universal diligence and public spirit appeared in every one concerned in this great and useful work. During the whole of the queen's reign, the improvement of this harbour continued without intermission, and several more acts passed for that purpose; but the future preservation of it was owing to the charter of incorporation of the governors of it, in the first year of king James I. by an act passed that year, by the name of the warden and assistants of the harbour of Dover, the warden being always the lord-warden of the cinque ports for the time being, and his assistants, his lieutenant, and the mayor of Dover, for the time being, and eight others, the warden and assistants only making a quorum; six to be present to make a session; at any of which, on a vacancy, the assistants to be elected; and the king granted to them his land or waste ground, or beach, commonly called the Pier, or Harbour ground, as it lay without Southgate, or Snargate, the rents of which are now of the yearly value of about three hundred pounds.

 

Under the direction of this corporation, the works and improvements of this harbour have been carried on, and acts of parliament have been passed in almost every reign since, to give the greater force to their proceedings.

 

From what has been said before, the reader will observe, that this harbour has always been a great national object, and that in the course of many ages, prodigious sums of money have been from time to time expended on it, and every endeavour used to keep it open, and render it commodious; but after all these repeated endeavours and expences, it still labours under such circumstances, as in a very great degree renders unsuccessful all that has ever been done for that purpose.

 

DOVER, as has been already mentioned, was of some estimation in the time of the Roman empire in Britain, on account of its haven, and afterwards for the castle, in which they kept a strong garrison of sol. diers, not only to guard the approach to it, but to keep the natives in subjection; and in proof of their residence here, the Rev. Mr. Lyon some years since discovered the remains of a Roman structure, which he apprehended to have been a bath, at the west end of the parish-church of St. Mary, in this town, which remains have since repeatedly been laid open when interments have taken place there.

 

This station of the Romans is mentioned by Antonine, in his Itinerary of the Roman roads in Britain, by the name of Dubris, as being situated from the station named Durovernum, or Canterbury, fourteen miles; which distance, compared with the miles as they are now numbered from Canterbury, shews the town, as well as the haven, for they were no doubt contiguous to each other, to have both been nearer within land than either of them are at present, the present distance from Canterbury being near sixteen miles as the road now goes, The sea, indeed, seems antiently to have occupied in great part the space where the present town of Dover, or at least the northwest part of it, now stands; but being shut out by the quantity of beach thrown up, and the harbour changed by that means to its present situation, left that place a dry ground, on which the town of Dover, the inhabitants following the traffic of the harbour, was afterwards built.

 

This town, called by the Saxons, Dofra, and Dofris; by later historians, Doveria; and in Domesday, Dovere; is agreed by all writers to have been privileged before the conquest; and by the survey of Domesday, appears to have been of ability in the time of king Edward the Confessor, to arm yearly twenty vessels for sea service. In consideration of which, that king granted to the inhabitants, not only to be free from the payment of thol and other privileges throughout the realm, but pardoned them all manner of suit and service to any of his courts whatsoever; and in those days, the town seems to have been under the protection and government of Godwin, earl of Kent, and governor of this castle.

 

Soon after the conquest, this town was so wasted by fire, that almost all the houses were reduced to ashes, as appears by the survey of Domesday, at the beginning of which is the following entry of it:

 

DOVERE, in the time of king Edward, paid eighteen pounds, of which money, king E had two parts, and earl Goduin the third. On the other hand, the canons of St. Martin had another moiety. The burgesses gave twenty ships to the king once in the year, for fifteen days; and in each ship were twenty and one men. This they did on the account that he had pardoned them sac and soc. When the messengers of the king came there, they gave for the passage of a horse three pence in winter, and two in summer. But the burgesses found a steerman, and one other assistant, and if there should be more necessary, they were provided at his cost. From the festival of St. Michael to the feast of St. Andrew, the king's peace was in the town. Sigerius had broke it, on which the king's bailiff had received the usual fine. Whoever resided constantly in the town paid custom to the king; he was free from thol throughout England. All these customs were there when king William came into England. On his first arrival in England, the town itself was burnt, and therefore its value could not be computed how much it was worth, when the bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is rated at forty pounds, and yet the bailiff pays from thence fifty-four pounds to the king; of which twenty-four pounds in money, which were twenty in an one, but thirty pounds to the earl by tale.

 

In Dovere there are twenty-nine plats of ground, of which the king had lost the custom. Of these Robert de Romenel has two. Ralph de Curbespine three. William, son of Tedald, one. William, son of Oger, one. William, son of Tedold, and Robert niger, six. William, son of Goisfrid, three, in which the guildhall of the burgesses was. Hugo de Montfort one house. Durand one. Rannulf de Colubels one. Wadard six. The son of Modbert one. And all these vouch the bishop of Baieux as the protector and giver of these houses. Of that plat of ground, which Rannulf de Colubels holds, which was a certain outlaw, they agree that the half of the land was the king's, and Rannulf himself has both parts. Humphry the lame man holds one plat of ground, of which half the forfeiture is the king's. Roger de Ostrabam made a certain house over the king's water, and held to this time the custom of the king; nor was a house there in the time of king Edward. In the entrance of the port of Dovere, there is one mill, which damages almost every ship, by the great swell of the sea, and does great damage to the king and his tenants; and it was not there in the time of king Edward. Concerning this, the grandson of Herbert says, that the bishop of Baieux granted it to his uncle Herbert, the son of Ivo.

 

And a little further, in the same record, under the bishop's possessions likewise:

 

In Estrei hundred, Wibertus holds half a yoke, which lies in the gild of Dover, and now is taxed with the land of Osbert, the son of Letard, and is worth per annum four shillings.

 

From the Norman conquest, the cities and towns of this realm appear to have been vested either in the crown, or else in the clergy or great men of the laity, and they were each, as such, immediately lords of the same. Thus, when the bishop of Baieux, to whom the king had, as may be seen by the above survey, granted this town, was disgraced. It returned into the king's hands by forfeiture, and king Richard I. afterwards granted it in ferme to Robt. Fitz-bernard. (fn. 21)

 

After the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, the harbour of Dover still changing its situation more to the south-westward, the town seems to have altered its situation too, and to have been chiefly rebuilt along the sides of the new harbour, and as an encouragement to it, at the instance, and through favour especially to the prior of Dover, king Edward I. in corporated this town, the first that was so of any of the cinque ports, by the name of the mayor and commonalty. The mayor to be chosen out of the latter, from which body he was afterwards to chuse the assistants for his year, who were to be sworn for that purpose. At which time, the king had a mint for the coinage of money here; and by patent, anno 27 of that reign, the table of the exchequer of money was appointed to be held here, and at Yarmouth. (fn. 22) But the good effects of these marks of the royal favour were soon afterwards much lessened, by a dreadful disaster; for the French landed here in the night, in the 23d year of that reign, and burnt the greatest part of the town, and several of the religious houses, in it, and this was esteemed the more treacherousk, as it was done whilst the two cardinals were here, treating for a peace between England and France; which misfortune, however, does not seem to have totally impoverished it, for in the 17th year of the next reign of king Edward II it appears in some measure to have recovered its former state, and to have been rebuilt, as appears by the patent rolls of that year, in which the town of Dover is said to have then had in it twenty-one wards, each of which was charged with one ship for the king's use; in consideration of which, each ward had the privilege of a licensed packetboat, called a passenger, from Dover across the sea to Whitsan, in France, the usual port at that time of embarking from thence.

