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Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley Of Reading
Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1579February 1652) was a Royalist commander in the English Civil War and most famously served during the Battle of Newbury and Naseby. He also was involved in the Dutch Revolt and the Thirty Years War. After the second phase of the Civil War, he was imprisoned and then retired in Maidstone. He died shortly after in 1652. Life He came from an established Norfolk family, and was born at Melton Constable Hall. His first experiences of war were at the age of 18 when he joined the Islands Voyage expedition in 1597 under the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh to the Azores. In 1598 he joined Maurice of Nassau and Henry of Orange in the Netherlands, where he served with distinction in the Dutch Revolt. Afterwards he fought under Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. He was evidently thought highly of by the States-General, for when he was absent, serving under Christian IV of Denmark, his position i ...
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Melton Constable Hall
Melton Constable Hall is a large (Grade I listed) country house in the parish of Melton Constable, Norfolk, England designed in the Christopher Wren style and built between 1664 and 1670 for the Astley family who owned the estate from 1235 until 1948. The core of the house is Elizabethan. Hall Melton Constable Hall is regarded as the finest specimen of the Christopher Wren style of house. The house was re-modelled and extended by Sir Jacob Astley between 1664 and 1670, replacing an earlier house dating from c.1500. It has some fine plaster ceilings dated 1687, probably fashioned by Edward Goudge. The house is constructed of brick with slate and copper roofs. The main range has a nine bay frontage, with 7-bay extensions to the east and north. The main range is Grade I listed and the north wing Grade II* listed. The stable buildings are variously Grade II and Grade II* listed. Park Melton Constable Park was designed by Capability Brown in 1764–69; it has a church, a ...
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Frederick Henry, Prince Of Orange
Frederick Henry ( nl, Frederik Hendrik; 29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647) was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1625 until his death in 1647. In the last seven years of his life, he was also the stadtholder of Groningen (1640-1647). As the leading soldier in the Dutch wars against Spain, his main achievement was the successful Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629. It was the main Spanish base and a well-fortified city protected by an experienced Spanish garrison and by formidable water defenses. His strategy was the successful neutralization of the threat of inundation of the area around 's-Hertogenbosch' and his capture of the Spanish storehouse at Wesel. Biography Early life Frederick Henry was born on 29 January 1584 in Delft, Holland, Dutch Republic. He was the youngest child of William the Silent and Louise de Coligny. His father William was stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, ...
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First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652) and the 1649 to 1653 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Historians estimate that between 15% to 20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military between 1639 to 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes. This compares to a figure of 2.23% for World War I, which illustrates the impact of the conflict on society in general and the bitterness it engendered. Conflict over the role of Parliament and religious practice dated from the accession of James VI and I in 1603. These tensions culminated in the imposition of Personal Rule in 1629 by his son, Charles I, who finally recalled Parliament in April and November 1640. He did so hoping to obtain funding that would enab ...
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Bishops' Wars
The 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars () were the first of the conflicts known collectively as the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which took place in Scotland, England and Ireland. Others include the Irish Confederate Wars, the First and Second English Civil Wars, the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652), and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The wars originated in disputes over governance of the Church of Scotland or kirk that began in the 1580s, and came to a head when Charles I attempted to impose uniform practices on the kirk and the Church of England in 1637. These were opposed by most Scots, who supported a Presbyterian church governed by ministers and elders. Signatories of the 1638 National Covenant pledged to oppose such "innovations", and were collectively known as Covenanters. Although the Covenant made no reference to Bishops, they were seen as instruments of royal control and in December were expelled by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotlan ...
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Berkshire Trained Bands
The Royal Berkshire Militia was an auxiliary military regiment in the county of Berkshire in Southern England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands, in 1572 and their service during the Armada Crisis and in the English Civil War, the Militia of Berkshire served during times of international tension and all of Britain's major wars. The regiment provided internal security and home defence but sometimes operated further afield, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. It later became a battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and prepared thousands of reinforcements for the fighting battalions of the regiment in World War I. After 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition in 1953. Early History The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fyrd'', the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriff. It co ...
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Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 Islands of Scotland, islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 Subdivisions of Scotland, administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow, Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland (council area), Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limi ...
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Sergeant Major General
Sergeant major general is a now mostly extinct name of military rank. A prominent example was Philip Skippon in the English New Model Army as organized by Oliver Cromwell. Over the course of the 17th century, the increasing professionalisation of armies saw sergeant major general become the most junior of the general ranks. At the same time, the ''sergeant'' portion of the title was more and more commonly dropped; by the early 18th century, the rank's name had been permanently shortened to major general. Since sergeant major general had ranked below lieutenant general, the newly named rank of major general appeared to create a precedence issue, in that a major outranks a lieutenant but a lieutenant general outranks a major general. This continues to cause confusion to those unfamiliar with the history of the rank, particularly in those armies using insignia similar to the British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a par ...
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Charles I Of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation. Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France. After his 1625 succession, Charles quarrelled with the English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern acco ...
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Prince Rupert Of The Rhine
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War.). Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier as a child, fighting alongside Dutch forces against Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal "Cavalier" of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England. He served under King Louis XIV of ...
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James I Of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. ...
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Elizabeth Of Bohemia
Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 159613 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Winter Queen. Elizabeth was the second child and eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his wife, Anne of Denmark. With the demise of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the last Stuart monarch in 1714, Elizabeth's grandson by her daughter Sophia of Hanover succeeded to the British throne as George I, initiating the House of Hanover. Early life Elizabeth was born at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 August 1596 at 2 o'clock in the morning. M. Barbieri, ''Descriptive and Historical Gazetteer of the Counties of Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan'' (1857)p. 157 “ELIZABETH STUART.-Calderwood, after referring to a tumult in Edinburgh, says, that shortly before these events, the Queen (of James VI.) was deliver ...
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Christian IV Of Denmark
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monarchies. A member of the House of Oldenburg, Christian began his personal rule of Denmark in 1596 at the age of 19. He is remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious, and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects. Christian IV obtained for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe. He engaged Denmark in numerous wars, most notably the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated much of Germany, undermined the Danish economy, and cost Denmark some of its conquered territories. He rebuilt and renamed the Norwegian capital Oslo as ''Christiania'' after himself, a name used until 1925. Early years Birth and family Christian was born at Frederiksborg ...
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