 

The state of this place in the reign of Henry VIII. is given by Leland, in his Itinerary, as follows:

 

"Dovar ys xii myles fro Canterbury and viii fro Sandwich. Ther hath bene a haven yn tyme past and yn taken ther of the ground that lyith up betwyxt the hilles is yet in digging found wosye. Ther hath bene found also peeces of cabelles and anchores and Itinerarium Antonini cawlyth hyt by the name of a haven. The towne on the front toward the se hath bene right strongly walled and embateled and almost al the residew; but now yt is parly fawlen downe and broken downe. The residew of the towne as far as I can perceyve was never waulled. The towne is devided into vi paroches. Wherof iii be under one rose at S. Martines yn the hart of the town. The other iii stand that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked. The other iii stand abrode, of the which one is cawled S. James of Rudby or more likely Rodeby a statione navium. But this word ys not sufficient to prove that Dovar showld be that place, the which the Romaynes cawlled Portus Rutupi or Rutupinum. For I cannot yet se the contrary but Retesboro otherwise cawlled Richeboro by Sandwich, both ways corruptly, must neades be Rutupinum. The mayne strong and famose castel of Dovar stondeth on the loppe of a hille almost a quarter of a myle of fro the towne on the lyst side and withyn the castel ys a chapel, yn the sides wherof appere sum greate Briton brykes. In the town was a great priory of blacke monkes late suppressed. There is also an hospitalle cawlled the Meason dew. On the toppe of the hye clive betwene the towne and the peere remayneth yet abowt a slyte shot up ynto the land fro the very brymme of the se clysse as ruine of a towr, the which has bene as a pharos or a mark to shyppes on the se and therby was a place of templarys. As concerning the river of Dovar it hath no long cowrse from no spring or hedde notable that descendith to that botom. The principal hed, as they say is at a place cawled Ewelle and that is not past a iii or iiii myles fro Dovar. Ther be springes of frech waters also at a place cawled Rivers. Ther is also a great spring at a place cawled …… and that once in a vi or vii yeres brasted owt so abundantly that a great part of the water cummeth into Dovar streme, but als yt renneth yn to the se betwyxt Dovar and Folchestan, but nerer to Folchestan that is to say withyn a ii myles of yt. Surely the hedde standeth so that it might with no no great cost be brought to run alway into Dovar streame." (fn. 23)

Cougate Crosse-gate Bocheruy-gate stoode with toures toward the se. There is beside Beting-gate and Westegate.

Howbeyt MTuine tol me a late that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked.

 

This was the state of Dover just before the time of the dissolution of religious houses, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when the abolition of private masses, obits, and such like services in churches, occasioned by the reformation, annillilated the greatest part of the income of the priests belonging to them, in this as well as in other towns, in consequence of which most of them were deserted, and falling to ruin, the parishes belonging to them were united to one or two of the principal ones of them. Thus, in this town, of the several churches in it, two only remained in use for divine service, viz. St. Mary's and St. James's, to which the parishes of the others were united.

 

After this, the haven continuting to decay more than ever, notwithstanding the national assistance afforded to it, the town itself seemed hastening to impoverishment. What the state of it was in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth, may be seen, by the certificate returned by the queen's order of the maritime places, in her 8th year, by which it appears that there were then in Dover, houses inhabited three hundred and fifty-eight; void, or lack of inhabiters, nineteen; a mayor, customer, comptroller of authorities, not joint but several; ships and crayers twenty, from four tons to one hundred and twenty.

 

¶This probable ruin of the town, however, most likely induced the queen, in her 20th year, to grant it a new charter of incorporation, in which the manner of chusing mayor, jurats, and commoners, and of making freemen, was new-modelled, and several surther liberties and privileges granted, and those of the charter of king Edward I. confirmed likewise by inspeximus. After which, king Charles II. in his 36th year, anno 1684, granted to it a new charter, which, however, was never inrolled in chancery, and in consequence of a writ of quo warranto was that same year surrendered, and another again granted next year; but this last, as well as another charter granted by king James II. and forced on the corporation, being made wholly subservient to the king's own purposes, were annulled by proclamation, made anno 1688, being the fourth and last year of his reign: but none of the above charters being at this time extant, (the charters of this corporation, as well as those of the other cinque ports, being in 1685, by the king's command, surrendered up to Col. Strode, then governor of Dover castle, and never returned again, nor is it known what became of them,) Dover is now held to be a corporation by prescription, by the stile of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Dover. It consists at present of a mayor, twelve jurats, and thirty-six commoners, or freemen, together with a chamberlain, recorder, and town-clerk. The mayor, who is coroner by virtue of his office, is chosen on Sept. 8, yearly, in St. Mary's church, and together with the jurats, who are justices within this liberty, exclusive of all others, hold a court of general sessions of the peace and gaol delivery, together with a court of record, and it has other privileges, mostly the same as the other corporations, within the liberties of the cinque ports. It has the privilege of a mace. The election of mayor was antiently in the church of St. Peter, whence in 1581 it was removed to that of St. Mary, where it has been, as well as the elections of barons to serve in parliament, held ever since. These elections here, as well as elsewhere in churches, set apart for the worship of God, are certainly a scandal to decency and religion, and are the more inexcusable here, as there is a spacious court-hall, much more fit for the purposes. After this, there was another byelaw made, in June, 1706, for removing these elections into the court-hall; but why it was not put in execution does not appear, unless custom prevented it—for if a decree was of force to move them from one church to another, another decree was of equal force to remove them from the church to the courthall. Within these few years indeed, a motion was made in the house of commons, by the late alderman Sawbridge, a gentlemand not much addicted to speak in favour of the established church, to remove all such elections, through decency, from churches to other places not consecrated to divine worship; but though allowed to be highly proper, yet party resentment against the mover of it prevailed, and the motion was negatived by a great majority.

 

The mayor is chosen by the resident freemen. The jurats are nominated from the common-councilmen by the jurats, and appointed by the mayor, jurats, and common-councilmen, by ballot.

  

THE CHURCH OF ST. Mary stands at some distance from the entrance into this town from Canterbury, near the market-place. It is said to have been built by the prior and convent of St. Martin, (fn. 47) in the year 1216; but from what authority, I know not.—Certain it is, that it was in king John's reign, in the gift of the king, and was afterwards given by him to John de Burgh; but in the 8th year of Richard II.'s reign, anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac. After which, by what means, I cannot discover, this appropriation, as well as the advowson of the church, came into the possession of the master and brethren of the hospital of the Maison Dieu, who took care that the church should be daily served by a priest, who should officiate in it for the benefit of the parish. In which state it continued till the suppression of the hospital, in the 36th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the hands of the crown, at which time the parsonage was returned by John Thompson, master of the hospital, to be worth six pounds per annum.

 

Two years after which, the king being at Dover, at the humble entreaty of the inhabitants of this parish, gave to them, as it is said, this church, with the cemetery adjoining to it, to be used by them as a parochial church; at the same time he gave the pews of St. Martin's church for the use of it; and on the king's departure, in token of possession, they sealed up the church doors; since which, the patronage of it, which is now esteemed as a perpetual curacy, the minister of it being licensed by the archbishop, has been vested in the inhabitants of this parish. Every parishioner, paying scot and lot, having a vote in the chusing of the minister, whose maintenance had been from time to time, at their voluntary option, more or less. It is now fixed at eighty pounds per annum. Besides which he has the possession of a good house, where he resides, which was purchased by the inhabitants in 1754, for the perpetual use of the minister of it. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. (fn. 48)

 

There is a piece of ground belonging, as it is said, to the glebe of this church, rented annually at ten pounds, which is done by vestry, without the minister being at all concerned in it. In 1588 here were eight hundred and twenty-one communicants. This parish contains more than five parts out of six of the whole town, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants.

 

The church of St. Mary is a large handsome building of three isles, having a high and south chancel, all covered with lead, and built of flints, with ashler windows and door cases, which are arched and ornamented. At the west end is the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. The pillars in the church are large and clumsy; the arches low and semicircular in the body, but eliptical in the chancel; but there is no separation between the body and chancel, and the pews are continued on to the east end of the church. In the high chancel, at the eastern extremity of it, beyond the altar, are the seats for the mayor and jurats; and here the mayor is now chosen, and the barons in parliament for this town and port constantly elected.

 

In 1683, there was a faculty granted to the churchwardens, to remove the magistrates seats from the east end of the church to the north side, or any other more convenient part of it, and for the more decent and commodious placing the communion table: in consequence of which, these seats were removed, and so placed, but they continued there no longer than 1689, when, by several orders of vestry, they were removed back again to where they remain at present.

 

The mayor was antiently chosen in St. Peter's church; but by a bye-law of the corporation, it was removed to this church in 1583, where it has ever since been held. In 1706, another bye law was made, to remove, for the sake of decency, all elections from this church to the court-hall, but it never took place. More of which has been mentioned before.

 

From the largeness, as well as the populousness of this parish, the church is far from being sufficient to contain the inhabitants who resort to it for public worship, notwithstanding there are four galleries in it, and it is otherwise well pewed. This church was paved in 1642, but it was not ceiled till 1706. In 1742, there was an organ erected in it. The two branches in it were given, one by subscription in 1738, and the other by the pilots in 1742.

 

Thomas Toke, of Dover, buried in the chapel of St. Katharine, in this church, by his will in 1484, gave seven acres of land at Dugate, under Windlass-down, to the wardens of this church, towards the repairs of it for ever.

 

¶The monuments and memorials in this church and church yard, are by far too numerous to mention here. Among them are the following: A small monument in the church for the celebrated Charles Churchill, who was buried in the old church-yard of St. Martin in this town, as has been noticed before; and a small stone, with a memorial for Samuel Foote, esq. the celebrated comedian, who died at the Ship inn, and had a grave dug for him in this church, but was afterwards carried to London, and buried there. A monument and several memorials for the family of Eaton; arms, Or, a sret, azure. A small tablet for John Ker, laird of Frogden, in Twit dale, in Scotland, who died suddenly at Dover, in his way to France, in 1730. Two monuments for Farbrace, arms, Azure, a bend, or, between two roses, argent, seeded, or, bearded vert. A monument in the middle isle, to the memory of the Minet family. In the north isle are several memorials for the Gunmans, of Dover; arms,. … a spread eagle, argent, gorged with a ducal coronet, or. There are others, to the memory of Broadley, Rouse, and others, of good account in this town.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol9/pp475-548

Nearly halfway through the month, and it's the weekend again, and the the good news is that the sore throat I had on Friday went and did not return.

 

Which is nice.

 

Jools's cough, however, which seemed like it was getting better, returned slightly on Friday evening, and would again on Saturday. We had tockets to see Public Service Bradcasting again, this time in Margate, but our hearts were not in it, if I'm honest, and in the end we decided not to go in light of her coughing, but also as I said, we saw them a month back, though this would be a different show.

 

And Norwich were on the tellybox, what could be better than watching that?

 

Anything, as it turned out.

 

But that was for later.

 

We went to Tesco, a little later than usual, as we had slept in rather, then back home for breakfast before the decision on what to do for the day. Jools decided to stay home to bead and read, I would go out.

 

There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.

 

But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.

 

There was a small group with the Vicar, talking in one of the chapels, so I made busy getting my shots, just happy that the church was open. I left a fiver with the vicar, and walked back to the car, passing the old guy supping from a tin of cider sitting outside the church hall.

 

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In the heart of the town with a prominent twelfth-century tower. From the outside it is obvious that much work was carried out in the nineteenth century. The church has major connections with the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports and is much used for ceremonial services. The western bays of the nave with their low semi-circular arches are contemporary with the tower, while the pointed arches to the east are entirely nineteenth century. The scale and choice of stone is entirely wrong, although the carving is very well done. However the east end, with its tall narrow lancet windows, is not so successful. The Royal Arms, of the reign of William and Mary, are of carved and painted wood, with a French motto - Jay Maintendray - instead of the more usual Dieu et Mon Droit. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War, but one of the survivors was the typical Norman font of square Purbeck marble construction. One of the more recent additions to the church is the Herald of Free Enterprise memorial window of 1989 designed by Frederick Cole.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Dover+1

 

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THE TOWN AND PORT OF DOVER.

DOVER lies at the eastern extremity of Kent, adjoining to the sea, the great high London road towards France ending at it. It lies adjoining to the parish of Charlton last-described, eastward, in the lath of St. Augustine and eastern division of the county. It is within the liberty of the cinque ports, and the juristion of the corporation of the town and port of Dover.

 

DOVER, written in the Latin Itinerary of Antonine, Dubris. By the Saxons, Dorsa, and Dofris. By later historians, Doveria; and in the book of Domesday, Dovere; took its name most probably from the British words, Dufir, signifying water, or Dusirrha, high and steep, alluding to the cliffs adjoining to it. (fn. 1)

 

It is situated at the extremity of a wide and spacious valley, inclosed on each side by high and steep hills or cliffs, and making allowance for the sea's withdrawing itself from between them, answers well to the description given of it by Julius Cæfar in his Commentaries.

 

In the middle space, between this chain of high cliffs, in a break or opening, lies the town of Dover and its harbour, which latter, before the sea was shut out, so late as the Norman conquest, was situated much more within the land than it is at present, as will be further noticed hereafter.

 

ON THE SUMMIT of one of these cliffs, of sudden and stupendous height, close on the north side of the town and harbour, stands DOVER CASTLE, so famous and renowned in all the histories of former times. It is situated so exceeding high, that it is at most times plainly to be seen from the lowest lands on the coast of France, and as far beyond as the eye can discern. Its size, for it contains within it thirty five acres of ground, six of which are taken up by the antient buildings, gives it the appearance of a small city, having its citadel conspicuous in the midst of it, with extensive fortifications, around its walls. The hill, or rather rock, on which it stands, is ragged and steep towards the town and harbour; but towards the sea, it is a perpendicular precipice of a wonderful height, being more than three hundred and twenty feet high, from its basis on the shore.

 

Common tradition supposes, that Julius Cæfar was the builder of this castle, as well as others in this part of Britain, but surely without a probability of truth; for our brave countrymen found Cæfar sufficient employment of a far different sort, during his short stay in Britain, to give him any opportunity of erecting even this one fortress. Kilburne says, there was a tower here, called Cæsar's tower, afterwards the king's lodgings; but these, now called the king's keep, were built by king Henry II. as will be further mentioned hereafter; and he further says, there were to be seen here great pipes and casks bound with iron hoops, in which was liquor supposed to be wine, which by long lying had become as thick as treacle, and would cleave like birdlime; salt congealed together as hard as stone; cross and long bows and arrows, to which brass was fastened instead of feathers, and they were of such size, as not to be fit for the use of men of that or any late ages. These, Lambarde says, the inhabitants shewed as having belonged to Cæfar, and the wine and salt as part of the provision he had brought with him hither; and Camden relates, that he was shewn these arrows, which he thinks were such as the Romans used to shoot out of their engines, which were like to large crossbows. These last might, no doubt, though not Cæsar's, belong to the Romans of a later time; and the former might, perhaps, be part of the provisions and stores which king Henry VIII. laid in here, at a time when he passed from hence over sea to France. But for many years past it has not been known what is become of any of these things.

 

Others, averse to Cæsar's having built this castle, and yet willing to give the building of it to the empire of the Romans of a later time, suppose, and that perhaps with some probability, it was first erected by Arviragus, (or Arivog, as he is called on his coin) king of Britain, in the time of Claudius, the Roman emperor. (fn. 2)

 

That there was one built here, during the continuance of the Roman empire in Britain, must be supposed from the necessity of it, and the circumstances of those times; and the existence of one plainly appears, from the remains of the tower and other parts of the antient church within it, and the octagon tower at the west end, in which are quantities of Roman brick and tile. These towers are evidently the remains of Roman work, the former of much less antiquity than the latter, which may be well supposed to have been built as early as the emperor Claudius, whose expedition hither was about or immediately subsequent to the year of Christ 44. Of these towers, probably the latter was built for a speculum, or watch-tower, and was used, not only to watch the approach of enemies, but with another on the opposite hill, to point out the safe entrance into this port between them, by night as well as by day.

 

In this fortress, the Romans seem afterwards to have kept a garrison of veterans, as we learn from Pancirollus, who tells us that a company of soldiers under their chief, called Præpositus Militum Tungricanorum, was stationed within this fortess.

 

Out of the remains of part of the above-mentioned Roman buildings here, a Christian church was erected, as most historians write, by Lucius, king of Britain, about the year 161; but it is much to be doubted whether there ever was such a king in Britain; if there was, he was only a tributary chief to the Roman emperor, under whose peculiar government Britain was then accounted. This church was built, no doubt, for the use of that part of the garrison in particular, who were at that time believers of the gospel, and afterwards during the different changes of the Christian and Pagan religions in these parts, was made use of accordingly, till St. Augustine, soon after the year 597, at the request of king Ethelbert, reconsecrated it, and dedicated it anew, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.

 

¶His son and successor Eadbald, king of Kent, founded a college of secular canons and a provost in this church, whose habitations, undoubtedly near it, there are not the least traces of. These continued here till after the year 691; when Widred, king of Kent, having increated the fortifications, and finding the residence of the religious within them an incumbrance, removed them from hence into the town of Dover, to the antient church of St. Martin; in the description of which hereafter, a further account of them will be given.

  

DOVER does not seem to have been in much repute as a harbour, till some time after Cæsar's expedition hither; for the unfitness, as well as insecurity of the place, especially for a large fleet of shipping, added to the character which he had given of it, deterred the Romans from making a frequent use of it, so that from Boleyne, or Gessoriacum, their usual port in Gaul, they in general failed with their fleets to Richborough, or Portus Rutupinus, situated at the mouth of the Thames, in Britain, and thence back again; the latter being a most safe and commodious haven, with a large and extensive bay.

 

Notwithstanding which, Dover certainly was then made use of as a port for smaller vessels, and a nearer intercourse for passengers from the continent; and to render the entrance to it more safe, the Romans built two Specula, or watch-towers, here, on the two hills opposite to each other, to point out the approach to it, and one likewise on the opposite hill at Bologne, for the like purpose there; and it is mentioned as a port by Antoninus, in his Itinerary, in which, ITER III. is A Londinio ad Portum Dubris, i. e. from London to the port of Dover.

 

After the departure of the Romans from Britain, when the port of Bologne, as well as Richborough, fell into decay and disuse, and instead of the former a nearer port came into use, first at Whitsan, and when that was stopped up, a little higher at Calais, Dover quickly became the more usual and established port of passage between France and Britain, and it has continued so to the present time.

 

When the antient harbour of Dover was changed from its antient situation is not known; most probably by various occurrences of nature, the sea left it by degrees, till at last the farmer scite of it became entirely swallowed up by the beach. That the harbour was much further within land, even at the time of the conquest than it is at present, seems to be confirmed by Domesday, in which it is said, that at the entrance of it, there was a mill which damaged almost every ship that passed by it, on account of the great swell of the sea there. Where the scite of this mill was, is now totally unknown, though it is probable it was much within the land, and that by the still further accumulation of the beach, and other natural causes, this haven was in process of time so far filled up towards the inland part of it, as to change its situation still more to the south-west, towards the sea.

 

From the time of the Norman conquest this port continued the usual passage to the continent, and to confine the intercourse to this port only, there was a statute passed anno 4 Edward IV. that none should take shipping for Calais, but at Dover. (fn. 20) But in king Henry VII.'s time, which was almost the next reign, the harbour was become so swerved up, as to render it necessary for the king's immediate attention, to prevent its total ruin, and he expended great sums of money for its preservation. But it was found, that all that was done, would not answer the end proposed, without the building of a pier to seaward, which was determined on about the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, and one was constructed, which was compiled of two rows of main posts, and great piles, which were let into holes hewn in the rock underneath, and some were shod with iron, and driven down into the main chalk, and fastened together with iron bands and bolts. The bottom being first filled up with great rocks of stone, and the remainder above with great chalk stones, beach, &c. During the whole of this work, the king greatly encouraged the undertaking, and came several times to view it; and in the whole is said to have expended near 63,000l. on it. But his absence afterwards abroad, his ill health, and at last his death, joined to the minority of his successor, king Edward VI. though some feeble efforts were made in his reign, towards the support of this pier, put a stop to, and in the end exposed this noble work to decay and ruin.

 

Queen Mary, indeed, attempted to carry it on again, but neither officers nor workmen being well paid, it came to nothing, so that in process of time the sea having brought up great quantities of beach again upon it, the harbour was choaked up, and the loss of Calais happening about the same time, threatened the entire destruction of it. Providentially the shelf of beach was of itself became a natural defence against the rage of the sea, insomuch, that if a passage could be made for ships to get safely within it, they might ride there securely.

 

To effect this, several projects were formed, and queen Elizabeth, to encourage it, gave to the town the free transportation of several thousand quarters of corn and tuns of beer; and in the 23d of her reign, an act passed for giving towards the repair of the harbour, a certain tonnage from every vessel above twenty tons burthen, passing by it, which amounted to 1000l. yearly income; and the lord Cobham, then lordwarden, and others, were appointed commissioners for this purpose; and in the end, after many different trials to effect it, a safe harbour was formed, with a pier, and different walls and sluices, at a great expence; during the time of which a universal diligence and public spirit appeared in every one concerned in this great and useful work. During the whole of the queen's reign, the improvement of this harbour continued without intermission, and several more acts passed for that purpose; but the future preservation of it was owing to the charter of incorporation of the governors of it, in the first year of king James I. by an act passed that year, by the name of the warden and assistants of the harbour of Dover, the warden being always the lord-warden of the cinque ports for the time being, and his assistants, his lieutenant, and the mayor of Dover, for the time being, and eight others, the warden and assistants only making a quorum; six to be present to make a session; at any of which, on a vacancy, the assistants to be elected; and the king granted to them his land or waste ground, or beach, commonly called the Pier, or Harbour ground, as it lay without Southgate, or Snargate, the rents of which are now of the yearly value of about three hundred pounds.

 

Under the direction of this corporation, the works and improvements of this harbour have been carried on, and acts of parliament have been passed in almost every reign since, to give the greater force to their proceedings.

 

From what has been said before, the reader will observe, that this harbour has always been a great national object, and that in the course of many ages, prodigious sums of money have been from time to time expended on it, and every endeavour used to keep it open, and render it commodious; but after all these repeated endeavours and expences, it still labours under such circumstances, as in a very great degree renders unsuccessful all that has ever been done for that purpose.

 

DOVER, as has been already mentioned, was of some estimation in the time of the Roman empire in Britain, on account of its haven, and afterwards for the castle, in which they kept a strong garrison of sol. diers, not only to guard the approach to it, but to keep the natives in subjection; and in proof of their residence here, the Rev. Mr. Lyon some years since discovered the remains of a Roman structure, which he apprehended to have been a bath, at the west end of the parish-church of St. Mary, in this town, which remains have since repeatedly been laid open when interments have taken place there.

 

This station of the Romans is mentioned by Antonine, in his Itinerary of the Roman roads in Britain, by the name of Dubris, as being situated from the station named Durovernum, or Canterbury, fourteen miles; which distance, compared with the miles as they are now numbered from Canterbury, shews the town, as well as the haven, for they were no doubt contiguous to each other, to have both been nearer within land than either of them are at present, the present distance from Canterbury being near sixteen miles as the road now goes, The sea, indeed, seems antiently to have occupied in great part the space where the present town of Dover, or at least the northwest part of it, now stands; but being shut out by the quantity of beach thrown up, and the harbour changed by that means to its present situation, left that place a dry ground, on which the town of Dover, the inhabitants following the traffic of the harbour, was afterwards built.

 

This town, called by the Saxons, Dofra, and Dofris; by later historians, Doveria; and in Domesday, Dovere; is agreed by all writers to have been privileged before the conquest; and by the survey of Domesday, appears to have been of ability in the time of king Edward the Confessor, to arm yearly twenty vessels for sea service. In consideration of which, that king granted to the inhabitants, not only to be free from the payment of thol and other privileges throughout the realm, but pardoned them all manner of suit and service to any of his courts whatsoever; and in those days, the town seems to have been under the protection and government of Godwin, earl of Kent, and governor of this castle.

 

Soon after the conquest, this town was so wasted by fire, that almost all the houses were reduced to ashes, as appears by the survey of Domesday, at the beginning of which is the following entry of it:

 

DOVERE, in the time of king Edward, paid eighteen pounds, of which money, king E had two parts, and earl Goduin the third. On the other hand, the canons of St. Martin had another moiety. The burgesses gave twenty ships to the king once in the year, for fifteen days; and in each ship were twenty and one men. This they did on the account that he had pardoned them sac and soc. When the messengers of the king came there, they gave for the passage of a horse three pence in winter, and two in summer. But the burgesses found a steerman, and one other assistant, and if there should be more necessary, they were provided at his cost. From the festival of St. Michael to the feast of St. Andrew, the king's peace was in the town. Sigerius had broke it, on which the king's bailiff had received the usual fine. Whoever resided constantly in the town paid custom to the king; he was free from thol throughout England. All these customs were there when king William came into England. On his first arrival in England, the town itself was burnt, and therefore its value could not be computed how much it was worth, when the bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is rated at forty pounds, and yet the bailiff pays from thence fifty-four pounds to the king; of which twenty-four pounds in money, which were twenty in an one, but thirty pounds to the earl by tale.

 

In Dovere there are twenty-nine plats of ground, of which the king had lost the custom. Of these Robert de Romenel has two. Ralph de Curbespine three. William, son of Tedald, one. William, son of Oger, one. William, son of Tedold, and Robert niger, six. William, son of Goisfrid, three, in which the guildhall of the burgesses was. Hugo de Montfort one house. Durand one. Rannulf de Colubels one. Wadard six. The son of Modbert one. And all these vouch the bishop of Baieux as the protector and giver of these houses. Of that plat of ground, which Rannulf de Colubels holds, which was a certain outlaw, they agree that the half of the land was the king's, and Rannulf himself has both parts. Humphry the lame man holds one plat of ground, of which half the forfeiture is the king's. Roger de Ostrabam made a certain house over the king's water, and held to this time the custom of the king; nor was a house there in the time of king Edward. In the entrance of the port of Dovere, there is one mill, which damages almost every ship, by the great swell of the sea, and does great damage to the king and his tenants; and it was not there in the time of king Edward. Concerning this, the grandson of Herbert says, that the bishop of Baieux granted it to his uncle Herbert, the son of Ivo.

 

And a little further, in the same record, under the bishop's possessions likewise:

 

In Estrei hundred, Wibertus holds half a yoke, which lies in the gild of Dover, and now is taxed with the land of Osbert, the son of Letard, and is worth per annum four shillings.

 

From the Norman conquest, the cities and towns of this realm appear to have been vested either in the crown, or else in the clergy or great men of the laity, and they were each, as such, immediately lords of the same. Thus, when the bishop of Baieux, to whom the king had, as may be seen by the above survey, granted this town, was disgraced. It returned into the king's hands by forfeiture, and king Richard I. afterwards granted it in ferme to Robt. Fitz-bernard. (fn. 21)

 

After the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, the harbour of Dover still changing its situation more to the south-westward, the town seems to have altered its situation too, and to have been chiefly rebuilt along the sides of the new harbour, and as an encouragement to it, at the instance, and through favour especially to the prior of Dover, king Edward I. in corporated this town, the first that was so of any of the cinque ports, by the name of the mayor and commonalty. The mayor to be chosen out of the latter, from which body he was afterwards to chuse the assistants for his year, who were to be sworn for that purpose. At which time, the king had a mint for the coinage of money here; and by patent, anno 27 of that reign, the table of the exchequer of money was appointed to be held here, and at Yarmouth. (fn. 22) But the good effects of these marks of the royal favour were soon afterwards much lessened, by a dreadful disaster; for the French landed here in the night, in the 23d year of that reign, and burnt the greatest part of the town, and several of the religious houses, in it, and this was esteemed the more treacherousk, as it was done whilst the two cardinals were here, treating for a peace between England and France; which misfortune, however, does not seem to have totally impoverished it, for in the 17th year of the next reign of king Edward II it appears in some measure to have recovered its former state, and to have been rebuilt, as appears by the patent rolls of that year, in which the town of Dover is said to have then had in it twenty-one wards, each of which was charged with one ship for the king's use; in consideration of which, each ward had the privilege of a licensed packetboat, called a passenger, from Dover across the sea to Whitsan, in France, the usual port at that time of embarking from thence.

 

The state of this place in the reign of Henry VIII. is given by Leland, in his Itinerary, as follows:

 

"Dovar ys xii myles fro Canterbury and viii fro Sandwich. Ther hath bene a haven yn tyme past and yn taken ther of the ground that lyith up betwyxt the hilles is yet in digging found wosye. Ther hath bene found also peeces of cabelles and anchores and Itinerarium Antonini cawlyth hyt by the name of a haven. The towne on the front toward the se hath bene right strongly walled and embateled and almost al the residew; but now yt is parly fawlen downe and broken downe. The residew of the towne as far as I can perceyve was never waulled. The towne is devided into vi paroches. Wherof iii be under one rose at S. Martines yn the hart of the town. The other iii stand that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked. The other iii stand abrode, of the which one is cawled S. James of Rudby or more likely Rodeby a statione navium. But this word ys not sufficient to prove that Dovar showld be that place, the which the Romaynes cawlled Portus Rutupi or Rutupinum. For I cannot yet se the contrary but Retesboro otherwise cawlled Richeboro by Sandwich, both ways corruptly, must neades be Rutupinum. The mayne strong and famose castel of Dovar stondeth on the loppe of a hille almost a quarter of a myle of fro the towne on the lyst side and withyn the castel ys a chapel, yn the sides wherof appere sum greate Briton brykes. In the town was a great priory of blacke monkes late suppressed. There is also an hospitalle cawlled the Meason dew. On the toppe of the hye clive betwene the towne and the peere remayneth yet abowt a slyte shot up ynto the land fro the very brymme of the se clysse as ruine of a towr, the which has bene as a pharos or a mark to shyppes on the se and therby was a place of templarys. As concerning the river of Dovar it hath no long cowrse from no spring or hedde notable that descendith to that botom. The principal hed, as they say is at a place cawled Ewelle and that is not past a iii or iiii myles fro Dovar. Ther be springes of frech waters also at a place cawled Rivers. Ther is also a great spring at a place cawled …… and that once in a vi or vii yeres brasted owt so abundantly that a great part of the water cummeth into Dovar streme, but als yt renneth yn to the se betwyxt Dovar and Folchestan, but nerer to Folchestan that is to say withyn a ii myles of yt. Surely the hedde standeth so that it might with no no great cost be brought to run alway into Dovar streame." (fn. 23)

Cougate Crosse-gate Bocheruy-gate stoode with toures toward the se. There is beside Beting-gate and Westegate.

Howbeyt MTuine tol me a late that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked.

 

This was the state of Dover just before the time of the dissolution of religious houses, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when the abolition of private masses, obits, and such like services in churches, occasioned by the reformation, annillilated the greatest part of the income of the priests belonging to them, in this as well as in other towns, in consequence of which most of them were deserted, and falling to ruin, the parishes belonging to them were united to one or two of the principal ones of them. Thus, in this town, of the several churches in it, two only remained in use for divine service, viz. St. Mary's and St. James's, to which the parishes of the others were united.

 

After this, the haven continuting to decay more than ever, notwithstanding the national assistance afforded to it, the town itself seemed hastening to impoverishment. What the state of it was in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth, may be seen, by the certificate returned by the queen's order of the maritime places, in her 8th year, by which it appears that there were then in Dover, houses inhabited three hundred and fifty-eight; void, or lack of inhabiters, nineteen; a mayor, customer, comptroller of authorities, not joint but several; ships and crayers twenty, from four tons to one hundred and twenty.

 

¶This probable ruin of the town, however, most likely induced the queen, in her 20th year, to grant it a new charter of incorporation, in which the manner of chusing mayor, jurats, and commoners, and of making freemen, was new-modelled, and several surther liberties and privileges granted, and those of the charter of king Edward I. confirmed likewise by inspeximus. After which, king Charles II. in his 36th year, anno 1684, granted to it a new charter, which, however, was never inrolled in chancery, and in consequence of a writ of quo warranto was that same year surrendered, and another again granted next year; but this last, as well as another charter granted by king James II. and forced on the corporation, being made wholly subservient to the king's own purposes, were annulled by proclamation, made anno 1688, being the fourth and last year of his reign: but none of the above charters being at this time extant, (the charters of this corporation, as well as those of the other cinque ports, being in 1685, by the king's command, surrendered up to Col. Strode, then governor of Dover castle, and never returned again, nor is it known what became of them,) Dover is now held to be a corporation by prescription, by the stile of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Dover. It consists at present of a mayor, twelve jurats, and thirty-six commoners, or freemen, together with a chamberlain, recorder, and town-clerk. The mayor, who is coroner by virtue of his office, is chosen on Sept. 8, yearly, in St. Mary's church, and together with the jurats, who are justices within this liberty, exclusive of all others, hold a court of general sessions of the peace and gaol delivery, together with a court of record, and it has other privileges, mostly the same as the other corporations, within the liberties of the cinque ports. It has the privilege of a mace. The election of mayor was antiently in the church of St. Peter, whence in 1581 it was removed to that of St. Mary, where it has been, as well as the elections of barons to serve in parliament, held ever since. These elections here, as well as elsewhere in churches, set apart for the worship of God, are certainly a scandal to decency and religion, and are the more inexcusable here, as there is a spacious court-hall, much more fit for the purposes. After this, there was another byelaw made, in June, 1706, for removing these elections into the court-hall; but why it was not put in execution does not appear, unless custom prevented it—for if a decree was of force to move them from one church to another, another decree was of equal force to remove them from the church to the courthall. Within these few years indeed, a motion was made in the house of commons, by the late alderman Sawbridge, a gentlemand not much addicted to speak in favour of the established church, to remove all such elections, through decency, from churches to other places not consecrated to divine worship; but though allowed to be highly proper, yet party resentment against the mover of it prevailed, and the motion was negatived by a great majority.

 

The mayor is chosen by the resident freemen. The jurats are nominated from the common-councilmen by the jurats, and appointed by the mayor, jurats, and common-councilmen, by ballot.

  

THE CHURCH OF ST. Mary stands at some distance from the entrance into this town from Canterbury, near the market-place. It is said to have been built by the prior and convent of St. Martin, (fn. 47) in the year 1216; but from what authority, I know not.—Certain it is, that it was in king John's reign, in the gift of the king, and was afterwards given by him to John de Burgh; but in the 8th year of Richard II.'s reign, anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac. After which, by what means, I cannot discover, this appropriation, as well as the advowson of the church, came into the possession of the master and brethren of the hospital of the Maison Dieu, who took care that the church should be daily served by a priest, who should officiate in it for the benefit of the parish. In which state it continued till the suppression of the hospital, in the 36th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the hands of the crown, at which time the parsonage was returned by John Thompson, master of the hospital, to be worth six pounds per annum.

 

Two years after which, the king being at Dover, at the humble entreaty of the inhabitants of this parish, gave to them, as it is said, this church, with the cemetery adjoining to it, to be used by them as a parochial church; at the same time he gave the pews of St. Martin's church for the use of it; and on the king's departure, in token of possession, they sealed up the church doors; since which, the patronage of it, which is now esteemed as a perpetual curacy, the minister of it being licensed by the archbishop, has been vested in the inhabitants of this parish. Every parishioner, paying scot and lot, having a vote in the chusing of the minister, whose maintenance had been from time to time, at their voluntary option, more or less. It is now fixed at eighty pounds per annum. Besides which he has the possession of a good house, where he resides, which was purchased by the inhabitants in 1754, for the perpetual use of the minister of it. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. (fn. 48)

 

There is a piece of ground belonging, as it is said, to the glebe of this church, rented annually at ten pounds, which is done by vestry, without the minister being at all concerned in it. In 1588 here were eight hundred and twenty-one communicants. This parish contains more than five parts out of six of the whole town, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants.

 

The church of St. Mary is a large handsome building of three isles, having a high and south chancel, all covered with lead, and built of flints, with ashler windows and door cases, which are arched and ornamented. At the west end is the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. The pillars in the church are large and clumsy; the arches low and semicircular in the body, but eliptical in the chancel; but there is no separation between the body and chancel, and the pews are continued on to the east end of the church. In the high chancel, at the eastern extremity of it, beyond the altar, are the seats for the mayor and jurats; and here the mayor is now chosen, and the barons in parliament for this town and port constantly elected.

 

In 1683, there was a faculty granted to the churchwardens, to remove the magistrates seats from the east end of the church to the north side, or any other more convenient part of it, and for the more decent and commodious placing the communion table: in consequence of which, these seats were removed, and so placed, but they continued there no longer than 1689, when, by several orders of vestry, they were removed back again to where they remain at present.

 

The mayor was antiently chosen in St. Peter's church; but by a bye-law of the corporation, it was removed to this church in 1583, where it has ever since been held. In 1706, another bye law was made, to remove, for the sake of decency, all elections from this church to the court-hall, but it never took place. More of which has been mentioned before.

 

From the largeness, as well as the populousness of this parish, the church is far from being sufficient to contain the inhabitants who resort to it for public worship, notwithstanding there are four galleries in it, and it is otherwise well pewed. This church was paved in 1642, but it was not ceiled till 1706. In 1742, there was an organ erected in it. The two branches in it were given, one by subscription in 1738, and the other by the pilots in 1742.

 

Thomas Toke, of Dover, buried in the chapel of St. Katharine, in this church, by his will in 1484, gave seven acres of land at Dugate, under Windlass-down, to the wardens of this church, towards the repairs of it for ever.

 

¶The monuments and memorials in this church and church yard, are by far too numerous to mention here. Among them are the following: A small monument in the church for the celebrated Charles Churchill, who was buried in the old church-yard of St. Martin in this town, as has been noticed before; and a small stone, with a memorial for Samuel Foote, esq. the celebrated comedian, who died at the Ship inn, and had a grave dug for him in this church, but was afterwards carried to London, and buried there. A monument and several memorials for the family of Eaton; arms, Or, a sret, azure. A small tablet for John Ker, laird of Frogden, in Twit dale, in Scotland, who died suddenly at Dover, in his way to France, in 1730. Two monuments for Farbrace, arms, Azure, a bend, or, between two roses, argent, seeded, or, bearded vert. A monument in the middle isle, to the memory of the Minet family. In the north isle are several memorials for the Gunmans, of Dover; arms,. … a spread eagle, argent, gorged with a ducal coronet, or. There are others, to the memory of Broadley, Rouse, and others, of good account in this town.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol9/pp475-548

Rocinha slum - favela - , Río de Janeiro, Brazil. An agency arranges tours of the favelas and spends part of the gains is on charity in the favelas, mostly on building schools. This means that you're actually welcome - even though some of the young men, reasonably enough, showed signs of resentment.

English

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderney

   

is the most northerly of the Channel Islands and a British Crown dependency. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide. The area is 3 square miles (7.8 km2), making it the third largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around 10 miles (16 km) to the west of La Hague in the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, in France, 20 miles (32 km) to the north-east of Guernsey and 60 miles (97 km) from the south coast of England. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France as well as being the closest to England. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Race of Alderney (Le Raz).

  

Português

  

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderney

   

Alderney é a ilha mais setentrional do Canal da Mancha, está separada da Normandia pelo Raz Blanchart, com 8 km² e cerca de 2.000 habitantes. A cidade mais importante é Saint Anne. Alderney possui criação de gado e também possui um aeródromo.

   

Other info / Outra informação

   

Area:

8 km2

 

Population:

2.400

 

Capital city:

St.Anne

 

Info:

Alderney (French: Aurigny; Auregnais: Aoeur'gny) is the most northerly of the Channel Islands and a British Crown dependency. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is 3 miles (5 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.5 km) wide. The area is three square miles (8 sq.km), making it the third largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around ten miles (16 km) to the west of La Hague in the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, in France, twenty miles (32 km) to the north-east of Guernsey and sixty miles (97 km) from the south coast of England. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France as well as being the closest to England. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Race of Alderney (Le Raz).

 

The island has a population of 2400 people, and they are traditionally nicknamed vaques[1] after the cows, or else lapins[2] after the many rabbits seen in the island. The only parish of Alderney is the parish of St Anne which covers the whole island.

 

The main town ('La Ville' or simply 'Town' in English) is often erroneously referred to as 'St Annes' (or less inaccurately: 'St Anne'). It features an imposing, pretty church and unevenly cobbled high street. There is a primary school, a secondary school, and a sub-post office as well as hotels, restaurants, banks and shops. Alderney is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful of the Channel Islands.

 

History

Alderney shares a history with the other Channel Islands, becoming an island in the Neolithic period as the waters of the Channel rose

The etymology of the Island's name is obscure. It is known in Latin as Riduna but as with the names of the all the Channel Islands in the Roman period there is a degree of confusion. Riduna may be the original name of Tatihou, while Alderney is conjectured to be identified with Sarmia. Alderney/Aurigny is variously supposed to be a Germanic or Celtic name. It may be a corruption of Adreni or Alrene, which is probably derived from an Old Norse word meaning "island near the coast". Alternatively it may derive from three Norse elements: alda (swelling wave, roller), renna (strong current, race) and oy or ey (island).

 

After choosing independence from France and loyalty to the English monarch in his role as the Duke of Normandy, in 1204, Alderney developed slowly and was not much involved with the rest of the world. That is, however, until the British government decided to undertake massive fortifications in the 19th century and to create a strategic harbour to deter attacks from France. These fortifications were presciently described by William Ewart Gladstone as "a monument of human folly, useless to us ... but perhaps not absolutely useless to a possible enemy, with whom we may at some period have to deal and who may possibly be able to extract some profit in the way of shelter and accommodation from the ruins." An influx of English and Irish labourers, plus the sizeable British garrison stationed in the island, led to rapid Anglicization. The harbour was never completed - the remaining breakwater (designed by James Walker) is one of the island's landmarks, and is longer than any breakwater in the UK.

 

The last of the hereditary Governors, John Le Mesurier, resigned his patent to the Crown in 1825, since when authority has been exercised by the States of Alderney (as amended by the constitutional settlement of 1948).

 

The island was occupied by German forces during World War II. Before German troops landed in June 1940, almost the entire Alderney population evacuated, leaving only 6 of the population. The Germans built four concentration camps on the island, dependent on Neuengamme. Each camp was named after one of the Frisian Islands and included Norderney located at Saye, Borkum at Platte Saline, Sylt near the old telegraph tower at La Foulère, and Heligoland. Each camp was operated by the Nazi Organisation Todt and used forced labour to build bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications. In 1942, the Norderney camp, containing Russian and Polish POWs, and Sylt camp, holding Jews, were placed under the control of the SS Haupsturmführer Max List. Over 700 of the inmates are said to have lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to Germany in 1944. The German officer left in charge of the facilities, Kommandant Oberst Schwalm, burned the camps to the ground and destroyed all records connected with their use before the Germans surrendered the islands on May 16, 1945. The German garrison on Alderney surrendered a week after the other Channel Islands and was one of the last garrisons to surrender in Europe. The population was unable to start returning until December 1945. There remains several concrete fortifications on the island from the German occupation.

For two years after the end of World War II, Alderney was operated as a communal farm. Craftsmen were paid by their employers, whilst others were paid by the local government out of the profit from the sales of farm produce. Remaining profits were put aside to repay the British Government for repairing and rebuilding the island. Resentment from the local population towards being unable to control their own land acted as a catalyst for the United Kingdom Home Office to set up an enquiry that led to the "Government of Alderney Law 1948", which came into force on 1 January 1949. The law organised the construction and election of the States of Alderney, the justice system and, for the first time in Alderney, the imposition of taxes. Due to the small population of Alderney, it was believed that the island could not be self-sufficient in running the airport and the harbour, as well as in providing services that would match those of the United Kingdom. The taxes were therefore collected into the general Bailiwick of Guernsey revenue funds (at the same rate as Guernsey) and administered by the States of Guernsey. Guernsey became responsible for providing many governmental functions and services.

 

The 20th century saw a lot of change in Alderney, from the building of the airport in the late 1930s to the death of the last speakers of the island's language (Auregnais, a dialect of Norman language). The economy has gone from depending largely on agriculture to earning money from the tourism and finance industries. Due to these upheavals and large immigration, the island has been more or less completely Anglicised.

 

Geography

In terms of geography Alderney is similar to the other islands in that it has sheer cliffs broken by stretches of sandy beach and dunes. It has a temperate climate, moderated by the sea, and summers are usually warmer than elsewhere in the British Isles. Trees are rather scarce, as many were cut down in the 17th century to fuel the lighthouses on Alderney and the Casquets. Those trees that remain include some cabbage trees (due to the mild climate - often miscalled "palms" but of the lily family.), and there are now some small woods dotted about the island.

Alderney and its surrounding islets feature a rich flora and fauna. Puffins on Burhou and gannets on Les Étacs just off Alderney are a favourite of many visitors to the island. The Blonde hedgehog is a species native to Alderney. The island has its own breed of cattle, called the Alderney; the pure breed became extinct in 1944, but hybrids remain elsewhere, though no longer on Alderney itself. In August 2005, the west coast of Alderney and associated islands, including Burhou and Ortac, were designated as Ramsar wetlands of international importance.

 

The island is surrounded by rocks, which have caused hundreds of wrecks. There are two treacherous tidal streams on either side of the island: the Swinge between Alderney and Burhou, just outside the harbour, and Le Raz between the island and the Norman mainland.

 

Culture

Auregnais, the local dialect of Norman is almost extinct, with only one or two islanders being "rememberers", and French is no longer spoken in the island (except by tourists); it ceased to be an official language in 1966, it declined a great deal from neglect, especially in the education sector, and also when most of the population was evacuated in WWII. To this day however, many, if not most of the local placenames are in French or Auregnais. One or two words linger on in the local English, e.g. vraic (seaweed fertiliser), and the pronunciation of certain local names, e.g. Dupont as 'Dippoh' rather than the French way.

 

Golf, Fishing and other water sports are popular, though there are many clubs and associations for sports and other leisure activities (List of Clubs & Associations). Due in part to the large numbers of tourists, there are a large number of restaurants and public houses. There is a vibrant and lively nightlife which is enjoyed by many especially in the summer -- such as the Quarry parties.[citation needed]

 

It is legal to smoke in pubs, shops, restaurants and other indoor public places.

 

Alderney has a somewhat ageing population, being popular with people wanting somewhere quiet to retire. Being a quiet and secluded island, Alderney has attracted a number of famous residents, including authors T. H. White (The Once and Future King) and Elisabeth Beresford (The Wombles), cricket commentator John Arlott, cricketer Ian Botham, Beatles producer George Martin, actress Julie Andrews, and Olympic swimmer Duncan Goodhew.

  

[edit] Alderney Week

Alderney Week is celebrated from the Saturday before the first Monday of August, during which a number of events take place. Each year a new theme is picked by the organisers, and there is a local competition for a logo/mascot.

*The first Saturday begins with a parade of decorated brollies, bonnets and dogs to the Marais Square, where, traditionally, the firemen squirt their hoses into the air to "test" the brollies. There is a disco on the green, and a Quarry Party starting at 11pm with a 70s and 80s theme. People dress in costume or just in wacky clothes.

*The Sunday is always the day of a traditional Street Market. A mixture of traditional toffee apples and personal junk sales is laid out up and down the main street. Clothes, ice-creams, local sweets and jewellry are all sold from tables in the street, and with dancing by the KFA, the Miss Holiday Princess Competition and music by the Alderney Band, it is always guaranteed to be a great day.

*Cavalcade Day takes place on the Monday, on which residents and organisations construct parade floats based upon a particular theme, before walking them though the high street and onto the green. Judging and prize giving takes place up there, as well as games, stalls and burger vans. Why not sign up for Alderney's Got Talent, or the Alderney X-Factor while you are there? Or have a go on the coconut shy? The Alderney Blowers give a full concert, and there is a Car and Bike show.

*Tuesday is always a mis-match of events. Auditions, Shakespeare in the gardens, and "the blessing of the fishing fleet" are regularly timetabled for Tuesday.

*Wednesday often includes the Daft Raft Race, though it changes days often to get the right tide. Locals and visitors alike build the wackiest crafts they can think up to sail around two buoys in 3 great races... whilst being pelted with flour bombs, water bombs and hoses from the lifeboat. Although the races are friendly, many attempts at sabotage have been made, which range from standing in the way of launch, to drilling holes in the previous-years winners the night before. In the evening is the Extravaganza- a show of hilarious sketches and acts about Alderney, the theme, and inter-island competition.

*The Man-Powered Flight is the main focus of Thursday's events for many. A duck race (that is numbered bath ducks) takes place at the same time as the mad flying attempts. Machines go from the beautifully decorated to the ones that might actually fly... although the furthest flying usually flies no more than a metre or two. In the evening is the Battle Of The Bands, with both local and visiting bands taking part. It is held in the quarry, where people of all ages go to dance, cheer, and sit around the bonfire.

*Friday is given over to the sandcastle competition. The competitors are split into age groups- 0-5, 5-7, 7-10, 10-13, and Adult, and time-limits set for each group. The standard is continuously high (see the Alderney Week webpage gallery for photographs) and it is a fun event for all. The evening is given over to entertainment by the talented. The under-16 talent show (Alderney's Got Talent) is held early on, followed by the Alderney X-Factor at 9pm. The talent show welcomes kids of every age and any talent, from dancing and singing to poetry and karate. The X-Factor prefers singers over 14, and provides fun, family-friendly entertainment.

*The Torchlight Procession, on the Saturday evening of the week, sees a parade of people walking through the town centre, carrying torches towards a large bonfire upon the local green. The evening ends with a fireworks display and an open-air music event held in a now-disused quarry, starting at midnight and finishing at 8:00am the next morning, although it has been known to continue on until gone 10am by some nocturnal people, using the radio for music. Other people make their way to the airport for their flight in the sleeping bags they slept in on the nearest soft floor they could find.

 

Regular entertainment during Alderney Week includes

 

The famous Alderney Blowers play every year. The Alderney Blowers are a group of musicians who fly over from England every year to play throughout Alderney week.

The Alderney Island Band, a group of local wind musicians of every age and ability, conducted by Sue Cooper.

The KFA, Alderney's Pomerettes. The girls (and boys) start as Sunbeams aged about 4-7, and slowly work up until the Teen Team, learning dances with ribbons, balls, and pomerettes, and performing them at many events in Alderney Week

 

[edit] Transportation

There are numerous flights each day from Southampton, Bournemouth and Guernsey (with links to many parts of the United Kingdom and Europe) and less frequently from Shoreham (Brighton).Blue Islands and Aurigny Air Services both serve the island by air with Britten-Norman Trislanders.

 

Boats sail regularly between the island and France, as well as the other Channel Islands. There are also frequent boat trips available.

 

Due to the island's size, vehicular transport is often unnecessary, although taxis, cars and bicycles are often used. The Alderney Railway is the only railway now remaining in the Channel Islands.

 

During the summer season, there is an occasional bus service around the island.

 

Alderney allows people to drive motorbikes and mopeds without helmets and drive cars without seatbelts. Alderney's international vehicle registration code is GBA.

 

Internet Page:

www.alderney.gov.gg/